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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

[...] The U.S. government has restricted sales of Nvidia's high-performance compute GPUs to the Middle East and some other countries, the company said in a regulatory filing this week. One of the reasons why the Biden administration decided to require an export license on Nvidia's A100 and H100 products and servers on their base is to thwart China's AI development by preventing the GPUs from being resold to China, reports The Guardian.

"During the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the U.S. government informed us of an additional licensing requirement for a subset of A100 and H100 products destined to certain customers and other regions, including some countries in the Middle East," a statement by Nvidia reads. "We have sold alternative products in China not subject to the license requirements, such as our A800 or H800 offerings."

The affected chips, namely the H100 and A100 models, are already restricted for sale in China and Russia, which is why Nvidia has developed H800 and A800 models with reduced performance to sell in China. Although Nvidia disclosed these new limitations in a U.S. regulatory filing, the company did not reveal which countries in the Middle East are specifically impacted by these controls.  

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been strengthening their AI prowess in the recent years, which is why they are significant purchasers of Nvidia's chips. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been in talks with China to deepen their collaborations. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia even entered into a strategic alliance with China, committing to work collaboratively on artificial intelligence projects.

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hubie writes:

"A totally unreasonable proposal":

The right-to-repair movement has had its share of adversaries. From Big Tech to politicians and individuals who don't think product repairability should be government-mandated, it has been a tedious battle for a movement that has seen major wins lately. One of the most recent wins came from Apple, a former DIY repair combatant, supporting repairability legislation. But taking Apple's place is a new entity aiming to limit right-to-repair legislation: Scientologists.

Today, 404 Media reported on a letter sent on August 10 to the US Copyright Office by Ryland Hawkins of Author Services Inc. The company, its website and letterhead say, represents the "literary, theatrical, and musical works of L. Ron Hubbard, the late founder of Scientology. Author Services, according to records archived via the WayBackMachine, is owned by the Church of Spiritual Technology, which describes itself as a church within Scientology.

The letter addresses Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which "makes it unlawful to circumvent technological measures used to prevent unauthorized access to copyrighted works." The Scientology group's letter seeks to alter exemptions granted for self-repairing some consumer electronics, like video game consoles, laptops, home appliances, and farming tractors.

[...] The Scientology-tied group seeks an amendment to the exemption so that it doesn't apply to software-powered devices that can only be purchased by someone with particular qualifications or training or that use software "governed by a license agreement negotiated and executed" before purchase.

[...] As to why a Scientology-owned group would care about such a matter, 404 Media suggested that it could have to do with Scientology E-meters, or electropsychometers. The Church of Scientology describes the machines as an "electronic instrument that measures mental state and change of state in individuals and assists the precision and speed of auditing" and that only a Scientology minister or training minister should use. 404 Media noted that some people collect the devices and, oddly enough, you can find E-Meters sold on eBay.

upstart writes:

It Costs Just $400 to Build an AI Disinformation Machine:

International, a state-owned Russian media outlet, posted a series of tweets lambasting US foreign policy and attacking the Biden administration. Each prompted a curt but well-crafted rebuttal from an account called CounterCloud, sometimes including a link to a relevant news or opinion article. It generated similar responses to tweets by the Russian embassy and Chinese news outlets criticizing the US.

Russian criticism of the US is far from unusual, but CounterCloud's material pushing back was: The tweets, the articles, and even the journalists and news sites were crafted entirely by artificial intelligence algorithms, according to the person behind the project, who goes by the name Nea Paw and says it is designed to highlight the danger of mass-produced AI disinformation. Paw did not post the CounterCloud tweets and articles publicly but provided them to WIRED and also produced a video outlining the project.

Paw claims to be a cybersecurity professional who prefers anonymity because some people may believe the project to be irresponsible. The CounterCloud campaign pushing back on Russian messaging was created using OpenAI's text generation technology, like that behind ChatGPT, and other easily accessible AI tools for generating photographs and illustrations, Paw says, for a total cost of about $400.

Paw says the project shows that widely available generative AI tools make it much easier to create sophisticated information campaigns pushing state-backed propaganda.

"I don't think there is a silver bullet for this, much in the same way there is no silver bullet for phishing attacks, spam, or social engineering," Paw says in an email. Mitigations are possible, such as educating users to be watchful for manipulative AI-generated content, making generative AI systems try to block misuse, or equipping browsers with AI-detection tools. "But I think none of these things are really elegant or cheap or particularly effective," Paw says.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66643241

In a world first, scientists say an 8cm (3in) worm has been found alive in the brain of an Australian woman.

