Policy

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Google and AT&T invest in Starlink rival for satellite-to-smartphone service

ast spacemobile, Policy, spacex starlink / /

Satellite for smartphones —

AST SpaceMobile gets $206.5 million and is partnering with Google and AT&T.

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Illustration of a large, square satellite orbiting the Earth.

Enlarge / Illustration of AST SpaceMobile’s cellular satellite.

AST SpaceMobile

Google, AT&T, and Vodafone are investing $206.5 million in AST SpaceMobile, a Starlink competitor that plans to offer smartphone service from low-Earth-orbit satellites.

This is the first investment in AST SpaceMobile from Google and AT&T, while Vodafone had already put money into the satellite company. AST SpaceMobile announced the funding in a press release on Thursday and announced a $100 million public offering of its stock on the same day.

“Vodafone and AT&T have placed purchase orders for network equipment from AST SpaceMobile to support planned commercial service,” the satellite company said. Google has meanwhile “agreed to collaborate on product development, testing, and implementation plans for SpaceMobile network connectivity on Android and related devices.” AST, which has one very large test satellite in orbit, previously received investments from Rakuten, American Tower, and Bell Canada.

SpaceX subsidiary Starlink has deals with T-Mobile in the US and several carriers in other countries for satellite-to-smartphone service. T-Mobile is expected to offer Starlink-enabled text messaging this year, with voice and data service beginning sometime in 2025.

Though AT&T hadn’t previously invested in AST SpaceMobile, the companies were already working together. AT&T is leasing spectrum in the 700 MHz and 850 MHz bands to AST SpaceMobile. They plan “to provide mobile broadband to unserved and underserved areas covered by the Leased Spectrum,” the companies told the Federal Communications Commission in an application last year.

AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 test satellite, which is 693 square feet in size.

Enlarge / AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite, which is 693 square feet in size.

AST SpaceMobile

For hard-to-reach areas

Satellite-to-smartphone technology is generally seen as a supplement to cellular networks in hard-to-reach areas. “Because AST’s technology can focus satellite coverage in discrete portions of licensed areas, it does not need a nationwide swath of terrestrial mobile spectrum that a mobile network operator licensee has left fallow. Rather than displacing terrestrial network facilities nationwide, AST’s coverage will be complementary to AT&T’s extensive terrestrial network coverage,” the companies’ FCC filing said.

In April 2023, the companies announced that they completed the first two-way voice calls using AST SpaceMobile’s test satellite with standard mobile phones. “The first voice call was made from the Midland, Texas area to Rakuten in Japan over AT&T spectrum using a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone,” the announcement said.

In September 2023, AST SpaceMobile said it made “the first-ever 5G connection for voice and data between an everyday, unmodified smartphone and a satellite in space” and that it achieved a download rate of 14Mbps.

Five satellites should launch soon

AST SpaceMobile’s prototype satellite launched from a SpaceX rocket in September 2022. AST’s early plans detailed in 2020 called for 243 satellites overall, and its first five satellites for commercial operations are expected to launch by March 31, 2024. AST is manufacturing the satellites at its Texas facilities.

The prototype satellite delivers data over 5 MHz channels. “For the company’s planned operational satellites, beams are designed to support capacity of up to 40 Mhz, potentially enabling data transmission speeds of up to 120Mbps,” the company said.

An AST description of its satellite says it has “a large surface area of phased-array antennas, which work together to electronically form, steer, and shape wireless communication beams into cells of coverage,” similarly to cell towers on the ground. AST says its BlueWalker 3 test satellite is 693 square feet.

AST said it has “over 40 agreements and understandings with mobile network operators globally, who collectively service over 2 billion subscribers.” Besides Vodafone and AT&T, these “agreements and understandings” are with firms including Rakuten Mobile, Bell Canada, Orange, Telefonica, TIM, MTN, Saudi Telecom Company, Zain KSA, Etisalat, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Telkomsel, Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Millicom, Smartfren, Telecom Argentina, Telstra, Africell, and Liberty Latin America.

While Starlink already has over 5,000 satellites delivering home Internet service and plans to launch tens of thousands more, it isn’t too far ahead of AST SpaceMobile in terms of cellular-enabled satellites. SpaceX launched the first six Starlink satellites that can provide cellular transmissions to standard LTE phones a few weeks ago and demonstrated the technology with text messages sent between T-Mobile phones.

Google and AT&T invest in Starlink rival for satellite-to-smartphone service Read More »

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HP CEO evokes James Bond-style hack via ink cartridges

class action, HP, Policy, printers, Security, Tech / /
Office printer with

Last Thursday, HP CEO Enrique Lores addressed the company’s controversial practice of bricking printers when users load them with third-party ink. Speaking to CNBC Television, he said, “We have seen that you can embed viruses in the cartridges. Through the cartridge, [the virus can] go to the printer, [and then] from the printer, go to the network.”

That frightening scenario could help explain why HP, which was hit this month with another lawsuit over its Dynamic Security system, insists on deploying it to printers.

Dynamic Security stops HP printers from functioning if an ink cartridge without an HP chip or HP electronic circuitry is installed. HP has issued firmware updates that block printers with such ink cartridges from printing, leading to the above lawsuit (PDF), which is seeking class-action certification. The suit alleges that HP printer customers were not made aware that printer firmware updates issued in late 2022 and early 2023 could result in printer features not working. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and an injunction preventing HP from issuing printer updates that block ink cartridges without an HP chip.

