ICT news

• OpenAI Says Iranian Group Used ChatGPT To Try To Influence US Election

  16-08-2024 23:20 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: Artificial intelligence company OpenAI said Friday that an Iranian group had used its ChatGPT chatbot to generate content to be posted on websites and social media (Warning: source is paywalled; alternative source) seemingly aimed at stirring up polarization among American voters in the presidential election. The sites and social media accounts that OpenAI discovered posted articles and opinions made with help from ChatGPT on topics i
  
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• Ex-Google CEO Says Successful AI Startups Can Steal IP and Hire Lawyers To 'Clean Up the Mess'

  16-08-2024 22:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Eric Schmidt, at a recent talk where he also talked -- and then walked back the comment -- on Google's work-culture: If TikTok is banned, here's what I propose each and every one of you do: Say to your LLM the following: "Make me a copy of TikTok, steal all the users, steal all the music, put my preferences in it, produce this program in the next 30 seconds, release it, and in one hour, if it's not viral, do something different along the same lines."
  That's the command. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
  S
  
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• 'The Best, Worst Codebase'

  16-08-2024 22:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Jimmy Miller, programmer and co-host of the future of coding podcast, writes in a blog: When I started programming as a kid, I didn't know people were paid to program. Even as I graduated high school, I assumed that the world of "professional development" looked quite different from the code I wrote in my spare time. When I lucked my way into my first software job, I quickly learned just how wrong and how right I had been. My first job was a trial by fire, to this day, that codebase remains the
  
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• Can Google Make Stoplights Smarter?

  16-08-2024 21:21 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Traffic along some of Seattle's stop-and-go streets is running a little smoother after Google tested out a new machine-learning system to optimize stoplight timing at five intersections. The company launched this test as part of its Green Light pilot program in 2023 in Seattle and a dozen other cities, including some notoriously congested places such as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Kolkata, India. Across these test sites, local traffic engineers use Green Ligh
  
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• AI-powered 'Undressing' Websites Are Getting Sued

  16-08-2024 20:42 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The San Francisco City Attorney's office is suing 16 of the most frequently visited AI-powered "undressing" websites, often used to create nude deepfakes of women and girls without their consent. From a report: The landmark lawsuit, announced at a press conference by City Attorney David Chiu, says that the targeted websites were collectively visited over 200 million times in the first six months of 2024 alone.
  The offending websites allow users to upload images of real, fully clothed people, whi
  
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• The Cheating Scandal Rocking the World of Elite High-School Math

  16-08-2024 20:05 via news.slashdot.org
  
  America's top colleges and finance-industry recruiters have long had their eye on teenage whiz-kids who compete in a prestigious high-school math contest. Now, allegations of cheating are threatening to disrupt it. WSJ: Online leaks of tests for the country's best-known math contest -- the 74-year-old American Mathematics Competition -- are upsetting students who have spent years preparing for the exams. Ahead of the coming school year and test season, angry parents and math coaches have pushed
  
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• Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed. This Guy Found Them All

  16-08-2024 19:22 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Security researcher Bill Demirkapi unveiled a massive trove of leaked developer secrets and website vulnerabilities at the Defcon conference in Las Vegas. Using unconventional data sources, Demirkapi identified over 15,000 exposed secrets, including credentials for Nebraska's Supreme Court IT systems and Stanford University's Slack channels.
  The researcher also discovered 66,000 websites with dangling subdomain issues, making them vulnerable to attacks. Among the affected sites was a New York Ti
  
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• California Weakens Bill To Prevent AI Disasters Before Final Vote

  16-08-2024 18:45 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: California's bill to prevent AI disasters, SB 1047, has faced significant opposition from many parties in Silicon Valley. California lawmakers bent slightly to that pressure Thursday, adding in several amendments suggested by AI firm Anthropic and other opponents. On Thursday the bill passed through California's Appropriations Committee, a major step toward becoming law, with several key changes, Senator Wiener's office told TechCrunch.
  [...] SB 1047 still ai
  
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• NASA Chief To Scientists on Budget Cuts: 'I Feel Your Pain'

  16-08-2024 18:11 via science.slashdot.org
  
  NASA chief Bill Nelson didn't mince words about the agency's budget crunch. "You can't put 10 pounds of potatoes in a five-pound sack," he told ArsTechnica in an interview, addressing $4.7 billion in cuts over two years.
  To scientists fretting over axed missions, Nelson offered a frank "I feel your pain." The Mars Sample Return's ballooning $11 billion price tag and 2040 timeline forced a reset. "We pulled the plug," Nelson admitted, but he's banking on cheaper, creative alternatives emerging by
  
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• Google's AI Search Gives Sites Dire Choice: Share Data or Die

  16-08-2024 17:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Google now displays convenient AI-based answers at the top of its search pages -- meaning users may never click through to the websites whose data is being used to power those results. But many site owners say they can't afford to block Google's AI from summarizing their content. That's because the Google tool that sifts through web content to come up with its AI answers is the same one that keeps track of web pages for search results, according to publishers
  
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• Microsoft Removes FAT32 Partition Size Limit in Windows 11

  16-08-2024 16:44 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has removed an arbitrary 32GB size limit for FAT32 partitions in the latest Windows 11 Canary build, now allowing for a maximum size of 2TB. The change, implemented in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27686, allows users to create larger FAT32 partitions using the command-line format tool. Previously, Windows systems could read larger FAT32 file systems created on other platforms or through alternative methods, but were limited to creating 32GB partitions natively.Read more of this sto
  
