London-based startup Lighthouse just raised a hefty $370mn from American investment giant KKR at a valuation of over $1bn, making it Europes latest unicorn tech company.The funding will supercharge the companys ambitions to shake up the $15bn travel tech market. Whats on the to-do list? Refining its AI tools, expanding globally, and snapping up competitors through mergers and acquisitions (it has already made four).Lighthouses platform crunches over 400 terabytes of travel data every day, using AI to turn that ocean of info into bite-sized insights that help hotels make better business decisions. It includes data like how many people are booking rooms, when theyre booking, what theyre willing to pay, and how hotels compare to others in the same area. This data helps businesses understand the market, predict trends, and make decisions to increase bookings and revenue.The startup says its tools are used by over 70,000 hospitality providers in 185 countries, including big names like Holiday Inn, Radisson, and NH Hotel Group. It has more than 700 employees worldwide.Watch Back NowCEO Sean Fitzpatrick is pumped about whats next. I couldnt be more energized by what were working towards. Were just getting started in making hospitality data and tools more powerful, accessible, and affordable, he said, adding that KKRs investment will boost AI capabilities, pull in new data sets, and push the company deeper into the global market.Gino Engels and Matthias Geeroms founded Lighthouse in 2012. The company was originally called OTA Insight and started in Ghent, Belgium, before moving its HQ to London. Now, it has raised one of the largest rounds for any startup based in the British capital.For KKR, this is another notch in a long belt of tech growth bets. Since 2010, the firm has funnelled around $23bn into the sector. Stephen Shanley, KKRs head of tech growth in Europe, called Lighthouse the leading platform in this space, praising its ability to serve everyone from boutique inns to multinational hotel chains.Back in 2021, Lighthouse raised $80mn in a Series B, with backers like Spectrum Equity and F-Prime Capital sticking around for this latest buy-in. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Candela is flying high and across the Atlantic.The Swedish startup has secured $14mn, marking the close of its Series C round at a cosy $40mn. This puts its total funding at just shy of $90mn.Candela has also sold its first P-12 ferry in the US, amid burgeoning demand for what is the worlds fastest and longest-range electric passenger vessel.FlyTahoe, the company that will operate the service, will use the P-12 to shuttle tourists and locals across Lake Tahoe. This massive freshwater lake straddles the border of California and Nevada and is best known for its clear blue waters and nearby world-class ski resorts.Watch Back NowCandelas ferry will run a north-south route across the lake at 25 knots (30 mph), halving travel times from an hour by car to just 30 minutes minus the emissions.Its ironic that while millions, myself included, drive around Lake Tahoe to admire its beauty, the road sediment we generate contributes to the largest threat to the lakes famous cobalt blue clarity, Ryan Meinzer, founder and CEO of FlyTahoe.Computer-controlled hydrofoils lift the P-12 above water, reducing drag and cutting energy use by 80% compared to regular boats. This also provides a smooth, silent ride unaffected by waves and winds.Attracting over 15 million visitors annually, Lake Tahoe suffers from road congestion, worsened in winter by heavy snow and road closures. However, since the lake never freezes over, the P-12 can operate year-round, providing a quicker, cleaner alternative to driving.Last month, Stockholm became the first city to adopt Candelas ferry as part of its public transport system. The P-12 runs a 15km route from the suburb of Eker into the City centre, cutting a 55-minute commute in half.Candela estimates 120 of its shuttles could replace Stockholms entire 35-strong fleet of diesel ferries. At $1.7mn (1.5mn) a piece, thats a big investment, but CEO Gustav Hasselskog is bullish on the returns.Unlike a lot of green technologies, the cost is lower, its cheaper to run, and cheaper to maintain, he told TNW when we visited the companys headquarters earlier this year.Powered by a fresh batch of funding, Candelas is rushing to fulfil orders from New Zealand, Berlin, Saudi Arabia and now the US, as it prepares for its biggest phase of growth yet.Our technology offers a strong economic incentive to switch to zero-emission fleets while unlocking the potential for waterways to ease road congestion and enable multi-modal urban travel. This investment comes at a critical time for the planet, said Hasselskog in a press release.SEB Private Equity, a global private equity investor, led the funding round, with participation from existing investors EQT Ventures and KanDela AB. