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Showing posts from July, 2021

Founder of EV startup Nikola charged with misleading investors

A federal grand jury charged Trevor Milton, founder and former chairman of EV startup Nikola, with three counts of criminal fraud, Bloomberg reports.  He’s accused of lying about “nearly all aspects of the business” to increase stock sales of the electric vehicle startup, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. Specifically, prosecutors charged him with two counts of securities fraud, including making false statements about the electric truck company, and wire fraud. In a separate complaint filed the same day, the Securities and Exchange Commission commented the following:  Milton sold a version of Nikola not as it was — an early-stage company with… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3j3FNbf Read full article: The Next Web

Google’s ‘time crystals’ could be the greatest scientific achievement of our lifetimes

Eureka! A research team featuring dozens of scientists working in partnership with Google‘s quantum computing labs may have created the world’s first time crystal inside a quantum computer. This is the kind of news that makes me want to jump up and do a happy dance. These scientists may have produced an entirely new phase of matter. I’m going to do my best to explain what that means and why I personally believe this is the most important scientific breakthrough in our lifetimes. However, for the sake of clarity, there’s two points I need to make first: Time crystals are a… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Google https://ift.tt/3ygUGgz Read full article: The Next Web

This new open-source firefighter safety project will save lives — and you can help

AI platform Prometeo, the team that won the 2019 Call for Code challenge, launched its open-source Pyrrha solution in partnership with IBM, Samsung, and The Linux Foundation. This is going to save lives. Up front: Pyrrha is an open-source solution developed by a team comprised of a firefighter, a nurse, and a group of developers. It gives commanders in the field the ability to monitor personnel safety at a glance. This starts by equipping firefighters with a wearable device that detects toxins. Credit: Prometeo / IBM Per a post on the IBM developer blog: The values from the device are… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3rLakOX Read full article: The Next Web

The Windows 11 beta is finally out — here’s how to install it

Windows 11 Insiders — what Microsoft calls its beta testers — have been able to try out the company’s latest and greatest OS practically since it was announced (actually, it leaked a little before). But the builds so far have been part of the Dev channel, where Microsoft releases its earliest and buggiest builds for its most die-hard users and developers. I couldn’t reasonably recommend anyone install these builds unless they already knew what they were doing. Today the company finally released its first build into the proper ‘beta’ channel, where builds are typically much more stable and generally stable… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Windows https://ift.tt/3zV2tC6 Read full article: The Next Web

Twitter is giving online shopping another go

Twitter is stepping back into the e-commerce business. The company is testing an online shopping feature that businesses can use to sell their products through an in-app browser. Up front: Twitter’s “Shop Module” lets companies showcase their products at the top of their profiles. Visitors who have the Shop Module enabled can then tap on items they’re interested in. This will open an in-app browser, where the customer can make a purchase without leaving Twitter. The pilot will begin with a “handful of brands” in the US. In a blog post, Twitter said people in the US who use the platform… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Twitter https://ift.tt/3l1rxSW Read full article: The Next Web

Immortality or spaghetti? Why parking your spaceship inside a black hole is a huge gamble

Has this ever happened to you? You’re cavorting through deep space at near the speed of light without a care of the world when, suddenly, you realize you forgot to replace the toner cartridge in your office printer back on Earth before you left. Rather than face your disappointed co-workers after such an unforgivable oversight, you decide it would be best if you just stopped time and waited for them all to die before you return to work. So, like any space traveler hip to the works of Albert Einstein, you decide to park your spaceship at the perfect edge… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3BQRvyt Read full article: The Next Web

Review: The MaxPro is a full gym that fits in a backpack — with one important quirk

I like working out, but I don’t like the gym. Even before the pandemic made the idea of being stuck in a closed room with sweaty strangers particularly egregious, being stuck in a closed room with sweaty strangers was still not my jam. In an ideal world, I’d be happy with nothing more than a power rack, a bench, a barbell, and some plates. That’s all I really need. But in a not-ideal small NYC apartment, finding a compact gym system that could actually provide a decent load and that didn’t need to be mounted on a wall has long… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3zCOtvC Read full article: The Next Web

Here’s why thousands of Activision-Blizzard employees are planning to strike

The strike is on. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier today reported that Activision-Blizzard employees are planning a work stoppage for Wednesday, 28 July, in protest of the company’s response to a recent lawsuit. On 22 July, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed suit against the Santa Monica-based company. The department investigated the company and determined it fostered a “frat boy” culture, paid women less, hired women less, and worked to keep its leadership exclusively white and male. Per the affidavit: Defendants have also fostered a pervasive “frat boy” workplace culture continues to thrive. In the office, women are subjected… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3iZ0Qf7 Read full article: The Next Web

Big tech tries to derail EU AI policy with ‘warnings’ from US think tank

EU policymakers recently proposed a sweeping set of regulations called the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). If made law, the AIA would offer European citizens the strictest, most comprehensive protections against predatory AI systems on the planet. And big tech is terrified. Up front: The Center for Data Innovation published a report on Sunday titled “How Much Will the AIA Cost Europe?” According to the organization’s research: The AIA will cost the European economy €31 billion over the next five years and reduce AI investments by almost 20 percent. A European SME that deploys a high-risk AI system will incur compliance… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3iSKLHC Read full article: The Next Web

Scientists detect water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s largest moon

Evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede has been discovered for the first time. Astronomers used data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to detect vapor rising from Ganymede. The findings could offer new insights about the moon’s atmosphere. Up front: Ganymede is the largest satellite in our solar system and three-quarters the size of Mars. Scientists have speculated that the vast oceans below its thick icy crust could host aquatic life.  The researchers found evidence of water vapor in the moon’s atmosphere by reexamining Hubble data from the last two decades. The team analyzed ultraviolet observations of Ganymede collected by… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3iYeZJv Read full article: The Next Web

Lying, corrupt, anti-American cops are running amok with AI

Hundreds of thousands of law enforcement agents in the US have the authority to use blackbox AI to conduct unethical surveillance, generate evidence, and circumvent our Fourth Amendment protections. And there’s little reason to believe anyone’s going to do anything about it. The problem is that blackbox AI systems are a goldmine for startups, big tech, and politicians. And, since the general public is ignorant about what they do or how they’re being used, law enforcement agencies have carte blanche do whatever they want. Let’s start with the individual officers. Any cop, regardless of affiliation or status, has access to dozens… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3ficn8j Read full article: The Next Web

Watch a basketball robot show NBA stars how to shot

As the US men’s basketball team limped to a first Olympics loss since 2004, a robot gave them a lesson in elite-level shooting. The six-foot-ten machine rolled onto the court during half-time of the US‘ defeat to France and started swishing jump shots like a red-hot Steph Curry. Known as CUE, the droid was developed by Toyota engineers as a demonstration of machine learning. The bot uses inbuilt sensors and 3D mapping to locate the basket. Algorithms then calculate the optimum trajectory for the balls. Finally, motors in CUE’s arms and legs generate the power and accuracy required to find the… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/376QELG Read full article: The Next Web

This AI can spot sunken ships from the damn sky

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea In collaboration with the United States Navy’s Underwater Archaeology Branch, I taught a computer how to recognize shipwrecks on the ocean floor from scans taken by aircraft and ships on the surface. The computer model we created is 92% accurate in finding known shipwrecks. The project focused on the coasts of the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico. It is now ready to be used to find unknown or unmapped shipwrecks. The first step in creating the shipwreck model was to teach the computer what a shipwreck… This story continues at The Next Web https://ift.tt/3BxZzUJ Read full article: The Next Web

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