GeoGPT, a big-data artificial intelligence project aimed at geoscientists and researchers particularly in the global south and built by the Chinese tech company Alibaba, aims at helping develop their understanding of earth sciences by drawing on swaths of data and research on billions of years of the planet’s history....
Facial recognition startup Clearview AI reached a settlement Friday in an Illinois lawsuit alleging its massive photographic collection of faces violated the subjects’ privacy rights, a deal that attorneys estimate could be worth more than $50 million....
TikTok says it offered the US government the power to shut the platform down in an attempt to address lawmakers’ data protection and national security concerns....
Scientists described their “detective work” in the forests of Uganda - observing animals that appeared injured or sick to work out whether they were self-medicating with plants....
Grocery store prices are changing faster than ever before — literally. This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds....
The real change in retail pricing might be discrimination pricing (or ‘surveillance pricing’ as it is now called sometimes). Simply speaking, it uses personal data to personalize prices not just for each customer, but also for each customer depending on actual circumstances such as day time, weather, an individual’s pay day, and other data, collected through apps, loyalty cards, …
"If I literally tell you, the price of a six-pack is $1.99, and then I tell someone else the price of a six-pack for them is $3.99, this would be deemed very unfair if there was too much transparency on it,” [University of Chicago economists Jean-Pierre] Dubé said. “But if instead I say, the price of a six-pack is $3.99 for everyone, and that’s fair. But then I give you a coupon for $2 off [through your app] but I don’t give the coupon to the other person, somehow that’s not as unfair as if I just targeted a different price.”
The linked article is a very long read but worth everyone’s time. Very insightful.
On March 7, 2024, Google inexplicably downranked the website of Tuta Mail in its search results. While Tuta Mail is a prominent provider of encrypted email services, focusing on security and privacy, our website was deranked for terms like “secure email” and “encrypted email” completely. The search results for our...
NewsGuard audit finds that 32% of the time, leading AI chatbots spread Russian disinformation narratives created by John Mark Dougan, an American fugitive now operating from Moscow, citing his fake local news sites and fabricated claims on YouTube as reliable sources....
Prenatal screening for neurological conditions has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past couple of decades. Technology including genetic analysis, neuroimaging, and high-resolution foetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are allowing doctors to peer into the nervous systems of developing foetuses and already diagnose them...
Some of the world’s poorest countries have been investing heavily in digital ID systems which it is claimed will deliver democratic and development dividends. Africa has been at the forefront of this push supported by the World Bank, UN agencies and the international community. Some of Africa’s most fragile states have been...
Using isotope geochemistry, scientists have uncovered new information about the Barmaz necropolis in Valais (Switzerland): 14% of the people buried 6,000 years ago at this site were not locals. What’s more, the study suggests that this Middle Neolithic agropastoral society – one of the oldest known in the western part of...
Microsoft President Brad Smith fielded questions about the tech giant’s security practices and ties to China at a House homeland security panel on Thursday, a year after alleged China-linked hackers spied on federal emails by hacking the firm....
Canada’s spy chief says that political leaders could take steps to make sure parliamentarians accused of cooperating with foreign governments face consequences, even if they don’t face criminal prosecution....
A report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) says there were two instance of alleged interference by China in Conservative Party of Canada leadership races....
Written by Robert Dimitrieff, chief executive officer of Patriot Forge Co., a metalworking company in Canada. He also serves on the International Economic Policy Council of the C.D. Howe Institute....
You can’t build and scale a start-up fast enough, say, in case of a crisis. Furthermore, China will use such investments to gain political influence in the foreign country -in that case Canada-, and they won’t stop in this particular industry. Countries must think more in vertically-integrated supply chains and strategic clusters rather than in industries, and they must include geopolitical issues.
Canada’s industry minister says Ottawa is “considering all measures” after the U.S. announced it would be hiking tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other related goods....
Canada’s industry minister says Ottawa is “considering all measures” after the U.S. announced it would be hiking tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other related goods....
Understanding hate as an emotional response can help you recognize your feelings about something or someone and be curious about where those feelings are coming from. This awareness will give you time to gather more information and imagine the other person’s perspective....
A cyberattack on the Ascension health system operating in 19 states across the U.S. forced some of its 140 hospitals to divert ambulances, caused patients to postpone medical tests and blocked online access to patient records...
As the dust settles on the landmark findings of the foreign interference inquiry, Canada’s intelligence agency is warning that China likely will back more meddling campaigns and expand its online pressure tactics over the coming year....
SMIC, China’s biggest contract chip manufacturer, is seen as critical to Beijing’s ambitions of cutting foreign reliance in its domestic semiconductor industry as the U.S. continues to curb China’s tech power. SMIC lags behind Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, according to analysts....
