Tag: News

Tips to avoid romance scams on Valentine’s Day and all year | News

Greta
Tips to avoid romance scams on Valentine’s Day and all year | News

Valentine’s Day may be all about appreciate, but authorities in regulation enforcement and finance are reminding the general public to be cautious of romance scammers who may possibly only have eyes for your lender account.

Not to be bewildered with the sentiments of that bitter relative who states “Valentine’s Day (or like in general) is a con,” a romance scam refers to when someone produces a untrue id and pretends to have passionate emotions for a victim, even however what the scammer actually dreams is their dollars. Would-be victims are focused on-line, frequently by way of social media or relationship applications, with communications taking location over chat, textual content and/or electronic mail. The moment the scammer feels they’ve gained adequate passion and have confidence in, the discussions will slowly shift from sweet nothings to dubious requests for urgent monetary support, financial loans and/or expenditure opportunities. Generally, the moment the sufferer catches on to what’s seriously likely on, the scammer will vanish and cut off all speak to, despite the fact that by that time the sufferer might be out significant sums of cash.

And romance ripoffs are a big difficulty in Canada. How major? Very well, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) acquired 1,249 reports about romance ripoffs from 925 victims who shed a merged total in surplus of $50 million in 2021. According to the RCMP, romance cons are dependable for the 2nd greatest tally of defrauded bucks, led only by financial commitment cons.

These figures could even be on the minimal aspect, as, supplied the nature of romance cons, the RCMP states many victims might be unwilling to appear ahead at all.

Listed here are some examples of romance frauds Metroland publications have documented on in the previous:

ROMANCE Rip-off: Toronto gentleman charged after lady allegedly defrauded $250K in

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TV channels are using AI-generated presenters to read the news. The question is, will we trust them?

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TV channels are using AI-generated presenters to read the news. The question is, will we trust them?

By Chris Stokel-WalkerFeatures correspondent

Getty Images Journalists watch a video of Kuwait News service AI-anchor Fedha (Credit: Getty Images)Getty Images

A start-up is developing a news service presented by anchors created by artificial intelligence. Will it upend decades of parasocial relationships between television audiences and the people they watch on screen?

The footage wouldn’t look out of place on many of the world’s news channels.

For 22 minutes, a variety of polished news anchors stand in front of the camera and run down the day’s news in a video posted on social media. But none of them are real. Instead, the anchors are generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

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The video is produced by Los Angeles-based Channel 1, a start-up created by entrepreneurs Adam Mosam and Scott Zabielski, who plan to roll out AI-generated news on a streaming TV channel later this year. “There seemed to be a very interesting opportunity to level up the user experience of news,” says Mosam, by using AI to tailor content to individuals.

AI technology can also help translate scripts and interviews from one language to another – capabilities that Channel 1 demonstrated in a promotional video, which was shared in December.

Channel 1 is the latest demonstration of AI-powered news presenters around the world. In Kuwait, an AI persona by the name of Fedha ran through the headlines for Kuwait News. Hermes presented the news in May 2023 for Greek state broadcaster ERT. South Korean broadcaster SBS handed over the duties of news presenting to Zae-In, an AI-generated deepfake, for five months this year. There are others in India and Taiwan, too –

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Innovating through technology, business and design | Waterloo News

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Innovating through technology, business and design | Waterloo News

Waterloo’s Stratford School of Interaction Style and design and Business released its expert graduate application way again in 2011. Nowadays the Learn of Digital Encounter Innovation (MDEI) is available fully on the net although continuing to deliver a unique, challenge-based practical experience combining creativeness, technologies and company.  

Collaborating across fields

Kyle Stacey was seeking for an opportunity to advance his vocation when he read about the MDEI method via a LinkedIn article. As a complete-time Computer software Developer in Ottawa, he essential some thing flexible, so the portion-time choice and on-line delivery of the system created it a fantastic in shape. “With just about every new factor I found about the method, the additional I considered this is what I had been wanting for immediately after all this time,” Kyle says.

Because enrolling, his favourite section of the method has been doing work with other learners. “It’s great interacting with new persons with a broad spectrum of educational and qualified views and backgrounds,” he suggests, incorporating that you do not usually come across that sort of diversity in a lot of skilled sectors. It is many thanks to the overall flexibility of the on-line knowledge, Kyle suspects, that the system attracts in a bigger assortment of learners – these from arts, engineering, computer system science, small business and extra. “Working with new people today with different skillsets and expertise on these projects broadens and enhances the studying knowledge.”

Right after completing the system, Kyle plans to continue on in technology-primarily based industries but with a bigger being familiar with of product development and a managerial edge. “I feel the application is broadening my experienced skillset,” he feedback. “The plan and graduate degree really should assistance me speed up my occupation aspirations.”

Pursuing versatile passions

Ismaa Al Aloul, a entire-time employee

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Business Development News: ALCIVIA; Ara Partners/USDCF

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Business Development News: ALCIVIA; Ara Partners/USDCF


Penned by

William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Main
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Business Development News: ALCIVIA; Ara Partners/USDCF

ARA Associates photograph

Agricultural and vitality cooperative ALCIVIA constructs a new grain terminal in Wisconsin. Personal equity and infrastructure business Ara Companions acquires a the greater part interest in USD Cleanse Fuels LLC.