But are hacked ink cartridges something we should actually be concerned about?

To investigate, I turned to Ars Technica Senior Security Editor Dan Goodin. He told me that he didn’t know of any attacks actively used in the wild that are capable of using a cartridge to infect a printer.

Goodin also put the question to Mastodon, and cybersecurity professionals, many with expertise in embedded-device hacking, were decidedly skeptical.

Another commenter, going by Graham Sutherland / Polynomial on Mastodon, referred to serial presence detect (SPD) electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a form of flash memory used extensively in ink cartridges, saying:

I’ve seen and done some truly wacky hardware stuff in my life, including hiding data in SPD EEPROMs on memory DIMMs (and replacing them with microcontrollers for similar shenanigans), so believe me when I say that his claim is wildly implausible even in a lab setting, let alone in the wild, and let alone at any scale that impacts businesses or individuals rather than selected political actors.

HP’s evidence

Unsurprisingly, Lores’ claim comes from HP-backed research. The company’s bug bounty program tasked researchers from Bugcrowd with determining if it’s possible to use an ink cartridge as a cyberthreat. HP argued that ink cartridge microcontroller chips, which are used to communicate with the printer, could be an entryway for attacks.

As detailed in a 2022 article from research firm Actionable Intelligence, a researcher in the program found a way to hack a printer via a third-party ink cartridge. The researcher was reportedly unable to perform the same hack with an HP cartridge.

Shivaun Albright, HP’s chief technologist of print security, said at the time:

A researcher found a vulnerability over the serial interface between the cartridge and the printer. Essentially, they found a buffer overflow. That’s where you have got an interface that you may not have tested or validated well enough, and the hacker was able to overflow into memory beyond the bounds of that particular buffer. And that gives them the ability to inject code into the device.

Albright added that the malware “remained on the printer in memory” after the cartridge was removed.

HP acknowledges that there’s no evidence of such a hack occurring in the wild. Still, because chips used in third-party ink cartridges are reprogrammable (their “code can be modified via a resetting tool right in the field,” according to Actionable Intelligence), they’re less secure, the company says. The chips are said to be programmable so that they can still work in printers after firmware updates.

HP also questions the security of third-party ink companies’ supply chains, especially compared to its own supply chain security, which is ISO/IEC-certified.

So HP did find a theoretical way for cartridges to be hacked, and it’s reasonable for the company to issue a bug bounty to identify such a risk. But its solution for this threat was announced before it showed there could be a threat. HP added ink cartridge security training to its bug bounty program in 2020, and the above research was released in 2022. HP started using Dynamic Security in 2016, ostensibly to solve the problem that it sought to prove exists years later.

Further, there’s a sense from cybersecurity professionals that Ars spoke with that even if such a threat exists, it would take a high level of resources and skills, which are usually reserved for targeting high-profile victims. Realistically, the vast majority of individual consumers and businesses shouldn’t have serious concerns about ink cartridges being used to hack their machines.

HP CEO evokes James Bond-style hack via ink cartridges Read More »

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Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known “from the start”

british post office scandal, fujitsu post office, Policy / /

British Post Office Scandal —

Software bugs were hidden from lawyers of wrongly convicted UK postal workers.

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Paul Patterson, co-CEO of Fujitsu's European division, sits at a table in front of a microphone while testifying for a public inquiry.

Enlarge / Paul Patterson, co-CEO of Fujitsu’s European division, testifies for a public inquiry in London on January 19, 2024.

Getty Images | AFP

Fujitsu software bugs that helped send innocent postal employees to prison in the UK were known “right from the very start of deployment,” a Fujitsu executive told a public inquiry today.

“All the bugs and errors have been known at one level or not, for many, many years. Right from the very start of deployment of the system, there were bugs and errors and defects, which were well-known to all parties,” said Paul Patterson, co-CEO of Fujitsu’s European division.

That goes back to 1999, when the Horizon software system was installed in post offices by Fujitsu subsidiary International Computers Limited. From 1999 to 2015, Fujitsu’s faulty accounting software aided in the prosecution and conviction of more than 900 sub-postmasters and postmistresses who were accused of theft or fraud when the software wrongly made it appear that money was missing from their branches.

Some innocent people went to prison, while others were forced to make payments to the UK Post Office to cover the supposed shortfalls. So far, “only 93 convictions have been overturned and thousands of people are still waiting for compensation settlements,” a BBC report said.

Post Office lawyers rewrote Fujitsu witness statements

During the prosecutions, courts hearing cases against postal employees “were not told of 29 bugs identified as early as 1999 in the system it built,” The Guardian wrote in a summary of Patterson’s testimony today. The article said:

When bugs were acknowledged, witness statements from Fujitsu staff due to be heard in court were then edited by the Post Office as it sought to maintain the line that the system was working well as it pursued innocent people through the courts.

Paul Patterson agreed that both organizations had failed the accused. “I am surprised that that detail was not included in the witness statements given by Fujitsu staff to the Post Office and I have seen some evidence of editing witness statements by others,” he said.

Asked by the lead counsel of the public inquiry, Jason Beer KC, whether he agreed that this was shameful, Patterson, who has worked at the company for 14 years, said: “That would be one word I would use. Shameful and appalling. My understanding of how our laws work in this country, is that all of the evidence should have been put in front of the subpostmasters that the Post Office was relying on to prosecute them.”

A Financial Times article said that the public inquiry “heard in December last year that the Post Office’s lawyers had rewritten Fujitsu witness statements.”

