Things To Do In SW Florida

By MATT O’BRIEN and BARBARA ORTUTAY (AP Technology Writers)

President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing the tech industry and financial institutions to shut down a growing market of abusive sexual images made with artificial intelligence technology.

New generative AI tools have made it easy to transform someone’s likeness into a sexually explicit AI deepfake and share those realistic images across chatrooms or social media. The victims — be they celebrities or children — have little recourse to stop it.

The White House is putting out a call Thursday looking for voluntary cooperation from companies in the absence of federal legislation. By committing to a set of specific measures, officials hope the private sector can curb the creation, spread and monetization of such nonconsensual AI images, including explicit images of children.

“As generative AI broke on the scene, everyone was speculating about where the first real harms would come. And I think we have the answer,” said Biden’s chief science adviser Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. read more

Hamburger Mary’s, the drag–show-themed restaurant that successfully fought Gov. Ron DeSantis in court, is leaving what one owner called “sleepy” downtown Orlando.

The eatery’s last day at 110 W. Church St. will be June 2.

Co-owner John Paonessa said he is hunting for a new location and would like to reopen during the first week of July.

“We are hoping people will enjoy a better experience at the new location with hopefully a bigger stage and more room to show everybody what we got,” he said Thursday.

Hamburger Mary’s has been on Church Street for 16 years, serving an estimated 2 million people during that time, according to a social media post about the move. The restaurant is known for its drag performances.

Paonessa listed several factors for the decision to move, including fewer office workers downtown with the rise of remote work and the lack of on-site parking.

“Downtown Orlando has been great to us,” Paonessa wrote in his social media post. “However, times have changed. The hustle and bustle of Downtown Orlando has given way to a sleepy city with few people working downtown and opting for remote.” read more

A record-setting 2.5 million Floridians plan to hit the road or airport for the long holiday weekend, according to a travel forecast from AAA.

That’s 126,500 more holiday travelers than the previous record set last year. The club projects 2.3 million Florida travelers will journey 50 miles or more in a car, while more than 224,000 will take an air-based voyage.

Nationally, AAA anticipates the second highest traveled Memorial Day weekend on record, with nearly 43.8 million Americans venturing more than 50 miles, just shy of 2005’s high of 44 million.

“Memorial Day will be the start to a very busy summer of travel,” said Debbie Haas, vice president of travel for AAA, in a news release. “American travelers are forecast to surpass pre-pandemic levels, making this the busiest Memorial Day holiday weekend in nearly two decades.”

Memorial Day in Orlando: Things to do this holiday weekend

Even as gas prices have inched upward, averaging $3.55 per gallon in Florida on May 23 compared with $3.41 at this time last year, road trips are expected to set a record in the Sunshine State and nationwide, with nearly 38.4 million Americans on the road, 1.5 million more than last year. In addition, this will be the most crowded Memorial Day weekend at airports since 2005. read more

NASA has carved out more time to talk through problems with its attempt to send up astronauts on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, which is now targeting  June 1 if mission managers give the go for launch.

The new date announced late Wednesday is just a placeholder, though, as NASA has yet to sign off on issues that were found during a launch attempt earlier this month. If NASA does give the OK, the Crew Flight Test mission would aim for a 12:25 p.m. liftoff with backup options on June 2, 5 and 6.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams would climb back on board the Starliner spacecraft sitting atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41. The goal is to test out the spacecraft flying with humans on board for the first time as it docks with the International Space Station for about an eight-day stay before a return trip to Earth landing in the desert in the western United States.

The pair had suited up and come within two hours of a launch back on May 6, but a fluttering valve on the ULA rocket’s upper stage forced a scrub of the launch attempt with mission managers deciding to roll the rocket back to ULA’s nearby Vertical Integration Facility to replace the valve. read more