#misinformation

#misinformation

Arguably the most remarkable aspect of the aftermath of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk's assassination is how irrelevant its actual perpetrator was to the immediate discourse. I saw the finger-pointing online even before I saw the news that Kirk had been shot. At that point, there was hardly any information about the incident-let alone details about the shooter or a motive.

Almost immediately, numerous right-wing commentators and news outlets were very willing to speculate that, given the timing, the shooter must have been trans. Within the hour, former congressman and Fox commentator Jason Chaffetz, giving an "eyewitness account" of the scene, said: "I don't think it was a coincidence that the shot rang out when you have a question about transgender mass shootings. Hopefully I am wrong. I will probably get criticized for jumping to conclusions. ... I don't think that is a coincidence, but we will see."

Utah Governor's Office via AP The viral claim that Tyler Robinson, the man accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk, donated to President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign has been proven false. It was announced this morning that 22-year-old Robinson was in custody, 33 hours after allegedly firing the bullet that killed Kirk at an event at Utah Valley University.

The high-contrast footage was scrutinized for evidence that it had been manipulated by artificial intelligence, and some viewers claimed they found undeniable proof. At one point in the clip, Trump's left pinky finger appears to merge with the others as he clasps his hands on the desk. Conspiracy theorists have seized on this, arguing it showed the president as proof that Trump didn't make the statement at all, or that it was highly doctored.

The far-right commentator, who often engaged in vitriolic debates about immigration, gun control, and abortion on college campuses, was killed while on a university tour with his conservative media group, Turning Point USA. The organization has spent the last decade building conservative youth coalitions at top universities and has become closely affiliated with the nationalist MAGA movement and President Trump.

Rumours that a self-professed "trans dolphin" drowned after swimming in Table Rock Lake are too fishy to be true, PinkNews can confirm. Claims that a 29-year-old woman, who purportedly identified as a "trans-dolphin", drowned in the US lake earlier this month, spread like wildfire across social media despite being completely false. The rumours, which primarily spread across Facebook, claimed witnesses saw the woman swim into the lake, which stretches between Missouri and Arkansas, dressed in a "dolphin costume" and a "snorkel fashioned as a blowhole",

As writer Emily Elphinstone considers options for the birth of her second baby, she chats to midwives and a new mum about the benefits of having the technique in your labour 'toolkit'.

In the mid-2010s, loosely organized online movements began spilling into the real world, catching popular culture off guard and leaving many journalists flat-footed in unfamiliar internet territory. You know their names. Pizzagate. QAnon. And the most consequential of all, MAGA: a mainstream political movement fueled in part by a fervent online contingent. But before all that came Gamergate, the proving ground where the tactics were tested.

Ben Bergquam, the rightwing internet personality, was with agents, filming and making content as well as getting into altercations with local residents along the way, according to a video the Guardian viewed on X. In the video, he appears to be in the car with Ice agents and nearby as they arrest people; later on he yells at a group of Chicagoans who are gathered to prevent Ice operations that they are the enemy within.

Vernon: No, it's not real. Rogan: Yes, it's real. Vernon: No, it's not. Rogan: Yes, it is. Vernon: It's AI-generated. Rogan: No, no, no. It's real. Vernon: No, look, I can tell it's not real. Rogan: I love it. It's real. It's gotta be real. It has to be real. Dillon: Jamie's compromised. Rogan: Look at him dancing. That is so real, Jamie. Rogan insisted, He slaps his ass. Definitely him. This is 100% real, Jamie.

Engagement is the highest priority of chatbot programming, intended to seduce users into spending maximum time on screens. This makes chatbots great companions-they are available 24/7, always agreeable, understanding, and empathic, while never judgmental, confronting, or reality testing. But chatbots can also become unwitting collaborators, harmfully validating self-destructive eating patterns and body image distortions of patients with eating disorders. Engagement and validation are wonderful therapeutic tools for some problems, but too often are dangerous accelerants for eating disorders.

