Uncategorized Archives - Page 19 of 279

What Cancún’s Tourists Don’t See Is a Sprawling Concrete Jungle

The rapid expansion of Cancún since the 1970s has created a vastly unequal city, with overpopulated neighborhoods deprived of public space propping up the city’s lavish tourist districts.

07 Sep

New AI Model Can Simulate ‘Super Mario Bros.’ After Watching Gameplay Footage

Despite its limitations, the makers of MarioVGG think AI video could one day replace game engines.

07 Sep

Boeing Starliner Returns Home to an Uncertain Future

NASA has three more operational Starliner missions on the books. It hasn’t decided whether it will commit to any more than that.

07 Sep

Podcasters Ditch Short Episodes in Favor of Four-Hour Conversations

In a newsletter for Bloomberg, Ashley Carman discusses the rising trend of long podcasts and their surprising popularity among listeners. “By today’s standards of interminable podcast discussions, a nearly three-hour recording isn’t even particularly notable,” she writes, highlighting recent episodes from Joe Rogan (2 hours; 16 minutes with Adam Sandler), Lex Fridman (8 hours; 37 minutes with Elon Musk), and the Acquired podcast (3 hours; 38 minutes with Lockheed Martin). “Increasingly, podcasters are pushing the outer limits of episode length while stress testing the endurance of their audiences. Popular podcast gabfests can now run on for half a workday or longer.” From the report: One might assume such marathon episodes must be the result of a hands-off approach to editing. But this is not the case, said Ben Gilbert, co-host of the Acquired podcast. Every month, he and his co-host David Rosenthal release a three- to four-hour podcast, detailing the story of a specific company. The in-depth histories, he said, are the result of nine-hour recording sessions and a month of research.

“It’s not important to ship every good minute,” Gilbert said. “It’s important to ship only great minutes. If you’re actually intellectually honest with yourself, that’s how to release a really good product.” Even with the longer runtimes, he said, their audience listens to the vast majority of each episode. Consider their deep dive on Lockheed Martin, which runs for three hours and 38 minutes. On Apple Podcasts, the average listener consumed 70% of the show, he said. An episode on Nike, which clocks in at upwards of four hours, had an average consumption rate of 68%. “Every time we made something longer… people only seemed to love it more,” he said. On the show’s website, the hosts describe the episodes as “conversational audiobooks.” […]

[Jack Sylvester, executive director at Flight Studio, the Bartlett-founded podcast company behind Diary of a CEO] said the team can view data around how much of the audience consumes episodes on YouTube’s TV app versus on a phone, tablet or computer. TV usage, he said, is ticking up. To give viewers a reason to keep the show on as their primary viewing experience, they’re now making sure the videos have a top-quality polish. Still, in a world in which people scoff at the prospect of a three-hour movie — and short-form video is the dominant consumption trend in entertainment — these podcasters are eagerly meandering in the opposite direction. “The short-form obsession ended up creating white space for us,” said Gilbert of Acquired. “Whenever you have a trend, that means there’s people who feel left behind and want to flock to something new. This sets us apart.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

07 Sep

ChromeOS 128 Adds Snap Layouts For Apps, OCR Text Extraction, and Improved Settings

Google’s new ChromeOS 128 update introduces a feature similar to Windows 11’s Snap layouts. Called Snap Groups, the feature enables users to organize on-screen apps in various fullscreen layouts. “When you pair two windows for split-screen display, ChromeOS now forms a Snap group,” explains the ChromeOS team. “As a Snap group, you can bring the windows back into focus together, resize them simultaneously, and move them both as a group.”

Other notable features of ChromeOS 128 include Optical Character Recognition (OCR), ChromeVox support for the Magnifier tool, isolated web apps (IWA), and improved settings for the camera and microphone on Chromebook devices.

You can view the release notes on the support document here.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

07 Sep

SpyAgent Android Malware Steals Your Crypto Recovery Phrases From Images

SpyAgent is a new Android malware that uses optical character recognition (OCR) to steal cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases from screenshots stored on mobile devices, allowing attackers to hijack wallets and steal funds. The malware primarily targets South Korea but poses a growing threat as it expands to other regions and possibly iOS. BleepingComputer reports: A malware operation discovered by McAfee was traced back to at least 280 APKs distributed outside of Google Play using SMS or malicious social media posts. This malware can use OCR to recover cryptocurrency recovery phrases from images stored on an Android device, making it a significant threat. […] Once it infects a new device, SpyAgent begins sending the following sensitive information to its command and control (C2) server:

– Victim’s contact list, likely for distributing the malware via SMS originating from trusted contacts.
– Incoming SMS messages, including those containing one-time passwords (OTPs).
– Images stored on the device to use for OCR scanning.
– Generic device information, likely for optimizing the attacks.

SpyAgent can also receive commands from the C2 to change the sound settings or send SMS messages, likely used to send phishing texts to distribute the malware. McAfee found that the operators of the SpyAgent campaign did not follow proper security practices in configuring their servers, allowing the researchers to gain access to them. Admin panel pages, as well as files and data stolen from victims, were easily accessible, allowing McAfee to confirm that the malware had claimed multiple victims. The stolen images are processed and OCR-scanned on the server side and then organized on the admin panel accordingly to allow easy management and immediate utilization in wallet hijack attacks.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

06 Sep

US, UK, EU Sign ‘Legally Binding’ AI Treaty

The United States, United Kingdom and European Union have signed the first “legally binding” international AI treaty on Thursday, the Council of Europe human rights organization said. Called the AI Convention, the treaty promotes responsible innovation and addresses the risks AI may pose. Reuters reports: The AI Convention mainly focuses on the protection of human rights of people affected by AI systems and is separate from the EU AI Act, which entered into force last month. The EU’s AI Act entails comprehensive regulations on the development, deployment, and use of AI systems within the EU internal market. The Council of Europe, founded in 1949, is an international organization distinct from the EU with a mandate to safeguard human rights; 46 countries are members, including all the 27 EU member states. An ad hoc committee in 2019 started examining the feasibility of an AI framework convention and a Committee on Artificial Intelligence was formed in 2022 which drafted and negotiated the text. The signatories can choose to adopt or maintain legislative, administrative or other measures to give effect to the provisions.

Francesca Fanucci, a legal expert at ECNL (European Center for Not-for-Profit Law Stichting) who contributed to the treaty’s drafting process alongside other civil society groups, told Reuters the agreement had been “watered down” into a broad set of principles.
“The formulation of principles and obligations in this convention is so overbroad and fraught with caveats that it raises serious questions about their legal certainty and effective enforceability,” she said. Fanucci highlighted exemptions on AI systems used for national security purposes, and limited scrutiny of private companies versus the public sector, as flaws. “This double standard is disappointing,” she added.