The Wikimedia Foundation is building new tools that it hopes will help Wikipedia editors stay anonymous in part to avoid harassment and legal threats as Elon Musk and the Heritage Foundation ramp up their attacks on people who edit Wikipedia. Some of the tactics have been pioneered by Wikimedia in countries with authoritarian governments and where editing Wikipedia is illegal or extremely dangerous. Last month, Forward obtained a document created by the Heritage Foundation called Wikipedia Editor Targeting, which set a goal to identify and target Wikipedia editors abusing their position by analyzing text patterns, usernames, and technical data through data breach analysis, fingerprinting, HUMINT (human intelligence), and technical targeting.The document discusses creating sock puppet accounts to reveal patterns and provoke reactions, discusses trying to track users geolocation, searching through hacked datasets for username reuse, and using Pimeyes, a facial recognition software, to learn the real identities of Wikipedia editors. Molly White of Citation Needed has an extensive rundown on Elon Musks crusade against Wikipedia, and both Slate and The Atlantic have written about the rights war on Wikipedia in recent days.In a series of calls and letters to the Wikimedia community over the last two weeks, Wikimedia executives have told editors that they are trying to figure out how to keep their users safe in an increasingly hostile political environment. Im keeping an eye on the rising noise of criticism from Elon Musk and others and I think thats something we need to grapple with, Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a meeting on January 30.Were seeing an increase in threats, both regulation and litigation across the world, Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander told community members during the same January 30 meeting. Were all just trying to understand what is happening not only in the United States [but across the world], so the best we can do is monitor, check-in on staff, and try to understand whats needed thats the most honest answer I can give you to an impossible set of questions were all grappling with on a daily basis.Wikimedia lawyers told the community that the project is trying to change how editing Wikipedia for logged-out accounts works. Currently, if a user edits an article while not logged in, their IP address will show publicly, which can provide information to someone looking to file a defamation or libel lawsuit. Wikimedia is launching a temporary accounts program which will give editors who are not logged in a temporary username rather than showing an IP address. Its a way of ensuring that for logged-out users, their IP address isnt visible to everyone asunder but rather available only to people who are really engaged in anti-vandalism, Phil Bradley-Schmieg, a Wikimedia lawyer, said.Bradley-Schmieg also suggested that Wikimedias human rights team, which is focused on helping users stay safe, particularly in countries where freedom of speech and expression is under attack on a regular basis, may need to play a larger role across the entire project.Jacob Rogers, another Wikimedia lawyer, said during a separate meeting on January 30 that some Wikimedia projects in non-English languages have a feature where users are allowed to create and register a sock-puppet account (a dummy username, basically) to edit controversial articles and to register that account with administrators.A number of the different language projects have the option to make legitimate sock puppet accounts if youre going to work on something you know is going to be controversial, you can make a sock puppet and register it with admins on that project so its more obscure, kept separate from the rest of your life, Rogers said.Both Rogers and Bradley-Schmieg said that Wikimedia has worked to limit the amount of data that the foundation has on any given user. IP addresses associated with edits are deleted or anonymized after 90 days, for example.The foundation has very little data about most users, so if somebody is stepping up their harassment and coming to the foundation, we generally dont really know anything about users in most cases and theres not a lot they can get from us, Rogers said. In the first six months of 2024, the last period for which data is available, Wikimedia received 26 formal requests for information on users; it provided info in two cases. Six of those requests came from the United States, the most of any jurisdiction.Wikimedia has also created a legal defense program that will in some cases fund the defense of Wikipedia editors who are attacked through the legal system as long as that editor or staffer was contributing to a Wikimedia project in good faith, Rogers said. Wikimedia has recently fought cases in both India and Germany.While Musks and the Heritage Foundations attacks on Wikipedia have escalated in recent days, these general trends are not new, and they were outlined as a threat in