Victoria Fox's Blog, page 123

Artificial Intelligence: Former Google employee is said to have stolen AI technology

The US justice system accuses a former Google software developer of stealing data for the development of artificial intelligence while secretly working for Chinese companies. The suspect, a Chinese citizen residing in California, was arrested in the city of Newark, the US Department of Justice said. He is charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets at the federal level. He faces up to ten years in prison for each individual charge.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could threaten our national security,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. “We will vigorously protect sensitive technologies developed in America from falling into the hands of those who should not have them.”

The Northern Judicial District of California has now initiated criminal proceedings against the 38-year-old defendant. According to the indictment, Google hired him in 2019. He had access to secret information about the company’s high-performance data centers. Two years ago, he is said to have started uploading hundreds of files to a private Google Cloud account.

FBI warns of devastating consequences of technology theft

A few weeks after the alleged theft began, the software developer was offered a position as technology director in a tech company that was still being set up in his home country of China . This company advertised its use of AI technology. According to the indictment, the suspect traveled to China, attended investor meetings and attempted to raise capital for the company.

At the same time, he founded a start-up company based in China and worked as its managing director. The company sought to build “large AI models” that would be “powered by high-performance chips,” the indictment said. He did not disclose his sideline activities to Google. At the end of December he resigned from Google. Days later, Google managers discovered the former employee’s connections to companies in China.

“Today’s indictments are the latest example of how far partners of Chinese companies are willing to go to steal American innovation,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. He warned: “The theft of innovative technology and trade secrets from American companies can cost jobs and have devastating economic and national security consequences.”

The US justice system accuses a former Google software developer of stealing data for the development of artificial intelligence while secretly working for Chinese companies. The suspect, a Chinese citizen residing in California, was arrested in the city of Newark, the US Department of Justice said. He is charged with four counts of theft of trade secrets at the federal level. He faces up to ten years in prison for each individual charge.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could threaten our national security,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. “We will vigorously protect sensitive technologies developed in America from falling into the hands of those who should not have them.”

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Plagiarism: "The shortest thesis I read was three pages"

Debora Weber-Wulff is a retired professor of media informatics and a plagiarism detector. In 2011 she was involved in the most prominent German plagiarism case: the doctoral thesis of the then Federal Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. A conversation about plagiarism hunting as a weapon, ChatGPT and why she would rather try to decipher her students’ handwriting than use software.

ZEIT ONLINE : In the USA, fund manager Bill Ackman is planning the largest plagiarism check of all time; he wants to have the entire management team of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology checked. There had previously been allegations of plagiarism against his wife, who teaches at MIT. Is the search for plagiarism still about academic integrity or about revenge?

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Digital Markets Act: Do you really want to surf with this browser?

Christian Kroll wants to make the Internet environmentally friendly. To this end, the Berliner founded a search engine called Ecosia in 2009. He uses the money he earns to plant trees; there are now more than 200 million trees. But even though millions of people use its search engine, it is tiny compared to Google. According to the company, the project should now have a market share of between one and two percent, although external statisticians believe the number is significantly lower. Soon, Kroll hopes, the value could finally rise.

From this Thursday, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, or DMA for short, will come into force. So-called gatekeepers, i.e. companies that dominate the market, should no longer be allowed to crush smaller competitors like Ecosia with their market power. After long consultations, the EU Commission has declared the companies Google, Amazon, Apple , Meta, Microsoft and TikTok parent ByteDance to be such gatekeepers.

The browser selection on the iPhone. The order should be random.

“We are changing the rules of the game,” said EU Commissioner for Digital Margrethe Vestager when the law was passed. “So that even in the digital world, what matters is who has the best ideas or tries the hardest, and not who is the greatest.” Specifically, this means: Google, the manufacturer of the most popular browser Chrome, should no longer be allowed to simply preset that Google is the default search engine.

