Good morning. It’s a new week and it’s time to get caught up on the tech news.
1. Dymocks discloses data breach
Kicking off with a data breach, book retailer Dymocks has alerted customers to a cyber security incident which occurred on September 6. As reported by itNews, information on up to 836,000 Dymocks accounts has been compromised. “While our investigation is ongoing and at the early stages, our cyber security experts have found evidence of discussions regarding our customer records being available on the dark web,” Dymocks wrote.
2. Twitter’s bots are worse than ever
As reported by The Guardian, bot activity on Twitter (ahem, X), is worse than ever. A bot network of 1,305 accounts was identified during a Republican debate and a Donald Trump interview, with repetitive Tweet content analysed and found to be rampant on the platform. One account identified was found to tweet 662 times per day – about one or every two minutes. “It is clear that X is not doing enough to moderate content and has no clear strategy for dealing with political disinformation,” associate professor Doctor Timothy Graham told The Guardian.
3. Spotify might offer an audiobook trial to subscribers
Spotify might be working on bringing Audiobooks to the platform for paying subscribers. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, The company added roughly 300,000 book titles to its repertoire last year after its $US123 million purchase of the audiobook platform, Findaway in 2022. But those offerings have been limited to pay-per-download pricing plan. Now, Spotify is reportedly using the free trial to gauge customers’ interest in listening to audiobooks. Spotify’s push into the audiobook sector comes a year after its continued altercation with Apple, resulting in the company removing the audiobook option from the iOS app store. Instead, Spotify allowed subscribers to purchase audiobooks directly on its site to circumvent Apple’s 15 and 30 per cent commission fees for in-app purchases.
4. AI is really thirsty
AI is extremely thirsty. As reported by AP, Microsoft has disclosed in its latest environmental report that its global water consumption has spiked by 34 per cent between 2021 and 2022, with researchers tying the sharp increase to the development of AI. University of California researcher Shaolei Ren, who has been calculating the environmental impacts of AI, estimated that ChatGPT uses up to 500 millilitres of water every time it is asked between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. “If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resource,” Ren told AP.
5. NASA admits its SLS moon rocket is ‘unaffordable’
NASA has come under heat for the increasing cost of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which space agency officials have finally admitted to being unsustainable and unaffordable, a new report revealed. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report that heavily criticised NASA for its lack of transparency regarding the true cost of the SLS program, which has already gone $US6 billion over budget. The SLS rocket launched on November 16, 2022 for the Artemis 1 mission, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back. The 5.75-million-pound rocket is essential to NASA’s Moon program, with plans to launch Artemis 2 in late 2024 followed by the first crewed landing on the lunar surface as early as 2025 and another one tentatively set for 2028.
BONUS ITEM: Good morning to Jeremy especially.
Everyone loves Jeremy the Manager and his endless supply of ties. But what do his employees think? https://t.co/kvQxd2pnIo
— Mashable (@mashable) September 10, 2023
Have a lovely day.
Image credit: NASA