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View in browser  |  Your newsletter preferences  05.26.24 Indian Voters Are Being Bombarded With Millions of Deepfakes. Political Candidates Approve Right now, the world's largest democracy is going to the polls. Close to a billion Indians are eligible to vote as part of the country's general election, and deepfakes could play a decisive, and potentially divisive, role. India's political parties have exploited AI to warp reality through cheap audio fakes, propaganda images, and AI parodies. But while the global discourse on deepfakes often focuses on misinformation, disinformation, and other societal harms, many Indian politicians are using the technology for a different purpose: voter outreach. Across the ideological spectrum, they're relying on AI to help them navigate the nation's 22 official languages and thousands of regional dialects, and to deliver personalized messages in farther-flung communities. While the US recently made it illegal to use AI-generated voices for unsolicited calls, in India sanctioned deepfakes have become a $60 million business opportunity.—Nilesh Christopher & Varsha Bansal READ THE FULL STORY You Might Also Like He Trained Cops to Fight Crypto Crime—and Allegedly Ran a $100M Dark-Web Drug Market BY ANDY GREENBERG | 7-MINUTE READ The strange journey of Lin Rui-siang, the 23-year-old accused of running the Incognito black market, extorting his own site's users—and then refashioning himself as a legit crypto crime expert. Neuralink's First User Is 'Constantly Multitasking' With His Brain Implant BY EMILY MULLIN | 9-MINUTE READ Noland Arbaugh is the first to get Elon Musk's brain device. The 30-year-old speaks to WIRED about what it's like to use a computer with his mind—and gain a new sense of independence. ADVERTISEMENT It's Time to Believe the AI Hype BY STEVEN LEVY | 8-MINUTE READ Some pundits suggest generative AI stopped getting smarter. The explosive demos from OpenAI and Google that started the week show there's plenty more disruption to come. The Complex Social Lives of Viruses BY CARL ZIMMER | 13-MINUTE READ New research has uncovered a social world full of cheating, cooperation, and other intrigues, suggesting that viruses make sense only as members of a community. AI Is a Black Box. Anthropic Figured Out a Way to Look Inside BY STEVEN LEVY | 6-MINUTE READ What goes on in artificial neural networks work is largely a mystery, even to their creators. But researchers from Anthropic have caught a glimpse. Thanks for reading. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. Plus, browse more newsletters from WIRED. You're receiving this email because you signed up for the Longreads newsletter from WIRED.   Manage your preferences  |   View our Privacy Policy  |  Unsubscribe   Have questions or comments? Send us a message. Need help? Contact us.   Copyright © Condé Nast 2024. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.