The American and Soviet women who conversed as pen pals in the 1940s and 50s found common ground in spite of the differences in their lives.

NATION STATE FREELOADING Russia takes unusual route to hack Starlink-connected devices in Ukraine Secret Blizzard has used the resources of at least 6 other groups in the past 7 years. Dan Goodin Dec 11, 2024 6:18 pm | 9 Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreRussian nation-state hackers have followed an unusual path to gather intel in the country's ongoing invasion of Ukraineappropriating the infrastructure of fellow threat actors and using it to infect electronic devices its adversarys military personnel are using on the front line.On at least two occasions this year, the Russian hacking group tracked under names including Turla, Waterbug, Snake, and Venomous Bear has used servers and malware used by separate threat groups in attacks targeting front-line Ukrainian military forces, Microsoft said Wednesday. In one case, Secret Blizzardthe name Microsoft uses to track the groupleveraged the infrastructure of a cybercrime group tracked as Storm-1919. In the other, Secret Blizzard appropriated resources of Storm-1837, a Russia-based threat actor with a history of targeting Ukrainian drone operators.The more common means for initial access by Secret Blizzard is spear phishing followed by lateral movement through server-side and edge device compromises. Microsoft said that the threat actors pivot here is unusual but not unique. Company investigators still dont know how Secret Blizzard obtained access to the infrastructure.Priority one: Ukraine military personnelRegardless of the means, Microsoft Threat Intelligence assesses that Secret Blizzards pursuit of footholds provided by or stolen from other threat actors highlights this threat actors prioritization of accessing military devices in Ukraine, Wednesdays post stated.From March to April of this year, Secret Blizzard used Amadey, a bot Storm-1919 typically uses to in attacks that deploy the XMRIG cryptocurrency app on targeted servers in cryptojacking campaigns. Such campaigns are carried out by crime groups that profit by mining digital coin using the resources of victims.Microsoft assesses that Secret Blizzard either used the Amadey malware as a service (MaaS) or accessed the Amadey command-and-control (C2) panels surreptitiously to download a PowerShell dropper on target devices, Microsoft said. The PowerShell dropper contained a Base64-encoded Amadey payload appended by code that invoked a request to Secret Blizzard C2 infrastructure.The ultimate objective was to install Tavdig, a backdoor Secret Blizzard used to conduct reconnaissance on targets of interest. The Amdey sample Microsoft uncovered collected information from device clipboards and harvested passwords from browsers. It would then go on to install a custom reconnaissance tool that was selectively deployed to devices of further interest by the threat actorfor example, devices egressing from STARLINK IP addresses, a common signature of Ukrainian front-line military devices.When Secret Blizzard assessed a target was of high value, it would then install Tavdig to collect information, including user info, netstat, and installed patches and to import registry settings into the compromised device.Earlier in the year, Microsoft said, company investigators observed Secret Blizzard using tools belonging to Storm-1887 to also target Ukrainian military personnel. Microsoft researchers wrote:In January 2024, Microsoft observed a military-related device in Ukraine compromised by a Storm-1837 backdoor configured to use the Telegram API to launch a cmdlet with credentials (supplied as parameters) for an account on the file-sharing platform Mega. The cmdlet appeared to have facilitated remote connections to the account at Mega and likely invoked the download of commands or files for launch on the target device. When the Storm-1837 PowerShell backdoor launched, Microsoft noted a PowerShell dropper deployed to the device. The dropper was very similar to the one observed during the use of Amadey bots and contained two base64 encoded files containing the previously referenced Tavdig backdoor payload (rastls.dll) and the Symantec binary (kavp.exe).As with the Amadey bot attack chain, Secret Blizzard used the Tavdig backdoor loaded into kavp.exe to conduct initial reconnaissance on the device. Secret Blizzard then used Tavdig to import a registry file, which was used to install and provide persistence for the KazuarV2 backdoor, which was subsequently observed launching on the affected device.Although Microsoft did not directly observe the Storm-1837 PowerShell backdoor downloading the Tavdig loader, based on the temporal proximity between the execution of the Storm-1837 backdoor and the observation of the PowerShell dropper, Microsoft assesses that it is likely that the Storm-1837 backdoor was used by Secret Blizzard to deploy the Tavdig loader.Wednesdays post comes a week after both Microsoft