A14 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 , 2019
Economy & Business
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook seeks ways
to combat deepfakes
Facebook is spearheading a
competition to find new ways to
identify computer-altered videos
known as deepfakes. But some
artificial intelligence specialists
say the strategy might backfire.
Those experts say the contest
will likely hasten the already
accelerating arms race between
the malicious actors using AI to
create increasingly realistic
faked videos, and the technology
companies racing to detect
them.
“A ny algorithm used to
identify deepfakes could also be
used to make deepfakes better,”
says Rachel Thomas, the co-
founder of machine-learning lab
fast.ai.
Facebook’s competition, called
the Deepfake Detection
Challenge, is a partnership
between Facebook, the
technology industry consortium
Partnership on AI, Microsoft and
experts from seven academic
institutions. Events will begin in
October and run until March.
Facebook said that it has
dedicated $10 million to fund the
competition, which will include
a not-yet-announced number of
grants and awards.
Facebook said it will release
the data set for the challenge
later this year. The company is
commissioning a “realistic data
set” consisted of videos usingpaid actors as well as altered
versions of those videos.
Competitors will use those data
sets to develop detection codes.
Facebook will enter the
challenge too but will not accept
any monetary prizes.
Chief Te chnology Officer MikeSchroepfer said in a blog post
that Facebook’s hope is that the
competition will help the
company accelerate its progress
and create more open source
tools as it battles a “constantly
evolving problem.”
— Marie C. BacaPHARMACEUTICALSNovo Nordisk will
offer generic insulinNovo Nordisk will offer
cheaper insulin to U.S. diabetics,
the Danish drugmaker said
Friday, in response to criticism
over the high price of the
medication and after similar
moves by rivals Sanofi and Eli
Lilly.
President Trump had made
high prescription drug prices a
top issue in his 2016 campaign,
saying drug companies were
“getting away with murder.”
Novo will offer a generic
version of its most heavily
prescribed insulin drug,
Novolog, used by about a million
U.S. patients, at a 50 percent
discount compared to the
current list price, the company
said in a statement.
The list price for one vial willbe $144.68.
Novo will also introduce a so-
called $99 cash card program in
January, which patients can use
to buy three vials or two packs of
pens of Novo’s analog insulins
for a flat cost of $99, which for
most diabetics is an adequate
supply for one month.
The cost of insulin for treating
Ty pe 1 diabetes in the United
States has nearly doubled over a
five-year period, leading some
patients to put their own health
at risk by rationing the
medication.
“While we will continue to do
what we can to help address
affordability challenges in the
short-term, changes within the
system are required to make
sustainable and meaningful
affordability a reality,” said Novo
in a statement.
— ReutersALSO IN BUSINESS
British Airways is preparing to
cancel nearly all its flights on
Monday and Tuesday after pilots
vowed to strike following a
breakdown in talks over a new
contract, according to a person
familiar with the matter. The
carrier will scrap both short and
long-haul destinations, said theperson, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because
the information isn’t public. A
spokeswoman for the airline,
which is a unit of the
International Airlines Group,
declined to comment on any
cancellations but said the airline
operates about 850 flights a day.The White House is considering
a plan that would have the
government directly purchase
uranium from U.S. producers as
it contemplates ways to revive
the flagging domestic mining
industry. A group set up by
President Trump to study the
issue is considering a request by
the nuclear industry to use the
Defense Production Act, a 68-
year-old Cold War-era statute.The U.S. Federal Trade
Commission said Friday that it
had filed an administrative
complaint aimed at preventing
title insurance provider Fidelity
National Financial from buying
rival Stewart Information
Services. The FTC valued the
deal at $1.2 billion. The two
firms are among four that insure
buyers and sellers against
problems with a property’s title.
— From news servicesDIGESTOMER MESSINGER/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Visitors view a tiled screen at the entrance to LG’s booth at the IFA
consumer electronics fair in Berlin on Friday. Companies from
around the world are attending the six-day tech show to launch new
devices, such as LG’s dual-screen cellphone.
DOW 26,797.
UP 69.31, 0.3% NASDAQ 8,103.
DOWN 13.75, 0.2% S&P 500 2,978.
UP 2.71, 0.1% GOLD $1,515.
DOWN $10.00, 0.7% CRUDE OIL $56.
UP $0.22, 0.4% 10-YEAR TREASURY
UP $0.10 PER $1,000, 1.60% YIELDCURRENCIES
$1=106.92 YEN; EURO=$1.BY TAYLOR TELFORD
AND TONY ROMMNew York is leading a multi-
state investigation o f Facebook f or
possible antitrust violations, At-
torney General Letitia James an-
nounced Friday, kicking off a bi-
partisan wave of independent
state inquiries targeting the s ocial
media giant as well as Google’s
parent c ompany, A lphabet.
