Research groups across the world are turning to image recognition AI, the same kind used for human facial recognition and identification, to solve problems in the animal kingdom. Ranchers use facial recognition software to try and track down problems with their livestock – think of it like contact-tracing for cows. And biologists use it to identify primates for a myriad of studies. Most recently, CNN published a story about a group of scientists who’d developed a method for identifying hundreds of individual bears....

Less than a decade ago, this idea of hackathons was accurate, but in 2021 much about these events has changed. Hackathons have significantly evolved since the inaugural one in 1999. Today, they are tools used by companies globally to develop innovative new products and discover hidden tech talent — both for companies doing lateral hiring or recruiting from universities. If your organization is thinking of hosting a hackathon, consider the following best practices that my team and I have acquired running over 6,000 hackathons:...

Getting your first paid job as a web designer seems like the most difficult task in this universe. It’s not because you are incompetent or lack any technical skills. Rather, employers feel a little hesitant to hire new talent. But, every designer has to start somewhere. Right? In this article, I will share some interesting project ideas to help you craft a great web design portfolio. Now you might be wondering what the benefit of having a portfolio is....

Shared mobility is one of the great hopes for sustainable transport. Privately-owned vehicles are notoriously wasteful, mostly sitting idle. Advances in digital technology and the rise of the smartphone have opened the potential to vastly improve the utilization of assets, delivering profits to savvy companies and cheaper, more convenient, mobility to consumers. Alexander Gmelin, CPO of Invers, explains how the German company is laying the foundations of a shared mobility platform....

The software’s new privacy policy — after the Muse group acquired it in April — came into effect on July 2. The change notes that Audacity will collect more data from you, including operating system version, processor, country based on IP address, crash reports, and non-fatal error codes and messages. The company is collecting all this information under the guise of “data necessary for law enforcement, litigation and authorities’ requests (if any)....

Brazil was the second country after India to get WhatsApp’s payments feature when it launched on June 15. But now, its future is uncertain. In a statement, the bank said that this decision is to preserve an adequate competitive environment: The central bank has also raised privacy concerns regarding the service. According to Brazilian outlet Folha de Sao Paulo, the company will have to appeal against the decision to the Administrative Council for Economic Defence....

The oldest printed books appeared in China between AD600 and AD900. For over a millennium, books remained the main source of information storage. Humans achieved more technological development in the past 150 years than during the previous 2,000 years. Arguably one of the most important developments in human history was the invention of digital electronics. Since the discovery of the transistor in 1947 and the integrated microchip in 1956, our society experienced a shift....

The whiff of the conspiracy that inevitably seems to trail pandemics is nothing new. When the 1918 flu pandemic hit the Americas, it was blamed on German submarines spreading the virus. During the 1630 plague in Milan, the combination of folk superstitions and widespread anxiety led to the trial, torture, and execution of two citizens falsely accused of spreading the pestilence – a case minutely examined by the Italian novelist Alessandro Manzoni....

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 15, 2020 On the other hand, the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) foreign policy in-charge, Vijay Chauthaiwale, took a swipe at Bezos-owned Washington Post, and said the publication’s coverage is highly biased: The Washington Post has repeatedly criticized the Indian government’s recent decisions, from scrapping article 370 to strip the state of Jammu & Kashmir of its autonomy, to its controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which discriminates against Muslims in fast-tracking citizenship for refugees of neighboring countries....

“The sun is starting to set on the Wild West days of artificial intelligence,” writes Jeremy Kahn. He may have a point. When this regulation comes into effect, it will change the way that we conduct AI research and development. In the last few years of AI, there were few rules or regulations: if you could think it, you could build it. That is no longer the case, at least in the European Union....

As usual, day one’s keynote address was jam-packed with announcements; most of them were the expected software updates, but there were some important hardware reveals too. In a pre-recorded stream, the company revealed products including iOS 16, macOS Ventura, the M2 chip, a new MacBook Air, and a whole bunch more. Let’s get started then. Here are the biggest announcements from the show you need to know. M2 A year and a half after shaking up the laptop industry with its introduction of the M1 system-on-a-chip (SoC) — and beginning its abandonment of Intel in the process — Apple is finally ready to introduce its next-generation SoC....

