Agregátor RSS

The Document Foundation oznámila vydání nové major verze 24.8 svobodného kancelářského balíku LibreOffice. Podrobný přehled nových vlastností i s náhledy v poznámkách k vydání (cs) a také na Youtube a PeerTube.

Vývojáři KDE oznámili vydání balíku aplikací KDE Gear 24.08. Přehled novinek i s náhledy a videi v oficiálním oznámení.

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it will begin testing its controversial “Recall” AI search and recall feature for Windows Insiders in October. Earlier, it was slated for launch in June.

“As previously shared on June 13, we have adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available for all Copilot+ PCs,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “With a commitment to delivering a trustworthy and secure Recall (preview) experience on Copilot+ PCs for customers, we’re sharing an update that Recall will be available to Windows Insiders starting in October.”

The Recall feature captures screenshots of on-screen activity, allowing users to search for information they saw or searched previously.

However, it immediately raised concerns among security researchers that automatically capturing images without explicit user consent violates user privacy and could make sensitive personal information more accessible to attackers.

In response to these concerns, Microsoft stated in June that the Recall feature would be disabled by default and pledged to implement additional security enhancements.

“We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security,” the software major said in June.

“For features such as Recall, ideally the data should be stored and processed completely ‘on device’ locally and data shouldn’t leave the laptop,” said Neil Shah, VP for research and partner at Counterpoint Research. “This will drive the real on-device, privacy-centric AI promise. If the model has to learn from user’s data and habits, it should also reside locally with the flexibility to encrypt the data and the model on-device.”

Microsoft has not specified a timeline for a broader release of Recall to all Windows PCs that meet the system requirements for Copilot+ PCs.

Copilot+ PCs are a new class of Windows devices from various manufacturers that can run AI workloads. Microsoft unveiled Recall running on these devices at an event in May.

The timing of the Recall feature’s wider release could be critical, particularly with the upcoming holiday season. Consumers may be more inclined to purchase new devices if Recall is made available across all compatible PCs by then.

Why is Recall a concern?

Windows Recall is a new feature that is designed to come with new Copilot+ PCs, which Microsoft announced in May. This AI-powered tool takes screenshots of your screen every five seconds allowing you to search through a log of your past activities for up to three months.

The screenshots are stored and processed on your device, secured with encryption. You have the option to exclude specific apps and websites from being recorded, and you can pause the Recall feature whenever needed.

The concerns arise from two aspects. First, it is “turned on” by default, as per the initial announcement, and can record and store user data without obtaining explicit consent. Second, it does not conceal or hide sensitive data including passwords or financial data, that might appear on your screen.

Device makers are keen to demonstrate that users can run AI models on their local PCs, bypassing the need for cloud-based services from companies like OpenAI. Apple has similarly equipped its latest MacBooks with the ability to run AI models locally.

“However, some generative AI-centric features for CoPilot will require cloud-based processing for tasks like information retrieval, search, or querying,” Shah said. “Ensuring that data remains secure—whether on the device, in transit, or in the cloud—will be a key challenge. This aspect will also be a critical focus and differentiator for companies like Microsoft compared to Apple in the PC space.”

Security has become an increasing priority for Microsoft, especially after a Department of Homeland Security report in April raised concerns about China’s breach of US government officials’ Microsoft-based email accounts.

As Microsoft moves forward with the testing and potential rollout of Recall, the company will need to balance innovation with user privacy and security concerns, especially as it positions itself in the competitive AI and PC markets.

Microsoft's recent patch, intended to strengthen Secure Boot defenses, has resulted in an unexpected setback for Linux-Windows dual-boot setups worldwide. Users and administrators encountering problems while trying to power on their Linux systems have received confusing error messages instead of the familiar boot sequence, leading them down a rabbit hole of frustration searching for solutions. Users try their hardest to use their systems again but fail miserably due to incompatibilities between them and Secure Boot's security protections.

Když před jedenácti lety přišel G-Sync, musela Nvidia vysvětlovat, k čemu vlastně proměnná snímková frekvence je. Dnes už máme FreeSync, HDMI VRR a další konkurenční řešení, která se popravdě v monitorech a televizorech rozšířila mnohem víc. Nvidia totiž vymyslela G-Sync až příliš složitě a pro ...

Needless to say, it backfired in a big way

University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) students may be relieved to hear that an emailed warning about a staff member infected with the Ebola virus was just a phishing exercise.…

What is Continuous Attack Surface Penetration Testing or CASPT? Continuous Penetration Testing or Continuous Attack Surface Penetration Testing (CASPT) is an advanced security practice that involves the continuous, automated, and ongoing penetration testing services of an organization's digital assets to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities. CASPT is designed for enterprises with an The Hacker Newshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Market research firm Gartner yesterday published its 2024 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, and the study revealed that generative AI (genAI) has passed the “peak of inflated expectations” and is now sliding down into the “trough of disillusionment.”

