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Showing posts from April, 2023

EU Likely to Reach Political Agreement on AI Law This Year, Says Tech Regulator Chief Vestager

The European Union is likely to reach a political agreement this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence ( AI ) law, the bloc's tech regulation chief Margrethe Vestager said on Sunday. This follows a preliminary deal reached on Thursday by members of the European Parliament to push through the draft of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act to a vote by a committee of lawmakers on May 11. Parliament will then thrash out the bill's final details with EU member states and the European Commission before it becomes law. At a press conference after a Group of Seven digital ministers' meeting in Takasaki, Japan, Vestager said the EU AI Act was "pro-innovation" since it seeks to mitigate the risks of societal damage from emerging technologies. Regulators around the world have been trying to find a balance where governments could develop "guardrails" on emerging artificial intelligence technology without stifling

EU Likely to Reach Political Agreement on AI Law This Year, Says Tech Regulator Chief Vestager

The European Union is likely to reach a political agreement this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence ( AI ) law, the bloc's tech regulation chief Margrethe Vestager said on Sunday. This follows a preliminary deal reached on Thursday by members of the European Parliament to push through the draft of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act to a vote by a committee of lawmakers on May 11. Parliament will then thrash out the bill's final details with EU member states and the European Commission before it becomes law. At a press conference after a Group of Seven digital ministers' meeting in Takasaki, Japan, Vestager said the EU AI Act was "pro-innovation" since it seeks to mitigate the risks of societal damage from emerging technologies. Regulators around the world have been trying to find a balance where governments could develop "guardrails" on emerging artificial intelligence technology without stifling

EU Likely to Reach Political Agreement on AI Law This Year, Says Tech Regulator Chief Vestager

The European Union is likely to reach a political agreement this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence ( AI ) law, the bloc's tech regulation chief Margrethe Vestager said on Sunday. This follows a preliminary deal reached on Thursday by members of the European Parliament to push through the draft of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act to a vote by a committee of lawmakers on May 11. Parliament will then thrash out the bill's final details with EU member states and the European Commission before it becomes law. At a press conference after a Group of Seven digital ministers' meeting in Takasaki, Japan, Vestager said the EU AI Act was "pro-innovation" since it seeks to mitigate the risks of societal damage from emerging technologies. Regulators around the world have been trying to find a balance where governments could develop "guardrails" on emerging artificial intelligence technology without stifling

Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Roll Out Per-Article Payment Plan for Media Publishers

Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for his Twitter platform to allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with a single click. "This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article," the billionaire entrepreneur said on Twitter, adding, "Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public." He said the plan would begin next month, but provided no details on exact pricing or what cut Twitter would take. The announcement came as Musk has been struggling, amid frequent controversy, to make Twitter profitable. Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click. This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.… — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023 Media orga

Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Roll Out Per-Article Payment Plan for Media Publishers

Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for his Twitter platform to allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with a single click. "This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article," the billionaire entrepreneur said on Twitter, adding, "Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public." He said the plan would begin next month, but provided no details on exact pricing or what cut Twitter would take. The announcement came as Musk has been struggling, amid frequent controversy, to make Twitter profitable. Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click. This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.… — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023 Media orga

Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Roll Out Per-Article Payment Plan for Media Publishers

Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for his Twitter platform to allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with a single click. "This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article," the billionaire entrepreneur said on Twitter, adding, "Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public." He said the plan would begin next month, but provided no details on exact pricing or what cut Twitter would take. The announcement came as Musk has been struggling, amid frequent controversy, to make Twitter profitable. Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click. This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.… — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023 Media orga

MediaTek Shifts Focus to Cars, AI Amid Supply Glut in Smartphone Market

Taiwan's top chip design company MediaTek is focusing more resources on chips for cars and AI computing as its smartphone clients face a supply glut and inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty dent demand for consumer electronics. "We are definitely moving our resources very, very rapidly towards the automotive and computing areas, because those areas will provide our growth in the next three to five years," MediaTek Chief Executive Rick Tsai told an earnings call. "In this very demanding environment, we are not reducing people. We're not increasing either. The critical thing is to allocate those precious resources," he said. Tsai said everyone, including MediaTek, was rushing to claim that they were able to support generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT . "We're confident that we will be able to provide the capability to our customers," Tsai said. MediaTek is investing heavily in AI because the new areas the company is foc

