The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is pausing the release of previously public information related to its investigations, after individuals used AI to recreate the last words of deceased pilots. The independent agency was informed that an AI-generated rendering depicting cockpit audio of UPS flight 2976 was created and circulated, using only written documents submitted during the recent hearing, CNN reported. The Nov. 4 crash resulted in the deaths of three crew members and 12 civilians on the ground. "We show our work and we’ve been doing this type of thing for years. Nobody was aware that you can recreate audio from a picture," an NTSB spokesperson told CNN. "NTSB is looking to make sure there’s nothing else in the docket that could compromise anybody’s privacy… now that we understand the possibility of a digital recreation." Under federal law, the NTSB does not release cockpit voice recordings to the public during investigations of deadly plane crashes. Instead, the agency will submit a transcript for the public record and — as was the case for flight 2976 — an audio spectrogram, which visually depicts sound frequencies, duration, and amplitude in a given clip. Individuals were able to use the spectrogram, pulled from the public investigation docket, to digitally recreate the last 30 seconds of cockpit audio before the plane crashed, including the pilot's voices and background sounds. A second clip of recreated audio from an NTSB aircraft test was also circulated online. Citing privacy concerns, the agency released a public statement explaining their decision to pause access to investigation dockets, writing: The NTSB is aware that advances in image recognition and computational methods have enabled individuals to reconstruct approximations of cockpit voice recorder audio from sound spectrum imagery released as part of NTSB investigations, including the ongoing investigation of the crash
May 24, 2026 · via sea.mashable.com
From Pan-African cinema archives to Chilean exile filmmaking after 1973: These moving image works just earned major recognition The longlist for the UK's leading prize for photography and moving image publishing is dominated by archives, political memory and experimental cinema Archives, political cinema, and questions of representation define the longlist for the UK's leading prize celebrating excellence in photography and moving image publishing. The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation published the 2026 longlist for its Moving Image Award, and this year's selections explore subjects including early Hollywood stardom, Pan-African cinema archives, Chilean exile filmmaking, experimental film typography and social media activism. The selected titles revisit everything from marginalized performers in the studio era and radical filmmaking movements of the 1960s and 1970s to transnational solidarity networks and contemporary digital video. The books reflect how moving image publishing uses cinema and media to reinterpret the past and challenge dominant cultural narratives. The Longlisted Titles for the 2026 Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award Cosmosexuals: Screen Acting, Stardom, & Male Sex Appeal by Mark Gallagher (University of Texas Press) Examines male screen sex appeal as a form of global cultural capital shaped by race, ethnicity, and performance. It analyzes how international stardom is constructed through appearance, voice and movement across film and television. Hollywood's Others: Love and Limitation in the Star System by Katherine Fusco (Columbia University Press) Explores early Hollywood stardom through performers positioned outside mainstream norms of gender, race, and ability. It examines how audiences formed emotional attachments to marginalized stars while the industry regulated identification and empathy. June Givanni: The Making of a Pan-African Cinema Archive by Onyeka Igwe (Lawrence Wishart) Onyeka Igwe traces the work of curator June Givanni and her Pan-African film archive spanning Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora. The book highlights women cultural workers and positions the archive as
May 23, 2026 · via digitalcameraworld.com
Trying to guess celebrities from their childhood photos has become a bit of a thing around here. We already tested everyone with our world leaders quiz, singers quiz, and actors quiz, and honestly, some of those photos were way harder than expected. So now it’s time for another round—let’s see if you can recognize these celebrities just from pictures of them as kids!
