Saturday, 04 May, 2024

Tech

Collins English Dictionary names 'AI' word of the year

The contraction of artificial intelligence — AI — has been named as Collins' Word of the Year for 2023, the dictionary publisher announced on Tuesday. "Considered to be the next great technological revolution, AI has seen rapid development and has been much talked

Canada bans Chinese app WeChat from government devices

Canada has announced it will ban WeChat on government devices. The Chinese-owned app is sometimes referred to as the "everything app" - like WhatsApp, Facebook, Amazon and Tinder all in one. However Western governments have security concerns about it, mainly that the app

Elon Musk expected to attend AI summit in UK

Elon Musk is expected to attend a global summit on artificial intelligence in the UK this week. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would do a live interview with the tech billionaire after Thursday's event. The summit, at Bletchley Park, hopes to bring together AI experts and

Mouse embryos grown in space for first time

Mouse embryos have been grown on the International Space Station (ISS) and developed normally in the first study, indicating it could be possible for humans to reproduce in space, a group of Japanese scientists said.   The researchers, including Teruhiko Wakayama, a professor at

FTX’s Bankman-Fried admits ‘mistakes’, denies fraud at trial

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has admitted to making mistakes but denied defrauding customers while testifying in his own defence at his high-profile fraud trial in New York. Bankman-Fried said on Friday that a “lot of people got hurt” when FTX collapsed last year, but he

China to send youngest-ever crew to space station

China will send its youngest-ever crew of astronauts to its Tiangong space station this week, officials said Wednesday, as Beijing pursues plans for a manned mission to the Moon by the end of the decade. The Shenzhou-17 module carrying the three space travellers is scheduled to blast

Over 40 US states sue Meta, accuse it of damaging children's mental health

"In seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its Social Media Platforms," argued a joint lawsuit filed in federal court in California. In total more than 40 states are suing Meta, though some opted to file

Ex-NSA employee pleads guilty to trying to spy for Russia

A cyber specialist who briefly worked at the top-secret US National Security Agency (NSA) pleaded guilty on Monday to attempting to spy for Russia, the Justice Department said. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, spent less than four weeks working at the NSA, the United States government's

Meta apologizes for inserting 'terrorist' into Palestinian Instagram bios

Meta, the parent company of Instagram, has apologized for inserting the word "terrorist" into some Palestinian users' profile bios. This issue occurred when users had the word "Palestinian" written in English, along with the Palestinian flag emoji and the Arabic

Microsoft's new AI assistant can go to meetings for you

A ChatGPT-style AI assistant, developed by Microsoft and embedded into its office apps, will become available to all from 1 November, following trials. Microsoft 365 Copilot can summarise meetings held in Teams for anyone who chooses not to attend. It can also draft emails, create

Nvidia and iPhone maker Foxconn to build "AI factories"

The world's most valuable chip company Nvidia and iPhone maker Foxconn are joining forces to build so-called "AI factories". The firms say it is a new kind of data centre that uses Nvidia chips topower a "wide range" of applications. They include training

US-China chip war: Nvidia hit as China cut off from more chips

The Biden administration has announced new restrictions on exports of advanced chips to China, including two made-for-China chips from Nvidia. US chip stocks fell as the curbs also hit Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. The curbs are aimed at closing loopholes that became apparent

Musk to charge new X users $1 a year for basic account

X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, has begun charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines to use the platform’s basic features and aims to expand the annual fee to all new users globally. Under the trial, new users in the Philippines and New Zealand will

LinkedIn to cut 668 jobs in second round of layoffs this year

Microsoft’s LinkedIn said on Monday it would lay off 668 employees across its engineering, talent and finance teams in the second round of job cuts this year for the social media network for professionals amid slowing revenue growth. The cuts, which affect more than 3% of the

Australia fines X over child safety failures

Australia internet safety watchdog has slapped a A$610,500 ($386,000; £317,360) fine on Elon Musk's X for failing to cooperate with a probe into anti-child abuse practices. It comes after Mr Musk had in as post last November said that "removing child exploitation is

Meta removed nearly 800,000 posts related to HAMAS

Meta, the company behind platforms like Facebook, has removed or labeled as content of concern more than 795,000 posts that significantly supported the actions of Palestinian HAMAS militants following the incursion into Israel, reports Bloomberg. Meta has stated that it is working with

New brain atlases will unlock mysteries of the human mind

In a massive effort to understand the human brain, scientists have revealed hightly detailed atlases of the brain — published through a suite of 21 papers on Thursday. Ever wondered if your brain is just wired differently from others? You might be right. The new studies tackle

X removes hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts

Chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino said on Thursday that the social media platform has removed hundreds of "Hamas-affiliated accounts" and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since the attack on Israel. "We continue to respond

EU tells Meta to crack down on Israel-Hamas disinfo

The EU has warned Mark Zuckerberg over the spread of "disinformation" on Meta's social media platforms after Hamas' attack on Israel. It told Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, it "has 24 hours" to respond and comply with European law. Social media

Nasa’s first look at 'beautiful' asteroid sample

"It's beautiful, it really is - certainly what we've seen of it so far," said Dr Ashley King. The UK scientist was in a select group to put first eyes and instruments on the rocky samples that have just been brought back from asteroid Bennu. The materials, scooped