James will work with the attor-
neys general of Colorado, Florida,
Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina,
Ohio, Tennessee and the District
of Columbia on a n inquiry focused
on “Facebook’s dominance in the
industry and the potential anti-
competitive conduct stemming
from that dominance,” according
to a news release.
“Even the largest social media
platform in the world must follow
the law and respect consumers. I
am proud to be leading a biparti-
san coalition of attorneys general
in investigating whether Face-
book has stifled competition and
put users at risk,” James said in a
news release. “We will use every
investigative tool at our disposal
to determine whether Facebook’s
actions may have e ndangered c on-
sumer d ata, r educed the quality o f
consumers’ choices, or increased
the p rice o f advertising.”
The Washington Post previous-
ly reported t hat more than h alf t he
nation’s attorneys general are
readying an investigation of
Google, but it was unclear wheth-
er other tech giants such as Ama-
zon would find themselves in the
coalition’s crosshairs (Amazon
founder and chief executive Jeff
Bezos owns The Post). The coali-
tion of s tate attorneys general will
formally announce the multistate
investigative effort Monday in
Washington.
Facebook denied it has violated
antitrust laws and said it wel-
comed t he states’ probe.
“People have multiple choices
for every one of the services we
provide,” Will Castleberry, Face-
book’s vice president of state and
local policy, said in a statement.
“We understand that if we stop
innovating, people can e asily leave
our platform. This underscores
the competition we face, not only
in the US but around the g lobe.”
Castleberry pledged to “work
constructively with the attorneys
general a nd we welcome a conver-
sation with policymakers aboutthe competitive environment in
which w e operate.”
Regulators around the country
in recent months have signaled
growing concern about the
breadth of Silicon Valley’s power,
questioning the industry’s access
to vast amounts of its users’ per-
sonal data and e xpressing concern
that the huge profits that Face-
book and Google generate allow
those companies to buy up poten-
tial rivals and maintain their dom-
inance — to the detriment of con-
sumers.
Two federal antitrust agencies
have opened probes targeting the
industry broadly, while lawmak-
ers i n Congress have g rilled execu-
tives from Amazon, Apple, Face-
book and G oogle about their busi-
ness practices. B ut it remains to be
seen whether the investigations
will stick to some of the world’s
most powerful companies.
“We believe that a broad move-
ment to break up c ompanies s olely
because they are large will fail
without a change to existing anti-
trust laws,” Dan Ives, an analyst
with Wedbush Securities, wrote i n
a note to investors Friday. “The
‘too big, must be broken up’ argu-
ment is a more difficult one to
make in our opinion as current
antitrust law does not provide for
a forced breakup solely due to the
size of the business; if it did, Wal-
mart would have been broken up
decades a go.”
In J uly, Facebook paid $5 b illion
and agreed to submit to signifi-
cant federal oversight of its busi-
ness practices to settle Federal
Trade Commission allegations
that the company had repeatedly
deceived its users about how and
who was accessing their personal
data. The fine was the largest in
history for a privacy violation, but
only a fraction of the $55.8 billion
in revenue Facebook t ook in 2018.
For Google, the states’ height-
ened interest comes about six
years after the U. S. government
formally studied the tech giant’s
search-and-advertising business
but opted against slapping it with
significant penalties. The inaction
in the United States stands in
stark contrast with the European
Union, which h as issued a series of
multibillion-dollar fines for the
way Google d isplays search r esults
and manages its Android smart-
phone operating s ystem.
[email protected]
[email protected]New York launches antitrust
investigation into Facebook
BY ABHA BHATTARAIChad Howard carries a pistol
everywhere he goes. And he isn’t
about to stop now.
On Friday morning, he left
home as he always does: with his
.40-caliber Smith & Wesson
clipped to his right hip. He took
his wife to the hospital for blood
tests, then went to the local Wal-
mart Supercenter in Corinth,
Miss., where he waited to see
whether he — and his visible fire-
arm — would still be welcome.
Days earlier, Walmart had be-
come the latest big-box chain to
take a public stand on guns when
it announced it would ask cus-
tomers to stop openly carrying
firearms in its 4,750 U.S. stores.
‘The retailer said it would stop
selling ammunition for military-
style rifles and handguns, and
would push Congress to pass
tighter gun-control laws.
Walmart’s stand represented a
major shift in the way retailers are
positioning themselves in an in-
creasingly fraught debate over
who has the right to have guns,
and where. Walmart wasn’t a lone.
