Month: October 2023

Popular “AI Hub” Discord Taken Down Following Copyright Complaints

In just a few months, “AI Hub” became a massively popular Discord server with over half a million members. While copyright infringement was strictly forbidden, not all users stuck to the rules. This previously raised the attention of the RIAA, and now appears to have caused the server’s downfall after it was suddenly shut down.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

doscordArtificial intelligence is booming. Dozens of companies are enthusiastic about its potential and many regular people are tinkering with it too.

The ‘AI Hub’ Discord server was the place to be for true AI enthusiasts. In just a matter of months, it grew from zero to a thriving community of more than 500,000 members.

Through the server, people shared the latest tips and tricks, new developments, but also complete models. They included voice models of popular musicians including Bruno Mars, Frank Sinatra, Rihanna, and Stevie Wonder.

Whether the models themselves are infringing is a question yet to be answered in court. However, the models are trained using commercial music, and openly sharing a library of copyrighted tracks is a clear no-go.

RIAA Targeted “AI Hub” Users

AI Hub was well aware of these sensitivities and didn’t allow members to post copyrighted content. The message apparently didn’t reach all members, which prompted the RIAA to step in earlier this year.

The RIAA represents the rights of American music companies and keeps a very close eye on the AI landscape. When it discovered copyright-infringing content being shared on the AI Hub server, the industry group took the matter to court.

RIAA obtained a DMCA subpoena to obtain the identities of several members who allegedly shared infringing content. Whether this also included voice models wasn’t clear, but the shared datasets with copyrighted music were definitely problematic.

RIAA’s Letter

riaa discord

As part of its legal efforts, the RIAA also asked Discord to shut down the AI Hub server, which at the time had just over 80k members. Discord didn’t take action against the server at the time, but the RIAA actively reminded the company to appropriately deal with repeat infringers.

“AI Hub” Shut Down

Following the RIAA’s enforcement effort the server continued to grow. While most members obeyed the rules, there were some outliers. This week, AI Hub was taken down completely, presumably in response to repeat copyright allegations.

It’s not clear whether the RIAA had anything to do with the server’s downfall. A new server, which snatched the .gg/aihub invite link, now welcomes former members and provides more context.

“AI Hub was banned because of copyright, apparently someone did the trick of editing posts and added several links with copyrighted content, which left Discord with no option but to DMCA the server,” the new server explains.

DMCA?

discord down

This backup server has nothing to do with the original AI Hub, and we obviously can’t verify any of its claims. TorrentFreak reached out to our contact at the original server but they didn’t immediately reply.

Whack an AI-Mole

Based on the information available, it does indeed seem likely that AI Hub was taken down in response to repeat copyright complaints. Despite its size, Discord only processes a few hundred DMCA takedowns per month, and a subset of these complained about content on AI Hub.

While Discord has to comply with the DMCA – which includes taking action against repeat infringers – it is sad to see such a thriving community disappear due to the actions of a small minority. Discord didn’t immediately reply to our request for comment.

This likely isn’t the end of it though. Given the success of AI Hub, there are several new servers lined up to take its place. Many of these might face similar problems in the future if they continue to grow. After all, it’s virtually impossible to control everything posted by 500k+ members.

This means that we will continue to see an AI whack-a-mole. But perhaps AI can fix that problem eventually, if it’s allowed to.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

How much snow does Mars receive?

The red planet has white ice caps that retreat and expand with the seasons.

Some of the ice near the South Pole of Mars stays around all year long.

Enlarge / Some of the ice near the South Pole of Mars stays around all year long. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Mars is a vast, frozen desert. Nowhere is that more evident than at its poles, which are the coldest regions on the planet. However, it looks like the weather forecast for its harsh winters and slightly more forgiving springs could be different from we thought.

Like Earth, Mars has a volatile cycle that sees snow and ice levels fluctuate as temperatures plummet in the winter and start to rise again in the spring. Unlike Earth, Martian snowfall includes CO2 snow and is influenced by different phenomena. Now, a team of researchers led by Haifeng Xiao of Berlin Technical University in Germany is reexamining the change in snowfall over the course of a year at the Martian north pole. Their findings suggest that forces such as sublimation might mean there is more snow in the winter—and less in the spring—than previously thought.

“We propose to use the shadow variations [of ice blocks] to infer the seasonal depths at high polar latitudes,” Xiao and his team said in a draft manuscript recently published in the Earth and Space Science Open Archive.

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September’s record-setting temps were “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas”

Last month was so hot, scientists are struggling to find words for it.

figured silhouetted against the setting sun

Enlarge (credit: Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)

The global temperature numbers for September are in, and they are not good. “This month was, in my professional opinion as a climate scientist—absolutely gobsmackingly bananas,” Zeke Hausfather posted Tuesday on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Kristina Dahl, principal climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, read that post yesterday. “I've been sitting at my desk trying to think of a better way to describe that, but I can't,” Dahl says. “It's just shocking.”

“Concerning, worrying, wild—whatever superlative you want to use,” says Kate Marvel, senior scientist at Project Drawdown, a nonprofit that fights climate change. “That's what it is.”

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