Daily Archives: September 6, 2023

Clubhouse, once the Silicon Valley darling of pandemic-era social media, announced earlier this year that it was laying off half its staff as its founders pivoted to building “Clubhouse 2.0.” Now, the company is sharing the results of its big reset, with a redesign meant to make Clubhouse “more like a messaging app.”

The audio app is pivoting from its signature “drop-in” audio conversations to friend-centric voice chats, the company said in an update. Instead of sprawling rooms where users host live-streamed conversations open to any and all of the app’s users, the new Clubhouse will instead encourage users to join groups with people they know.

The groups are, somewhat confusingly, called “chats,” and allow friends and friends-of-friends to exchange voice messages. There’s still a “drop-in” element, but it’s less focused on real-time talking and geared more toward something like an Instagram Story — a destination for checking in and sharing quick updates. The app is also ditching text-based direct messages in favor of private audio messages which, yes, it’s calling voicemails or VMs.

The biggest shift, however, isn’t just the format of the conversations but that Clubhouse is now positioning itself as more of a Snapchat, where smaller groups of friends communicate privately or semi-privately, than a Twitter, where all the app's users are shouting into the void. “It’s not about passively listening to people speaking,” the company wrote in an update. “You can listen to great conversations on podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, and a lot of other platforms. It’s about talking with people … and becoming real-life friends with your friends’ friends, and people you never would have met otherwise.”

While the pivot to messaging app may make more sense given the steep decline in engagement Clubhouse saw after pandemic restrictions eased, it’s unclear if the company will be able to return to the same buzzy highs of 2021, when it attracted millions of users and a multibillion-dollar valuation. Clubhouse, whose founders claimed earlier this year that they had “years of runway remaining,” seem like they aren’t taking success for granted their second time around.

They ended their announcement of the redesign with a bit of caution. “It’s a big bet, and we hope we’re right…”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/clubhouse-is-pivoting-from-live-audio-to-group-messaging-001520371.html?src=rss

Clubhouse is pivoting from live audio to group messaging

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AI-generated images and audio are already making their way into the 2024 Presidential election cycle. In an effort to staunch the flow of disinformation ahead of what is expected to be a contentious election, Google announced on Wednesday that it will require political advertisers to "prominently disclose" whenever their advertisement contains AI-altered or -generated aspects, "inclusive of AI tools." The new rules will based on the company's existing Manipulated Media Policy and will take effect in November.

“Given the growing prevalence of tools that produce synthetic content, we’re expanding our policies a step further to require advertisers to disclose when their election ads include material that’s been digitally altered or generated,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement obtained by The Hill. Small and inconsequential edits like resizing images, minor edits to the background or color correction will all still be allowed — those that depict people or things doing stuff that they never actually did or those that otherwise alter actual footage will be flagged. 

Those ads that do utilize AI aspects will need to label them as such in a "clear and conspicuous" manner that is easily seen by the user, per the Google policy. The ads will be moderated first through Google's own automated screening systems and then reviewed by a human as needed.

Google's actions run counter to other companies in social media. X/Twitter recently announced that it reversed its previous position and will allow political ads on the site, while Meta continues to take heat for its own lackadaisical ad moderation efforts. 

The Federal Election Commission is also beginning to weigh in on the issue. LAst month it sought public comment on amending a standing regulation "that prohibits a candidate or their agent from fraudulently misrepresenting other candidates or political parties" to clarify that the "related statutory prohibition applies to deliberately deceptive Artificial Intelligence campaign advertisements" as well.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-will-require-political-ads-prominently-disclose-their-ai-generated-aspects-232906353.html?src=rss

Google will require political ads ‘prominently disclose’ their AI-generated aspects

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