Along with genAI, AI-augmented software engineering is also heading down the slope, after passing its inflated expectations in markets, according to Gartner, whose Hype Cycle describes the hot ascent and eventual cooling off of technology adoption.

Gartner

AI-assisted code generation tools are increasingly prevalent in software engineering, and somewhat unexpectedly have become low-hanging fruit for most organizations experimenting with genAI. Adoption rates are skyrocketing. That’s because even if they only suggest a baseline of code for a new application, automation tools can eliminate hours that otherwise would have been devoted to manual code creation and updating.

Hitting the peak of inflated expectations is prompt engineering, according to Gartner. While most large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 are pre-filled with massive amounts of information, “prompt engineering,” a way of training the algorithm, allows genAI to be tailored for specific industry or even organizational use.

GenAI interest wanes as ROI becomes the focus

Excitement around foundation models, such as Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, Amazon Bedrock, and OpenAI GPT-4, is waning among enterprises as companies instead seek concrete returns on investment (ROI). These days, companies are more often than not deploying genAI only for use cases that drive ROI, according to Arun Chandrasekaran, a Gartner distinguished vice president analyst.

“Generative AI is sliding through the trough of disillusionment due to mismatch between high expectations vs. reality, enterprise challenges in maturing their data engineering and AI governance, as well as intangible ROI of many genAI initiatives,” Chandrasekaran said.

While the technology has been heralded as a boon to productivity, nailing down an ROI in genAI can prove to be elusive. That’s not necessarily because finding ROI is difficult, but expressing ROI has been difficult because many benefits like productivity have indirect or non-financial impacts that create financial outcomes in the future, according to Rita Sallam, a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner.

Gartner’s trough of disillusionment describes a time when interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver on the initial hype of a technology. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investment continues only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters, according to Gartner.

AI agents step into the spotlight

But far from a negative effect, the trough of disillusionment can lead to what Gartner describes as the “plateau of productivity,” when mainstream adoption starts to take off. It also means enterprise focus on ROI will likely spur adoption of autonomous AI in the form of AI agents — something with a more solid potential for productivity and efficiency gains.

An AI agent is a software program that collects data and uses the data to perform self-determined tasks to meet predetermined goals. For example, an AI agent could act as a customer care representative and automatically ask the customer different questions, look up information in internal documents, and respond with a solution. Based on the customer responses, it determines if it can resolve the query itself or pass it on to a human.

By 2030, companies will spend $42 billion a year on genAI projects such as chatbots, research, writing, and summarization tools, according to Gartner.

Autonomous AI systems can operate with minimal human oversight. They seek to “understand” their environment, draw conclusions from it and adjust their actions accordingly, according to Chandrasekaran.

“They can make decisions, purchase things and perform tasks, achieving goals in a range of environments as effectively as humans can. Systems that can perform any task a human can perform are beginning to move slowly from science fiction to reality,” he said.

While the current generation of AI models lack “agency,” AI research labs are quickly releasing agents that can dynamically interact with their environment to achieve goals, although it will be a gradual process, Chandrasekaran noted.

An eye on other emerging tech

“Even as AI continues to grab the attention, CIOs and other IT executives must also examine other emerging technologies with transformational potential for developers, security, and customer and employee experience and strategize how to exploit these technologies in line with their organizations’ ability to handle unproven technologies,” Chandrasekaran said.

Gartner said its Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies is unique among the company’s other Hype Cycles because it distills insights from more than 2,000 technologies and focuses on “must-know” emerging technologies.

“These technologies have potential to deliver transformational benefits over the next two to 10 years,” Gartner said.

Autonomous AI software was among four emerging technologies called out in the report because it can operate with minimal human oversight, improve itself, and become effective at decision-making in complex environments.

“These advanced AI systems that can perform any task a human can perform are beginning to move slowly from science fiction to reality,” Gartner said in its report. “These technologies include multiagent systems, large action models, machine customers, humanoid working robots, autonomous agents, and reinforcement learning.”

Autonomous agents are currently heading up the slope to the peak of inflated expectations. Just ahead of autonomous agents on that slope is artificial general intelligence, currently a hypothetical form of AI where a machine learns and thinks like a human does.

GenAI technologies are evolving at a rapid pace, Chandrasekaran noted, and the innovation continues at a rapid pace, which can be overwhelming enterprise  IT leaders.

“Many enterprises are also realizing that genAI alone may not be a panacea for all their use cases, and they need to combine it with other AI techniques for meaningful value,” Chandrasekaran said. “The long-term potential of generative AI will still be significant, but enterprise IT leaders need to address the near-term risks to reach the plateau of productivity.”

OpenAI has expressed opposition to California’s proposed bill regulating AI development and deployment as lawmakers prepare for an upcoming vote.

