AI images posted to Truth Social bore the watermark of a tiny Texas non-profit looking to bankroll X users When Donald Trump shared a slew of AI-generated images this week that falsely depicted Taylor Swift and her fans endorsing his campaign for president, the former US president was amplifying the work of a murky non-profit with aspirations to bankroll rightwing media influencers and a history of spreading misinformation. Several of the images Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, which showed digitally rendered young women in “Swifties for Trump” T-shirts, were the products of the John Milton Freedom Foundation. Launched last year, the Texas-based non-profit organization frames itself as a press freedom group with the goal of “empowering independent journalists” and “fortifying the bedrock of democracy”. Continue reading...

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AI company bans accounts and says operation did not appear to have meaningful audience engagement OpenAI said on Friday it had taken down accounts of an Iranian group for using its ChatGPT chatbot to generate content meant for influencing the US presidential election and other issues. The operation, identified as Storm-2035, used ChatGPT to generate content focused on topics such as commentary on the candidates on both sides in the US elections, the conflict in Gaza and Israel’s presence at the Olympic Games and then shared it via social media accounts and websites, Open AI said. Continue reading...

Harris’s track record, and time as California senator and AG, has tech leaders wondering if she’d have a friendlier approach to the industry About 700 wealthy Democratic supporters packed into San Francisco’s Fairmont hotel on Sunday to see Kamala Harris in her first return to the city since launching her campaign for president. Among the crowd at the fundraiser, where the cheapest tickets cost $3,300 and went up to $500,000, was a mixture of tech billionaires, executives and Silicon Valley venture capitalists who have quickly embraced the vice-president in her bid for the White House. The event, which raised more than $12m, was the latest in the Harris campaign’s outreach to tech Democrats and an extension of a relationship with Silicon Valley elites that goes back more than a decade. Continue reading...

Musk blames cyber-attack as conversation is delayed, resembling glitchy launch of Ron DeSantis’s campaign As a high-profile conversation between Donald Trump and Elon Musk was about to begin, users of X, formerly Twitter, were confronted with the message: “This Space is not available.” Spaces, X’s livestreaming audio feature, was the chosen forum for the dialogue, but it wasn’t working. Clicking on the link to the broadcast, hosted by Trump’s dormant @RealDonaldTrump account, froze the site and rendered it unusable. Tweeters said they couldn’t dial in; some said their browsers had crashed. Continue reading...

The X owner, talking to Trump Monday, has cast doubt on mail ballots and claims there’s rampant non-citizen voting When Elon Musk took over as owner of Twitter, researchers and elections officials feared a rampant spread of misinformation that would lead to threats and harassment and undermine democracy. Their fears came true – and Musk himself has emerged as one of its main drivers. Continue reading...

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X’s Grok AI chatbot falsely told users ‘ballot deadline has passed for several states’ Five secretaries of state plan to send a letter to Elon Musk calling on the billionaire owner of X to make changes to the social media platform’s Grok AI chatbot after it gave users misinformation about Kamala Harris appearing on the 2024 White House ballot in certain states. Grok told users that the ballots were “locked and loaded” and that “the ballot deadline has passed for several states”. Continue reading...

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