Author name: Mike M.

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Under new law, cops bust famous cartoonist for AI-generated child sex abuse images

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Late last year, California passed a law against the possession or distribution of child sex abuse material (CSAM) that has been generated by AI. The law went into effect on January 1, and Sacramento police announced yesterday that they have already arrested their first suspect—a 49-year-old Pulitzer-prize-winning cartoonist named Darrin Bell.

The new law, which you can read here, declares that AI-generated CSAM is harmful, even without an actual victim. In part, says the law, this is because all kinds of CSAM can be used to groom children into thinking sexual activity with adults is normal. But the law singles out AI-generated CSAM for special criticism due to the way that generative AI systems work.

“The creation of CSAM using AI is inherently harmful to children because the machine-learning models utilized by AI have been trained on datasets containing thousands of depictions of known CSAM victims,” it says, “revictimizing these real children by using their likeness to generate AI CSAM images into perpetuity.”

The law defines “artificial intelligence” as “an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.”

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Camera owner asks Canon, skies: Why is it $5/month for webcam software?

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Comparison of webcam software features available to Canon’s “PRO” and “Free” users.

Credit: Roman Zipp/Canon

Comparison of webcam software features available to Canon’s “PRO” and “Free” users. Credit: Roman Zipp/Canon

“Software development isn’t free, and I’m happy to pay for software I use regularly,” Zipp writes. “However, Canon is a hardware company, not a software company, and they should—due to the lack of standards—provide software that allows you to use their cameras as intended. Aside from development costs, there’s no justification for a subscription model, particularly from a company earning nearly $3 billion in profit.”

Zipp’s pointed complaint made the front page of Hacker News, where commenters immediately got sidetracked into a discussion of UK tariff laws on video equipment, sneakers, cookies, and ethanol. But further in, recommendations appear for the open source Magic Lantern camera add-on software, or possibly CHDK (Canon Hack Development Kit) firmware. Whether or not Zipp can better use his camera as a webcam is somewhat beside the point, or at least the point he’s making.

Many higher-end (or at least better-than-smartphone) cameras output video in formats that computers and web conferencing software cannot natively accept. HDMI output is an option, but using that typically requires a capture device and specialty software to mix and use it and that the camera provide “clean” HDMI out, with no overlays. The G5 X Mark II does seem to offer that and has a USB-C port. It also seems to work fine once the software is paid for. It’s an open question whether Canon should provide this as part of the cost of the camera, one for which Zipp and many commenters have an answer.

Ars has reached out to Canon for comment and will update this post if the company responds.

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Heroes, villains, and childhood trauma in the MCEU and DCU

adverse childhood experiences, DCEU, Entertainment, mcu, Mental Health, psychology, Science, sociology / /

They also limited their study to Marvel and DC characters depicted in major films, rather than including storylines from spinoff TV series. So Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch was not included since much of her traumatic backstory appeared in the series WandaVision. Furthermore, “We omitted gathering more characters from comic books in both Marvel and DC universes, due to their inconsistency in character development,” the authors wrote. “Comic book storylines often feature alternative plot lines, character arcs, and multiverse outcomes. The storytelling makes comic book characters highly inconsistent and challenging to score.”

With great power…

They ended up watching 33 films, with a total runtime of 77 hours and 5 minutes. They chose 19 male characters, eight female characters, and one gender-fluid character (Loki) as “subjects” for their study, applying the ACE questionnaire to their childhoods as portrayed in the films.

The results: “We found no statistically significant differences between heroes and villains, Marvel and DC characters, or men and women and ACE scores,” said Jackson. “This means that characters who were portrayed as having difficult childhoods were not more likely to be villains. This study somewhat refutes the idea that villains are a product of their experiences. Based on the films we watched, people chose to be heroes and that was what made the difference—not their experiences.”

Notably, Black Widow had the highest ACE score (eight) and yet still became an Avenger, though the authors acknowledge that the character did some bad things before then and famously wanted to wipe out the “red” in her ledger. She “represents resilience of characters who have experienced trauma,” the authors wrote, as well as demonstrating that “socio-ecological resilience, including access to social relationships and supportive communities, can play a mitigating role in the effect of ACEs.” The Joker, by contrast, scored a six and “wreaked havoc across Gotham City.”

