Innholdsfortegnelse for #602 i Techlife News

No sooner did ChatGPT get unleashed than hackers started “jailbreaking” the artificial intelligence chatbot — trying to override its safeguards so it could blurt out something unhinged or obscene. But now its maker, OpenAI, and other major AI providers such as Google and Microsoft, are coordinating with the Biden administration to let thousands of hackers take a shot at testing the limits of their technology. Some of the things they’ll be looking to find: How can chatbots be manipulated to cause harm? Will they share the private information we confide in them to other users? And why do they assume a doctor is a man and a nurse is a woman? “This is why we need thousands of people,” said Rumman Chowdhury, a coordinator of the mass hacking event planned…

Nearly three months ago, Hyundai and Kia unveiled software that was designed to thwart an epidemic of thefts of their vehicles, caused by a security flaw that was exposed on TikTok and other social media sites. So far, it hasn’t solved the problem. Across the country, thieves are still driving off with the vehicles at an alarming rate. Data from seven U.S. cities gathered shows that the number of Hyundai and Kia thefts is still growing despite the companies’ efforts to fix the glitch, which makes 8.3 million vehicles relatively easy targets for thieves. From Minneapolis, Cleveland and St. Louis to New York, Seattle, Atlanta and Grand Rapids, Michigan, police have reported substantial year-over-year increases in Hyundai and Kia theft reports through April. An eighth city, Denver, which was hit…

General Motors (GM) has onboarded former Apple executive Mike Abbott to spearhead its new software division. This move comes shortly after GM’s contentious decision to eliminate Apple CarPlay from its upcoming vehicle models (via CNBC). Having previously held positions at major tech firms like Twitter, Microsoft, and Palm, Abbott joined Apple in February 2018, where he was in charge of the cloud infrastructure supporting services such as iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime. He left Apple in March. Abbott’s duties at GM will encompass a range of crucial areas, including information and digital technology, software-defined vehicle and operating systems, and the automaker’s digital business. He will be reporting directly to GM CEO Mary Barra. In her statement, Barra praised Abbott’s entrepreneurial background and his successful history in delivering market-leading software-defined solutions, calling…

Should TikTok be banned? Should younger children be prevented from engaging with social media? Can the government make sure private information is secure? What about brand new artificial intelligence interfaces? Or should users be regulating themselves, leaving the government out of it? Tech regulation has been gathering momentum on Capitol Hill amid concerns about China’s ownership of TikTok and as parents are growing increasingly worried about the effects of social media on a post-pandemic mental health crisis. Noting that many young people are struggling, President Joe Biden said in his February State of the Union speech that “it’s time” to pass bipartisan legislation to impose stricter limits on the collection of personal data and ban targeted advertising to children. “We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment…

Officials in a remote northeastern Oregon county have voted to give tax breaks worth an estimated $1 billion to Amazon for five more data centers there. Wednesday’s unanimous vote by Port of Morrow’s five commissioners was the last step in securing the enterprise zone incentives, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Companies in the state can receive property tax exemptions through local enterprise zones. Local officials hope the incentives will bring $12 billion in new Amazon spending in their county along the Columbia River about 160 miles (257 kilometers) from Portland. Amazon already has four giant data centers in Morrow County and several hundred local jobs tied to its operations. But its growth has produced contentious debate over how the Seattle company secured its incentives and an ongoing probe over possible self-dealing by…

Facebook says it is not dead. Facebook also wants you to know that it is not just for “old people,” as young people have been saying for years. Now, with the biggest thorn in its side — TikTok — facing heightened government scrutiny amid growing tensions between the U.S. and China, Facebook could, perhaps, position itself as a viable, domestic-bred alternative. There’s just one problem: young adults like Devin Walsh have moved on. “I don’t even remember the last time I logged in. It must have been years ago,” said Walsh, 24, who lives in Manhattan and works in public relations. Instead, she checks Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook parent company Meta, about five or six times a day. Then there’s TikTok, of course, where she spends about…

Apple once again posted an, until now, rare revenue decline in its latest fiscal quarter, but said its overall business improved from the December quarter and sales of its iPhones were solid. The results reported last week were better than Wall Street’s muted expectations and Apple’s stock rose in after-hours trading. The latest numbers come after the Cupertino, California, company in February posted its first quarterly revenue drop in nearly four years after pandemic-driven restrictions on its China factories curtailed sales of the latest iPhone during the holiday season. Apple said it earned $24.16 billion, or $1.52 per share, in the three-month period that ended April 1. That was down slightly from $25.01 billion, also $1.52 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 3% to $94.84 billion from $97.28 billion.…

Many investors worry about the future of Berkshire Hathaway after its legendary CEO Warren Buffett is gone, but most of the conglomerate’s companies have already made the transition to reporting to the man who will eventually replace the 92-year-old. Buffett himself and executives at Berkshire Hathaway companies like See’s Candy and Dairy Queen say they don’t have any qualms about Vice Chairman Greg Abel’s ability to lead the conglomerate. Abel already oversees all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses. So the main parts of the CEO job he’s not already doing are overseeing the insurance side of the company and deciding how to invest Berkshire’s nearly $131 billion in cash. Buffett reassured investors at the annual meeting that he believes Abel is the right man for the job and that he does…

