Apple-‘Break New Ground’ in Generative AI This Year; Cheap Video Doorbells are Easily Hacked; Kara Swisher Book-Lots of Junky Books Posing as Hers; CDC-Over 65’s Should Get Spring COVID Booster

Posted: February 29, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Apple will “break new ground” on generative AI this year. That’s the word from CEO Tim Cook at the Apple annual shareholders meeting. This is the second time in a month Apple has teased big AI news. The announcements are expected at their World Wide Developers Conference in June. Notoriously tight lipped Apple may actually be able to move the needle significantly with AI due to the tight integration between their operating systems and their own software. 

With the Biden Administration taking aim at Chinese EVs over their software that can track the cars and traffic, and nose around in your connected smartphone, here’s yet another cheap thing to be leery of…video doorbells. According to Consumer Reports, some of the cheapies can be hacked, and the camera can be taken over simply by holding down a button. The consumer watchdog put out research that listed 4 security flaws in cams made by EKEN, out of China. They make the EKEN camera, as well as ones branded Tuck, and several others. Walmart and Temu have pulled the cams after the Consumer Reports study came out, but they remain available on Amazon and Sears, among other places. If you are looking at a $30 doorbell cam, it’s probably one of these easily hacked models…steer clear!

There has been a lot of buzz about legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher’s new book that comes out March 1st. The actual book is titled Burn Book: A Tech Love Story. That said, Mashable.com notes that there is a fleet of wannabe books written by AI showing up on Amazon with either similar names, or with her name on them. An example…Kara Swisher: Silicon Valley’s Bulldog (A Biography), but Jane Coelho. The woman pictured on the cover isn’t even Swisher, but has some resemblance to her. There are at least a dozen of these, so if you want to read Kara’s book….and it should be a great one…look for Burn Book!

If you are over 65, you should go in for a Spring COVID Jab. Arstechnica.com reports that an advisory committee for the CDC voted overwhelmingly in favor of recommending the spring booster dose. And late yesterday afternoon, CDC Director Mandy Cohen signed off on the recommendation, allowing boosting to begin. There will also be a 2024-25 booster in the fall for everybody. People over 65 made up 67% of COVID-19 hospitalizations between October 2023 and January 2024, according to CDC data. They advise getting the spring shot before the end of June.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Techinfied’ for now. 

Apple Finally Cancels Car Project; ‘Greenest’ Car in America; Google Paying Publishers to Use Generative AI, Next Steps for Pet-Sitter Rover

Posted: February 28, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

After years of hearing about Apple’s secret car project, and all the turnover of executives there, Apple has now officially cancelled Project Titan. 9to5mac.com notes that the electric car project has been ongoing since 2014…ten years. Previously Apple had been shooting for 2028 for release and a selling price of $100,000. There are some 2,000 people involved in Project Titan. A number of employees will move to the Apple AI team, and some will be able to apply for jobs on other Apple teams, but an undisclosed number will be laid off. The original concept was a completely self-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. Tesla has promised a steering wheel-less car by 2021, but as with most things Musk…that hasn’t happened. 

The greenest car in America is an electric vehicle, right? You might think so, but that isn’t the case. According to an article in the Washington Post, The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has found otherwise…and not for the first time. The non-profit that has been rating pollution for decades picks the Toyota Prius Prime SE, Toyota’s plug-in hybrid with a 44 mile range on electricity before the gas engine kicks in. The Prius Prime also was the top green car in 2020 and 2022. The analysis shows that simply running on electricity is not enough to guarantee that a car is “green” — its weight, battery size and overall efficiency matter, too. The nonprofit found that there are 1200 pretty green cars available for 2024, a record. Prius Prime scored 71 out of 100. The Nissan Leaf and Mini Cooper SE…both EVs, were in the high 60’s. At the bottom were large, gas-guzzling trucks…several of which scored in the low 20’s. 