The "string-like structure" was pulled from the patient's damaged frontal lobe during surgery in Canberra last year.

"It was definitely not what we were expecting. Everyone was shocked," said operating surgeon Dr Hari Priya Bandi.

The woman, 64, had for months suffered symptoms like stomach pain, a cough and night sweats, which evolved into forgetfulness and depression.

[...] Her case is believed to be the first instance of a larvae invasion and development in the human brain, researchers said in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal which reported the case.
'I pulled it out... and it was happily moving'

[...] "Even if you take away the yuck factor, this is a new infection never documented before in a human being."

Researchers warn the case highlights the increased danger of diseases and infections being passed from animals to people.

upstart writes:

China and the U.S. are collecting the same proportion of their populations' DNA profiles — and the FBI wants to double its budget to get even more:

The FBI has amassed 21.7 million DNA profiles — equivalent to about 7 percent of the U.S. population — according to Bureau data reviewed by The Intercept.

The FBI aims to nearly double its current $56.7 million budget for dealing with its DNA catalog with an additional $53.1 million, according to its budget request for fiscal year 2024. "The requested resources will allow the FBI to process the rapidly increasing number of DNA samples collected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security," the appeal for an increase says.

"When we're talking about rapid expansion like this, it's getting us ever closer to a universal DNA database."

[...] The FBI began building a DNA database as early as 1990. By 1998, it helped create a national database called Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, that spanned all 50 states. Each state maintained its own database, with police or other authorities submitting samples based on their states' rules, and CODIS allowed all the states to search across the entire country. At first, the collection of data was limited to DNA from people convicted of crimes, from crime scenes, and from unidentified remains.

[...] "If you look back at when CODIS was established, it was originally for violent or sexual offenders," Anna Lewis, a Harvard researcher who specializes in the ethical implications of genetics research, told The Intercept. "The ACLU warned that this was going to be a slippery slope, and that's indeed what we've seen."

Today, police have the authority to take DNA samples from anyone sentenced for a felony charge. In 28 states, police can take DNA samples from suspects arrested for felonies but who have not been convicted of any crime. In some cases, police offer plea deals to reduce felony charges to misdemeanor offenses in exchange for DNA samples. Police are even acquiring DNA samples from unwitting people, as The Intercept recently reported.

"It changed massively," Lewis said of the rules and regulations around government DNA collection. "You only have to be a person of interest to end up in these databases."

hubie writes:

Research found while heavy drinkers could tolerate some alcohol better than light drinkers, that disappeared when the heavy drinkers drank their typical amounts:

New research from the University of Chicago found that very heavy drinkers display the same impairment as light drinkers when consuming their usual excessive amount.

The study suggests that the concept of "holding your liquor" is more nuanced than commonly believed. They found heavy drinkers could tolerate some alcohol better than light drinkers, but that disappeared when the heavy drinkers drank their typical amounts.

"There's a lot of thinking that when experienced drinkers (those with alcohol use disorder) consume alcohol, they are tolerant to its impairing effects," said Andrea King, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at UChicago and senior author of the study. "We supported that a bit, but with a lot of nuances. When they drank alcohol in our study at a dose similar to their usual drinking pattern, we saw significant impairments on both the fine motor and cognitive tests that was even more impairment than a light drinker gets at the intoxicating dose."

dept.

X (née Twitter) wants to collect your biometric data and employment history:

X, the social network that you can access at twitter.com, is planning to collect users' biometric information, employment history, and educational history, according to an updated privacy policy. "Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes," the new policy says.

X posted the new version of its privacy policy yesterday, saying it will go into effect on September 29. The current privacy policy that doesn't include collecting biometric data and employment history will remain in effect until September 29.

The new policy says that X "may collect and use your personal information (such as your employment history, educational history, employment preferences, skills and abilities, job search activity and engagement, and so on) to recommend potential jobs for you, to share with potential employers when you apply for a job, to enable employers to find potential candidates, and to show you more relevant advertising."

The biometric data and employment history disclosures are listed in the section, "information you provide us." The policy does not say what kind of biometric data X would collect. We contacted X about the changes and will update this article if we get a response.

The privacy policy changes are being made as X plans to offer video and audio calls. "Video & audio calls coming to X," owner Elon Musk wrote today. The call feature will work on iOS, Android, Mac, and PCs and will not require a phone number, according to Musk.

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coolgopher writes:

An article in The Age reports on a find that could up-end much of what we believe on the origin of humans.