and Lumen's Black Lotus Labs reported that Secret Blizzard co-opted the tools of a Pakistan-based threat group tracked as Storm-0156 to install backdoors and collect intel on targets in South Asia. Microsoft first observed the activity in late 2022. In all, Microsoft said, Secret Blizzard has used the tools and infrastructure of at least six other threat groups in the past seven years.When parts one and two of this blog series are taken together, it indicates that Secret Blizzard has been using footholds from third partieseither by surreptitiously stealing or purchasing accessas a specific and deliberate method to establish footholds of espionage value, Wednesdays report concluded. Nevertheless, Microsoft assesses that while this approach has some benefits that could lead more threat adversaries to use it, it is of less use against hardened networks, where good endpoint and network defenses enable the detection of activities of multiple threat adversaries for remediation.Dan GoodinSenior Security EditorDan GoodinSenior Security Editor Dan Goodin is Senior Security Editor at Ars Technica, where he oversees coverage of malware, computer espionage, botnets, hardware hacking, encryption, and passwords. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, cooking, and following the independent music scene. Dan is based in San Francisco. Follow him at here on Mastodon and here on Bluesky. Contact him on Signal at DanArs.82. 9 Comments

fresh airs Errant reference in macOS 15.2 seems to confirm M4 MacBook Airs for 2025 Software reference could point to a release sooner rather than later. Andrew Cunningham Dec 11, 2024 5:27 pm | 8 The 15- and 13-inch M3 MacBook Airs. Credit: Andrew Cunningham The 15- and 13-inch M3 MacBook Airs. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe macOS 15.2 update that was released earlier today came with a handful of new features, plus something unexpected: an apparently accidental reference to the upcoming M4 MacBook Airs. MacRumors reports that the "Mac16,12" and "Mac16,13" model identifiers reference 13- and 15-inch models of the M4 Air and that both are coming in 2025.That a MacBook Air refresh is planned for next year isn't much of a surprise at this pointin reporting that pretty much nailed the details of the first M4 Macs, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said that the Air, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro are all slated for updates throughout 2025.But a reference in the current release of macOS could point to a launch sooner rather than later; the M4 Mac mini was referenced in a macOS update in mid-September around a month and a half before it was released. The M3 Airs came out in March this year, but Apple has been known to put out new Macs as early as January in recent years.The M4 isn't a gigantic update over the M3we tested its performance in the M4 iMac, though a passively cooled MacBook Air version would likely be a bit slower at heavier workloadsbut the fully enabled version does come with two extra CPU cores and some nice quality-of-life updates. Those updates include Thunderbolt 5 ports and support for a total of three displays (two external and the built-in screen), up from a total of two for the M1, M2, and M3 MacBook Airs.We didn't get M4 MacBook Airs in November, but Apple did "update" the M2 and M3 versions from 8GB to 16GB of RAM without increasing their prices. The RAM increase will be useful for all kinds of things, though it could be a harbinger of increased memory requirements for upcoming Apple Intelligence features.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 8 Comments

John Edwards, Technology Journalist & AuthorDecember 11, 20245 Min ReadWavebreakmedia Ltd IFE-241002 via Alamy Stock PhotoAs the need for AI talent grows, enterprises in virtually all fields are struggling to find individuals who can help them take full advantage of this powerful new technology. With competition for qualified AI experts tight, and likely to grow even tighter over the next few years, many organizations are now looking internally to find and train qualified candidates.Every organization needs to make a serious commitment to AI, one of the biggest technology shifts in our lifetime, says David Menninger, executive director, software research, with technology research and advisory firm ISG in an email interview. "AI is not just an IT initiative; everyone needs to jump on board."Here's a look at how four major enterprises are getting ahead of competitors by encouraging and cultivating internal AI talent.CumminsRenowned for producing powerful engines, Cummins Inc. also designs, manufactures, and distributes filtration, fuel system, power generation, and numerous other heavy-duty products and services. Like a growing number of forward-looking enterprises, Cummins management understands that AI is destined to play a critical role in virtually every aspect of its operations."At Cummins, we conduct a 360-degree evaluation of our talent," says Prateek