Kalakshar US

Meta’s Oversight Board is looking at two anti-transgender posts shared in 2024 that were reported multiple times for hate speech, bullying and harassment. The first is a video shared on Facebook that shows a trans woman being confronted in the bathroom by another woman. The post misgenders the person as a man and questions why they should be allowed to use a women’s bathroom. The other case looks at a video posted on Instagram in which a transgender girl wins a women’s sporting competition, with some spectators audibly expressing their disapproval. The post also misgenders the athlete as a boy. 

The company’s hate speech policy prohibits any direct attack on an individual due to their gender identity. Yet, in both instances, Meta left the post live after users reported them. Then, following individual appeals to the Board, Meta took another look under its Hate Speech and Bullying and Harassment policies and came to the same conclusion. It also told the Board that it would have left the Facebook post up regardless, as it’s newsworthy given that “transgender people’s access to bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity is the subject of considerable political debate in the United States.” 

The user who appealed the Facebook post argued to the Board that Meta is allowing a transphobic post to remain on one of its platforms. The assertion for the Instagram post was that the attacks lobbied at the athlete violate Meta’s Community Standards. 

The Board is now seeking public comments through September 12 on aspects such as Meta’s policies, the challenges of enforcing them and how the content of each post and accompanying video could be seen from a sociopolitical context. It’s combining these two cases “to assess whether Meta’s approach to moderating discussions around gender identity respects users’ freedom of expression and the rights of transgender and non-binary people.” Meta has 60 days to respond once the Board makes a recommendation.

This latest instance is part of a consistent pattern from Meta of violating trans rights and well-being. Last year, the Board ruled that Meta wrongly took down two Instagram posts of a transgender and non-binary couple with bare chests but covered nipples. Both posts discussed transgender healthcare and how they were raising money so one of them could afford gender-affirming surgery. Meta argued the posts violated its sexual solicitation policies after getting user reports and automatic system alerts. The couple then appealed to Meta and the Board, with Meta reversing their decision. The Board still looked into it and agreed that the posts should never have been removed. 

Outside entities have also criticized Meta’s lack of protections. Early this year, LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD published a report outlining how Meta fails to enforce its own policies around anti-trans hate speech. The report showed dozens of clear examples demonstrating hate speech across Facebook, Instagram and Threads between June 2023 and March 2024, including anti-trans slurs, dehumanizing language and promotions of conversion therapy. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/metas-oversight-board-looks-into-anti-trans-posts-that-the-company-wont-remove-135331089.html?src=rss 

Meta has published an update on how its Llama large language models are performing, and they’re apparently doing so well that they’re now “approaching 350 million downloads to date.” That’s 10 times more than the downloads it accumulated compared to the same time last year. Approximately 20 million of those downloads took place in the last month alone, after the company released Llama 3.1, its latest LLM that it says can now rival OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s. 

The monthly usage of Llama grew ten times from January to July this year for some of Meta’s largest cloud service providers, the company said. From May to July, in particular, hosted Llama usage on its cloud partners more than doubled by token volume. In addition to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, the company teamed up with Databricks, Dell, Google Cloud, Groq, NVIDIA, IBM watsonx, Scale AI and Snowflake, among others, to make its LLMs more readily available to developers.

Meta attributed Llama’s growing usage to “the power of open source.” It said that making the LLMs available to all allowed it to see “a vibrant and diverse AI ecosystem come to life where developers have more choice and capability.” When Meta released Llama 3.1, Mark Zuckerberg extolled the virtues of open source AI, calling it the “path forward.” He also talked about the steps Meta is taking to make open source AI the industry standard. 

