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The wrangle recently rose to a crescendo over arguments about Google’s LaMDA system. Developer Blake Lemoine sparked the controversy. Lemoine, who worked for Google’s Responsible AI team, had been testing whether the large-language model (LLM) used harmful speech. The 41-year-old told The Washington Post that his conversations with the AI convinced him that it had a sentient mind. “I know a person when I talk to it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether they have a brain made of meat in their head....

The Windows maker said the attacks originated from countries like Iran, North Korea, and Russia. “This data demonstrates the significant extent to which nation-states continue to rely on cyberattacks as a tool to gain intelligence, influence geopolitics or achieve other objectives,” Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security & trust at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. About 84 percent of these attacks were aimed at its enterprise customers, and the remaining 16 percent — about 1,600 — targeted consumer personal email accounts....

Almost a year into the upheaval of COVID-19, the reverberations are still being felt. Jobs are upended, careers are in doubt, and millions are looking at other options for what to do next professionally. While charting a new life course can seem demoralizing at times, take heart — the tech industry remains eager for skilled new talent and they’re waiting with open arms. When half of LinkedIn’s top 15 job categories on the rise for 2021 are dominated by tech, you might want to take the hint....

Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory made the discovery while developing neural networks that learn in a similar way as a human brain. They found that the artificial brains became unstable after continuous periods of unsupervised dictionary training. This technique involves classifying objects without comparing them to existing examples, which I’d find pretty exhausting too. They tried to overcome the problem by exposing the networks to noise signals that created an artificial version of sleep....

And this all happened in the past week. With cybercrime an ever-expanding global threat, the need for ethical hackers — men and women who spot network weaknesses and help stop illegal incursions — has never been greater. You can join the frontlines in this critical fight with the training in The Ultimate Ethical Hacking A to Z Certification Bundle ($39, over 90 percent off) from TNW Deals. Over eight classes featuring over 100 hours of instruction, this ethical hacking bootcamp examines both the theories and tools a working hacker uses to be an accomplished pen tester....

In its first update since August 20, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) — which is leading the investigation into the incident — said more than half of the affected entities have resumed usual operations. “All the impacted entities had transitioned from assessment and response to remediation and recovery with business-critical services restored by August 23,” the agency noted. The coordinated ransomware attack hit 22 agencies on August 16, with their IT systems locked out by Sodinokibi (REvil) ransomware after hackers breached the software of a third-party service provider used to remotely manage their infrastructure....

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has shown, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in human history. The last time that atmospheric CO2 concentrations reached today’s level – about 412 parts per million – was 3 million years ago, during the Pliocene Epoch. As geoscientists who study the evolution of Earth’s climate and how it creates conditions for life, we see evolving conditions in the Arctic as an indicator of how climate change could transform the planet....

Once upon a time, I was hired by a company and given the title ‘general manager’ of a business unit. I was 30, had started two companies before, but had never felt like a manager or knew what was expected from a manager. So what did I do? I panicked. I started looking around me to see what the other managers were doing. I noticed they carried leather-bound notebooks and wore suits… so I bought a suit and a notebook....

I’m not lazy. I submit grants, have them rejected, resubmit them, wait for a review, resubmit them somewhere else, sometimes in a loop of doom. When I am lucky enough to get trials funded, I then spend months submitting to ethics boards. I wait for regulators, deal with personnel changes at the drugs company and a “change of focus” away from my trials, and eventually, if I am very lucky, I spend time setting up trials: finding sites, training sites, panicking because recruitment is poor, finding more sites....

In a first for the country, the armed forces entered an esports tournament, where they competed in CS:GO, local outlet NOS reports. The name of their team? KM Esports. Of course, the ministry isn’t playing games just for fun. According to government officials, such tournaments are the perfect place to scour for talent. “Look at drone technology. The drone pilot of the future is likely somehow involved in esports,” Royal Navy commander Peter van den Berg told Omroep West....

