ICT news

• Researcher Builds 'RightWingGPT' To Highlight Potential Bias In AI Systems

  22-03-2023 23:40 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  mspohr shares an excerpt from a New York Times article: When ChatGPT exploded in popularity as a tool using artificial intelligence to draft complex texts, David Rozado decided to test its potential for bias. A data scientist in New Zealand, he subjected the chatbot to a series of quizzes, searching for signs of political orientation. The results, published in a recent paper, were remarkably consistent across more than a dozen tests: "liberal," "progressive," "Democratic." So he tinkered with hi
  
  Read more

• Explosives Replace Malware As the Scariest Thing a USB Stick May Hide

  22-03-2023 23:02 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As reported by the Agence France-Presse (via CBS News) on Tuesday, five Ecuadorian journalists have received USB drives in the mail from Quinsaloma. Each of the USB sticks was meant to explode when activated. Upon receiving the drive, Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa TV station in Guayaquil inserted it into his computer, at which point it exploded. According to a police official who spoke with AFP, the journalist suffered mild hand and face inj
  
  Read more

• FCC Chair Proposes Ban on Deceptive 'Broadcast TV' and 'Regional Sports' Fees

  22-03-2023 22:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A new proposal targeting hidden fees charged by cable and satellite companies could force TV providers to clearly list their "all-in" prices. From a report The proposal announced today by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel would require cable and direct-broadcast satellite providers to "state the total cost of video programming service clearly and prominently, including broadcast retransmission consent, regional sports programming, and other programming-related fees
  
  Read more

• Pebble Might Be Coming Back - as a Small Android Phone

  22-03-2023 21:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Remember when Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky released an impassioned plea for someone, anyone, to make a small Android phone that would compete with the iPhone Mini? He's taking matters into his own hands. From a report: Now that Apple has stopped making new small phones, Migicovsky's Small Android Phone petition has evolved into a "community-based project" -- where that community includes a team working to design and produce the phone that Migicovsky wants. The petition got 38,700 signatures, a
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• New Microsoft Toolkit Will Measure Real-Time Xbox Energy Use

  22-03-2023 21:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  How much energy does it take to play Xbox? Microsoft is helping developers find out. At the 2023 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the company announced a new toolkit for developers to measure real-time energy consumption from Xbox games. From a report: The toolkit, which Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft calls the first of its kind in the industry, will allow developers using the Xbox platform to monitor real-time energy use of the games they create -- "down to the nearest millisec
  
  Read more

• Tron Founder Justin Sun Sued by US SEC on Securities, Market Manipulation Charges

  22-03-2023 20:39 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Justin Sun Wednesday on allegations of selling and airdropping unregistered securities, fraud and market manipulation. From a report: The SEC said in a press release it was suing Sun, the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation and BitTorrent (now known as Rainberry) over the sale of tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens, which it described as unregistered crypto asset securities. The regulator further alleged that the defendants "fraudulent
  
  Read more

• Job Listings Giant Indeed Lays Off 2,200 People, Representing 15% of Staff

  22-03-2023 20:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Job listings site Indeed.com told employees on Wednesday that it's laying off 2,200 people, representing 15% of its headcount. From a report: Indeed CEO Chris Hyams broke the news to employees in an all-hands meeting on Wednesday morning, saying that the cuts would affect teams across the company and attributing the decision to broader economic pressures, a person who attended the meeting said. Employees whose jobs were cut were notified via email following the meeting, the person added.Read mor
  
  Read more

• Taiwan Pursues Internet Satellite Service Ahead of Potential Chinese Invasion

  22-03-2023 19:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An ongoing internet disruption on one of Taiwan's islands is accelerating the self-governed territory's plans to launch an independent satellite network like SpaceX's Starlink, which would help ensure it remains connected in a potential Chinese invasion. From a report: Taiwan's National Communication Commission blamed Chinese vessels last month for cutting two undersea cables providing high-speed internet to Matsu, a Taiwanese island located only a few nautical miles off the coast of China's Fuj
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• New Victims Come Forward After Mass-Ransomware Attack