the foundations 2024 annual plan, which states the following:Human rights threats are growing. Physical and legal threats against volunteers and staff who fight disinformation continue to grow. Accusations of bias and inaction by those whose preferred narratives do not prevail on Wikipedia may be encouraged and amplified by purveyors of disinformation, the foundation wrote in an update to users. Law is weaponized in important jurisdictions. Bad-faith lawsuits, by people who dont like the verified information appearing on Wikipedia pages, are succeeding in some European countries. Some incumbent leaders are abusing their powers to silence and intimidate political opponents.Iskander said in the meeting that the foundation is going to consider the safety of Wikipedians for its in-person events, such as Wikimania, an annual conference and party.Were paying very close attention trying to understand what the impacts might be and ensure those might be considered in any decisions we make. I will remind folks part of our processes in any event related to community gatherings is to do a risk assessment for community conferences for Wikimania, she said. Its an imperfect and imprecise exercise but theres a real intentionality around being thoughtful about the places that were selecting to ask people to gather and manage within our control.It is not clear whether any of these steps will be sufficient, or whether any of them are going to make Wikipedia more resilient to right-wing attacks. What makes Wikipedia so strong is the fact that it has a distributed global base of dedicated volunteer editors, and a governance structure that is not very easy to infiltrate. Wikimedias decentralized power base makes it resistant to but not invulnerable from takeover attempts.During one of the meetings, Rogers was asked if Wikimedia would consider moving its headquarters out of the United States because of the political situation here. Rogers said moving would probably not do very much because the projects would remain accessible in the United States and many things would still be subject to US law even if the foundation moved its headquarters to a different jurisdiction.I think a move would be extremely expensive and cost something in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, he said. I see that as one of the most significant, expensive, and extreme possible options. You would only do that if it was like, the only solution to a major problem where doing that would make sense. The Wikimedia Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. The Heritage Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.Jason is a cofounder of 404 Media. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Motherboard. He loves the Freedom of Information Act and surfing.More from Jason Koebler

On the RoadMeet the crew documenting the bars, pizza parlors, and back rooms that make up the American fighting game sceneLocals Unknown is a new series covering the small gatherings that form the foundational scenes for Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and beyond.Image credit: VG247 Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Feb. 11, 2025 For decades, video games have been a social venture for many. This has its roots in the arcade era, before home consoles and LED-laden gaming PCs led the gaming enthusiasts away from the outside world and into the comfort of their own homes. These social spaces are still around in LANs, gaming cafes, and tournaments, but have shrunk far from their relevance in the hearts of the many. You used to meet Greg face to face playing Counter Strike Source or Street Fighter 2 out on the town. Now, Greg's face has been replaced with a Clannad profile picture on Discord. Times have changed.But there are still those who venture out for a taste of some real socialization. A select few for whom gaming isn't as sweet unless shared with likeminded folks within walking or driving distance. While these digital churches are slowly dropping off, a passionate few have decided to document such places through the lens of grassroots fighting game tournaments in a new video series: Locals Unknown. Their first stop, the basement of a college town pizza parlor.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. I love this idea, and as such sat down with two of the people involved in the project. Victeemo, a professional fighting game player, and Siam who owns the esports team Kanme Esports. Together, with additional help from Tekken player and King main Sol Naciente, the small crew has taken it upon themselves to document local scenes and spaces they come across in their travels. It's very classic YouTube, a ragtag blend of old internet vlogging with T.V travel documentaries. The project started at the start of Victeemo's time as a player represented by Kanme, as both he and Siam decided some sort of creative content would make for a good addition to the usual output of just showing up to events while repping the brand.Siam: "When talking with Victeemo, we were both very passionate about where we started in the fighting game community, which was our local scene. Local scenes are very important places! They're starting points for people who are interested in the games, and some of them are in very different locations."Victeemo: "At the end of the Tekken World Tour season 1 I was looking around for sponsors, and I came across Kanme. It was funny, we both discovered Locals Unknown together [...] We brainstormed a little bit, and then Sian went 'what if we send you around to locals, and you document locals?' I thought that was a great idea, and something I wanted to touch on.""I'm primarily first a competitor, and have been that since the beginning of Tekken 7, but my second priority is community. It's really exciting and I'm happy to be doing this, and that it caught so many eyes." One thing I love about the series so far is the build up to the event, which shows everything getting set up, the drive to the local, and more. | Image credit: Kanme EsportsVicteemo, who had never used a video camera prior to Locals Unknown, is now going around and recording locals at their best. He's backed up by Siam and Sol_Naciente, who take the time to edit it back home. No big-corporate finance, just a bit of passion for the community and a can-do attitude.The pair shared a lot in common, as you'd expect. But they also shared a loss familiar with many competitors in the fighting game space. Their locals, the ones they grew up in, improved within, and found friendships at, had closed. Xanadu Games, a Maryland institution for fighting game players, held its final event in December 2024. Both Siam and Victeemo were there to see it off.Victeemo: "We had a local called Xanadu, it was inside this very small building in a business centre right outside Baltimore city. When the game came out, we stuffed it with 50 people for monthly locals where you could barely breath (laugh). That I think gave me the drive to compete at a higher level, but also gave me that love for the community aspect."Siam: "A lot of places have started to shut down. Even recently, one of the venues we used to go to has gone out of business - Xanadu Games. Me and Victeemo went to that place, and we were at the closing of the final event there. Seeing that, we wanted to put a microscope on the venues that still do exist." The crowd energetic at Xanadu's final event. | Image credit: @cheautomataThis was the kindling for the series itself, but it's not only due to Xanadu. Local scenes where games like Street Fighter, Tekken, and more have been played for years have been steadily shutting down over the past few years, replaced with larger but scarcer annual events or nothing at all. It is, in the minds of both Siam and Victeemo, a rough time for the fighting game local.Siam: I would say it's a very tough time (for local scenes). The convenience of online is there, especially post-2020. Before 2020 there were still readily available places. But after 2020 online tournaments became the go-to [activity]. Places that we could go to started going out of business, as they weren't getting the same number of people as they were prior. So right now, it's on the decline."Victeemo: "There are a lot of locals right now closing their doors, so to be able to shine a light on these locals that try to get people out there to experience the community, make new friends and relationships, is really important in comparison to the online scene right now."So why do all this? What's so important about these spaces that warrant a video series, and an article highlighting it. Well, in the mind of the duo, it's about paying back to the locals they came up in, and shining a spotlight on the environment that meant so much to them. You just don't get this sort of thing sat at home. It's what it's all about. | Image credit: KanmeVicteemo: "My partner and I, we've been together going on seven years now, and it's because we met through the fighting game community at Xanadu. I've built life-long friendships because of the fighting game community, and it's something I wouldn't trade the world for."Siam: "I think in a way it's about giving back. I think those playing these games should tell the story of where they began. I think it's a very down to the level type of story. A lot of these players, especially as their star rises, people start to focus on and idolize them. It's good it down to 'hey I'm a player too, I started somewhere like you did' and it all goes back to starting at their local scene.""I'm hoping to tell more of the human side, outside of the building and what everyone plays. There are people there, people who help build the community together."The first episode of Locals Unknown can be found on the Kanme channel here, and the next is currently in production. If you like what these guys are doing, send them some love. It's important to champion parts of the wider video game culture, especially portions that may have an end date.

