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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
472 stories archived
NASA sure seems to be asking an awful lot of private space stations
"Industry finally knows what NASA is asking of them."
Bank of England handed powers to regulate key tech firms including Amazon and Google
Direct oversight of ‘critical third parties’ such as Oracle and Microsoft given to ensure resilient cyber-defences and help safeguard UK economy The Bank of England has been handed powers to regulate important tech firms including Amazon and Google from next week, amid fears that system failures could threaten financial stability and harm consumers. From Monday, the Bank and fellow City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be in charge of ensuring that four large-scale providers of cloud and tech services to banks are resilient and actively reducing the risk of cyber-attacks and major outages that could disrupt services for millions of people and businesses across the UK. Continue reading...
VW Group and unions disagree on plan to streamline the automaker
VW's plan calls for half as many models but didn't mention closures or job cuts.
Wally Funk, last of Mercury 13 and oldest woman in space, dies at 87
"I have been waiting a long time to finally get up there..."
Is an air-conditioning revolution coming to Europe?
The AC culture wars may be solved by advances in environmentally friendly technology.
Rocket Report: "Panic" over Transporter availability; Isar to launch from Canada
"We are delighted to actively help shape the ramp-up of the Ariane 6."
Like a cheat code for your car: We investigate ECU tuning
Now it's an arms race between OEMs locking down chips and tuners trying to crack them.
Pokémon Go fans gather in Times Square to celebrate 10 years of game – video
Pokémon Go celebrated its 10th anniversary with a Times Square takeover in New York featuring a special event to defeat the Pokémon species Mewtwo. Nearly 2,000 people played the game together simultaneously in what organisers called one of the largest in-person Pokémon battles in history Continue reading...
‘AI accountability agenda’: US senator unveils package of bills to curb tech’s harms
Exclusive: Senator Ed Markey on why he has proposed legislation aimed at curbing datacenters, automated hiring systems and harm to children US senator Ed Markey is worried about the perils of unregulated artificial intelligence. What part? All of it: the costs associated with thirsty, energy-guzzling datacenters, intrusive workplace surveillance, bias in discriminatory algorithms, AI overriding workers’ judgments, and deepening economic inequality – as those who profit most from AI rake in extraordinary windfalls. Continue reading...
South Korea chip maker SK hynix rides AI boom raising $26.5bn in huge US listing
SK hynix, a supplier of advanced memory chips, has seen profits skyrocket thanks to the global race to build AI datacentres South Korean chip maker SK hynix set pricing for its mega US listing on Friday, aiming to raise $26.5bn as it takes advantage of the AI boom in what will be one of the world’s biggest ever stock sales. The Asian semiconductor giant plans to issue the equivalent of about 18m shares on Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index later in the day. Continue reading...
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady faces questions on nationwide outage – video
Returning from annual leave, Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has faced a barrage of questions for the first time since the company's nationwide outage on Wednesday affected train services, payment systems and triple zero calls. Brady says the failure was not the result of job restructuring , insisting that 'people and processes worked as they should have'. She said Telstra would conduct a thorough investigation into the software glitch behind the outage. An earlier headline on this video incorrectly said Telstra was reviewing executive bonuses in light of the incident How a throwback to 2006 took down Telstra’s national phone network As the Telstra crisis unfolded, the Coalition fell victim to another communications failure Taylor defends Sarah Henderson’s triple-zero calls as SA police investigate claimed Telstra-outage death Continue reading...
Telstra CEO says executive bonuses to be reviewed after nationwide outage – video
Returning from annual leave, Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has faced a barrage of questions for the first time since the company's nationwide outage on Wednesday affected train services, payment systems and triple zero calls. Brady says the failure was not the result of job restructuring , insisting that 'people and processes worked as they should have'. She said Telstra would conduct a thorough investigation into the software glitch behind the outage and review executive bonuses in light of the incident How a throwback to 2006 took down Telstra’s national phone network As the Telstra crisis unfolded, the Coalition fell victim to another communications failure Taylor defends Sarah Henderson’s triple-zero calls as SA police investigate claimed Telstra-outage death Continue reading...
Flores Hobbits' eating habits offer clues about their evolutionary past
If Homo floresiensis wasn't a fire-using hunter, its origins could be different than we thought.
Instagram’s AI image generator alarms privacy experts
Instagram users should check privacy settings after rollout of new Meta AI image generator, advocates warn Meta has sparked blowback from privacy advocates for allowing its new AI image maker to generate photos of users with public profiles by default. Users of Meta’s Muse Image AI tool, released Tuesday, can tag public Instagram profiles and generate pictures that pull from faces of people featured in these social media posts. Instagram users aren’t notified when their posts are integrated into what the company describes as its “most advanced image generation model yet”. Continue reading...
Michigan's explosive outbreak of diarrheal parasite jumps to over 1,200 cases
In neighboring Ohio, cases have reportedly reached over 500.
Patreon Blocks Crawlers From Stealing Creators' Work for AI Training
“Creators deserve credit, compensation, and consent. If that's not on the table, the crawlers can stay the fuck off Patreon," CEO Jack Conte wrote on Thursday.
OpenAI wants its new tool to do your work for you and with you
Rebranded Codex promises independent workflows that can run "for hours if needed."
Patch for Windows Defender 0-day could allow attackers to fill hard disk
The feud between NightmareEclipse and Microsoft shows no signs of resolving soon.
Allstate accuses Broadcom of auditing it because it quit VMware, CA
Broadcom accuses Allstate of dodging VMware audits.
Humanoid robots controlled by surgeons did world-first operation on live pigs
Preclinical trial is testing the feasibility of humanoid robots in surgery.
Judge doesn't like Elon Musk settlement with SEC, but says court can't block it
Judge reluctantly approves $1.5M settlement with SEC over Twitter stock violation.
OpenAI may have made a fatal misstep in copyright fight with news orgs
OpenAI may be sanctioned for hiding, deleting ChatGPT logs in NYT copyright fight.
Surprised doctors find 10-inch worm in man's groin during elective surgery
Oddly, it wasn't the first time this had happened to the man.
Conspiracies and regrets abound in Dune: Part Three trailer
"You promised me that you would never take power in your name."