Completely happy Tuesday! This is your Tuesday Tech Drop, the week’s high tales from the intersection of tech and politics.
Trump transforms into a crypto bro … for selfish reasons
Donald Trump was showered with boos throughout his speech on the Libertarian Party’s national convention over the weekend. However he received some applause when he vowed that on Day One, he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, who’s serving a number of life sentences for operating “Silk Street,” an internet site that operated as a black marketplace for medicine and different illicit gadgets.
Ulbricht, a major promoter of cryptocurrencies, has turn out to be a trigger célèbre amongst Libertarian crypto bros.
Trump, who as president was “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies, has extra not too long ago tried to ingratiate himself with the crypto-friendly crowd by falsely portraying the Biden administration as anti-crypto. The previous president’s assist for Ulbricht reeks of hypocrisy, on condition that Trump has mentioned drug sellers deserve the death penalty and has made the purported trafficking of illegal drugs by immigrants a significant speaking level on the marketing campaign path.
Trump’s embrace of crypto could possibly be motivated by self-interest, too, as he introduced final week that his marketing campaign will settle for donations in cryptocurrency.
Fontes’ deepfake
Throughout Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes confirmed off the deepfake beneath as a daunting instance of what synthetic intelligence can do to govern and misinform voters this election cycle.
Swab probs
The Los Angeles Occasions revealed a report on the spike in DNA samples collected from immigrants to america during the last 4 years. The speedy enhance raises questions on whether or not immigrants’ privateness rights are being violated and for what objective.
Learn extra on the Los Angeles Times.
Diversity matters
Ohio Democratic Rep. Shontel Brown and Michigan Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens not too long ago launched a invoice designed to extend entry to cybersecurity jobs for individuals in deprived communities, together with racial minorities, girls and other people with disabilities. In an period when cyberattacks target U.S. infrastructure and overseas governments are waging disinformation campaigns meant to sow division, individuals from such teams have very important data that may preserve all People protected and freed from manipulation.
Learn extra at Cyberscoop.
Uvalde liability lawsuit
Households of victims killed within the 2022 Uvalde faculty capturing are suing the online game firm Activision, Meta (Instagram’s guardian firm) and rifle maker Daniel Protection, alleging the three firms performed a job in “grooming” the gunman behind the bloodbath. It’s the latest of several attempts to hold media platforms responsible for his or her alleged position in fueling extremist violence.
Learn extra at The New York Times.
TikTok launched its first report on efforts to take away “covert affect operations” from its platform that sought to sway political beliefs in nations around the globe, and it copped to discovering 15 of them. One of many campaigns was designed to nudge People towards a positive view of the Chinese language authorities, whereas one other tried to sway People towards a positive view of Iran’s authorities.
Learn extra at NBC News.
Why the Media Matters layoffs matter
Dealing with a lawsuit from Elon Musk, the media watchdog Media Issues introduced final week that it had laid off a number of employees members to stay “sustainable” amid a “authorized assault on a number of fronts.” The transfer shouldn’t be taken evenly. There’s a right-wing war on individuals who focus on researching disinformation and hate speech. If conservatives are profitable, there will probably be fewer voices left keen or in a position to push again on efforts to govern the general public.
Learn extra at The Freedom of the Press Foundation.
A.I. incompetence
It appears to be like like Google’s A.I. search instrument may use some severe work. Former Obama administration staffer-turned-podcaster Tommy Vietor shared a screenshot displaying the platform returned a solution figuring out former President Barack Obama as america’ first (and solely) Muslim president.
NBC Information also reported on the phenomenon, solely to be instructed by a Google spokesperson that “the examples we’ve seen are usually very unusual queries, and aren’t consultant of most individuals’s expertise utilizing Search.” Additionally that Google “performed in depth testing earlier than launching this new expertise to make sure AI overviews meet our excessive bar for high quality.”
Nevertheless a lot testing it did, it’s simple to see how abject racism can, with the assistance of algorithms, make its means into synthetic intelligence instruments.
Russia’s 2016 redux
A brand new article from The Washington Publish particulars Russia’s marketing campaign to unfold election-related disinformation in Europe to sway elections on the Continent this 12 months. And the Publish warns that the Kremlin’s techniques, together with social media propaganda meant to sow discord in america, are set to focus on the U.S. much more within the months forward. Keep woke — the Kremlin is angling for a repeat of 2016.
Learn extra at The Washington Post.