In a letter addressed to California State Senator Scott Wiener, the AI startup argued that the bill would stifle innovation in the sector and suggested that such regulation should be handled at the federal rather than state level, according to a Bloomberg report.

But in response, Wiener said that the OpenAI letter doesn’t criticize a single provision of the bill and that the company appears to acknowledge the bill’s specific core provisions.

“Instead of criticizing what the bill actually does, OpenAI argues this issue should be left to Congress,” Wiener said in a statement. “As I’ve stated repeatedly, I agree that ideally, Congress would handle this. However, Congress has not done so, and we are skeptical Congress will do so.”

“Under OpenAI’s argument about Congress, California never would have passed its data privacy law, and given Congress’s lack of action, Californians would have no protection whatsoever for their data,” Wiener added.  

The bill, SB 1047, seeks to implement safety regulations for large-scale AI models that surpass certain size and cost benchmarks. Passed by the state Senate in May, the legislation mandates AI firms to adopt measures ensuring their technologies do not facilitate severe risks, including the creation of bioweapons capable of widespread casualties or causing financial losses exceeding $500 million.

A controversial bill

Other technology firms, including Meta and Alphabet, and trade associations including the AI Alliance have also reportedly opposed the bill.

Charlie Dai, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, noted that although AI governance on security, privacy, and regulatory compliance is crucial, the new bill could create unnecessary business uncertainty and raise operational costs for most AI companies.

This may slow the pace of innovation and harm the overall open source ecosystem surrounding AI.

“AI firms need to consider a range of options to mitigate the effects, such as engaging with lawmakers collaboratively to shape the bill in a way that balances safety with innovation, making more investment in regulatory compliance, and expanding or relocating to states with more flexible policies,” Dai added.

In the letter, OpenAI warned that the proposed legislation could significantly and adversely impact US competitiveness in AI and national security.

Wiener responded that, far from undermining national security, SB 1047’s requirements for AI companies to thoroughly test their products for the ability to cause catastrophic harm can only strengthen national security.

Not limited to California-based companies

OpenAI has also argued that the legislation could drive companies out of California, but Senator Wiener countered, noting the bill would affect any company doing business in the state, regardless of where they are based.

“This tired argument — which the tech industry also made when California passed its data privacy law, with that fear never materializing — makes no sense given that SB 1047 is not limited to companies headquartered in California,” Wiener said in the statement. “Rather, the bill applies to companies doing business in California. As a result, locating outside of California does not avoid compliance with the bill.” 

Efforts have been made throughout the year in collaboration with open-source advocates, Anthropic, and others to refine and improve the bill, according to Wiener. He added that SB 1047 is well-calibrated to address foreseeable AI risks and deserves to be enacted.

V londýnském domě, kde téměř dvě desetiletí bydlel Benjamin Franklin, našli skrýš s kostmi nejméně patnácti lidí • Spekulace o tajných krvavých zednářských rituálech se ale nepotvrdily • Kosti jsou svědectvím o těžkostech, s nimiž se museli vypořádat průkopníci anatomie

Apple’s iPhone and App Store turned the mobile phone industry upside down, created the smartphone generation, and set the scene for developer success that did not exist before, all while working to protect privacy and security.

No wonder Apple’s enemies want to break all that the company has achieved. No wonder they hope to feast on the crumbs left behind. The regulators seem to want to let them do just that, but what choice will consumers be given as they endure the tyranny of choice? 

We know the direction things are heading in. 

Where we are going

Apple will be forced to open up its App Store, to accept sideloading from outside of its curated experience, and to open up some of its APIs and device features in the name of competition.

But, as the company has argued, some of these moves can, may, or will erode platform security, which is something many of its customers expect from its products. Surely those customers deserve to keep to that choice, too? 

However, the regulators don’t seem to see it that way, insisting on changes to Apple’s iPhone platform that, quite frankly, threaten to turn it into the kind of flimsy, compromised beast we might have had if Windows had won the mobile war.

Luckily, Windows failed to win that war.

That’s not to say that all the arguments to force Apple to open up are flimsy. Apple does have huge market power, it can enter new markets fairly easily, and it seems appropriate to find ways to create new opportunities across its platforms.

But should those opportunities replace the existing privacy and security Apple’s customers luxuriate in today? Surely that privacy and security is also a choice.

Privacy and security should be an option

Perhaps there is a way Apple can provide both things: the essential curated experience hundreds of millions of us already love, and the more open platform its competitors seek to draw profits from. Perhaps it’s time to fork the platform. 

Think about it this way — it seems the introduction of support for third-party app stores and so on is being forced on Apple as a universal constraint. But should it be? Shouldn’t Apple’s customers have the right to choose which way to go? 

