Newly-announced catalog collects pre-2022 sources untouched by ChatGPT and AI contamination.

Chatbot tries to change subject after serving up unrelated user’s mobile to man asking for rail firm helpline

The Meta chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, called it “the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use”. But Barry Smethurst, 41, a record shop worker trying to travel by rail from Saddleworth to Manchester Piccadilly, did not agree.

Waiting on the platform for a morning train that was nowhere to be seen, he asked Meta’s WhatsApp AI assistant for a contact number for TransPennine Express. The chatbot confidently sent him a mobile phone number for customer services, but it turned out to be the private number of a completely unconnected WhatsApp user 170 miles away in Oxfordshire.

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Customers are starting to push back against AI in their favorite products, worried about jobs, quality and the meaning of art.

ASIC Engineer Dave Bell had fun clashing modern and obsolete technologies while playing with Numitrons, Nixies, and numeric displays.

The post Numitrons, Nixies, and numeric displays appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Andrew Jassy tells white collar workers that such technology means fewer people will be needed for some jobs

The boss of Amazon has told white collar staff at the e-commerce company their jobs could be taken by artificial intelligence in the next few years.

Andrew Jassy told employees that AI agents – tools that carry out tasks autonomously – and generative AI systems such as chatbots would require fewer employees in certain areas.

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Nintendo has slept on new games for its new handheld but clockwork-puzzle murder missions, an RPG reborn and a beefed-up Yakuza 0 are the highlights from other developers

The Nintendo Switch 2 certainly makes a strong first impression, but once that gadget limerence begins to fade, it’s down to the games to stave off any creeping buyer’s remorse. We all know that Mario Kart World is undoubtedly a multiplayer masterpiece, and original Switch games from Pokémon Scarlet/Violet to Zelda have been updated to look amazing on the new console, but there’s otherwise a severe lack of Nintendo-made launch games for the Switch (beyond the £8 tech demo, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour).

Thankfully, other developers have stepped in to fill the gap, releasing a bunch of updated versions of games that have been out on other consoles for a while. What should you pick up when you’re tired of Mario Kart World?

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As international tensions mount and hackers grow more sophisticated and audacious, the Nordic Maritime Cyber Resilience Centre is constantly monitoring the global threat of war, terror and piracy

Ships being taken over remotely by hackers and made to crash is a scenario made in Hollywood. But in a security operations room in Oslo, just a few metres from the sparkling fjord and its tourist boats, floating saunas and plucky bathers, maritime cyber experts say not only is it technically possible, but they are poised for it to happen.

“We are pretty sure that it will happen sooner or later, so that is what we are looking for,” says Øystein Brekke-Sanderud, a senior analyst at the Nordic Maritime Cyber Resilience Centre (Norma Cyber). On the wall behind him is a live map of the ships they monitor and screens full of graphs and code. Two little rubber ducks watch over proceedings from above.

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Act swiftly and these steps could help mitigate the damage from a sim-swap scam and prevent it happening again

Your mobile phone line is the artery through which data, calls and texts flow. It is also used to prove you are who you say you are for a plethora of accounts, from banks to messaging services.

But if it gets hacked or stolen, in what is known as a “sim swap” or “simjacking”, the consequences can be far worse than just being cut off from mobile data or calls. Unfortunately it is the kind of hack you don’t see coming. It happens in the background, with hackers using your personal data such as date of birth and address to con your network provider into swapping your phone number to a new sim in their possession.

Keep an eye on notifications from your mobile network, which are usually delivered by SMS. These include information about activity elsewhere and alerts of change requests, such as your phone number being activated on another device.

Be aware of scams. Fraudsters may and try to trick you out of information using fake notifications. If you receive a message asking you to get in touch, double-check that any number you are given is legitimate before calling, or use a number from the provider’s website or a bill.

Any loss of service that prevents calling, texting or accessing mobile data and is not explained by outages or missed payments may be a sim-swap attack.

Loss of access to various accounts such as your bank or social media linked to your phone number could indicate hackers are in the process of trying to break in or have already changed your password and stolen the account.

Frequently review statements and account for unexpected charges, which may be a sign that you’ve been hacked.

Call your provider on the customer service number listed on its site using another phone. Have your phone number and details ready, including any account passwords you may have set. Explain what has happened and make sure your provider begins the recovery process and investigates how this has happened.

Ask your provider to block any “charge to bill” activity.

Contact your bank, crypto and other financial services immediately to ensure the hackers cannot get into your other accounts, which are typically their primary targets.

Contact your immediate family and anyone who could fall victim to a scammer pretending to be you and texting from your number.

Check any account you use your phone number for two-step verification. Change the two-step method if you can and set a new strong password.

Check your WhatsApp and other messaging services that use your phone number as the user ID.

Activate any and all security measures on your provider’s account. This includes using a strong password and two-step verification, and setting a sim pin on your phone, as well as adding a telephone customer service password and a sim transfer pin, if available.

Find out from your provider how the hack happened, and if possible, what personal data was used to break into your account. Consider using fake security question answers that cannot be guessed rather than real ones, just make sure you store them safely such as in a password manager.

Set a spend cap on your phone account.

As soon as you are sure you have full control again, reactivate two-step verification on your accounts and transition any that you can to authenticator app-based two-step verification, which is more secure.

Set pins on messaging services such as WhatsApp or Signal to make it much harder for someone else to register new devices or take over your account.

Contact your financial services providers to reactivate your accounts but keep watching out for fraud and query any unexpected transactions.

Look at your social media and other public-facing accounts for any information that could enable criminals to steal your identity to perform hacks such as this.

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According to the French streaming platform’s analysis, fraudsters use bots to listen to AI music and take the royalties

Up to seven out of 10 streams of artificial intelligence-generated music on the Deezer platform are fraudulent, according to the French streaming platform.

The company said AI-made music accounts for just 0.5% of streams on the music streaming platform but its analysis shows that fraudsters are behind up to 70% of those streams.

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Giant groundsels are superbly adapted to upland environments where temperatures can plunge to -20C

The common groundsel is a weedy plant often seen on waste ground and roadsides, growing up to about 40cm (16in) tall. But on mountains in east Africa relatives of the groundsel can grow up to 9 metres (30ft) in height. One of these giant groundsels is Dendrosenecio kilimanjari, which only grows high up on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and looks like something from another world – a woody trunk that can branch out like a candelabra, sprouting a large inflorescence atop each branch.

Other Dendrosenecio species grow on other mountains, all superbly adapted to the harsh upland environments where temperatures can plunge as low as -20C (-4F) in biting winds. Their thick stems are insulated by jackets of dead and withered leaves, they use an antifreeze agent to prevent ice forming in their tissues, and at night their leaves “sleep”, folding up to help keep the plant warm. Rainfall can be scarce and the giant groundsels store water in the pith of their stems. As a result of their spartan existence, they can grow extremely slowly.

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