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May 23, 2026 · via buzzfeed.com
Two humpback whales have set new records for the longest-known distances traveled for their species by embarking on a journey of over 14,000 kilometers between Brazil and Australia, scientists said Wednesday. The international team of researchers were able to piece together the separate odysseys from photos of the whales’ tails -- including some taken by amateur photographers on cruises -- captured decades apart. These journeys through open water are "something that had never been documented before”, Cristina Castro, a marine biologist at the Pacific Whale Foundation in Ecuador, told AFP. "It’s not unheard of for an individual to occasionally stray (from a migratory route), but what we documented here goes far beyond that,” added the lead author of a new study in Royal Society Open Science. Every humpback has a pattern on the underside of their tail -- or fluke -- that is unique "like a human fingerprint”, Castro said. The scientists analysed more than 19,000 photos taken between 1984 and 2005 in eastern Australia and Latin America using an image recognition algorithm. Then they sifted through each potential match to trace the two whales’ journey across the world. The first humpback was initially photographed in 2007 in Hervey Bay, in the state of Queensland on Australia’s east coast. It was spotted at the same place again in 2013. Its unique fluke next popped up six years later -- this time off the coast of the Brazilian megacity Sao Paulo. As the crow flies, this is a distance of around 14,200 km (8,800 miles). Because the scientists only know the start and end points of the journey, it was impossible to determine the whale’s exact route -- or how far it actually traveled. The second whale made the opposite journey. First it was photographed off the coast of Bahia, Brazil
May 23, 2026 · via kuwaittimes.com
Google unveils Gemini Omni, a multimodal AI model that generates video from text, images, and audio The multimodal model turns text, images, audio, and existing footage into realistic video clips, with implications that ripple well beyond Mountain View. Google DeepMind just dropped what might be the most capable video generation model yet. Gemini Omni, unveiled at Google I/O on May 19-20, 2026, accepts text, images, audio, and video as inputs and spits out short video clips, roughly 10 seconds long, complete with synchronized audio. The model’s first variant, Gemini Omni Flash, is the tip of the spear. It replaces Google’s earlier Veo model inside the Gemini app, marking a shift from standalone video generation toward what Google is calling “anything from anything” creation. What Gemini Omni actually does Early demonstrations showed effective text rendering within video, along with advanced scene editing capabilities. Google is emphasizing improvements in world understanding, physics simulation, and character consistency. The company drew comparisons to its Nano Banana image model, which earned praise for visual fidelity. Gemini Omni extends that same logic into motion and sound, wrapping everything into a conversational interface where users can iteratively edit and refine their clips through dialogue. Initial availability spans the Gemini app, Google Flow, YouTube Shorts, and additional tools for Google AI subscribers. The 10-second cap on clip length is expected to expand over time, though no specific timeline has been announced. From Veo to Omni: the lineage Google’s generative video efforts trace back to the original Veo model, which progressively gained features between 2025 and early 2026: native audio support, longer clip capabilities, and image-to-video functionality arrived in incremental updates. Veo was essentially a single-purpose tool. Omni represents a philosophical shift toward unified multimodal models, systems that reason across different types of media rather than treating each one
May 23, 2026 · via cryptobriefing.com
WASHINGTON — Disney is being sued over allegations that it used facial recognition technology at Disneyland without guests' knowledge, according to The Hollywood Reporter and The Orange County Register. The lawsuit claims Disney violated privacy and consumer protection laws by collecting and storing biometric data of visitors without adequately disclosing the practice or meaningful consent. According to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in California, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure began using the technology at park entrances in April to verify tickets and annual passes. The system photographs guests and compares those images with photos associated with their tickets or passes from their initial use. The lawsuit claims most guests are unaware the technology is being