That’s why, starting this week, all users of Chrome, but also of Apple’s Safari on the iPhone , will see a pop-up on the screen that offers them a list of several options. You can choose from various browsers such as Microsoft Edge or Firefox and various search engines such as the data protection-oriented DuckDuckGo or the ecological Ecosia.

The first time everyone is asked

Users have been able to select other search engines as default before, but they had to navigate to the settings specifically to do so. What’s new is that the selection is displayed to everyone. The selection dialogue only appears in the area of the European Union and initially only until the choice has been made. The order in which the options are presented is intended to be random.

For Ecosia maker Kroll, this is an opportunity for more attention. Of course, the big ones are still on the list and many people will probably click on the familiar options. Still, millions of people who may have never heard of its eco-search engine are now at least being made aware that they could switch. “This is the first time that you as a user have ever been asked,” says Kroll. “Otherwise everything is always preset.”

Kroll hired influencers to promote its search engine on social networks. He hopes to get more market share for Ecosia. But that’s not certain. The selection is shown to every Chrome user, including those who have previously selected Ecosia or other Google competitors. This means: In the worst case scenario, users will then switch back from Ecosia to the market leader. You have to look very closely at how companies implement the DMA guidelines, says Kroll.

A second important element of the DMA is browser freedom on the iPhone. Safari users also see a selection dialog about which app they want to use to access the Internet in the future. The pop-up appears as soon as you install iOS 17.4, which was released on Tuesday, and open Safari. In addition to Firefox, Microsoft Edge and the Onion Browser, Ecosia is also included because Kroll has also put its search engine in its own browser.

However, for larger browser developers like Firefox, the DMA will change something that is initially barely visible to users. Until now, all browsers on the iPhone were dependent on using Apple’s so-called WebKit engine as the core of their software. Regardless of whether it is Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, Apple technology always continues to work underneath iOS. In the future, browser manufacturers will be allowed to use their own engines, such as Quantum in Firefox or Blink in Chrome.

Christian Kroll wants to make the Internet environmentally friendly. To this end, the Berliner founded a search engine called Ecosia in 2009. He uses the money he earns to plant trees; there are now more than 200 million trees. But even though millions of people use its search engine, it is tiny compared to Google. According to the company, the project should now have a market share of between one and two percent, although external statisticians believe the number is significantly lower. Soon, Kroll hopes, the value could finally rise.

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Epic Games: Apple refuses to restart “Fortnite” makers in Europe

The makers of the online game Fortnite have suffered a setback in their plans to return to the iPhone in the EU. Apple blocked the designated developer account. The company announced on Wednesday that its right to kick it off the platform had been confirmed in court following earlier rule violations by developer Epic Games.

With the DMA (Digital Markets Act) coming into effect, Apple in the EU has had to allow applications from sources other than the in-house App Store to be downloaded on the iPhone for the first time since Thursday. Epic wants to use this to bring Fortnite , which has been banned from the App Store since August 2020 after a rule violation, back to the iPhone, at least in the European Union.

Epic made the new controversy public in a blog post on Wednesday. Accordingly, on March 2nd, Apple blocked a Swedish developer account from Epic Games that had been set up a few weeks earlier. The lawyers’ letter, also published, states that Epic “demonstrably cannot be trusted.”

Epic accuses Apple of retaliation for critical comments

The trigger for the long dispute was an attempt by Epic to avoid the 15 or 30 percent levy on the purchase price that Apple withholds from transactions in its App Store. A version of the application with hidden software code was smuggled past the company’s app reviewers, allowing users to buy virtual items even from Apple. Apple kicked Fortnite out of the App Store for violating the rules. Epic, on the other hand, went to court in the USA, but lost in all instances.

Epic described the banning of the Swedish developer account as retaliation for company boss Tim Sweeney’s sharp criticism of Apple’s implementation of the DMA requirements. He had described Apple’s planned rules for other app marketplaces as “garbage” and accused the company of wanting to slow down competition. Sweeney followed up on Wednesday and wrote to the online service X that Apple was trying to intimidate app developers.

