News: The popular AI image generator Midjourney prohibits the use of a wide range of words about the human reproductive system as tooltips, MIT Technology Review found.
What is included? The list of banned words appears to have a mostly female slant, including terms like “placenta,” “fallopian tubes,” and “breasts.” The company says it’s banning the words as a temporary measure to prevent people from creating shocking or gory content while it “improves things on the AI ​​side.”
Why it matters: Midjourney’s blanket ban on tips related to reproductive biology highlights how difficult it is to moderate content around generative AI systems. It also demonstrates how the tendency of AI systems to sexualize women extends all the way to their internal organs. Read the story in its entirety.
— by Melissa Haykill
How your brain data can be used against you
Our senior biotech reporter, Jessica Hamzelu, was in Lisbon, Portugal this week to attend a scientific conference on brain stimulation. Neuroscientists, brain surgeons, psychiatrists and ethicists gathered to discuss how best to use technologies that use magnetic or electrical impulses to change the way our brains work.
We’re still figuring out how these technologies work, but in the meantime, some of them are generating huge amounts of data about people’s brains. There is a possibility that this data could be used against people in court, making it vital that we start thinking about these uses and how to protect brain data now. Read the story in its entirety.
