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Chicago Tribune
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Column: 8 observations as the Chicago Cubs battle the fickle winds of Wrigley Field in a 3-1 loss
While waiting on a plume of smoke to rise from the old Wrigley Field scoreboard to announce whether a decision on Cade Horton had been made, here are eight things to ponder after the Chicago Cubs' 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants: President Jed Hoyer's decision on Horton might be his toughest of the season. Hoyer has made quite a few personnel decisions based on small sample sizes this spring, including the demotions of third baseman Matt Shaw and reliever Jordan Wicks, and dealing Gage Workman after designating him for assignment. Those were small potatoes as compared to what he'll do with Horton, a rising star in the organization who has dominated in his first six starts at Triple-A Iowa. It makes perfect sense to keep Horton in Iowa a while longer to continue his development after he missed most of 2024 with a shoulder injury. But this is not a perfect world. Having already shown a sense of urgency with his previous roster moves, bringing Horton up in early May to replace the injured Shota Imanaga on Saturday against the New York Mets would be in line with Hoyer's early-season aggressiveness in what could be a make-or-break season for the longtime Cubs executive. Cubs fans obviously want to see Horton, perhaps the organization's most highly touted pitching prospect since Mark Prior made his debut in 2002. Hoyer and manager Craig Counsell seem reluctant to show their cards, making the decision seem that much more important. Will Hoyer do it? Counsell gave no indication of Horton's status after Wednesday's loss, so the AI-induced smoke from Wrigley was black heading into the evening. Ryan Pressly says he's fine. The Cubs say he's fine. That's fine. But the fact that he's made only three appearances since April 21 suggests not all is fine with the veteran closer. Pressly had his knee drained on April 22, but Counsell afterward said it was nothing unusual for a 36-year-old reliever. Pressly allowed nine runs, including eight earned, in the Giants' 9-run 11th inning on Tuesday night. If that doesn't raise any red flags then maybe the Cubs are in denial. It's never too early to change your closer. But sometimes it can be too late. Why Ryan Pressly's underlying numbers are concerning — beyond Chicago Cubs closer's historically bad outing The great debate: Third baseman Jon Berti refusing to eat the ball and making bad throws to first base on plays that can't be made, which he's done the last two games, versus former third baseman Christopher Morel's double-clutching on throws to first base last May on plays that should've been made? Discuss at your leisure. It's early, but the Cubs seem better prepared to battle the fickle winds of Wrigley. The Cubs entered Wednesday's game averaging 4.9 runs per game at home with the wind blowing in. Last year, they averaged 4.9 runs per game in the 21 games with the wind blowing out, and 2.9 per game in the 39 games with the wind blowing in. Naturally, they were shut down by Giants lefty Robbie Ray and the Giants bullpen on Wednesday with the wind blowing in from the northeast at 16 mph. The Cubs had runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings but came away with only one run on a windblown fly ball by Pete Crow-Armstrong that blew in several feet and eluded Heliot Ramos in left for an RBI double. Counsell said the Cubs' failure to get a leadoff hitter on hurt them. 'We didn't make (Ray) make a bunch of pitches until two outs really in a couple of innings,' he said. 'When it's tough to hit on a day like today, and a home run was a tough thing, getting the leadoff hitter on and creating some traffic early in an inning seems like a pretty good recipe to score. They did it. And we couldn't do it.' Photos: Chicago Cubs lose again to the San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field on Wednesday Believe it or not: In a span of 10 games at Wrigley Field from April 18 through Tuesday, the Cubs bullpen has already allowed a 10-run inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 13-11 win and a nine-run inning against the Giants in Tuesday's 15-4, 11-inning loss. You could go years without seeing one of those things happen. In fact, the Giants' nine-run inning was their most in an extra inning in franchise history. Counsell followed through on his declaration over the weekend that he would get Seiya Suzuki a game back in the outfield. Suzuki played right field on Wednesday with no glaring issues. Counsell let Kyle Tucker DH as a kind of 'semi' day off. The two were a combined 0-for-7. New York state of mind: Some players fare better in some cities than others for no apparent reason. Jameson Taillon, scheduled to start Friday against the Mets in Citi Field, loves pitching in New York and has been nearly untouchable pitching there the last two seasons with the Cubs. Taillon allowed one hit over eight shutout innings at Yankee Stadium in 2023, facing his former team. He allowed three runs on seven hits over 14 1/3 combined innings in two starts at Citi Field in '23 and '24. Media frenzy in the Big Apple? Don't worry about Crow-Armstrong being affected by the media overload he'll probably get this weekend in New York, where he was a former Mets prospect who succeeded elsewhere. Crow-Armstrong said in Milwaukee that he doesn't believe the media will be a distraction as more reporters seek him out. 'Talking to (the media) is such a small part of my day,' he said. 'Media-wise, it's kind of irrelevant to me. Sometimes it's hard enough for myself to get past an at-bat. That's really what I've got to work past every day. I love having so much focus put on this team. It's nice to deal with you guys. You guys make it easy on us. That's just part of (the job). I've enjoyed having to deal with you guys a little bit more.' That's something you rarely hear from modern-day baseball players in the post-pandemic era.