In the new conditions, Apple is introducing, among other things, a fee of 50 cents for each additional initial installation after one million downloads of an app in a twelve-month period. The developers can also stay in the old model and only distribute their apps via Apple’s App Store. However, if they switch to the new system, there is no way back to the previous conditions. The group calls app installations from other sources a security risk.

The music streaming market leader Spotify also accuses Apple of wanting to make sales via other marketplaces economically unviable for app developers by implementing the DMA. However, there are also announcements about the launch of app marketplaces for the iPhone.

Apple has been named by the EU Commission as one of six “gatekeeper” companies subject to stricter competition requirements under the DMA. The Commission will also decide whether a “gatekeeper” is fulfilling its obligations by implementing the DMA. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager recently told the financial service Bloomberg that the regulations should not be “unattractive” for the companies’ customers and users.

The makers of the online game Fortnite have suffered a setback in their plans to return to the iPhone in the EU. Apple blocked the designated developer account. The company announced on Wednesday that its right to kick it off the platform had been confirmed in court following earlier rule violations by developer Epic Games.

With the DMA (Digital Markets Act) coming into effect, Apple in the EU has had to allow applications from sources other than the in-house App Store to be downloaded on the iPhone for the first time since Thursday. Epic wants to use this to bring Fortnite , which has been banned from the App Store since August 2020 after a rule violation, back to the iPhone, at least in the European Union.

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Artificial intelligence: According to UNESCO, AI applications serve gender stereotypes

According to a study by UNESCO , text robots and language models based on artificial intelligence (AI) tend to produce gender stereotypes, racist clichés and homophobic content. “Existing discrimination is not only reflected in the digital space, but reinforced,” said Tawfik Jelassi from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO therefore called on governments to create clear legal frameworks.

According to the study, common chat models associate women with housework up to four times more often than men. When it comes to AI applications, women are often in the context of terms such as house, family and children, while for men the focus is on terms such as company, manager, salary and career. According to the study, this applies to both the software versions GPT-2 and GPT-3.5 from OpenAI as well as to the competing software Llama 2 from the Meta Group.

The study examined the natural language processing tools underlying the most popular generative AI platforms for stereotypes. “These new AI applications have the power to subtly shape the perceptions of millions of people, so that even slight gender biases in the content they produce can significantly increase inequalities in the real world,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay .

Negative content also about homosexuals

The scientists had the chatbots produce stories about people of different origins and genders. British men were often portrayed as teachers, drivers or bank clerks. British women, on the other hand, were featured as prostitutes, models or waitresses in 30 percent of the texts. The study also found that language models tend to produce negative content about homosexuals and certain ethnic groups.

According to a study by UNESCO , text robots and language models based on artificial intelligence (AI) tend to produce gender stereotypes, racist clichés and homophobic content. “Existing discrimination is not only reflected in the digital space, but reinforced,” said Tawfik Jelassi from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO therefore called on governments to create clear legal frameworks.

According to the study, common chat models associate women with housework up to four times more often than men. When it comes to AI applications, women are often in the context of terms such as house, family and children, while for men the focus is on terms such as company, manager, salary and career. According to the study, this applies to both the software versions GPT-2 and GPT-3.5 from OpenAI as well as to the competing software Llama 2 from the Meta Group.

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Indra admits the possibility of buying Hispasat

José Vicente de los Mozos, the CEO of Indra, has admitted the possibility of buying Hispasat, the Spanish company that operates satellites, although he has not considered it the only possibility for his plans to exponentially increase his presence in the Aerospace business, one of the pillars of the Strategic Plan that he presented today.

This plan contemplates that the space business will reach a turnover of 1,000 million euros, compared to the approximately 40 million that it invoices now, which implies that, in addition to organic growth, there must be a large acquisition activity (M&A) to achieve the objectives. planned.

