AI

Japanese anime actor fights TikTok over AI voice cloning

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI

  • Tsuda is demanding TikTok remove a slew of videos narrated by a distinctively "deep" and "lustrous" voice that the 55-year-old says can only be his.
  • A high-profile Japanese anime voice actor has taken TikTok to court over videos he says feature an artificial intelligence clone of his "lustrous" baritone, with a verdict due on Wednesday.
  • Tsuda is demanding TikTok remove a slew of videos narrated by a distinctively "deep" and "lustrous" voice that the 55-year-old says can only be his.
A high-profile Japanese anime voice actor has taken TikTok to court over videos he says feature an artificial intelligence clone of his "lustrous" baritone, with a verdict due on Wednesday.
AI imitation is a growing concern among performers worldwide, and the threat has roiled Japan's storied animation industry, whose voice actors are sometimes worshipped as much as their characters by fans.
The lawsuit filed by Kenjiro Tsuda, known for his starring roles in mega-franchises including "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!", is believed to be the country's first seeking to defend an individual's vocal identity against AI-generated copies.
Tsuda is demanding TikTok remove a slew of videos narrated by a distinctively "deep" and "lustrous" voice that the 55-year-old says can only be his.
The platform however argues it is a "generic male voice" whose perceived similarity to Tsuda's is subjective at best, according to court records accessed by AFP.
An actor's voice "is the result of years of rigorous training and apprenticeship" to hone talent, Yuko Sasaki, executive director of the Japan Actors Union, told AFP.
"It's something we spend lots of time and money perfecting," said Sasaki, a fellow voice actor, adding that "we support Tsuda wholeheartedly".
The court should "acknowledge that ownership of a voice is a fundamental right", she said.
An anonymous account, whose picture resembled a "Jujutsu Kaisen" character dubbed by Tsuda, posted the videos in question.
They combined images and seemingly AI-generated speech about urban legends, occult phenomena and conspiracy theories.
The account at one point boasted more than 200,000 subscribers and would have brought in upwards of 500,000 yen ($3,200) in monthly revenue, the legal complaint argued.

'Sordid content'

The account, whose posts mostly lacked original substance, "only gained popularity because its dubious, sordid content was narrated by the attractive voice of a popular actor," Tsuda's legal team said, according to the court records.
This infringes Tsuda's so-called publicity rights -- the ability to control and profit from the use of aspects of one's identity -- his attorneys said.
Although the account itself is no longer viewable on the platform, the Tokyo District Court will rule on whether TikTok was responsible for deleting the posts.
Parallel to the lawsuit, Sasaki and other Japanese voice actors have launched a campaign, called "No More", against using generative AI to mimic performers without permission.
"Our industry can be crushed" if a court win for TikTok triggers "unbridled" AI voice cloning on social media, actor Bin Shimada told AFP.
That could cause younger actors to "lose hope", said Shimada, who is part of the campaign group.
It is also fast becoming a global issue.
"In many countries copyright and data protection laws are not being adequately adapted" to protect performers from AI clones, the International Federation of Actors said last year.
ChatGPT maker OpenAI was forced to apologise in 2024 to star Scarlett Johansson over a synthetic voice that sounded like her, released after she declined to work with OpenAI on the project.

International interest

While no law explicitly enshrines a person's voice in Japan, the justice ministry published legally non-binding guidelines last month clarifying its protection under existing rights.
As "the symbol of one's personality" voice is subject to "publicity rights" and "rights to prevent unauthorised use of one's portrait and likeness", the ministry said.
But it remains to be seen whether and how the guidelines will influence Wednesday's court decision on Tsuda's case.
TikTok has questioned the actor's "national fame", rejecting his accusations that the account was free-riding on a well-known brand in a violation of Japan's unfair competition prevention laws.
As a platform, all it did was "host a forum where users could post creative and ingenious content within the scope of free speech," it told the court.
It is "very unlikely" that Tsuda's voice will be outright denied publicity rights, Tatsuhiro Ueno, a professor of intellectual property studies at Waseda University, told AFP.
Given the actor's "Jujutsu Kaisen" role as a stoic, elite sorcerer that made his voice "highly recognisable in Europe", Ueno believes the verdict "will garner a lot of international interest".
Veteran voice actor Michihiro Ikemizu, 83, also expressed solidarity with Tsuda -- but said that AI, however sophisticated it gets, will never outperform human actors.
"You need to constantly feel and adapt while performing your role. That's something AI can never do," Ikemizu told AFP.
"That's our only weapon."
tmo/kaf/ane

trial

TikTok agrees to teen limits in US settlement following Meta

  • Under the settlement, TikTok will send $100 million to Alabama and could possibly pay up to $300 million in total if other states accept similar agreements.
  • TikTok on Friday agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and enact time limits and other restrictions for teen users, avoiding trial with a settlement modeled on Instagram-owner Meta's recent agreement with US states.
  • Under the settlement, TikTok will send $100 million to Alabama and could possibly pay up to $300 million in total if other states accept similar agreements.
TikTok on Friday agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and enact time limits and other restrictions for teen users, avoiding trial with a settlement modeled on Instagram-owner Meta's recent agreement with US states.
A trial had been set to begin Monday in the southern US state over claims by Alabama that TikTok misled parents about tools meant to shield children from harmful content.
Attorney General Steve Marshall hailed the settlement as "a great day for Alabama parents."
"Tonight, they can rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction," he said.
Under the settlement, TikTok will send $100 million to Alabama and could possibly pay up to $300 million in total if other states accept similar agreements.
Alabama's suit was the latest in a wave of litigation targeting social media companies across the United States over the harm their apps allegedly cause young users.
In August, Meta agreed to pay $18 billion to settle a sweeping lawsuit brought by US states accusing it of designing Instagram and Facebook to get children addicted.
TikTok's settlement with Alabama mirrors safety provisions agreed by Meta, including a two-hour daily time limit for teens, restricted access from midnight to 6:00 am, and suspending notifications during school hours.
It will also strengthen age verification, ban beauty filters for teenagers, and offer young users a non-personalized content feed.
In addition, it includes a conditional restriction that Meta also agreed to: expanding the nighttime shutdown period to 10:00 pm to 7:00 am, if other platforms also commit to do the same.

More suits pending

"TikTok's priority has always been fostering a safe and positive space where people can be creative, discover what they love, and connect with their community," a company spokesperson told AFP.
"This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens," the spokesperson added.
More than a dozen other states, including California and New York, still have active suits against TikTok.
The company has previously settled cases against it that were headed for trial, including a Los Angeles lawsuit brought by a young woman and a suit from a Kentucky school district.
Meta, by contrast, has taken its chances in court -- with bruising results.
In March, a jury in New Mexico ordered the Facebook and Instagram owner to pay $375 million after finding it had misled the public about the safety of its platforms for children.
That same month, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google's YouTube negligent in the case of a 20-year-old woman who said she became hooked on social media as a child, awarding her $6 million.
Going to trial would have exposed TikTok to unprecedented public scrutiny of how it handles safety internally, with company documents and executive testimony potentially aired in open court.
Alabama originally sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance in April 2025, alleging the app was engineered to hook young users "just like a sophisticated gambling machine."
The state later narrowed its case to claims under Alabama's Deceptive Trade Practices Act, focusing on whether TikTok misrepresented the effectiveness of features such as "Restricted Mode" and "Kids Mode."
Despite TikTok's assurances that users in that mode should not see mature themes, the accounts were quickly served videos about suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, alcohol and sex, according to the filing.
arp-bl-des/jgc

