Computers & the Internet News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

IBM reports analog AI chip patterned after human brain
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-ibm ... erned.html
by Peter Grad , Tech Xplore

Deep neural networks are generating much of the exciting progress stemming from generative AI. But their architecture relies on a configuration that is a virtual speedbump, ensuring the maximal efficiency can not be obtained.

Constructed with separate units for memory and processing, neural networks face heavy demands on system resources for communications between the two components that results in slower speeds and reduced efficiency.

IBM Research came up with a better idea by turning to the perfect model for its inspiration for a more efficient digital brain: the human brain.

In a paper, "A 64-core mixed-signal in-memory compute chip based on phase-change memory for deep neural network inference," published in Nature Electronics Aug. 10, IBM researchers said they applied a new approach for a state-of-the-art mixed-signal AI chip that promises to improve efficiency and incur less battery drain in AI projects.

[weatheriscool]

Study highlights the vulnerabilities of metasurface-based wireless communication systems
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-hig ... ation.html
by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

Metasurfaces, artificially engineered surfaces that can manipulate electromagnetic signals in unique ways, have huge potential for several technological applications, including the implementation of sixth generation (6G) cellular communications. The limitations and vulnerabilities of these smart surfaces, however, are still poorly understood.

Researchers at Peking University, University of Sannio and Southeast University recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding the vulnerability of metasurfaces to wireless cyber-attacks. Their paper, published in Nature Electronics, outlines two types of attacks that should be considered and accounted for before metasurfaces can be deployed on a large-scale.

"This work was primarily driven by the need for enhancing security and privacy of wireless communications in the upcoming 6G era, characterized by unprecedented speeds, ultra-low latency, and vast connection nodes," Lianlin Li, Vincenzo Galdi and Tie Jun Cui, three of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore.

"The open nature of wireless communication means that data and signals are essentially out in the open, making the risk of physical level attacks a major concern. Our project focuses on identifying some potential risks associated with programmable metasurfaces—a key enabling technology in the envisioned 6G landscape."

[weatheriscool]

Team develops technique for building DNA-based programmable gate arrays
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-team-tech ... -gate.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of chemists and chemical engineers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, working with a colleague from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, both in China, has built a DNA-based programmable gate array for use in general-purpose DNA computing. In their study, reported in the journal Nature, the group overcame obstacles that had hindered the development of multipurpose DNA-based circuits and created circuits using their new process.

In 1994, Leonard Adleman won the Turing award for his proposed use of DNA base-pairing to create a biocomputing device. Since that time, many such devices have been created. But until now, any given device could do only one thing. In this new effort, the team in China has overcome problems faced by other researchers working on making such devices more universal by developing a technique for creating a field-programmable gate array using DNA, which they describe as a DNA-based programmable gate array (DPGA).

[weatheriscool]

Get Ready: Microsoft's AI-Powered CoPilot for Windows 11 Arrives Sept. 26
Microsoft is also using AI to bring big changes to File Explorer, Paint, and other apps in this huge update.
By Josh Norem September 22, 2023

The AI revolution is about to arrive in a big way for millions of people on Sept. 26. That's when Microsoft will inject its AI-powered assistant named Copilot directly into Windows 11, placing it on the Taskbar for anyone to use. For many people, it'll be their first experience using an AI assistant, and it has tremendous potential. It'll be arriving as part of the Windows 11 23H2 update, which will be a doozy. It offers many changes across the OS, with a focus on adding AI to Windows' native apps.

Windows Copilot is the most significant change to the core of the Windows operating system that we can remember, going back to Windows 95 at least. It'll hook into everything you're doing on your computer, which may creep some people out. But it will enable many tasks to be performed. Previously, its ChatGPT-powered assistant was limited to using either its Bing search engine or its Edge browser, which is not a huge audience. Adding it to Windows will open it up to a much larger number of users, to put it lightly. As we covered previously, Copilot can summarize documents, help you write them, make changes within Windows, and lots more.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/g ... es-sept-26

[Powers]

Get Ready: Microsoft's AI-Powered CoPilot for Windows 11 Arrives Sept. 26
By Josh Norem September 22, 2023

...which may creep some people out.

It does.

[weatheriscool]

US FCC chair to seek reinstating net neutrality rules rescinded under Trump
Source: Reuters

September 26, 2023 4:46 AM EDT

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel plans to begin an effort to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules rescinded under then-President Donald Trump, sources briefed on the matter said Monday.

The move comes after Democrats took majority control of the five-member FCC on Monday for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021 when new FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez was sworn in. The FCC is set to take an initial vote on the net neutrality proposal in October, the sources added.

