Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) If you purchased a new car in the past few years, chances are good that it contains at least one embedded modem, which it uses to offer some connected services. The benefits, we’ve been told, are numerous and include convenience features like interior preheating on a cold morning,...
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Inside Intel’s Delays in Delivering a Crucial New Microprocessor
The company grappled with missteps for years while developing a microprocessor code-named Sapphire Rapids. It comes out on Tuesday.
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AI Is Becoming More Conversant. But Will It Get More Honest?
At a new website called Character.AI, you can chat with a reasonable facsimile of almost anyone, live or dead, real or (especially) imagined.
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Three-Quarters of Teenagers Have Seen Online Pornography by Age 17
Sexually explicit content has become so prevalent online that teenagers are deluged, according to a new report by a nonprofit child advocacy group.
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Coinbase Lays Off Another 20% of Employees
The cuts at the cryptocurrency exchange come after nearly a fifth of employees were let go in June, as crypto markets teeter and tech companies rethink their growth plans.
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Brazil Riot and Jan. 6 Attack Followed a Similar Digital Playbook, Experts Say
Researchers are studying how the internet was used to stoke anger and to organize far-right groups ahead of the Brazilian riots.
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A fifth of passwords used by federal agency cracked in security audit
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) More than a fifth of the passwords protecting network accounts at the US Department of the Interior—including Password1234, Password1234!, and ChangeItN0w!—were weak enough to be cracked using standard methods, a recently published security audit of the agency found. The audit was performed by the department’s Inspector General, which obtained cryptographic hashes...
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Controversy erupts over non-consensual AI mental health experiment
Enlarge / An AI-generated image of a person talking to a secret robot therapist. (credit: Ars Technica) On Friday, Koko co-founder Rob Morris announced on Twitter that his company ran an experiment to provide AI-written mental health counseling for 4,000 people without informing them first, The Verge reports. Critics have called the experiment deeply unethical...
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Report: Apple plans to use its own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip in future iPhones
Enlarge / The iPhone 14 Pro. (credit: Apple) For years now, Apple has wanted to replicate its success in processors with its own in-house cellular modems. The company spent $1 billion to buy Intel’s modem technology in 2019, and since then the company has perennially been just a year or two away from replacing Qualcomm’s...
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Messenger billed as better than Signal is riddled with vulnerabilities
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Academic researchers have discovered serious vulnerabilities in the core of Threema, an instant messenger that its Switzerland-based developer says provides a level of security and privacy “no other chat service” can offer. Despite the unusually strong claims and two independent security audits Threema has received, the researchers said the flaws completely...