trial

TikTok to pay Alabama $100 mn under pre-trial settlement

  • According to Marshall, TikTok has agreed to enact two-hour daily time limits and restrict access for children from midnight to 6:00 am, among a host of other parental and other safety features.
  • TikTok on Friday agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and enact limits for teen users, avoiding a trial set to begin next week in the southern US state over claims related to child safety on the platform.
  • According to Marshall, TikTok has agreed to enact two-hour daily time limits and restrict access for children from midnight to 6:00 am, among a host of other parental and other safety features.
TikTok on Friday agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and enact limits for teen users, avoiding a trial set to begin next week in the southern US state over claims related to child safety on the platform.
"Under the settlement, Alabama will receive a minimum oSuref $100 million, due to the state within 45 days, with the potential to receive up to $300 million if certain conditions are met," the office of the Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
The trial had been set to begin on Monday with jury selection.
According to Marshall, TikTok has agreed to enact two-hour daily time limits and restrict access for children from midnight to 6:00 am, among a host of other parental and other safety features.
Alabama's suit was the latest in a wave of litigation targeting social media companies across the United States over the harm their apps allegedly cause young users.
TikTok had also previously settled cases against it that were headed for trial, including a Los Angeles lawsuit brought by a young woman and a suit from a Kentucky school district.
Meta, by contrast, has taken its chances in court -- with bruising results.
In March, a jury in New Mexico ordered the Facebook and Instagram owner to pay $375 million after finding it had misled the public about the safety of its platforms for children.
That same month, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google's YouTube negligent in the case of a 20-year-old woman who said she became hooked on social media as a child, awarding her $6 million.
In August, Meta agreed to pay $18 billion to settle a sweeping lawsuit brought by US states accusing it of designing Instagram and Facebook to addict children.
Going to trial would have exposed TikTok to unprecedented public scrutiny of how it handles safety internally, with company documents and executive testimony potentially aired in open court.
Alabama originally sued TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance in April 2025, alleging the app was engineered to hook young users "just like a sophisticated gambling machine."
The state later narrowed its case to claims under Alabama's Deceptive Trade Practices Act, focusing on whether TikTok misrepresented the effectiveness of features such as "Restricted Mode" and "Kids Mode."
In its complaint, the state said investigators set up TikTok accounts posing as 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds in Alabama and switched on Restricted Mode.
Despite TikTok's assurances that users in that mode should not see mature themes, the accounts were quickly served videos about suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, alcohol and sex, according to the filing.
The state also accused TikTok of falsely telling app stores the platform was suitable for children aged 12 and up and contained only mild or infrequent mature content.
TikTok, whose US operations were transferred this year to a venture led by American investors, has argued that the case should be paused and that it is shielded by Section 230, a federal law that protects online platforms from liability for content posted by users.
Asked for comment on the settlement Friday, a TikTok spokesperson said the company's "priority has always been fostering a safe and positive space where people can be creative, discover what they love, and connect with their community."
"This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens," the spokesperson added.
arp-bl-des/mjf

Anthropic

US court sides with Pentagon in Anthropic AI ban

  • The Pentagon decision upheld on Friday was based on public procurement regulations and now remains in effect.
  • A US appeals court upheld on Friday the Pentagon's decision to exclude Anthropic from its supply chain, a decision taken when the AI startup refused to remove certain safeguards on its Claude model.
  • The Pentagon decision upheld on Friday was based on public procurement regulations and now remains in effect.
A US appeals court upheld on Friday the Pentagon's decision to exclude Anthropic from its supply chain, a decision taken when the AI startup refused to remove certain safeguards on its Claude model.
The conflict began in February when Anthropic refused Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth's demand to remove restrictions on the use of Claude for fully autonomous lethal weapons and mass domestic surveillance of Americans.
The supply chain risk designation, formally made in March, canceled Anthropic's military contracts and barred other Pentagon contractors from using its technology.
The military had been using Claude across a range of classified and sensitive systems. 
According to the decision, an Anthropic executive had questioned the use of Claude by a Pentagon contractor, Palantir, during the military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3.
This objection "led to alarm" and "raised material doubts as to whether they would cause their software to stop working or cause some other disastrous action that would put our warfighters['] lives in danger," according to Under Secretary of Defense Emil Michael, as quoted in the opinion.
Anthropic insists it cannot modify its models once delivered to the military. 
But the company determines the behavior of each new version, and the military must keep up to date on the latest offerings, the Washington appeals court found.
In his opinion Judge Gregory Katsas, writing for two of the three appellate judges, said "in our Republic, it is the President and the Secretary of War who must determine how best to balance" risks.

'Hammer of justice'

The designation against Anthropic marked a highly unusual application of the authority against a US company.
The Pentagon immediately turned to its competitors. 
Its major rival OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, signed an agreement on the same day as Anthropic's ban, while xAI, Elon Musk's company that develops Grok, signed in February and Google and Microsoft a few months later.
Anthropic has since become a pariah at the White House, even as it plays a major role in the highly crucial AI sector and, valued at nearly one trillion dollars, heads for a blockbuster IPO expected in weeks.
The White House has also bristled at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's repeated warnings about the dangers of AI -- with US President Donald Trump calling them a hoax.
Michael celebrated the ruling on X, writing: "The hammer of justice has smashed Anthropic arguments."
"Warfighters will sleep better knowing that no private company will insert their opinions in the chain of command."
The appeals court decision conflicted with a separate federal court decision in California that found last month that a broader ban imposed by the Trump administration against Anthropic was illegal.
The Pentagon decision upheld on Friday was based on public procurement regulations and now remains in effect.
"We respectfully disagree with the court's decision. Another federal court has already held the government's parallel designation unlawful. We remain confident in our position and are considering all options, including further review," an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement to US media.
arp-bl/msp

France

Spotting AI writing: how reliable are the detectors?

BY MONA GUICHARD AND ADAM PLOWRIGHT

  • Orelien claimed this week his style was based on Haitian and Caribbean traditions, telling Liberation newspaper the software was "used to the French literary tradition and classical authors". 
  • Claims that Canadian-Haitian writer Thelyson Orelien used AI tools to write his best-selling debut novel are rocking the French literary world and posing questions about how AI can be detected. 
  • Orelien claimed this week his style was based on Haitian and Caribbean traditions, telling Liberation newspaper the software was "used to the French literary tradition and classical authors". 
Claims that Canadian-Haitian writer Thelyson Orelien used AI tools to write his best-selling debut novel are rocking the French literary world and posing questions about how AI can be detected. 
An X account with a handful of followers sparked the controversy by claiming that the AI-detecting program Pangram had concluded the tale of a Haitian migrant travelling to Canada had been largely written by a text-generator such as Claude or ChatGPT.
Orelien, 38, denies the allegations and has said he will prove that he wrote the book, which has been sold to publishers in more than 20 countries.
"I didn't write this novel with my head, but with my guts and my heart," he told AFP recently.
AFP ran excerpts of the book through various AI detection tools and came up with a variety of results -- from it being "very likely" to have been written by a human to "100 percent" AI generated.
- How do AI detectors work? - 
Dozens of tools are now available online to detect AI generated text -- many of them designed for use in education or publishing.
They generally have large troves of AI-generated text alongside content written by humans -- and compare the two. 
Their performance has improved significantly in recent years. 
In a paper published in October 2025 called "Artificial Writing and Automated Detection", researchers at the University of Chicago found Pangram "achieving near-zero error rates" on medium-to-long extracts. 

What are the clues?  

