ICT news

• China's 'Salt Typhoon' Hackers Continue to Breach Telecoms Despite US Sanctions

  15-02-2025 23:47 via it.slashdot.org
  
  "Security researchers say the Chinese government-linked hacking group, Salt Typhoon, is continuing to compromise telecommunications providers," reports TechCrunch, "despite the recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on the group."
  TechRadar reports that the Chinese state-sponsored threat actor is "hitting not just American organizations, but also those from the UK, South Africa, and elsewhere around the world."
  The latest intrusions were spotted by cybersecurity researchers from Recorde
  
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• The World's Most Printed 3D Model, 3DBenchy, Is Now Public Domain

  15-02-2025 22:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Hackaday reports:Good news for everyone who cannot get enough from improbably shaped boats that get referred to as a bench: the current owner (NTI Group) of the copyright has announced that 3DBenchy has been released into the public domain. This comes not too long after Prusa's Printables website had begun to purge all derived models to adhere to the 'no derivatives' license. According to NTI, the removal of these derived models was not requested by NTI, but by a third-party report, unbeknownst
  
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• America's Office-Occupancy Rates Drop by Double Digits - and More in San Francisco

  15-02-2025 21:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  SFGate shares the latest data on America's office-occupancy rates:According to Placer.ai's January 2025 Office Index, office visits nationwide were 40.2% lower in January 2025 compared with pre-pandemic numbers from January 2019.
  But San Francisco is dragging down the average, with a staggering 51.8% decline in office visits since January 2019 — the weakest recovery of any major metro. Kastle's 10-City Daily Analysis paints an equally grim picture. From Jan. 23, 2025, to Jan. 28, 2025, eve
  
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• Apple Invites Its Users Into Major Years-Long Health Study

  15-02-2025 20:34 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Can the iPhone, AirPods, or the Apple Watch play a role in improving health? Apple says they want to find out."In medical research, discoveries are often limited by the number of participants who can be recruited, the amount of data that can be captured, and the duration of a given study," the company said in a blog post this week. "But Apple devices expand the possibilities..."
  This new longitudinal, virtual study aims to understand how data from technology — including Apple and third-par
  
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• Bored With Chess? Magnus Carlsen Wants to Remake the Game

  15-02-2025 19:34 via games.slashdot.org
  
  "Magnus Carlsen, the world's top chess player, is bored of chess," the Washington Post wrote Friday:Carlsen has spent much of the past year appearing to dismiss the game he has mastered: It was no longer exciting to play, he told a podcast in March. In December, he withdrew from defending a world championship because he was penalized for wearing jeans to the tournament.How would the world's best player spice up the game? Change the rules, and add a touch of reality TV.
  Ten of the world's top pla
  
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• 'Mass Theft': Thousands of Artists Call for AI Art Auction to be Cancelled

  15-02-2025 18:34 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Guardian:Thousands of artists are urging the auction house Christie's to cancel a sale of art created with artificial intelligence, claiming the technology behind the works is committing "mass theft". The Augmented Intelligence auction has been described by Christie's as the first AI-dedicated sale by a major auctioneer and features 20 lots with prices ranging from $10,000 to $250,000...The British composer Ed Newton-Rex, a key figure in the campai
  
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• ISS Astronauts Give Space-to-Earth Interview Weeks Before Finally Returning to Earth

  15-02-2025 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Last June two NASA astronauts flew to the International Space Station on the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner. But they aren't stranded there, and they weren't abandoned, the astronauts reminded CNN this week in a rare space-to-earth interview:"That's been the rhetoric. That's been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it. We both get it," [NASA astronaut Butch] Wilmore said. "But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We
  
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• Jeep Claims 'Software Glitch' Disabled Opting-Out of In-Vehicle Pop-Up Ads in 'a Few' Cases

  15-02-2025 16:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Remember Jeep's new in-dash pop-up ads which reportedly appeared every time you stopped?"Since I'm a journalist, or at least close enough, I decided that I should at least get Stellantis/Jeep's side of things," writes car-culture site The Autopian:
  Would Stellantis do something so woefully misguided and annoying? I reached out to our Stellantis/Jeep contact to ask and was initially told that they were "investigating" on their end, which to me felt like a stalling tactic while the proper ass-cove
  
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• The IRS Is Buying an AI Supercomputer From Nvidia