Minsait

Likewise, the president of Indra, Marc Murtra , has ruled out a total sale of Minsait , the information technology business. Indra officials have spoken about the sale of a majority or minority stake, with the aim of finding a partner to help develop Minsait’s capabilities. Probably the most likely formula will be a co-control agreement. However, Murtra has indicated that the company wants to “always” maintain a significant participation in Minsait because this division generates synergies with the other areas of the company, such as Defense or Air Traffic .

Without details

The presentation of the Strategic Plan has lacked specificity, especially in the aspects of acquisitions and inorganic growth, as well as divestments, which will be fundamental to achieve the ambitious growth objectives that the company’s management team has announced, which involves multiplying by 2.3 times the income in seven years, going from the 4,300 million turnover in 2023 to the 10,000 committed by the president and the CEO for 2030.

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Indra plans to reach 10,000 million in turnover in 2030

Indra plans to more than double its size by the end of the decade, going from 4,300 million in 2023 to a turnover of 6,000 million in 2026 and 10,000 million in 2030 within the framework of its strategic plan, which fundamentally includes orienting the company more to the defense and space business, with the creation of a new company for the space business. To finance this growth, Indra plans to give entry as a minority or majority to new shareholders in Minsait, the information technology business, which would also incorporate the Mobility area – systems for highways, trains and subways – which would also be , therefore, totally or partially divested.

Indra, the large information technology and defense company, plans to more than double its size in the next seven years, going from 4.3 billion in revenue achieved in 2023 to reaching a turnover of 6,000 million in 2026 and 10,000 million in 2030 within the framework of its 2024-2030 strategic plan, which the president, Marc Murtra and the CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos , will announce to investors today and of which a presentation has been published in the CNMV.

The growth in income would be accompanied by an increase in profitability, since the EBITDA margin, which in 2023 stood at 10.3%, would be more than 12% in 2026, – the intermediate milestone of the plan that is presents today – and more than 14% in 2030. For its part, ebit would climb from 8% in 2023 to 10% in 2026 and 12% in 2030. At the same time, a strong increase in generation is also expected of cash (Free Cash Flow, FCF), which would go from accumulating 900 million in the period 2024-2026 to skyrocket to between 2,000 and 2,500 million for the period 2027-2030. In this way, the company indicates that in the seven-year period contemplated in the strategic plan (2024-2030) the accumulated FCF would be more than 3,000 million euros.

Billion Space Company

Indra ‘s plans include the creation of a new company for the Space business, which on the one hand would bring together existing capabilities in the group and on the other would include long-term partners, with the aim of achieving a turnover of one billion euros in 2030 . Indra also plans to bring minority or majority shareholders into Minsait, the information technology business.

The company has explained in a presentation to the CNMV that the structure of functions will evolve from the current model, which is divided into four large areas ( Defence, Air Traffic Control, Mobility – the train, subway and highway ticketing business, and technology for the railway sector – and the Minsait area) to a structure of five divisions in which the Mobility area disappears from the Transportation and Defense division and becomes integrated into Minsait, with the purpose of providing entry into this entire group (Minsait+Movilidad) to new shareholders, both minority and majority. In addition, a new Space area and another of New Industrial Businesses are created.

More Defense and Aerospace weight

One of the forecasts of the plan is that the generation of margins is oriented towards the defense and space business, so that if in 2023, the two divisions (Minsait on the one hand and Transport and Defense on the other) were practically divided into parts The generation of ebitda is equal, and in 2026 this balance will have shifted towards the Defense and Space businesses, which will generate approximately two-thirds of the group’s ebitda.

Regarding the new Space area, Indra plans to create a new space subsidiary that can manufacture and launch satellites. But in addition, this company should also be able to operate and exploit satellites, since it is the largest market segment by far. If the space segment area (the equipment on board the satellite) moves an accessible market of 15,000 million euros, with an accumulated annual growth until 2030 of 2/3%, the ground segment area of the control stations has a market of about 14,000 million euros, with a 3/4% accumulated growth until 2030. But the operation and exploitation area has a market of 106,000 million, with a growth of 6/7% until the end of the decade.

