Good morning. Let’s get into the news shall we?
1. IT contractor sentenced for cybercrime and fraud
An IT contractor has been sentenced to two years and six months behind bars on charges relating to cybercrime and fraud, having abused his role at the Australian National Maritime Museum to swindle more than $66,000 from a dozen victims. “This man exploited his trusted position of employment to fraudulently access and spend thousands of dollars belonging to others for his own benefit,” Australian Federal Police detective superintendent Tim Stainton said. “Australians work hard for their money and the AFP is working tirelessly to prevent cyber criminals from scamming, stealing and defrauding them.”
2. Apple in talks to licence Google AI
Bloomberg has the scoop that Apple may be getting AI features provided by Google Gemini. If the deal were to go through, it would build upon the partnership the giants have on Search, that Google is the default search engine of the iPhone, and has been so since its inception. It would also allow Apple to catch up on AI features with its next generation of devices, which the company has been behind on, since the release of the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 8 devices.
3. Speaking of AI
Grok, the AI chatbot built by Musk-owned xAI and a wing of X (formerly Twitter) has been open-sourced, with the code now available on GitHub, The Verge reports. With the codebase available, researchers and developers can now help developing the model and assess future updates.
4. And speaking of Apple
Apple says that it’s complying with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, after the company abruptly terminated Epic Games’ developer profile earlier this month, Reuters reports. The company has opened its iOS platform up to rival app stores and reversed a decision on web apps. “We were guided first and foremost by ensuring that we’ve complied with the law. And then second, we did it in a way that was consistent with our values and consistent with the language that we’ve developed with our users over a very long period of time. And we think we’ve accomplished that,” Apple lawyer Kyle Andeer said in a hearing.
5. One more AI story
YouTube is rolling out new rules for AI-generated videos, particularly targeting realistic videos that could be harmful. Realistic-looking AI videos will require a label that indicates that the video “is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI”. If creators use AI to help with script-writing, the label won’t be necessary, nor will labels be necessary for clearly unrealistic content.
BONUS ITEM: Madame Web must have gone great then.
All 8 live-action ‘SPIDER-MAN’ movies will officially return to theaters this year.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 18, 2024
Starting with Sam Raimi’s ‘SPIDER-MAN’ on April 15. pic.twitter.com/2BFoiLOVRz
Have a lovely day.
Image: iStock