Posts Tagged: people
Microsoft’s AI tool can turn photos into realistic videos of people talking and singing
Microsoft Research Asia has unveiled a new experimental AI tool called VASA-1 that can take a still image of a person — or the drawing of one — and an existing audio file to create a lifelike talking face out of them in real time. It has the ability to generate facial expressions and head motions for an existing still image and the appropriate lip movements to match a speech or a song. The researchers uploaded a ton of examples on the project page, and the results look good enough that they could fool people into thinking that they’re real.
While the lip and head motions in the examples could still look a bit robotic and out of sync upon closer inspection, it’s still clear that the technology could be misused to easily and quickly create deepfake videos of real people. The researchers themselves are aware of that potential and have decided not to release “an online demo, API, product, additional implementation details, or any related offerings” until they’re sure that their technology “will be used responsibly and in accordance with proper regulations.” They didn’t, however, say whether they’re planning to implement certain safeguards to prevent bad actors from using them for nefarious purposes, such as to create deepfake porn or misinformation campaigns.
The researchers believe their technology has a ton of benefits despite its potential for misuse. They said it can be used to enhance educational equity, as well as to improve accessibility for those with communication challenges, perhaps by giving them access to an avatar that can communicate for them. It can also provide companionship and therapeutic support for those who need it, they said, insinuating the VASA-1 could be used in programs that offer access to AI characters people can talk to.
According to the paper published with the announcement, VASA-1 was trained on the VoxCeleb2 Dataset, which contains “over 1 million utterances for 6,112 celebrities” that were extracted from YouTube videos. Even though the tool was trained on real faces, it also works on artistic photos like the Mona Lisa, which the researchers amusingly combined with an audio file of Anne Hathaway’s viral rendition of Lil Wayne’s Paparazzi. It’s so delightful, it’s worth a watch, even if you’re doubting what good a technology like this can do.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-ai-tool-can-turn-photos-into-realistic-videos-of-people-talking-and-singing-070052240.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Netflix is done telling us how many people use Netflix
Netflix will stop disclosing the number of people who signed up for its service, as well as the revenue it generates from each subscriber from next year, the company announced on Thursday. It will focus, instead, on highlighting revenue growth and the amount of time spent on its platform.
“In our early days, when we had little revenue or profit, membership growth was a strong indicator of our future potential,” the company said in a letter to shareholders. “But now we’re generating very substantial profit and free cash flow.”
Netflix revealed that the service added 9.33 million subscribers over the last few months, bringing the total number of paying households worldwide to nearly 270 million. Despite its decision to stop reporting user numbers each quarter, Netflix said that the company will “announce major subscriber milestones as we cross them,” which means we’ll probably hear about it when it crosses 300 million.
Netflix estimates that more than half a billion people around the world watch TV shows and movies through its service, an audience it is now figuring out how to squeeze even more money out of through new pricing tiers, a crackdown on password-sharing, and showing ads. Over the last few years, it has also steadily added games like the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, Hades, Dead Cells, Braid, and more, to its catalog.
Subscriber metrics are an important signal to Wall Street because they show how quickly a company is growing. But Netflix’s move to stop reporting these is something that we’ve seen from other companies before. In February, Meta announced that it would no longer break out the number of daily and monthly Facebook users each quarter but only reveal how many people collectively used Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram. In 2018, Apple, too, stopped reporting the number of iPhones, iPads, and Macs it sold each quarter, choosing to focus, instead, on how much money it made in each category.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-is-done-telling-us-how-many-people-use-netflix-215149971.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Does WhatsApp Notify People Of Screenshots?
WhatsApp is many things, but a screenshot snitch isn’t one of them.
TalkAndroid
Discord could ban users if they continue to deadname trans people
Discord has officially updated its hateful conduct policy to add behaviors that don't reflect its "goal to promote acceptance and inclusivity." These newly added bannable behaviors include "deadnaming or misgendering a transgender person." According to TechCrunch, Discord started internally implementing its expanded policy in 2022, but the chat app has just only made it public in an effort to provide more transparency.
"As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure Discord remains a safe and fun place for people to hang out with friends, we continually evaluate potential harms and update our policies," a spokesperson told the publication. "We often work with organization and subject matter experts to ensure our policies accurately encompass a holistic view of how these issues manifest across the internet and society."
