LONDON: Facebook-owner Meta published an artificial intelligence model on Wednesday that can pick out individual objects from within an image, along with a dataset of image annotations that it said was the largest ever of its kind.
The company’s research division said in a blog post that its Segment Anything Model, or SAM, could identify objects in images and videos even in cases where it had not encountered those items in its training.
Using SAM, objects can be selected by clicking on them or writing text prompts. In one demonstration, writing the word “cat” prompted the tool to draw boxes around each of several cats in a photo.
Big tech companies have been trumpeting their artificial intelligence breakthroughs since Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot became a sensation in the fall, triggering a wave of investments and a race to dominate the space.
Meta has teased several features that deploy the type of generative AI popularized by ChatGPT, which creates brand new content instead of simply identifying or categorizing data like other AI, although it has not yet released a product.
Examples include a tool that spins up surrealist videos from text prompts and another that generates children’s book illustrations from prose.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that incorporating such generative AI “creative aids” into Meta’s apps is a priority this year.
Meta does already use technology similar to SAM internally for activities like tagging photos, moderating prohibited content and determining which posts to recommend to users of Facebook and Instagram.
The company said SAM’s release would broaden access to that type of technology.
The SAM model and dataset will be available for download under a non-commercial license. Users uploading their own images to an accompanying prototype likewise must agree to use it only for research purposes.
Meta releases AI model that can identify items within images
https://arab.news/2aqgn
Meta releases AI model that can identify items within images
- Segment Anything Model to broaden access to moderate prohibited content, determine recommended posts
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to sell Foxtel to Britain’s DAZN for $2.1 billion
- News Corp. will gain a board seat and hold a 6 percent stake in DAZN
- DAZN is a broadcasting partner for Italy’s Serie A, Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1
SYDNEY: News Corp. has agreed to sell its Australian cable TV unit Foxtel to British-owned sports network DAZN for $2 billion (A$3.4 billion) including debt, cutting the Murdoch-controlled media empire’s exposure to a business up-ended by streaming platforms.
News Corp. will gain a board seat and hold a 6 percent stake in DAZN, a London-headquartered global streaming platform available in North America, Europe, and Asia and backed by Ukranian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik.
DAZN is a broadcasting partner for Italy’s Serie A, Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1. It competes against traditional TV and satellite channels and provides access to a range of sports content, including American football, boxing and baseball over its streaming platform.
“Australians watch more sport than any other country in the world, which makes this deal an incredibly exciting opportunity for DAZN to enter a key market, marking another step in our long-term strategy to become the global home of sport,” said DAZN co-founder and CEO Shay Segev.
Foxtel, launched by News Corp. in 1995, has weighed on the media giant’s profits for years as the number of people who pay monthly subscriptions for its broadcast content switched to cheaper streaming options like Netflix.
It has tried to diversify by adding its own streaming services like Kayo, which livestreams local sports Australian Football League (AFL) and the National Rugby League (NRL), to win back sports broadcasting market share. It also shows ESPN.
However, its earnings have suffered with the cost of sports broadcasting rights soaring just as subscriber revenue has shrunk. To help offset the costs, Foxtel often shares rights with free-to-air broadcasters.
“Foxtel’s traditional premium pricing model has long been a point of contention, particularly in an era dominated by more affordable streaming alternatives,” said Paul Budde, an independent telco analyst.
“DAZN’s entry into the Australian market, potentially offering competitive or lower rates, could dramatically shift consumer expectations and reshape the pricing landscape.”
The AFL’s current seven-year deal with Foxtel-Channel Seven, which runs until 2031, is worth A$4.5 billion, while Cricket Australia will get A$1.5 billion from the same partners over the same time period.
Tennis rights, including the Australian Open Grand Slam, have been locked up until 2029 by Nine Entertainment, which has its own streaming service, Stan.
Nine is also in exclusive talks with Rugby Australia for broadcast rights beyond next year as the country prepares to host the Rugby World Cup in 2027.
NEWS CORP FOCUSES ON PUBLISHING
The valuation on Foxtel represents seven times its 2024 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), News Corp. said in a statement.
As part of the deal, shareholder loans valued at A$578 million outstanding will be repaid in full and Foxtel’s current debt will be refinanced at closing.
