#[1]alternate [2]News for nerds, stuff that matters [3]Search Slashdot [4]Slashdot RSS [5]Slashdot * [6]Stories * + Firehose + [7]All + [8]Popular * [9]Polls * [10]Software * [11]Thought Leadership * [12]Jobs [13]Submit Search Slashdot ____________________ (BUTTON) * [14]Login * or * [15]Sign up * Topics: * [16]Devices * [17]Build * [18]Entertainment * [19]Technology * [20]Open Source * [21]Science * [22]YRO * Follow us: * [23]RSS * [24]Facebook * [25]LinkedIn * [26]Twitter * [27]Youtube * [28]Mastodon * [29]Newsletter Follow Slashdot stories on [30]Twitter Nickname: ____________________ Password: ____________________ [ ] Public Terminal __________________________________________________________________ Log In [31]Forgot your password? [32]Close binspamdupenotthebestofftopicslownewsdaystalestupid freshfunnyinsightfulinterestingmaybe offtopicflamebaittrollredundantoverrated insightfulinterestinginformativefunnyunderrated descriptive typodupeerror [33]Sign up for the Slashdot newsletter! OR [34]check out the new Slashdot job board to browse remote jobs or jobs in your area Do you develop on GitHub? You can keep using GitHub but automatically [35]sync your GitHub releases to SourceForge quickly and easily with [36]this tool so your projects have a backup location, and get your project in front of SourceForge's nearly 20 million monthly users. It takes less than a minute. Get new users downloading your project releases today! [37]× 174514063 story [38]Databases [39]Latest MySQL Release is Underwhelming, Say Some DB Experts [40](theregister.com) [41]9 Posted by msmash on Tuesday July 16, 2024 @12:05PM from the closer-look dept. The latest release of MySQL has [42]underwhelmed some commentators who fear Oracle -- the custodian of the open source database -- may have other priorities. From a report: Earlier this month, Oracle -- which has long marketed its range of proprietary database systems -- published the 9.0 version as an "Innovation Release" of MySQL. MySQL 9.0 is now among the three iterations Oracle supports. The others include 8.0 (8.0.38) and the first update of the 8.4 LTS (8.4.1). [...] In June, Peter Zaitsev, an early MySQL engineer and founder of open source consultancy Percona, said he feared the lack of features in MySQL was a result of Oracle's focus on Heatwave, a proprietary analytics database built on MySQL. He had previously defended Oracle's stewardship of the open source database. The release of MySQL 9.0 has not assuaged those concerns, said colleague Dave Stokes, Percona technology evangelist. It had not lived up to the previous 8.0 release, which arrived with many new features. "MySQL 9.0 is supposed to be an 'innovation release' where [Oracle offers] access to the latest features and improvements and [users] enjoy staying on top of the latest technologies," he said. However, he pointed out most more innovative features, such as vector support and embedded JavaScript store procedures, were not in the free MySQL Community Edition and were only available on the paid-for HeatWave edition. "The ability to store the output of an EXPLAIN command to a variable is not the level of new feature hoped for," he said. apply tags__________ 174513981 story [43]NASA [44]NASA Transmits Hip-Hop Song To Deep Space for First Time [45](nasa.gov) [46]30 Posted by msmash on Tuesday July 16, 2024 @11:26AM from the is-anyone-listening? dept. NASA: The stars above and on Earth aligned as an inspirational message and lyrics from the song "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" by hip-hop artist Missy Elliott were beamed to Venus via NASA's DSN (Deep Space Network). The agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California [47]sent the transmission at 10:05 a.m. PDT on Friday, July 12. As the largest and most sensitive telecommunication service of NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, the DSN has an array of giant radio antennas that allow missions to track, send commands, and receive scientific data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond. To date, the system has transmitted only one other song into space, making the transmission of Elliott's song a first for hip-hop and NASA. "Both space exploration and Missy Elliott's art have been about pushing boundaries," said Brittany Brown, director, Digital and Technology Division, Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington, who initially pitched ideas to Missy's team to collaborate with the agency. "Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting." The song traveled about 158 million miles (254 million kilometers) from Earth to Venus -- the artist's favorite planet. Transmitted at the speed of light, the radio frequency signal took nearly 14 minutes to reach the planet. The transmission was made by the 34-meter (112-foot) wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna, located at the DSN's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, near Barstow in California. Coincidentally, the DSS-13 also is nicknamed Venus. apply tags__________ 174513661 story [48]AI [49]Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic Used Thousands of Swiped YouTube Videos To Train AI [50](wired.com) [51]19 Posted by msmash on Tuesday July 16, 2024 @10:43AM from the closer-look dept. AI companies are generally secretive about their sources of training data, but an investigation by Proof News found some of the wealthiest AI companies in the world have [52]used material from thousands of YouTube videos to train AI. Companies did so despite YouTube's rules against harvesting materials from the platform without permission. From a report: Our investigation found that subtitles from 173,536 YouTube videos, siphoned from more than 48,000 channels, were used by Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Anthropic, Nvidia, Apple, and Salesforce. The dataset, called YouTube Subtitles, contains video transcripts from educational and online learning channels like Khan Academy, MIT, and Harvard. The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the BBC also had their videos used to train AI, as did The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Proof News also found material from YouTube megastars, including MrBeast (289 million subscribers, two videos taken for training), Marques Brownlee (19 million subscribers, seven videos