#2 Techpresso: LinkedIn's AI photo detection, Twitter hacker's 5-year sentence, Media company crises, and Twitter API impact
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Welcome to Techpresso, the podcast that brings you a daily summary of the latest news in the tech world, all thanks to AI and our monitoring of over 50 media sources such as TheVerge and Tech Crunch. Don't miss out on the latest tech buzz - subscribe to our podcast now to stay updated! In today's episode, we'll cover LinkedIn researchers finding a new method to detect AI-generated profile photos, the Twitter hack perpetrator facing a 5-year jail sentence, legacy media companies faltering while Netflix prospers and Twitter's API changes leading to discontinued bot accounts.. Researchers at LinkedIn and UC Berkeley have found a way to identify profile photos that have been artificially generated by AI. Using a hybrid approach of unique geometric attributes and machine learning, this method can identify such photos with an accuracy rate of 99.6%. The model used a dataset of 41,500 synthetic faces and 100,000 real LinkedIn profile photos. But, the model has a vulnerability to cropping attacks, which means researchers will need to address this in future iterations.
In other news, the notorious Twitter hacker, PlugwalkJoe, has been sentenced to five years in jail for his involvement in the 2020 Twitter hack that netted the hackers $794,000 from a cryptocurrency scam. In addition to his prison sentence, PlugwalkJoe also faces three years of supervised release and must forfeit the $794,000 he defrauded during the hack.
Legacy media companies, including Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount Global, have been struggling to rebound from a poor 2022 performance, while Netflix enjoys success, despite cracking down on password sharing. Paramount Global faces financial difficulties due to streaming losses and a weak advertising market, while NBCUniversal remains somewhat protected thanks to revenue from parent company Comcast's cable and wireless assets. With the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike set to shake the industry further, growth narratives remain limited as regulators block key industry mergers and acquisitions.
Lastly, Twitter has been suspending API access for a number of popular bot accounts, leading to the discontinuation of many accounts, including those posting animal photos or memes. It appears these suspensions are aimed at bots that do not pay for an API subscription or opt not to join Twitter Blue, the platform's paid premium service. While some users have found a workaround by utilizing Twitter's limited free API tier, most bot accounts have been forced to shut down as the costs of running these non-monetizing accounts have become prohibitive.