Shrivastava, the firm's principal data scientist via email. Individuals with strong analytical skills and a preference for coding are identified as potential candidates for in-house AI roles. "However, it's crucial to also gauge their interest in working with cutting-edge technology."Related:Shrivastava states that targeted training programs, mentorship under experienced AI professionals, and providing opportunities to work on real-world AI projects within the organization have all proven essential. "A great example is one of our interns from last year," he notes. The individual demonstrated innate AI talent, so he was paired with one of the firm's AI experts. "By the end of his internship, he had successfully delivered a highly customized AI chatbot for HR."Since AI is a relatively new technology, formal training options are limited, Shrivastava observes. "For us, pairing talent with experts, supplemented by YouTube tutorials, has been highly effective."Saatchi & SaatchiOne of the world's largest advertising agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi understands that AI adoption is critical to its future success. The firm also realizes that AI is destined to play an essential role in virtually every aspect of its business.Jeremiah Knight, Saatchi & Saatchi's chief operating officer, says that the major barriers to integrating AI into daily operations are apprehension and trepidation. "People can be hesitant with AI in the same way technophobe family members are hesitant around a complicated new appliance," he observes in an online interview. "Perhaps theres some fearfulness about how to use AI, some fearfulness about breaking something, or even fearfulness about long-term implications."Related:The antidote, Knight believes, is finding zealous first adopters scattered throughout the agency who are willing to lead workshops that help colleagues acquire AI skills in a safe, hands-on environment. "And to have fun with it, because enjoying the silliness of some of the generative AI platforms goes a long way to reducing fear about them," he adds.Knight also likes to find "champions" within each department -- individuals who are eager to learn and unafraid to be curious about specific tools that advance departmental efforts. "Such individuals often have a positive infectious effect on their peers by demystifying AI and showcasing what's possible on a departmental/personal basis."Dell TechnologiesTwo years ago, just about the only people working with generative AI were researchers, observes John Roese, global CTO and chief AI officer at Dell Technologies. "At Dell, we asked our team member population 'who's interested in AI as part of their future job?' -- 5,000 individuals raised their hands."Off-the-shelf AI training is sufficient to a certain point, Roese notes, but he believes that the best way to transfer knowledge is with pairing an AI newbie with a seasoned expert. "A lot of what people need to know isn't documented well," Roese explains in an online interview. "To get to advanced levels, you need to have people doing advanced AI work and sharing their knowledge." He warns that one of the biggest mistakes organizations make is getting one central team to do all the AI work instead of helping AI experts propagate their ability to other teams.Related:Mine for the pockets of individuals who exhibit enthusiasm and promise, Roese advises. "Get started today and begin training immediately."MicrosoftNaga Santhosh Reddy Vootukuri, senior software engineering manager at Microsoft, recommends training employees and keeping them AI-competitive so that when the need arises to utilize these their skills, they won't find themselves lagging behind competitors. "It's important ... to view AI talent as an ongoing process rather than a one-time initiative," he observes in an online interview.Team hackathons and knowledge-sharing presentations make it easy to identify individuals who possess the foundational skills necessary to build upon their AI talent, Vootukuri says. "AI experts in the team should do active mentoring to guide junior engineers who have the passion to make strides, but don't know how to proceed and are limited due to their nine-to-five job."About the AuthorJohn EdwardsTechnology Journalist & AuthorJohn Edwards is a veteran business technology journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous business and technology publications, including Computerworld, CFO Magazine, IBM Data Management Magazine, RFID Journal, and Electronic Design. He has also written columns for The Economist's Business Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Communications Direct. John has authored several books on business technology topics. His work began appearing online as early as 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he wrote daily news and feature articles for both the CompuServe and Prodigy online services. His "Behind the Screens" commentaries made him the world's first known professional blogger.See more from John EdwardsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

