Kalakshar US

Artificial intelligence is expected to have an impact on the upcoming US election in November. States have been trying to protect against misinformation by passing laws that require political advertisements to disclose when they have used generative AI. Twenty states now have rules on the books, and according to new research, voters have a negative reaction to seeing those disclaimers. That seems like a pretty fair response: If a politician uses generative AI to mislead voters, then voters don’t appreciate that. The study was conducted by New York University’s Center on Technology Policy and first reported by The Washington Post.

The investigation had a thousand participants watch political ads from fictional candidates. Some of the ads were accompanied by a disclaimer that AI was used in the creation of the spot, while others had no disclaimer. The presence of a disclaimer was linked to viewers rating the promoted candidate as less trustworthy and less appealing. Respondents also said they would be more likely to flag or report the ads on social media when they contained disclaimers. In attack ads, participants were more likely to express negative opinions about the candidate who sponsored the spot rather than the candidate being attacked. The researchers also found that the presence of an AI disclaimer led to worse or unchanged opinions regardless of the fictional candidate’s political party.

The researchers tested two different disclaimers inspired by two different state requirements for AI disclosure in political ads. The text tied to Michigan’s law reads: “This video has been manipulated by technical means and depicts speech or conduct that did not occur.” The other disclaimer is based on Florida’s law, and says: “This video was created in whole or in part with the use of generative artificial intelligence.” Although the approach of Michigan’s requirements is more common among state laws, study participants said they preferred seeing the broader disclaimer for any type of AI use.

While these disclaimers can play a part in transparency about the presence of AI in an ad, they aren’t a perfect failsafe. As many as 37 percent of the respondents said they didn’t recall seeing any language about AI after viewing the ads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/viewers-dont-trust-candidates-who-use-generative-ai-in-political-ads-study-finds-194532117.html?src=rss 

The Vegas Loop, underground tunnels built by Elon Musk’s Boring Company that snake underneath Sin City, hasn’t been the traffic or even technological game changer the company promised it would become. It was supposed to be a futuristic, autonomous people mover that looked like public transit from the Tron universe. Instead, Las Vegas just got a bunch of underground tunnels where people are transported by ordinary Tesla vehicles that didn’t really solve any of the city’s traffic problems.

Apparently, it’s not just Tesla vehicles in the tunnels either. Fortune filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on incidents involving the Tesla tunnels going back to 2022. The records revealed that the tunnels have seen at least 67 trespassing reports going back to 2022 and 22 instances of vehicles following Teslas into the tunnels and stations.

Boring’s monthly reports to the Legas Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also showed several instances of “property damage, theft, technical issues, or injuries, near-misses and trespassing or intrusions,” according to Fortune.

The cars that wandered into the stations appear to mostly be just accidents in which drivers followed the Teslas into the unauthorized areas. The trespassing incidents are a bit more egregious and Fortune described them as “a headache for the Boring Company.”

Some of the more notable instances include a skateboarder who snuck into the tunnels through a passenger pickup station, two people who were spotted sleeping in one of the tunnel stations and a man who tried to remove a license plate reader at a station. In each case, Boring security escorted the trespassing out of the tunnels and stations but there are no records showing they were reported to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

Even the construction of the tunnels had more than a few sketchy moments but not nearly as amusing. Former Boring Company construction crew members spoke with Fortune back in February including one who said, “We have consistently flirted with death.” During a six month period last year, Boring reported 36 injuries to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) officials including heat exhaustion, contusions and crushed hands and elbows. One tip sent to OSHA’s Nevada field office reported that 15 to 20 employees were burned with accelerant chemicals while working in the tunnels.

Somehow, none of these incidents have stopped the city and Clark County’s desperate hope for the transit system that the Boring Company promised but never delivered. County commissioners approved a plan last May to expand the underground Tesla vehicle tunnels to 65 miles and add 69 passenger stations.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/the-boring-companys-vegas-loop-is-a-comedy-of-trespassing-errors-191025432.html?src=rss 

Pour one out for the Surface Duo 2. As Windows Central points out, Microsoft has pushed out what will almost certainly go down as the device’s final software update, a security patch, ahead of its October 21 end-of-support date.

When Microsoft debuted the Surface Duo 2 in October 2021, the company pledged to provide three years of software updates for the foldable. Since then, the company has released just one platform update for the Duo 2, upgrading it from Android 11 to Android 12L. By comparison, Surface Duo users were more fortunate. They got to see their devices make the jump from Android 10 to Android 11 and then later to Android 12L. I’ll note here that the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system is Android 15.

By modern standards, the Duo 2’s run is particularly bad. Some Android manufacturers, including Google and Samsung, now promise to provide up to seven generations of platform updates. Consider also that Microsoft priced the Surface Duo 2 at $1,500 on release. Most of all, it’s a shame since software was always the Achilles heel of the Duo line. As Engadget Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low noted in her review of the foldable back in 2021, the device offered more compelling hardware but was still plagued by an inconsistent user experience.

Of course, none of this is surprising if you’ve been following Microsoft in recent months. As the company has shifted its attention to AI, its Surface portfolio has seemingly fallen to the wayside. In fact, according to a report Business Insider published last year, part of the reason Panos Panay left Microsoft was because the company had canceled some of his unit’s more ambitious projects.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/microsofts-ill-fated-surface-duo-2-foldable-recieves-one-final-security-patch-192001469.html?src=rss 

Uber has come up with a relatively low-cost way of getting to and from a New York City airport: a shuttle bus. Starting today, the company is offering rides between LaGuardia Airport and transit hubs in Manhattan for $18 a pop. For the first month of the service, Uber is offering half-price rides for $9, The Wall Street Journal reports.

