Movie director James Cameron says he hopes critical thinking will help people identify deepfake videos. So-called deepfakes use machine learning to modify video footage, usually replacing one person’s face with another, with realistic results. Source: BBC News Date: January 31st, 2022 Link to 4 minute 43 second video (usually a 30 second advert before the… Read more »
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Google sued in US over ‘deceptive’ location tracking
The legal action refers to a widely reported 2018 revelation turning off one location-tracking setting in its apps was insufficient to fully disable the feature. It accuses Google of using so-called dark patterns, marketing techniques that deliberately confuse. Google said the claims were inaccurate and outdated. The legal action was filed in the District of Columbia…. Read more »
A new crop of shopping tools aims to help consumers beat the supply chain crunch and the bots
A few days after Christmas, Aaron Worley and his wife began feeling ill. Fearing they may have contracted Covid-19 over the holidays, Worley, a 32-year-old quality assurance tester from Las Vegas, joined millions of other Americans in a desperate search — “rush mode,” he called it — for rapid test kits that were evaporating from store… Read more »
BlackBerry sells legacy patents to Catapult IP Innovations for $600M U.S.
BlackBerry Ltd. says it has agreed to sell its non-core patents to Catapult IP Innovations Inc. for $600 million (U.S.) The company says Delaware-registered Catapult was formed specifically to acquire the patents, with funding from a group of lenders led by Toronto-based Third Eye Capital that also includes an unnamed Canadian pension fund. Waterloo, Ont.-based… Read more »
What is the quantum apocalypse and should we be scared?
magine a world where encrypted, secret files are suddenly cracked open – something known as “the quantum apocalypse”. Put very simply, quantum computers work completely differently from the computers developed over the past century. In theory, they could eventually become many, many times faster than today’s machines. That means that faced with an incredibly complex… Read more »
Inside Kazakhstan’s giant crypto-mine
Last year Kazakhstan became the second biggest crypto-currency mining country in the world, thanks partly to a vast mine containing 50,000 computers in the desert near the northern city of Ekibastuz. Young men work 12 hours a day for 15 days in a row without leaving the site, in order to keep it running round… Read more »
Toronto lab finds security vulnerabilities, censorship framework in Olympic app
TORONTO – Researchers at a Toronto-based tech laboratory have uncovered security vulnerabilities and censorship frameworks in an app all 2022 Beijing Olympics attendees must use. The Citizen Lab, a research institute at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy that studies spyware, found a “simple but devastating” flaw in the… Read more »
Ameca Humanoid Robot AI Platform
Source: Ameca Date: January 19th, 2022 Link to 41 second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=IPukuYb9xWw&feature=youtu.be Discussion Why is it important to have such a close-to-perfection humanoid robot? The “uncanny valley” is a term used for when a robot (or video) is close to human, but not perfect, and humans just get creeped out by this. Does this cross… Read more »
Microsoft will buy Activision Blizzard, a bet on the next generation of the internet.
Microsoft is the dominant force in business software, and a giant player in cloud computing. On Tuesday, the company made clear that its ambitions were even bigger, saying it planned to buy the powerhouse video game player Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion, in a deal meant to position the company for the next generation… Read more »
Why can’t we make good quality Zoom calls or easily program our smart TVs? Because big tech is fixated on novelty
Two years into a pandemic, with a new variant whittling away what little hope anyone had left, and it’s hard to find reason for cheer, even in December. Still, we can at least find solace in how good Zoom calls are. Right? Forgive me: I shouldn’t poke at a sore spot. But as a COVID-weary… Read more »
Recent Comments