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Following a recent expansion of Tap to Pay on iPhone to more countries in Europe, Apple this week announced that it is bringing the feature to yet another country this year. As of today, users in New Zealand can count on the feature that turns the iPhone into a payment terminal.Tap to Pay on iPhone now available in New ZealandThe news was confirmed by Apple on its website (via MacRumors). In New Zealand, Adyen, ANZ Bank, Stripe, Windcave and Worldline are the first platforms to support Tap to Pay on iPhone.For those unfamiliar, Tap to Pay enables merchants to accept contactless payment via a compatible iOS app running on an iPhone Xs or newer, equipped with the latest iOS version. During the checkout process, the merchant will only need to instruct the customer to hold their iPhone, Apple Watch, or compatible NFC card near the merchants iPhone to make a payment.Just like any Apple Pay transaction, Tap to Pay is securely processed using NFC technology, and theres no requirement for extra hardware to facilitate contactless payments. In countries where the feature is available, developers can use an API available in iOS 15.4 and later to implement Tap to Pay support.Tap to Pay on iPhone supports contactless credit and debit cards from leading payment networks, including American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard and Visa.Tap to Pay on iPhone first debuted in the US in 2022, and expanded internationally to the UK,France,Taiwan,Australia,the Netherlands,Brazil,Ukraine,Japan, Canada, Italy and more.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Reading PDFs has become second nature, but when it comes to editing, converting, or even organizing PDF documents, the process can be cumbersome. UPDF has changed that, offering an AI-powered PDF solution that makes these complex tasks easier for Mac users. With full-featured editing at just a quarter of the price of Adobe Acrobat Pro, UPDF brings an impressive suite of capabilities to the table, including AI tools that summarize, translate, and even let you chat with PDFs. And this Black Friday, UPDF is available at up to 50% off, making it a perfect time to enhance your productivity.Explore the power of UPDF and get massive Black Friday savings!UPDF is an all-in-one PDF editor that does more than just basic editing. You can annotate, convert, organize, and even interact with PDFs in ways that save time and simplify tasks. With Black Friday here, UPDFs biggest sale is live, offering a significant discount of up to 50%.From editing text and images to managing complex files, UPDF offers a robust toolkit for all your PDF needs. Lets look at its key features:Edit all elements on PDFs with easeModify any text, images, and even layouts in your PDF files with just a few clicks. UPDF makes it easy to adjust content, ensuring your documents are always accurate and up-to-date.UPDFs annotation features allow you to highlight, underline, and add notes, making it perfect for collaborative work, study, or quick reference.Seamless conversion to popular formatsWith UPDF, converting PDFs to other file types is quick and efficient. It supports conversion to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text, images, HTML, and more.OCR with AI makes scanned PDFs editableUsing AI-powered OCR, UPDF can convert scanned documents into editable files, saving hours of manual retyping and making content searchable and accessible.Organize PDFs in secondsRearrange pages, split documents, or merge files effortlessly, keeping your PDFs organized and easy to navigate.Fill out forms and sign documentsNeed to complete a form or sign a document? UPDF allows you to fill forms, add digital signatures, and securely manage document signing.Print to PDF and save files easilyUPDFs print-to-PDF feature simplifies the process of saving your documents for quick, reliable access later.Reduce PDF file sizes to make sharing simple without losing quality, ensuring files are accessible and manageable.Protect PDF documentsUPDF enables you to add passwords, redact sensitive information, and control document access for enhanced security.UPDF Sign: Send, sign, and track documentsWith UPDF Sign, you can send, sign, and track documents securely and legally. The tool supports certificate-based digital signatures and works seamlessly on any device, making document tracking and security easier than ever.What sets UPDF apart is its AI capabilities. UPDF is the first PDF editor to offer features that let you chat with a PDF, summarizing lengthy documents in seconds or even translating them into multiple languages. With UPDF, you can transform complex files into mind maps, making it ideal for students, researchers, and professionals who need to visualize information. From articles to complex research, you can convert them into an easy-to-read format.UPDF editor features and benefits youll appreciateUPDF combines advanced PDF editing with an intuitive interface, making it the perfect choice for anyone looking to maximize productivity. Here are some highlights:Comprehensive tools: UPDF provides annotating, converting, editing, form field recognition, organization, permissions, signing, security, OCR, and