ICT news

• AI-Powered 'HorseGPT' Fails to Predict This Year's Kentucky Derby Winner

  05-05-2024 03:33 via idle.slashdot.org
  
  In 2016, an online "swarm intelligence" platform generated a correct prediction for the Kentucky Derby — naming all four top finishers, in order. (But the next year their predictions weren't even close, with TechRepublic suggesting 2016's race had an unusual cluster of just a few top racehorses.)
  So this year Decrypt.co tried crafting their own system "that can be called up when the next Kentucky Derby draws near.
  There are a variety of ways to enlist artificial intelligence in horse racin
  
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• The Short, Happy Reign of CD-ROM

  18-06-2024 03:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  "Over at Fast Company, where we're celebrating 1994 Week, I wrote about the year of Peak CD-ROM, when excitement over the medium's potential was sky-high and the World Wide Web's audience still numbered in the extremely low millions," writes Slashdot reader and Fast Company technology editor Harry McCracken (harrymcc). "I cover once-famous products such as Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia, the curse of shovelware, the rise of a San Francisco neighborhood known as 'Multimedia Gulch,' and why the
  
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• Meta Accused of Trying To Discredit Ad Researchers

  18-06-2024 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Thomas Claburn reports via The Register: Meta allegedly tried to discredit university researchers in Brazil who had flagged fraudulent adverts on the social network's ad platform. Nucleo, a Brazil-based news organization, said it has obtained government documents showing that attorneys representing Meta questioned the credibility of researchers from NetLab, which is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). NetLab's research into Meta's ads contributed to Brazil's National Consume
  
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• $2.4 Million Texas Home Listing Boasts Built-In 5,786 sq ft Data Center

  18-06-2024 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  A Zillow listing for a $2.4 million house in a Dallas suburb is grabbing attention for its 5,786-square-foot data center with immersion cooling tanks, massive server racks, and two separate power grids. Tom's Hardware reports: With a brick exterior, cute paving, and mini-McMansion arch stylings, the building certainly looks to be a residential home for the archetypal Texas family. Prospective home-buyers will thus be disappointed by the 0 bedroom, 1 bathroom setup, which becomes a warehouse-feel
  
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• French Court Orders Google, Cloudflare, Cisco To Poison DNS To Stop Piracy

  18-06-2024 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A French court has ordered Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to poison their DNS resolvers to prevent circumvention of blocking measures, targeting around 117 pirate sports streaming domains. The move is another anti-piracy escalation for broadcaster Canal+, which also has permission to completely deindex the sites from search engine results. [...] Two decisions were handed down by the Paris judicial court last month; one concerning Premier Leag
  
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• Apple Developing Thinner MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone

  17-06-2024 23:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple appears ready to embrace a thinner design language with the upcoming MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone. MacRumors reports: When the M4 iPad Pro was unveiled last month, Apple touted it as the company's thinnest product ever, and even compared it to the 2012 iPod nano to emphasize its slim dimensions. Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says that like the iPad Pro, Apple is now focused on delivering the thinnest possible
  
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• McDonald's Pauses AI-Powered Drive-Thru Voice Orders

  17-06-2024 22:40 via slashdot.org
  
  After two years of testing, McDonald's has ended its use of AI-powered drive-thru ordering. "The company was trialing IBM tech at more than 100 of its restaurants but it will remove those systems from all locations by the end of July, meaning that customers will once again be placing orders with a human instead of a computer," reports Engadget. From the report: As part of that decision, McDonald's is ending its automated order taking (AOT) partnership with IBM. However, McDonald's may be conside
  
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• Surgeon General Wants Tobacco-Style Warning Applied To Social Media Platforms

  17-06-2024 22:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Monday called on Congress to require a tobacco-style warning for visitors to social media platforms. In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Murthy said the mental health crisis among young people is an urgent problem, with social media "an important contributor." He said his vision of the warning includes language that would alert users to the potential mental health harms of the websites and apps. "A s
  
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• Hackers Demand as Much as $5 Million From Snowflake Clients

  17-06-2024 21:20 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Cybercriminals are demanding payments of between $300,000 and $5 million apiece from as many as 10 companies breached in a campaign that targeted Snowflake customers, according to a security firm helping with the investigation. From a report: The hacking scheme has entered a "new stage" as the gang looks to profit from the most valuable information it has stolen, said Austin Larsen, a senior threat analyst at Google's Mandiant security business, which helped lead Snowflake's inquiry. That includ
  
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• Apple Discontinues 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Service

  17-06-2024 20:42 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple said on Monday it will no longer offer its "buy now, pay later" service, Apple Pay Later, in the United States, and will instead focus on bringing installment loan offerings to Apple Pay users globally later this year. The company told 9to5Mac that the new feature will allow users to access installment loans from eligible credit and debit cards, as well as lenders, when checking out with Apple Pay.
  Existing Apple Pay Later users in the U.S. will still be able to manage their loans through
  
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• Proton Seeks To Secure Its Privacy-Focused Future With a Nonprofit Model

