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Most Britons support strict controls on AI systems that could surpass human capabilities, according to a YouGov poll, highlighting a growing divide between public opinion and government policy. The survey of 2,344 adults found 87% back laws requiring AI developers to prove their systems are safe before release, while 60% favor banning the development of "smarter-than-human" AI models. Only 9% trust tech CEOs to act in the public interest on AI regulation.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: India's central bank is introducing an exclusive ".bank.in" domain for banks from April 2025 as part of efforts to combat rising digital payment frauds and bolster trust in online banking services. [...] The central bank plans to roll out a separate 'fin.in' domain for non-bank financial institutions. "Increased instances of fraud in digital payments are a significant concern," said RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, adding that the new domain system aims to reduce cyber security threats and malicious activities like phishing.

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Spacecraft weather solar storms, but ground processing laid low by water

They can put a man on the Moon - but back on Earth, a busted water pipe managed to knock out NASA's solar mission data for months.…

U.S. employers are deploying increasingly aggressive phishing tests to combat cyber threats, sparking backlash from workers who say the simulated scams create unnecessary panic and distrust in the workplace. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, a test email about a fake Ebola outbreak sent staff scrambling before learning it was a security drill. At Lehigh Valley Health Network, employees who fall for phishing tests lose external email access, with termination possible after three failures. Despite widespread use, recent studies question these tests' effectiveness. Research from ETH Zurich found that phishing tests combined with voluntary training actually made employees more vulnerable, while a University of California, San Diego study showed only a 2% reduction [PDF] in phishing success rates. "These are just an ineffective and inefficient way to educate users," said Grant Ho, who co-authored the UCSD study.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Google has edited Gemini's AI response in a Super Bowl commercial to remove an incorrect statistic about cheese. The ad, which shows a small business owner using Gemini to write a website description about Gouda, no longer says the variety makes up "50 to 60 percent of the world's cheese consumption." In the edited YouTube video, Gemini's response now skips over the specifics and says Gouda is "one of the most popular cheeses in the world." Google Cloud apps president Jerry Dischler initially defended the response, saying on X it's "grounded in the Web" and "not a hallucination."

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A survey of 2,130 Americans has revealed widespread vulnerability to cyber attacks through unsupported smart devices, with 43% unaware their devices might lose software support. The security threat was underscored in December 2023 when U.S. authorities disrupted a Chinese state-sponsored botnet targeting home routers and cameras that had stopped receiving security updates. Cloudflare separately reported a record-breaking DDoS attack in late 2023, primarily originating from compromised smart TVs and set-top boxes. The survey, conduced by Consumer Reports, found that only 39% of consumers learned about lost software support from manufacturers, with most discovering issues when devices stopped working (40%) or through media reports (15%). Most consumers expect their smart devices to retain functionality after losing software support, particularly for large appliances (70%). However, Consumer Reports' research found only 14% of 21 smart appliance brands specify support timeframes, while an FTC study of 184 devices showed just 11% disclose support duration.

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Blighty’s latest stab at encryption? A secret order to pry open iCloud, sources claim

The UK's Home Office refuses to either confirm or deny reports that it recently ordered Apple to create a backdoor allowing the government to access any user's cloud data.…

A passenger on the French rail network SNCF has revealed that he received a $155 fine for using his phone on loud speaker within a train station. From a report: The passenger, named only as David, told French TV channel BFM that he was on the phone to his sister while waiting at Nantes station when the SNCF staff member told him to switch his phone's loud speaker off, or risk being fined. When he argued, he was served with the $155 fine, which has been increased to $207 because he did not pay it immediately. Further reading: Flying Was Already the Worst. Then America Stopped Using Headphones.

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Some of that cash is reportedly headed for $500B Stargate dream

The AI investment landscape is shifting once again, with SoftBank reportedly finalizing a $40 billion stake in OpenAI - pushing its valuation to around $300 billion.…

A British manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell components for London's double-decker bus fleet has collapsed into administration, jeopardizing a $15.8 million government-backed project to cut transport emissions. Aeristech Limited, which was developing high-powered compressors for hydrogen fuel cells, was working on Project HEIDI to retrofit London buses with hydrogen technology. The project received $7.84 million in government funding last year, with additional investment from project partners including University of Bath and Equipmake.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Newly unsealed emails allegedly provide the "most damning evidence" yet against Meta in a copyright case raised by book authors alleging that Meta illegally trained its AI models on pirated books. Last month, Meta admitted to torrenting a controversial large dataset known as LibGen, which includes tens of millions of pirated books. But details around the torrenting were murky until yesterday, when Meta's unredacted emails were made public for the first time. The new evidence showed that Meta torrented "at least 81.7 terabytes of data across multiple shadow libraries through the site Anna's Archive, including at least 35.7 terabytes of data from Z-Library and LibGen," the authors' court filing said. And "Meta also previously torrented 80.6 terabytes of data from LibGen." "The magnitude of Meta's unlawful torrenting scheme is astonishing," the authors' filing alleged, insisting that "vastly smaller acts of data piracy -- just .008 percent of the amount of copyrighted works Meta pirated -- have resulted in Judges referring the conduct to the US Attorneys' office for criminal investigation."