taken), Jacksepticeye (nearly 31 million subscribers, 377 videos taken), and PewDiePie (111 million subscribers, 337 videos taken). Some of the material used to train AI also promoted conspiracies such as the "flat-earth theory." Further reading: [53]YouTube Says OpenAI Training Sora With Its Videos Would Break Rules. apply tags__________ 174513439 story [54]Earth [55]Climate Crisis is Making Days Longer, Study Finds [56](theguardian.com) [57]27 Posted by msmash on Tuesday July 16, 2024 @10:07AM from the closer-look dept. The climate crisis is causing the [58]length of each day to get longer, analysis shows, as the mass melting of polar ice reshapes the planet. From a report: The phenomenon is a striking demonstration of how humanity's actions are transforming the Earth, scientists said, rivalling natural processes that have existed for billions of years. The change in the length of the day is on the scale of milliseconds but this is enough to potentially disrupt internet traffic, financial transactions and GPS navigation, all of which rely on precise timekeeping. The length of the Earth's day has been steadily increasing over geological time due to the gravitational drag of the moon on the planet's oceans and land. However, the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets due to human-caused global heating has been redistributing water stored at high latitudes into the world's oceans, leading to more water in the seas nearer the equator. This makes the Earth more oblate -- or fatter -- slowing the rotation of the planet and lengthening the day still further. The planetary impact of humanity was also demonstrated recently by [59]research that showed the redistribution of water had caused the Earth's axis of rotation -- the north and south poles -- to move. Other work has revealed that humanity's carbon emissions are shrinking the stratosphere. apply tags__________ 174513039 story [60]AI [61]Microsoft Investigated by UK Over Ex-Inflection Staff Hires [62](bloomberg.com) [63]2 Posted by msmash on Tuesday July 16, 2024 @09:08AM from the how-about-that dept. Microsoft's [64]investment into Inflection AI will [65]get a full-blown UK antitrust probe, after the watchdog said it needed to take a closer look at the hiring of former employees from the artificial intelligence startup. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority said Tuesday it was [66]opening the formal phase one merger probe into the partnership, setting a Sept. 11 deadline on whether to escalate it to an in-depth investigation. The agency has been swift to act against big tech's AI startup investments after it found a pattern of large tech firms piling money into start ups. apply tags__________ 174508991 story [67]AI [68]Senate Introduces Bill To Setup Legal Framework For Ethical AI Development [69](techspot.com) [70]31 Posted by [71]BeauHD on Tuesday July 16, 2024 @06:00AM from the better-late-than-never dept. Last week, the U.S. Senate [72]introduced a new bill to [73]outlaw the unethical use of AI-generated content and deepfake technology. Called the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act), the bill would "set new federal transparency guidelines for marking, authenticating and detecting AI-generated content, protect journalists, actors and artists against AI-driven theft, and hold violators accountable for abuses." TechSpot reports: Proposed and sponsored by Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, along with Republican Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the aims to establish enforceable transparency standards in AI development [such a [74]through watermarking]. The legislation also wants to curb unauthorized data use in training models. The senators intend to task the National Institutes of Standards and Technology with developing sensible transparency guidelines should the bill pass. [...] The senators feel that clarifying and defining what is okay and what is not regarding AI development is vital in protecting citizens, artists, and public figures from the harm that misuse of the technology could cause, particularly in creating deepfakes. The text of the bill can be read [75]here. apply tags__________ 174508841 story [76]Moon [77]Radar Images Suggest There's a Tunnel On the Moon [78](gizmodo.com) [79]43 Posted by [80]BeauHD on Tuesday July 16, 2024 @03:00AM from the would-you-look-at-that dept. Longtime Slashdot reader [81]fahrbot-bot shares a report from Gizmodo: A team of researchers think they've [82]discovered a cave on the Moon in radar images of the lunar surface, which they posit could be a future site for an established human presence on our rocky satellite. The tunnel is in the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) pit, the deepest known pit on the Moon. (If the name is familiar to you, the Sea of Tranquility is where the Apollo 11 mission landed in 1969.) The pit formed due to a lava tube's roof collapse or a collapse of a void structure created by tectonic processes. To look for potential cave structures within the pit, the researchers studied side-looking radar images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Mini-RF instrument between 2009 and 2011. The team then conducted 3D radar simulations of potential geometries of the pit and its cave, to determine that the brightness they saw in radar images could be due to subsurface features. Ultimately, the team determined there is a tunnel in the pit that is between 98 feet (30 meters) long and 262ft (80m) long. The tunnel is roughly 148ft (45m) wide and is either flat or inclined with a maximum steepness of 45 degrees. "The exploration of lunar caves through future robotic missions could provide a fresh perspective on the lunar subsurface and yield new insights into the evolution of lunar volcanism," the team wrote in the paper. "Furthermore, direct exploration could confirm the presence of stable subsurface environments shielded from radiation and with optimal temperature conditions for future human utilization." The findings have been [83]published in the journal Nature Astronomy. apply tags__________ 174508549 story [84]Piracy [85]Record Labels Sue Verizon After ISP 'Buried Head In Sand' Over Subscribers' Piracy [86](torrentfreak.com) [87]103 Posted by [88]BeauHD on Monday July 15, 2024 @11:30PM from the