Mis/dis/malinformation

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

‘No safety rules’: Concerns grow as AI-generated videos spread hate online

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

‘No safety rules’: Concerns grow as AI-generated videos spread hate online

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 23, 2025

At first it appears to be a quirky video clip generated by artificial intelligence to make people laugh.

In it, a hairy Bigfoot wearing a cowboy hat and a vest emblazoned with the American flag sits behind the wheel of a pickup truck.

“We are going today to the LGBT parade,” the apelike creature says with a laugh. “You are going to love it.”

Things then take a violent and disturbing turn as Bigfoot drives through a crowd of screaming people, some of them holding rainbow flags.

Read
Tuesday, Sep. 23, 2025

A person uses a cell phone in Ottawa on July 18, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
A person uses a cell phone in Ottawa on July 18, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Not just Big Bird: Things to know about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its funding cuts

Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Not just Big Bird: Things to know about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its funding cuts

Audrey Mcavoy, The Associated Press 5 minute read Friday, Sep. 19, 2025

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio and television stations as well as programs like “Sesame Street” and “Finding Your Roots,” said Friday that it would close after the U.S. government withdrew funding.

The organization told employees that most staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. A small transition team will stay until January to finish any remaining work.

The private, nonprofit corporation was founded in 1968 shortly after Congress authorized its formation. It now ends nearly six decades of fueling the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and emergency alerts about natural disasters.

Here's what to know:

Read
Friday, Sep. 19, 2025

FILE - One of the control rooms at the Arizona PBS offices at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix is seen Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Katie Oyan, File)
FILE - One of the control rooms at the Arizona PBS offices at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix is seen Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Katie Oyan, File)

Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI

David Klepper, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI

David Klepper, The Associated Press 6 minute read Thursday, Sep. 18, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — The phone rings. It's the secretary of state calling. Or is it?

For Washington insiders, seeing and hearing is no longer believing, thanks to a spate of recent incidents involving deepfakes impersonating top officials in President Donald Trump's administration.

Digital fakes are coming for corporate America, too, as criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries including North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets.

Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals and making trust the most valuable currency of the digital age.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 18, 2025

FILE - A person working on a laptop in North Andover, Mass., June 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
FILE - A person working on a laptop in North Andover, Mass., June 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Canadian researchers create tool to remove anti-deepfake watermarks from AI content

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Canadian researchers create tool to remove anti-deepfake watermarks from AI content

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

OTTAWA - University of Waterloo researchers have built a tool that can quickly remove watermarks identifying content as artificially generated — and they say it proves that global efforts to combat deepfakes are most likely on the wrong track.

Academia and industry have focused on watermarking as the best way to fight deepfakes and "basically abandoned all other approaches," said Andre Kassis, a PhD candidate in computer science who led the research.

At a White House event in 2023, the leading AI companies — including OpenAI, Meta, Google and Amazon — pledged to implement mechanisms such as watermarking to clearly identify AI-generated content.

AI companies’ systems embed a watermark, which is a hidden signature or pattern that isn’t visible to a person but can be identified by another system, Kassis explained.

Read
Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participates in a panel discussion during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. OpenAI was one of the major tech firms that promised to pursue watermarking technology. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participates in a panel discussion during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. OpenAI was one of the major tech firms that promised to pursue watermarking technology. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
No Subscription Required

Book Review: ‘Algospeak’ shows just how much social media is changing us

Rachel S. Hunt, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Book Review: ‘Algospeak’ shows just how much social media is changing us

Rachel S. Hunt, The Associated Press 3 minute read Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

How much has social media changed the way we talk and behave?

That’s the question linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic sets out to answer in his debut book “Algospeak.”

If you already know what words like “yeet,” “rizz,” “brainrot” or “blackpilled” mean, some of this information might not come as a surprise to you. Still, Aleksic’s analysis reaffirms how this language came about and why it continues to proliferate. For those unfamiliar, it acts as an accessible entry point into social media slang and its evolution.

“Algospeak” touches on a wide array of topics, including in-groups and out-groups, censorship, language appropriation, extremism online, microtrends, clickbait and generational divides. The chapters build on each other with a textbook-level attention to vocabulary.

Read
Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

This book cover image released by Knopf shows "Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language" by Adam Aleksic. (Knopf via AP)
This book cover image released by Knopf shows
No Subscription Required

‘Love Island’ revives conversation about racial bias and misogynoir in dating

Sarah Jones-smith, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

‘Love Island’ revives conversation about racial bias and misogynoir in dating

Sarah Jones-smith, The Associated Press 6 minute read Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

It used to be that dating was as simple as deciding between dinner, a trip to the movies or an arcade. Now, understanding the dating scene has become intermingled with smartphones, matchmaking apps and one’s ability to navigate thorny social issues like racial preference in a mate.

