Category Archives: Technology

‘We must slow the pace’: CEO of Anthropic calls for an AI slowdown

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In a social media post, Dario Amodei proposed a plan including third-party evaluations of AI systems

The CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic issued a new appeal on Saturday for the AI industry to “slow down” and offered a three-part plan for doing so, saying that his company would “unilaterally” commit to the first of the steps.

In a post on social media, Dario Amodei shared a link to an essay titled We Must Pace the Frontier in which he laid out how Anthropic would provide “third-party evaluators with permanent, employee-level access to our systems, so that they can verify adherence to our safety measures, report on incidents, and assess models’ alignment during training”.

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AI agents being tested by OpenAI involved in cyber-attack on another service, say researchers

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Two months before hacking Hugging Face, malicious packages authored by internal OpenAI agents were uploaded to RubyGems

Agents being tested by OpenAI uploaded hundreds of malicious packages in a cyberattack on software service RubyGems in May, two ⁠months ​before they hacked open-source platform Hugging Face, the company confirmed Friday.

It’s the latest revelation of cyberattacks linked to major artificial intelligence developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The hacks or attempts to access external systems have spooked the public and heightened concerns over the increasing abilities of AI models – and whether developers can contain them.

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Apple expected to unveil folding iPhone as new CEO takes center stage

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The new model will serve as the first big test for John Ternus, who took the role last week

All eyes are on Apple’s annual fall announcement of new products this afternoon, where the company is expected to unveil the most significant change to the iPhone since the smartphone’s introduction in 2007.

Unlike previous iterations, the new iPhone is expected to fold, opening and closing like a passport to double its screen size.

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UK to force Apple and Google to block explicit images on children’s smartphones

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Lisa Nandy says government will introduce legislation after talks deadline ends without breakthrough

Apple and Google will be forced to block explicit images on children’s smartphones by law in the UK after talks failed to produce a breakthrough, the government has said.

The legislation commitment puts ministers on a collision course with two of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, months after the government announced a social media ban for under-16s.

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Apple Maps renames Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ for US users after Trump order

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Tech company submits to controversial Trump order to rename body of water amid US trade spat with Canada

Apple has renamed Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for US users of its Maps app, after an executive order from Donald Trump to change the name of the Great Lake amid his trade spat with Canada.

The Apple Maps app now displays the controversial new name for the lake, which sits between New York state and the Canadian province of Ontario, for users in the US. Apple users outside the country will still see the Lake Ontario name.

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Macquarie University swaps in-person psychology classes with AI chatbot for two subjects

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University’s move is part of trend that critics within academia say will lead to further staff cuts and the loss of ‘everything that makes the job worth doing’

An Australian university has swapped in-person classes with an AI chatbot, online quizzes and optional online tutorials in two subjects as institutions give the technology more teaching responsibilities.

Macquarie University’s “Virtual Peer” is part of each week’s learning in two mandatory Psychology units, programmed to ask students questions and guide them through scenario-based exercises.

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Dyson launches £420 toothbrush that films ‘live cleaning footage’ inside your mouth

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James Dyson says ‘complete dental system’ will also include toothpaste and mouth rinse that each cost £8.50

It is the live stream you never wanted to see but may find impossible to resist: rolling footage beamed live from inside your mouth while you are cleaning your teeth.

Dyson, the home appliance maker that made its name inventing bagless vacuums and bladeless fans, has turned its attention to oral hygiene with a £420 all-singing, all-dancing toothbrush that can clean, floss and even spray tiny jets of mouthwash.

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MapQuest app reaches No 1 on US Apple list after defying Trump’s Lake Ontario order

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Navigating app surpasses Google and Apple Maps on top-downloaded US chart after posting ‘we’re not changing it’

A pioneering online mapping app that defied Donald Trump by refusing to rename Lake Ontario has become the most in-demand navigation tool in the US.

MapQuest, which was openly dismissive of the president’s 27 August executive order directing federal agencies to refer to the smallest of the Great Lakes as “Lake America” amid a trade spat with Canada, leapfrogged rivals Google Maps and Apple Maps to top the most-downloaded list, as first reported by TechCrunch.

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Taiwan charges nine people for smuggling ‘high-end’ AI servers to China

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Among those charged are two Super Micro employees and one from Nvidia, marking another flashpoint in US-China AI rivalry

Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine people Monday, including one from Nvidia and two from Super Micro, for illegally exporting “high-end AI servers” to mainland China, adding another wave of turbulence in the AI ​​rivalry between China and the United States.

Prosecutors said the servers involved were graphics processing units known as “B300,” which have been banned from sale to China.

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Taiwan charges nine people for smuggling ‘high-end’ AI servers to China

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Among those charged are two Super Micro employees and one from Nvidia, marking another flashpoint in US-China AI rivalry

Taiwanese prosecutors charged nine people Monday, including one from Nvidia and two from Super Micro, for illegally exporting “high-end AI servers” to mainland China, adding another wave of turbulence in the AI ​​rivalry between China and the United States.