In addition to misgendering and deadnaming trans people, Discord also considers expressing contempt or disgust towards members of protected groups, perpetuating negative stereotypes about them, repeatedly using slurs to degrade them, threatening or promoting violence against them, as well as calling for their segregation and exclusion as hateful behaviors. LGBT organization GLAAD has praised Discord in its call for social networks to update their policies to recognize deadnaming and targeted or deliberate misgendering as hate speech.
GLAAD also points out that among the biggest social networks today, TikTok is the only one that explicitly prohibits intentional misgendering and deadnaming. Notably, X implemented a rule against the behavior in 2018 when it was still called Twitter, but it quietly removed that section in its hateful conduct policy under Elon Musk's leadership.
Discord won't be banning users who violate its hateful conduct policy after just one infraction, though. Under its warning system, users who go against its rules will receive a direct message detailing their offense, with the platform weighing each violation differently based on the "severity of harm." Users can see their account standing in their settings page. If they have one or more violation, their accounts will be marked "at risk," while they could be permanently suspended if they're marked as having "severe or repeated" violations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/discord-could-ban-users-if-they-continue-to-deadname-trans-people-083112064.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Mycle Cargo is almost the longtail of the people I’ve been waiting for
Last year, I asked if we’d ever see an e-cargo bike “for the people,” with powerful electric assist, generous cargo capacity and an affordable price. Soon after, Mycle got in touch to say its own offering, the Mycle Cargo, was exactly the bike I was looking for. It added that the struggles I’d had with heavy loads and steep hills wouldn’t be a problem for its affordable cargo longtail. After spending the better part of three months riding this thing around, I can heartily agree that it ticks many of the boxes I was hoping for. I may not have fallen head-over-heels in love with it in the way I had hoped, or expected to, but I’m sure it could find a place in the homes of many cyclists.
Mycle is a British-built e-bike which fits into the same category as Tern’s GSD, with a step through frame and beefy longtail. Support struts and plastic panels enclose the thick rear wheel, which houses the surprisingly-powerful 250W hub motor. Now, I won’t bang this drum too much, but this thing is less than half the price of some of its competitors in the cargo longtail space. Here in the UK, a Tern GSD or Yuba’s Spicy Curry will set you back around £5,000 before you start picking optional extras. By comparison, the Cargo’s retail price is £1,999, which will get you the standard setup, including integrated front and rear lights.
The model I tested, meanwhile, had a few luxuries added on, including an LCD display which adds £150 to the price. My model also had a front basket (£89) and a caboose to enclose the rear deck to help keep my kids safe (£129). The only other mainstream e-cargo bike in this price bracket is Rad Power’sRadWagon 4, which I’m looking to test in the future to offer a good head-to-head comparison. On paper, the RadWagon has a far lower center of gravity and a bigger payload weight, but a far shorter promised range.
Every issue I could raise about the Mycle Cargo, and I have a few, can likely be answered by its price. These bikes need to be affordable to win over would-be buyers who can quite reasonably say that five grand would get you a decent second-hand car and cover a year’s running costs. And while two thousand pounds is no small investment for a lot of people right now, it may wind up saving them cash if it helps them get around without a car. You can certainly carry at least two kids on the rear deck, and can probably mount a third seat up front should you need.
Mycle Cargo measures in at 187cm (73.6in) long and 73cm (28.7in) wide, with a quoted kerb weight of around 80 pounds. Even in my fairly spacious house, it took up a lot of room, and it requires a decent amount of effort to get it up my front steps. Which is a euphemistic way of saying that if you’re in a small space, or don’t have great upper body strength, you might need to look for an alternative. I found that, the longer I rode it, the easier it became to handle, so I think my time with the bike has contributed to some minor enswolening of my arms.
The bike arrives half-assembled, and you’ll need to get a hex key to screw in the footplates, caboose, front basket and fit the handlebars. This requires a decent amount of patience, since there’s so much engineering going on that your fingers won’t have much room to maneuver. If you can, get a bike store to do the finishing off for you, especially if you’ve got chunky hands and a tendency to swear in frustration after the screw falls out three times in a row.
