“The race to lead A.I. has become a desperate hunt for the digital data needed to advance the technology. To obtain that data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta have cut corners, ignored corporate policies and debated bending the law, according to an examination by The New York Times.”

“While it’s too early to judge how Correctiv’s revelations will affect German politics in the long term, they have reinvigorated pro-democracy attitudes in the country and showed how these racist attitudes extend into the highest echelons of the AfD and how some of its leaders are keen to put them into action if given the opportunity to do so.”

“A shocking story was promoted on the “front page” or main feed of Elon Musk’s X on Thursday: ‘Iran Strikes Tel Aviv with Heavy Missiles,’ read the headline. This would certainly be a worrying world news development…But there was one major problem: Iran did not attack Israel. The headline was fake. Even more concerning, the fake headline was apparently generated by X’s own official AI chatbot, Grok, and then promoted by X’s trending news product, Explore, on the very first day of an updated version of the feature.”

“Tech giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft-backed OpenAI initially used reams of data scraped from the internet for free to train generative AI models like ChatGPT that can mimic human creativity. They have said that doing so is both legal and ethical, though they face lawsuits from a string of copyright holders over the practice. At the same time, these tech companies are also quietly paying for content locked behind paywalls and login screens, giving rise to a hidden trade in everything from chat logs to long forgotten personal photos from faded social media apps.”

“Key federal lawmakers Sunday unveiled a sweeping proposal that would for the first time give consumers broad rights to control how tech companies like Google, Meta and TikTok use their personal data, a major breakthrough in the decades-long fight to adopt national online privacy protections.”

“Forbes and the Financial Times have debuted their own AI chatbot search products over the past few months. Snopes will launch an AI-powered on-site search product by the end of this month, and Trusted Media Brands plans to debut a similar product for its video licensing platform later this spring. Meanwhile, The Guardian, Business Insider, and another news publisher — which asked to remain anonymous — are also looking into improving their on-site search functions with generative AI technology, though they are in the early days of testing.”

“Meta admits its current labeling policies are ‘too narrow’ and that a stronger system is needed to deal with today’s wider range of AI-generated content and other manipulated content, such as a January video which appeared to show President Biden inappropriately touching his granddaughter.”

“States Newsroom now has a full-time presence in all fifty states, after adding outlets in North Dakota and Utah earlier this year and establishing a partnership with Spotlight Delaware, a local nonprofit…While the news coverage strives to be balanced and nonpartisan, the sites’ commentary section leans left.”

“…company ad strategy is never driven by ideology. It’s always driven by what is best for the company’s bottom line. Companies would happily advertise to conspiracy theorist nutjobs, of the like Jordan likes to cultivate, if it helps their bottom line. It’s just that the companies have realized that most people are actually turned off by conspiracy theory nutjobs and get a negative impression of advertisers who cater to them.”

“Searching Google Books for the term ‘As of my last knowledge update,’ which is associated with ChatGPT-generated answers, returns dozens of books that include that phrase.”

“The Times writes that Google’s legal department asked the company’s privacy team to tweak its policy language to expand what it could do with consumer data, such as its office tools like Google Docs. The new policy was reportedly intentionally released on July 1st to take advantage of the distraction of the Independence Day holiday weekend.”

“In the film, Sewell’s Andrew appears chipper after the interview, giving Maitlis a tour and beaming over his performance. Then he watches himself on TV, shocked, morose and silent.”

“Pouria Zeraati was knifed in the leg by a group of three unknown assailants as he approached his car in Wimbledon on 29 March. The journalist, who works for London-based dissident broadcaster Iran International, has spoken publicly for the first time since the attack and described the stabbing as a ‘warning shot.’ Zeraati told ITV News: ‘The fact that they just stopped in my leg was their choice to do that.'”

“A day after a Facebook spokesman apologized for blocking Kansas Reflector articles by mistake, the social media giant blocked all links to two other news sites that republished a Kansas Reflector column.”

“Trump Media, based in Sarasota, Fla., has only 36 employees and lost $58 million last year, the filings show. The online analytics firm Similarweb estimates that Truth Social’s traffic is less than 1 percent of Reddit’s, a platform that received $800 million in revenue last year. But a stock-market frenzy has supersized Trump Media’s value to about $5.5 billion — more than the market values of Macy’s, Columbia Sportswear, and Alaska Airlines, which make billions in revenue a year.”

“The school, based in Beckenham, south London, will teach children about news reporting, video editing and illustration. ‘We don’t just teach journalism, we teach creative writing and music, and it will be a hub that champions creativity,’ said Boyd.”

“One of the things these numbers suggest is that the journalists are not getting the truth across to citizens on some key points (or if they are, that truth is being ignored).”

“Ahmed is one of five co-founders who launched The News Movement, a social-first news start-up aimed at audiences aged 18 to 25, in 2020. He is the second of its most high-profile co-founders to leave in recent months after William Lewis, also its majority shareholder, left as chief executive to take on the same role at The Washington Post.”