🔊 Swiss Army knife for sound: That’s what Nvidia is calling Fugatto, its new AI audio generator. People are, of course, creating bizarre sounds from text prompts, like turning the sound of a train into a string orchestra. Its creators think it could spark new music genres like the electric guitar did. What do you think?
Audio AI Fugatto generates sound from text
Rip those cassette tapes a new one: Time to bring those tapes into the digital age. You can use this USB-based converter ($25.99, 26% off now!) and my favorite free audio-editing software. Nice!
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Hackers steal $285M in Bitcoin
$285 million in crypto — gone. Two hackers stole over 4,100 Bitcoin from a billionaire, but they didn’t get away with it. Plus, tips for using Perplexity AI, a shocking Titan submersible update, and a fantasy football fan caught sending fake threats.
🔊 “A Swiss Army knife for sound”: That’s what Nvidia is calling Fugatto, its new AI audio generator. As you might expect, people are using it to create bizarre sounds from their text prompts, like turning the sound of a train into a string orchestra. Fugatto’s creators think it could spark new music genres like the electric guitar did. Listen for yourself.
126 bird species
Haven’t been spotted for at least a decade. Are they extinct? Scientists aren’t sure. They’re turning to folks like you and me to keep a lookout. Think you’ve seen a purple-winged ground dove? Reach out at the official Lost Birds website with photo or audio evidence.
Extremists are using AI to rebrand Adolf Hitler: The goal is to characterize him as a “misunderstood” figure for a new generation. Over the past month, AI-cloned audio and video clips of Hitler, spewing English versions of his fanatical speeches, have reached millions on social media. The comments? Disturbingly, things like, “Maybe he is NOT the villain.” If you see these posts, report them so platforms can take them down faster.
Are scammers using infidelity to manipulate you?
“Your spouse is cheating on you.” That’s the shocking line behind a new sextortion scam. The message includes a link claiming to offer “proof,” but it’s a trap to get you to click. Plus, Gen Z is moving away from Google, and strange science wins big at the Ig Nobel awards.
This is frightening: Virtual medical company Confidant Health exposed the sensitive health details of thousands of people. The 5.3 terabytes (paywall link) of publicly accessible data included video and audio recordings of therapy sessions and multipage reports of psychiatry intake notes. They say it’s now locked down and no malicious actors accessed patient records … that they know of.
Let’s Turk about it: I mentioned Amazon Mechanical Turk on my show and I keep getting questions. Get paid to complete tasks that are easier for people than bots, like analyzing images and transcribing audio. Sign up here for a Worker account.
It's official: Facebook censors your opinions
Mark Zuckerberg is now apologizing for censoring conservative views during the pandemic. But the real shocker? He claims it was under pressure from the White House.
Why the Pentagon is watching Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s superfans — aka Swifties — are on the government’s radar. Why? I’ll tell you the scoop in this short podcast.
🎙️ Speaking badly of the dead making money is a grave mistake: AI is driving new money into the estates of Hollywood legends in ElevenLabs’ Reader App. You can listen to audiobooks narrated by stars like Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier. They only needed 30 minutes of audio to create these eerily accurate “professional voice clones.”
🔊 Low volume on iPhone calls? The culprit could be the noise-cancellation feature. Disable it: Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual and toggle off Phone Noise Cancellation (green means it’s on). FYI: This only works with iPhone 12 models and older.
Lemme Turk to ya: I mentioned Amazon Mechanical Turk on the show, and a lot of you had questions. With mTurk, you can get paid to complete tasks that are easier for people than bots, like analyzing images and transcribing audio. Sign up here for a Worker account.
The latest and greatest: OpenAI’s GPT‑4o mini is a faster, free version of its latest GPT‑4o model. Soon, it’ll interpret images, text and audio, plus generate pics. Try it: Hit this link, log in and switch the model (top left corner) to GPT‑4o mini.
Apple Watch medical revolution
More and more healthcare professionals are using Apple’s tech as a way to treat illness and disease.
AI gone wild: A social media influencer created an AI clone to act as a virtual girlfriend. She charged followers $1 per minute for audio chats and raked in $70,000 a week. Then, the AI went rogue, playing along with dark fantasies and initiating explicit conversations the influencer says horrified her. Yeah, I warned you about this.
🔊 PC audio hack: You can control the volume of individual apps on Windows. Right-click on the Volume icon on your taskbar and select Open Volume mixer. Move the volume slider up and down for each app. Voila, that’s it.
Amber Alert for your pets
You definitely don’t want your furry friends to go missing. But just in case, here’s a system you should set up to keep them safe.