Kazuo Ishiguro, whose new novel Klara and the Sun is about artificial intelligence, has said he is worried about a time when an AI programme is able to write fiction “that can make me cry, that can show human emotions … that can have the capacity for empathy”. The first Continue Reading
computing
Bill Gates: ‘Carbon neutrality in a decade is a fairytale. Why peddle fantasies?’ | Technology
Bill Gates appears via video conference – Microsoft Teams, not Zoom, obviously – from his office in Seattle, a large space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Washington. It’s a gloomy day outside and Gates is, somewhat eccentrically, positioned a long way from the camera, behind a large, kidney-shaped desk; his Continue Reading
Is big tech now just too big to stomach? | Business
The coronavirus pandemic has wrought economic disruption on a global scale, but one sector has marched on throughout the chaos: big tech. Further evidence of the industry’s relentless progress has come in recent weeks with the news that Apple and Amazon both raked in sales of $100bn (£72bn) over the Continue Reading
Spam’s new frontier? Now even spinach can send emails | Food
Name: Spinach. Age: About 2,000 years old, originating, it is said, in Persia. AKA: Spinacia oleracea. Appearance: Leafy, green, connected. Connected how? Wirelessly. Wirelessly connected to what, though? To email. I see. How can this be happening? Through a combination of nanotechnology, infrared detectors and the mobile network, if that Continue Reading
A New Linux Malware Targeting High-Performance Computing Clusters – Tempemail
High-performance computing clusters belonging to university networks as well as servers associated with government agencies, endpoint security vendors, and internet service providers have been targeted by a newly discovered backdoor that gives attackers the ability to execute arbitrary commands on the systems remotely. Cybersecurity firm ESET named the malware “Kobalos” Continue Reading
5 Cloud Computing Trends for 2021 – Tempemail
Sourced from ZDNet. When it comes to the world of work, 2020 will be remembered as a year that accelerated technological change. Forced out of their comfort zones, companies either adopted or more fully embraced technologies that they might have given short shrift to previously. Cloud computing is no exception. Continue Reading
Galaxy Buds Pro review: Samsung’s AirPods Pro-beating earbuds | Technology
Samsung’s latest Galaxy Buds Pro earbuds add noise-cancelling, virtual surround and improved sound, making them a challenger to Apple’s AirPods Pro. At £219, they are the new top-of-the-range earbuds from Samsung, sitting above the £179 Galaxy Buds Live and £159 Galaxy Buds+. The Buds Pro have silicone ear tips and Continue Reading
Obsolete software from 1990s features in Brexit deal text | Politics
The EU-UK Brexit deal refers to defunct decades-old computer software such as Netscape Communicator as “modern”, raising suspicions that some of the text may have been copied and pasted in. Online commenters gleefully shared the observation that page 921 of the painfully birthed trade agreement refers to Netscape Communicator – Continue Reading
How artificial intelligence helped me overcome my dyslexia | Life and style
I’m 10 years old. Minutes into a maths lesson and my palms have already begun to sweat. I’ve positioned myself in the back row, but the teacher walks up and down the aisles of the classroom, peering over our shoulders. I don’t understand the rules. The teacher’s voice becomes a Continue Reading
Part human, part machine: is Apple turning us all into cyborgs? | Technology
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Apple engineers embarked on a rare collaboration with Google. The goal was to build a system that could track individual interactions across an entire population, in an effort to get a head start on isolating potentially infectious carriers of a disease that, as Continue Reading