Software Glitch Saw Aussie Casino Give Away Millions In Cash
A software glitch in the “ticket in, cash out” (TICO) machines at Star Casino in Sydney, Australia, saw it inadvertently give away $2.05 million over several weeks. This glitch allowed gamblers to reuse a receipt for slot machine winnings, leading to unwarranted cash payouts which went undetected due to systematic failures in oversight and audit processe … ⌘ Read more

Meta Is Adding Real-Time AI Image Generation To WhatsApp
WhatsApp users in the U.S. will soon see support for real-time AI image generation. The Verge reports: As soon as you start typing a text-to-image prompt in a chat with Meta AI, you’ll see how the image changes as you add more detail about what you want to create. In the example shared by Meta, a user types in the prompt, “Imagine a soccer game on mars.” The gen … ⌘ Read more

Colorado Bill Aims To Protect Consumer Brain Data
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Consumers have grown accustomed to the prospect that their personal data, such as email addresses, social contacts, browsing history and genetic ancestry, are being collected and often resold by the apps and the digital services they use. With the advent of consumer neurotechnologies, the data being collected is beco … ⌘ Read more

Feds Hit Coding Boot Camp With Big Fine For Allegedly Conning Students
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has slapped coding boot camp BloomTech – formerly known as Lambda School – with several punishments for alleged deceptive business practices. From a report: The business, which claims on its site it will help students land their “dream job” in tech at companies like Amazon, Cisco, a … ⌘ Read more

Crypto Trader Eisenberg Convicted of Fraud in $110 Million Mango Markets Scheme
A jury found Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg guilty on all three counts of fraud and manipulation in a $110 million crypto trade scheme using the Mango Markets platform. Axios: The case was the first known test for a jury to decide whether existing U.S. laws governing fraud and market manipulation apply to the world of decentr … ⌘ Read more

Boeing Aims To Bring Flying Cars To Asia By 2030
U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing plans to enter the flying car business in Asia by 2030, looking to tap demand for the fast travel the vehicles could provide in the region’s traffic-choked cities. Nikkei: Boeing Chief Technology Officer Todd Citron revealed the plans in an interview with Nikkei. The company is developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) craft at s … ⌘ Read more

Nigeria To Criminalise Fiber Cable Damage Costing Telecoms Billions
Nigeria will criminalize the destruction of broadband fiber cables following repeated complaints by MTN Nigeria and other telecommunications companies that they are losing billions of naira, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: Nigeria’s works ministry, which supervises federal road constructors, … ⌘ Read more

Author Granted Copyright Over Book With AI-Generated Text - With a Twist
The U.S. Copyright Office has granted a copyright registration to Elisa Shupe, a retired U.S. Army veteran, for her novel “AI Machinations: Tangled Webs and Typed Words,” which extensively used OpenAI’s ChatGPT in its creation. The registration is among the first for creative works incorporating AI-generated text, but with a significan … ⌘ Read more

Hackers Are Threatening To Publish a Huge Stolen Sanctions and Financial Crimes Watchlist
An anonymous reader shares a report: A financially motivated criminal hacking group says it has stolen a confidential database containing millions of records that companies use for screening potential customers for links to sanctions and financial crime. The hackers, which call themselves GhostR, s … ⌘ Read more

Meta Releases Llama 3 AI Models, Claiming Top Performance
Meta debuted a new version of its powerful Llama AI model, its latest effort to keep pace with similar technology from companies like OpenAI, X and Google. The company describes Llama 3 8B and Llama 3 70B, containing 8 billion and 70 billion parameters respectively, as a “major leap” in performance compared to their predecessors.

Meta claims that the Llama 3 m … ⌘ Read more

Google is Combining Its Android and Hardware Teams
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced substantial internal reorganizations on Thursday, including the creation of a new team called “Platforms and Devices” that will oversee all of Google’s Pixel products, all of Android, Chrome, ChromeOS, Photos, and more. From a report: The team will be run by Rick Osterloh, who was previously the SVP of devices and services, overseeing all … ⌘ Read more

Canadian Science Gets Biggest Boost To PhD and Postdoc Pay in 20 Years
Researchers in Canada got most of what they were hoping for in the country’s 2024 federal budget, with a big boost in postgraduate pay and more funding for research and scientific infrastructure. From a report: “We are investing over $5 billion in Canadian brainpower,” said finance minister Chrystia Freeland in her budget speech on … ⌘ Read more

