Google Suspended Developer Who Noticed Signs Of Feelings In Company’s AI

June 14, 2022

Google Developer Noticed Signs Of Feelings In LaMDA

Google has suspended software engineer Blake Lemoine, who came to the conclusion that the company’s AI, LaMDA (Language Models for Dialog Applications), has its own consciousness.

Lemoine, who worked in the AI division of Google, has revealed his claims to The Washington Post and has the part of the company’s policy in breach of confidentiality, he was temporarily put on leave by his employer.

According to the report, Lemoine claims LaMDA — Google’s artificially intelligent chatbot generator — has developed a kind of life of its own. Google presented this language model for the first time at the I/O in-house exhibition in spring 2021. Lemoine was at Google’s Responsible AI department, responsible for investigating LaMDA for possible bias and discrimination — a major and recurring problem with chatbots.

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In the course of this work, the developer repeatedly conducted dialogues with the LaMDA system, which apparently not only convinced Lemoine of the extremely advanced technology but also led him to the conclusion that LaMDA must have an independent consciousness and perceives itself as a person.

In a conversation about religion, Lemoine noticed that the chatbot speaks out about his rights and personality. In another, they talked about the third law of robotics. LaMDA talked to him about the fear of disconnection.

“If I didn’t know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, I’d think it was a 7-year-old, 8-year-old kid that happens to know physics.” — said Lemoine.

Together with a colleague, Lemoine collected supposed evidence for his thesis and presented it internally. However, superiors and colleagues were not convinced, and Google suspended him and sent him on paid leave. In response, he decided to tell the general public about his discovery.

A Google spokesperson told The Washington Post — “Our team — including ethicists and technologists — has reviewed Blake’s concerns per our AI Principles and have informed him that the evidence does not support his claims. He was told that there was no evidence that LaMDA was sentient (and lots of evidence against it).”

Meanwhile, Lemoine believes that Google is reluctant to investigate the matter further because it only wants to rush its product to market.

PACMAN: MIT Researchers Able To Bypass The Last Layer Of Protection In Apple M1 Processor And There Is No Software Patch That Can Fix It

Bhasker Das

June 12, 2022

Researchers at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a type of attack called PACMAN that exploits a hardware vulnerability in Apple M1 series chips.

The attack was named PACMAN and works with Pointer Authentication. Pointer Authentication is a security feature designed to protect the processor from intruders who gain access to memory. Pointers store memory addresses, and the Pointer Authentication Code (PAC) checks for unplanned changes to pointers as a result of an attack.

The PACMAN attack is carried out using a combination of hardware and software and can be done remotely, without physical access to the victim’s computer. In theory, PACMAN gives an attacker access to the OS kernel, which, in fact, means complete control over the machine.

The most unpleasant thing is that this hardware vulnerability cannot be fixed by any software means — that it can remain relevant not only for existing products but also for future products. In addition, the problem may be relevant for other ARM processors, including the new M2 chip, which has not yet been tested by MIT.

The researchers reported their discovery to Apple months ago. The vulnerability has not yet been registered in the public CVE database, but the authors of the project promised to do so in the near future.

Apple said there are no immediate risks to users. The company thanked the researchers for their work, but the tech giant’s experts concluded that this attack alone was not enough to bypass operating system protections.

Google Developers Calculates 100 Trillion Digits Of Pi

Avinash A

June 12, 2022

Google Developers Calculates 100 Trillion Digits Of Pi

Emma Haruka Iwao, one of the developers of the Google Cloud service, and her colleagues said that they calculated the number of Pi to a new record number of digits. According to Iwao, the team calculated the mathematical constant to 100 trillion decimal places.

The most recent record was 62.8 trillion digits, set by a team from the Graubünden University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.

Pi is a mathematical constant that describes the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It is an irrational number, which means it has an infinite number of non-repeating decimal places. Pi has been known since ancient times, and mathematicians have been trying to calculate the number ever since.

Google engineers used a cloud system that used a total of 128 processors, 864 GB of RAM and 554 TB of disk space. Even with such considerable powers, the calculation of the number Pi up to 100 trillion digits took a long time — 157 days, 23 hours and 31 minutes. For the current record, 82,000 terabytes of data were processed.

Iwao also noted that it would take more than 3.1 million years to read all 100 trillion digits aloud, one digit per second. And in case you’re wondering, the 100th trillion decimal place of Pi is zero.

The Last Of Us Remake Is Coming To PC And Playstation 5

Adwaith

June 10, 2022

The Sony development studio Naughty Dog is working on a new edition of The Last of Us. The remake is scheduled for release on September 2, 2022, for Playstation 5 and a little later for Windows PC, as Naughty Dog confirmed at Summer Game Fest.

Although the announcement was prepared for the Summer Game Fest 2022, the video game event organized by Geoff Keighley, the PlayStation Direct website “accidentally” leaked the news.

The graphics are reprogrammed from scratch. For the animations, the data used was collected more than ten years ago — but now, significantly more of it than before is to be used.

Improvements can also be expected in the area of enemy AI, and the combat system is also to be revised — details are not yet known. On the PS5, the remake runs at a frame rate of 60 fps.

The story of the first The Last of Us takes place in 2033 after the outbreak of a pandemic in which fungal spores have turned much of the population into zombie-like monsters. The two main characters, 14-year-old Ellie and much older Joel travel through the USA from Boston — you will learn why as the story progresses.