Google has been stealthily been making deals with some publishers  to use new generative AI tools to publish stories. Engadget.com says the deals, reportedly worth tens of thousands of dollars a year, are apparently part of the Google News Initiative, a six-year-old program that funds media literacy projects, fact-checking tools, and other resources for newsrooms. But the move into generative AI publishing tools would be a new, and likely controversial, step for the company. It is important to note that the publishers in the program are not apparently required to disclose their use of AI. 

Rover, the pet sitting business, has closed a $2.3 billion deal with Blackstone. Rover’s CEO Aaron Easterly says he is bullish on what is ahead. Geekwire.com reports that Rover’s revenue was up 30% year-over-year to $66.2 million, with net income of $10.5 million. A majority of the company’s revenue comes from its marketplace that connects pet owners with sitters for overnight stays. Rover has fueled growth by expanding to different animals such as cats, and in new markets, particularly abroad. The CEO noted that “Pets continue to gobble up a larger share of disposable income.” That is NO shock to any of us that have pets. Over the years, Rover has also made moves into grooming, pet gear, and training.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Honda Goes Big on Hydrogen; TikTok Mutes More Songs; Meta’s 1st True AR Glasses Out This Year; Battery & Attached Phone

Posted: February 27, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Honda has announced a hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle for the US. It’s basically a 2025 CR-V, but with a crazy additional name…try saying Honda CR-V e:FCEV 3 times quickly. Theverge.com reports that the fuel cell electric vehicle will have an EPA range of 270 miles, including 29 miles of all-electric driving. The fuel cell is co-developed with General Motors, and built by the two companies’ Fuel Cell System Manufacturing venture in Michigan. No price as yet, but it will be available for lease in California later this year. It has 174 horses, and can be recharged on a normal wall outlet or a Level 2 charger. Honda had formerly sold the Clarity hydrogen car until 2017. 

TikTok continues to battle with Universal Music Group over royalties. Recently, UMG pulled some recordings it owns or distributes from TikTok including tracks from the likes of superstars Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and The Weeknd. The standoff is now impacting songs published by UMG, with millions more tracks expected to be muted on TikTok by the end of this week. According to Engadget.com, the tussle is over split copyrights. UMG has now removed some 3 million songs. Besides that, UMG’s deal with TikTok over its publishing catalog expires later this week…that could mean some 4 million songs will disappear from the platform. 

Meta is aiming to unveil its first “true” augmented reality glasses this fall at the company’s Connect event for third-party developers. ZDnet.com reports that the glasses aren’t related to the Ray Ban/Meta glasses from 2019. They are coming out of Meta’s Reality Labs, which is the division that oversees all of the social media giant’s augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence projects. CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo on Threads earlier this month, and from that it appears that they have built several prototypes. The upcoming glasses are expected to include spatial computing like Apple’s Vision Pro. If they can bring them out at a lot lower price point than Apple’s, Meta may really open up a wide market for AR glasses. 

If you are always worrying about running your smartphone battery down, this may be just the deal for you. It’s the Energizer Hard Case P28K. Arstechnica.com notes that it is nearly a battery pack with attached phone. The handset has a 28,000 mAh battery, so you won’t run out of juice soon, but it thicker than 3 iPhones! The handset is made by Avenir Telecom. Honestly, it is described as being just a budget phone, so if you are anywhere near a power user, it won’t be for you. On the other hand, it can go 5 days on a charge. If you want one, it drops in October for $273.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Mistral AI Releases New Rival to Chat GPT-4; Samsung Unveils Galaxy Ring; Apple Wearable Push-Rings & Smart Glasses; Lenovo’s Transparent Laptop