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First Post
30-04-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Melania Trump's ‘Take it Down' Act passes US Congress: What is this legislation?
US Congress has passed the 'Take It Down Act' in connection to the increasing cases of creation and distribution of non-consensual deepfake pornography also known as revenge porn. As the bill awaits President Donald Trump's signature to officially come into existence, let us take a look at what it is read more Senator Cruz speaks about a bill to help protect victims of deepfakes and revenge porn, at the Capitol June 18, 2024. File image/AP The House of Representatives passed the first major law tackling AI-induced harm, the Take It Down Act. Under this act, the legislation aims to enact stricter penalties for the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery, sometimes called 'revenge porn.' Now, the bill is headed President Donald Trump's way for his approval. This bipartisan legislation establishes the creation and distribution of non-consensual deepfake pornography as criminal offences and legally obligates online platforms to remove such material within 48 hours of being notified. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The bill, which was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, and Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, saw gaining support from First Lady Melania Trump. Regarding the bill, which pertains to both real and artificial intelligence-generated imagery, critics assert that its overly inclusive language could pave the way for censorship and contravene First Amendment rights. What is the bill? This legislation criminalises the 'knowing publication' or threatened publication of private images without consent, extending to AI-created ' deepfakes.' It also imposes a 48-hour removal requirement on websites and social media companies upon notification by a victim, along with a directive to delete duplicate content. Despite existing state-level bans on sexually explicit deepfakes and revenge porn, the Take It Down Act stands out as a rare instance of federal regulators intervening in the operations of internet companies. Who are the supporters? The Take It Down Act has received significant bipartisan support and advocacy, notably from Melania Trump, who lobbied on Capitol Hill in March, expressing her distress over the victimisation of teenagers, particularly girls, through the spread of such content. President Trump is anticipated to sign the bill into law. Cruz said the measure was inspired by Elliston Berry and her mother, who visited his office after Snapchat refused for nearly a year to remove an AI-generated 'deepfake' of the then 14-year-old. First Lady Melania Trump supports the Take It Down Act. File Image/AP Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, supports the Take It Down Act. Meta spokesman Andy Stone conveyed last month that the sharing of intimate images without consent – whether real or AI-generated – can be deeply distressing, and that Meta has developed and actively backs various measures intended to prevent such occurrences. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a tech industry-supported think tank, said in a statement Monday that the bill's passage 'is an important step forward that will help people pursue justice when they are victims of non-consensual intimate imagery, including deepfake images generated using AI.' 'We must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent, especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse,' Klobuchar said in a statement after the bill's passage late Monday. 'These images can ruin lives and reputations, but now that our bipartisan legislation is becoming law, victims will be able to have this material removed from social media platforms and law enforcement can hold perpetrators accountable." STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD What are the concerns? Free speech advocates and digital rights groups say the bill is too broad and could lead to the censorship of legitimate images including legal pornography and LGBTQ content, as well as government critics. 'While the bill is meant to address a serious problem, good intentions alone are not enough to make good policy,' said the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group. 'Lawmakers should be strengthening and enforcing existing legal protections for victims, rather than inventing new takedown regimes that are ripe for abuse.' The takedown provision in the bill 'applies to a much broader category of content — potentially any images involving intimate or sexual content' than the narrower definitions of non-consensual intimate imagery found elsewhere in the text, EFF said. 'The takedown provision also lacks critical safeguards against frivolous or bad-faith takedown requests. Services will rely on automated filters, which are infamously blunt tools,' EFF said. 'They frequently flag legal content, from fair-use commentary to news reporting. The law's tight time frame requires that apps and websites remove speech within 48 hours, rarely enough time to verify whether the speech is actually illegal.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota helped introduce the Take It Down Act. File image/AP As a result, the group said online companies, especially smaller ones that lack the resources to wade through a lot of content, 'will likely choose to avoid the onerous legal risk by simply depublishing the speech rather than even attempting to verify it.' The measure, EFF said, also pressures platforms to 'actively monitor speech, including speech that is presently encrypted' to address liability threats. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a nonprofit that helps victims of online crimes and abuse, said it has 'serious reservations' about the bill. It called its takedown provision unconstitutionally vague, unconstitutionally overbroad, and lacking adequate safeguards against misuse." For instance, the group said, platforms could be obligated to remove a journalist's photographs of a topless protest on a public street, photos of a subway flasher distributed by law enforcement to locate the perpetrator, commercially produced sexually explicit content or sexually explicit material that is consensual but falsely reported as being nonconsensual STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from AP
