Microsoft CEO on Taylor Swift AI deepfake images

Pandemic-fueled shutdowns, labor shortages, supply-chain issues, and more managed to rock and nearly sink Zin Boats. But now the Seattle startup is recharging plans for its high-performance electric speed boat. GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser stopped by the company’s headquarters in Seattle, which has a growing electric boating scene. Above, Zin Boats President and COO David Donovick, left, and founder and CEO Piotr Zin. Read more.

“Alarming and terrible … We have to act.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had that to say about explicit AI-generated deepfake images of Taylor Swift, when asked about the issue in an interview with Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News, set to air next week. One report says the images originated in a Telegram group known to use Microsoft’s AI tools. Microsoft says it’s unclear where the images came from, but it’s investigating and has strengthened its safeguards to keep its AI from being misused. Read more.

On a new episode of the GeekWire Podcast, our guest is someone who is experimenting every day with AI, pushing the capabilities of emerging tools and technologies: Kevin Leneway, principal software engineer at the Pioneer Square Labs startup incubator in Seattle. He has also developed an AI tool of his own, a coding assistant dubbed JACoB. 

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• Microsoft Teams experienced an outage lasting more than eight hours across portions of North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. (The Verge)

• Netflix added generative AI to its risk factors for investors in its latest form 10-K annual filing, based on the potential for rivals to create competing content. (Variety)