The bike is fitted with a wonderfully comfortable seat, and is equipped with a modest, but solid, set of components. There’s Tektro mechanical disc brakes and a 7-speed Shimano Altus set, which might provoke a sniff or two from higher-minded cycling types. Both are what I’d call modestly priced, and aside from the odd stiff gear change, neither felt out of place, with good braking even on steep hills. It’s also clear that cost savings in this area help get the overall price down without causing too much pain for the rider on a daily basis. One nitpick I do have is that the built-in double-sided kickstand is sturdy, it still feels a little weak and I wish it was a bit thicker.
Now, from here on out, we’ll be talking about my experience of riding Mycle Cargo, and I’d say that I’m a general-purpose cyclist at best. Certainly, I’m open about my deficiencies, and hope that I can offer a better perspective for would-be riders than a road-hardened professional. If you’re a novice rider looking for a cargo bike, then these are the issues you’ll probably want to be mindful of, whereas more experienced riders can probably just look at the price, what you get for that chunk of cash, and head to the Mycle website to pre-order one.
The issue with weight, for instance, is going to be harder for novices to deal with compared to people who already own more than one pair of waterproof trousers. Mycle Cargo is heavy and, in my early rides, proved to be more than I could handle in terms of its balance issues. Even with fat tyres, which are designed to improve balance, I found it very easy to lose control of this thing at lower speeds. I tried to take the kids to school in rush-hour traffic, and pushed off in a quiet moment, only to find the bike started to wobble. I tried to correct it, but in doing so nearly pitched sideways into a van coming the other way.
Fortunately, this problem did eventually go away, but it took me a lot of (solo) trial-and-error and some counterintuitive tyre-deflating before I put the kids back on it again. Once I’d got the Mycle set up the way I did, riding became a lot easier and I had some fairly glorious runs around the local area. But don’t expect to climb on this in the first hour or two and expect to be zooming around your town without a care in the world. The learning curve is there, and it is steep, and I found the damped steering – designed to prevent you making risky, aggressive turns – was a bit of a pain in my early trips.
Once you get past the slow-speed wobbles, however, do you find Mycle Cargo’s comfort zone, which is unleashing its vast reserves of power. Accelerate a bit, and you’ll find riding the bike is easy and comfortable, but if you only run it on flat ground, you’ll miss out on its party piece. My kids’ school is at the top of a hill that measures around 11 degrees (or more) at its gentlest point. And I’ve ridden a few 250W hub motor bikes up there with varying levels of comfort, and even a light single-seater can sometimes struggle.
This thing? With all the added weight in its frame and two kids in the back? I have never seen a bike move this fast. It shot up the hill faster than the car I was passing, and I very quickly had to dial down the assistance level to stop feeling uncomfortable. When that pedal assist kicks in after a second or so’s delay, you feel as if you’re being towed by a car. It ships with a throttle but I don’t think I was ever compelled to use it outside of trying to intentionally test it, because one full turn of the pedal and this thing moves like a rocket.
I cannot overstate how much power Mycle has managed to wring out of this motor, to the point where I’d almost want to joke that it’s really a 500W motor with the wrong label. I cannot imagine anyone riding this thing and thinking that it’ll do anything but conquer any terrain you put in front of it. If I had infinite time and money, I’d take this to France and irritate everyone doing a mountain cycle climb as I lap them while lazily pedaling my way to lunch. The downside is the lack of refinement; dial down the electric assist and you’ll very quickly feel a lurch as the motor steps down a notch.
That’s really where your money isn’t going with a bike like this – into the refinements that would see it go from a two grand bike to a five grand one. I can think of plenty of tweaks I’d like to see, including a lighter weight, lower center of gravity and better handling. But if the choice is this bike or one that’ll cost more than twice the price, I’d rather keep my cash in the bank.
You can pre-order the Mycle Cargo now, with deliveries slated for some point in August. That will come with a few tweaks, including upgraded brakes – hydraulic, rather than mechanical – and fittings for a new rear-caboose. The new model will also be able to use a new clubhouse-style weather tent to keep your kids dry on windier days, but there’s no word on how much that’ll cost you at present.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mycle-cargo-is-almost-the-longtail-of-the-people-ive-been-waiting-for-130046591.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Bluesky allowed people to include the n-word in their usernames
Before this week, Bluesky, the up-and-coming decentralized Twitter alternative, did not have a system in place to automatically prevent people from registering usernames that featured the n-word as part of their handle. On Wednesday, the company received multiple reports of someone who had the slur in their username. And while Bluesky eventually dealt with the issue, many are upset by the fact the startup did not seem to apologize for the oversight. Instead, on early Saturday morning, days after the incident occurred, Bluesky appeared to frame the event as a one-off that was swiftly addressed.