In an interview with GiantBomb’s Jeff Gerstmann after the show, Spencer lamented the absence of Sony and Activision from the E3 tableau. He also referenced the “legislation” around gaming — the World Health Organization’s ratification of “gaming disorder,” specifically — and said the show should be about the leaders in the industry showing the world, during the time when the conference collectively makes enough noise to draw their attention, that gaming’s a worthwhile hobby: (Side note: considering there were seven E3 shows already, not to mention EA Play right before, I think we’d all have collectively drank ourselves into a stupor if both Sony and Activision had their own shows....

This top-of-the-line unit boasts a 4K panel that supports HDR 10. It also gets a metal frame and stands, slim bezels that measure just over 1 cm in thickness, and a new Vivid Picture Engine that promises improved picture quality across all input streams, including channels from your set-top box. Xiaomi noted that this TV’s panel has a wider color gamut with an 88 percent NTSC rating; it also packs an MEMC chip that interpolates frames from incoming transmission for smoother motion....

Though the company already released preview versions of the OS for developers, its public betas don’t require special credentials and are generally considered more stable than the more iterative updates developers get to play with. Getting it on your system is simple: just head on over to Apple’s Beta Software Program page, and sign up to try Big Sur (or any other of the available software updates announced at WWDC)....

The heart of the matter is the distinction between provoking a response and providing content people want. Social media algorithms – the rules their computers follow in deciding the content that you see – rely heavily on people’s behavior to make these decisions. In particular, they watch for content that people respond to or “engage” with by liking, commenting and sharing. As a computer scientist who studies the ways large numbers of people interact using technology, I understand the logic of using the wisdom of the crowds in these algorithms....

According to the report, Shorts will live within the regular YouTube app and will include “a feed of brief videos posted by users.” Thanks to the company’s stockpile of licensed music, users will be able to use these as backing tracks for their videos, potentially giving YouTube an edge over its competitor. TikTok launched in China in 2016 and was released worldwide in 2018. The app allows for short looping videos from 3 to 60 seconds long, echoing the days of Vine....

When you look up a piece of news or a potentially false claim on YouTube, you’ll now see a blue box labeled ‘independent fact check’ with a link to relevant information above the search results. The box both specifies the claim being made and tells you if it’s true or false. The info box will only appear is there is a “relevant fact check article available from an eligible publisher....

Patrick McDonnel, also known as Jason Flack, was also ordered to pay $224,352 in restitution fees. “Mr. McDonnell used his knowledge of virtual currencies to scam investors. While he thought he could outsmart law enforcement, his arrest, and today’s sentence shows, no matter where you are, what’s done in the dark will be brought to the light,” stated USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Philip R Bartlett. [Read: CabbageTech owner charged with running $200K cryptocurrency and cash swindle] As previously reported by Hard Fork, McDonnel was initially accused of scamming at least 10 individuals out of $194,000, 4....

According to German business newspaper Handelsblatt, the country’s banking watchdog, BaFin, handed a cease-and-desist-order to Karatbit Foundation, registered in Belize, and told the company to settle any outstanding financial claims. Founded by former vacuum cleaner salesman Harald Seiz in 2011, Karatbars leveraged Roberto Carlo’s, Patrick Kluivert’s, and Lothar Matthäus’ fame to promise users it would disrupt the financial system with its transformative currency. The business allowed prospective “affiliates” to purchase “cryptonyzed gold” tokens....

Yesterday, Twitter announced it’s testing a feature to filter out potentially offensive direct messages. Any DMs in the “Message requests” folder containing abusive or inappropriate content will be automatically moved to a section marked “Additional messages,” giving people the option to view the message or permanently delete it. The safety feature will hide the message’s content and replace it with: “This message is hidden because it may contain offensive content....