  17-06-2024 20:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Proton, the secure-minded email and productivity suite, is becoming a nonprofit foundation, but it doesn't want you to think about it in the way you think about other notable privacy and web foundations. From a report: "We believe that if we want to bring about large-scale change, Proton can't be billionaire-subsidized (like Signal), Google-subsidized (like Mozilla), government-subsidized (like Tor), donation-subsidized (like Wikipedia), or even speculation-subsidized (like the plethora of crypt
  
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• US Sues Adobe Over Subscription Plan Disclosures

  17-06-2024 18:52 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. government on Monday sued Adobe, accusing the maker of Photoshop and Acrobat of harming consumers by enrolling them in its most lucrative subscription plans without clearly disclosing important terms. From a report: In a complaint filed in the San Jose, California, federal court, the government said Adobe failed to adequately disclose hefty early termination fees, sometimes reaching hundreds of dollars, when customers sign up for "annual, paid monthly" subscription plans.
  The government
  
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• Amazon-Powered AI Cameras Used To Detect Emotions of Unwitting UK Train Passengers

  17-06-2024 18:41 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Thousands of people catching trains in the United Kingdom likely had their faces scanned by Amazon software as part of widespread artificial intelligence trials, new documents reveal. Wired: The image recognition system was used to predict travelers' age, gender, and potential emotions -- with the suggestion that the data could be used in advertising systems in the future. During the past two years, eight train stations around the UK -- including large stations such as London's Euston and Waterl
  
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• AI in Finance is Like 'Moving From Typewriters To Word Processors'

  17-06-2024 18:02 via slashdot.org
  
  The accounting and finance professions have long adapted to technology -- from calculators and spreadsheets to cloud computing. However, the emergence of generative AI presents both new challenges and opportunities for students looking to get ahead in the world of finance. From a report: Research last year by investment bank Evercore and Visionary Future, which incubates new ventures, highlights the workforce disruption being wreaked by generative AI. Analysing 160mn US jobs, the study reveals t
  
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• Three of Vietnam's Five Undersea Internet Cables Are Down

  17-06-2024 17:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Three out of Vietnam's five active international undersea internet cables are down, state media said over the weekend, the second major round of outages in the country in just over a year. From a report: The problems with the three cables, which connect Vietnam with the United States, Europe and Asia, have "significantly affected Vietnam's internet connection with the world", reported the official Vietnam News Agency. Vietnam is connected to the global internet mainly via five undersea cables wi
  
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• Wells Fargo Bet on a Flashy Rent Credit Card. It Is Costing the Bank Dearly.

  17-06-2024 16:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Wells Fargo's co-branded credit card partnership with fintech startup Bilt Technologies is causing the bank to lose up as much as $10 million monthly, according to a WSJ report. The bank agreed to a co-branded program with the fintech startup that most other big banks -- including JPMorgan Chase -- passed on, incorrectly modeled key assumptions and sees no path to profitability. The card, which allows users to pay rent without fees while earning rewards, has attracted many young customers. From
  
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• YouTube Introduces Experimental 'Notes' for Users To Add Context To Videos

  17-06-2024 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  YouTube is piloting a new feature called "Notes" that allows viewers to add context and information under videos. The move comes as YouTube aims to minimize the spread of misinformation on its platform, particularly during the pivotal 2024 U.S. election year. The feature, similar to Community Notes on X (formerly Twitter), will initially be available on mobile in the U.S. in English.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• ASUS Releases Firmware Update for Critical Remote Authentication Bypass Affecting Seven Routers

  17-06-2024 13:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  A report from BleepingComputer notes that ASUS "has released a new firmware update that addresses a vulnerability impacting seven router models that allow remote attackers to log in to devices." But there's more bad news:Taiwan's CERT has also informed the public about CVE-2024-3912 in a post yesterday, which is a critical (9.8) arbitrary firmware upload vulnerability allowing unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute system commands on the device. The flaw impacts multiple ASUS router models
  
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• Researchers Devise Photosynthesis-Based Energy Source With Negative Carbon Emissions

  17-06-2024 10:39 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers have devised a way to extract energy from the photosynthesis process of algae, according to an announcement from Concordia University.
  Suspended in a specialized solution, the algae forms part of a "micro photosynthetic power cell" that can actually generate enough energy to power low-power devices like Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.
  "Photosynthesis produces oxygen and electrons. Our model traps the electrons, which allows us to generate electricity," [says Kirankumar Kuruvinashet
  
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• America's Defense Department Ran a Secret Disinfo Campaign Online Against China's Covid Vaccine

  17-06-2024 07:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China's growing influence in the Philippines..." reports Reuters.
  "It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found."
  Reuters interviewed "more than two dozen current and former U.S officials, military contractors, social media analysts and academic researchers," and also revi
  
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• ASUS Promises Support Overhaul After YouTube Investigators Allege Dishonesty

