Good morning. We’re almost to the end of the week. Let’s get into the tech news.
1. AI deepfakes impacting Australian students and teachers
Fifty students at the Bacchus Marsh Grammar School have had explicit deepfakes created of them using generative AI, ABC News reports.
It followed only weeks after a boy was expelled from Salesian College in Melbourne for creating explicit deepfakes of a teacher, which were circulated across the school.
“These have been devastating events for the staff involved and their families,” a spokesperson from the Independent Education Union said. According to the union it has “provided support for several teachers who were made victim of AI-generated fake pornography by students in their schools.”
2. Likes go private on Twitter
Twitter, now X, has made the likes of all users private on the social media app and website, with users now unable to see what others are liking.
It’s a pretty obvious effort to boost engagement on the sight, with users now able to like things that they previously wouldn’t have liked out of fear for discovery, but X claims in a pop-up for users that liking more content will improve what appears on the ‘For You’ tab.
3. Speaking of Elon
Twitter (X), SpaceX, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing a new lawsuit from a group of eight fired SpaceX employees. “Musk knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” the employees said in their filing, per Bloomberg.
4. Additional tariffs on Chinese EVs in EU
The Verge reports that additional tariffs are being placed upon China-made electric cars imported to the EU, going as high as 38 per cent, including the existing 10 per cent duty on imported cars. The tariffs are being introduced to counteract what has been deemed unfair, state-backed subsidization, where Chinese companies such as MG and BYD can sell their cars at a far lower price than European rivals.
5. Apple overtakes Microsoft
Reuters reports that, since its mid-year WWDC 2024 event, Apple has once again become the world’s most valuable company, overtaking Microsoft in the top spot. Apple’s market valuation skyrocketed to $3.29 trillion this week, ahead of Microsoft’s $3.24 trillion.
BONUS ITEM: I’m a simple man. I see a wombat, I put it in 5 Things.
In honour of tomorrow’s #AlbinismAwarenessDay, meet this rare light-coloured wombat! 🤍
— CSIRO (@CSIRO) June 12, 2024
Albinism is a condition that results in animals or people having a lack of melanin, the pigment responsible for colouring skin, hair and eyes.#WombatWednesday
📷 | @dancarrphoto pic.twitter.com/qZqahKo0aN
Have a lovely day.
Image: iStock