Tech — Pete

404 Media Oct 22 · 8 min read

AI Is Changing Everything About Hacking. No One Knows What Happens Next

'Black October:' The PHP vulnerabilities and a series of other hacks and bugs have cybersecurity experts freaking out and unsure what happens next.

Ars Technica Oct 22 · 2 min read

Sauron recruits his future Ringwraiths in Rings of Power S3 trailer

"I will take my place as the conqueror, a sorcerer, a king."

404 Media Oct 22 · 6 min read

AI Is Already 'Amplifying the Destruction' of War

The people who write the Laws of Armed Conflict want to put guardrails on AI weapons systems. Will the world listen?

Ars Technica Oct 22 · 6 min read

Forget "Malaise 2.0," GM says it's still all-in on EVs and autonomy

General Motors' plans will require quite a lot of customers' trust.

The Guardian — Technology Oct 22 · 4 min read

Websites across world hit by millions of attempts to exploit PHP code flaw

Problem in language that underpins 70% of sites has led governments and companies to pull sites offline to patch fault Tell us: have you been affected by the PHP code flaw? Websites around the world have been hit by millions of attempts to exploit a recently discovered vulnerability in their code, cybersecurity companies have said, as the US National Security Agency warned the flaw could allow attackers to take control of web servers, steal data and disrupt services. The problem in the PHP programming language, which underpins about 70% of the world’s websites, emerged on Wednesday causing governments and companies to pull their websites off the internet before they could be attacked and so they could patch the fault. Continue reading...

The Guardian — Technology Oct 22 · 6 min read

‘The tech bro fight club is real!’ The titans of AI get the Succession treatment in a wild new TV show

The Audacity is a fearless satire taking on Silicon Valley’s ‘egomaniac weirdos’. Its creator and stars talk ayahuasca ceremonies, mining kids for data – and punching CEOs Showrunner Jonathan Glatzer wanted the tagline of his latest TV creation to be: “We’re so fucked.” He laughs. “Sadly it got rejected by the network. Hey, maybe I can use it for season two!” The show in question is The Audacity, his darkly comic drama about AI tech titans. Instead, it went with the more PG tagline “Move fast and break people” – a twist on “Move fast and break things”, the Facebook motto coined by Mark Zuckerberg. The Audacity promises to do for tech bros what Succession did for legacy media. Considering Glatzer is a former writer on Succession, that is no empty threat. This acerbic and all-too-timely Silicon Valley satire follows CEO Duncan Park (played by Billy Magnussen), the obscenely wealthy founder of a data analytics company. He’s a self-proclaimed “inventor of the future” who also happens to be a morally bankrupt man-baby. “Duncan is worth about half a billion,” says Glatzer. “Naturally, that’s not enough. He desperately wants to be a billionaire and ascend to what we call ‘God Mountain’. But he’s no God.” Continue reading...

Ars Technica Oct 22 · 4 min read

333 Tor exit nodes hijacked to intercept SSH traffic and retrieve plaintext email

For 3 days this month, 333 exit nodes were hacked in hopes of stealing sensitive data.

The Guardian — Technology Oct 22 · 7 min read

‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre

Company ordered to stop work at two sites in country, which has found itself at forefront of tech firms’ latest push Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone. After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of mud indented with the trail marks of machinery, puddles and mounds of earth, roots and branches. Residents say that brown water flowing off the site is going into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River. Continue reading...

Ars Technica Oct 22 · 6 min read

UN says we're going to blow past 1.5º warming, offers a "now what?" answer

Best case is now an overshoot to 1.8º C, accompanied by massive carbon removal.

The Guardian — Technology Oct 22 · 3 min read

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort review – Wii Sports lives on in this effortlessly appealing collection of games

Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo/Nintendo Bringing a holiday vibe and a generous selection of sport-themed games, this is exactly what you want from a family video game When the first Nintendo Switch Sports brought the effortless fun of Wii Sports back into my living room in 2022, I was frankly delighted . My small children discovered the pleasure of waving a controller around in enthusiastic imitation of a tennis player, and the surprising subtlety of virtual bowling, working out how to twist the wrist just right to guarantee a strike. I did not expect this game to become a family fixture for the next several years as my kids got older and climbed up the online ranks in all six of its sports (plus the two that were added as free updates). Switch Sports is so beloved in my household that the release of Switch Sports Resort this week is the most anticipated gaming event of the year. To be fair, my children are a bit young for Grand Theft Auto. Nintendo Switch Sports Resort brings three of the six sports back – tennis, bowling, and volleyball – alongside golf and basketball. Then there are seven entirely new sports: boxing, table tennis, archery, thumb wrestling, skateboarding, jetski, and piloting a little prop plane. They are all intuitive, easy to get the hang of on the first or second attempt – some have more legs than others, in the long run – and all of them, crucially, are a little bit silly. Thumb wrestling in particular is cheerfully absurd, giving your characters gigantic thumbs on hands the size of their heads. Continue reading...

The Guardian — Technology Oct 22 · 5 min read

AI firms say UK has a year to head off datacentre protests before construction is threatened

Exclusive: Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco taskforce urges ministers to offer areas greater benefits from tech infrastructure amid fears of US-style opposition AI companies have told ministers they have 12 months to head off public opposition to datacentres in the UK or risk US-style protests that could threaten their construction. Successive dry summers and rising energy bills are increasing public scrutiny of plans for the huge computer warehouses that are used to train and run AI models, says a submission to the Labour government from a group including the AI infrastructure companies Nvidia, Microsoft and Cisco. Continue reading...

The Guardian — Technology Oct 22 · 3 min read

Canadian publisher Boréal ends relationship with novelist Thélyson Orélien over alleged use of AI

Author withdrawn from France’s Prix Goncourt last month has repeatedly denied using artificial intelligence to write novel The publisher of top-selling Haitian Canadian writer Thélyson Orélien, who was removed from France’s most prestigious literary prize list last month, has confirmed the author used artificial intelligence to help write his novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was Either That or Die). Orélien has denied allegations that he used AI on his breakthrough novel and, last week, Canadian publisher Les Éditions du Boréal said it was standing by the 38-year-old writer. Continue reading...

The Guardian — Technology Oct 22 · 5 min read

Flaw in PHP computer language leads to shutdown of websites around world

Precautionary takedowns come as experts say bad actors could exploit vulnerability in language used by 70% of sites Websites around the globe have gone dark after a serious vulnerability was found in a computer language used to build much of the world wide web. Belgian, Dutch, Finnish, French and German sites were among those that governments took down temporarily as they scrambled to patch the critical weakness in PHP, a language used by almost 70% of websites . Continue reading...