A group in Korea claims to have invented a room-temperature, ambient pressure superconductor. Big if true! CC-licensed photo by MIKI Yoshihito on Flickr.
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A selection of 11 links for you. Use them wisely. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. Observations and links welcome.
NUJ expresses ‘grave concern’ over AI-generated story on refugees published by regional news group • The Journal (Ireland)
Diarmuid Pepper:
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The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has expressed “grave concern” over an article generated by artificial intelligence (AI) about refugees published this morning on the websites of several regional newspapers.
The article, with the headline, “OPINION: Should refugees in Ireland go home?”, was published by Iconic Media’s digital titles. Its byline – a line at the top of an article that usually gives the author’s name – said “AI Generated”.
A disclaimer at the top of the article stated: “NOTE: This article was written by ChatGPT – an artificial intelligence chatbot. It was asked: Should refugees in Ireland go home?”
Around lunchtime, the headline of the article was updated to state ”Can we trust Artificial Intelligence?”. The disclaimer was also updated to include: “Here is an example of a piece of content powered by AI. We’d be interested to hear your views.” However, the text of the article remained the same.
Seamus Dooley, the Irish secretary of the NUJ, expressed “grave concern at the use of AI-generated material in this fashion”.
The Journal has contacted Iconic Media Group for comment but has not yet received a response.
Dooley said the article disclaimer “confirms the limitations of AI in terms of providing informed research and analysis”. He criticised the article’s “classic clickbait” headline.
“Asylum seekers granted refugee status in Ireland under international law are granted a new home and the notion of asking if they should ‘go home’ seems intended to fuel a debate similar to that generated in the UK,” Dooley said.
He added: “While the article seems relatively benign, the question is loaded and is a classic trope.”
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Some really stupid decisions get made inside newspapers, but this one is astonishing. Again, it must have gone through at least three levels – someone commissions it, someone does it, someone sub-edits it (and maybe puts it on the site). And nobody said “Errrr..is this.. you know.. wise?”
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The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor • Arxiv.org
Sukbae Lee, Ji-Hoon Kim and Young-Wan Kwon from South Korea’s Quantum Energy Research Centre and Korea University’s graduate school of converging science and technology:
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For the first time in the world, we succeeded in synthesizing the room-temperature superconductor (Tc≥400 K, 127∘C) working at ambient pressure with a modified lead-apatite (LK-99) structure. The superconductivity of LK-99 is proved with the Critical temperature (Tc), Zero-resistivity, Critical current (Ic), Critical magnetic field (Hc), and the Meissner effect.
The superconductivity of LK-99 originates from minute structural distortion by a slight volume shrinkage (0.48 %), not by external factors such as temperature and pressure. The shrinkage is caused by Cu2+ substitution of Pb2+(2) ions in the insulating network of Pb(2)-phosphate and it generates the stress. It concurrently transfers to Pb(1) of the cylindrical column resulting in distortion of the cylindrical column interface, which creates superconducting quantum wells (SQWs) in the interface.
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The authors end their paper by saying “We believe that our new development will be a brand-new historical event that opens a new era for humankind.” Well, yeah, absolutely – once others replicate it. Which very much remains to be done: we’ve had so many false starts. But worth noting. Thanks Adewale Aadetugbo for the link – potentially the most important one here ever!
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The arrival of the eSIM is altering how consumers interact with operators • Opensignal
Andrey Popov:
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While eSIM adoption in the mobile market has been arriving for some time, Apple’s move to make eSIM the only option for iPhone 14 range in the U.S. is propelling the worldwide shift towards eSIM technology. Opensignal’s latest analysis reveals a significant surge in the proportion of users switching their operator among those who use an eSIM across seven examined markets – Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the U.K. and the U.S.
The switch from physical to embedded SIM cards threatens to alter how consumers switch operators and encourages operators to adopt new tactics to retain and acquire users, for example operators can offer network trials from within an app that provisions an eSIM immediately. eSIM also means the risks to operators of dual SIM devices that have long been common in many international markets are arriving in operator-controlled markets too, such as the U.S. and South Korea. Even on smartphones sold by operators, eSIM support is usually present in addition to a physical SIM, making them dual-SIM devices.
Google added eSIM-support to the Pixel range in 2017, Samsung added eSIM support to 2019’s Galaxy S20 flagship. While Apple first added eSIM to their phones in 2018 with the iPhone Xs, it switched to selling exclusively eSIM models in the U.S. with the iPhone 14 range in late 2022. South Korea is also a special case – eSIM support for domestic customers only began in mid-2022, before this point it was only available to international travelers. Notably, Samsung responded by introducing eSIM to a selection of its flagship devices in the home market, which had not been previously available there.
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Highly recommend an eSIM if you’re travelling somewhere with pricey roaming. They can work out much cheaper. Just don’t activate them too soon.
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Peer raises prospect House of Lords could be replaced by bots ‘with deeper knowledge and lower running costs’ • Sky News
Faye Brown:
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The House of Lords could be replaced by bots with “higher productivity, deeper knowledge and lower running costs”, a peer warned as the debate continues over the risks of artificial intelligence (AI).
