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Sep 24, 2020

Ripjar, founded by GCHQ alums, raises $36.8M for AI that detects financial crime

Posted by in categories: business, cybercrime/malcode, finance, government, privacy, robotics/AI

Financial crime as a wider category of cybercrime continues to be one of the most potent of online threats, covering nefarious activities as diverse as fraud, money laundering and funding terrorism. Today, one of the startups that has been building data intelligence solutions to help combat that is announcing a fundraise to continue fueling its growth.

Ripjar, a U.K. company founded by five data scientists who previously worked together in British intelligence at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, the U.K.’s equivalent of the NSA), has raised $36.8 million (£28 million) in a Series B, money that it plans to use to continue expanding the scope of its AI platform — which it calls Labyrinth — and scaling the business.

Labyrinth, as Ripjar describes it, works with both structured and unstructured data, using natural language processing and an API-based platform that lets organizations incorporate any data source they would like to analyse and monitor for activity. It automatically and in real time checks these against other data sources like sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEPs) lists and transaction alerts.

Sep 24, 2020

Worried that flu season and coronavirus pandemic could overwhelm hospitals, health officials urge Texans to get flu shots

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Health experts worry about testing shortages and crowded hospitals as flu season approaches in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sep 24, 2020

Mind-reading device uses AI to turn brainwaves into audible speech

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

People’s brainwaves have been converted into speech using electrodes on the brain. The method could one day help people speak who have lost the ability.


By Chelsea Whyte.

Electrodes on the brain have been used to translate brainwaves into words spoken by a computer – which could be useful in the future to help people who have lost the ability to speak.

Continue reading “Mind-reading device uses AI to turn brainwaves into audible speech” »

Sep 24, 2020

California to phase out sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035

Posted by in category: transportation

Gov. Gavin Newsom signs executive order that will require new automobiles sold in the state to be electric or otherwise zero-emissions.

Sep 24, 2020

China attacked Indian satellite communications: US Report

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, satellites

Computer network attack against Indian satellite communications in 2017” is one among a slew of counter-space activities carried out by China since 2007, listed in a new report by US-based China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), which provides China’s space narrative among other things.

Isro, while conceding that cyber-attacks are a constant threat, maintains that its systems has not been compromised so far.

The 142-page report notes that between 2012 and 2018, China carried out multiple cyber-attacks, but elaborates on the result only in one case.

Sep 24, 2020

World’s largest cement maker pledges carbon neutrality

Posted by in category: futurism

Swiss multinational company, LafargeHolcim, is planning its first “net zero” cement production facility by 2030 and has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050.

Sep 24, 2020

The Massive ‘Blob’ Anomaly Has Our Fingerprints All Over It, Study Finds

Posted by in category: futurism

In 2013, a suffocatingly hot blob of water brewed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America. It then decimated marine life.

Thousands of seabirds washed up dead on shores, along with starving baby sea lions. Salmon, krill, and other marine animals vanished as the warmth fuelled a massive toxic algal bloom that also shut down crab fisheries.

Continue reading “The Massive ‘Blob’ Anomaly Has Our Fingerprints All Over It, Study Finds” »

Sep 24, 2020

Microsoft licenses the breakthrough natural language AI GPT-3

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

Microsoft announced that it has “exclusively licensed” OpenAI’s sophisticated GPT-3 language model that can generate disturbingly human-like text in applications ranging from commercial bots to creative writing. After investing $1 billion in the San Francisco startup last year to become OpenAI’s exclusive cloud partner, Microsoft will get access to the language tech for itself and its Azure cloud customers.

OpenAI released GPT-3 just a couple of months ago to a limited group of developers, but its capabilities have already generated massive amounts of buzz. It’s the largest language model ever trained, and is capable of not just mundane tasks like auto-generating business correspondence, but also creative or technical chores like poetry, memes and computer code.

Sep 24, 2020

The strange storms on Jupiter

Posted by in categories: climatology, mathematics, space

At the south pole of Jupiter lurks a striking sight—even for a gas giant planet covered in colorful bands that sports a red spot larger than the earth. Down near the south pole of the planet, mostly hidden from the prying eyes of humans, is a collection of swirling storms arranged in an unusually geometric pattern.

Since they were first spotted by NASA’s Juno space probe in 2019, the storms have presented something of a mystery to scientists. The storms are analogous to hurricanes on Earth. However, on our planet, hurricanes do not gather themselves at the poles and twirl around each other in the shape of a pentagon or hexagon, as do Jupiter’s curious storms.

Now, a research team working in the lab of Andy Ingersoll, Caltech professor of planetary science, has discovered why Jupiter’s storms behave so strangely. They did so using math derived from a proof written by Lord Kelvin, a British mathematical physicist and engineer, nearly 150 years ago.

Sep 24, 2020

SpaceX’s Starlink Could Lower Internet Prices by Up to 40%

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

From the beginning, SpaceX has had a goal of bringing high speed internet service to underserved locations, creating competition in areas that currently have limited options or, in many cases, monopolies causing higher prices.

With its constellation of low orbit satellites, Starlink will be able to shake up the broadband industry by offering a new category of broadband. Without the need to place expensive infrastructure like underground or pole-based wiring required for current broadband options, SpaceX could more easily reach rural areas and begin to close the digital divide.

A study from Broadband Now shows that, in addition to working toward closing that gap, introducing a new internet provider could reduce the price of internet service by up to 40%. The chart below shows how adding additional providers in an area significantly reduces the average monthly cost of internet service.