In its latest report, it gave examples of how companies are using Llama for their needs. AT&T apparently uses Llama to fine-tune customer searches, while DoorDash relies on the LLM to make tasks easier for its software engineers. Llama also generates the real-time reactions of the creatures called “Dots” in Niantic’s Tamagotchi-like game Peridot. Meanwhile, Zoom uses Llama (along with other LLMs) to power its AI Companion that can summarize meetings and make smart recordings. “The innovation has been broad and rapid, from start-ups pushing new boundaries to enterprises of all sizes using Llama to build on-premises or through a cloud service provider,” Meta wrote. “Industry is building and innovating with Llama, and we’re even more excited for what’s to come.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-says-llamas-usage-grew-tremendously-due-to-the-power-of-open-source-140020454.html?src=rss 

Netflix and the BBC have released an all-too-brief look at Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. A clip from the stop-motion animated movie features Wallace proudly revealing his latest invention, a “smart gnome” called Norbot. The robot aggressively shakes Gromit’s paw while introducing itself to the pooch, hinting at trouble ahead.

It’s a very short clip, but it’s full of charm and wit. The concept of a smart gnome as a riff on the smart home is funny by itself and it perfectly matches the type of humor the Wallace and Gromit series is known for. Wallace encouraging Gromit to put the voice-activated Norbot through its paces is a great touch too, considering that the beagle is famously silent.

There’s something not quite right about Norbot — the robot has a creepy design and an all-too-chipper attitude (the great Reece Shearsmith voices it). According to the Radio Times, the smart gnome is designed to perform any gardening task or “gnome improvement” (heh). It proves a hit with Wallace and Gromit’s neighbors, at least until things start to go wrong in what may well be cinema’s most terrifying instance of AI running amok yet. Wallace and Gromit will have even more problems on their plate, as the film includes the return of franchise villain Feathers McGraw.

“We are delighted to introduce Norbot, a ‘Nifty Odd-jobbing Robot’ gnome, designed to help Gromit with his gardening chores,” directors Nick Park (the series’ creator) and Merlin Crossingham said in a statement. “Norbot is Wallace’s most proud achievement to date and, according to Wallace, his ‘best invention ever!’ Garden gnomes have long been a part of Wallace and Gromit’s world, but this is no cute patio ornament… We’re so excited to see Wallace unleashing his latest invention, Norbot, into the world. However, his long-suffering pooch, Gromit, may be a little less sure…”

It’s almost hard to believe that Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is just the second full-length film in the franchise’s long and Oscar-laden history. It will arrive almost two decades after The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Netflix announced a deal with Aardman a couple of years ago to bring new Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit films to its platform. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will arrive on the streaming service later this year everywhere except the UK, where it will premiere on the BBC.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/netflixs-wallace-and-gromit-movie-features-a-smart-gnome-robot-in-a-teaser-clip-143224865.html?src=rss 

When I was a preteen, social media was just getting going, so there weren’t many restrictions in place regarding access. Now, regulations — and the consequences of not having them — are everywhere, with the latest example coming courtesy of Meta (a case study for all the good and bad social media has to offer). Meta has announced it’s opening up Horizon Worlds to preteens with parent-approved access to a Meta account.

Anyone aged 10 to 12 can soon request entry to the VR game and explore different worlds like The Space Station or Citadel. Each world is also getting a rating of ages 10+, 13+ or 18+, with ones in the last category not shown as an option to anyone 17 or younger. Parents can either approve all worlds in a specific age bracket, go through and pick specific ones or wait for their kid to send a request.

Further safety features in Horizon Worlds for preteens include the fact that voice chat is disabled for everyone except parent-approved contacts, there are no follow suggestions and there are automatic offline status and visibility settings — something only a parent can change. All parent-managed accounts will also permanently have the personal boundary feature turned on, stopping other avatars from getting too close. Plus, anyone using a Meta Quest 2 or 3 headset will have to re-enter their birthday before playing.

As thought out as these measures seem, parents and guardians might not want to trust that Meta will take care of everything without question. The company has hardly kept young people’s well-being at the forefront of their decisions, with lawmakers slamming (and suing) Meta for its disregard. Nearly every state across the US has taken part in lawsuits alleging Meta hooks teenagers onto its platforms and repeatedly promotes safety features while ignoring staff pleas to devote more time and resources to protecting children. Our deep dive into all of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s dangerous decisions (including the company taking minimal action to stop adults from sexually harassing children on Facebook and Instagram) is available here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-open-up-horizon-worlds-access-to-preteens-130059930.html?src=rss