On Monday, OpenAI began opening up ChatGPT to users without an account. It described the move as part of its mission to “make tools like ChatGPT broadly available so that people can experience the benefits of AI.” It also gives the company more training data (for those who don’t opt out) and perhaps nudges more users into creating accounts and subscribing for superior GPT-4 access instead of the older GPT-3.5 model free users get.
I tested the instant access, which — as advertised — allowed me to start a new GPT-3.5 thread without any login info. The chatbot’s standard “How can I help you today?” screen appears, with optional buttons to sign up or log in. Although I saw it today, OpenAI says it’s gradually rolling out access, so check back later if you don’t see the option yet.
OpenAI says it added extra safeguards for accountless users, including blocking prompts and image generations in more categories than logged-in users. When asked for more info on what new categories it’s blocking, an OpenAI spokesperson told me that, while developing the feature, it considered how logged-out GPT-3.5 users could potentially introduce new threats.
The spokesperson added that the teams in charge of detecting and stopping abuse of its AI models have been involved in creating the new feature and will adjust accordingly if unexpected threats emerge. Of course, it still blocks everything it does for signed-in users, as detailed in its moderation API.
You can opt out of data training for your prompts when not signed in. To do so, click on the little question mark to the right of the text box, then select Settings and turn off the toggle for “Improve the model for everyone.”
OpenAI says more than 100 million people across 185 countries use ChatGPT weekly. Those are staggering numbers for an 18-month-old service from a company many people still hadn’t heard of two years ago. Today’s move gives those hesitant to create an account an incentive to take the world-changing chatbot for a spin, boosting those numbers even more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-now-use-chatgpt-without-an-account-184417749.html?src=rss
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AT&T says 7.6 million current customers were affected by a recent leak in which sensitive data was released on the dark web, along with 65.4 million former account holders. TechCrunch first reported on Saturday morning that the company has reset the passcodes of all affected active accounts, and AT&T confirmed the move in an update published on its support page. The data set, which AT&T says “appears to be from 2019 or earlier,” includes names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, according to TechCrunch.
TechCrunch reports that it alerted AT&T about the potential for the leaked data to be used to access customers accounts on Monday, after a security researcher discovered that the records included easily decipherable encrypted passcodes. AT&T said today that it’s “launched a robust investigation supported by internal and external cybersecurity experts.” The data appeared on the dark web about two weeks ago, according to AT&T.
It comes three years after a hacker known as ShinyHunters claimed in 2021 that they’d obtained the account data of 73 million AT&T customers. AT&T at the time told BleepingComputer that it had not suffered a breach and that samples of information shared by the hacker online did “not appear to have come from our systems.” The company now says that “it is not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors.” So far, it “does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in exfiltration of the data set.”
AT&T says it will reach out to both current and former account holders who have been affected by the leak. The company also says it will offer credit monitoring to those customers “where applicable.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/att-resets-millions-of-customers-passcodes-after-account-info-was-leaked-on-the-dark-web-160842651.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Verizon offers a sweet $ 10 discount if you enroll in their Auto Pay system, but with recent changes, you’ll need a bank account or a Verizon card.
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If you’re over Kik — the free, anonymous messaging app — and intent on parting ways, wave goodbye to the app with our guide on how to delete your account.
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ElevenLabs, an AI startup that offers voice cloning services with its tools, has banned the user that created an audio deepfake of Joe Biden used in an attempt to disrupt the elections, according to Bloomberg. The audio impersonating the president was used in a robocall that went out to some voters in New Hampshire last week, telling them not to vote in their state’s primary. It initially wasn’t clear what technology was used to copy Biden’s voice, but a thorough analysis by security company Pindrop showed that the perpetrators used ElevanLabs’ tools.
The security firm removed the background noise and cleaned the robocall’s audio before comparing it to samples from more than 120 voice synthesis technologies used to generate deepfakes. Pindrop CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan told Wired that it “came back well north of 99 percent that it was ElevenLabs.” Bloomberg says the company was notified of Pindrop’s findings and is still investigating, but it has already identified and suspended the account that made the fake audio. ElevenLabs told the news organization that it can’t comment on the issue itself, but that it’s “dedicated to preventing the misuse of audio AI tools and [that it takes] any incidents of misuse extremely seriously.”
The deepfaked Biden robocall shows how technologies that can mimic somebody else’s likeness and voice could be used to manipulate votes this upcoming presidential election in the US. “This is kind of just the tip of the iceberg in what could be done with respect to voter suppression or attacks on election workers,” Kathleen Carley, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told The Hill. “It was almost a harbinger of what all kinds of things we should be expecting over the next few months.”
