🌊 AI Deepfakes Take Over Job Market

Video game company hit with first ever slap-action lawsuit…

A man in China is suing a video game company for allowing opponents to virtually slap his avatar. He claims that after he won each game, opponents would throw items like eggs and straw sandals at his avatar, which in turn would trigger video game effects like virtual facial slaps. “Every time I am hit with eggs, I feel my self-esteem is harmed and I get depressed,” he said.

We would make fun of this, but we’re currently in the middle of a reckless driving lawsuit against the makers of Frogger. It’s hard for us to even look at cars now!

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

AI Job Applicants

Companies are reporting a surge in AI deepfake job applicants, including ones from North Korea, per NBC

• The intentions of deepfake applicants vary: In some cases, people are using AI profiles to collect salaries for remote jobs. In other cases, they are engaging in intellectual property theft, espionage, and extortion

• Last year, the Justice Department claimed that 300+ US firms unwittingly hired North Korean nationals using fake profiles for remote IT jobs

• This problem has evidently persisted: On Thursday, one tech CEO said, “We’ve weeded out over 50 candidates that were North Korean spies”

Dig Deeper

• It’s not just tech jobs that are facing a surge in deepfake applicants – universities are, too

• A rising number of candidates are reportedly using deepfakes in their online interviews, either to increase english fluency or generate answers, per a software company used by many universities

• Company executives said, “It’s like something out of a spy film. And yes, they’re incredibly hard to detect. But hard isn’t impossible,” adding that deepfake applicants are “the future of fraud”

KEY STORY

“Murder Prediction” Software?

The Guardian reported that the UK government is developing a “murder prediction” software to identify people most likely to become killers

• The program, which reportedly was commissioned between 2022 to 2024 by former PM Rishi Sunak’s office, uses data to identify potential killers

• The program includes names, birth dates, ethnicity, gender, criminal history, addiction history, and various health markers, “which are expected to have significant predictive power,” per government docs

Dig Deeper 

• The UK’s Ministry of Justice, meanwhile, argues the program will “review offender characteristics that increase the risk of committing homicide” and “explore alternative and innovative data science techniques to risk assessment of homicide”

• The ministry’s spokesperson said, “This project is being conducted for research purposes only,” adding that it will “ultimately contribute to protecting the public via better analysis”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

ROCA’S SPONSOR

Take Back Your Privacy with Incogni

Together With Incogni

If your phone’s constantly buzzing with unknown numbers, robocalls, and scam texts, we have the solution for you

• Spam calls start when your personal data – like your phone number – is sold by data brokers to telemarketers and scammers

• Incogni is here to stop that. It’s a data removal service that works on your behalf, sending out requests to data brokers to delete your info – and following up to make sure it stays gone

• Whether you’re getting hit with spam calls, shady texts, or targeted phishing attempts, Incogni helps cut it off at the source by cleaning up your digital footprint

• No more digging through complicated opt-out forms. Incogni does the heavy lifting while you stay protected

• The result? Fewer spam calls. Lower risk of scams. More peace and quiet

Dig Deeper

• We at Roca use Incogni, we love it, and we recommend it to anyone serious about privacy

• Roca readers get 50% off and a 30-day money-back guarantee 

• Try it today!

KEY STORY

Sanctuary City Cuts

President Trump announced he is planning to cut funding to “sanctuary cities” that don’t comply with his immigration policy

• Sanctuary cities, which date back to the 1980s and include New York and Chicago, limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities like ICE

• In 2020, Trump issued a similar order aimed at sanctuary cities, although it was never fully enacted

• On Thursday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “No more Sanctuary Cities!...Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!”

Dig Deeper

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been an outlier among other major cities in his cooperation with federal authorities. On Wednesday, Adams allowed ICE to reopen an office at the city’s largest prison to identify and deport undocumented detainees

• Others have been more defiant. During a congressional hearing last month, mayors argued that sanctuary policies are legal and help reduce crime

• Boston’s mayor said, “This federal administration is making hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing people afraid to live their lives. A city that’s scared is not a city that’s safe”

KEY STORY

Brain Model

In a neurological breakthrough, scientists unveiled the most detailed diagram of a mammal’s brain yet

• The diagram maps and records the cellular activity and neural structure of a cubic millimeter – the size of a grain of sand – of a mouse’s brain

• The 3D map contains more than 200,000 high-definition brain cells, 82,000 of which are neurons, and over 2.5 miles of neural wiring

• The new map is the biggest and most detailed brain map of a mammal ever, with the potential to accelerate the study of human brains, particularly in treating psychiatric disorders like Alzheimer’s

Dig Deeper

• The diagram of the brain’s neurons was particularly significant for the potential future study of human brains and disorders like Alzheimer’s, autism or others

• One Harvard biophysicist told The New York Times, “When you go into studying the brain, it seems kind of hopeless – there are just so many connections and so much complexity. Finding wiring rules is a win. The brain is a lot less messy than people thought”

• The same biophysicist told Nature, “They managed to do something that we haven’t done as a neuroscience community in basically all of our history”

• The MICrONS scientists are now working towards mapping the entire brain of a mouse, which contains over 500 cubic millimeters

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇷🇺 The US and Russia agreed to a prisoner swap in which the US handed over a man arrested for smuggling microelectronics into Russia and Russia released a Russian-American woman jailed for donating to a pro-Ukraine charity

💲 The House of Representatives narrowly passed the Republican’s budget plan, which includes legislation that could make parts of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent

🇩🇴 The death toll from a roof collapse at one of the most popular nightclubs in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday has risen to 221

💻 Chinese officials admitted to carrying out a series of major cyberattacks against US infrastructure during a secret meeting with US officials in December, per the WSJ

🚁 A helicopter carrying six people crashed into New York City’s Hudson River on Thursday. All six – including three children – were killed in the crash, per New York officials

What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s Question: What jobs can AI never take? Or at least not in the next 30 years.

