All posts tagged: 2023s

Survey: AI experts’ minds were blown by 2023’s AI development

Survey: AI experts’ minds were blown by 2023’s AI development

Published by skeptic

It’s not just your imagination. AI researchers themselves are having their minds blown by the sheer pace of AI development, too, a new survey has found. A wide-ranging survey of AI experts released this week backs up the perception that AI development really is accelerating at a dizzying pace — at least from the point of view of experts in the field. It also helps quantify the infamous divide in tech world sentiment between die-hard AI fans, and AI “doomers” who supposedly preach caution because they fear some sort of AI apocalypse scenario.  In spite of the divide, there seem to be slightly more die-hards, and — if you read between the lines — they seem to be perceived as winning. SEE ALSO: The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement The paper on the survey is a pre-publication release from AI Impacts, a San Francisco-based research firm that receives funding from billionaire and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s grant-making entity Open Philanthropy.  By averaging survey responses from 2,778 AI researchers who met …

Here we go again: 2023’s badly handled data breaches

Here we go again: 2023’s badly handled data breaches

Published by skeptic

Last year, we compiled a list of 2022’s most poorly handled data breaches looking back at the bad behavior of corporate giants when faced with hacks and breaches. That included everything from downplaying the real-world impact of spills of personal information and failing to answer basic questions. Turns out this year, many organizations continue to make the same mistakes. Here’s this year’s dossier on how not to respond to security incidents. Electoral Commission hid details of a huge hack for a year, yet still tight-lipped The Electoral Commission, the watchdog responsible for overseeing elections in the United Kingdom, confirmed in August that it had been targeted by “hostile actors” that accessed the personal details — including full names, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and any personal images sent to the Commission — on as many as 40 million U.K. voters. While it may sound like the Electoral Commission was upfront about the cyberattack and its impact, the incident occurred in August 2021 — some two years ago — when hackers first gained access to …

Saltburn: Amazon Prime Video adds 2023’s most divisive film one month after release

Saltburn: Amazon Prime Video adds 2023’s most divisive film one month after release

Published by skeptic

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free One of the year’s most divisive films has been added to a UK streaming service just one month after release. As of Friday (22 December), Prime Video subscribers will be able to watch the Golden Globe-nominated film Saltburn, which is the latest release from Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell. Saltburn is set on a luxury estate belonging to the aristocratic Felix Catton (Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi), who invites his fellow Oxford university student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) to stay with him for the summer. While there, Oliver grows intrigued by Felix’s way of life and, according to reviews, what happens next needs to be seen to be believed. While The Independent praised Saltburn upon release, it received mixed reviews elsewhere – and the audience reaction proved equally as divisive, with many questioning the film’s depiction of class via scenes designed to shock. However, it was agreed that Keoghan’s performance, as …

2023’s costliest climate disasters show poor lose out in ‘global postcode lottery’ | Climate crisis

2023’s costliest climate disasters show poor lose out in ‘global postcode lottery’ | Climate crisis

Published by skeptic

A list of the 20 costliest climate disasters of 2023 has revealed a “global postcode lottery stacked against the poor”, according to an analysis. The research by the charity Christian Aid found that devastating wildfires and floods are hitting those who can least afford to rebuild, and the countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis by burning far fewer fossil fuels than wealthy nations, which have faced fewer climate disasters. The cost ranges from more than $4,000 (£3,155) per person due to a wildfire in Hawaiito $9 (£7) per person due to flooding in Peru. The research examined 20 natural disasters exacerbated by climate breakdown that hit 14 countries over the past year. The highest per capita cost was the wildfires in Hawaii in August, which far outstrips the second costliest, which was Guam’s storms in May, at a cost of nearly $1,500 (£1,182) per person. The analysis published on Wednesday highlights that countries with worse infrastructure and flimsier homes face larger costs after a climate disaster as their inhabited areas are more …

Sex noises on Match of the Day to Brian Cox’s X-rated speech: it’s 2023’s wildest TV moments | Television

Sex noises on Match of the Day to Brian Cox’s X-rated speech: it’s 2023’s wildest TV moments | Television

