ICT news

• Microsoft Will Launch ChatGPT 4 With AI Videos Next Week

  10-03-2023 23:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft Germany announced that the company is set to launch GPT-4 as early as next week, "and it will potentially let you create AI-generated videos from simple text prompts," reports Digital Trends. From the report: The news was revealed by Andreas Braun, Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft Germany, at a recent event titled "AI in Focus -- Digital Kickoff" (via Heise). According to Braun, "We will introduce GPT-4 next week ... we will have multimodal models that will offer completely differ
  
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• Congressman Reintroduces 32-Hour Workweek Law To 'Increase the Happiness of Humankind'

  10-03-2023 23:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Rep. Mark Takano, who represents California's 39th district, has reintroduced his 32-hour Workweek Act to Congress, which, if passed, would officially reduce the standard definition of the workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act. His proposal would mandate overtime pay for any work done after 32 hours, which would encourage business to either pay workers more for longer hours, or shorten their week and hire more p
  
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• The Future of TV is Up in the Air

  10-03-2023 22:22 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Broadcasters are betting that antennas and modern DVRs will help them stay relevant. But a stalled transition to ATSC 3.0 and massive growth of linear streaming services could throw a wrench into those plans. From a report: Antenna television is back. In recent years, millions of cord-cutters have rediscovered antennas as a reliable way to watch broadcast networks like ABC, NBC, and FOX, all for free -- and now, broadcasters are eager to get the rest of us hooked. They've been marching ahead wit
  
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• Biggest Carbon Credit Certifier To Replace Its Rainforest Offsets Scheme

  10-03-2023 21:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The world's leading carbon credit certifier -- used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations for climate claims -- has said it will phase out and replace its rainforest offsets programme by mid-2025 after a Guardian investigation found it was flawed. From a report: Verra, the main guarantee of credibility for the rapidly growing $2bn voluntary offsets market, has committed to scrapping its rainforest protection programme by July 2025 and introducing new rules, which it is developing. A
  
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• US Strengthens Tech Ties With India But Doesn't Seek Decoupling From China, Raimondo Says

  10-03-2023 21:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. government is not seeking to "decouple" from China, nor is it seeking "technological decoupling," but Washington "would like to see India achieve its aspirations to play a larger role in the electronics supply chain," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Friday. From a report: On its part, the U.S. signed a memorandum of understanding with India on Friday to cooperate in the semiconductor sector. The semiconductor industries in both the nations are beginning to assess the resil
  
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• House Votes To Declassify Info About Origins of COVID-19

  10-03-2023 20:21 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The House voted unanimously on Friday to declassify U.S. intelligence information about the origins of COVID-19, a sweeping show of bipartisan support near the third anniversary of the start of the deadly pandemic. From a report: The 419-0 vote was final approval of the bill, sending it to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law. Debate was brief and to the point: Americans have questions about how the deadly virus started and what can be done to prevent future outbreaks. "The American
  
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• Vinyl Outsold CDs for the First Time Since 1987

  10-03-2023 19:45 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has revealed in its annual revenue report that vinyl sales have outpaced CD sales for the first time since 1987. From a report: Sales of physical music formats, like vinyl, CDs, and cassette tapes, saw a 4% increase from 2021 to 2022, but last year vinyl made up $1.2 billion of the $1.7 billion in physical media sales according to the report. In physical units, records outsold CDs 41.3 million to 33.4 million, respectively -- RIAA says this is
  
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• Backblaze Finds SSDs Are More Reliable Than HDDs

  10-03-2023 19:15 via it.slashdot.org
  
  williamyf writes: The fine folks at Backblaze have published their first ever report that includes their SSD fleet. To the surprise of no one, SSDs are more more reliable (0.98% AFR) than HDDs (1.64% AFR). The surprising thing thing was how small the difference is (0.66% AFR).
  A TL;DR article by well regarded storage reporter Chris Mellor is here. Also worthy of note: S.M.A.R.T. attribute usage among SSD makers is neither standardized, nor very smart:"Klein notes that the SMART (Self-Monitoring,
  
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• FTC Seeks To Block Intercontinental Exchange's $11.7 Billion Black Knight Deal

  10-03-2023 18:36 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Federal Trade Commission has voted to sue to block Intercontinental Exchange from completing its $11.7 billion acquisition of mortgage software provider Black Knight. From a report: The antitrust agency said the deal would lead to higher prices for software that lenders use to generate mortgages. Higher prices would be passed on to home buyers, the FTC said. The FTC's lawsuit, filed in its administrative court, is a setback for Intercontinental Exchange's efforts to become a big player in th
  
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• SVB Fails as FDIC Takes Over and Appoints a Receiver

  10-03-2023 17:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Bloomberg News: Silicon Valley Bank was closed Friday by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver, the FDIC said in a statement. All insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning, the FDIC said. Uninsured depositors will get a receivership certificate for the remaining amount of their uninsured funds, the FDIC said. As the agency sells off Silicon Valley Bank's assets,
  
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• Telehealth Startup Cerebral Shared Millions of Patients' Data With Advertisers

  10-03-2023 17:01 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Cerebral has revealed it shared the private health information, including mental health assessments, of more than 3.1 million patients in the United States with advertisers and social media giants like Facebook, Google, and TikTok. From a report: The telehealth startup, which exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic after rolling lockdowns and a surge in online-only virtual health services, disclosed the security lapse in a filing with the federal government that it shared patients' p
  
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• Belgium Bans TikTok From Federal Government Work Phones