redaction.AI chat functionality: Engage with documents in real-time, saving time on summarizing, translating, and understanding complex files.Cross-platform access: Access UPDF on macOS, Windows, Android, or iOS with one account.AI translation support: Translate documents into various languages without needing additional tools.UPDF Cloud storage: Store up to 110GB of files, giving you access to important documents anytime, anywhere.Affordable and risk-free: UPDF comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and includes regular updates along with 24/6 customer support.Take advantage of UPDFs Black Friday deal!This Black Friday, UPDFs biggest sale is here, with discounts up to 50% off. Nows the time to enhance your PDF experience and save on one of the most feature-rich PDF editors available. Get UPDF now with Black Friday savings!For more updates, follow UPDF on social media:Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

"A disturbing and disappointing house of cards that deceived and victimized many across the country."AllFakeAfter duping the Los Angeles school system into giving her gobs of money, the founder of an AI ed tech firm allegedly spent a lot of it on herself.As theLA Times reports, 33-year-old Joanna Smith-Griffin, the founder of an AI startup called AllHere, has been charged by federal prosecutors with identity theft and multiple counts of fraud after her alleged web of lies regarding her company's sketchy wares came tumbling down.Earlier this year, the same newspaper reported that after being contracted to build out a chatbot connecting families with information from the Los Angeles Unified School District, AllHere filed for bankruptcy despite tens of millions of dollars in public and private investment.Now, the reason why seems to be emerging, per the allegations: that the founder's repeated lies about the company's worth, and dips into its investments for her own personal gain, led it to ruin.Double DippingProsecutors maintain in their indictment against Smith-Griffin that the founder of the Boston-based company inflated AllHere's worth to attract investors, claiming that she had raised millions for its bespoke educational chatbot tech when in reality the firm had far less in its coffers.According to the indictment, the founder also allegedly used some of the tens of millions she raised from private and public investors to put a down payment on a house in North Carolina and fund her own lavish wedding.Aside from outside investments, the firm was contracted with the LAUSD, the nation's second largest-school system, for $6 million. According to school officials who spoke to theLA Times, the district only paid out about half or $3 million of that contract to AllHere ahead of its collapse.Ed TechLaunched in March, AllHere's chatbot for the LAUSD, named "Ed," was meant to be a part of students' individualized toolkits. Just a few months after its splashy rollout, however, the school district quietly took Ed offline and soon, the company that made it was sinking as well."We can obviously point the finger at companies, especially startups, that are pressured to overpromise and... generally underdeliver," University of Southern California AI expert Stephen Aguilar told the LA Times after Ed went dark. "Ultimately, the responsibility rests with the school district."Now, the superintendent of the LAUSD is condemning Smith-Griffin and what prosecutors called a "deliberate and calculated scheme.""The indictment and the allegations represent, if true, a disturbing and disappointing house of cards that deceived and victimized many across the country," superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the LA Times following the recent charges. "We will continue to assert and protect our rights."Those rights, it seems, include the ability to revive the Ed chatbot at will and as Carvalho told the newspaper, the LAUSD hasn't given up hope that it will be able to do so.More on AI in education: Parents Sue School After Teacher Sends Son to Detention for Using AIShare This Article

Some accounts uploaded the videos straight to the platform while X turned a blind eye.Verified HorribleVerified accounts on Elon Musk's social media platform X-formerly-Twitter are promoting the sale of child sex abuse videos.As the BBC found, the identified accounts were using Saudi Arabic phrases and hashtags to link to websites that sell the appalling content. Other associated accounts even went as far as to upload child sex abuse material (CSAM) straight to the platform.It's a harsh reminder of just how meaningless the company's purported "verification" system has become while CSAM is flourishing in the absence of effective content moderation efforts.After the broadcaster identified the accounts to X, the company promptly removed them. Yet some accounts got thousands of views, while linking to Telegram channels purportedly containing CSAM."These accounts have been suspended in accordance with our policies," a spokesperson told the BBC, as translated from Arabic by Google, but refused