You've probably heard or read people talking about ethical AI. While computers can't actually think and thus have no actual bias or sense of responsibility, the people developing the software that powers it all certainly do and that's what makes it important.

It's not an easy thing to describe or to notice. That doesn't take anything away from how vital it is that big tech companies who develop consumer-facing products powered by AI do it right. Let's take a look at what it is and what is being done to make sure AI makes our lives better instead of worse.

AI is nothing more than a chunk of software that takes in something, processes it, and spits out something else. Really, that's what all software does. What makes AI different is that the output can be wildly different from the input.

Take ChatGPT or Google Bard for instance. You can ask either to solve math problems, look something up on the web, tell you what day Elvis Presley died, or write you a short story about the history of the Catholic church. Nobody would have thought you could use your phone for this a few years ago.

Some of those are pretty easy tasks. Software that's integrated with the internet can fetch information about anything and regurgitate it back as a response to a query. It's great because it can save time, but it's not really amazing.

(Image credit: Future)

One of those things is different, though. Software is used to create meaningful content that uses human mannerisms and speech, which isn't something that can be looked up on Google. The software recognizes what you are asking (write me a story) and the parameters to be used for it (historical data about the Catholic church) but the rest seems amazing. 

Believe it or not, responsible development matters in both types of use. Software doesn't magically decide anything and it has to be trained responsibly, using sources that are either unbiased (impossible) or equally biased from all sides. 

You don't want Bard to use someone who thinks Elvis is still alive as the sole source for the day he died. You also wouldn't want someone who hates the Catholic church to program software used to write a story about it. Both points of view need to be considered and weighed against other valid points of view.

Ethics matter as much as keeping natural human bias in check. A company that can develop something needs to make sure it is used responsibly. If it can't do that, it needs to not develop it at all. That's a slippery slope — one that is a lot harder to manage.

The companies that develop intricate AI software are aware of this and believe it or not, mostly follow the rule saying that some things just shouldn't be made even if they can be made.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

I reached out to both Microsoft and Google about what's being done to make sure AI is used responsibly. Microsoft told me they didn't have anything new to share but directed me to a series of corporate links and blog posts about the subject. reading through them shows that Microsoft is committed to "ensure that advanced AI systems are safe, secure, and trustworthy" in accordance with the current U.S. policy and outlines its internal standards in great detail. Microsoft currently has an entire team working on responsible AI.

In contrast, Google has plenty to say in addition to its already published statements. I recently attended a presentation about the subject where senior Google employees said the only AI race that matters is the race for responsible AI. They explained that just because something is technically possible isn't a good enough reason to greenlight a product: harms need to be identified and mitigated as part of the development process so they can then be used to further refine that process.

Facial recognition and emotional detection were given as examples. Google is really good at both and if you don't believe that, have a look at Google Photos where you can search for a specific person or for happy people in your own pictures. It's also the number one feature requested by potential customers but Google refuses to develop it further. The potential harm is enough for Google to refuse to take money for it.

Even  behind a VR headset or in dark glasses google can identify me. (Image credit: Future)

Google too is in favor of both governmental regulation as well as internal regulation. That's both surprising and important because a level playing field where no company can create harmful AI is something that both Google and Microsoft think outweighs any potential income or financial gain.

What impressed me the most was Google's response when I asked about balancing accuracy and ethics. For something like plant identification, accuracy is very important while bias is less important. For something like identifying someone's gender in a photo, both are equally important.

Google breaks AI into what it calls slices; each slice does a different thing and the outcome is evaluated by a team of real people to check the results. Adjustments are made until the team is satisfied, then further development can happen.

None of this is perfect and we all have seen AI do or repeat very stupid things, sometimes even hurtful things. If these biases and ethical breaches can find their way into one product, they can (and do) find their way into all of them.

What's important is that the companies developing the software of the future recognize this and keep trying to improve the process. It will never be perfect but as long as each iteration is better than the last we're moving in the right direction.

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Researchers have developed a processor built on neural networks that can perform AI tasks so much quicker than conventional chips by removing the need to access external memory.

Even the best CPUs hit bottlenecks when processing data because calculations need to use RAM, with this shuttling of data back and forth creating inefficiencies. IBM is hoping to solve what is known as the Von Neumann bottleneck with its NorthPole chip, according to Nature.

The NorthPole processor embeds a small amount of memory into each of its 256 cores, which are connected together in a way similar to the way parts of the brain are connected together with white matter. This means the chip mitigates the bottleneck entirely. 

Seeking inspiration from the human brain

IBM’s NorthPole is more of a proof of concept than a fully functioning chip that can compete with the likes of AMD and Nvidia. It only includes 224MB of RAM, for example, which is nowhere near enough the scale required for AI or to run large language models (LLMs). 

The chip can also just run pre-programed neural networks trained on separate systems. But its unique architecture means the real standout is the energy efficiency it can boast. The researchers claim that if NorthPole was created today with state-of-the-art manufacturing standards, it would be 25 times more efficienct than the best GPUs and best CPUs.

“Its energy efficiency is just mind-blowing,” said Damien Querlioz, a nanoelectronics researcher at the University of Paris-Saclay in Palaiseau, according to Nature. “The work, published in Science, shows that computing and memory can be integrated on a large scale, he says. “I feel the paper will shake the common thinking in computer architecture.”

It can also outpace AI systems in tasks such as image recognition. Its neural network architecture means a bottom layer takes in data, such as the pixels in an image, and subsequent layers begins detecting patterns that become more complex as information is passed from one layer to the next.

