Of course, the most straightforward way to eliminate any eavesdropping Alexa concerns is to simply mute your device's microphone. For most Alexa devices made by Amazon (the Echo lineup), the button to do so is located on the top of the device and looks like a microphone with a slash through it. Once you press it, you'll know the microphone is muted by the red light displayed on the Echo device. It's a bit antithetical to how the device is designed to be used, but if you don't mind manually turning the microphone on and off each time you want to ask Alexa something, it's an easy fix for privacy concerns. If you still want to be able to call out to Alexa without fiddling with a button each time, you can adjust your recording settings for extra data protection.

'Whatever claims the labs are making, they are not warning us enough. We need to understand that nobody can stop the AI storm.' 'Whatever claims the labs are making, they are not warning us enough. We need to understand that nobody can stop the AI storm.' What are self-replicating'AI worms', and why is Anthropic worried about them? Warnings about what artificial intelligence might do in the future - together with alarming reports of what it has gotten up to already - are being issued so quickly that even security experts have difficulty triaging what to worry about. Yet a report this week from Anthropic's offensive research team grabbed attention by describing a new, practical threat, one devoid of human characteristics or apocalyptic musings.

Mashable Selects Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Versus Trending Now Look Up In My Bag Mashable @Home Top creators, ranked Creator Playbook AI at School All Series We tested open earbuds from Shokz, Sony, Bose, and more -- these were our seven favorites. Bethany Allard is a Los Angeles-based shopping reporter at Mashable covering beauty tech, dating, sex and relationships, and headphones. That basically means she puts her hair through a lot, scrolls through a lot of dating apps, and rotates through a lot of different headphones. In addition to testing out and rounding up the best products, she also covers deals for Mashable, paying an especially obsessive amount of attention to Apple deals and prices. That knowledge comes in handy when she's covering shopping holidays like Prime Day and Black Friday, which she's now done for three years at Mashable. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Noise-cancelling earbuds are basically the default earbud choice these days, but if you don't want your ear canals obstructed, open earbuds are the way to go. The best open earbuds let you enjoy your workout playlist without losing touch with your surroundings, or stream audio all day without any wear fatigue.

Adult performers are questioning why Meta allows its AI agent to sext while restricting their social media accounts. The generative AI revolution hasn't been kind to Vanniall, an OnlyFans creator who lives in New York City. She now constantly finds hyperrealistic deepfakes --AI-generated images and videos that copy everything about her-- circulating online and often isn't able to get them removed. On top of that, Vanniall struggles to build an audience on popular social media platforms, like Instagram, without getting in trouble. "There's always some sort of report or appeal that I'm going through with them," she tells WIRED.

Mashable Selects Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Versus Trending Now Look Up In My Bag Mashable @Home Top creators, ranked Creator Playbook AI at School All Series Joseph Green is the Global Shopping Editor for Mashable. He covers VPNs, headphones, fitness gear, dating sites, streaming, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day. All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

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Lena Schilling is one of 50 MEPs, 46 of them women, who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes. Lena Schilling is one of 50 MEPs, 46 of them women, who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes. 'I felt disgusted': MEP speaks out over nude deepfakes and urges EU action Lena Schilling of Austrian Greens says images are'digital violence against women' and a threat to democracy An Austrian MEP has spoken out about her experience of being "stripped naked" online without her consent and has urged the EU to take action, as a report found that one in six female MEPs had been targeted by sexualised AI-generated content. Lena Schilling of the Green party said she had learned last month about nude deepfakes of herself circulating online. When she opened the links, she found herself staring at images from one of her first ever press conferences - but the images had been digitally altered to remove her clothing.

Mashable Selects Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Versus Trending Now Look Up In My Bag Mashable @Home Top creators, ranked Creator Playbook AI at School All Series Looking for a spoiler-free way to find a connection? Looking for spoiler-free NYT Connections hints or just wondering why Connections is trending today? We've got what you need to understand the clues for today's puzzle without spoiling any of the answers. Of course, Mashable has also provided daily hints and answers for Connections, Wordle, and Strands for years, so we can help you if that's also what you need. While we are focused more on meanings than hints in this story, sometimes learning that many of the words have completely unrelated meanings is a clue in and of itself.

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