ICT news

• Replika Users Say the AI Chatbot Has Gotten Way Too Horny

  12-01-2023 23:40 via slashdot.org
  samleecole shares a report from Motherboard: Replika began as an "AI companion who cares." First launched five years ago, the chatbot app was originally meant to function like a conversational mirror: the more users talked to it, in theory, the more it would learn how to talk back. It uses its own GPT-3 model -- the viral AI language generator by OpenAI -- and scripted dialogue content to build a "relationship" with you. Romantic role-playing wasn't always a part of Replika's model, but where pe
  
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• Exxon Climate Predictions Were Accurate Decades Ago. Still It Sowed Doubt

  12-01-2023 23:02 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Decades of research by scientists at Exxon accurately predicted how much global warming would occur from burning fossil fuels, according to a new study in the journal Science. The findings clash with an enormously successful campaign that Exxon spearheaded and funded for more than 30 years which cast doubt on human-driven climate change and the science underpinning it. That narrative helped delay federal and international action on climate change, ev
  
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• UK Treasury Considers Plan For Digital Pound

  12-01-2023 22:25 via news.slashdot.org
  The government is considering introducing a "digital pound," the economic secretary to the Treasury has told MPs. From a report: The UK was committed to becoming a world crypto hub, Andrew Griffith said. And the government was "a long way down the road... to establish a regime for the wholesale use, for payment purposes, of stablecoins." Stablecoins are designed to have a predictable value linked to traditional currencies or assets such as gold.
  The currency, for use by households and businesses
  
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• Japan Bets Big on Bringing Semiconductor Manufacturing Home

  12-01-2023 21:40 via slashdot.org
  To get back some of the high-tech mojo that made it an economic powerhouse, Japan is launching an ambitious program to bring back cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing, a field it ceded to Taiwan, South Korea, and China nearly 20 years ago. But will this new campaign at state-backed industrial policy succeed, and more importantly, is it even the right goal? From a report: The new initiatives are part of a broader strategy of greater "economic security" under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's adm
  
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• Fossil Fuel Producers Must Be Forced To 'Take Back' Carbon, Say Scientists

  12-01-2023 21:01 via news.slashdot.org
  Fossil fuel companies should be forced to "take back" the carbon dioxide emitted from their products, handing them direct responsibility for cleaning up the climate, a group of scientists has argued. From a report: The principle that the producer of pollution should pay for its clean-up is established around the world, but has never been applied to the climate crisis. Yet technology to capture and store carbon dioxide underground is advancing, and is now technically feasible, according to Myles
  
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• NASA's Webb Telescope Discovers Its First Exoplanet

  12-01-2023 20:20 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA's Webb telescope has discovered an exoplanet, which is any planet that is outside of our solar system, for the first time, the agency announced Wednesday. From a report: The planet, called LHS 475 b, is nearly the same size as Earth, having 99% of our planet's diameter, scientists said. However, it is several hundred degrees hotter than Earth and completes its orbit around its star in two days. LHS 475 b is in the constellation Octans and is 41 light-years away, which is relatively nearby.
  
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• 3D Printing Reaches New Heights With Two-Story Home

  12-01-2023 19:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  A 3D printer is taking home building to a new level -- literally. From a report: The enormous printer weighing more than 12 tons is creating what is believed to be the first 3D-printed, two-story home in the United States. The machine steadily hums away as it extrudes layers of concrete to build the 4,000-square-foot home in Houston. Construction will take a total of 330 hours of printing, said architect Leslie Lok, co-founder of design studio Hannah and designer of the home. "You can actually f
  
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• JP Morgan Says Startup Founder Used Millions Of Fake Customers To Dupe It Into An Acquisition

  12-01-2023 19:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  JPMorgan Chase is suing the 30-year-old founder of Frank, a buzzy fintech startup it acquired for $175 million, for allegedly lying about its scale and success by creating an enormous list of fake users to entice the financial giant to buy it. Forbes: Frank, founded by former CEO Charlie Javice in 2016, offers software aimed at improving the student loan application process for young Americans seeking financial aid. Her lofty goals to build the startup into "an Amazon for higher education" won s
  
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• FCC's Robocaller Crackdown Brings Stark Warning for Voice Providers

