ICT news

• SEC is Worried Chatbots Could Fuel a Market Panic

  18-07-2023 23:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has expressed concern about generative AI's impact on financial markets. From a report: In a speech given to the National Press Club on Monday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said recent advances in generative AI increase the possibility of institutions relying on the same subset of information to make decisions. Gensler said the large demand for data and computing power could mean only a few tech platforms may dominate the field, narrowing the field of AI
  
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• Logitech Buys Stream Deck Rival Loupedeck

  18-07-2023 22:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Logitech has acquired Loupedeck -- the company behind the self-titled editing console beloved by streamers and creative professionals -- for an undisclosed sum, according to a press release published on Tuesday. From a report: It's one of many recent steps that Logitech has taken to gain some ground in the streaming market against competing companies like Elgato, having similarly acquired Mevo -- a camera hardware and software company specializing in livestreaming -- in 2021. According to the pr
  
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• Alzheimer's Drug Donanemab Helps Most When Taken at Earliest Disease Stage, Study Finds

  18-07-2023 22:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An experimental drug can slow progression of Alzheimer's disease in those who start taking it when the disease is still in its early stages. Nature: The drug, a monoclonal antibody called donanemab, does not improve symptoms. But among people who started taking it at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's, 47% had no disease progression on some measures after one year, compared with 29% who took a placebo. The drug does not provide as much benefit to people at later stages or those with a common gen
  
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• For the First Time in 51 Years, NASA is Training Astronauts To Fly To the Moon

  18-07-2023 21:35 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The four astronauts assigned to soar beyond the far side of the Moon on NASA's Artemis II mission settled into their seats inside a drab classroom last month at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. It was one in a series of noteworthy moments for the four-person crew since NASA revealed the names of the astronauts who will be the first people to fly around the Moon since 1972. There was the fanfare of the crew's unveiling to the public in April and an appeara
  
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• Meta and Qualcomm Team Up To Run Big AI Models on Phones

  18-07-2023 20:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Qualcomm and Meta will enable the social networking company's new large language model, Llama 2, to run on Qualcomm chips on phones and PCs starting in 2024, the companies announced today. From a report: So far, LLMs have primarily run in large server farms, on Nvidia graphics processors, due to the technology's vast needs for computational power and data, boosting Nvidia stock, which is up more than 220% this year. But the AI boom has largely missed the companies that make leading edge processo
  
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• Plex's Winamp-inspired Music Player Plexamp is Now Free

  18-07-2023 19:27 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Plexamp, the music player originally incubated by the Labs division of media company Plex, is now free, the company announced today. From a report: The project was first launched in 2017 as Plex's own spin on the classic Winamp media player app, offering visualizations to accompany your tunes, tools for programming mixes, and more recently, a ChatGPT-powered "Sonic Sage" feature that builds unique playlists from users' music libraries. However, after its expansion from desktop to mobile, Plexamp
  
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• Meta Opens AI LLM for Commercial Use via Microsoft

  18-07-2023 18:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Meta Platforms is making its artificial intelligence large language model, Llama 2, available for commercial use through partnerships with major cloud providers including Microsoft. Bloomberg: Meta isn't charging for access or usage of the model it developed, the company said. Instead, by opening up the technology to other companies, Meta says it will benefit from improvements that can be made when more developers use, stress test and identify problems with it. Making the large language model, o
  
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• Microsoft Launches Vector Search in Preview, Voice Cloning in General Availability

  18-07-2023 18:05 via slashdot.org
  
  At its annual Inspire conference, Microsoft announced a number of new AI features headed to Azure, perhaps the most notable of which is Vector Search. From a report: Available in preview through Azure Cognitive search, Vector Search uses machine learning to capture the meaning and context of unstructured data, including images and text, to make search faster. Vectorization, an increasingly popular technique in search, involves converting words or images into vectors, or series of numbers, that e
  
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• Microsoft Will Charge Businesses $30 Per User Per Month For Its 365 AI Copilot

  18-07-2023 17:43 via slashdot.org
  
  At the Microsoft Inspire partner event today, the Windows maker announced pricing for its AI-infused Copilot for Microsoft 365. From a report: The suite of contextual artificial intelligence tools, the fruit of the company's OpenAI partnership, will cost $30 per user for business accounts each month. In addition, the company is launching Bing Chat Enterprise, a privacy-focused version of the AI chatbot with greater security and peace of mind for handling sensitive business data. Revealed in Marc
  
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• Spain Antitrust Watchdog Fines Amazon, Apple $218 Million

  18-07-2023 16:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Spain's antitrust watchdog imposed fines worth a total 194.1 million euros ($218.03 million) on Amazon and Apple for colluding to limit the online sale of devices from Apple and competitors in Spain. From a report: The two contracts the companies signed on Oct. 31, 2018 granting Amazon the status of authorized Apple dealer included anti-competitive clauses that affected the online market for electronic devices in Spain, CNMC, as the watchdog is known, said in a statement. "The two companies rest
  
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• Tesla Launches 'Charge On Solar' To Charge Your Cars With Sunshine

  18-07-2023 15:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Tesla has officially launched its new 'Charge on Solar' feature to let its electric car owners charge their vehicles with sunshine. Tesla describes the feature: "With Charge on Solar, your Tesla vehicle can charge using only excess solar energy produced by your Tesla solar system. Using excess energy to charge your electric vehicle maximizes the value of your home's solar system. Use the Tesla app to set Charge on Solar limits and have your vehi
  
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• Citrix Releases Security Updates for NetScaler ADC and Gateway

  18-07-2023 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Citrix has released security updates to address vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-3519, CVE-2023-3466, and CVE-2023-3467) affecting NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway. An attacker can exploit one of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. According to Citrix, CVE-2023-3519 is being exploited on unmitigated appliances.
  CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Citrix security bulletin and apply the necessary updates.
  
