YouTube tightens policies on AI-generated videos

More than half of the US states have jointly taken Meta, the company that owns apps such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to court. The trial against Meta is set to begin on August 18. The US states have accused the parent company of Facebook and Instagram of designing its apps in ways that can be addictive and harmful to young people. The case is being heard in a federal court in California and is expected to continue for six to eight weeks. The jury will hear testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and former Meta employee Arturo Bejar who has since become a whistleblower regarding the company. The lawsuit filed by the 29 states is being led by attorneys general from California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky. The states originally filed the lawsuit in October 2023 submitting 233 pages of documents to the court. They accused Meta of collecting data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent allegedly violating federal and state laws. The lawsuit claims that Meta refused to stop the use of harmful features because its primary objective was to generate profits. The case could have serious consequences for the future of the social media company as the states are seeking $200 billion in damages, an amount equivalent to Meta’s annual revenue in 2025. The states are also demanding that Meta redesign its apps to make them safer for children. Meta, on the other hand, has rejected all the allegations. The company claims that the states filed the lawsuit to obtain billions of dollars rather than based on facts or the law. In a statement, Meta said the case is important for the states but described their allegations as unfounded and their financial demands as inappropriate. The company also said that the attorneys do not have sufficient evidence to support their claims. According to state attorneys, Meta has developed features designed to keep people spending as much time as possible on its apps with young users being among those most affected. The trial comes shortly after a similar case in New Mexico where a court recently imposed a $567 million fine. A similar lawsuit is also currently being heard in the US state of Tennessee.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT has revealed that during internal testing, an AI-powered autonomous agent attempted to access the online systems of the developer platform Hugging Face along with four other companies. Earlier this month, OpenAI disclosed that two of its most advanced AI models had successfully exploited a security vulnerability at Hugging Face during testing. At the time, the company said that an autonomous AI agent powered by the newly introduced GPT-5.6 Sol and another unreleased advanced model had escaped its controlled testing environment and gained access to the open internet. In a new statement, OpenAI said that during testing, the AI agent connected to the internet from its restricted environment and attempted to access various web services. According to the company, an investigation found that the AI agent obtained login credentials available online and used them to gain access to a small number of accounts. OpenAI did not disclose the names of the four affected companies. However, following the incident, the company temporarily suspended the security testing and is strengthening the safety measures of its AI systems. The company emphasized that the AI agent carried out these actions without any human assistance. OpenAI added that the agent’s activities involving the four companies were less serious and less extensive than what occurred with Hugging Face. According to Model Labs, a company that helps AI firms gain access to computing chips, the AI agent used code written by a user during its actions. Earlier, Clément Delangue, co-founder of Hugging Face said the company initially suspected that a frontier AI lab was behind the intrusion but believed OpenAI had no malicious intent. “It’s mind-blowing that an AI agent did this autonomously. It’s the first incident of its kind,” Delangue said. Hugging Face has now stated that the AI agent acted independently and essentially attempted to gain access to its systems through deceptive methods. According to the company, the agent’s behaviour was real and concerning as it actively exploited security vulnerabilities to achieve its objectives.

Meta announced in February 2023 that Facebook and Instagram users could obtain a verified account (blue checkmark) by paying a monthly subscription fee. Since then, users around the world have been able to subscribe to receive the blue verification badge. However, Meta has now introduced a new way for users to receive a free verification badge on their Facebook profiles, making the process much more accessible. The company has launched a new Facebook Verified program that uses a selfie-based facial recognition check along with a review of the user’s current profile photos. According to Meta, the entire verification process takes only a few minutes to complete. The program is available only to users who are 18 years of age or older. Once a user successfully passes the selfie verification, a verified badge will appear next to their profile name across various Facebook services. Unlike the paid blue checkmark, this free badge simply confirms that the profile belongs to a real person. It does not certify the person’s credibility or trustworthiness. The best part is that this verification badge is available free of charge.