Former Facebook employee raises alarm about company's approach to China
Former Facebook director Sarah Wynn-Williams has written a new book about her time at the company, 'Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism.' She told NBC News' Stephanie Gosk that Facebook had a 'growth-at-all-costs' mentality and says the company was willing to abandon its free speech principles to appease the Chinese government.March 10, 2025
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Daily Mirror
42 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Chinese schools go to extremes to stop students cheating on notorious exam
The gaokao was sat by more than 13 million students in China this year and authorities used facial recognition, metal detectors, drones and phone signal blockers to ensure no one cheated Millions of students in China who sat the country's highly competitive university entrance exam were this year faced with some of the most extreme anti-cheating methods yet. More than 13 million students sat the national two-day exam, known as gaokao, earlier this month. It is the world 's largest academic test and determines whether students can secure a place at university. The record number of people sitting this year's exam experienced a slight change, however, with facial recognition technology, metal detectors, drones and phone signal blockers all regularly used in schools as the Chinese government clamped down on cheating. The methods also involved the use of AI firms, with some of the country's major AI platforms freezing specific functions during test hours. This meant, for example, that if a student tried to upload a picture of an exam question, they were met with a message telling them that the feature was not available, Mail Online reports. One tech giant, Tencent, told those trying to use the platform during exam hours: "Dear user, to ensure the fairness of gaokao, this function is unavailable during gaokao hours. Tencent Yuanbao wishes gaokao sitters all success in the exams." Chinese AI model DeepSeek took up similar measures. When asked if photo recognition was suspended because of the exam, the chat-bot answered: "Yes. Deepseek Chat could temporarily suspend photo recognition for test question search during gaokao and other important exams." The firm added that this was to "ensure fairness in the college entrance examination" with bosses confirming the functions would "return to normal after gaokao". According to China Daily, exam rooms in Benxi, Liaoning were monitored by a real-time intelligent surveillance system that "automatically flags irregular behaviour". This can be anything from whispers to frequent glances between students, the report said. It comes after Chinese authorities announced students would need to pass stricter entry checks before being let into exam rooms. Students were screened for devices such as phones and smartwatches, with security gates at every exam site capable of detecting small metal objects which may be used to cheat. Candidates also underwent facial recognition, fingerprinting or iris scans to prevent people from impersonating those meant to be taking the exams. Identity checks were conducted multiple times before, during and after the tests. "Cheating technologies are evolving every year, so this year's entry screening process is stricter than ever," said Liu Yang, principal of Benxi Senior High School. "At the school gates, students are reminded not to carry prohibited devices, and lockers are provided for safe storage. On exam days, dedicated staff also inspect key areas such as walls, restrooms and bins to prevent any form of external information transmission." Since 2016, anyone caught cheating in an exam in China can be sent to prison. Cheaters face up to seven years in jail and be banned from taking other national education exams for three years.
NBC News
5 hours ago
- NBC News
Israel-Iran live updates: Conflict enters 9th day as diplomacy falters
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The Sun
6 hours ago
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Users of Facebook app must make important change now to avoid private chats going PUBLIC
META AI, which has been woven into the Facebook and WhatsApp experience, might be making your private conversations with the chatbot public. The standalone Meta AI app prompts users to choose to post publicly in the app's Discovery feed by default, a recent report by TechRadar warned. 2 When users tap "Share" and "Post to feed," they are sharing their conversations with strangers all around the world. It is much like a public Facebook post, the report added. The Discovery feed is plastered with AI -generated images, as well as text conversations. There's no telling how private these interactions can be - from talking through your relationship woes to drafting a eulogy. "I've scrolled past people asking Meta AI to explain their anxiety dreams, draft eulogies, and brainstorm wedding proposals," the report wrote. "It's voyeuristic, and not in the performative way of most social media; it's real and personal." Meta has a new pop-up warning users that agreeing for their AI chats to land on the Discovery page means strangers can view them. These conversation snippets aren't just for themselves or their friends to see. However, accidental sharing remains a possibility. TechRadar noted that these conversations may even appear elsewhere on Meta platforms, like Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram. Meta's top VR boss predicts AI-powered future with no phones, brain-controlled ovens and virtual TVs that only cost $1 Fortunately, you can opt out of having your conversations go public completely through the Meta AI app's settings. Here's how you can make sure your chats aren't at risk of being shared publicly: Open the Meta AI app. Tap your account icon, i.e. your profile picture or initials. Next, click on Data and Privacy and then tap Manage Your Information. Then toggle on Make all public prompts visible to only you, and then Apply to all in the pop-up. This will ensure that when you share a prompt, only you will be able to see it. To go one step further, you can erase all records of any interaction you've had with Meta AI. To do this, simply tap Delete all prompts in this same section of the Meta AI app's settings. This will wipe any prompt you've written, regardless of whether it's been posted, from the app. It's worth noting that even though you have opted out Of course, even with the opt-out enabled and your conversations with Meta AI no longer public, Meta still retains the right to use your chats to improve its models. What is Meta AI? You may have spotted Meta AI on your social media feed - here's how it works: Meta AI is a conversational artificial intelligence tool, also known as a chatbot. It responds to a user's questions in a similar fashion to competitors like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. Meta AI is what's known as generative AI, so called due to its ability to generate content. It can produced text or images in response to a user's request. The tool is trained on data that's available online. It can mimic patterns commonly found in human language as it provides responses. Meta AI appears on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, where it launches a chat when a question is sent.