"Lack of transparency, state censorship, potential copyright infringement”: Leading geologist raises serious issues with Chinese-funded Large Language Model aimed at geoscientists (geoscientist.online)
GeoGPT, a big-data artificial intelligence project aimed at geoscientists and researchers particularly in the global south and built by the Chinese tech company Alibaba, aims at helping develop their understanding of earth sciences by drawing on swaths of data and research on billions of years of the planet’s history....
Canada blocks Chinese rare earths deal in Trudeau-led crackdown as part of wider push to block China from delving further into Canada’s critical minerals sector (www.bloomberg.com)
Vital Metals to sell materials stockpile to Saskatchewan group...
Facial recognition startup Clearview AI settles privacy suit in the U.S. by giving plaintiffs a share of the company’s potential value, rather than a traditional payout, over lack of liqudity (apnews.com)
Facial recognition startup Clearview AI reached a settlement Friday in an Illinois lawsuit alleging its massive photographic collection of faces violated the subjects’ privacy rights, a deal that attorneys estimate could be worth more than $50 million....
TikTok confirms it offered US government a 'kill switch' (www.bbc.com)
TikTok says it offered the US government the power to shut the platform down in an attempt to address lawmakers’ data protection and national security concerns....
Wild chimpanzees eat plants that have pain-relieving and anti-bacterial properties to heal themselves, according to scientists (www.bbc.com)
Scientists described their “detective work” in the forests of Uganda - observing animals that appeared injured or sick to work out whether they were self-medicating with plants....
A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels (www.npr.org)
Grocery store prices are changing faster than ever before — literally. This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds....
Apple Decides to Block Open-Source Emulator App for iOS (news.itsfoss.com)
Archived version...
Tuta Mail's Google Ranking Mysteriously Restored After Announcement to Take Legal Actions -- [Tuta blog] (tuta.com)
On March 7, 2024, Google inexplicably downranked the website of Tuta Mail in its search results. While Tuta Mail is a prominent provider of encrypted email services, focusing on security and privacy, our website was deranked for terms like “secure email” and “encrypted email” completely. The search results for our...
Top 10 Generative AI Models Mimic Russian Disinformation Claims A Third of the Time, Citing Moscow-Created Fake Local News Sites as Authoritative Sources (www.newsguardtech.com)
NewsGuard audit finds that 32% of the time, leading AI chatbots spread Russian disinformation narratives created by John Mark Dougan, an American fugitive now operating from Moscow, citing his fake local news sites and fabricated claims on YouTube as reliable sources....
Surgeons believe we are about to enter a new era where diseases can be treated before children are born (www.bbc.com)
Prenatal screening for neurological conditions has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past couple of decades. Technology including genetic analysis, neuroimaging, and high-resolution foetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are allowing doctors to peer into the nervous systems of developing foetuses and already diagnose them...
Elite researchers in China say they had ‘no choice’ but to commit misconduct (www.nature.com)
Archived version...
The Stanford Internet Observatory is being dismantled: U.S. Republicans attacked the lab’s reports on misinformation and election integrity — and now the institution is pulling the plug (www.platformer.news)
Archived version...
False promise of biometrics: Digital IDs in Africa failing to deliver promised democratic and development boost while making fortunes for tech vendors, investigations finds (www.lighthousereports.com)
Some of the world’s poorest countries have been investing heavily in digital ID systems which it is claimed will deliver democratic and development dividends. Africa has been at the forefront of this push supported by the World Bank, UN agencies and the international community. Some of Africa’s most fragile states have been...
Rare twin elephants born in Thailand 'miracle' have surprised even their mum (www.bbc.com)
An Asian elephant in central Thailand has given birth to a rare set of twins, in what caretakers have described as a miracle....
Canada Imposes New Sanctions on Russia Amid G7 Summit (epicnews.ca)
Archived link...
6,000 years ago, men and women -and those migrated from other locations- had equal access to resources, research finds (www.sciencedaily.com)
Using isotope geochemistry, scientists have uncovered new information about the Barmaz necropolis in Valais (Switzerland): 14% of the people buried 6,000 years ago at this site were not locals. What’s more, the study suggests that this Middle Neolithic agropastoral society – one of the oldest known in the western part of...
US lawmakers grill Microsoft president over China ties, hacks (www.reuters.com)
Microsoft President Brad Smith fielded questions about the tech giant’s security practices and ties to China at a House homeland security panel on Thursday, a year after alleged China-linked hackers spied on federal emails by hacking the firm....
Microsoft "accepts responsibility" for issues raised in report on Chinese hacking against U.S. targets as officials start to lose trust in the company's ability to secure its service (www.axios.com)
Archived version...
