Comment Re:How smart are the robots? (Score 1) 85
nowdays no doubt that they can be smarter than a human! but lot of work have to be done..
Submission + - Germans ready to lean back into nuclear power (spiegel.de)
atcclears writes: German voters can see the toll of Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine and the cost of Berlin’s failed 20-year green-energy transition, and they are opening to reality. The country’s economic prospects, and Europe’s, depend on whether their leaders will follow that example. Some 78% of respondents support running the three remaining nuclear power plants at least until summer 2023
Submission + - In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg Took a Vow of User Privacy on Slashdot 1
theodp writes: If they remade It's a Wonderful Life with Slashdot co-founders Jeff Bates and Rob Malda, Clarence might show the pair that Mark Zuckerberg wouldn't be facing a six-hour deposition over alleged involvement in the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, and that a President Trump never would have governed Bedford Falls (nor would have a President Obama) if their News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters website never existed.
In 2003, a Harvard Crimson article reported that Zuck's programming skills attracted attention from the likes of Microsoft and others following a 2003 Slashdot post on Machine Learning and MP3, which described how "Students at Caltech [freshman Adam D'Angelo, Quora CEO and co-founder] and Harvard [freshman Zuck] have developed a system that analyzes playlists and learns people's listening patterns." The playlist-making software, Synapse AI, was Zuck's high school senior project at Phillips Exeter Academy. In the 2020 book Facebook: The Inside Story, Steven Levy also recounts how "the Slashdot attention was a boon."
In a modded-up comment ("Informative") on the post, Slashdot user Mark Zuckerberg interestingly vowed to protect user privacy. "And a note about privacy," promised Zuck. "None of your musical listening data will be available to anyone other than you. We hope to use massive amounts of data to aid in analysis, but your individual data will never be seen by anyone else." Hey, things change. And Slashdot user SkyIce (apparently D'Angelo) added, "I'm not going to spam people. I promise." Just remember kids, it's not spam if you 'asked for it'!".
In 2003, a Harvard Crimson article reported that Zuck's programming skills attracted attention from the likes of Microsoft and others following a 2003 Slashdot post on Machine Learning and MP3, which described how "Students at Caltech [freshman Adam D'Angelo, Quora CEO and co-founder] and Harvard [freshman Zuck] have developed a system that analyzes playlists and learns people's listening patterns." The playlist-making software, Synapse AI, was Zuck's high school senior project at Phillips Exeter Academy. In the 2020 book Facebook: The Inside Story, Steven Levy also recounts how "the Slashdot attention was a boon."
In a modded-up comment ("Informative") on the post, Slashdot user Mark Zuckerberg interestingly vowed to protect user privacy. "And a note about privacy," promised Zuck. "None of your musical listening data will be available to anyone other than you. We hope to use massive amounts of data to aid in analysis, but your individual data will never be seen by anyone else." Hey, things change. And Slashdot user SkyIce (apparently D'Angelo) added, "I'm not going to spam people. I promise." Just remember kids, it's not spam if you 'asked for it'!".
Submission + - Oracle insiders describe the 'complete chaos' from layoffs and restructuring (businessinsider.com)
SpzToid writes: Earlier this week, database giant Oracle began a sizable layoff, potentially impacting thousands of employees globally, sources told Insider.
The hardest-hit units, current and former employees said, were in the marketing and customer experience (CX) divisions, where insiders say the mood is bleak — and those who haven't yet been laid off are scrambling to figure out whether they'll be cut next.
"The people who have left are breathing a sigh of relief," a marketing employee who was laid off on Monday told Insider. "And the people who are still here are definitely running for the hills."
Some marketing teams have seen their headcount slashed by anywhere from 30% to 50%, sources said. In some cases, they said, managers were given the choice of who would get cut, while others had no say in how the layoffs would affect their teams.
"There's no marketing anymore," a senior marketing leader who was laid off on Monday told Insider. "We're not even supposed to say we're in marketing because there is no marketing division."
Oracle's advertising unit also laid off about 60 employees in July, Insider previously reported, and The Information reported that the company was seeking to cut as much as $1 billion in costs via layoffs and other means.
Now, there's a sense among many at Oracle of impending doom, with more cuts and reorganizations expected through the end of the year, including soon after its CloudWorld conference in October.