can-you-hear-them-now? dept. An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Just before the weekend, dozens of record labels including UMG, Warner, and Sony, [89]filed a massive copyright infringement lawsuit against Verizon at a New York federal court. In common with previous lawsuits that accused rivals of similar inaction, Verizon Communications Inc., Verizon Services Corp., and Cellco Partnership (dba Verizon Wireless), stand accused of assisting subscribers to download and share pirated music, by not doing enough to stop them. The labels' complaint introduces Verizon as one of the largest ISPs in the country, one that "knowingly provides its high-speed service to a massive community of online pirates." Knowledge of infringement, the labels say, was established at Verizon over a period of several years during which it received "hundreds of thousands" of copyright notices, referencing instances of infringement allegedly carried out by its subscribers. The complaint cites Verizon subscribers' persistent use of BitTorrent networks to download and share pirated music, with Verizon allegedly failing to curtail their activity. "While Verizon is famous for its 'Can you hear me now?' advertising campaign, it has intentionally chosen not to listen to complaints from copyright owners. Instead of taking action in response to those infringement notices as the law requires, Verizon ignored Plaintiffs' notices and buried its head in the sand," the labels write. "Undeterred, infringing subscribers identified in Plaintiffs' notices continued to use Verizon's services to infringe Plaintiffs' copyrights with impunity. Meanwhile, Verizon continued to provide its high-speed service to thousands of known repeat infringers so it could continue to collect millions of dollars from them." Through this lawsuit, which references piracy of songs recorded by artists including The Rolling Stones, Ariana Grande, Bob Dylan, Bruno Mars, Elvis Presley, Dua Lipa, Drake, and others, the labels suggest that Verizon will have no choice but to hear them now. [...] Attached to the complaint, Exhibit A contains a non-exhaustive list of the plaintiffs' copyright works allegedly infringed by Verizon's subscribers. The document is over 400 pages long, with each track listed representing potential liability for Verizon as a willful, intentional, and purposeful contributory infringer, the complaint notes. This inevitably leads to claims based on maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per copyrighted work infringed on Count I (contributory infringement). The statutory maximum of $150,000 per infringed work is also applied to Count II (vicarious infringement), based on the labels' claim that Verizon derived a direct financial benefit from the direct infringements of its subscribers. The labels' complaint can be found [90]here (PDF). apply tags__________ 174508577 story [91]Power [92]Italy Reconsiders Nuclear Energy 35 Years After Shutting Down Last Reactor [93](semafor.com) [94]82 Posted by [95]BeauHD on Monday July 15, 2024 @09:30PM from the planning-ahead dept. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni [96]plans to revive Italy's nuclear energy sector, focusing on small modular reactors to be operational within a decade. He said that nuclear energy could constitute at least 11% of the country's electricity mix by 2050. Semafor reports: Italy's energy minister [97]told the Financial Times that the government would introduce legislation to support investment in small modular reactors, which could be operational within 10 years. [...] In Italy, concerns about energy security since Russia's invasion of Ukraine have pushed the government to reconsider nuclear power, Bloomberg wrote. Energy minister Pichetto Fratin told the Financial Times he was confident that Italians' historic "aversion" could be overcome, as nuclear technology now has "different levels of safety and benefits families and businesses." In Italy, safety is also top of mind: The Chernobyl tragedy of 1986 was the trigger for it to cease nuclear production in the first place, and the 2011 Fukushima disaster reignited those concerns. As of April, only 51% of Italians approved of nuclear power, according to polls shared by Il Sole 24 Ore. The plan to introduce small modular reactors in Italy could add to the country's history of [98]failure in nuclear energy, a former Italian lawmaker and researcher argued in Italian outlet Il Fatto Quotidiano, writing that these reactors are expensive and produce too little energy to justify an investment in them.They [99]could also become obsolete within the next decade, the timeline for the government to introduce them, Italian outlet Domani added, and be overtaken by nuclear fusion reactors, which are more efficient and have "virtually no environmental impact." Italy's main oil company, Eni, has signed a deal with MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion System, with the goal of providing the first operational nuclear fusion plant by 2030. apply tags__________ 174508477 story [100]AI [101]Microsoft Unveils a Large Language Model That Excels At Encoding Spreadsheets [102]28 Posted by [103]BeauHD on Monday July 15, 2024 @08:50PM from the ready-or-not-here-it-comes dept. Microsoft has quietly announced the [104]first details of its new "SpreadsheetLLM," claiming it has the "potential to transform spreadsheet data management and analysis, paving the way for more intelligent and efficient user interactions." You can read more details about the model in a pre-print paper [105]available here. Jasper Hamill reports via The Stack: One of the problems with using LLMs in spreadsheets is that they get bogged down by too many tokens (basic units of information the model processes). To tackle this, Microsoft developed SheetCompressor, an "innovative encoding framework that compresses spreadsheets effectively for LLMs." "It significantly improves performance in spreadsheet table detection tasks, outperforming the vanilla approach by 25.6% in GPT4's in-context learning setting," Microsoft added. The model is made of three modules: structural-anchor-based compression, inverse index translation, and data-format-aware aggregation. The first of these modules involves placing "structural anchors" throughout the spreadsheet to help the LLM understand what's going on better. It then removes "distant, homogeneous rows and