
Norway asks EU regulator to fine Facebook owner Meta over privacy breach
By Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's data regulator will refer the ongoing fine it has imposed on Meta Platforms to
1970-01-01 08:00

Elon Musk to live stream himself doing ‘silly stuff’ on X
Elon Musk plans to live stream himself playing video games on X, formerly known as Twitter, as part of plans to challenge other streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. The tech billionaire previously tried to launch the stream late on Wednesday night but ran into technical issues. “Will test X livestream scaling tonight at ~11pm CT (5am BST) with some silly stuff,” he posted to X on Wednesday. “People have asked me to stream myself playing video games, so I will try to speedrun a Tier 99 Nightmare dungeon on Diablo (with no magnificent hearts).” He followed up a few hours later, writing: “Unfortunately, still working. Will have to postpone to tomorrow.” Since taking over Twitter in October 2022, and renaming it to X in April 2023, Mr Musk has repeatedly stated his ambition to transform the social media platform into an “everything app”. Similar to China’s WeChat, the app could eventually incorporate other functions and services like making payments, booking taxis or ordering food. Mr Musk has already secured money-transmitting licences in at least three US states, and has a history of building online payments platforms after co-founding PayPal. X chief executive Linda Yaccarino, who Mr Musk hired in June, laid out what this new version of the app might look like in a series of posts after joining the company. “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centred in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” she wrote. “For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfil our great potential. X will do that and more. We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past 8 months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.” Before Mr Musk took over, Twitter had a video streaming feature called Periscope that was shut down in March 2021 due to declining usage. Mr Musk briefly tested the dormant feature in May 2023, though users dubbed him “8-bit Elon” due to the low quality resolution of the broadcast. Read More Elon Musk and the one trillion-dollar algorithm that explains everything he does Reddit will start paying people to post Tesla robot shown practising yoga X is shutting down feature to send posts to select people after privacy concern
1970-01-01 08:00

Leonardo's air booking system resumes after cyberattack - state company Rostec
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian state conglomerate Rostec said on Thursday it had restored normal operations at its Leonardo air booking system
1970-01-01 08:00

Scientists confirm that the most iconic black hole in the universe is spinning, in major new discovery
Scientists have confirmed that the first black hole to ever be captured on camera is spinning in a major new discovery. The famous doughnut-shaped M87* black hole, 6.5 billion times more massive than the sun, first drew people’s attention in 2019 for becoming the first void to be pictured. Now, it has been confirmed that the M87* black hole is spinning, but experts have yet to determine just how fast. The announcement was made on 27 September. M87* has been observed for the last two decades via a network of radio telescopes. It is located in the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy, which is around 55 million light-years away from Earth in the Virgo constellation. The instruments monitoring the black hole have observed a powerful jet of radiation and particles being expelled from its poles. According to research, the relativistic jets appeared to be on a kind of pendulum that swings every 11 years, observed over decades. Experts believe this is caused by interactions between gravitational interactions between the black hole and the material making up the disk around it. They say this provides “unequivocal evidence” that the black hole is spinning. Cui Yuzhu, a researcher at Zhejiang Lab in China and the study’s lead author explained in a statement: “We are thrilled by this significant finding,” adding, “Since the misalignment between the black hole and the disk is relatively small and the precession period is around 11 years, accumulating high-resolution data tracing M87’s structure over two decades and thorough analysis are essential to obtain this achievement.” Their findings matched with computer simulations, confirming that the jets emitting from the black hole change direction by around 10 degrees every 11 years. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00

TikTok finds and shuts down secret operation to stir up conflict in Ireland
TikTok has uncovered and shut down a secretive operation to influence Irish users and whip up social conflict. The covert influence operation (CIO) network comprised 72 accounts with a total following of almost 95,000 users. The video sharing platform’s work to find and remove the accounts was detailed in a report to the European Commission. TikTok is a signatory of an EU code of practice aimed at combatting disinformation and misinformation online. Ireland from March to June 2023" data-source=""> The latest report covered the timespan from January to June this year. “The network targeted Irish audiences,” TikTok said of the CIO in Ireland. “The individuals behind this network created inauthentic accounts; hyper-posted content with divisive views related to nationalism in Ireland, Japan, Russia, and Taiwan; and hyper-posted comments with similar low-quality content in an attempt to redirect TikTok users off-platform and to intensify social conflict.” TikTok moved against similar covert influence operations in Russia, Poland and Germany. The report also revealed that from March to June 2023, TikTok removed 67,013 fake accounts in Ireland. Those accounts were followed by 296,274 users. In the first half of the year, TikTok removed 218,158 fake followers on accounts in Ireland and prevented 26,034,349 fake follow attempts. There were also 144 accounts banned under TikTok’s impersonation policies. A total of 2,165 videos were removed in Ireland because of violation of harmful misinformation policy. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Spotify will not ban all AI-powered music, says boss of streaming giant Vehicle scam reports surged by 74% in the first half of 2023, says Lloyds Bank Standard Life confirms plans for pensions dashboard
1970-01-01 08:00

5 takeaways from America's landmark lawsuit against Amazon
An antitrust lawsuit from 17 states and the Federal Trade Commission this week against Amazon represents the US government's biggest regulatory challenge yet against the e-commerce juggernaut.
1970-01-01 08:00