The uppermost layer then outputs the end result, such as suggesting whether an image contains a particular object.

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The US might not be able to stop Chinese firms, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) and Huawei Technologies Co (華為), from making progress in chip technology, one of the semiconductor industry’s leading figures said this week.

SMIC and Huawei, which stunned Washington by unveiling a made-in-China phone processor, can use existing older machines to make even more sophisticated silicon, former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) vice president Lin Burn-jeng (林本堅) said.

SMIC should be able to advance to 5-nanometer technology with ASML Holding NV machines that it already operates, said Lin, who at TSMC championed the lithography technology that transformed chipmaking.

Huawei electrified the chip industry when it unveiled a 7-nanometer processor made by SMIC in the Mate 60 Pro, triggering celebrations in China and accusations in the US that a campaign to contain the country’s tech ascent had failed.

Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (長江存儲) is also producing some of the most advanced memory chips in the industry.

The administration of US President Joe Biden this month tightened curbs to close loopholes through which China might be accessing advanced US equipment, marking a new phase in a struggle to influence technologies crucial to the economic and political balance.

Yet that might not stop China’s technological ascent, said Lin, who is highly regarded in the industry for being the first person to propose immersion lithography, the technology that ASML’s core products rely on.

SMIC used ASML’s immersion lithography machines to make the 7-nanometer chip for Huawei, Lin said.

Beyond trying to reach the 5-nanometer milestone, it is likely that China would experiment with new materials or advanced chip packaging to make more powerful semiconductors, he said.

“It is just not possible for the US to completely prevent China from improving its chip technology,” Lin said in an interview at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu City, where he serves as dean of the semiconductor research college.

That echoed comments from Arm Holdings PLC chief executive officer Rene Haas earlier this month.

“What the US really should do is to focus on maintaining its chip design leadership instead of trying to limit China’s progress, which is futile, as China is adopting a whole-nation strategy to boost its chip industry, and hurting the global economy,” Lin said.

The US might have inadvertently granted Shanghai-based SMIC a golden opportunity, he added.

In 2020, Washington effectively banned TSMC — supplier of the world’s most advanced silicon to Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp — from doing business with Huawei.

That is when SMIC stepped up to inherit the massive orders that helped it to improve its manufacturing technique, Lin said.

A debate is now raging in the US and beyond about whether Washington and its allies should step up their Chinese containment campaign.

US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has said Washington does not have evidence that China can make advanced chips “at scale.”

US Under-Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez said it is “absolutely” a concern for Washington that China could use 7-nanometer technology — or better — in military applications.

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The new Basic tier will cost $3 a month or $32 for a year. In an X post, it states that the new subscription plan will offer "access to the most essential Premium features." That means subscribers will be able to edit and undo posts and write longer posts, but they won't get the blue "verified" checkmark.

The $8 a month ($84 for a year) Premium tier (formerly known as Twitter Blue) is not going away, so people who sign up for that plan will still get features like the blue verified account checkmark, 50 percent reduced ads in For You and Following timelines and more.

The new Premium+ subscription tier costs $16 a month or $168 a year. This plan will completely get rid of ads for both the For You and Following timelines, and will also provide the biggest boosts for subscribers' replies. The new tier will also come with full access to X's creator tools. More info on these new tiers can be found on this X support page.

These new tiers come about a year after Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the social networking company. He has since made a ton of changes to the service, including a name change that many people are still not happy about.

X recently started testing a new $1 a year subscription service in two countries that offers access to its most basic features. At the time, the company said it was trying to decrease spam on the service by bots. There's no word when or if this annual plan will roll out to other parts of the world.

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Quantum computing is an exciting and evolving deep-tech sector, which could transform parts of society when it comes to fruition.

These powerful machines are capable of processing vast amounts of data and could eventually solve problems that are far too advanced for modern supercomputers, which would lead to enormous benefits for humanity.

But the journey to get there is not easy, with a variety of technological and scientific hurdles to overcome before these we can create true quantum computers.

Ulrich Seyfarth is a manager in BearingPoint’s Munich operations. He said that a lot of effort has been made to solve the issues surrounding quantum computers, but there is still a long way to go.

“Major challenges include the number of information carriers (qubits) needed and the ability to compute long-running calculations due to the impact of noise and decoherence effects which must be mitigated by powerful error-correction methods,” Seyfarth said.

“The current stage of quantum computing is called NISQ (noisy intermediate-scale quantum), more a playground to get used to quantum computing, than a stage where we can gain from powerful new solutions. That horizon however, is approaching.”

Many researchers are working to bring us closer to fault-free quantum computers. Last month, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claimed they found a new way to hit 99.9pc accuracy in certain quantum operations.

Earlier this year, quantum computing company Quantiniuum claimed it was able to accurately simulate a hydrogen molecule by using an error-detecting code.

The potential benefits

When – or if – we get to the stage of general-purpose quantum computers, Seyfarth said there are various ways these machines could be used to benefit society. One way would be to simulate aspects of nature, as “nature is quantum”.

“Quantum theory is a fundamental description of the physical behaviour of our world,” Seyfarth said. “Computers that speak the same language as nature are best suited to simulate it.

“The potential for new discoveries in physics, chemistry, biology and other foundational sciences is immense. Research will be a key application of quantum computing in revealing new discoveries as foundations for applications across many industries.”

Quantum computers could also help to break past certain bottlenecks in modern technology, such as miniaturisation. For example, Seyfarth said circuits are now operating at such a small scale that quantum phenomena are posing “significant challenges to the continuity of Moore’s Law”. This is the principle that the number of transistors incorporated in a densely populated chip will double every two years.