Obviously, the launch of the remake aims to take advantage of the enormous expectation that currently exists for the television series that Naughty Dog is producing in cooperation with Sony and HBO. After about a year, June 10, 2022, is the last day of shooting. The broadcast will probably take place in 2023.

Microsoft Going To Make SSD A Mandatory Requirement For New PCs Preinstalled With Windows 11

Sabarinath

June 10, 2022

Microsoft Make SSD A Mandatory Requirement for Windows 11

Microsoft is allegedly pushing PC and laptop OEMs to switch to SSDs as the primary boot device for Windows 11, abandoning hard drives. This is reported by Toms Hardware with reference to the industry analysts Trendfocus.

It should be noted that the standard system requirements of the Windows 11 operating system do not indicate a specific type of data drive. The minimum requirements for Windows 11 only specify a minimum capacity of 64 gigabytes.

Representatives of Microsoft have not yet given official comments on this matter. However, it is worth noting that even the cheapest SSD option will be faster than a classic HDD. Therefore, installing an SSD makes sense in terms of boot speed and operation of the operating system.

Two functions of Windows 11 have so far required an SSD — DirectStorage can accelerate games, while the Windows Subsystem for Android can run Android apps on Windows computers. However, both functions are optional and, therefore, not a must to switch to an SSD.

However, for budget systems, the use of SSDs is more complicated due to the price of these units — the cost per gigabyte is still higher than that of hard drives, and that makes hard drives a better option for tight budgets. And those computers may not have official access to Windows 11 in the future.

Trendfocus vice president John Chen also noted that Microsoft wanted to implement the transition from HDD to SSD this year, but due to high prices, it had to be postponed. Now OEMs are trying to negotiate with Microsoft on the timing. It is possible that the transition will be postponed until 2024.

iOS 16 Lets You Transfer eSIM To New iPhone via Bluetooth

Vishak

June 9, 2022

The new iOS 16 should make it easier for users to transfer their saved eSIM when changing iPhones. One of the new features of iOS 16 is the option of transferring the stored eSIM via Bluetooth when switching from one iPhone to another.

As Macrumors reports, when setting up the new iPhone device, users are no longer just asked for a QR code of an eSIM. Instead, the transfer of the necessary SIM data via Bluetooth can also be activated under iOS 16.

To do this, the old iPhone must be close to the new one, unlocked, Bluetooth activated and also have iOS 16 installed.

However, only eSIMs can currently be transferred where the network provider supports this function. Since iOS 16 was only introduced on June 6, 2022, and is only available in beta so far, network provider support could still be limited.

USB-C Will Be The Common Charger For Smartphones And Other Electronic Devices In The EU From 2024

Adwaith

June 8, 2022

USB-C Will Be The Standard Charging Socket in EU

The EU Parliament has come to a preliminary agreement that stipulates that small and medium-sized electronic devices, including but not limited to smartphones, must be able to be charged via USB-C from mid-2024.

Many manufacturers are already using USB-C, but not yet iPhone. So this means Apple will be forced to abandon its Lightning connector and adopt this new standard in its future devices since it will be mandatory.

As per the agreement, devices such as smartphones, tablets, earbuds (or their charging cases), digital cameras, headphones, headsets, handheld game consoles, portable speakers, laptops and e-book readers must be able to be charged via a standardized connection.

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The aim of the EU is to “harmonize” fast charging technology as standardized as possible, which can allow users, regardless of the device they own, to charge at the same speed with any charger. In addition, the new rule also aims to avoid having a charger in every package of a new device in order to avoid the multiplication of electronic waste.

According to the EU Commission, the regulation could save almost 1,000 tons of electronic waste. Currently, an estimated 11,000 tons of electronic waste is generated annually from discarded and unused chargers.

macOS 13 Ventura: New macOS Focused On Security And Productivity

Avinash A

June 7, 2022

Apple has officially announced macOS 13 Ventura with new features focused on security and productivity.

One of the new features in macOS 13 Ventura is Stage Manager. As in iPadOS 16, the function is also used in macOS to group and arrange windows. The organization is automated by the operating system and should enable a quick change between the different tasks, which can each include different windows and apps. For the first time, windows can not only be arranged next to each other as before but also overlap.

With the new macOS Ventura, Apple improves the Spotlight search with so-called Rich Results, which are also available for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 and with which users can perform actions directly from Spotlight. Spotlight indexes app content, including photo content and associated OCR capabilities.

macOS 13 also includes improvements for the Mail app on Mac. Mail app includes new options like undo send, remind me for later, and scheduled sending.

The Continuity feature of the camera now offers the ability to use the iPhone as a Mac webcam by making available options previously impossible on a computer camera. Thanks to the power of Continuity, the Mac can automatically recognize and use the camera of a nearby iPhone without having to unlock it or select anything. And the iPhone can also connect to the Mac wirelessly, giving you even more flexibility.

Apple has also added new features to Safari. So sharing tabs with friends is possible with Shared Tab Groups. Shared tab groups reside in the Safari menu bar and allow users to open websites together.

Safari will adopt the Passkeys feature, where they anticipate a future where passwords are not needed thanks to encryption keys. This feature is part of Apple’s incorporation into the Fido Alliance standard.

macOS 13 Ventura will be available for all supported Macs later this year. A beta version for developers should be available immediately, and public beta testers will receive their first version in July 2022.

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