Lord Londesborough said AI will soon be advanced enough to deliver his speeches in his voice by analysing and processing the comments he has made on parliament’s live TV feed.
He asked the upper chamber if the prospect of being replaced by “peer bots” is either an “exciting” or an “alarming” one, before raising concerns about the impact AI could have on millions of workers in the UK.
The hereditary peer’s comments came during the latest debate in parliament on the development of advanced AI, associated risks and potential approaches to regulation within the UK and internationally.
Lord Londesborough, an independent crossbencher, said he was “briefly tempted to outsource my AI speech to a chatbot and to see if anybody noticed”.
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Might have a better attendance record. But how would they vote?
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As actors strike for AI protections, Netflix lists $900,000 AI job • The Intercept
Ken Klippenstein:
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As Hollywood executives insist it is “just not realistic” to pay actors — 87% of whom earn less than $26,000 — more, they are spending lavishly on AI programs.
While entertainment firms like Disney have declined to go into specifics about the nature of their investments in artificial intelligence, job postings and financial disclosures reviewed by The Intercept reveal new details about the extent of these companies’ embrace of the technology.
In one case, Netflix is offering as much as $900,000 for a single AI product manager.
…“So $900k/yr per soldier in their godless AI army, when that amount of earnings could qualify thirty-five actors and their families for SAG-AFTRA health insurance, is just ghoulish,” actor Rob Delaney, who had a lead role in the “Black Mirror” episode, told The Intercept. “Having been poor and rich in this business, I can assure you there’s enough money to go around; it’s just about priorities.”
Among the striking actors’ demands are protections against their scanned likeness being manipulated by AI without adequate compensation for the actors.
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TETRA radio code encryption has a flaw: a backdoor • WIRED
Ki Zetter:
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For more than 25 years, a technology used for critical data and voice radio communications around the world has been shrouded in secrecy to prevent anyone from closely scrutinizing its security properties for vulnerabilities. But now it’s finally getting a public airing thanks to a small group of researchers in the Netherlands who got their hands on its viscera and found serious flaws, including a deliberate backdoor.
The backdoor, known for years by vendors that sold the technology but not necessarily by customers, exists in an encryption algorithm baked into radios sold for commercial use in critical infrastructure. It’s used to transmit encrypted data and commands in pipelines, railways, the electric grid, mass transit, and freight trains. It would allow someone to snoop on communications to learn how a system works, then potentially send commands to the radios that could trigger blackouts, halt gas pipeline flows, or reroute trains.
Researchers found a second vulnerability in a different part of the same radio technology that is used in more specialized systems sold exclusively to police forces, prison personnel, military, intelligence agencies, and emergency services, such as the C2000 communication system used by Dutch police, fire brigades, ambulance services, and Ministry of Defense for mission-critical voice and data communications. The flaw would let someone decrypt encrypted voice and data communications and send fraudulent messages to spread misinformation or redirect personnel and forces during critical times.
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What. What the whatting what. An intentional backdoor known to the vendors?!
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TSMC delays Arizona factory set to build chips for iPhones and AI • The Verge
Jess Weatherbed:
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The world’s biggest chipmaker is pushing back the start of 4nm chip production at its new facility in Phoenix, Arizona, to 2025, blaming labour shortages. Apple has said that it intends to eventually source chips for its iPhones and MacBook models from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plant in the US, while Nvidia and AMD have also committed to using its production capacity.
The chipmaker’s first Phoenix-based fab, which began construction in 2021, was originally projected to start producing 4nm chips next year. A second fab that will produce smaller, more complex 3nm chips is scheduled to open in 2026.
During the company’s Q2 earnings call on Thursday, TSMC chairman Mark Liu said that the company was “encountering certain challenges, as there is an insufficient amount of skilled workers with the specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor-grade facility” in the US
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About a decade ago Tim Cook gave an interview to a select group of folks at The Guardian, and one of the points he made about why Apple manufactures so much (at that time, essentially everything) in China was that compared to everywhere else, including the US, it was so much easier to find skilled workers. That hasn’t changed, it seems.
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Antarctic sea ice levels dive in ‘five-sigma event’, as experts flag worsening consequences for planet • ABC News
Alexandra Alvaro:
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This winter has confirmed what scientists had feared — the sea ice around Antarctica is in sharp decline, with experts now concerned it may not recover.
Earlier this year, scientists observed an all-time low in the amount of sea ice around the icy continent, following all-time lows in 2016, 2017 and 2022.
Usually, the ice has been able to recover in winter, when Antarctica is reliably dark and cold. But this year is different. For the first time, the sea ice extent has been unable to substantially recover this winter, leaving scientists baffled.
Physical oceanographer Edward Doddridge has been communicating with scientists and the community about the drastic changes happening around Antarctica. He said vast regions of the Antarctic coastline were ice free for the first time in the observational record.
