Category Archives: Technology

Nintendo jumps to £1bn profits powered by Super Mario film

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Movie drives sales of Switch gaming consoles as well as Super Mario title as Legend of Zelda also does well

The success of The Super Mario Bros Movie and the new Zelda video game helped to boost Nintendo’s bottom line on Thursday as the Japanese gaming company reported an 82% increase in profits.

It said its operating profit in the three months to 30 June rose to 185.4bn yen (£1bn), with the April release of the film – currently the biggest box office hit of 2023 – driving sales of Super Mario titles and the latest Legend of Zelda game also doing well.

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Kenya halts Worldcoin data collection over privacy and security concerns

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Issues raised include use of eye scans to prove ‘humanness’ and financial inducements to sign up

The Kenyan government has barred the eyeball-scanning Worldcoin cryptocurrency project from recruiting new customers as it investigates data privacy and security concerns.

Kenya’s interior ministry said the venture must stop collecting user data after raising a number of issues including: concerns over the secure storage of data that includes scans of a user’s iris; that offering crypto in exchange for data “borders on inducement”; inadequate information on cybersecurity safeguards; and placing large amounts of private data in the hands of a private business.

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Meta, Google and YouTube ‘profiting’ off posts for bogus women’s health cures in Kenya

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Tech firms permit ads for potentially harmful products including vaginal ‘cleanse’ balls and useless herbs for infertility, according to an investigation

Meta, YouTube and Google are profiting from posts promoting harmful and useless health products to women in Kenya, according to an investigation.

Researchers from the media collective Fumbua have accused big tech firms of amplifying content that promises unproven cures for infertility and herbs that can stave off cancers on their networks.

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Meta to end news access in Canada over publisher payment law

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Move comes in response to Canadian legislation requiring internet giants to pay news publishers

Meta has begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada, the company said on Tuesday.

The move comes in response to legislation in the country requiring internet giants to pay news publishers.

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Elon Musk reinstates Kanye West’s Twitter account after ban

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Social media platform rebranded as X lifts ban on rapper-producer imposed after swastika tweet

Kanye West’s account on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has been reinstated almost eight months after he tweeted an image of a swastika blended with a star of David.

The rapper-producer and designer, legally known as Ye, embarked on a series of antisemitic rants on social media and during interviews towards the end of last year. In October, he tweeted that he would go “death con 3” on Jewish people. His account was subsequently locked but he was soon readmitted.

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Home Office secretly backs facial recognition technology to curb shoplifting

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Covert government strategy to install electronic surveillance in shops raises issues around bias and data, and contrasts sharply with the EU ban to keep AI out of public spaces

Home Office officials have drawn up secret plans to lobby the independent privacy regulator in an attempt to push the rollout of controversial facial recognition technology into high street shops and supermarkets, internal government minutes seen by the Observer reveal.

The covert strategy was agreed during a closed-door meeting on 8 March between policing minister Chris Philp, senior Home Office officials and the private firm Facewatch, whose facial recognition cameras have provoked fierce opposition after being installed in shops.

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WeChat user numbers plummet nearly 30% in Australia amid concerns of Chinese interference

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Owner gives parliamentary inquiry no reason for fall over three years but says China’s government could not conduct surveillance on app

WeChat has said its user numbers in Australia have declined almost 30% in the past three years, amid questions being raised about foreign interference on the app.

Tencent-owned WeChat told a parliamentary committee examining foreign interference on social media that as of July 2023, the communications app favoured by Australia’s Chinese diaspora community had fewer than 500,000 daily active users in Australia. The company told the committee in 2020 that its user base was 690,000.

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Changing Meta’s algorithms did not help US political polarization, study finds

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Study of Facebook and Instagram data from 2020 election shows chronological lists had no measurable impact on polarization

The powerful algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram have increasingly been blamed for amplifying misinformation and political polarization. But a series of groundbreaking studies published on Thursday suggest addressing these challenges will require more than just tweaking the platforms’ software.

The four research papers, published in Science and Nature also reveal the extent of political echo chambers on Facebook, where conservatives and liberals rely on divergent sources of information, interact with opposing groups and consume distinctly different amounts of misinformation.

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Meta stock surges after company reports 11% rise in revenue

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Revenue grew to $32bn, marking company’s most profitable quarter since 2021, as news sends stocks surging by 7%

Meta stock rallied as the company reported an 11% rise in revenue on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations.

Revenue grew to $32bn in the quarter ending in June, compared to analysts’ average estimate of $31.12bn, marking Meta’s most profitable quarter since 2021. The news sent stocks surging by 7% in after-market trading.

More details soon …

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Netflix lists AI job worth $900,000 amid twin Hollywood strikes

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Company lists highly paid machine-learning project manager role while actors and executives at odds over future of AI in Hollywood

As actors and writers strike over fair compensation and protections from the encroachment of artificial intelligence, Netflix has listed a position for a machine learning product manager that will compensate somewhere between $300,000 and $900,000 a year. According to the Screen Actors Guild (Sag-Aftra), 87% of the guild’s actors make less than $26,000 per year.

The use of AI in the production of film and television – either to write scripts, generate actors’ likenesses, or cut corners in paying creative work, has been a major point of contention in negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Sag and the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Writers have been striking since May; the actors joined earlier this month. The first joint strike since 1960 threatens to bring Hollywood to a complete standstill.

