Category: News
ShinyShiny snippets: AI deleting possible war crimes on social media sites
Image: BBC Evidence of potential human rights abuses may be lost after being deleted by tech companies, the BBC has found. Platforms remove graphic videos, often using artificial intelligence - but footage that may help prosecutions can be taken down without being archived. Meta and YouTube say they aim to balance…
How to spot online shopping scams
This week, newly published data from Lloyds Bank revealed that over two-thirds of online shopping scams begin on Instagram and Facebook. This alarming figure signifies how savvy fraudsters are using social media to prey on unsuspecting shoppers, who are in search of a deal. There has been a rise in online scammers creating fake business pages,…
ShinyShiny snippets: AI poses similar risk to ‘nuclear war’, experts warn
Artificial intelligence poses a similar risk of human extinction as pandemics and nuclear war, experts have warned. The boss of the firm behind ChatGPT, the head of Google's AI lab, and CEO of Anthropic - another major AI firm, have all signed an open letter. It reads: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a…
Shiny Shiny snippets: Elon Musk’s brain chip firm Neuralink given go ahead for human trials
Elon Musk's brain chip firm Neuralink has said it has been given the go-ahead to start carrying out studies on humans. Neuralink said in a tweet on Thursday it had won the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "to launch our first-in-human clinical study!" It represents "an important first step that will…
ShinyShiny snippets: Paralysed man can walk again thanks to ‘digital bridge’
A paralysed man has been able to walk again after communication was re-established between his brain and spinal cord using a wireless "digital bridge". The so-called brain computer interface is made up of two electronic implants, one each in the brain and spinal cord. The former is placed above the region of the brain responsible…
ShinyShiny snippets: Meta fined €1.2bn for mishandling data
Facebook's owner, Meta, has been fined €1.2bn (£1bn) for mishandling people's data when transferring it between Europe and the United States. Issued by Ireland's Data Protection Commission, it is the largest fine imposed under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation privacy law. GDPR rules require companies to seek people's consent before using their personal data.…
ShinyShiny snippets: Tesla issues Optimus robot update
Tesla Optimus Humanoid Robot. Image: Tesla Having first revealed the new Roadster some six years ago and the Cybertruck in 2019 – but having thus far delivered, er, neither – it might not surprise you to hear Tesla's released a progress report about... robots. Last year Musk stated in an earnings call that Tesla's Optimus humanoid…
ShinyShiny snippets: Microsoft, Activision restricted from ‘acquiring interest’ in each other
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has restricted Microsoft and Activision Blizzard from "acquiring an interest" in each other. It published an interim order stating they would need "prior written consent" from the UK regulator before making acquisitions between the companies. The order applies to the businesses as well as their subsidiaries. It comes two…
ShinyShiny snippets: Wind is main source of electricity for first time in UK
Wind turbines have generated more electricity than gas for the first time in the UK. In the first three months of this year a third of the country's electricity came from wind farms, research from Imperial College London have shown. National Grid has also confirmed that April saw a record period of solar energy generation.…
ShinyShiny snippets: Brit pleads guilty to 2020 Twitter hack
A British national extradited to the US last month has pleaded guilty in New York to a role in one of the biggest hacks in social media history. The July 2020 Twitter hack affected over 130 accounts including those of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Joseph James O'Connor, 23, known as PlugwalkJoe, pleaded guilty to…
