There is no shortage of researchers and industry titans willing to warn us about the potential destructive power of artificial intelligence. Reading the headlines, one would hope that the rapid gains in AI technology have also brought forth a unifying realization of the risks—and the steps we need to take to mitigate them. The reality, Read more about AI Risks – doomsayers, warriors, reformers[…]
I am so frequently confused by companies that sue other companies for making their own sites and services more useful. It happens quite often. And quite often, the lawsuits are questionable CFAA claims against websites that scrape data to provide a better consumer experience, but one that still ultimately benefits the originating site. Over the Read more about Air Canada Sues Website That Helps People Book More Flights simultaneously Calls own website team incompetent beyond belief[…]
This blog has written a number of times about the reaction of creators to generative AI. Legal academic and copyright expert Andres Guadamuz has spotted what may be the first attempt to draw up a new law to regulate generative AI. It comes from French politicians, who have developed something of a habit of bringing in new laws attempting Read more about New French AI Copyright Law Would Effectively Tax AI Companies, Enrich French taxman[…]
Forget foldable phones, the next big trend could be gadgets that bend. Lenovo, which is currently holding its ninth Tech World event in Austin, Texas, showed off its new collaboration with its subsidiary Motorola: a smartphone that can wrap around your wrist like a watch band. It’s admittedly quite fascinating to see the tech in Read more about Motorola’s concept slap bracelet smartphone looks convenient[…]
The Data Privacy Framework (DPF) presents new legal guidance to facilitate personal data sharing between US companies and their counterparts in the EU and the UK. This framework empowers individuals with greater control over their personal data and streamlines business operations by creating common rules around interoperable dataflows. Moreover, the DPF will help enable clear Read more about Empowering Responsible and Compliant Practices: Bridging the Gap for US Citizens and Corporations with the New EU-US Data Privacy Framework[…]
Citrix has urged admins to “immediately” apply a fix for CVE-2023-4966, a critical information disclosure bug that affects NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway, admitting it has been exploited. Plus, there’s a proof-of-concept exploit, dubbed Citrix Bleed, now on GitHub. So if you are using an affected build, at this point assume you’ve been compromised, apply Read more about Citrix urges “immediate” patching as exploit POC[…]
Here’s how things went for the world’s most infamous purveyor of facial recognition tech when it came to its dealings with the United Kingdom. In a word: not great. In addition to supplying its scraped data to known human rights abusers, Clearview was found to have supplied access to a multitude of UK and US Read more about Clearview Gets $10 Million UK Fine Reversed, Now Owes Slightly Less To Governments Around The World[…]
It’s pretty much the way of the world: beyond the basic enshittification story that has been so well told over the past year or so about how companies get worse and worse as they get more and more powerful, there’s also the well known concept of successful innovative companies “pulling up the ladder” behind them, Read more about Google Decides To Pull Up The Ladder On The Open Internet, Pushes For Unconstitutional Regulatory Proposals[…]
Microsoft techies are trying to recover storage nodes for a “small” number of customers following a “power issue” on October 20 that triggered Azure service disruptions and ruined breakfast for those wanting to use hosted virtual machines or SQL DB. The degradation began at 0731 UTC on Friday when Microsoft spotted the unspecified power problem, Read more about Microsoft admits ‘power issue’ downed Azure in West Europe[…]
[…] A research team in Finland, led by Robin Ras, from Aalto University, and aided by researchers from the University of Jyväskylä, has developed a mechanism to make water droplets slip off surfaces with unprecedented efficacy. Cooking, transportation, optics and hundreds of other technologies are affected by how water sticks to surfaces or slides off Read more about Scientists create world’s most water-resistant surface[…]
There was a hidden spectator of the NFL match between the Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans in London on Sunday: artificial intelligence. As crazy as it may sound, computers have now been taught to identify on-field head impacts in the NFL automatically, using multiple video angles and machine learning. So a process that would take Read more about AI and smart mouthguards: the new frontline in fight against brain injuries[…]
A group of scientists studying the effects of rocket and satellite reentry vaporization in Earth’s atmosphere have found some startling evidence that could point to disastrous environmental effects on the horizon. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that around 10 percent of large (>120 nm) sulfuric acid particles Read more about Spacecraft re-entry filling the atmosphere with metal vapor – and there will be more of it coming in[…]