Posted: February 26, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

French upstart startup (see what I did there) Mistral AI has launched their flagship AI Mistral Large, their answer to Chat GPT-4, and has also has dropped an alternative to ChatGPT called Le Chat. The latter is available in beta, according to techcrunch.com. The startup was just incorporated in May of last year, and they picked up a half billion in funding just in December. Mistral AI was Founded by alums from Google’s DeepMind and Meta…originally with an open-source focus. The flagship looks more like OpenAI’s business model though, costing $8 per million of input tokens and $24 per million output tokens. A token represents small chunks of words…as the TechCrunch article says, their name would be split into two tokens…Tech and Crunch during processing by an AI model. On the other hand, anyone can sign up and try out Le Chat…just go to chat dot mistral dot ai. Mistral notes it is a beta, so could have some of what they call ‘quirks.’ Mistral has also partnered with Microsoft, which will provide Mistral models to its Azure customers. 

There are always lots of new gadgets at Mobile World Conference, and this year is no exception. Samsung has revealed its previously teased Galaxy Ring. Engadget.com reports that they did show a physical model, but didn’t give a ton of details. The ring will be centered around heath and wellness, and will come in 3 colors: platinum silver, gold, and ceramic black. Samsung plans to start selling it later this year. It looks a bit hefty…some who saw it note that it looks about the size as the Oura. It will be available in sizes 5 to 13, although they will be marked S through XL inside the band. The battery life will be less on the smaller ones due to smaller batteries inside. The Oura can make it 10 days between charges, so presumably it will be similar for the Galaxy Ring. the device will track sleep based on heart rate, movement and breathing, then provide users advice based on that. The company will also glean data from partner Natural Cycles, which already does fertility tracking on the Galaxy Watch, matching a key Oura feature.

Besides the large and pricy Vision Pro, Apple continues to look at other wearables in addition to the Watch and AirPods. Appleinsider.com says a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman notes that smart glasses are still in the mix…something that Apple has alluded to as a natural extension of the Vision Pro line. Besides glasses, a smart ring is being considered…and now with Samsung showing one, in addition to the Oura, that seems likely. Something you probably didn’t see coming…I didn’t…Apple is also looking at adding a set of cameras to AirPods. They will be low resolution. Rumors have this as more likely than the ring at this point. Apple has already fiddled with biometric sensors in AirPods. As for a ring, Cupertino has had a patent on a design since 2015. 

Not all gadgets that tech companies show see the light of day…and here’s one that the light of day can pass right through. Lenovo showed a laptop concept at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona that is transparent! Don’t expect to see the ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop in stores or online any time soon. According to bgr.com, it may not even make it out of the concept stage. Drawbacks include its large size, bulk, and touch only keyboard. While it IS a cool concept to be able to see through the screen, I would be concerned that tech could be developed to read and steal what you were viewing on the screen. Lenovo thinks that the transparent screen could be useful for..say…architects working on site, or other users who need to see what’s going on around them. They also see users touching things within the screen’s view, and asking AI questions about them. Whether it makes it into people’s hands or not, it sure is a cool concept!

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Google Hits Brakes on AI Images of People; AT&T, Others Cell Outage This Morning; ARM Claims ‘Software is Driver in Deal With Nuro; Samsung Will Bring Galaxy AI Features to More Devices

Posted: February 22, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google has pumped the brakes, disabling Gemini’s ability to generate images of people. PCMag.com reports that this came after users found that Gemini was producing historically inaccurate images in some situations. Like some extreme examples? It showed what it claimed was a Native American man and woman as an 1820s German couple…and one of the Founding Fathers as African American. It also came up with Asian members in the 1929 German military. Google put out a message saying “We are aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions, and we are working to fix this immediately.” 

There were widespread cellular outages this morning starting at about 3:30 am Eastern that affected calls and even 911 service. The problems were all on  AT&T’s network. According to NPR, AT&T now says it has restored around three quarters of its cellular network. Some 73,000 customers were affected. Verizon and T-Mobile reported that their networks were ‘operating normally.’ This is more concerning than in the past, since these days, nearly 71% of adults and 82% of kids live in wireless-only households. AT&T hasn’t said what caused the outages at this point. 

