An organization dedicated to fighting child abuse has reported that pedophiles are being encouraged to utilize artificial intelligence to generate nude images of children and coerce them into producing more explicit content.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) stated that a manual discovered on the dark web included a section advising criminals to use a “denuding” tool to strip clothing from photos sent by children. These photos could then be used for blackmail purposes to obtain further graphic material.
The IWF expressed concern over the fact that perpetrators are now discussing and promoting the use of AI technologies for these malicious purposes.
The charity, known for identifying and removing child sexual abuse content online, initiated an investigation into cases of sextortion last year. They observed a rise in incidents where victims were coerced into sharing explicit images under threat of exposure. Additionally, the use of AI to create highly realistic abusive content was noted.
The author of the online manual, who remains anonymous, claimed to have successfully coerced 13-year-old girls into sharing nude images online. The IWF reported the document to the UK National Crime Agency.
Recent reports by The Guardian suggested that there were discussions within the Labour party about banning tools that create nude imagery.
According to the IWF, 2023 witnessed a record number of extreme cases of child sexual abuse. Over 275,000 web pages containing such material, including content depicting rape, sadism, and bestiality, were identified, marking the highest number on record. This included a significant amount of Category A content, the most severe form containing explicit and harmful images.
The IWF further discovered 2,401 images of self-produced child sexual abuse material involving children aged three to six, where victims were manipulated or threatened to record their own abuse. The incidents were observed in domestic settings like bedrooms and kitchens.
Susie Hargreaves, the CEO of IWF, emphasized the urgent need to educate children on recognizing danger and safeguarding themselves against manipulative criminals. She stressed the importance of the recently passed Online Safety Act to protect children on social media platforms.
Security Minister Tom Tugendhat advised parents to engage in conversations with their children about safe internet usage. He emphasized the responsibility of tech companies to implement stronger safeguards against abuse.
Research published by Ofcom revealed that a significant percentage of young children own mobile phones and engage in social media. The government is considering measures such as raising the minimum age for social media use and restricting smartphone sales to minors.
These interesting experiments Green Promotion Institute A public research center in Venice, Italy that explores new ways to restore the environment and generate energy. The lab's unusual combination of scientists, engineers, and psychologists create prototypes that harness natural organisms to do useful work, often taking on a sculptural aspect as a side effect that fascinates the resident artist.
“Despite being the object of science, it has beauty,” says photographer Luigi Avantaggiato. He spent time cataloging a device that uses bacteria called Purple-B (pictured above). Rhodopsdomonas palustris, commonly found in Venice's lagoons, converts human waste into useful hydrogen. The experiment is being funded by the European Space Agency because it could provide a way to process astronaut waste in orbit to create usable fuel, but could also be used on Earth's surface. There is a possibility that it can be done.
Main laboratory of Veritas Group's Green Promotion Institute
Luigi Avantaggiato 2024
The bright green contents of several tanks in the lab (pictured above) are known as liquid forests, which in this project are home to tiny algae such as: chlorella, to capture the carbon dioxide that is warming the planet. Each tank contains 250 liters and can accommodate approximately 1 billion algae per cubic centimeter.
A researcher working in one of GPLabs' laboratories.
Luigi Avantaggiato 2024
Another shot (pictured above) shows the geodesic dome, where environmental engineers at a startup called 9-Tech are working on a new way to recover silicon from used solar panels.
The entire lab site was created by veritashandles waste and water supplies for Venice and Treviso's approximately 1 million residents and 50 million tourists.
Flaring, the deliberate burning of excess natural gas into the atmosphere, is one way methane is released from oil and gas facilities. His EMIT mission for NASA, over more than a year of operation, demonstrated its proficiency in discovering methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from space.
Since its launch 16 months ago, the EMIT imaging spectrometer has international space station demonstrated the ability to detect more than just surface minerals. More than a year after first detecting a methane plume from its perch on the International Space Station (ISS), data from NASA’s EMIT instrument is now being used to analyze greenhouse gas emissions with a level of proficiency that surprised even its designers. used to identify source emissions.
EMIT‘s mission and capabilities
EMIT, which stands for Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, was launched in July 2022 to map 10 major minerals on the surface of the world’s arid regions. Mineral-related observations are already available. researcher and the general public to better understand how dust in the atmosphere affects the climate.
Methane detection was not part of EMIT‘s primary mission, but the instrument’s designers expected the imaging spectrometer to have that capability. More than 750 sources of emissions have been identified since August 2022, some of which are small, located in remote areas, and persistent over long periods of time, according to a new study published in the journal However, this device is said to have achieved more than sufficient results in that respect. scientific progress.
