ICT news

• Apple In Talks To Bring Ads To Apple TV+

  29-07-2024 23:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Following in the footsteps of competitors Netflix and Disney+, Apple is reportedly working on bringing advertisements to Apple TV+ through an ad-supported tier. MacRumors reports: Apple has apparently been in discussions with the UK's Broadcaster's Audience Research Board (BARB) to explore the necessary data collection techniques for monitoring advertising results. Currently, BARB provides viewing statistics for major UK networks including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Sky, as well as Apple TV+ p
  
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• Sam Altman Issues Call To Arms To Ensure 'Democratic AI' Will Defeat 'Authoritarian AI'

  29-07-2024 22:50 via slashdot.org
  
  In a Washington Post op-ed last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman emphasized the urgent need for the U.S. and its allies to lead the development of "democratic AI" to counter the rise of "authoritarian AI" models (source paywalled; alternative source). He outlined four key steps for this effort: enhancing security measures, expanding AI infrastructure, creating commercial diplomacy policies, and establishing global norms for AI development and deployment. Fortune reports: He noted that Russian Preside
  
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• French Internet Lines Cut In Latest Attack During Olympics

  29-07-2024 22:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A number of fiber optic cables carrying broadband service across France were cut overnight in the latest attack on the country's infrastructure during the Olympic Games. Connections serving Paris, which is hosting the Olympic Games this week, and the games themselves weren't affected, a spokesman for Olympics telecom partner, Orange SA, said. Still, this is the second sabotage of French infrastructure in the past few days as the world converges
  
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• AI Won't Replace Human Workers, But People Who Use It Will Replace Those Who Don't, Andrew Ng Says

  29-07-2024 21:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: AI experts tend to agree that rapid advances in the technology will impact jobs. But there's a clear division growing between those who see that as a cause for concern and those who believe it heralds a future of growth. Andrew Ng, the founder of Google Brain and a professor at Stanford University, is in the latter camp. He's optimistic about how AI will transform the labor market. For one, he doesn't think it's going to replace jobs.
  "For the vast majority of jobs, i
  
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• YouTube Escalates War on Ad Blockers

  29-07-2024 20:56 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Multiple YouTube users are now reporting on social media that YouTube is serving them with blank ads or black screens before a video when they are using an ad-blocker extension. The black screens appear for the length of a typical YouTube pre-roll or ad insert before displaying the actual content of the video the viewer wants to watch.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Websites are Blocking the Wrong AI Scrapers

  29-07-2024 20:23 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Hundreds of websites trying to block the AI company Anthropic from scraping their content are blocking the wrong bots, seemingly because they are copy/pasting outdated instructions to their robots.txt files, and because companies are constantly launching new AI crawler bots with different names that will only be blocked if website owners update their robots.txt. In particular, these sites are blocking two bots no longer used by the company, while unknowingly
  
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• Justice Dept. Says TikTok Could Allow China To Influence Elections

  29-07-2024 19:32 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Justice Department has ramped up the case to ban TikTok, saying in a court filing Friday that allowing the app to continue operating in its current state could result in voter manipulation in elections. From a report: The filing was made in response to a TikTok lawsuit attempting to block the government's ban. The Justice Department warned that the app's algorithm and parent company ByteDance's alleged ties to the Chinese government could be used for a "secret manipulation" campaign.
  "Among
  
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• Crypto Exchange To 'Socialize' $230 Million Security Breach Loss Among Customers

  29-07-2024 18:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX announced on Saturday a controversial plan to "socialize" the $230 million loss from its recent security breach among all its customers, a move that has sent shockwaves through the local crypto community.
  The Mumbai-based firm, which suspended all trading activities on its platform last week following the cyber attack that compromised nearly half of its reserves in India's largest crypto heist, has outlined a strategy to
  
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• Microsoft Adds Intrusive OneDrive Ad in Windows 11

  29-07-2024 18:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has intensified its push for OneDrive adoption in Windows 11, introducing a full-screen pop-up that prompts users to back up their files to the cloud service, according to a report from Windows Latest. The new promotional message, which appears after a recent Windows update, mirrors the out-of-box experience typically seen during initial system setup and highlights OneDrive's features, including file protection, collaboration capabilities, and automatic syncing.Read more of this story
  