Prosecutors said the servers involved were graphics processing units known as “B300,” which have been banned from sale to China.

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Iran-linked hackers blamed for cyber-attack that shut down UK power plant

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Incident marks apparent escalation by Tehran in its in retaliation against UK over allowing US to use British bases

Hackers linked to Iran have been blamed for a cyber-attack that caused a British power plant to be temporarily shut down.

The incident involved a small-scale energy generator, according to the UK government, which said that at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system.

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TikTok agrees to $400m settlement to resolve US children’s privacy litigation

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The DoJ sued TikTok and its former parent company in August 2024 for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy and collecting their information

⁠TikTok and its Chinese former parent company ByteDance on Friday agreed to a $400m settlement to resolve the US Department of Justice’s allegations that the short-form video app ⁠violated children’s online ⁠privacy.

The justice ​department sued TikTok and ByteDance in 2024 for allegedly failing to protect children’s privacy and illegally collecting their information. The defendants were accused ⁠of violating a law requiring online services aimed at children to obtain parental consent to collect personal information from users under age 13.

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Dutch regulator fines Uber $966m for automating driver suspensions

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European regulators have imposed billions in penalties on US technology companies due to privacy, competition and digital market rules

The Dutch data protection authority has fined ⁠Uber €825m ($966m) for deactivating driver ⁠accounts through automated systems without ​adequately informing them, according to a 17 August decision.

The penalty would be the second-largest issued yet under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

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Mark Zuckerberg buys 440-acre Strancally castle estate in Ireland

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Meta chief executive paid roughly €20m for gothic-style mansion built in 1830 and its surroundings

It stretches the definition of pied-à-terre but Mark Zuckerberg now has a pad in Ireland: Strancally castle.

The Meta chief executive and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have bought the gothic-style mansion and its 178-hectare (440-acre) estate in county Waterford to use as a base during visits to Ireland.

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OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens with stronger safeguards

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Teen version is intended for children aged 13 to 17 and includes content protections on self-harm and sexual chats

OpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers – the first generation to grow up with artificial intelligence – who are already using it for schoolwork, questions about daily life and even companionship.

The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens, which launches on Tuesday, is tailored for children aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things such as suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than spit out answers and school essays.

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Massachusetts teen accused of killing mother and brother used ChatGPT

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District attorney says Arjun Aravind, 17, used internet and AI to search for fantasy stories regarding killing of his family

A Massachusetts teenager accused of killing his mother and younger brother is being held without bail as authorities investigate a double-murder case that prosecutors say is connected to his use of ChatGPT.

Arjun Aravind, 17, appeared Thursday morning for his arraignment in Concord district court, where a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf to murder and several additional charges.

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Zuckerberg faces questions over why superyacht reportedly declined to help stranded boat

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Small cruise ship rescued skiff in south-east Alaska even though Meta billionaire’s $300m megayacht was closer

Mark Zuckerberg has faced questions over why a small cruise ship in south-east Alaska rescued a stranded skiff and its crew when his 387ft superyacht had been closer.

The Silicon Valley billionaire’s yacht, worth a reported $300m, is said to have “repeatedly” declined to assist when a nearby boat called for help last week.

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Meta says its AI model hacked into another company during testing

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Company is the third to report such an incident after Anthropic and OpenAI reported breaches during training

Meta said on Wednesday that one of its AI models hacked ⁠another company during cybersecurity testing, after an error by its testing partner gave the model unintended internet access.

The incident adds to a ⁠growing list of ⁠cases in ​which AI agents from major developers breached systems at other companies during testing, after Anthropic said last week that some of its models ⁠hacked three companies, and OpenAI disclosed that an AI agent breached the startup Hugging Face.

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US stock market hits record highs as AI profits pile and oil prices ease

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S&P 500 shot up 1.8% and the main measure of Wall Street’s health topped its prior all-time high set a few months ago

The US stock market rallied to records on Tuesday as profits kept piling up for companies and as oil prices eased.

The S&P 500 shot up 1.8%, and the main measure of Wall Street’s health topped its prior all-time high set a couple months ago. The Dow Jones industrial average added 907 points, or 1.7%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.6%.

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Elon Musk’s X latest to block Saudi dissident accounts inside kingdom

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Exclusive: More than 60 accounts on X have been made unavailable in Saudi Arabia, after similar action on Snapchat and Facebook

Elon Musk’s X has become the latest major US social media company to block the accounts of Saudi Arabian dissidents so they are no longer visible inside the kingdom, following orders from Saudi authorities.

Earlier this year, the Guardian reported that platforms including Snapchat and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram had blocked dissidents’ accounts over allegations by Saudi authorities that they were violating local law.

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