Innholdsfortegnelse for #642 i Techlife News

The mild-mannered Franklin — the first Black character in the “Peanuts” comic strip — gets to shine in his own animated Apple TV+ special this month in a story about friendship. Franklin is a newcomer who bonds with Charlie Brown and is welcomed to the Peanuts universe in “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin,” which premieres on Friday. Co-writer Robb Armstrong, the cartoonist behind the “Jump Start” strip., says he’s building on the blueprints that “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz left. “Whenever you start with good ingredients, you have to work hard to make a bad cake out of it,” he says. Race is never explicitly mentioned but Armstrong and co-writer Scott Montgomery make a subtle nod when Franklin surveys the kids in his new town and remarks, “One thing was for…

Stuck in a dating app loop with no date in sight? A lawsuit filed Wednesday against Match Group claims that is by design. Tinder, Hinge and other Match dating apps are filled with addictive features that encourage “compulsive” use, the proposed class-action lawsuit claims. The lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of California on Wednesday — Valentine’s Day — says Match intentionally designs its dating platforms with game-like features that “lock users into a perpetual pay-to-play loop” prioritizing profit over promises to help users find relationships. This, the suit claims, turns users into “addicts” who purchase ever-more-expensive subscriptions to access special features that promise romance and matches. “Match’s business model depends on generating returns through the monopolization of users’ attention, and Match has guaranteed its market success…

Once a thing of science fiction, humanoid robots are now a reality, unlocking a new chapter in the world of technology and bringing to the fore a fascinating contest between two titans of the industry: Tesla, with its Optimus Tesla Bot, and Boston Dynamics, the creators of Atlas. It’s a clash that could shape the future of robotics and how we live and work forever. RIVALRY AT PLAY The great clash between Tesla and Boston Dynamics marks a significant point in the evolution of robotics and sheds light on the dreams of combining generative AI with robotics, the economic impacts on human labor, and the competitive spirit ignited within the sector. Boston Dynamics, with its three-decade legacy stemming from an MIT spin-off, has long been at the forefront of robotic…

Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink has moved its legal corporate home from Delaware to Nevada after a Delaware judge struck down Musk’s $55.8 billion pay package as CEO of Tesla. Neuralink, which has its physical headquarters in Fremont, California, became a Nevada company, according to state records. Delaware records also list the company’s legal home as Nevada. The move comes after Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that shareholders of Austin-based Tesla would be asked to consider moving the company’s corporate registration to Texas. “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” he wrote in one post after the court ruling. He later added, “I recommend incorporating in Nevada or Texas if you prefer shareholders to decide matters.” Legal experts say most corporations set up legal shop in…

The CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said this week that the dangers that keep him awake at night regarding artificial intelligence are the “very subtle societal misalignments” that could make the systems wreak havoc. Sam Altman, speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai via a video call, reiterated his call for a body like the International Atomic Energy Agency to be created to oversee AI that’s likely advancing faster than the world expects. “There’s some things in there that are easy to imagine where things really go wrong. And I’m not that interested in the killer robots walking on the street direction of things going wrong,” Altman said. “I’m much more interested in the very subtle societal misalignments where we just have these systems out in society and through no…

Mexican regulators have ordered online retailers Amazon and Mercado Libre to reveal their algorithms, and to wall off TV streaming to avoid stifling competition. Mexico’s Federal Commission on Economic Competition, known by its initials as COFECE, said in a preliminary finding late Tuesday that the two firms control 85% of online sales in Mexico. It said that market dominance created “an absence of real competitive conditions in the online retail market.” For Amazon, the finding was the latest in a string of regulatory challenges it has faced in its countries of operation. The COFECE order also covers the biggest Latin American online retailer, the Uruguay-based firm Mercado Libre. The commission said it had laid out corrective measures that would include prohibiting Amazon from promoting its TV streaming service as an…

Internet networking pioneer Cisco Systems is jettisoning more than 4,000 employees, joining the parade of technology companies in a trend that has helped boost their profits and stock prices while providing a sobering reminder of the job insecurity hanging over an industry increasingly embracing artificial intelligence. The mass layoffs announced Wednesday in conjunction with Cisco’s latest quarterly results represent about 5% of its worldwide workforce of 84,900. The purge follows Cisco’s late 2022 cutbacks that shed 5,000 workers and ahead of its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk, a deal that management now expects to complete by April 30. Cisco — a company best known for making much of the technology that connects the internet — expects its reorganization to cost an additional $800 million. The double whammy of two big…

A few months ago, Derek Carrier started seeing someone and became infatuated. He experienced a “ton” of romantic feelings but he also knew it was an illusion. That’s because his girlfriend was generated by artificial intelligence. Carrier wasn’t looking to develop a relationship with something that wasn’t real, nor did he want to become the brunt of online jokes. But he did want a romantic partner he’d never had, in part because of a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome that makes traditional dating tough for him. The 39-year-old from Belville, Michigan, became more curious about digital companions last fall and tested Paradot, an AI companion app that had recently come onto the market and advertised its products as being able to make users feel “cared, understood and loved.” He began…