In BriefPosted:2:09 PM PST February 11, 2025Image Credits:Maxwell Zeff/Apple MapsApple Maps plans to show Gulf of America, following GoogleApple Maps will soon rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, following similar changes made by Google this week, in order to comply with U.S. President Donald Trumps executive order that officially changed the name.U.S.-based Apple users may see the Gulf of America as soon as Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, and the company will soon roll out the name to users in other countries.Google Maps users around the world already see the split name, Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) when viewing the body of water, whereas Mexican and American users see their countrys respective names.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent a letter to Google asking the company to reconsider renaming the gulf. However, Apple and Google seem to be following orders from the sitting U.S. President.Topics

ChatGPT, OpenAIs chatbot platform, may not be as power-hungry as once assumed. But its appetite largely depends on how ChatGPT is being used, and the AI models that are answering the queries, according to a new study.A recent analysis by Epoch AI, a nonprofit AI research institute, attempted to calculate how much energy a typical ChatGPT query consumes. A commonly-cited stat is that ChatGPT requires around 3 watt-hours of power to answer a single question, or 10 times as much as a Google search. Epoch believes thats an overestimate.Using OpenAIs latest default model for ChatGPT, GPT-4o, as a reference, Epoch found the average ChatGPT query consumes around 0.3 watt-hours less than many household appliances.The energy use is really not a big deal compared to using normal appliances or heating or cooling your home, or driving a car, Joshua You, the data analyst at Epoch who conducted the analysis, told TechCrunch.AIs energy usage and its environmental impact, broadly speaking is the subject of contentious debate as AI companies look to rapidly expand their infrastructure footprints. Just last week, a group of over 100 organizationspublished an open lettercalling on the AI industry and regulators to ensure that new AI data centers dont deplete natural resources and force utilities to rely on non-renewable sources of energy.You told TechCrunch his analysis was spurred by what he characterized as outdated previous research. You pointed out, for example, that the author of the report that arrived at the 3-watt-hours estimate assumed OpenAI used older, less efficient chips to run its models.Image Credits:Epoch AIIve seen a lot of public discourse that correctly recognized that AI was going to consume a lot of energy in the coming years, but didnt really accurately describe the energy that was going to AI today, You said. Also, some of my colleagues noticed that the most widely-reported estimate of 3watt-hours per query was based on fairlyold research, and based on some napkin math seemed to be too high.Granted, Epochs 0.3 watt-hours figure is an approximation, as well; OpenAI hasnt published the details needed to make a precise calculation. The analysis also doesnt consider the additional energy costs incurred by ChatGPT features like image generation, or input processing. You acknowledged that long input ChatGPT queries queries with long files attached, for instance likely consume more electricity upfront than a typical question.You said he does expect baseline ChatGPT power consumption to rise, however.[The] AI will get more advanced, training this AI will probably require much more energy, and this future AI may be used much more intensely handling much more tasks, and more complex tasks, than how people use ChatGPT today, You said.While there have been remarkable breakthroughs in AI efficiency in recent months, the scale at which AI is being deployed is expected to drive enormous, power-hungry infrastructure expansion. In the next two years, AI data centers may need close to all of Californias 2022 power capacity (68 GW),according to a Rand report. By 2030, training a frontier model could demand power output equivalent to that of eight nuclear reactors (8 GW), the report predicted.ChatGPT alone reaches an enormous and expanding number of people, making its server demands similarly massive. OpenAI, along with several investment partners, plans to spend billions of dollars on new AI data center projects over the next few years.OpenAIs attention along with the rest of the AI industrys is also shifting to so-called reasoning models, which are generally more capable in terms of the tasks they can accomplish, but require more computing to run. As opposed to models like GPT-4o, which respond to queries nearly instantaneously, reasoning models think for seconds to minutes before answering, a process that sucks up more computing and thus power.Reasoning models will increasingly take on tasks that older models cant, and generate more [data] to do so, and both require more data centers, You said. OpenAI has begun to release more power-efficient reasoning models like o3-mini. But it seems unlikely, at least at this juncture, the efficiency gains will offset the increased power demands from reasoning models thinking process and growing AI usage around the world.You suggested that people worried about their AI energy footprint use apps such as ChatGPT infrequently, or select models that minimize the computing necessary to the extent thats realistic.You could try using smaller AI models like [OpenAIs] GPT-4o-mini, You said, and sparingly use them in a way that requires processing or generating a ton of data.

