Security researchers have recently discovered a botnet with a novel defense against takedowns. Normally, authorities can disable a botnet by taking over its command-and-control server. With nowhere to go for instructions, the botnet is rendered useless. But over the years, botnet designers have come up with ways to make this counterattack harder. Now the content-delivery network Akamai has reported on a new method: a botnet that uses the Bitcoin blockchain ledger. Since the blockchain is globally accessible and hard to take down, the botnet’s operators appear to be safe. Read More
Daily Archives: March 18, 2021
IBM develops artificial intelligence system that can debate humans
Project Debater told its human counterpart, “I heard you hold the world record in debate competition wins against humans, but I suspect you’ve never debated a machine. Welcome to the future.”
Has artificial intelligence finally mastered the art of human speech? Can robots actually win debates against humans?
The IBM research lab in Haifa has trained its newest autonomous AI model, Project Debater, to debate complex human issues in front of a live audience. Read More
Could The Simpsons Replace Its Voice Actors With AI?
Deepfake technology can make convincing replicas from a limited amount of data, and the show has 30 years worth of audio to work from.
In May 2015, The Simpsons voice actor Harry Shearer—who plays a number of key characters including, quite incredibly, both Mr. Burns and Waylon Smithers—announced that he was leaving the show … Fox, the producer of The Simpsons, was looking to cut costs— and was threatening to cancel the series unless the voice actors took a 30 percent pay cut. … Shearer (who had been critical of the show’s declining quality) refused to sign. …But you’ll never stop The Simpsons. After a few months, Shearer relented and signed a new deal.
…But maybe the producers of the show don’t actually need voice actors anymore. In a recent episode, Edna Krabappel—Bart’s long-suffering teacher, whose character was retired from the show after the death of voice actor Marcia Wallace in 2013—was brought back for a final farewell using recordings that had been made for previous episodes.
Advances in computing power mean that you could extend that principle to any character. Deepfake technology can make convincing lookalikes from a limited amount of training data, and the producers of the show have 30 years worth of audio to work from. So could The Simpsons replace its voice cast with an AI? Read More
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