MediaTek Shifts Focus to Cars, AI Amid Supply Glut in Smartphone Market

Taiwan's top chip design company MediaTek is focusing more resources on chips for cars and AI computing as its smartphone clients face a supply glut and inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty dent demand for consumer electronics. "We are definitely moving our resources very, very rapidly towards the automotive and computing areas, because those areas will provide our growth in the next three to five years," MediaTek Chief Executive Rick Tsai told an earnings call. "In this very demanding environment, we are not reducing people. We're not increasing either. The critical thing is to allocate those precious resources," he said. Tsai said everyone, including MediaTek, was rushing to claim that they were able to support generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT . "We're confident that we will be able to provide the capability to our customers," Tsai said. MediaTek is investing heavily in AI because the new areas the company is foc

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Gets a Mech-Crunching Gameplay Trailer; System Requirements Revealed

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon just got a gameplay trailer, confirming leaks from earlier this week, that it is indeed releasing on August 25. Marking the first new release in the AC franchise since 2012, the new footage offers a glimpse at the various mech types zipping around, their attack patterns, and key story details. Despite the naming scheme, producer Yasunori Ogura confirmed in an IGN interview that Armored Core 6 will feature a brand-new story that isn't directly linked to previous titles. Publisher Bandai Namco also unveiled pricing details and system requirements for its next game. While certainly not a souls-like title, developer FromSoftware has used its years of experience in the genre to revitalise Armored Core VI for a modern era. It is set on a devastated dystopian planet, Rubicon 3, which was reduced to flames and ashes after an unstable energy source called Coral went out of control. Fifty years after the catastrophe, the rare substance surfaces once aga

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Gets a Mech-Crunching Gameplay Trailer; System Requirements Revealed

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon just got a gameplay trailer, confirming leaks from earlier this week, that it is indeed releasing on August 25. Marking the first new release in the AC franchise since 2012, the new footage offers a glimpse at the various mech types zipping around, their attack patterns, and key story details. Despite the naming scheme, producer Yasunori Ogura confirmed in an IGN interview that Armored Core 6 will feature a brand-new story that isn't directly linked to previous titles. Publisher Bandai Namco also unveiled pricing details and system requirements for its next game. While certainly not a souls-like title, developer FromSoftware has used its years of experience in the genre to revitalise Armored Core VI for a modern era. It is set on a devastated dystopian planet, Rubicon 3, which was reduced to flames and ashes after an unstable energy source called Coral went out of control. Fifty years after the catastrophe, the rare substance surfaces once aga

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Gets a Mech-Crunching Gameplay Trailer; System Requirements Revealed

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon just got a gameplay trailer, confirming leaks from earlier this week, that it is indeed releasing on August 25. Marking the first new release in the AC franchise since 2012, the new footage offers a glimpse at the various mech types zipping around, their attack patterns, and key story details. Despite the naming scheme, producer Yasunori Ogura confirmed in an IGN interview that Armored Core 6 will feature a brand-new story that isn't directly linked to previous titles. Publisher Bandai Namco also unveiled pricing details and system requirements for its next game. While certainly not a souls-like title, developer FromSoftware has used its years of experience in the genre to revitalise Armored Core VI for a modern era. It is set on a devastated dystopian planet, Rubicon 3, which was reduced to flames and ashes after an unstable energy source called Coral went out of control. Fifty years after the catastrophe, the rare substance surfaces once aga

Microsoft Hits Back at UK Regulator's Decision to Block Activision Acquisition

Microsoft's president Brad Smith said the UK regulator's decision to prevent its acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard "had shaken confidence" in Britain as a destination for tech businesses. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which operates independently from government, blocked the deal on Wednesday, saying it could hit competition in the nascent cloud gaming market. Microsoft hit back on Thursday, saying it was "probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain" and sent the wrong message to the global tech industry about the UK. "If the government of the United Kingdom wants to bring in investment, if it wants to create jobs (...) it needs to look hard at the role of the CMA, the regulatory structure in the United Kingdom, this transaction, and the message that the United Kingdom has just said to the world," he told BBC radio. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Smith's comments were

Dropbox to Reduce Workforce by 16 Percent, Plans to Hire New Staff for AI Offerings