“To say unprecedented isn’t strong enough,” Dr Doddridge said. “For those of you who are interested in statistics, this is a five-sigma event. So it’s five standard deviations beyond the mean. Which means that if nothing had changed, we’d expect to see a winter like this about once every 7.5 million years. It’s gobsmacking.”
Sea ice is important for a number of reasons. First, it helps regulate Earth’s temperature through something called ice-albedo feedback, where the ice reflects the Sun’s heat back into space, helping to regulate the temperature of the planet.
“If there’s less ice, then the sunlight that hits the ocean’s surface is absorbed instead of being reflected out into space,” Dr Doddridge said.
Second, the annual cycle of freeze and melt drives global currents that transport nutrient-rich water into the rest of the ocean, feeding ecosystems.
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It would be nice to have some good climate news. There just isn’t any. And yet there are those who are utterly sure that the twin forces of capitalism and technology will, finger-snap, solve it all! Unfortunately I think of a different sort of finger snap.
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A decade ago, Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post. Now he’s paying attention to it again • The New York Times
Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson:
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During his tenure as executive editor at The Washington Post, Martin Baron ran into a persistent problem.
Jeff Bezos had purchased The Post for $250m in 2013, less than a year after Mr. Baron had taken over. Mr. Bezos, who arrived at media ownership after founding Amazon and remaking online shopping, wanted his top editor to transform the newspaper from a regional news organization into a truly global one.
But Mr. Bezos, whose representatives kept an eye on the budget, didn’t believe The Post needed to add many new editors to accomplish that task. Reporters were classified as “direct” employees and editors as “indirect” — and his preference was to keep the “indirect” numbers down.
So, Mr. Baron came up with a workaround, according to his coming memoir. “To avoid setting off alarms up the line, my deputies and I would strip the word ‘editor’ from proposed new positions whenever possible,” Mr. Baron writes. “‘Analyst’ or ‘strategist’ were among the limited set of workarounds.”
These days, Mr. Bezos knows more about the news business. And in recent months, he has become more involved with The Post’s operations, stepping in as staff morale cratered and the business struggled.
Mr. Bezos has said he wants The Post to be profitable, but it is unlikely to reach that target this year. The Post is on a pace to lose about $100m in 2023, according to two people with knowledge of the company’s finances; two other people briefed on the situation said the company was expecting to miss its forecasts for ad revenue this year.
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Twitter’s rebrand to X is destined to fail, critics say • Fast Company
Chris Stokel-Walker:
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The move “makes no sense,” tweeted True Ventures partner emeritus Om Malik. “I mean, what is the name ‘Twitter’ then. And why should you ‘tweet?’” By rebranding Twitter as X, Musk breaks the connection between the name of the platform and what people do on it. It seems unlikely that people will refer to sharing Xs or re-Xing any time soon. (Contacted to comment for this story, Twitter’s press office email autoresponded to say “We’ll get back to you soon.”)
Yet Musk still seems keen on foisting X branding on everything. The grand ambition stems from his first company, payments firm X.com, which brought him his initial fortune, and lingers on via the Twitter rebrand and the launch of his new AI company xAI. Musk fans will point to the fact that the media—as evidenced by this very story—now refers to Zuckerberg’s company as Meta (rather than Facebook) as evidence that Twitter’s rebrand to X could work. However, that overlooks the fact that journalists are, by nature of their jobs, required to call companies (and people, for that matter) by their latest, official names. It also overlooks the fact that the majority of the public still calls Zuckerberg’s company Facebook. Likewise, Google’s 2015 rebranding of its parent company to Alphabet is one that both journalists and the general public have by now essentially ignored.
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I don’t think this rebrand is going to stick. Twitter isn’t gaining users; the ones it has were signed up before this. So you’re pushing against the inertia of absolutely everyone.
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Redditors prank AI-powered news mill with “Glorbo” in World of Warcraft • Ars Technica
Benj Edwards:
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On Thursday, a Reddit user named kaefer_kriegerin posted a fake announcement on the World of Warcraft subreddit about the introduction of “Glorbo” to the game. Glorbo isn’t real, but the post successfully exposed a website that scrapes Reddit for news in an automated fashion with little human oversight.
Not long after the trick post appeared, an article about Glorbo surfaced on “The Portal,” a gaming news content mill run by Z League, a company that offers cash prizes for playing in gaming tournaments. The Z League article mindlessly regurgitates the Reddit post and adds nonsensical details. Its author, “Lucy Reed” (likely a fictitious name for a bot), authored over 80 articles that same day.
Members of the World of Warcraft subreddit recently noticed that this kind of automated content scraping of Reddit has been taking place, prompting several of them to try to game the bots and get their posts featured on sites like The Portal.
Titled “I’m so excited they finally introduced Glorbo!!!” the original Reddit trap post provides little detail about what Glorbo is meant to be, and likely for good reason…
A human reading this Reddit post would likely catch factual errors within, such as a reference to Hearthstone in 1994 (the game came out in 2014) and a nod to “major bot operated news websites.” The presence of these elements would seem to preclude a human being responsible for the Z League article on The Portal.
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| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified
The Overspill: when there's more that I want to say 