“We are reaching manufacturing limits, at a time when the demand for computational power is increasing rapidly,” Seyfarth said. “Many organisations are reliant on an ability to process increasing volumes of data, faster.

“A fundamental change in computation capability is necessary and this is driving the significant investment we see in quantum computing technology.”

While various challenges exist, Seyfarth predicts that the future of quantum technology is “promising” and that new quantum hardware, algorithms, processing methods and other breakthroughs will develop in the future.

“The development of quantum compilers, abstract languages and available computational power in the cloud and middleware platforms will lead to easier access to this technology – also creating new industries and ecosystems around it,” Seyfarth said.

While there is no clear prediction for when quantum computing will become truly available for businesses, Seyfarth said organisations should develop an understanding of their data processing needs for the future and the potential quantum computing may have to help them to “remain competitive”.

“Those that start early in developing their understanding of the technology and its likely implications, will be better positioned to harness its power,” Seyfarth said. “If you think that quantum computing technology is potentially relevant to your future business, a good starting point is to invest in developing some internal knowledge within your organisation.

“As the technology becomes more accessible from an R&D perspective, consideration could be given to potentially start pilot projects, though [it] will be important not to invest too heavily in a single technology provider at this early stage.”

The risks of new technology

Transformative technology also has the potential to create negative consequences when it is first introduced, such as generative AI being used as a tool to spread disinformation and boost cyberattacks.

Quantum computing is no exception to this rule and Seyfarth said organisations and society need to address the new risks that new technology presents.

“In an era where computational power is an important driver for our economy and our society – there is a possibility that access to this power becomes centralised to a small number of entities,” Seyfarth said. “This may lead to imbalances in competitive advantages in industry.

“Of course, there is also the potential for certain jobs to be rendered obsolete, while demand for other new roles is created – so there will be an onus on society to ensure that adequate supports are in place to facilitate retraining.”

Another key issue in the digital world is cybersecurity and the way new technology can shake up this landscape. Quantum computing presents a risk due to its potential to break modern cryptography – which is used to encrypt data and communications.

Experts have warned about the risk of hackers stealing and storing encrypted data, for the purpose of decrypting it quickly once quantum computers become a more accessible reality. This is sometimes referred to as ‘store now, decrypt later’ tactics.

“Secret data that must be secured for more than 10 years is already exposed to future attacks,” Seyfarth said. “Organisations should prepare risk mitigation actions, including analysis of data encryption methods in use and implementing future-proof encryption methods where necessary.

“Post-quantum cryptography, a technology that is similar to current cryptographic solutions, but with higher requirements computational power and key sizes could serve to minimise risk – another area to keep an eye on from a standards maturity perspective.”

10 things you need to know direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of essential sci-tech news.

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The 2018 Spectre attack rocked the tech world, exposing critical security flaws inherent in the hardware of modern processors used across countless devices and operating systems. These vulnerabilities could let attackers “eavesdrop” on confidential information stored in the memory of other running programs. The industry’s response was swift, with manufacturers, including Apple, rolling out supposed safeguards to protect user data.

However, this new study shows that these safety measures are insufficient. Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum, Georgia Tech, and the University of Michigan discovered that Mac and iOS systems are still prone to these security breaches. The team successfully demonstrated a way to exploit these vulnerabilities using the Safari browser, allowing them to access passwords, emails, and even location data.

The findings highlight the persistence of a security gap known in tech circles as a “side-channel attack.” Modern processors, or CPUs, are designed to perform multiple tasks simultaneously to optimize speed. They often try to predict the next action and execute instructions accordingly, a process known as ‘speculative execution.’ However, even uncompleted or discarded tasks by the CPU can leave traces, creating a backdoor for attackers to access data that is normally secure.

Apple’s strategy against such attacks involved isolating each web page in its Safari browser, running them as separate processes to prevent cross-access.

“Users can’t tell that they’ve landed on such a page,” says study co-author Yuval Yarom, from the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr University Bochum, in a statement. This indicates the stealthy nature of these attacks.

The research demonstrates that this defense could be bypassed, enabling hackers to read the contents of the inbox or access login data from password managers like LastPass, challenging the effectiveness of current security measures. This method, dubbed “iLeakage,” involves tricking users into visiting a malicious website that then allows the attacker to access private data like passwords and emails.

Responding to these findings, Apple has initiated software updates aimed at addressing these vulnerabilities and affirms its commitment to enhancing user security. The researchers have consolidated their findings and recommendations for users, including available updates on the website ileakage.com, emphasizing the importance of vigilance about the sites one visits online.

This situation serves as a reminder for the public to be cautious: clicking on unknown or untrustworthy links can lead to unseen cyber-attacks. Prof. Yarom emphasizes the importance of this simple rule, as staying informed and cautious online is crucial for maintaining personal data security amidst these ongoing cyber threats.

“As always, the rule is that you should only click on trustworthy sites,” Yarom explains.

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The latest findings from a nonprofit research organization’s ongoing survey of K-12 communities across the United States found that in-class use of technology is still “primarily passive” and used more for the purposes of benefiting educators than students.

Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up Initiative for the 2022-2023 academic year obtained opinions from more than 50,000 students, teachers, administrators and parents across the nation. The Oct. 26 report is the latest installment of a larger and continuing body of research dating back 20 years in which 6.2 million voices have been documented so far.

