Innholdsfortegnelse for #631 i Techlife News

Crews have installed what’s billed as the nation’s first wireless-charging public roadway for electric vehicles beneath a street just west of downtown Detroit. Copper inductive charging coils allow vehicles equipped with receivers to charge up their batteries while driving, idling or parking above the coils. The quarter-mile segment of 14th Street will be used to test and perfect the technology ahead of making it available to the public within a few years, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. Demonstrations were held this week at Michigan Central innovation district, a hub for advancing technologies and programs that address barriers to mobility. The district also is where Ford Motor Co. is restoring the old Michigan Central train station to develop self-driving vehicles. The technology belongs to Electreon, an Israel-based developer of…

As the festive season approaches, it’s time to consider gifts for our loved ones. Apple, known for its elegance, functionality, and innovation, offers various options that cater to all budgets, ages, and personal styles. The perfect presents await under the Christmas tree. GIFTS FOR EVERYONE Apple’s diverse product range ensures something for everyone, regardless of budget or style preferences. From high-end gadgets to affordable accessories, these gifts can be significant upgrades for existing Apple users or an exciting introduction for first-time users. Apple products are versatile enough to suit all family members, regardless of age or skill level. Whether it’s encouraging creativity in young, talented artists or enhancing productivity and communication for older family members or those living far away, there’s an Apple product to fit the bill. An Apple…

Facebook parent Meta Platforms deliberately engineered its social platforms to hook kids and knew — but never disclosed — it had received millions of complaints about underage users on Instagram but only disabled a fraction of those accounts, according to a newly unsealed legal complaint described in reports from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The complaint, originally made public in redacted form, was the opening salvo in a lawsuit filed in late October by the attorneys general of 33 states. Company documents cited in the complaint described several Meta officials acknowledging the company designed its products to exploit shortcomings in youthful psychology such as impulsive behavior, susceptibility to peer pressure and the underestimation of risks, according to the reports. Others acknowledged Facebook and Instagram also were…

While fully automated vehicles are still a ways off, the stepping stone of hands-free driving technology has become prevalent in the past few years. These assist systems allow drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel in certain situations. Combined with automated braking and acceleration, the feature can help make driving long distances or in congested traffic easier and less fatiguing. To better explain what’s available, the automotive experts put four hands-free drive systems to the test: Ford’s BlueCruise, General Motors’ Super Cruise, Tesla’s AutoPilot with Full Self-Driving Beta and BMW’s Driving Assistant Plus. FORD BLUECRUISE Ford calls its hands-free driving system BlueCruise and offers it on a handful of its vehicles. BlueCruise allows for hands-free driving on most U.S. highways that don’t have traffic signals or intersections. Experts…

“Get Ready with Me” — to go on a date, go to work or ... get fired? “Get Ready with Me” videos are everywhere these days, and they’re as straightforward as the name suggests. Social media users, often influencers, invite viewers to watch them get ready to do something or go somewhere. And embedded in the storyline are the skin care, the makeup, the hairdo and all the glam that goes into looking hot — and, of course, the personal stories about life or love that arrest your attention. GRWM videos, as they’re also known, are part of a trend of “with me” content that has gained popularity over the past decade. Think “Clean with Me” videos where users watch people clean their homes for inspiration or pleasure. Or hours-long…

Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said Thursday. The network of nearly 4,800 fake accounts was attempting to build an audience when it was identified and eliminated by the tech company, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The accounts sported fake photos, names and locations as a way to appear like everyday American Facebook users weighing in on political issues. Instead of spreading fake content as other networks have done, the accounts were used to reshare posts from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that were created by politicians, news outlets and others. The interconnected accounts pulled…

Artificial intelligence employed by the U.S. military has piloted pint-sized surveillance drones in special operations forces’ missions and helped Ukraine in its war against Russia. It tracks soldiers’ fitness, predicts when Air Force planes need maintenance and helps keep tabs on rivals in space. Now, the Pentagon is intent on fielding multiple thousands of relatively inexpensive, expendable AI-enabled autonomous vehicles by 2026 to keep pace with China. The ambitious initiative — dubbed Replicator — seeks to “galvanize progress in the too-slow shift of U.S. military innovation to leverage platforms that are small, smart, cheap, and many,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in August. While its funding is uncertain and details vague, Replicator is expected to accelerate hard decisions on what AI tech is mature and trustworthy enough to…

Apple is pulling the plug on its credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. The tech giant recently sent a proposal to the Wall Street bank to exit the contract in the next 12 to 15 months, the report said, citing people briefed on the matter. Apple and Goldman had started to roll out a virtual credit card in 2019. The exit would cover their entire consumer partnership, including the savings account rolled out this year, the report added. The iPhone maker, when asked about the report, said: “Apple and Goldman Sachs are focused on providing an incredible experience for our customers to help them lead healthier financial lives. The award-winning Apple Card has seen a great reception from consumers, and we will continue…

