ICT news

• How Do You Define 'Open Source AI'?

  27-08-2024 23:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Open Source Initiative (OSI) recently unveiled its latest draft definition for "open source AI," aiming to clarify the ambiguous use of the term in the fast-moving field. The move comes as some companies like Meta release trained AI language model weights and code with usage restrictions while using the "open source" label. This has sparked intense debates among free-software advocates about what truly constitutes "open source" in the co
  
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• Microsoft Donates the Mono Project To Wine

  27-08-2024 22:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has decided to donate the Mono Project to the developers of Wine, FOSS that allows Windows applications to run on Unix-like operating systems. "Mono is a software platform designed to allow developers to easily create cross platform applications," notes GameOnLinux's Liam Dawe. "It is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework based on the ECMA standards for C# and the Common Language Runtime.""Wine already makes use of Mono and this move makes sense with Microsoft foc
  
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• US Says Genetically Modified Wheat Safe To Grow, Pending Trials

  27-08-2024 22:15 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A type of genetically modified wheat developed by Argentina's Bioceres may be safely grown and bred in the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday. From a report: Bioceres must still complete additional steps, including field trials, that will take years before it can commercialize HB4 wheat, modified to tolerate drought, industry group U.S. Wheat Associates said. Still, USDA's finding moves genetically modified wheat closer to production in the U.S. in a potential win
  
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• France To Trial Ban on Mobile Phones At School For Children Under 15

  27-08-2024 21:22 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  France is to trial a ban on mobile phones at school for pupils up to the age of 15, seeking to give children a "digital pause" that, if judged successful, could be rolled out nationwide from January. From a report: Just under 200 secondary schools will take place in the experiment that will require youngsters to hand over phones on arrival at reception. It takes the prohibition on the devices further than a 2018 law that banned pupils at primary and secondary schools from using their phones on t
  
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• Experts Puzzled as Finland Pine Trees Die Off

  27-08-2024 20:41 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Staggering numbers of dead pine trees have been reported in southern Finland this summer, with researchers linking the phenomenon to climate change. From a report: Over 1,350 patches of dead pine trees have been reported in southwestern Finland since April, when researchers started collecting observations from the public. "Every day we receive more in our mapping service," Turku University geography professor Risto Kalliola told AFP. He described the phenomenon as a "local mass-death of patches
  
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• The US Military's Latest Psyop? Advertising on Tinder

  27-08-2024 20:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The U.S. military is using ads to warn people across Lebanon not to attack the United States or its allies amid rising tensions across the Middle East. Some of those ads have turned up in an unlikely place: the dating app Tinder. Freelance reporter Seamus Malekafzali posted on X screenshots of the ads seen in the Tinder app, warning residents of Lebanon to "not take up arms."
  The ads, written in Arabic, say that the U.S. will "protect its partners in the face
  
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• Gannett is Shuttering Site Accused of Publishing AI Product Reviews

  27-08-2024 19:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Newspaper giant Gannett is shutting down Reviewed, its product reviews site, effective November 1st, according to sources familiar with the decision. The site offers recommendations for products ranging from shoes to home appliances and employs journalists to test and review items -- but has also been at the center of questions around whether its work is actually produced by humans.
  "After careful consideration and evaluation of our Reviewed business, we have
  
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• Chinese Hackers Breach US Internet Firms via Startup, Lumen Says

  27-08-2024 18:44 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The state-sponsored Chinese hacking campaign known as Volt Typhoon is exploiting a bug in a California-based startup to hack American and Indian internet companies, according to security researchers. From a report: Volt Typhoon has breached four US firms, including internet service providers, and another in India through a vulnerability in a Versa Networks server product, according to Lumen's unit Black Lotus Labs. Their assessment, much of which was published in a blog post on Tuesday, found wi
  
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• Intel Board Member Quit After Differences Over Chipmaker's Revival Plan

  27-08-2024 18:11 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The sudden resignation of a high-profile Intel board member came after differences with CEO Pat Gelsinger and other directors over what the director considered the U.S. company's bloated workforce, risk-averse culture and lagging artificial intelligence strategy, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Lip-Bu Tan, a semiconductor industry veteran, had said he was leaving the board because of a personal decision to "reprioritize various commitment
  
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• 'A Crisis Entirely of Humanity's Making': UN Chief Issues Climate SOS on Trip To Pacific

  27-08-2024 17:33 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Pacific island nations are in "grave danger" from rising sea levels and the world must "answer the SOS before it is too late," the UN chief has warned during a visit to Tonga. From a report: The UN secretary general, AntÃnio Guterres, urged the world to "look to the Pacific and listen to the science" as he released two new reports on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum, the region's most important annual political gathering. Sea-surface temperatures in the south-west Pacific have r
  
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• Klarna Aims To Halve Workforce With AI-Driven Gains

  27-08-2024 16:44 via slashdot.org
  
  Klarna aims to extend AI-driven cuts to its workforce with plans to axe almost half of its staff [non-paywalled source], as the lossmaking Swedish buy now, pay later company gears up for a stock market flotation. FT: Chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski heralded the benefits of AI in Klarna's second-quarter results on Tuesday, which showed a significant narrowing of its net loss from SKr854mn ($84mn) a year earlier to SKr10mn. The Swedish fintech has already cut its workforce from 5,000 to 3,
  
