News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

Someone Has Kidnapped Your AI Girlfriend!

AI girlfriend site breached, user fantasies stolen

A hacker has stolen a massive database of users’ interactions with their sexual partner chatbots, according to 404 Media.

The breached service, Muah.ai, describes itself as a platform that lets people engage in AI-powered companion NSFW chat, exchange photos, and even have voice chats.

As you can imagine, data like this is very sensitive, so the site assures customers that communications are encrypted and says it doesn’t sell any data to third parties.

The stolen data, however, tells a different story. It includes chatbot prompts that reveal users’ sexual fantasies. These prompts are in turn linked to email addresses, many of which appear to be personal accounts with users’ real names.

Mauh.ai says it believes in freedom of speech and to uphold that right, it says:

“AI technology should be for everyone, and its use case to be decided by each mature, individual adult. So that means we don’t actively censor or filter AI. So any topic can be discussed without running into a wall.”

Unfortunately, that means that filth is created to satisfy the needs of some sick users, and some of the data contains horrifying explicit references to children.

Presumably those users in particular don’t want their fantasies to be discovered, which is exactly what might happen if they are connected to your email address.

The hacker describes the platform as “a handful of open-source projects duct-taped together.” Apparently, it was no trouble at all to find a vulnerability that provided access to the platform’s database.

The administrator of Muah.ai says the hack was noticed a week ago and claims that it must be sponsored by the competitors in the “uncensored AI industry.” Which, who knew, seems to be the next big thing.

The administrator also said that Muah.ai employs a team of moderation staff that suspend and delete ALL child-related chatbots on its card gallery (where users share their creations), Discord, Reddit, etc, But in reality, when two people posted about a reportedly underage AI character on the site’s Discord server, 404 Media claims a moderator told the users to not “post that shit” here, but to go “DM each other or something.”

Muah.ai is just one example of a new breed of uncensored AI apps that offer hundreds of role-play scenarios with chatbots, and others designed to behave like a long-term romantic companion.

404 Media says it tried to contact dozens of people included in the data, including users who wrote prompts that discuss having underage sex. Not surprisingly, none of those people responded to a request for comment.

Update October 11

There are reports that this information is in use for active extortion attempts. Whether these are based on actual activities on the platform or solely based on leaked email addresses is not yet known.

When AI isn't truly AI

Fake AI: Elon Musk’s Robots at Tesla Robotaxi Event Relied on Human Controllers

Tesla’s Optimus robots, which played a significant role in Elon Musk’s extravagant robotaxi reveal last week, were not fully autonomous and relied on human intervention, according to attendees and analysts.

The Verge reports that at Tesla’s highly anticipated “We, Robot” event, held in conjunction with the reveal of its Cybercab robotaxi, the company showcased its Optimus humanoid robots which interacted with the crowd, serving drinks, playing games with guests, and even dancing. The robots’ ability to engage in conversation and respond to verbal and visual cues left many attendees impressed. However, it has come to light that the robots’ seemingly advanced capabilities were largely due to human assistance behind the scenes.

Attendee Robert Scoble, who initially posted about the robots’ impressive performance, later clarified that he had learned from an engineer that the robots were being “remote assisted” by humans. This revelation was further supported by Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who noted in a report that the robots “relied on tele-ops (human intervention).”

Several telltale signs pointed to the involvement of human operators in the Optimus robots’ actions. For instance, each robot had a distinct voice, and their responses to attendees’ questions were immediate and accompanied by matching gesticulations. In one video, an Optimus robot jokingly admitted to an attendee that it might be partially controlled by AI, while another robot, in a stilted synthetic voice, stated, “Today, I am assisted by a human,” acknowledging that it was not fully autonomous.

Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has a history of employing theatrical elements to generate buzz around the company’s products. The initial announcement of the humanoid robot featured a person in a robot suit on stage, setting the tone for the hyperbolic presentation of the Optimus robots at the recent event. While attendees did not seem to feel misled by the robots’ assisted performance, the event provided little insight into the actual progress of Tesla’s humanoid robotics work.

Google & Amazon & US Gov Are Best Pals!?

Google and Amazon Accused of Trying to ‘Hijack’ Trade Policy Through Cozy Relationship with Government Agency

Newly uncovered emails shed light on the close relationships between tech giants Google and Amazon and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) as the companies sought to undermine overseas regulations, including efforts to protect traditional media outlets.

