Linked List: August 26, 2024

Monday, 26 August 2024

The ‘Reimagine’ Feature on Google’s New Pixel 9 Phones Makes It Trivial to Create Deepfakes ★

Chris Welch, in a thread on Threads:

The “Reimagine” feature on Google’s new Pixel 9 lineup is incredible. It’s so impressive that testing it has left me feeling uneasy on multiple occasions.

With a simple prompt, you can add things to photos that were never there. And the company’s Gemini AI makes it look astonishingly realistic. This all happens right from the phone’s default photo editor app. In about five seconds.

Are we ready to go down this path? Now that the embargo has lifted, let me show you some examples. Buckle up.

The images you’ll see in this thread are all straight out of Google Photos after going through Reimagine / Magic Editor. They were never touched up by Photoshop or Lightroom.

On the one hand, this technology becoming ubiquitous feels inevitable. On the other hand, these examples from Welch are disturbing.

At The Verge, Jess Weatherbed writes:

Just because you have the estimable ability to clock when an image is fake doesn’t mean everyone can. Not everyone skulks around on tech forums (we love you all, fellow skulkers), so the typical indicators of AI that seem obvious to us can be easy to miss for those who don’t know what signs to look for — if they’re even there at all. AI is rapidly getting better at producing natural-looking images that don’t have seven fingers or Cronenberg-esque distortions.

Maybe it was easy to spot when the occasional deepfake was dumped into our feeds, but the scale of production has shifted seismically in the last two years alone. It’s incredibly easy to make this stuff, so now it’s fucking everywhere. We are dangerously close to living in a world in which we have to be wary about being deceived by every single image put in front of us.

That’s seemingly where we’re headed. Everyone alive today has grown up in a world where you can’t believe everything you read. Now we need to adapt to a world where that applies just as equally to photos and videos. Trusting the sources of what we believe is becoming more important than ever.

See also: “Elmo drunk driving and holding a beer.”

Sonos CEO Says Their Old App Can’t Be Rereleased ★

Jay Peters, writing for The Verge last week:

If you want the old Sonos app back, it’s not coming. In a Reddit AMA response posted Tuesday, Sonos CEO Spence says that he was hopeful “until very recently” that the company could rerelease the app, confirming a report from The Verge that the company was considering doing so. But after testing that option, rereleasing the old app would apparently make things worse, Spence says.

Since the new app was released on May 7th, Spence has issued a formal apology and announced in August that the company would be delaying the launch of two products “until our app experience meets the level of quality that we, our customers, and our partners expect from Sonos.”

Here’s Spence’s explanation as to why it can’t bring back the old app:

The trick of course is that Sonos is not just the mobile app, but software that runs on your speakers and in the cloud too. In the months since the new mobile app launched we’ve been updating the software that runs on our speakers and in the cloud to the point where today S2 is less reliable & less stable then what you remember. After doing extensive testing we’ve reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the problems worse, not better. I’m sure this is disappointing. It was disappointing to me.

The new Sonos app is looking more and more like an entry for the Unpopular Redesigns Hall of Fame.

1Password: The Infinite Loop of Security ★

My thanks to 1Password — which, earlier this year, acquired frequent DF sponsor Kolide — for sponsoring last week at DF. The 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) found that “the human element” (accidental breaches caused by human error, or victimization in phishing attacks and the like) was the number one cause of breaches. The same was true last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.

The single biggest culprit in breaches continues to be weak and stolen credentials. The 2024 DBIR found that “use of stolen credentials” is the number one initial action during a breach, and that credentials are the number one way attackers gain access in non-error, non-misuse breaches, followed by phishing and vulnerability exploits. This needs to change, and the 2024 DBIR offers a clear look at where we’re falling short and where we go from here. To get more insights about the report and its implications for security, read the full post on 1Password’s blog.

Short Film by iPhonedo, Shot Entirely With an iPhone 15 Pro Max ★

Faruk Korkmaz, on his iPhonedo YouTube channel:

Shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max. No gimbal, extra lens or filter is used. I shot all the footage using the stock camera app to an external drive in ProRes format. Edited in Final Cut Pro X. I put this video together from over 1000 video clips I shot between September 2023 and August 2024.

A lovely little 3-minute film on its own, and a great source of inspiration showing how good footage can look from a modern iPhone.

‘An Experiment in Lust, Regret, and Kissing’ ★

Novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, writing for The New York Times:

This summer, I agreed to a literary experiment with Times Opinion: What is the difference between a story written by a human and a story written by artificial intelligence?

We decided to hold a contest between ChatGPT and me, to see who could write — or “write” — a better beach read. I thought going head-to-head with the machine would give us real answers about what A.I. is and isn’t currently capable of and, of course, how big a threat it is to human writers. And if you’ve wondered, as I have, what exactly makes something a beach read — frothy themes or sand under your feet? — we set out to get to the bottom of that, too. [...]

As for the results of the contest — which one was the better story — I invite you to be the judge. My story and ChatGPT’s story are below. Read to the bottom to find out which is which.

I guessed correctly, and was pretty sure about my guess. But not certain. And without question, I enjoyed Sittenfeld’s story more.

Apple Event on Monday 9 September: ‘It’s Glowtime’ ★

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today announced plans to hold its annual iPhone-centric event on Monday, September 9 at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. The event is set to start at 10:00 a.m., and select members of the media have been invited to attend.

Looking at my notes, I don’t think Apple’s ever before held a September iPhone event on a Monday. Sometimes Wednesdays, but usually Tuesdays. Update: The first (and currently the only scheduled) debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is on Tuesday 10 September — I’ll bet Apple set this one for Monday to give them a better chance at leading the news during the 24 hours after the event.

As for the theme, “glowtime” seems pretty obviously a reference to the new Siri-with-Apple-Intelligence interface in iOS 18.