Good morning, folks. We’ve got a few things from the tech world we’d like to share with you this fine Wednesday.
1. Latitude won’t be paying ransom
On March 16, Australian financial services firm Latitude began alerting customers of a data breach, one it described as being the result of a “sophisticated and malicious cyber attack”. Approximately 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver’s licence numbers were stolen, of which approximately 3.2 million, or 40 per cent, were provided to the company in the past 10 years. Latitude updated customers on the situation yesterday, saying it had received a ransom demand from the criminals behind the attack, but that it wasn’t going to be paying. “We will not reward criminal behaviour, nor do we believe that paying a ransom will result in the return or destruction of the information that was stolen,” the company said.
2. MilkRun to close its doors this week
MilkRun promised to flip the grocery and alcohol game on its head, offering super quick delivery of all the things you couldn’t be bothered to go get yourself. The startup launched in September 2021, when the pandemic saw many Aussies stuck inside and ordering things online. But the explosion of on-demand delivery just didn’t keep up and this Friday will be the last day MilkRun will be making a milk run. Read more about it here.
3. Rules to regulate AI
The U.S. government is seeking public comments on potential accountability measures for artificial intelligence (AI) systems as questions loom about its impact on national security and education, Reuters is reporting. ChatGPT is an AI tool that allows a user to generate text. You can ask it questions, give it creative prompts, and use it to generate a whole bunch of different stuff — from poems, to songs, to essays, to short stories. With a world-first court case against ChatGPT underway in Australia, this is only the beginning of governments looking to rein in such a thing.
4. Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes loses bid to stay out of prison
After being convicted of wire fraud for her dealings with her failed blood startup Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes was hoping to remain free on bail while she appeals the decision. Unfortunately for her, a federal judge has denied her that luxury. Judge Edward J. Davila of the U.S. District Court Northern District of California denied Holmes’ Motion for Release Pending Appeal. The court ruled that while Holmes is not a risk to her community as a nonviolent criminal and has shown no intention of fleeing, she has not presented new evidence that could lead to her appeal. Here’s a video from Forbes back in 2015.
5. Pentagon classified documents leak linked to Discord
After a batch of classified documents were leaked from the Pentagon, it appears open-source intelligence analysts have pinned the leak down to an unlikely place: Discord. The documents were apparently used by patrons of the messaging platform, which is frequently used by avid video game players, in order to settle a debate about the ongoing war in Ukraine. As detailed in The Wall Street Journal, at least 50 documents with Secret and Top Secret classification labels have surfaced so far. A Pentagon spokesperson told the Journal that the department was looking into the validity of the photographed documents “that appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material.” Read more here.
BONUS ITEM: Everything is fine.
i hooked up chatgpt to a furby and I think this may be the start of something bad for humanity pic.twitter.com/jximZe2qeG
— jessica card (@jessicard) April 2, 2023
Have a fabulous day.