North Korean hackers cash out from ByBit hack, Chinese engineers develop ‘Manus’ AI agent
Hackers thought to be working for the North Korean regime have successfully converted at least $300m (£232m) of their record-breaking $1.5bn crypto heist to unrecoverable funds. The criminals, known as Lazarus Group, swiped the huge haul of digital tokens in a hack on crypto exchange ByBit two weeks ago. Since then, it’s been a cat-and-mouse game to track and block the hackers from successfully converting the crypto into usable cash. Experts say the infamous hacking team is working nearly 24 hours a day – potentially funnelling the money into the regime’s military development. BBC
UK drivers are “confused” by the country’s electric car transition, ministers are being warned. Although most drivers are not hostile towards electric vehicles (EVs), many are confused about what changes are coming and when, according to new research from the AA. In a survey of more than 14,000 AA members, 7% thought the government was banning the sale of used petrol and diesel cars. Around a third thought manual EVs exist, despite them all being automatic. More than one in five said they would never buy an EV. Sky News
The NHS is “looking into” allegations that patient data was left vulnerable to hacking due to a software flaw at a private medical services company. The flaw was found last November at Medefer, which handles 1,500 NHS patient referrals a month. The software engineer who discovered the flaw believes the problem had existed for at least six years. Medefer says there is no evidence the flaw had been in place that long and stressed that patient data has not been compromised. The flaw was fixed a few days after being discovered. BBC
A group of Chinese software engineers have developed what they have called the “world’s first” fully autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agent. Called “Manus,” the AI agent can independently perform complex tasks without human guidance. Unlike AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, or Grok, which need human input to perform things, Manus can proactively make decisions and complete tasks independently. To this end, the AI agent doesn’t necessarily need to wait for instructions to do something. Interesting Engineering
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture to WhatsApp that shows him wearing what he says are “the new limited edition Ray-Ban Meta x Coperni frames last night.” They’re coming tomorrow, he adds. Meta teased last week that “an exciting collaboration” is coming soon, and I suppose these are them. It’s hard to tell if they’re translucent from this picture of Zuckerberg, but the earlier tease implied that they are, like Meta’s previous limited edition shades. According to a Meta blog that just went up, they’ll be available at 1AM PT / 4AM ET for $549. And yes, they’re translucent. The Verge
I’m watching artificial intelligence order my groceries. Armed with my shopping list, it types each item into the search bar of a supermarket website, then uses its cursor to click. Watching what appears to be a digital ghost do this usually mundane task is strangely transfixing. “Are you sure it’s not just a person in India?” my husband asks, peering over my shoulder. I’m trying out Operator, a new AI “agent” from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Made available to UK users last month, it has a similar text interface and conversational tone to ChatGPT, but rather than just answering questions, it can actually do things. The Guardian
Three European aerospace companies want to join up to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, setting up an early test of whether Europe is serious about creating global industrial giants or if national interests and the EU’s own competition rulebook will win out. Airbus, Leonardo and Thales Alenia Space are exploring a joint venture to boost satellite production in an effort to compete with Musk’s Starlink and other global players, particularly on low Earth orbit satellites used in commercial telecommunications. Politico