The FT article also said the Post Office, which used prosecution powers available to private corporations in the UK, obtained 700 of the 900 convictions. The other convictions came in cases brought by Scottish prosecutors. The scandal may lead to reforms of the private prosecution system that lets organizations take people to court.

Bugs were understood “way back to 1999”

Earlier this week, Patterson told UK Parliament members that “Fujitsu would like to apologize for our part in this appalling miscarriage of justice. We were involved from the very start. We did have bugs and errors in the system and we did help the Post Office in their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters. For that we are truly sorry.”

Patterson also told Parliament members that Fujitsu has “a moral obligation” to contribute to the compensation for victims.

Patterson testified today in a different setting, answering questions from lawyers representing victims. One of those lawyers, Flora Page, asked Patterson, “Did nobody historically make that pretty obvious connection between very poor code going out into operation and then very poor data coming out and through the litigation support service?”

Patterson answered, “Whether people made that connection or not, what is very evident… is that that connection and understanding about what was going on and where was it, was understood by certainly Fujitsu and certainly understood by Post Office way back to 1999. It’s all about what you do with that information… that is a question for this inquiry.”

Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake, the MP for Thirsk and Malton, told the BBC that his “number one priority” is to “try and get compensation and get answers for people.”

“You’ve had marriages fail, people commit suicide, an horrendous impact on people’s lives,” he said. “It’s perfectly reasonable that the public should demand people are held to account and that should mean criminal prosecutions wherever possible.” The UK government also has plans for a new law to “swiftly exonerate and compensate” people who were falsely convicted.

Fujitsu bugs that sent innocent people to prison were known “from the start” Read More »

amazon’s-purchase-of-roomba-maker-irobot-likely-to-be-blocked-by-eu

Amazon’s purchase of Roomba-maker iRobot likely to be blocked by EU

amazon irobot, amazon roomba, irobot roomba, Policy / /

Amazon/iRobot merger —

Amazon was told at meeting that deal is likely to be rejected, WSJ reports.

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A store shelf holds several boxes that contain Roomba vacuum cleaners.

Getty Images | SOPA Images

European Union regulators intend to block Amazon’s attempt to purchase Roomba-maker iRobot, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

European Commission competition officials “met Thursday with representatives from Amazon to discuss the deal,” the Journal wrote, citing people familiar with the matter. “Amazon was told during the meeting that the deal was likely to be rejected,” according to one of the Journal’s sources.

Amazon announced the $1.7 billion deal in August 2022. The EC has a February 14 deadline to reach a decision. European officials have said that Amazon could restrict the availability of Roomba rivals on the Amazon online retail store.

A move to block the iRobot purchase “would still need formal approval from the commission’s 27 top political leaders before a final decision can be issued,” the WSJ article said. “Historically, that process is unlikely to overrule a recommendation from the bloc’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager.”

Amazon declined to comment when contacted by Ars today but pointed us toward a statement by lobby group Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). “If the objective is to have more competition in the home robotics sector, this makes no sense,” CCIA President Matt Schruers said. “There is no plausible risk to competition from a US retailer acquiring a struggling US vacuum maker in a sector overtaken by dynamic Chinese manufacturers. Blocking this deal may well leave consumers with fewer options, and regulators cannot sweep that fact under the rug.”

EC told Amazon deal may restrict competition

In November 2023, the EC announced that it had “informed Amazon of its preliminary view that its proposed acquisition of iRobot may restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners.” The EC sent a statement of objections, a formal step in the process that could lead to a merger being blocked.

“Amazon may have the ability and the incentive to foreclose iRobot’s rivals,” the EC’s November statement said. The regulatory body said that Amazon could punish rival sellers of robot vacuum cleaners (RVCs) on its online store.

Possible Amazon tactics cited by the EC included “delisting rival RVCs; reducing visibility of rival RVCs in both non-paid (i.e., organic) and paid results (i.e., advertisements) displayed in Amazon’s marketplace; limiting access to certain widgets (e.g. ‘other products you may like’) or certain commercially attractive product labels (e.g. ‘Amazon’s choice’ or ‘Works With Alexa’); and/or directly or indirectly raising the costs of iRobot’s rivals to advertise and sell their RVCs on Amazon’s marketplace.”

Last week, Amazon missed a deadline to offer European officials remedies to address their concerns about the deal’s impact on competition.

As of this writing, iRobot’s stock price was down about 27 percent today. Amazon’s stock price was up around 1 percent.

Amazon’s purchase of Roomba-maker iRobot likely to be blocked by EU Read More »

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TSMC predicts delays, less advanced chips at second Arizona fab

arizona, chips fab, chips shortage, Policy, semiconductors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC / /
US President Joe Biden speaks during a

Enlarge / US President Joe Biden speaks during a “First Tool-In” ceremony at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. TSMC today announced plans to boost its investment in the state to $40 billion and construct a second production facility, following major customers urging the Taiwanese chipmaker to build more advanced semiconductors in the US.

President Joe Biden’s plan to expand America’s command of the global chips market hit another setback Thursday when Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Chairman Mark Liu announced that he anticipates significant delays at the company’s second chips plant in Arizona.

This news follows previous delays announced last year at TSMC’s first chips plant, which Liu partly blamed on US workers lacking specialized skills. At Thursday’s news conference, Liu “reiterated” those complaints, Bloomberg reported, claiming that TSMC is still struggling to hire skilled workers in Arizona.