  17-06-2024 04:25 via games.slashdot.org
  
  ASUS has suddenly agreed "to overhaul its customer support and warranty systems," writes the hardware review site Gamers Nexus — after a three-video series on its YouTube channel documented bad and "potentially illegal" handling of customer warranties for the channel's 2.2 million viewers.
  The Verge highlights ASUS's biggest change:
  If you've ever been denied a warranty repair or charged for a service that was unnecessary or should've been free, Asus wants to hear from you at a new email a
  
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• AI Researcher Warns Data Science Could Face a Reproducibility Crisis

  17-06-2024 02:16 via slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader theodp shared this warning from a long-time AI researcher arguing that data science "is due" for a reckoning over whether results can be reproduced. "Few technological revolutions came with such a low barrier of entry as Machine Learning..."
  Unlike Machine Learning, Data Science is not an academic discipline, with its own set of algorithms and methods... There is an immense diversity, but also disparities in skill, expertise, and knowledge among Data Scientists... In pr
  
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• FCC Approves Mysterious SpaceX Device: Is It for the Starlink Mini Dish?

  17-06-2024 00:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  "SpaceX has received FCC clearance to operate a mysterious 'wireless module' device," PC Magazine reported earlier this week, speculating that the device "might be a new Starlink router."
  On Tuesday, the FCC issued an equipment authorization for the device, which uses the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi radio bands. A document in SpaceX's filing also says it features antennas along with Wi-Fi chips apparently from MediaTek. Another document calls the device by the codename "UTW-231," and defines it as a "
  
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• 'Blue Screen of Death' Comes To Linux

  16-06-2024 23:10 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  In 2016, Phoronix remembered how the early days of Linux kernel mode-setting (KMS) had brought hopes for improved error messages. And one long-awaited feature was errors messages for "Direct Rendering Manager" (or DRM) drivers — something analgous to the "Blue Screen of Death" Windows gives for critical errors.
  Now Linux 6.10 is introducing a new DRM panic handler infrastructure enabling messages when a panic occurs, Phoronix reports today. "This is especially important for those building
  
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• Which Way is the EV Market Headed? And Does the US Lag the World?

  16-06-2024 21:58 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Wednesday the annual electric vehicle outlook report was released by market researcher BloombergNEF. And the analyst wrote that "Our long-term outlook for EVs remains bright," according to the Los Angeles Times:In 2023, EVs made up 18% of global passenger-vehicle sales. By 2030, according to the report, 45% will be EVs. That number jumps to 73% by 2040 — still short of what the world needs to reach net zero emissions in transportation, the firm says, but enough to achieve major reductions
  
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• 53 LA County Public Health Workers Fall for Phishing Email. 200,000 People May Be Affected

  16-06-2024 20:44 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Los Angeles Times reports that "The personal information of more than 200,000 people in Los Angeles County was potentially exposed after a hacker used a phishing email to steal the login credentials of 53 public health employees, the county announced Friday."
  Details that were possibly accessed in the February data breach include the first and last names, dates of birth, diagnoses, prescription information, medical record numbers, health insurance information, Social Security numbers and oth
  
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• Flesh-Eating Bacteria That Can Kill in Two Days Spreads in Japan

  16-06-2024 19:44 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Bloomberg reports:
  A disease caused by a rare "flesh-eating bacteria" that can kill people within 48 hours is spreading in Japan after the country relaxed Covid-era restrictions. Cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS) reached 977 this year by June 2, higher than the record 941 cases reported for all of last year, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, which has been tracking incidences of the disease since 1999.
  Group A Streptococcus (GAS) typically causes swelli
  
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• Wine Staging 9.11 Released with A Patch For A 17 Year Old Bug

  16-06-2024 18:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Building off Friday's release of Wine 9.11, the development team has now also released Wine Staging 9.11 with some 428 patches, reports Phoronix founder Michael Larabel:Catching my interest was a patch for Bug 7955. That right away catches my attention since the latest Wine bug reports are at a bug ticket number over 56,000.... Yep, Bug 7955 dates back 14 years ago to April 2007.
  The #7955 bug report is over the S-Hoai Windows client displaying an application exception when clicking the "File" o
  
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• In Memoriam: Dr. Ed Stone, Former NASA JPL Director and Voyager Project Scientist

  16-06-2024 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Slashdot reader hackertourist shared this announcement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:Edward C. Stone, former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and project scientist of the Voyager mission for 50 years, died on June 9, 2024. He was age 88...Stone served on nine NASA missions as either principal investigator or a science instrument lead, and on five others as a co-investigator (a key science instrument team member). These roles primarily involved studying energetic ions from the
  
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• CISA Head Warns Big Tech's 'Voluntary' Approach to Deepfakes Isn't Enough

  16-06-2024 16:34 via slashdot.org
  
  The Washington Post reports:
  Commitments from Big Tech companies to identify and label fake artificial-intelligence-generated images on their platforms won't be enough to keep the tech from being used by other countries to try to influence the U.S. election, said the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. AI won't completely change the long-running threat of weaponized propaganda, but it will "inflame" it, CISA Director Jen Easterly said at The Washington Post's Futurist S
  
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