Good Morning. It’s Wednesday, the first day back after the Anzac Day public holiday. Let’s get back into the swing of things with the five tech news stories headlining today.
1. Microsoft Edge is leaking your visited sites to Bing
Kicking things off with Microsoft, and The Verge is reporting that the company’s Edge web browser is leaking your visited sites to Microsoft’s search engine Bing. According to the report, visited site URLs are being sent to the Bing API website. A reason for this wasn’t uncovered by the Reddit users who first discovered the issue, but you can stop URLs being shared with the Bing API by disabling the creator feature.
2. AI-generated Amazon reviews are, unfortunately, a thing now
According to a report from CNBC, products across the popular web marketplace have reviews that appear to be written with chatbots like ChatGPT. The outlet found these reviews on products including waist trainers, children’s textbooks, car batteries, baby car seat mirrors, and video game controller accessories. Even more jarring is that these reviews make no effort to hide the fact that they were generated with AI, as most reviews begin with the phrase “As an AI language model” before devolving into the fact that a computer has no experience with the product.
GPT generated product descriptions and reviews (“as an AI language model I can’t”) are in most corners of the web now: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Google Maps reviews, Walmart product descriptions, Amazon reviews, and Pinterest. pic.twitter.com/SAdmVXKEDw
— Steve Moser (@SteveMoser) April 25, 2023
3. NSW Police’s first CISO leaves
Meanwhile in Australia, itNews is reporting that NSW Police’s first-ever chief information security officer (CISO) has left the force after more than four-and-a-half years. An acting CISO is in place, and the force told itNews that it “would like to attract interest from IT professionals” to enter the CISO role. The CISO position covers cyber security, IT security operations, operational risk and data recovery.
4. China opens up about its malfunctioning Mars rover
About a year ago, China’s Zhurong rover hunkered down on the Martian surface to avoid the harsh winter season on the dusty planet. Regrettably, Zhurong has so far failed to revive itself from hibernation mode. A mission designer recently revealed that an accumulation of dust on the rover’s solar panels may be the reason for its unresponsive state. “We have not had any communication from the rover since it entered hibernation,” chief designer of China’s Mars exploration program Zhang Rongqiao said, as reported by Reuters. “We are monitoring it every day and believe it has not woken up because the sunlight has not yet reached the minimum level for power generation.”
China Finally Opens Up About Its Malfunctioning Mars Rover https://t.co/7oZYPt3Tr7 pic.twitter.com/2EnD6CFatz
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) April 25, 2023
5. Pharma bro gets booted off Twitter (again) for ChatGPT knockoff
Every now and again ‘pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli reenters the news cycle. This time it’s because Twitter has suspended an account tied to him, just days after the release of his new ChatGPT-inspired “Dr. Gupta” medical chatbot. Though it remains unclear which tweets, if any, ultimately landed Shkreli in Twitter jail this time, the former pharmaceutical villain-turned-crypto-evangelist-turned-AI-apostle was suspended in 2017 after repeatedly harassing a Teen Vogue journalist.
BONUS ITEM: See the Ken inside of you just like Ryan Gosling.
Ryan Gosling on playing Ken in ‘BARBIE’: “Up until this point, I only knew Ken from afar. I didn’t know Ken from within. I doubted my Ken-ergy. I didn’t see it. But Margot [Robbie] and Greta [Gerwig] conjured this out of me.” pic.twitter.com/xbKxLgdj2F
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) April 25, 2023
Have a lovely day.