Antivirus Newsletter

Vermont-based electric aviation company Beta Technologies announced the inaugural flight of the production version of its ALIA aircraft. The ALIA is a conventional takeoff and landing aircraft (CTOL), as opposed to a vertical takeoff and landing one (VTOL), meaning it lacks the tilt rotors that you see on other prototype aircraft. But the propulsion is still battery powered, putting Beta in the same category of many air taxi startups. The FAA signed off on the first flight, and now Beta is seeking certification for commercial operation.

An open letter signed by AI researchers, including Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Boulamwini and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, said governments should look to fully criminalize deepfake child pornography even with fictional children, create criminal penalities for people who make and share “harmful” deepfakes, and require developers to be held liable if their safety measures are easily bypassed.

Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) and Madeline Dean (D-PA) filed the No AI FRAUD Act building on themes in an earlier bill introduced in October. If passed, the bill will protect individual likenesses and voices at a unified federal level instead of a patchwork state-level one, giving people the right to control who can use their image and fight against AI-generated impersonation.

It’s new Snapdragon processor day everyone! The Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 is the successor to last year’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, and is destined for phones costing between $400 and $600.