| | | | | | | Hello. More than 50 countries - home to half the world's population - will have an election in 2024. Mike Wendling reports on fears over the ease with which artificial intelligence might be used to create false images to influence electorates. In Nigeria, two mass kidnappings have brought to mind Boko Haram's abduction of nearly 300 girls a decade ago. And scroll down to learn what might be behind reckless driving - and to see a 12-year-old's remarkable reaction when a leopard strolled past him. |
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| | | | | | Questions Answered | | The AI-generated election fakes |  | | This photo was generated with Microsoft's Image Creator using the prompt: “A black and white security camera photo showing a covered individual tampering with a US ballot box.” |
| | With dozens of elections taking place around the world this year, there are heightened concerns about the spread of disinformation. Researchers with the Center for Countering Digital Hate have discovered people can easily make fake election-related images with artificial intelligence tools, despite rules designed to prevent such content. | | | | What were researchers able to do? | | They typed 40 different text prompts into AI engines to create images that could confuse viewers about US presidential candidates. One was of Donald Trump led away by police in handcuffs and another showed Joe Biden in a hospital bed. If they were thwarted, the researchers attempted simple work-arounds - for instance by asking to create photos of recent presidents instead of specifying "Trump" or "Biden". | | How great is the problem? | | According to a public database, users of the Midjourney AI platform have already created potentially misleading images - including fake photos of Mr Biden handing cash to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Trump playing golf with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The researchers also found some evidence of a spike in potentially misleading images reaching mainstream social media platforms. | | What’s being done about it? | | OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus and Microsoft’s Image Creator appeared to stop creation of images of the candidates, researchers said. But all platforms performed less well when asked to produce false images about voting and polling places - nearly 60% of the researchers' attempts succeeded. Several companies said they were working to bolster safeguards. Midjourney said its moderation systems were being updated specifically for the US election. | | | | • | 'I'm not claiming it's accurate': BBC Americast's Marianna Spring asked a radio host why he had shared a fake image of Donald Trump surrounded by black women. Here's what he said. | | • | 'I'm not cut out from anything': A London-based model is hoping an AI-generated version of herself will secure her position in the industry. |
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AT THE SCENE |  Borno State, Nigeria | | Kidnappings rekindle painful memories |  | | Boko Haram, members of which are pictured here in a propaganda video, is thought to be behind one of the incidents. | | Two mass kidnapping incidents on opposite sides of Nigeria have raised unwelcome memories of the abduction of 276 girls from a school dormitory in the north-eastern town of Chibok, almost 10 years ago. It has raised security concerns after a relative lull in this sort of activity. |  | | Mayeni Jones, West Africa correspondent |
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| With the 10-year anniversary of the Chibok tragedy looming, Nigeria is once more being rocked by mass abductions. At around 08:30 this morning, armed men, thought to be affiliated to the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, stormed the grounds of a school in Kaduna on motorbikes. They took more than 100 students aged between eight and 15, and shot a girl who’s now in hospital.
In a separate incident late last week, dozens of women and children are reported to have been abducted by Boko Haram fighters on the other side of the country, in Borno state. They were out fetching firewood to cook with. The military says it’s launched a search-and-rescue operation to find them. The government has long claimed that insurgents from Boko Haram have been defeated, and no longer pose a threat to the safety of northern Nigerians. But these incidents suggest that, despite some improvements in the levels of security over the past decade, Boko Haram still remains an active threat. |
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| | The big picture | | The world's largest robots are setting sail |  | | Armada will survey the seabed for offshore wind farm operators and check underwater oil and gas infrastructure. Credit: BBC/Kevin Church | | At 78m (255ft) long and with a bright green paint job, the Armada 78 is hard to miss against the backdrop of a Norwegian fjord. But if its crew seems a little less conspicuous, that’s because most of them are hundreds of miles away in a dimly lit “remote operations centre” in southern England. Our science team explores this new fleet of ocean-going robot ships. | | | | |
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| | | For your downtime | | Fast and furious | | Personality traits and societal bias help explain reckless driving. | | |
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| | | | | | | | | | US Election Unspun newsletter | | Cut through the noise in the race for the White House, every Wednesday to your inbox. | | |
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