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Shocking research warns electricity shortages could create construction bottleneck

AI's thirst for electricity will see datacenter energy use more than double by the end of the decade – just five years from now – according to the latest forecast from investment banker Goldman Sachs.…

Asahi lead developer Hector Martin, writing in an email: I no longer have any faith left in the kernel development process or community management approach. Apple/ARM platform development will continue downstream. If I feel like sending some patches upstream in the future myself for whatever subtree I may, or I may not. Anyone who feels like fighting the upstreaming fight themselves is welcome to do so.

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The UK government has ordered Apple to create a backdoor allowing access to encrypted cloud backups of users worldwide, Washington Post reported Friday, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. The unprecedented demand, issued last month through a technical capability notice under the UK Investigatory Powers Act, requires Apple to provide blanket access to fully encrypted material rather than assistance with specific accounts. Apple is likely to discontinue its encrypted storage service in the UK rather than compromise user security globally, the report said. The company would still face pressure to provide backdoor access for users in other countries, including the United States. The order was issued under Britain's 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, which makes it illegal to disclose such government demands, according to the report. While Apple can appeal to a secret technical panel and judge, the law requires compliance during any appeal process. The company told Parliament in March that the UK government should not have authority to decide whether global users can access end-to-end encryption.

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It's not auto-enrollment. It's just your current plan with extra Copilot for more money. Completely different

Users are now receiving notifications regarding their Microsoft 365 subscriptions and must take action if they wish to avoid Copilot and its extra charges.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: In the most comprehensive study of its kind, scientists have found that generally, the world feels brighter when you wake up. People start the day in the best frame of mind in the morning, but end in the worst, at about midnight, the findings suggest, with the day of the week and the season also playing a part. Mental health also tends to be more varied at weekends but steadier during the week, according to the study led by University College London. "Generally, things do seem better in the morning," the researchers concluded. Their findings were published in the journal BMJ Mental Health. [...] The results showed that happiness, life satisfaction, and worthwhile ratings were all higher on Mondays and Fridays than on Sundays, while happiness was also higher on Tuesdays. There was no evidence that loneliness differed across days of the week. There was clear evidence of a seasonal influence on mood. Compared with winter, people tended to have lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms and loneliness, and higher levels of happiness, life satisfaction and feeling that life was worthwhile in the three other seasons. Mental health was best in the summer across all outcomes. But the season didn't affect the associations observed across the day, however. Scientists suggest that the findings may be due to physiological changes linked to the body's circadian rhythm. Cortisol, a hormone that influences mood and motivation, peaks after waking and declines by bedtime, which may contribute to better mental health earlier in the day. Factors like sleep cycles, weather, and when participants chose to respond to the survey could have influenced the findings. There's also the differences between weekdays and weekends, which have their own variations in daily routines.

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But 'original sin' has already been committed, shrugs industry

Governments are allowing AI developers to steal content – both creative and journalistic – for fear of upsetting the tech sector and damaging investment, a UK Parliamentary committee heard this week.…

Freshly minted organization aims to take the guesswork out of incident severity for insurers and policy holders

A world-first organization assembled to categorize the severity of cybersecurity incidents is up and running in the UK following a year-long incubation period.…

248-year-old democracy is not a tech startup

Opinion 120-hour work weeks, firing government staffers and dismantling agencies? Oh my. The US government under pseudo President Musk is in for a world of radical change.…

After a $523 million charge on its CST-100 Starliner program in 2024, Boeing's total losses on the commercial crew vehicle now exceed $2 billion -- and there's still no clear timeline for its next flight. SpaceNews reports: In the company's 10-K annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Feb. 3, Boeing said it took $523 million in charges on Starliner in 2024. The company blamed the losses on "schedule delays and higher testing and certification costs as well as higher costs for post certification missions." The company had reported a $125 million charge in the second quarter and a $250 million charge in the third quarter. The company warned Jan. 23 it would take an additional loss in the fourth quarter but did not disclose a figure when it released its financial results five days later. The annual loss implies a $148 million loss in the fourth quarter. The $523 million in charges is the most Boeing has recorded in a single year on Starliner, exceeding $489 million it reported in 2019. The company's cumulative charges on Starliner are now just over $2 billion. "Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods," the company stated in the 10-K filing.

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