Africa has always been considered the cradle of mankind, where humans evolved from apes on the continent before spreading to the rest of the world.

An intriguing find is challenging the long-standing assumption.

The partial skull of a new ancient ape has been discovered in Turkey, and it appears to predate African apes, suggesting that human origins may actually lie in Europe.

The fossil of Anadoluvius turkae was discovered in Cankiri, a city about 138 kilometres north-east of Ankara, and is thought to date from about 8.7 million years ago.

In contrast, early hominins – the group that includes chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, humans, and their fossil ancestors – were not seen in Africa until about 7 million years ago.

It suggests that the ancestors of African apes and humans evolved in Europe before migrating south between 9 million and 7 million years ago.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Microsoft will start unbundling Teams from its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 productivity suites in EU markets in October. The move is designed to avoid further antitrust scrutiny, after the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s bundling of its Teams software with the Office productivity suite last month.

“Today we are announcing proactive changes that we hope will start to address these concerns in a meaningful way, even while the European Commission’s investigation continues and we cooperate with it,” says Nanna-Louise Linde, VP of Microsoft european government affairs. “These changes will impact our Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites for business customers in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.”

[...] Alongside the Teams unbundling, Microsoft is also planning to improve its documentation on interoperability with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 for rivals like Zoom and Slack to integrate into Exchange, Outlook, and Teams. Microsoft will also allow rivals to host Office web applications within their competing apps, just like how Microsoft does in Teams.

Microsoft will now have to wait on EU regulators to decide whether its unbundling of Teams from Office suites in EU markets is enough. “We believe these changes balance the interests of our competitors with those of European business customers, providing them with access to the best possible solutions at competitive prices,” says Linde. “We also recognize that we are still in the early stages of the European Commission’s formal investigation. We will continue to engage with the Commission, listen to concerns in the marketplace, and remain open to exploring pragmatic solutions that benefit both customers and developers in Europe.”

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Chandrayaan-3 rover is the first to leave its track marks on the Moon’s south pole, and the six-wheeled explorer has made a breakthrough discovery that could have major implications for establishing a future lunar habitat.

Using the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Pragyan rover, the Chandrayaan-3 mission found traces of sulfur on the lunar surface near the Moon’s south pole, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter).

[...] The rover also found aluminum, calcium, chromium, iron, manganese, oxygen, titanium and silicon, according to ISRO. The presence of sulfur, however, was the most surprising.

Sulfur is a chemical element that’s found in soil, water, and plants on Earth. Its existence on the Moon suggests that it could be trapped in water ice in the lunar south pole; the detection of sulphur infers the presence of water ice. Accordingly, the presence of sulphur and other elements on the Moon’s south pole also suggests that this region is not as inhospitable as previously believed.

The south pole is of great interest to space agencies racing to get to the lunar surface, with plans to build a permanent lunar habitat and establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon. Previous evidence suggests that the lunar south pole has reservoirs of ice water in its permanently shadowed regions, which could be used for drinking water or fuel.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed on the Moon on August 23, making India the fourth country to achieve such feat after the Soviet Union, the U.S., and China. The mission is set to last for 14 days, the equivalent of one full lunar day when the sunlight reaches the Moon’s surface.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

IBM has returned to the facial recognition market — just three years after announcing it was abandoning work on the technology due to concerns about racial profiling, mass surveillance, and other human rights violations.

In June 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests swept the US after George Floyd’s murder, IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna wrote a letter to Congress announcing that the company would no longer offer “general purpose” facial recognition technology. “The fight against racism is as urgent as ever,” he wrote. “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency.” Later that year, the company redoubled its commitment, calling for US export controls to address concerns that facial recognition could be used overseas “to suppress dissent, to infringe on the rights of minorities, or to erase basic expectations of privacy.”

Despite these announcements, last month, IBM signed a $69.8 million (£54.7 million) contract with the British government to develop a national biometrics platform that will offer a facial recognition function to immigration and law enforcement officials, according to documents reviewed by The Verge and Liberty Investigates, an investigative journalism unit in the UK.

hubie writes:

Complex organic molecules observed in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years away from Earth:

The discovery of the molecules, which are familiar on Earth in smoke, soot and smog, demonstrates the power of Webb to help understand the complex chemistry that goes hand-in-hand with the birth of new stars even in the earliest periods of the universe's history. At least for galaxies, the new findings cast doubt on the old adage that where there's smoke, there's fire.