“Love Island,” a widely popular international reality television franchise, is emblematic of the complexities of modern dating. It has also sparked heated discussions among fans about the desirability of Black women and darker-complexioned people both on and off air.

The show, which aired the finale of the seventh season of its U.S. version Sunday and is airing the 12th season of its U.K. version, casts conventionally attractive “islanders” who are generally in their early to late 20s for a six- to eight-week stay in a luxury villa. Men and women compete for long-lasting relationships and a cash prize.

But as the show’s daters face challenges meant to test their bonds, as well as elimination by villa mates or by fans’ vote, notions of who is and isn’t desirable frequently come up for viewers and contestants alike. In the end, many fans are left with the perception that racial bias, colorism and misogyny are especially inescapable for Black women on reality dating shows.

Read
Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

This image released by Peacock shows promotional art for the reality series "Love Island USA." (Peacock via AP)
This image released by Peacock shows promotional art for the reality series

Musk’s xAI scrubs inappropriate posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic comments

The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Musk’s xAI scrubs inappropriate posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic comments

The Associated Press 5 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it's taking down “inappropriate posts" made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler.

Grok was developed by Musk’s xAI and pitched as alternative to “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google’s Gemini, or OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Musk said Friday that Grok has been improved significantly, and users “should notice a difference.”

Since then, Grok has shared several antisemitic posts, including the trope that Jews run Hollywood, and denied that such a stance could be described as Nazism.

Read
Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025

FILE - Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk attends the first plenary session on of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 in Bletchley, England. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk attends the first plenary session on of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 in Bletchley, England. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP, File)
No Subscription Required

Enhanced Games perpetuate a growing problem

Editorial 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Enhanced Games perpetuate a growing problem

Editorial 4 minute read Saturday, Jun. 7, 2025

We appear to be entering a new golden age of steroids.

Years of scandals out of the Olympics, pro baseball, pro wrestling, and other athletic fields should have put to bed the notion that there is any athletic or cultural value in using performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs, to get an edge. With every suspension, with every prize stripped from a competitor or left tainted by the way it was obtained, the message was clear — it’s cheating, and it’s not worth it.

Some haven’t received the message. The Enhanced Games hopes to hold its first-ever event in Las Vegas, Nev.

The Enhanced Games, as the name suggests, is a multi-sport athletic competition in which athletes are openly using PEDs. The games’ website makes much ado about the close supervision the athletes will be under, overseen by medical professionals to ensure their health and safety.

Read
Saturday, Jun. 7, 2025

FILE

Are steroids back?
FILE Are steroids back?
No Subscription Required

Toronto school board, firefighters warn of ‘dangerous’ social-media trends

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Toronto school board, firefighters warn of ‘dangerous’ social-media trends

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

TORONTO - The Toronto Catholic District School Board, along with some emergency responders, are warning parents about "dangerous" social-media challenges that are trending among students in Ontario schools.

The board said the challenges are recorded on video and shared online to encourage others to participate, but they can pose serious risks to students and the entire school community.

Among them is the so-called "paper clip challenge" that involves students inserting metal objects such as a paper clip into an electrical outlet and dropping a coin onto the prongs to cause electrical sparks.

The board said the "Chromebook challenge" involves placing paper clips, pencils or other objects into Chromebook USB ports to deliberately cause them to short-circuit, which can lead to overheating, burns or fire.

Read
Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

An empty classroom is shown at a school in Toronto, Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
An empty classroom is shown at a school in Toronto, Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
No Subscription Required

CDC removes language that says healthy kids and pregnant women should get COVID shots

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

CDC removes language that says healthy kids and pregnant women should get COVID shots

Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's top public health agency posted new recommendations that say healthy children and pregnant women may get COVID-19 vaccinations, removing stronger language that those groups should get the shots.

The change comes days after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.

But the updated guidance on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website sends a more nuanced message, saying shots “may” be given to those groups.

“The announcement from earlier this week sounded like CDC was going to fully withdraw any statement that could be construed as a recommendation for these vaccines in these populations,” said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher. “It's not as bad as it could have been."

Read
Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

FILE - A sign marks the entrance to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, on Oct. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - A sign marks the entrance to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, on Oct. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)