used. “Consumers, which almost always include children, have no idea that Disney is collecting this highly sensitive data,” the complaint states. Disney has said the technology helps streamline park entry and reduce ticket fraud. The company’s privacy policy states that facial recognition data is deleted within 30 days unless it is needed for legal or fraud prevention purposes. But the lawsuit disputes that claim, arguing Disney must retain the information longer in order to compare guests’ faces to images connected to previously purchased tickets or annual passes. The complaint also alleges Disney failed to provide sufficient notice to visitors. While some entrances contain signs allowing guests to bypass facial recognition, attorneys for the proposed class said the notices do not amount to meaningful consent. “Guests should be able to expressly opt in to this type of sensitive facial recognition technology with written consent,” attorney Blake Yagman wrote in the filing. “Given how sensitive facial recognition data is, explicit written consent should be required to protect the privacy of guests at Disney Theme Parks.” Guests do have the ability to opt out of
May 23, 2026 · via thv11.com
Abstract Remembering emotionally significant events is critical for the organisms’ behavior and survival. While the mechanisms underlying the formation of such memories are well understood and closely linked to the vagus nerve and the brain’s arousal system, less is known about its contribution to memory retrieval. The current study tested whether non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) applied during a long-term recognition memory task influenced retrieval of unpleasant and neutral scenes that had been incidentally encoded one week earlier. Results showed that taVNS, compared to a sham condition, selectively enhanced the recollection of unpleasant images. Despite a modest effect size (d = 0.33), these findings provide initial human support suggesting a role of the vagus nerve in emotional memory retrieval, thus extending current theoretical models of emotional memory retrieval and opening a new pathway for memory modulation and non-invasive therapeutic interventions. Similar content being viewed by others Introduction Remembering emotionally significant events is essential in various aspects of everyday life, as emotional memories guide decision-making, shape social interactions, and influence mental well-being1,2. While the mechanisms underlying the formation of such powerful and enduring memories are well understood, less is known about how these memories are retrieved. Understanding these processes, however, is important not only for basic research but also for clinical applications, for example, in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, in which dysregulation of noradrenergic function may lead to memory distortions or deficits3,4,5,6. In aging populations, a decline in noradrenergic integrity has been associated with reduced emotional memory selectivity, potentially affecting adaptive decision-making7,8. Identifying mechanisms that regulate memory retrieval could therefore provide novel strategies to mitigate cognitive deficits and enhance memory function. One promising target for modulating retrieval processes is the vagus nerve, a central mediator between peripheral physiological states and central arousal
May 23, 2026 · via nature.com
On London’s streets, live facial recognition tests the balance between security and liberty Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox LONDON – Tourists, shoppers and office workers on a busy London street on an ordinary weekday found themselves part of a digital identity check as live facial recognition cameras scanned faces against a police watch list. The operation was an example of a technology that the Metropolitan Police say is transforming policing, helping officers arrest around 2,500 wanted people since the start of 2024, including suspects accused of violent and sexual offences. Critics, however, say live facial recognition undermines the presumption of innocence underpinning British law by treating every passer-by as a potential suspect. A court challenge brought by civil liberties campaigners and a community worker who had been wrongly identified failed in April, clearing the way for the technology’s expanded use. In Victoria, central London, on a recent Monday, few people appeared concerned by the temporary cameras, a police van and signs warning that live facial recognition was in operation. Within an hour, the system alerted an officer in the control van to a possible match. Local officers approached a man and questioned him briefly before letting him go. Police later said the alert related to court-imposed restrictions rather than an arrest warrant. About 30 minutes later came a second alert. A man in a grey hoodie, black baseball cap and blue trainers looked startled as two officers stopped him on the pavement. He was handcuffed and waited beside the road until a police van arrived to take him into custody. Police hail ‘groundbreaking’ technology Met Police director Lindsey Chiswick, who is the national and Met lead for live facial recognition, said the impact of the technology has been groundbreaking for policing in the capital, helping