  22-03-2023 19:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The number of victims affected by a mass-ransomware attack, caused by a bug in a popular data transfer tool used by businesses around the world, continues to grow as another organization tells TechCrunch that it was also hacked. From the report: Canadian financing giant Investissement Quebec confirmed to TechCrunch that "some employee personal information" was recently stolen by a ransomware group that claimed to have breached dozens of other companies. Spokesperson Isabelle Fontaine said the in
  
  Read more

• Counter-Strike 2 Confirmed For Summer 2023 Release, Limited Test Begins Today

  22-03-2023 17:54 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Valve just announced that Counter-Strike 2, made in Source Engine 2, will be released in Summer 2023. From a report: Accompanying the announcement, Valve also released three videos teasing what to expect in the Counter-Strike's massive and transformative update. Leveling up the World shows off the upgraded maps and overhauls, Moving Beyond Tick Rate announces that tick rate will no longer matter (moving and shooting will be "equally responsive"), and Responsive Smokes details the new "dynamic vo
  
  Read more

• The Spy Law That Big Tech Wants To Limit

  22-03-2023 17:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Top tech companies are mounting a push to limit how US intelligence agencies collect and view texts, emails and other information about their users, especially American citizens. From a report: The companies, including Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms and Apple, want Congress to limit Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as they work to renew the law before it expires at the end of the year, according to three people familiar with the discussions. There is a growing biparti
  
  Read more

• Supreme Court Ponders a Surprisingly Difficult Case About Poop Jokes

  22-03-2023 17:06 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Supreme Court will take a break on Wednesday from the unusually political mix of cases it decided to hear during its current term, to consider a case about poop jokes. From a report: Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products asks whether VIP Products, the nation's second-largest maker of dog toys, infringed upon the whiskey maker's trademarked bottle shape and label when it sold dog toys that resemble a bottle of Jack Daniel's. The dog toy, named "Bad Spaniels," juxtaposes imagery drawn from the whiskey
  
  Read more

• Mozilla Launches a New Startup Focused on 'Trustworthy' AI

  22-03-2023 16:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  On the eve of its 25th anniversary, Mozilla, the not-for-profit behind the Firefox browser, is launching an AI-focused startup. From a report: Called Mozilla.ai, the newly forged company's mission isn't to build just any AI -- its mission is to build AI that's open source and "trustworthy," according to Mark Surman, the executive president of Mozilla and the head of Mozilla.ai. "Working on trustworthy AI for almost five years, I've constantly felt a mix of excitement and anxiety," he told TechCr
  
  Read more

• Microsoft's GitHub To Add OpenAI Chat Functions To Coding Tool

  22-03-2023 15:43 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft's GitHub unit created one of the first widely deployed programs using OpenAI's language-generation tools -- an app called Copilot that helped software developers write computer code. Now GitHub is adding a chat and voice feature that will let programmers ask how to accomplish certain coding tasks. From a report: The new version announced Wednesday is called Copilot X, which GitHub Chief Executive Officer Thomas Dohmke said he demonstrated to one of his children by asking it how to prog
  
  Read more

• Turing Award Won by Co-Inventor of Ethernet Technology

  22-03-2023 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  In the 1970s, Bob Metcalfe helped develop the primary technology that lets you send email or connect with a printer over an office network. From a report: In June 1972, Bob Metcalfe, a 26-year-old engineer fresh out of graduate school, joined a new research lab in Palo Alto, Calif., as it set out to build something that few people could even imagine: a personal computer. After another engineer gave up the job, Dr. Metcalfe was asked to build a technology that could connect the desktop machines a
  
  Read more

• Researchers Design Robot That Can 3D Print a Cake With Up To Seven Ingredients

  22-03-2023 14:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Researchers have designed a robot that can create and cook a cake with up to seven ingredients, more than any other printed food to date. The scientists built their programmable patisserie by retrofitting a 3D printer with nozzles designed to squeeze out selected ingredients. They then programmed it to dispense those into layered cakes. Initial trials resulted in triangular gobs of sweet goo, so the researchers came up with a winning recipe tha
  
