Three artists have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney and Stability AI, creators of the AI art generators Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, and the artist portfolio platform called DeviantArt, which recently created its own AI art generator, DreamUp.
The artists, namely Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz, claim that the accused have infringed the rights of millions of artists by using five billion images scraped from the web to train their AI tools without the consent of the artists who created them.
The lawsuit has been filed by Matthew Butterick, lawyer and typographer, along with the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, specializing in antitrust and class action cases.
In a blog post explaining the lawsuit, Butterick described the case as an another step forward toward making AI fair and ethical for everyone.
According to him, the capacity of AI art tools such as Stable Diffusion to flood the market with an unlimited number of infringing images is bound to inflict permanent damage on the market, especially for art and artists.
Butterick and Saveri are currently handling lawsuits against Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI in similar cases involving the AI programming model CoPilot, which is trained on lines of code collected from the web.
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, announced on Friday that cryptocurrencies will be banned entirely from the nation and can be considered for gambling only.
Explaining further the reason behind the crypto ban, Das stated that besides the danger of terror funding, the definition of cryptocurrency is very uncertain. According to him, some people call cryptocurrency an asset, while others call it a financial product, and in that case, it has to have some underline.
Das also represented the volatility in prices of cryptocurrency that makes it reliable. The volatility in price is based on the pretended concept that a particular cryptocurrency price can go up or down. Therefore, anything that comes without any underline whose valuation is entirely dependent on the pretended concept is just 100% speculation or gambling.
India does not allow gambling, and if cryptocurrency is to be treated as gambling, then there should be some particular rules to that. Crypto is not a financial product, so crypto masquerading as a financial asset or product is a misplaced argument.
Issues of data privacy and the robustness of banks’ tech infrastructure have to be the banks’ focus. As many banks are actively engaged with many big tech companies, their challenge is to ensure that this should not lead to a situation where the big tech firm swallows up banks. According to Das, banks should make their own decisions and should not be dominated by the big techs.
According to the college’s spokesperson, radiography testing is conducted to ascertain the material integrity of welds, castings, piping, and other machined parts.
Doctoral Scholar Avishek Mukherjee developed the software using artificial intelligence under the supervision of Surjya K Pal, chairperson of the institute’s Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology (CoEAMT).
The software was tested over a large number of samples at GRSE and was found to provide results that were 93.18% accurate.
The spokesperson said that the software was handed over to GRSE last week, which functions under the ministry of defense. iWeld is most likely to replace the need for skilled welding supervisors in the near future, he added.
The Indian government acquired Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) in 1960. Within a year of being taken over, the first warship of Independent India, INS Ajay, was delivered to the Indian Navy by GRSE.
Meta and Microsoft are vacating their office buildings in Seattle and Bellevue in Washington State as office rentals drop in the city of San Francisco majorly amid remote work and massive layoffs. The Seattle Times reported that Meta is currently reviewing the leases for Seattle-area office buildings.
Facebook has confirmed its plans to sublease the company’s offices in the Spring District in Bellevue and downtown Seattle. Microsoft also confirmed that it will not be renewing its lease for the 26-story City Center Plaza in Bellevue when its lease ends in June 2024.
The ongoing layoffs and work-from-home culture have cut the demand for office space in Seattle and other cities in the US. In November, Meta announced layoffs of a total of 726 Seattle-area workers. A Meta spokesperson explained that given the economic climate, the company is trying to be financially prudent.
According to commercial real estate agency Colliers, the Seattle office market is struggling, and the total office vacancy now stands at around 25%. Even non-vacant offices are often half-empty because of the remote work option.
Connor McClain, senior vice president and leasing expert at Colliers, said, “Given the macroeconomic conditions and the hybrid work trend, we believe we will see an uptick in office vacancy over the next few quarters.”
A creator-oriented metaverse project, Createra, has bagged $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz to continue its pursuit of building the largest Gen Z-focused metaverse platform.
Createra is a user-generated content (UGC) metaverse engine-enabling platform that allows one to create, distribute, and MetaFi games. Createra offers creators exclusive crypto-native autonomous worlds with features such as cross-play and instant accessibility.