to elaborate on how X's verification system works.Free for AllIt's a particularly problematic situation given the fact that verified users with blue checkmarks on the site are paying a monthly fee to jump the line and get far more visibility on the Musk-led platform.In simple terms, X is effectively making money off the sale of CSAM being openly promoted on its platform.Some of the identified accounts were active for over a year, highlighting the platform's failure to address the issue in a timely manner.That's despite Meta's Instagram and Facebook banning related keywords that were being used by these accounts earlier this year, according to the report.None of this should be particularly surprising. In the first couple of months after Musk took over the platform in late 2022, the team gutted the 20-person team responsible for preventing child sexual exploitation.According to February 2023 reportingby the New York Times, the company failed to keep child abuse content off the platform, with CSAM widely circulating.That's despite Musk making lofty promises about making "removing child exploitation" his "priority #1" three months earlier.In May, the European Commission requested information on X's content moderation and how much resources it was committing to those efforts. The Commission pointed to an X transparency report, which revealed that its content moderation team was cut by almost 20 percent since October 2023.Given the latest news, its content moderation in other parts of the world the Arab-speaking world in particular is woefully inadequate as well.Worst of all, X's content moderation practices remain a black box. In October, an Australian court upheld an order for Musk's company to pay a fine of almost half a million dollars after failing to cooperate with regulators in a request for information regarding anti-child-abuse practices.Share This Article

Nov 22, 2024Ravie LakshmananCyber Attack / MalwareThe threat actor known as Mysterious Elephant has been observed using an advanced version of malware called Asynshell.The attack campaign is said to have used Hajj-themed lures to trick victims into executing a malicious payload under the guise of a Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (CHM) file, the Knownsec 404 team said in an analysis published today.Mysterious Elephant, which is also known as APT-K-47, is a threat actor of South Asian origin that has been active since at least 2022, primarily targeting Pakistani entities.The group's tactics and tooling have been found to share similarities with those of other threat actors operating in the regions, such as SideWinder, Confucius, and Bitter.In October 2023, the group was linked to a spear-phishing campaign that delivered a backdoor called ORPCBackdoor as part of attacks directed against Pakistan and other countries.The exact initial access vector employed by Mysterious Elephant in the latest campaign is not known, but it likely involves the use of phishing emails. The method leads to the delivery of a ZIP archive file that contains two files: a CHM file that claims to be about the Hajj policy in 2024 and a hidden executable file.When the CHM is launched, it's used to display a decoy document, a legitimate PDF file hosted on the government of Pakistan's Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony website, while the binary is stealthily executed in the background.A relatively straightforward malware, it's designed to establish a cmd shell with a remote server, with Knownsec 404 identifying functional overlaps with Asyncshell, another tool the threat actor has repeatedly used since the second half of 2023.As many as four different versions of Asyncshell have been discovered to date, boasting capabilities to execute cmd and PowerShell commands. Initial attack chains distributing the malware have been found to leverage the WinRAR security flaw (CVE-2023-38831, CVSS score: 7.8) to trigger the infection.Furthermore, subsequent iterations of the malware have transitioned from using TCP to HTTPS for command-and-control (C2) communications, not to mention making use of an updated attack sequence that employs a Visual Basic Script to show the decoy document and launch it by means of a scheduled task."It can be seen that APT-K-47 has frequently used Asyncshell to launch attack activities since 2023, and has gradually upgraded the attack chain and payload code," the Knownsec 404 team said."In recent attack activities, this group has cleverly used disguised service requests to control the final shell server address, changing from the fixed C2 of previous versions to the variable C2, which shows the importance APT-k-47 organization internal places on Asyncshell."