According to Liu, TSMC’s second Arizona plant—which is supposed to become the most advanced facility in the US—likely won’t start volume production of advanced chips until 2027 or 2028. That’s potentially two years longer than initial projections suggesting that production would start in 2026.

Such lengthy delays, Bloomberg noted, might be “time enough for semiconductor tech to advance by one generation.” If that’s the case, one of the country’s biggest foreign investments ever might result in the US still lagging behind foreign chips competitors.

Liu also suggested that the second plant, even with delays, might not start producing the 3-nanometer chip that TSMC had earlier stated would be possible in 2026. This 3-nm chip is “among the most advanced” chips manufactured today, The Wall Street Journal noted, but Liu said that until TSMC could calculate “customer demand and government incentives,” the chipmaker wouldn’t be able to determine “the specific chip type” that the second plant would begin producing as late as 2028.

TSMC’s delays could be due to a lack of Chips Act funding, Bloomberg suggested, pointing out that none of the leading chip manufacturers ramping up efforts in the US today have been approved for funding yet by the Department of Commerce.

Last month, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo confirmed that the US had not yet awarded grants to commercial semiconductor facilities like TSMC because selecting a defense contractor first “was meant to emphasize the administration’s focus on national security,” The New York Times reported. By funding BAE Systems, the Biden administration was likely moving quickly to decrease reliance on China-based chip supply chains for military purposes amid growing tensions between the two countries.

“When we talk about supply chain resilience, this investment is about shoring up that resilience and ensuring that the chips are delivered when our military needs them,” Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, said last month.

If the US announced funding for TSMC, that could ensure that the second Arizona chips plant would be operational by 2027 rather than 2028. According to Bloomberg, TSMC announced it was building a “more modest plant” in Japan that’s on track to launch operations this year after the Japanese government promptly provided funding.

In December, Raimondo promised that “much larger grants for major semiconductor manufacturing facilities run by companies like Intel, Samsung,” or TSMC would be announced “in the coming months.” She also confirmed that the “pace” of announcing awards would speed up in the first half of 2024.

Liu said that TSMC is in “consistent communication with the US government on incentive and tax credit support” in Arizona, the Journal reported.

TSMC predicts delays, less advanced chips at second Arizona fab Read More »

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Apple Watch no longer sold with blood oxygen monitoring after patent battle loss

Apple, apple watch, patent infringement, Policy, Tech / /
Apple Watch Ultra 2

Enlarge / The Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Apple

Starting today, if you buy an Apple Watch Series 9 or Watch Ultra 2 it won’t be able to tell you your blood oxygen levels, a feature that Apple heavily touted when first introducing the capability in 2020. Although the watches will be less capable than watches of the same model sold before today, Apple is selling the pared-down watches at the same prices as before.

On Wednesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied [PDF] Apple’s request that an import ban on the smartwatches be lifted for the duration of Apple’s appeal of the ruling that blocked the watches. Apple expects its appeal to take at least a year to be resolved.

In its ruling, the court said:

Our determination is governed by four factors: (1) whether the movant has made a strong showing of likelihood of success on the merits; (2) whether the movant will be irreparably harmed absent a stay; (3) whether issuance of the stay will substantially injure the other parties interested in the proceeding; and (4) where the public interest lies.

In January 2023, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that Apple Watches infringe two patents for light-based pulse oximetry functionality and components owned by California-headquartered Masimo.

After US President Joe Biden declined to veto the ruling, Apple filed an appeal and pulled the watches on December 21. The company received a temporary stay that enabled it to sell the watches with the questioned capabilities from December 27 until 5 pm ET yesterday. But yesterday’s ruling resulted in the stay being lifted, forcing Apple to either stop selling the watches or to continue selling them but with the disputed feature removed.

When reached for comment, an Apple spokesperson told Ars Technica:

Pending the appeal, Apple is taking steps to comply with the ruling while ensuring customers have access to Apple Watch with limited disruption. These steps include introducing a version of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States without the Blood Oxygen feature. There is no impact to Apple Watch units previously purchased that include the Blood Oxygen feature.

In a statement shared by Bloomberg today, Masimo CEO Joe Kiani said that Wednesday’s decision “affirms that even the largest and most powerful companies must respect the intellectual rights of American inventors and must deal with the consequences when they are caught infringing others’ patents.”

Same watches, different abilities

Starting today, Apple will only sell the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, which both came out in September, with a US Customs and Border Protection-approved software workaround that disables blood oxygen monitoring capabilities. These watches will be available at Apple’s physical and online stores, Apple said. They also have part numbers ending in “LW/A,” per updated Apple support materials.

Users of newly purchased Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches will still have a blood oxygen icon on their watch, but upon tapping the icon, the watch will say, “The Blood Oxygen app is no longer available. Learn more in the Health app on your iPhone.” Once they go to the Health app, users can access a support article on Apple’s website explaining the situation.

Apple’s general product page for the Apple Watch and its websites for the Series 9 and Ultra 2 now include tiny footnotes at the bottom, noting that its watches no longer have the blood oxygen monitoring capabilities that they were announced with. When asked why the watches aren’t less expensive without pulse oximeter functionality, Apple’s rep said that pricing isn’t based on a single feature. It’s worth noting that the watches haven’t become cheaper to make, as they still have the same components as before.

Since the US ITC’s ruling only affects the US, Apple will continue selling the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 with blood oxygen monitoring capabilities outside the US.