These advantages ensure both users have the tools needed to adopt the new industry trends for an optimal gaming experience in the metaverse. “Createra’s powerful cloud-based web engine makes it very easy to develop multiplayer games with the help of web3 features,” said a16z general partner, Connie Chan.
As the funding round comes to an end and Createra continues to attract some of the most prominent investors in the industry, the platform is striving to be the first place for anyone who desires to build a metaverse where one can collaborate and play.
According to the company, this is a crucial moment for the gaming industry as Createra takes on blockchain-based development methods and utilities. The gaming industry is changing at a gradual pace through the introduction and adoption of Web3 tools such as blockchain, verified ownership, and asset monetization.
Chinese technology giant Baidu has unveiled plans to expand its field of work to emerging areas such as generative AI, the metaverse, and quantum computing.
Baidu CEO Robin Li announced this at the company’s annual AI developer conference, Baidu Create, which was held virtually on its XiRang metaverse platform. It was co-hosted by people and robots together for the first time.
Among the deep learning products unveiled at Bindu Create were video content generation and editing models, including Big Model ERNIE 3.0 Zeus. Baidu said these new models would boost AI-generated content.
Baidu also debuted its own metaverse solution, XiRang MetaStack. The platform enables brands to build their own metaverse space in only 40 days as compared to the average of 6 to 12 months, according to the tech company.
The Chinese tech company also showcased an AI-powered software tool to cancel echoes during smartphone calls. Baidu said this development would “enable a smoother and more intelligent human-AI interaction for improved navigation.”
Baidu plans to increase research as well as the construction of infrastructure to foray into the fields of metaverse and quantum computing. The Chinese company also expressed plans to integrate its quantum tech into countless industries.
The world’s leading digital creation platform, PicsArt, has announced a new standalone app called SketchAI, which gives its users the ability to turn a sketch or image into a stunning piece of AI art.
With the rapid rise of generative AI in the past few months, millions of people are using this technology to make new breathtaking visuals. SketchAI expands these possibilities even further by offering users a fun and quick way to create art from sketches or photos.
Apart from creating a sketch or uploading an existing image, users can also add text describing the image to enhance results. SketchAI features various artistic styles which users can apply to their creations, including pencil sketching, ink drawing, da Vinci, van Gogh and more.
“The evolution of AI technology from then until now is incredible. The ability to not only draw anything you want on a mobile phone, but now turn that into a completely new work of art is something I never would have thought was possible,” said Picsart’s VP of Product Lusine Harutyunyan.
SketchAI is the latest in Picsart’s rapid innovation in the generative AI space, coming just after the launch of AI Avatar, which provides custom AI-generated avatars from a user’s selfies.
For the introduction of Level 4 autonomous cars in the nation by the end of the following year, the South Korean Ministry of Transport is planning to restructure the country’s current transportation networks and establish safety regulations and insurance schemes. The government will dramatically relax rules governing autonomous vehicles, according to Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Minister Won Hee-ryong, who made the announcement on Sunday at the ‘CES 2023’ trade show in Las Vegas.
This comes after the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport unveiled Mobility Innovation Roadmap last year. In September 2022, the Korea Times reported that as a part of its by 2035, the nation plans Level 4 autonomous driving technology to be standard on 50% of all new automobiles. By 2030, the South Korean government hopes to establish real-time communications between vehicles and the road, along with installing a connectivity system in place over a 110,000 km area. It even has plans to bring autonomy to bus services in the future.
As innovation in autonomous and electric vehicles accelerates globally, dependable logistics partners such as experienced Vehicle Shipping Companies California play a crucial role in safely transporting next-generation vehicles between testing hubs, dealerships, and customers.
One of South Korea’s most well-adapted megatrends over the past ten years has been self-driving technology, particularly in connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), which enable V2X connection — communication between cars, infrastructure, and other road users — according to a recent news release from ResearchAndMarkets.com.
In light of this, autonomous cars are viewed as an important development in the automotive industry that has the potential to increase driving comfort and road safety in South Korea. Furthermore, South Korea has made significant advancements in autonomous vehicle technology, which is piquing the attention of automakers, technology companies, decision-makers, and the general public.