Odds of US TikTok Ban Increase After House Fast-Tracks Revised Bill, Picking Up Key Senate Support
U.S. lawmakers have moved closer to enacting a countrywide ban on TikTok. From a report: Last month, the House of Representatives passed a bill by a wide margin that would ban distribution of TikTok in U.S. unless TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, sells its ownership in the app … ⌘ Read more

US Air Force Confirms First Successful AI Dogfight
The US Air Force is putting AI in the pilot’s seat. In an update on Thursday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) revealed that an AI-controlled jet successfully faced a human pilot during an in-air dogfight test carried out last year. From a report: DARPA began experimenting with AI applications in December 2022 as part of its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) pr … ⌘ Read more

Google Terminates 28 Employees For Protest of Israeli Cloud Contract
Google said on Thursday it had terminated 28 employees after some staff participated in protests against the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government. From a report: The Alphabet unit said a small number of protesting employees entered and disrupted work at a few unspecified office locations. “Physically impeding other employee … ⌘ Read more

Inside Amazon’s Secret Operation To Gather Intel on Rivals
Amazon staff went undercover on Walmart, eBay and other marketplaces as a third-party seller called “Big River,” WSJ reports. The mission: to scoop up information on pricing, logistics and other business practices. From the report: For nearly a decade, workers in a warehouse in Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood have shipped boxes of shoes, beach chairs, Marvel … ⌘ Read more

Is 8GB of RAM Enough For a Mac?
Apple is doubling down on 8GB of RAM for many of its entry-level Macs, claiming that it’s “suitable for many tasks,” including browsing, video streaming and even “light” video and image editing. As of this writing, all MacBook Air laptops, the Mac Mini, and the MacBook Pro 14 all start with a base configuration of 8GB RAM – which can’t be upgraded at a later date since the RAM is soldered onto the motherboa … ⌘ Read more

Sweden Becomes 38th Country To Sign NASA’s Artemis Accords For Moon Exploration
Sweden is the newest nation to sign onto NASA’s Artemis Accords – a series of non-binding bilateral arrangements for peaceful and responsible exploration. Space.com reports: During a signing event in Stockholm on Tuesday (April 16), Swedish Minister for Education Mats Persson penned the agreement alongside U.S. Am … ⌘ Read more

House Passes Bill Requiring Warrant To Purchase Data From Third Parties
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: The House on Wednesday approved a bill that would limit how the government can purchase data from third parties — legislation that scored a vote after negotiations with a group of GOP colleagues who briefly tanked a vote on warrantless spy powers. Dubbed the Fourth Amendment is Not … ⌘ Read more

Google Workers Arrested After Nine-Hour Protest In Cloud Chief’s Office
CNBC reports that nine Google workers were arrested on trespassing charges Tuesday night in protest of the company’s $1.2 billion contract providing cloud computing services to the Israeli government. The sit-in happened at Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in Sunnyvale and the 10th floor commons of Google’s New York office. From … ⌘ Read more

TikTok Starts Testing Its Instagram Competitor ‘TikTok Notes’
TikTok has started testing its Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes, in Canada and Australia. TechCrunch reports: The company said on X that it is in the “early stage” of the app’s rollout and that the app is “a dedicated space for photo and text content.” “We hope that the TikTok community will use TikTok Notes to continue sharing their moments through ph … ⌘ Read more

Boston Dynamics’ New Atlas Robot Is a Swiveling, Shape-Shifting Nightmare
Jess Weatherbed reports via The Verge: It’s alive! A day after announcing it was retiring Atlas, its hydraulic robot, Boston Dynamics has introduced a new, all-electric version of its humanoid machine. The next-generation Atlas robot is designed to offer a far greater range of movement than its predecessor. Boston Dynamics want … ⌘ Read more

Feds Appoint ‘AI Doomer’ To Run US AI Safety Institute
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The US AI Safety Institute – part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—has finally announced its leadership team after much speculation. Appointed as head of AI safety is Paul Christiano, a former OpenAI researcher who pioneered a foundational AI safety technique called reinforcement learn … ⌘ Read more

AltStore PAL Alternative App Marketplace Launches On iPhone In EU
AltStore PAL has become one of the first alternative app marketplaces to launch in the European Union. Developed by Riley Testut, AltStore PAL is marketed as an open-source project designed to distribute apps from independent developers. MacRumors reports: At launch, it features two apps, including Testut’s Delta game emulator and clipboard ma … ⌘ Read more

Trump Media Shares Down 14% After Company Says Truth Social To Launch TV Streaming
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which has been called the “mother of all meme stocks” after it made its stock market debut in late March, announced that its Truth Social platform is moving to launch a live TV streaming platform. Following the news, shares of DJT closed more than 14% lower Tuesday. … ⌘ Read more