Month: May 2024

After new feature tells people to eat rocks or add glue to pizza sauce, company to restrict which searches return summaries Google announced on Thursday that it would refine and retool its summaries of search results generated by artificial intelligence, posting a blog explaining why the feature was returning bizarre and inaccurate answers that included …

Google to refine AI-generated search summaries in response to bizarre results Read More »

China shows off mechanical canine with an automatic rifle on its back at joint military drills with Cambodia The Chinese army has debuted its latest weapon: a gun-toting robotic dog. The mechanical canine, which has an automatic rifle on its back, was front and centre of recent joint military drills with Cambodia, according to footage …

Meet the Chinese army’s latest weapon: the gun-toting dog Read More »

ShinyHunters stole information including bank and credit card numbers, as well as staff HR details Hackers are attempting to sell confidential information including the bank and credit card numbers of millions of Santander customers to the highest bidder. ShinyHunters posted an advert on a hacker forum for the data, which it says also includes staff …

Santander customers’ private data put up for sale for $2m by hackers Read More »

Showrunner will let users generate episodes with prompts, which could be an alarming next step or a fleeting novelty One of the key strategies of streaming services is to keep you in front of a screen for as long as possible. As soon as one episode of a show you’re watching ends, the next one …

A new AI service allows viewers to create TV shows. Are we doomed? Read More »

Videos on Douyin give people step-by-step instructions on how to get to the US – and then leave them stranded upon arrival This article is copublished with Documented, a multilingual news site about immigrants in New York, and the Markup, a non-profit, investigative newsroom that challenges technology to serve the public good. Xiong couldn’t pinpoint …

He found the American Dream on China’s TikTok. The reality was more complicated Read More »

Marijuana is legal where I live in Canada, so I decided to give it a try and see whether it would improve my gaming experience – or just end in a panic attack I have a complicated relationship with marijuana. I wish I liked it more. But I’m a control freak, and so it makes …

I tried playing video games stoned for the first time in my 50s – and I have some thoughts | Dominik Diamond Read More »

Networks in China and Iran also used AI models to create and post disinformation but campaigns did not reach large audiences OpenAI on Thursday released its first ever report on how its artificial intelligence tools are being used for covert influence operations, revealing that the company had disrupted disinformation campaigns originating from Russia, China, Israel …

OpenAI says Russian and Israeli groups used its tools to spread disinformation Read More »

‘World’s largest botnet’ – spread through infected emails – taken down through coordinated police action among several countries US authorities announced on Thursday that they had dismantled the “world’s largest botnet ever”, allegedly responsible for nearly $6bn in Covid insurance fraud. The Department of Justice arrested a Chinese national, YunHe Wang, 35, and seized luxury …

Europol and US seize website domains, luxury goods in $6bn cybercrime bust Read More »

As summer approaches, we want to hear about how easy or challenging you find being off your phone while on holiday With the summer fast approaching, many of us will be looking forward to unwinding in the sun, our out of office auto-reply switched firmly on. But with smartphone use on the rise, it’s not …

Tell us: do you struggle to stay off your phone while on vacation? Read More »

Most Americans concerned about online misinformation as election nears, according to poll by watchdog group Free Press As US presidential elections approach, the vast majority of Americans are concerned about online misinformation and fear they do not have enough accurate information on candidates, especially local ones, a new poll has shown. While people across the …

Black Americans disproportionately encounter lies online, survey finds Read More »