Guillermo Proupín - Softonic English

The leaders in artificial intelligence are meeting behind closed doors in the Senate

It was to be expected that as such an important and powerful tool as artificial intelligence continued to develop, the world would increasingly view it with greater skepticism. We could see something like this coming when The New York Times prohibited the use of its content for training any kind of artificial intelligence, although this is not comparable to one of the seats of U.S. sovereignty: the Senate.

A potential danger to society

Without falling into alarmism, artificial intelligence, like any powerful tool, has a multitude of uses that can pose threats to ordinary people. This includes AI that can imitate voices or create hyper-realistic deepfakes. As a result, leaders of major tech companies like Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Sam Altman (OpenAI), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), and many others held a private forum with Senate representatives at the AI Insight Forum, closed to the general public. All we know about this meeting comes from subsequent statements.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of society as a whole working to minimize the risks of this technology, which also represents an opportunity to create a much better future for everyone. He also called for not underestimating the potential of these tools or their impact, as the industry is evolving rapidly.

Elon Musk, on the other hand, stressed the importance of having a federal control agency for artificial intelligence matters. There seems to be consensus among all tech leaders on the importance of regulating this technology to establish rules that allow for its ethical use and evolution.

However, some voices have categorized this closed-door meeting as an exclusive and opaque forum, harshly criticizing the lack of transparency among AI giants. They argue that this situation creates an opportunity for economic power to influence potential regulators. This doesn’t have to be the case, as long as there is an open forum in the future that allows all citizens access in one way or another.

Cyberpunk 2077 is preparing for a massive event very soon

2023 is indeed shaping up to be an incredible year for the video game industry. Amid an unprecedented rollout of powerful games that harken back to the medium’s origins like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Starfield, CD Projekt Red is returning to Cyberpunk 2077 after three years of applying intensive improvements to address every minor weakness they have identified. While it’s true that the game didn’t launch in the best condition, leading to widespread refunds and significant damage to the developer’s reputation, they have been working diligently to fulfill all the promises the company had made to its customers.

A highly anticipated expansion

CD Projekt is aware of the anticipation surrounding its title, especially the fact that this DLC is a way to regain the trust of thousands of users who fell in love with The Witcher 3. Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty is not just a content expansion for a game; it’s a significant opportunity. With this philosophy in mind, they have joined Nintendo and Sony, who are presenting their Nintendo Direct and State of Play events on September 14, coinciding with the Cyberpunk 2077 showcase. This timing aligns well with the release of Phantom Liberty on September 26 and takes advantage of the momentum generated by Nintendo, as it will take place at 5:00 PM, just after Nintendo’s event.

During this showcase, they will reveal details about the upcoming DLC, including a discussion of gameplay and a masterclass about Reed, one of the expansion’s main characters, presented by Idris Elba himself, who portrays the character. In addition to this, they will talk about the new abilities the game includes and have promised a couple of surprises that should not disappoint anyone.

The Cyberpunk 2077 showcase begins on Thursday, September 14, at 5:00 PM and can be watched live on both YouTube and Twitch.

Bad news for Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’ NFTs

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are facing more troubles. If it wasn’t enough with the public backlash they’re receiving for supporting a convicted criminal, now the NFTs based on the series Stoner Cats have been taken down by the SEC after detecting certain unregistered securities. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has identified certain pyramid scheme-like behaviors that could be a problem for potential buyers.

An extremely serious issue

Stoner Cats is an adult animated series featuring cats that become self-aware after consuming their owner’s medicinal marijuana. It’s interesting to imagine Ashton Kutcher involved in a project like this. The series also boasts guest stars like Jane Fonda, Chris Rock, and Seth McFarlane, among others. To access the series, one had to purchase one of the 10,000 NFTs associated with it, initially priced at $800, granting access to its six episodes.

So far, it might seem like a relatively expensive way to access a series. However, the sale of these NFTs entitles the original owner to a 2.5% royalty on the resale price, meaning the couple would continue to profit with each subsequent sale if the original buyers attempted to recover their money by reselling the NFTs. But the issue escalated further as Stoner Cats’ social media actively encouraged speculation and constant trading of these NFTs, suggesting that the more successful the show became, the more valuable these tokens would be. They even offered questionable advice, including recommending buying more and more NFTs. This fueled a market that consistently generated profits while putting more and more people at financial risk.

However, the SEC has made it clear that the value of an NFT is not determined by its associated products. Instead, it’s the economic reality of the offering, not the underlying objects, that defines it as an investment contract. Currently, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher face a $1 million fine and the obligation to refund anyone who has been harmed by these actions, but these might not be the only consequences they face.

Facebook News leaves Europe

Mark Zuckerberg’s company recently announced its intention to slow down its efforts regarding Facebook News in Europe, or at least in parts of it. Starting in December, the social media giant will begin phasing out this service in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Facebook News, introduced in 2019, has its own tab on the social network’s website and app. While it was planning to expand to Latin America, starting with Brazil, it seems that due to its limited success in European test runs, it won’t be reaching this region after all.

