分类： technology

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, unveiled Grokipedia on Monday, positioning it as a rival to the widely-used online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Musk has frequently criticized Wikipedia for its perceived ideological bias, and Grokipedia aims to offer an alternative focused on impartiality and truth. The initial version, labeled 0.1, launched with over 885,000 articles, a fraction of Wikipedia’s more than seven million English entries. Musk promised a future version, 1.0, which he claims will be “10X better” than the current iteration, already touted as superior to Wikipedia. “Our mission is to pursue the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” Musk declared on X, formerly known as Twitter. The launch, initially scheduled for late September, was delayed to allow for the removal of what Musk termed “propaganda.” Grokipedia’s content is generated by AI, including the generative assistant Grok, which xAI developed. The platform has already drawn praise from some right-wing figures, including Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, who lauded its neutrality compared to Wikipedia’s alleged bias. Wikipedia, established in 2001, operates as a volunteer-driven, donation-funded platform with a reputation for transparency and continuous improvement. A Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson emphasized the human-centric nature of Wikipedia, noting that AI projects like Grokipedia rely on human-created knowledge. While the long-term impact of Grokipedia remains uncertain, its launch marks a significant challenge to Wikipedia’s dominance in the digital encyclopedia space.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — In the wake of Hurricane Melissa, Jamaica’s telecommunications infrastructure has faced significant disruptions, with Digicel reporting that 26% of its mobile network was offline as of Tuesday morning. The primary cause of this outage is the widespread power loss across the island. According to Daryl Vaz, Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications, 209 mobile sites are currently operating on generators, while nine are relying on batteries. Additionally, 20% of fibre-to-home customers are offline due to power outages in their residences. Minister Vaz made these remarks during a special media briefing at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management’s operations center. He emphasized that Digicel’s teams are prioritizing the most severely affected areas and will continue to fuel generators until power is restored by the Jamaica Public Service. Digicel is also collaborating with the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA) to enhance its spectrum bandwidth channels, leveraging lessons learned from Hurricane Beryl, which demonstrated that mobile infrastructure recovers faster than fixed infrastructure. In a parallel development, Minister Vaz announced that he had signed licenses at 3:00 am Tuesday to allocate additional spectrum to Liberty Caribbean, the parent company of Flow Jamaica. He expressed optimism about Flow’s commitment to Jamaica’s recovery, particularly through its innovative partnership with Starlink. This collaboration will introduce mobile connectivity via satellite, enabling 4G LTE customers to send SMS and text messages even when local networks are down. Minister Vaz lauded this initiative as a significant step forward in ensuring communication resilience during disasters.

As Hurricane Melissa, a formidable Category 5 storm, approached Jamaica, social media platforms were inundated with AI-generated videos, diverting attention from essential safety information. AFP identified numerous fabricated clips, many bearing the watermark of OpenAI’s text-to-video model, Sora. These videos depicted exaggerated scenarios, from severe flooding and sharks in the water to human suffering and locals downplaying the storm’s threat, often reinforced by stereotypical Jamaican accents. Jamaican Information Minister Senator Dana Morris Dixon emphasized the importance of relying on official channels for accurate information, as fake content could lead to underestimating the storm’s severity. Experts, including University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Amy McGovern, warned that such misinformation could result in catastrophic consequences, including loss of life and property. The clips primarily spread on TikTok, with some lacking the required AI disclosure labels. TikTok removed over two dozen videos and related accounts after AFP flagged them, though similar content circulated on Facebook and Instagram. Cybersecurity expert Hany Farid highlighted how advanced text-to-video models have accelerated the spread of convincing fakes, contributing to public misinformation. Despite watermarks, many viewers appeared unaware the content was AI-generated, with some even engaging with the fabricated scenarios. Farid noted the paradox of the information age, where increased information leads to a less informed public.