To keep scammers at bay, dating apps are embracing biometric scanning tools and “verified human” badges. These moves are sparking concerns about surveillance and privacy.

Back in May, Google announced Pics, an app that combines AI image generation with fine-grained editing controls. At the time, the company said it would bring Pics to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers sometime in the summer. Summer might be almost done, but as promised the company has begun rolling Pics to those users, in addition to customers of its Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus plans. Google AI Pro for Education users are also starting to get access today, just in time for the start of the new school year. Google Pics builds on the company's Nano Banana image generator.

Nicola Coughlan says she is deeply worried that legislation is not keeping up with the rapid rise of AI technology. Nicola Coughlan says she is deeply worried that legislation is not keeping up with the rapid rise of AI technology. Nicola Coughlan, Hugh Bonneville and Matt Lucas are among a group of actors backing a campaign against artificial intelligence voice cloning. Save Our Voices Now, which is also being supported by Luke Evans, Jen Brister, Siobhán McSweeney and Pearl Mackie, aims to stop the practice in which AI technology is used to replicate a real person's voice to say anything it is prompted to. Bonneville, the star of Paddington and Downton Abbey, said: "My voice is unique, it's mine, it's part of my identity. "The quote was handwritten, not created by AI," he added. About 80 people have added their signatures to an open letter to the prime minister, Andy Burnham, and a Gov.uk petition has been launched to ask for everyone in Britain to be given ownership of their voice as part of their statutory rights. The Derry Girls actor McSweeney said: "I'm deeply worried that legislation, contracts, working practices and ethics, and artists' rights are not being considered or protected as quickly as AI technology is progressing.

Actors including Matt Lucas, Hugh Bonneville and Nicola Coughlan have written to the UK government demanding greater protection against their voices being used by AI. The performers are asking Prime Minister Andy Burnham to introduce legislation which would give every person in the UK a legal right to own their voice. Voice clones are created by training AI on recordings of real people. Quick versions can be made in minutes from a few seconds of audio, but high-quality copycats tend to require hours. Audiobook narrator Alice Sockett, who co-founded the campaign, called it an existential threat to our entire industry.

I wore the world's first HDR10 smart glasses TCL's new E Ink tablet beats the Remarkable and Kindle Anker's new charger is one of the most unique I've ever seen I wore the world's first HDR10 smart glasses TCL's new E Ink tablet beats the Remarkable and Kindle Anker's new charger is one of the most unique I've ever seen AI-enabled identity theft is getting too sophisticated to have predictable tells anymore, so experts recommend answering with a seemingly old-fashioned approach. Deepfakes and AI clones get more sophisticated and harder to detect. Advanced attacks involve long-term infiltration of a company's systems. Experts recommend low-tech security protocols that offer better defenses. In January 2024, an employee at professional services firm Arup joined a video call with someone they believed included the company's CFO.

Services using facial recognition technology are expanding in Japan, allowing, for example, touchless or ticketless entry through train station gates and payments at shops without the need to take out a wallet or a credit card. Expectations are growing that the evolution of artificial intelligence will improve accuracy of facial recognition systems and help reduce fraud. Meanwhile, concerns about privacy violations persist, making thorough user information management essential. Trial Holdings, which runs discount stores and other operations, has introduced a payment service using NEC's facial recognition technology at 15 stores in Tokyo and Fukuoka Prefecture. Advance registration allows customers to shop simply by scanning goods at the self-checkout counter without using cash or smartphone payment services.

'Here we have a leap in the erosion of our privacy rights through this slick technology that big tech promises will enrich our lives,' says Ryan Clarkson, one of the lawyers bringing a class-action suit against Meta over its privacy assurances. 'Here we have a leap in the erosion of our privacy rights through this slick technology that big tech promises will enrich our lives,' says Ryan Clarkson, one of the lawyers bringing a class-action suit against Meta over its privacy assurances. Did someone wearing Meta Glasses film you today? People say they've been secretly filmed in their own home, at concerts and at work. Are the wildly popular smartglasses the final nail in the coffin of personal privacy? The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. "I've had one person who told me that their intentions were creepy," a man tells me over a video call, on condition of anonymity.

One advertisement featured a pornographic video with a deepfake closely resembling a prominent US politician. Apple removed the app from the App Store after an inquiry from WIRED. Meta platforms recently ran ads for an AI porn-generation tool that seemingly encouraged users to create deepfaked videos resembling female US politicians, despite the company's policies against ads containing sexual material. It's the latest in a series of failures by Meta to keep advertisements for tools that produce nonconsensual intimate imagery off its platforms. The tool, which is called Kromix, bills itself as an "AI image styler."

Along with Anthony Albanese, common targets for deepfakes included ABC financial journalist Alan Kohler; and politicians Jacqui Lambie and Angus Taylor. Along with Anthony Albanese, common targets for deepfakes included ABC financial journalist Alan Kohler; and politicians Jacqui Lambie and Angus Taylor. Deepfake Anthony Albanese used in celebrity scams duping Australians out of $7.4m, Asic warns Australia's corporate watchdog says PM is the figure most commonly used in deepfakes to promote phony investment opportunities There has been a steep rise in scammers luring victims into phony investment opportunities using deepfakes of celebrities and politicians, Australia's corporate watchdog has warned. And Anthony Albanese is the figure most commonly co-opted. Real footage of the prime minister, overlaid with fake audio promising Australians can invest $4,000 to earn $40,000 a month, appears in one video online.

New York City Lawmakers Push to'Ban the Scan' at MSG At a press conference outside Madison Square Garden, politicians, musicians, and privacy advocates argued for tighter restrictions on how public venues deploy biometric surveillance. Privacy advocates and musicians rallied outside Madison Square Garden on Friday, pushing for new legislation to prevent facial-recognition technology at the venue and other public spaces in New York City. "MSG and its CEO, James Dolan, have been flagrantly abusing biotechnology," City Council member Shahana Hanif said at the event on Friday, after leading a chant of "ban the scan." In January, Hanif proposed a bill that would prohibit public venues from using biometric recognition tech such as Madison Square Garden's facial-recognition systems. Madison Square Garden is well-known for its biometric data collection practices .