Apple Releases iOS/iPadOS 17.3, macOS 14.3
On January 23rd, iOS/iPadOS 17.3 and macOS 14.3 were pushed out. In iOS/iPadOS 17.3, Apple added Stolen Device Protection, which improves the security of iPhone and Apple ID by requiring Face ID or Touch ID without a passcode fallback mechanism to perform certain security actions. iOS/iPadOS 17.3 also added Black History Month-related wallpapers, collaborative playlists, Hotel AirPlay playback, and more. macOS 14.3, watchOS 10.3, and tvOS and HomePod software have also been updated. Apple has also pushed out iOS/iPadOS 16.7.5 and iOS/iPadOS 15.8.1 security updates for devices that do not support iOS/iPadOS 17.
UChicago Researchers Release AI ‘Poisoning’ Tool Nightshade
Computer scientists at the University of Chicago’s Glaze program, led by Professor Ben Zhao, recently developed a free AI ‘attack’ tool called Nightshade. The tool is designed to help artists target their “poison” by placing obstacles in the way of AI models that are trying to train on their work.
Nightshade utilizes the popular open-source machine learning framework PyTorch to identify the content in a given image and apply a label to it. It then alters the image at the pixel level, causing other AI programs to ‘see’ something completely different from what it actually is. For example, a person may see an image of ‘a cow in a green field’, but the AI model may recognize ‘a purse on grass’. As a result, an AI model trained on the modified image might start generating a purse instead of a cow. The team notes that Nightshade’s goal is not to break the model, but to raise the cost of training with unauthorized data.
Fuji to Hold First X Summit Conference This Year
On January 22nd, Fuji posted a YouTube video officially announcing that this year’s X Summit conference will be held on February 20th in Tokyo, Japan. The teaser video mentions the achievements of the GFX 100 II, Fuji’s 90th anniversary, and an upcoming collaboration series with the World Press Photo Foundation. According to previous leaks, Fujifilm will unveil two new cameras at the event, the X 100 VI and the GXF 100 S II.
Other News
According to PCMachinima, a data miner on the Reddit platform, a recent update to the Epic mall client included code related to ‘subscriptions’. The documents show that Epic expects to launch a membership service next year, with monthly and annual membership options. Members will receive additional discounts on games and access to bundled subscriptions such as EA Play, and Epic membership benefits will also include limited-time trial game content.
Recently, Google released a binary message that decoded to read ‘Fresh year, Fresh drop’. As inferred from the video of the tweet, Google is planning to launch a new mint green color scheme on January 25, 2024 for the Pixel 8 Pro.