Hi all, really hoping some one might be able to help me. Im trying to create an ocean ribbon spray effect coming of a boat foil, but struggling with the spawning side of things in Niagara. Just to give you the low down on what Ive put together so far - I have used someBlueprint to scan a mesh cross section and generated uniformly distributed points around the shape, then stored the positions and normals of this points in a render target. Ive then sampled the render target to create a 2D texture to store the positions and normals. Then created a Niagara system Data Tracker Emitter to sample the texture and extract the positions and normals and convert them to world space locations, and gather water height. When I turn on the debug I can see this working fine and can spawn splashes using a PAR to a separate emitter at each point as it intersects the water. Next I need to generate the water spray ribbon effect so Ive then created a second ribbon water spray emitter (on GPU) and added a module Particle Attribute Reader to the emitter spawn section, to read from the Data Tracker Emitter. This is where I have become a little stuck, I cant seem to find a way to get the ribbon water spray emitter to spawn a ribbon at each position as it intersects the water. Just to give you some more visual context - Im trying to achieve ocean spray spawning along the leading edge of a hydro foil under a boat. The spray should spawn as the foil goes up and down in the water (I am also sampling wave height and depth). Here are some images which might help show what Im trying to achieve. Hopefully you can see from the first image that the ribbon only spawns once in one place, it should be spawning at every position there is a little white boundary box along the leading edge of the T foil mesh any help very much appreciated. 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic

For two days in April, art aficionados will gather in Marfa, Texas, to discuss more than 100 untitled works by the late Donald Judd. Part I of the symposiumArt in Context: Art, Architecture, and the Middle Landscapeis organized by the Chinati Foundation and Rice School of Architecture. Art in Context will take place between April 46. It will explore the relationship between art, architecture, and land at Chinati. The symposium will look at the artillery sheds where Judds 100 works, realized in mill aluminum, were installed as well as the landscapes beyond. Participants include academics, architects, landscape architects, artists, engineers, researchers, and others.The landscape will also be a topic of discussion. (Alex Marks)The symposium is broken into two parts. Its co-organized by Stephen Martin, Chinati Foundations director of preservation and planning; Chinati Foundation director Caitlin Murray; and Rice School of Architecture associate professor Troy Schaum.Below are the dates and speakers for Part I.Each of the 100 works has the same outer dimensions, however, their interiors differ from one another. (Alex Marks)Friday, April 4Murray, Chinati Foundations director, will give opening words to kick off Art in Context on Friday, April 4. Spanish architect Carme Pigem, of the Pritzker Prizewinning architecture firm RCR Arquitectes, will be that days keynote speaker. Saturday, April 5On April 5, Rice professor Shantel Blakely, curator Erica Cooke, and UT Austin professor Richard Shiff will convene for a presentation and panel discussion moderated by critic Julian Rose. That day, there will also be a separate presentation and panel discussion by landscape architect Rosetta Elkin and Rice professor Fabiola Lpez-Durn, moderated by Maggie Tsang, a fellow landscape architect. That days keynote speakers will be Tatiana Bilbao and Alberto Kalach, two Mexico Citybased architects.Accompanying events on April 5 will include an open viewing of Judds 100 untitled artworks in mill aluminum. There will also be archival drawings and photographs of the former artillery sheds which housed the works on view.Digital Invite for Art in Context (Courtesy Chinati Foundation and RSA)Sunday, April 6On day three, artist Larry Bell will join author Randy Kennedy in conversation. There will be a presentation and panel discussion with TYLins Pat Arnett, engineers Erik Olsen and James Parker, and Maggie Tsang, moderated by Stephen Martin and Troy Schaum.Jim Martinez will give a landscape walking tour around the artillery sheds that day, and Troy Schaum and RSA dean Igor Marjanovi will deliver closing remarks.Tickets for April programs in Marfa are now available.Part II of the symposium will take place in Houston. It will run from November 1415.

