Robocalls are rampant, using AI and other tools to disrupt day-to-day life and scam Americans out of their money through impersonations of family members, phone providers and more. On October 24, the Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband heard the latest issue and solution floating around: AI.

Currently, bad actors are using AI to steal people's voices and repurpose them in calls to loved ones — often presenting a state of distress. This advancement goes beyond seemingly real calls from banks and credit card companies, providing a disturbing and jarring experience: not knowing if you're speaking to someone you know.

The financial repercussions (not to mention potential mental distress) are tremendous. Senator Ben Ray Luján, chair of the subcommittee, estimates that individuals nationwide receive 1.5 billion to 3 billion scam calls monthly, defrauding Americans out of $39 billion in 2022. This figure is despite the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement (TRACED) Act of 2019, which expanded the government's power to prosecute callers and for individuals to block them.

In fact, much of the blame for this continued issue has been collectively placed on government agencies like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). "FCC enforcement actions are not sufficient to make a meaningful difference in these illegal calls. U.S.-based providers continue to spurn the Commission's requirements to respond to traceback requests," Margot Saunders, a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said in her testimony to the subcommittee. "The fines issued against some of the most egregious fraudsters have not been recovered, which undermines the intended deterrent effect of imposing these fines. Yet the Commission has referred only three forfeiture orders to the Department of Justice related to unwanted calls since the FCC began TRACED Act reporting in 2020."

Saunders called on the FCC to issue clearer guidance on existing regulations and harsher penalties (namely suspension) on complicit voice service providers. She further expressed the need for explicit consent requirements in order for individuals to be contacted.

Mike Rudolph, chief technology officer at robocall-blocking firm YouMail, pitched the idea of using AI to flag insufficient information in the FCC's Robocall Mitigation Database. Instead of properly completing and filing the required information, some phone providers avoid accountability for their (lack of) action and submit blank or irrelevant papers.

YouTube Music has two new features rolling out, and it should come as no surprise that one of them is all about AI. Instead of looking at a compilation of album covers or uploading your own image, you can now use AI to create custom playlist art right from the YouTube Music app. 

Whether or not you've ever thought about what's at the top of your playlist, designing and adding an image is pretty simple. All you need to do is click the playlist's edit button and then on the existing main image. YouTube Music will then bring you to a range of categories, such as nature, humor and animals. Each one will generate a random set of pictures upon selection, such as a dog in a specific art style, that you can change. Just toggle through the options, and when you find one you like, save it as your playlist's new cover photo. 

YouTube Music's other update set to roll out is a feature called speed dial that lets you jump right back into recent listens, like specific artists and playlists. The format is very reminiscent of the top of Spotify's homepage, but YouTube appears to show more options than its competitor. 

These features follow other recent attempts by YouTube Music to compete with more established services, such as adding a comments section and timed lyrics to follow along with songs. AI-powered custom playlist art is available now to English language accounts in the United States, with plans to roll out globally in the future, while speed dial will be available in the coming months. 

From Hollywood strikes to digital portraits, AI's potential to steal creatives' work and how to stop it has dominated the tech conversation in 2023. The latest effort to protect artists and their creations is Nightshade, a tool allowing artists to add undetectable pixels into their work that could corrupt an AI's training data, the MIT Technology Review reports. Nightshade's creation comes as major companies like OpenAI and Meta face lawsuits for copyright infringement and stealing personal works without compensation.

University of Chicago professor Ben Zhao and his team created Nightshade, which is currently being peer reviewed, in an effort to put some of the power back in artists' hands. They tested it on recent Stable Diffusion models and an AI they personally built from scratch.

Nightshade essentially works as a poison, altering how a machine-learning model produces content and what that finished product looks like. For example, it could make an AI system interpret a prompt for a handbag as a toaster or show an image of a cat instead of the requested dog (the same goes for similar prompts like puppy or wolf).

Professor Ben Zhao | University of Chicago

Nightshade follows Zhao and his team's August release of a tool called Glaze, which also subtly alters a work of art's pixels but it makes AI systems detect the initial image as entirely different than it is. An artist who wants to protect their work can upload it to Glaze and opt in to using Nightshade. 