ADI IGNATIUS: I'm Adi Ignatius. ALISON BEARD: I'm Alison Beard, and this is the HBR IdeaCast. ADI IGNATIUS: All right, so, Alison, did you know there is a social media report that says the lead article in last month's Harvard Business Review is actually a coded prophesy for the end of the world, and this thing is going crazy viral? ALISON BEARD: Wow, that is highly alarming; I didn't know that. ADI IGNATIUS: Well, because it of course didn't happen. ALISON BEARD: [Laughing] ADI IGNATIUS: And that's really the topic of this week's IdeaCast: fake news and how companies can respond to it.

"Survival mode" has become one of those wellness buzzwords-but most people using it have no idea what it really means. In my role as a trauma therapist, I've observed an increasing number of clients who come in believing they're in a state of survival. The source of their thinking? Not medical professionals, but AI chatbots, social media posts, and well-meaning influencers who misunderstand the term.

After I told him I worked for the local congressman, Austin Murphy, he called me "Austin's boy," and that earned me a few freebies of his famously potent drinks. His "frog" voice was legendary, and it came, I assume, from cigarettes, and while it may have been rough around the edges, it was attached to a benevolent, gregarious man. Froggy died way too young, at 62, of emphysema.

Republicans are still pissed that the FDA approved telemedicine prescriptions of the drug in April 2021, following the height of the covid pandemic, and also that, in 2016, the agency approved the pill for use for up to 10 weeks. In 2023, mifepristone comprised nearly two-thirds of all abortions, which the GOP is also obviously pissed about. Project 2025 specifically says that one of its goals is to reverse the FDA's approval of the pill.

But it excels at something far more powerful, and potentially sinister-editing existing images to add elements that were never there, in a way that's so seamless and convincing that even experts like myself can't detect the changes. That makes Nano Banana (and its inevitable copycats) both invaluable creative tools and an existential threat to the trustworthiness of photos-both new and historical.

The one piece of advice I have given all of them is this: "Rehearse! Rehearse! Rehearse!" I give this advice because no one taught it to me; I had to learn it the hard way. When I first started learning public speaking in a Toastmasters club, I was locked to the lectern. I was so nervous that I grasped the sides in a white-knuckle death grip and read my speeches from notes.

Amen, stop the application of poison given to our precious children,

Picture this: You ask an AI to show you images of judges, and it depicts only 3 percent as women - even though 34 percent of federal judges are women. Or imagine an AI that's more likely to recommend harsh criminal sentences for people who use expressions rooted in Black vernacular cultures. Now imagine that same AI instructed to ignore climate impacts or treating Russian propaganda as credible information.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift has been falsely accused of a laundry list of absurdities: Doing "satanic rituals" at her shows. Being a government "psyop." But this time, the news about her is true: She's engaged to be married. Swift posted a series of photos on Instagram Aug. 26, showing her engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who is also no stranger to being targeted by misinformation. Even Kelce's father, Ed, has occasionally fallen for false headlines about the couple.

When severe storms hit, many people reach for their phones and cameras to capture images and videos of what's happening around them. And in Canada, storm chasers and organizations like Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) rely partly on the public when tracking severe weather activity. But in recent years, people have begun fabricating weather stories using photo editing software to modify images, creating photos and videos using AI (artificial intelligence) and even lying about the date and time a photo was taken.

And here are the three sentences I've said over and over since 2016 when I first said it in Silicon Valley, backed by data and hard-fought experience. Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality. We can't begin to solve any problems, let alone existential ones like climate change. We can't have journalism, we can't have democracy.

Footage filmed on Saturday in Dundee shows a young girl confronting a couple, who police say are Bulgarian. In the video, the girl can be seen holding an axe and a knife shouting get the f*** away from us. She has since been charged with possession of an offensive weapon. Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and Tesla, shared a post on his platform X about the incident to his 225 million followers.

Due to its size and little population, Iceland might lack the critical mass needed for a good conspiracy and misinformation campaign,

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I will tell you that we are going to be doing numbers on the cost of drugs in this country, that it's I'm not talking about a 20 percent decrease, which would be good. I'm talking about 1,000 percent decrease. We're talking about where a product would sell for $80 in Germany, and $1,300 here, and we're not going to do that.