The cake-stuffed Omaha opossum was taken in by the Nebraska Wildlife Rehab rescue group.Nebraska Wildlife RehabSometimes, your eyes are bigger than your stomach. Thats what happened to a very relatable opossum in Omaha, Nebraska after it stuffed itself on a Costco chocolate cake. It turns out the furry cake queens overindulgence may have also saved her life. Wildlife doctors discovered she was suffering from unrelated lead toxicity and are now treating her for both the cake feast and the lead.Real estate agent Kim Doggett and her family discovered the opossum on their deck furniture. The family ran out of space to store a Costco chocolate mousse cake. I always have a house full and we cook a lot and when you run out of room in the fridge you just sit it on the table outside in the winter, Doggett says over a Facebook chat.Doggetts son went to put some homemade peanut butter balls outside to set up and found the opossum with the mostly eaten cake. Chocolate-y footprints pointed to the thievery. The family tried to move the animal along but Doggets says it just didnt look right. We googled chocolate with possums because I know with dogs its poisonous and thought this would not be good for this little girl.Opossums and chocolateKim Doggett and her familiy discovered this opossum after it chowed down on a Costco chocolate cake ... [+] stored outside.Kim DoggettWildlife rescue organization Nebraska Wildlife Rehab took charge of the cat-sized mammal after it was taken in by the Nebraska Humane Society. We assume that chocolate would be toxic to opossums and other wildlife, but we dont know of any published studies confirming that, says executive director Laura Stastny over email. The opossum received activated charcoal and fluids on intake and got a full health checkup, including X-rays and bloodwork.MORE FOR YOUDoctors Allison Carter and Maddie Chilcote at the Baldwin Wildlife Center & Hubbard Family Wildlife Hospital treated the overstuffed opossum. Opossum was brought in due to having eaten an entire Costco chocolate cake, an intake note read. The marsupial was panting, but mobile and alert. Doggett notes the opossum got through more than half the cake, but didnt quite make it through the entire cake.The rehab shared the opposums story on Facebook on Feb. 10, saying she was a little cranky about our strict zero chocolate policy.Lead toxicity in opossumsThis overstuffed opossum actually got lucky when rescuers discovered it had unrelated lead toxicity.Kim DoggettThe opossum is expected to recover from the sweet repast, but the checkup revealed a serious health problemlead toxicity. This is a common issue in wildlife, with different causes for different species, and it will take several weeks of treatment and supportive care to chelate the lead from her body, says Stastny. Just as lead is bad for humans, its bad for all animals and can lead to death.While opossums sometimes get a bad rap for their pointy teeth and rat-like tails, theyre actually effective pest controllers with a taste for insects and a knack for chowing down on ticks. The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial in the United States. Marsupialslike kangaroos and koalascarry their young in pouches.The cake-filled opossums prognosis is good. The rescue expects shell be ready for release later in March. We release adult wildlife back to their home territories to give them the best chance of continued success, Stastny says.Doggett is looking forward to seeing the opossum around the neighborhood once the marsupial is feeling better. The family will take precautions with putting food outside in the future. Definitely no chocolate! says Doggett.

One billion hours of content from YouTube is viewed daily on TV sets in the U.S. (Photo by Jakub ... [+] Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)NurPhoto via Getty ImagesFrom instruction videos, short student films, vintage and new music videos, and clips from movies and TV it is all in one place: YouTube. What started a "dinner table idea" back in 2005 is now the largest video-sharing platform in the world. With more than 2.7 billion monthly active users, it is the most popular streaming app and remains the second-most-visited website in the world, after only Google.This April will mark the 20th anniversary of the first video being uploaded, but it was on February 14, 2005, that the company was founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim."In two decades, YouTube has transformed culture through video and built a thriving creative economy," wrote Neal Mohan, YouTube's CEO, in his annual letter to consumers on Tuesday. "Today's creators have moved from filming grainy videos of themselves on desktop computers to building studios and producing popular talk shows and feature-length films."Mohan added that users aren't just watching YouTube on computers or phones. The video-sharing service has moved to the living room, where more than one billion hours of content from the video-sharing service is viewed daily on TV sets in the U.S."According to Nielsen, YouTube has been #1 in streaming watch time in the U.S. for two years," Mohan added.MORE FOR YOUCultural Shifts ContinueYouTube has certainly come quite a way from its first official video, an 18-second clip titled "Me at the Zoo," which was uploaded by Karim. Just a year after its launch, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion."YouTube's impact continues as it celebrates its 20th anniversary," said