Hello and happy Wednesday. As we await the imminent decision of the Australian government banning TikTok on Parliamentary phones, let’s see what else is going down in tech land, starting with TikTok, but over the other side of the world.
1. TikTok is not a threat, apparently
On Thursday U.S. time, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the country’s Congress, marking his highest-profile speaking opportunity to date. In the lead-up, he’s made his company’s position very clear: TikTok is not a threat, and it has become too important to too many to ban. The company also refreshed its community guidelines.
@tiktok Our CEO, Shou Chew, shares a special message on behalf of the entire TikTok team to thank our community of 150 million Americans ahead of his congressional hearing later this week.
2. AI for all
After an initial announcement in February, Google has officially opened limited beta access to its AI chatbot, “Bard,” which it describes as a companion to its primary service, search. Google calls the chatbot an “experiment” and has reminded users that it is still very much a work in progress and may not always function as intended. Microsoft also announced that it is using an advanced version of Open AI’s DALL-E image generator to power its own Bing and Edge browser. Like DALL-E before it, the newly announced Bing Image Creator will generate a set of images for users based on a line of written text.
3. New way to study molecular drivers of cancer
Clearer understanding about the markers and drivers of cancer cell proliferation has emerged from research by Flinders University that identifies new opportunities to overcome convergence with complex enzymes, known as kinases. The work paves the way for new approaches to study the molecular drivers of disease states such as cancer. Read more about the groundbreaking research over here.
4. Cropped pics not-so cropped
In yikes news, Microsoft may not be snipping out that which you have cropped in a screenshot. Brought to our attention by The Verge, according to the below tweet from security expert David Buchanan, if you take a screenshot with Microsoft’s Snipping Tool for Windows 11 as well as the Snip & Sketch tool in Windows 10, press the save button, and then crop it and save it to the same file, the data may still be available in the file.
holy FUCK.
Windows Snipping Tool is vulnerable to Acropalypse too.
An entirely unrelated codebase.
The same exploit script works with minor changes (the pixel format is RGBA not RGB)
Tested myself on Windows 11 https://t.co/5q2vb6jWOn pic.twitter.com/ovJKPr0x5Y
— David Buchanan (@David3141593) March 21, 2023
5. More AI, but also quantum
Overnight, Nvidia announced a slew of innovations, with its CEO keen to “bring AI to every industry”. But it’s not just AI; Nvidia is positioning itself as a key player in quantum computing. At its developer conference GTC, Nvidia unveiled CUDA Quantum, a platform for building quantum algorithms using popular classical computer coding languages C++ and python. The program would help run the algorithm across quantum and classical computers depending on which system is most efficient in solving the problem. Aussie startup Quantum Brilliance is behind the first software supporting Nvidia CUDA Quantum.
BONUS ITEM: He’s just misunderstood.
New species of ‘rare and giant’ trapdoor spider discovered in Queensland https://t.co/z3CvMRP4AX
— ABC News (@abcnews) March 20, 2023
See you tomorrow.