Enlarge (credit: Corey Gaskin) Back in 2010, Gary Wolf, then the editor of Wired magazine, delivered a TED talk in Cannes called “the quantified self.” It was about what he termed a “new fad” among tech enthusiasts. These early adopters were using gadgets to monitor everything from their physiological data to their mood and even the number of nappies their children used. Wolf acknowledged that these people were outliers—tech geeks…

Enlarge / Still of Procreate CEO James Cuda from a video posted to X. (credit: Procreate) On Sunday, Procreate announced that it will not incorporate generative AI into its popular iPad illustration app. The decision comes in response to an ongoing backlash from some parts of the art community, which has raised concerns about the ethical implications and potential consequences of AI use in creative industries. “Generative AI is ripping…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) A Windows zero-day vulnerability recently patched by Microsoft was exploited by hackers working on behalf of the North Korean government so they could install custom malware that’s exceptionally stealthy and advanced, researchers reported Monday. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-38193, was one of six zero-days—meaning vulnerabilities known or actively exploited before the vendor has a patch—fixed in Microsoft’s monthly update release last Tuesday. Microsoft said the vulnerability—in…

Enlarge (credit: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) AMD has agreed to buy artificial intelligence infrastructure group ZT Systems in a $4.9 billion cash and stock transaction, extending a run of AI investments by the chip company as it seeks to challenge market leader Nvidia. The California-based group said the acquisition would help accelerate the adoption of its Instinct line of AI data center chips, which compete with Nvidia’s popular graphics…

Enlarge / The Fitbit Sense 2. (credit: Google) Google is denying a recent report that it is no longer making Fitbit smartwatches. A company spokesperson told Ars Technica today that Google has no current plans to discontinue the Fitbit Sense or Fitbit Versa product lines. On Sunday, TechRadar published an article titled “RIP Fitbit smartwatches—an end we could see coming a mile away.” The article noted last week’s announcement of…

Enlarge / Still from a Chinese social media video featuring two people imitating imperfect AI-generated video outputs. (credit: BiliBili) It’s no secret that despite significant investment from companies like OpenAI and Runway, AI-generated videos still struggle to achieve convincing realism at times. Some of the most amusing fails end up on social media, which has led to a new response trend on Chinese social media platforms TikTok and Bilibili where…

Enlarge / Artist’s conception of Epic dodging harm from Apple’s decisions (and perhaps its own). It’s been four years since Fortnite, one of the world’s most popular games, was pulled from the Apple App Store in a blaze of controversy and finger-pointing. Today, it’s returning to the iPhone—but only in the European Union. Today marks the launch of the Epic Games Store on Android and iOS—iOS just in Europe, Android…

Enlarge / If you’ve formatted a disk in Windows in the last 30 years, you may have come across this dialog box. (credit: Andrew Cunningham) As we wait for this fall’s Windows 11 24H2 update to be released to the general public, work continues on other new features that could be part of other future Windows updates. A new Canary channel Windows Insider build released yesterday fixes a decades-old and…

Enlarge / Roger Stone, former adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, center, during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee on July 17, 2024. (credit: Getty Images) Google’s Threat Analysis Group confirmed Wednesday that they observed a threat actor backed by the Iranian government targeting Google accounts associated with US presidential campaigns, in addition to stepped-up attacks on Israeli targets. APT42, associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, “consistently targets…

Enlarge (credit: Primate Labs ) Neural processing units (NPUs) are becoming commonplace in chips from Intel and AMD after several years of being something you’d find mostly in smartphones and tablets (and Macs). But as more companies push to do more generative AI processing, image editing, and chatbot-ing locally on-device instead of in the cloud, being able to measure NPU performance will become more important to people making purchasing decisions….