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Although X removed Groks ability to create nonconsensual digitally undressed images on the social platform, the standalone Grok app is another story. It reportedly continues to produce nudified deepfakes of real people. And now, Ashley St. Clair, a conservative political strategist and mother of one of Elon Musks 14 children, has sued xAI for nonconsensual sexualized images of her that Grok allegedly produced.In the court filing, St. Clair accused xAIs Grok chatbot of creating and disseminating deepfakes of her as a child stripped down to a string bikini, and as an adult in sexually explicit poses, covered in semen, or wearing only bikini floss. In some cases, the chatbot allegedly produced bikini-clad deepfakes of St. Clair based on a photo of her as a 14-year-old. People took pictures of me as a child and undressed me. Theres one where they undressed me and bent me over, and in the background is my childs backpack that hes wearing right now, she said.I am also seeing images where they add bruises to women, beat them up, tie them up, mutilated, St. Clair told The Guardian. These sickos used to have to go to the dark depths of the internet, and now it is on a mainstream social media app.St. Clair said that, after she reported the images to X, the social platform replied that the content didnt violate any policies. In addition, she claims that X left the images posted for up to seven days after she reported them. St. Clair said xAI then retaliated against her by creating more digitally undressed deepfakes of her, therefore making [St. Clair] the laughingstock of the social media platform.She accused the company of then revoking her X Premium subscription, verification checkmark and ability to monetize content on the platform. xAI further banned [her] from repurchasing Premium, St. Clairs court filing states.On Wednesday, X said it changed its policies so that Grok would no longer generate sexualized images of children or nonconsensual nudity in those jurisdictions where its illegal. However, the standalone Grok app reportedly continues to undress and sexualize photos when prompted to do so.Neither Apple nor Google has removed the Grok app despite explicit policy violations.Anna Moneymaker via Getty ImagesApple and Google have thus far done, well, absolutely nothing. Despite the multi-week outrage over the deepfakes and an open letter from 28 advocacy groups neither company has removed the X or Grok apps from their app stores. Both the App Store and Play Store have policies that explicitly prohibit apps that generate such content.Neither Apple nor Google has responded to multiple requests for comment from Engadget. That includes a follow-up email sent on Friday, regarding the Grok app continuing to nudify photos of real women and other people.While Apple and Google fail to act, many governments have done the opposite. On Monday, Malaysia and Indonesia banned Grok. The same day, UK regulator Ofcom opened a formal investigation into X. California opened one on Wednesday. The US Senate even passed the Defiance Act for a second time in the wake of the blowback. If you are a woman, you cant post a picture, and you cant speak, or you risk this abuse, St. Clair told The Guardian. Its dangerous, and I believe this is by design. You are supposed to feed AI humanity and thoughts, and when you are doing things that particularly impact women, and they dont want to participate in it because they are being targeted, it means the AI is inherently going to be biased.Speaking about Musk and his team, she added that these people believe they are above the law, because they are. They dont think they are going to get in trouble, they think they have no consequences.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-mother-of-one-of-elon-musks-children-is-suing-xai-over-nonconsensual-deepfake-images-191451979.html?src=rss
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Last week at CES, Lego introduced its new Smart Play system, with a tech-packed Smart Brick that can recognize and interact with sets and minifigures. It was unexpected and delightful to see Lego come up with a way to modernize its bricks without the need for apps, screens or AI. So I was a little surprised this week when the Lego Education group announced its latest initiative is the Computer Science and AI Learning Solution. After all, generative AI feels like the antithesis of Legos creative values. But Andrew Silwinski, Lego Educations head of product experience, was quick to defend Legos approach, noting that being fluent in the tools behind AI is not about generating sloppy images or music and more about expanding what it means by teaching computer science.I think most people should probably know that we started working on this before ChatGPT [got big], Silwinski told Engadget earlier this week. Some of the ideas that underline AI are really powerful foundational ideas, regardless of the current frontier model that's out this week. Helping children understand probability and statistics, data quality, algorithmic bias, sensors, machine perception. These are really foundational core ideas that go back to the 1970s. To that end, Lego Education designed courses for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 that incorporate Lego bricks, additional hardware and lessons tailored to introducing the fundamentals of AI as an extension of existing computer science education. The kits are designed for four students to work together, with teacher oversight. Much of this all comes from learnings Lego found in a study it commissioned showing that teachers often find they dont have the right resources to teach these subjects. The study showed that half of teachers globally say current resources leave students bored while nearly half say computer