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Turnbull government’s $33m grant went to company part-owned by mental health commissioner after lobbying

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Exclusive: Funding to Innowell in 2017 without competitive tender was for mental health app and followed months of lobbying by Prof Ian Hickie. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Hickie

The former government led by Malcolm Turnbull awarded a $33m grant to a company that was developing a mental health app after months of lobbying from one of its own mental health commissioners who was also a shareholder in the months-old startup.

The one-off grant was awarded in 2017 without a competitive tender to Innowell for a series of collaborative research trials into a digital mental health platform. Its shareholders include PwC, the University of Sydney and former mental health commissioner Prof Ian Hickie.

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New cryptocurrency offers users tokens for scanning their eyeballs

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Worldcoin, launched by CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, says scheme will distinguish between ‘verified humans’ and AI

Members of the public are being invited to have their eyeballs scanned by a silver orb as part of cryptocurrency project that aims to use biometric verification to distinguish humans from AI systems.

People signing up to the Worldcoin scheme via an app this week will receive a “genesis grant” of 25 tokens, equivalent to about £40, after having their iris scanned by one of the bowling ball-sized devices.

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AI bots could replace us, peer warns House of Lords during debate

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Crossbencher asks Lords to imagine bots with ‘higher productivity and lower running costs’ as example of risk to UK jobs market

The House of Lords could be replaced by bots with “deeper knowledge, higher productivity and lower running costs”, said a peer during a debate on the development of advanced artificial intelligence.

Addressing the upper chamber, Richard Denison hypothesised that AI services may soon be able to deliver his speeches in his own style and voice, “with no hesitation, repetition or deviation”.

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Elon Musk reveals new Twitter logo X

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Experts warn that rebranding of 15-year-old app may be a risky move at a time when competitors are upping their game

Elon Musk has revealed a new logo for Twitter, choosing a “minimalist art deco” X as part of a rebrand of the platform.

The Twitter owner indicated that the design would be altered, tweeting that it “probably changes later, certainly will be refined”. Twitter’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, confirmed the choice on Monday by tweeting the design and writing: “X is here! Let’s do this.”

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Home affairs cyber survey exposed personal data of participating firms

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Shadow minister says leak of ‘sensitive’ information after research into the Optus and Medibank hacks was ‘deeply ironic’

The home affairs department exposed the personal information of more than 50 small business survey participants who were sought for their views on cybersecurity, Guardian Australia can reveal.

The names, business names, phone numbers and emails of the participants in the survey were published on the parliament website in response to a question on notice from May’s Budget estimates hearing.

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Brittany Higgins, her fiance and dog under ‘serious threat’ from online harassment, police allege

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David Wonnocott charged with using carriage service to menace and threaten to kill

A man accused of menacing Brittany Higgins, her fiance and their dog online posed a “serious threat” to their wellbeing, court documents allege.

David William Wonnocott, 49, is charged with using a carriage service to menace and threaten to kill in separate incidents relating to Higgins and the New South Wales politician Alex Greenwich.

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US woman who hired hitman using bitcoin to kill ex-husband gets five years in prison

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Kristy Lynn Felkins of Nevada pleaded guilty in March to murder-for-hire charge as part of a deal to avoid trial

A Nevada woman who admitted to hiring a hitman on the internet for $5,000 in bitcoin to kill her ex-husband “and make it look like an accident” was sentenced to five years in prison.

Kristy Lynn Felkins, 38, of Fallon, Nevada, pleaded guilty in March to a charge of murder-for-hire as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that avoided trial, court records show.

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‘Bargaining for our very existence’: why the battle over AI is being fought in Hollywood

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The ramifications of artificial intelligence are of concern to the actors and writers on strike – from big stars to bit players

To get her start in Hollywood, Chivonne Michelle studied acting at New York University. But what helped her break into the industry and gave her the key training she needed was working on set as a background actor.

Today, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology threatens to put those “entry level and working class” Hollywood jobs at risk, Michelle and other striking actors say.

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Top tech firms commit to AI safeguards amid fears over pace of change

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Joe Biden announced Meta, Amazon and OpenAI among others had agreed to eight measures to encourage responsible practices

Top players in the development of artificial intelligence, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI, have agreed to new safeguards for the fast-moving technology, Joe Biden announced on Friday.

Among the guidelines brokered by the Biden administration are watermarks for AI content to make it easier to identify and third-party testing of the technology that will try to spot dangerous flaws.

Using watermarking on audio and visual content to help identify content generated by AI.

Allowing independent experts to try to push models into bad behavior – a process known as “red-teaming”.

Sharing trust and safety information with the government and other companies.

Investing in cybersecurity measures.

Encouraging third parties to uncover security vulnerabilities.

Reporting societal risks such as inappropriate uses and bias.

Prioritizing research on AI’s societal risks.

Using the most cutting-edge AI systems, known as frontier models, to solve society’s greatest problems.

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US ambassador to Beijing targeted in Chinese cyber-attack – report

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Nicholas Burns’ emails reportedly accessed in hack that exploited flaw in Microsoft system and took Washington by surprise

The US ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, was reportedly one of the American officials whose emails were accessed in a recent Chinese hacking attack which took Washington by surprise with its sophistication.

Another target was Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for east Asia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. When the attack was first disclosed last week, the administration admitted the email account of the commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, had also been compromised. US officials were quoted as saying those were the three most senior targets but that in total, hundreds of thousands of government email accounts could have been breached.

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