Chipmaker ARM supplies most of the systems on a chip that run the world’s smartphones, and now they are diving into the world of driverless cars. Thenextweb.com says the chip maker has cut a deal with Nuro, a startup in the autonomous vehicle realm. The partnership aims to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving cars. Arm will bring its famed semiconductor IP to Nuro’s vehicles, starting with the startup’s delivery robots. In an only slightly hyped statement, ARM says ‘software is becoming the driver’ for cars! Arm is finding a nice place in the automotive segment…since 2020, they have nearly doubled their revenue in the sector. As for startup Nuro, they are shooting for level 4 autonomy, which doesn’t need a human driver under certain road conditions. They haven’t given any roadmap for how soon they think that will become a reality.

The AI push marches relentlessly on…Samsung is now going to bring its Galaxy AI features to more devices with a software update in March. The handsets affected are the Galaxy S23 series, S23 FE, Z Fold5, and Z Flip. The tablets that will get the AI include the Tab S9 Ultra, Tab S9+, and Tab 59. With this upcoming update, users will get access to Google’s “Circle to Search” feature, which lets users search from anywhere on their phone using gestures like circling, highlighting, scribbling or tapping. Another feature called Live Translate will provide voice and text translations for phone calls. Plus, users will get access to an “Interpreter” feature that generates text translations for live conversations.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Zuck Says Brain Signal Reading Wearable is Coming; Google Launches 2 New Open LLMs; iPhone 15 Quietly Got Battery Upgrade; Signal Adds Support for Usernames

Posted: February 21, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

We have Apple’s Vision Pro headset, and the Metaquest from Meta. Elon Musk put a brain implant in some poor soul that allegedly lets the guy move a mouse with his thoughts. As if that and AI weren’t enough, now Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is working on an electromyography neural interface wristband for tracking gesture controls via your brain waves! Androidcentral.com reports that Zuck mentioned the device on a podcast when asked about a future AI app that would ‘blow their minds’ The Meta CEO says that Meta is “kind of close to having something here that we’re gonna have in a product in the next few years.” He went on to say “In the future, you’ll essentially be able to type and control something by thinking about how you want to move your hand, but it won’t even be big motions, so I can just sit here, basically typing something to an AI.” Welcome to the brave new world!

Only a little over a week after unveiling the latest version of its Gemini AI, Google has announced the launch of Gemma, a new family of lightweight open-weight models. Starting with Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B, these new models were “inspired by Gemini” and are available for commercial and research usage. According to techcrunch.com, Google called the models ‘state of the art,’ but didn’t give much detail. Google also noted that these are open weights models, but not open source. They are available to developers and researchers to customize and fine tune, but not for redistribution…with ownership remaining with Google. Google is also releasing a new responsible generative AI toolkit to provide “guidance and essential tools for creating safer AI applications with Gemma,” as well as a debugging tool.

Here’s an upgrade iPhone 15 users got over previous iPhones that Apple never crowed about…and is actually quite useful. Through iPhone 14 models, iPhone batteries have been able to keep “80 percent of their original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions.” Now, mashable.com says a support page indicates that the iPhone 15 battery can keep 80 percent of its capacity at 1,000 charge cycles. I didn’t know this, but did find out a few weeks ago that the battery lasts a lot longer on a charge than my old iPhone 12. I packed 2 battery packs to do Disneyland with family…and never used them. In fact, I had plenty of juice left in the phone…over 25%…after 12 hours at the Happiest Place on Earth. The 2nd day, I appreciated not having to schlep 2 hefty batteries with me in the parks. Now, let’s hope for a breakthrough for EVs that will let the cars run even 8 hours on a charge…at 60 mph, that would be a 480 mile trip. I’ve driven lots further in the past, but these days, that’s far enough for my tired backside!