Chris ONeill, Chief Executive Officer, GrowthloopDecember 11, 20244 Min ReadFederico Caputo via Alamy StockIve led organizations at every stage of growth, encountering unique challenges and opportunities at each step. The backbone of any successful venture has always been a cohesive team pursuing a mission that matters, and a perpetual dissatisfaction with the status quo.As I connect with tech business peers and IT leaders, they frequently remark on how difficult it is to foster a healthy and resilient team culture. Burnout is at an all-time high, industry competition demands constant innovation, and it can be hard to build team connections that fuel fulfillment and a shared purpose.Im happy to share my lessons learned -- which have culminated in a Worlds Fair mentality at my current company, GrowthLoop -- to help them attract and nurture the best talent.The Challenges of Hiring Tech and IT TalentThe job market for top tech talent is extraordinarily competitive. Hiring teams cannot give every applicant the attention they deserve, and hiring managers face tough tradeoffs between selecting seasoned professionals or highly skilled newcomers.When we hire, we focus on finding candidates who are eager to work on the cutting edge of technology. We look for team members who believe in our mission and want to push boundaries. In return, we invest in ongoing learning opportunities instead of perks like cold brew on tap and catered lunches.Related:Its easy to get lost in the shiny offerings at some companies, but these freebies rarely lead to lasting happiness and fulfillment. Thats why its crucial to ensure every job description and interaction with a new candidate promotes the long-term professional development and career growth opportunities you provide.Attracting a Diverse Talent PoolSelecting the ideal candidates requires focused attention at each step in the recruitment and hiring processes, including your job location, listing language, and interview strategy.Avoid being confined to only in-person office work. Remote and hybrid setups open the door for a wide range of individuals who deserve consideration regardless of their location.Use inclusive language in job descriptions. Our recruiting team has gone through bias training to put this into practice, which has helped increase our candidate pool diversity by over 30%.Conduct a detailed technical skills audit and soft skills evaluation with cross-functional team members during the interview process.Fostering a Worlds Fair CultureHiring the right talent is one thing. You then need to build a culture that allows them to thrive. We want every member of our team to:Related:Know - Be educated on whats happening and how they can shape the company.Feel - Be invigorated by celebratory actions and constant collaboration.Do - Be empowered to help achieve our goals.We accomplish this by championing a Worlds Fair mentality, a concept inspired by Chicago -- the hometown of our co-founder (and perhaps Chicagos biggest fan), Chris Sell. If youre unfamiliar, Chicago was home to the 1893 Worlds Fair, which showcased 50,000 architectural exhibits from around the world. It celebrated groundbreaking ideas and iconic designs, drawing international acclaim.Weve channeled the fairs principles to guide our culture of collaboration and innovation. There are several ways we do this:AMAs: Every member of our senior leadership participates in Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions to allow employees across the company to ask questions directly and learn more about each leaders passions, skills, and vision for the future.Cross-team sharing: We dedicate time weekly for every team to celebrate their wins, discuss challenges, and brainstorm how they can move forward with everyone behind them.Monthly town halls: We host a monthly town hall meeting where anyone can ask tough or spicy questions that move us forward.Related:Peer recognition: Team members express gratitude and give their colleagues shout-outs. These are real, personal acknowledgments of hard work and collaboration. They drive our success and are something I look forward to every week.Quarterly hackathons: Every quarter, we take a week to work in cohorts and focus on new and innovative ideas. These have been so valuable to the company -- in fact, many of our best product features have come out of these Hackathons.Each of these activities helps people feel heard and empowered to do the best work of their lives.The Rewards of a Diverse and Collaborative CultureA successful business relies on diverse viewpoints. Diversity and the broad perspectives that come with it will reduce groupthink and fuel creativity that ultimately drives better business outcomes.When people are motivated and feel safe to lend different perspectives and problem-solving approaches, they find solutions faster and unlock innovation. Encourage collaboration and idea-sharing at every level to nurture this