A selection of global tech news.
Online Accounts Nightmare | Apple ‘Like The Godfather’ | Elon Musk xAI Open-Source Grok | Social Care Unregulated AI Warning | Hidden iPhone AI Features
We each have an average of 100 online accounts. Here’s how to make sure they aren’t a nightmare for your family if you die – CNN Tech
When Rebecca Bistany’s 40-year-old husband Paul died suddenly of a heart attack in November 2022, she didn’t know what kind of assets he left behind for her and their infant daughter.
Compounding her heartache, Paul didn’t leave a will. Bistany wanted to access key business and financial accounts by resetting passwords but found herself in a spot many who lose loved ones encounter: She couldn’t get into his phone, leaving her locked out of everything from personal photos to critical estate information.
Her story is tragic and increasingly common. With password management company NordPass saying each person has an average of 100 online accounts, the deaths of loved ones have become ever more complicated. Read more:
Apple ‘like The Godfather’ with new App Store rules – BBC Tech
This week Apple made the long-awaited landmark move to allow other companies to launch app stores on iPhones.
The tech giant was forced to act by EU politicians concerned about it having a market monopoly.
The decision is being watched closely around the world and was initially celebrated as an industry victory for businesses and consumers in the EU.
But Apple’s strict new rules and fees are being heavily criticised, with Spotify calling them “extortion”.
It is one of many companies, including Fortnite maker Epic Games, that has been pushing Apple to allow alternative app stores on iPhones. Read more:
Elon Musk says xAI will open-source Grok this week launch – TechCrunch
Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI will open-source Grok, its chatbot rivaling ChatGPT, this week, the entrepreneur said, days after suing OpenAI and complaining that the Microsoft-backed startup had deviated from its open-source roots.
xAI released Grok last year, arming it with features including access to “real-time” information and views that countered “politically correct” approach. The service is available to customers paying for X’s $16 monthly subscription.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI with Sam Altman nearly a decade ago as a counterweight to Google’s dominance in artificial intelligence. But OpenAI, which was required to also make its technology “freely available” to the public, has become closed-source and shifted focus to maximizing profits for Microsoft, Musk alleged in the lawsuit filed late last month. (Read OpenAI’s response here.) Read more:
Warning over use in UK of unregulated AI chatbots to create social care plans – The Guardian
University of Oxford study shows benefits and risks of technology to healthcare, but ethical issues remain
Britain’s hard-pressed carers need all the help they can get. But that should not include using unregulated AI bots, according to researchers who say the AI revolution in social care needs a hard ethical edge.
A pilot study by academics at the University of Oxford found some care providers had been using generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard to create care plans for people receiving care.
That presents a potential risk to patient confidentiality, according to Dr Caroline Green, an early career research fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford, who surveyed care organisations for the study.
“If you put any type of personal data into [a generative AI chatbot], that data is used to train the language model,” Green said. “That personal data could be generated and revealed to somebody else.”. Read more:
Hidden AI Features Available on Your iPhone Right Now – CNET
Apple doesn’t have a ChatGPT rival of its own. But AI tools have played a behind-the-scenes role in iPhones for years.
Apple has been notably absent from the public conversation around generative AI until recently. But AI is already very present on the iPhone, driving core features in popular apps such as the Camera, Photos and Siri among others.
At the same time, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been more vocal about the technology — suggesting that Apple’s public AI push may finally be here. More than a year after ChatGPT took the global spotlight and catalyzed a tech arms race, CEO Tim Cook confirmed on an earnings call in February that Apple is investing in generative AI. Without offering specifics, he said there’s “a huge opportunity for Apple with gen AI and AI.” Read more:
__________________________________________________________
Image Credits: CNET