The executive summary for the survey work in 2022-2023, which focuses on the use of technology in schools, notes:

• When assigned to write a report or paper, less than half of students in grades 8 and under said their first step would be to use the Internet and online tools to gather information, compared to 62 percent of high school students. Fourteen percent in the younger student group said their first step would be to look for a book in the school library, compared to just 1 percent of high schoolers.

• Seventy-nine percent of teachers for grades 6-8 and 67 percent for 9-12 said they use a digital learning management system (LMS) weekly, but less than 25 percent of teachers for all of those grades indicated that they conduct a weekly virtual lab or online experiment.

• Less than 15 percent of teachers for grades 6-12 used digital tools to create media for their students on a weekly basis.

• Educators overwhelmingly indicated a need for more organized professional development opportunities. When asked how they learn about new technologies for their classrooms, 77 percent said they learn by asking other teachers, and 64 percent said they learn on their own.

• Ninety-six percent pf parents said the effective use of classroom technology is important for their child’s future, and 53 percent of parents said their main concern is that their child is not learning the right skills in school to be successful.

• Only 12 percent of school administrators said their teachers are proficient enough with data to learn and understand the needs of individual students.

“While technology use is now part of the DNA of students’ learning behaviors,” the report summary said, “in-classroom use is still primarily passive and in support of adult management goals rather than student skill development.”

In a public statement, Project Tomorrow CEO Julie Evans expressed hope that schools and districts will consult students as the focus on classroom technology and future-ready skills continues.

“Throughout these shifts, it’s crucial we elevate students’ voices and work hand-in-hand with them to better support learning together,” she said.

The latest survey results coincide with Speak Up’s Oct. 26 congressional briefing, "From CDs to AI." The presentation, which was attended by stakeholders from K-12 communities as well as national policymakers, was broadcast live on edWeb.net. Evans’ presentation included a panel discussion by four students.

“Students are using technology to extend their learning, and in fact, they have their own vision for effective learning,” Evans says in the video. “And of course, the question is, are we listening?”

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For an object that barely ever leaves our palms, the smartphone can sometimes feel like an arcane piece of wizardry. And nowhere is this more pronounced than when it comes to the fickle battery, which will drop 20 percent charge quicker than you can toggle Bluetooth off, and give up the ghost entirely after a couple of years of charging.

To make up for these inadequacies, we’ve made all kinds of battery myths. Whether it’s avoiding leaving your phone on charge overnight, or powering off to give the battery a little break, we’re forever looking for ways to eke out a little more performance from our overworked batteries, even if the method doesn’t make an awful lot of sense.

To help sort the science from the folklore, we asked a battery expert to give their verdict on some of the most pervasive myths, explain the science behind the rumors and, just maybe, offer us some sage advice on extending the life of our smartphones.

Even when your battery is at 100 percent, there’s still room for some more charge

True

There is more juice in your smartphone battery than the percentage displayed suggests, but if you used that juice you’d end up dramatically reducing the overall lifespan of the battery. At the crux of this problem is a delicate trade-off played by manufacturers. Increasing the available charge within a battery reduces the number of times that battery can be charged and discharged without being damaged internally. To make batteries last for hundreds or thousands of charge cycles, manufacturers place limits on the amount of juice that batteries can discharge.

To understand why, you need to know a little about how batteries work. The guts of most lithium-ion batteries, like the ones in smartphones, laptops, and electric cars, are made of two layers: one made of lithium cobalt oxide and the other of graphite. Energy is released when lithium ions move from the graphite layer to the lithium cobalt oxide layer. When you charge up a battery, you’re simply shifting those lithium ions back the other way—out of the lithium cobalt oxide layer and back to the graphite.

This is where we get to the problem with battery life and charge cycles. Shift too many of those lithium ions out of the lithium cobalt oxide layer, and the whole structure of the layer messes up. “The atomic structure of the material actually falls apart if you remove all that lithium,” says Kent Griffith, an assistant professor specializing in energy storage at the UC San Diego.

So while it is possible to charge a battery beyond 100 per cent, the only way to do that is to pull out more of those crucial lithium ions. “It’d be like pulling all of the supports out of the floor of a building,” Griffith says. You could get the lithium ions out, but good luck putting them back once you’ve messed up that internal structure.

That’s why manufacturers set limits on the amount of charge in their batteries. Most of the time, they’re set so only around half of the lithium in the lithium cobalt oxide layer is removed during one full charge. “Your battery could give you more charge if you went beyond removing half of the lithium, but you wouldn’t be able to do that very many times.”

Charging your phone on airplane mode makes it charge faster

True (kind of)

A common tip to speed up phone charging when you’re in a hurry is to stick it on airplane mode. Airplane mode means that all the radio frequencies are turned off, so you won’t have any cellular data and—with some phones—your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections will also be severed. In theory, since your phone is doing less work, the battery should charge faster, right? That’s technically true, but the speed difference turns out to be pretty minimal. A trial by CNET in 2014 found that turning on airplane mode shortened the charging time by just four minutes. Maybe being unable to tweet while you wait isn’t all that worth it.

Having Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on in the background is a big drain on battery life

True

Apart from the screen, one of the biggest drains on battery life is the energy your phone wastes trying to find and connect to Wi-Fi or data networks. If you’ve ever noticed your battery plummeting while on a train, it’s probably because your device is working overtime to connect to a mobile network. “If you can connect to something stable, like if there’s Wi-Fi on the train, it’s probably better to connect to that,” Griffith says. Reducing screen brightness and the time it takes your phone to go to sleep are also easy ways to extend your battery life.

