U.S. President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of former Rep. George Santos, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison. Trump claimed that Santos, who last year pleaded guilty to charges of committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, "has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated." Prosecutors said that Santos had conducted a yearslong scheme that preyed upon the campaign finance system and his own party, donors and family members.
A young woman with blonde hair and light eyes stands confidently in front of a red and white background resembling the Danish flag. Text overlay reads: “Denmark just passed a revolutionary law: citizens now own the copyright to their own face, voice, and body. A new war on AI deepfakes has begun.”
"A new executive order from President Donald Trump aims to expand information-sharing across federal agencies as well as between federal and state governments, but civil libertarians and other experts are warning that the main purpose is to help normalize how the Department of Government Efficiency is handling government data."
"The order, issued Thursday, directs all federal agency heads to modify or rescind any regulations preventing the sharing of unclassified data and records between federal agencies."
"Agency heads also must ensure that the U.S. government has “unfettered access” to comprehensive data from all state programs that receive federal funding. The order extends to all such data even when stored in third-party databases."
"The stated goal is “eliminating bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency while enhancing the Government’s ability to detect overpayments and fraud” — the supposed core of DOGE’s mission. The order does not mention DOGE by name."
"Civil libertarians and other experts, however, call the new EO an alarming development, and say it is meant to give cover to DOGE, which has been the subject of numerous lawsuits as its workers continue to root through government records and disrupt federal agencies. Trump also has previously sought to consolidate data for reasons that would infringe on civil liberties, the experts say."
"While the new EO asserts that the removal of data “silos” is designed to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, disturbing mission creep is very possible, said Elizabeth Laird, director of equity and civic technology at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology."
"There are no assurances that the data won’t be used for “targeting people who the administration has separately said are a priority for them,” Laird said. “That can include immigrants, it can include people who are transgender, it can include people that speak up” against the administration. "
If you EVER, and I do mean EVER see a QR code for anything... not just some things, ANYTHING.
Treat it as a scam, do not scan it, they can easily be covered up with malicious redirects to fake sites to steal your financial details. Direct you to malware sites to try and infect your device.
Treat them all the same... as toxic, potential harmful to your identity and security.
Never trust them... EVER!!!
If you 100% must use one, do what you should be doing at any (ATM) cash machine, check for devices that have been installed by crooks. See if you can peel the code off, not just at the area around the code, but the whole sign... look for anything unusual and if you have any doubts... even if it's 1% doubt... DON'T USE IT
This isn't scaremongering, scammers and thieves are out there every day, placing fake QR codes on signs all over the place. No where is safe from them. The way to win is not to play. Don;t buy into the enshitification of everything, don;t be told that you can ONLY do it one specific way (legally they have to offer more than one way to pay for a service).
Nine days later, SAG-AFTRA cuts a backroom deal with an #AI firm to allow AI access to voice actor material.
......Just how much Everclear is SAG-AFTRA chugging?
And let's even set aside the issue of #LLM threats to creative content, and the now-literal threat of AI coming for creatives' jobs. Let's table the imminent threat to #animation and gamedev (not to mention the risk of total obliteration of the #indiedev fields), we'll even ignore the sheer and utter contempt SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood have for #voiceacting for a moment...
Does anyone with half an iota of #infosec knowledge expect these AI firms to secure the source data they'll have access to?
All you need is one firm to score a lucrative actor, or brag about the size of their horde (oh yes, they'll call it a library, but let's be honest, it's an #AIHorde), and someone's gonna start throwing everything they have to get into it. And I doubt it'll be that hard to do.
Now, now, on TOP of the risk of traditional #identitytheft via your ethereal, transactional identity - NOW a voice actor has to worry about the risk of their performative, human identity being stolen.
(Oh and don't even get me STARTED on the opportunities this presents for #deepfake based #socialengineering)