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Nov 22, 2024Ravie LakshmananCyber Espionage / MalwareThreat actors with ties to Russia have been linked to a cyber espionage campaign aimed at organizations in Central Asia, East Asia, and Europe.Recorded Future's Insikt Group, which has assigned the activity cluster the name TAG-110, said it overlaps with a threat group tracked by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) as UAC-0063, which, in turn, overlaps with APT28. The hacking crew has been active since at least 2021."Using custom malware tools HATVIBE and CHERRYSPY, TAG-110 primarily attacks government entities, human rights groups, and educational institutions," the cybersecurity company said in a Thursday report. "HATVIBE functions as a loader to deploy CHERRYSPY, a Python backdoor used for data exfiltration and espionage."TAG-110's use of HATVIBE and CHERRYSPY was first documented by CERT-UA back in late May 2023 in connection with a cyber attack targeting state agencies in Ukraine. Both the malware families were again spotted over a year later in an intrusion of an unnamed scientific research institution in the country.As many as 62 unique victims across eleven countries have been identified since then, with notable incidents in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, indicating that Central Asia is a primary area of focus for the threat actor in a likely attempt to gather intelligence that informs Russia's geopolitical objectives in the region.A smaller number of victims have also been detected in Armenia, China, Hungary, India, Greece, and Ukraine.Attack chains involve the exploitation of security flaws in public-facing web applications (e.g., Rejetto HTTP File Server) and phishing emails as an initial access vector to drop HATVIBE, a bespoke HTML application loader that serves as a conduit to deploy the CHERRYSPY backdoor for data gathering and exfiltration."TAG-110's efforts are likely part of a broader Russian strategy to gather intelligence on geopolitical developments and maintain influence in post-Soviet states," Recorded Future said. "These regions are significant to Moscow due to strained relations following Russia's invasion of Ukraine."Russia is also believed to have ramped up its sabotage operations across European critical infrastructure following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, targeting Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Poland with the goal of destabilizing NATO allies and disrupting their support for Ukraine."These covert activities align with Russia's broader hybrid warfare strategy, aiming to destabilize NATO countries, weaken their military capabilities, and strain political alliances," Recorded Future said, describing the efforts as "calculated and persistent.""As relations between Russia and the West will almost certainly remain fraught, Russia is very likely to increase the destructiveness and lethality of its sabotage operations without crossing the threshold of war with NATO as discussed in the Gerasimov doctrine. These physical attacks will likely complement Russian efforts in the cyber and influence operations realm in line with Russia's hybrid war doctrine."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Brandon Taylor, Digital Editorial Program ManagerNovember 22, 20245 Min ViewAs artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and be adopted at a blistering pace, there are many ways AI systems can be vulnerable to attacks. Whether being fed malicious data that enables incorrect decisions or being hacked to gain access to sensitive data and more, there are no shortage of challenges in this growing landscape.Today, it's more vital than ever to consider taking steps to ensure that generative AI models, applications, data, and infrastructure are protected.In this archived panel discussion, Sara Peters (upper left in video), InformationWeeks editor-in-chief; Anton Chuvakin (upper right), senior staff security consultant, office of the CISO, for Google Cloud; and Manoj Saxena (lower middle), CEO and executive chairman of Trustwise AI, came together to discuss the importance of applying rigorous security to AI systems.This segment was part of our live virtual event titled, State of AI in Cybersecurity: Beyond the Hype. The event was presented by InformationWeek and Dark Reading on October 30, 2024.A transcript of the video follows below. Minor edits have been made for clarity.Sara Peters: All right, so let's start here. The topic is securing AI systems, and that can mean a lot of different things. It can mean cleaning up the data quality of the model training data or finding vulnerable code in the AI models.Related:It can also mean detecting hallucinations, avoiding IP leaks through generative AI prompts, detecting cyber-attacks, or avoiding network overloads. It can be a million different things. So, when I say securing AI systems, what does that mean to you?What are the biggest security risks or threats that we need to be thinking about right now? Manoj, I'll send that to you first.Manoj Saxena: Sure, again, thanks for having me on here. Securing AI broadly, I think, means taking a proactive approach not only to the outside-in view of security, but also the inside-out view of security. Because what we're entering is this new world that I call prompt to x. Today, it's prompt to intelligence.Tomorrow, it will be prompt to action through an agent. The