Delaying the Voice Engine technology rollout minimises the potential for misinformation in an important global election year

A new tool from OpenAI that can generate a convincing clone of anyone’s voice using just 15 seconds of recorded audio has been deemed too risky for general release, as the AI lab seeks to minimise the threat of damaging misinformation in a global year of elections.

Voice Engine was first developed in 2022 and an initial version was used for the text-to-speech feature built into ChatGPT, the organisation’s leading AI tool. But its power has never been revealed publicly, in part because of the “cautious and informed” approach that OpenAI is taking to release it more widely.

Do you shout your achievements from the rooftops, or ‘move in silence’ while waiting for the perfect moment to flex online? If only we could all sit this one out

I have belatedly discovered the phrase “move in silence”. Apparently, Lil Wayne instructed people to do it in 2011 with the line: “Real Gs move in silence like lasagne,” a lyric that prompted various polemics (is the G in lasagne actually silent ?). Even then, a music commentator told Billboard it was “such an old concept”. It hadn’t broken through in the south side of Brussels, where I was living then (despite lasagne, happily, being plentiful).

I was finally alerted to “moving in silence” by an Instagram post. The phrase grabbed me, since I am a cheerleader for silence. My take is: the more people move in silence, the better, especially if they are in coach H of the 8.02 York to London King’s Cross. It’s the “Quieter” coach! Don’t make me stare pointedly at the sign and sigh!

Portable AI-powered devices that connect directly to a chatbot without the need for apps or a touchscreen are set to hit the market. Are they the emperor’s new clothes or a gamechanger?

Imagine it: you’re on the bus or walking in the park, when you remember some important task has slipped your mind. You were meant to send an email, catch up on a meeting, or arrange to grab lunch with a friend. Without missing a beat, you simply say aloud what you’ve forgotten and the small device that’s pinned to your chest, or resting on the bridge of your nose, sends the message, summarises the meeting, or pings your buddy a lunch invitation. The work has been taken care of, without you ever having to prod the screen of your smartphone.

It’s the sort of utopian convenience that a growing wave of tech companies are hoping to realise through artificial intelligence. Generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT exploded in popularity last year, as search engines like Google, messaging apps such as Slack and social media services like Snapchat raced to integrate the tech into their systems. Yet while AI add-ons have become a familiar sight across apps and software, the same generative tech is now making an attempt to join the realm of hardware, as the first AI-powered consumer devices rear their heads and jostle for space with our smartphones.

The increased use of AI to replicate the voice and movements of actors has benefits but some are concerned over how and when it might be used and who might be left short-changed

When she discovered her voice had been uploaded to multiple websites without her consent, the actor Cissy Jones told them to take it down immediately. Some complied. “Others who have more money in their banks basically sent me the email equivalent of a digital middle finger and said: don’t care,” Jones recalls by phone.

“That was the genesis for me to start talking to friends of mine about: listen, how do we do this the right way? How do we understand that the genie is out of the bottle and find a way to be a part of the conversation or we will get systematically annihilated? I know that sounds dramatic but, given how easy it is to steal a person’s voice, it’s not far off the mark . ”

Experts say UK-imposed sanctions will make no difference when hacking is part of ecosystem of dealing with Beijing

With the announcement that the UK government would be imposing sanctions on two individuals and one entity accused of targeting – without success – UK parliamentarians in cyber-attacks in 2021 , the phrase “tip of the iceberg” comes to mind. But that would underestimate the iceberg.

James Cleverly, the home secretary, said the sanctions were a sign that “targeting our elected representatives and electoral processes will never go unchallenged”.

Judge orders disgraced crypto mogul to forfeit $11bn in assets and says he showed no remorse for his crimes

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul who perpetrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11bn in assets. His lawyer reiterated a pledge to appeal the sentence the same day.

The judge, Lewis Kaplan, issued the penalty in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday. Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy to launder money late last year.

Media companies to combine publishing and advertising platforms to target gen Z and millennials

The Independent will take control of BuzzFeed and HuffPost in the UK and Ireland with the intention to create “Britain’s biggest publisher network for Gen Z and millennial audiences”, the publishers have said.

The two media companies will combine their publishing, data and advertising platforms “to allow commercial partners to seamlessly buy across their sites”.

There have been no changes since the ex-mogul’s conviction as lawmakers fail to pass regulations to protect the public

There is a palpable feeling of relief in the cryptocurrency industry. Evangelists are preaching the good news that the industry has been purged of the Sam Bankman-Frieds, the Alex Mashinskys , the Do Kwons and the Changpeng Zhaos of the world. They proclaim that crypto can finally ascend from its purgatorial, “wild west” days to become a respectable sector of the financial world blessed by regulators and speculators alike.

That exultant attitude has contributed to surging cryptocurrency prices, which surpassed previous all-time highs in the weeks leading up to Bankman-Fried’s sentencing of 25 years in prison on Thursday.

Former CEO of now bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange faces more than 100 years in prison if given maximum penalty

In mid-March, federal prosecutors requested that judge Lewis Kaplan sentence Bankman-Fried to at least four decades in prison. The maximum penalty he could face would amount to more than 100 years.

“His life in recent years has been one of unmatched greed and hubris; of ambition and rationalization; and courting risk and gambling repeatedly with other people’s money,” the US attorneys in Manhattan wrote. “And even now Bankman-Fried refuses to admit what he did was wrong.”