The New York Post reports that the advocacy group Demand Progress has accused Google and Amazon of attempting to “hijack U.S. trade policy” for their own benefit, maintaining a “revolving door” relationship with the USTR. The report is based on a tranche of emails exchanged between Google and Amazon executives and USTR officials from May 2023 through April 2024, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

One notable email exchange from May 2023 reveals how Google sought to enlist the USTR in its fight against Canada’s Online News Act, which requires Google and Facebook parent Meta to pay publishers for displaying their content online. Google’s head of trade policy, Nicholas Bramble, requested a meeting with three USTR staffers to discuss “upcoming developments on Canada.” The meeting took place just four business days later, and the USTR’s Andrea Boron asked Google to share their public comments detailing objections and concerns about the Online News Act.

Google provided links to a “list of key concerns and proposed amendments” that they had shared with Canadian lawmakers, as well as a transcript of public testimony in which a Google executive warned that the company would “reconsider” offering news content in Canada if the law took effect. Despite Google’s efforts to weaken or kill the bill, the company ultimately cut a last-minute deal with Canada in November 2023, agreeing to pay $74 million to media outlets while securing the right to negotiate with a consortium of local news outlets rather than individual entities.

The emails also reveal instances of Amazon leveraging its ties with the agency. In August 2023, the USTR’s Danielle Fumagalli sought input from Amazon and Google staffers regarding a proposal in Japan aimed at helping domestic cloud-computing firms compete for government contracts. Fumagalli’s email to Amazon was addressed to Mary Thornton, who had previously worked as a director at the USTR before joining Amazon as the head of trade and export controls policy for the company’s cloud unit.

Critics argue that Big Tech firms are using their influence over the USTR and other federal agencies to shape lenient regulatory policies that protect their interests at the expense of smaller competitors. If successful, this effort could undermine future attempts by Congress or individual states to pass anti-monopoly laws

TikTok is a Terrible App for Young Minds

Lawsuit Reveals TikTok Internal Documents Showing App Causes ‘Negative Mental Health Effects’

China’s TikTok admits in its own research that “compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety.” The internal documents have been revealed as part of a lawsuit against the Chinese platform.

A lawsuit brought by the Attorney General of Kentucky claims that TikTok users can become “addicted” to the Chinese app in just 35 minutes, and that the app’s own internal research has found that “compulsive usage” of TikTok can result in “a slew of negative mental health effects,” according to a report by NPR.

“While this may seem substantial, TikTok videos can be as short as 8 seconds and are played for viewers in rapid-fire succession, automatically,” Kentucky authorities said. “Thus, in under 35 minutes, an average user is likely to become addicted to the platform.”

Moreover, “compulsive usage also interferes with essential personal responsibilities like sufficient sleep, work/school responsibilities, and connecting with loved ones,” the lawsuit adds.

Another internal document states that TikTok — which estimates that 95 percent of smartphone users under the age of 17 use the Chinese app — knows the app is designed to keep young people on the platform, and that its features successfully lead to users having a constant and irresistible urge to continue opening the app.

The report also found that while TikTok lets parents place time limits on their kids’ app usage, internal documents show that the Chinese app measures the success of this tool by how it was “improving public trust in the TikTok platform via media coverage,” rather than how it limited teens’ usage of the app.

Court documents also allege that TikTok demoted people it deemed unattractive, despite the Chinese app being aware of the harm its beauty filters can cause young users. An internal document reportedly complains that TikTok showed “a high volume” of “not attractive subjects” on users’ main video feed.

“By changing the TikTok algorithm to show fewer ‘not attractive subjects’ in the For You feed, [TikTok] took active steps to promote a narrow beauty norm even though it could negatively impact their Young Users,” the Kentucky authorities wrote.

Additionally, a TikTok executive reportedly admitted that the app’s algorithm could deprive young users of certain “opportunities,” such as sleep, eating, moving around, and even “looking at someone in the eyes.”

“I think we need to be cognizant of what it might mean for other opportunities,” a TikTok executive said. “And when I say other opportunities, I literally mean sleep, and eating, and moving around the room, and looking at someone in the eyes.”

EV Burning People Beyond Recognition

Four ‘Burnt Beyond Recognition’ in Fatal No-Witnesses Electric Vehicle Crash in France

Four people have died in a car crash in France after their Tesla vehicle reportedly hit a road sign and caught fire, police said Monday.

A local police spokesman, Lt. Eric Hoarau, said the exact circumstances of the crash Saturday night near the city of Niort were still to be determined and an investigation was underway.

“Everything suggests (the vehicle) came off the road,” Hoarau said, citing marks on the ground and a severed road sign.

There were no witnesses, he said, making the investigation complicated.

The driver and three passengers were burnt beyond recognition, he said.

Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.