technology industry analyst Susan Schreiner of C4 Trends."Unlike other platforms, it has become a significant part of American and global culture," she added. "When it burst onto the scene, it quickly became the fastest-growing site on the web, hosting over 65,000 new video uploads and delivering an average of 100 million video views per day within just a few months."YouTube arguably is an example of arriving at just the right time. A few years earlier, there might not have been enough Americans with broadband, which is necessary to support the streaming of its content. A few years later, something else might have evolved in its place, and we might not have seen the community of creators evolve."There was a lot of 'right things' that happened at the right time," said Scott Talan, assistant professor of public relations and strategic communication at American University. "YouTube came out just before the rise of the iPhone and smartphones, and that gave everyone the ability to shoot video without needing an expensive camera and editing tools."What Could Have BeenThe forgotten part of the story is that a video-sharing app for the type of content we now see wasn't the plan that began at the dinner party."The original idea was a video dating site, but that didn't work out," said Talan.That was certainly for the best, as the company's pivot paved the way for what we have today. Instead, it resulted in a platform that has led to a creator community like no other."YouTube was the first major platform that allowed for content creativity and sharing," said Schreiner. "In retrospect, while the content was mundane, like someone playing an instrument, doing shtick comedy or just eating a fun meal the concept of creating and then being able to share a video was earth-shattering."The platform also laid the foundation for generations of content creators and monetization models."For many artists, musicians, and others, it eliminated the middleman allowing them to connect directly with consumers," added Schreiner. "Fast forward to 2025, and while there are more creators, more channels, more content, and evolving rules, YouTube endures."A Mirror Of Real LifeTalan added that much of YouTube's success is that "nothing mirrors real life like video," and it is no surprise that Google would want in on it, acquiring the company in 2006.To say that there is now something for everyone isn't an overstatement by any stretch of the imagination."There is so much there between education, entertainment, and information. The videos on how to change a tire, cook a meal or something else is so much better than a manual that you can't read without a magnifying glass," said Talan. "We've also seen it come full circle, where the most popular place to listen to podcasts is YouTube, showing how much it has evolved."That evolution isn't likely to end anytime soon."Today, YouTubers aren't just making videos; they're researching their audience, defining their niche, and building their brand," Schreiner continued. "Despite TikTok and Reels, YouTube's longevity and dynamism stems from evolving viewer interests and technological advancements as well as its responsiveness and adaptability to shifting preferences and trends."

By Billy Perrigo/ParisFebruary 11, 2025 4:35 PM ESTSafety concerns are out, optimism is in: that was the takeaway from a major artificial intelligence summit in Paris this week, as leaders from the U.S., France, and beyond threw their weight behind the AI industry.Although there were divisions between major nationsthe U.S. and the U.K. did not sign a final statement endorsed by 60 nations calling for an inclusive and open AI sectorthe focus of the two-day meeting was markedly different from the last such gathering. Last year, in Seoul, the emphasis was on defining red-lines for the AI industry. The concern: that the technology, although holding great promise, also had the potential for great harm.But that was then. The final statement made no mention of significant AI risks nor attempts to mitigate them, while in a speech on Tuesday, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said: Im not here this morning to talk about AI safety, which was the title of the conference a couple of years ago. Im here to talk about AI opportunity.The French leader and summit host, Emmanuel Macron, also trumpeted a decidedly pro-business messageunderlining just how eager nations around the world are to gain an edge in the development of new AI systems.Once upon a time in BletchleyThe emphasis on boosting the AI sector and putting aside safety concerns was a far cry from the first ever global summit on AI held at Bletchley Park in the U.K. in 2023. Called the AI Safety Summitthe French meeting in contrast was called the AI Action Summitits express goal was to thrash out a way to mitigate the risks posed by developments in the technology.The second global gathering, in Seoul in 2024, built on this foundation, with leaders securing voluntary safety commitments from leading AI players such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and their counterparts in China, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. The 2025 summit in Paris, governments and AI companies agreed at the time, would be the place to define red-lines for AI: risk thresholds that would require mitigations at the international level.Paris, however, went the other way. I think this was a real belly-flop, says Max Tegmark, an MIT professor and the president