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• FBI Used Nintendo Switch To Locate Abducted Child

  18-07-2023 12:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  According to a local report, the FBI used a Nintendo Switch to locate an abducted 15-year-old girl, who had been missing for 11 days back in August 2022. Kotaku reports: When the girl went missing on August 3, folks in Virginia put up fliers to locate her. Keitra Coleman, a volunteer with the local nonprofit Hear Their Voices (which helps find missing and exploited children, domestic violence victims, and people experiencing homelessness), told ABC15 they were on the case. [...] Unfortunately, n
  
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• VanMoof, the Most Funded E-bike Company in the World, Declared Bankrupt

  18-07-2023 11:09 via slashdot.org
  
  VanMoof -- the independent e-bike maker that once bragged about being the "most funded e-bike company in the world" -- has been declared bankrupt in the Netherlands. The company had entered into a so-called "suspension of payment" proceeding with court-assigned administrators just last week. From a report: According to a statement released by VanMoof, the court of Amsterdam withdrew the suspension of payment proceeding of the Dutch legal entities VanMoof Global Holding BV, VanMoof BV and VanMoof
  
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• Green Energy Tycoon To Launch UK's First Electric Airline

  18-07-2023 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Dale Vince, the green energy tycoon and founder of Ecotricity, is planning to launch Britain's first electric airline called Ecojet. The Guardian reports: Ecojet, styled as a "flag carrier for green Britain," will launch early next year with a 19-seater plane traveling on a route between Edinburgh and Southampton. The planes will run initially on kerosene-based fuel for the first year, before being retrofitted with engines that convert green hydrogen into electricity. The airline will launch wit
  
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• Footage From Amazon's In-Van Surveillance Cameras Is Leaking Online

  18-07-2023 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A phone-recorded video posted to Reddit shows a wooden desk strewn with various office supplies. On a monitor on the desk, a video begins to play: an Amazon delivery driver, being recorded by a driver-facing camera in their van, leans out of their window to talk to a customer. Though the video is cute, the setup is not: The camera's AI tracks their movements, surrounding them with a bright green box. Below them on the monitor's screen, a yell
  
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• Vibrating Haptic Suits Give Deaf People a New Way To Feel Live Music

  18-07-2023 04:02 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Daniel Belquer, the "Chief Vibrational Officer" of Music: Not Impossible, developed a haptic suit with vibrating plates to enhance the live music experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. The suit, showcased at an event called "Silent Disco: An Evening of Access Magic" at Lincoln Center, provided unique textures and sensations corresponding to the music, creating an inclusive environment for all attendees, regardless of hearing ability. NPR reports: His team started by strapping vibra
  
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• Threads Usage Drops By Half From Initial Surge

  18-07-2023 03:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Despite being the fastest-growing online platform in history, Meta's Threads is struggling to retain regular customer engagement. According to SimilarWeb, the Twitter rival saw daily active users decline from 49 million on July 7th to 23.6 million on July 14th. Furthermore, usage in the United States declined from 21 minutes per day to just over six minutes in the same time period. Here's are the key takeaways from the report: - On its best day, July 7, Threads had more than 49 million daily act
  
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• UK Needs Culture Shift To Become AI Superpower

  18-07-2023 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, believes that for the UK to become an AI superpower, it needs to foster a culture of risk-taking and encourage large-scale investments. The BBC reports: Mustafa Suleyman added that he does not regret selling DeepMind to the US giant in 2014. "The US market is not only huge, but also more predisposed to taking big shots," he told the BBC. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants the UK to be a global hub for AI. He has pledged 1 billion pounds in funding over the
  
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• Giant Telecom Company That Once Almost Bought Apple Is Teetering On the Brink of Failure

  18-07-2023 02:02 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: It's not a misprint. Telecom Italia SpA, Italy's beleaguered former telephone monopoly, once pitched a plan to buy Apple. About 25 years ago a group of executives from the carrier flew to California to meet Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, with an audacious plan to buy the tech company at a time it was struggling to make headway against rivals like International Business Machines Corp. Telecom Italia, on the other hand, was flying high, ranking as th
  
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• Meta Faces a $100,000 Daily Fine If It Doesn't Fix Privacy Issues In Norway

  18-07-2023 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Norway's data protection regulator has accused Meta of violating user privacy by tracking their activities, threatening to fine the company $100,000 per day if it fails to take corrective action. "It is so clear that this is illegal that we need to intervene now and immediately," said Tobias Judin, head of Norway's privacy commission, Datatilsynet. Engadget reports: The move follows a European court ruling banning Meta from harvesting user data like location, behavior and more for advertising. D
  
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• First M3 Apple Silicon Macs Likely To Launch In October

  18-07-2023 00:40 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is preparing to launch its first M3 Apple Silicon Macs in October, according to Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. 9to5Mac reports: Following the usually new iPhone launch event in September, where we are expecting the iPhone 15 and Apple Watch Series 9 and new Apple Watch Ultra, Apple is reportedly lining up new Macs for an October debut. Likely models include a new M3 iMac, M3 13-inch MacBook Air, and M3 MacBook Pro. For the M3 chip, we are expecting similar cor
  
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• JumpCloud, an IT Firm Serving 200,000 Orgs, Says It Was Hacked By Nation-State

  18-07-2023 00:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: JumpCloud, a cloud-based IT management service that lists Cars.com, GoFundMe, and Foursquare among its 5,000 paying customers, experienced a security breach carried out by hackers working for a nation-state, the company said last week. The attack began on June 22 as a spear-phishing campaign, the company revealed last Wednesday. As part of that incident, JumpCloud said, the "sophisticated nation-state sponsored threat actor" gained access to
  
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