Cloud storage provider Dropbox said on Thursday it would reduce its global workforce by 16 percent to cut costs amid slowing cloud growth, and instead hire new talent to build its AI offerings. San Francisco, California-based Dropbox is the latest tech company to tap AI as Big Tech players from Microsoft  to Facebook -parent Meta Platforms battle for a slice of the fast-growing market with new products and offerings. Dropbox's chief executive officer, Drew Houston, said the company's core cloud business growth was slowing as challenges from the economic downturn put pressure on customers, making some of its profitable investments no longer sustainable. At the end of 2022, the company had 3,118 full-time employees, of which 2,583 were located in the United States. The company said it had shifted some employees from one team to another to focus on its AI projects, but would need more talent with a different mix of skill sets, particularly in AI and early-stage product dev

Dropbox to Reduce Workforce by 16 Percent, Plans to Hire New Staff for AI Offerings

Cloud storage provider Dropbox said on Thursday it would reduce its global workforce by 16 percent to cut costs amid slowing cloud growth, and instead hire new talent to build its AI offerings. San Francisco, California-based Dropbox is the latest tech company to tap AI as Big Tech players from Microsoft  to Facebook -parent Meta Platforms battle for a slice of the fast-growing market with new products and offerings. Dropbox's chief executive officer, Drew Houston, said the company's core cloud business growth was slowing as challenges from the economic downturn put pressure on customers, making some of its profitable investments no longer sustainable. At the end of 2022, the company had 3,118 full-time employees, of which 2,583 were located in the United States. The company said it had shifted some employees from one team to another to focus on its AI projects, but would need more talent with a different mix of skill sets, particularly in AI and early-stage product dev

Dropbox to Reduce Workforce by 16 Percent, Plans to Hire New Staff for AI Offerings

Cloud storage provider Dropbox said on Thursday it would reduce its global workforce by 16 percent to cut costs amid slowing cloud growth, and instead hire new talent to build its AI offerings. San Francisco, California-based Dropbox is the latest tech company to tap AI as Big Tech players from Microsoft  to Facebook -parent Meta Platforms battle for a slice of the fast-growing market with new products and offerings. Dropbox's chief executive officer, Drew Houston, said the company's core cloud business growth was slowing as challenges from the economic downturn put pressure on customers, making some of its profitable investments no longer sustainable. At the end of 2022, the company had 3,118 full-time employees, of which 2,583 were located in the United States. The company said it had shifted some employees from one team to another to focus on its AI projects, but would need more talent with a different mix of skill sets, particularly in AI and early-stage product dev

Elon Musk Ordered to Be Questioned Under Oath Over Autopilot Statements in Tesla Crash Lawsuit

A California judge on Wednesday tentatively ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the safety and capabilities of the carmaker's Autopilot features. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the family of Walter Huang against Tesla in Santa Clara Superior Court, over a car crash which killed the Apple engineer in 2018. Huang's family argues Tesla's partially automated driving software failed. The carmaker contends Huang was playing a videogame on his phone before the crash and disregarded vehicle warnings. Plaintiff attorneys sought to depose Musk regarding recorded statements that tout the capabilities of Autopilot. In a 2016 statement cited by plaintiffs, Musk allegedly said: "A Model S and Model X, at this point, can drive autonomously with greater safety than a person. Right now.” Tesla, however, opposed the request in court filings, arguing that Musk cannot recall details about statements. In

Elon Musk Ordered to Be Questioned Under Oath Over Autopilot Statements in Tesla Crash Lawsuit

A California judge on Wednesday tentatively ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding the safety and capabilities of the carmaker's Autopilot features. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the family of Walter Huang against Tesla in Santa Clara Superior Court, over a car crash which killed the Apple engineer in 2018. Huang's family argues Tesla's partially automated driving software failed. The carmaker contends Huang was playing a videogame on his phone before the crash and disregarded vehicle warnings. Plaintiff attorneys sought to depose Musk regarding recorded statements that tout the capabilities of Autopilot. In a 2016 statement cited by plaintiffs, Musk allegedly said: "A Model S and Model X, at this point, can drive autonomously with greater safety than a person. Right now.” Tesla, however, opposed the request in court filings, arguing that Musk cannot recall details about statements. In