"It's just a horrible environment left," a former marketing employee who worked with Kelman said. "It's complete chaos."
Oracle's cuts affected some of its most seasoned employees
Some marketing employees have also been sharing their layoff notifications in external Slack channels and texts to warn others they may be next.
"We started the Slack messages before the notifications started," a former employee said. "So you could see when the calls were coming in and you could tell that you were going to get the next calls."
While the company is known for cutting workers every year, some employees said they were shocked by how many senior, experienced, and high-performing staffers were let go on Monday.
For example, Oracle's code base is so complicated that it can take years before engineers are fully up to speed with how everything works, and workers with over a decade of experience were cut, some employees said.
The decision to cut some of its over 130,000-strong workforce comes at a critical moment for the Austin-based tech giant. Oracle last month won regulatory approval for its $28 billion purchase of the medical-records company Cerner and is absorbing its roughly 20,000 employees. It also recently won a contract to store the US user data for the ByteDance-owned video app TikTok — a deal that may boost its cloud ambitions as it seeks to overtake cloud giants like Amazon Web Services.
The hardest-hit units, current and former employees said, were in the marketing and customer experience (CX) divisions, where insiders say the mood is bleak — and those who haven't yet been laid off are scrambling to figure out whether they'll be cut next.
"The people who have left are breathing a sigh of relief," a marketing employee who was laid off on Monday told Insider. "And the people who are still here are definitely running for the hills."
Some marketing teams have seen their headcount slashed by anywhere from 30% to 50%, sources said. In some cases, they said, managers were given the choice of who would get cut, while others had no say in how the layoffs would affect their teams.
"There's no marketing anymore," a senior marketing leader who was laid off on Monday told Insider. "We're not even supposed to say we're in marketing because there is no marketing division."
Oracle's advertising unit also laid off about 60 employees in July, Insider previously reported, and The Information reported that the company was seeking to cut as much as $1 billion in costs via layoffs and other means.
Now, there's a sense among many at Oracle of impending doom, with more cuts and reorganizations expected through the end of the year, including soon after its CloudWorld conference in October.
"It's just a horrible environment left," a former marketing employee who worked with Kelman said. "It's complete chaos."
Oracle's cuts affected some of its most seasoned employees
Some marketing employees have also been sharing their layoff notifications in external Slack channels and texts to warn others they may be next.
"We started the Slack messages before the notifications started," a former employee said. "So you could see when the calls were coming in and you could tell that you were going to get the next calls."
While the company is known for cutting workers every year, some employees said they were shocked by how many senior, experienced, and high-performing staffers were let go on Monday.
For example, Oracle's code base is so complicated that it can take years before engineers are fully up to speed with how everything works, and workers with over a decade of experience were cut, some employees said.
The decision to cut some of its over 130,000-strong workforce comes at a critical moment for the Austin-based tech giant. Oracle last month won regulatory approval for its $28 billion purchase of the medical-records company Cerner and is absorbing its roughly 20,000 employees. It also recently won a contract to store the US user data for the ByteDance-owned video app TikTok — a deal that may boost its cloud ambitions as it seeks to overtake cloud giants like Amazon Web Services.
Submission + - UK intelligence agencies are investigating cryptocurrency transactions (newscientist.com) 1
MattSparkes writes: Bitstamp, Europe's largest cryptocurrency exchange, says it has handed over information on some of its customers to the UK's intelligence agencies, MI5 and MI6. The news suggests that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are being used in serious organised crime and terrorism, as well as domestic crime.
The Security Service, also known as MI5, is responsible for preventing terrorism and espionage within the UK, while the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, is tasked with foreign intelligence. Neither organisation tackles ordinary crime, unless there is a threat to national security, and until now no cryptocurrency investigations have been confirmed.
The Security Service, also known as MI5, is responsible for preventing terrorism and espionage within the UK, while the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, is tasked with foreign intelligence. Neither organisation tackles ordinary crime, unless there is a threat to national security, and until now no cryptocurrency investigations have been confirmed.