Signal is adding support for usernames and dropping requirements to use a phone number for conversations. Signal has been useful as an encrypted chat platform, but cnet.com reports that the latest beta lets you hide your phone number from others in the app by default…unless a previous contact already has it stored in their own phone’s contact app. Making it impossible for others to find you on Signal by phone number and only searchable by username will make the app more secure for users that crave or need encrypted chats. Note that you will still need to give your number to set up your account…so  the platform will have it. Signal is also adding a QR code option…like WhatsApp has…that will direct others to your username. Usernames must be unique and have 2 numbers at the end to minimize spoofing. The usernames are changeable, too. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Techinfied’ for now.

YouTube Dominates US TV Streaming-Nielson; Walmart Buying Vizio; iPhone 16 Rumor-Upgraded Microphones; US & Allies Police Take Down Cybercrime Giant LockBit

Posted: February 20, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Nielson’s January report…just out…on TV viewing and streaming has YouTube again the overall king of streaming services. Techcrunch.com reports that YouTube has 8.6% of viewing on TV screens. Netflix is close behind with 7.9% of the eyeballs. It has now been 12 consecutive months that YouTube has been able to hold on to the top spot. An interesting wrinkle: 61% of Gen Z reported that they favor user-generated content over other content formats. When it comes to mobile devices, it’s a different story. TikTok continues to dominate those. 

Walmart is going to acquire TV maker Vizio in a $2.3 billion deal. Rumors were floating about this last week, and now Walmart has made it official. According to theverge.com, Walmart says it is part of a move to boost its ad business. Vizio has more than 500 direct advertiser partnerships, thanks to its Vizio Platform Plus business — which the company says “now accounts for a majority of the company’s gross profit.” Vizio’s smart TV OS, SmartCast, is also used by more than 18 million active accounts. Walmart already has an existing Onn in-house brand of TVs, but owning Vizio will help the retailer better compete with affordable smart TVs from the likes of Amazon and Roku. Costco has sold a lot of Vizio sets…it will be interesting to see if they continue to sell them, or drop the line due to Walmart now making money off them. 

A rumor has resurfaced about iPhone 16 models…this one about better microphones with higher signal-to-noise ratios, allowing the handsets to hear your voice more clearly. Macrumors.com says this is mainly intended to improve the accuracy of Siri…which we all know is badly needed. Siri is also going to be getting generative AI features with iOS 18 later this year. Some of the AI features will be limited to the iPhone 16 models…not only due to the better microphones, but also a bigger neural engine in the A18 series chips. 

International law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Britain’s National Crime Agency have struck a huge blow to one of the world’s most prolific cybercrime gangs, LockBit. The agencies have frozen some 200 cryptocurrency accounts and snatched up a wealth of data…as well as seizing 11,000 domains and servers. The hackers have done billions worth of damage to organizations and extorted over $120 million in ransom payments and recovery costs. 5 defendants have been charged in the US…other gang members were busted in Ukraine and Poland, with more to come.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

EU Opens TikTok Investigation; Patent Office Denies OpenAI Trademark for ChatGPT; Switch 2 Bumped back to 2025; Apple May Get Dinged for a $538 Million Fine by EU

Posted: February 19, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The US has been scrutinizing TikTok, and now it is joined by the EU, and the European Commission has announce a formal probe into the social platform’s compliance (or lack thereof) with the Digital Services Act. The act, which was approved late last year and went into effect on Jan. 1, exists to legislate against things like illegal content, disinformation, and targeted advertising. Mashable.com reports that some of the things the EU is looking at include TikTok’s potential use of algorithmic systems to encourage addictive behavior, or what it calls a “rabbit hole effect.” In other words, they’re worried about if TikTok does too much to force you to keep looking at it. Other points of concern include privacy and safety for minors, advertising transparency, and proper age verification for users. If TikTok is found to be in violation of any DSA policies, it may have to fork over as much as 6 percent of its annual turnover. TikTok says it will cooperate with the investigation.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued two separate decisions denying OpenAI’s applications to trademark ‘ChatGPT’ and ‘GPT.’ According to geekwire.com, the AI company can appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal board within 90 days. The PTO wrote in their decisions that ‘Internet evidence shows that “CHAT” means “a synchronous exchange of remarks over a computer network.” Further, the evidence of record also establishes that “GPT” is a widely used acronym that means “generative pre trained transformers.” OpenAI’s partner Microsoft has applied for trademarks for their version, Copilot, as well as variations on Copilot in conjunction with other brand names. 