ALCIVIA, a member-owned agricultural and electricity cooperative serving farm, organization and retail prospects in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa via financing and solutions and expert services in agronomy, animal diet, electricity, and grain, has purchased 40 acres and extra than 21,000 linear toes of BNSF track in Hager City, Wisc., to establish a new rail loading grain terminal. The facility, the corporation explained, will bring grain terminal belongings to producers in west central Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota.

The new grain facility will consist of upright grain storage area for 3.9 million bushels serviced by two 4,700-bushel-for each-hour grain dryers and 3 1,500-bushel-potential dump pits that will transfer grain at a combined dealing with speed of 60,000 bushels per hour. When total, ALCIVIA will have 3 shuttle loading services on three diverse Course I railroads—BNSF, Union Pacific, CPKC—with obtain to the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, and logistics to domestic corn ethanol plants and soybean crush crops, “positioning ALCIVIA with remarkably appealing domestic and export market place accessibility and arbitrage.”

Demolition is set to start out this thirty day period with groundbreaking scheduled for later this winter. The believed project completion day is March 2025.

In addition, ALCIVIA has ideas to construct a 24-hour unattended two-bay loading terminal for liquid fertilizer, a dry fertilizer transload, rail liquid propane unload, and storage at this web site.

More than the previous a few several years, such as the new expenditure in Hager City, ALCIVIA famous it “will have invested $86 million in cash, and an more $9.5 million for 5 strategic acquisitions to

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CBC News analysis finds thousands of Canadian authors, books in controversial dataset used to train AI

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CBC News analysis finds thousands of Canadian authors, books in controversial dataset used to train AI

A CBC News investigation has found at least 2,500 copyrighted books written by more than 1,200 Canadian and Québécois authors were shared online as part of a massive — and now defunct — dataset used for artificial intelligence training and research purposes.

The dataset’s existence and general highlights were revealed earlier this year in The Atlantic. It led to an avalanche of writers expressing shock on social media that their work had been included without their permission and sharing their concerns that AI tools could use information from the dataset to generate content in their distinct artistic voice. 

A CBC News analysis of the dataset, called Books3, identified thousands of Canadian and Québécois authors and books in both official languages. 

Although that content represents less than two per cent of the 190,000 plus files in Books3, it reads like a who’s who of the country’s literary community: three quarters of CBC’s Canada Reads contenders and Scotiabank Giller award nominees are featured, along with over a third of all Governor General’s Literary Award finalists.

WATCH | Their books were found in a dataset used to train AI: 

Authors shocked to find their books used to train AI without permission

Some of Canada’s most famous authors were shocked to find that their books have been used without their permission to train artificial intelligence software. The Writers’ Union of Canada says it is considering a lawsuit, but one law professor says it’s not clear if using the books to train AI is illegal.

Topping the list of Canadian authors with the most books in the dataset is Margaret Atwood, of The Handmaid’s Tale fame, followed by best-selling children and young adult writer Gordon Korman and Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro. 

“I’ve been writing kids books for more than three quarters of my

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Indonesia’s TikTok Shop ban reveals mixed feelings on e-commerce revolution | Business and Economy News

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Indonesia’s TikTok Shop ban reveals mixed feelings on e-commerce revolution | Business and Economy News

Jakarta, Indonesia – Tanah Abang is the most significant textile and outfits current market in Southeast Asia, well-recognized among traders all around Asia and as much as Africa. But organization these times is not fantastic, with foot targeted visitors down by fifty percent as opposed with prior to the pandemic.

In accordance to stallholders at the practically 300-12 months-old industry in Central Jakarta, TikTok Shop, the e-commerce aspect of the world’s most preferred video-sharing app, is squarely to blame.

“TikTok is seriously undesirable for my enterprise,” Hairun Nisa, whose family members have offered men’s relaxed clothes at Tanah Abang for 20 a long time, explained to Al Jazeera.

“It’s different to other sorts of e-commerce due to the fact, in TikTok, folks sell their merchandise using online video and can interact with customers in authentic-time.”

“It’s not like the old times when this industry was constantly crowded,” added Roni Waskito, who has bought footwear at Tanag Abang given that 2010 and who also blames TikTok for the drop in trade.

indonesia
Company at the Tanah Abang textile and outfits sector has taken a sharp dive due to the fact the pandemic [Al Jazeera]

TikTok Shop amassed 6 million sellers in Indonesia inside of a year of its start in 2021 and final year captured about 5 per cent of Indonesia’s booming $52bn e-commerce.

The e-commerce system had been on focus on to increase product sales by about 350 per cent this yr, according to Singapore research organization Momentum Operates – until eventually the Indonesian federal government banned it on October 5.

Jakarta has justified the ban as required to defend the country’s 64 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which includes merchants at marketplaces this sort of as Tanah Abang.

Indonesian Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan has accused the platform of

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