Deadline: AI centre stage in weird and wonderful take on Festival Fringe. “The researchers instructed the ImprovBot to repetitively mine the 100-word text descriptions of every show from 2011 to 2019, amounting to more than two million words. Online audiences will be allowed to interact with ImprovBot on Twitter that created the new shows based on previous fringe listings from 1pm on Friday, August 7. The bot will use this data to devise the world’s first AI-generated event blurbs for an imagined festival of comedy, plays, musicals, and cabaret.”
bots
The Next Web: This AI uses emoji to protect BLM protestors from facial recognition
The Next Web: This AI uses emoji to protect BLM protestors from facial recognition. “If you’ve attended any of the recent Black Lives Matter protests, there’s a good chance you’ve been caught on camera. And if your image has been shared on social media, it could end up in a facial recognition database used by police…. These concerns led Stanford Machine Learning researchers to develop a new anonymization tool: the BLMPrivacyBot.”
Business Insider: A new algorithm could catch social-media trolls as they try to influence US elections. Researchers are offering it for free.
Business Insider: A new algorithm could catch social-media trolls as they try to influence US elections. Researchers are offering it for free.. “The tool, described in a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, works by learning to recognize known, common patterns associated with troll activity and disinformation campaigns. Russian troll accounts, for instance, have posted many links to far-right websites, but the content on those sites didn’t always match the posts’ accompanying text or images. Venezuelan trolls, meanwhile, have often posted fake websites.”
EurekAlert: Chatbots can ease medical providers’ burden, offer guidance to those with COVID-19 symptoms
EurekAlert: Chatbots can ease medical providers’ burden, offer guidance to those with COVID-19 symptoms. “COVID-19 has placed tremendous pressure on health care systems, not only for critical care but also from an anxious public looking for answers. Research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business found that chatbots — software applications that conduct online chats via text or text-to-speech — working for reputable organizations can ease the burden on medical providers and offer trusted guidance to those with symptoms.”
CNET: Twitter challenges millions of accounts every week to determine if they’re bots or not
CNET: Twitter challenges millions of accounts every week to determine if they’re bots or not . “Twitter Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal said Thursday that the company challenges millions of accounts every week to determine if they’re run by a human or completely automated.”
The Conversation: How fake accounts constantly manipulate what you see on social media – and what you can do about it
The Conversation: How fake accounts constantly manipulate what you see on social media – and what you can do about it. “Undoubtedly you’ve heard reports that hackers and even foreign governments are using social media to manipulate and attack you. You may wonder how that is possible. As a professor of computer science who researches social media and security, I can explain – and offer some ideas for what you can do about it.”
The Register: Kinda goes without saying, but shore up your admin passwords or be borged by this brute-forcing botnet
The Register: Kinda goes without saying, but shore up your admin passwords or be borged by this brute-forcing botnet . “Servers are being targeted with a malware attack that uses its infected hosts to brute-force other machines. Known to Akamai researchers as Stealthworker, the infection preys on weak passwords then uses a massive arsenal of malware to overtake Windows and Linux servers running popular CMS, publishing, and hosting tools.”
Chatbot Strategy: How to Improve Your Marketing With Bots (Social Media Examiner)
Social Media Examiner: Chatbot Strategy: How to Improve Your Marketing With Bots. “Wondering if your business should start using chatbots? Looking for tips on what chatbots can do and how to set them up? To explore how to improve your marketing with bots, I interview Natasha Takahashi on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Natasha is a chat marketing expert and co-founder of School of Bots, the leading training site for creating profitable chatbots. She’s also host of the 10 Minute Chatbot Marketer podcast. You’ll discover six ways to use bots in your Facebook marketing and find tips for developing a chatbot strategy. You’ll also learn uses for chatbots outside of Facebook Messenger.” Podcast with extensive article.
University of Rochester: How Dr. Chatbot evolved into a regionwide COVID-19 tracking tool
University of Rochester: How Dr. Chatbot evolved into a regionwide COVID-19 tracking tool. “Members of an innovative technology and mobile applications lab at the Medical Center worked overtime to develop a state-of-the-art tool to help monitor the spread of coronavirus at the University and beyond.”
Bleeping Computer: New BotSight browser extension reveals Twitter bots
Bleeping Computer: New BotSight browser extension reveals Twitter bots. “Released by the NortonLifeLock Research Group (formerly known as Symantec Research Labs), the BotSight browser extension will display a small icon and a percentage score next to each account to indicate whether it’s classified as a real person or a bot.”
The Politic: Internet Bots are Taking Over Politics—and Social Media Companies Can’t Stop Them
The Politic: Internet Bots are Taking Over Politics—and Social Media Companies Can’t Stop Them. “A recent Carnegie Mellon report found that almost half of all the tweets using this #ReopenAmerica came from bots, leading me to wonder how these bots continue to infiltrate our social media in such an unstoppable manner. So, I decided to make my own.”
IBC: BBC Launches Corona Bot To Tackle Covid-19 Questions
IBC: BBC Launches Corona Bot To Tackle Covid-19 Questions. “The Corona Bot will try to answer questions on these issues typed in by a user. It uses experimental AI technology to draw on the BBC News archives to respond with an answer to the specific question where possible. It will also redirect users to other services, such as the NHS, where necessary, while providing access to articles and broadcast content from BBC News.”
Fast Company: This new Twitter bot has Asian front-line workers responding directly to COVID-19 racism
Fast Company: This new Twitter bot has Asian front-line workers responding directly to COVID-19 racism. “The First Responder Twitter Bot responds to COVID-19-inspired racist tweets with videos that aim both to educate the perpetrators and uplift Asian front-line workers. It also responds to those tweeting in support of Asians, with tips on how to be first responders to racism when you witness it in person.”
Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots (NPR)
NPR: Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots. “Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said Wednesday. Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets discussing the virus since January and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans.”
EurekAlert: Who’s a bot and who’s not
EurekAlert: Who’s a bot and who’s not. “A new study in Frontiers in Physics has revealed the presence of short-term behavioral trends in humans that are absent in social media bots, providing an example of a ‘human signature’ on social media which could be leveraged to develop more sophisticated bot detection strategies. The research is the first study of its kind to apply user behavior over a social media session to the problem of bot detection.”