Damaging technology like Nightshade could go a long way towards encouraging AI's major players to request and compensate artists' work properly (it seems like a better alternative to having your system rewired). Companies looking to remove the poison would likely need to locate every piece of corrupt data, a challenging task. Zhao cautions that some individuals might attempt to use the tool for evil purposes but that any real damage would require thousands of corrupted works. 

The use for humans in the world of robotics, even as teachers, is shrinking thanks to AI. NVIDIA Research has announced the creation of Eureka, an AI agent powered by GPT-4 that has trained robots to perform tasks using reward algorithms. Notably, Eureka taught a robotic hand to do pen spinning tricks as well as a human can (honestly, as you can see in the YouTube video below, better than many of us).

Eureka has also taught quadruped, dexterous hands, cobot arms and other robots to open drawers, use scissors, catch balls and nearly 30 different tasks. According to NVIDIA Research, the AI agent's trial and error-based reward programs are 80 percent more effective than those written by human experts. This shift meant the robots' performance also improved by over 50 percent. Eureka also self-evaluates based on training results, instructing changes in reward functions as it sees fit.

NVIDIA Research has published a library of its Eureka algorithms, encouraging others to try them out on NVIDIA Isaac Gym, the organization's "physics simulation reference application for reinforcement learning research."

The idea of robots teaching robots is seeing increased interest and success. A May 2023 paper published in the Transactions on Machine Learning Research journal presented a new system called SKILL (Shared Knowledge Lifelong Learning), which allowed AI systems to learn 102 different skills, including diagnosing diseases from chest X-rays and identifying species of flowers. The AIs shared their knowledge — acting as teachers in a way — with each other over a communication network and were able to master each of the 102 skills. Researchers at schools like MIT and the University of Bristol have also had success, specifically in using AI to teach robots how to manipulate objects.

The United States Justice Department reports that North Korean nationals have been using fake identities to work remotely for US companies as IT professionals in a scheme to fund weapons of mass destruction programs. At a news conference in St. Louis, Missouri, the FBI alleged that thousands of individuals have moved to countries such as Russia and China and posed as freelance IT workers living in the US. Companies in St. Louis and around the US were targeted in this plot.

The bad actors used false information for emails, payment platforms and websites — sometimes paying Americans to use their Wi-Fi and setting up proxy computers. Along with funneling their income to North Korea's weapons programs, some workers also hacked their employers' computer networks to take private information and leave the possibility for other schemes, such as extortion.

Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg of the FBI St. Louis Division went so far as to say that any company that employs freelance IT workers "more than likely" hired one of these bad actors. "This scheme is so prevalent that companies must be vigilant to verify whom they're hiring," Greenberg stated. "At a minimum, the FBI recommends that employers take additional proactive steps with remote IT workers to make it harder for bad actors to hide their identities. Without due diligence, companies risk losing money or being compromised by insider threats they unknowingly invited inside their systems."

The FBI didn't disclose when they first learned of the plot or which businesses were impacted. However, the bureau first released a warning to the IT industry-focused scheme in May 2022. The FBI also collected about $1.5 million in money earned by these workers during previously sealed seizures in October 2022 and January 2023. 

Anker had huge deals running for Amazon's October Prime Day, but if you missed out, there's some good news. The tech accessory leader currently has sales on some of its top chargers, including its super-fast Gallium Nitride (GaN) options. The cheapest — and arguably nicest looking — option of that lot is the Anker 511 GaN charger 30W, discounted 26 percent to $17, from $23. 

The Anker 511 is a USB-C charger that provides 30W of power at just 1.12 inches wide. It's available in natural green, misty blue and lilac purple, alongside standard black and white options. The three-port Anker 735 GaNPrime 65W is also on sale, dropping to $40 from $60 — a 33 percent discount. It offers two USB-C and one USB-A port and uses Ankers IQ technology for more efficient, 65W charging. One of the best deals comes courtesy of a 43 percent discount on the Anker 736 GaN II 100W charger. At two-thirds the size of a MacBook's 96W power brick, the model also includes two USB-C and one USB-A port, but with even faster charging than its counterparts. 

Other Anker devices for sale outside the GaN family include the 313 10W wireless charger pad, down to $12 from $16, and the 332 USB-C hub with 100W, available for $30 versus its usual $50. Alongside its chargers for sale, Anker also has a markdown on its PowerConf S3 Speakerphone with six microphones. The home office device is discounted 38 percent in Black, dropping to $80 from $130. 