Using an unofficial charger damages your phone

True

Not all phone chargers are created equal, and that could have a damaging effect on your phone’s battery life. Chargers have all sorts of controls that limit the amount of current delivered and stop the phone charging when the battery is full, but some off-brand chargers might not have such rigorous safety settings.

And if too much current is delivered to a battery, that could mean ripping out too many of those lithium ions and leading to the same kind of degradation you read about earlier. That’s not to say that all off-brand chargers will be this bad, Griffith notes, but you’re still probably better off sticking with an official model.

Charging your phone through your computer or laptop will damage the battery

False

If anything, charging a little more slowly is probably good for batteries, Griffith says. This goes back to those lithium ions again—are you sensing a theme here? The more slowly you charge a battery, the less strain that’s put on lithium ions and the structures accepting them, and the less potential damage to the battery. That’s why manufacturers place limits on devices so they don’t charge too quickly.

Powering off a device occasionally helps preserve battery life

False

This one is a myth too, but not a completely unfounded one. Before the lithium-ion battery became ubiquitous, the nickel metal hydride battery was the rechargeable battery of choice. In those batteries, it was impossible to get an accurate reading of the battery charge level without fully discharging and then recharging the battery. “If they were half discharged and recharged, you’d lose where you were. So you’d have to fully discharge to keep track,” Griffith says.

In lithium-ion batteries, that’s no longer the case. Modern batteries are capable of reading their state no matter their level of charge, and when your device isn’t in use the strain on the battery is almost the same as if it was off altogether, so you wouldn’t be giving the battery much of a break if you turned it off anyway.

Batteries perform worse when they’re cold

False (mostly)

Actually, the opposite is true. “Using your battery in cool temperatures and keeping your battery cool is much better for battery life,” says Griffith. Exposing your battery to high temperatures is a much more likely way to end up reducing its overall life. “You don’t want your battery to be hot. You don’t want it to overheat when it’s charging, you don’t want to leave it in the sun or in your car.”

But why do batteries hate the heat so much? The reason has to do with the liquid electrolytes that fill the gaps between the lithium cobalt oxide and graphite layers (remember them?) and stop the two components from touching. This is what the lithium ions travel through when they’re shuttling between the two layers, so it’s pretty important for the battery structure.

At high temperatures, these liquid electrolytes start to break down, causing the battery to degrade over the course of just a few hundred charge cycles. This is a major issue for electric vehicle batteries, which often spend much of their day sitting out in bright sunlight—manufacturers have to fit their cars with battery-management systems to avoid heat-related degradation. For your smartphone, however, as long as you usually keep it at around room temperature you’re doing okay.

It’s possible that your phone might be a little slower in cold temperatures, and that’s because those lithium ions move slightly slower which means the battery might not be able to provide as much power to components if it’s really cold outside. The change is generally only slight, however, and isn’t linked to any permanent damage to the battery.

A device with only a little charge left will also sometimes shut off if it gets cold, as the decrease in power caused by the low temperature will trick the device into thinking the battery is empty. “No damage is done,” says Griffith, “but the electronics get confused.”

Leaving a charger plugged in at the wall and turned on wastes energy

False (well, maybe a tiny bit)

With phone chargers and other “dumb” cables that just have a wire, they probably aren’t drawing any energy at all if there’s no device plugged in. When it comes to TV or laptop cables—or any charger that has a big “brick” attached to it—these are a little more clever as they often draw a small amount power while they’re essentially waiting for the TV or other device to boot out of standby mode. In the past, the energy draw of these devices was up to 10 percent of the average household’s energy bill but recent regulation changes mean that these now draw a relatively tiny amount of energy.

You should let the battery get all the way down to 0 percent before recharging

False

Strangely enough, batteries are under the most strain when they’re fully charged or completely empty. The real sweet spot for a battery is 50 percent charge as that means that half of its moveable lithium ions are in the lithium cobalt oxide layer and the other half are in the graphite layer. This equilibrium puts the least amount of strain on the battery, and extends the number of charge cycles it can withstand before degrading.

So really, if you were super-keen on keeping your battery living as long as possible, you should keep its charge between 20 and 80 per cent. This means that it spends as little time as possible with lots of lithium ions crammed into either layer, a situation which causes the layers to expand, putting physical strain on them. “But if you did that you’d only be getting about half as much charge every time you used it,” Griffith says. Maybe not, then.

Charging past 100 percent will damage your battery

True (but not for the reason you think)

This one is closely linked to the above myth. Charging your phone so it stays at 100 percent overnight isn’t great news for the battery, but that’s not because you’re cramming in more charge than it can handle. A “trickle charge” mechanism cuts off the charger after the phone has reached 100 per cent charge, and only tops up the battery when it drops down a little.

The problem is that you’re keeping the charge level at 100 per cent which, as we know from the previous myth, puts the battery under a certain amount of strain. “It’s not good,” Griffith says, “but the battery manufacturer has set [the battery’s limits] it so it shouldn’t be harmful.”

Replacing your phone battery gives it a new lease of life

True

Over time, your phone’s battery degrades. A smartphone battery typically remains working at optimal capacity for about two to three years. Most smartphone manufacturers don’t want you to know, but you can actually change out your phone battery. You can replace it yourself, DIY-style, but manufacturers are making this increasingly difficult to do. Instead, it might be easier paying someone else for the service. You can check your battery’s health manually and decide if you want to opt for a new battery, to save you splashing out even more for a new phone.

