Technology
X still has the verified bot problem – this time they came after the TechCrunch authors

This week I used to be scrolling through X, formerly Twitter, and noticed that I had reposted a series of TechCrunch articles. Just, wait, no, I didn’t do it.
But another person did it, using my name. I clicked on the profile and saw a distinct Rebecca Bellan, using the same default and header photos as my actual profile: me on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 and Chloe on the side, respectively. The bio reads: “@Techcrunch Senior Reporter | journalist” and had the location set to New York, where I currently live. The account was created in May 2024.
Perhaps most surprising after realizing that somebody – who? Bot?! — created my account impersonating me, was the incontrovertible fact that they allegedly paid for it, as evidenced by the little blue checkmark next to my name.
When X was still Twitter, a blue checkmark informed other users that the profile had been verified as noteworthy. However, since Elon Musk’s hostile takeover, that checkmark now means a user pays a minimum of $8 a month for a premium subscription, which provides them access to longer posts, fewer ads, higher algorithmic consideration, and Grok. And while X modified tack in April and returned the verification badge to some users based on follower count, a blue checkmark can even mean someone is a fan of Musk. You don’t consider me? Just take a look at all the eager guys who reply to any of them Musk’s posts.
Either way, I’m neither a paid subscriber nor a fan.
I’m not the only one that has been targeted by impersonation accounts. Several TechCrunch journalists were also impersonated on the platform. Some accounts, including my fake one, were suspended after reporting X’s issue. But that only tells us that X is actively aware of this issue.
The problem is that these kinds of spoofing attacks are much easier to perform attributable to the degradation of the X verification system, which doesn’t actually require any identity verification. Having a pay-to-play blue check system just begs bad actors and nation states to abuse it.
X really must have learned his lesson by now. When Musk initially launched the service, then called Twitter Blue, in November 2023, the feature was quickly used to assist bad actors pose as celebrities, corporations and government officials. One account impersonated the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and published a false announcement that insulin was now free. This tweet was viewed thousands and thousands of times before it was deleted, causing the company’s shares to drop significantly in value.
Another account claimed to be basketball star LeBron James and posted that he was officially requesting a trade from the Lakers. Another pretended to be Connor McDavid and announced that the hockey player’s contract had been bought by the New York Islanders.
Accounts claiming to be TechCrunch journalists have thus far been harmless. All they did was repost content that, truthfully, any of us could repost anyway. This suggests that reasonably than particularly malicious actors, the accounts were likely created by bots.
We have been coping with the problem of user X’s verified bot for some time now. The irony is that Musk suggested that forcing users to pay for verification would actually eliminate bots from the platform, but that apparently is not the case.
In the case of individuals you might be impersonating, you possibly can report it to company X, which can end in external verification by sending photos of a government-issued ID and a selfie. I also asked colleagues, friends and followers to report the impersonation of Company X on my behalf, which could have sped up the process.
X didn’t reply to TechCrunch to comment on how lots of its users might actually be bots, why this problem persists, or what the platform is doing to handle it.
Technology
Trump to sign a criminalizing account of porn revenge and clear deep cabinets

President Donald Trump is predicted to sign the act on Take It Down, a bilateral law that introduces more severe punishments for distributing clear images, including deep wardrobes and pornography of revenge.
The Act criminalizes the publication of such photos, regardless of whether or not they are authentic or generated AI. Whoever publishes photos or videos can face penalty, including a advantageous, deprivation of liberty and restitution.
According to the brand new law, media firms and web platforms must remove such materials inside 48 hours of termination of the victim. Platforms must also take steps to remove the duplicate content.
Many states have already banned clear sexual desems and pornography of revenge, but for the primary time federal regulatory authorities will enter to impose restrictions on web firms.
The first lady Melania Trump lobbyed for the law, which was sponsored by the senators Ted Cruz (R-TEXAS) and Amy Klobuchar (d-minn.). Cruz said he inspired him to act after hearing that Snapchat for nearly a 12 months refused to remove a deep displacement of a 14-year-old girl.
Proponents of freedom of speech and a group of digital rights aroused concerns, saying that the law is Too wide And it will probably lead to censorship of legal photos, similar to legal pornography, in addition to government critics.
(Tagstransate) AI
Technology
Microsoft Nadella sata chooses chatbots on the podcasts

While the general director of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, says that he likes podcasts, perhaps he didn’t take heed to them anymore.
That the treat is approaching at the end longer profile Bloomberg NadellaFocusing on the strategy of artificial intelligence Microsoft and its complicated relations with Opeli. To illustrate how much she uses Copilot’s AI assistant in her day by day life, Nadella said that as a substitute of listening to podcasts, she now sends transcription to Copilot, after which talks to Copilot with the content when driving to the office.
In addition, Nadella – who jokingly described her work as a “E -Mail driver” – said that it consists of a minimum of 10 custom agents developed in Copilot Studio to sum up E -Mailes and news, preparing for meetings and performing other tasks in the office.
It seems that AI is already transforming Microsoft in a more significant way, and programmers supposedly the most difficult hit in the company’s last dismissals, shortly after Nadella stated that the 30% of the company’s code was written by AI.
(Tagstotransate) microsoft
Technology
The planned Openai data center in Abu Dhabi would be greater than Monaco

Opeli is able to help in developing a surprising campus of the 5-gigawatt data center in Abu Dhabi, positioning the corporate because the fundamental tenant of anchor in what can grow to be considered one of the biggest AI infrastructure projects in the world, in accordance with the brand new Bloomberg report.
Apparently, the thing would include a tremendous 10 square miles and consumed power balancing five nuclear reactors, overshadowing the prevailing AI infrastructure announced by OpenAI or its competitors. (Opeli has not yet asked TechCrunch’s request for comment, but in order to be larger than Monaco in retrospect.)
The ZAA project, developed in cooperation with the G42-Konglomerate with headquarters in Abu Zabi- is an element of the ambitious Stargate OpenAI project, Joint Venture announced in January, where in January could see mass data centers around the globe supplied with the event of AI.
While the primary Stargate campus in the United States – already in Abilene in Texas – is to realize 1.2 gigawatts, this counterpart from the Middle East will be more than 4 times.
The project appears among the many wider AI between the USA and Zea, which were a few years old, and annoyed some legislators.
OpenAI reports from ZAA come from 2023 Partnership With G42, the pursuit of AI adoption in the Middle East. During the conversation earlier in Abu Dhabi, the final director of Opeli, Altman himself, praised Zea, saying: “He spoke about artificial intelligence Because it was cool before. “
As in the case of a big a part of the AI world, these relationships are … complicated. Established in 2018, G42 is chaired by Szejk Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security advisor of ZAA and the younger brother of this country. His embrace by OpenAI raised concerns at the top of 2023 amongst American officials who were afraid that G42 could enable the Chinese government access advanced American technology.
These fears focused on “G42”Active relationships“With Blalisted entities, including Huawei and Beijing Genomics Institute, in addition to those related to people related to Chinese intelligence efforts.
After pressure from American legislators, CEO G42 told Bloomberg At the start of 2024, the corporate modified its strategy, saying: “All our Chinese investments that were previously collected. For this reason, of course, we no longer need any physical presence in China.”
Shortly afterwards, Microsoft – the fundamental shareholder of Opeli together with his own wider interests in the region – announced an investment of $ 1.5 billion in G42, and its president Brad Smith joined the board of G42.
(Tagstransate) Abu dhabi
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