A Chinese national was arrested and is accused of stealing trade secrets from the internet company
Google detected a Chinese employee trying to upload more files from the company’s network to his personal account while he was in China, court papers said. The employee claimed that he uploaded them as evidence of his work for Google. The files include software design for v4 and v6 chips, hardware and software specification for GPUs used in Google’s data centres.
The woolly mammoth is closer to being resurrected by scientists
US-based Colossal Biosciences has created elephant induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, the first such cells for an endangered species. “This is probably the most significant step in the early stages of this project. These cells will benefit the elephant conservation community just as much as being engineered to bring back the woolly mammoth,” Colossal Biosciences Co-founder Eriona Hysolli said.
Artificial Intelligence tools were still generating misleading election images
A report has said that generative AI tools are still generating misleading election-related images despite their policies. The report tested 160 prompts on ChatGPT Plus, Midjourney, Dream Studio and Image Creator and found that Midjourney was the most likely to produce misleading election-related images, at about 65% of the time. It added that Dream Studio prohibits generating misleading content.
TheTesla plant fire in Germany is claimed by the Volcano Group
The militant group ‘Volcano Group’ has claimed responsibility for a fire at Tesla Gigafactory in Germany’s Grnheide. The group claimed it intended to cause the “largest possible blackout of the Gigafactory” citing environmental and labour concerns. It had earlier claimed responsibility for another arson attack in 2021 during the construction of the Tesla Gigafactory.
The EU is introducing new competition rules that tech giants are responding to
Apple has said it’ll not appeal the European Union’s (EU) new competition rules that come into effect from today. The rules are aimed to force tech companies to make their products and services “consumer-focussed”, which Apple claimed would lead to less choice for users. Earlier, Apple had said it will no longer supportPWAs in iOS17.4 due to EU’s rules.
Apple might allow the pricing options outside of its app to be shown in the EU
Spotify is planning to change Apple’s anti-steering rules which would allow it to provide users with pricing information within the app and link users to subscription options. Earlier, the European Commission imposed a $2 billion fine on Apple for abuse of its dominant position in the music streaming app distribution business. This comes after US courts ruled Apple must allow developers to link out to other payment methods.
There is a decrease in the amount of false positives in search results
Google has been working on ways to fix low-quality content, including AI-generated spam, since 2022. “It takes time…to develop these changes effectively,” a Google official said. “Content at scale: the websites that create thousands of low-quality articles…target that content at search results,” the official added. “Site reputation abuse: sites that rent out part of their website for nonsense,” he further said.
An M3 upgrade is available for the MacBook Air
Amazon has started selling a new version of its Smart thermostat with artificial intelligence (AI) features. It will let users control their heating and cooling via voice commands and can even help reduce Heating and Cooling bills, according to Amazon. The thermostat’s AI features include the ability to control it with voice commands, view temperature information, and change its temperature by pressing a button.
Climate-warming pollution will be tracked by a new satellite
MethaneSAT, a satellite that detects methane emissions from oil and gas operations, was launched by Google and EDF on Friday in the US. MethaneSAT will create a global map of the emissions from the oil and gas industry. It will help regulators determine where there are leaks and reduce emissions, EDF added. MethaneSAT was built at an cost of $88 million.
Apple was fined the first time by the EU in relation to a complaint
Apple has been fined by the European Commission for abusing its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through App Store. “Ironically, in the name of competition, today’s decision just cements the dominant position of a successful European company that is the digital music market’s runaway leader,” Apple said.