“On Wednesday, users reported an account that had a slur as its handle. This handle was in violation of our community guidelines, and it was our mistake that allowed it to be created,” the company said. “40 minutes after it was reported, the account was taken down, and the code that allowed this to occur was patched.”
Bluesky went on to claim it had in recent months “made significant investments” in its Trust and Safety team, and that it would continue to invest in “moderation, feedback, and support systems” that would scale with the platform’s growing user base. Bluesky did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. Days before issuing a statement on the situation, the company, as caught by Hacker News, quietly added the n-word, and nearly four dozen other ethnic and racial slurs, to a list of “reserved” words.
Bluesky’s statement, when it did come, appears to have been prompted by a viral LinkedIn post penned by Scott Hirleman, the host of the Data Mesh Radio podcast. Hirleman tagged the company’s executive team, including CEO Jay Graber, and accused Bluesky of failing to address an “incredibly bad anti-blackness problem” on its social network. “If you don’t want to run a social media platform, split the company in twain and go focus on the protocol and fund the platform with another team that cares,” Hirleman added. As of the writing of this article, the post has more than 700 reactions and about 50 comments.
No social media network is free from racists, but the fact that Bluesky didn’t already filter for something so basic as the n-word is surprising when you consider Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is one of the company’s backers. Under Dorsey’s leadership, Twitter was often ineffective with addressing white supremacy and could have frequently done more to protect Black people and other marginalized users.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-allowed-people-to-include-the-n-word-in-their-usernames-184049864.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
‘Death Stranding’ has been played by 10 million people since launch
For a project that was divisive among critics and players alike, Death Stranding has done pretty well for itself. With the game celebrating its third anniversary today, Kojima Productions revealed that more than 10 million people have played the studio’s first game. The milestone takes into account all the platforms where Death Stranding is available, including PC Game Pass. “It makes me happy to think that there are over 10 million “Sam one” players around the world, all loosely connected,” creator Hideo Kojima said on Twitter.
As of November 8th, 2022, “DEATH STRANDING” has connected with over 10 million Porters worldwide across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC.
Thank you everyone for all of your support!
🌈🦀🐟🐋☔🌱👻🌪️💀👶👍https://t.co/HCOGJQ7XOI#DS_3rd#KojimaProductions#DeathStrandingpic.twitter.com/CZqYLxQUGc— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Eng) (@KojiPro2015_EN) November 8, 2022
It might seem obvious that a game from the creator of Metal Gear Solid would find commercial success, but it didn’t always look that way. By some accounts, Death Stranding was a flop when it first came out. According to one ResetEra post from 2020, Sony was reportedly unhappy with the game’s sales, with the author of the post claiming 3 million copies of Death Stranding were sitting in warehouses as of March of that year. But then the critical reevaluation of the game began, helped first by the pandemic and then its arrival on PC. In Death Stranding, a lot of people found an experience that helped them make sense of a world that had changed overnight and by July 2021, the game had sold 5 million copies.
As for Death Stranding’s future, actor Norman Reedus recently said in an interview that Kojima Productions is working on a sequel. In the past weeks, the studio has also begun teasing a game that will star actors Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna.
Lawmakers ask Google to stop steering people seeking abortion to anti-abortion sites
A group of Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin is urging Google to "crack down on manipulative search results" that lead people seeking abortions to anti-abortion clinics. In a letter addressed to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, the lawmakers reference a study conducted by US nonprofit group Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The organization found that 1 in 10 Google search results for queries such as "abortion clinics near me" and "abortion pill" — specifically in states with trigger laws that would ban the procedure the moment Roe v. Wade is overturned — points to crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion instead.
"Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don't provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women's health and undermines the integrity of Google's search results," the lawmakers wrote. CCDH also found that 37 percent of results on Google Maps for the same search terms lead people to anti-abortion clinics. The lawmakers argue in the letter that Google should not be displaying those results for users searching for abortion and that if the company's search results must continue showing them, they should at least be properly labeled.
