Good morning, and a happy Wednesday to you – we’re halfway through the week. Let’s get you caught up on the tech news.
1. The Iconic to refund customers whose funds were accessed
The Australian is reporting that fashion website The Iconic will refund customers who had been hacked and had items purchased through their accounts without their knowledge. The Iconic said in a statement that it had not been hacked, but rather hackers had accessed customer accounts through other hacks. “Our teams are also proactively intercepting unauthorised access attempts and cancelling any fraudulent orders made, in addition to providing customers with full refunds for any successful orders made that have been dispatched,” The Iconic said in a statement.
2. Microsoft using AI to speed up battery research
Moving overseas, and itNews is reporting via Reuters that Microsoft is working with a lab in the U.S. to research battery materials, with the tech giant claiming that AI-assisted research lead to the discovery of a material that supposedly requires 70 per cent less lithium than what is currently widely needed. Instead of lithium, Microsoft said that sodium is used, with the new material currently undergoing scrutiny for mass production at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “The magic here is in the speed of artificial intelligence, assisting in the identification of products and materials and our ability to put those ideas into action in a laboratory,” chief digital officer of PNNL Brian Abrahamson said.
3. AI tools ‘impossible’ without copyrighted material
Staying on AI for a moment and The Guardian is reporting that ChatGPT-makers OpenAI have claimed that the development of AI tools is impossible without copyrighted material. “Because copyright today covers virtually every sort of human expression – including blogposts, photographs, forum posts, scraps of software code, and government documents – it would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials,” OpenAI said in a submission to the UK House of Lords communications and digital select committee.
4. Meta to restrict more content for teens
As reported by Reuters, Meta is moving to restrict more content for teens on Facebook and Instagram, following steep scrutiny from regulators across the world on child safety on the platforms. Meta claims that search terms will become limited for teens, and that they will be placed into the most restrictive content control settings, in an attempt to make it more difficult for teens to access content relating to eating disorders or other harmful issues. Meta said the new rules will roll out over the coming weeks.
5. A race against time for Peregrine
Wrapping things up in Space, and it’s a race against time to recover components of Astrobotic’s Peregrine spacecraft, which launched earlier this week for the Moon, and has since gone through critical failures. Astrobotic claimed in a Tweet that there’s no way that the lander would be able to make a soft landing on the Moon, so now the company is attempting to salvage what it can, with the craft still functional as a spacecraft. The program was a test for what would essentially be a delivery van for the Moon, and this lander contained 21 payloads destined for the lunar body.
BONUS ITEM: Samsung’s ball robot, Ballie, is my new best friend.
Have a lovely day.
Image: iStock