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Showing posts from 2022

“Please slow down”—The 7 biggest AI stories of 2022

Highlights from a year when generative AI went mainstream. https://bit.ly/3YIRUOZ

Meta to pay $725 million to settle Cambridge Analytica lawsuit

Data harvested by Cambridge Analytica was used for political campaigns. https://bit.ly/3jt65Hy

LastPass says hackers have obtained vault data and a wealth of customer info

Password manager says breach it disclosed in August was much worse than thought. https://bit.ly/3vccwkY

Compromised dispatch system helped move taxis to front of the line

Defendants allegedly conspired with Russians, drew as many as 1,000 daily trips. https://bit.ly/3Vkons3

Okta says source code for Workforce Identity Cloud service was copied

Code stored on GitHub was copied after threat actor gained unauthorized access. https://bit.ly/3johisR

Eufy publicly acknowledges some parts of its “No clouds” controversy

Eufy changed some cloud behavior, admitted it can do more, ignored some issues. https://bit.ly/3GairNH

Raspberry Pi 5 not arriving in 2023 as company hopes for a “recovery year”

To avoid cannibalizing supply for other Pi products, the next model must wait. https://bit.ly/3YGUfJY

Make your noisy recording sound like pro audio with Adobe’s free AI tool

"Enhance Speech" uses AI to make poor-quality voice recordings sound professional. https://bit.ly/3G4F99X

Critical Windows code-execution vulnerability went undetected until now

Microsoft elevates security rating for vulnerability resembling EternalBlue. https://bit.ly/3PMhmPp

Lobbyists have held up nation’s first right-to-repair bill in New York

Passed with bipartisan support, the bill could die on Gov. Hochul's desk. https://bit.ly/3WxxzKi

The risk of escalation from cyberattacks has never been greater

Cyberwarfare is getting real. https://bit.ly/3Wkpvg6

Riffusion’s AI generates music from text using visual sonograms

Stable Diffusion-powered music generator processes sound in the visual space. https://bit.ly/3FE947u

Microsoft discovers Windows/Linux botnet used in DDoS attacks

MCCrash is specially designed to take down Minecraft servers and performs other DDoSes. https://bit.ly/3YrAfLt

ArtStation artists stage mass protest against AI-generated artwork

Users of popular portfolio site seek to castigate and disrupt AI-generated art. https://bit.ly/3FtRO4Z

Meet Ghostwriter, a haunted AI-powered typewriter that talks to you

Custom typewriter hack uses Arduino, Rapsberry Pi, and GPT-3 to dramatic effect. https://bit.ly/3BZnZsb

Microsoft digital certificates have once again been abused to sign malware

Code-signing is supposed to make people safer. In this case, it made them less so. https://bit.ly/3WaCYa6

China bans AI-generated media without watermarks

China regulates generative AI tech with rules that aim to spur growth and ban deception. https://bit.ly/3YcNRu5

AI image generation tech can now create life-wrecking deepfakes with ease

AI tech makes it trivial to generate harmful fake photos from a few social media pictures. https://bit.ly/3V0ClPH

North Korean hackers once again exploit Internet Explorer’s leftover bits

There are still lots of ways to exploit Internet Explorer through a Word doc. https://bit.ly/3ux3SNM

Adobe Stock begins selling AI-generated artwork

AI-wielding artist must assert ownership and label each piece as "Generative AI." https://bit.ly/3iME0Li

No Linux? No problem. Just get AI to hallucinate it for you

ChatGPT-generated command line can create virtual files, execute code, play games. https://bit.ly/3Fwck6k

Syntax errors are the doom of us all, including botnet authors

A command typo might have dismantled most of an advanced malware's network. https://bit.ly/3gZtWxK

Darknet markets generate millions in revenue selling stolen personal data

A handful of markets were responsible for trafficking most of the data. https://bit.ly/3XUfZBL

Apple slices its AI image synthesis times in half with new Stable Diffusion fix

Creating AI-generated images on Macs, iPhones, and iPads just got a lot faster. https://bit.ly/3ujnAw7

Never-before-seen malware is nuking data in Russia’s courts and mayors’ offices

CryWiper masquerades as ransomware, but its real purpose is to permanently destroy data. https://bit.ly/3XRXTk1