May 23, 2026 · via straitstimes.com
If you’ve been running headfirst into verification prompts seemingly everywhere you go online, you aren’t alone. Whether you’re jumping through hoops to satisfy a CAPTCHA or checking boxes to verify your identity, these brief interruptions are becoming hard to ignore. The reason behind it? Look no further than AI. As Swinburne University of Technology computer science professor Yang Xiang writes for The Conversation, the sheer number of AI bots on the internet is now reason enough for some websites to require verification. On top of this, the public has become acutely aware of developers using their data to train their bots, and that fear is growing. Previous research has already found that AI bots shouldn’t be trained with any old data. In fact, using brain rot material — think of the last low-effort meme you saw — can decrease an AI model’s contextual understanding and reasoning skills. For this reason, developers are deploying more AI crawlers to gather the realistic information they need for training purposes, inundating innocent sites with non-human traffic. Compounding the problem, AI is rapidly becoming clever enough to outsmart traditional CAPTCHAs. Alarming footage recently captured a ChatGPT Agent casually clicking a “I am not a robot” button. That’s why you’re seeing so many grueling image CAPTCHAs that ask you to identify buses and handbags, but AI is increasingly able to solve those too. Fingerprint recognition and voice patterns are tempting, but they raise a slew of questions about privacy and biometrics; in an era when flawed facial recognition software is still resulting in false convictions, it may be hard to convince skeptics that the tech is the key to future user verification. In other words, the whole thing is a festering mess — and if there’s one core takeaway, it’s that the internet doesn’t belong exclusively
May 23, 2026 · via futurism.com
OpenAI showcases ChatGPT’s new voice and image processing features A live demo showed ChatGPT filling out paperwork using voice conversations and image uploads, pushing the AI assistant deeper into real-world workflows. OpenAI just demonstrated something that makes the standard chatbot experience feel quaint. In a new showcase, the company showed ChatGPT completing actual paperwork by combining voice conversations with image uploads, effectively turning the AI into something closer to a personal assistant that can see, hear, and act on documents in real time. From text box to multimodal workhorse The demonstration highlighted ChatGPT’s ability to process uploaded images of documents while simultaneously conducting a voice conversation with the user. Think of it like calling a very patient, very fast assistant who can look at your paperwork, understand what’s being asked, and help you fill it out, all through natural speech. The company began rolling out voice and image capabilities to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users back on September 25, 2023. Voice mode at launch enabled natural conversations through speech recognition and text-to-speech, initially featuring five synthesized voices. Image processing, powered by multimodal models like GPT-4V, allowed users to upload photos for the AI to analyze and interpret. On May 13, 2024, OpenAI released GPT-4o, which brought real-time voice, vision, and text interaction into a single model. That launch included live demos showing the model guiding users through arithmetic problems visible on paper and interpreting complex documents. Why filling out forms actually matters The implications for professional workflows are significant. Document analysis, form completion, and administrative tasks consume enormous amounts of time across industries like healthcare, legal services, finance, and education. An AI that can look at a physical document through an uploaded image, understand its structure, and walk a user through completing it via voice is solving a genuine productivity
May 23, 2026 · via cryptobriefing.com
Video: Police catch man using live facial recognition after he failed to turn up for court
The Metropolitan Police say since static LFR cameras were deployed in Croydon, they've made over 170 arrests, including suspects wanted for kidnap, rape, and serious sexual assault.