Airbnb said this week that it earned $117 million in the first quarter as revenue rose during the ongoing recovery in travel, but the company’s outlook for late spring and early summer disappointed investors. The San Francisco-based company’s shares fell nearly 12% in extended trading hours after Airbnb posted the forecast. The weak outlook overshadowed Airbnb’s first profit in the first three months of the year, a seasonally slow period for travel. The company’s profit compared with a loss of $19 million a year earlier and worked out to 18 cents per share. Revenue climbed 20% to $1.82 billion, beating Wall Street’s forecast of $1.79 billion, according to a FactSet survey. Nights and experiences booked, a closely watched measurement for Airbnb, increased 19% to 121 million, and the company valued…

Amazon said this week it will distribute its original films and TV shows, like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” to media outlets outside the Prime Video service for the first time. The works will be licensed via a new unit called Amazon MGM Studios Distribution, which expands the number of titles currently offered by Hollywood studio MGM. Last year, the e-commerce turned media giant closed its acquisition of MGM — which houses more than 4,000 film titles and 17,000 TV episodes — for $8.5 billion. At launch, the new division will offer several series and films including “Coming 2 America” and “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Amazon said in a statement. The unit will be led by Chris Ottinger, the head of distribution at MGM, who will continue to oversee distribution of MGM’s…

Google this week disclosed plans to infuse its dominant search engine with more advanced artificial-intelligence technology, a drive that’s in response to one of the biggest threats to its long-established position as the internet’s main gateway. The gradual shift in how Google’s search engine runs is rolling out three months after Microsoft’s Bing search engine started to tap into technology similar to that which powers the artificially intelligent chatbot ChatGPT, which has created one of Silicon Valley’s biggest buzzes since Apple released the first iPhone 16 years ago. Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., already has been testing its own conversational chatbot called Bard. That product, powered by technology called generative AI that also fuels ChatGPT, has only been available to people accepted from a waitlist. But Google announced…

The social app Discord, a favorite of gamers, inadvertently stirred internal strife after announcing last week that it will force its millions of members to pick new usernames. Now the question is whether the change will escalate into all-out warfare that could include players threatening one another in order to seize control of popular names. The issue may sound trivial compared to real-life concerns such as mass shootings and killer storms. But it’s a big deal for people who rely on the mid-sized social network to recruit fellow gamers, swap virtual weapons and organize strategy in multiplayer games. A Reddit thread on the change drew more than 4,000 comments, the vast majority of them angry or at least unhappy. Discord, which says it has 150 million monthly active users, has…

The breathtaking development of artificial intelligence has dazzled users by composing music, creating images and writing essays, while also raising fears about its implications. Even European Union officials working on groundbreaking rules to govern the emerging technology were caught off guard by AI’s rapid rise. The 27-nation bloc proposed the Western world’s first AI rules two years ago, focusing on reining in risky but narrowly focused applications. General purpose AI systems like chatbots were barely mentioned. Lawmakers working on the AI Act considered whether to include them but weren’t sure how, or even if it was necessary. “Then ChatGPT kind of boom, exploded,” said Dragos Tudorache, a Romanian member of the European Parliament co-leading the measure. “If there was still some that doubted as to whether we need something at…

Self-driving car pioneer Waymo announced that its robotaxis will be able to carry passengers through most of the Phoenix area for the first time. The company’s cars will also start to pick up more volunteers for testing the autonomous vehicles traversing the more challenging conditions in San Francisco. The expansion marks the next leg in an ambitious journey aimed at creating a safer and cheaper alternative to ride-hailing services that depend on humans. The increased territory in the Phoenix area means Waymo’s robotaxis will now pick up and drop off fare-paying passengers in an area spanning 180 square miles (466 square kilometers), doubling in size since late last year. Waymo’s robotaxis now cover four times more territory than when they began giving rides to fare-paying passengers in the Phoenix area…

Almost everyone knows Steve Jobs’ uncanny vision, relentless drive and technological wizardry hatched the iPhone, a breakthrough that continues to reshape culture 16 years after the late Apple co-founder introduced the device to the world. But when Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, another smartphone was the must-have gadget. It was the BlackBerry, a device so addictive that it became known as the “CrackBerry” among tech nerds and power brokers hunched over a tiny keyboard that was best operated with both thumbs clickety-clacking. Now the BlackBerry is “that phone people had before they bought an iPhone,” a relic so irrelevant that the Canadian company that made it is now valued at $3 billion — down from $85 billion at its 2008 peak when it still controlled nearly half of…

Maryland’s highest court on Tuesday reversed a ruling by a lower court that the state’s first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising was unconstitutional, saying the court lacked jurisdiction over the case. In an order, Justice Matthew Fader, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland, sent the case back to Anne Arundel County Circuit Court with directions to dismiss. He said the plaintiffs failed to exhaust administrative remedies through the state’s tax court — Reasons will be stated in a later opinion. The four-page order does not make any ruling on the constitutionality of the law. Last year, the circuit court ruled that the tax on digital advertising violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, which prohibits discrimination against electronic commerce. The court also held that the law violates the…