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The First Major US Law to Fight AI Harms and Deepfake Abuse
From left, Francesca Mani, Elliston Berry, first lady Melania Trump, and Senator Ted Cruz lobby for the Take It Down Act in Washington in March 2025. Credit - Kayla Bartkowski—Getty Images On April 28, the House of Representatives passed the first major law tackling AI-induced harm: the Take It Down Act. The bipartisan bill, which also passed the Senate and which President Trump is expected to sign, criminalizes non-consensual deepfake porn and requires platforms to take down such material within 48 hours of being served notice. The bill aims to stop the scourge of AI-created illicit imagery that has exploded in the last few years along with the rapid improvement of AI tools. While some civil society groups have raised concerns about the bill, it has received wide support from leaders on both sides of the aisle, from the conservative think tank American Principles Project to the progressive nonprofit Public Citizen. It passed both chambers easily, clearing the House with an overwhelming 409-2 vote. To some advocates, the bill is a textbook example of how Congress should work: of lawmakers fielding concerns from impacted constituents, then coming together in an attempt to reduce further harm. "This victory belongs first and foremost to the heroic survivors who shared their stories and the advocates who never gave up," Senator Ted Cruz, who spearheaded the bill in the Senate, wrote in a statement to TIME. "By requiring social media companies to take down this abusive content quickly, we are sparing victims from repeated trauma and holding predators accountable." Here's what the bill aims to achieve, and how it crossed many hurdles en route to becoming law. The Take It Down Act was borne out of the suffering—and then activism—of a handful of teenagers. In October 2023, 14-year-old Elliston Berry of Texas and 15-year-old Francesca Mani of New Jersey each learned that classmates had used AI software to fabricate nude images of them and female classmates. The tools that had been used to humiliate them were relatively new: products of the generative AI boom in which virtually any image could be created with the click of a button. Pornographic and sometimes violent deepfake images of Taylor Swift and others soon spread across the internet. When Berry and Mani each sought to remove the images and seek punishment for those that had created them, they found that both social media platforms and their school boards reacted with silence or indifference. 'They just didn't know what to do: they were like, this is all new territory,' says Berry's mother, Anna Berry. Anna Berry then reached out to Senator Ted Cruz's office, which took up the cause and drafted legislation that became the Take It Down Act. Cruz, who has two teenage daughters, threw his political muscle behind the bill, including organizing a Senate field hearing with testimony from both Elliston Berry and Mani in Texas. Mani, who had spoken out about her experiences in New Jersey before connecting with Cruz's office during its national push for legislation, says that Cruz spoke with her several times directly—and personally put in a call to a Snapchat executive asking them to remove her deepfakes from the platform. Mani and Berry both spent hours talking with congressional offices and news outlets to spread awareness. Bipartisan support soon spread, including the sign-on of Democratic co-sponsors like Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal. Representatives Maria Salazar and Madeleine Dean led the House version of the bill. Read More: Time 100 AI 2024: Francesca Mani Very few lawmakers disagreed with implementing protections around AI-created deepfake nudes. But translating that into law proved much harder, especially in a divided, contentious Congress. In December, lawmakers tried to slip the Take It Down Act into a bipartisan spending deal. But the larger deal was killed after Elon Musk and Donald Trump urged lawmakers to reject it. In the Biden era, it seemed that the piece of deepfake legislation that stood the best chance of passing was the DEFIANCE Act, led by Democrats Dick Durbin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In January, however, Cruz was promoted to become the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, giving him a major position of power to set agendas. His office rallied the support for Take it Down from a slew of different public interest groups. They also helped persuade tech companies to support the bill, which worked: Snapchat and Meta got behind it. 'Cruz put an unbelievable amount of muscle into this bill,' says Sunny Gandhi, vice president of political affairs at Encode, an AI-focused advocacy group that supported the bill. 