Over 100,000 new electrically powered passenger vehicles were registered across the 18-country market-region which includes nations like Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany. Speaking of which, even though Norway is seen as Europe’s EV utopia, it was bested by the Netherlands, where BEVs made up a greater proportion of all new car registrations. [Read: Meet the 4 scale-ups using data to save the planet] In the low country, 68.9% of new passenger car registrations were battery powered electric vehicles....

The way drones have become an everyday part of life is fascinating enough, but as the proliferation continues, their creep is spreading into places you likely never expected. Sony is working on a patent for technology that would use a network of drones to throw a noise cancellation net over a space, particularly in a busy open area like a public park or outdoor shopping area. Meanwhile, the Navy is developing a drone that would limit bird nests and hatching eggs around airfields to prevent potential birdstrike disasters....

Lupe, a company founded by a pair of ex-Dyson researchers, thinks it can make a better cordless vacuum cleaner. The Lupe (pronounced ‘loop’) Pure Cordless, going for $366 on an already-funded Kickstarter, differs from your typical cordless vacuum in a few key areas – and I had the chance to check it out. First, it’s one of relatively few cordless upright vacuums. Unlike handheld vacuums, you needn’t perform a careful balancing act trying to lean your vacuum against a wall; simply place it wherever you want and stay put....

According to a report from Dutch news organization RTL, if you live in the Netherlands and buy a new electric car after July 1 this year, you could receive €4,000 ($4,425) towards its cost from the government. If you buy a used, second-hand EV, you could be eligible for €2,000 ($2,211). [Read: Musk says Tesla is closing in on the 400-mile range mark] The €4,000 subsidy is only valid on cars up to €45,000 ($49,744), though....

Highlights of the week… In the same week that Twitter turned 4 years old, they announced their new @anywhere platform. This week also saw the release of new juicy legal documents in the never ending legal battle between Google and Viacom and it was also the week we got a lot more details about the Windows 7 Phone and it’s marketplace. Twitter Grows Up, Launches @anywhere Sunday March 21st was Twitter’s big 4th birthday (co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet)....

Hola quarantine buddies, In dark, uncertain times I’m often comforted by the words of wise people. No, I’m not talking about scholars and philosophers. I take my solace from my Hollywood heroes. Brandon Lee, as The Crow, famously once said “It can’t rain all the time,” a quote that tends to bubble to my brain when things seem grim. Here’s another, from Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight: “The night is always darkest before the dawn....

There’s just been one thing that’s prevented OnePlus from achieving the kind of mindshare that Samsung, Google, Huawei, and Apple have: the camera. The company made major improvements every year but always seemed to be a step behind the competition, despite using some of the best hardware available. The OnePlus 8T got really close to the top, but I still ended up preferring photos from my Pixel 5, despite the latter’s far inferior hardware....

That’s why I wish I could say I like them. I’ve had a few days to play with the OnePlus Buds prior to launch and they feature an attractive design, good battery life, and surprisingly solid sound. I’m in love with the snazzy ‘Nord‘ blue color — although it’ll only be available in India and Europe — and the price alone almost makes them an easy recommendation. But for the life of me, I just cannot get them to stay in my ears....

And worry not: there’ll be zero spoilers in this review. First and foremost, you’re not getting an all-new gameplay experience or an extension of the main campaign here (though it does increase the level cap by three). Nor is this a side tale set in a different time where you get to play with exotic team-mates. Peril on Gorgon is more like a really solid module for the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game than it is a typical video game DLC....

Last week, 9to5Google reported that the foldable Pixel may not be using the same giant camera sensor in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, instead opting for what appears to be the same old, small sensor in the budget Pixel 5a… as well as the Pixel 5, 4a 5G, Pixel 4 and Pixel 3. Google has sure gotten a lot of mileage out of that Sony IMX363 sensor. I’ve been thinking about this leak a lot....