Microsoft Chose Profit Over Security and Left U.S. Government Vulnerable to Russian Hack, Whistleblower Says (www.propublica.org)
Archived version...
A New Study Investigates 'The Failed Migration of Academic Twitter' To Mastodon (arxiv.org)
Archived version...
Can alleged parliamentarian colluders face consequences? CSIS chief weighs in (globalnews.ca)
Canada’s spy chief says that political leaders could take steps to make sure parliamentarians accused of cooperating with foreign governments face consequences, even if they don’t face criminal prosecution....
China, India interfered in Conservative leadership races, report says (www.cbc.ca)
A report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) says there were two instance of alleged interference by China in Conservative Party of Canada leadership races....
Mysterious cyberattack took down more than 600,000 routers in the U.S. (thehackernews.com)
Archived link...
Chinese man arrested for allegedly running ‘largest ever’ malware network (www.aljazeera.com)
US officials say army of 19 million infected computers enabled fraud, identity theft and child exploitation....
Elections in India: Fighting for votes in 'the world's biggest data mine' (www.bbc.com)
India’s combination of high smartphone take-up and lax regulations mean that most political parties have gathered “the data to do everything”...
Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of (theconversation.com)
By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne...
Electricity grids creak as AI demands soar (www.bbc.com)
Here is the study: Power Hungry Processing: Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment?...
Harassment of scientists is surging — institutions aren’t sure how to help (www.nature.com)
As researchers increasingly face many kinds of attack over their work, there is debate about how to support and protect them....
Chinese, Iranian, and Russian cyberattacks against water utilities across the U.S. becoming more frequent and more severe, officials say (fortune.com)
- Attacks against water provider’s websites aren’t new, but now attackers are increasingly targeting utilities’ operations...
China is after Canada’s pulp and paper industry – it’s a national-security issue -- (Opinion) (www.theglobeandmail.com)
Written by Robert Dimitrieff, chief executive officer of Patriot Forge Co., a metalworking company in Canada. He also serves on the International Economic Policy Council of the C.D. Howe Institute....
Canada "committed to protecting our workers and industry from unfair trade", will not become back door for diverted Chinese steel and aluminum, government says (www.theglobeandmail.com)
Archived link...
Minister suggests Canada is considering tariffs on Chinese EVs following U.S. move (www.cbc.ca)
Canada’s industry minister says Ottawa is “considering all measures” after the U.S. announced it would be hiking tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other related goods....
Minister suggests Canada is considering tariffs on Chinese EVs following U.S. move (www.cbc.ca)
Canada’s industry minister says Ottawa is “considering all measures” after the U.S. announced it would be hiking tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other related goods....
History says tariffs rarely work, but U.S. President Biden’s 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs could defy the trend, researcher says (theconversation.com)
By Tinglong Dai, Bernard T. Ferrari Professor of Business, Johns Hopkins University...
'Noise’ in the machine: Human differences in judgment lead to problems for AI, researcher says (theconversation.com)
This is the alternative Invidious link for the embedded article....
Why do people hate people? - A question by 'curious kid' Daisy, age 9, Lake Oswego, Oregon (theconversation.com)
Understanding hate as an emotional response can help you recognize your feelings about something or someone and be curious about where those feelings are coming from. This awareness will give you time to gather more information and imagine the other person’s perspective....
A cyberattack forces a big US health system to divert ambulances and take records offline (abcnews.go.com)
A cyberattack on the Ascension health system operating in 19 states across the U.S. forced some of its 140 hospitals to divert ambulances, caused patients to postpone medical tests and blocked online access to patient records...
Cyberattack targeting B.C. government networks led by a ‘state or state-sponsored actor’ (globalnews.ca)
Archived link....
"X": Far-right conspiracy theorists have returned in droves after Elon Musk took over the former Twitter, new study says (mashable.com)
Archived link....
CSIS says China remains "an enduring threat" to Canadian technology, democracy and diaspora communities (www.cbc.ca)
As the dust settles on the landmark findings of the foreign interference inquiry, Canada’s intelligence agency is warning that China likely will back more meddling campaigns and expand its online pressure tactics over the coming year....
China’s biggest chipmaker SMIC warns of ‘fierce’ competition as it misses quarterly profit expectations (www.cnbc.com)
SMIC, China’s biggest contract chip manufacturer, is seen as critical to Beijing’s ambitions of cutting foreign reliance in its domestic semiconductor industry as the U.S. continues to curb China’s tech power. SMIC lags behind Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, according to analysts....
How the Great Firewall of China Detects and Blocks Fully Encrypted Traffic (gfw.report)
Archived version...