The US state of Louisiana has lived up to its reputation as backwards, selfish and straight up stupid. They've passed a law requiring age verification in order to view "adult content" on any website where such content is more than 33.3% of the content on the site. Pornhub has already implemented a system where you link your "LA Wallet" (I guess the Louisiana equivalent of MyGov) to Pornhub. What could possibly go wrong? Meanwhile, police in Jefferson Parish used a shitty facial recognition system to lock up an innocent dude from a different state for almost a week, over a crime he didn't commit. This is what happens when you give technology to mean and righteous people.
New York City public schools have blocked ChatGPT, saying that "while the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success". The International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) did similar, banning "papers that include text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM) such as ChatGPT". Microsoft however, loves ChatGPT and will be adding it to Bing to improve search results. Apple announced they're going to make a shitload of audiobooks available that have been read by a "digital voice based on a human narrator". Check out the demos of Madison, Jackson, Helena and Mitchell. Adobe decided to scan "your content using techniques such as machine learning" and made it an opt-out rather than opt-in feature, understandably pissing off anyone paying attention.
WhatsApp has added a handy new feature for those living in ratbag countries blocking users from using the relatively secure messaging app - proxy servers. Volunteers around the world can set up and operate proxy servers for WhatsApp users that are then shared around the presumably non-blocked infrastructure. According to WhatsApp "using a proxy doesn't change the high level of privacy and security that WhatsApp provides to all users. Your personal messages and calls will still be protected by end-to-end encryption", but proxy operators will know your IP address. Here's instructions on GitHub explaining how to install and run the WhatsApp maintained Docker container. Looks pretty easy if you've ever done anything with Docker in the past.
Here's five interesting discussions over on The Sizzle's paid subscriber forum for you to enjoy over the weekend. If you are not a paid subscriber but want to get involved, visit https://thesizzle.com.au/payme to get onboard.
Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold (CT4390) soundcard. RIP Sim Wong Hoo, founder of Creative Technology. (Konstantin Lanzet / Wikimedia Commons)
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