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This week, Figma CEO Dylan Field said the company would temporarily disable its “Make Design” AI feature after it was accused of “heavily” training the tool on existing apps. Introduced at the company’s annual Config conference, the feature aimed to jump-start the design process by generating UI layouts and components from text prompts, but faced criticism after it appeared to mimic the layout of Apple’s Weather app.
YouTube quietly rolled out a policy change this week that allows people to request the removal of AI-generated content or other synthetic content that simulates their face or voice. The move marks a shift in opinion from YouTube, where the company now sees deepfakes as a privacy issue rather than just a content moderation issue.
Fisker has asked the Delaware bankruptcy judge overseeing its Chapter 11 case to approve the sale of its remaining inventory of the all-electric Ocean SUV. If approved, the company will be able to offload its finished electric cars to a New York-based vehicle leasing company for about $14,000 per vehicle — a steep drop from the $70,000 starting price some of them once commanded.
News
Twitter meets Myspace for GenZ: A new app called noplace that aims to bring the “social” back to “social media” serves as a modern MySpace with colorful, customizable profiles — and it’s been promoted to the top of the App Store. Read more
How to avoid AI scams: Generative AI has made online fraud easier, cheaper and even more convincing. We’ve put together a handy guide to what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones. Read more
Turn off those silly video call responses: If you’ve seen thumbs up and confetti on your screen during a video call, you’re not alone. Here’s how you can turn this setting off on your Apple devices. Read more
Amazon Discontinues Astro for Business: Amazon has decided to end its Astro for Business security robot just seven months after launch, as the company shifts its focus to the home version of Astro. Read more
Natural 1 for safety: Popular online tabletop and RPG platform Roll20 has suffered a data breach that has exposed some users’ personal information. The platform is currently notifying users of violations. Read more
Cloudflare takes on AI bots: The publicly traded cloud service provider has launched a new free tool to prevent bots from collecting data from websites hosted on its platform for training artificial intelligence models. Read more
Is Gemini as good as Google claims?: Google has claimed that its AI models can perform previously impossible tasks, such as summarizing several hundred-page documents. But new research suggests the models aren’t as good as the company claims. Read more
1 billion stolen records and more: This year has seen some of the biggest and most damaging data breaches in recent history. From AT&T to Ticketmaster, these are the biggest data breaches of 2024 so far. Read more
Analysis
Thread Year: Threads, Meta’s alternative to Twitter, just celebrated its first birthday. The social network has reached 175 million monthly active users, but is still struggling to find its own voice. Threads found it not as up to date as X and not as open as Mastodon or Bluesky – at least for now. Ivan Mehta reflects on the app’s first year and what it can learn from other social networks. Read more
Supreme Court declares open season on regulators: In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court made what might be one of the most significant decisions it has ever made in the context of the technology industry, overturning the 1984 case Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. On paper, it appears that wetlands and The EPA has little to do with the technology, but as Devin Coldewey writes, the decision opens regulators up to endless interference. Read more