Gary R. Bunt

(Another) Commercial Break: The ‘Islamic Algorithms’ paperback is out now @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social. If you want to tap into my research on cyber-Islamic environments and AI this is the place to start. Drop me a comment if you have read it. More info: www.virtuallyislamic.com/books/islami...

"A sustained online campaign against Myanmar asylum seekers has been blamed for real-life violence." SCMP's video report linked here:

AI chips seized at KL International ...

Russian satellites allegedly utilised in Iran attacks on KSA:

"A message posted to Handala Hack, the group's Telegram channel, showed pictures and videos of the bouquets appearing just outside voting centres, along with several letters.

Recommended from @mehdirhasan.bsky.social @aljazeera.com raising some excellent questions. I’m watching from Wales, but would have liked to have been in the audience…

21st century problems …

An interesting article from CSM for media watchers, profiling Arab-run Nas Radio: "Nas Radio does something uncommon. It provides a range of perspectives on regional news, including the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. It also covers current events inside Israel."

New and noted (paywalled) article.

Jais 3 AI Arabic dialect tool unveiled;

I'm posting this Al Jazeera piece on destruction in southern Lebanon because it includes digital evidence of the damage, such as comparative Google Maps images and clips from a damaged shrine. youtu.be/2WuFtEVX3q8?...

In other news… Websites taken down worldwide as critical cyber-security update issued www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"A federal judge on Monday ordered a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging an executive conference room to stay in jail, after questioning whether a $1 million bond the Saudi government offered to guarantee would bring him back if he fled."

AI Arabic expansion to Silicon Valley: "The company [CNTXT] spent approximately two years developing Arabic-first models intended to address the linguistic complexity of regional speech, including differences between dialects." Widely reported (this version didn't have a paywall!).

"All civil servants in Malaysia have been banned from using Waze, following a warning by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of security concerns over the Israeli government’s control of the mobile navigation app."

I've been travelling, so I'm catching up by reposting some significant stories associated with digital issues and Islam. This is from DW:

I'm reposting Maysaa Ajjan's Wired article because it is a significant read (and it relates in particular to the Digital British Islam project's research). Do check it out.

BBC News, Teenager arrested aged 16 jailed after terror conviction “A teenager who was 16 when he was arrested at Heathrow Airport has been jailed after being convicted of providing cyber-security support to groups including al-Qaeda.”

Umrah crowd tracking…

Reform councillors filmed making racist comments and saying the King should be beheaded for being a 'a Muslim' www.lbc.co.uk/article/refo...

Iranian woman, 23, sentenced to death for 'insulting the prophet' in 'blasphemous' social media post www.lbc.co.uk/article/woma...

“From Red Pill coaches to “Dawah Bros,” influencers are dressing up hypermasculinity and misogyny in religious language—and finding audiences across social platforms.” The Digital British Islam project looked at some of these issues (book forthcoming). Https://digitalbritishislam.com

A warning with multiple potential implications, including an impact on pilgrimage traffic …

I look forward to revisiting England’s Dreaming @jonsavage.bsky.social a very enjoyable book

Bringing another level to source checking …

"OpenAI revealed on Thursday it had shut down two influence operations — from Russia and Iran — that used ChatGPT to push fake journalist personas and run a "think-tank" to covertly spread anti-Ukraine propaganda and foster division in the US and Israel over the war in Iran."

"Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has called for greater investment in artificial intelligence and advanced technology to strengthen the country's security forces."

Starlink test implications: "As Hannah Kaviani from RFE/RL's Radio Farda program Negah-e-Farda (Iran Tomorrow) explains, for many Iranians the test raised a provocative possibility: getting online without relying on infrastructure the state can control or switch off."

Online gambling prosecution in Indonesia

Week one as a 'free agent‘: cat sitting, catching up on the works of Jo Nesbø and Mick Herron, and writing this new Substack post ... It's an experiment. More next week ... virtuallyislamic.substack.com/p/ctrlaltdel

Saudi Arabia urged to spare man sentenced to death over Facebook post www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Detailed online elements emerging in this case: Pilot who attempted to hijack Flydubai passenger plane 'dreamed of crashing it into Tel Aviv's main airport' www.lbc.co.uk/article/pilo...

On my first week as a ‘free agent‘, I'm launching Virtually Islamic on Substack ... Find out more here and subscribe to my occasional ramblings about researching #Islam, #Muslims, and the internet. More later this week. Click for details: virtuallyislamic.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

“Guardian tested chatbots after French far-right politician stripped a Muslim woman of her hijab in a photo”

A report from @news.sky.com

Two Iranian men 'targeted Manchester Jewish Museum and Heaton Park synagogue in bomb plot' news.sky.com/share/13594604

Rare opportunity to invest in no future.

Palestinians face delayed medical care and long journeys as Israel tightens movement restrictions across the West Bank.

Nothing of concern here …

Google Earth on #Gaza

Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, 404 Media has learned. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI images. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Sccop here by @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/humans-readi...

A great illustration of the way social media has essentially shredded society’s informational immune system: The USSR spent a fortune trying to spread conspiracy theories, without success because they couldn’t crack newsrooms. Today, you can reach the globe with a post that costs $20 to make.

British investigators are probing whether Iran or an Islamist group were behind a foiled attack on an air base in England that houses U.S. forces.

essential viewing from Nawal Al-Maghafi and BBC team #Yemen

Pope warns against 'losing humanity' to AI machines www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

AI influence ++ - nothing necessarily ‘Super‘ (Intelligence) about it) …

My colleague Dr Sadek Hamid is presenting on aspects of the Digital British Islam project. Details: tinyurl.com/3nxrps9k

"The recent number was below the peak of almost 800,000 attacks recorded in April, but is still significantly higher than before the conflict escalated. Earlier this year, Dr Al Kuwaiti said the UAE's digital infrastructure faced about 200,000 to 600,000 attacks a day after the war began."

"Jack Clark, a billionaire cofounder of Anthropic and former journalist who majored in English literature and creative writing, says his literary education is what helped him become an influential figure in the world of AI." Depending on what is left in the sector in the interim ...