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WhatsApp is finally giving you the option to send voice notes without concerns about them being recorded or shared. The messaging app is rolling out a feature that lets you set voice notes to view once and then self-destruct, WABetaInfo reports. Now, there's really very little reason to call anyone.

The new feature works similarly to when you set a photo sent over WhatsApp to be viewable only once. When recording a voice note, you'll see the number one inside a circle. Simply click that, and your voice note will become a one-time listen. However, you cant hear it again either, so if you're someone who either likes the sound of your own voice (rare) or to analyze everything you've just said, then you might want to skip it. It also appears that the audio will be lost if your recipient accidentally closes out of the conversation while listening to it.

With voice notes' popularity growing tremendously over the past few years, this new feature could be a great option for sending friends your streaming password, card information or just cold-hard gossip without it getting out there. The ability to set your audio messages to listen once is currently in beta testing on both Android and iPhone devices but should roll out to more testers in the coming days. 

The ninth annual Google for India event had a big announcement: the company plans to manufacture its Pixel phones in India, following steady growth in the country's demand for the devices. Google's senior vice president for Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh, positioned India as one of the company's most important markets for Pixel devices. Google aims to begin rolling out locally produced Pixel 8 smartphones in 2024, eventually expanding to other Pixel models.

Google's contribution to the "Make in India" initiative will see partnerships with domestic and international manufacturers. In a tweet, the CEO of Alphabet and Google, Sundar Pichai, stated, "We're committed to being a trusted partner in India's digital growth." The pivot also allows Google to diversify its production away from China, where supply chain risks continue due to strains between the nation and the United States.

The company's decision is another win for India's government, which has attracted international device manufacturers, like Samsung and Apple, to make major investments in local production. Apple first produced iPhones in India back in 2017, but the first devices produced were all older models. Production initially also lagged six to nine months behind China but has improved steadily, first with iPhone 14 production starting within a month of launch. Most recently, a small number of India-made iPhone 15s were available in the region the same day as those produced in China. 

Amazon is integrating a new robotics system into its warehouses to improve delivery times, safety and general operations. The AI-powered technology, known as Sequoia, could improve the speed of finding and storing products by up to 75 percent and order fulfillment by up to 25 percent, the Wall Street Journal reports. The system was already introduced in one of Amazon's Houston-based warehouses.

Sequoia involves vehicles transporting totes of products to a sorting machine. It uses robotic arms and computer vision to identify the inventory before sending it to employees for delivery. One of the safety claims is that this process provides workers with items at waist level, eliminating the need for them to reach for things on high shelves. Sequoia follows the 2022 warehouse introduction of Sparrow, an AI-powered robotic arm that can identify and move the products that remain after this step.

Despite naming safety as a motivator for Sequoia and Sparrow, Amazon's record isn't great in this area. A 2020 report from the Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal publication found that, between 2016 and 2019, Amazon employees working at automated warehouses sustained injuries at a rate double that of those not working alongside robots. The use of robots increased the number of items employees needed to scan from 100 to up to 400 per hour. It's also unclear if Sequoia's implementation will lead to layoffs.

Tesla is now attempting to gauge the tiredness of its drivers through a new feature rolling out called "Driver Drowsiness Warning." It uses the cabin-facing camera — built to ensure the driver was watching the road and not on their phone — to gauge facial characteristics of drowsiness, such as the frequency of yawns and blinks. Rumors of the new feature first circulated in May when a Tesla hacker, known as Green, found indications of drowsiness tracking in Tesla's software. 

In action, the Driver Drowsiness Warning tool looks at both facial characteristics and driving behavior. An alert will appear on the touchscreen in the cards area, and an internal alarm will sound if the system records indications of tiredness. Drivers can choose to disable the feature by navigating to Controls and then Safety. Though, unless it's constantly beeping anytime the car moves from the direct center of a lane, there is little reason to do so. 

In any case, the Driver Drowsiness Warning should automatically turn back on during a new drive. However, the feature only activates when the car goes over 40 miles per hour and if Autopilot is not switched on. Even if an alert occurs, the warning system will deactivate if the car drops below that minimum speed. Tesla includes the usual disclaimer in its announcement, cautioning drivers that it's their "responsibility" to stay alert and focused on the road ahead.