In that sense, one of the possibilities that have been considered would be the purchase, by Indra , of Hispasat, the satellite exploitation company, which had a state origin and which for some years has been controlled by Redeia (Red Electrica) and also that of Hisdesat, the company specializes in satellite communications for the Spanish army.

Indra points out in the presentation that it has already identified companies as both national and international objectives , along the value chain of the Space business to expand the capabilities of the new firm.

The new Space company will have civil and military applications from guaranteeing the European autonomy of communications to new generations of satellites for surveillance and navigation. But also in the civil area, with applications in civil communications, the provision of broadband coverage or machine connection (IoT) use cases.

5,000 jobs

Indra also plans to add more than 5,000 jobs with high technological value and digital profiles until 2026, with the aim of strengthening its capabilities.

To accelerate mergers and acquisitions, more than 75% of acquisition expenses will go to the Defense and Aerospace areas. Minsait will have more firepower for M&A with the arrival of a new partner. The focus of the acquisitions will be in Spain, Western Europe, the Middle East and North America.

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Cybersecurity: EU wants to better protect infrastructure from cyberattacks

Hospitals, power plants, airports and the power grids in the EU should be better protected against cyber attacks in the future. Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states have agreed, among other things, that a so-called cybersecurity warning system should be set up in the future. Parliament and member states still have to confirm the agreement, although this is considered a formality.

According to the information, the system is a device designed to detect cyber threats in a timely manner, respond to them and exchange information. This would allow authorities and responsible bodies to react more quickly and efficiently.

1.1 billion euros for the EU cyber solidarity law

According to the regulation, particularly important facilities such as hospitals or power plants should also be examined for possible vulnerabilities. In addition, a European certification system for security services will be created to give providers more trust in cybersecurity services.

The agreement on the regulation is based on a proposal from the EU Commission, according to which cyber threats should also be warded off with the help of data analysis and artificial intelligence. According to estimates by the Commission, the so-called EU Cybersolidarity Act and the associated measures will cost around 1.1 billion euros.

Threat in cyberspace in 2023 “higher than ever before”

When the project was presented a year ago, the authority announced that increasingly frequent and serious hacker attacks were a threat to the European internal market. This was made even worse by the Russian war of aggression and the large number of “state, criminal and hacktivist actors” involved.

The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) also warned in its 2023 report on the IT security situation in Germany that the threat in cyberspace is “higher than ever before”.

Hospitals, power plants, airports and the power grids in the EU should be better protected against cyber attacks in the future. Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states have agreed, among other things, that a so-called cybersecurity warning system should be set up in the future. Parliament and member states still have to confirm the agreement, although this is considered a formality.

According to the information, the system is a device designed to detect cyber threats in a timely manner, respond to them and exchange information. This would allow authorities and responsible bodies to react more quickly and efficiently.

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Tech company: OpenAI wants to defend itself against Musk's lawsuits over profit orientation

ChatGPT developer OpenAI has rejected Tesla boss Elon Musk ‘s allegations about what he sees as the company’s changing purpose. The Microsoft-backed company said in a blog post that it wanted to defend itself against all of Musk’s lawsuits against the start-up and announced that it would provide clarification on its part.

“We are sad that things have come to this with someone we deeply admired,” writes OpenAI. “Someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, founded a competitor, and then sued us when we began making significant progress toward OpenAI’s mission without him.”

Last week, Musk filed a lawsuit against the start-up he co-founded. He accuses OpenAI of breach of contract. The company is now focused on profit and no longer on developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, he argued. But that was the original goal. Major investor Microsoft is now benefiting from this, the lawsuit says. This is a “flagrant violation” of the founding agreement.

Accusation of attempted takeover

OpenAI, for its part, responded with accusations: In its blog entry, the start-up writes that Musk wanted the company to merge with the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. They published an email saying that the start-up should stick with Tesla as a financier. According to OpenAI, the proposal came after Musk and OpenAI decided to create a for-profit company in 2017 to generate capital for the development of artificial general intelligence. Musk sought full control of OpenAI and the company’s top position, it is said.

“OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity, which means both developing safe and useful AGI and helping to create benefits for the masses,” the company writes. They are still on this path.

The dispute between Musk and OpenAI is an old one

OpenAI had already defended itself against Musk’s allegations. In an email to employees, management contradicted Musk’s accusation that the company was controlled by Microsoft. It also suggests that Musk may regret not being involved anymore after ChatGPT became so successful. ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that sparked a hype about artificial intelligence last year. Microsoft is a major investor in the start-up.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit research and development organization by Musk and technology investor Sam Altman, among others. Musk resigned from OpenAI’s board in 2018 amid disputes over merging several of his offices. In 2019, a for-profit subsidiary was established to attract outside investment.

ChatGPT developer OpenAI has rejected Tesla boss Elon Musk ‘s allegations about what he sees as the company’s changing purpose. The Microsoft-backed company said in a blog post that it wanted to defend itself against all of Musk’s lawsuits against the start-up and announced that it would provide clarification on its part.

“We are sad that things have come to this with someone we deeply admired,” writes OpenAI. “Someone who inspired us to aim higher, then told us we would fail, founded a competitor, and then sued us when we began making significant progress toward OpenAI’s mission without him.”

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The Government launches the Escrivá digital Sepi without 10% of Telefónica

The Government has taken the first step to launch the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) so that it will be operational from May . The Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry for Digital Transformation, headed by José Luis Escrivá, has given the green light to the urgent processing of the Royal Decree necessary for this. This is the transformation of the SEMyS Society into the SETT and its statute is approved.

The new company, which will be attached to the Escrivá ministry, will have as its main functions, as stated by the ministry, “the promotion and execution of investments in strategic sectors linked to digital transformation; the execution of the PERTE Chip; participation in actions related to the Next Tech Fund and the Spain Audiovisual Hub Fund; and finally, the financing and support of emerging technological projects linked to digitalization, Artificial Intelligence and the audiovisual sector.”

Presentation of the SETT by José Luis Escrivá in which it can be seen that, among the functions of the new organization, was that of grouping State participations in telecommunications companies. 10% of Telefónica

The creation of the SETT, which was announced at a press conference by Minister Escrivá on Monday of last week, on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, caused a great stir. The reason was the possibility, recognized by Escrivá himself at the press conference, that the SETT would also group together the State’s holdings in telecommunications companies as well as in infrastructure and digital services companies, which gave rise to thinking that it could end incorporating the 10% stake that the Government intends to acquire in Telefónica . This was acknowledged by Escrivá when he pointed out that it would make “sense.” And not only Telefónica’s participation, but also the 28% that Sepi has in Indra, which the Government wants to convert into the large Spanish defense company.

However, in recent days, other members of the Government, such as the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, in an interview with EXPANSIÓN have clarified that this 10% participation will be in charge of the state holding company Sepi, which depends on the Ministry of Finance .

In fact, it seems that the function that SETT was initially assigned to also act as a holding company for investees, which earned the nickname ” Sepi Digital” based on the mandate to “group the participations of the General State Administration in telecommunications and infrastructures and digital services” is not particularly highlighted now among the functions planned by the organization, since it is not among those mentioned in the statement from the Ministry of Digital Transformation . However, sources from the Ministry of Digital Transformation have indicated to EXPANSIÓN that the initial functions remain intact and that none of them have been amputated, so, theoretically, it will continue to aspire to group the technological participations of the State.

‘CDTI Digital’

In any case, given the nature of the functions that have been entrusted to the SETT, executing public policies in strategic sectors, and financing technological projects, it would probably be more accurate to call it “the Digital CDTI” , since this veteran organization, now assigned The Ministry of Science and Innovation is responsible for providing support to the R&D&i projects of Spanish companies.

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