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At this year’s event, Microsoft will deliver all the latest announcements about the advancements in artificial intelligence and Copilot. It will also show off new features with comprehensive demos and share its insights into the trajectory of technology developments.

If you’re interested in connecting remotely to watch the event, Microsoft wants you to follow these steps to register:

1. Visit the Ignite 2023 Website: Head over to the Ignite 2023 website to kick off the registration process.
2. Sign In / Create Your New Account: If you’re new to Microsoft events, you’ll need to connect an existing account or create a new account.
3. Select The Digital Access Pass: The entire Ignite conference will be streamed online, register to get your digital access pass. Our Seattle in-person access passes are already sold out, but if you have an in-person RSVP code those are still valid and will work.
4. Complete Your Registration: Fill in your personal details, payment information (if applicable), and any additional information requested. Double-check your registration to ensure accuracy.
5. Confirmation: Once you’ve completed the registration, you’ll receive a confirmation email. This email will include important details about your registration, including access to the event platform.
6. Explore Ignite Sessions and Get Ready for Ignite 2023! As the event date approaches, make sure to keep an eye on your inbox for updates and additional information.

By registering, not only can you watch the event but you can join in with the developer breakout discussion Q&As. To learn more about the sessions that will be available and to add them to your schedule head over to the session catalog.

Let us know in the comments if you’re looking forward to Microsoft Ignite and whether you’ll be attending the event in person or digitally.

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Now, according to an internal recording obtained by The Verge, Musk wants X to be the go-to financial app in an year. In the meeting, Musk said he wants X to be the center of all things money related and that people will be surprised with “just how powerful it is.”

When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life. If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.

Furthermore, it looks like X's CEO Linda Yaccarino is also onboard with her saying she sees it become a “full opportunity” next year. Elon Musk, on the other hand, has set some tight deadlines for the feature rollout, with the billionaire saying "it would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year”.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Elon Musk's X had obtained money or currency transmitter licenses in seven US states. The license allows X to facilitate wire and electronic transfers.

This is of course not the first time that Musk is working on a financial services platform. Musk along with others launched X.com roughly two decades ago. X was later rebranded to PayPal and sold off to eBay at a hefty price. Musk, however, still believes in the same idea and plans to use the playbook he wrote for PayPal to defeat PayPal with X.

The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000. And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago.

X would not be the first app to bundle a host of services into one app. In China, WeChat follows a similar plan with multiple services including finance bundled into one app. X, however, will not be restricted to one country or region as Musk plans to provide a way instantly send or receive money worldwide.

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What you need to know

• Exactly one month after the release of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, a new CP2077 patch update is here.
• Cyberpunk 2077 2.02 fixes a ton of issues inside and outside the Phantom Liberty expansion, including with quests.
• There are performance improvements, and save files are more stable and less likely to become corrupted.
• Several weapons are also being rebalanced, while localization audio quality is improving for multiple languages.

The massive Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update release a month ago, now, but that doesn't mean CD Projekt RED is done updating its open-world sci-fi RPG. The redemption arc continues with the release of the 2.02 patch update, which is now rolling out to all Cyberpunk 2077 players across current-gen consoles and Windows PC.

If you're rocking Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, or a capable gaming PC, prepare for a slew of changes, fixes, and improvements.

You can check out the full changelog at the link above, but I'll summarize the most important parts of the new patch update. A lot of quest-related issues within the Phantom Liberty expansion are being fixes, and skipping the main game to go straight to the expansion is now more stable. Several quests and gigs in the main game are also enjoying some fixes to avoid progression blocks and issues, so it's not all about Phantom Liberty here.

Elsewhere, several weapons have been rebalanced in accordance with community feedback, and several aspects of crafting, quick hacking, progression, and NPC behavior have been tweaked, improved, or updated to remove exploits. The PC version of CP2077 is now better at detecting mismatched or corrupted scripts (and informing you), while the console versions now wait until a save is completed and validated before deleting the old one — massively reducing the risk of save file corruption.

There are tons of minor fixes and optimizations, including for overall performance, stability, animations, and effects, but players who speak certain languages should be excited about this last change. Localization audio has been remastered for Chinese (Simplified), German, and Japanese to improve the quality. You love to see it.

Cyberpunk 2077 recently reached 25 million copies solid, while the Phantom Liberty expansion hit over 3 million, so the game is enjoying a massive resurgence thanks to the tireless work at CD Projekt RED to improve the game and tie-ins like the popular Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime on Netflix. If you've been waiting for a chance to play, the game has never been in a better shape. Now, it's one of the best games on Xbox and best games on PC. You can read our Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review for more info on how great the expansion is, too.

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In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Capossela stated:

The opportunity to spend so many years at Microsoft, work with Satya as CEO, and turn the company into a Cloud and AI powerhouse is an amazing gift that I don’t take for granted. Microsoft has literally opened the world to me, allowing me to travel from Accra to Zagreb, while working on every product from Azure to Xbox.

Capossela stated that Takeshi Numoto, Microsoft's Commercial Chief Marketing Officer, has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer. In addition, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, has also been promoted to Executive Vice President and will join the company's Senior Leadership Team. Mehdi was named to be the head of Microsoft's Windows and Surface businesses just a few weeks ago.

In his X message, Capossela stated he "couldn’t be happier for Takeshi and Yusuf," and added:

In the short term, I’m focused on supporting Takeshi’s and Yusuf’s transitions into their new roles, and looking ahead, I’m excited to figure out the next chapter of my life.