Hive Social turns off servers after researchers warn hackers can access all data

Site officials say site will be down for a couple of days. https://bit.ly/3OS2zCc

My secret life as an 11-year-old BBS sysop

Revisiting the wonder and betrayal of online life circa 1992. https://bit.ly/3gKNEgR

Disney’s new neural network can change an actor’s age with ease

"Production ready" neural net makes actors younger or older for film or TV. https://bit.ly/3uxrT7v

Play app with 100K downloads booted for forwarding texts to developer server

Texts were used to provide verification codes for fraudulent accounts. https://bit.ly/3FfW7ll

How secure a Twitter replacement is Mastodon? Let us count the ways

The demise of Twitter's security and privacy teams has people looking for alternatives. https://bit.ly/3Fd8q1K

Used thin client PCs are an unsexy, readily available Raspberry Pi alternative

Turn yesterday's corporate computer into today's Pi-like system—with some work. https://bit.ly/3VDWJqw

Nvidia wins award for AI that can play Minecraft on command

NeurIPS 2022 honors MineDojo for playing Minecraft when instructed by written prompts. https://bit.ly/3FatLcn

Apple iPhone factory workers clash with police in China

Violence erupts at Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou as COVID cases rise across country. https://bit.ly/3i1CuEp

Meta researchers create AI that masters Diplomacy, tricking human players

Meta's Cicero can negotiate or persuade with natural language—just like a human. https://bit.ly/3gtTxi9

Thinking about taking your computer to the repair shop? Be very afraid

Not surprisingly, female customers bear the brunt of the privacy violations. https://bit.ly/3tT8pK3

3D for everyone? Nvidia’s Magic3D can generate 3D models from text

New AI aims to democratize 3D content creation, no modeling skills required. https://bit.ly/3Vf7sY1

New Meta AI demo writes racist and inaccurate scientific literature, gets pulled

Galactica language model generated convincing text about fact and nonsense alike. https://bit.ly/3EJsEjn

Nvidia and Microsoft team up to build massive AI cloud computer

AI supercomputer will use "tens of thousands" of Nvidia A100 and H100 GPUs. https://bit.ly/3hQBX8s

Amazon begins layoffs of up to 10,000 jobs, blames “uncertain” economy

Amazon confirms Devices & Services layoffs; warehouse jobs apparently safe. https://bit.ly/3hH7xFn

ISP deploys fiber service with a wrinkle—the users themselves own each network

Despite costly Silicon Valley project, CEO says this isn't just for wealthy areas. https://bit.ly/3EC9M67

State-sponsored hackers in China compromise certificate authority

Active in dozens of advanced hacks since 2009, Billbug is still going strong. https://bit.ly/3hPknSk

Researchers break security guarantees of TTE networking used in spacecraft

Used by NASA and many others, time-triggered Ethernet safety can be compromised. https://bit.ly/3AhBjXQ

“Project Volterra” review: Microsoft’s $600 Arm PC that almost doesn’t suck

There's a reason it isn't a Surface PC, but it's good for its intended purpose. https://bit.ly/3E6T0dP

Hungry for AI? New supercomputer contains 16 dinner-plate-size chips

Exascale Cerebras Andromeda cluster packs more cores than 1,954 Nvidia A100 GPUs. https://bit.ly/3Afp0et

How North Korea became a mastermind of crypto cybercrime

Cryptocurrency theft has become one of the regime’s main sources of revenue. https://bit.ly/3twRInz

“Dark ships” emerge from the shadow of the Nord Stream pipeline mystery

Satellite monitors found 2 vessels with their trackers turned off in area of explosions. https://bit.ly/3Aa1L5E

DeviantArt upsets artists with its new AI art generator, DreamUp

Confused artists discover their work will be used for AI training by default. https://bit.ly/3hCGkDH

Stable Diffusion in your pocket? “Draw Things” brings AI images to iPhone

It's not fast, but it's free—and it runs locally on pocket-sized hardware. https://bit.ly/3UHoCx6

A search bar is among the Task Manager improvements in new Windows 11 build

New theme options and a better toggle for Efficiency mode are also in testing. https://bit.ly/3UpXAL2

“Too easy“—Midjourney tests dramatic new version of its AI image generator

Version 4 offers greater detail and better compositions from simple prompts. https://bit.ly/3A3Fy9o