2023-03-27
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Ubiquitous Compute
Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel Corporation and inventor of Moore’s Law, passed away on March 24, 2023, at 92. Born in 1929, Moore co-founded Intel in 1968 and served as its CEO from 1975 to 1987. He is best known for his prediction, Moore’s Law, that the number of transistors on a microchip would double roughly every two years, leading to exponential growth in computing power. This prediction has held for over 50 years and has played a vital role in driving the advancement of the technology industry.
The 4004, Intel’s first microprocessor, debuted in 1971 as the first commercially available microprocessor. Initially designed for calculators, it quickly found applications in other areas, such as traffic light controllers and electronic cash registers. The 4004 contained 2,300 transistors on a single chip and helped establish Intel as a major player in the semiconductor industry. Today, microprocessors are used in various devices, from smartphones to supercomputers.
Intel has announced the availability of its latest Xeon Max Scalable processor series, based on its Sapphire Rapids architecture. The Xeon Max series features 100 Billion, 10nm SuperFin transistors, AI and encryption acceleration, and PCIe 5.0 support, providing enhanced performance and security for enterprise computing workloads. This accounts for 40 Million times more transistors in the latest processor than their first processor over 50 years ago.
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/intel-announces-xeon-max-sapphire-rapids-cpus/
Artificial Intelligence
ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI, experienced a technical issue that caused it to go down for several hours. The problem, which was caused by a bug in the system, affected the history function of the model, making it unable to access its previous conversations. OpenAI has since resolved the issue, and ChatGPT is now fully operational. The incident serves as a reminder of the potential risks of relying on AI and the importance of having robust systems to address technical issues.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/chatgpt-down-bug-issue-history-b2306269.html
Bard, an artificial intelligence language model developed by Google as a competitor to OpenAI’s GPT, is now available for public use. Bard, which uses a different approach to language modeling than GPT, aims to generate more creative and diverse text by allowing users to input their prompts and constraints. The release of Bard for public use is expected to accelerate the development of new natural language processing applications and advance the field of AI language modeling.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-21/google-chatgpt-rival-bard-now-open-to-public-use
A new farming method, Synecoculture, involves planting multiple plant species together in high density. However, it can be a complex process due to varying growth speeds and seasons. Researchers have developed a robot to sow, prune, and harvest plants in dense vegetation growth to address this issue. The robot’s small and flexible body will be helpful in large-scale Synecoculture, making it an essential step toward achieving sustainable farming and carbon neutrality.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230320102001.htm
Cybersecurity
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a new tool to detect malicious activity in Microsoft cloud services. The Sparrow tool can scan Azure and Microsoft 365 environments for signs of hacking and other unauthorized activities. Sparrow uses open-source data and artificial intelligence algorithms to identify potential threats and provides users with actionable recommendations to prevent further damage. The release of Sparrow is part of CISA’s ongoing efforts to enhance the security of cloud-based systems and protect against cyber attacks.
Tesla’s electric vehicles were hacked twice at the annual Pwn2Own exploit contest held by the Zero Day Initiative. A team of researchers was able to exploit a vulnerability in the infotainment system of a Model 3 to take control of the vehicle’s headlights, speakers, and other methods. Another team used a bug in the same approach to execute code and gain access to the car’s data. Tesla has since released an over-the-air patch to fix the vulnerabilities.
https://www.securityweek.com/tesla-hacked-twice-at-pwn2own-exploit-contest/
Intel has announced its new 13th-gen Core vPro platform, which features hardware-based security features designed to reduce the platform’s attack surface. The new platform includes Intel Hardware Shield, which uses CPU-level threat detection to provide a secure boot process, and Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology, which helps prevent return-oriented programming (ROP) attacks. The platform also includes Intel’s Threat Detection Technology, which uses machine learning to identify potential security threats. The 13th-gen Core vPro platform is aimed at business customers looking for advanced security features to protect against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.