Apple didn’t respond to Ars’ questions asking if it will redesign its watches so that they can offer blood oxygen monitoring without infringing on any patents. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Apple has “been working on a software update that changes the blood-oxygen app and its algorithms in a way that might circumvent” patent infringement but keep the feature.

Apple Watch no longer sold with blood oxygen monitoring after patent battle loss Read More »

openai-must-defend-chatgpt-fabrications-after-failing-to-defeat-libel-suit

OpenAI must defend ChatGPT fabrications after failing to defeat libel suit

ai hallucinations, chatbot, chatgpt, chatgpt fabrications, chatgpt hallucinations, defamation, generative ai, hallucinations, libel, libel law, openai, Policy / /

One false move —

ChatGPT users may soon learn whether false outputs will be allowed to ruin lives.

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OpenAI must defend ChatGPT fabrications after failing to defeat libel suit

OpenAI may finally have to answer for ChatGPT’s “hallucinations” in court after a Georgia judge recently ruled against the tech company’s motion to dismiss a radio host’s defamation suit.

OpenAI had argued that ChatGPT’s output cannot be considered libel, partly because the chatbot output cannot be considered a “publication,” which is a key element of a defamation claim. In its motion to dismiss, OpenAI also argued that Georgia radio host Mark Walters could not prove that the company acted with actual malice or that anyone believed the allegedly libelous statements were true or that he was harmed by the alleged publication.

It’s too early to say whether Judge Tracie Cason found OpenAI’s arguments persuasive. In her order denying OpenAI’s motion to dismiss, which MediaPost shared here, Cason did not specify how she arrived at her decision, saying only that she had “carefully” considered arguments and applicable laws.

There may be some clues as to how Cason reached her decision in a court filing from John Monroe, attorney for Walters, when opposing the motion to dismiss last year.

Monroe had argued that OpenAI improperly moved to dismiss the lawsuit by arguing facts that have yet to be proven in court. If OpenAI intended the court to rule on those arguments, Monroe suggested that a motion for summary judgment would have been the proper step at this stage in the proceedings, not a motion to dismiss.

Had OpenAI gone that route, though, Walters would have had an opportunity to present additional evidence. To survive a motion to dismiss, all Walters had to do was show that his complaint was reasonably supported by facts, Monroe argued.

Failing to convince the court that Walters had no case, OpenAI’s legal theories regarding its liability for ChatGPT’s “hallucinations” will now likely face their first test in court.

“We are pleased the court denied the motion to dismiss so that the parties will have an opportunity to explore, and obtain a decision on, the merits of the case,” Monroe told Ars.

What’s the libel case against OpenAI?

Walters sued OpenAI after a journalist, Fred Riehl, warned him that in response to a query, ChatGPT had fabricated an entire lawsuit. Generating an entire complaint with an erroneous case number, ChatGPT falsely claimed that Walters had been accused of defrauding and embezzling funds from the Second Amendment Foundation.

Walters is the host of Armed America Radio and has a reputation as the “Loudest Voice in America Fighting For Gun Rights.” He claimed that OpenAI “recklessly” disregarded whether ChatGPT’s outputs were false, alleging that OpenAI knew that “ChatGPT’s hallucinations were pervasive and severe” and did not work to prevent allegedly libelous outputs. As Walters saw it, the false statements were serious enough to be potentially career-damaging, “tending to injure Walter’s reputation and exposing him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule.”

Monroe argued that Walters had “adequately stated a claim” of libel, per se, as a private citizen, “for which relief may be granted under Georgia law” where “malice is inferred” in “all actions for defamation” but “may be rebutted” by OpenAI.

Pushing back, OpenAI argued that Walters was a public figure who must prove that OpenAI acted with “actual malice” when allowing ChatGPT to produce allegedly harmful outputs. But Monroe told the court that OpenAI “has not shown sufficient facts to establish that Walters is a general public figure.”

Whether or not Walters is a public figure could be another key question leading Cason to rule against OpenAI’s motion to dismiss.

Perhaps also frustrating the court, OpenAI introduced “a large amount of material” in its motion to dismiss that fell outside the scope of the complaint, Monroe argued. That included pointing to a disclaimer in ChatGPT’s terms of use that warns users that ChatGPT’s responses may not be accurate and should be verified before publishing. According to OpenAI, this disclaimer makes Riehl the “owner” of any libelous ChatGPT responses to his queries.

“A disclaimer does not make an otherwise libelous statement non-libelous,” Monroe argued. And even if the disclaimer made Riehl liable for publishing the ChatGPT output—an argument that may give some ChatGPT users pause before querying—”that responsibility does not have the effect of negating the responsibility of the original publisher of the material,” Monroe argued.

Additionally, OpenAI referenced a conversation between Walters and OpenAI, even though Monroe said that the complaint “does not allege that Walters ever had a chat” with OpenAI. And OpenAI also somewhat oddly argued that ChatGPT outputs could be considered “intra-corporate communications” rather than publications, suggesting that ChatGPT users could be considered private contractors when querying the chatbot.

With the lawsuit moving forward, curious chatbot users everywhere may finally get the answer to a question that has been unclear since ChatGPT quickly became the fastest-growing consumer application of all time after its launch in November 2022: Will ChatGPT’s hallucinations be allowed to ruin lives?

In the meantime, the FTC is seemingly still investigating potential harms caused by ChatGPT’s “false, misleading, or disparaging” generations.

