Taylor Swift deepfakes’ warning. Platformer’s Casey Newton says Swift’s a poster child for researchers’ longstanding prediction of AI-powered harassment.
■ NewsGuard: Facebook flunked this test.
■ A professional digital investigator to CNN: “Maybe this is what prompts action from legislators and tech companies because they can’t afford to have America’s sweetheart be on a public campaign against them.”
■ Comedian George Carlin’s estate is suing the creators of an AI-generated YouTube video, “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.”
■ Comedian George Carlin’s estate is suing the creators of an AI-generated YouTube video, “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.”
‘It’s possible for a judge to ensure Trump follows the rules.’ Law prof Joyce Vance analyzes the twice-impeached former president’s brief spin on the witness stand yesterday in the defamation case against a woman he sexually assaulted.
■ Stephen Colbert on Trump’s defiance of the judge’s order that he answer questions with a simple yes or no: “Fitting, because the whole trial is the result of Trump disregarding everything after no.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “Judge Kaplan said outright Trump sexually assaulted a woman. Republicans don’t seem to care.”
■ Updating coverage: Closing arguments in the case were to begin today.
‘An open letter to Nikki.’ A Marine Corps veteran and small business owner writes to Ambassador Haley: “Stay in the race … to pay a penance for the years you’ve spent helping Trump.”
■ The Los Angeles Times’ Michael Hiltzik: “Haley is as bad on abortion and health as any other Republican.”
■ Stephen Robinson at Public Notice: “Trump’s Haley/Pelosi gaffe would’ve ended most campaigns. For him it was just another Friday.”
■ Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post: “If we look past the premature and utterly nonpredictive general election polls to examine Trump the candidate, his weaknesses appear overwhelming” (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters).
■ The Republican National Committee’s backing away from a resolution to declare Trump the party’s “presumptive 2024 nominee.”
■ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: “Ron DeSantis’ presidential political obituary should just be the beginning of his removal from politics altogether.”
‘It’s a big not-fracking deal!’ Wonkette is enthusiastic about President Biden’s blockage of a plan for “a huge methane gas export plant.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Republicans cannot run for office in 2024 by attacking the economy” …
■ … but The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes sees Wall Street surrendering to Trump.
■ CNN’s Oliver Darcy celebrates The Bulwark as “a clear-eyed conservative news publication that stands in firm opposition to Donald Trump.”
Land of the free and home of the experimentally executed. Alabama last night committed the first-ever execution of a human using nitrogen gas.
■ The state’s attorney general promised “an effective and humane” process, but the AP reports the convict “appeared to shake and convulse” as he died.
Tick, tock. Chicago’s school board has granted 49 charter schools three- or four-year reprieves—well short of the maximum 10 years.
■ Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week is the Oklahoma schools chief who gave a job determining curriculum for children to “a professional harasser … linked to bomb threats on hospitals and schools.”
■ Literary Activism: An update to Illinois law would protect library workers from threats.
Picture this quiz. Past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel has cooked up an all-visual news quiz.
■ Avenge your Chicago Public Square columnist with a score better than 75%?
Learn to be a journalist—free. Thanks to a huge endowment from Craig Newmark—whose Craigslist decimated newspapers’ classified ad business—City University of New York will be the first journalism graduate school to go tuition-free.
■ At the end of “an absolute bloodbath of a week for journalism,” columnist Parker Molloy offers “people in this cursed industry” this counsel: “Start a mailing list.”
■ Speaking of which …
Happy birthday, Chicago Public Square. This service’s existence was revealed to the world seven years ago Saturday night in an interview with Justin Kaufmann on WGN Radio.
■ Thanks to readers who’ve supported the cost of producing and distributing Square through the years—including Joan Pederson, Andrew Mitran, Ken Trainor, Peggy Conlon-Madigan, Gregory Dudzienski, Josh Mogerman, Nancy W. Cook, Allan Hippensteel, Patrick Egan, Nancy Burns, Jerry D. Mason, Paul Kubina, Heather Alger, Cynthia Martin, Jeannie Affelder, Judee Barone, Arthur Golab, Zarine Weil, Edward White, Martha Swisher, Keith Huizinga, Molly McDonough, Joyce Winnecke, Joyce Cook, Steve Nidetz, Shara Miller, Patrick Quinn, Mike Gold and Anton Till.
■ Join them over the weekend and see your name here Monday.