The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially issued its full recommended fine against political consultant Steve Kramer. This is after he initiated a series of robocalls to New Hampshire residents with pre-recorded audio of President Biden’s voice, using deepfake AI technology. The fake Biden told voters not to vote in the upcoming primary, saying “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” Kramer must pay $6 million in fines in the next 30 days or the Department of Justice will handle collection, according to a FCC statement.
Kramer doesn’t just face a fine; he also has criminal charges against him. New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announced that he’ll face multiple counts of voter suppression and impersonation of a political candidate.
It wasn’t a hugely difficult process, either. Kramer hired New Orleans magician (an actual magician) Paul Carpenter to make the phony recordings. Carpenter showed NBC News how he made the deepfake audio files using ElevenLabs. He said it only took around 20 minutes.
— Mat Smith
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It’s incredibly thin, once again.
In a surprise short-notice (and short!) event yesterday, Samsung unveiled new additions to its portfolio of devices, including the Galaxy S24 FE and the Galaxy Watch FE LTE. The highlight had to be the new Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra tablet. With the Tab S10 series, the company is adding to its flagship S24 phones features like Circle to Search and Sketch to Image. Those features that work with the S Pen on the S24 Ultra, like Handwriting Assist and Note Assist, are here too. While software is the main draw this year, the Tab S10 Ultra has a 120Hz 14.6-inch screen with an anti-reflective finish and a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor, instead of the usual Qualcomm chip. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra will be available starting at $1,200 for the 256GB model — pre-orders are open now and the tablet will launch October 3.
Cheap picks for noise canceling, workouts and more.
It’s now very possible to find a clean-sounding, richly featured pair for well under $100, but there are, unsurprisingly, a lot of bad earbuds too. We’ve pulled in the best buds, including some that even manage to pack in noise cancellation. Expect capable buds from Anker, Jlab and even Amazon.
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