Mar 22
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited Zegler to be a presenter at the Oscars after word got around that she didn’t get a ticket.
Mar 22
You’re probably more than a little tired of video meetings at this (hopefully late) stage of the pandemic, but Zoom thinks it can inject some life into them. The company has introduced avatars that replace your head with a 3D character that mimics your facial expressions — effectively, it’s Apple’s Animoji for virtual offices and classrooms. Only animals like cats, dogs and foxes are available for now, but Zoom is teasing more avatars in the future.
You’ll need Zoom 5.10.0 or later on iOS, Mac and Windows devices. The company stressed that this doesn’t use facial recognition. The software is just looking for the presence of a face, not yours in particular.
It won’t be surprising if the novelty wears out quickly, as it has for Animoji and other digital stand-ins. However, Zoom suggests avatars could be practical in some cases. Avatars let you avoid showing your real face on camera without removing all facial expressions, the company said. This might also be useful for teachers and pediatric doctors wanting to lift the moods of children. If nothing else, they could provide some much-needed silliness in the middle of a dull business seminar.
Mar 22
This Android Malware Promised Cartoon Filters – Then Stole Hundreds Of Thousands Of Facebook Logins
Posted in: Today's ChiliMany users’ personal information was compromised by the nefarious malware app.
Mar 22
The hacker group that claimed responsibility for a number of recent security breaches, including those targeting Samsung and NVIDIA, is apparently at it again.
Mar 22
Five years ago this month, news broke that Disney was looking to continue the Tron franchise with actor Jared Leto. Since then though, not much has happened. A few quotes possibly mentioning a script, a working title, but nothing set in stone. It would be easy to assume the project has left the Grid entirely. However,…
Mar 22
Psaki will not be traveling to Europe with President Joe Biden as planned due to her positive test.
Mar 22
YouTube’s existing policies are not enough to discourage creators from posting “problematic” content. That’s one of the findings of new research from Cornell Tech on how YouTubers make money.
YouTube has long used the threat of demonetization to encourage creators to follow its rules. Creators who violate its policies or who veer into so-called borderline content — videos that don’t outright break the rules but come close enough the company stops recommending them — are at risk of losing access to monetization features.
But researchers at Cornell and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne found that demonetization may not always have the intended effect. That’s because it’s still exceedingly easy for creators who have been demonetized to direct viewers to other money-making platforms like Patreon.
Moreover, they found that YouTubers who traffic in extreme and “problematic” content are significantly more likely to employ “alternative monetization” sources than their peers. According to their findings, 61 percent of “fringe channels” used an alternative monetization source, compared with just 18 percent of channels overall.
At the same time, the researchers found that demonetizing a channel tends to result in creators producing more content — not less. And demonetization may even result in more divisive and extreme content because they are now trying to appeal to “committed audiences” rather than the general YouTube viewer.
“On the one hand, weakening the link between exposure and earnings may allow higher-quality content to be produced,” they write in the paper. “On the other, it may also encourage creators to embrace divisive rhetoric … Even if videos are demonetized by YouTube for breaching their policy, it could be that, due to alternative monetization strategies, creators still have substantial financial incentives to create content espousing false, hateful, and divisive narratives.”
The researchers say that platforms like Patreon, as well as lesser-known sites like SubscribeStar, need more scrutiny as they are becoming more popular across YouTube, not just with “problematic” streamers.
The issue of how to handle borderline content, and how far YouTube should go in discouraging it isn’t a new issue. Last month, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mahon said the company was wrestling with whether to take more aggressive steps to prevent problematic YouTube content from going viral on other platforms. One idea under consideration, he said, would be to “break” sharing on these videos so they can’t spread as easily.
Mar 22
At the start of the year, Angela Hession, Twitch’s vice-president of Trust and Safety, promised the company would implement an improved reporting and appeals process, and now it’s doing exactly that. Starting next week, the company will begin rolling out an updated reporting tool it says features a more intuitive design for flagging bad behavior. Among other enhancements, it includes new search functionality that Twitch says will make it easier to specify the exact reason you want to report someone. It will now also include menus tailored to the content you’re watching.
Twitch
The company anticipates it will take a few months to roll out its new reporting tool to all Twitch users. “We know that sounds like a while,” said Twitch. “But the reporting tool touches every single Twitch user across the globe, so we’re taking a thoughtful approach to make sure it all goes safely and smoothly for our global community.” The updated tool will be first available through Twitch’s web client, with it slated to come to its mobile app at a later date.
Twitch is also launching a new appeals portal, and that’s available to use starting today. The tool features some behind-the-scenes upgrades Twitch promises will allow its Trust and Safety team to more quickly work through appeals. As a Twitch user, the company says the updated portal will provide visibility into what enforcement actions you can appeal, as well as to see the status and outcome of any ongoing and previous requests.
Twitch
Taken together, Twitch says today’s updates will allow it to more quickly and consistently enforce its safety policies. At the same time, the company believes they will provide it with better insights into emerging patterns of behavior on its platform. Twitch doesn’t mention the events of 2021 in its latest blog post, but last year was a challenging one for the company. The summer’s hate raids left many streamers with the feeling that they weren’t safe on the platform. Twitch promised to do better and the new tools it’s introducing today represent an important milestone in those efforts.
Mar 22
After it was acquired by Romano Artioli, Bugatti Automobili S.p.A. created just one vehicle. It was a car that effectively bankrupted the brand in short order.
Mar 22
The GPU designer has ambitious plans to map roads for the sake of autonomous vehicles.
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