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May 23, 2026 · via metro.co.uk
Abstract Most of the existing studies on the intellectualization of traditional culture focus on fields such as image recognition and style transfer. The research on intelligent generation of traditional cultural art design (CAD) texts is scattered and lacks systematicness. To this end, this study conducts research on intelligent text generation in traditional CAD based on the attention mechanism. First, the research status and limitations of the attention mechanism, intelligent text generation, and digitalization of traditional culture are sorted out. Then, a multi-source dataset of traditional art design feature-text pairs is constructed. Next, an improved Transformer model is designed. Based on the standard encoder-decoder framework, a cultural semantic attention layer, a multi-scale temporal convolutional network style constraint module, and an output verification layer are added. Meanwhile, the dynamic weight calculation of the cultural semantic attention layer and the multi-scale feature fusion of the style module are optimized. The results show that the Bilingual Evaluation Understudy-3 (BLEU-3) score of the proposed Attention-based CAD (Attn-CAD) model reaches 0.72. The cultural terminology accuracy is 92.5%, and the style matching degree is 89.3%, with the best performance in the ceramic field. Ablation experiments verify the necessity of the core modules, and the decline rates of indicators in cross-domain tests are all less than 5%, which proves the model’s universality. In terms of methodology, this study solves the core problem of weak semantic association of the general model in traditional cultural scenarios and insufficient terminology accuracy of general models in traditional cultural scenarios; it provides technical support for the living inheritance and digital innovation of traditional culture. Similar content being viewed by others Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics statement The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the studies involving
May 23, 2026 · via nature.com
byDisha Patel@dishapatel
iOS & ML Engineer | 5+ yrs mobile dev | arXiv researcher | Taught iOS to 100+ students
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iOS & ML Engineer | 5+ yrs mobile dev | arXiv researcher | Taught iOS to 100+ students
iOS & ML Engineer | 5+ yrs mobile dev | arXiv researcher | Taught iOS to 100+ students
iOS & ML Engineer | 5+ yrs mobile dev | arXiv researcher | Taught iOS to 100+ students
May 23, 2026 · via hackernoon.com
In Oregon, body-camera footage obtained by the group Innovation Law Lab shows federal immigration agents pulling over a van of farmworkers, then smashing the windows and using a facial recognition app to identify and arrest the workers without a warrant. The footage was disclosed as part of a class-action lawsuit filed against the agents’ violent tactics and racial profiling following the farmworkers’ detention in October.
In related news, activists say at least 20 immigrants jailed at the Desert View Annex ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California, have started a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions, including medical neglect and unsafe drinking water. Immigrants also say food portions have been reduced, forcing them to have to purchase items sold in the commissary at exorbitant prices. The Adelanto ICE jail is operated by the private prison company GEO Group. At least four immigrants have died there since September.
May 23, 2026 · via democracynow.org
Jeffrey Kessler, a heavyweight in antitrust litigation who most recently secured a landmark win for states suing Live Nation, will defend Paramount‘s $110 billion megadeal for Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio doesn’t expect legal challenges from the Justice Department, state prosecutors or foreign regulators, though Kessler would lead the studio’s defense if any are filed, according to a person familiar with the situation. The addition of Kessler bolsters Paramount’s formidable legal team, led by Makan Delrahim, Trump’s former assistant attorney general for antitrust. Also representing the studio: David Gelfand, ex-deputy assistant attorney general for litigation in the antitrust division under former President Barack Obama, and lawyers at Latham & Watkins and Cravath, Swaine & Moore who have been seeking regulatory approval of the deal. On Friday, a federal judge accepted Kessler’s application to represent the studio in a lawsuit filed by consumers challenging merger. The case is the opening salvo over the purchase that will reshape Hollywood. In a statement, Kessler called the complaint “baseless” and said it “resorts to political scaremongering that is both inaccurate and irrelevant to the antitrust analysis.” “What we do learn from the complaint is that there is no credible antitrust case to be brought against the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger,” he added. “In my many years of practice championing competition and the interests of consumers, athletes, and workers, I have rarely seen such a weak case seeking to block a transaction.” Kessler, co-executive chair of Winston & Strawn, is known for taking on plaintiff-side work. He won in 2019 a first-of-its-kind antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association on behalf of student-athletes. The decision cracked open the door for them to profit off of their name, image and likeness, a seismic shift in college sports. Last year, Kessler was brought in to represent a
May 23, 2026 · via hollywoodreporter.com
