AI

Telecom that enabled Biden deepfake scam will pay FCC $1M

Comment

Early this year, AI-powered fake audio of President Biden reached voters in New Hampshire. The FCC struck back swiftly, identifying the perpetrator as the Texas-based Life Corporation, which has been behind similar scams over the years, and whacked them and an associated individual with a $6 million fine. But the scammers also enlisted the help of a game, shape-shifting telecom that has previously been implicated in shady doings. Now Lingo Telecom, as it’s currently known (AKA Ameritel, Excel, Impact, Startec, Trinsic, etc.) will pay a $1 million civil penalty and agree to definitely follow the rules this time for sure, starting now.

Telecoms like Lingo are not supposed to enable scams by providing services to known bad operators. “Communications service providers are the first line of defense against these threats and will be held accountable,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

More TechCrunch

Ashesh Shah, the founder and CEO of The London Fund is, as you might imagine, bullish on Bolt. The London Fund is a U.K. venture firm with “over $1 billion…

VC leading Bolt’s hoped-for $450M deal confirms he’s offering ‘marketing credits’

Bolt’s aggressive ultimatum to its existing shareholders will be an expensive uphill battle, an expert familiar with Bolt’s corporate charter tells TechCrunch.

Bolt’s Breslow faces uphill battle with proposed cramdown

Microsoft demonstrated its leadership in accessible gaming hardware again on Wednesday with the announcement of a new one-handed joystick controller for Xbox and PC. The Xbox Adaptive Joystick works with…

This new accessible Xbox nunchuk controller has 3D-printable joystick parts

Early this year, AI-powered fake audio of President Biden reached voters in New Hampshire. The FCC struck back swiftly, identifying the perpetrator as the Texas-based Life Corporation, which has been…

Telecom that enabled Biden deepfake scam will pay FCC $1M

OpenAI broke its silence on California’s most controversial AI bill on Tuesday, officially expressing opposition in a letter to California state Senator Scott Wiener and Governor Gavin Newsom. The AI…

OpenAI’s opposition to California’s AI bill ‘makes no sense,’ says state senator

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code…

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot

August was online publishing platform Medium’s first profitable month — ever. That’s according to Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, who on Wednesday published a recap of Medium’s recent digital Medium Day…

August was Medium’s first profitable month — ever

Flo Crivello was monitoring outputs from the AI assistants his company Lindy makes when he noticed something strange. A new client had asked her Lindy AI assistant for a video…

This founder had to train his AI not to Rickroll people

A firmware update is delivering multi-user audio sharing, allowing music to be streamed to multiple headphones at once.

Apple is bringing audio sharing to Beats Studio Pro via firmware update

At around $2,000, the Fit Bike places the system between Peloton’s entry-level Bike ($1,500) and Bike+ ($2,500).

Gamified rower startup Aviron branches out into bikes

The Startup Battlefield is the crown jewel of Disrupt, and we can’t wait to see which of the thousands of applicants will be selected to pitch to panels of top-tier VCs…

First look at the Startup Battlefield judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

AI video creation platform D-ID is the latest company to ship a tool for translating videos into other languages using AI technologies. However, in this case, D-ID also clones the…

D-ID launches an AI video translation tool that includes voice cloning and lip sync

A bug in the iPhone makes it crash just by typing four characters.

Typing these four characters could crash your iPhone

However, Claude is still ranking far behind top rival ChatGPT.

Anthropic’s Claude surpasses $1M in mobile app revenue

This week, surveys suggest that Gen Z — regularly the subject of mainstream media fascination — has very mixed opinions on AI.

This Week in AI: Gen Z has mixed feelings on AI

For the price, buyers will get a well-equipped electric minivan that falls a bit short on range.

Volkswagen ID. Buzz electric minivan will cost $59,995 for just 234 miles of range

Grim news coming in from Sicily, Italy. Mike Lynch, the U.K. investor and founder of IT company Autonomy, has been identified as one of two bodies recovered from the Bayesian,…

Bodies of Autonomy founder Mike Lynch and his daughter recovered from sunken Bayesian yacht

Zomato, the Indian food delivery giant, has acquired the entertainment ticketing business of financial services firm Paytm for $244.1 million, signaling a strategic move to expand its “going out” offerings.…

Zomato buys Paytm’s entertainment ticket business for $244 million

FireHydrant, an NYC incident management startup that launched in 2019, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Blameless, a former competitor. The companies did not share the purchase price. Both…

Two incident management startups join forces as FireHydrant nabs Blameless

Tick-tock! We’re in the last 3 days to save up to $600 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets. Lock in these low prices before August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Be…

Only 3 days left for massive savings on tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Ring announced on Wednesday the next generation of its Battery Doorbell. For $100, customers get extended battery life, color night vision, a head-to-toe view of visitors and a new push-pin…

Ring’s new battery doorbell has head-to-toe video

In 2020, Kathryn Wu launched a side hustle while she was working as a product engineer at Pinterest. Wu started a milk tea company, OhTea, with the hopes of connecting…

Openmart wants to make it easier for enterprises to sell to local businesses

Grafana Labs, the open source company that probably powers at least a few operational dashboards in your company, today announced the completion of a primary and secondary transaction worth about…

Grafana Labs raises $270M

Featured Article

The new generation of heavy lift rockets is rising to challenge SpaceX

It can be hard to keep up with this fast-paced yet incredibly complex and highly regulated industry — but everything you need to stay up to date is right here, with links to deeper coverage.

The new generation of heavy lift rockets is rising to challenge SpaceX

The first vehicle that will be built on the low-cost EV platform Ford’s been developing in secret will be a mid-size pickup due out in 2027, the automaker announced Wednesday…

Ford says a pickup truck will be the first EV built on its low-cost platform

Apple and Google can take a breath after the U.K. competition watchdog announced Wednesday it’s closing a pair of investigations into their respective mobile app ecosystems, citing administrative priorities. Since…

UK’s competition authority ends probes of Apple and Google but will use incoming powers to ‘resolve app store concerns’

AI giants like Anthropic, OpenAI and Stability AI have faced a lot of heat over how they’ve scraped data and rode rough-shod over others’ intellectual property when training and operating…

Story raises $80M at $2.25B valuation to build a blockchain for the business of content IP in the age of AI

There’s a lot of hype about the promise of AI agents today, but payments are a huge limiting factor. Today, an AI agent might be able to plan a vacation…

Skyfire lets AI agents spend your money

WeTransfer’s expiry dates have been a major pain point for users — especially creatives. The thing is, if you don’t download the files the moment you get the link or…

WeTransfer’s expiry dates haven’t gone away, but you can at least extend them

India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday expressed concern over the rapid growth of e-commerce in the country, warning of potential disruption to small retailers. Speaking at the launch of…

India’s trade minister decries e-commerce growth, Amazon’s ‘predatory’ pricing