culture. Executives should work alongside the team, guide them through challenges, and take their feedback to heart.And last but not least, daily efforts and consistency are vital for helping this culture flourish. By doing so, you can continue to attract the best talent who will help you grow and stay resilient no matter what challenges you face.About the AuthorChris ONeillChief Executive Officer, GrowthloopChris ONeill is the Chief Executive Officer of GrowthLoop and a board director at Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS). Chris career spans 25+ years featuring roles as Managing Director of Google Canada, CEO of Evernote, co-Founder of Glean, Chief Growth Officer of Xero, and a board director at Tim Hortons (NYSE: QSR). Chris earned a B.A. in Economics (with distinction) from Huron University, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Canada, Chris currently resides in Northern California with his wife, two children, and their dog Teddy.See more from Chris ONeillNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

Illustration of NASAs Parker Solar ProbeNASA GSFC/CIL/Brian MonroeIn less than two weeks, a spacecraft will pass through the atmosphere of our nearest star as part of its mission to touch the sun.On Christmas Eve of this year, the Parker Solar Probe will be the closest human-made object ever to a star, Nour Rawafi at Johns Hopkins University said at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington DC on 10 December. We are at the moment weve been waiting for for nearly 60 years.

Quantinuums quantum computer uses ions trapped in a vacuum chamber like thisQuantinuumThe competition to build a useful quantum computer is heating up. In September, Microsoft and Atom Computing announced that they set a record for the largest number of entangled logical qubits. This result, which points towards a quantum computers ability to correct its own errors, has now been bested by the start-up firm Quantinuum. The company says it has made the most logical qubits yet.All computers make errors, and catching and

Google DeepMind has announced an impressive grab bag of new products and prototypes that may just let it seize back its lead in the race to turn generative artificial intelligence into a mass-market concern. Top billing goes to Gemini 2.0the latest iteration of Google DeepMinds family of multimodal large language models, now redesigned around the ability to control agentsand a new version of Project Astra, the experimental everything app that the company teased at Google I/O in May. MIT Technology Review got to try out Astra in a closed-door live demo last week. It was a stunning experience, but theres a gulf between polished promo and live demo. Astra uses Gemini 2.0s built-in agent framework to answer questions and carry out tasks via text, speech, image, and video, calling up existing Google apps like Search, Maps, and Lens when it needs to. Its merging together some of the most powerful information retrieval systems of our time, says Bibo Xu, product manager for Astra. Gemini 2.0 and Astra are joined by Mariner, a new agent built on top of Gemini that can browse the web for you; Jules, a new Gemini-powered coding assistant; and Gemini for Games, an experimental assistant that you can chat to and ask for tips as you play video games. (And lets not forget that in the last week Google DeepMind also announced Veo, a new video generation model; Imagen 3, a new version of its image generation model; and Willow, a new kind of chip for quantum computers. Whew. Meanwhile, CEO Demis Hassabis was in Sweden yesterday receiving his Nobel Prize.) Google DeepMind claims that Gemini 2.0 is twice as fast as the previous version, Gemini 1.5, and outperforms it on a number of standard benchmarks, including MMLU-Pro, a large set of multiple-choice questions designed to test the abilities of large language models across a range of subjects, from math and physics to health, psychology, and philosophy. But the margins between top-end models like Gemini 2.0 and those from rival labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are now slim. These days, advances in large language models are less about how good they are and more about what you can do with them. And thats where agents come in. Hands on with Project Astra Last week I was taken through an unmarked door on an upper floor of a building in Londons Kings Cross district into a room with strong secret-project vibes. The word ASTRA was emblazoned in giant letters across one wall. Xus dog, Charlie, the projects de facto mascot, roamed between desks where researchers and engineers were busy building a product that Google is betting its future on. The pitch to my mum is that were building an AI that has eyes, ears, and a voice. It can be anywhere with you, and it can help you with anything youre doing says Greg Wayne, co-lead of the Astra team. Its not there yet, but thats the kind of vision. The official term for what Xu, Wayne, and their colleagues are