An FTC spokesperson previously told Ars that the FTC does not generally comment on nonpublic investigations.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to comment.

OpenAI must defend ChatGPT fabrications after failing to defeat libel suit Read More »

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Sharing deepfake porn could lead to lengthy prison time under proposed law

ai image generated, AI-generated images, congress, deepfake porn, deepfake pornography, fake nude images, generative ai, New Jersey, Policy, sexual exploitation / /

Fake nudes, real harms —

Teen “shouting for change” after fake nude images spread at NJ high school.

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Sharing deepfake porn could lead to lengthy prison time under proposed law

The US seems to be getting serious about criminalizing deepfake pornography after teen boys at a New Jersey high school used AI image generators to create and share non-consensual fake nude images of female classmates last October.

On Tuesday, Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-NY) announced that he has re-introduced the “Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act,” which seeks to “prohibit the non-consensual disclosure of digitally altered intimate images.” Under the proposed law, anyone sharing deepfake pornography without an individual’s consent risks damages that could go as high as $150,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years if sharing the images facilitates violence or impacts the proceedings of a government agency.

The hope is that steep penalties will deter companies and individuals from allowing the disturbing images to be spread. It creates a criminal offense for sharing deepfake pornography “with the intent to harass, annoy, threaten, alarm, or cause substantial harm to the finances or reputation of the depicted individual” or with “reckless disregard” or “actual knowledge” that images will harm the individual depicted. It also provides a path for victims to sue offenders in civil court.

Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ), who co-sponsored the bill, said that “proper guardrails and transparency are essential for fostering a sense of responsibility among AI companies and individuals using AI.”

“Try to imagine the horror of receiving intimate images looking exactly like you—or your daughter, or your wife, or your sister—and you can’t prove it’s not,” Morelle said. “Deepfake pornography is sexual exploitation, it’s abusive, and I’m astounded it is not already a federal crime.”

Joining Morelle in pushing to criminalize deepfake pornography was Dorota and Francesca Mani, who have spent the past two months meeting with lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal reported. The mother and daughter experienced the horror Morelle described firsthand when the New Jersey high school confirmed that 14-year-old Francesca was among the students targeted last year.

“What happened to me and my classmates was not cool, and there’s no way I’m just going to shrug and let it slide,” Francesca said. “I’m here, standing up and shouting for change, fighting for laws, so no one else has to feel as lost and powerless as I did on October 20th.”

Morelle’s office told Ars that “advocacy from partners like the Mani family” is “critical to bringing attention to this issue” and getting the proposed law “to the floor for a vote.”

Morelle introduced the law in December 2022, but it failed to pass that year or in 2023. He’s re-introducing the law in 2024 after seemingly gaining more support during a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on “Advances in Deepfake Technology” last November.

At that hearing, many lawmakers warned of the dangers of AI-generated deepfakes, citing a study from the Dutch AI company Sensity, which found that 96 percent of deepfakes online are deepfake porn—the majority of which targets women.

But lawmakers also made clear that it’s currently hard to detect AI-generated images and distinguish them from real images.

According to a hearing transcript posted by the nonprofit news organization Tech Policy Press, David Doermann—currently interim chair of the University at Buffalo’s computer science and engineering department and former program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)—told lawmakers that DARPA was already working on advanced deepfake detection tools but still had more work to do.

To support laws like Morelle’s, lawmakers have called for more funding for DARPA and the National Science Foundation to aid in ongoing efforts to create effective detection tools. At the same time, President Joe Biden—through a sweeping AI executive order—has pushed for solutions like watermarking deepfakes. Biden’s executive order also instructed the Department of Commerce to establish “standards and best practices for detecting AI-generated content and authenticating official content.”

Morelle is working to push his law through in 2024, warning that deepfake pornography is already affecting a “generation of young women like Francesca,” who are “ready to stand up against systemic oppression and stand in their power.”

Until the federal government figures out how to best prevent the sharing of AI-generated deepfakes, Francesca and her mom plan to keep pushing for change.

“Our voices are our secret weapon, and our words are like power-ups in Fortnite,” Francesca said. “My mom and I are advocating to create a world where being safe isn’t just a hope; it’s a reality for everyone.”

Sharing deepfake porn could lead to lengthy prison time under proposed law Read More »

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Climate denialists find new ways to monetize disinformation on YouTube

climate change, climate denial, climate denialism, Google, online advertising, Policy, youtube / /
Climate denialists find new ways to monetize disinformation on YouTube

Content creators have spent the past five years developing new tactics to evade YouTube’s policies blocking monetization of videos making false claims about climate change, a report from a nonprofit advocacy group, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), warned Tuesday.

What the CCDH found is that content creators who could no longer monetize videos spreading “old” forms of climate denial—including claims that “global warming is not happening” or “human-generated greenhouse gasses are not causing global warming”—have moved on.

Now they’re increasingly pushing other claims that contradict climate science, which YouTube has not yet banned and may not ever ban. These include harmful claims that “impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless,” “climate solutions won’t work,” and “climate science and the climate movement are unreliable.”

The CCDH uncovered these new climate-denial tactics by using artificial intelligence to scan transcripts of 12,058 videos posted on 96 YouTube channels that the CCDH found had previously posted climate-denial content. Verified by researchers, the AI model used was judged accurate in labeling climate-denial content approximately 78 percent of the time.

