Cognitive warmup. First things first, and I’m assuming you are on Instagram, is safeguarding your photos from AI. What happened, in typically sneaky Meta behaviour, was that the social media company (I refuse to call it an AI company) enabled a setting that allows any other Instagram user to use photos posted by any Instagram account that has the public viewing setting. That is, AI can use it unless you opt out—and after much outrage, that seems to be been paused for now. The only hint of that change: Open Instagram > Profile page > sandwich menu on the top right > scroll to “Sharing and reuse” > Toggle off for Posts and Reels. Meta, just a few days ago, released the Muse media generation models. Of course they’d like to feed it off some free data from unsuspecting users. That’s just how this company has always operated.
Three key reasons why I think this is a bad idea.
- Anyone can generate AI images based on your public Instagram profile without your knowledge, and Meta of course won’t tell you if someone’s created an impersonating account.
- Public Instagram photos can be used by threat actors to create deepfakes, and that’s where this sort of policy implementation by Meta can make Muse rather capable at generating rather convincing fake images.
- Many companies think ‘vibe coding’ is cool. Little surprise that researchers earlier this year identified a ‘confused deputy’ vulnerability in Meta’s AI chatbot support which was able to make changes to user accounts (such as resetting passwords or changing registered email addresses) unless two-factor authentication was enabled by a user.
As Danny Bradbury in a blog for security firm Malwarebytes puts it eloquently, “You’d also hope that the company would retroactively remove any images that someone made of you before you opted out, but that’s not happening either.” Basically, you’ve to be situationally aware with any Meta apps you’re regularly using.
PREVIOUSLY, ON NEURAL DISPATCH
GEMINI’S SPARK ON MACOS
Just last week, I’d pointed out that Google is the most sensible AI company, by far. Here’s another chapter in that exhibition of utility driven focus for AI. If you are an Apple Mac user, and also have the Google Gemini app installed on the MacBook or iMac or Mac mini or Mac Studio, you will now be able to automate time-consuming tasks on the computing device. Google’s Gemini Spark is now rolling out, with a capability spectrum that includes sorting files across specific folders or locations, create documents based on specific prompts pulling in data from across the computing device and Google Workspace, and soon, an ability to run tasks remotely.
“And coming soon, you’ll even be able to run tasks remotely. You can assign a multi-step task to Gemini Spark from your phone — like asking it to find a specific sales report on your Mac, pull the total revenue number, and email it to you — and let it execute the work on your computer while you’re away,” says Srinivasan Venkatachary, Vice President, Engineering, at Google Deepmind.
Starting with Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US, Google is also rolling out the support for custom Model Context Protocol (MCP), which means users will be able to connect their most used apps into Spark for deeper context. There are already integrations for popular software including Canva and Dropbox. That’s not all, because Spark can track stuff for you.
“We’re also giving Gemini Spark the ability to intelligently track topics and react to events in real time. For example, if you want to stay up to speed on highlights and analysis after your favorite soccer team plays, Spark brings you the latest the moment the match ends. Or, you can ask Spark to send you a detailed financial report if a stock reaches a certain threshold,” says Adam Coimbra, Director, Product Management, Gemini app.
EVERYONE’S SHOCKED?
Are you shocked? I’m certainly not shocked. But turns out, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is. In a rather on-point warning, it becomes clear that central banks now fear that the so-called AI gold risk could provide the foundation for the next major financial shock. The technology isn’t itself flawed, but what’s happening around it is.
The BIS Annual Economic Report clearly states, “The opacity of Al-sector financing compounds these vulnerabilities. Hyperscalers, chip makers and Al labs are linked through a complex web of private arrangements. The most prominent is circular financing: chip makers and hyperscalers take equity stakes in Al labs or neocloud providers, who in turn commit to multi-year purchases of chips or computing power. Data centre construction is increasingly outsourced to third parties that lease facilities back to hyperscalers on long-dated contracts with embedded exit clauses. The terms of such deals are typically poorly disclosed, with risks of the same asset being pledged multiple times. Together, such arrangements account for a sizeable share of sector-wide financing and forward revenue.”
First, AI companies are building an ecosystem that’s heavily leveraged, and revenue streams as well as demand longevity haven’t yet proven durability.
If the AI demand isn’t at the astronomical levels which AI companies want us to believe it’ll be at, there will be a big gap between what’s been borrowed and a capability to repay. This will extend the depression to credit markets.
Circular financing is a big risk, because funding each other and also booking future sales from each other, really makes it difficult to gauge actual demand.
AI GENERATED ACTORS
Remember Tilly Norwood? I had talked in detail about the AI ‘actor’ a few months ago (I often tend to see trends much before time). That was the first testing of the waters. Now, the AI company called Particle6 Productions, which had made (or generated?) Tilly Norwood says the AI actor will feature in a comedy-drama film called “Misaligned”.
It will be, as they put it, a “hybrid production with traditional film and TV professionals — such as directors, writers and editors — working alongside AI specialists, with AI training and mentorship built into the production itself.” The company believes AI can support premium filmmaking but pushes for a case where the AI technology is limited to the extent that human skill and judgment doesn’t get eliminated from the process. Needless to say, the whole Tilly Norwood saga has already drawn criticism from Hollywood, including the actors union SAG-AFTRA which criticised the studio for “using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardising performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”
