Tuesday, March 21, 2023

How Elon Musk acquiring and running Twitter, adding to SpaceX and Tesla, became a headache for the Biden administration, which worries over foreign influence (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
How Elon Musk acquiring and running Twitter, adding to SpaceX and Tesla, became a headache for the Biden administration, which worries over foreign influence  —  Argentina was headed toward its thrilling victory over France at the World Cup in Qatar, and Elon Musk, the Tesla Inc. CEO and Twitter owner …



Two of Uranus' Moons may have active oceans: NASA study

One or two of Uranus' 27 moons -- Ariel and/or Miranda -- likely have oceans beneath their icy surfaces and are actively spewing material into the space environment, according to a study by NASA. https://ift.tt/vdQmEzP

Tech industry group NetChoice, founded by Google and Meta, launches a litigation center to combat state laws and local lawsuits, modeled on Chamber of Commerce (Cat Zakrzewski/Washington Post)

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Tech industry group NetChoice, founded by Google and Meta, launches a litigation center to combat state laws and local lawsuits, modeled on Chamber of Commerce  —  NetChoice's new center is designed to respond to the threat of state laws and local lawsuits  —  NetChoice, a tech industry group funded …



When ChatGPT failed one of the India's biggest competitive test

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/Clpa4nw

Sources: Apple lobbied for changes to India's labor law in the Tamil Nadu state, where Foxconn has its largest iPhone plant, to help expand local production (Sankalp Phartiyal/Bloomberg)

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple lobbied for changes to India's labor law in the Tamil Nadu state, where Foxconn has its largest iPhone plant, to help expand local production  —  Apple Inc. is seeking changes in India's labor laws as part of its effort to expand local production, and regional governments …



Monday, March 20, 2023

Taiwan's Ministry of Finance data: chip exports to China and Hong Kong fell 31.3% YoY in February, the worst decline since 2009 and above January's 27.1% fall (Yoshihiro Sato/Bloomberg)

Yoshihiro Sato / Bloomberg:
Taiwan's Ministry of Finance data: chip exports to China and Hong Kong fell 31.3% YoY in February, the worst decline since 2009 and above January's 27.1% fall  —  Taiwan's exports of integrated circuit chips to China and Hong Kong fell for a fourth month in February as Washington-Beijing tensions simmer …



Learning social skills next target for AI: Study

Siri and Google Assistant may be able to schedule meetings on request, but so far they don't have the social understanding to independently prioritise the appointments. https://ift.tt/FYJUoBZ

Samsung to invest in smart manufacturing capability, research and development in India

"We will continue our investment to bring the optimised and or smart factory to the Noida facilities. We will continue our investment there. I believe this our investment for the smart factory will bring competitiveness in the production," Roh said. https://ift.tt/nGJpSP0

An interview with Sam Altman on OpenAI's GPT-4, how "people should be happy" that OpenAI is a "little bit scared of" its tools, misinformation, rivals, and more (ABC News)

ABC News:
An interview with Sam Altman on OpenAI's GPT-4, how “people should be happy” that OpenAI is a “little bit scared of” its tools, misinformation, rivals, and more  —  “This will be the greatest technology humanity has yet developed,” he said.  —  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks with ABC News, Mar. 15, 2023.



How open source intelligence, or OSINT, researchers are using public data to untangle the mystery of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, helping debunk claims (Matt Burgess/Wired)

Matt Burgess / Wired:
How open source intelligence, or OSINT, researchers are using public data to untangle the mystery of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, helping debunk claims  —  Open source intelligence researchers are verifying and debunking opaque claims about who ruptured the gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.



China's anti-graft watchdog begins to investigate ex-Tsinghua Unigroup Chairman Zhao Weiguo, the latest executive to be ensnared in its chip corruption dragnet (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
China's anti-graft watchdog begins to investigate ex-Tsinghua Unigroup Chairman Zhao Weiguo, the latest executive to be ensnared in its chip corruption dragnet  —  China's top anti-graft watchdog has begun an investigation of former Tsinghua Unigroup Chairman Zhao Weiguo …



Sunday, March 19, 2023

Learning social skills next target for AI: Study

Siri and Google Assistant may be able to schedule meetings on request, but so far they don't have the social understanding to independently prioritise the appointments. According to researchers based in China, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is smart, but it is stunted by a lack of social skills. "Artificial intelligence has changed our society and our daily life," first author Lifeng Fan, from Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI) said. https://ift.tt/QKgXDW4

UK scientists develop 'cosmic concrete' to build houses on Mars

A team of scientists in the UK has created a new material, dubbed 'StarCrete' which is made from extra-terrestrial dust, potato starch, and a pinch of salt and could be used to build houses on Martian surface. Building infrastructure in space is currently prohibitively expensive and difficult to achieve. But, StarCrete offers one possible solution, according to the team at the University of Manchester. https://ift.tt/yQ19iHS

YouTube Music will now auto-download recently played songs on Android

YouTube Music has got a new feature that will enable users to automatically download recently played songs they played. The feature, which is available on Android, is enabled by default. The feature was spotted by 9to5Google, and a few TOI-Gadgets now team members are able to see it under Settings > Downloads and storage menu. The feature is available for those with a Premium subscription. https://ift.tt/B5Km9RL

Source: in an upcoming testimony to Congress this Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to say TikTok has 150M MAUs in the US, up from 100M in August 2020 (Carol E. Lee/NBC News)

Carol E. Lee / NBC News:
Source: in an upcoming testimony to Congress this Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to say TikTok has 150M MAUs in the US, up from 100M in August 2020  —  When TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before Congress on Thursday, he plans to unveil new internal data that suggests …



OpenAI pauses the use of the Sky voice in ChatGPT after users said it sounded too much like Scarlett Johansson, says voice was not chosen to be an "imitation" (Amy Thomson/Bloomberg)

Amy Thomson / Bloomberg : OpenAI pauses the use of the Sky voice in ChatGPT after users said it sounded too much like Scarlett Johansson,...