20 Questions!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd.

Punxsutawney Phil told us there would be six more weeks of winter... well nine weeks later it's 38 degrees and cloudy. Wow, some prognosticator! Time to learn LinkedIn, little buddy. And sorry, but "seer of seers" is a bit pretentious for a LinkedIn bio.

Since spring isn't yet here, we're going to have to visualize it with today's Spring-themed 20 Questions. Looking forward to your answers!

Link to 20 Questions!

Last Week’s Responses

Average responses to last week’s “This or That” edition of 20 Questions.

Peanut butter - 71.8%
Nutella - 28.2%

Boston - 54.3%
Chicago - 45.7%

Ben Franklin - 76.5%
Alexander Hamilton - 23.5%

Sincerely - 67.6%
All the best - 32.4%

Allstate mayhem guy - 41.2%
Dos Equis guy - 58.8%

Old Jake from State Farm - 81.6%
New Jake from State Farm - 18.4%

Ben Affleck - 39.5%
Matt Damon - 60.5%

Larry David -44.7%
Will Ferrell - 55.3%

Home Depot smell - 68.1%
Subway smell - 31.9%

Answering 20 Questions - 94.5%
20 years of hard labor in a Siberian salt mine - 5.5% (message received!)

10 buffalo wings -48.9%
2 spicy tuna rolls - 51.1%

Heath Ledger as the Joker - 75.7%
Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump - 24.3%

Physical touch - 39.0%
Words of affirmation - 61%

The Simpsons - 64.7%
Family Guy - 35.3%

Spring - 79.8%
Summer - 20.2%

Freddie Mercury - 40.0%
Elvis - 60.0%

Whitney Houston - 52.8%
Aretha Franklin - 47.2%

Adele - 51.5%
Beyoncé - 48.5%

BLT - 61.9%
Grilled cheese - 38.1%

Wawa - 62.5%
Buc-ee's - 37.5%

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🏌️‍♂️ Budget Masters Dinner: Following a time-honored tradition of the most recent Masters winner curating a dinner for previous winners, golfer Scottie Scheffler served the cheapest dinner in a decade, at just $108 per person

🕹 Virtual Slap, Real Impact: A Chinese gamer sued a video game company after being virtually slapped more than 4,800 times over six months, alleging the game caused “depression”

💩 Moon Poop: NASA is offering $3M to anyone who invents a way to transform 96 bags of human waste left behind by Apollo astronauts into usable water, energy, and fertilizer

🤑 Ultimate PTO: Google is reportedly paying some AI staff to do nothing for up to a year rather than join competitors

👮‍♂️ Chomp Charges Dropped: A New York City Council member who allegedly bit a police chief’s arm during a protest had felony assault charges dismissed after completing a “restorative justice process”

ROCA WRAP
Nepo-Minister

Nepo-Minister

The leader of Chechnya, a semi-autonomous and majority Muslim republic in southwestern Russia, made his 17-year-old son interior minister. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chechnya declared independence, leading to years of civil war against Russia before returning to Russian control in the early 2000s. Since 2007, it has been ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, who has maintained close ties with Russian leadership in exchange for autonomy.

On Tuesday, Kadyrov appointed his son Adam, who turned 17 last November, to lead Chechnya’s branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry. Adam has served as his father’s main bodyguard since 2023, which earned him an entry into Russia's "Book of Records" – its version of the Guinness World Records – as the youngest head of a security detail. 

The 17-year-old will now oversee the region’s security forces and handle counterterrorism in a region that has long been a hotbed of violence and terrorism.

Many have speculated that the teenager’s appointment to lead the region’s security forces is meant to groom him to replace his father, who is rumored to be battling health issues. However, the appointment follows reports that his father Ramzan’s relationship with Vladimir Putin has deteriorated. 

Ramzan Kadyrov has played a major role in Russia’s war in Ukraine, sending battle-hardened Chechen militias to the front lines, particularly at the beginning of the invasion. Despite this, the Kremlin has reportedly become suspicious of Kadyrov after learning of secret meetings between him and Middle Eastern officials to discuss protecting his assets and family.

With Chechnya’s history of violence against Russian impositions, the deterioration of the Kadyrov’s relationship with the Putin could threaten the turbulent region’s tentative peace.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

A year ago today, OJ Simpson died. When we look back on toughest headlines/subheadlines to write, that one is near the top! What epithet do you use for OJ Simpson? Alleged murderer? 2,000 yard rusher? Naked Gun star?

Time is moving so fast. That day felt like it was several years ago. So soak up this weekend and cherish every moment. You never know when the next Heisman Trophy-winning-turned-maybe-murderer will go down.

Make sure to do 20 Questions! Have a great weekend.

–Max and Max