of the Future of Life Institute, a non-profit focused on mitigating AI risks. It almost felt like they were trying to undo Bletchley.Anthropic, an AI company focused on safety, called the event a missed opportunity.The U.K., which hosted the first AI summit, said it had declined to sign the Paris declaration because of a lack of substance. We felt the declaration didn't provide enough practical clarity on global governance, nor sufficiently address harder questions around national security and the challenge AI poses to it, said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.Racing for an edgeThe shift comes against the backdrop of intensifying developments in AI. In the month or so before the 2025 Summit, OpenAI released an agent model that can perform research tasks at roughly the level of a competent graduate student.Safety researchers, meanwhile, showed for the first time that the latest generation of AI models can try to deceive their creators, and copy themselves, in an attempt to avoid modification. Many independent AI scientists now agree with the projections of the tech companies themselves: that super-human level AI may be developed within the next five yearswith potentially catastrophic effects if unsolved questions in safety research arent addressed.Yet such worries were pushed to the back burner as the U.S., in particular, made a forceful argument against moves to regulate the sector, with Vance saying that the Trump Administration cannot and will not accept foreign governments tightening the screws on U.S. tech companies.He also strongly criticized European regulations. The E.U. has the worlds most comprehensive AI law, called the AI Act, plus other laws such as the Digital Services Act, which Vance called out by name as being overly restrictive in its restrictions related to misinformation on social media.The new Vice President, who has a broad base of support among venture capitalists, also made clear that his political support for big tech companies did not extend to regulations that would raise barriers for new startups, thus hindering the development of innovative AI technologies.To restrict [AIs] development now would not only unfairly benefit incumbents in the space, it would mean paralysing one of the most promising technologies we have seen in generations, Vance said. When a massive incumbent comes to us asking for safety regulations, we ought to ask whether that safety regulation is for the benefit of our people, or whether its for the benefit of the incumbent.And in a clear sign that concerns about AI risks are out of favor in President Trumps Washington, he associated AI safety with a popular Republican talking point: the restriction of free speech by social media platforms trying to tackle harms like misinformation.With reporting by Tharin Pillay/Paris and Harry Booth/Paris

In a nutshell: Since last fall, Apple has released multiple critical security updates for its devices. The latest update addresses targeted attacks that can disable a security feature Apple first introduced for iPhones and iPads several years ago. The patch is also available for Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. After updating, users should check if Apple Intelligence is enabled. Users who haven't updated their iPhone or iPad firmware since late January should do so now. The iOS and iPadOS 18.3.1 update fixes an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability. The security update is also available for iPadOS 17.7.5, watchOS, macOS, and visionOS. The patch supports all devices going as far back as iPhone XS, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), 11-inch (1st generation), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad (7th generation), and iPad mini (5th generation).According to Apple's security support page, the flaw (CVE-2025-24200) enabled a sophisticated physical attack targeting specific individuals that could disable USB Restricted Mode. The company credits Bill Marczak of the University of Toronto's Munk School's Citizen Lab for the discovery.Apple introduced USB Restricted Mode in 2018 to protect against device cracking or other malicious hardware. It disables USB data transfers to iPhones and iPads if the devices haven't been unlocked in a week, allowing connections only for charging.A similar function, called "inactivity reboot," debuted with iOS 18.1 late last year. It causes devices to reboot after three days of inactivity, preventing thieves and law enforcement from cracking them. Apple also recently removed dozens of iOS apps found to contain malware that could read screenshots to steal cryptocurrency wallet info.There is one possible minor hitch with the update. Some users reported that macOS Sequoia version 15.3.1 re-enabled Apple Intelligence. Those affected saw the welcome screen after rebooting their devices. Users who disabled Apple Intelligence, Apple's built-in answer to ChatGPT, should check if the feature stayed disabled after installing the updates by navigating to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri. // Related StoriesApple Intelligence became opt-out with the OS security updates released in late January, including iOS and iPadOS 18.3, drawing complaints from users wary of GenAI. Cupertino's take on the technology allows users to receive summarized notifications, automatically rewrite text, and generate images. However, Apple disabled news summaries after criticism from the BBC over hallucinations.