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    Credible Handwriting Machine

    news.movim.eu / Schneier · Friday, 19 May - 20:19 · 1 minute

In case you don’t have enough to worry about, someone has built a credible handwriting machine:

This is still a work in progress, but the project seeks to solve one of the biggest problems with other homework machines, such as this one that I covered a few months ago after it blew up on social media. The problem with most homework machines is that they’re too perfect. Not only is their content output too well-written for most students, but they also have perfect grammar and punctuation ­ something even we professional writers fail to consistently achieve. Most importantly, the machine’s “handwriting” is too consistent. Humans always include small variations in their writing, no matter how honed their penmanship.

Devadath is on a quest to fix the issue with perfect penmanship by making his machine mimic human handwriting. Even better, it will reflect the handwriting of its specific user so that AI-written submissions match those written by the student themselves.

Like other machines, this starts with asking ChatGPT to write an essay based on the assignment prompt. That generates a chunk of text, which would normally be stylized with a script-style font and then output as g-code for a pen plotter. But instead, Devadeth created custom software that records examples of the user’s own handwriting. The software then uses that as a font, with small random variations, to create a document image that looks like it was actually handwritten.

Watch the video.

My guess is that this is another detection/detection avoidance arms race.

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    Fooling a Voice Authentication System with an AI-Generated Voice

    news.movim.eu / Schneier · Monday, 27 February - 20:49

A reporter used an AI synthesis of his own voice to fool the voice authentication system for Lloyd’s Bank.

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    Amazon begins large-scale rollout of palm print-based payments

    news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 10 August, 2022 - 20:14

A customer uses a palm print reader in this promotional image for Amazon One.

Enlarge / A customer uses a palm print reader in this promotional image for Amazon One. (credit: Amazon )

Amazon will expand its Amazon One palm print checkout system to dozens of Whole Foods locations, marking the most significant expansion of the technology that was introduced in 2020.

Amazon One allows customers to speedily check out at retail locations using only their palm prints after storing a scan of their hand via an interface at Amazon's kiosks. The palm print data is encrypted and stored on Amazon's servers. And before you worry too much about COVID-19 transmission or future pandemics, Amazon One works when you hover your palm over the scanner—unlike some handprint tech.

Amazon initially added the technology in its Amazon Go stores and the now-shuttered Amazon Books retail locations. It then made its way to several Whole Foods locations in the Seattle area. (Amazon has owned the Whole Foods grocery chain since 2017.)

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