According to the CCDH’s analysis, the amount of content disputing climate solutions, climate science, and impacts of climate change today comprises 70 percent of climate-denial content—a percent that doubled from 2018 to 2023. At the same time, the amount of content pushing old climate-denial claims that are harder or impossible to monetize fell from 65 percent in 2018 to 30 percent in 2023.

These “new forms of climate denial,” the CCDH warned, are designed to delay climate action by spreading disinformation.

“A new front has opened up in this battle,” Imran Ahmed, the CCDH’s chief executive, said on a call with reporters, according to Reuters. “The people that we’ve been looking at, they’ve gone from saying climate change isn’t happening to now saying, ‘Hey, climate change is happening, but there is no hope. There are no solutions.'”

Since 2018—based on “estimates of typical ad pricing on YouTube” by social media analytics tool Social Blade—YouTube may have profited by as much as $13.4 million annually from videos flagged by the CCDH. And YouTube confirmed that some of these videos featured climate denialism that YouTube already explicitly bans.

In response to the CCDH’s report, YouTube de-monetized some videos found to be in violation of its climate change policy. But a spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the majority of videos that the CCDH found were considered compliant with YouTube’s ad policies.

The fact that most of these videos remain compliant is precisely why the CCDH is calling on YouTube to update its policies, though.

Currently, YouTube’s policy prohibits monetization of content “that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”

“Our climate change policy prohibits ads from running on content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” YouTube’s spokesperson told Ars. “Debate or discussions of climate change topics, including around public policy or research, is allowed. However, when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we stop showing ads on those videos. We also display information panels under relevant videos to provide additional information on climate change and context from third parties.”

The CCDH worries that YouTube standing by its current policy is too short-sighted. The group recommended tweaking the policy to instead specify that YouTube prohibits content “that contradicts the authoritative scientific consensus on the causes, impacts, and solutions to climate change.”

If YouTube and other social media platforms don’t acknowledge new forms of climate denial and “urgently” update their disinformation policies in response, these new attacks on climate change science “will only increase,” the CCDH warned.

“It is vital that those advocating for action to avert climate disaster take note of this substantial shift from denial of anthropogenic climate change to undermining trust in both solutions and science itself, and shift our focus, our resources and our counternarratives accordingly,” the CCDH’s report said, adding that “demonetizing climate-denial” content “removes the economic incentives underpinning its creation and protects advertisers from bankrolling harmful content.”

Climate denialists find new ways to monetize disinformation on YouTube Read More »

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Chrome updates Incognito warning to admit Google tracks users in “private” mode

chrome incognito, google chrome, Policy / /
A bunch of Google logos are displayed on a computer screen. A magnifying glass shows a closeup of some of the logos which include the icon for Google Chrome's Incognito browsing mode.

Getty Images | Anadolu

Google is updating the warning on Chrome’s Incognito mode to make it clear that Google and websites run by other companies can still collect your data in the web browser’s semi-private mode.

The change is being made as Google prepares to settle a class-action lawsuit that accuses the firm of privacy violations related to Chrome’s Incognito mode. The expanded warning was recently added to Chrome Canary, a nightly build for developers. The warning appears to directly address one of the lawsuit’s complaints, that the Incognito mode’s warning doesn’t make it clear that Google collects data from users of the private mode.

Many tech-savvy people already know that while private modes in web browsers prevent some data from being stored on your device, they don’t prevent tracking by websites or Internet service providers. But many other people may not understand exactly what Incognito mode does, so the more specific warning could help educate users.

The new warning seen in Chrome Canary when you open an incognito window says: “You’ve gone Incognito. Others who use this device won’t see your activity, so you can browse more privately. This won’t change how data is collected by websites you visit and the services they use, including Google.” The wording could be interpreted to refer to Google websites and third-party websites, including third-party websites that rely on Google ad services.

The new warning was not yet in the developer, beta, and stable branches of Chrome as of today. It also wasn’t in Chromium. The change to Canary was previously reported by MSPowerUser.

“Now you can browse privately”

Incognito mode in the stable version of Chrome still says: “You’ve gone Incognito. Now you can browse privately, and other people who use this device won’t see your activity.” Among other changes, the Canary warning replaces “browse privately” with “browse more privately.”

The stable and Canary warnings both say that your browsing activity might still be visible to “websites you visit,” “your employer or school,” or “your Internet service provider.” But only the Canary warning currently includes the caveat that Incognito mode “won’t change how data is collected by websites you visit and the services they use, including Google.”

The old and new warnings both say that Incognito mode prevents Chrome from saving your browsing history, cookies and site data, and information entered in forms, but that “downloads, bookmarks and reading list items will be saved.” Both warnings link to this page, which provides more detail on Incognito mode.

We asked Google when the warning will be added to Chrome’s stable channel and whether the change is mandated by or related to the pending settlement of the privacy class-action suit. Google didn’t provide specific answers but offered this statement: “We’re pleased to resolve this case which we’ve long disputed, and provide even more information to users about Incognito mode. Incognito mode in Chrome will continue to give people the choice to browse the Internet without their activity being saved to their browser or device.”

The litigation in US District Court for the Northern District of California began in June 2020. On December 26, 2023, Google and the plaintiffs announced that they reached a settlement that they planned to present to the court for approval within 60 days. A jury trial was previously scheduled to begin on February 5.

Chrome updates Incognito warning to admit Google tracks users in “private” mode Read More »

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Apple Watch redesigned without blood oxygen monitoring to avoid import ban

Apple, apple watch, patent infringement, Policy, smartwatch, Tech / /

Masimo patent battle —

Apple preps update should patent-infringing Watch Series 9, Ultra 2 be banned again.