Aadhaar e-KYC Transactions Rise to Over 311.8 Million in March 2023

Aadhaar holders have carried out nearly 2.31 billion authentication transactions in March 2023, underlining the growing usage of Aadhaar and growth of digital economy in the country, according to an official release. The numbers in March were higher than in February when 2.26 billion authentication transactions were carried out. "While a majority of the authentications transaction numbers were carried out by using biometric fingerprint, it is followed by demographic and OTP authentications," the release said. Aadhaar e-KYC service continues to play a "stellar role" for banking and non-banking financial services by providing transparent and improved customer experience, and facilitating ease of doing business. More than 311.8 million e-KYC transactions were carried out during March 2023, a rise of over 16.3 percent against February levels. Adoption of e-KYC has significantly reduced customer acquisition cost of entities like financial institutions, telecom serv

Aadhaar e-KYC Transactions Rise to Over 311.8 Million in March 2023

Aadhaar holders have carried out nearly 2.31 billion authentication transactions in March 2023, underlining the growing usage of Aadhaar and growth of digital economy in the country, according to an official release. The numbers in March were higher than in February when 2.26 billion authentication transactions were carried out. "While a majority of the authentications transaction numbers were carried out by using biometric fingerprint, it is followed by demographic and OTP authentications," the release said. Aadhaar e-KYC service continues to play a "stellar role" for banking and non-banking financial services by providing transparent and improved customer experience, and facilitating ease of doing business. More than 311.8 million e-KYC transactions were carried out during March 2023, a rise of over 16.3 percent against February levels. Adoption of e-KYC has significantly reduced customer acquisition cost of entities like financial institutions, telecom serv

Aadhaar e-KYC Transactions Rise to Over 311.8 Million in March 2023

Aadhaar holders have carried out nearly 2.31 billion authentication transactions in March 2023, underlining the growing usage of Aadhaar and growth of digital economy in the country, according to an official release. The numbers in March were higher than in February when 2.26 billion authentication transactions were carried out. "While a majority of the authentications transaction numbers were carried out by using biometric fingerprint, it is followed by demographic and OTP authentications," the release said. Aadhaar e-KYC service continues to play a "stellar role" for banking and non-banking financial services by providing transparent and improved customer experience, and facilitating ease of doing business. More than 311.8 million e-KYC transactions were carried out during March 2023, a rise of over 16.3 percent against February levels. Adoption of e-KYC has significantly reduced customer acquisition cost of entities like financial institutions, telecom serv

Twitter Says It Removed 6.5 Million Pieces of Content in First Half of 2022 Before Elon Musk's Takeover

Twitter on Tuesday said it required users to take down over 6.5 million pieces of content in the first half of 2022, before the social media platform was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk , a 29 percent increase from the second half of 2021. Twitter disclosed the number of content removals in a blog post on the same day the European Union said the social media platform would be among 19 tech companies subject to new landmark rules that require them to share data with authorities, do more to tackle disinformation and conduct external and independent auditing. Failure to comply with the rules - some of the world's strictest regulations on online platforms - could result in fines of up to 6 percent of global revenue or even a ban from operating in the EU, according to the European Commission's website. Before Musk purchased Twitter in October and cut roughly 80 percent of its staff, Twitter normally published twice-yearly reports on its Transparency Center website, detailin

The Flash Trailer: Michael Keaton’s Batman Springs Into Action in a Multiversal Battle

The Flash just got a new trailer in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. At this year's CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, Warner Bros. dropped the second trailer for the standalone 'Scarlet Speedster' movie, which will serve as the reset point for the DC Universe, drawing inspiration from the Flashpoint storyline. Michael Keaton's Batman gets a lot more screentime here, as he touches upon the often talked about pas of Bruce Wayne, and teams up with the two Barry Allens (Ezra Miller) on a dangerous mission to thwart General Zod. The Flash releases June 16 in theatres worldwide, with the release having been brought forward to avoid clashing with Disney's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . The Flash trailer The trailer for The Flash opens with a voiceover from Bruce Wayne ( Keaton ), as we see two versions of Barry Allen ( Miller ) walking through the mist into Wayne Manor. “I lost my parents. That pain made me who I am,” he says, as we're treated to glimpses o