Using the Webb telescope, Texas A&M University astronomer Justin Spilker and collaborators found the organic molecules in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years away. Because of its extreme distance, the light detected by the astronomers began its journey when the universe was less than 1.5 billion years old — about 10% of its current age. The galaxy was first discovered by the National Science Foundation's South Pole Telescope in 2013 and has since been studied by many observatories, including the radio telescope ALMA and the Hubble Space Telescope.

[...] The data from Webb found the telltale signature of large organic molecules akin to smog and smoke —building blocks of the same cancer-causing hydrocarbon emissions on Earth that are key contributors to atmospheric pollution. However, Spilker says the implications of galactic smoke signals are much less disastrous for their cosmic ecosystems.

"These big molecules are actually pretty common in space," Spilker explained. "Astronomers used to think they were a good sign that new stars were forming. Anywhere you saw these molecules, baby stars were also right there blazing away."

The new results from Webb show that this idea might not exactly ring true in the early universe, according to Spilker.

hubie writes:

Metaverse could put a dent in global warming:

For many technology enthusiasts, the metaverse – a virtual 3D environment in which the physical and digital worlds converge – has the potential to transform almost every facet of human life, from work to education to entertainment.

New Cornell research shows the metaverse could have environmental benefits, too: lowering the global surface temperature by up to 0.02 degrees Celsius before the end of the century.

[...] The team used AI-based modeling to analyze data from key sectors – technology, energy, environment and business – to anticipate the growth of metaverse usage and the impact of its most promising applications: remote work, virtual traveling, distance learning, gaming and non-fungible tokens.

The researchers projected metaverse expansion through 2050 along three different trajectories – slow, nominal and fast – and they looked to previous technologies, such as television, the internet and the iPhone, for insight into how quickly that adoption might occur. They also factored in the amount of energy that increasing usage would consume. The modeling suggested that within 30 years, the technology would be adopted by more than 90% of the population.

"One thing that did surprise us is that this metaverse is going to grow much quicker than what we expected," You said. "Look at earlier technologies – TV, for instance. It took decades to be eventually adopted by everyone. Now we are really in an age of technology explosion. Think of our smartphones. They grew very fast."

owl writes:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61116/why-did-old-phone-numbers-start-letters

On I Love Lucy, whenever Lucy or Ricky Ricardo gave out their phone number, they'd say it as "Murray Hill 5-9975." Even though that may look and sound like gibberish to modern phone-users, it was perfectly normal at the time. Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do.

Phone numbers looked like this in the middle of the 20th century because of telephone exchanges—the hubs through which an area's calls would be routed. Phone subscribers were given a unique five-digit number within their service area. These would be preceded by two digits, which were identified by letters, that denoted the telephone exchange you were connected to. (Before the 1950s, some cities used three letters and four numbers, while others had two letters and three numbers. The two letter, five number format—or "2L-5N"—was eventually standardized throughout the country).

Because these telephone exchanges could only facilitate around 10,000 subscribers, many large cities had multiple hubs. The Ricardo's MUrray Hill5-9975 meant their number was 685-9975 ("Hill" and its capital H served purely as a mnemonic), with the 68, or "MU," representing the east side of Manhattan's telephone exchange. This is also why phones still have letters over the numbers (three over 2 through 8, and four over 9).

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

You may be surprised to know that Germany's wild boars are too radioactive to eat – and Chernobyl may not be solely to blame. Fallout from nuclear weapons testing decades ago during the Cold War is a significant contributor to that radiation, it turns out.

High levels of the radioactive isotope cesium-137 – or caesium-137 for those outside the US – found inside most animal species living in Bavarian forests have declined over time, except for wild swine. Scientists haven't been able to explain this so-called "wild boar paradox," though a team of researchers led by those at the Leibniz University Hannover may be one step closer to figuring out why.

They analyzed 48 wild boar meat samples to potentially pinpoint the source of the contamination. In 88 percent of the samples, the level of radiation from cesium-137 exceeded Germany's food safety limits of 600 Bq/kg. It's believed this radiocesium got into the boars' diet via truffles, which they root out from underground. The cesium-137 sinks down, is absorbed by the fungus, and then gobbled up by the pigs.

The radioactive cesium likely came from two possible sources: the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster, and nuclear weapons testing during that century. To check for this, and using a mass spectrometer, the university team calculated the ratio of cesium-135 to cesium-137 in the wild boar, and found the ratio high enough to suggest that, as the scientists put it, "nuclear weapons fallout contributes significantly to the notorious contamination levels in wild boars in central Europe that were previously believed to be dominated by Chernobyl."