Submission + - SPAM: Oxford Study Finds Low-Meat, Meat-Free Diets Associated With Lower Cancer Risk
An anonymous reader writes: Vegetarians have a 14% lower chance of developing cancer than carnivores, according to a large study that links meat-eating to a heightened risk of the disease. A team of researchers from Oxford University analyzed data on more than 470,000 Britons and found that pescatarians had a 10% reduced risk. Compared with people who eat meat regularly – defined as more than five times a week – those who consumed small amounts had a 2% lower risk of developing cancer, the study found. “In this large British cohort, being a low meat-eater, fish-eater or vegetarian was associated with a lower risk of all cancer sites when compared to regular meat-eaters,” the analysis found.
However, the authors, led by Cody Watling from Oxford’s population health cancer epidemiology unit, made clear that their findings did not conclusively prove regular meat-eating increased the risk of cancer. Smoking and body fat could also help explain the differences found, they said. Their study of participants in the UK Biobank study also found that:
- Low meat-eaters – who consume meat five or fewer times a week – had a 9% lower risk of developing bowel cancer than regular meat-eaters.
- Vegetarian women were 18% less likely than those who ate meat regularly to develop postmenopausal breast cancer, though that may be due to their lower body mass index.
- Vegetarian men have a 31% lower risk of prostate cancer while among male pescatarians it is 20% lower.
Link to Original Source
However, the authors, led by Cody Watling from Oxford’s population health cancer epidemiology unit, made clear that their findings did not conclusively prove regular meat-eating increased the risk of cancer. Smoking and body fat could also help explain the differences found, they said. Their study of participants in the UK Biobank study also found that:
- Low meat-eaters – who consume meat five or fewer times a week – had a 9% lower risk of developing bowel cancer than regular meat-eaters.
- Vegetarian women were 18% less likely than those who ate meat regularly to develop postmenopausal breast cancer, though that may be due to their lower body mass index.
- Vegetarian men have a 31% lower risk of prostate cancer while among male pescatarians it is 20% lower.
Link to Original Source
Submission + - ACM, Ethics, and Corporate Behavior 2
theodp writes: In the just-published March 2022 Communications of the ACM, former CACM Editor-in-Chief Moshe Yardi takes tech companies — and their officers and technical leaders — to task over the societal risk posed by surveillance capitalism in ACM, Ethics, and Corporate Behavior. Yardi writes: "Surveillance capitalism is perfectly legal, and enormously profitable, but it is unethical, many people believe, including me. After all, the ACM Code of Professional Ethics starts with 'Computing professionals' actions change the world. To act responsibly, they should reflect upon the wider impacts of their work, consistently supporting the public good.' It would be extremely difficult to argue that surveillance capitalism supports the public good."
"The biggest problem that computing faces today is not that AI technology is unethical—though machine bias is a serious issue—but that AI technology is used by large and powerful corporations to support a business model that is, arguably, unethical. Yet, with the exception of FAccT, I have seen practically no serious discussion in the ACM community of its relationship with surveillance-capitalism corporations. For example, the ACM Turing Award, ACM's highest award, is now accompanied by a prize of US$1 million, supported by Google."
"Furthermore, the issue is not just ACM's relationship with tech companies. We must also consider how we view officers and technical leaders in these companies. Seriously holding members of our community accountable for the decisions of the institutions they lead raises important questions. How do we apply the standard of "have not committed any action that violates the ACM Code of Ethics and ACM's Core Values" to such people? It is time for us to have difficult and nuanced conversations on responsible computing, ethics, corporate behavior, and professional responsibility."
"The biggest problem that computing faces today is not that AI technology is unethical—though machine bias is a serious issue—but that AI technology is used by large and powerful corporations to support a business model that is, arguably, unethical. Yet, with the exception of FAccT, I have seen practically no serious discussion in the ACM community of its relationship with surveillance-capitalism corporations. For example, the ACM Turing Award, ACM's highest award, is now accompanied by a prize of US$1 million, supported by Google."
"Furthermore, the issue is not just ACM's relationship with tech companies. We must also consider how we view officers and technical leaders in these companies. Seriously holding members of our community accountable for the decisions of the institutions they lead raises important questions. How do we apply the standard of "have not committed any action that violates the ACM Code of Ethics and ACM's Core Values" to such people? It is time for us to have difficult and nuanced conversations on responsible computing, ethics, corporate behavior, and professional responsibility."