  12-01-2023 18:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  The US Federal Communications Commission is continuing its battle against illegal robocalls. In its latest move, the agency on Wednesday issued cease-and-desist warnings to two more companies. From a report: The warning letters indicate that voice service providers SIPphony and Vultik must "end their apparent support of illegal robocall traffic or face serious consequences," according to an FCC announcement. The FCC says its investigations show that Vultik and SIPphony have allowed illegal roboc
  
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• Apple Promises To Disclose More Details About App Removals

  12-01-2023 17:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple has promised to enhance disclosures about why it expels certain apps from its App Store, following claims that the tech giant's secretive decision-making process threatens freedom of expression in countries such as China and Russia. From a report: Activist investors secured the commitment from Apple earlier this month, according to three people familiar with the agreement. Last March nearly a third of shareholders at its annual meeting backed a resolution calling for greater transparency i
  
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• With PC Sales Down, Laptop Makers Turn To Services

  12-01-2023 17:05 via tech.slashdot.org
  The PC market is in rough waters, and it was for much of last year. Every PC maker except Apple saw year-over-year decline. Laptop sales are said to have suffered the most. From a report: This all made for a somewhat uncertain backdrop heading into CES 2023, the annual conference where tech companies show off the products they'll be releasing in 2023. Throughout the show, executives and representatives from various PC manufacturers acknowledged that the industry has a big task ahead of it this y
  
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• Drupal Releases Security Update to Address Vulnerability in Private Taxonomy Terms

  12-01-2023 17:04 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: January 12, 2023
  Drupal has released a security update to address a vulnerability affecting private vocabulary modules for Drupal 8.x. An unauthorized user could exploit this vulnerability to bypass access permissions to create, modify, and delete private vocabulary terms.CISA encourages users and administrators to review Drupal’s security advisory SA-CONTRIB-2023-001 and apply the necessary update. This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Priva
  
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• Microsoft Combat Goggles Falter as Congress Says No To Buying More

  12-01-2023 16:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  Microsoft won't be getting more orders for its combat goggles anytime soon after Congress rejected the US Army's request for $400 million to buy as many as 6,900 of them this fiscal year. From a report: The rejection of the request, in the $1.75 trillion government funding bill, reflects concern over field tests of the goggles, which are adapted from Microsoft's HoloLens headsets. The tests disclosed "mission-affecting physical impairments" including headaches, eyestrain and nausea.
  Instead, law
  
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• Intel Unveils Core i9-13900KS

  12-01-2023 15:53 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Initially mentioned during their Innovation 2022 opening keynote by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, Intel has unveiled its highly anticipated 6 GHz out-of-the-box processor, the Core i9-13900KS. The Core i9-13900KS has 24-cores (8P+16E) within its hybrid architecture design of performance and efficiency cores, with the exact fundamental specifications of the Core i9-13900K, but with an impressive P-core turbo of up to 6 GHz. From a report: Based on Intel's Raptor Lake-S desktop series, Intel claims tha
  
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• US Inflation Cools Again, Giving Fed Room To Downshift on Rates

  12-01-2023 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  US inflation continued to slow in December, adding to evidence price pressures have peaked and offering the Federal Reserve room to slow the pace of interest-rate hikes next month. From a report: Excluding food and energy, the consumer price index rose 0.3% last month and was up 5.7% from a year earlier, according to a Labor Department report Thursday. Economists see the gauge -- known as the core CPI -- as a better indicator of underlying inflation than the headline measure. The overall CPI fel
  
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• The Guardian Says Ransomware Attack Compromised Staff's Personal Data

  12-01-2023 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Last month, The Guardian closed its offices after being hit by a "highly sophisticated" ransomware attack. In an update to staff, Guardian group chief Anna Bateson and newspaper editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said intruders were able to access the personal data of UK employees. Engadget reports: They described the incident as a "highly sophisticated cyber-attack involving unauthorised third-party access to parts of our network," most likely triggered by a "phishing" attempt in which the victim
  
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• Russia To Rescue ISS Crew On Backup Rocket After Capsule Leak

