SpaceXAI data centre may have led to Mississippi air pollution spike - New Scientist
Dozens of temporary gas turbines powering SpaceXAI's Colossus 2 data centre emitted nitrogen oxide air pollution affecting nearby residents in Mississippi.
- Company involved
- SpaceXAI
- AI system involved
- Colossus 2
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SpaceXAI offering to buy homes affected by noise in Southaven - DeSoto Times-Tribune
The power plant's operation generated constant noise that affected nearby residents' quality of life, health, and property values.
- Company involved
- SpaceXAI
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NAACP sues xAI, alleging unlawful operation of gas turbines in Southaven
The NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, sued xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech, alleging it ran dozens of methane gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, without a Clean Air Act permit to power its Colossus 2 AI data centre. The groups say the plant may be the largest industrial source of smog-forming nitrogen oxides in the Memphis area and that nearby, largely Black neighbourhoods bear the pollution. The US Justice Department later moved to have the case dismissed, citing national security.
- Company involved
- xAI
- AI system involved
- Colossus 2 power plant
1 source article · read the reporting →
Playground AI makes MIT student's headshot appear Caucasian
Rona Wang, an MIT graduate, used Playground AI to generate a professional LinkedIn photo. The AI altered her appearance, giving her lighter skin and blue eyes, making her look Caucasian. The incident sparked discussion about racial bias in AI. Playground AI's founder acknowledged the issue and expressed a desire to fix it.
- Company involved
- Playground AI
- AI system involved
- Playground AI
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Spokane officials fooled by AI-generated police photo and event flyer
In July 2026, Spokane city officials inadvertently released an AI-generated photo of an undercover police officer holding a dog, which was later revealed to be fake. Separately, a parks department employee used AI to create a flyer for a clocktower event that plagiarised the work of local artist Matthew Clinard. The city apologised, removed the flyer, and pledged to review its AI policies and training. The incidents highlight the risks of generative AI in government communications.
- Company involved
- City of Spokane
1 source article · read the reporting →
AI editing tool gives Rona Wang unintended photo
Rona Wang attempted to use an AI editing tool to generate a LinkedIn profile photo. Instead, the tool produced an unintended image. Wang shared the result on Twitter, expressing dissatisfaction.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
FaceApp apologises after filter lightens users' skin tone
FaceApp, a face-editing app that uses neural networks, came under criticism after users found that its 'hot' filter automatically lightened their skin. The company's CEO apologised and said the effect was an unintended side-effect of training set bias. The filter was renamed 'spark' while a full fix was being developed.
- Company involved
- FaceApp
- AI system involved
- FaceApp
10 source articles · read the reporting →
AI-Generated Video Falsely Depicts Kostadin Kostadinov Falling at Protest
A video generated by AI tool Haliuo AI from a photo showed Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of the Vazrazhdane party, falling while jumping a fence at a protest against the euro. The video was posted on Facebook by the page Visoko naprezhenie on 12 June 2025 without disclosure it was AI-generated, and it gained over a million views. Fact-checkers identified visual artifacts and a covered watermark, confirming the video is fake. The original photo was taken by a BTA photographer at the actual protest on 8 June, but no real video of the fall exists.
- Company involved
- Visoko naprezhenie
- AI system involved
- Haliuo AI
1 source article · read the reporting →
AI-generated fake photo of Pope Francis in puffer jacket fools millions
An AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket was posted on Reddit and quickly went viral, fooling many social media users, including model Chrissy Teigen. The image was created using Midjourney and highlighted the growing difficulty of distinguishing deepfakes from real photographs. Experts warn that such tools could be weaponised for disinformation, referencing past deepfakes involving Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The incident prompted renewed calls for better detection methods.
- AI system involved
- Midjourney
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Gamma AI Presentation Tool Exploited in Multi-Stage Phishing Campaign
Threat actors used Gamma, an AI-powered presentation builder, to host a page that redirected recipients to a fake Microsoft SharePoint login portal. Emails sent from compromised legitimate accounts passed authentication checks, while a Cloudflare Turnstile blocked automated security scanners. An adversary-in-the-middle framework validated credentials in real time and captured session cookies, enabling multi-factor authentication bypass on Microsoft accounts. Abnormal reported the campaign on 15 April 2025.
- AI system involved
- Gamma
7 source articles · read the reporting →
Alibaba among firms fooled by AI-hallucinated software package
Security researcher Bar Lanyado discovered that generative AI models repeatedly hallucinate non-existent software package names. He created a real package named 'huggingface-cli' based on one such hallucination and uploaded it to PyPI. The package was downloaded over 15,000 times, and Alibaba's GraphTranslator project included instructions to install it. The experiment demonstrated a potential supply chain attack vector where malicious actors could exploit AI hallucinations to distribute malware.
- Company involved
- Alibaba
- AI system involved
- GraphTranslator
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Figma pulls AI design tool after it copies Apple's weather app
Figma removed its Make Designs AI feature after it was found to generate app mockups nearly identical to Apple's iOS weather app. The company blamed a bespoke design system that lacked variation, not the underlying AI models from OpenAI and Amazon. Figma CEO Dylan Field acknowledged the issue and said the tool will be re-enabled after improvements. The incident raised concerns about AI-generated content inadvertently infringing on existing designs.
