Artist sabotaging AI

A new tool called Kudurru has been launched by a startup called Spawning to help artists block new attempts to train AI models on their work. How does it work? Spawning basically operates a "defense network" of websites to generate an IP blacklist. Beyond simply blocking blacklisted IP addresses, artists can opt to sabotage or "poison" the scraped training data by sending back a different image than the one requested. It's too early to tell how this might play out but this kind of sabotage could end up spoiling how AI generators interpret prompts. Artists and creative workers are truly on the forefront of the battle with creeping AI, from organised labor movements, to author lawsuits and copyright activists, and of course, creative technological sabotage.

Major Cloud Providers release findings on record-breaking DDoS attack

Earlier this year, a botnet of 20,000 compromised machines set a new DDoS record, bombarding servers with over 398 million requests per second. These figures steamrolled previous DDoS records (which, if you're feeling nerdy and nostalgic, you can read about here.) They did it by manipulating a HTTP/2 feature that allows a web browser to cancel its request for data. This week, AWS, Google and Cloudflare have released their findings about the attacks, as well as recommendations for mitigating techniques.

Dozens join lawsuit against Apple over AirTag-assisted stalking

More than three dozen people who have experienced stalking through the use of Apple AirTags have joined a class-action lawsuit against Apple. Plaintiffs are arguing that Apple has been negligent in mitigating the risks caused by AirTags, especially given the increased reporting and case studies demonstrating how AirTags have been used for stalking, violence and other forms of abuse and harassment. What makes this all the more frustrating is that both tech and family violence experts warned Apple about the potential harms before they released AirTags. Apple went ahead anyway. At the time, cybersecurity expert Eva Galperin called AirTags "uniquely harmful," and said that Apple's mitigation efforts when they came out were "woefully insufficient." To learn more about why Apple AirTags are particularly dangerous (compared to say, Tile), head here. Apple is expected to move to dismiss the lawsuit by 27 October.

Get me back into the Buffyverse right now (please)

A bunch of the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have reunited for an audio original podcast called "Slayers: A Buffyverse Story." Is this appropriate to go in this section of the Sizzle? Friends, I don't know but this is what I do know: I need this. I need it to be good. Given all the Big Bads in the world, I'm sure you can relate to taking solace in your favourite pop culture escapism. It also feels important given a key motivation is to reclaim the Buffyverse after creator Joss Whedon allegedly abused power on set. Heartbreaking. I hate Amazon and want to see it burn but then again, if this Audible original can bring the Buffyverse back to life and empower the actors and writers working on it, I'm so in.