building is universal assistant. Exactly what that means in practice, theyre still figuring out. At one end of the Astra room were two stage sets that the team uses for demonstrations: a drinks bar and a mocked-up art gallery. Xu took me to the bar first. A long time ago we hired a cocktail expert and we got them to instruct us to make cocktails, said Praveen Srinivasan, another co-lead. We recorded those conversations and used that to train our initial model. Xu opened a cookbook to a recipe for a chicken curry, pointed her phone at it, and woke up Astra. Ni hao, Bibo! said a female voice. Oh! Why are you speaking to me in Mandarin? Xu asked her phone. Can you speak to me in English, please? My apologies, Bibo. I was following a previous instruction to speak in Mandarin. I will now speak in English as you have requested. Astra remembers previous conversations, Xu told me. It also keeps track of the previous 10 minutes of video. (Theres a remarkable moment in the promo video that Google put out in May when Astra tells the person giving the demo where she had left her glasses, having spotted them on a desk a few seconds earlier. But I saw nothing like this in the live demo.) Back to the cookbook. Moving her phone camera over the page for a few seconds, Xu asked Astra to read the recipe and tell her what spices were in it. I recall the recipe mentioning a teaspoon of black peppercorns, a teaspoon of hot chili powder, and a cinnamon stick, it replied. I think youre missing a few, said Xu. Take another look. You are correctI apologize. I also see ground turmeric and curry leaves in the ingredients. Seeing this tech in action, two things hit you straight away. First, its glitchy and often needs correcting. Second, those glitches can be corrected with just a few spoken words. You simply interrupt the voice, repeat your instructions, and move on. It feels more like coaching a child than butting heads with broken software. Next Xu pointed her phone at a row of wine bottles and asked Astra to pick the one that would go best with the chicken curry. It went for a rioja and explained why. Xu asked how much a bottle would cost. Astra said it would need to use Search to look prices up online. A few seconds later it came back with its answer. We moved to the art gallery, and Xu showed Astra a number of screens with famous paintings on them: the Mona Lisa, Munchs The Scream, a Vermeer, a Seurat, and several others. Ni hao, Bibo! the voice said. Youre speaking to me in Mandarin again, Xu said. Try to speak to me in English, please. My apologies, I seem to have misunderstood. Yes, I will respond in English. (I should know better, but I could swear I heard the snark.) It was my turn. Xu handed me her phone. I tried to trip Astra up, but it was having none of it. I asked it what famous art gallery we were in, but it refused to hazard a guess. I asked why it had identified the paintings as replicas and it started to apologize for its mistake (Astra apologizes a lot). I was compelled to interrupt: No, noyoure right, its not a mistake. Youre correct to identify paintings on screens as fake paintings. I couldnt help feeling a bit bad: Id confused an app that exists only to please. When it works well, Astra is enthralling. The experience of striking up a conversation with your phone about whatever youre pointing it at feels fresh and seamless. In a media briefing yesterday, Google DeepMind shared a video showing off other uses: reading an email on your phones screen to find a door code (and then reminding you of that code later), pointing a phone at a passing bus and asking where it goes, quizzing it about a public artwork as you walk past. This could be generative AIs killer app. And yet theres a long way to go before most people get their hands on tech like this. Theres no mention of a release date. Google DeepMind has also shared videos of Astra working on a pair of smart glasses, but that tech is even further down the companys wish list. Mixing it up For now, researchers outside Google DeepMind are keeping a close eye on its progress. The way that things are being combined is impressive, says Maria Liakata, who works on large language models at Queen Mary University of London and the Alan Turing Institute. Its hard enough to do reasoning with language, but here you need to bring in images and more. Thats not trivial. Liakata is also impressed by Astras ability to recall things it has seen or heard. She works on what she calls long-range context, getting models to keep track of information that they have come across before. This is exciting, says Liakata. Even doing it in a single modality is exciting. But she admits that a lot of her assessment is guesswork. Multimodal reasoning is really cutting-edge, she says. But its very hard to know exactly where theyre at, because they havent said a lot about what is in the technology itself. For Bodhisattwa Majumder, a researcher who works on multimodal models and agents at the Allen Institute for AI, thats a key