'They spent a lot of effort wrangling a lot of the companies to make sure that they wouldn't be opposed, and getting leadership interested.' Gandhi says that one of the key reasons why tech companies supported the bill was because it did not involve Section 230 of the Communications Act, an endlessly-debated law that protects platforms from civil liability for what is posted on them. The Take It Down Act, instead, draws its enforcement power from the 'deceptive and unfair trade practices' mandate of the Federal Trade Commission. 'With anything involving Section 230, there's a worry on the tech company side that you are slowly going to chip away at their protections,' Gandhi says. 'Going through the FTC instead was a very novel approach that I think a lot of companies were okay with.' The Senate version of the Take It Down Act passed unanimously in February. A few weeks later, Melania Trump threw her weight behind the bill, staging a press conference in D.C., with Berry, Mani, and other deepfake victims, marking Trump's first solo public appearance since she resumed the role of First Lady. The campaign fit in with her main initiative from the first Trump administration: 'Be Best,' which included a focus on online safety. A Cruz spokesperson told TIME that Trump's support was crucial towards the bill getting expedited in the House. 'The biggest challenge with a lot of these bills is trying to secure priority and floor time,' they said. 'It's essential to have a push to focus priorities—and it happened quickly because of her.' "Today's bipartisan passage of the Take It Down Act is a powerful statement that we stand united in protecting the dignity, privacy, and safety of our children," Melania Trump said Monday. "I am thankful to the Members of Congress — both in the House and Senate — who voted to protect the well-being of our youth." While the bill passed both chambers easily and with bipartisan support, it weathered plenty of criticism on the way. Critics say that the bill is sloppily written, and that bad faith actors could flag almost anything as nonconsensual illicit imagery in order to get it scrubbed from the internet. They also say that Donald Trump could use it as a weapon, leaning on his power over the FTC to threaten critics. In February, 12 organizations including the Center for Democracy & Technology penned a letter to the Senate warning that the bill could lead to the 'suppression of lawful speech.' Critics question the bill's effectiveness especially because it puts the FTC in charge of enforcement—and the federal agency has been severely weakened by the Trump administration. At a House markup in April, Democrats warned that a weakened FTC could struggle to keep up with take-down requests, rendering the bill toothless. Regardless, Gandhi hopes that Congress will build upon Take It Down to create more safeguards for children online. The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently held a hearing on the subject, signaling increased interest. 'There's a giant movement in Congress and at the state level around kids' safety that is only picking up momentum,' Gandhi says. 'People don't want this to be the next big harm that we wait five or 10 years before we do something about it.' For Mani and Berry, the passage of Take It Down represents a major political, legal, and emotional victory. 'For those of us who've been hurt, it's a chance to take back our dignity,' Mani says. Contact us at letters@
Time Magazine
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Time Magazine
Inside the First Major U.S. Bill Tackling AI Harms—and Deepfake Abuse
On April 28, the House of Representatives passed the first major law tackling AI-induced harm: the Take It Down Act. The bipartisan bill, which also passed the Senate and which President Trump is expected to sign, criminalizes non-consensual deepfake porn and requires platforms to take down such material within 48 hours of being served notice. The bill aims to stop the scourge of AI-created illicit imagery that has exploded in the last few years along with the rapid improvement of AI tools. While some civil society groups have raised concerns about the bill, it has received wide support from leaders on both sides of the aisle, from the conservative think tank American Principles Project to the progressive nonprofit Public Citizen. To some advocates, the bill is a textbook example of how Congress should work: of lawmakers fielding concerns from impacted constituents, then coming together in an attempt to reduce further harm. "This victory belongs first and foremost to the heroic survivors who shared their stories and the advocates who never gave up," Senator Ted Cruz, who spearheaded the bill in the Senate, wrote in a statement to TIME. "By requiring social media companies to take down this abusive content quickly, we are sparing victims from repeated trauma and holding predators accountable." Here's what the bill aims to achieve, and how it crossed many hurdles en route to becoming law. Victimized teens The Take It Down Act was borne out of the suffering—and then activism—of a handful of teenagers. In October 2023, 14-year-old Elliston Berry of Texas and 15-year-old Francesca Mani of New Jersey each learned that classmates had used AI software to fabricate nude images of them and female classmates. The tools that had been used to humiliate them were relatively new: products of the generative AI boom in which virtually any image could be created with the click of a button. Pornographic and sometimes violent deepfake images of Taylor Swift and others soon spread across the internet. When Berry and Mani each sought to remove the images and seek punishment for those that had created them, they found that both social media platforms and their school boards reacted with silence or indifference. 