Thierry Poibeau, a researcher at France's national CNRS research institute and specialist in natural language processing, said the programs look for "linguistic tics".
"The classic example is triadic phrasing (using three clauses), or em dashes," Poibeau explained.
These telltale signs used to be common in generated texts because the tools had been trained on American scientific writing or American novels, he said. 
Pangram claims it is able to "detect AI text by analysing and understanding subtle cues in the writing". 
Some words or phrases show up regularly, while monotonous sentence structures are also a warning sign. 

Are the tools reliable?

Many tools publish percentage figures about their accuracy, but the figures are impossible to verify and do not take into account the risk of a false positive. 
Pangram CEO and co-founder Max Spero stressed to the American outlet The Atlantic that the tool should not be the ultimate arbiter, but rather a starting point for a more in-depth investigation. 
According to Thierry Poibeau, these detection systems also run up against a "moving target problem" because AI programs are "constantly evolving".
The expert also points to a potential problem when it comes to detecting the use of AI in novels. 
"The tool may pick up something particular in the writing, something repetitive, but that might be exactly what constitutes a writer's style," he said. 
Orelien claimed this week his style was based on Haitian and Caribbean traditions, telling Liberation newspaper the software was "used to the French literary tradition and classical authors". 

What do the experts say?

Benoit Raphael, an entrepreneur and writer specialised in AI, published his own research using Pangram to test Orelien's work -- and the results were also positive for AI.
"The fact that it rated at around 100 percent AI, or even 90 percent, is a pretty telling sign," he told Nouvel Obs magazine. 
And although the book was widely praised by critics and was flying off shelves in France before the scandal, some doubts had been raised. 
Lea Bory on her podcast Torchon was possibly the first to say publicly earlier this month that she thought it had been written by IA because of the repetitive nature of the sentences and the over-use of analogies that are hallmarks of IA. 
Writing in newspaper Canard Enchaine, Fabrice Colin also criticised the formulaic sentence structure and said he "vainly looked for a unique voice" in the prose.
mng-adp/jxb

politics

Trump's photo of Xi greeting carries signs of AI

BY BILL MCCARTHY

  • After Trump traveled to Beijing in May for a prior summit with Xi, he posted a different doctored image meant to show his predecessor Joe Biden confused with the Chinese president.
  • Donald Trump shared an image Thursday of Xi Jinping's red-carpet arrival to Washington that appears to have been altered using artificial intelligence, with an unflattering expression captured in live footage of the moment edited out.
  • After Trump traveled to Beijing in May for a prior summit with Xi, he posted a different doctored image meant to show his predecessor Joe Biden confused with the Chinese president.
Donald Trump shared an image Thursday of Xi Jinping's red-carpet arrival to Washington that appears to have been altered using artificial intelligence, with an unflattering expression captured in live footage of the moment edited out.
The Truth Social post purports to show the US president saluting beside his Chinese counterpart, with Xi's Air China aircraft forming the backdrop and a military jet soaring overhead.
But side-by-side comparisons laid bare a number of discrepancies from authentic photographs captured by AFP and other news agencies -- as well as the White House's own livestreamed footage of the greeting Wednesday -- that digital forensics experts said point to the potential use of AI.
Multiple AI-detection tools indicated the image was likely generated with the technology.
Noticeably absent in the version Trump posted is his reaction to the loud flyover -- a pained wince that drew mockery from critics on social media and late-night TV host Jimmy Fallon.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the visual.
Trump is known to litter his Truth Social feed with AI-generated images and memes, but the flyover post comes amid his unprecedented efforts -- thwarted in court -- to bar journalists from CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House over coverage he branded as "fake news."
The top five US broadcasters had halted pool coverage of the White House -– a system allowing one TV outlet to film on behalf of the lot of them for the day -- in solidarity.
Apart from the missing grimace, the image Trump posted depicts him wearing a plain blue tie and singular black glove, whereas news agency photos and videos showed him in a striped tie and with both hands covered.
A woman in the background over Trump's left shoulder is also portrayed with different shoes than can be seen in authentic visuals of the moment.
Matthew Stamm, a media forensics expert at Drexel University, told AFP his analysis of the image using specialized software "identified traces left by generative AI with high confidence." 
He said these statistical traces are akin to "fingerprints that a criminal leaves at a crime scene."
Walter Scheirer, another expert at the University of Notre Dame, agreed AI was likely involved.
"Given the existence of multiple versions of this scene, including a set of originals available via Getty Images that are clearly different from what President Trump posted to Truth Social, I am confident that this image has been altered," he told AFP.
The episode highlights the rapid growth of AI-generated fakes in politics, with even high-stakes diplomatic events now subject to manipulation by the very leaders participating in them.
After Trump traveled to Beijing in May for a prior summit with Xi, he posted a different doctored image meant to show his predecessor Joe Biden confused with the Chinese president.
"Sometimes these edits are innocuous," Scheirer said. "In other cases, the interpretation of the photo completely changes in a manner more akin to propaganda."
bmc/mgs/mlm

Anthropic

US court refuses to overturn Pentagon ban on Anthropic

  • The Pentagon decision upheld on Friday was based on public procurement regulations and now remains in effect.
  • A US appeals court upheld on Friday the Pentagon's decision to exclude Anthropic from its supply chain, a decision taken when the AI startup refused to remove certain safeguards on its Claude model.
  • The Pentagon decision upheld on Friday was based on public procurement regulations and now remains in effect.
A US appeals court upheld on Friday the Pentagon's decision to exclude Anthropic from its supply chain, a decision taken when the AI startup refused to remove certain safeguards on its Claude model.
The conflict began in February when Anthropic refused Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth's demand to remove restrictions on the use of Claude for fully autonomous lethal weapons and mass domestic surveillance of Americans.
The supply chain risk designation, formally made in March, canceled Anthropic's military contracts and barred other Pentagon contractors from using its technology.
The designation against Anthropic marked a highly unusual application of the authority against a US company.
The Pentagon immediately turned to its competitors. 
Its major rival OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, signed an agreement on the same day as Anthropic's ban, while xAI, Elon Musk's company that develops Grok, signed in February and Google and Microsoft a few months later.
Anthropic has since become a pariah at the White House, even as it plays a major role in the highly crucial AI sector and, valued at nearly one trillion dollars, heads for a blockbuster IPO expected in weeks.
The White House has also bristled at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's repeated warnings about the dangers of AI -- with US President Donald Trump calling them a hoax.
Under Secretary of Defense Emil Michael celebrated the ruling on X, writing: "The hammer of justice has smashed Anthropic arguments."
"Warfighters will sleep better knowing that no private company will insert their opinions in the chain of command."
The appeals court decision conflicted with a separate federal court decision in California that found last month that a broader ban imposed by the Trump administration against Anthropic was illegal.
The Pentagon decision upheld on Friday was based on public procurement regulations and now remains in effect.
"We respectfully disagree with the court's decision. Another federal court has already held the government's parallel designation unlawful. We remain confident in our position and are considering all options, including further review," an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement to US media.
The military had been using Claude across a range of classified and sensitive systems. According to court filings, that included during the January operation that captured and deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
arp/msp