Published by skeptic

It’s been a year of televisual oddities. Be it the most unfortunately-timed countdown by a BBC newsreader ever, a human centipede-style performance at Eurovision or the numerous bits of mangled pronunciation, there has been plenty to make you gawp at your TV in 2023. Here are our favourites. A middle finger drove the nation wild BBC presenter gives middle finger live on air – video Hero of the year? Look no further than Maryam Moshiri on BBC News, whose raised middle finger was accidentally shown in the opening moments of a bulletin, before continuing with “Live from London, this is BBC News”. After it was picked up by the internet, Moshiri apologised and said that the rude gesture was a behind-the-scenes joke. While the “defund the BBC” lot tried to turn this event into a stick to beat the broadcaster with, everyone else saw the funny side. The full countdown by Moshiri then leaked, which was somehow even better than the original. Memes superimposed her next to the London Eye counting down to New Year’s …

Ofcom Shares List Of 2023’s Most Complained-About TV Moments

Ofcom Shares List Of 2023’s Most Complained-About TV Moments

Published by Sam

Ofcom has unveiled its list of the most complained-about TV moments of 2023 – and we reckon you can probably already work out what came in at the top of the list. The TV watchdog revealed on Wednesday morning that it had received a total of 69,236 complaints in the last 12 months, a notable increase on 2022’s figure, which stood at 36,543. At the top of the list of complained-about moments was an incident on Dan Wootton’s GB News show back in September. The media regulator received a total of 8,867 complaints over remarks made by the anchor and guest Laurence Fox about journalist Ava Evans. Dan Wootton on Lorraine in 2015 S Meddle/ITV/Shutterstock Behind this incident, at 8,421 complaints, was ITV News’ coverage of King Charles’ Coronation over the summer. These complaints related to remarks made by Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh, who said during her commentary that she’d been “very struck” by the disparity between the “rich diversity of the Abbey” and what she described as a “terribly white” scene after the royal …

2023’s best, funniest and most WTF moments | Ents & Arts News

2023’s best, funniest and most WTF moments | Ents & Arts News

Published by skeptic

Remember when that composer at the coronation had to come out and say he wasn’t Meghan Markle in disguise? Well, 2023 was full of hilarious, jaw-dropping and laugh-out-loud moments just like that. We’ve rounded up some of our favourites. Harry’s virginity Prince Harry really did tell all in his tell-all memoir which was released in January. While there were several note-worthy revelations (the Nazi costume apparently not being all his fault, “Willy” calling Meghan “rude” and the brothers getting into fisticuffs – resulting in Harry falling on to the dog bowl), the one that gave rise to countless memes and re-enactments using a snippet from the audiobook was the prince describing how he lost his virginity in a field to an “older lady”. In case you missed it (unlikely), here’s that passage: “I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and held me back… one of my mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a busy pub. “No doubt someone had seen us.” Good evening Daddy Live TV is hard. …

Women-led firms are a bright spot in 2023’s fundraising slump

Women-led firms are a bright spot in 2023’s fundraising slump

Published by skeptic

Venture fundraising has been slowing down since the middle of last year. Larger firms are cutting their targets, and emerging managers are struggling to secure funds. But it isn’t all negative by any means. While some firms are struggling, others are seeing success — and a lot of the latter are funds run by women. Well, it seems that way at least. We can’t know for sure if women-led firms are actually doing better in 2023 than in past years — there isn’t fundraising data on exclusively women-led funds — but there have been multiple fundraising rounds worth paying attention to. Back in January, Monique Woodward closed a $17 million debut fund at Cake Ventures. Adverb Ventures, run by Slack product veteran April Underwood and Twitter alum Jess Verrilli, closed on $75 million in July. Supply Change Capital, run by Noramay Candena and Shayna Harris, raised $40 million last month, too. And that doesn’t cover all of it. Source link

Signal talks privacy, encryption, AI and more at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023’s Security Stage

Signal talks privacy, encryption, AI and more at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023’s Security Stage

Published by skeptic

In our tech-driven world, the right to privacy — once the cornerstone of democracy — is disappearing at an alarming rate. But not everyone is keen on having Big Tech companies and nation-states surveilling every digital communication. This may be one reason why Signal, the end-to-end encrypted messaging app, has been downloaded more than 100 million times to date. Signal Foundation, the app’s nonprofit developer, is a staunch defender of privacy and security. Indeed, it said it would leave the United Kingdom rather than weaken its encryption. The organization’s principles — based on retaining as little user data as possible — are a real rarity in security. This is why we’re thrilled that Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, will join us for a session called “Signal and the Future of Encrypted Messaging.” You’ll find it on the Security Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which takes place on September 19–21 in San Francisco. We can’t wait to talk with Whittaker about what it takes to run one of the world’s most ubiquitous security startups. …