U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Griste, 20th Fighter Wing command chief, renders a salute to first sergeants in a diamond formation assigned to Shaw Air Force Base during his retirement at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, May 21, 2026. The diamond formation, a rare honor reserved for retired Air Force first sergeants, recognized Griste's commitment to shaping the careers of Airmen throughout his career. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Will Sherwood)
| Date Taken: | 05.21.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.22.2026 16:57 |
| Photo ID: | 9703372 |
| VIRIN: | 260521-F-YP125-1366 |
| Resolution: | 2845x1897 |
| Size: | 1.4 MB |
| Location: | SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
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This work, Chief Master Sgt. Griste Retirement Ceremony [Image 10 of 10], by Amn Will Sherwood, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
May 22, 2026 · via dvidshub.net
Brig. Gen. Beth A. Behn, TACOM commanding general, presents Tausha Knowlin with a Civilian Service Achievement Medal certificate during the April 16, 2026, Retirement, Recognition and Retreat ceremony. (Carl Jones/U.S. Army photo)
| Date Taken: | 04.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.22.2026 16:59 |
| Photo ID: | 9703340 |
| VIRIN: | 240416-D-BA910-7780 |
| Resolution: | 2921x2337 |
| Size: | 2.27 MB |
| Location: | WARREN, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 5 |
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This work, April 2026 TACOM town hall [Image 6 of 6], by Ann Zaniewski, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
May 22, 2026 · via dvidshub.net
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May 22, 2026 · via youtube.com
Pilots’ voices from the last seconds of a fatal cargo plane crash have been re-created by Internet sleuths using software and AI tools. The spread of reconstructed audio recordings has prompted a US government agency to suspend all public access to its database of civil transportation accidents—because federal law prohibits investigators from publicly releasing audio from cockpit voice recorders. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) usually shares factual reports and evidence gathered from investigations of aircraft crashes and other civil transportation incidents. But on May 21, the NTSB announced that the online docket system containing such information was “temporarily unavailable” as it reviewed the publicly available materials that had enabled people to re-create cockpit audio recordings from aircraft disasters. “The NTSB is aware that advances in image recognition and computational methods have enabled individuals to reconstruct approximations of cockpit voice recorder audio from sound spectrum imagery released as part of NTSB investigations, including the ongoing investigation of the crash last year of UPS flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky,” according to an NTSB statement. “The NTSB does not release cockpit audio recordings.” UPS flight 2976 was a United Parcel Service MD-11F cargo aircraft that crashed shortly after takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky, on November 4, 2025, following a structural failure that led to an engine physically detaching as the aircraft left the ground. The three pilots aboard the aircraft, including a relief pilot, were killed. Another 12 people on the ground were killed, with 23 people being injured. The US Congress enacted a federal law in 1990 prohibiting the NTSB from publicly sharing any part of a cockpit voice or video recorder to protect the privacy of air crews. That law followed airline pilots’ pushback over the controversial TV station airing of a cockpit conversation relating to the August 1988 crash
May 22, 2026 · via arstechnica.com
(CNN) — New technology allowing audio of plane crashes to be extracted from still images has prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to take a rare step of pausing the public release of nearly all information related to its investigations. Cockpit voice recordings, often referred to as the CVR, capture everything commercial pilots say and are valuable during NTSB investigations, but are almost never released out of respect for the victims and their families. UPS flight 2976 crashed on November 4, when an engine separated from the wing while it was taking off from Louisville, Kentucky. The three crew members onboard were killed along with 12 people on the ground. During a two-day investigative hearing this week, the board released a docket full of details about the crash. Besides thousands of pages of reports and video showing the engine separating, it included a transcript of the CVR and a PDF file showing an analysis of the spectrogram of the audio it recorded. A spectrogram is a still image that is a visual representation of the audio, showing the ups and downs of the frequencies. Using that still image, members of the public were able to recreate the voices of the pilots in the moments before the plane crashed and post the results online. The clip, which included background noise and echoes, covered the last 30 seconds of the flight as the pilots struggled with the disabled aircraft as well as recordings of testing the NTSB did on another aircraft. In a statement on Thursday, the board made clear it “does not release cockpit voice recordings” due to federal law and because of the highly sensitive nature of what they include, but it was “aware that advances in image recognition and computational methods have enabled individuals to reconstruct approximations of cockpit
May 22, 2026 · via wpsdlocal6.com