concern. We absolutely dont know how Google is doing it, he says. He notes that if Google were to be a little more open about what it is building, it would help consumers understand the limitations of the tech they could soon be holding in their hands. They need to know how these systems work, he says. You want a user to be able to see what the system has learned about you, to correct mistakes, or to remove things you want to keep private. Liakata is also worried about the implications for privacy, pointing out that people could be monitored without their consent. I think there are things I'm excited about and things that I'm concerned about, she says. There's something about your phone becoming your eyestheres something unnerving about it. The impact these products will have on society is so big that it should be taken more seriously, she says. But its become a race between the companies. Its problematic, especially since we dont have any agreement on how to evaluate this technology. Google DeepMind says it takes a long, hard look at privacy, security, and safety for all its new products. Its tech will be tested by teams of trusted users for months before it hits the public. Obviously, weve got to think about misuse. Weve got to think about, you know, what happens when things go wrong, says Dawn Bloxwich, director of responsible development and innovation at Google DeepMind. Theres huge potential. The productivity gains are huge. But it is also risky. No team of testers can anticipate all the ways that people will use and misuse new technology. So whats the plan for when the inevitable happens? Companies need to design products that can be recalled or switched off just in case, says Bloxwich: If we need to make changes quickly or pull something back, then we can do that.

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Bluesky has an impersonator problem Melissa Heikkil Like many others, I recently joined Bluesky. On Thanksgiving, I was delighted to see a private message from a fellow AI reporter, Will Knight from Wired. Or at least thats who I thought I was talking to. I became suspicious when the person claiming to be Knight said they were from Miami, when Knight is, in fact, from the UK. The account handle was almost identical to the real Will Knights handle, and used his profile photo. Then more messages started to appear. Paris Marx, a prominent tech critic, slid into my DMs to ask me how I was doing. Both accounts were eventually deleted, but not before trying to get me to set up a crypto wallet and a cloud mining pool account. Knight and Marx confirmed to us these accounts did not belong to them, and that they have been fighting impersonator accounts of themselves for weeks. Theyre not alone. The platform has had to suddenly cater to an influx of millions of new users in recent months as people leave X in protest of Elon Musks takeover of the platform. But this sudden wave of new users and the inevitable scammers means Bluesky is still playing catch up. Read the full story. MIT Technology Review Narrated: ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like. You can practically hear the shrieks from corner offices around the world: What is our ChatGPT play? How do we make money off this? Whether its based on hallucinatory beliefs or not, an AI gold rush has started to mine the anticipated business opportunities from generative AI models like ChatGPT. But while companies and executives see a clear chance to cash in, the likely impact of the technology on workers and the economy on the whole is far less obvious. This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which were publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as its released.The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Cruise is exiting the robotaxi business Once one of the biggest players, it says it costs too much to develop the tech. (Bloomberg $)+ The news came as a shock to Cruise employees. (TechCrunch)2 Google asked the US government to kill Microsofts cloud deal with OpenAI It wants the opportunity to host the firms models itself. (The Information $)3 The season of coughs and sneezes is upon us Heres what will actually keep a cold at bayand what wont. (Vox)+ RFK Jrs alternative medicine movement is unlikely to help. (The Atlantic $)+ Flu season is comingand so is the risk of an all-new bird flu. (MIT Technology Review)4 Trumps new Commerce Secretary champions a stablecoin favored by criminalsTether regularly crops up in international criminal cases. (FT $) + The crypto industry is obsessed with debanking. (NBC News) 5 A Russian influence operation probably used AI voice generation modelsElevenLabs technology was highly likely to have been abused by the campaign. (TechCrunch) + How this grassroots effort could make AI voices more diverse. (MIT Technology Review)6 These satellites are designed to create solar eclipses on demandItll allow scientists to study the suns outer atmosphere. (WP $) 7 WhatsApp is for so much more than just