Tag: author_name|Will Shanklin
NYC subway security flaw makes it possible to track riders’ journeys
The contactless payment system for New York City’s subways has a security hole. Anyone with access to someone’s credit card number can see when and where they entered the city’s underground transit during the last seven days. The problem lies in a “feature” on the website for OMNY, the tap-to-pay…
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Google wants an invisible digital watermark to bring transparency to AI art
Google took a step towards transparency in AI-generated images today. Google DeepMind announced SynthID, a watermarking / identification tool for generative art. The company says the technology embeds a digital watermark, invisible to the human eye, directly onto an image’s pixels. SynthID is rolling out first to “a limited number”…
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Americans growing anxious as AI adoption expands, Pew Research finds
Americans have grown more worried about AI in the last nine months. A new survey from the Pew Research Center indicates 52 percent of respondents are more concerned than excited about rising artificial intelligence use, up 14 points since December. Meanwhile, only 10 percent say they’re more excited than worried,…
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iRobot’s latest Roombas can vacuum and mop for cheaper
iRobot announced two new combo vacuum / mop combo robots today. The Roomba Combo j5+ and Combo i5+ provide some of the dual-mode features of the $1,1099 Roomba j7+ but for more affordable prices. However, there are some tradeoffs in selling these models for $799 (j5+) and $549 (i5+), including…
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NASA reveals pollution maps gathered by the TEMPO space instrument
NASA has published the first maps from its new space-based pollution instrument, TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Although you won’t be shocked to learn it reveals higher pollution rates in metropolitan areas, the tool can help scientists better study North American air quality on an hourly basis. “Neighborhoods and…
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Facebook’s ‘state-controlled media’ labels appear to reduce engagement
Facebook’s “state-controlled media” labels appear to reduce engagement with content from authoritarian nations. A new study reveals that, with the added tags, users’ engagement decreased when they noticed content labeled as originating from Chinese and Russian government-run media. However, the labels also appeared to boost user favorability of posts from…
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