Catching AI for Spies... TikTok sues first... Apple's back at it... and more

Welcome back to my Tech Curious friends. This week started slow, hence I didn’t post a mid week update. But really pick up mid week, making up for lost time. Below you can find information about the most recent tech news. So let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• AI Made for Spies

• To Catch an AI

• TikTok Sues the US Government

• When Your Brain Hardware Fails…

• Apples Dance Between Powers…

• An Affordable Phone?

AI Made for Spies

One of the hidden truths about AI like ChapGPT, and others, is that they use your data, including the questions you ask, to build its information base. However, there are times you want your data separated, and for you not to feed data back into the system.

Therefore, Microsoft has developed a special AI model that isn’t connected to the Internet, specifically for spies.

It’s based on GPT-4, it can answer questions, and can write code. It can read and analyze files but cannot learn from them, thus keeping secrets safe. If you trust Microsoft with security.

» read more here

To Catch an AI

No, this isn’t like the classic movie. However, with AI being everywhere (a recent student told me he got a phone call from where he applied, and step one was making sure that they were a real human, and not an AI bot applying for jobs), and getting so good at mimicking voices, we have to know how to determine if something is AI.

This is because a common scam right now is to mimic someone’s loved one and asking for money like they are in a panic. Typically, scammers mimic someone's loved one and pretend to be in a panic, asking for money by claiming they have been arrested or need medical assistance.

The key security experts say, is to ask the right types of questions that only the real person would know. Things like a favorite place to hang out, the name of a neighbor, etc. Doing this can help keep you safe.

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TikTok Sues the US Government

Of course they have… I called it a couple weeks ago, saying that TikTok would sue to keep the government from enforcing the ban… and they’ve already filed it. I guess no time like the present.

No idea if it will actually work, of course. Only time will tell, and there are lots of legal wrangling to go on before that.

» read more here

When Your Brain Hardware Fails…

Neuralink is a cool new tool using BCI (Brain Control Interface) to help people who’ve had certain injuries regain some control of their lives, including being able to play chess. However, what happens when there’s a problem with it?

That’s the question everyone is asking now that there has been a problem, just a few months after it was implanted. Specifically, it looks like some connectors have withdrawn. They are using new algorithms to work around the problem for now.

So the theory of us being able to download memories like in the Matrix, or Johnny Menmonic, are further off than we hoped.

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Apples Dance Between Powers…

…that is Power of the CPU and Battery Power. If you saw the new iPad coming out.

If you don’t want to charge your device very often, your device will use more efficient cores in your processor. However, that means your device won’t be as fast.

Apple’s new iPad will use the M4 chip. While the iPad Pro was shown having 10 cores 4 performance and 6 efficient, if you get the 256GB or 512GB storage configurations it will only come with three performance cores, resulting in a 9-core cluster.

While this doesn’t seem to be a major issue, it will result is a slower performance if you don’t pay for the bigger, fancier machine. Add to that the poor reception of the crushing art ads… let’s just say this isn’t the roll out that Apple needs.

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An Affordable Phone?

Speaking of mobile devices…

No one denies that cell phones are getting crazy expensive, with a flagship Samsung Galaxy S24 and Apple iPhone 15 running over $1,000 for the cheaper version and up to almost $1,500 for the loaded version. What’s a normal person to do?

While there are cheaper phones out there, they are often missing most of the interesting features. Mid-range phones cost a little more, but have most of the features people really need.

This is the role that Google’s latest Pixel 8a is looking to fulfil. The Pixel 8 came out nearly seven years ago, so Google has learned and updated based upon that time.

All the specs have been slightly improved, or are the same as with the previous version, including the old camera (which is still good enough), and wireless charging method. However, it has many of the new AI features one would expect from Google.

And all for the “low-ish” price of $499 on Amazon, or you can find it in Google’s store.

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