It will be interesting to see how the nation fulfills its autonomous vehicle ambitions and delivers on its futuristic vision of leading the industry.
Shutterstock recently announced its collaboration with Meta in an attempt to foster innovations in generative AI. This partnership, according to Shutterstock, highlights both companies’ dedication to being at the forefront of AI innovation, as well as the potential of Shutterstock’s Shutterstock’s expansive content library.
Shutterstock claims that its growing collaboration with Meta is part of a larger strategic objective to be at the core of technology, design, content, and innovation. It also claims to be one of the first companies to compensate artists for their work in developing machine learning models, and that by assuring ethical content production and licensing through a transparent IP transfer, it has “proved to be a trusted partner” to those joining the market.
Paul Hennessy, CEO of Shutterstock, thinks AI could encourage more creativity. In addition to its alliance with OpenAI and LG AI Research, which was announced last year, he said the company intends to deepen its long-standing relationship with Meta.
The latest Meta and Shutterstock collab will focus on three core goals:
Introduce innovative products to the market
Expand the Shutterstock ecosystem, which currently pays contributors and links them to artists.
Meta will leverage Shutterstock’s collection of millions of videos, photos, and music to create, train, and analyze its machine-learning skills. In exchange, Meta will allow Shutterstock to use its generative AI models, such as Make A Scene, Make A Video, AudioGen, and others.
Shutterstock has been acquiring many competitors over the past couple of years to expand its content library and have a dominating influnce in the generative AI industry. Over the past two years, it has acquired the leading video-focused stock agency Pond5, the 3D rendering stock agency TurboSquid, the online image editing and design platform PicMonkey, and the celebrity news agency Splash News. In October of last year, the company also added the DALL-E generative AI technology to its platform.
In the era of digital communication, reducing the consequences of an exploit on software or web services must be a primary objective. Most companies need to pay more attention to the necessity of security experts and professionals who advise on security, making themselves vulnerable to cyber attacks. A starting point of solution to prepare an organization for cyber security is to tap into the experiences of security professionals and understand the benefits of bug bounty programs and platforms.
What is a bug bounty program, and why have one?
Bug bounty programs, or vulnerability reward programs, enable ethical hackers to use their technical know-how to find vulnerabilities in a company’s network and receive compensation based on the severity. Indulging in or creating a bug bounty program allows organizations to have access to security professionals and step beyond their own testing constraints, enabling them to find more vulnerabilities that they might otherwise overlook. Since these programs are often continuous, organizations must keep working on them as long as the services are provided. With this approach, enterprises don’t have to wait for the subsequent testing cycle to find new vulnerabilities.
What are bug bounty platforms?
Etymologically, bug bounties are the rewards a company gives white-hat hackers (ethical hackers who identify software vulnerabilities in networks, hardware, or software. Bug bounty platforms are dedicated to creating and managing bounty programs for bugs while offering discussion communities to facilitate better security practices. These platforms are used by businesses to provide rewards to seasoned users who test and identify product flaws. Most companies supplement their in-house QA and issue-finding efforts with these platforms’ bug bounty services. Businesses that can test vulnerabilities without disclosing sensitive information benefit most from bug bounty programs.
Open Bug Bounty
Open Bug Bounty is one of the independently established bug bounty platforms that surfaced in 2014. It is a non-profit project that security researchers developed to connect website owners and security administrators to make the web safer. Any security researcher can disclose a vulnerability on a website using Open Bug Bounty’s coordinated vulnerability disclosure platform as long as the flaw was discovered without intrusive testing methods and was submitted per responsible disclosure standards. The platform follows ISO standard guidelines to ensure ethical and thoughtful disclosure of any.
Open Bug Bounty is only responsible for independent verifications of detected vulnerabilities and notifying website owners. Upon being reported, it is up to the website owner to decide on a suitable remedy and coordinate its disclosure.
Redstorm
Redstorm is one of the bug bounty platforms that help organizations build a team of ethical hackers and security experts as a part of an organization’s infosec team. Using Redstorm’s bug bounty platform, organizations can conveniently publish websites and applications to independent security researchers/ethical hackers who will try to find vulnerabilities in your products.
