Intelligence researchers lament that X has become so rife with disinformation that there's no good way to use it while tracking tumultuous events like the war in Israel. The FCC is gearing up for a fight with US broadband companies. And did Disney unknowingly use an AI-generated stock image to promote Loki season 2? Plus more!

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Back in 2020, we did a three-part series on the history of Ubisoft. What's been going on since then? And what's the story behind the troubled development of the pirate-themed game Skull & Bones?

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From humble beginnings to massive success, we follow the rest of the id Software story. When did the founders leave and why? And what's going on there now?

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In an episode with perhaps the most SEO-friendly title in TechStuff history, we learn about how someone used an AI-generated version of YouTuber MrBeast to advertise a scammy deal, how the FTC alleges that Amazon used a secret algorithm to fix prices and squash competition, and how Facebook Messenger users proved that Meta's tool for AI-generated stickers might need a bit more work.

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A slightly sick Jonathan is back to talk about some past winners of the Ig Nobel Prize. Learn about how a wasabi-spraying alarm could save lives, how an inventor planned to recreate a classic cartoon trap, and how a bra might be just the thing during the next pandemic.

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Open-source innovation is the future of AI. In this episode of Smart Talks with IBM, Malcolm Gladwell and Tim Harford discuss the open-source AI community with Jeff Boudier, head of product and growth at Hugging Face. They chat about the history and future of open-source AI, its critical importance to AI progress, the IBM watsonx partnership with Hugging Face, and how businesses can leverage open-source AI for their specific needs.

Visit us at ibm.com/smarttalks

Learn more about the Hugging Face partnership: https://newsroom.ibm.com/2023-08-24-IBM-to-Participate-in-235M-Series-D-Funding-Round-of-Hugging-Face

This is a paid advertisement from IBM.

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It's hard to hold onto information. Paradoxically, it can also be hard to get rid of it. In this episode, we look at why long-term data preservation is a challenge, and the lengths people will go to in order to clear out digital information.

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They made games like Doom and Quake, but where did id Software come from? In this episode, we explore the origins of a major name in computer games.

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Chinese-backed hackers are infiltrating computer systems by compromising routers. Some security researchers say that modern GPUs can steal pixels right off a web site. And Microsoft encounters yet more resistance regarding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

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In 1991, the editor of a satirical science journal launched an award for the scientifically ridiculous (and ridiculed), the Ig Nobel Prize. Learn how it all got started and some of the early tech-related prize winners!

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