The argument for pharma patents: making new medicines is expensive, and medicines are how we save ourselves from cancer and other diseases. Therefore, we will award government-backed monopolies – patents – to pharma companies so they will have an incentive to invest their shareholders’ capital in research. There’s plenty wrong with this argument. For one Read more about Uncle Sam paid to develop a cancer drug and now one guy will get to charge whatever he wants for it[…]
Universal Music has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, as the world’s largest music group battles against chatbots that churn out its artists’ lyrics. Universal and two other music companies allege that Anthropic scrapes their songs without permission and uses them to generate “identical or nearly identical copies of those lyrics” Read more about Universal Music sues AI start-up Anthropic for scraping song lyrics – will they come after you for having read the lyrics or memorised the song next?[…]
[…]But these light sources [needed to experiment in the quantum realm] are not common. They’re expensive to build, require large amounts of land, and can be booked up by scientists months in advance. Now, a team of physicists posit that quasiparticles—groups of electrons that behave as if they were one particle—can be used as light Read more about Faster-Than-Light ‘Quasiparticles’ Touted as Futuristic Light Source[…]
In July, Seattle-based and tech-backed nonprofit Code.org announced its 10th policy recommendation for all states “to require all students to take computer science (CS) to earn a high school diploma.” In August, Washington State Senator Lisa Wellman phoned-in her plans to introduce a bill to make computer science a Washington high school graduation requirement to Read more about Code.org Presses Washington To Make Computer Science a High School Graduation Requirement – this should be everywhere globally[…]
Their massive NorthPole processor chip eliminates the need to frequently access external memory, and so performs tasks such as image recognition faster than existing architectures do — while consuming vastly less power. “Its energy efficiency is just mind-blowing,” says Damien Querlioz, a nanoelectronics researcher at the University of Paris-Saclay in Palaiseau. The work, published Read more about IBM chip speeds up AI by combining processing and memory in the core[…]
Credit bureau company, Equifax, has been fined US$13.4 million by The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a UK financial watchdog, following its involvement in “one of the largest” data breaches ever. This cyber security incident took place in 2017 and saw Equifax’s US-based parent company, Equifax Inc., suffer a data breach that saw the personal data Read more about Equifax poked with paltry $13.4 million following 147m customer data breach in 2017[…]
There’s a new Cisco vulnerability in its Emergency Responder product: This vulnerability is due to the presence of static user credentials for the root account that are typically reserved for use during development. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using the account to log in to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow Read more about Cisco Can’t Stop Using Hard-Coded Passwords[…]
It’s been two years since Google first debuted Project Green Light, a novel means of addressing the street-level pollution caused by vehicles idling at stop lights. […] Green Light uses machine learning systems to comb through Maps data to calculate the amount of traffic congestion present at a given light, as well as the average Read more about Google’s AI stoplight program leads to less stops, less emissions[…]
The vaccine has been developed by the University of Oxford and is only the second malaria vaccine to be developed. Malaria kills mostly babies and infants, and has been one of the biggest scourges on humanity. There are already agreements in place to manufacture more than 100 million doses a year. It has taken more Read more about WHO Reccomends cheap malaria vaccine[…]
Adobe has developed an experimental AI-powered upscaling tool that greatly improves the quality of low-resolution GIFs and video footage. This isn’t a fully-fledged app or feature yet, and it’s not yet available for beta testing, but if the demonstrations seen by The Verge are anything to go by then it has some serious potential. Adobe’s Read more about Adobe previews AI upscaling to make blurry videos and GIFs look fresh[…]
Climate breakdown is already changing the taste and quality of beer, scientists have warned. The quantity and quality of hops, a key ingredient in most beers, is being affected by global heating, according to a study. As a result, beer may become more expensive and manufacturers will have to adapt their brewing methods. Researchers forecast Read more about Climate crisis will make Europe’s beer cost more and taste worse[…]
[…] The clouds around Japan’s Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama contain concerning levels of the tiny plastic bits, and highlight how the pollution can be spread long distances, contaminating the planet’s crops and water via “plastic rainfall”. The plastic was so concentrated in the samples researchers collected that it is thought to be causing clouds Read more about Microplastics detected in clouds hanging atop two Japanese mountains[…]
Round discs of dirt known as “fairy circles” mysteriously appear like polka dots on the ground that can spread out for miles. The origins of this phenomenon has intrigued scientists for decades, with recent research indicating that they may be more widespread than previously thought. Fairy circles in NamibRand Nature Reserve in Namibia; Photo: N. Read more about New Fairy Circles Identified at Hundreds of Sites Worldwide[…]