  15-02-2025 14:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  According to The Intercept, the IRS is set to purchase an Nvidia SuperPod AI supercomputer to enhance its machine learning capabilities for tasks like fraud detection and taxpayer behavior analysis. From the report: With Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency installing itself at the IRS amid a broader push to replace federal bureaucracy with machine-learning software, the tax agency's computing center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, will soon be home to a state-of-the-art Nvid
  
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• Eating From Plastic Takeout Containers Can Increase Heart Failure Risk, Study Finds

  15-02-2025 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A new study suggests that frequent consumption of food from plastic takeout containers significantly increases the risk of congestive heart failure due to gut biome changes that trigger inflammation and circulatory damage. The Guardian reports: The authors used a two-part approach, first looking into the frequency with which over 3,000 people in China ate from plastic takeout containers, and whether they had heart disease. They then exposed rats to plastic chemicals in water that was boiled and
  
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• AI Used To Design a Multi-Step Enzyme That Can Digest Some Plastics

  15-02-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Leveraging AI tools like RFDiffusion and PLACER, researchers were able to design a novel enzyme capable of breaking down plastic by targeting ester bonds, a key component in polyester. Ars Technica reports: The researchers started out by using the standard tools they developed to handle protein design, including an AI tool named RFDiffusion, which uses a random seed to generate a variety of protein backgrounds. In this case, the researchers asked RFDiffusion to match the average positions of the
  
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• Brake Pad Dust Can Be More Toxic Than Exhaust Emissions, Study Says

  15-02-2025 04:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Bruce66423 shares a report from The Guardian: Microscopic particles emitted from brake pads can be more toxic than those emitted in diesel vehicle exhaust, a study has found. This research shows that even with a move to electric vehicles, pollution from cars may not be able to be eradicated. The researchers found that a higher concentration of copper in some commonly used brake pads was associated with increased harmful effects on sensitive cells from people's lungs, as a result of particles bei
  
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• 'Please Stop Inviting AI Notetakers To Meetings'

  15-02-2025 03:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Most virtual meeting platforms these days include AI-powered notetaking tools or bots that join meetings as guests, transcribe discussions, and/or summarize key points. "The tech companies behind them might frame it as a step forward in efficiency, but the technology raises troubling questions around etiquette and privacy and risks undercutting the very communication it's meant to improve (paywalled; alternative source)," writes Chris Stokel-Walker in a Weekend Essay for Bloomberg. From the arti
  
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• NYC Is Giving Free E-Bikes To Delivery Workers Using Unsafe Models

  15-02-2025 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  New York City's Department of Transportation is offering delivery workers the opportunity to swap out uncertified e-bikes for safer UL-compliant models. "Millions of people rely on such workers for timely deliveries, yet the low wages and brutal conditions of the job have forced many riders to seek out low-cost electric bicycles to perform the work -- exactly the kind of e-bikes that are least likely to have received safety certifications," reports Electrek. From the report: The NYC DOT has alre
  
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• Microsoft Study Finds Relying on AI Kills Your Critical Thinking Skills

  15-02-2025 01:45 via slashdot.org
  
  A new study (PDF) from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University found that increased reliance on AI tools leads to a decline in critical thinking skills. Gizmodo reports: The researchers tapped 319 knowledge workers -- a person whose job involves handling data or information -- and asked them to self-report details of how they use generative AI tools in the workplace. The participants were asked to report tasks that they were asked to do, how they used AI tools to complete them, h
  
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• PIN AI Launches Mobile App Letting You Make Your Own Personalized, Private AI Model

  15-02-2025 01:02 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: A new startup PIN AI (not to be confused with the poorly reviewed hardware device the AI Pin by Humane) has emerged from stealth to launch its first mobile app, which lets a user select an underlying open-source AI model that runs directly on their smartphone (iOS/Apple iPhone and Google Android supported) and remains private and totally customized to their preferences. Built with a decentralized infrastructure that prioritizes privacy, PIN A
  
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• Netflix Accidentally Made Its Content Show Up In the Apple TV App

  15-02-2025 00:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Netflix content briefly appeared in the Apple TV app due to an unintentional glitch, sparking excitement among users before the company swiftly rolled back the integration. Engadget reports: A Netflix spokesperson told The Verge on Friday that the Apple TV app integration was an error that has been rolled back. Indeed, Redditors who had been tracking the forbidden fruit with unbridled glee confirmed that all signs of Netflix content had since vanished from Apple's streaming hub. Netflix giveth,
  
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