Bytes: What’s new in tech
A big Saudi gaming play
Saudi Arabia wants to become a gaming powerhouse, said Lewis Gordon in The Verge. The country’s state-owned Public Investment Fund has stacked up a trove of investments in gaming leaders such as Nintendo, Take-Two, Electronic Arts, and Activision Blizzard. A further $13 billion was earmarked in 2022 “for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher, with many more billions reserved for further minority investments,” according to the kingdom’s press agency. Leading the effort is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an “avowed gamer” who views video games (and sports) as “an opportunity to maintain and broker power internationally”— and cleanse the nation’s image.
Fake authors for AI-generated stories
Sports Illustrated is under fire for publishing articles written by fake, AI-generated authors, said Maggie Harrison in Futurism. A bizarre review of a volleyball posted on SI’s website claims to be written by someone named Drew Ortiz, who “has no social media presence and no publishing history.” His headshot posted with the story “is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots, where he’s described as a ‘neutral white young-adult male.’” Ortiz isn’t the only AI-generated author published by SI, whose owner, Arena Group—which acquired the storied title in 2019—blamed a third-party company, AdVon Commerce, for the writers’ fake names. However, none of the articles “contained any disclosure about the use of AI.”
Reels promotes toxic sexual content
Instagram’s algorithm feeds adults content that sexualizes children, said Jeff Horwitz and Katherine Blunt in The Wall Street Journal.
We set up test accounts as adult users and had them “follow only young gymnasts, cheerleaders, and other teen and preteen influencers active on the platform.” When we looked at Reels, Instagram’s short-video rival to TikTok, our feeds became deeply unsettling, with ads for such brands as Disney and Walmart appearing alongside “adult sex content” and “child-sexualizing material.” Experts on algorithmic recommendation systems said that “Meta’s behavioral tracking has discerned that some Instagram users following preteen girls will want to engage with videos sexualizing children, and then directs such content toward them.” Automated enforcement systems also “have a harder time parsing video content than text or still images.”