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• Epic Games Store Debuts on Mobile, Fortnite Returns To iOS in EU

  16-08-2024 16:08 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Epic Games launched its digital app store on iOS and Android devices on Friday, marking Fortnite's return to Apple's platform in the European Union after a four-year absence. The move follows the implementation of the EU's Digital Markets Act, which mandates Apple to allow third-party app stores. Epic's store is available globally on Android and in the EU for iOS devices running iOS 17.6 or later.
  Fortnite, along with Rocket League Sideswipe and Fall Guys, are now accessible through Epic's mobil
  
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• Florida Man Arrested For Causing $700,000 In Damage At Solar Power Facility

  16-08-2024 12:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A 43-year-old Jordanian national, Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen, was arrested in Orlando, Florida, and charged with threatening to use explosives and destroying a solar power facility. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the charges could result in up to 60 years in prison. Gizmodo reports: Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen allegedly smashed windows at local businesses in Florida, leaving behind threatening letters about their perceived support of Israel, and broke into a solar power generati
  
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• AT&T and Verizon Ask FCC To Throw a Wrench Into Starlink's Mobile Plan

  16-08-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  AT&T and Verizon are urging the FCC to reject SpaceX's plan to offer cellular service with T-Mobile, arguing that it would cause harmful interference to terrestrial mobile networks. Ars Technica reports: Filings urging the Federal Communications Commission to deny SpaceX's request for a waiver were submitted by AT&T and Verizon this week. The plan by SpaceX's Starlink division also faces opposition from satellite companies EchoStar (which owns Dish and Hughes) and Omnispace. SpaceX and T
  
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• Hot Summer Threatens Efficacy of Mail-Order Medications

  16-08-2024 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Melted capsules. Cloudy insulin. Pills that may no longer work. Doctors and pharmacists say the scorching temperatures enveloping the country could be endangering people's health in an unexpected way: by overheating their medications. Millions of Americans now receive their prescription medications through mail-order shipments, either for convenience or because their health plans require it. But the temperatures inside the cargo areas
  
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• A Species of Lungfish Claims Title of World's Largest Animal Genome

  16-08-2024 04:02 via science.slashdot.org
  
  sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: A species of lungfish found in South America has claimed the title of the animal with the biggest genome sequenced so far. The DNA of Lepidosiren paradoxa comprises a staggering 91 billion chemical letters or "bases," 30 times as many as the human genome, researchers report today in Nature. However, those 91 billion bases of DNA only contain about the same number of genes that humans have -- roughly 20,000 -- with the rest consisting of noncodi
  
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• China-Linked Hackers Could Be Behind Cyberattacks On Russian State Agencies, Researchers Say

  16-08-2024 03:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  According to Kaspersky, hackers linked to Chinese threat actors have targeted Russian state agencies and tech companies in a campaign named EastWind. The Record reports: [T]he attackers used the GrewApacha remote access trojan (RAT), an unknown PlugY backdoor and an updated version of CloudSorcerer malware, which was previously used to spy on Russian organizations. The GrewApacha RAT has been used by the Beijing-linked hacking group APT31 since at least 2021, the researchers said, while PlugY sh
  
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• IRS Has Loads of Legacy IT, Still Has No Firm Plans To Replace It

  16-08-2024 02:45 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The IRS should reopen its Technology Retirement Office to effectively manage the retirement and replacement of legacy systems, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audit. The Register reports: The report (PDF), from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), credits the IRS with fully implementing two out of four previous tech modernization recommendations, though argues the other two recommendations were ineffectively implemented. Those fa
  
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• Microsoft Temporarily Pumps the Brakes on Its Intrusive Windows 11 Ads

  16-08-2024 02:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft says it will temporarily cease its contentious Windows 11 upgrade campaign following user backlash. The tech giant had been bombarding Windows 10 users with full-screen popups urging them to switch operating systems. Starting with April's security update, these intrusive notifications will be discontinued. Microsoft says it will unveil a revised upgrade strategy in the coming months, as Windows 10 support nears its October 2025 end date.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Intel and Karma Partner To Develop Software-Defined Car Architecture

  16-08-2024 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Intel is partnering with Karma Automotive to develop an all-new computing platform for vehicles. The new software-defined vehicle architecture should first appear in a high-end electric coupe from Karma in 2026. But the partners have bigger plans for this architecture, with talk of open standards and working with other automakers also looking to make the leap into the software-defined future. [...] In addition to advantages in processing pow
  
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• AltStore PAL Drops Its Annual Subscription Thanks To a Grant From Epic

  16-08-2024 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  AltStore PAL, a third-party iOS app store available in the EU, has eliminated its annual 1.50-euro subscription fee after receiving a "MegaGrant" from Epic Games. This grant was awarded for "innovation in app distribution," allowing AltStore to cover Apple's Core Technology Fee without charging users. The Verge reports: Epic uses MegaGrants as a way to "sponsor the development of exciting projects that may not otherwise have enough funding to fully realize," the company says. The grants are typi
  
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• Hollywood Union Strikes Deal For Advertisers To Replicate Actors' Voices With AI

  16-08-2024 00:00 via slashdot.org
  
  The SAG-AFTRA actors' union has struck a deal with online talent marketplace Narrativ, allowing actors to sell advertisers the rights to replicate their voices using AI. "Not all members will be interested in taking advantage of the opportunities that licensing their digital voice replicas might offer, and that's understandable," SAG-AFTRA official Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement. "But for those who do, you now have a safe option." Reuters reports: Narrativ connects advertisers and a
  
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