Tag: controversy:
M&M’s ‘spokescandies’ controversy, explained
RIP to the legends
Cane Toad Controversy: Is ‘Toadzilla’ a Record-Breaker?
When Kylee Gray first laid eyes on the creature, she couldn’t help it: She gasped aloud. Then, the Australian park ranger picked up the cane toad and the surprises kept coming. Gray simply “couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was.” And she was right to be shocked.
CNET Pauses Publishing AI-Written Stories After Disclosure Controversy
The call was hosted by Guglielmo, Lindsey Turrentine, CNET’s EVP of content and audience, and Lance Davis, Red Ventures’ vice president of content. They answered a handful of questions submitted by staff ahead of time in the AMA-style call. Davis, who was listed as the point of contact for CNET’s AI stories until recently, also gave staff a more detailed rundown of the tool that has been utilized for the robot-written articles. Until now, most staff had very little insight into the machine that was generating dozens of stories appearing on CNET.
The AI, which is as of yet unnamed, is a proprietary tool built by Red Ventures, according to Davis. AI editors are able to choose domains and domain-level sections from which to pull data from and generate stories; editors can also use a combination of AI-generated text and their own writing or reporting. Turrentine declined to answer staff questions about the dataset used to train AI in today’s meeting as well as around plagiarism concerns but said more information would be available next week and that some staff would get a preview of the tool.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
CNET pauses publication of AI-written stories amid controversy
CNET is halting its use of AI-written articles for the time being. The Vergeclaims the technology publication’s leadership has paused experiments with AI stories “for now” during a question-and-answer call with staff. While there’s no word on the exact reasoning behind the freeze, which also affects Bankrate and CreditCards.com, editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo reportedly said future AI-related stories would include a disclosure that the publication uses automated technologies.
Executive content VP Lindsey Turrentine also promised more transparency regarding the AI, according to The Verge. Some employees would get a preview of the tech, she said. More details of the system will reportedly be available next week. CNET owner Red Ventures has also formed an AI working group. Staff were generally unaware of either the AI’s inner workings or when it was being used.
Questions about CNET‘s AI practices began last week, when Futurismnoticed that dozens of financial explainer articles appeared to have been written using “automation technology.” While there was a disclosure, it was effectively hidden when you had to click the byline to see it. CNET claimed in the blurb that humans “thoroughly” edited and fact-checked the work, but that wasn’t true — the outlet started reviewing the pieces after Futurism discovered serious errors in a story.
CNET has used machine-made articles in years past. AI has advanced since then, though, and the discovery comes as text generation tools like ChatGPT draw flak and even bans over fears of plagiarism and reduced work for human writers. As with automation elsewhere in the workforce, some people don’t trust that companies will use AI in an ethical way.
Paizo Announces a New Gaming License Amid Dungeons & Dragons’ OGL Controversy
Tabletop roleplaying game company Paizo has released a statement following the delayed announcement of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License 2.0. The company, whose staff includes several former Wizards of the Coast executives, developers, and lawyers, has announced that it will be pursuing the creation of a new…
Destiny 2 Iron Banner post-match stat screen sparks K/D controversy
A Destiny 2 Iron Banner post-match stat screen launched controversy among Guardians who disagreed whether it should show off players’ kill-to-death (K/D) ratios even though the format ultimately rewards points earned for completing specific objectives, rather than kills – the way the FPS game has traditionally done in Crucible.
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Destiny 2 classes, Destiny 2 exotics, Destiny 2 builds
Tech’s latest controversy? The return of the five-day, in-person work week
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. May the earnest among us rise up: Techies, it’s prediction season. It’s my favorite time of the year, not because I’m a glutton for threads […]
Tech’s latest controversy? The return of the five-day, in-person work week by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch
Destiny 2 Game Developer Conference controversy is unfair to Bungie
A Destiny 2 Game Developer Conference (GDC) talk is making the rounds on Twitter as players suggest Bungie is actively stifling developers’ ambitions for the game. Looking through a wider lens, however, the statements from presenter Justin Truman, Bungie’s chief development officer, might be taken out of context.
The presentation discussing the ongoing live service FPS game, titled ‘From Box Products to Live Service: How Destiny 2 Transformed Bungie,’ first appeared online in April, just a few weeks after GDC in March, but only recently garnered attention within the Destiny community. Specifically, players have latched onto Truman’s train analogy after telling the audience of game developers that “It’s HARD to tell a team that has extra cycles and energy and want to do something amazing — that would be amazing and awesome for the game — we should not ship this, because it is an overdelivery that will set us up for failure on future trains.”
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Destiny 2 classes, Destiny 2 exotics, Destiny 2 builds
Twitter conveniently reveals a location sharing policy amid Elonjet controversy
In November, as an example of his commitment to free speech, Elon Musk promised that he wouldn’t ban an account that tracked his private jet despite claiming it was a “direct personal safety risk.” Today, that account was suspended. Then restored. Then suspended again. It’s not yet clear what the future holds for @ElonJet, but its fate is probably tied to a new set of rules from Twitter Safety about how it handles accounts sharing location information for other people.
According to a series of tweets outlining the new policy, sharing the live location of another person is now prohibited unless it is related to a “public engagement or event,” like a concert or a political event. “When someone shares an individual’s live location on Twitter, there is an increased risk of physical harm,” the announcement reads. “Moving forward, we’ll remove Tweets that share this information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.” The thread goes on to clarify that these rules only apply to the location of “someone else.” You can still Tweet your own whereabouts.
Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.
Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
Historical location information is allowed, however, so long as “a reasonable time has elapsed, so that the individual is no longer at risk for physical harm.” That part of the policy could leave room for an account like @Elonjet — and while the account was briefly restored this afternoon, at the time of this writing it is once again suspended, as are the personal accounts of Jack Sweeney, the college student who runs @Elonjet. Musk has also said that “legal action” would be taken against Sweeney and “organizations who supported harm to my family” following a recent incident with a stalker and the billionaire’s son.
UPDATE 12/14 5:08PM: Added a statement from Elon Musk that legal action would be taken against Sweeney.