Microsoft said this week it had detected and disrupted instances of U.S. adversaries — chiefly Iran and North Korea and to a lesser extent Russia and China — using or attempting to exploit generative artificial intelligence developed by the company and its business partner to mount or research offensive cyber operations. The techniques Microsoft observed, in collaboration with its partner OpenAI, represent an emerging threat and were neither “particularly novel or unique,” the Redmond, Washington, company said in a blog post. But the blog does offer insight into how U.S. geopolitical rivals have been using large-language models to expand their ability to more effectively breach networks and conduct influence operations. Microsoft said the “attacks” detected all involved large-language models the partners own and said it was important to expose them…

The nation’s cybersecurity agency launched a program aimed at boosting election security in the states, shoring up support for local offices and hoping to provide reassurance to voters that this year’s presidential elections will be safe and accurate. Officials with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are introducing the program this week to the National Association of State Election Directors and National Association of Secretaries of State, which are meeting in the nation’s capital. For state and local election officials, the list of security challenges keeps growing. Among them: potential cyberattacks waged by foreign governments, criminal ransomware gangs attacking computer systems and the persistence of election misinformation that has led to harassment of election officials and undermined public confidence. Just in the past few weeks, AI-generated robocalls surfaced in…

Joaquin “Guac” Oliver died in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school massacre, but federal lawmakers who oppose tighter gun regulations began getting phone calls in his voice on Wednesday, lambasting them for their position. The families of Oliver and five others killed with guns are using artificial intelligence to create messages in their loved ones’ voices and robocalling them to senators and House members who support the National Rifle Association and oppose tougher gun laws. The protest is being run through The Shotline website, where visitors select which offices receive calls. The campaign launched on Valentine’s Day because it’s the sixth anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which left the 17-year-old Oliver, 13 other students and three staff members dead. Oliver was murdered as he lay wounded…

Airbnb said this week that it lost $349 million in the fourth quarter due to an income tax settlement with Italy, but bookings and revenue rose, and the short-term rental giant said demand remains strong. The company forecast first-quarter revenue that would meet or beat Wall Street expectations. However, the pace of bookings growth is likely to “moderate” from the fourth quarter into the first, and the early timing of Easter could hurt growth in the second quarter, Airbnb said. The fourth quarter was marred by $1 billion in one-time tax withholding expenses and lodging tax reserves. The vacation-rental platform disclosed in December that it would pay Italy’s tax agency 576 million euros ($621 million at the time) to a case involving withholding from property hosts in that country. Airbnb…

New York City, its schools and public hospital system announced a lawsuit against the tech giants that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, blaming their “addictive and dangerous” social media platforms for fueling a childhood mental health crisis that is disrupting learning and draining resources. Children and adolescents are especially susceptible to harm because their brains are not fully developed, the lawsuit said. “Youth are now addicted to defendants’ platforms in droves,” according to the 311-page filing in Superior Court in California, where the companies are headquartered. The country’s largest school district, with about 1 million students, has had to respond to disruptions in and out of the classroom, provide counseling for anxiety and depression, and develop curricula about the effects of social media and how to stay safe…

President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign is now on TikTok, even though he has expressed national security concerns over the platform and banned it on federal devices. Biden isn’t expected to personally join the platform, aides said, nor the others in his administration. The account will be run entirely by the campaign team in an effort to reach voters in an ever-fragmented American population, particularly as younger voters gravitate away from traditional platforms. The inaugural post featured the president being quizzed on the Super Bowl — and included a reference to the latest political conspiracy theory centering on music superstar Taylor Swift. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok owner ByteDance could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with…

The Federal Communications Commission outlawed robocalls that contain voices generated by artificial intelligence, a decision that sends a clear message that exploiting the technology to scam people and mislead voters won’t be tolerated. The unanimous ruling targets robocalls made with AI voice-cloning tools under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a 1991 law restricting junk calls that use artificial and prerecorded voice messages. The announcement comes as New Hampshire authorities are advancing their investigation into AI-generated robocalls that mimicked President Joe Biden’s voice to discourage people from voting in the state’s first-in-the-nation primary last month. Effective immediately, the regulation empowers the FCC to fine companies that use AI voices in their calls or block the service providers that carry them. It also opens the door for call recipients to file lawsuits…

Cruise, the troubled General Motors autonomous vehicle unit, has hired a veteran automotive and technology company safety official for the critical position of chief safety officer. Steve Kenner, who has held top safety positions at multiple companies over nearly four decades, started the job this week, Cruise said in a statement. Most recently he was vice president of safety at Kodiak, a self-driving truck company, the statement said. He also has held leadership positions at Apple, Uber and Aurora, another company that makes hardware and software for autonomous trucks. Kenner started his career as an engineer at General Motors and once served as global safety director at crosstown rival Ford. He comes to Cruise at a pivotal time, four months after a Cruise robotaxi dragged a San Francisco pedestrian roughly…

A nuclear power plant in Georgia has begun splitting atoms in the second of its two new reactors, Georgia Power said Wednesday, a key step toward providing carbon-free electricity. The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. said operators reached self-sustaining nuclear fission inside the reactor at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta. That makes the heat that will be used to produce steam and spin turbines to generate electricity. Plant Vogtle’s Unit 4 is now supposed to start commercial operation sometime in the second quarter of 2024, or between April 1 and June 30. The utility earlier this month announced a delay past an earlier deadline of March 30 because of vibrations found in a cooling system. Georgia Power said it is continuing with startup testing on Unit 4, making sure the…