Twitter’s long-running effort to fight COVID-19 misinformation is at an end, at least for now. As Twitter users and CNNnoticed, the social media firm has quietly updated its transparency site to reveal that it stopped enforcing its COVID misinformation policy on November 23rd. It’s not clear if the company will restore any accounts banned for sharing misinformation as part of Elon Musk’s planned amnesty, but this indicates that the company won’t suspend further users or delete content including falsehoods about the coronavirus or vaccines.

Twitter started cracking down on COVID-19 misinformation in January 2020, as the disease began spreading worldwide. The social network has since banned over 11,200 accounts, pulled over 97,600 examples of false content and “challenged” 11.7 million accounts through efforts like warning labels. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy even pointed to the company’s policy as an example of how other technology platforms could fight bogus medical claims.

The company has effectively disbanded its communications team and isn’t available for comment. However, Musk has routinely voiced his opposition to bans and some COVID-19 safety measures. Tesla defied early pandemic lockdowns by keeping factories open despite shelter-in-place orders. Musk also insisted during an April 2020 earnings call that these lockdowns were “forcibly imprisoning people,” and threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters from California to Texas in response. While the entrepreneur supports vaccination, he opposes mandates and voiced support for the anti-mandate occupiers that shut down the Canadian capital city of Ottawa for weeks.

The news comes amid reports Twitter is scaling back other teams dedicated to catching toxic behavior. Bloombergsources claim Musk has gutted the team dedicated to fighting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as part of his wide-ranging layoffs, cutting it from roughly 20 specialists to less than 10. The contacts say that the unit was already strained before, but is now “overwhelmed” despite Musk’s assertion that fighting child exploitation is “priority #1.” This could put Twitter in legal jeopardy as it’s frequently required by law to remove CSAM — the UK’s Online Safety Bill lets regulators fine companies if they don’t move quickly to pull offending content.

The cutbacks may have also limited Twitter’s ability to fend off bots and other fake accounts. The tech giant struggled to curb spam obscuring news of Chinese protests after Musk laid off Twitter’s anti-propaganda team, for example.

Source: Engadget – Twitter has stopped enforcing its COVID-19 misinformation policy

Tools like DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, which generate images based on a few lines of text, briefly set social media ablaze this year. But Amazon’s entry into the AI art world is a bit different. Create with Alexa lets children guide the creation of animated stories using a few kid-friendly prompts.

Since Create with Alexa is visual storytelling, it’s only available on Echo Show devices, not the company’s audio-only speakers. Amazon says it works whether the device is in Amazon Kids mode or not.

To create a new story, your child would begin by speaking, “Alexa, make a story,” and then following several prompts. The AI then generates an illustrated five-to-ten-line narrative — including animations, sound effects and music — built around their answers.

Amazon’s generative AI has a narrow scope at launch, with only three themes available: “space exploration”, “underwater” and “enchanted forest.” After picking one, children choose the story’s hero from options like “an astronaut named Speedy” or “an alien named Fuzzy.” Your child can then pick a color scheme and a tonal description like silly, happy or mysterious. Afterwards, they can save their stories to watch again later or share them with friends and family.

This isn’t a case of Alexa splicing together ready-made scenes. Amazon says no two AI-created stories will be the same, even if your child repeats the process with identical prompts

According to Amazon, Create With Alexa includes safeguards to ensure the feature only produces kid-friendly content. “From the get-go, we used carefully curated data sources to train AI models,” Eshan Bhatnagar, head of product for Alexa AI, said in a blog post today. “We have multiple guardrails such as content filtering and curated prompts to ensure this experience is both delightful and safe.” Additionally, Create with Alexa requires parents to enable the feature before their kids can use it.

Create With Alexa arrives in an atmosphere of uncertainty surrounding Amazon’s voice assistant. Earlier this month, the retail giant confirmed it had begun laying off employees, reportedly slashing around 10,000 jobs. Its Devices & Services division, which handles Echo Show and Alexa, reportedly bore the brunt of it. In October, Amazon also killed off Glow, its kid-focused video-calling device.

Create with Alexa is available on Echo Show devices starting today in the US. However, it’s only available in English and the United States at launch.

Source: Engadget – Amazon’s Create With Alexa generates unique animated children’s stories on Echo Show

Logitech’s Litra Glow has been a big success since it launched early this year, giving streamers an easy way to create soft and flattering illumination for their faces. It’s already quite affordable at $60, but now it has dropped back to an all-time low price of $50 on Amazon.

Buy Logitech Litra Glow at Amazon – $50

The Litra Glow promises to be safe on the eyes for all-day streaming, while providing a “natural, radiant look across skin tones.” You also get cinematic color accuracy via Logitech’s TrueSoft technology, regardless of skin tone. It’s ready to use out of the box thanks to the five presets with different brightness levels and color temperatures, or you can create custom options using the G HUB software. As a bonus, any presets you create can be assigned to the G Keys on a Logitech G keyboard or mouse. 

It’s now on sale for $50, matching its all-time low price. You can find other soft- and ring-style lights from Elgato and others, but most from any recognizable name brand are considerably more expensive. The Litra Glow is already a great buy with Logitech’s promised color accuracy, and now Amazon’s discount makes it even more affordable.

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Source: Engadget – Logitech’s popular Litra Glow streamer light is back on sale at an all-time low price

Sony has launched an interesting product called Mocopi, consisting of six motion-tracking bands worn on your hands, feet, back and head, with a price of 49,500 yen (about $358). The aim is to let you track your body to create videos or operate avatars in real time with metaverse apps like VRChat. It even offers an SDK that lets you import motion data into 3D animation apps. 

Apparently a play on the term “mocap,” (motion capture) Mocopi’s six color-coded, lightweight motion sensors use “proprietary technology and a smartphone” with a dedicated app, according to Sony. “Normally, video production using motion capture requires dedicated equipment and operators,” Sony wrote. “By utilizing our proprietary algorithm, ‘Mocopi’ realizes highly accurate motion measurement with a small number of sensors, freeing VTubers [virtual YouTubers] and creators involved in movie and animation production from time and place constraints.”