- Company involved
- Figma
- AI system involved
- Make Designs
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Alcon Entertainment sues Tesla and Elon Musk over AI-generated Blade Runner 2049 imagery
Alcon Entertainment, the producer of Blade Runner 2049, has sued Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros Discovery, alleging they used AI to create promotional imagery based on the film for Tesla's robotaxi launch event on 10 October 2024. Alcon claims it had specifically denied a request from Warner Bros to use material from the film. The lawsuit alleges misappropriation and false endorsement, and describes the financial magnitude of the misappropriation as substantial.
- Company involved
- Tesla
6 source articles · read the reporting →
Jonas Bendiksen used AI and 3D software to create Book of Veles
Photographer Jonas Bendiksen created the photobook 'Book of Veles' using 3D software and an OpenAI text generator to depict the North Macedonian town of Veles. The book was published in April 2021 and later screened at the Visa pour l'Image festival without anyone questioning its authenticity. Bendiksen then revealed in an interview with Magnum Photos that the images and text were synthetic. The project raised concerns about the ease of creating convincing misinformation.
- Company involved
- Jonas Bendiksen
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Google Photos AI panorama creates giant head in ski photo
Google Photos' AI suggested a panorama edit for Alex Harker's ski holiday photos. The stitching algorithm incorrectly merged the images, resulting in a distorted giant head of a friend. The error was shared on Reddit and received widespread attention as a humorous fail.
- Company involved
- Google
- AI system involved
- Google Photos
5 source articles · read the reporting →
Tesla Autopilot mistakes moon for yellow traffic light, causing car to slow down
A Tesla driver reported that the vehicle's Autopilot system misidentified the moon as a yellow traffic light, causing the car to slow down unexpectedly. The driver alerted Tesla CEO Elon Musk via social media on July 23, 2021. No collision or injury was reported, but the incident highlights a potential safety issue with the object detection system.
- Company involved
- Tesla
- AI system involved
- Autopilot
3 source articles · read the reporting →
AI or Not detector mislabels real war photo as AI-generated
The AI image detection tool AI or Not, made by Optic, incorrectly labeled a photograph of a burnt corpse from the Israel-Gaza war as AI-generated. The image was originally tweeted by Israeli officials and later shared by commentators. Experts, including UC Berkeley professor Hany Farid, confirmed the image is real based on structural consistency and shadows. The false detection contributed to disinformation about the war. Optic did not respond to requests for comment.
- Company involved
- Optic
- AI system involved
- AI or Not
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Glasgow AI mural design sparks criticism from local artists
Balmoral Estates used AI to generate a design mock-up for a planned mural on Elmbank Street in Glasgow. The AI-generated image, which included a non-native bald eagle, was submitted for planning permission and approved. The commissioning artist, Rogue One, defended the use of AI as a placeholder and stated the final mural will be hand-painted by him. Critics argue human artists should have been involved from the start.
- Company involved
- Balmoral Estates
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Fake Luma Dream Machine AI sites deliver Noodlophile infostealer
Cybercriminals set up Facebook pages impersonating Luma Dream Machine and linked to fake AI video generation websites. Users who uploaded images received an archive containing a malicious executable instead of a video. The executable launched a multi-stage attack that installed Noodlophile, which harvests browser credentials, cookies and cryptocurrency wallet information. Morphisec reported the campaign.
8 source articles · read the reporting →
Duke University's PULSE AI upscaler turns Barack Obama white due to racial bias
Duke University researchers developed PULSE, an AI tool that upscales blurry face photos using Nvidia's StyleGAN model. When tested, it generated a white face from a pixelated image of Barack Obama, revealing racial bias. The bias stemmed from StyleGAN's training data being predominantly white and the evaluation dataset CelebA being 90% white. The researchers acknowledged the issue and updated their paper, while Nvidia stated it is working to mitigate bias.
- Company involved
- Duke University
- AI system involved
- PULSE
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Microsoft funded Israeli facial recognition firm surveilling West Bank Palestinians
Microsoft invested in AnyVision, an Israeli facial recognition company whose technology powers a secret military surveillance project in the West Bank. The system, called Better Tomorrow, identifies and tracks Palestinians in live camera feeds. Microsoft said it would audit AnyVision for compliance with its ethical principles.
- Company involved
- Israeli Defense Forces
- AI system involved
- Better Tomorrow
10 source articles · read the reporting →
MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab's AI Portrait Ars produces whitewashed portraits of people of colour
AI Portrait Ars, developed by researchers at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, is reported to have generated Renaissance-style portraits that lightened the skin and altered the facial features of people of colour. The tool, trained on tens of thousands of paintings from the Western artistic tradition, was criticised for reproducing that bias in its data set. The creators acknowledged the bias but did not respond to a request for comment.
- Company involved
- MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab
- AI system involved
- AI Portrait Ars
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Nvidia releases AI-powered Eye Contact feature for Broadcast app
Nvidia has released a beta version of Eye Contact, an AI-powered feature for its Broadcast app that replaces a user's eyes in video streams with simulated eyeballs that always face the camera. The feature is intended to maintain eye contact even when the user looks away, but social media response has been largely negative. A former TV news anchor said that unbroken eye contact can be regarded as creepy or uncomfortable.
- Company involved
- Nvidia
- AI system involved
- Eye Contact
8 source articles · read the reporting →
Boris Eldagsen refuses Sony World Photography Award for AI-generated image
Boris Eldagsen submitted an AI-generated image to the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 and won the Creative category. He then revealed the image was created using AI generators and refused the award, alleging that the organisers did not disclose the AI origin despite being informed. The organisers issued a generic statement and did not engage in discussion. Eldagsen's action sparked a debate about AI in photography.
- Company involved
- World Photography Organisation (Sony World Photography Awards)
3 source articles · read the reporting →