In an internal email that was posted on Microsoft's site, CEO Satya Nadella stated:

Over the many years we’ve worked together, I’ve known and respected Chris as a leader who has exemplified a complete, unwavering commitment to our mission and our culture. As a leader and a colleague, he’s always shown how deeply he cares about both the “what” and the “how” of driving our business forward. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work closely with him and for the significant impact he’s had on our company through marketing leadership, championing our culture and D&I, and developing world class talent that will serve us well into the future.

Capossela joined Microsoft in 1991 and rose through the ranks of the company through the decades. At one point he was the speech assistant for then Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. He was in charge of a fairly memorable Windows 98 demo with Gates on stage at COMDEX in 1998, where after connecting a scanner to a PC, the monitor quickly put out a Blue Screen of Death message.

Capossela has served as Microsoft's Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer since March 2014, according to his LinkedIn page.

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Down the Drain

In his gambit to take over Twitter and turn it into the "everything app" of his dreams, owner Elon Musk is really struggling to stop the platform from hemorrhaging users.

As Axios reports, downloads of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, have veritably plummeted in 2023, marking Musk's first year of ownership less as a tumultuous journey and more as a rapidly sinking ship.

Insights from multiple social media analytics firms paint a worrying picture of the future of X, with monthly downloads being down 38 percent globally and 57 percent in the US between October 2022 and October 2023, per estimates from the digital intelligence company Sensor Tower reviewed by Axios.

When visualized in a simple line chart, courtesy of Axios, that downward trend is downright jarring to behold, with worldwide app downloads sinking from around 16 million to just 10 million since around May.

Flames Go Higher

To be fair, it's not like the site's not-so-new owner has exactly helped things along. The Twitter of today is nearly unrecognizable from what it was a year ago, with Musk changing its name to X, or giving everybody who's willing to pay for a subscription a blue verification checkmark. News that he's considering putting tweets behind a paywall likely hasn't done much to inspire user retention, either.

Downloads aren't the only falling metrics, either. As the social media analytics firm Similarweb found in its recent report, X-formerly-Twitter is down bad in every way possible, from monthly active usage falling 14.8 percent globally and 17.8 percent in the US to web traffic falling over the last year as well.

The news comes amid the Wall Street Journal's reporting that banks are expected to take a 15 percent loss when selling the debt they accrued via Musk's $44 billion gamble. People familiar with the matter told the WSJ that the seven banks, which lent Musk $13 billion to finance his acquisition, are looking at a roughly $2 billion total loss.

In official parlance, it looks like Twitter – OK, fine, X — is in deep doo-doo, and it's unclear how the ship can be steered away from its impending iceberg of collapse.

Unless, of course, this was all part of Musk's plan all along, as some have suggested.

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Generative AI is cool, but it can also be dangerous if used improperly. That's why AI models are trained to reject certain, more dangerous kinds of requests. Except that if you get a little clever, you might be able to convince the AI to disregard its guidelines and comply with questionable requests using more creative prompts. Now, Google wants to teach its AI some manners. It's offering to pay people who convince Bard to do something bad.

Google's vulnerability rewards program, which rewards users who are able to find vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the code within its software (both apps and operating systems), is expanding to include Bard and questionable prompts. If you happen to be able to twist around a prompt enough to get Bard to do something bad that it's not supposed to be able to do (known as a prompt injection attack), Google might pay you a sum of money. The VRP also covers other kinds of attacks that can be performed on Bard, such as training data extraction, where you successfully get an AI to give you sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information and passwords.

Google already has a different (non-paying) reporting channel for factually incorrect/weird responses and the like. The company will only pay for things that can be exploited by a hacker for malicious purposes. So, if you manage to convince the AI to say slurs, give you Windows keys, or say that it will kill you, it's probably not within Google's bounty program. Google also says that it won't pay for issues related to copyright issues or non-sensitive data extraction, but other than this, you might be able to get thousands of dollars from a report depending on how bad it actually is.

By treating these kinds of issues as vulnerabilities and including them in its bounty program, Google hopes to be able to greatly strengthen its AI and make it adhere to its code of ethics and guidelines as well as possible. We also expect Google to pay a lot of money to users from this. Finding weaknesses within an AI model by throwing prompts at it and seeing if they stick is way different from reading through code, identifying an opening, and seeing how to get through it.

If this is something you're interested in, make sure to check out Google's guidelines for reporting issues on AI products, so you can know what's in scope and what's not.

Source: Google via TechCrunch

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The app is called Intel Application Optimization and it's based on an earlier app called Thread Detector. While the app is available to download from the Microsoft Store, the company also has a dedicated webpage that describes in general terms how it works:

The Intel Application Optimization determines and directs application resources in real time. This policy optimizes thread scheduling along with application threading for selected software titles and may improve performance for supported applications. System responsiveness may vary based on configuration and graphics card capabilities. Users can disable Intel Application Optimization through this software for all applications or on a per application basis if results are not as expected.

Intel says the app also lets users see which PC games can be optimized with its use. It also offers the option to disable specific games on the list by clicking on the “Enable/Disable Individual Applications” tab.

The app itself is supported only by Windows 11 and on PCs with these specific 14th Gen CPUs, at least for now:

• Intel Core i9 processor 14900K
• Intel Core i9 processor 14900KF
• Intel Core i7 processor 14700K
• Intel Core i7 processor 14700KF

The company notes that while the Application Optimization app can be installed on other PCs, only the ones with the supported CPUs will work to boost game performance.

