The Senate’s first major hearing on artificial intelligence covered everything from the lighthearted marvels of generative AI to

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 3, 2023--

Google has announced a major update that will see thousands – potentially even millions – of accounts permanently deleted if they have not been used since 2021. The purge will include Gmail, Drive and Photos accounts that have not been used or signed into for at least two years. In a blog post announcing the update, Google said the new policy was primarily for security reasons, as older accounts are typically more vulnerable to threats like spam, phishing scams and hijacking. “Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up,” the post stated. “Meaning, these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam.” The policy will only apply to personal accounts, with those associated with organisations like schools and businesses safe from being deleted. The tech giant said the update will be in effect from this week, however no accounts will be deleted until December 2023. “We will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again,” Google wrote. “Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided).” Users can avoid being caught up in the purge by doing as little as reading an email sent to the account, or watching a YouTube video while logged in. Google hosts billions of user accounts, though it did not make public how many of them are inactive. It follows similar announcements from Twitter, with chief executive and owner Elon Musk recently rolling out a similar policy that will see usernames recycled if they are associated with accounts that have not been used “for several years”. Read More ‘Google is done’: World’s most powerful AI chatbot offers human-like alternative to search engines

If you’re anything like us, you were probably absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs as a child. However, did you ever stop to think about the sheer number of dinos that were wandering around the planet before they met their untimely end at the hands of an asteroid? A new study has been published which states that a whopping 1.7 billion T-Rex roamed the Earth in total across the Late Cretaceous period. It comes after researchers calculated their average lifespan, which measured up to a whopping 40 feet in length and 12 feet in height. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter They cross referenced this with the number of eggs which survived and the sexual maturity of the animals to come up with the figure. It’s a huge number, but it’s actually far less than previously thought. A previous study from 2021 estimated that there were 800 million more of them that existed between about 90 to 66 million years ago. The research was published in Palaeontology, and evolutionary ecologist Eva Griebeler from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany wrote about the findings. "Unlike my model, the generation time as well as life expectancies, gross reproduction rates, and reproductive values of individuals calculated from the previous model all strongly contradicted our current understanding of the biology of T. rex and of other theropods,” she said. "Their values also disagreed with those of large extant reptiles, birds, and mammals. All of these shortcomings of the previous model favor the assessment of individual and population characteristics of T. rex and of other extinct species using my model." Griebeler also explained how the findings suggest a lower T-Rex survival rate, as well as fewer generations of the animal and less egg laying. "All of these shortcomings of the previous model favor the assessment of individual and population characteristics of T. rex and other extinct species using my model," she wrote. 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.

By Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou ATHENS (Reuters) -Thousands of tourists and residents fleeing a wildfire on Rhodes huddled in

A password manager can help you generate and store unique, strong passwords for every app

Brendan Depa, then 17, violently attacked Matanzas High School teacher’s aide Joan Naydich and pinned her to the floor in February

New guidance urging parents not to buy smartphones for their primary school age children has been introduced The Cabinet has approved a memo outlining the proposal which was brought by education minister Norma Foley. The new guidance is available online and will be sent to all primary schools in the country. The aim is to support parents of primary school children who wish to agree collectively on a voluntary agreement on the use of smartphones for their primary school age children. It is based on a project involving eight schools in Greystones in Co Wicklow that saw parents of primary school pupils collectively agree not to buy smartphones for them. Ms Foley’s plan was prompted by concerns around the potential exposure of younger children to cyber bullying, violent and sexual content and other harmful content on phones. The minister said that there were clear benefits to owning a smartphone but the risks they posed to children had to be managed. Ms Foley said: “Principals tell me that online bullying using smartphones happens outside school hours. “They can’t control it. It happens outside of school. “Children can be exposed to violence and sexual content that no parent would want them to see via their smartphone.” The minister’s party leader, Tanaiste Micheal Martin, used his speech at the Fianna Fail ard fheis on Saturday to flag the move. He told party members why he felt it was important to limit children’s exposures to smartphones. “One of the greatest challenges of today is helping children to navigate an online world, one which brings new threats and affects the ability to maintain healthy connections,” he said. “That is why we will be expanding guidelines and controls on smartphone access in schools – and every family and school will receive guidance on how to navigate this challenge with their children to keep them safe and healthy.” Read More William ‘blown away’ by futuristic technology from Singapore start-ups Return of original Fortnite map causes record traffic on Virgin Media O2 network NatWest creates new AI-powered chatbot capable of ‘human-like’ conversations Succession star Sarah Snook says AI use in film industry needs ‘stringent rules’ Sir Paul McCartney: It was magical to feel like I was reuniting with John Lennon Sexist comments on TikTok ‘more liked’ than non-sexist ones – study

'What's shocking is that there are 9000 cameras inside the White House and they're trying to act like they don't know who it belongs,' read one tweet

General Motors has hired a former high-ranking software executive at Apple to run a new software organization at the automaker

Google made its budget phone so good that it might have to stop making budget

BREA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 5, 2023--