World Wide WordPress: The service that powers much of the internet

1/5/23 7:00PM

Insecure

‍Websites powered by the content management system (CMS) Wordpress have reportedly been under attack from malware that targets vulnerabilities in some of the content manager’s major plugins, which could have been going on for years.

‍World Wide WordPress

‍Although it's not a household name, WordPress likely plays a far bigger role in your internet experience than you might imagine. The open-source system, owned by Automattic — which also acquired Tumblr in 2019 — is the quiet workhorse behind many of your favorite websites, hosting, managing, and modifying more site content than any other single entity.

Back in 2012, a year that spawned all manner of online phenomena from Gangnam Style to Grumpy Cat, much of the online landscape was hand-coded by creators. Indeed, 71% of websites were using unmonitored CMSs, or none at all, compared to just 32% of sites that go without today. WordPress tapped into the idea that making websites should be easy, in a similar way to Shopify simplifying the process of setting up an online store.

‍WordPress's customizability, via plugins that anyone can make, has proved wildly popular, and sites built on WordPress now account for more than 40% of the web. But WordPress has greater ambitions. The king of website content wants to keep growing — Automattic’s CEO Matt Mullenweg predicts that the system will extend its market share in the CMS space to 80-85% in the next decade.

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Rani Molla2h

X says it’s stopping Grok from putting real people in bikinis on X

After public and government uproar over sexualized deepfakes of women and children, X’s Safety account posted Wednesday evening that it is no longer allowing the Grok account on X to generate “images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” The xAI-owned company also said it restricted image generation and editing via Grok on X more broadly to paid subscribers.

For what it’s worth, a subscriber reply to X Safety’s post asking Grok to put the tweet “in a bikini” prompted the chatbot to post an image of a woman in a bikini — though she does not appear to be a real person. I’m not a paid X subscriber but, in the process of reporting this piece, I was able to edit the image to be “younger” and “17 years old.”

The post also did not address what the changes mean for Grok’s stand-alone app, which currently ranks No. 5 among free apps in Apple’s App Store. Previous reporting from NBC News found that users could also still generate offensive images using the app.

Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk, for his part, said Wednesday that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.”

Safety on X: "@Grok Account Image Generation Updates " / X

Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk, for his part, said Wednesday that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.”

Rani Molla21h

California AG launches probe into xAI and Grok over sexualized deepfakes of women and children

The California attorney general just opened an investigation into xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup, over chatbot Grok’s apparent role in generating nonconsensual sexual images of women and children. The probe centers on reports that Grok has been used to facilitate the creation of sexually explicit images without consent, many of which have circulated on X.

“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote in a press release. “As the top law enforcement official of California tasked with protecting our residents, I am deeply concerned with this development in AI and will use all the tools at my disposal to keep California’s residents safe.”

California’s move follows growing scrutiny from US lawmakers and the UK government over AI-generated sexual content and deepfakes.

xAI and Tesla CEO Musk earlier today wrote that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.”

Grok is currently No. 5 on Apple’s free App Store.

Attorney General Bonta Launches Investigation into xAI, Grok Over Undressed, Sexual AI Images of Women and Children

California’s move follows growing scrutiny from US lawmakers and the UK government over AI-generated sexual content and deepfakes.

xAI and Tesla CEO Musk earlier today wrote that he was “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.”

Grok is currently No. 5 on Apple’s free App Store.

Jon Keegan1/14/26

Report: Microsoft on track to spend $500 million per year on Anthropic AI

Last fall, Microsoft and OpenAI’s $13 billion partnership seemed to finally be on solid ground.

OpenAI’s restructuring was completed on time, and the companies hammered out an updated agreement that secured OpenAI’s status as Microsoft’s AI provider of choice, but also allowed for Microsoft to work with other companies.

Now Microsoft is doing exactly that. Microsoft has been increasing its spending on Anthropic’s AI, and is on track to spend $500 million per year on the startup’s services, according to a new report from The Information.

The increasingly cozy relationship between the companies includes the rare move of Microsoft offering incentives to its salespeople that allows Anthropic sales to count toward their quotas, per to the report. Microsoft invested $5 billion in Anthropic as part of a big deal in November that included Nvidia.

Microsoft has also been using Anthropic’s AI to power more and more of its own products, such as Github Copilot and 365 Copilot.

Microsoft’s Spending on Anthropic AI Is on Pace to Hit $500 Million

Microsoft has also been using Anthropic’s AI to power more and more of its own products, such as Github Copilot and 365 Copilot.

Rani Molla1/14/26

Report: Apple staggers Siri AI rollout, with key features pushed to summer

Thanks to Apple’s new partnership with Google, the Gemini-backed version of Siri should begin rolling out this spring, but several key features Apple previewed in 2024 may not come until summer, The Information reports.

The new Siri is soon expected to answer general questions with ChatGPT-like answers — rather than quoting directly from websites or not answering at all. But more personalized, proactive features, like, for example, remembering past conversations and information from them to suggest you leave for a planned trip earlier to beat traffic, may not be unveiled until June at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

The report also clarifies that while Apple’s partnership with Microsoft-backed OpenAI, wherein users could summon ChatGPT for complex questions, isn’t changing, the Google deal might reduce the need for people to do so because Siri will likely be able to answer those questions itself. The Information notes, citing a person familiar with the deal, that the ChatGPT option hadn’t driven much traffic to OpenAI before.

How Apple is Using Gemini to Give ChatGPT-Like Answers

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