In addition, CCDH found that 28 percent of ads displayed at the top of Google search results are for crisis pregnancy centers. Google added a disclaimer for those ads, "albeit one that appears in small font and is easily missed," the lawmakers note, after getting flak for them a few years ago. "The prevalence of these misleading ads marks what appears to be a concerning reversal from Google’s pledge in 2014 to take down ads from crisis pregnancy centers that engage in overt deception of women seeking out abortion information online," the letter reads.
Warner, Slotkin and the letter's other signees are asking Google what it plans to do to limit the appearance of anti-abortion clinics when users are explicitly searching for abortion services. And, if Google chooses not to take action to prevent them from appearing in results, the group is asking whether Google would add user-friendly disclaimers clarifying whether the clinic is or isn't providing abortion services. You can read the whole letter below:
NEW: @RepSlotkin and I are leading a group of lawmakers to push on the Google CEO to crack down on manipulative search results that lead to scammy “crisis pregnancy centers.”
It’s time for them to limit or label results and ads that lead to fake abortion clinics. pic.twitter.com/LlkTueI2QP
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) June 17, 2022
A Supreme Court draft obtained by Politico in May showed that SCOTUS justices have voted to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that protected the federal rights to abortion across the country. Senator Ron Wyden and 41 other Democratic lawmakers also previously asked Google to stop collecting and keeping users' location data. They said the information could be used against people who've had or are seeking abortions in states with trigger laws.
Apps are turning people into snitches, experts say
A new smartphone app will allow members of the public to submit evidence of speeding drivers to police forces.
Mobile | Digital Trends
I tested AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile’s 5G with 70,000 people
I tested AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile’s 5G networks in a sports arena with 70,000 people.
Mobile | Digital Trends
Why are so few people actually using 5G in the U.S.? Here’s what the experts say
On paper, 5G rollout is increasing in the U.S., but consumer-focused mobile subscriptions are still lagging. We asked the experts to find out why.
Mobile | Digital Trends
Six people face charges for allegedly bribing Amazon staff to help sellers
The US is cracking down on an elaborate scheme to boost some third-party Amazon sellers at the expense of others. A Grand Jury in Washington has indicted six people (via The Verge) for allegedly bribing Amazon staff and contractors to gain an edge in…
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COVID-19: Resources to help people learn on YouTube
We’re fortunate to have an incredible community of learning creators on YouTube. From CrashCourse to Physics Girl, the EduTuber community has been helping people around the world learn and keep up with their studies. We wanted to take a moment to provide an update around how we’re supporting their efforts.
Learn@Home
Starting today, we’re launching Learn@Home, a website with learning resources and content for families. From Khan Academy to Sesame Street to code.org, Learn@Home will spotlight content across math, science, history and arts from popular learning channels. We’ll also have a dedicated section for families with kids under 13, where parents and kids can watch videos together that encourage kids’ creativity, curiosity, playfulness and offline activities, such as how to build a model volcano. The website is launching today in English and will continue to evolve. We’re working to expand to more languages in the coming days, such as Italian, French, Korean, Spanish, Japanese and more.
YouTube Learning Destination
The YouTube Learning destination is designed to inspire and help students with high-quality learning content on YouTube. The destination regularly features supplemental learning content, celebrates learning moments, and shares tips for learners. The destination is available in English today and will expand to Italian, French, Korean, Spanish, Japanese and more in the coming days. You can find the Learning destination at youtube.com/learning or in the brand new Explore tab on the YouTube app.
#StudyWithMe
As people #StayHome to work and study, it can feel like an isolating time. We’ve been inspired by the #StudyWithMe movement, where students share their study experiences with each other online. Whether reading or listening to music, it helps to feel less alone when you study together.
YouTube Kids
YouTube Kids provides kids under 13 with a safer environment where they can explore their interests and curiosity on their own while giving parents the tools to customize the experience. The app features a range of timely content, such as healthy habits, indoor fun and learning.
We understand this is an unprecedented situation facing families across the globe. We’re humbled by the incredible EduTuber community that’s sharing knowledge with the world, and we hope you find these resources helpful in these challenging times.
Malik Ducard, VP of Content Partnerships, Learning, Social Impact, Family, Film & TV
Report claims not many people are buying $1000 smartphones; are you one of them?
