Tootfinder

How the explicit deepfake ecosystem evolved from images to high-quality video; an analysis shows 1.4M Telegram accounts signed up to 39 deepfake creation bots (Matt Burgess/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/deepfake-nudify-technology-is-getting-…

Deepfake ‘Nudify’ Technology Is Getting Darker—and More Dangerous
Sexual deepfakes continue to get more sophisticated, capable, easy to access, and perilous for millions of women who are abused with the technology.

"Chinese Scientists Develop Cooling Cement Technology that uses no Electricity"
#China #Cement
https://

Chinese Scientists Develop Cooling Cement Technology that uses no Electricity | Happy Eco News
Cooling cement technology from Chinese scientists reduces building temperatures over 5°C without electricity using radiative cooling while cutting carbon emissions by 25% through modified cement formulations.

🪰 New technology solves production bottleneck for black soldier fly larvae
#insects

New technology solves production bottleneck for black soldier fly larvae
Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists have developed a patented breakthrough system that marks a major step forward in insect biomanufacturing, waste reduction and sustainable protein production.

One Extraordinary Photo: AP photographer uses infrared technology as surveillance tool | AP News https://apnews.com/article/2025-invisible-infrared-surveillance-technology-extraordinary-photo

One Extraordinary Photo: AP photographer uses infrared technology as surveillance tool
The aim was to show how powerful surveillance technology such as face recognition appears when used on individuals controlled by state agencies.

The whole thing is optimized for scams, deception and other criminal behavior:
- user interface that deceptively pretends it's a human you're talking to
- claims from companies highly exaggerate capabilities
companies and "experts" constantly hype "AGI" which they (funnily enough) do to both make investors greedier and spread fear and as a distraction because these algorithms can't actually do what they keep promising
- large-scale accounting and financial fraud (e.g. what Nvidia is doing with circular selling)
- biggest case of copyright infringement in history
Note: I think the underlying technology is really cool, and definitely has use cases and can be used for actually good things. But: some technology just has more downsides than upsides, and some should only be used by experts in controlled environments. Leaded gasoline, asbestos and chlorofluorocarbon are also all really cool technology.
In this case perhaps the techology itself doesn't do anything inherently bad, however the people making it are lying about what it can do, the people selling it are motivated purely by greed and the people using it (often forced to do so) are being deceived.

An interview with Citizen Lab founder Ronald Deibert about the US adopting authoritarian digital practices, the research group's accomplishments, and more (Finian Hazen/MIT Technology Review)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/2

Meet the man hunting the spies in your smartphone
Ronald Deibert and his research group, the Citizen Lab, have rigorously worked to unveil alarming digital threats for the past two decades. Now, he warns, this kind of work is under threat.

Tests show GPT-5.2 on ChatGPT citing Grokipedia as a source on a wide range of queries, including on Iranian conglomerates and Holocaust deniers (Aisha Down/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan…

New Mexico's Meta lawsuit: some police officers testify that Meta's AI is sending a flood of "junk" CSAM reports that are draining resources and slowing cases (Katie McQue/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/25/…

Internal documents: Instagram execs have waged an aggressive campaign to win back teens, boosting teen-friendly influencers, adjusting its algorithm, and more (Naomi Nix/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/26/meta-instagram-te…

Inside Instagram’s all-out battle to win the nation’s teens
Instagram has pursued a yearslong strategy to win teens back to the app after its critics said the platform wasn’t safe for them, documents obtained by The Post show.

As China grapples with a shrinking population and low birthrate, some women are finding romance with AI chatbots, leading Beijing to increase AI regulations (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/technol

A.I. Dating Apps Complicate China’s Efforts to Boost Birthrate
As China grapples with a shrinking population and historically low birthrate, people are finding romance with chatbots instead.