A lot of people have been itching to get a Nintendo Switch 2, but now it looks like that itch won’t get scratched until next year. Bgr.com says that a Brazilian game Journalist has heard from 5 separate sources that Nintendo now plans to launch the next version in early 2025. Previously, rumors had the Switch 2 coming out in the fall of this year in order to take advantage of the lucrative holiday selling season. Nintendo also plans to launch their switch 2 games early next year, which makes sense in light of the system coming out then.The original Switch is the third best selling video game console of all time, and it launched in March of 2017…so it’s definitely due for a refresh. 

The EU is considering a 500 euro fine…or $528 million over Apple Music’s treatment of competitors. Appleinsider.com reports that the European Commission is nearly finished with its investigation of whether Apple broke antitrust laws following a 2019 complaint from Spotify, and is on the verge of levying punishments. The official announcement may come in March. Along with the fine will come a ruling that Apple broke EU laws with its App Store anti-steering rules. Apple could be banned from preventing music streaming services from advising customers that they could get a better deal elsewhere than the App Store and the In-App Purchases system. These will apparently be referred to by the EU as “unfair trading conditions.” 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Meta Passing on ‘Apple Tax’ to Advertisers for Boosted Posts; OpenAI’s Sora Makes AI Prompts into Realistic Videos; Latest Galaxy Fold 6 Leak May Give Details About Apple’s Rumored Folding iPhone; GM Adds 750,000 Miles of Rural Roads to Super Cruise

Posted: February 15, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Meta will begin charging a 30% fee when advertisers pay to boost visibility of their posts in Facebook and Instagram iOS apps. Advertisers will start getting hit with the new ‘Apple Tax’ later this month. Theverge.com reports that it is in response to a move by Apple’s App Store in 2022 where Apple extended its typical 30 percent cut of digital purchases to boosted posts, which are essentially ads. The change particularly targeted Meta and other social apps that let people pay in app to increase the reach of their content. Meta notes in a statement that small business owners and influencers who want to purchase a boost on iOS will now be billed through Apple, “which retains a 30% service charge on the total ad payment, before any applicable taxes.” Meta says people can still purchase boosts from Instagram’s and Facebook’s websites on desktop or mobile to get around the Apple fee that is being passed on to iOS users.

More new territory that AI is claiming to conquer. So we know OpenAI can pass some bar exams without the need for law school. Now, according to Wired, a new OpenAI app called Sora is claimed to master cinema without going to film school. The app is being checked out by a few select creators and security experts right now. Google and a couple of startups have already revealed text-to-video AI projects, but OpenAI says that Sora is distinguished by its striking photorealism—something I haven’t seen in its competitors—and its ability to produce longer clips than the brief snippets other models typically do, up to one minute. It isn’t perfect…but has a reasonably realistic look to the video. When released, expect Sora to have similar restrictions as Dall-E 3…that is, no violence, no porn, no appropriating real people or the style of named artists. Also as with Dall-E 3, OpenAI will provide a way for viewers to identify the output as AI-created.