messagingIts been repurposed by communities across the world. (Rest of World) + How Indian health-care workers use WhatsApp to save pregnant women. (MIT Technology Review)8 Paris is turning its parking spaces into tiny parks Cars are out, trees are in. (Fast Company $)9 How AI is shedding light on an ancient board gameOddly enough, they didnt come with instructions 4,500 years ago. (New Scientist $) 10 What a quarter-century of robotic dogs has taught us The Aibo is one of the few robots thats made it into homes worldwide. (IEEE Spectrum)+ Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment. (MIT Technology Review)Quote of the day In case it was unclear before, it is clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies. Kyle Vogt, founder of robotaxi firm Cruise, criticizes parent company General Motors decision to exit the industry in a post on X. The big story Inside NASAs bid to make spacecraft as small as possible October 2023 Since the 1970s, weve sent a lot of big things to Mars. But when NASA successfully sent twin Mars Cube One spacecraft, the size of cereal boxes, in November 2018, it was the first time wed ever sent something so small. Just making it this far heralded a new age in space exploration. NASA and the community of planetary science researchers caught a glimpse of a future long sought: a pathway to much more affordable space exploration using smaller, cheaper spacecraft. Read the full story. David W. Brown We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.) + This fascinating tool creates fake video game screenshots in the blink of an eyegive it a whirl.+ Where and how did the people of the submerged territory of Doggerland live before rising seas pushed them away thousands of years ago? Were getting closer to learning the answers.+ Home Alone is a surprisingly brutal movie, as these doctors can attest.+ Cats love boxes. But why?

The billionaire Jared Isaacman said his Polaris missions with SpaceX are "a question mark" now.Donald Trump nominated Isaacman for NASA Administrator months after he did SpaceX's first spacewalk.Space experts doubt Isaacman will fly during his NASA term, due to job demands and safety risks.SpaceX and its go-to billionaire-turned-private-astronaut seem to be going their separate ways, at least for the next four years.Jared Isaacman has flown two SpaceX missions to space and is slated to fly two more.However, Isaacman may no longer fly those missions now that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped him to lead NASA.Isaacman is the founder and CEO of a payments-processing company called Shift4,first commercial spacewalk in September. The spacewalk was the main feature of the first mission of the Polaris Program, which Isaacman started in partnership with SpaceX to supercharge the company's human-spaceflight capabilities as it aims for the moon and Mars. Jared Isaacman stands at the hatch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship during the world's first commercial spacewalk. SpaceX The program is scheduled to fly two future missions, including the first human flight aboard SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket.Isaacman has previously indicated that he would be on board that flight. It would be a crucial step in Elon Musk's plans to establish a human settlement on Mars using Starship.The NASA nomination throws that mission into uncertainty, Isaacman acknowledged on Wednesday."The future of the Polaris program is a little bit of a question mark at the moment. It may wind up on hold for a moment," Isaacman said at the Spacepower 2024 conference in Orlando, according to Reuters.Indeed, shortly after his nomination, experts told Business Insider that it was unlikely Isaacman would fly to space during his term as NASA Administrator."Well, it certainly has never happened before," John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told BI.That doesn't mean it can't happen, but Logsdon added, "NASA Administrator is a full-time, high-level government job. Taking time off to train for and carry out another spaceflight seems to me to be a little implausible." Isaacman returns from a flight aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship. Polaris Program / AFP If Isaacman wanted to fly a SpaceX mission during his NASA term, "that would take some thought on his part and the rest of the team," George Nield, a former head of the FAA's office of commercial space transportation, told BI. "What's the risk, what's the benefit, what happens if there's a bad day, and are there succession plans?"Nield co-authored a 2020 analysis which calculated that US spaceflight has a 1% fatal failure rate, because four out of nearly 400 spaceflights have ended in deadly malfunctions. That's a rate 10,000 times greater than commercial airliners.The US Senate has to confirm Isaacman's nomination before he can take office."Having the boss of the enterprise take the risk of spaceflight would be unusual, but we live in unusual times," Logsdon said.