ECB looks to AI to better understand inflation after big misses
FRANKFURT The European Central Bank is looking at how artificial intelligence could help improve its understanding of inflation
1970-01-01 08:00

Time-lapse that took 20 years to make shows legendary stellar explosion
Scientists have spent 20 years putting together time-lapse footage offering a stunning window into the past. Two decades of data taken from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory were used by astronomers to create a video of a stellar eruption that actually occurred 180 years ago. Observations from Chandra, taken in 1999, 2003, 2009, 2014 and 2020 were all used, in combination with data from ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft. With the combined data, experts were able to capture the stellar explosion, known as Eta Carinae. Eta Carinae is a famous star system containing two large stars, one of which is around 90 times larger than the Sun, while the other is around 30 times as large. The “Great Eruption” from Eta Carinae is believed to be the result of the merging of two stars that were originally part of a three-star system. Eta Carinae Time-Lapse, Chandra X-ray Observatory www.youtube.com It first took place in the mid-19th century and the aftermath is still continuing to be observed today. New footage shows how the explosion has expanded into space with staggering speeds of up to 4.5 million miles per hour. In a statement, NASA officials explained: “During this event, Eta Carinae ejected between 10 and 45 times the mass of the sun. This material became a dense pair of spherical clouds of gas, now called the Homunculus Nebula, on opposite sides of the two stars.” The Homunculus Nebula is the blue cloud visible in the video, while the growing bright orange ring shows how X-ray emissions have grown and expanded over time. “The new movie of Chandra, plus a deep, summed image generated by adding the data together, reveal important hints about Eta Carinae’s volatile history,” the statement read. “This includes the rapid expansion of the ring, and a previously-unknown faint shell of X-rays outside it.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00

ChatGPT now has direct access to the internet
OpenAI has announced that its viral artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT now has direct access to the internet. The update comes just days after ChatGPT was given the ability to “see, hear and speak” through new voice and image recognition tools, building on its generative AI tools to bring capabilities similar to virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri. Prior to the latest update, ChatGPT’s knowledge base was limited to a data training set that ended in September 2021. “ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources,” OpenAI announced on Wednesday. “It is no longer limited to data before September 2021. Browsing is particularly useful for tasks that require up-to-date information, such as helping you with technical research, trying to choose a bike, or planning a vacation.” The web-connected version of ChatGPT is currently only available for paying ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise customers, but OpenAI said it has plans to expand it to non-paying users “soon”. OpenAI briefly added internet connectivity features for premium ChatGPT users in July, however it was shut off after people exploited it to get around paywalls. This issue appears to have been fixed, along with other ways to misuse the AI bot, through OpenAI’s evolving AI safety measures. The update was announced on the same day that Meta unveiled its own series of AI chatbots, which come with different personalities based on real people. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said at the company’s annual Meta Connect conference that the chatbots would be available through its applications Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. “This isn’t just going to be about answering queries,” he said. “This is about entertainment.” Other social media and messaging apps have also introduced AI chatbots to their platforms, including Snapchat’s My AI tool. Read More ChatGPT boss says he’s created human-level AI, then says he’s ‘just memeing’ ChatGPT boss says he’s achieved human-level AI, then says he’s ‘just memeing’ ChatGPT now has power to ‘see, hear, and speak’ Meta plans to develop ‘sassy robot’ chatbot for young users, report says
1970-01-01 08:00

Video showing how babies' faces form is giving people nightmares
The human body is an extraordinary thing – and now, one video is proving just that, while simultaneously giving people nightmares. Childbirth is often regarded as one of nature's most incredible events, but have you ever questioned how a baby's face develops while in the womb? Neither have we. But thanks to the BBC, people are divided about how "beautiful" the process actually is. The simulation shows how the baby's face starts with the philtrum, the area between the bottom of your nose and upper lip. During the episode of Inside the Human Body: Creation, Michael Mosley points out: "Down the centuries, biologists have wondered why every face has this particular feature. What we now know is it is the place where the puzzle that is the human face finally all comes together." The footage then recreates a baby's facial development via an animation, which begins with two holes at the top of the head. It appears as though the features then start to merge, though this is the baby's nostrils. (Fast-forward 32 seconds in to the below video to watch:) Face Development in the Womb - Inside the Human Body: Creation - BBC One www.youtube.com "We've taken data from scans of a developing embryo so we're able to show you for the very first time how our faces don't just grow, but fit together like a puzzle," Mosley continues. "The three main sections of the puzzle meet in the middle of your top lip, creating the groove that is your philtrum." He continues: "This whole amazing process, the bits coming together to produce a recognisable human face, happens in the womb between two and three months. "If it doesn't happen then, it never will." The snippet understandably garnered a mixed response, with one viewer writing: "That was so creepy yet amazing..." Another joked: "Makes me feel better that Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise once looked like space aliens." And a third quipped: "Thank you for the enlightening information and the skin-curdling nightmares." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
1970-01-01 08:00

Volkswagen restarts production after suffering major IT outage
By Christoph Steitz FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Volkswagen said on Thursday that a major IT outage, which had caused most of its
1970-01-01 08:00

Ant Consumer Finance Arm to Raise $616 Million to Revive Growth
Ant Group Co.’s consumer finance affiliate is raising 4.5 billion yuan ($616 million) from investors, as the Jack
1970-01-01 08:00