A new leak about upcoming Galaxy Fold 6 phones may also give a new clue about the rumored folding iPhone. Bgr.com says Samsung is incorporating new tech into the next generation of Fold phones, the Fold 6 that may be the same as what Apple has specified for its own upcoming folding iPhone. The key point is that Samsung will use thinner hinge parts on the Galaxy Fold 6, which will reduce weight and also improve durability and repairability. Also…and always a big deal to Apple…which seems to believe a device can never be too thin…it is expected to be about 11 mm thick, which is about the thickness of a regular, non-folding smartphone. Apple allegedly is planning a flip phone similar to the Galaxy Z Flip, and they want it to be as thin as current iPhones. At 11 mm, it would be about as thick as the original iPhone. That handset was 11.6 mm. The current ones are 8.25 mm. 

General Motors has announced a greatly expanded the area in which drivers can use Super Cruise. The General has added 750,000 miles of primarily rural roads and minor highways. Techcrunch.com reports that the upgrade should be complete by 2025. This will nearly double the 400,000 mile network presently available. Super Cruise has been around since 2017, and allows fully hands-free operation under the supervision of a driver, who must be ready to take control at any time. It uses highly accurate GPS, cameras, radar sensors and a driver attention system to ensure the operator is paying attention.

Super Cruise is available on 15 different GM models. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Microsoft & OpenAI-Hackers Now Using ChatGPT; Waymo Updates Robotaxi Software After Crashes; Your AI ‘Girlfriend’ = Data-Harvesting Horror Show; Sarah Silverman’s Copyright Suit vs OpenAI Advances

Posted: February 14, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s both unsurprising and scary. Microsoft and OpenAI say hackers are already using ChatGPT to improve their cyberattacks. Theverge.com reports that the companies have picked up attempts by Russian, North Korean, Iranian, and Chinese-backed groups using tools like ChatGPT for research into targets, to improve scripts, and to help build social engineering techniques. Hackers are using large language models  to help with “basic scripting tasks, including file manipulation, data selection, regular expressions, and multiprocessing, to potentially automate or optimize technical operations,” according to Microsoft. Both Microsoft and OpenAI say they haven’t detected any ‘significant attacks’ so far. Microsoft is building a Security Copilot, a new AI assistant that’s designed for cybersecurity professionals to identify breaches and better understand the huge amount of signals and data that’s generated through cybersecurity tools daily.

Waymo has voluntarily recalled the software that powers its robotaxi fleet after two vehicles crashed into the same towed pickup truck in Phoenix, Arizona, in December. It’s the company’s first recall. According to techcrunch.com, Waymo said the crashes were ‘minor’ and that neither vehicle was carrying passengers at the time. There were no injuries. Waymo operates its ride-hailing service in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. All Waymo robotaxis had been updated by January 12th. This has become much more important after competitor Cruise had to suspend operations after a couple accidents…including one in San Francisco where a Cruise car dragged a pedestrian it had hit. 

So, you are involved with an AI romance chatbot, huh? Well, you may not love this. Mozilla checked out 11 different AI romance chatbots, and they all got a ‘Privacy Not Included’ label. Gizmodo.com notes that the chatbots included popular apps such as Replika, Chai, Romantic AI, EVA AI Chat Bot & Soulmate, and CrushOn.AI. Ten of the 11 are selling or can sell your data, too! Some like CrushOn.AI collect info like sexual health, use of medication, and gender-affirming care. 90% of the apps may sell or share user data for targeted ads and other purposes, and more than half won’t let you delete the data they collect. Security was also a problem. Only one app, Genesia AI Friend & Partner, met Mozilla’s minimum security standards. Give yourself some self-love this Valentine’s Day and stay away from these data gobbling apps. 

Although stripped of a couple parts of the complaint, Sarah Silverman’s suit against OpenAI over their training AI models on her books without consent is moving forward. Engadget.com reports that the case’s primary claim that OpenAI directly infringed on copyrighted material by training LLMs on millions of books without permission survives. The court tossed causes of action for negligence, unjust enrichment, DMCA violations, and accusations of vicarious infringement. Other groups suing OpenAI for alleged copyright-related violations include The New York Times, a collection of nonfiction authors (a group that grew after the initial lawsuit) and The Author’s Guild. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

← Older Entries