News Corp. chief executive Robert Thomson said the deal would allow the company to focus on its core operations of Dow Jones, digital real estate and book publishing. News owns 61.4 percent of online real estate platform REA Group and is the parent company of publisher HarperCollins.
The deal is due to be finalized in the second half of 2025 and is subject to regulatory approval, News Corp. said. Given the overseas ownership of DAZN, the transaction will need to be cleared by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).
Blavatnik is a dual US and British citizen and the founder of Access Industries which has an investment portfolio worth more than $35 billion, according to its website.
FIRB did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Australian telecom Telstra has also sold its 35 percent stake in Foxtel to DAZN and will receive A$128 million in cash and a 3 percent stake in DAZN.
Journalists arrested in Turkiye over Syria drone deaths demo
- Turkiye has up to 18,000 troops in Syria, according to a Turkish official, and has said it could launch a military operation if the Kurdish forces in northern Syria do not lay down their arms
ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities arrested nine people, including seven journalists, for taking part in banned demonstration in support of two Turkish-Kurdish journalists killed by a Turkish drone in northern Syria, media and rights groups said Sunday.
Nazim Dastan, 32, and Cihan Bilgin, 29, who worked for Kurdish media, were killed Thursday near the Tishrin dam, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Aleppo, when their car exploded, the Dicle Firat Turkish journalists’ association said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the journalists were killed by a Turkish drone, as did Kurdish media in Turkiye and Syria.
The MLSA Turkish media rights group said 59 people had been detained for taking part in a protest Saturday banned by police. It said 50 people subsequently released.
“Seven journalists detained yesterday as they tried to make a statement in favor of the dead journalists Nazim Dastan and Cihan Bilgin” have been formally arrested for “terrorist propaganda,” MLSA said on the X social media platform.
Since the fall of Bashar Assad on December 8, Turkiye has supported an offensive by armed groups against Kurdish forces that control a zone in northern Syria.
Turkiye has up to 18,000 troops in Syria, according to a Turkish official, and has said it could launch a military operation if the Kurdish forces in northern Syria do not lay down their arms.
Albania bans TikTok for a year after killing of teenager
- Prime Minister Edi Rama government’s decision comes after a 14-year-old schoolboy was stabbed to death in November by a fellow pupil
TIRANA: Albania on Saturday announced a one-year ban on TikTok, the popular short video app, following the killing of a teenager last month that raised fears over the influence of social media on children.
The ban, part of a broader plan to make schools safer, will come into effect early next year, Prime Minister Edi Rama said after meeting with parents’ groups and teachers from across the country.
“For one year, we’ll be completely shutting it down for everyone. There will be no TikTok in Albania,” Rama said.
Several European countries including France, Germany and Belgium have enforced restrictions on social media use for children. In one of the world’s toughest regulations targeting Big Tech, Australia approved in November a complete social media ban for children under 16.
Rama has blamed social media, and TikTok in particular, for fueling violence among youth in and outside school.
His government’s decision comes after a 14-year-old schoolboy was stabbed to death in November by a fellow pupil. Local media had reported that the incident followed arguments between the two boys on social media. Videos had also emerged on TikTok of minors supporting the killing.
“The problem today is not our children, the problem today is us, the problem today is our society, the problem today is TikTok and all the others that are taking our children hostage,” Rama said.
TikTok said it was seeking “urgent clarity” from the Albanian government.
“We found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform, not TikTok,” a company spokesperson said.
Suspect in German Christmas market attack was ‘not quite what many rushed to assume’, veteran British journalist says
- ‘Evidence from his social media indicates he was an anti-Islam doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 from Saudi Arabia’
DUBAI: British journalist Andrew Neil said the attacker behind Friday night’s deadly car-ramming at a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany appeared to be ‘not quite what many on social media rushed to assume.’
“Evidence from his social media indicates he was an anti-Islam doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 from Saudi Arabia,” the veteran journalist posted on his social media account.
The suspect, who was identified by German authorities as 50-year-old Saudi psychologist Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, who had permanent residency and had lived in Germany for almost two decades. The motive for the car-ramming remained unknown, and a police operation was under way in the town of Bernburg, south of Magdeburg, where the suspect was believed to have lived.
The Saudi doctor behind last night’s deadly Christmas market massacre in Magdeburg appears to be not quite what many on social media rushed to assume.
