Watch out for AI fakes and misinformation in the wake of ICE shooting

MINNEAPOLIS — The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a federal agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 has already spurred a flood of online misinformation that may be shared unwittingly by people with good intentions.

Here are three examples and some tips for telling fake videos and images from real ones: Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell published a video about AI-generated images that have spread widely on social media that “remove” the agent’s mask. As Harwell notes, AI tools have no idea what the agent’s face actually looks like, and they are just making a guess.

A second AI-generated image purports to show the agent speaking to the victim. “People pass along crap like this on social media hours after a news event all the time,” Harwell said. “It makes it so much harder for people to understand what’s going on.”

An AI-generated image making the rounds on Facebook and elsewhere purports to show a huge protest spanning many blocks in downtown Minneapolis at dusk, with U.S. Bank Stadium in the background. Upon closer examination, anyone familiar with the geography of the city will recognize glaring inaccuracies in the image, including buildings that don’t exist and gibberish on signs.

—The Minnesota Star Tribune

Overdue Jan. 6 plaque to get a temporary home

WASHINGTON— A long-delayed plaque honoring officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack will temporarily hang in the Senate side, after a resolution was adopted by unanimous consent Thursday afternoon.

“We owe them eternal gratitude, and this nation is stronger because of them,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on the floor.

The move by the Senate comes on the heels of the fifth anniversary of the attack and after the White House published a website this week blaming Capitol Police for escalating tensions during the riot and turning a “peaceful demonstration into chaos.”

Led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Tillis, the resolution adopted Thursday directs the Architect of the Capitol to display the plaque in a “publicly accessible location in the Senate wing” until it can be “placed at a permanent location on the western front.”

—CQ-Roll Call

New California tool can stop brokers from selling your personal online data. Here's how

LOS ANGELES — Starting this year, a single request form will allow Californians to demand that data brokers delete their personal information and refrain from collecting or selling it in the future.

Third parties are constantly lurking as you navigate the internet, collecting data they can later aggregate and sell, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

These data brokers can gather your email addresses, Social Security number, as well as details about your income, political preferences and martial status — often without your knowledge — and offer that information to everyone from advertisers to landlords to debt collectors.

You have the right to request a broker delete your information from their databases, but it's an often-arduous task that entails identifying specific brokers who have your info, then reaching out to them individually with removal requests. Now, that's no longer the case — at least in California.

—Los Angeles Times

Israel pushes back on Lebanon assertion that Hezbollah is disarmed in south

Israel pushed back against Lebanon’s assertion that militias in the south of the Arab country had been disarmed, saying efforts to force Hezbollah to lay down its weapons were “far from sufficient.”

In a statement on Thursday, the Lebanese army said it achieved the first phase of a larger strategy to disarm all militias on its soil. The move is aimed at lowering tensions with neighboring Israel and stopping it from returning to war with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia that’s long dominated southern Lebanon.

The military said it had demobilized the area between the Litani river and Israeli border, marking a rare assertion of state control in the region where Hezbollah built up massive infrastructure to target the Jewish state.

“Hezbollah must be fully disarmed,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. “Efforts made toward this end by the Lebanese Government and the Lebanese Armed Forces are an encouraging beginning, but they are far from sufficient, as evidenced by Hezbollah’s efforts to rear.”

—Bloomberg News