Redstorm also offers vulnerability disclosure assistance by helping organizations determine the target scope (of what needs to be tested) and the validity of the spotted vulnerabilities.
YesWeHack
YesWeHack is one of the emerging European bug bounty platforms and vulnerability management companies. The platform offers a big community of security professionals and white hat hackers who optimize vulnerability testing. Clients can choose the relevant experts in their security, describe their requirements and get the ‘hunters’ to find vulnerabilities. Once done, users receive protected vulnerability reports, ensuring data privacy and disclosure compliance.
YesWeHack also hosts several contests and hackathons to attract people (or ‘hunters’ as they call them) to hone their hacking skills with its DOJO platform. The platform also offers introductory ethical hacking courses and training modules for those who want to learn ethical hacking.
BugCrowd
Casey Ellis, a cybersecurity expert, founded BugCrowd, one of the most creative and inventive bug bounty platforms. BugCrowd is known to actively push the standard crowd security testing services and test surface management with a wide range of penetration testing activities for IoT, API, and even networks. The platform also skillfully promotes various software development life cycle (SDLC) integration capabilities to speed up and simplify the DevSecOps workflow.
BugCrowd also has a university where security research, webinars, and ethical hacking training are offered for those who want to learn and participate in bug bounty programs. The renowned (ISC)² cybersecurity education group, and business behemoths like Amazon, VISA, and eBay, have hosted numerous Bug Bounty programs on BugCrowd.
Immunefi
Immunefi is one of the web3 bug bounty platforms that operates the most significant bounties worldwide and is the first operational bug bounty program. It is a unique bug bounty platform with chain-agnostic capabilities, i.e., it hosts bug bounties for blockchain projects. Immunefi has a white hat army of security experts who do continuous code reviews and check for vulnerabilities.
Since its inception in 2020, Immunefi has become an industry leader with a team of over 50 experts. It protects over US$25 billion in user funds spread across multiple projects like chainlink, compound, and cream finance.
Bugv is one of the bug bounty platforms that help in vulnerability coordination with robust penetration testers and a team of security researchers. It was founded by Naresh LamGade, an independent security researcher and web enthusiast with a vision to make infrastructures more secure and prepared to tackle exploits. After working as a security analyst in the cybersecurity domain, he wanted to help other organizations keep up to date with vulnerabilities and exploits.
HackerOne
HackerOne is one of the leading bug bounty platforms specializing in attack resistance management (ARM). It was founded in 2012 by ethical hackers and security experts to bridge the gap between organizations’ assets and their protection. HackerOne offers ARM to identify relative weaknesses in the constantly changing digital attack surface and combines the security expertise of ethical hackers with asset discovery, ongoing assessment, and process improvement. With HackerOne’s bug bounty platform, organizations can monitor their bug bounty program in real-time and get access to multiple remediation methods.
Bugbase
Bugbase is one of the first few Indian bug bounty platforms and the largest cybersecurity marketplace in the country. Bugbase harnesses a massive ethical hacking talent to ensure security for businesses with an all-in-one platform. It provides one-click integration using security testing solutions to be used within minutes, and bugs are reported within a few hours. Bugbase offers all compliance certifications like CERT-In, PCI, NIST, GDPR, and a few others to ensure data privacy and security.
Synack
Synack is one of the most valued commercial bug bounty platforms, founded by security visionaries Jay Kaplan and Mark Kuhr. Synack offers a robust testing service with end-to-end vulnerability management with Synack365 and a specialized Synack Red Team team for bug bounty operations. The “Synack Red Team” (SRT) is an exclusive group of cybersecurity experts that comprises security specialists with verified backgrounds and respectable industry expertise. By conducting thorough due diligence on their Red Team and documenting every action for later analysis or review, SynAck successfully established itself as the market leader of trusted crowd security testing services.
Inspectiv
Inspectiv is a well-known vulnerability management and bug bounty platform that crowdsources web applications to test security and scan for vulnerabilities. It was founded in 2018 to provide world-class cybersecurity intelligence and consulting services. Veritone’s FedRAMP certification validates the platform for third-party assessment controls. It effectively reduces cybersecurity threats through easy identification and a hands-on triage team to validate security concerns.