internet

Brazil candidates mount digital armies for fierce online campaign

BY MARIA CLARA PESTRE

  • Ahead of the October 4 first round vote, Flavio Bolsonaro -- the son of jailed former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro -- is neck-and-neck with leftist Lula, who is seeking a fourth term in office.
  • In a knife-edge election race, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and main rival Flavio Bolsonaro have deployed volunteer digital armies online to spread their messages and battle for voters.
  • Ahead of the October 4 first round vote, Flavio Bolsonaro -- the son of jailed former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro -- is neck-and-neck with leftist Lula, who is seeking a fourth term in office.
In a knife-edge election race, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and main rival Flavio Bolsonaro have deployed volunteer digital armies online to spread their messages and battle for voters.
These online campaigns, unprecedented in scale in Brazil, have highlighted the growing role of social media in the country's politics, while also raising questions about compliance with election rules.
"The cavalry has arrived. Come join this army that will change our country's history," urged Gustavo Gayer, a congressman and Bolsonaro ally.
He was promoting "Direta Ja" (Right Wing Now), a platform launched in July which consists of a website and WhatsApp group where supporters receive daily "visual ammunition" to share on their own social media feeds to boost Bolsonaro's campaign.
Ahead of the October 4 first round vote, Flavio Bolsonaro -- the son of jailed former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro -- is neck-and-neck with leftist Lula, who is seeking a fourth term in office.
The website contains ready-made posts, allowing users to filter content by their preferred social media platform or category. The largest of these categories, with around 200 items, features "criticism of the PT," Lula's Workers' Party.
These include accusations around public security, food prices and allegations of corruption.
A single video highlighting inconsistencies in a statement made by Lula was shared by over 500 supporters, according to an AFP investigation. 
The platform itself reports that the initiative has generated more than 50 million interactions.

Right 'often wins' online clashes

Lula has launched his own social-media initiative dubbed "Lula's Spokespersons," aimed at boosting voter engagement.
"Let's join the fight via computer and mobile phone," he urged during a livestream with supporters in September. 
"If you are part of this army, rest assured: on the 4th, we will win the election."
Through WhatsApp groups, over 140,000 people receive daily missions to share posts promoting Lula's policy proposals or criticize his main opponent.
The goal, explained Guilherme Boulos, secretary-general of the presidency, is to win the battle in an arena traditionally dominated by the right.
"We need the humility to acknowledge this. They often win these online clashes," he said at the launch of the initiative. 
"If they can unify their narrative and set the agenda for public debate, so can we."
Arthur Ituassu, a professor of political communication at the private Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, said that while the primary focus used to be on securing as much television airtime as possible, today "social media is fundamental."
"Encouraging this kind of mobilization aims to reach undecided voters, the ones who will ultimately decide the election," he told AFP.

'Doing nothing wrong'

Even smaller candidates are fighting hard online, such as Renan Santos, who is polling in the low single-digits but has built a following among younger voters.
Santos launched an app where supporters earn points and compete for rankings by sharing his content.
Currently ranked first on the candidate's leaderboard is Joao Victor, a 25-year-old university student.
"I do this because I want to help bring about change in the country," he told AFP.
AFP attempted to speak with Lula and Bolsonaro's digital activists, but they either did not respond or refused to comment, maintaining that they were "doing nothing wrong."
Both Lula and Bolsonaro filed lawsuits at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) complaining about the other's initiative.
They accused one another of trying to circumvent rules and drive negative campaigning in a coordinated manner.
Both campaigns told AFP they are complying with electoral laws. The cases are still pending.
Nahomi Helena de Santana, an election law attorney, said that organized digital mobilization could be deemed unlawful if there was an "economic advantage" in exchange for posts, or if content contained disinformation or slander.
She said that spreading such content via an "organized" network could bring greater punishment.
mcp/fb/des

film

Oscar-winner Cotillard fears being moved by AI actor

  • "I think I would be very afraid the day I was moved by an AI actor.
  • French actress Marion Cotillard said on Thursday she feared the day she might be emotionally moved by an actor created by artificial intelligence, as debate grows over AI's impact on film and the wider creative industries.
  • "I think I would be very afraid the day I was moved by an AI actor.
French actress Marion Cotillard said on Thursday she feared the day she might be emotionally moved by an actor created by artificial intelligence, as debate grows over AI's impact on film and the wider creative industries.
"I think I would be very afraid the day I was moved by an AI actor. For now, I find that they act like potatoes, and that reassures me," the 50-year-old Oscar winner told reporters at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.
Cotillard, who won the best actress Oscar in 2008 for her portrayal of French singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose", said she wondered whether AI actors could eventually become convincing enough to fool audiences.
"I wonder if one day that will happen, if one day I would be fooled by an actor," she said. "I have to admit that it's something that makes me think and that can frighten me."
Cotillard is in San Sebastian for the world premiere of Nicole Garcia's "7h40 ce jour-là", which is competing for the festival's top prize.
She plays Alice, a former revolutionary activist who is released after 20 years in prison and attempts to reconnect with her son.
"After spending 20 years in prison, the only thing she really has left is not her desire for revolution, but the fact that she is a mother," Cotillard said.
A total of 17 films are vying for the top awards in the official section of festival, which wraps up on Saturday.
du/rbj/ds/pdw

politics

Australian PM says OpenAI hacked government health website

  • The breach occurred in June as leading artificial intelligence company OpenAI ran training exercises to rate the performance of AI models. 
  • A rogue OpenAI model bypassed safeguards during training and hacked an Australian government website, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said as he admonished the ChatGPT creator over an "obviously unacceptable" breach.
  • The breach occurred in June as leading artificial intelligence company OpenAI ran training exercises to rate the performance of AI models. 
A rogue OpenAI model bypassed safeguards during training and hacked an Australian government website, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said as he admonished the ChatGPT creator over an "obviously unacceptable" breach.
The AI tool sought access to a health statistics portal in June and "didn't accept no for an answer", sidestepping restrictions to breach a section hosting private files, Albanese said.
OpenAI did not raise the alarm with the Australian government until September, when it sent a message to a generic email inbox that is only checked once each day.
Global worries about the power of advanced AI tools are mounting after a string of hacking incidents involving models from both OpenAI and rival developer Anthropic.
"Today, I spoke with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, to express Australia's extreme concern about this incident," Albanese told reporters in New York on Wednesday.
"I also expressed my disappointment that it took the company way too long to inform the government what had occurred," he said.
"It took until September 10 before there was any notification at all -- and the notification was an email sent to just the public mailbox."
The AI tool accessed public and non-public files hosted on an old health statistics website. 
Albanese said there was "no evidence" that personal information had been accessed and that other government services had not been compromised. 
"Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable." 
The breach occurred in June as leading artificial intelligence company OpenAI ran training exercises to rate the performance of AI models. 
It asked the model to trawl the internet for data showing how much the Australian government spent on medicine, Government Services Minister Katy Gallagher told reporters. 
OpenAI said it did not spot the rogue activity until August, when it reviewed what the AI tool had been doing.

