👨🏻‍🏫Tips For Spotting Deepfakes

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Today we will discuss-

• 😯TikTok exploits loopholes, obtains Nvidia AI chips

• 🪸How Google's AI is helping save coral reefs

• 🤓Deepfake detection tips from an expert

• ⚙️9 amazing AI tools you might not have heard of

All this and more - Let's dive in!

👩‍🍳What’s cooking in the newsroom?

TikTok allegedly circumvents US sanctions, uses Nvidia chips for AI training

☕News - Oracle is reportedly renting Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, despite a US ban on selling such chips to China. This situation exposes a major loophole in regulations designed to keep advanced AI technology from reaching China.

⏪For context - In 2022, the US government banned the sale of advanced AI chips, like Nvidia’s H100, to China to prevent their use in military or surveillance applications and to maintain a technological edge. 

Recently, it was reported that Oracle is bypassing these restrictions by renting servers with Nvidia’s chips to ByteDance within the US, allowing ByteDance to use US-based AI capabilities without exporting the chips to China.

ByteDance, suspected by many US lawmakers of having ties to the Chinese government, is reportedly using Nvidia’s H100 chips rented from Oracle to train AI models as part of Project Texas in the US. While this is technically legal since the chips remain in the country, it undermines the intent of regulations meant to restrict China’s access to advanced AI technology.

It is also worth mentioning that although ByteDance’s Project Texas is said to isolate TikTok's US operations from its Chinese headquarters, former employees claim this initiative is largely superficial, with significant interactions still occurring between US and Beijing-based teams.

🧐What's more? Alibaba and Tencent, among other Chinese tech giants, are reportedly exploring similar strategies to access Nvidia’s chips. With their ownership of US-based data centers, these companies might find it even easier to exploit these loopholes than ByteDance.

Google's innovative AI tool supports coral reef conservation efforts

🌊News -  Google has created an innovative AI tool that is helping marine biologists in understanding coral reef ecosystems and their health better, thereby aiding conservation efforts.

🐟How so? The tool called SurfPerch, developed by Google Research and DeepMind, was trained on extensive audio recordings of coral reefs. This enables scientists to "listen" to reef health, monitor nighttime activity, and track reefs in challenging environments such as deep or murky waters.

The initiative started by encouraging the public to listen to reef sounds online. In the last year, visitors to Google's "Calling in our Corals" website listened to more than 400 hours of reef audio from various locations worldwide. They were prompted to click when they identified a fish sound.

This led to the development of a "bioacoustic" dataset centered on reef health. Through public contributions, Google was able to create a library of new fish sounds that were used to fine-tune the AI tool, enabling it to quickly learn and identify new reef sounds. This speeds up data analysis without requiring costly processors, offering new insights into reef communities and how to better protect them. 

The project, however, remains ongoing, with new audio continually being added to the Calling in Our Corals website to further refine the AI model.

Deepfake detection tool creator shares tips on spotting manipulated media

🥸News - As regulators struggle to keep pace with AI advancements, discerning the authenticity of images, videos, and audio has become quite a challenge. In light of this situation, Siwei Lyu from the University of Buffalo has developed the DeepFake-o-meter, a tool specifically designed to detect manipulated media. But that's not all; Lyu has also shared some tips on how to recognize when photos, videos, and audio have been altered.

📖Here's an overview - 

• Audio: Spotting audio deepfakes can be tricky since it's all about what you hear, and there's no shortage of public figures' voices for AI to play with. But there are telltale signs to keep an ear out for. According to Lyu, AI-made audio tends to sound a bit off, lacking the natural flow and emotion of real conversations. You might notice it sounds flatter and less lively overall. Pay attention to details like breathing sounds; in fake recordings, they might be missing. Also, listen for any odd background noises - sometimes there's too much, making it seem unnatural. That's the case with some robocalls, where extra noise is added to make it sound legit, but it ends up feeling forced.

• Photos: When it comes to spotting fake photos, it's all about paying attention to the details. Lyu suggests zooming in and looking closely for anything that seems off, like crooked buildings or hands with too many fingers. Keep an eye out for small inconsistencies in things like hair, mouths, and shadows - they can reveal a lot. Hands used to be a dead giveaway for AI-made images, often sprouting extra fingers, but the tech's gotten better, and that's not as common anymore. Besides these visual clues, fake images often just look too perfect, too shiny, almost like a painting. As Lyu puts it, there's this overall vibe that screams "plastic."

• Videos: When it comes to videos, identifying fakes comes down to focusing on tiny details and cues. Look out for unnatural eye-blinking, which can reveal pixel artifacts. Additionally, AI tools often manipulate the lips to say things not originally spoken. This is where most inconsistencies lie. For example, if a letter sound needs the lips to be closed, like a "B" or "P," but they're not, that's a red flag. Similarly, if the mouth isn't quite right when it's open, the teeth and tongue might seem off. 

🙆🏻‍♀️What else is happening?

• USF using AI to help combat malaria in Africa

• FTC and DOJ reportedly opening antitrust investigations into Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia

• US Treasury seeks public comments on AI use in financial services sector

• Meta adds AI-powered features to WhatsApp Business app

• Scientists enlist AI to interpret meaning of barks

💰Use AI for passive income

• Freelance AI Development: If you have programming skills, you can offer freelance services to develop AI models, create AI-based applications, or integrate AI solutions for businesses on platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Toptal.

• AI Data Labeling: Join platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk, Appen, or Lionbridge that pay for data labeling tasks. These tasks often involve categorizing images, annotating text, and other data preparation work for training AI models.

• AI Chatbot Development: Develop and sell custom AI chatbots for websites and customer service using platforms like Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework, or ChatGPT. Many businesses are looking to automate their customer support with chatbots.

👩🏼‍🚒Discover mind-blowing AI tools

1. OpenTools AI Tools Expert GPT - Find the perfect AI Tool to solve supercharge your workflow. This GPT is connected to our database, so you can ask in depth questions on any AI tool directly in ChatGPT (free w/ ChatGPT)

2. ZeroBot - A voice-enabled chatbot that allows users to have conversations with a computer friend that talks like a real person (Free)

3. Vidnoz - A tool that allows users to create talking avatar videos by simply selecting a photo and writing a script (Free)

4. PitchPower - A software service that helps consultants and agencies create powerful proposals quickly ($19.99/month)

5. Flowrite - A Chrome extension that helps users write emails and messages 5x faster ($4/month)

6. Entry Point - A platform that allows businesses to fine-tune AI models without any coding ($49/month) 

7. Jason AI - A tool for automating B2B conversations and bookings ($49/month)

8. Grafi.ai - An AI-powered content generation platform specifically designed for healthcare and medical writers ($99/month)

9. Stackbear - A no-code platform that allows you to create custom AI chatbots based on your own content (Free)

😎Cool AI inventions

• Piano Genie: An AI project by Google that allows anyone to play piano like a virtuoso. Using a simple interface, users can create complex piano music without any prior knowledge of playing the instrument.

• This Person Does Not Exist: A website powered by a GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) creates realistic images of people who do not exist. Each refresh of the page generates a completely new and lifelike face, demonstrating the power of AI in image generation.

• AI Dungeon Master: AI Dungeon is a text-based adventure game powered by GPT-3 that allows players to create their own stories and adventures. The AI dynamically generates the storyline based on player input.