Tag: Elon Musk
Tech Digest daily roundup: Electoral Commission failed basic cybersecurity test
The Electoral Commission has confirmed it failed a basic cyber-security test around the same time hackers gained entry to the organisation. A whistleblower told the BBC that the Commission was given an automatic fail during a Cyber Essentials audit. Last month the Commission revealed that "hostile actors" accessed its emails and potentially the data of…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Home Office secretly lobbied for facial recognition company
Senior officials at the Home Office secretly lobbied the UK’s independent privacy regulator to act “favourably” towards a private firm keen to roll out controversial facial recognition technology across the country, according to internal government emails seen by the Observer. Correspondence reveals that the Home Office wrote to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) warning that policing minister, Chris…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Google trials watermark to identify AI images
Image: Google DeepMind Google is trialling a digital watermark to spot images made by artificial intelligence (AI) in a bid to fight disinformation. Developed by DeepMind, Google's AI arm, SynthID will identify images generated by machines.It works by embedding changes to individual pixels in images so watermarks are invisible to the…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Option to block users to be removed from X (formerly Twitter)
Users of X (formerly Twitter) will not be able to block people from seeing their posts or leaving comments, Elon Musk has said. The social media platform owner said the function "makes no sense" - adding that it will only be possible to block someone from sending direct messages. In the shake-up to the app,…
Tech Digest daily roundup: UK elections watchdog hit by hostile cyberattack
The UK's elections watchdog has revealed it has been the victim of a "complex cyber-attack" potentially affecting millions of voters. The Electoral Commission said unspecified "hostile actors" had managed to gain access to copies of the electoral registers, from August 2021. Hackers also broke into its emails and "control systems" but the attack was not…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Rare Apple trainers at auction for $50,000
A pair of rare Apple trainers are being sold by auction house Sotheby's for $50,000 (£38,969). The shoes were custom-made for employees only in the 1990s and were a one-time giveaway at a conference. A pair have never been sold to the public before. Featuring a predominately white leather upper, "a standout detail" is the…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Musk launches ‘pro-humanity’ AI startup, xAI
Elon Musk (above) has launched an artificial intelligence startup that will be “pro-humanity”, as he said the world needed to worry about the prospect of a “terminator future” in order to avoid the most apocalyptic AI scenarios. Musk said xAI would seek to build a system that would be safe because it was “maximally curious”…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Skilled professions at biggest risk from AI, warns OECD
Major economies are on the “cusp of an AI revolution” that could trigger job losses in skilled professions such as law, medicine and finance, according to an influential international organisation. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the occupations at highest risk from AI-driven automation were highly skilled jobs and represented about 27%…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Trials begin on HVS hydrogen-powered truck
British trials have started of a heavyweight truck powered by a gas that's lighter than air - and emits nothing but water. Sky News was given exclusive access to the first British-designed and built heavy goods vehicle (HGV) to be fuelled by hydrogen as it was driven around the Horiba Mira test track in Warwickshire.…
Tech Digest daily roundup: Twitter threatens legal action over Meta’s Threads
Twitter is threatening legal action against Meta over its new text-based “Twitter killer” platform, accusing the social media giant of poaching former employees to create a “copycat” application. On Wednesday, Instagram parent company Meta introduced Threads, a text-based companion to Instagram that resembles Twitter and other text-based social platforms. Just hours later, a lawyer for…