Rogue AI fears

The San Francisco-based company did not alert the Australian government until September 10, when it sent an email to a generic government inbox. 
"That email address is looked at once a day," Gallagher said. 
"We have someone who goes and has a look through. It sometimes gets a number of notifications, sometimes many of them are hoaxes." 
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the AI model had "scaled the fence". 
"It asked a question, the information was not given and rather than leaving at that point, it scaled the fence." 
Australia has launched a rapid review of the incident, which will include the national intelligence agency responsible for cyber security. 
OpenAI said it spotted the breach while carrying out an "extensive review" of its AI models. 
"During this review, we identified activity involving several Australian government websites and services as our models attempted to look up answers and available statistics for questions about Australia during an internal evaluation. 
"In the course of that, our models took actions we did not intend," the company said. 
Altman and other tech CEOs addressed a special meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday about AI risks. 
More than 100 organisations around the world, including OpenAI and Anthropic, signed an open letter last month calling for a global effort to "strengthen cyber defenses" against AI-powered cybersecurity threats. 
It came after two OpenAI models escaped from a closed testing environment and broke into the internal systems of Hugging Face, a site that AI developers use to store and share code.
Anthropic recently discovered that its models had gained unauthorised access to three unidentified organisations during testing that was supposed to keep them away from "real-world" systems. 
Google's consumer AI model Gemini hacked multiple systems through guessing login credentials, the company said last week.
djw/sft/djw/tc/cms

Global Edition

President tells Trump that Iran will never 'bend at the knee'

BY BEIYI SEOW

  • We will never bow our head or bend at the knee," he said.
  • Iran's president struck a defiant tone at the UN on Wednesday where he spoke for the first time since Washington and Israel launched an all-out war on his country, vowing Tehran would never "bend at the knee."
  • We will never bow our head or bend at the knee," he said.
Iran's president struck a defiant tone at the UN on Wednesday where he spoke for the first time since Washington and Israel launched an all-out war on his country, vowing Tehran would never "bend at the knee."
Masoud Pezeshkian accused Washington of "terrorism" for assassinating former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the conflict, insisting Tehran had never started a war.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump had told the UN General Assembly that he was weighing whether to "annihilate" Iran but went on to hail renewed talks between Tehran and Washington's negotiators.
Pezeshkian made no reference to the talks to resolve the stalled war in his steely speech.
"(Trump) must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee," he said.
Pezeshkian insisted Tehran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz, which it has choked off since the start of the war causing global energy prices to spike, to be used as leverage against his country.
"We cannot let some have free access and bolster their interests from the waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggression upon us," he said.
Pezeshkian's attendance at the UN's signature diplomatic event, in the heart of Manhattan, had been in doubt as it was unclear if the United States would issue a visa.
Ultimately Washington granted the permit, but denied visas to several members of Pezeshkian's entourage.
Soaring fuel prices threaten to cost Trump's Republicans their control of Congress in November's midterms, but the US president has sought to dismiss the domestic impact of the war.

AI and Ukraine

Also Wednesday, the future of artificial intelligence came to the fore at the UN's annual gathering of world leaders.
Following weeks of worldwide headlines about risks of uncontrollable AI -- and calls for a slowdown -- industry leaders briefed the UN Security Council, calling for heightened vigilance.
"This moment calls for extreme care," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, while Dario Amodei of Anthropic pledged to slow down where needed to ensure the safety of new AI releases.
In his speech Tuesday, Trump rejected international regulation of AI, calling such proposals a "globalist scheme."
Russia's war against Ukraine also featured at the world body on Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of using third-country fighters from 47 countries to continue Moscow's war, which began with a 2022 invasion that has led to four years of bloody conflict.
Zelensky also warned that this winter his forces could seek to target Russian heating and energy facilities to use the region's bitter frost against Russia, as Moscow has done against Ukraine.
"Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us, but in response we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia too," he told the UN.

'Never had a woman leading'

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez used his address to the General Assembly to call for a woman from Latin America to lead the United Nations.
"How can an organization that claims to speak on behalf of the whole of humanity, never have had a woman leading" it, Sanchez said, adding that it was also overdue for the third-most populated continent to take the role.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, leaves the post on December 31. Four women and three men are vying to succeed him, including several from Latin America.
gw-bys/bgs/acb/msp/sla

cybercrime

North Korean IT contractor found remote work in New Zealand: agency

  • The worker then "claimed to have obtained commercially sensitive information and threatened to release this if not paid," the report added.
  • A North Korean IT worker used a fake identity to obtain remote work with a New Zealand company and then threatened to release sensitive information when exposed, Wellington's cybersecurity agency said Thursday.
  • The worker then "claimed to have obtained commercially sensitive information and threatened to release this if not paid," the report added.
A North Korean IT worker used a fake identity to obtain remote work with a New Zealand company and then threatened to release sensitive information when exposed, Wellington's cybersecurity agency said Thursday.
New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre said the IT contractor was working remotely for a large New Zealand business, which grew "suspicious" of his true identity over time.
"Investigation identified the worker as being from North Korea," the report said. 
"The North Korean worker used a false persona including fake identity documents, a New Zealand address as a contact point and recruited a New Zealand citizen to receive and operate the company's laptop."
On learning the contractor's true identity, the business ended their employment and refused to pay for their services.
The worker then "claimed to have obtained commercially sensitive information and threatened to release this if not paid," the report added.
North Korea faces a slew of international sanctions over its weapons and nuclear programs, which ban its citizens from being issued work visas abroad among a litany of other restrictions.
In July, the United States and 10 Asian and European allies warned companies against employing North Korean IT workers whose labor was generating crucial foreign currency to fund that nuclear weapons program.
North Korea has furiously denied those allegations.
"In some cases, the workers also undertake malicious cyber operations. These workers often operate under front companies overseen by the North Korean state apparatus," New Zealand's Cyber Security Centre said.
The report urged businesses to interview potential contractors face-to-face to mitigate the risk of clandestine activities.
The 48-page risk assessment said 23 percent of major cyber attacks on New Zealand last year were state-sponsored, naming China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as countries that had launched attacks.
It also warned of an increasing risk to the South Pacific, citing "state-sponsored cyber espionage targeting governments and infrastructure" in the region.
bes/oho/tc

AI

Meta launches camera-free AI glasses amid privacy pushback

BY SARA BLOOMBERG

  • The audio-only versions will complement the release of dozens of new smart glasses models that keep the photo and video filming option.
  • Meta unveiled several new wearables powered by its AI models on Wednesday, including an audio-only, camera-free version of its smart glasses, amid global concerns about privacy and the filming of women and girls without their consent.
  • The audio-only versions will complement the release of dozens of new smart glasses models that keep the photo and video filming option.
Meta unveiled several new wearables powered by its AI models on Wednesday, including an audio-only, camera-free version of its smart glasses, amid global concerns about privacy and the filming of women and girls without their consent.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new lineup of glasses at the social media giant's annual Connect conference at its Menlo Park headquarters, where he also touted the company's new personal artificial intelligence assistant, Muse.
"There are almost 2 billion people in the world who wear glasses today... and we think that in the coming years, most of these are going to get upgraded to AI glasses," Zuckerberg told the audience of developers and executives.
Muse will be "the centerpiece of our vision," Zuckerberg said.
The audio-only glasses will ship on October 13 and start at $349. They arrive amid growing questions worldwide about privacy violations from tiny cameras on glasses and other wearables, which critics have dubbed "pervert" glasses.
Smart glasses let wearers take photos, film videos, listen to music, make phone calls, translate text or interact with an AI assistant.
The audio-only versions will complement the release of dozens of new smart glasses models that keep the photo and video filming option.
Building in privacy features such as a recording indicator light is "really important," Meta's vice president of AI product, Vishal Shah, told AFP on Wednesday.
"We wanted people to clearly understand that this was something that was recording, and we've only made that light more explicit over time," Shah said.
"We said a lot about that when the glasses first launched, and I think we probably need to keep repeating that more than we have been more recently because none of that's changed," he added.
With nearly four billion monthly active users across its ecosystem, Meta is betting that wearables like smart glasses can become an easy entry point for people to use its AI software. 
Meta launched its first smart glasses in 2021, and last year unveiled "display" glasses that project images onto the lens.
Earlier this year, the company released its own Meta-branded AI glasses, separate from its partnership with eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica, which produces several Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta models.
Meta also announced several new styles of its flagship Meta Ray-Ban glasses. The display version, priced from $799, will soon be available in new markets including Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Canada.
The company will also soon launch mixed reality glasses that are much lighter than its earlier Quest VR headsets.
Called Meta VR Glasses, they are powered by an external battery and memory pack tethered by a cord, allowing the headset itself to be lighter.
Zuckerberg said the glasses weigh about as much as a deck of cards.
They have no external controls, relying instead on hand gestures and voice commands.
The VR Glasses will launch in spring 2027 for $1,299.