  Read more

• 3DS, Wii U eShop Shutdown Leaves Archivists In the Wind, Hobbyists Pick Up the Pieces

  22-03-2023 11:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  On March 27th, Nintendo's eShop for its 3DS and Wii U consoles will be shut down. With many of the titles being original to those consoles and not available anywhere else, it's left archivists and historians scrambling to preserve them before it's too late. However, those preservation plans get complicated given Nintendo's litigious nature on matters of intellectual property. Techdirt's Timothy Geigner writes: Preventing the gaming public from continuing to buy games that rely on a company-opera
  
  Read more

• RNA Molecule Uracil Found In Asteroid Ryugu Samples

  22-03-2023 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers have analyzed samples of the asteroid Ryugu collected by the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft and found uracil, one of the informational units that make up RNA, the molecules that contain the instructions for how to build and operate living organisms. Nicotinic acid, also known as Vitamin B3 or niacin, which is an important cofactor for metabolism in living organisms, was also detected in the same samples. Phys.Org reports: This discovery by an international team, led by
  
  Read more

• Psychedelic Brew Ayahuasca's Profound Impact Revealed In Brain Scans

  22-03-2023 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The brew is so potent that practitioners report not only powerful hallucinations, but near-death experiences, contact with higher-dimensional beings, and life-transforming voyages through alternative realities. Often before throwing up, or having trouble at the other end. Now, scientists have gleaned deep insights of their own by monitoring the brain on DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, the psychedelic compound found in Psychotria viridis, the flo
  
  Read more

• The World Saw a Record 9.6% Growth In Renewables In 2022

  22-03-2023 03:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  By the end of 2022, global renewable generation capacity amounted to 3,372 gigawatts (GW), growing the stock of renewable power by 295 GW or 9.6%, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Renewables produced an overwhelming 83% of all power capacity added last year. Electrek reports: Renewable Capacity Statistics 2023, released today by IRENA, shows that renewable energy continues to grow at record levels despite global uncertainties, confirming the downward trend of fossi
  
  Read more

• Google Defends Auto-Deletion of Chats After US Alleged It Destroyed Evidence

  22-03-2023 02:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Google defended its use of "history-off chats" for many internal communications, denying the US government's allegation that it intentionally destroyed evidence needed in an antitrust case. The history-off setting causes messages to be automatically deleted within 24 hours. Ars Technica reports: The US government and 21 states last month asked a court to sanction Google for allegedly using the auto-delete function on chats to destroy evidence and accused Google of falsely telling the government
  
  Read more

• Roblox Launches Its First Generative AI Game Creation Tools

  22-03-2023 01:45 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Roblox is launching its first set of generative AI game creation tools: Code Assist and Material Generator. Engadget reports: Although neither tool is anywhere close to generating a playable Roblox experience from a text description, Head of Roblox Studio Stef Corazza told an audience at GDC 2023 that they can "help automate basic coding tasks so you can focus on creative work." For now, that means being able to generate useful code snippets and object textures based on short prompts. Roblox's a
  
  Read more

• Last Energy Signs Deal Worth $19 Billion For Nuclear Plants In Europe

  22-03-2023 01:02 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Last Energy Inc., a startup developing advanced, smaller nuclear power plants, completed four deals worth $18.9 billion to build 34 reactors in Europe. The Washington-based company expects to install the first of its 20-megawatt systems as soon as 2025, Chief Executive Officer Bret Kugelmass said in an interview Monday. Last is building its first system in Texas, but is still seeking approval from regulators in Poland and the UK, where it close
  
  Read more

• Russian Developers Blocked From Contributing To FOSS Tools

  22-03-2023 00:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Reg has seen two recent incidents of Russian developers being blocked from public development of FOSS code. One was a refusal on the Linux kernel mailing list, the other a more general block on Github. In the last week, these events have both caused active, and sometimes heated, discussions in FOSS developer communities. From the report: The GitHub account of developer Alexander Amelkin has been blocked, and his repositories marked as "archived" â" including ipmitool, whose README desc
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!