ICT news

• GPT-4 Can Exploit Real Vulnerabilities By Reading Security Advisories

  21-04-2024 23:05 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader tippen shared this report from the Register:AI agents, which combine large language models with automation software, can successfully exploit real world security vulnerabilities by reading security advisories, academics have claimed.
  In a newly released paper, four University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) computer scientists — Richard Fang, Rohan Bindu, Akul Gupta, and Daniel Kang — report that OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model (LLM) can autonomously
  
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• Is Rivos Building an RISC-V AI Chip?

  21-04-2024 22:05 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Remember when Apple filed a lawsuit against chip startup Rivos (saying that in one year Rivos hired more than 40 former Apple employees to work on competing system-on-a-chip technology)? Apple settled that suit in February.
  And now Tuesday Rivos announced that it raised $250 million, according to Reuters, "in a funding round that will enable it to manufacture its first server chip geared for artificial intelligence," combining a CPU with an AI-accelerating component optimized for LLMs and data a
  
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• Lying to Investors? Co-Founder of Startup 'HeadSpin' Gets 18-Month Prison Sentence for Fraud

  21-04-2024 21:05 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The co-founder of Silicon Valley-based software testing startup HeadSpin was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison and a $1 million fine, reports SFGate — for defrauding investors.
  Lachwani pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and a count of securities fraud in April 2023, after federal prosecutors accused him of, for years, lying to investors about HeadSpin's finances to raise more money. HeadSpin, founded in 2015, grew to a $1.1 billion valuation by 2020 with over $115 million in
  
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• Should Automakers Feel Threatened by China's Exports of Electric Cars?

  21-04-2024 19:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S.-China rivalry "has a new flashpoint in the battle for technology supremacy: electric cars."
  "So far, the U.S. is losing."Last year, China became the world's foremost auto exporter, according to the China Passenger Car Assn., surpassing Japan with more than 5 million sales overseas. New energy vehicles accounted for about 25% of those exports, and more than half of those were created by Chinese brands, a shift from the traditional assembly role China ha
  
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• LXQt 2.0 Released: Lightweight Desktop is Almost Wayland Compatible

  21-04-2024 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  This week saw the release of the LXQt 2.0 desktop environment, reports 9to5Linux. And besides bringing Qt 6 support (and a new default application menu), it also brings support for the Wayland display protocol to more components:
  The LXQt development is confident that the next major release, LXQt 2.1, will be fully Wayland compatible. The components that need to be ported to Wayland include ScreenGrab, LXQt Global Shortcuts, LXQt Panel's task-bar and keyboard indicator, some input settings, and
  
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• How a Renewable Energy-Powered Bitcoin Startup Helps Electrify Rural Africa

  21-04-2024 17:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  CNBC visited a small group of bitcoin miners who "set up shop at the site of an extinct volcano" near Kenya's Hell's Gate National Park.
  Their mine "consists of a single 500-kilowatt mobile container that, from the outside, looks like a small residential trailer." But what's more interesting is it's operated by a startup called Gridless. (According to its web site Gridless "designs, builds, and operates bitcoin mining sites alongside small-scale renewable energy producers in rural Africa where e
  
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• EU: Meta Cannot Rely On 'Pay Or Okay'

  21-04-2024 16:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The EU's European Data Protection Board oversees its privacy-protecting GDPR policies.
  Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that nearly two dozen civil society groups and nonprofits wrote the Board an open letter "urging it not to endorse a strategy used by Meta that they say is intended to bypass the EU's privacy protections for commercial gain."
  Meta's strategy is sometimes called "Pay or Okay," writes long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo :Meta offers users a choice: "consent" to tracking, or p
  
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• Ziplines Drones Complete Their 1 Millionth Delivery, Flying Over 70 Million Miles

  21-04-2024 13:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  San Francisco-based drone-delivery service Zipline "said Friday that it hit its 1 millionth delivery to customers," reports CNBC, "and that it's eyeing restaurant partnerships in its next phase of growth."
  Zipline's clients already include more than 4,700 hospitals, according to the article, as well as major brands like Walmart. A Panera executive even told CNBC they hope to test Zipline deliveries in Seattle next year, expecting they won't cost the company any more than third-party delivery ser
  
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• Some Astronomers Will Re-Examine a 102-Year-Old Theory About the Universe's Expansion

  21-04-2024 09:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Several "high-profile astronomers" will meet at London's Royal Society (the UK's national academy of sciences), "to question some of the most fundamental aspects of our understanding of the universe.reports Futurism:
  As The Guardian reports, the luminaries of cosmology will be re-examining some basic assumptions about the universe — right down to the over-a-century-old theory that it's expanding at a constant rate. "We are, in cosmology, using a model that was first formulated in 1922," co
  
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• Insufficient Redundancy? Light-Pole Installation Cut Fiber Line, Triggered Three-State 911 Outage

  21-04-2024 05:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "Workers installing a light pole in Missouri cut into a fiber line," reports the Associated Press, knocking out 911 phone service "for emergency agencies in Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota, an official with the company that operates the line said Thursday."In Kansas City, Missouri, workers installing a light pole for another company Wednesday cut into a Lumen Technologies fiber line, Lumen global issues director Mark Molzen said in an email to The Associated Press. Service was restored within
  
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• Volla Successfully Crowdfunds a Privacy-Focused Tablet on Kickstarter

  21-04-2024 03:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  It's "the new generation of Tablet for simplicity and privacy..." according to its Kickstarter page. "Top-tier performance, lightweight design and completely Google-free." And it's already reached its funding goal of $53,312 — climbing to over $75,000 from 115 backers with another 26 days still to go.9to5Linux reports:Volla, the maker of the Volla Phone smartphones, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for their first tablet device, the Volla Tablet, which will also support
  
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• Could the Earth's Record Hot Streak Signal a New Climate Era?

  21-04-2024 00:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  South America's Amazon River has reached its lowest level since measurements began, according to the Washington Post, while temperatures "hovered above 110 degrees Fahrenheit" for nearly a week as April began in the capital of Mali. "Nights offered little relief, with temperatures often staying above 90 degrees..."
  "An overtaxed electrical grid sputtered and shut down," they add, and "dehydration and heat stroke became epidemic... At the city's main hospital, doctors recorded a month's worth of
  
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