NEW RESOURCES

WFAA: ‘We’re trying to be as transparent at possible’: Dallas Police launches new use of force database. “The interactive database will provide details on use of force cases dating back to 2014. The public will find it breaks down data into the subject’s gender, race, age, area the incidents happened and other categories.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

WordPress: WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”. “This latest version of WordPress reimagines your site editing experience, introduces more ways to style your site, and offers a new distraction-free way to write. Discover improvements that give you more control and freedom to express your creative vision. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a content creator, developer, site builder, or designer.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Techdirt: Game Jam Winner Spotlight: Escape From 1927. “The first three Hardy Boys novels were some of the higher-profile works to enter the public domain this year, and it’s a bit surprising that we didn’t get more entries based on the iconic characters. But that void is capably filled by Escape From 1927, which turns the first book (The Tower Treasure) into a fully realized point-and-click adventure/hidden object game.”

Engadget: Watch us try to break Google Bard and Bing AI. “In our test, we asked both chatbots a series of questions to see which is better at delivering facts, replacing me at my job and participating in existential debates. We also looked at their speed, transparency and how likely they were to break if we started to push its buttons by being rude or flirty.” Video. The only captions I saw were auto-generated. They weren’t awful but did have errors.

WIRED: How a Major Toy Company Kept 4chan Online. “TOXIC IMAGE BOARD 4chan has managed to stay online for the past seven years—amid boycotts and advertiser flight, after being implicated in several mass shootings, even as it was identified as a source of the conspiracy theories that inspired the January 6 insurrection—thanks, in part, to a $2.4 million investment from a major Japanese toy company.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Humans vs. machines: the fight to copyright AI art. “Last year, Kris Kashtanova typed instructions for a graphic novel into a new artificial-intelligence program and touched off a high-stakes debate over who created the artwork: a human or an algorithm.”

Amnesty International: Amnesty International uncovers new hacking campaign linked to mercenary spyware company. “Amnesty International is not naming the company while the Security Lab continues to track and investigate its activity. However, the attack showed all the hallmarks of an advanced spyware campaign developed by a commercial cyber-surveillance company and sold to governments hackers to carry out targeted spyware attacks.”

US Attorney’s Office: Social Media Influencer Douglass Mackey Convicted of Election Interference in 2016 Presidential Race. “As proven at trial, between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to ‘vote’ via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

The Conversation: Australia’s cultural institutions are especially vulnerable to efficiency dividends: looking back at 35 years of cuts. “In January the Albanese government launched a new arts policy, Revive. Among its measures was a commitment to exempt Australia’s seven national performing arts training organisations from the efficiency dividend. The directors of Australia’s national cultural organisations in the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) sector might well have looked on in envy, but also in hope. Revive did not deal with their problems, but Arts Minister Tony Burke does recognise they are in deep trouble.”

Yale Daily News: Not All Games Go to Heaven. “To preserve an old console’s library would simply entail preserving a collection of physical media. Now, as consoles like the 3DS, Wii, and Playstation 3 — which helped to launch an era of digital gaming libraries — lose internet functionality and developer support, the question of preservation has become a question of survival.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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