List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

India is requiring licenses for the import of computers from laptops to tablets, the latest in a series

Nintendo Co. hit a new high for first-quarter profit after the successful launch of its latest Legend of

China is proposing new measures to curb the amount of time that kids and teens can spend on their phones, as the country takes aim at internet addiction and tries to cultivate "good morality" and "socialist values" among minors.

BERLIN (Reuters) -German chipmaker Infineon on Thursday reported slightly better than expected quarterly revenue as the market for semiconductors remains

The first license under Hong Kong’s new crypto regime went to HashKey Exchange, legalizing the retail trading of

Apple’s high-yield savings account offered by its partner Goldman Sachs has reached over $10 billion in customer deposits,

Qualcomm Inc., the largest maker of smartphone processors, gave a tepid revenue forecast for the current period, indicating

Artificial intelligence (AI) could reshape jobs or be used to create conspiracy theories that could cause political instability, according to a document outlining the possible threats facing Ireland. The National Risk Assessment report, which began in 2014, aims to outline economic, security or political risks to Ireland in the coming years, with the aim of informing decisions and to prepare for those possibilities. It also aims to guard against “group think”, and states that it highlighted the risk of Brexit in its 2014 report, and the housing challenge in its 2015 report. In the introduction to the report, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the list of 25 risks range from climate change to newer risks such as the security of Ireland’s energy supply and the proliferation of disruptive technology like AI. The report stated that as disruptive technology trends develop, “these advances create a range of opportunities” but also pose a possibility for malign use. Coastal erosion, which can impact upon infrastructure and human settlement, will accelerate in the coming years National Risk Assessment report It said that disruptive technologies such as AI could cause automation that could “displace or reshape” jobs and sectors, or be used for “malign” purposes. “Generative AI systems, which make the rapid production of content based on a variety of source material (text, moving or still images, computer code) easily available to the public, will bring extraordinary change, but will also pose a challenge for societal resilience, in particular how we counter the harms that could flow from their malicious use. “This could include the use of AI to generate disinformation and misinformation, deepfakes, or conspiracy theories, with the potential to distort markets, undermine cohesion or cause political instability.” It added: “The spread of mis/disinformation, including via social media and other digital platforms, has the potential to undermine the State, the integrity of elections, social cohesion, and the functioning of the economy.” In relation to Northern Ireland, the report said that certain groups with “very limited levels of support” are “intent on disrupting the significant progress” to bring about peace on the island of Ireland. “The risks to Ireland posed by armed conflict, terrorism and hybrid security threats are potentially compounded by our having one of the lowest levels of investment in military and defence capabilities within Europe,” it said. The assessment also stated that Ireland’s housing shortage and pricing issues “are unlikely to rectify themselves over the short term”, with inflation and skilled labour shortages impacting supply. It said that high rent costs create a risk of a “locked-out generation”, and is impacting on homelessness, which is at record high monthly rates. “The housing challenge risks increasing social exclusion and impairing labour mobility,” it said, adding that the growing number of asylum seekers highlighted the “undersupply of appropriate housing and the inflexibility of the sector”. It highlights that climate change is happening at “an accelerating and alarming rate”, and that Ireland needs to urgently “step up” efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy. “…Failure to meet obligations and targets on emissions, energy usage, and renewable energy, set both by the EU and in national legislation, is a risk. “Inertia and resistance to change risks Ireland’s efforts at adaptation and mitigation.” It also highlighted extreme weather events in Ireland such as flooding and extreme temperatures, which have “major” impacts on the environment, people and economy. “Coastal erosion, which can impact upon infrastructure and human settlement, will accelerate in the coming years,” it said. “In this regard, it is notable that much critical infrastructure, such as power stations, wastewater treatment plants, and rail infrastructure can be found along our coastline. “Very significant investment, with associated delivery risks, will be necessary to build climate resilience into flood defences and water management systems, in order to secure communities and the infrastructure they depend on.” The assessment added: “Trade-offs and public expenditure choices will be required.” It also warned that vulnerabilities in global financial markets “have grown more pressing” and highlighted “a wide range of financial vulnerabilities and elevated uncertainty”. It said that Ireland’s post-Brexit relationship with Great Britain “will continue to present challenges”, particularly on trade as the UK moves to introduce checks and controls on imports. It warned that while Ireland is “a strong supporter” of EU enlargement it also poses a risk to cohesion across the bloc and may lead to changes in how the EU operates. The report said that the most extreme risks to Ireland “are outside exclusive national control”, and as a result, international relations, such as Ireland’s EU membership, are important. The development of the National Risk Assessment is overseen by a group of departmental officials and members of relevant agencies, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach. A proposed list of strategic risks is drafted which is then published for public consultation, which took place from December 7 2022 to February 17 2023. The proposed risks are then reviewed and further considered by Government departments and agencies, and the final draft was considered by government on July 25. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Harry and Meghan ring young online innovators after funding awards James Bulger’s mother condemns ‘disgusting’ AI clips on TikTok of murdered son Police use AI camera van to spot drivers using mobile phones

