synthetic

Synthetic influencers are already selling in the thousands. A startup offers them as a service to manipulate networks

by

Influencer accounts created by AI are already a reality, some even have hundreds of thousands of followers. There is a startup that has taken this idea to the next level: they create and manage synthetic influencers to orchestrate massive actions on different platforms, all using AI. Their website reads “Never pay a human again”, a true declaration of intent. Doublespeed. It is the name of the startup that offers the service. Using AI, they create the accounts of these fake influencers and also the content, all with minimal human intervention, just a few finishing touches. Its goal is to “orchestrate actions on thousands of social accounts through the creation and massive deployment of content.” They count in 404media that the startup is financed by the Andreessen Horowitzone of the most important venture capital funds in Silicon Valley. Make it look human. The platforms have systems to detect bots, but at Doublespeed they have the solution to make their AI influencers appear human to the algorithms. In addition, the accounts they offer have been used, since newly created accounts with hardly any interactions are easier to detect as bots. The company’s co-founder, Zuhair Lakhani, said in a podcast that use a “mobile farm” (like the click farms) to manage all their accounts and boasted that one client got almost 5 million views in less than a month with 15 of these AI influencers. Raising the level. He astroturfing It is a tactic through which artificial opinions are generated that seek to appear real and spontaneous, all in order to give an impression of support (or rejection) of a topic or product. What Doublespeed does is next level, creating not only the message, but the “persona” who spreads it. Doublespeed sells “packs” between $1,500 and $7,500, depending on the number of posts they want to generate. Cons the rules. The point is that this practice goes against the rules of the main platforms, such as Meta, which they expressly say that accounts that “make a misleading representation of identity to deceive or confuse people” will not be allowed. It is not the first company to offer services of this type, What is striking is that it has one of the largest funds in the world behind it. dead internet. Is a conspiracy theory which says that the internet is full of bots and humans have been replaced by algorithms. There is some truth in it. According to the cybersecurity company Imperva, in 2024 more than half of internet traffic was non-human. With the emergence of AI, networks were flooded with AI Slop and now it also comes in the form of fake influencers. Image | Reshma Mallecha, Pexels In Xataka | The more we know about the evolution of the internet, the closer we come to a conclusion: bots can kill it

Synthetic data is not enough, so Apple wants users to help improve their AI: this will work its system

by

Apple Intelligence is herebut its premiere has not been as brilliant as many expected. The company’s new proposal still has improvement marginboth in English and Spanish. Although it has been presented as a clear sales argument, its impact among people has been rather discreet. The first impressions are mixed And, for now, he has not managed to generate a groundbreaking enthusiasm. From Cupertino they already move to reinforce one of the greatest software bets in their recent history. Among the movements in progress stand out two fronts: The rumored restructuring of the team responsible for Siri, whose improved version has been delayed up to 2026and the creation of new techniques designed to improve their language models, with the mission of not neglecting their approach to privacy. One step beyond synthetic data Apple usually training its models with synthetic data and data labeled by humansa solution that has been effective to some extent. It does not always represent the real world. Consequently, it limits the functioning of AI products. This has led the technological led by Tim Cook to develop a new solution that combines synthetic data with anonymous signals of participating devices. As explained in an article published this weekeverything begins with a synthetic message, that is, an email invented by Apple itself with a format that simulates the real emails. For example: “Would you like to play tennis tomorrow at 11:30?” From there, several variants are generated that change some elements, such as sport, schedule or tone, to try different possible structures. These phrases are sent to a part of the devices whose users have agreed to share analytics with Apple. There is something key: each iPhone, iPad or Mac Take a handful of real emails transformed into Embeddings local, that is, mathematical representations that convert each message into a set of numbers that reflect their theme, style and length. The important thing is that these emails never leave the device. Thus, the system compares Embeddings synthetic, which Apple has previously generated, with the Embeddings Real emails, to see which ones are more similar. This resemblance is reduced to an anonymous signal, a simple “this version coincides better”, which is sent to Apple without revealing the original mail or the Embedding of the user. With this, Apple intends to learn which synthetic variants better reflect the real use of language, but without seeing a single fragment of private content. The idea is that this helps improve Apple Intelligence functions such as email summaries or writing tools. This approach is based on the same differential privacy techniques that Apple already uses in other functions such as Genmoji. In that case, the company collects anonymous signals about what Prompts They are more popular, such as “a dinosaur with a hat”, to improve the results without registering which user made what request. The idea is simple but very interesting. Improving without using user data data allows you to maintain the privacy approach that the company has been defending so many years. This new technique will begin to be implemented in the next betas of iOS 18.5, Ipados 18.5 and Macos 15.5. It should be noted that only those who have activated the option to share analytics from the privacy settings are activated. So, if you don’t want to be part of this system, You can deactivate it whenever. You just have to go to Settings > Privacy and safety > Analysis and improvements and deactivate the option “Share iPhone analysis”. Images | Apple | APPSHUNTER In Xataka | Public administrations turn the tortilla: Midni promises to be another success with Midgt and my citizen folder

