Iran’s internet blackout creates an uneven picture of the war with Israel

As the war between Israel and Iran hits the one-week mark, Iranians have spent nearly half of the conflict in a near-communication blackout, unable to connect not only with the outside world but also with their neighbors and loved ones across the country.

Civilians are left unaware of when and where Israel will strike next, despite Israeli forces issuing warnings through their Persian-language online channels. When the missiles land, disconnected phone and web services mean not knowing for hours or days if their family or friends are among the victims. That’s left many scrambling on various social media apps to see what’s happening — again, only a glimpse of life able to reach the internet in a country of over 80 million people.

Music streaming service Deezer adds AI song tags in fight against fraud

Music streaming service Deezer said Friday that it will start flagging albums with AI-generated songs, part of its fight against streaming fraudsters.

The Paris-based company is grappling with a surge in music on its platform created purely with generative artificial intelligence tools that it says are used to fraudulently earn royalties. The app will display an on-screen warning label about AI-generated content and notify listeners that some tracks on an album were created with AI. The company said AI-generated music is an industry-wide issue.

According to an AI song detection tool that Deezer rolled out this year, 18% of songs uploaded to its platform each day, or about 20,000 tracks, are now completely AI generated. Just three months earlier, that number was 10%, Lanternier said in a recent interview.

— Boston Herald Wire Services