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Texas defends requiring ID for porn to SCOTUS: “We’ve done this forever”

age verification law, age-gating, First Amendment, free speech rights, Policy, pornography, privacy online, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, texas / /

“You can use VPNs, the click of a button, to make it seem like you’re not in Texas,” Shaffer argued. “You can go through the search engines, you can go through social media, you can access the same content in the ways that kids are likeliest to do.”

Texas attorney Aaron Nielson argued that the problem of kids accessing porn online has only gotten “worse” in the decades since Texas has been attempting less restrictive and allegedly less effective means like content filtering. Now, age verification is Texas’ preferred solution, and strict scrutiny shouldn’t apply to a law that just asks someone to show ID to see adult content, Nielson argued.

“In our history we have always said kids can’t come and look at this stuff,” Nielson argued. “So it seems not correct to me as a historical matter to say, well actually it’s always been presumptively unconstitutional. … But we’ve done it forever. Strict scrutiny somehow has always been satisfied.”

Like groups suing, Texas also asked the Supreme Court to be very clear when writing guidance for the 5th Circuit should the court vacate and remand the case. But Texas wants justices to reiterate that just because the case was remanded, that doesn’t mean the 5th Circuit can’t reinstitute the stay on the preliminary injunction that was ordered following the 5th Circuit’s prior review.

On rebuttal, Shaffer told SCOTUS that out of “about 20 other laws that by some views may look a lot like Texas'” law, “this is the worst of them.” He described Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as a “hostile regulator who’s saying to adults, you should not be here.”

“I strongly urge this court to stick with strict scrutiny as the applicable standard of review when we’re talking about content-based burdens on speakers,” Shaffer said.

In a press release, Vera Eidelman, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said that “efforts to childproof the Internet not only hurt everyone’s ability to access information, but often give the government far too much leeway to go after speech it doesn’t like—all while failing to actually protect children.”

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The trailer for Daredevil: Born Again is here

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In addition, Mohan Kapur reprises his MCU role as Yusuf Khan, while Kamar de los Reyes plays Hector Ayala/White Tiger. The cast also includes Michael Gandolfini, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Jeremy Earl, and Lou Taylor Pucci.

The trailer mostly consists of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk (now the mayor) having a tense conversation in a diner now that they’ve both, in Fisk’s words, “come up in the world.” Their conversation is interspersed with other footage from the series, including the trademark brutal fight scenes—complete with bones breaking in various unnatural ways. And yes, we get a glimpse of a bearded Frank Castle/The Punisher in attack mode (“Frank! Would you mind putting the hatchet down?”).

Fisk insists that as mayor, his intent is to serve the city, but Matt “can’t shake the feeling that you’re gaming the system.” Matt admits he abandoned his vigilante ways after “a line was crossed.” Fisk naturally believes we all have to “come to terms with our violent nature” and insists that sometimes “peace must be broken and chaos must reign.” As for Matt, sure, he was raised a devout Catholic to believe in grace, “but I was also raised to believe in retribution.” We’re ready for another showdown between these two.

Daredevil: Born Again drops on March 4, 2025, on Disney+.

poster art showing the faces of Fisk and Daredevil, one in gray, the other in red

Credit: Marvel Studios

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Researchers use AI to design proteins that block snake venom toxins

AI, anti-toxin, biochemistry, Computer science, protein design, Science, snakes, venom / /

Since these two toxicities work through entirely different mechanisms, the researchers tackled them separately.

Blocking a neurotoxin

The neurotoxic three-fingered proteins are a subgroup of the larger protein family that specializes in binding to and blocking the receptors for acetylcholine, a major neurotransmitter. Their three-dimensional structure, which is key to their ability to bind these receptors, is based on three strings of amino acids within the protein that nestle against each other (for those that have taken a sufficiently advanced biology class, these are anti-parallel beta sheets). So to interfere with these toxins, the researchers targeted these strings.

They relied on an AI package called RFdiffusion (the RF denotes its relation to the Rosetta Fold protein-folding software). RFdiffusion can be directed to design protein structures that are complements to specific chemicals; in this case, it identified new strands that could line up along the edge of the ones in the three-fingered toxins. Once those were identified, a separate AI package, called ProteinMPNN, was used to identify the amino acid sequence of a full-length protein that would form the newly identified strands.

But we’re not done with the AI tools yet. The combination of three-fingered toxins and a set of the newly designed proteins were then fed into DeepMind’s AlfaFold2 and the Rosetta protein structure software, and the strength of the interactions between them were estimated.