columns" to produce a condensed "skeleton" version of the table. Index translation addresses the challenge caused by spreadsheets with numerous empty cells and repetitive values, which use up too many tokens. "To improve efficiency, we depart from traditional row-by-row and column-by-column serialization and employ a lossless inverted index translation in JSON format," Microsoft wrote. "This method creates a dictionary that indexes non-empty cell texts and merges addresses with identical text, optimizing token usage while preserving data integrity." [...] After conducting a "comprehensive evaluation of our method on a variety of LLMs" Microsoft found that SheetCompressor significantly reduces token usage for spreadsheet encoding by 96%. Moreover, SpreadsheetLLM shows "exceptional performance in spreadsheet table detection," which is the "foundational task of spreadsheet understanding." The new LLM builds on the Chain of Thought methodology to introduce a framework called "Chain of Spreadsheet" (CoS), which can "decompose" spreadsheet reasoning into a table detection-match-reasoning pipeline. apply tags__________ 174508323 story [106]EU [107]OW2: 'The European Union Must Keep Funding Free Software' [108](ow2.org) [109]11 Posted by [110]BeauHD on Monday July 15, 2024 @08:10PM from the uncertain-future dept. [111]OW2, the non-profit international consortium [112]dedicated to developing open-source middleware, published an open letter to the European Commission today. They're [113]urging the European Union to continue funding free software after noticing that the [114]Next Generation Internet (NGI) programs were no longer mentioned in Cluster 4 of the 2025 Horizon Europe funding plans. OW2 argues that discontinuing NGI funding would weaken Europe's technological ecosystem, leaving many projects under-resourced and jeopardizing Europe's position in the global digital landscape. The letter reads, in part: NGI programs have shown their strength and importance to support the European software infrastructure, as a generic funding instrument to fund digital commons and ensure their long-term sustainability. We find this transformation incomprehensible, moreover when NGI has proven efficient and economical to support free software as a whole, from the smallest to the most established initiatives. This ecosystem diversity backs the strength of European technological innovation, and maintaining the NGI initiative to provide structural support to software projects at the heart of worldwide innovation is key to enforce the sovereignty of a European infrastructure. Contrary to common perception, technical innovations often originate from European rather than North American programming communities, and are mostly initiated by small-scaled organizations. Previous Cluster 4 allocated 27 millions euros to: - "Human centric Internet aligned with values and principles commonly shared in Europe"; - "A flourishing internet, based on common building blocks created within NGI, that enables better control of our digital life"; - "A structured eco-system of talented contributors driving the creation of new internet commons and the evolution of existing internet commons." In the name of these challenges, more than 500 projects received NGI funding in the first 5 years, backed by 18 organizations managing these European funding consortia. apply tags__________ 174507329 story [115]AI [116]Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott Thinks LLM 'Scaling Laws' Will Hold Despite Criticism [117]17 Posted by [118]BeauHD on Monday July 15, 2024 @07:30PM from the optimistic-views dept. An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: During [119]an interview with Sequoia Capital's Training Data podcast published last Tuesday, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott doubled down on [120]his belief that so-called large language model (LLM) "scaling laws" will continue to drive AI progress, despite some skepticism in the field that progress has leveled out. Scott played a [121]key role in forging a $13 billion technology-sharing deal between Microsoft and OpenAI. "Despite what other people think, we're not at diminishing marginal returns on scale-up," Scott said. "And I try to help people understand there is an exponential here, and the unfortunate thing is you only get to sample it every couple of years because it just takes a while to build supercomputers and then train models on top of them." LLM scaling laws refer to patterns explored by OpenAI researchers in 2020 showing that the performance of language models tends to improve predictably as the models get larger (more parameters), are trained on more data, and have access to more computational power (compute). The laws suggest that simply scaling up model size and training data can lead to significant improvements in AI capabilities without necessarily requiring fundamental algorithmic breakthroughs. Since then, other researchers have [122]challenged the idea of persisting scaling laws over time, but the concept is still [123]a cornerstone of OpenAI's AI development philosophy. Scott's comments can be found around [124]the 46-minute mark. apply tags__________ 174505547 story [125]United States [126]FBI Has 'Gained Access' To the Trump Rally Shooter's Phone [UPDATE] [127](theverge.com) [128]773 Posted by msmash on Monday July 15, 2024 @06:44PM from the up-next dept. UPDATE 7/15/24 3:05 p.m. EDT: In a [129]press release published this afternoon, the FBI said they "successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks' phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices." The bureau added that it has completed its search of the subject's residence and vehicle, and "conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses." Original Story: July 15, 16:45 UTC: Investigators are working to [130]break into the phone of the man who shot at former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. The Verge: The FBI said in a statement that it had obtained the shooter's phone "for examination." Officials told reporters in a conference call on Sunday, as reported by The New York Times, that agents in Pennsylvania were unable to break into the phone. It's been shipped to the FBI's lab in Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI hopes to get past the phone's password protection, the Times reported. Investigators are still looking for insight into the motives of Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who they identified as the gunman. Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, told the Times and other outlets that the agency has access to some of Crooks' text messages, but they haven't shed much light on his beliefs. apply tags__________ 174507245 story [131]Communications [132]Nation's Last Morse Code Station Comes Back To Life On Annual 'Night of Nights' In Point Reyes [133](mercurynews.com) [134]13 Posted by [135]BeauHD on Monday July 15, 2024 @06:10PM from the well-preserved dept. On July 12, 1999, the last Morse code message was sent from a Bay Area radio station, marking the end of an era. Every July 12, the Historic [136]KPH Maritime Radio Receiving Station in Point Reyes [137]revives the golden age of maritime radio, with volunteers exchanging Morse code messages worldwide. The Mercury News reports: Friday's "Night of Nights" event, which commemorates the long-gone stations and the skilled radiotelegraph operators who linked ships to shore, starts at 5:01 p.m. -- precisely one minute after the 1999 message ended. Operators will keep working until 11 p.m. "We're carrying on," said historical society president Richard Dillman, 80, who learned Morse code as a boy. "Morse code is not dead." The event, based at KPH's stations that are now part of the wild and windswept Point Reyes National Seashore, northwest of San Francisco, is not open to the public. But amateur radio operators around the world can participate by sending messages and exchanging greetings. The operating frequencies of the historical society's amateur station, under the call sign K6KPH, are 3550, 7050, 14050, 18097.5 and 21050. Radiogrammed messages arrive from as far away as New Zealand and Europe, rich with memories of rewarding careers or poignant tributes to lost loved ones. "Dear dad, we love you and we miss you so much," said one. The station uses the original historic KPH transmitters, receivers, antennas and other equipment, carefully repaired and restored by the society's experts. [...] All over the Pacific coast, stations closed. KPH's receiving headquarters -- an Art Deco cube built between 1929 and 1931, its entrance framed by a tunnel of cypress trees -- was acquired by the National Park Service in 1999. Its transmission station is located on a windswept bluff in Bolinas. [Historical society president Richard Dillman] and friend Tom Horsfall resolved to repair, restore and operate KPH as a way to honor the men and women who for 100 years had served ships in the North Pacific and Indian Ocean. "It was a brotherhood," said Dillman. "There was camaraderie -- a love of Morse code and the ability to do a job well." [...] They pitched their ambitious plan to the National Park Service. "At first, I was skeptical about their proposal," said Don Neubacher, the Seashore's former Superintendent. "But over time, I realized the Maritime Radio Historical Society, led by Richard Dillman, was a gift for the National Park Service." "I was impressed by the overwhelming knowledge of early wireless and ship-to-shore communication," he said, "and their lifelong commitment to saving this critical piece of Point Reyes history." With a dozen society volunteers from all over the Bay Area -- all over the age of 60, self-described "radio squirrels" -- they went to work. They meet on Saturday mornings over coffee and breakfast "services" dubbed "The Church of the Continuous Wave," sometimes ogling over radio schematics. Then, for a few hours, they broadcast news and weather. apply tags__________ 174507087 story [138]AI [139]Gemini AI Platform Accused of Scanning Google Drive Files Without User Permission [140](techradar.com) [141]16 Posted by [142]BeauHD on Monday July 15, 2024 @05:30PM from the there's-no-escaping dept. Last week, Senior Advisor on AI Governance at the Center for Democracy & Technology, Kevin Bankston, [143]took to X to report that Google's Gemini AI was [144]caught summarizing his private tax return on Google Drive without his permission. "Despite attempts to disable the feature, Bankston found that Gemini's continued to operate in Google Drive, raising questions about Google's handling of user data and privacy settings," writes TechRadar's Craig Hale. From the report: After failing to find the right controls to disable Gemini's integration, the Advisor asked Google's ChatGPT-rivalling AI chatbot on two occasions to pinpoint the settings. A second, more detailed response still brought no joy: "Gemini is *not* in Apps and services on my dashboard (1st option), and I didn't have a profile pic in the upper right of the Gemini page (2nd)." With help from another X user, Bankston found the control, which was already disabled, highlighting either a malfunctioning control or indicating that further settings are hidden elsewhere. However, previous Google documentation has confirmed that the company will not use Google Workspace data to train or improve its generative AI services or to feed targeted ads. Bankston theorizes that his previous participation in Google Workspace Labs might have influenced Gemini's behavior. The Gemini side panel in Google Drive for PDFs can be closed if a user no longer wishes to access generative AI summaries. apply tags__________ [145]« Newer [146]Older » Slashdot Top Deals Slashdot Top Deals [147]Slashdot Deals Slashdot Poll Is NVIDIA: (*) Overvalued ( ) Undervalued ( ) Valued correctly ( ) Not sure / Show results (BUTTON) vote now [148]Read the 39 comments | 13290 votes Looks like someone has already voted from this IP. If you would like to vote please login and try again. Is NVIDIA: 0 Percentage of others that also voted for: * [149]view results * Or * * [150]view more [151]Read the 39 comments | 13290 voted Most Discussed * 763 comments [152]FBI Has 'Gained Access' To the Trump Rally Shooter's Phone [UPDATE] * 120 comments [153]How Will AI Transform the Future of Work? * 109 comments [154]How Bad Amazon Review Destroyed a Mom-and-Pop Business * 96 comments [155]The World's Population Is Projected To Peak At 10.3 Billion In the 2080s * 92 comments [156]Record Labels Sue Verizon After ISP 'Buried Head In Sand' Over Subscribers' Piracy [157]Firehose * [158]'Trojan Source' flaw could result in covert app poisoning * [159]Federal