day after tomorrow, it will be prompt to autonomy, where you will tell an agent to take over a process. So, what we are going to see in terms of securing AI are the external vectors that are going to be coming into your data, applications and networks.They're going to get amplified because of AI. People will start using AI to create new threat vectors outside-in, but also, there will be a tremendous number of inside-out threat vectors that will be going out.Related:This could be a result of employees not knowing how to use the system properly, or the prompts may end up creating new security risks like sensitive data leakage, harmful outputs or hallucinated output. So, in this environment, securing AI would mean proactively securing outside-in threats as well as inside-out threats.Anton Chauvkin: So, to add to this, we build a lot of structure around this. So, I will try to answer without disagreeing with Manoj, but by adding some structure. Sometimes I joke that it's my 3am answer if somebody says, Anton secure AI! What do you mean by this? I'll probably go to the model that we built.Of course, that's part of our safe, secure AI framework approach. When I think about securing AI, I think about models, applications, infrastructure and data. Unfortunately, it's not an acronym, because the acronym would be MADE, and it'll be really strange.But after somebody said it's not an acronym, obviously, everybody immediately thought it's an acronym. The more serious take on this is that if I say securing AI, I think about securing the model, the applications around it, the infrastructure under it, and the data inside it.I probably won't miss anything that's within the cybersecurity domain, if I think about these four buckets. Ultimately, I've seen a lot of people who obsess about one, and all sorts of hilarious and sometimes sad results happen. So, for example, I go and say the model is the most important, and I double down on prompt injection.Related:Then, SQL injection into my application kills me. If I don't want to do it in the cloud for some reason, and I try to do it on premise, my infrastructure is let go. My model is fine, my application is great, but my infrastructure is let go. So, ultimately, these four things are where my mind goes when I think about securing AI systems.MS: Can I just add to that? I think that's a good way to look at the stack and the framework. I would add one more piece to it, which is around the notion of securing the prompts. This is prompt security and filtering, prompt defense against adversarial attacks, as well as real time prompt validation.You're going to be securing the prompt itself. Where do you think that fits in?AC: We always include it in the model, because ultimately, the prompt issues to us are AI specific issues. Nothing in the application infrastructure data is AI specific, because these exist, obviously, for non-applications. For us, when we talk about prompt, it always sits inside the M part of the model.SP: So, Google's secure AI framework is something that we can all look for and read. It's a thorough and interesting read, and I recommend to our audience to do that later. But you guys have just covered a wide variety of different things already when I asked the first question.So, if I'm a CIO or a CISO, what should I be evaluating? How do I evaluate the security of a new AI tool during the procurement phase when you have just given me all these different things to try to evaluate? Anton, why don't you start with that one?Watch the archived State of AI in Cybersecurity: Beyond the Hype live virtual event on-demand today.About the AuthorBrandon TaylorDigital Editorial Program ManagerBrandon Taylor enables successful delivery of sponsored content programs across Enterprise IT media brands: Data Center Knowledge, InformationWeek, ITPro Today and Network Computing.See more from Brandon TaylorNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeReportsMore Reports

John Edwards, Technology Journalist & AuthorNovember 22, 20245 Min ReadAlessandro Grandini via Alamy Stock PhotoAIrevolutionizes just about everything. Photography is no exception.AI is a powerful tool, says Conor Gay, vice president of business operations at MarathonFoto, a firm specializing in marathon race photography. When used appropriately, it can enhance great photography and create incredible designs, he explains in an email interview. "When used carelessly, it can cause confusion, misinformation, or just plain ruin a photo."AI helps photographers realize a creative vision, observes John McNeil, founder and CEO of John McNeil Studio, a San Francisco-area based creative firm. "It's an incredibly powerful tool, helping even less-than-professional photographers create more professional images," he notes in an online interview. "Features such as exposure correction, auto enhance, and auto skin tone, allow just about anyone to take great pictures."Johnny Wolf, founder and lead photographer at Johnny Wolf Studio, a New York-based corporate photography studio, says that AI allows him to explore complex