Many may decide to work with third-party app stores so they can use alternative billing systems and make that bloke from Epic Games even richer, but many others may never, ever want to play those games and may instead want to remain entirely in Apple’s so-called “walled garden.” Why shouldn’t they be able to?

What about giving people choice?

An interesting addition over the last 12 months on iOS has been a new and simpler way to run iOS beta software on your device. You can now do so with the flick of a switch.

What if Apple used that same system to deliver two breeds of its standard operating system? The first would be the iOS we all love and use today, though likely with the addition of new APIs to make some functions (such as mobile payments) more competitive; the second might be a more open version of iOS, equipped with support for external stores, payment systems, and all the other things people with lots of money seem to get angry about when it comes to Apple’s systems. 

That’s a compromise, perhaps, but it means Apple’s customers could vote with their own fingers. They could choose to join life outside the garden or stay within it. That is, after all, a choice they should be able to make. For many users, it is the choice they already took when they selected Apple’s platforms.

Some people need security more than they need Fortnite

It’s also a choice many enterprise users of Apple products want to make. 

Particularly in regulated industries, they need to ensure the privacy and security of sometimes highly sensitive data. To do so they need — they are actually legally required — to ensure every possible protection is in place.

Choosing Apple’s hard-as-nails walled garden iOS would be the option they took with their managed devices. People regularly accessing your medical data on a device shouldn’t be installing software that may or may not be completely safe from third-party stores that may or may not be what they seem. Many companies forbid the use of all kinds of device features using MDM controls, and taking the choice to remain all-in on Apple’s model is a choice they probably want to keep.

Maybe there’s another way

Perhaps Apple is thinking in the same way, particularly following the shock resignation of Matt Fischer, Apple’s Worldwide head of the App Store and the decision to split those operations into two segments: one to handle the App Store as is, the other to handle incoming alternative distribution systems. I don’t know if Apple is thinking in this direction; I’m merely speculating that it could be.

If it were, then it would provide a choice that lets people currently using iPhones retain the right to keep things as they are, rather than being forced to open up because a smattering of well-connected millionaires want to make money out of their insecurity. A lot of people — customers, developers and not just Apple — have already made a great deal of money while also protecting their security, after all. 

If Apple moves in that direction, the usual chorus of voices, amplified by a click-bait-hungry media, will castigate the company for the new buzz word of “malicious compliance.” But the question, at least when it comes to customers happy with the status quo, is why should they be forced to accept an openness they neither want nor need?

At least make it an opt-out option.

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Visit IGEL’s DISRUPT Munich event this September to learn more about the latest end user computing technologies

Sponsored Post  The IGEL DISRUPT Munich event promises an opportunity to explore the latest innovations in end user computing (EUC), with a focus on endpoint security, Zero Trust, digital workspaces and cloud infrastructures.…

Vrchol žebříčku nejhranějších titulů tradičně obsazují hlavně sportovky. PlayStation ale má stále i několik silných exkluzivit a daří se i dalším singleplayerovkám.

AMD roku 2016 oznámila, že Číně licencuje první generaci architektury Zen. V roce 2018 se rozběhla výroba a roku 2019 bylo oznámeno, že k rozšíření licence již nedojde. Čína přesto neusíná na vavřínech…

Jeden z nejlepších chytrých sonických kartáčků na trhu, Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9000, se v Česku prodává od čtyř tisíc a v akcích se dal sehnat ještě o stovku levněji. Německý Amazon dnes ale nabízí sadu HX9911/09 se čtyřmi hlavicemi za 138 eur (3500 Kč) včetně dopravy. Je to o šest eur vyšší ...

Kdo komu kolik dluží a jak se následně vypořádat – typické otázky pro vícedenní výlety s kamarády nebo společné dovolené více rodin. Odpovědí může být užitečná aplikace Splid, do které lze zapisovat výdaje a na konci vytvoří snadné vyúčtování.

Echoes human rights groups' concerns that it could suppress free speech and more

Networking giant Cisco has suggested the United Nations' first-ever convention against cyber-crime is dangerously flawed and should be revised before being put to a formal vote.…

Před 66 miliony let narazil do Země velký vesmírný objekt označovaný jako Chicxulub, který způsobil vyhynutí dinosaurů a přibližně 75 % dalších rostlinných a živočišných druhů. Vědci se už dlouhé roky zabývají otázkou, co přesně to bylo za objekt a jak se ocitl v blízkosti naší planety. Nejnovější ...

V souvislosti s finančními výsledky za předchozí kvartál ohlásil CEO Intelu úsporná opatření. Nyní se začíná rýsovat jejich konkrétní podoba. Partneři vyjadřují obavy z rozsahu omezení podpory…

Google has rolled out security fixes to address a high-severity security flaw in its Chrome browser that it said has come under active exploitation in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-7971, the vulnerability has been described as a type confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. "Type confusion in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 128.0.6613.84 allowed a remote attacker to exploit heap Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]