The Daily Valet. - 6/30/22, Thursday

✔️ Who's That?

Thursday, June 30th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

This was really written by me, Cory. But that’s just what a deepfake would say, huh?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Who Is That?

The FBI released a warning about people using deepfakes to apply for remote jobs

Deepfake technology has been popping up and making headlines more and more recently. Cybersecurity companies warned that they’d be growing in popularity in 2022 and tech insiders were torn between seeing them as a novelty or a legitimate threat.

In case you need a refresher: Deepfakes are “synthetic media” in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness. They leverage powerful techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate visual and audio content that can be very entertaining but also dangerously deceptive. According to CyberReason, they have the potential for considerable implications across culture, geopolitics and security.

And now they have invaded the job world. This week the FBI announced that they’ve received “complaints reporting the use of deepfakes and stolen Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to apply for a variety of remote work and work-at-home positions.”

The jobs in question are in the fields of information technology and computer programming, along with database and software-related roles that would have granted successful candidates access to sensitive data, including “customer PII, financial data, corporate IT databases and/or proprietary information,” the agency said.

As the technology grows, so too do the number of deep fakes. In 2020, the number of known online deepfake videos reached 145,227—nine times more than a year earlier, according to a 2020 report by Sentinel, a threat-intelligence agency. And the technology to detect deepfakes can’t always keep up, either. That same report suggested that 86% of the time, anti-deepfake technologies accepted deepfake videos as real.

Adobe, the maker of Photoshop and Premiere Pro, essentially gave the world the tools to create convincing fakes. But the situation is getting bad enough that CEO Shantanu Narayen says he wants to clean up the mess. He told Forbes that the company’s efforts so far include the Content Authenticity Initiative, where designers and consumers of content can create and track a digital trail, as well as a “rigorous” ethics review for any new Adobe features and products. I guess that’s a start.

↦ Meanwhile: Google has banned deepfakes from its machine learning platform. They’re no longer allowed on Google Colab.

A Stronger NATO Emerges

NATO invites Sweden and Finland to join and outlines a muscular new strategic vision

Demonstrating a renewed determination to stand up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, NATO on Wednesday outlined a “muscular new strategic vision” that positions Moscow as the alliance’s primary adversary. It also labeled China a strategic “challenge” for the first time ever.

“NATO is strong and united,” Biden said on the first full day of the alliance's summit. “And the steps we’re taking during this summit, we're going to further augment our collective strength.”

The U.S. will deploy additional troops to Romania and maintain a permanent headquarters for the U.S. Army in Poland (a move that was originally planned by the Trump administration). We'll also send two F-35 squadrons to the U.K and stage additional air defense capabilities in Germany and Italy, while building up naval operations in Spain. Biden said the moves were intended to make sure NATO is ready to meet potential threats from air, land and sea.

Just before publishing the new mission statement, they extended formal membership invitations to Finland and Sweden—paving the way for the alliance's most significant enlargement in more than a decade. The agreement “demonstrates that President Putin did not succeed in closing NATO's door,” said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. These summits are rarely this dramatic, but this year is obviously different.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson to Be Sworn in Today

She’ll take Supreme Court oath minutes after Justice Breyer retires

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be sworn in as the Supreme Court’s first Black female justice at noon today—just minutes after her mentor Justice Stephen G. Breyer makes his retirement official.

“It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and Rule of Law,” Breyer, who announced his plans to retire in January, wrote in a letter to President Biden on Wednesday. Jackson is ready to “take the prescribed oaths” to commence her tenure on the Supreme Court, he wrote.

Jackson's elevation from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will mean the Supreme Court for the first time will have four female justices among its nine members. She will serve alongside Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett.

New justices normally take their oaths and begin work as quickly as possible. Although the court will not hear oral arguments again until a new term starts in October, Jackson will immediately become eligible to hear the emergency petitions that have become an increasingly large part of the court's work. And while it's a huge honor, I can't imagine a more awkward first day of work.

↦ Dig Deeper: The justice-designate spoke to the Washington Post about the significance of her nomination and the responsibility she feels.

Home Flipping Hits a 22-Year High

One in 10 houses sold are now “flips”

For the first time in two decades, 10% of all homes sold at the top of 2022 were flipped properties. Home flippers are cashing in on this hot housing market and making more deals than ever. But they're actually making less money on each one.

While sales are up, the raw profits on those deals were lower than a year ago, and profit margins sank to their lowest point since 2009, according to ATTOM, which runs a national real estate database.

“The good news for fix-and-flip investors is that demand remains strong from prospective homebuyers,” a VP for ATTOM told Axios. The bad news is that if you were in the market for a house last year, chances are you were competing with some flippers.

In fact, it's such a guaranteed money-maker, that Wall Street-backed companies are buying up single family homes. Real estate investors bought 33% of homes sold in January, which is driving up prices for regular people just trying to score a piece of that American dream of homeownership.

↦ Meanwhile: Renters headed about 36% of the nation's 122.8 million households in 2019, the last year for which the Census Bureau has reliable estimates.

In Other News

↦ School Shootings Rose to Highest Number in 20 Years, Federal Data Says

↦ Hong Kong in Limbo 25 Years after British Handover to China

↦ R. Kelly Sentenced to 30 Years in Sex Trafficking Case

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Air New Zealand’s economy bunk beds

This high-tech mosquito repeller

Whiskey from the ‘It’s Always Sunny’ crew

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