The Ouija board has terrified countless slumber party children and served as a plot vehicle in a number of Hollywood films. Here’s where it came from.

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 8, 2023--

Staring at a bright screen in a dark room is terrible for your eyes, so

Thousands of AI-generated images depicting real victims of child sexual abuse threaten to “overwhelm” the internet, a watchdog has warned. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the UK organisation responsible for detecting and removing child sexual abuse imagery from the internet, said its “worst nightmares” have come true. The IWF said criminals were now using the faces and bodies of real children who have appeared in confirmed abuse imagery to create new images of sexual abuse through artificial intelligence technology. The data published by the organisation said the most convincing imagery would be difficult even for trained analysts to distinguish from actual photographs, and some content was now realistic enough to be treated as real imagery under UK law. The IWF warned that the technology was only improving and would pose more obstacles for watchdogs and law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem. The research comes ahead of the UK hosting the AI safety summit next week, where world leaders and tech giants will discuss the developing issues around artificial intelligence. In its latest research, the IWF said it had also found evidence of the commercialisation of AI-generated imagery, and warned that the technology was being used to “nudify” images of children whose clothed images had been uploaded online for legitimate reasons. In addition, it said AI image tech was being used to create images of celebrities who had been “de-aged” and depicted as children in sexual abuse scenarios. In a single month, the IWF said it investigated 11,108 AI images which had been shared on a dark web child abuse forum. Earlier this year, we warned AI imagery could soon become indistinguishable from real pictures of children suffering sexual abuse...We have now passed that point Susie Hargreaves, IWF Of these, 2,978 were confirmed as images which breached UK law and 2,562 were so realistic it said they would need to be treated the same as if they were real abuse images. Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the IWF, said: “Our worst nightmares have come true. Earlier this year, we warned AI imagery could soon become indistinguishable from real pictures of children suffering sexual abuse, and that we could start to see this imagery proliferating in much greater numbers. We have now passed that point. “Chillingly, we are seeing criminals deliberately training their AI on real victims’ images who have already suffered abuse. “Children who have been raped in the past are now being incorporated into new scenarios because someone, somewhere, wants to see it. “As if it is not enough for victims to know their abuse may be being shared in some dark corner of the internet, now they risk being confronted with new images, of themselves being abused in new and horrendous ways not previously imagined. “This is not a hypothetical situation. We’re seeing this happening now. We’re seeing the numbers rise, and we have seen the sophistication and realism of this imagery reach new levels. “International collaboration is vital. It is an urgent problem which needs action now. If we don’t get a grip on this threat, this material threatens to overwhelm the internet.” The IWF said it feared that a deluge of AI-generated content could divert resources from detecting and removing real abuse, and in some instances could lead to missed opportunities to identify and safeguard real children. Read More More than 500 potential cyber attacks logged every second, BT says ChatGPT and other chatbots ‘can be tricked into making code for cyber attacks’ Tinder adds Matchmaker feature to let friends recommend potential dates Google and Meta withdraw from upcoming Web Summit ‘Game-changing’ facial recognition technology catches prolific shoplifters Facial recognition firm Clearview AI overturns UK data privacy fine

Even as Britain prepares to bake again this weekend, the country is not geared up any better for

TOKYO Japanese automotive supplier Denso will invest about 500 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in semiconductors by 2030 as

A hotly anticipated IPO for a company that designs chips for 99% of the world's smartphones is just around the corner, after it filed paperwork Monday to go public.

