Fake LastPass app, toxic bosses, Gemini Ultra review, AI smart glass and more

February 12, 2024

Fake LastPass app, toxic bosses, Gemini Ultra review, AI smart glass and more

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On my radar

Apple Pulls Fake LastPass App From Its App Store

A possibly malicious impersonator app, dubbed LassPass, somehow passed Apple's App Store security review. Apple has since removed the app and banned its developer.

CAREER

5 Ways To Cope With A Toxic Boss (Without Quitting Your Job)

Toxic bosses are far too common. In fact, if you’ve worked with a toxic manager at some point, you’re no longer the exception. You're the rule. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of American workers have experienced a toxic manager at one time or another, and about a third (31%) are currently working under one. That’s according to a recent Harris poll of a nationally representative sample of 1,233 employed U.S. adults. The report refers to a toxic boss as “a boss or supervisor who has exhibited any toxic behaviors” like unprofessional conduct or micromanagement. Unfortunately, a jaw-dropping 53% of employees in the U.S. admit to working on weekends or over the holidays because of their horrible bosses.

WOMEN IN TECH

Biden appoints AI Safety Institute leaders as NIST funding concerns linger

Today the Biden administration named Elizabeth Kelly, a top White House aide who had been a “driving force” behind the President’s AI Executive Order (EO), as the director of the new US AI Safety Institute (USAISI) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In addition, Elham Tabassi was appointed as chief technology officer.

How Generative AI Helped Make AMD’s Lisa Su A Billionaire

Just two years after joining chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices in 2012, IBM veteran Lisa Su was tapped to take the top job. It was a big promotion for the then 43-year-old, but also a gamble: At the time, the company was floundering. It had laid off around a quarter of its staff and its share price hovered around $2. Now, the tech-stock rally of 2024 has made Su—the first female chief executive of a major semiconductor company—a new billionaire. She owns some 4 million shares (a tiny 0.2% sliver of the company) but those, along with options she’s been awarded, account for about three-quarters of her $1.1 billion fortune.

CYBERSECURITY

Cyber-hacking victims ‘paid out record $1.1bn in ransoms last year‘

Ransomware gangs targeted hospitals, schools and bodies such as BA and the BBC, Chainalysis finds

Verizon employee compromises personal data of 63,000 colleagues

The compromised personal information includes names, addresses, Social Security Number or other national identifier, gender, union affiliation, date of birth, and compensation information.

Google launches Gemini Ultra, its most powerful LLM yet

Google Bard is no more. Almost exactly a year after first introducing its (rushed) efforts to challenge OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the company is retiring the name and rebranding Bard as Gemini, the name of its family of foundation models. More importantly, though, it is also now launching Gemini Ultra, its most capable large language model yet.

How to assemble a generative AI dream team

A lot of different skills are needed to create a genAI system that can do the most for your business. Here’s a description of the important roles.

AI-generated deepfake Biden robocalls came from Texas company

Up to 25,000 fake phone calls spread disinformation about the U.S. elections.

The culprit behind last month's fake Biden AI robocalls appears to have been identified. New Hampshire's Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it traced the illegal calls back to Life Corporation, a company based in Texas, and its owner Walter Monk.

LAW

Security Researcher Accused of Hacking Apple to Scam $2.5 Million in Freebies

And then Apple thanked him for his vulnerability reports.

By all appearances, Noah Roskin-Frazee was a legitimate security researcher who had reported bugs to Apple and other firms to help shore up vulnerabilities. However, he was arrested last month and charged with orchestrating a $2.5 million scheme to steal electronics and gift cards from Apple. It would seem, however, that no one told Apple's security team. The company thanked Roskin-Frazee in a security bulletin on Jan. 22, two weeks after his arrest.

Cool Technology

The most promising AI smart glasses are from a brand you've never heard of

No, it's not Meta or Xreal. The Frame by Brilliant Labs is touted as the world's first glasses with an integrated multimodal AI assistant.

Researchers design a processor from DNA — microfluidic chip completes math calculations and also stores data in DNA

A microfluidic DNA processor dubbed a "lab-on-chip" has been developed by RIT researchers, capable of not only computation but also reading and writing data stored within DNA [h/t RIT.edu]. The prototype device supports artificial neural network computations on data stored within DNA, specifically microfluidic solutions of manipulated DNA molecules. The capabilities of this DNA CPU also extend to the expected mathematical and non-linear calculations you want to see from a CPU, and it should be capable of networking functionality with other devices.