It only took the internet a few days after ElevenLabs launched the beta version of its platform to start using it to create audio clips that sound like celebrities reading or saying something questionable. The startup allows customers to use its technology to clone voices for “artistic and political speech contributing to public debates.” Its safety page does warn users that they “cannot clone a voice for abusive purposes such as fraud, discrimination, hate speech or for any form of online abuse without infringing the law.” But clearly, it needs to put more safeguards in place to prevent bad actors from using its tools to influence voters and manipulate elections around the world.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elevenlabs-reportedly-banned-the-account-that-deepfaked-bidens-voice-with-its-ai-tools-083355975.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Netflix is about to bring its fight against account sharing to the US. “In Q1, we launched paid sharing in four countries and are pleased with the results,” the company wrote in its Q1 letter to shareholders. “We are planning on a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2.”
Since February, Netflix has offered paid account sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. The add-on allows primary account holders to pay an additional fee every month to share their Netflix service with up to two people outside of their household. As the main owner of an account, you can still watch on your phone and sign into the service on a device outside your home, like a smart TV at a hotel. Netflix also allows secondary users to convert their profiles into new accounts.
“A Netflix account is meant to be shared in one household (people who live in the same location with the account owner),” the company says on a support page. “People who are not in your household will need to sign up for their own account to watch Netflix.”
In the past, Netflix has estimated more than 100 million non-paying households have access to its service through free account sharing. The company says the practice limits its ability to invest in new content. It’s also aware the decision to restrict account sharing is likely to lead to cancelations. The expansion of paid account sharing comes on the same day Netflix said it would sunset its DVD rental business in September.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-is-about-to-crack-down-on-account-sharing-in-the-us-205918694.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Twitter has removed a label that designated NPR as a “US state-affiliated” media outlet mere days after first applying the label earlier this week. As of Saturday, the company now lists the public broadcaster as a “government funded” organization. NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn was the first to report on the change. He said Elon Musk told him Twitter would apply the “government funded” designation to other institutions in the coming days. “Tesla, which has received billions of dollars in government subsidies over the years, does not appear to have the label,” Allyn added.
NEW: Label on NPR’s main account changed to “government funded,” and Elon tells me Twitter is “applying it to a larger number of institutions.”
— Bobby Allyn (@BobbyAllyn) April 8, 2023
The main NPR account has not tweeted since Twitter first applied the state-affiliated label on Wednesday. After NPR CEO John Lansing issued a statement pointing out that the “state-affiliate” did not apply to the public broadcaster under Twitter’s own guidelines, the company changed those guidelines. "State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media," the page said before Tuesday. By Wednesday, the company had removed the section of text that had referenced NPR. According to NPR, less than one percent of its annual operating budget comes from government grants. Over the last five years, the majority of the non-profit’s revenue, about 70 percent, has come from corporate sponsorships and programming fees.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-removes-us-state-affiliated-media-label-from-npr-account-215742901.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Having been something that no one had heard of a year ago, Zoom came out of nowhere to become the default video conferencing tool during the pandemic lockdown. With account hacking and data breaches more frequent than ever in 2020, Zoom has finally added the ability to secure your account with its enhanced Two-Factor Authentication […]
Come comment on this article: You can finally secure your Zoom account with Two-Factor Authentication
As if fighting the coronavirus pandemic weren’t challenging enough, cybercriminals are making things more difficult for healthcare providers and humanitarian groups. Attacks have already delayed COVID-19 testing and limited access to related healthca…
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If you're determined to keep your Google account airtight with a security key, you might have an easier time getting started. Google has made it possible for G Suite and Cloud Identity users to register security keys using both Chrome on Android dev…
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Tech giants and sports organizations aren't the only ones wrestling with high-profile Twitter account hijacks. An intruder compromised the account of well-known streamer Ninja (aka Tyler Blevins) in mid-day on February 22nd, trying to use opportunit…
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Facebook has given Privacy Checkup a fresh coat of paint and an overall upgrade, which makes it more helpful when it comes to keeping your account secure. When you access the feature — simply search for "Privacy Checkup" on the platform to do so –…
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Online account hijackers received a taste of ironic punishment this week. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that hackers stole the database from the popular hijacker forum OGusers on May 12th, obtaining email addresses, hashed passwords, IP addresses and…
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Twitter's enforcement of its new anti-hate rules is having a very immediate and tangible effect. Daily Dot has noticed that Twitter banned the account of Jayda Fransen, the British extremist whose bogus anti-Muslim videos were retweeted by Donald Tr…
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Over the last week or so, rumors about movie executive Harvey Weinstein have turned into actual reports of sexual harassment and rape by The New York Times and The New Yorker. As a result of those public reports, he has been fired by the board of his…
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