  12-01-2023 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Russia said on Wednesday it would launch another Soyuz spacecraft next month to bring home two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut from the International Space Station after their original capsule was struck by a micrometeoroid and started leaking last month. The leak came from a tiny puncture -- less than 1 millimeter wide -- on the external cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule, one of two return capsules docked to the ISS that can bring crew m
  
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• A Corrupt File Led To the FAA Ground Stoppage

  12-01-2023 07:04 via news.slashdot.org
  According to CNN, the Federal Aviation Administration system outage on Wednesday has been traced to a corrupt file. From the report: In a statement late Wednesday, the FAA said it was continuing to investigate the outage and "take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again." "Our preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file. At this time, there is no evidence of a cyberattack," the FAA said. The FAA is still trying to determine whether any one p
  
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• CISA Releases Twelve Industrial Control Systems Advisories

  12-01-2023 06:00 via us-cert.cisa.gov
  Original release date: January 12, 2023
  CISA released twelve Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on January 12, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS. CISA encourages users and administrators to review the newly released ICS advisories for technical details and mitigations:ICSA-23-012-01 Sewio RTLS StudioICSA-23-012-02 RONDS Equipment Predictive Maintenance SolutionICSA-23-012-03 InHand Networks
  
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• Nuclear Reactor Mystery Solved, With No Need For New Particles

  12-01-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: A physics mystery has come to an end, with a resolution about as shocking as "the butler did it." For a decade, physicists have pondered why nuclear reactors pump out fewer particles called neutrinos than predicted. Some suggested the elusive bits of matter might be morphing into weirder, undetectable "sterile" neutrinos. Instead, new results pin down what other experiments had suggested: that theorists overestimated how many neutrinos a reacto
  
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• DirecTV Lays Off Hundreds of Managers As Cord Cutting Accelerates

  12-01-2023 03:02 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  DirecTV is laying off hundreds of employees -- roughly 10% of its upper ranks -- as the company looks to reduce costs amid the heightened pain of cord cutting for pay-TV providers, according to people familiar with the matter. CNBC reports: Most of the job cuts will be at the manager level, the people said, citing an email to employees sent on Friday. Managers make up about half of DirecTV's fewer than 10,000 employees, one of the people said. The affected employees' last day will be Jan. 20. "T
  
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• Apple Reportedly Working On Touchscreen Macs, Including MacBook Pro

  12-01-2023 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Despite years of resistance, Apple is now working on adding touchscreens to Macs, according to a report today from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The report claims that a new MacBook Pro with an OLED display could be the first touchscreen Mac in 2025. MacRumors reports: Gurman said Apple engineers are "actively engaged in the project," indicating that the company is "seriously considering" producing touchscreen Macs. The first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen would retain a traditional laptop design wit
  
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• Microsoft Employees Are Getting Unlimited Time Off

  12-01-2023 01:45 via slashdot.org
  In a memo seen by The Verge, Microsoft's chief people officer, Kathleen Hogan, announced that the company is giving its U.S. employees unlimited time off. "Microsoft is calling its unlimited time off 'Discretionary Time Off,' and it will apply to all salaried U.S. employees," adds The Verge. From the report: The changes will start on January 16th and mean even new Microsoft employees don't need to wait to accrue vacation time anymore. Microsoft will offer 10 corporate holidays, leaves of absence
  
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• A Government Watchdog Spent $15,000 To Crack a Federal Agency's Passwords In Minutes

  12-01-2023 01:03 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A government watchdog has published a scathing rebuke of the Department of the Interior's cybersecurity posture, finding it was able to crack thousands of employee user accounts because the department's security policies allow easily guessable passwords like 'Password1234'. The report by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior, tasked with oversight of the U.S. executive agency that manages the country's federal
  
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• Native Americans Ask Apache Foundation To Change Name

  12-01-2023 00:20 via apache.slashdot.org
  Natives in Tech, a US-based non-profit organization, has called upon the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) to change its name, out of respect for indigenous American peoples and to live up to its own code of conduct. The Register reports: In a blog post, Natives in Tech members Adam Recvlohe, Holly Grimm, and Desiree Kane have accused the ASF of appropriating Indigenous culture for branding purposes. Citing ASF founding member Brian Behlendorf's description in the documentary "Trillions and Trill
  
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