It’s only at this point that the researchers started making actual proteins, focusing on the candidates that the software suggested would interact the best with the three-fingered toxins. Forty-four of the computer-designed proteins were tested for their ability to interact with the three-fingered toxin, and the single protein that had the strongest interaction was used for further studies.

At this point, it was back to the AI, where RFDiffusion was used to suggest variants of this protein that might bind more effectively. About 15 percent of its suggestions did, in fact, interact more strongly with the toxin. The researchers then made both the toxin and the strongest inhibitor in bacteria and obtained the structure of their interactions. This confirmed that the software’s predictions were highly accurate.

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FBI forces Chinese malware to delete itself from thousands of US computers

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The FBI said today that it removed Chinese malware from 4,258 US-based computers and networks by sending commands that forced the malware to use its “self-delete” function.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government paid the Mustang Panda group to develop a version of PlugX malware used to infect, control, and steal information from victim computers, the FBI said. “Since at least 2014, Mustang Panda hackers then infiltrated thousands of computer systems in campaigns targeting US victims, as well as European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident groups,” the FBI said.

The malware has been known for years but many Windows computers were still infected while their owners were unaware. The FBI learned of a method to remotely remove the malware from a French law enforcement agency, which had gained access to a command-and-control server that could send commands to infected computers.

“When a computer infected with this variant of PlugX malware is connected to the Internet, the PlugX malware can send a request to communicate with a command-and-control (‘C2’) server, whose IP address is hard-coded in the malware. In reply, the C2 server can send several possible commands to the PlugX malware on the victim computer,” stated an FBI affidavit that was made on December 20 and unsealed today.

As it turns out, the “PlugX malware variant’s native functionality includes a command from a C2 server to ‘self-delete.'” This deletes the application, files created by the malware, and registry keys used to automatically run the PlugX application when the victim computer is started.

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ChatGPT becomes more Siri-like with new scheduled tasks feature

agentic AI, AI, AI Agent, chatgpt, ChatGPT Tasks, openai / /

OpenAI is making ChatGPT work a little more like older digital assistants with a new feature called Tasks, as reported by TechCrunch and others.

Currently in beta, Tasks allows users to direct the chatbot to send reminders or to generate responses to specific prompts at certain times; recurring tasks are also supported.

The feature is available to Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers starting today, while free users don’t have access.

To create a task, users need to select “4o with scheduled tasks” from the model picker and then direct ChatGPT using the same kind of plain language text prompts that drive everything else it does. ChatGPT will sometimes suggest tasks, too, but they won’t go into effect unless the user approves them.

The user can then make changes to assigned tasks through the same chat conversation, or they can use a new Tasks section of the ChatGPT apps to manage all currently assigned items. There’s currently a 10-task limit.

When the time comes to perform an assigned task, the ChatGPT mobile or desktop app will send a notification on schedule.

This update can be seen as OpenAI’s first step into the agentic AI space, where applications built using deep learning can operate relatively independently within certain boundaries, either replacing or easing the day-to-day responsibilities of information workers.

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Meta to cut 5% of employees deemed unfit for Zuckerberg’s AI-fueled future

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Anticipating that 2025 will be an “intense year” requiring rapid innovation, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly announced that Meta would be cutting 5 percent of its workforce—targeting “lowest performers.”

Bloomberg reviewed the internal memo explaining the cuts, which was posted to Meta’s internal Workplace forum Tuesday. In it, Zuckerberg confirmed that Meta was shifting its strategy to “move out low performers faster” so that Meta can hire new talent to fill those vacancies this year.

“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management,” Zuckerberg said. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

Cuts will likely impact more than 3,600 employees, as Meta’s most recent headcount in September totaled about 72,000 employees. It may not be as straightforward as letting go anyone with an unsatisfactory performance review, as Zuckerberg said that any employee not currently meeting expectations could be spared if Meta is “optimistic about their future performance,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Any employees affected will be notified by February 10 and receive “generous severance,” Zuckerberg’s memo promised.

This is the biggest round of cuts at Meta since 2023, when Meta laid off 10,000 employees during what Zuckerberg dubbed the “year of efficiency.” Those layoffs followed a prior round where 11,000 lost their jobs and Zuckerberg realized that “leaner is better.” He told employees in 2023 that a “surprising result” from reducing the workforce was “that many things have gone faster.”

