youtube – Page 2 – The News Desk

11Oct

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Entertainment

Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore

Lately on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, my timeline is filled with vapid posts orbiting the same few topics like water whirlpooling down a drain. Last week, for instance, the chatter was dominated by talk of Taylor Swift’s romance with the football player Travis Kelce. If you tried to talk about anything else, the platform’s algorithmic feed seemed to sweep you into irrelevance. Users who pay for Elon Musk’s blue-check verification system now dominate the platform, often with far-right-wing commentary and outright disinformation; Musk rewards these users monetarily based on the engagement that their posts drive, regardless of their veracity. The decay of the system is apparent in the spread of fake news and mislabelled videos related to Hamas’s attack on Israel.Elsewhere onli...

How to Stop Google Bard From Storing Your Data and Location

2Oct

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Technology

How to Stop Google Bard From Storing Your Data and Location

With its most recent update, Google Bard can now sort through your trove of Google Docs, rediscover ancient Gmail messages, and search through every video on YouTube. Before experimenting too much with the new extensions available for Google’s chatbot, it's worth going over the steps you can take to protect your privacy (and the ones you can't).Google Bard launched in March of this year, one month after OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public. You’re likely familiar with how chatbots are designed to mimic human conversation, but Google’s latest features are designed to give Bard more practical applications and uses.But when every conversation you have with Bard is tracked, logged, and used again to train the AI, how can you trust it with your data? Here are some tips to protect your prompts...

19Sep

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Technology

The Dark Economics of Russell Brand

There was a brief, strange moment in 2015 when Russell Brand mattered in mainstream British politics. With an election looming, the opposition Labour Party was trailing in the polls against a coalition government that was the very definition of establishment—led by an Eton- and Oxford-educated prime minister in David Cameron and his Westminster- and Cambridge-educated deputy, Nick Clegg, now president of global affairs at Meta. So the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, went seeking the endorsement of Brand, the actor, comedian, and emerging online provocateur whose anti-corporatist screeds to his 9.5 million Twitter followers and 100,000 YouTube subscribers gave him the appearance of a power player. Miliband got Brand’s endorsement but lost the election.Since then, Brand’s reach has exploded. Hi...

10Sep

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Entertainment

A YouTube View of Deion Sanders

This past Saturday, the revamped, unranked University of Colorado football team coached by Deion Sanders shocked the sports world by upsetting, on the road and in hundred-degree-plus heat, last year’s national runner-up, Texas Christian University. I was well prepared for this outcome, as I’ve been watching the promotional videos of Sanders that have been filmed and uploaded to YouTube during the last nine months. They are each about fifteen minutes or so in length, and show Sanders preparing for the upcoming season. I’m using the term “filmed” generously here—these are low-rent, anti-glitz videos that seem to purposely eschew the easy wonder of the iPhone 14 for something that more closely resembles, in spirit and technical proficiency, the home videos shot by your uncle on his camcorder...

YouTube Music Adds a TikTok-Like Videofeed to Attract Gen Z

15Aug

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Technology

YouTube Music Adds a TikTok-Like Videofeed to Attract Gen Z

YouTube Music just announced Samples, a new in-app feature where users can scroll through short music video clips from their favorite artists and discover new songs. Welcome back to the short-form video wars. Yes, Silicon Valley remains hyperfixated on generative AI, but don’t forget one of its other, recent favorite trends: releasing features that vaguely remind you of TikTok.Before Samples launched, I spoke with Gregor Dodson, a director of product management at YouTube Music, about the new feature and what the company hopes to get out of its TikTok-esque feed. He’s upfront about how the feed is designed to engage younger listeners who scroll through quick videos on social media and see it as a way to find something fresh.YouTube Music already allowed users to toggle between video and a...

Meet the Artists Reinventing Hip Hop on YouTube and TikTok

8Aug

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Technology

Meet the Artists Reinventing Hip Hop on YouTube and TikTok

But that still means being true to his own instincts. Online, fans will tell AyooLii, “‘Hey bro, use this EQ, mix this.’ I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t wanna do none of that.’”Another thing he often hears: To make it, he has to leave Wisconsin. But he’s not listening. “I always believed Milwaukee would have this chance. Lowend? Certified Trapper?! I fell in love with it. I felt, this is so different. This is so new.” Now, he’s developing his own protégés. He’s plotting to incorporate traditional clothing items like the ma’awis into his AyooLii persona. “I’ma really be the first Bantu rapper,” he promises.As to what happens next in Milwaukee, AyooLii says, “I don’t wanna be the biggest, the most richest—I just wanna be a part of it. We got a lot of kids in Milwaukee inspired by what we do. They’r...

Hex crypto founder used investor funds to buy $4.3 million black diamond, SEC says

5Aug

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Money

Hex crypto founder used investor funds to buy $4.3 million black diamond, SEC says

Cryptocurrency influencer Richard Heart defrauded investors of millions he obtained through the illegal sale of unregistered crypto asset securities, which he then used to make extravagant purchases, the Securities and Exchange Commission claims.The YouTuber misappropriated at least $12 million in investor funds, according to the lawsuit filed Monday, funds that he raised through his crypto ventures Hex, PulseChain and PulseX — all three of which he controls. He then spent the money on "exorbitant luxury goods," including a 555-karat black diamond called The Enigma, worth roughly $4.3 million, the suit claims. His other alleged splurges included a $1.38 million Rolex watch, a $534,916 McLaren sports car and a $314,125 Ferrari Roma, according to the complaint. "I want to be the best crypt...

YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson sues company that developed his burgers

5Aug

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Money

YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson sues company that developed his burgers

Social media star Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is suing a Florida ghost kitchen company, alleging that the subpar quality of the burgers the business created in partnering with the YouTuber during the pandemic is hurting his reputation.Donaldson launched MrBeast Burger in September of 2020 with the help of Virtual Dining Concepts, court documents state. Virtual Dining, drawing on the enormous popularity of Donaldson's YouTube channel, created 1,000 ghost kitchen locations in 2021 to quickly ramp up sales, according to the lawsuit. "Unfortunately, however, because Virtual Dining Concepts was more focused on rapidly expanding the business as a way to pitch the virtual restaurant model to other celebrities for its own benefit, it was not focused on controlling the quality of the MrBeast Burger ...

27Jul

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Technology

Our Top Song of the Summer Picks

Music is a sport, and summer is the most competitive time of the year for artists. Which musician will reign supreme? What song will be played on repeat? What anthem will color the nostalgia of our sun-smooched days? The Song of Summer is among the most coveted trophies because it lives with us forever, locked safely in the cellar of our memory. It is a reminder of who we were in the unfading light of July, at our most radiant and carefree.But the metrics for competition are changing—and fast. Music streamers are swollen with content. TikTok thinks it knows best (it doesn’t). With terrifying precision, AI-generated songs are creeping into the mainstream. Yet our nine contenders for this year’s summer anthem endure in spite of the sugary suck of the algorithm. They endure despite the artif...

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Has Questions After YouTube Pulls Another RFK Jr. Video – RedState

27Jun

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Politics

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Has Questions After YouTube Pulls Another RFK Jr. Video – RedState

In my opinion, the release of the Twitter Files confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt what many long suspected: The federal government has for years now colluded with Big Tech at some of the highest levels to suppress speech, with the targets being anyone critical of Democrats and/or so-called health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the latter of who was the driving force behind many of the draconian COVID guidelines implemented during the Wuhan virus pandemic under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. And now, as the 2024 presidential campaign season kicks into high gear, tech giants and the Biden administration are once again facing heat over what some have suggested is a continued, coordinated campaign to shut down opponents of Joe Biden, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in April ann...