ICT news

• Amnesty International Criticised for Using AI-Generated Images

  04-05-2023 23:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  While the systemic brutality used by Colombian police to quell national protests in 2021 was real and is well documented, photos recently used by Amnesty International to highlight the issue were not. The international human rights advocacy group has come under fire for posting images generated by artificial intelligence in order to promote their reports on social media -- and has since removed them. From a report: The images, including one of a woman being dragged away by police officers, depic
  
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• HDDs Typically Failed in Under 3 Years in Backblaze Study of 17,155 Failed Drives

  04-05-2023 22:41 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: We recently covered a study by Secure Data Recovery, an HDD, SSD, and RAID data recovery company, of 2,007 defective hard disk drives it received. It found the average time before failure among those drives to be 2 years and 10 months. That seemed like a short life span, but considering the limited sample size and analysis in Secure Data Recovery's report, there was room for skepticism. Today, Backblaze, a backup and cloud storage company with a reputation fo
  
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• 'Just Making Great Games' Won't Change Xbox Console Market Share, Says Spencer

  04-05-2023 22:01 via games.slashdot.org
  
  While claiming that "the console is the core of the Xbox brand," Microsoft's head of gaming has reiterated the company needs to focus on the wider gaming market if it's to be successful. From a report: During the Kinda Funny Games Xcast podcast, Spencer was asked if Xbox has taken its eye off the console market by focusing too much on PC. In response, Spencer said Microsoft would be wrong to think that just building great console titles could help it overtake Sony and Nintendo in terms of hardwa
  
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• Microsoft Offers To Charge for Teams To Address EU Antitrust Concerns

  04-05-2023 21:21 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has offered to charge different prices for its Office product with and without its Teams app to stave off a possible EU antitrust investigation and fine, two people familiar with the matter said. From a report: Microsoft has been seeking to address the EU competition enforcer's concerns since last year after Salesforce-owned workspace messaging app Slack complained to the European Commission, other people familiar with the matter told Reuters in December. Slack in 2020 alleged that Mic
  
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• Google Shared AI Knowledge With the World - Until ChatGPT Caught Up

  04-05-2023 20:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  For years Google published scientific research that helped jump-start its competitors. But now it's lurched into defensive mode. From a report: In February, Jeff Dean, Google's longtime head of artificial intelligence, announced a stunning policy shift to his staff: They had to hold off sharing their work with the outside world. For years Dean had run his department like a university, encouraging researchers to publish academic papers prolifically; they pushed out nearly 500 studies since 2019,
  
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• Google Announces the Pixel Fold

  04-05-2023 20:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The rumors are true: next week, Google will introduce its first foldable phone, the Pixel Fold, during the Google I/O 2023 event. From a report: Google hasn't revealed any specs for the device, but a brief teaser video shows off a full-size outer display on a phone that opens up similarly to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold devices. The camera bar on the back is similar to other Pixel devices but doesn't stick out as prominently, reflecting what we've seen in leaked marketing materials and even a hands-o
  
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• Shopify Lays Off 20% of Employees As It Embraces More Cost-Cutting

  04-05-2023 19:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Shopify said on Thursday it would lay off 20% of employees and would sell its logistics business to Flexport, as the e-commerce company pushes to cut costs further and refocus on its core business. From a report: Shopify's first quarter revenue increased 25% from the same period last year to $1.5 billion, topping the company's own guidance for revenue growth in the high-teen percentages. Executives said on Thursday they expected revenue for the second quarter to grow at a similar rate to the fir
  
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• Hackers Hit Dallas City Servers, Limiting Some Police and IT Systems

  04-05-2023 18:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Dallas is experiencing IT and police communication outages following a ransomware attack on municipal systems. From a report: City officials said in a statement Wednesday that hackers had compromised "a number of servers" and that they were working with vendors to try to control the spread of malware. With a ransomware attack, hackers lock up victims' data or knock services offline, then demand an extortion payment. "We have been having a system shutdown for the past two days now," a Dallas 311
  
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• Khan Academy Piloting a Version of GPT Called Khanmigo

  04-05-2023 18:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Sal Khan, founder and CEO of online learning nonprofit Khan Academy, wants to turn GPT into a tutor. From a report: Khan Academy is testing a carefully managed version of OpenAI's GPT that can help guide students in their studies, not enable them to cheat. A pilot is currently running with a handful of schools and districts to test the software, and Khan hopes to open a wider beta this summer. "I strive to be at the cutting edge of how AI, especially large language models, can be integrated to a
  
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• Discord Will Force You To Update Your Username

  04-05-2023 17:37 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Discord is making "big changes" to how identities work on the platform, a move that will force you to change your username. From a report: Up until now, the company has appended four-digit tags to identities as a way to distinguish people with the same username. However, the new system will give everyone a unique username, much like Twitter, Instagram and other services. "The whole point of these changes is that we want to make it a lot easier for you and all the new users coming to Discord to c
  
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• Microsoft's Bing Chat AI is Now Open To Everyone, With Plug-ins Coming Soon

  04-05-2023 16:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is making its Bing GPT-4 chatbot available to everyone today, no more waitlist necessary. From a report: All you need to do is sign in to the new Bing or Edge with your Microsoft account, and you'll now access the open preview version that's powered by GPT-4. Microsoft is also massively upgrading Bing Chat with lots of new features and even plug-in support. Microsoft is now adding more smart features to Bing Chat, including image and video results, new Bing and Edge Actions feature, pe
  
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• White House Unveils Initiatives To Reduce Risks of AI

