Enlarge / A photo of Vernor Vinge in 2006. (credit: Raul654) On Wednesday, author David Brin announced that Vernor Vinge, sci-fi author, former professor, and father of the technological singularity concept, died from Parkinson’s disease at age 79 on March 20, 2024, in La Jolla, California. The announcement came in a Facebook tribute where Brin...
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Unpatchable vulnerability in Apple chip leaks secret encryption keys
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Apple) A newly discovered vulnerability baked into Apple’s M-series of chips allows attackers to extract secret keys from Macs when they perform widely used cryptographic operations, academic researchers have revealed in a paper published Thursday. The flaw—a side channel allowing end-to-end key extractions when Apple chips run implementations of widely...
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Intel Receives $8.5 Billion in Grants to Build Chip Plants
The award, announced by President Biden at a plant in Arizona, is the biggest the government has made under a new program that aims to rebuild the nation’s semiconductor manufacturing industry.
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Kate Middleton, Britney Spears and the Online Trolls Doubting Their Existence
Whether it is just for kicks or propelled by genuine doubt, the unsupported claims about celebrities and public figures keep gaining traction online.
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Why Tech Companies Are Not Your Friends: Lessons From Roku
Roku recently changed its policy to make it even harder for customers to take legal action. It’s a reminder of how we need to protect ourselves.
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GPT-5 might arrive this summer as a “materially better” update to ChatGPT
Enlarge When OpenAI launched its GPT-4 AI model a year ago, it created a wave of immense hype and existential panic from its ability to imitate human communication and composition. Since then, the biggest question in AI has remained the same: When is GPT-5 coming out? During interviews and media appearances around the world, OpenAI...
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Nvidia announces “moonshot” to create embodied human-level AI in robot form
Enlarge / An illustration of a humanoid robot created by Nvidia. (credit: Nvidia) In sci-fi films, the rise of humanlike artificial intelligence often comes hand in hand with a physical platform, such as an android or robot. While the most advanced AI language models so far seem mostly like disembodied voices echoing from an anonymous...
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Formula 1 chief appalled to find team using Excel to manage 20,000 car parts
Enlarge / A pit stop during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix in early March evokes how the team’s manager was feeling when looking at the Excel sheet that managed the car’s build components. (credit: ALI HAIDER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) There’s a new boss at a storied 47-year-old Formula 1 team, and he’s eager to...
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Saudi Arabia Plans $40 Billion Push Into Artificial Intelligence
The Middle Eastern country is creating a gigantic fund to invest in A.I. technology, potentially becoming the largest player in the hot market.
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Microsoft Hires DeepMind Co-Founder to Run Consumer A.I.
Mustafa Suleyman is leaving a start-up called Inflection to take the senior position with Microsoft.