'They just didn't know what to do: they were like, this is all new territory,' says Berry's mother, Anna Berry. Anna Berry then reached out to Senator Ted Cruz's office, which took up the cause and drafted legislation that became the Take It Down Act. Cruz, who has two teenage daughters, threw his political muscle behind the bill, including organizing a Senate field hearing with testimony from both Elliston Berry and Mani in Texas. Mani, who had spoken out about her experiences in New Jersey before connecting with Cruz's office during its national push for legislation, says that Cruz spoke with her several times directly—and personally put in a call to a Snapchat executive asking them to remove her deepfakes from the platform. Mani and Berry both spent hours talking with congressional offices and news outlets to spread awareness. Bipartisan support soon spread, including the sign-on of Democratic co-sponsors like Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal. Representatives Maria Salazar and Madeleine Dean led the House version of the bill. Political wrangling Very few lawmakers disagreed with implementing protections around AI-created deepfake nudes. But translating that into law proved much harder, especially in a divided, contentious Congress. In December, lawmakers tried to slip the Take It Down Act into a bipartisan spending deal. But the larger deal was killed after Elon Musk and Donald Trump urged lawmakers to reject it. In the Biden era, it seemed that the piece of deepfake legislation that stood the best chance of passing was the DEFIANCE Act, led by Democrats Dick Durbin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In January, however, Cruz was promoted to become the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, giving him a major position of power to set agendas. His office rallied the support for Take it Down from a slew of different public interest groups. They also helped persuade tech companies to support the bill, which worked: Snapchat and Meta got behind it. 'Cruz put an unbelievable amount of muscle into this bill,' says Sunny Gandhi, vice president of political affairs at Encode, an AI-focused advocacy group that supported the bill. 'They spent a lot of effort wrangling a lot of the companies to make sure that they wouldn't be opposed, and getting leadership interested.' Gandhi says that one of the key reasons why tech companies supported the bill was because it did not involve Section 230 of the Communications Act, an endlessly-debated law that protects platforms from civil liability for what is posted on them. The Take It Down Act, instead, draws its enforcement power from the 'deceptive and unfair trade practices' mandate of the Federal Trade Commission. 'With anything involving Section 230, there's a worry on the tech company side that you are slowly going to chip away at their protections,' Gandhi says. 'Going through the FTC instead was a very novel approach that I think a lot of companies were okay with.' The Senate version of the Take It Down Act passed unanimously in February. A few weeks later, Melania Trump threw her weight behind the bill, staging a press conference in D.C., with Berry, Mani, and other deepfake victims, marking Trump's first solo public appearance since she resumed the role of First Lady. The campaign fit in with her main initiative from the first Trump administration: 'Be Best,' which included a focus on online safety. A Cruz spokesperson told TIME that Trump's support was crucial towards the bill getting expedited in the House. 'The biggest challenge with a lot of these bills is trying to secure priority and floor time,' they said. 'It's essential to have a push to focus priorities—and it happened quickly because of her.' Support is broad, but concerns persist While the bill passed both chambers easily and with bipartisan support, it weathered plenty of criticism on the way. Critics say that the bill is sloppily written, and that bad faith actors could flag almost anything as nonconsensual illicit imagery in order to get it scrubbed from the internet. They also say that Donald Trump could use it as a weapon, leaning on his power over the FTC to threaten critics. In February, 12 organizations including the Center for Democracy & Technology penned a letter to the Senate warning that the bill could lead to the 'suppression of lawful speech.' Critics question the bill's effectiveness especially because it puts the FTC in charge of enforcement—and the federal agency has been severely weakened by the Trump administration. At a House markup in April, Democrats warned that a weakened FTC could struggle to keep up with take-down requests, rendering the bill toothless. Regardless, Gandhi hopes that Congress will build upon Take It Down to create more safeguards for children online. The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently held a hearing on the subject, signaling increased interest. 'There's a giant movement in Congress and at the state level around kids' safety that is only picking up momentum,' Gandhi says. 'People don't want this to be the next big harm that we wait five or 10 years before we do something about it.' For Mani and Berry, the passage of Take It Down represents a major political, legal, and emotional victory. 'For those of us who've been hurt, it's a chance to take back our dignity,' Mani says.
