Trending topics this week: computer-generated headshots on LinkedIn, Ukrainian/Russian Tinder communications, UK paramedics being given jetpacks, pizza dough perfection for those who can’t have yeast and a creepy pillow that mimics breathing!
Why it has become popular to use computer-generated fake headshots on LinkedIn
When you get a connection request on LinkedIn do you check the profile?
Renée DiResta, from Stanford Internet Observatory, does. So, when she received a curious message, she took a closer look. “The face jumped out at me as a fake, and parts of the hair kept disappearing,” DiResta said.
What followed was an investigation in partnership with NPR that uncovered over 1000 fake profiles with fake faces generated by AI.
Mostly attached to the insipid realm of scammers and hackers, fortunately, the deepfakes on LinkedIn aren’t about the dark side. They are being used by marketers for companies to increase sales or attract interest in the real company that the fake profile is attached to. The fake profiles come resplendent with, in some cases, several hundred connections, skills endorsements, they belong to several groups and follow companies and influencers.
Blame the pandemic and the massive growth in demand for online sales leads.
A fake profile contacts a real person, and if that real person takes the bait, then a real person at the real company picks up the conversation in an attempt to close the deal, with the – well – real person. The companies save thousands on additional staff hires and can extend their reach without being hindered by LinkedIn’s message limits.
Deepfake AI is now so good that many of us mere mortals would miss the fake. LinkedIn is aware of it and offers material about AI, deepfakes and how to recognise a fake profile.
Why Tinder has become the go-to app in Russia by citizens wanting to get unbiased news about Ukraine
Ukrainians have been using Tinder, sending real images from the carnage on the ground in their country, to Russian Tinder profiles, in the hope that Putin will at least listen to his own people. With many of the big social platforms shut down, the Russian people are increasingly cut off from the ‘reality’ of the war, left with Putin’s one-sided narrative, and censored information.
It’s well known that social media has a vital role to play in this conflict, but how did an innocuous dating app become the hero? Tinder’s modus operandi, the universal language of love, has enabled it to slip through the cracks and operate as normal, even in war-torn locations.
In February, there were reports that Russian soldiers were contacting Ukrainian single females through the app. Alex Srtimbeanu, a creative director and his Slovakian-based marketing agency Jandl, saw the absurdity in the situation, and knowing that paying Tinder members had the ability to ‘be’ anywhere in the world, devised Special Love Operation.
The scheme encourages Tinder users to bombard Russian singles with images of the destruction and devastation that is the ‘real’ war.
Part of the message reads: “Dear Russians, the West does not hate you. The Russian army is killing innocent people while Putin is lying and hiding the truth from you.” Concerned people all over the world are changing their locations to support the scheme and communicate with Russians.
All’s fair in love and war, right?
Researchers discover the secret to perfect yeast-free pizza dough – blow bubbles into the dough
Yeast has some impressive attributes; it reproduces asexually, it occurs naturally in the environment, and there is evidence that the Ancient Egyptians made bread with it over 4000 years ago. Least impressive though is its connection to IBS and candida and yeast intolerance symptoms like bloating.
Pizza-lovers prone to IBS, rejoice! Pizza may be back on the menu, as Italian scientists discover that blowing bubbles into the dough produces the rise – or leaven – without the yeast.
Similar to how we produce carbonation or bubbles in soda, the team dissolved gas into the dough at high pressure, and the bubbles formed as the pressure was released. They had some challenges with pressure protocol and other scientific stuff, but the main objective was to see how dough acted without yeast. And it worked!
Actually making pizzas and taste-testing is the next challenge. The team, including their own yeast intolerant scientist, has been working with polymers and is now purchasing a large food-grade autoclave to make full-size pizzas for actual taste testing.
The UK has started to train paramedics to use jetpacks during emergencies
Last year, we all saw the supremely cool footage of UK Royal Marines flying over the sea like Iron Man while undertaking testing with jetpacks.
The UK Emergency services have now earmarked the impressive technology as part of their emergency arsenal, to rescue and help people stuck in mostly inaccessible terrain.
Speed is the clincher. British inventor Richard ‘Iron Man’ Browning, director of Gravity Industries, perfected his jetpack rig to hit an impressive 100mph (or 160km/h, depending on where you are).
This caught the attention of the UK’s Lake District’s Great North Air Ambulance (GNAA), and one member is already trained to use the Jet Suit, with more to follow.
Hugging a pillow that mimics breathing could help reduce anxiety
At first, we thought, here comes another gimmick – but after a bit of investigation, we can appreciate the science behind this news. Reduction of anxiety in these unprecedented times has a nice ring to it.
A team, led by Alice Haynes, now at Saarland University in Germany, developed the device with Bristol University (UK) bearing in mind anxiety-reducing touch-based device success, and as an alternative to costly therapy and medications.
Initial prototypes offered other sensations such as purring and a heartbeat, but focus groups identified the ‘breathing’ cushion as most ‘pleasant and calming’, so it was beefed up.
The huggable, 41-inch (36cm) cushion has an inflatable pocket and connects to an external pump and motor. It ‘breathes’ at 10 breaths per minute. The prototype and actual human testing indicated that the device mimics and encourages diaphragmatic breathing.
Volunteers taking part in the testing, who hugged the cushion and were threatened with a maths test, had lower anxiety than the group that meditated and the control group threatened with the same test.