Court Blocks Net Neutrality Rules * [160]Firefox 128 has integrated data collection for advertisers enabled by default * [161]Radar Images Suggest There's a Cave/Tunnel on the Moon * [162]One Dead, Two Critically Wounded in Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump [163]This Day on Slashdot 2013 [164]Kernel Dev Tells Linus Torvalds To Stop Using Abusive Language 1501 comments 2010 [165]Apple Offers Free Cases To Solve iPhone 4 Antenna Problems 917 comments 2008 [166]McCain Campaign Uses Spider/Diff Against Obama 1171 comments 2004 [167]Bobby Fischer Found 1379 comments 2002 [168]House OKs Life Sentences For Hackers 972 comments [169]Sourceforge Top Downloads * [170]TrueType core fonts 2.2B downloads * [171]Notepad++ Plugin Mgr 1.5B downloads * [172]VLC media player 899M downloads * [173]eMule 686M downloads * [174]MinGW 631M downloads Powered By [175]sf [176]Slashdot * [177]Today * [178]Monday * [179]Sunday * [180]Saturday * [181]Friday * [182]Thursday * [183]Wednesday * [184]Tuesday * [185]Submit Story Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward. * [186]FAQ * [187]Story Archive * [188]Hall of Fame * [189]Advertising * [190]Terms * [191]Privacy Statement * [192]About * [193]Feedback * [194]Mobile View * [195]Blog * * (BUTTON) Icon Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Copyright © 2024 Slashdot Media. All Rights Reserved. × [196]Close [197]Close [198]Slashdot [njs.gif?22] Working... References Visible links: 1. https://m.slashdot.org/ 2. https://slashdot.org/ 3. https://slashdot.org/search.pl 4. https://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdotMain 5. https://slashdot.org/ 6. https://slashdot.org/ 7. https://slashdot.org/recent 8. https://slashdot.org/popular 9. https://slashdot.org/polls 10. https://slashdot.org/software/ 11. https://slashdot.org/content/ 12. https://slashdot.org/jobs 13. https://slashdot.org/submission 14. https://slashdot.org/my/login 15. https://slashdot.org/my/newuser 16. https://devices.slashdot.org/ 17. https://build.slashdot.org/ 18. https://entertainment.slashdot.org/ 19. https://technology.slashdot.org/ 20. https://slashdot.org/?fhfilter=opensource 21. https://science.slashdot.org/ 22. https://yro.slashdot.org/ 23. https://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdotMain 24. https://www.facebook.com/slashdot 25. https://www.linkedin.com/company/slashdot 26. https://twitter.com/slashdot 27. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsW36751Gy-EAbHQwe9WBNw 28. https://mastodon.cloud/@slashdot 29. https://slashdot.org/newsletter 30. http://twitter.com/slashdot 31. https://slashdot.org/my/mailpassword 32. https://slashdot.org/ 33. https://slashdot.org/newsletter 34. https://jobs.slashdot.org/?source=boiler_plate&utm_source=boiler_plate&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=bp_referral 35. https://sourceforge.net/p/forge/documentation/GitHub Importer/ 36. https://sourceforge.net/p/import_project/github/ 37. https://slashdot.org/ 38. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=database 39. https://developers.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/1535251/latest-mysql-release-is-underwhelming-say-some-db-experts 40. https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/16/mysql_9_underwhelms_community/ 41. https://developers.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/1535251/latest-mysql-release-is-underwhelming-say-some-db-experts#comments 42. https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/16/mysql_9_underwhelms_community/ 43. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=nasa 44. https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/1526220/nasa-transmits-hip-hop-song-to-deep-space-for-first-time 45. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-transmits-hip-hop-song-to-deep-space-for-first-time 46. https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/1526220/nasa-transmits-hip-hop-song-to-deep-space-for-first-time#comments 47. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-transmits-hip-hop-song-to-deep-space-for-first-time 48. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ai 49. https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/1443251/apple-nvidia-anthropic-used-thousands-of-swiped-youtube-videos-to-train-ai 50. https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-training-data-apple-nvidia-anthropic 51. https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/1443251/apple-nvidia-anthropic-used-thousands-of-swiped-youtube-videos-to-train-ai#comments 52. https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-training-data-apple-nvidia-anthropic/ 53. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/04/04/1939244/youtube-says-openai-training-sora-with-its-videos-would-break-rules 54. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=earth 55. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/147249/climate-crisis-is-making-days-longer-study-finds 56. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/15/climate-crisis-making-days-longer-study 57. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/147249/climate-crisis-is-making-days-longer-study-finds#comments 58. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/15/climate-crisis-making-days-longer-study 59. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01478-2 60. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ai 61. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/137247/microsoft-investigated-by-uk-over-ex-inflection-staff-hires 62. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-16/microsoft-gets-uk-merger-probe-over-ex-inflection-staff-hires 63. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/137247/microsoft-investigated-by-uk-over-ex-inflection-staff-hires#comments 64. https://slashdot.org/story/24/03/19/1614200/microsoft-hires-deepmind-co-founder-suleyman-to-run-consumer-ai-hires-most-of-inflection-ai-startup-staff 65. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-16/microsoft-gets-uk-merger-probe-over-ex-inflection-staff-hires 66. https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/microsoft-slash-inflection-ai-inquiry 67. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ai 68. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/0056221/senate-introduces-bill-to-setup-legal-framework-for-ethical-ai-development 69. https://www.techspot.com/news/103820-us-senate-introduces-ground-breaking-bill-setup-legal.html 70. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/0056221/senate-introduces-bill-to-setup-legal-framework-for-ethical-ai-development#comments 71. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 72. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2024/7/cantwell-blackburn-heinrich-introduce-legislation-to-combat-ai-deepfakes-put-journalists-artists-songwriters-back-in-control-of-their-content 73. https://www.techspot.com/news/103820-us-senate-introduces-ground-breaking-bill-setup-legal.html 74. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/11/24196769/copied-act-cantwell-blackburn-heinrich-ai-journalists-artists 75. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24804105-copied-act 76. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=moon 77. https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/0032209/radar-images-suggest-theres-a-tunnel-on-the-moon 78. https://gizmodo.com/radar-images-suggest-theres-a-cave-on-the-moon-2000473429 79. https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/0032209/radar-images-suggest-theres-a-tunnel-on-the-moon#comments 80. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 81. https://slashdot.org/~fahrbot-bot 82. https://gizmodo.com/radar-images-suggest-theres-a-cave-on-the-moon-2000473429 83. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02302-y?error=cookies_not_supported&code=febf515b-c3f3-4dba-85e5-41b9aa1b8134 84. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=piracy 85. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2342211/record-labels-sue-verizon-after-isp-buried-head-in-sand-over-subscribers-piracy 86. https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-verizon-after-isp-buried-head-in-sand-over-subscribers-piracy-240715/ 87. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2342211/record-labels-sue-verizon-after-isp-buried-head-in-sand-over-subscribers-piracy#comments 88. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 89. https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-verizon-after-isp-buried-head-in-sand-over-subscribers-piracy-240715/ 90. https://torrentfreak.com/images/1-24-cv-05285-UMG-v-Verizon-complaint-240712.pdf 91. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=power 92. https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2348229/italy-reconsiders-nuclear-energy-35-years-after-shutting-down-last-reactor 93. https://www.semafor.com/article/07/15/2024/italy-nuclear-energy-industry-after-decades 94. https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2348229/italy-reconsiders-nuclear-energy-35-years-after-shutting-down-last-reactor#comments 95. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 96. https://www.semafor.com/article/07/15/2024/italy-nuclear-energy-industry-after-decades 97. https://www.ft.com/content/a726934b-ba97-4e2c-b60d-e24a227a416f 98. https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2023/12/11/anche-pichetto-fratin-vuole-il-nucleare-dei-piccoli-reattori-lunica-certezza-e-il-fallimento/7380128/ 99. https://www.editorialedomani.it/ambiente/nucleare-governo-corsa-fusione-ritardi-incognite-bbrjc98i 100. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ai 101. https://slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2330243/microsoft-unveils-a-large-language-model-that-excels-at-encoding-spreadsheets 102. https://slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2330243/microsoft-unveils-a-large-language-model-that-excels-at-encoding-spreadsheets#comments 103. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 104. https://www.thestack.technology/microsoft-llm-spreadsheet-llm/ 105. https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.09025?ref=thestack.technology 106. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=eu 107. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/237247/ow2-the-european-union-must-keep-funding-free-software 108. https://www.ow2.org/view/Events/The_European_Union_must_keep_funding_free_software_open_letter 109. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/237247/ow2-the-european-union-must-keep-funding-free-software#comments 110. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 111. https://www.ow2.org/view/Main/ 112. https://www.ow2.org/view/About/OW2_Introduction 113. https://www.ow2.org/view/Events/The_European_Union_must_keep_funding_free_software_open_letter 114. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/next-generation-internet-initiative 115. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ai 116. https://slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2032259/microsoft-cto-kevin-scott-thinks-llm-scaling-laws-will-hold-despite-criticism 117. https://slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2032259/microsoft-cto-kevin-scott-thinks-llm-scaling-laws-will-hold-despite-criticism#comments 118. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 119. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTQWymHp0n0 120. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/07/microsoft-cto-defies-critics-ai-progress-not-slowing-down-its-just-warming-up/ 121. https://www.fastcompany.com/90957311/how-microsoft-cto-kevin-scott-helped-forge-the-companys-deal-with-openai 122. https://arxiv.org/html/2211.04325v2 123. https://x.com/sama/status/1760473881884987606 124. https://youtu.be/aTQWymHp0n0?si=ZVYWMvgFRJYczMF7&t=2765 125. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=usa 126. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/1644239/fbi-has-gained-access-to-the-trump-rally-shooters-phone-update 127. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/15/24198946/fbi-encryption-phone-trump-attempted-assassination-shooter 128. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/1644239/fbi-has-gained-access-to-the-trump-rally-shooters-phone-update#comments 129. https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/update-on-the-fbi-investigation-of-the-attempted-assassination-of-former-president-donald-trump 130. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/15/24198946/fbi-encryption-phone-trump-attempted-assassination-shooter 131. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=communications 132. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2023228/nations-last-morse-code-station-comes-back-to-life-on-annual-night-of-nights-in-point-reyes 133. https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/11/nations-last-morse-code-station-comes-back-to-life-on-annual-night-of-nights-in-point-reyes/ 134. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2023228/nations-last-morse-code-station-comes-back-to-life-on-annual-night-of-nights-in-point-reyes#comments 135. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 136. https://www.radiomarine.org/mrhs-stations/blog-post-title-two-a5m4z 137. https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/11/nations-last-morse-code-station-comes-back-to-life-on-annual-night-of-nights-in-point-reyes/ 138. https://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ai 139. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/204200/gemini-ai-platform-accused-of-scanning-google-drive-files-without-user-permission 140. https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/gemini-ai-platform-caught-scanning-google-drive-files-without-user-permission 141. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/204200/gemini-ai-platform-accused-of-scanning-google-drive-files-without-user-permission#comments 142. https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauhd/ 143. https://twitter.com/KevinBankston/status/1811075836558114968 144. https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/gemini-ai-platform-caught-scanning-google-drive-files-without-user-permission 145. https://slashdot.org/ 146. https://slashdot.org/?page=1 147. http://deals.slashdot.org/ 148. https://slashdot.org/poll/3253/is-nvidia 149. https://slashdot.org/poll/3253/is-nvidia 150. https://slashdot.org/polls 151. https://slashdot.org/poll/3253/is-nvidia 152. https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/1644239/fbi-has-gained-access-to-the-trump-rally-shooters-phone-update?sbsrc=md 153. https://it.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/0018207/how-will-ai-transform-the-future-of-work?sbsrc=md 154. https://slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/1738256/how-bad-amazon-review-destroyed-a-mom-and-pop-business?sbsrc=md 155. https://slashdot.org/story/24/07/14/2227218/the-worlds-population-is-projected-to-peak-at-103-billion-in-the-2080s?sbsrc=md 156. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/07/15/2342211/record-labels-sue-verizon-after-isp-buried-head-in-sand-over-subscribers-piracy?sbsrc=md 157. https://slashdot.org/recent/ 158. https://slashdot.org/submission/17324155/trojan-source-flaw-could-result-in-covert-app-poisoning?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose 159. https://slashdot.org/submission/17324149/federal-court-blocks-net-neutrality-rules?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose 160. https://slashdot.org/submission/17324145/firefox-128-has-integrated-data-collection-for-advertisers-enabled-by-default?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose 161. https://slashdot.org/submission/17324143/radar-images-suggest-theres-a-cavetunnel-on-the-moon?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose 162. https://slashdot.org/submission/17324091/one-dead-two-critically-wounded-in-assassination-attempt-on-donald-trump?utm_source=rss1.0&utm_medium=feed&sbsrc=firehose 163. https://slashdot.org/ 164. https://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/07/15/2316219/kernel-dev-tells-linus-torvalds-to-stop-using-abusive-language?sbsrc=thisday 165. https://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/07/16/1741212/apple-offers-free-cases-to-solve-iphone-4-antenna-problems?sbsrc=thisday 166. https://politics.slashdot.org/story/08/07/16/1247203/mccain-campaign-uses-spiderdiff-against-obama?sbsrc=thisday 167. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/04/07/16/1219233/bobby-fischer-found?sbsrc=thisday 168. https://yro.slashdot.org/story/02/07/16/065207/house-oks-life-sentences-for-hackers?sbsrc=thisday 169. https://slashdot.org/ 170. https://sourceforge.net/projects/corefonts/?source=sd_slashbox 171. https://sourceforge.net/projects/npppluginmgr/?source=sd_slashbox 172. https://sourceforge.net/projects/vlc/?source=sd_slashbox 173. https://sourceforge.net/projects/emule/?source=sd_slashbox 174. https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/?source=sd_slashbox 175. https://sourceforge.net/?source=sd_slashbox 176. https://slashdot.org/ 177. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240716&view=search 178. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240715&view=search 179. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240714&view=search 180. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240713&view=search 181. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240712&view=search 182. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240711&view=search 183. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240710&view=search 184. https://tech.slashdot.org/?issue=20240709&view=search 185. https://slashdot.org/submit 186. https://slashdot.org/faq 187. https://slashdot.org/archive.pl 188. https://slashdot.org/hof.shtml 189. https://slashdotmedia.com/advertising-and-marketing-services/ 190. https://slashdotmedia.com/terms-of-use/ 191. https://slashdotmedia.com/privacy-statement/ 192. https://slashdot.org/faq/slashmeta.shtml 193. mailto:feedback@slashdot.org 194. https://slashdot.org/ 195. https://slashdot.org/blog 196. https://slashdot.org/ 197. https://slashdot.org/ 198. https://slashdot.org/ Hidden links: 200. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 201. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 202. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 203. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 204. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 205. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 206. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 207. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 208. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 209. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 210. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 211. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 212. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 213. https://slashdot.org/tag/ 214. https://slashdot.org/newsletter 215. https://slashdot.org/