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Ashley Abramson first came across Sophie Cress in a cold pitch to her work email. Cress was asking to be an expert source for any stories Abramson was working on as a freelance reporter. Ive got over 8 years of experience and qualifications in Psychology and Couples & Family Therapy, and I’m enthusiastic about exploring potential collaborations, especially in the areas of love, relationships, or LGBTQIA+ topics, Cress wrote. She provided a list of links to articles where shed supposedly been featured as an expert. Her email address, linked to a website reviewing sex toys, caught Abramsons attention. Then, when Abramson insisted that she could only conduct interviews over phone or video call, Cress ghosted. In a recent investigation for Allure, Abramson dug deeper into Cress’ background and alleged qualifications. Turns out, she doesnt actually exist, and was created by the Latvia-based owner of sex toy review site Sexual Alpha to boost traffic and improve the site’s search rankings. Dainis Graveris, the owner of Sexual Alpha, did not respond to Abramson’s requests for comment but Abramson decided to investigate further. She started by searching for evidence of a “Sophie Cress” or similar names licensed in North Carolina or holding the degrees and certifications Cress claimed. She found none. Abramson also discovered that Cress headshot was a stock image, and the woman pictured was not called Sophie Cress. Most journalists contacted by Cress simply took her at face value, allowing her operators to dupe outlets from the Metro to the Daily Mail. As Abramson writes, of course, anyone could always claim to be anyone and AI programs make it easy to generate a chunk of text that seems, at least at first skim, like it was written by an expert in any field you can think of. This is a classic case of what is commonly known as internet slop: scammy, AI-generated content thats becoming increasingly widespread online and beyond. Some studies have even found that people rated AI-generated content more favorably than that created by humans (or at least cant tell the difference). This rising tide of slop only serves to clog the internet, which is already drowning in misinformation, further. While this is unlikely to be some sort of election-altering Russian disinformation campaign, Abramson concludes, I wouldnt say its a sign of a particularly bright future.
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E-Commerce
Space engineers now know how to make oxygen on the moon, and they’re working on perfecting the science so that astronauts can live off the lunar base more easily.Lunar soil, or regolith, is filled with valuable materials, like oxygen, as well as metals like iron, titanium, and lithium. And a team at Sierra Space, a private aerospace and space technologies company, is working on extracting it. Doing so, they say, will help astronauts on the moon to breathe, can help provide fuel for future missions, and is an important step for sustaining life on the moon, or other planets. Weve tested everything we can on Earth now, Brant White, a program manager at Sierra Space, told the BBC. The next step is going to the moon. The team tested the technology during an experiment at NASAs Johnson Space Center over the summer. The process involves a box-like machine that can take in soil, or, when on the moon, regolith, and turn it into a thick, sticky substance. Heating a layer of the substance to over 3,002F (1,650C) and adding reactants, allows oxygen-containing molecules to be released.In September, Sierra Space announced it had successfully completed the testing in a press release. The Apollo program took us to the moon to study and learn. Artemis is taking us back to the moon, this time to stay, Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space, said at the time.Vice continued, Our company is focused on building the infrastructure necessary to enable continuous human presence on the lunar surface. This sustainable future begins with developing the core technology and systems that create oxygen in that environment, using local natural resources.The team also says they can extract metals from the moon’s core that will help with building structures on the moon. While bringing oxygen and other materials from Earth is possible, White says that’s extraordinarily costly, and therefore the innovation is a meaningful one. It could save billions of dollars from mission costs, White said. While scientists seem to have perfected the technology on Earth, bringing it to the moon will bring about certain challenges due to the lack of gravity. Dr. Paul Burke, a space physicist and aerospace engineer at Johns Hopkins University, who published a paper on the topic last year, told the BBC that the process of extraction, which involves bubbles of oxygen forming in the scorching hot regolith, will be different in a different atmosphere.It is the consistency of, say, honey,” he explained. “It is very, very viscous. Those bubbles arent going to rise as fast and may actually be delayed from detaching from the electrodes. However, Sierra Space says their technology was designed with low gravity in mind.Other scientists are hard at work on how to extract oxygen and other materials from the moon, too, like Palak Patel, a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is training to become an astronaut herself. Patel came up with her own experimental molten regolith electrolysis system that does the same thing. She told the BBC it also addresses the gravity issue by using a sonicator which uses soundwaves to ensure the bubbles won’t get stuck. Were really looking at it from the standpoint of, Lets try to minimise the number of resupply missions, she said.
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E-Commerce
Threads, Meta’s X and Bluesky rival, is testing ads with certain brands in the United States and Japan, the company said Friday. “We know there will be plenty of feedback about how we should approach ads, and we are making sure they feel like Threads posts youd find relevant and interesting,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a post. He added that the team will be monitoring the test “before scaling it more broadly.” The ads will show a “Sponsored” label as they appear in users’ feeds. Meta launched Threads in 2023 and has been focusing on growing its user base and keeping people logged on. Now that it has more than 300 million monthly active users (with more than 100 million of those using it daily), better monetization efforts appear to be the next step. After all, social media is just one big way to turn eyeballs into revenue. Meta Platforms, parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is likely to share an update about Threads when it reports fourth-quarter 2024 earnings next week. Its stock on Friday afternoon was trading at near record highs. Responses to Mosseri’s post announcing the test revealed frustration from some users. “You put in ads, there will be no reason to stay….” One user wrote. “Ill leave the minute the ads start rolling by. Guaranteed.”
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E-Commerce
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