  10-03-2023 16:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Belgian federal government employees will no longer be allowed to use the Chinese-owned video app TikTok on their work phones, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Friday. From a report: De Croo said the Belgian national security council had warned of the risks associated with the large amounts of data collected by TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, and the fact that the company is required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services. "That is the reality," the pri
  
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• Silicon Valley Bank Financial in Talks To Sell Itself After Attempts To Raise Capital Failed

  10-03-2023 15:42 via slashdot.org
  
  SVB Financial, parent of Silicon Valley Bank, is in talks to sell itself, sources told CNBC's David Faber. From the report: Attempts by the bank to raise capital have failed, the sources said, and the bank has hired advisors to explore a potential sale. Large financial institutions are looking at a potential purchase of SVB. Shares of the bank fell 60% on Thursday after SVB announced a plan Wednesday evening to raise more than $2 billion in capital. The stock fell another 60% in premarket tradin
  
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• Meta is Building a Decentralized, Text-Based Social Network

  10-03-2023 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Twitter's decline is paving the way for other platforms to build next-generation replacements. And now the biggest player in the game is getting involved: Meta is in the early stages of building a dedicated app for people to post text-based updates. From a report: "We're exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates," the company told Platformer exclusively in an email. "We believe there's an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can sh
  
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• Google Dusts Off the Failed Google+ Playbook To Fight ChatGPT

  10-03-2023 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  According to Bloomberg, Google wants to build AI into everything to fight OpenAI's ChatGPT. Google issued "a directive that all of its most important products -- those with more than a billion users -- must incorporate generative AI within months."Ars Technica's Ron Amadeo likens it to the company's failed Google+ playbook from 2011. To combat Facebook's rising popularity, then-Google CEO Larry Page directed employees to build social features into everything. YouTube comments were tied to Google
  
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• Denmark Inaugurates World's First Cross-Border CO2 Storage Site

  10-03-2023 11:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  New submitter sonlas writes: Denmark is inaugurating Project Greensand, the first cross-border CO2 storage site, shipping CO2 from Belgium to store it into a depleted oil field under the Danish North Sea. "With the first injection taking place on Wednesday, the project aims to safely and permanently store up to eight million tons of CO2 every year by 2030, the equivalent of 40% of Denmark's emission reduction target and over 10% of the country's annual emissions," reports Euractiv. However, this
  
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• Newly Discovered Asteroid Has a '1 In 560 Chance' of Hitting Earth In 2046

  10-03-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A newly discovered asteroid roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool has a "small chance" of colliding with Earth in 23 years, with a potential impact on Valentine's Day in 2046, according to NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. From a report: The asteroid has a 1 in 625 chance of striking Earth, based on data projections from the European Space Agency, though NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Sentry system calculated the odds closer to 1 in 560. The latter tracks potential collisi
  
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• Scientists Discover Enzyme That Turns Air Into Electricity

  10-03-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Australian scientists have discovered an enzyme that converts air into energy. The finding, published in the journal Nature, reveals that this enzyme uses the low amounts of the hydrogen in the atmosphere to create an electrical current. This finding opens the way to create devices that literally make energy from thin air. The research team, led by Dr. Rhys Grinter, Ph.D. student Ashleigh Kropp, and Professor Chris Greening from the Monash Unive
  
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• Wing Debuts a Rideshare-Style Drone Delivery Network

  10-03-2023 03:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Alphabet's Wing is debuting a Wing Delivery Network platform that relies on decentralized and highly automated pickups. Engadget reports: Drones charge and deliver in whatever locations make the most sense for the broader system. If demand surges in a given area, more drones can operate around the nearest pads. Crucially, your local restaurant or store doesn't have to do much to take advantage of the network. An AutoLoader system lets shops simply latch a package to a curbside pickup location an
  
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• 2024 Ford Mustang Drops AM Radio From Infotainment

  10-03-2023 02:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  The new 2024 Ford Mustang is losing its AM radio receiver, reports The Drive. A Ford spokesperson confirmed the feature's deletion, citing that "countries and automakers globally are modernizing radio by offering internet streaming through mobile apps, FM, or digital." From the report: The availability of AM radio in new cars has declined over the last decade with shifts in media consumption habits, with AM radio's audience evaporating in Europe and accounting for only a small minority of the U.
  
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• Disney Reconsiders Making Content For Others

  10-03-2023 01:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Disney CEO Bob Iger Thursday said the studio may resume making films and television shows for its rivals, marking a departure from recent years, when its production resources were harnessed to launch and grow its marquee Disney+ steaming service. Reuters reports: Iger told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco that streaming services have traditionally relied on a volume of fresh content to attract subscribers. He said he hopes to embrace a more curated HBO
  
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• WhatsApp Would Not Remove End-To-End Encryption For UK Law, Says Chief

  10-03-2023 01:10 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: WhatsApp would refuse to comply with requirements in the online safety bill that attempted to outlaw end-to-end encryption, the chat app's boss has said, casting the future of the service in the UK in doubt. Speaking during a UK visit in which he will meet legislators to discuss the government's flagship internet regulation, Will Cathcart, Meta's head of WhatsApp, described the bill as the most concerning piece of legislation currently being
  
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• Data Breach Hits 'Hundreds' of Lawmakers And Staff On Capitol Hill

  10-03-2023 00:30 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A top House official said that a "significant data breach" at the health insurance marketplace for Washington, D.C., on Tuesday potentially exposed personal identifiable information of hundreds of lawmakers and staff. NBC News reports: In a letter obtained by NBC News, Chief Administrative Officer Catherine L. Szpindor said Wednesday that the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI had alerted her to a data breach at DC Health Link, the Affordable Care Act online marketplace that administers health care
  
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