  04-05-2023 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The White House on Thursday announced its first new initiatives aimed at taming the risks of artificial intelligence since a boom in A.I.-powered chatbots has prompted growing calls to regulate the technology. From a report: The National Science Foundation plans to spend $140 million on new research centers devoted to A.I., White House officials said. The administration also pledged to release draft guidelines for government agencies to ensure that their use of A.I. safeguards "the American peop
  
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• First Empirical Study of the Real-World Economic Effects of New AI Systems

  04-05-2023 15:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Back in 2017, Brynjolfsson published a paper (PDF) in one of the top academic journals, Science, which outlined the kind of work that he believed AI was capable of doing. It was called "What Can Machine Learning Do? Workforce Implications." Now, Brynjolfsson says, "I have to update that paper dramatically given what's happened in the past year or two." Sure, the current pace of change can feel dizzying and kinda scary. But Brynjolfsson is not catastr
  
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• IBM Chief's Message To Remote Workers: 'Your Career Does Suffer'

  04-05-2023 12:00 via slashdot.org
  
  IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said he's not forcing any of the company's remote workers to come into the office just yet, but warns those who don't "would be hard-pressed to get promoted, especially into managerial roles," reports Bloomberg. From the report: "Being a people manager when you're remote is just tough because if you're managing people, you need to be able to see them once in a while," he said in an interview Monday in New York. "It doesn't need to be every minute. You don't need to functio
  
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• Starlink Nixes Plan To Impose 1TB Data Cap and Per-Gigabyte Overage Fees

  04-05-2023 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  In a policy reversal, Starlink no longer plans to charge data overage fees to standard residential users who exceed 1TB of monthly usage. Ars Technica reports: When SpaceX's Starlink division first announced the data cap in November 2022, it said that residential customers would get 1TB of "priority access data" each month. After using 1TB, customers could keep accessing the Internet at slower (but unspecified) speeds or pay $0.25 per gigabyte for "additional priority access." This was originall
  
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• Fungal Attacks Threaten Global Food Supply, Say Experts

  04-05-2023 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Fast-rising fungal attacks on the world's most important crops threaten the planet's future food supply, scientists have said, warning that failing to tackle fungal pathogens could lead to a "global health catastrophe." Fungi are already by far the biggest destroyer of crops. They are highly resilient, travel long distances on the wind and can feast on large fields of a single crop. They are also extremely adaptable and many have developed r
  
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• Montana's Governor's Changes To TikTok Ban Bill Would Ban All Social Media Entirely

  04-05-2023 04:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has returned an "amendatory veto" to the legislature regarding the state's unconstitutional "ban TikTok" bill, proposing alternative draft language that inadvertently could ban all social media platforms in the state due to poor drafting. The revised language targets any social media application that collects personal information and provides it to a foreign adversary, but since most social media networks collect such information and share it with entities in fore
  
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• China's AI Industry Barely Slowed By US Chip Export Rules

  04-05-2023 03:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Export controls imposed by the U.S. on microchips, aiming to hinder China's technological advancements, have had minimal effects on the country's tech sector. While the restrictions have slowed down variants of Nvidia's chips for the Chinese market, it has not halted China's progress in areas like AI, as the reduced performance is still an improvement for Chinese firms, and researchers are finding ways to overcome the limitations. Reuters reports: Nvidia has created variants of its chips for the
  
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• TSMC To Charge Up To 30% More For Chips Made In the US

  04-05-2023 02:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  According to DigiTimes, TSMC will charge an extra 30% more for chips made in American than for chips made in Taiwan. Tom's Hardware reports: TSMC has started discussions with customers about orders and pricing for both overseas plants, which are set to begin commercial production in late 2024. Industry insiders believe that prices of chips produced on TSMC's N4 and N5 process technologies in the U.S. will be 20% -- 30% higher than those in Taiwan, while older process chips produced in Japan's Ku
  
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• Stripe, a Longtime Partner of Lyft, Signs a Big Deal With Uber

  04-05-2023 02:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Growth at $50 billion fintech Stripe has been slowing this year, but one of its key strategies to reverse that course got a decent push today: Stripe is announcing that it has inked a "strategic payments partnership" with Uber. The pair will work together initially on selected services in eight of Uber's biggest markets, including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan. Some context on this deal: Uber's big U.S. rival Lyft has
  
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• Gmail Is Adding a Blue Checkmark To Better Verify Senders

  04-05-2023 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is giving verified senders a blue check mark to more clearly "help users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators." 9to5Google reports: The existing system is based on the Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) standard, where brand logos appear in the "avatar slot" next to the sender's name and address. For example, instead of a generic "B" against a plain background, Bank of America can show its official flag logo. It's based on strong authentication wi
  
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• FTC Proposes Barring Meta From Monetizing Kids' Data

  04-05-2023 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The FTC is proposing to prevent Meta from monetizing children's data due to alleged violations of a 2020 privacy order. CNBC reports: According to the FTC, an independent assessor found "several gaps and weaknesses in Facebook's privacy program" that posed "substantial risks to the public." The company had agreed to independent assessments of its updated privacy program as part of the 2020 settlement, under which Facebook paid a $5 billion civil penalty following an FTC investigation around the
  
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• Finnish Newspaper Uses Secret Room In Counter-Strike To Bypass Russian Censorship

  04-05-2023 00:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A Finnish newspaper is circumventing Russian media restrictions by hiding news reports about the war in Ukraine in an online game popular among Russian gamers. "While Helsingin Sanomat and other foreign independent media are blocked in Russia, online games have not been banned so far," said Antero Mukka, the editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat. The newspaper was bypassing Russia's censorship through the first-person shooter game Counter-Str
  
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