Smartphone prices have ballooned in the last few years, with $ 1000 being the “standard” price for a flagship phone, and many devices going well over that. 5G and folding phones inflate that cost even more, making phones much more expensive than they’ve ever been. But according to an NPD report, not many consumers are buying […]
Come comment on this article: Report claims not many people are buying $ 1000 smartphones; are you one of them?
Readers have spoken, and apparently people really like the Galaxy S10+
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Putting eyes on a donation jar made people more charitable
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Healthcare.gov security breach leaks info for 75,000 people
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Tesla opens Model 3 orders to more people and trims prices
If you're in line for a Model 3 then we have good news. The company has announced that it's opening pre-orders to all reservation holders in the US and Canada, now that it's able to produce more cars (apparently that tent manufacturing line is helpin…
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Lyft lets people with disabilities pay with special ABLE accounts
Lyft has teamed up with the National Down Syndrome Society to let riders pay for their trips with ABLE accounts, which are savings accounts for those with disabilities and their families. They can use earnings to pay for certain expenses, like medica…
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More information, faster removals, more people – an update on what we’re doing to enforce YouTube’s Community Guidelines
In December we shared how we’re expanding our work to remove content that violates our policies. Today, we’re providing an update and giving you additional insight into our work, including the release of the first YouTube Community Guidelines Enforcement Report.
Providing More Information
We are taking an important first step by releasing a quarterly report on how we’re enforcing our Community Guidelines. This regular update will help show the progress we’re making in removing violative content from our platform. By the end of the year, we plan to refine our reporting systems and add additional data, including data on comments, speed of removal, and policy removal reasons.
We’re also introducing a Reporting History dashboard that each YouTube user can individually access to see the status of videos they’ve flagged to us for review against our Community Guidelines.
Machines Helping to Address Violative Content
Machines are allowing us to flag content for review at scale, helping us remove millions of violative videos before they are ever viewed. And our investment in machine learning to help speed up removals is paying off across high-risk, low-volume areas (like violent extremism) and in high-volume areas (like spam).
Highlights from the report — reflecting data from October – December 2017 — show:
- We removed over 8 million videos from YouTube during these months.1 The majority of these 8 million videos were mostly spam or people attempting to upload adult content – and represent a fraction of a percent of YouTube’s total views during this time period.2
- 6.7 million were first flagged for review by machines rather than humans
- Of those 6.7 million videos, 76 percent were removed before they received a single view.
For example, at the beginning of 2017, 8 percent of the videos flagged and removed for violent extremism were taken down with fewer than 10 views.3 We introduced machine learning flagging in June 2017. Now more than half of the videos we remove for violent extremism have fewer than 10 views.
The Value of People + Machines
Deploying machine learning actually means more people reviewing content, not fewer. Our systems rely on human review to assess whether content violates our policies. You can learn more about our flagging and human review process in this video:
Last year we committed to bringing the total number of people working to address violative content to 10,000 across Google by the end of 2018. At YouTube, we’ve staffed the majority of additional roles needed to reach our contribution to meeting that goal. We’ve also hired full-time specialists with expertise in violent extremism, counterterrorism, and human rights, and we’ve expanded regional expert teams.
We continue to invest in the network of over 150 academics, government partners, and NGOs who bring valuable expertise to our enforcement systems, like the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London, Anti-Defamation League, and Family Online Safety Institute. This includes adding more child safety focused partners from around the globe, like Childline South Africa, ECPAT Indonesia, and South Korea’s Parents’ Union on Net.
We are committed to making sure that YouTube remains a vibrant community with strong systems to remove violative content and we look forward to providing you with more information on how those systems are performing and improving over time.
— The YouTube Team
1 This number does not include videos that were removed when an entire channel was removed. Most channel-level removals are due to spam violations and we believe that the percentage of violative content for spam is even higher.
2Not only do these 8 million videos represent a fraction of a percent of YouTube’s overall views, but that fraction of a percent has been steadily decreasing over the last five quarters.
3This excludes videos that were automatically matched as known violent extremist content at point of upload – which would all have zero views.