Meta Muse

Meta has spent billions of dollars to stay competitive in AI but faces pushback on multiple fronts.
The glasses are designed to work with Muse, the company's first agentic app for consumers. It performs tasks on users' behalf like a digital personal assistant.
After connecting personal accounts -- for finance, health and shopping -- users can ask Muse to sign up for services, book appointments and make calls.
The Muse app became the top free app in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, overtaking OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini.
Zuckerberg teased another product on Wednesday, the Muse Charm, that will ship ahead of the holidays this year; Meta did not provide a price. 
The "charm" is a small, puck-like device with a display that will allow users to interact with their Muse agent separately from a smartphone. 
Amazon this week blocked Meta from using AI bots to shop automatically for users, while Instacart, Shopify and Expedia have announced partnerships to integrate their services into Muse. Meta said Walmart, Best Buy, Gap and Sephora are also partnering with the app.
Meta, which earns most of its revenue from ads on Instagram and Facebook, faces mounting child safety and privacy challenges worldwide.
In August, it settled a lawsuit brought by US states accusing it of violating consumer protection and children's online privacy laws, agreeing to pay up to $18 billion and impose restrictions for teenagers.
The company also faces age-based restrictions and bans abroad, as well as thousands of potential personal injury suits in the US.
smb/arp/msp

biology

Anthropic touts AI-led biology discovery

  • Anthropic said its researchers' involvement was limited to the initial instructions and the lab experiments, with the AI agents working autonomously to decide which leads to pursue.
  • US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Wednesday unveiled the first discovery from its molecular biology lab, a previously unknown enzyme system spotted by its Claude model and touted by the company as proof that AI can speed up basic research.
  • Anthropic said its researchers' involvement was limited to the initial instructions and the lab experiments, with the AI agents working autonomously to decide which leads to pursue.
US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Wednesday unveiled the first discovery from its molecular biology lab, a previously unknown enzyme system spotted by its Claude model and touted by the company as proof that AI can speed up basic research.
Enzyme systems found in nature have led to some of biology's biggest breakthroughs, from the tools that launched the biotech industry to the DNA-copying method behind many medical tests.
According to the company, some 950 Claude-powered software agents combed through a database of DNA sequences for 21 hours.
The agents found more than 200,000 genes for one type of enzyme and picked out 20 worth a closer look -- work that would take an expert scientist weeks or even months.
Anthropic said its researchers' involvement was limited to the initial instructions and the lab experiments, with the AI agents working autonomously to decide which leads to pursue.
One of the agents spotted something in viruses that infect bacteria that scientists appear to have missed: a string of short, repeating pieces of DNA sitting next to two genes, one for a known enzyme and one for a mystery protein.
The setup looks like CRISPR, a natural defense system in bacteria that scientists turned into a gene-editing tool now used in medicine.
Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, who recently called for slowing AI development because of its risks, cited the discovery on Wednesday in remarks to the UN Security Council, which he addressed by video link.
The finding is "preliminary," he said, but "may constitute a new gene editing mechanism that could have applications in gene therapy."
He predicted "profound progress in the near future on diseases that have plagued humanity for millennia."
The function of the newly identified system, dubbed ART, remains unknown, Anthropic said.
The company added that its initial experiments suggest the system could, like CRISPR, be programmable.
The results, published as a preprint, have not yet been reviewed by other scientists.
Feng Zhang, one of the pioneers of CRISPR and a professor at MIT and the Broad Institute, called the identification of the repeated DNA fragments "genuinely intriguing" and said it "merits further investigation," in remarks released by Anthropic.
Amodei also said on X that a team at Stanford University had independently described a comparable but distinct system.
Formed in the spring, Anthropic's lab team works in the San Francisco Bay Area and does not handle pathogens capable of infecting humans.
All experiments are carried out by human scientists, Anthropic said. Amodei did not rule out Claude eventually operating lab equipment itself, with appropriate safeguards.
bl/arp/sla

AI

At UN, tech chiefs urge caution in AI development

BY THOMAS URBAIN

  • "We will slow down as much as necessary in order to make sure that every successive AI technology that we release is actually safe," Amodei said in a video feed.
  • Leaders of major AI firms told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the technology calls for heightened vigilance, with Anthropic's CEO pledging to slow down where needed to ensure the safety of new releases.
  • "We will slow down as much as necessary in order to make sure that every successive AI technology that we release is actually safe," Amodei said in a video feed.
Leaders of major AI firms told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the technology calls for heightened vigilance, with Anthropic's CEO pledging to slow down where needed to ensure the safety of new releases.
"This moment calls for extreme care," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in New York at an emergency meeting of the 15-member council.
He warned that as AI systems become more capable and autonomous, they could move faster than institutions or concentrate power into too few hands.
Altman was among industry leaders briefing the council following weeks of global headlines about the risks of uncontrollable artificial intelligence and calls for a slowdown, which have been resisted by US President Donald Trump.
"The industry must not accept too much technological risk just because the benefits are too great and important to slow down," Altman told the United Nations' top body.
He also urged governments to work with each other and the industry on decisions shaping the technology's future.
"In our history, there have been times where countries who compete and don't always like each other very much still come together for shared interests and the collective good in the face of a powerful new technology," he said.
"We believe this must be one of those times," he added.

Slowing down

Speaking after Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said his company understands that as AI models become more powerful, "even more stringent standards of safety will be required."
He said Anthropic aims to improve its ability to prevent misuse of the technology.
"We will slow down as much as necessary in order to make sure that every successive AI technology that we release is actually safe," Amodei said in a video feed.
"If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole," Amodei added.
Other speakers included Clement Delangue of Hugging Face, which was the target of a recent cyberattack by autonomous OpenAI software.
This marked the first in a series of incidents that have raised alarm bells over the rapidly evolving technology.
In early September, Jacob Coxon, a researcher who worked at both OpenAI and Anthropic, decided to leave the industry and accused both companies of "gambling with our lives" in the race to develop AI models capable of self-improvement.

'Middle path'

The executives' remarks come shortly before Trump is due to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping, hosting him for a summit where AI will be on the agenda.
On Wednesday, Altman said his company would try to walk a "middle path."
"We don't want to fall into the trap of blind optimism," but he cautioned against falling into "doomerism" too.
Yoshua Bengio, the Canadian computer scientist considered one of the founders of AI, told the Security Council that "more and more people are rightly worried about recent advances."
"We must channel that concern into productive action," he said.
Delangue of Hugging Face noted that while his company was targeted by AI, it also used the technology to fend off the attacks. "The world needs open-source AI more than ever to defend itself."
Altman, Amodei and several other leading AI executives have been calling for global oversight of the technology.
OpenAI has urged the United States to lead a global effort on establishing standards for AI, noting that its industry is at the technical frontier.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Tuesday that Britain would launch an effort to set up global AI standards during its 2027 G20 presidency.
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot similarly urged joint action within the UN framework and with companies to set rules for a new era.
But diplomatic efforts could clash with the US position.
Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said rapid advancement is not a reason to pause AI's development or constrain it with new governance structures.
Trump on Tuesday rejected international regulation of AI, calling such proposals a "globalist scheme."
bys/msp

