Lifeboat Foundation

What would we do without compression?

Those music libraries and personal photo and video collections that would force us to purchase one hard drive after another can instead be squeezed into portions of a single drive.

Compression allows us to pull up volumes of data from the Internet virtually instantaneously.

The ultimate goal is to place 3,200 satellites into low Earth orbit.

Jeff Bezos is moving one step closer to entering the broadband satellite market with its venture, Project Kuiper. Amazon-led Project Kuiper aims to place a swarm of thousands of small satellites or constellations into low Earth orbit (LEO).

The primary objective of this project is to extend internet access to regions currently lacking reliable connectivity, particularly rural and remote areas where the installation of internet infrastructure is either costly or logistically challenging.

Continue reading “Amazon’s Project Kuiper test mission to launch on Oct 6” »

Now that computer-generated imaging is accessible to anyone with a weird idea and an internet connection, the creation of “AI art” is raising questions—and lawsuits. The key questions seem to be 1) how does it actually work, 2) what work can it replace, and 3) how can the labor of artists be respected through this change?

The lawsuits over AI turn, in large part, on copyright. These copyright issues are so complex that we’ve devoted a whole, separate post to them. Here, we focus on thornier non-legal issues.

How Do AI Art Generators Work?

The IEEE has certified the first standard for Li-Fi, a high-speed digital communication standard in the infrared (IR), visual light, and ultraviolet (UV) spectrums.

With the certification of the Li-Fi (light-fidelity) standard, 802.11bb-2023, a new era has opened up for local area wireless communications. Li-Fi refers to wireless data communications using light rather than the radio waves used by Wi-Fi. It is faster, immune to electromagnetic interference, and more difficult to intercept. It operates by modulating near-infrared, visual, or near-ultraviolet LEDs, making any LED source a potential access point.

Starlink/ X

Space-based internet services took a giant leap when SpaceX launched Starlink’s first satellites just over three years ago. The service has grown rapidly thanks to SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets and an increasing number of users looking to connect to the internet while being located remotely.

This is a risky bet, given the limitations of the technology. Tech companies have not solved some of the persistent problems with AI language models, such as their propensity to make things up or “hallucinate.” But what concerns me the most is that they are a security and privacy disaster, as I wrote earlier this year. Tech companies are putting this deeply flawed tech in the hands of millions of people and allowing AI models access to sensitive information such as their emails, calendars, and private messages. In doing so, they are making us all vulnerable to scams, phishing, and hacks on a massive scale.

I’ve covered the significant security problems with AI language models before. Now that AI assistants have access to personal information and can simultaneously browse the web, they are particularly prone to a type of attack called indirect prompt injection. It’s ridiculously easy to execute, and there is no known fix.

In an indirect prompt injection attack, a third party “alters a website by adding hidden text that is meant to change the AI’s behavior,” as I wrote in April. “Attackers could use social media or email to direct users to websites with these secret prompts. Once that happens, the AI system could be manipulated to let the attacker try to extract people’s credit card information, for example.” With this new generation of AI models plugged into social media and emails, the opportunities for hackers are endless.

Sure, you could just stick a ChatGPT sidebar in your browser. But what do we really want AI to do for us as we use the web? That’s the much harder question.

At some point, if you’re a company doing pretty much anything in the year 2023, you have to have an AI strategy. It’s just business. You can make a ChatGPT plug-in. You can do a sidebar. You can bet your entire trillion-dollar company on AI being the future of how everyone does everything. But you have to do something.

The last one of these was crypto and the blockchain a couple of years ago, and Josh Miller, the CEO of The Browser Company, which makes the popular new Arc browser, says he’s… More.

Continue reading “AI is coming to the Arc browser — but probably not like you think” »

A new study finds artificial intelligence could help predict pancreatic cancer. Dr. Chris Sander, one of the co-authors of the study, joined CBS News to talk about the findings.

#news #ai #cancer.

Continue reading “AI could help predict pancreatic cancer, study finds” »

Starlink is upgrading its satellite constellation to rev up its internet service. The company launched 8,000 upgraded space lasers capable of transmitting data at speeds up to 100 Gbps.

On September 26, Starlink posted a look at the improved V2 Mini satellites, which will enhance the constellation’s speed, reliability, and reach.

“Our next generation Starlink optical space lasers (pew pew!) were launched to orbit on Monday,” Starlink tweeted on X (formerly Twitter).