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) December 21, 2024
Evidence from his social media indicates he was an anti-Islam doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 from Saudi Arabia.…
Reports have noted that Saudi Arabia had warned German authorities about the attacker, who had posted extremist views on his personal X account. Germany’s Der Spiegel said the attacker sympathized with the far-right Alternative for Germany party. The magazine did not say where it got the information.
“Various media reports suggest he helped ex-Muslims, particularly women, to flee Saudi Arabia after turning their backs on Islam,” Neil commented. Neil also noted that the suspect posted tweets in support Elon Musk, jailed far right activist Tommy Robinson and malevolent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
“His social media posts also indicate he thought Germany not doing enough to help Saudi female asylum seekers who had rejected Islam – and that the authorities were trying to undermine his work on their behalf,” the British journalist added.
“In his recent social-media posts published days before the attack he claimed the German government was promoting Islamisation and accused authorities of censoring and persecuting him because of his critical views of Islam. On his website, he warned prospective refugees to avoid Germany because of its government’s tolerance of radical Islam,” Neil said.
Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition, and the violence has prompted other German towns to cancel their weekend events as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.
Berlin kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.
Syrian Al-Jazeera presenter returns to post-Assad Hama after 12 years in exile
- Fakhouri, a former presenter at the Syrian TV station, fled the country in 2012 after tight censorship
- He was interrogated by the State Security Department over revolution coverage
DUBAI: Syrian Al-Jazeera presenter Ahmad Fakhouri received an overwhelming welcome from crowds of hundreds of people as he returned to his hometown Hama after 12 years in exile.
In a video posted on his social media channels, Fakhouri is seen waving at huge crowds who gathered in the streets in a collective moment of celebration after the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime.
“Come to us, Fakhouri,” people cheered and chanted, inviting him to join the celebrations in the video which Fakhouri captioned: “The people of Hama. None but you are my family and my support.”
Fakhouri, a former presenter at the Syrian TV station, fled the country in 2012 after tight censorship was placed on the media during the days of the revolution.
During a 2013 interview with Al Jazeera, Fakhouri said he was not allowed to cover the protests, then later was asked to use derogatory terms, such as “terrorists, infiltrators, and enemies of the homeland,” to describe the demonstrators.
“I was naive enough to ask Bouthaina Shaaban (media advisor to the Syrian Presidency) during high-level meetings to allow us to conduct interviews with the opposition, thinking that Syrian television belonged to the people and not to a specific faction,” Fakhouri had told Al Jazeera at the time.
He also reported being under constant surveillance from security and intelligence officers as a presenter.
Rejecting the regime’s policies that insisted on denying the protests, Fakhouri said he refrained from presenting live news, limiting his work to the weekly news bulletin. When he first decided to leave Syria, he discovered he was banned from travelling.
Shortly afterwards, he was summoned for an interrogation at the State Security Department, facing charges of inciting sectarian divisions and cooperating with foreign entities to disrupt public security. He was also accused of receiving money from his expatriate brother “to fund armed terrorists.”
He reported being blindfolded, and hearing “sounds of torture” and insults directed at detainees across from his interrogation room.
When he was released at the request of the media minister, Fakhouri decided to head to Aleppo where he hid for several months before the Free Syrian Army facilitated his escape.
“I do not need to mention why I decided to leave the regime's grip as everyone is aware of Assad’s crimes against the Syrian people,” said Fakhouri, noting that several of his media colleagues were detained over extended periods, including some who were died under torture.
“I can confirm that most of those working in Syrian media are looking for an opportunity to escape like I did.”
Fakhouri begun his journey in the media at the state radio in 2004 before moving to become a presenter in the Syrian TV.
After he left Syria, he became known for hosting the “Trending” news bulletin at BBC Arabic until he joined Al Jazeera as a presenter and documentary maker in 2022.
Fakhouri was among many Syrian expats who returned to a nation where jubilation took over since Assad’s iron-fisted regime was toppled by a lightning 11-day rebel offensive spearheaded by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group on Dec. 8.
Since the fall of Assad’s five-decade dynastic rule, harrowing accounts of torture and executions of political prisoners, activists, and regime critics in state prisons — most notably the infamous Sednaya — have emerged publicly.