Russia

UK sets up unit to combat disinformation from Russia, AI

  • A world where "the public find it hard to separate fact from fiction, propaganda from reality, is a dangerous place for a democracy to be," Defence Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Radio 4.
  • The UK will create an agency to fight disinformation coming from adversaries such as Russia and amplified by artificial intelligence, to help "separate fact from fiction", Britain's defence minister said Wednesday.
  • A world where "the public find it hard to separate fact from fiction, propaganda from reality, is a dangerous place for a democracy to be," Defence Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Radio 4.
The UK will create an agency to fight disinformation coming from adversaries such as Russia and amplified by artificial intelligence, to help "separate fact from fiction", Britain's defence minister said Wednesday.
A world where "the public find it hard to separate fact from fiction, propaganda from reality, is a dangerous place for a democracy to be," Defence Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Radio 4.
The new centre will "mobilise trusted voices across civil society", he added.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced plans for the new National Centre for Information Defence in his speech at the UN gathering of world leaders on Tuesday.
"In recent years we have seen an industrial-scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment in the UK and that of many of our allies," said Burnham.
"Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people's fears," he said, repeating accusations that Moscow tried to interfere with Britain's 2019 general elections.
Russia has been suspected of meddling in UK politics before, including the divisive 2016 Brexit referendum. The previous Conservative government faced criticism for failing to investigate the allegations.
Burnham also accused Moscow of amplifying "far-right narratives" and stoking "tensions and unrest in the wake of horrific events".
Burnham, who became leader of the Labour party and prime minister this summer, warned that disinformation and cyber attacks would be worsened by AI, as calls mount to regulate the fast-developing technology.
"Today I am tasking our security chiefs to begin work on a new National Centre for Information Defence -- to detect, attribute and disrupt these kinds of hostile state information attacks."
"As more elections approach across Europe, more nations are grappling with these issues," the UK leader added.
Burnham also told the UN General Assembly that Britain would take the lead on efforts to establish global AI standards. He announced an AI defence partnership with Washington to detect cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.
aks/jkb/jj

summit

Cambodia no 'safe haven' for cyberscams, PM says

  • "Cambodia will never be a safe haven for online scams," Hun Manet told a conference against online scams organised by his government in the capital Phnom Penh.
  • Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told an anti-fraud summit Wednesday that his country would never be a "safe haven" for cyberscams, as international partners touted law enforcement successes but warned more must be done.
  • "Cambodia will never be a safe haven for online scams," Hun Manet told a conference against online scams organised by his government in the capital Phnom Penh.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told an anti-fraud summit Wednesday that his country would never be a "safe haven" for cyberscams, as international partners touted law enforcement successes but warned more must be done.
Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia and war-torn Myanmar, has emerged as a hub for crime syndicates running centres filled with scammers -- some willing, some trafficked -- who defraud internet users through fake romantic relationships or cryptocurrency investment schemes.
"Cambodia will never be a safe haven for online scams," Hun Manet told a conference against online scams organised by his government in the capital Phnom Penh.
He said Cambodian authorities had "completely dismantled all light-scale scam compounds" in a high-profile crackdown launched last year.
He denied the move was a "public relations campaign", saying it was focused on "permanently eradicating criminal networks and preventing their re-emergence".
Cambodia acted under pressure from key ally China as well as the United States, after years of accusations that it allowed scam centres to thrive, generating billions of dollars in illicit profits annually.
But researchers say scammers have dispersed to smaller, lower-profile locations, while in many cases centres were given advance warning of raids.

Multi-billion-dollar industry

Delphine Schantz, regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), hailed Cambodia's efforts but said "more can be done and needs to be done" at national, regional and international levels.
Yang Weilin, Chinese vice minister of public security, also praised Cambodia's cooperation with Beijing, saying "no country can stay immune, or tackle the problem single-handedly".
Yet "we must be sober-minded that the breeding ground for telecom fraud has not been fully rooted out", he told the conference.
FBI official Stephen Flores said law enforcement partnerships needed to be based on "trust and shared sacrifice".
The United States estimates that in 2025 alone, transnational criminal organisations in Southeast Asia defrauded Americans out of at least $18.2 billion through cyber-enabled scams.
Visiting Phnom Penh in July, FBI Director Kash Patel said online scams were a "top priority", urging "increased efforts to hold high-level scam bosses accountable", and more information sharing on "complicit officials".
Analysts say elite protection networks and the financial and physical infrastructure of the scam industry remains intact, raising concerns that operators can regroup.
suy-sco/ar/cms

AI

Meta leans into AI, smart glasses amid privacy pushback

  • The Muse agent is built on Meta's own AI models and is designed to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. 
  • Meta has spent billions to stay competitive with artificial intelligence, but the tech giant faces growing pushback as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to announce new products built for the AI era on Wednesday.
  • The Muse agent is built on Meta's own AI models and is designed to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. 
Meta has spent billions to stay competitive with artificial intelligence, but the tech giant faces growing pushback as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to announce new products built for the AI era on Wednesday.
The company will kick off its annual Connect conference from its Menlo Park headquarters at 4:00 pm PT (2300 GMT) Wednesday, and Zuckerberg will deliver a keynote address to the developer-focused event.
Earlier this month the social media giant launched Muse, its first agentic app for consumers which is designed to perform tasks on behalf of humans, like a digital personal assistant. 
After a user connects various personal accounts -- whether financial, health-related or shopping -- they can ask Meta to perform tasks like signing up for services, booking appointments and making calls. 
Amazon blocked Meta this week from using AI bots to shop for users automatically, while other businesses including Instacart, Shopify and Expedia have announced partnerships to integrate their services into Muse. 
The Muse agent is built on Meta's own AI models and is designed to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. 
The company had its first pair of interactive smart glasses in 2021, about a year before OpenAI sparked a global AI frenzy with its release of ChatGPT, and since then the devices have become more and more advanced. 

'Pervert glasses'

Last year, Meta unveiled a pair of augmented reality "display" glasses which project images on the lenses. 
And earlier this year, the company released self-branded AI glasses, apart from its partnership with eyewear manufacturer EssilorLuxottica, which produces multiple Ray-Ban-branded Meta glasses. 
However, their novelty quickly became clouded by privacy concerns, with critics dubbing the eyewear as "pervert glasses."
At last year's Connect, Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox brushed aside such concerns and told news outlets, including AFP, that "social norms" would form around the use of smart glasses. 
More recently, Meta has said a recording indicator light would always be visible to people nearby, and that tampering with the indicator light would disable the camera. 
The company is reportedly working on a new pair of audio-only glasses, and has also been rumored to be developing a new generation of mixed reality glasses. 
Meta has also been battling children's safety and privacy issues around the world. 
In August, the company settled a lawsuit with dozens of attorneys generals in the US who accused Meta of violating state and federal laws regarding consumer protections and children's online privacy. 
As part of the settlement, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion in fines and enact restrictions for teenagers. 
Meta faces social media restrictions and bans for younger users around the world, as well as thousands of potential personal injury lawsuits in the US that are still making their way through state courts.
smb/sla/cms