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• Ex-Googlers Discover That Startups Are Hard

  27-08-2024 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Dozens of former AI researchers from Google who struck out on their own are learning that startups are tricky. The Information: The latest example is French AI agent developer H, which lost three of its five cofounders (four of whom are ex-Googlers) just months after announcing they had raised $220 million from investors in a "seed" round, as our colleagues reported Friday. The founders had "operational and business disagreements," one of them told us.
  The drama at H follows the quasi-acquisitio
  
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• Versa Networks Releases Advisory for a Vulnerability in Versa Director, CVE-2024-39717

  27-08-2024 14:00 via cisa.gov
  Versa Networks has released an advisory for a vulnerability (CVE-2024-39717) in Versa Director, a key component in managing SD-WAN networks, used by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs). A cyber threat actor could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system. 
  CISA urges organizations to apply necessary updates, hunt for any malicious activity, report any positive findings to CISA, and review the following for more information:&nbs
  
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• Hobbyists Discover How To Insert Custom Fonts Into AI-Generated Images

  27-08-2024 12:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last week, a hobbyist experimenting with the new Flux AI image synthesis model discovered that it's unexpectedly good at rendering custom-trained reproductions of typefaces. While far more efficient methods of displaying computer fonts have existed for decades, the new technique is useful for AI image hobbyists because Flux is capable of rendering depictions of accurate text, and users can now directly insert words rendered in custom fonts i
  
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• Stem Cell Therapy Frees Woman From Diabetes

  27-08-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Amanda Smith, a 35-year-old nurse from London with Type 1 diabetes, "is at the forefront of a medical experiment that seeks to treat the root cause of diabetes by replacing the cells the disease destroys," reports Carolyn Y. Johnson for the Washington Post. "On Valentine's Day 2023, doctors transplanted replacement islet cells, grown in a lab from embryonic stem cells, into a blood vessel that feeds Smith's liver. By August, she no longer needed insulin. Her new cells were churning it out." From
  
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• Far-Right 'Terrorgram' Chatrooms Are Fueling a Wave of Power Grid Attacks

  27-08-2024 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: People in a quiet neighborhood in Carthage, a town in Moore County, North Carolina, heard a series of six loud pops a few minutes before 8:00 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2022. A resident named Michael Campbell said he ducked at the sound. Another witness told police they thought they were hearing fireworks. The noise turned out to be someone shooting a rifle at a power substation next door to Campbell's home. The substation, operated by the utility Duke En
  
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• Zuckerberg Says He Regrets Not Being More Outspoken About 'Government Pressure'

  27-08-2024 04:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed regret for not being more vocal about "government pressure" to censor COVID-19-related content. He also acknowledged that Meta shouldn't have demoted a New York Post story about President Biden's family before the 2020 election. The Hill reports: Zuckerberg said senior Biden administration officials "repeatedly pressured" Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to "censor" content in 2021. "I believe the
  
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• Samsung TVs Will Get 7 Years of Free Tizen OS Upgrades

  27-08-2024 02:45 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Samsung Electronics said it will provide Tizen OS updates for its newer TVs for at least seven years, starting with models released in March this year and some 2023 models. Business Korea reports: [Yoon Seok-woo, President of Samsung Electronics' Visual Display Business Division] emphasized that the seven-year free upgrade for Tizen applied to AI TVs would help Samsung widen the market share gap with Chinese competitors. Tizen, an in-house developed OS, has been applied to over 270 million Samsu
  
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• Telegram CEO Pavel Durov's Arrest Upends Kremlin Military Communications

  27-08-2024 02:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested Saturday night by French authorities on allegations that his social media platform was being used for child pornography, drug trafficking and organized crime. The move sparked debate over free speech worldwide from prominent anti-censorship figures including Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy. Jr. and Edward Snowden. However, "the immediate freakout came from Russia," reports Politico. "That's because Telegram is widely used by the Russian military for
  
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• Wolfram Thinks We Need Philosophers Working on Big Questions Around AI

  27-08-2024 01:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Stephen Wolfram, renowned mathematician and computer scientist, is calling for philosophers to engage with critical questions surrounding AI as the technology's advancement raises complex ethical and societal issues. Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha, argues that the tech industry's approach to AI development often lacks philosophical rigor. "Sometimes in the tech industry, when people talk about how we should set up this or that thing with AI, some may say, 'Well, let's just get
  
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• Microsoft Backtracks on Deprecating the 39-Year-Old Windows Control Panel

  27-08-2024 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has retracted or clarified its statement regarding the deprecation of Windows Control Panel, according to changes made to a support document. The original text, which stated that the Control Panel was "in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app," has been revised. The new version now indicates that "many of the settings in Control Panel are in the process of being migrated to the Settings app." This modification came after widespread media coverage of the initial a
  
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• FBI Is Sloppy On Secure Data Storage and Destruction, Warns Watchdog

  27-08-2024 00:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The Register's Iain Thomson reports: The FBI has made serious slip-ups in how it processes and destroys electronic storage media seized as part of investigations, according to an audit by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Drives containing national security data, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act information and documents classified as Secret were routinely unlabeled, opening the potential for it to be either lost or stolen, the report [PDF] addressed to FBI Director
  
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