1 million signatures could make killing video games illegal in the EU

Aug02
by on August 2, 2024 at 12:41 pm
Posted In: Insider


A new European Citizens’ Initiative has launched to try and make it illegal for game publishers to render games useless to players. Should it succeed in getting 1 million signatures, the European Commission will have to consider making it law. One of the most frustrating things you can encounter as a gamer is when a publisher decides to kill one of your favourite games. This can happen for a number of reasons — licence agreements expire, server maintenance becomes too costly, end-of-life-strategies to push players towards new titles, etc. An increasing number of games rely on servers to run. If…

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How the Netherlands became a target for cyber espionage — and why Europe should be worried

Aug02
by on August 2, 2024 at 8:20 am
Posted In: Uncategorized


The thought of espionage usually conjures quirky high-end gadgets, like umbrellas that turn into lasers and x-ray glasses, misty morning clandestine meetings, or high-speed boat chases in exotic locations and elaborate disguises. Today, the reality might be much less sexy — but way more effective. State-sponsored hackers have 9-to-5 jobs, just like the rest of us. They have offices, vacations, and chit chats in the coffee room. But from behind their computers, they’re running campaigns to infiltrate systems across the world capturing sensitive data from governments, companies, critical infrastructure, or even individuals who could have access to this data. “We…

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UK startup accuses Google of ‘predatory conduct’ over withdrawal of Gmail API

Aug01
by on August 1, 2024 at 6:44 pm
Posted In: Insider


Google has been accused of exploiting a regulatory gap to terminate a startup’s access to the Gmail API. London-based Gener8 said the API is “critical” to its business. The company offers people control of the data that the likes of Gmail harvest. Users can then monetise their information. Thousands of firms already harvest and sell this data. That’s how Google became the fourth most valuable company in the world. Gener8 promises to take the power back. The startup has built an app that shows users the data that businesses have about them. They are then offered two options. One prevents tracking from third-party companies.…

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Google DeepMind launches 2B parameter Gemma 2 model

Jul31
by on July 31, 2024 at 4:00 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized


Google DeepMind announced today the release of the 2 billion (2B) parameter version of Gemma 2, the second generation of its Gemma AI models. First launched in February this year, Gemma is a family of lightweight, text-to-text open models designed for developers and researchers — and built on the technology that powers Google Gemini. DeepMind released Gemma 2 in June, in two different sizes: 9 billion (9B) and 27 billion (27) parameters. The new 2B model learns from larger models through distillation and produces outsized results, DeepMind says. The company also claims that it outperforms all GPT-3.5 models on the…

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Google-Anthropic partnership raises AI competition fears in the UK

Jul30
by on July 30, 2024 at 7:12 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized


Google’s partnership with GenAI startup Anthropic is raising eyebrows in the UK as the trend of big tech giants backing young AI companies continues. The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday that it’s collecting information on whether the partnership qualifies as a merger and negatively impacts UK competition. In October, Google-parent company Alphabet reportedly committed $2bn to the San-Francisco based startup, which has developed ChatGPT rival Claude. This followed a prior $300 investment in return for a what was said to be a 10% stake. The CMA is now asking “interested parties” to provide comments on the deal…

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