Countries such as India should back research on artificial intelligence in ways that can improve government services like

By Mike Scarcella Microsoft Corp on Friday will defend its $69 billion planned acquisition of "Call of Duty"

Some of the UK’s most visited websites face enforcement action from the data protection watchdog if they do not make changes to allow users to consent to advertising cookies. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said some websites do not give users fair choices over whether or not they are tracked for personalised advertising. The ICO has previously issued guidance to help ensure firms make it as easy for users to reject advertising cookies as it is to accept all – often using consent banners which pop up when a user first lands on a website – but the watchdog has said that some of the UK’s top websites are not complying with data protection law on this issue. Many of the biggest websites have got this right. We’re giving companies who haven’t managed that yet a clear choice: make the changes now, or face the consequences Stephen Almond, ICO It said it had written to a number of firms giving them 30 days to comply or face potential enforcement action. Under UK data protection law, companies must give users fair choice to opt out of tracking using cookies, which is often then used to serve people personalised adverts online. Companies are still able to show users adverts when someone has rejected all tracking, but the ads must not be tailored to the person browsing. Stephen Almond, ICO executive director of regulatory risk, said: “We’ve all been surprised to see adverts online that seem designed specifically for us – an ad for a hotel when you’ve just booked a flight abroad, for instance. Our research shows that many people are concerned about companies using their personal information to target them with ads without their consent. “Gambling addicts may be targeted with betting offers based on their browsing record, women may be targeted with distressing baby adverts shortly after miscarriage and someone exploring their sexuality may be presented with ads that disclose their sexual orientation. “Many of the biggest websites have got this right. We’re giving companies who haven’t managed that yet a clear choice: make the changes now, or face the consequences.” The ICO said it would provide a further update on this work in January, including details of any companies that had not addressed the watchdog’s concerns. Read More Employee data leaked during British Library cyber attack Half of adults who chat online with strangers do not check age – poll Businesses embracing generative AI but fear cyberattacks, survey finds

When it comes to buying new smartphones, customer interest is on the decline. According to

The UK, US and other governments have released plans they hope will stop artificial intelligence being hijacked by rogue actors. The major agreement – hailed as the first of its kind – represents an attempt to codify rules that will keep AI safe and ensure that systems are built to be secure by design. In a 20-page document unveiled Sunday, the 18 countries agreed that companies designing and using AI need to develop and deploy it in a way that keeps customers and the wider public safe from misuse. The agreement is non-binding and carries mostly general recommendations such as monitoring AI systems for abuse, protecting data from tampering and vetting software suppliers. Still, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Jen Easterly, said it was important that so many countries put their names to the idea that AI systems needed to put safety first. “This is the first time that we have seen an affirmation that these capabilities should not just be about cool features and how quickly we can get them to market or how we can compete to drive down costs,” Easterly told Reuters, saying the guidelines represent “an agreement that the most important thing that needs to be done at the design phase is security.” The agreement is the latest in a series of initiatives - few of which carry teeth - by governments around the world to shape the development of AI, whose weight is increasingly being felt in industry and society at large. In addition to the United States and Britain, the 18 countries that signed on to the new guidelines include Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Australia, Chile, Israel, Nigeria and Singapore. The framework deals with questions of how to keep AI technology from being hijacked by hackers and includes recommendations such as only releasing models after appropriate security testing. It does not tackle thorny questions around the appropriate uses of AI, or how the data that feeds these models is gathered. The rise of AI has fed a host of concerns, including the fear that it could be used to disrupt the democratic process, turbocharge fraud, or lead to dramatic job loss, among other harms. Europe is ahead of the United States on regulations around AI, with lawmakers there drafting AI rules. France, Germany and Italy also recently reached an agreement on how artificia lintelligence should be regulated that supports “mandatory self-regulation through codes of conduct” for so-called foundation models of AI, which are designed to produce a broad range of outputs. The Biden administration has been pressing lawmakers for AI regulation, but a polarized U.S. Congress has made little headway in passing effective regulation. The White House sought to reduce AI risks to consumers, workers, and minority groups while bolstering national security with a new executive order in October. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Putin targets AI as latest battleground with West AI breakthrough could help us build solar panels out of ‘miracle material’ OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman ousted as CEO YouTube reveals bizarre AI music experiments AI-generated faces are starting to look more real than actual ones Children are making indecent images using AI image generators, experts warn