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Apple Watch Series 9

Enlarge / The Apple Watch Series 9.

Apple

Apple has developed a backup plan for if the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 are import banned again. As it currently appeals the US International Trade Commission’s (ITC’s) ruling that its watches violate a patent owned by Masimo, Apple has come up with a software workaround that strips its current smartwatches of their controversial blood oxygen monitoring capabilities.

In January 2023, the ITC ruled that the Watch violated one of California-headquartered Masimo’s light-based pulse oximetry patents. The Apple Watch Series 6, which came out in 2020, was the first Apple smartwatch to use a pulse oximeter sensor.

Facing a US import ban of the current Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2, both released in September 2023, Apple started pulling the smartwatches on December 21. But on December 27, Apple, which filed its appeal against the ITC’s ruling on December 26 (after US President Joe Biden declined to overrule the ITC ruling), received an emergency interim stay from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, allowing it to continue selling the Watch.

On Monday, Masimo sent a letter [PDF] to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as spotted by 9to5Mac, stating that US Customs and Border Protection decided on January 12 that Apple has redesigned the Watches so that they do not contain pulse oximetry functionality.

Apple accomplished this through a “software workaround” for smartwatches recently shipped to its physical stores, according to a Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman on Monday. However, the stores will not sell the redesigned watches until Apple headquarters tells them to, Bloomberg reported.

The publication noted that Apple will probably only release the Watches that can’t monitor blood oxygen levels if the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denies Apple’s request that its stay be upheld for the duration of its appeal against the ITC ruling, which Apple expects to be at least a year, an Apple spokesperson told Ars Technica. Apple expects that ruling to come as early as today.

Currently, the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 are still available with blood oxygen monitoring, an Apple spokesperson confirmed to Ars. But Apple hasn’t confirmed how long that will be the case, jeopardizing demand and the perceived value for Apple’s latest smartwatches.

Longer term, Bloomberg also reported that Apple is developing a software update that alters the watches’ blood oxygen monitoring app and algorithms so that users can still check out their blood oxygen but without Apple infringing on any patents.

For the ITC’s part, it responded to Apple’s requests for an extended stay on the import ban in a court filing on January 10 [PDF]. It stated that Apple has provided “a weak and unconvincing case” and that the tech giant’s arguments “amount to little more than an indisputably adjudicated infringer requesting permission to continue infringing the asserted patents.”

Prospective owners of the Apple Watch who value blood oxygen monitoring should keep an eye open for the appeals court’s ruling because it could swiftly result in Apple Watches that they’re considering buying missing a key feature.

Apple Watch redesigned without blood oxygen monitoring to avoid import ban Read More »

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Supreme Court denies Epic v. Apple petitions, opening up iOS payment options

App Store, Apple, Apple v Epic, epic, fortnite, gaming, Google, Policy, Supreme Court, Tech / /

Epic v. Apple —

Most of Epic’s arguments are moot now, but one point will change the App Store.

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Fortnite characters looking across the many islands and vast realm of the game.

Enlarge / Artist’s conception of iOS developers after today’s Supreme Court ruling, surveying a new landscape of payment options and subscription signaling.

Epic Games

The Supreme Court declined to hear either of the petitions resulting from the multi-year, multi-court Epic v. Apple antitrust dispute. That leaves most of Epic’s complaints about Apple’s practices unanswered, but the gaming company achieved one victory on pricing notices.

It all started in August 2020, when Epic sought to work around Apple and Google’s app stores and implemented virtual currency purchases directly inside Fortnite. The matter quickly escalated to the courts, with firms like Spotify and Microsoft backing Epic’s claim that Apple’s App Store being the only way to load apps onto an iPhone violated antitrust laws.

The matter reached trial in May 2021. The precise definitions of “games” and “marketplace” were fervently debated. Epic scored a seemingly huge victory in September 2021 when a Northern California judge demanded that Apple allow developers to offer their own payment buttons and communicate with app customers about alternate payment options. An appeals court upheld that Apple’s App Store itself wasn’t a “walled garden” that violated antitrust laws but kept the ruling that Apple had to open up its payments and messaging.

Today’s denial of petitions for certiorari means that Apple has mostly run out of legal options to prevent changes to its App Store policies now that multiple courts have found its “anti-steering” language anticompetitive. Links and messaging from developers should soon be able to send users to alternative payment options for apps rather than forcing them to stay entirely inside Apple’s App Store, resulting in a notable commission for Apple.

Epic’s goals to see Fortnite restored to the App Store or see third-party stores or sideloading on iPhones remain unfulfilled. This is not the case with Epic’s antitrust suit against Google, which in mid-December went strongly in Epic’s favor. With a unanimous jury verdict against Google, a judge this month will determine how to address Google’s violations—potentially including Epic’s request that it and other developers be allowed to issue their own app stores and payment systems on Android devices.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, wrote in a thread on X (formerly Twitter) that the Supreme Court’s denial means the “battle to open iOS to competing stores and payments is lost in the United States” and that it was a “sad outcome for all developers.” Sweeney noted that as of today, developers on Apple’s platforms can “tell US customers about better prices on the web.” And he noted that regulatory and policy actions around the world, including the upcoming EU Digital Markets Act, may have further impact.

Apple has yet to comment on today’s Supreme Court decision.

Supreme Court denies Epic v. Apple petitions, opening up iOS payment options Read More »