Sunday, March 5, 2023

Scammers are using voice-cloning AI to impersonate family members in distress, sometimes spoofing specific numbers to further the ruse, and victims fall for it (Pranshu Verma/Washington Post)

Pranshu Verma / Washington Post:
Scammers are using voice-cloning AI to impersonate family members in distress, sometimes spoofing specific numbers to further the ruse, and victims fall for it  —  Scammers are using artificial intelligence to sound more like family members in distress.  People are falling for it and losing thousands of dollars.



An interview with Ask Jeeves' co-creator Garrett Gruener, who says his original idea was similar to the chatbots Microsoft and Google are trying to build today (Charlie Warzel/The Atlantic)

Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
An interview with Ask Jeeves' co-creator Garrett Gruener, who says his original idea was similar to the chatbots Microsoft and Google are trying to build today  —  Garrett Gruener, the co-creator of Ask Jeeves, couldn't beat Google, but he's feeling just fine about the dawn of the chatbot era.



Sources: Binance and Binance.US have been much more intertwined than disclosed, sharing staff, finances, and an affiliated entity that bought and sold crypto (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Binance and Binance.US have been much more intertwined than disclosed, sharing staff, finances, and an affiliated entity that bought and sold crypto  —  The exchange was intertwined with an American firm portrayed as independent.  Now, regulators are circling.



Sources: Apple's new 24" iMacs are in engineering validation testing, will likely launch in H2 2023 with the M3 chip and same exterior design as the old iMacs (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's new 24" iMacs are in engineering validation testing, will likely launch in H2 2023 with the M3 chip and same exterior design as the old iMacs  —  Apple is gearing up to launch its next slate of laptops and desktops, including a new iMac.  Also: Its cloud chief is set to leave …



An analysis of the EU Cyber Resilience Act, which covers every connected device and almost all software, causing open-source developers to worry about its scope (Bert Hubert/Bert Hubert's writings)

Bert Hubert / Bert Hubert's writings:
An analysis of the EU Cyber Resilience Act, which covers every connected device and almost all software, causing open-source developers to worry about its scope  —  The EU's new Cyber Resilience Act is admirable in its goal.  And the EU is not alone in thinking something needs to be done …



Saturday, March 4, 2023

Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator Una Brands raised a $30M pre-Series C, following a $30M Series B in September 2022, bringing its total funding to $100M+ (Kate Park/TechCrunch)

Kate Park / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator Una Brands raised a $30M pre-Series C, following a $30M Series B in September 2022, bringing its total funding to $100M+  —  Una Brands, a Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has raised $30 million in pre-Series C financing just five months after announcing …



A profile of Slack CEO Lidiane Jones, who was a Sonos VP of software management before joining Salesforce, as she leads Slack through its "biggest product year" (Harry McCracken/Fast Company)

Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
A profile of Slack CEO Lidiane Jones, who was a Sonos VP of software management before joining Salesforce, as she leads Slack through its “biggest product year”  —  Over a few days in late November and early December of 2022, it became clear that Slack was about to go through …



US adds China's Inspur, one of the world's largest server makers that has joint ventures with IBM and Cisco, to an Entity List, limiting its access to US tech (Yuan Gao/Bloomberg)

Yuan Gao / Bloomberg:
US adds China's Inspur, one of the world's largest server makers that has joint ventures with IBM and Cisco, to an Entity List, limiting its access to US tech  —  The Biden administration's blacklisting of China's Inspur Group Co. targets a company that US tech giants like Cisco Systems Inc. …



BidenCash, a dark web site dealing in stolen credit and debit cards, leaks a free database of 2M+ cards revealing emails, card expiry dates, CVV codes, and more (Sergiu Gatlan/BleepingComputer)

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
BidenCash, a dark web site dealing in stolen credit and debit cards, leaks a free database of 2M+ cards revealing emails, card expiry dates, CVV codes, and more  —  A carding marketplace known as BidenCash has leaked online a free database of 2,165,700 debit and credit cards in celebration of its first anniversary.



Snapchat ‘Color your city’ Holi AR lens filter: What are they

Snapchat is introducing new augmented reality filters for Holi season. These filters include a Color Your City lens that lets users paint the city in India in vibrant colours, a Bitmoji fashion drop that lets users create fashionable Holi-themed Bitmojis, localised stickers that let users add festive flair to their chats, and new AR lenses themed around Holi. https://ift.tt/RTGxLl7

ChatGPT fails one of India's biggest competitive exam

OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT has reportedly failed one of India's biggest competitive exams, the Indian Civil Services Examination. According to a report, ChatGPT failed to clear the examination with questions ranging from topics such as Geography, Economy, History, Ecology, General Science and current affairs. Bengaluru-based Analytics India Magazine, subjected it to clear the examination with questions ranging from topics such as Geography, Economy, History, Ecology, General Science and current affairs. https://ift.tt/3GOkctm

Friday, March 3, 2023

Family office of Nintendo heirs says patience is a super power

The investment firm managing nearly $1.5 billion of assets for members of Nintendo's founding family is willing to play a long game when it comes to portfolio companies and can wait more than a decade to see a turnaround, a top executive said. That timeline helps explain why Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office shows no sign of relenting nearly a year into its quest to take marine construction firm Toyo Construction Co private, a takeover battle that could see a critical turn at an annual shareholder meeting in June. https://ift.tt/YthP2xS

Meta plans to fully or partly implement 26 of 32 Oversight Board recommendations on the cross-check system, including producing regular transparency reports (Jeff Horwitz/Wall Street Journal)

Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal:
Meta plans to fully or partly implement 26 of 32 Oversight Board recommendations on the cross-check system, including producing regular transparency reports  —  Meta Platforms accepts most recommendations from its oversight board, but rejects key provisions



Few US lawmakers are taking action to regulate AI, as many struggle to understand the technology and its dangers, unlike the EU which proposed AI rules in 2021 (New York Times)

New York Times:
Few US lawmakers are taking action to regulate AI, as many struggle to understand the technology and its dangers, unlike the EU which proposed AI rules in 2021  —  Tech innovations are again racing ahead of Washington's ability to regulate them, lawmakers and A.I. experts said.



Q&A with former NYT photo editor Fred Ritchin on AI destroying the credibility of the photo, ensuring readers understand if an image is manipulated, and more (Amanda Darrach/Columbia Journalism Review)

Amanda Darrach / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with former NYT photo editor Fred Ritchin on AI destroying the credibility of the photo, ensuring readers understand if an image is manipulated, and more  —  b  —  In recent years, artificial intelligence engineers have used millions of real photographs—taken by journalists all over the world …



SpaceX launches Starlink in Indonesia to improve internet access in remote parts of the country, starting with three local health centers (Stefanno Sulaiman/Reuters)

Stefanno Sulaiman / Reuters : SpaceX launches Starlink in Indonesia to improve internet access in remote parts of the country, starting w...