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• As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, It's Also Emitting Millions of Tons of CO2

  29-07-2024 17:32 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists say the drying Great Salt Lake in Utah is now becoming a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions that are causing the climate to warm, according to a new study. From a report: Due largely to water diversions by farmers and Utah's booming population growth, the Great Salt Lake has shrunk by almost half in recent years. Scientists spent seven months in 2020 sampling emissions coming off the dried saline lake bed. Canada's Royal Ontario Museum published the study on Th
  
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• Apple's AI Features Rollout Will Miss Upcoming iPhone Software Overhaul

  29-07-2024 16:52 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple's upcoming AI features will arrive later than anticipated, missing the initial launch of its upcoming iPhone and iPad software overhauls but giving the company more time to fix bugs. Bloomberg: The company is planning to begin rolling out Apple Intelligence to customers as part of software updates coming by October, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That means the AI features will arrive a few weeks after the initial iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 releases planned for September, said
  
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• Amazon Paid Almost $1 Billion for Twitch in 2014. It's Still Losing Money.

  29-07-2024 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Amazon paid nearly $1 billion to acquire the live-video startup Twitch Interactive in 2014. A decade later, the retail giant has received little financial return from one of its bigger acquisitions. WSJ: Known for hourslong broadcasts of videogame play, Twitch remains unprofitable despite periods of explosive popularity, according to current and former employees knowledgeable about its finances. Documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show Twitch's biggest-paying users are opening their wa
  
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• Forbes Estimates Google's Chrome Temporarily Lost Millions of Saved Passwords

  29-07-2024 13:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An unexpected disapperance of saved passwords "impacted Chrome web browser users from all over the world," writes Forbes, "leaving them unable to find any passwords already saved using the Chrome password manager."Newly saved passwords were also rendered invisible to the affected users. Google, which has now fixed the issue, said that the problem was limited to the M127 version of Chrome Browser on the Windows platform.The precise number of users to be hit by the Google password manager vanishin
  
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• Is Ford Trying To Patent a Way For Its Cars To Report Speeding To the Police?

  29-07-2024 09:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Is Ford trying to patent a way for its cars to report speeding drivers to the police? An article in Motor Authority notes that this patent application from Ford was filed January 12th of 2023 — and just published 11 days ago by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:
  In the application, Ford discusses using cars to monitor each other's speeds. If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle. A report con
  
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• Python Foundation Nonprofit Fixes Bylaw Loophole That Left 'Virtually Unlimited' Financial Liability

  29-07-2024 06:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  The Python Software Foundation's board "was alerted to a defect in our bylaws that exposes the Foundation to an unbounded financial liability," according to a blog post Friday:Specifically, Bylaws Article XIII as originally written compels the Python Software Foundation to extend indemnity coverage to individual Members (including our thousands of "Basic Members") in certain cases, and to advance legal defense expenses to individual Members with surprisingly few restrictions. Further, the Bylaws
  
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• Disney's First R-Rated Movie Opening Sets an All-Time Record: 'Deadpool & Wolverine'

  29-07-2024 03:39 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  No R-rated film has ever earned as much in its opening weekend, reports the Hollywood Reporter — a whopping $205 million. (The previous record was $133.7 million, set in 2016 by the original film Deadpool...)
  It's also the very R-rated film ever released by Disney...[Deadpool actor Ryan] Reynolds has his own theory about its success. "Disney probably doesn't want me to frame it this way, but I've always thought of Deadpool & Wolverine as the first four-quadrant, R-rated film," Reynolds
  
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• After Crowdstrike Outage, FSF Argues There's a Better Way Forward

  29-07-2024 01:51 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "As free software activists, we ought to take the opportunity to look at the situation and see how things could have gone differently," writes FSF campaigns manager Greg Farough:Let's be clear: in principle, there is nothing ethically wrong with automatic updates so long as the user has made an informed choice to receive them... Although we can understand how the situation developed, one wonders how wise it is for so many critical services around the world to hedge their bets on a single distrib
  
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