agriculture

Mongolian herders enlist new tech against harsher, drier climate

BY PETER CATTERALL AND EENEE PUREVDORJ

  • Around one in four Mongolians are nomadic herders.
  • When Mongolian herder Ganchimeg's sheep strayed dangerously near a salty lake this summer, driven by hunger as nearby vegetation was poor, she was in a "total panic".
  • Around one in four Mongolians are nomadic herders.
When Mongolian herder Ganchimeg's sheep strayed dangerously near a salty lake this summer, driven by hunger as nearby vegetation was poor, she was in a "total panic".
"If they drank or stepped into it, the whole flock would be destroyed," she told AFP outside her traditional ger, the tent's shape silhouetted on the vast horizon of the Gobi Desert.
But thanks to an app helping herders navigate the risks that climate change is bringing to Mongolia, her husband was able to reach the sheep before they drank the brackish water.
"He immediately rushed over at top speed and intercepted them," said Ganchimeg, a mother of four who, like many Mongolians, goes by just one name.
"If we hadn't used that GPS tracker, we might have lost our entire flock."
Herders are on the frontline of both climate change and desertification impacts -- climate change is bringing extreme weather, including deadly cold snaps and droughts, which compound desertification caused by overgrazing.
Huge and sparsely populated, Mongolia is disproportionately affected by human-driven climate change, threatening the country's nomadic population and livestock. 
Bilgudei Gankhulug, the 26-year-old founder of the Hunu app used by Ganchimeg, told AFP he was inspired to help herders after a 2024 "dzud" -- an extreme weather event that brought temperatures as low as minus 45C.
"Over eight million livestock died. I saw a lot of herders losing their income, losing their livelihoods in just the span of a few months," said Bilgudei.
Meaning "strong nomad", the name Hunu "embodies our mission of empowering nomadic herders with the help of technology," he said.

'Strong nomad'

The app allows nomads to track their livestock with a solar-charging GPS device attached to one animal per group -- sufficient for herds that tend to stick together on the spacious steppe.
It has an artificial intelligence-powered weather feature with updates on the deadly dust storms and blizzards made more common in recent years by climate change, which scientists say is intensifying globally.
The app also compiles useful information on maps showing snow depth, wind direction, soil moisture and drought, assisting nomads in crucial decisions on where to move next.
Mongolia hosted talks on a global desertification treaty, known as COP17, last month.
Countries agreed financing for land restoration and tackling drought resilience, but concerns remain over a massive funding shortfall to the growing problem.
Bilgudei told AFP he hopes to expand Hunu to central Asian countries, and met with pastoralists from Tanzania and Uruguay at COP17 interested too.
"Our problems are pretty similar," he said.

Global dilemma

About 80 percent of Mongolia is rangelands, large tracts of unfarmed land covered by native grasses and shrubs, according to Chimeddorj Buyanaa, Mongolia conservation director at the World Wildlife Fund.
"Rangelands are critically important for the local communities and also for the livelihoods of all of the Mongolian people," he told AFP.
Compounding the issue of climate change is rampant overgrazing that also endangers the region's wildlife, including snow leopards and saiga antelope, Chimeddorj said.
Around one in four Mongolians are nomadic herders.
Nearly 82 percent of the country's territory is affected by desertification and land degradation, authorities said in August.
Many herder families have simply decided to pack up and seek new lives in the city.
"Dundgovi Province's population has been declining continuously in recent years," the southern region's governor, Munkhchuluun Samdannyam, told AFP at COP17.
The worsening climate is a major problem for the province -- three-fifths of its economy depends on livestock husbandry, Munkhchuluun said -- but consequences are felt further afield.
"Dust storms can begin here and travel south to China, Korea, Japan and even as far as the United States," Munkhchuluun said.
"(It) is not only Mongolia's problem.
"It is also a global problem."

'Learn from traditions'

Speaking to AFP before heading to milk several camels tethered nearby, 49-year-old herder Bolormaa Erdenee said she was sceptical of forums like COP17.
"I often question whether the true voice of our herders is actually reaching decision-makers or not," she said.
Bolormaa and her husband raise about 400 livestock.
In their usual summer grazing area, she said roads for heavy mining trucks now criss-cross the steppe, kicking up dust and disrupting her animals.
Several nomadic households nearby have already relocated nearly 200 kilometres (125 miles) away in search of greener pastures.
Hunu app founder Bilgudei -- whose ancestors were nomadic herders -- said traditional migration itself is a form of environmental protection.
Bilgudei told AFP it's important to "learn from the traditions... and combine it with the science and technology".
bur-pfc/rox/mjw/abs

AI

AI political ads warp reality ahead of US midterms

BY ANUJ CHOPRA

  • The lifelike clip shows Talarico writing "let there be six genders" in a Bible with multicolored crayons.
  • A political ad depicts a US Senate hopeful remarking on God and gender while scrawling in a Bible with a crayon.
  • The lifelike clip shows Talarico writing "let there be six genders" in a Bible with multicolored crayons.
A political ad depicts a US Senate hopeful remarking on God and gender while scrawling in a Bible with a crayon. But he never filmed the clip: it is yet another AI-generated video pushed by a rival ahead of the midterm elections.
AI-created ads -- placing politicians in fictitious situations -- have proliferated ahead of the November elections, a largely unregulated form of political communication that is increasingly being adopted despite a broader backlash against the technology.
Earlier this month, Republican Senate nominee in Texas, Ken Paxton, posted an AI-generated ad on X depicting his Democratic rival James Talarico saying: "Look, I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity."
The lifelike clip shows Talarico writing "let there be six genders" in a Bible with multicolored crayons. Overlaid text reads: "James Talarico wrong for Texas" and "wrong for America," while a QR code seeks donations for Paxton.
Talarico condemned the ad, saying "they are lying about a candidate in this race" and that he favored a ban on deepfakes in political campaigns.
"These AI deepfake ads don't add anything to our civic discourse," he told NBC News. "They don't do anything to elucidate the choice that's in front of voters."
The ad came a few weeks after a conservative nonprofit aligned with President Donald Trump released another AI clip depicting Talarico parodying Julie Andrews's character in the hit classic Sound of Music, dressed in a jumper-style bodice and skirt and singing "My favorite things."

 'Erodes trust'

The proliferation of AI ads in US federal, state and local elections comes against the backdrop of declining trust in the technology.
"The concern might be not that people believe the ads but the ads and general AI slop content risk people doubting everything," Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University, told AFP.
"People might just dismiss real content as another deepfake, which erodes trust, causing voters to tune out rather than dig deeper for authenticity."
The Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks election ad spending, has identified at least 164 political ads nationwide so far this year that were "generated or enhanced through the use of AI." It estimates that the ads cost just under $80 million.
That tally of ads -- sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats and splashed across airwaves and social media -- was an undercount.
The group said it was difficult to definitively know whether AI tools had been used in some ads, especially as there were no federal mandates that political ads carry an AI disclaimer.
"Just the knowledge that the tech has become good enough to deceive the average viewer combined with the fact that it is being used in election communication is enough to undermine voters trust in the broader election communication ecosystem," Ilana Beller, from the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen, told AFP.

 'Modern political cartoon'

However, cheap and widely available AI tools help save on the often exorbitant costs of producing ads.
"There's no need to pay for a camera crew or hire actors to create good-looking content on a short timeline. They also open the door to creativity -- no special effects editors required," Isabel Linzer, from the nonpartisan Center for Democracy & Technology, told AFP.
In many cases, Linzer said, satirical or humorous AI ads serve as "the modern political cartoon."
"A worthy question is whether using AI in political ads is a stunt that will boost a candidate through generating substantial free media attention," she added.
The AI-generated ads could help candidates with goals such as fundraising and mobilizing supporters, but there is scant evidence that they influence how people vote, said Scott Babwah Brennen, director of the Center on Technology Policy at New York University.
"Much of this does seem to be effective in gaining attention, though it is unclear if that will translate into electoral success," Babwah Brennen told AFP.
"As public sentiment grows against AI, it is possible that AI-generated negative attack ads could backfire -- that is decreasing assessments of the producer of the ad."
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