Within hours, Kroger, the coun-
try’s largest grocery chain, said it
too would ask customers to re-
frain from openly carrying fire-
arms at all 2,800 of its stores.
CVS, Walgreens and Wegmans
made similar announcements in
quick succession. In total, those
retailers have more than 23,
stores in the United States,
though some of them are in places
that already have such a policy
against openly carrying guns.
Other big chains, such as Ta rget,
Starbucks and Chipotle, have had
such policies against open carry
for years.
Gun-control advocates and in-
dustry experts hailed it as an ad-
mission by one of the country’s
largest corporations that the gov-
ernment wasn’t doing enough to
stop gun violence.
“The sheer size and power of
Walmart means this is perhaps
the biggest b low to the NRA in the
history of the organization,” said
Chris Allieri, a crisis management
expert and founder o f Mulberry &
Astor, a public relations firm in
New York. “This is not some left-
leaning coastal CEO sending a
tweet or two. This is Walmart
saying. ‘This is how we’re going to
do business going forward. Ta ke
note.’ ”
Although Americans took to
social media to say Walmart’s ef-
forts made them feel safer about
shopping at the company’s stores,
the National Rifle Association
and g un rights groups increasing-
ly are encouraging members to
stop shopping at retailers that
have tightened their open carry
policies in recent days. Freedom
Movement USA, a group of consti-
tutional conservatives calling for
a Walmart boycott, has had
3.5 million visitors on its Face-
book pages since Tuesday, a ccord-
ing to the group’s head, Brandon
Harris.
Howard, 57, who calls himself“a constitutionalist and a Chris-
tian,” s aid the policy changes felt
personal. He owns about 20 guns
and has been openly carrying a
pistol for six years. His wife keeps
a revolver in the middle pocket of
her purse. He s aid he quit going to
Dick’s Sporting Goods last year
after the company s topped selling
military-style rifles. Now he’s pre-
pared to boycott Walmart too, if
anyone there gives him trouble
about his gun.
“With this world being the way
it is, we’ve got to protect our-
selves,” s aid Howard, who worked
as a construction supervisor until
he broke his back on the job 15
years ago. “I haven’t had to shoot
anybody yet, but you never know.
I’ve keep a fire extinguisher in my
house even though I’ve never had
to use it.”
On Friday morning, he strolled
in as he always does. In the hour
he spent buying groceries, he says
he saw at least seven others —
mostly white men like him in their
50s and 60s — who also had guns
visibly strapped to their hips. He
chatted with the manager and
bought 2^1 / 2 cases of shotgun shells.
When Howard’s experience
was brought to Walmart’s atten-
tion, a spokesman said Friday that
the company was working to add
new signs and employee training
that reflect its new open-carry
policy in the coming months. In
his statement Tuesday, chief exec-utive Doug McMillon, who is also
a gun owner, said the company
will have “a very nonconfronta-
tional approach” to enforcing its
new rules. It “will treat law-abid-
ing customers with respect.”
To m Gresham, the host of “Gun
Ta lk,” a nationally syndicated ra-
dio show, says he will personally
stop shopping at Walmart and
that many of his listeners have
told him they’ll do the same.
“The gun owners of America
are not fooled,” he said. “Walmart
has staked out its position in the
culture wars, and we, the 100 mil-
lion gun owners who don’t com-
mit crimes, are like, wait a min-
ute, you just threw us under the
bus.”
Gresham, who has been carry-
ing a concealed weapon for more
than 25 years, says he hardly sees
anybody openly carrying weap-
ons near New Orleans, where he
lives. “I probably have seen one
person open-carrying this year,”
he said. “But I know thousands of
people who conceal-carry every
day.”
Walmart’s new policy prohibit-
ing open-carry, he says, doesn’t
affect him. But the way he sees it,
“these companies are doing noth-
ing other than trying to show that
they’re one of the cool kids.”
And although he’s carried
around a firearm for at least 25
years, Gresham s ays it’s n ot some-
thing he likes to advertise.
“Getting away a nd being a good
witness is often the best course of
action,” he said. “If nobody knows
I’m carrying a gun, it gives me an
opportunity to do that.”
[email protected]Open-carry backlash includes threats of boycotts
Walmart, other retailers have asked customers
to stop visibly toting firearms after spate of shootingsSEM VAN DER WAL/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCKApples of accord
People gather apples Friday in KerkAvezaath during the Dutch National Fruit Picking Days, when fruit growers around the nation open their
orchards to the public. These elstar apple trees belong to grower Bert den Haan.
MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Attorney General Letitia James will lead the probe with
attorneys general from seven other states and the District.