EMIT identified a cluster of 12 methane plumes within a 150 square mile (400 square kilometer) area in southern Uzbekistan on September 1, 2022. The instrument captured this cluster, which the researchers call a “scene,” in a single shot.
Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
Methane emissions and climate change
“We were a little cautious at first about what this device could do,” said Andrew Thorpe, a research engineer on the EMIT science team. NASAis a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the paper’s lead author. “It exceeded our expectations.”
Knowing where methane emissions are coming from gives operators of landfills, agricultural sites, oil and gas facilities, and other methane-producing facilities the opportunity to address methane emissions. Tracking human methane emissions is key to limiting climate change because it provides a relatively low-cost and rapid approach to reducing greenhouse gases. Methane remains in the atmosphere for about 10 years, during which time it traps heat up to 80 times more strongly than carbon dioxide, which remains for centuries.
When strong winds kick up mineral rock dust(such as calcite or chlorite) on one continent, the airborne particles can travel thousands of miles and impact an entirely different continent. Airborne dust can heat or cool the atmosphere and the ground. This heating or cooling effect is the focus of NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission.
Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
amazing results
EMIT has proven effective in detecting both large-scale sources (tens of thousands of pounds of methane per hour) and surprisingly small sources (hundreds of pounds of methane per hour). It has been. This is important because it will allow us to identify more “superemitters,” or sources that produce a disproportionate share of total emissions.
A new study documents how EMIT was able to observe 60% to 85% of the methane plumes typically seen during airborne operations, based on the first 30 days of greenhouse gas detections.
On September 3, 2022, EMIT detected a methane plume emitting approximately 979 pounds (444 kilograms) per hour in a remote corner of southeastern Libya. This is one of the smallest sources ever detected by this instrument.
Credit: NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
Comparison with airborne detection
From thousands of feet above the ground, an aircraft’s methane detection equipment is more sensitive, but researchers need advance notice that they will detect methane before the aircraft can be dispatched. Many areas are not explored because they are considered too remote, too dangerous, or too expensive. Furthermore, actual campaigns cover a relatively limited area over a short period of time.
EMIT, on the other hand, will collect data from a space station at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, covering a wide area of the Earth, especially the arid region between 51.6 degrees north and 51.6 degrees south latitude. The imaging spectrometer produces a 50-mile-by-50-mile (80-kilometer-by-80-kilometer) image of the Earth’s surface (researchers call it a “scene”), including many areas that could not be reached with airborne instruments. capture.
“The number and size of methane plumes that EMIT has measured around our planet is astonishing,” said Robert O. Green. JPL Senior Researcher and Principal Investigator at EMIT.
We created this time-lapse video showing the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm moving NASA’s EMIT mission outside the station. The Dragon spacecraft was launched…
To help identify sources, the EMIT science team created maps of methane plumes and identified them as Websitethe underlying data are available at the NASA and U.S. Geological Survey Joint Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC). Data from this mission will be available to the public, scientists, and organizations.
EMIT began collecting observations in August 2022 and has since recorded more than 50,000 scenes. The instrument discovered clusters of emission sources in little-studied areas. Southern Uzbekistan On September 1, 2022, we detected 12 methane plumes totaling approximately 49,734 pounds (22,559 kilograms) per hour.
Additionally, the instrument detected a much smaller plume than expected.captured in a secluded corner Southeastern Libya On September 3, 2022, one of the smallest sources to date was emitting 979 pounds (444 kilograms) per hour, based on local wind speed estimates.
Reference: “Attribution of Individual Methane and Carbon Dioxide Sources Using EMIT Observations from Space” Andrew K. Thorpe, Robert O. Green, David R. Thompson, Philip G. Brodrick, John W. Chapman, Clayton D. Elder, Itziar, Iraklis-Leuchert, Daniel H. Cusworth, Alana K. Ayasse, Riley M. Duren, Christian Frankenberg, Louis Gunter, John R. Warden, Philip.・E. Dennison, Dar A. Roberts, K. Dana Chadwick, Michael L. Eastwood, Jay E. Farren and Charles E. Miller, November 17, 2023, scientific progress.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2391
EMIT mission details
EMIT was selected from the Earth Venture Instrument-4 public offering by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Sciences Division and was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. Data from this instrument is publicly available for use by other researchers and the public at the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center.
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