Google has warned users that their Gmail accounts may start to be deleted. The company says it is giving affects users plenty of time to ensure they are able to secure any accounts they want to retain access to. The mass deletion will begin at the start of December, and apply only to inactive accounts. The company says it is doing so for safety, since old accounts may represent a security risk. Google considers an account to be inactive if people do not log in within two years. Logging in includes not only looking at the Gmail inbox but also using that same login to watch YouTube or make Google searches, or downloading apps from the Play Store. Accounts that have money in them in the form of gift cards will also be kept open, Google has said. Google warned in May that it would start deleting accounts. It said that it was doing so because those inactive accounts were more likely to be compromised, and could be used for other online crime. “This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised, haven’t had two factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks by the user,” said Ruth Kricheli, Google’s vice president for product management, at the time. “Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10 times less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up.” Those attackers can then use that account to send spam email or steal people’s identities, the company warned. But it is now sending emails to those affected, giving them a warning that they could soon lose access to their account, noted Bleeping Computer. It tells users that it is doing so “to protect your private information and prevent any unauthorized access to your account even if you’re no longer using our services”. The messages will be sent not only to the actual Gmail account in question, but also to any recovery email addresses that have been provided. Users will given at least eight months’ warning before their accounts are removed, Google says. Once an account is deleted, the email associated with it will no longer be eligible for use, so that people will not be able to steal old and now recovered addresses.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have called young innovators and campaigners to congratulate them on being awarded a share of a multimillion-dollar prize to boost their efforts. Harry and Meghan rang some of the 26 recipients who will receive the financial award from the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund – and joked that their children were “incredibly grateful”. The couple’s Archewell Foundation is a founding member of the initiative which has a number of aims including shaping the “tech ecosystem to safeguard human rights” and “mitigating the harmful impacts of technology in communities”. Holding a mobile between himself and Meghan, Harry said to one winner: “Thank you for doing everything that you do. Our kids especially are incredibly grateful.” The Sussexes have a son Archie and a daughter Lilibet, and Megan added: “They don’t know it yet – but they will.” The fund raised 2 million US dollars (£1.6m) from backers and awarded amounts ranging from 25,000 dollars (£19,700) to 200,000 dollars (£157,000) — based on the stage of the organisation and funding needs. The recipients will work on a range of innovative projects, including responsible use of artificial intelligence; improving education access; leveraging platforms to address social and environmental challenges and promoting the safety and well-being of online communities. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Slack has been hit by issues for the second time in a week. Users reported that they were unable to see images properly – while others said they were not able to get online at all. The outage will be a disruption to the many workplaces who use the app to keep up with colleagues, especially with the rise of remote working. The problems happened during the working day in the UK and US. The technical issues came just days after another outage at the app, last week. Those problems were more significant, and users around the world were unable to sign on or send messages. This time around, the problems did not appear to be affecting all users and for most they were more limited in their scope. Slack’s official status page was updated on Wednesday to indicate that users “may be experiencing issues loading threads, admin pages and images”. It said it was investigating the issue. Tracking website Down Detector saw a huge spike in the number of people reporting issues. It was unclear if the problems were limited to specific platforms or locations. Slack says that it has more than 200,000 paid customers, which includes 77 of the Fortune 100. Those companies include some of the US’s biggest firms including Target, Uber, Expedia and Airbnb. Read More Slack has stopped working Google warns Gmail users they could be about to lose their account Hundreds of years after it was discovered, one material could change the world

Nasa’s James Webb telescope’s most recent image of a distant star system has thrown up more questions than answers – literally. The image is of the star system Herbig Haro 46/47, and includes a cosmic object that is shaped like an actual question mark. Scientists think the entity could be a distant galaxy, or two galaxies interacting with one another. One larger galaxy could be distorting the cosmic cloud and gas of the other, for example, forming a shape similar to a question mark. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The red colour of the unusually shaped object in the image suggests it is more distant than the other stars in the picture. “This may be the first time we’ve seen this particular object. Additional follow-up would be required to figure out what it is with any certainty. Webb is showing us many new, distant galaxies – so there’s a lot of new science to be done,” the US’s Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages Webb’s science operations, told Space.com. The star system in the foreground, dubbed Herbig-Haro 46/47, was captured by the Webb telescope’s powerful infrared cameras and consists of two young stars pulled to each other by gravity as they spin. An image reveals the stars as buried deeply, appearing as an orange-white splotch, surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that continued to add to their mass. JWST Finds a Cosmic Question Mark and a Starry Fountain www.youtube.com “Herbig-Haro 46/47 is an important object to study because it is relatively young – only a few thousand years old,” Nasa said in a statement. The pair of actively forming stars have two-sided orange lobes which were created by earlier ejections from these stars. Scientists said the two young stars could give more insight into how stars gather mass over time, given the fact that the process usually takes millions of years. 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.