an ultra -rear robot with synthetic skin that reacts to us

by

I have been recorded. It is a strange sensation. Disturbing at least. Disturbing. They are the adjectives that come to mind when I think of Amira, the ultra -re -taught robot that has taught in the Mobile World Congress the company Engineered Arts. A Robot with a woman’s appearance, wig and very successful facial expressions. A robot that also reacts to what we say or even if we greet with the hand. Last year it was what impressed us most from the Mobile Telephony Congress and in this edition they have taken another step. Amira is the renewal of AMECA robot. In addition to incorporating a more advanced AI engine, it now looks more similar to a human woman. They have put hair, synthetic skin and a dress. We already had a robot with a totally articulated body and artificial intelligence, now it has also improved its appearance. Amira is promoted by OpenAi GPT-4. This allows you to answer what we say quite naturally. In the demonstration it works only in English, but can answer in another 50 languages, since GPT-4 It has that capacity. I have seen what awaits us with humanoid robots and I have sensations found The robot was in the stand of the O & operator, of the United Arab Emirates and previously known as Etisalat. In an example of the advances of robotics and how they intend to revolutionize customer service. With robots that are able to analyze their environment, know if there is someone close, what they are doing and react in line. Located on a fixed circle, Amira does not walk, although it does move the upper part of the trunk, head and arms. The robot does not stop talking and reacting to the public. If you raise a hand, he greets you. If you ask anything, answer naturally. And this is precisely its power. It is not necessary to start questions in a certain way; Answer fluidly. AND If you get in front and do nothing, suddenly pretend to get angry And his eyes show an expression of weariness. The truth is that the reactions are super achieved, nothing to do with other robots that are much more basic. With Amira, the reactions happen faster and do not disregard so much. During our visit, Amira asks us if we are having a good time at the Mobile World Congress and if we are tired, clarifying that she is not a robot. In order to identify what happens, it has Two cameras in the eyes with facial recognition software and two microphone sets located in the neck area. The movements still have a margin of improvement, but the expressions of the face are well achieved. He smiles, gets angry, looks the other way, counts jokes and is surprised. But The most disturbing is how realistic it seems. Articulated hands, face, wig and even nails. If we look at his hands close, he gives a lot of grrima. Not only because of the aspect, but because it also reacts as a person. And it is that combination that most surprises. When I approached to take a picture I felt fatal. On the one hand it was perfectly aware that it was an object, but that feeling of approaching “someone” was present. In that attempt to seem as human as possible, they have even put jewels and a red rebel. Also simple white sports, very well chosen to give an informal aspect. Nor with those managed to eliminate the disturbing sensation produced by the robot. Discussing with those present reflection is the same. The most repeated word was’Creepy ‘. Last year, however, it was different. Ameca had no skin or wig. Somehow, human appearance was not tried so much, since the gray color and mechanical components were visibly exposed. Instead, Amira is pure skin. Unlike Ameca, Amira does try to camouflage her robot status. Although it is easily appreciated, if we see it from afar it is not so simple. A little observant and clueless person could be checked briefly. The conquest of the disturbing valley It has been present for decades. At the visual level we cannot say that there has been much progress, because in the end it is a matter of makeup. However, the fact that AI has been implemented in the robot and this can interact and Adapt to the environment in real time gives it another dimension full. Personally I have always had a perception of robots and very positive artificial intelligence, but even thus it is difficult to get the idea that these realistic humanoid robots driven by artificial intelligence will be so present. They have all the numbers to get it, but they are difficult for us to accept them without more. Technologically they are improving a lot, but that disturbing sensation does not disappear. In Xataka | We already have so many “humanoid” robots that it costs to differentiate some of the tros. This chart fixes it

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.