Tech executives at Microsoft and Amazon have dropped out of an upcoming software conference after at least one of the women on the agenda turned out to be fake. DevTernity organizer Eduards Sizovs admitted on social media that one of the featured speakers was an “auto-generated” woman with a fake title. He was responding to allegations about a number of suspicious profiles on his conference websites that appeared to be generated by artificial intelligence. But he denied that the fake profile was intended to mask the “worse-than-expected level of diversity of speakers” in this year’s lineup and refused to apologize in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter. He didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment. The revelation led other speakers to quickly drop out of the virtual conference…

Amazon finally has its answer to ChatGPT. The tech giant said Tuesday it will launch Q — a business chatbot powered by generative artificial intelligence. The announcement, made in Las Vegas at an annual conference the company hosts for its AWS cloud computing service, represents Amazon’s response to rivals who’ve rolled out chatbots that have captured the public’s attention. San Francisco startup OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT a year ago sparked a surge of public and business interest in generative AI tools that can spit out emails, marketing pitches, essays, and other passages of text that resemble the work of humans. That attention initially gave an advantage to OpenAI’s chief partner and financial backer, Microsoft, which has rights to the underlying technology behind ChatGPT and has used it to build its…

Justin Ryan Horton has two jobs. When he’s not putting in 24-hour shifts as a firefighter, the 22-year-old is working as an administrative assistant for a local community college from his home in Colorado Springs. Firefighting is, of course, not a work-from-home kind of job. So when the community college position gave Horton the choice to clock in remotely, he took it. “I’m gone a lot being a firefighter,” Horton said. “Instead of coming home and then seeing my family for a few minutes before leaving to go to my other job... I feel like I have just more time with (them) when I work from home.” The COVID-19 pandemic upended what working looks like for millions of people all around the world. While many jobs can only be done…

Computer-generated writers ... writing computer-generated stories? Sports Illustrated is the latest media company to see its reputation damaged by being less than forthcoming — if not outright dishonest — about who or what is writing its stories at the dawn of the artificial intelligence age. The once-powerful publication said it was firing a company that produced articles for its website written under the byline of authors who apparently don’t exist. But it denied a published report that stories themselves were written by an artificial intelligence tool. Earlier this year, experiments with AI went awry at both the Gannett newspaper chain and the CNET technology website. Many companies are testing the new technology at a time when human workers fear it could cost jobs. But the process is fraught in journalism,…

The Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence offer, Craig Martell, is alarmed by the potential for generative artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT to deceive and sow disinformation. His talk on the technology at the DefCon hacker convention in August was a huge hit. But he’s anything but sour on reliable AI. Not a soldier but a data scientist, Martell headed machine-learning at companies including LinkedIn, Dropbox and Lyft before taking the job last year. Marshalling the U.S. military’s data and determining what AI is trustworthy enough to take into battle is a big challenge in an increasingly unstable world where multiple countries are racing to develop lethal autonomous weapons. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: WHAT IS YOUR MAIN MISSION? A: Our job is to scale…

Have a Google account you haven’t used in a while? If you want to keep it from disappearing, you should sign in before the end of the week. Under Google’s updated inactive account policy, which the tech giant announced back in May, accounts that haven’t been used in at least two years could be deleted. Accounts deemed inactive could be erased beginning Friday (Dec 1st). If you have an account that’s deemed “inactive” and at risk for deletion, you should receive notices from Google sent to the email affiliated with that account and its recovery address (if one exits). But if you’re still catching up on this new policy — and want to ensure that your content on Google Drive, Docs, Gmail and more is saved — here’s what you…

A compromise plan to eventually end the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles in Connecticut could be worked out as early as next year’s legislative session, state lawmakers said. The move comes a day after Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont withdrew proposed regulations mirroring California’s clean vehicle standards after it became apparent there wasn’t enough support on a key legislative committee. Those standards would have halted sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Democrat from Hartford, said that his members plan to meet on Monday to discuss possible legislation that addresses concerns about the regulations. Republicans and others say they’re worried about the high cost of electric vehicles, the availability of charging stations and the ability of the state’s electric grid to handle the anticipated changeover from gas-combustion…

Nissan will invest $1.4 billion to update its factory in northeast England to make electric versions of its two best-selling cars, a boost for the British government as it tries to revive the country’s ailing economy. The Japanese automaker manufactures the gasoline or gas-hybrid Qashqai and smaller Juke crossover vehicles at the factory in Sunderland, which employs 6,000 workers. Nissan Motor Co. said it’s directly investing up to 1.12 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) to produce electric successors to the two models. The money also will enable “wider investment in infrastructure projects and the supply chain, including a new gigafactory” for EV batteries at the site, the government said in a separate press release. “Nissan’s investment is a massive vote of confidence in the U.K.’s automotive industry,” which contributes 71 billion…