How tech companies lured people to SXSW activations
Thousands of people lined up at trendy Austin bar Icenhauer at SXSW 2018, but they weren't waiting for a refreshing handcrafted cocktail or finger food. Instead, they were trying to get into HP and Intel's "Digital Artistry House," where a handful of…
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Facebook goes back to basics: People
Over the past couple of years, Facebook has frequently tweaked its News Feed algorithms to deliver stories that are relevant and of interest to you. It was a strategy that, up until now, seemed to be the way forward for the site. But that's all about…
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Twitter tries to fix verification of people ‘we in no way endorse’
Sure, being verified on social media isn't always as good as people think, but after a recent blowup, Twitter says it's addressing the "perception" of endorsement a blue checkmark confers. While the network has notably verified the accounts of self-p…
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DelivAir uses drones to deliver to people, not physical addresses
Drone deliveries — the impatient consumer's Holy Grail — have been in the pipeline for some time, and while Amazon is pioneering the cause, (although Rival 7-Eleven has completed nearly 100 aerial deliveries to date), its model is still somewhat en…
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Facebook is hiring 1,000 people to fight shady ads
Now that Facebook has given Russia-linked ads to Congress, it's outlining what it'll do to prevent such a suspicious ad campaign from happening in the future. To begin with, it's promising to make ads more transparent — it's writing tools that will…
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Twitter’s new inbox collects DMs from people you don’t follow
Twitter may never stop tweaking it's direct messaging function. Last summer, the social network added so many features to the DM tab that it basically became its own standalone chat app. Then the company tried to get everyone hooked on Twitter DMs fo…
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Virtual reality could help elderly people avoid potentially fatal falls
Researchers have been investigating whether VR tech could be used to help prevent falls among the elderly and people with neurodegenerative conditions. Here’s what they’re busy planning.
The post Virtual reality could help elderly people avoid potentially fatal falls appeared first on Digital Trends.
With 2016 almost in the rearview mirror, T-Mobile now covers 313 million people
In its end-of-year wrap-up, T-Mobile announced it covers 313 million people in the U.S. That figure is just shy of Verizon’s, but it shows the strides T-Mobile made in the last half-decade or so.
The post With 2016 almost in the rearview mirror, T-Mobile now covers 313 million people appeared first on Digital Trends.
Six energy-harvesting gadgets powered by people
By Cat DiStasio People power is perhaps one of the world's greatest untapped sources of renewable energy. Smart devices that harness kinetic energy from everyday human activities help the environment in more ways than one. By turning motion into use…
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Friend or foe? This AI security system recognizes faces of people who visit your house
Flare is part camera, part AI, part IoT accessory, created by BuddyGuard. The company bills its product as “the first home security system powered by true artificial intelligence.”
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This company is encouraging people to punch its smartphones
Chinese smartphone company Oukitel wants you to come and punch its newest smartphone, the K4000 Pro. Why? Because it’ll prove just how tough it is. The odds, unsurprisingly, are stacked in the phone’s favor.
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Elon Musk wants to visit space by 2021, send people to Mars by 2025
While talking at the 2016 Startmeup Hong Kong Venture Forum, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he wants to travel to the International Space Station by 2021 and that he intends to send astronauts on a mission to Mars by 2025.
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People living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but they might sleep better
The Photon Space is a $ 330,000 house made entirely of glass. It’s meant to give you an ideal amount of sun to help you tap into your circadian clock and get the proper amount of sleep.
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A lot of people apparently got Fitbits for Christmas
If Apple's App Store rankings are any indication, a lot of you got a Fitbit for Christmas yesterday: The company's fitness-tracking app quickly shot to the top of the free list in iTunes. As Qz points out, Fitbit's activity tracker was already the mo…
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Study: People want Apple Watches, aren’t sure why, refuse to pay for them
In a Juniper Research survey of over 2,000 smartphone owners in the U.S. and the UK, only one in five respondents said they were willing to spend more than $ 175 on any kind of wearable.
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Teflon chemical a possible health risk for 6.5 million people with contaminated water supplies
A recent study from two environmental scientists suggests the industrial chemical PFOA, a component used in the manufacturing of Teflon, is a much more serious contaminant than previously thought.
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Google Maps and YouTube will work offline for people in developing countries
Google has announced it’s working hard on an offline feature for Google Maps, but rather than a simplified version, it will contain many of the major features, including turn-by-turn navigation — all without a data connection.
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