science isnt relatable and doesnt connect to students interests or day to day. Given kids familiarity with Lego and the multiple decades of experience Lego Education has in putting courses like this together, it seems like a logical step to push in this direction. In Legos materials about the new courses, AI is far from the only subject covered. Coding, looping code, triggering events and sequences, if/then conditionals and more are all on display through the combination of Lego-built models and other hardware to motorize it. It feels more like a computer science course that also introduces concepts of AI rather than something with an end goal of having kids build a chatbot.In fact, Lego set up a number of red lines in terms of how it would introduce AI. No data can ever go across the internet to us or any other third party, Silwinski said. And that's a really hard bar if you know anything about AI. So instead of going to the cloud, everything had to be able to do local inference on, as Silwinski said, the 10-year-old Chromebooks youll see in classrooms. He added that kids can train their own machine learning models, and all of that is happening locally in the classroom, and none of that data ever leaves the student's device.Lego also says that its lessons never anthropomorphize AI, one of the things that is so common in consumer-facing AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and many more. One of the things we're seeing a lot of with generative AI tools is children have a tendency to see them as somehow human or almost magical. A lot of it's because of the conversational interface, it abstracts all the mechanics away from the child. Lego also recognized that it had to build a course thatll work regardless of a teachers fluency in such subjects. So a big part of developing the course was making sure that teachers had the tools they needed to be on top of whatever lessons theyre working on. When we design and we test the products, we're not the ones testing in the classroom, Silwinski said. We give it to a teacher and we provide all of the lesson materials, all of the training, all of the notes, all the presentation materials, everything that they need to be able to teach the lesson. Lego also took into account the fact that some schools might introduce its students to these things starting in Kindergarten, whereas others might skip to the grade 3-5 or 6-8 sets. To alleviate any bumps in the courses for students or teachers, Lego Education works with school districts and individual schools to make sure theres an on-ramp for those starting from different places in their fluency.While the idea of teaching AI seemed out of character for Lego initially, the approach its taking here actually reminds me a bit of Smart Play. With Smart Play, the technology is essentially invisible kids can just open up a set, start building, and get all the benefits of the new system without having to hook up to an app or a screen. In the same vein, Silwinski said that a lot of the work you can do with the Computer Science and AI kit doesnt need a screen, particularly the lessons designed for younger kids. And the sets themselves have a mode that acts similar to a mesh, where you connect numerous motors and sensors together to build incredibly complex interactions and behaviors without even needing a computer.For educators interested in checking out this latest course, Lego has single kits up for pre-order starting at $339.95; theyll start shipping in April. Thats the pricing for the K-2 sets, the 3-5 and 6-8 sets are $429.95 and $529.95, respectively. A single kit covers four students. Lego is also selling bundles with six kits, and school districts can also request a quote for bigger orders. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/legos-latest-educational-kit-seeks-to-teach-ai-as-part-of-computer-science-not-to-build-a-chatbot-184636741.html?src=rss
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Canada has agreed to drastically reduce its tariffs on imported Chinese EVs from 100 percent to 6.1 percent as part of a new deal between the two countries. In return, China will be reducing tariffs on Canadian canola seeds from 84 percent to about 15 percent. The move is a break from the United States, which maintains a 100 percent tariff on EVs from China, effectively banning them in the country. Mexico currently tariffs the vehicles at 50 percent after increasing its rate last year. Under the agreement, which Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called "preliminary," Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into the country, with that number rising to 70,000 after five years. Until now the three major North American trading partners had been aligned in trying to protect their domestic electric vehicle manufacturing. Chinese EV companies benefit from state subsidies, and as such can often be priced at a far better value than domestic alternatives. Our relationship has progressed in recent months with China. It is more predictable and you see results coming from that, Carney said to reporters. A warmer relationship may be forming in response to the Trump administration's tariff policies, with China hoping that alienated nations may seek a better relationship with the Eastern power. As to concerns that cheaper electric vehicles from China could hurt the Canadian auto market, the prime minister was unconcerned, saying "its still in low, single-digit proportion of the size of the Canadian auto sector," Carney added, Canadians buy about 1.8 million autos a year. China remains Canadas second-largest trading partner after the United States.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/canada-cuts-tariffs-on-chinese-evs-as-part-of-new-deal-174241990.html?src=rss
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