For now, Facebook supports local and international news that may be of interest to each market. In its original function, articles were selected through an algorithm, although it had a section of articles chosen by humans. However, a year ago, Meta made all posts be chosen algorithmically.

Chronicle of a Foretold Death

Facebook News was doomed almost from the moment it was born. Without the necessary support from Meta, which focused on its promising Metaverse and later on the Llama 2 artificial intelligence, it couldn’t gather the momentum needed to compete against other news aggregators like Google’s Discover. This might seem curious, considering that a significant part of Facebook’s existence has been about sharing news, but the company saw greater profitability in other markets.

Moreover, Facebook News found itself in a delicate position within Meta, as legislative initiatives emerged against major tech companies becoming news distributors, led by Australia and closely followed by Canada, though with varying results.

Even with the closure of Facebook News, the media outlets that used to publish their news there can continue to do so through their own pages, where they can post stories and links to their news. However, Meta hasn’t offered any solutions to help these media outlets overcome this setback. At least not for now.

Auto Dark Mode receives a massive update

One of the reasons why Microsoft’s operating system has remained a leader in the face of any competition is based on two pillars: the first is the compatibility of almost any program with Windows, while the other is the continuous improvement of the system that the company is dedicated to maintaining. Thanks to their attention to detail, Microsoft has gradually entered almost every home in the world, making it the main provider of a mass product. This characteristic has led the operating system to focus on ease of use and the user experience to offer the most enjoyable navigation possible.

Highly anticipated updates

Shortly before launching Windows 12, Microsoft has been focusing on artificial intelligence, and in addition to adding AI-based features to Microsoft Paint, they intend to incorporate them into the operating system itself. However, the automatic activation and deactivation of dark mode do not require anything as refined, and yet it has not been added. However, it is present in the new version of Auto Dark Mode, an application that manages the operating system’s dark mode.

In addition to this, the new version includes quite a few updates and performance improvements. Some of them include support for modifying your cursor’s shape or controlling accent colors in night mode. Among the improvements are enhanced scaling when putting the application in full screen, the ability for Auto Dark Mode to self-repair when it detects a corrupt file in its operation, accurate time zone updates, and the ability to choose how the desktop background is filled.

Errors have also been corrected: the desktop background selector will now correctly alert when a monitor is disconnected, settings are saved to postpone once the program is closed, and certain incompatibilities arising from multiple monitors connected through the same switch have been resolved.

These are not the only changes, but they are the most relevant ones that will greatly enhance your user experience.

Microsoft is enhancing the administrative options for Bing Chat Enterprise

It was expected that with the new era of technological change led by artificial intelligence, most news would be positive, but it’s also normal to occasionally see some that are not as positive. Microsoft is at the forefront of this milestone in the evolution of machines, aiming to imbue Microsoft Paint with generative artificial intelligence and also adding AI to the Skype application. The company has also sought to incorporate these learning models into Bing Chat, a chatbot that, for many users, was lacking in certain aspects.

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Bing Chat Enterprise at the cutting edge

While Microsoft claimed that any administrator of Bing Chat Enterprise had the necessary access to add and remove new users, many administrators of this application suggested that this wasn’t really the case. They argued that they should have more control in this process, especially when offering the use of the chatbot in lower protection rings, so they could have more usage and even customization permissions.

They had some valid points, as Microsoft has acknowledged the need for this and recently announced on their blog that through the Bing Chat Enterprise planner, organizations can select a group of users. Once Bing Chat is open normally (after signing in with a Microsoft Enter ID), it will have access to the Enterprise version at the protection level set by the administrator.

Microsoft has also stated that revoking these permissions from any user will revert their status to a regular consumer of Bing Chat. Additionally, they mentioned plans to incorporate tools and materials in the future designed to help employees make the most of Bing Chat Enterprise.

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These errors are quite common because Bing Chat Enterprise is still a preliminary application accessible through Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium. However, it is expected that the final version will be integrated into the Microsoft 365 suite in September.

Official mod support for Starfield won’t be available until 2024

Starfield is the game of the moment, much like Skyrim was 12 years ago. With the release of this epic space adventure, Bethesda aimed to bring Xbox back into the console competition, which Phil Spencer acknowledged losing during the previous generation. It was a risky move, and amid a particularly tense climate, the launch of Microsoft’s flagship title was not without controversy. There were controversial reviews, discussions about the Starfield game engine, and concerns about its optimization on PC, which led Todd Howard to offer a provocative piece of advice on the matter. Now, controversy continues because the game still lacks official mod support.

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A highly anticipated tool for players

One of the promises Bethesda made in anticipation of the release of Starfield was that there would be mod support, both on PC and Xbox Series. In fact, the demand for the game was so strong that many modders paid for early access to the game, and the first modifications to the software arrived before the official launch (some of them were quite specific, like the Hello Kitty weapon skins). Besides, it’s shaping up to be one of the most successful releases of the year in terms of both digital and physical sales, which has left modders distressed by this decision. But why was this decision made?