concepts in pre-production and create realistic mockups for client approval, all without even having to touch a camera. "It gives me the ability to quickly test and iterate on ideas without having to invest time and resources," he explains via email. "This results in a more focused discovery phase with clients and leads to fewer revisions during the editing process."Related:Efficiency and QualityAI tools enable greater efficiency and higher quality when capturing images, automatically detecting subjects, optimizing an image at the moment it's taken, says Chris Zacharias, founder and CEO of visual image studio Imgix. AI tools can identify subjects and objects within an image to allow greater precision in editing," he notes in an email interview. "We can remove unwanted elements or introduce new ones into a photograph in pursuit of a creative vision."Wolf says that AI's greatest impact has been automating the mundane. "Basic tasks, like whitening a subject's teeth, or cloning-out distracting background elements, used to involve a time-consuming masking process, which can now be done with one click," he explains. "With AI handling the drudgery of post-production, I'm free to dedicate more time and energy into creative exploration, improving my craft and delivering a more personalized and impactful final product."AI has allowed us to identify images faster and more accurately than ever before, Gay says. "In the past two years, we've been able to get more images into runners' galleries, typically within 24 hours of their finish," he notes. "AI has also allowed us to capture more unique shots and angles."Related:Gay adds that AI can also capture relevant photo data that can be used by race partners and sponsors. "We're now able to identify sponsor-branding that appears in our photos, and even capture data around apparel and footwear." The technology is also used to enhance images. "We see different weather and lighting conditions throughout the day," he notes. "AI allows us to enhance these images to their highest quality."AI's power, control, flexibility, and possibilities are absolutely incredible, McNeil states. "Photoshop was a game changer 30 years ago, and in less than three years, AI makes things like histograms and layers seem positively quaint."The DownsideAI's ethical implications are significant, and will require discussion, consideration, and action by a wide range of stakeholders and organizations, Zacharias says. "There's much to consider, and the impacts are already being felt."Maintaining authenticity is a top concern, Gay says. "Especially in our industry, runners work tirelessly to complete their races," he notes. "The idea of someone being able to create a fake finish line moment with AI discredits the hard work each athlete puts into their race." Gay says his goal is to document runners' journeys on race day and to be as accurate as possible.Related:McNeil worries that there may now be too much reliance on AI. "The term 'well fix it in post' used to be a lazy joke people would make on set," he says. "Today, it's literally the process." Yet such an attitude can lead to images that are poorly crafted, uninventive, and looking like they were generated by AI. "Ultimately, as creative people and artists, we need to be more critical about the work we're putting into the world."While photo manipulation is nothing new, AI's ability to instantly generate photography that's indistinguishable from reality has led to a frightening inflection point, Wolf warns. "Anyone with an agenda and a web browser can now create and disseminate AI-generated propaganda as a real-time response to events," he explains. "If society can no longer trust photos as evidence of truth, we'll retreat further into our echo chambers and consume content that has been generated to reinforce our views."Looking ForwardArtists have always adapted and leveraged new tools and technologies to create novel forms of self-expression, Zacharias says. "The coming years will see a lot of discussion about what is real or authentic," he notes. "At the end of the day, AI is and will continue to be a tool, and it is we humans who will define what the soul of the medium is."About the AuthorJohn EdwardsTechnology Journalist & AuthorJohn Edwards is a veteran business technology journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous business and technology publications, including Computerworld, CFO Magazine, IBM Data Management Magazine, RFID Journal, and Electronic Design. He has also written columns for The Economist's Business Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Communications Direct. John has authored several books on business technology topics. His work began appearing online as early as 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he wrote daily news and feature articles for both the CompuServe and Prodigy online services. His "Behind the Screens" commentaries made him the world's first known professional blogger.See more from John EdwardsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeReportsMore Reports