“A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster,” Zuckerberg wrote in 2023. “People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling. We will become an even greater magnet for the most talented people. That’s why in our Year of Efficiency, we are focused on canceling projects that are duplicative or lower priority and making every organization as lean as possible.”

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How GM’s Super Cruise went from limo driving to lane changes and towing

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The Unified Lateral Controller

The algorithm that handles all of that is called the Unified Lateral Controller. “So it’s a single software stack, but it is also modular to adapt with different vehicle configurations, with different driving scenarios, different maneuvers,” Zarringhalam said.

“Let’s imagine that you’re driving a Super Cruise vehicle, and you indicate to the left, or the system automatically decides to make a lane change to the left, and then, for whatever reason, the driver decides that they want to go back, mid-maneuver; they want to go back to the original lane. So you can just indicate to the opposite side, in this case, the right-hand side. Under the hood, in this scenario, everything is jumping. Our target trajectory is jumping from a left-lane maneuver to a right turn. The turn can be very sharp. There could be other objects that narrow the envelope of operation that you’re allowed to function in,” Zarringhalam said.

Again, that behavior has to be consistent and predictable, whether it’s below freezing or in the middle of a heatwave, and things like tire wear must also be taken into account. Or, say, the presence of a trailer, which could be anything from a bike rack with wheels to a three-axle trailer.

“As soon as we detect that the trailer is attached, we run several real-time algorithms—trailer inertial parameters, trailer math, trailer configuration, even how many axles we have, and the control adapts itself to execute lane turning and keep both the vehicle and the trailer at the center of the road,” Zarringhalam said.

That’s done automatically without the driver having to input the information (obviating the problem of someone entering the wrong details), “and if you change the loading or the trailer configuration, even mid-drive—if you pull over, load more weight and continue driving on the same road with Super Cruise active—these learnings happen in a matter of seconds,” Zarringhalam said.

How GM’s Super Cruise went from limo driving to lane changes and towing Read More »

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Skull long thought to be Cleopatra’s sister’s was actually a young boy

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Scientists have demonstrated that an ancient human skull excavated from a tomb at Ephesos was not that of Arsinoë IV, half-sister to Cleopatra VII. Rather, it’s the skull of a young male between the ages of 11 and 14 from Italy or Sardinia, who may have suffered from one or more developmental disorders, according to a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. Arsinoë IV’s remains are thus still missing.

Arsinoë IV led quite an adventurous short life. She was either the third or fourth daughter of Ptolemy XII, who left the throne to Cleopatra and his son, Ptolemy XIII, to rule together. Ptolemy XIII didn’t care for this decision and dethroned Cleopatra in a civil war—until Julius Caesar intervened to enforce their father’s original plan of co-rulership. As for Arsinoë, Caesar returned Cyprus to Egyptian rule and named her and her youngest brother (Ptolemy XIV) co-rulers. This time, it was Arsinoë who rebelled, taking command of the Egyptian army and declaring herself queen.

She was fairly successful at first in battling the Romans, conducting a siege against Alexandria and Cleopatra, until her disillusioned officers decided they’d had enough and secretly negotiated with Caesar to turn her over to him. Caesar agreed, and after a bit of public humiliation, he granted Arsinoë sanctuary in the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. She lived in relative peace for a few years, until Cleopatra and Mark Antony ordered her execution on the steps of the temple—a scandalous violation of the temple as a place of sanctuary. Historians disagree about Arsinoë’s age when she died: Estimates range from 22 to 27.

Archaeologists have been excavating the ancient city of Ephesus for more than a century. The Octagon was uncovered in 1904, and the burial chamber was opened in 1929. That’s where Joseph Keil found a skeleton in a sarcophagus filled with water, but for some reason, Keil only removed the cranium from the tomb before sealing it back up. He took the skull with him to Germany and declared it belonged to a likely female around 20 years old, although he provided no hard data to support that conclusion.

It was Hilke Thur of the Austrian Academy of Sciences who first speculated that the skull may have belonged to Arsinoë IV, despite the lack of an inscription (or even any grave goods) on the tomb where it was found. Old notes and photographs, as well as craniometry, served as the only evidence. The skull accompanied Keil to his new position at the University of Vienna, and there was one 1953 paper reporting on craniometric measurements, but after that, the skull languished in relative obscurity. Archaeologists at the University of Graz rediscovered the skull in Vienna in 2022. The rest of the skeleton remained buried until the chamber was reopened and explored further in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was no longer in the sarcophagus.

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