Researchers discover enormous vulnerabilities in open supply AI fashions, a journey firm sees a surge in recognition of the filter than lets you select which plane to keep away from, scientists set the doomsday clock at 90 seconds to midnight naming AI as one of many causes, a professor demonstrates how straightforward it is perhaps to hack a voting machine and we have fun the 40th birthday of the Macintosh.
All this and extra on this nostalgia version of Hashtag Trending. I’m your host Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada and TechNewsDay within the US.
A current examine by Defend AI researchers uncovered a startling actuality. Since August, they discovered 3,354 fashions that contained malicious code on Hugging Face, a preferred AI mannequin repository.
Much more regarding, it’s reported that Hugging Face’s safety scans did not flag a couple of third of those as unsafe.
In response to this sort of risk, the corporate Defend AI has launched a scanning device designed to safeguard firms in opposition to the rising risk of malware in open supply AI fashions.
Open supply AI fashions are rising in recognition if just for the straightforward purpose that few firms can afford the sources to develop and prepare an AI mannequin from scratch.
Platforms like Hugging Face are additionally rising in recognition as a solution to share these fashions. However these repositories could lack complete safety measures, leaving the shared fashions susceptible to hacker manipulation.
Based in 2022, Defend AI’s new device scans AI fashions for hidden malware earlier than these fashions discover their approach into an organization’s IT programs.
Defend AI plans to make use of Huntr, an AI-focused bug bounty program it acquired, to assist determine potential vulnerabilities.
Ian Swanson, CEO and co-founder of Defend AI, places it plainly: “Firms are freely and blindly downloading these fashions, however they’ll include issues that may execute some fairly dangerous features to steal information or take over programs.”
Sources embrace: Axios
Kayak, the web journey agent, has seen an enormous improve in using a filter that permits travellers to filter by sort of plane. After an alarming incident involving an Alaska Airways flight, the place a chunk of the fuselage fell off,
Initially launched in 2019, Kayak’s plane filter was hardly ever used. Nonetheless, following the current Alaska Airways incident, utilization of the filter spiked, resulting in a 15-fold improve. This prompted Kayak to make the filter extra outstanding and user-friendly on their platform.
The revamped filter now permits customers to tell apart between the 737 Max 8 and Max 9 fashions, notably vital because the Max 9 has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration.
A Kayak spokesperson emphasised the purpose of their filters: to empower vacationers with data for good choices and assured journey.
With this data being available, vacationers at the moment are actively avoiding sure plane fashions, a development usually reserved just for seasoned vacationers with particular preferences.
How a lot influence is that this having on carriers? United Airways, closely invested within the affected Boeing fashions, issued a revenue warning, indicating the numerous monetary and operational impacts of those security considerations on airways.
And as we’re going to air, the Guardian has posted one other story, which they attribute to the FAA, that claims “a nostril wheel fell off a Delta Air Traces Boeing 757 passenger jet and rolled away because the aircraft lined up for takeoff over the weekend from Atlanta’s worldwide airport.
One thing tells me that filter utilization will spike once more.
Sources embrace: The Guardian
In a current federal trial, a pc science professor from the College of Michigan, demonstrated the potential vulnerabilities of Georgia’s voting system.
We’re all acquainted with the conspiracy theories which have been floating round that declare that there was huge fraud within the U.S. election. None of those claims have ever been confirmed, the truth is, in audits and courtroom instances, they’ve been disproven.
However it doesn’t imply that the machines should not susceptible.
So within the courtroom, the professor, Alex Halderman, confirmed how simply a voting machine may very well be tampered with utilizing easy instruments like a pen, a pretend voter card, or a USB machine. His demonstration included altering the outcomes of a hypothetical referendum and flipping the winner in a theoretical election.
This trial, presided over by U.S. District Decide Amy Totenberg, is attempting to evaluate whether or not Georgia’s voting system is vulnerable to manipulation or programming errors. Halderman’s testimony highlighted the benefit of tampering with the machines, elevating considerations concerning the safety of the system.
Election officers, nevertheless, keep that Georgia’s elections have by no means been hacked and that safety measures in place successfully stop interference. They argue that the vulnerabilities demonstrated are speculative and never indicative of real-world dangers.
The trial additionally delves into the January 2021 breach in Espresso County, the place election software program was copied and distributed, elevating questions concerning the general safety of the voting system. The plaintiffs, together with Georgia voters and activists, are urging Decide Totenberg to ban using these touchscreens within the upcoming 2024 elections, advocating for hand-filled paper ballots as a substitute.
The case, which incorporates testimonies from either side, might be determined by Decide Totenberg, with the result probably impacting the way forward for voting programs in Georgia and maybe all through the U.S.
Sources embrace: AJC
The Doomsday Clock, a logo representing the chance of a man-made international disaster, stays set at 90 seconds to midnight, indicating a continued excessive danger of world peril.
This yr, synthetic intelligence (AI) has been highlighted as one of many main threats contributing to this dire prediction.
The Doomsday Clock was created by the scientists concerned within the Manhattan Challenge, the U.S. group that developed the primary atomic bomb as we noticed within the film Oppenheimer.
It was first unveiled on the duvet of a 1947 journal referred to as the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and was initially set at seven minutes to midnight. It has moved 25 occasions up to now 77 years, largely because of the potential of nuclear struggle. In recent times it has been set to 90 seconds to midnight however this time, not solely due to international conflicts the potential for atomic struggle.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, liable for the Clock emphasised the dangers posed by AI, together with misinformation, navy use, and its potential to exacerbate different threats.
The scientists had been cautious to level out AI’s twin nature. It poses vital dangers, but it surely additionally affords nice potential advantages if effectively managed.
Rachel Bronson, President of the Bulletin, harassed the pressing want for international motion as illustrated by the 90 seconds to midnight setting. Invoice Nye, who most of us bear in mind because the “science man” additionally participated within the announcement, possibly with the hope that the man who taught our children about science can educate us one other lesson – for the great of humanity.
Sources embrace: Tom’s Information
And yesterday was, I’m informed, the 40th birthday of Apple’s Macintosh pc. Amazingly, a few of us had been round when these superb units first made their approach into our lives.
The place we had been all typing right into a command line, the Macintosh had a graphical person interface and a mouse. All lets say was – wow!
Right here’s a quote from Steve Jobs in Apple’s press launch:
Macintosh simply suits on a desk, each when it comes to its model of operation and its bodily design. It takes up about the identical quantity of desk house as a chunk of paper. With Macintosh, the pc is an help to spontaneity and originality, not an impediment. It permits concepts and relationships to be seen in new methods. Macintosh enhances not simply productiveness, but in addition creativity.
Even again then, Jobs was promoting an thought – by no means a product.
They had been lovely units, however they by no means actually took off in enterprise. One purpose? The pricing for the unique Macintosh was far too excessive – about $2,500 USD, about $7,000 in at this time’s {dollars}. However it needed to price quite a bit. It had a whopping 8 MHZ processor, 128 kilobytes, sure, that’s kilobytes, not megabytes of RAM and 400 KB floppy drive for storage.
However the Macintosh wouldn’t go away. It discovered a distinct segment with graphic artists and people who wanted its capabilities.
It wasn’t til Jobs got here again for a second run at working Apple that he actually received to see his imaginative and prescient of “Suppose Totally different” working within the market.
Glad birthday outdated good friend.
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I’m your host Jim Love, thanks for listening and have a Thrilling Thursday.