This would be far cheaper than a cab for a solo traveler. It’s also more expensive, but perhaps less of a hassle, than taking public transit — there’s a free shuttle between the airport and the subway. 

One route will take passengers between Penn Station and the airport, and the other will run between Port Authority, Grand Central Terminal and LaGuardia. If you’re Manhattan-bound, you’ll still need to make your way to your home, hotel or Airbnb after you get to the drop-off point.

The vans can transport 14 passengers at a time. The service will run between 5AM and 10:45PM ET every day with trips leaving every half hour or so. You can book a spot in a shuttle up to seven days in advance and bring a personal item and a 50-pound bag on board. Before you get on the van, you’ll need to show the driver a QR code and PIN that Uber sends you. An Uber shuttle-fleet partner called EPS is operating the rides, but the shuttles have Uber branding.

Uber shuttles have been available in various locations since 2019, but this is the first time the company is offering such trips to and from an airport. Earlier this year, Uber started running shuttles to and from concerts and sports games. It plans to offer shuttles to more airports in the coming months and years.

The company announced the service as part of its Go-Get Zero event, at which it highlighted some new sustainability efforts. Among those is a new EV-only option that will debut in 40 cities in which Uber has enough electric vehicle drivers available.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-starts-offering-18-shuttle-rides-between-manhattan-and-laguardia-airport-193520618.html?src=rss 

Hearst has become the latest major US publisher to sign an agreement to license its content to ChatGPT creator OpenAI. As part of a partnership announced on Tuesday, content from more than 60 Hearst-owned publications will appear in ChatGPT and other OpenAI products. Some of the publisher’s more notable properties include Esquire, Cosmopolitan and Elle. It also owns newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle. When Hearst content appears in ChatGPT, the software will provide citations and direct links.

The organizations did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement. Unlike the partnership OpenAI signed with Dotdash Meredith in May, its deal with Hearst doesn’t appear to include a plan for the two firms to collaborate on ad tech.

“As generative AI matures, it’s critical that journalism created by professional journalists be at the heart of all AI products,” said Jeff Johnson, president of Hearst’s Newspapers unit. “This agreement allows the trustworthy and curated content created by Hearst Newspapers’ award-winning journalists to be part of OpenAI’s products like ChatGPT — creating more timely and relevant results.”

The announcement comes less than a week after news broke that OpenAI had recently raised a record-breaking $6.6 billion in new venture capital funding. Since the start of 2024, OpenAI has signed licensing agreements with The Financial Times and Condé Nast, the owner of publications like Vogue, The New Yorker and Wired. At the same time, not every publisher has been so keen to work with the AI giant. At the end of last year, The New York Times sued OpenAI, with Alden Capital Group, the owner of publications like The Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, later launching a suit of its own.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-partners-with-cosmopolitan-and-elle-publisher-hearst-180517248.html?src=rss 

Roli is no stranger to quirky musical instruments. After all, it pioneered the idea of a “squishy” MIDI controller. The company’s latest tool, however, could be its weirdest. The Roli Airwave is an AI-infused piano teaching gadget that also doubles as a digital theremin. Yes, the same high-pitched theremin that has appeared on hit records like The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and Erykah Badu’s “Incense.”

The Airwave is basically a tall stand with a camera on top. This camera points downward to track the player’s finger movements on a connected MIDI keyboard. Movements are tracked in real time and beamed to a tablet, which then displays visuals to teach users how to correctly play a song and fix any mistakes they are making. It’ll even try to fix bad playing posture. 

The Airwave uses machine intelligence and computer vision to track the player’s hands and to offer its advice on where those hands should be placed. There’s some machine learning baked into this system when analyzing live footage to come up with accurate teaching methods.

The affiliated app also integrates with ChatGPT, allowing for natural language queries. For instance, users can ask relevant questions about the song being learned or general-use queries about music theory. Being as how a player’s hands would be occupied when in the midst of a piano tutorial, these questions can be asked by voice instead of by typing into a virtual keyboard. This won’t beat interacting with a real piano tutor, but it’ll likely be easier than hunting for a needle in the YouTube video haystack.

“Basically, 100 percent of your time when you practice, you’re going to practice correctly now,” Roli’s CEO, Roland Lamb, told Wired. “So you’ll be developing good habits over time.”

The Airwave isn’t just for students. The device is also being marketed as an outlet for experimental music-making. There are five inputs that adjust various parameters via hand movements. This means that players can use one to radically change the sound of the instrument being played.

“With the simple raise of their hands, creators can transform a piano into a full orchestra, just as a conductor would, or morph mellow synth pads into searing leads with a tilt of a wrist,” Roli wrote in a press release.

Now onto the caveats, and there are a few. This is nifty tech, of that there’s no doubt. However, there’s a significant barrier of entry. First of all, the Airwave itself will cost $300 when it releases in February. The device cannot be used on its own. It requires a pre-existing Roli keyboard, like the $1,400 Seaboard Rise 2 or the much cheaper Lumi (now called the Piano M.) Also, to access the teaching tools, users will need to bring in their own tablet. There are apps for both Android and Apple devices, but only newer iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab models will be supported.

Finally, budding piano players will also have to fork out $15 a month to access the Roli Learn music education subscription service. If money’s no object, this looks like a fairly novel way to learn the piano.

Roli says the Airwave is just the first release in what it’s calling its Music Intelligence (MI) platform. The company writes that the “Roli MI platform will be the foundation of a roadmap of future intelligent products, starting with Airwave.” Preorders for the Airwave are available right now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/the-roli-airwave-is-a-high-tech-keyboard-teaching-tool-inspired-by-the-theremin-172342147.html?src=rss