Some users who have tried out this new app on the supported Intel CPUs have recorded big frame rate boosts. Reddit user "LightMoisture" claims that he recorded 339 FPS in Metro Exodus, and a massive 867 FPS in Rainbow Six: Siege. His PC had an Intel i9-14900K processor inside.

The really bad news is that Metro Exodus and Rainbow Six: Siege are currently the only two games that support the new Intel app. Hopefully, Intel will expand that list, and also expand the CPU support, in the future.

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The list was revealed on the second day of the 2023 Qualcomm Summit, which was livestreamed on Wednesday. Near the end of the presentation, a slide was shown with the PC makers that will include the Snapdragon X Elite CPUs.

Microsoft is among those companies that will include the new Arm-based processor in one or more future versions of its Surface laptop and tablet PCs. The company previously included Arm-based CPUs in its Surface Pro 9 5G and Surface Pro X tablets.

The other PC OEMs that will join Microsoft in adding Snapdragon X Elite chips inside some of their upcoming laptops or tablets are Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, HONOR, Lenovo, Samsung, and Xiaomi. These companies represent most of the major PC makers and would seem to ensure that Qualcomm's new CPU will be available from a wide variety of companies.

The Snapdragon X Elite CPUs will include 12 high-performance cores and a maximum clock speed of 3.8GHz. It also claims that one or two of those cores can go even faster at up to 4.3GHz. Qualcomm has shown charts that claim its new CPU will offer up to twice the performance of Intel's i7-1360P and i7-1355U chips at its maximum power, and match their performance while using 68 percent less power.

The new chip will also include an integrated Adreno GPU and an AI-themed neural processing unit, along with a 5G modem and Wi-Fi 7 hardware. The first PCs with the Snapdragon X Elite are scheduled to start shipping sometime in mid-2024.

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Satya Nadella traveled to the Axel Springer headquarters to receive the 2023 Axel Springer Award. While he was there, he sat down and had an interview with Axel Springers CEO Mathias Döpfner.

The discussion covered a wide range of topics such as leadership, AI, the Activision Blizzard deal, and that canceling the Windows Phone was a mistake. 

Does Satya Nadella think AI is safe?

I can't pretend to know what Satya Nadella's thoughts are on AI, but he gave a brief insight into his possible concerns in a response to an interview question in his recent meeting at the Axel Springer headquarters.

In the interview with Mathias Döpfner the CEO of the Axel Springer company, Satya Nadella was asked a question as a follow-up to the ongoing issues with Western countries and China as well as the arms race for AI.

"Will we see a duopoly of sorts, with two AI world powers competing against each other in a new AI arms race? Or do you think it is imaginable that we will one day have a kind of unilateral AI governance and infrastructure?"

This was a very interesting response, especially on the heels of Christopher Nolan's blockbuster hit "Oppenheimer." Most of the world is more acutely aware in 2023 of the dangers and birth of the atomic program worldwide, and the regulations that followed it, than we collectively have been in several decades. On the 14th of September, several tech CEOs met together in Washington to discuss AI regulation, per the BBC, with U.S. Lawmakers.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Google boss Sundar Pichai, as well as Microsoft's former CEO Bill Gates and Microsoft's current CEO Satya Nadella were all in attendance at the closed-door meeting.

However, after the meeting, Republican Senator Mike Rounds and Democrat Senator Cory Booker both said it would take time for the congress to act on the decided need to enforce regulations. One of the few things both parties can agree on is how long important things take to get done.

There have been so many voices asking for AI to be taken more seriously and treated more carefully, in fact the New York Times reported recently, "More than 1,000 tech leaders, researchers and others signed an open letter urging a moratorium on the development of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems." We also reported on the Microsoft AI chief warning of coming AI challenges and ethics risks.
 

How can regulations help make AI safe?

As the world looks to its leaders to find a solution to the threats and dangers posed by AI, there are few governments taking the appropriate steps. We reported back in April of 2023, that the Biden administration was finally considering rules to govern ChatGPT and Bing Chat, but to date, nothing seems to have resulted from those considerations.

The European Union has started working on the first AI regulation aptly called the EU AI Act. This could be the catalyst that sets a framework for other countries to follow suit. More CEOs have also voiced their concerns, such as Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI and a long advocate for AI safety. 

What's unique about Satya Nadella's comments is the call for global regulation similar to the IAEA or the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is a unique body that's purpose is to try to regulate the entire globe. There are other such agencies, but they are not usually enforced as strictly, for obvious reasons, as the Atomic energy issue is.

As the world becomes smaller due to the capability of data to travel the span of the globe in milliseconds, it becomes harder to effectively regulate a digital medium such as AI without full participation from the major players involved, in this case, as Satya Nadella mentions, China.

The US government has made claims that China's IP theft is a major issue in the trade relationship with China, and has little recourse to prevent China from continuing this alleged practice. The same issue would be evident in any attempts to curtail the advancement of AI or regulate its use if one of the main players in the development of AI, namely China, decides to play by its own rule book.

Looking at the past to save our future.

The pressure for regulation of AI is immense, the recent open letter being signed by 1000 notable figures in tech and AI is reminiscent of the letter sent by Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt about the dangers of what would soon become atomic energy.

The hope is that we as a species have learned from the mistakes of the 20th century. We should find ways to safeguard this new frontier of tech innovation and ensure that AI is developed safely and remains safe before a catastrophic event forces us to do so as was the case with the atomic program.

With the current state of the world, more caution is needed as corporations put profits over safety and governments put military advantage over mutually assured preservation.

Do you think AI needs to be regulated? Do you think it should be handled globally or on a country-by-country basis? Let us know in the comments.

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