Bethesda has not clarified why they chose to wait for mod support, but it makes sense when carefully considered: until an early stage of bug fixing is completed to prevent the game from breaking, mod support cannot be offered. Mods that substantially alter the game might cease to function. It may seem like a difficult reality to reconcile, but that’s how it is.

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However, for any player looking to enhance their adventure in a more epic, bizarre, or curious way through mods, there is the option to turn to various unofficial mods. These work perfectly with the current configuration of Starfield, and many modders are committed to keeping their software up to date.

Snapchat adds strike system against inappropriate content

Social networks have been on everyone’s lips for years now and are used by a large segment of the population. From the oldest people to practically small children use some kind of social network, be it Facebook or TikTok (even Youtube could be included in this way). This technology has brought many people endless joys, from finding out the news of distant relatives to making groups of friends that could never happen otherwise because of geographical limits, but it also involves risks: from people who use these systems for perverse or criminal purposes to users who share publications of a sensitive, violent or pornographic nature.

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Snapchat is fed up

The social network does not want to sustain this kind of behavior either actively or passively, so it has announced a series of new measures that seek to protect children and adolescents, including ensuring that they are safe from people they do not know in real life and preventing them from being exposed to sensitive content of any kind. To this end, a system of strikes supported by detection technologies has been established to prosecute users who engage in this type of behavior.

This system combines automatic detection with human action: thus, the process of strikes starts from the fact that any post made on the social network, whether in Stories or Spotlight, is subject to being reported by any user who accesses it. Snapchat moderators will thus personally review any reported content that has been flagged by the system. It is curious that they have not opted to reinforce these functions with artificial intelligence, since practically all technology companies are betting on them and some Zoom Companion functions could make this task lighter.

On the other hand, in order to prevent strangers from accessing the most vulnerable people, Snapchat will warn any user if a person with whom they do not have contacts in common tries to add them; likewise, the number of contacts in common is increased before a person’s contact is recommended. In parallel to this, Snapchat has committed to continue improving its parents-snapchat.com website which includes relevant information regarding safety on the network.

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Even so, the company insists that the only viable way to stay away from threats in the long term is a responsible use of the network, so education is essential in this regard.

Cisco detects serious vulnerabilities in OAS

Don’t worry if you don’t know what OAS is. Or you do. OAS (Open Automation Software) is a platform widely used in industrial operations and large-scale business environments, so it’s not necessarily going to affect you directly. Unless you’re Elon Musk, of course. With cross-platform access and integration capabilities, a vulnerability in this system can be catastrophic on several levels, and that is exactly what Cisco has detected.

A few days ago, researchers from Talos (a cybersecurity company that is a subsidiary of Cisco) disclosed a total of eight vulnerabilities that were found in the OAS engine management system, which would allow users to save configurations to disk and install them on other devices. Three of these vulnerabilities have been rated as highly severe.

A great danger for the platform

The most important vulnerabilities found are CVE-2023-31242 and CVE-2023-34998, two authentication flaws that can be exploited relatively easily through pre-designed requests specifically for that purpose. Thus, an attacker could send a request to check if unauthenticated access is possible and thus create new users, change configurations, and potentially gain access to the entire system.

Another major vulnerability would allow an attacker to get hold of administrator credentials and use them for his own purposes. The attacker could thus gain direct access to profile creation and, likewise, access to the entire system.

Cisco has already warned that there is another vulnerability that also allows the system to be taken over, although this time through a validation bug in the user creation functionality.

Fortunately all these vulnerabilities were found by Cisco and not by an attacker, so the security flaws they have caused are being quickly fixed and by version 19,000,000 will have been fully corrected.

If you call it a tweet you are breaking Twitter rules

While no one understands the marketing twist in which Elon Musk has wrapped the social network that has cost him more than $4.4 billion, the truth is that even if we do not like Twitter, it is now called X. At one point he wanted Twitter users to share more personal data (because information is power), but now he is in a battle that, although it seems much more puerile, is infinitely more complicated to win: he wants us to forget that X is still Twitter. And if it doesn’t succeed with its new branding, it will impose it by decree.

Elon Musk maintains that Twitter is not Twitter

With few exceptions, everyone calls X Twitter. Elon Musk is aware of this, but he doesn’t like it. Thus, the new X terms remarks twice that “retweet” is now “repost,” trying to put the final nail in the word’s coffin.

In reality, no one will question either Twitter or X if you continue to call it a “retweet”, but you will be using a term that no longer exists. However there are a few changes within the new terms and conditions that are important, such as the fact that as of September 29 being a user of X means that to the extent permitted by law, you waive the right to participate as a plaintiff or member of any purported class action lawsuit or representative action proceeding against the brand. Without knowing to what extent this is legal or not, or to what extent Spanish law allows this I would not want to say anything about it, but it is in the new terms and seems a somewhat questionable condition.

Data scraping without X’s prior consent has also been banned, although that makes more sense. After all, information is power. That is why it has also included that from the moment these changes are implemented, the social network will collect biometric and employment data of its users. What they will use them for is unknown, but Elon Musk has a plan.