In July 2021, Biden signed an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules adopted under Democratic then-President Barack Obama in 2015. The FCC voted in 2017 to reverse the rules that barred internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes, also known as paid prioritization. Days before the 2020 presidential election, the FCC voted to maintain the reversal.

Rosenworcel denounced the repeal in 2017 saying it put the FCC "on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public." She plans a speech to outline her plans on Tuesday, the sources added. A spokesperson for Rosenworcel declined to comment.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-tel ... 023-09-26/

[weatheriscool]

The FCC Restores Its Responsibility to Oversee Corporate Control of Internet
https://fair.org/home/the-fcc-restores- ... -internet/

9-29-2023 by Janine Jackson

Listeners will know that the FCC has been ineffectual for some time, because it’s been short of full staffing. Big media players torpedoed, with the most scurrilous of means, the nomination of public interest advocate Gigi Sohn, but eventually Biden nominee Anna Gomez was sworn in as fifth commissioner.

In the wake of that, FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel has now announced that the FCC is to be an active player again.

At the National Press Club this week, Rosenworcel (9/26/23) said that the FCC will vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at its next meeting in mid-October. And they will center the role of Title II, the part of federal communications law that gives the agency the power to even go about overseeing corporate control of the internet: to push against price gouging, anti-privacy moves, access-throttling—the whole range of things that makes people hate their internet service providers, and makes it a less hospitable arena for activism and organizing. That’s before you even get to whether they are allowed to shut off service during crises like Covid.

The FCC, under the sway of corporations and their lobbyists, abandoned that responsibility years ago, under former chair Ajit Pai, appointed by Donald Trump based on his career as a lawyer for Verizon.

With Title II invigorated, the FCC can engage net neutrality rules—which prevent internet service providers from slowing access for those that don’t pony up, and speeding it along for those that do. All of which machinations we as end-users may not be aware of, but that will absolutely affect what we see and know and act on.

SNIP

[wjfox]

Google Maps can now tell exactly where solar panels should be installed

October 3, 2023

Google Maps can now calculate rooftops’ solar potential, track air quality, and forecast pollen counts.

The platform recently launched a range of services like Solar API, which calculates weather patterns and pulls data from aerial imagery to help understand rooftops’ solar potential. The tool aims to help accelerate solar panel deployment by improving accuracy and reducing the number of site visits needed.

As seasonal allergies get worse every year, Pollen API shows updated information on the most common allergens in 65 countries by using a mix of machine learning and wind patterns. Similarly, Air Quality API provides detailed information on local air quality by utilizing data from multiple sources, like government monitoring stations, satellites, live traffic, and more, and can show areas affected by wildfires too.

https://mashable.com/video/google-maps- ... ment-tools

[weatheriscool]

Microsoft Project Silica: Glass Plates That Store Data for 10,000 Years
Project Silica could be the future of long-term data storage.
By Ryan Whitwam October 17, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/m ... 0000-years

As data storage becomes ever cheaper, many of us have accumulated gigabytes (or even terabytes) of it that must be kept safe. Whether you're storing your data locally or in the cloud, the storage medium has a finite lifespan. Microsoft is working on a new kind of storage technology, called Project Silica, that could store data essentially forever without any electricity. Instead of writing data to a magnetic storage medium, it encodes that data in a sheet of glass smaller than a DVD.

Microsoft engineer Ant Rowstron explains that simply keeping data safe over time is a monumental undertaking. Hard drives might last five years (or less) in a data center before they need to be replaced, and a tape drive could last twice as long if you're lucky. Manufacturing, powering, and transferring data between drives requires time, money, and resources that could be spent better elsewhere. If only we had a way to store the data more reliably. That's Project Silica, which you can see in action in a new video from Microsoft research below.

[weatheriscool]

FCC votes in favor of Wi-Fi installations in school buses

Source: WCAX-TV3

Published: Oct. 20, 2023 at 5:36 AM EDT|Updated: 2 hours ago

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Vermont kids could see Wi-Fi on their school buses soon after a nod from the FCC.

The FCC voted to make Wi-Fi and similar technology on school buses eligible for reimbursement under the E-Rate program. It comes just one week after Senator Peter Welch took FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to Williamstown, Vermont where they’re efforting Wi-Fi installation on buses.

The goal is to close the homework gap for Vermont’s students living in rural areas that may not have access to broadband at home.

Read more: https://www.wcax.com/2023/10/20/fcc-vot ... ool-buses/