Google teaches math to large language models like ChatGPT, Tesla faces two trials over fatalities, Bing AI adds support for Chrome, and the four common password mistakes that hackers love to exploit.
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These stories and more as we bring you the top tech news on today’s Hashtag Trending.
I’m your host James Roy. Happy Tuesday!
Large language models like ChatGPT have emerged to be infamously bad at math, but Google might be coming to the rescue.
The goal, Google researchers have said, is to teach LLMs to reason better algorithmically.
A study has shown that LLMs struggle with large numbers, because they have not learned the underlying rules needed to perform arithmetic operations. The same study says that ChatGPT has actually gotten worse at math, since March.
Google plans to take the in-context learning approach and introduce an algorithm that’s better at reasoning. This means it will teach the LLM a new skill where the researchers guide it through the process step-by-step instead of overwhelming it with all instructions upfront.
The researchers also presented a prompting technique so that a general purpose language model would have strong generalizations on more difficult math problems than the ones in the prompt.
Wolfram Research, a pioneer in fusing math and technology, has also been working with ChatGPT’s parent OpenAI, to bring better math capabilities to AI models.
It has a plugin that solves math step-by-step, presents data visually if prompted or in different forms like graphs or charts and can even turn queries in natural language into mathematical equations.
Maybe with Wolfram and Google, ChatGPT can, after all, become an above average student.
Source: Analytics Mag India
Six months after its debut, Bing AI is finally adding support for Google Chrome.
Microsoft’s latest release says, “Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise are now supported in the Chrome desktop browser (using the latest Stable Channel update) for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Support for other browsers on desktop and mobile is forthcoming”.
The rollout, in fact, started rather quietly late last month; Microsoft remained coy on the addition and it was not available to everyone.
This expansion is a pretty big deal as Google Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, which means Microsoft is opening support to a whole lot more users.
Microsoft has also expanded support for Bing AI in SwiftKey, with users now able to use the AI up to 30 times per day without signing into an account.
Source: 9TO5Google
The UK has officially joined the race to stockpile AI chips as demand for generative AI balloons.
The country announced that it is devoting £100 million (about $126 million US dollars) to foster AI hardware development and shore up possible computer chip shortages.
As part of this effort, the UK Research and Innovation group will purchase 5,000 of the very coveted GPUs from Nvidia. The country also plans to put £900 million toward developing compute capacity, including an exascale supercomputer.
Experts are worried that this investment is simply not enough to match the competitive market. Plus, the UK is responsible for only 0.5 per cent of global semiconductor sales and is already scrambling to compete with the EU, U.S. and China.
The U.S., for instance, has invested $52 billion into its semiconductor industry with the CHIPS Act, and the EU offered €43 billion ($46 billion USD) in subsidies with its European Chips Act.
Source: Tech Republic
Tesla is bracing itself to defend, for the first time, against allegations that failure of its Autopilot driver assistant feature led to death.
The automaker is facing two trials, stemming from two crashes in 2019 that led to fatalities. Both lawsuits allege that Autopilot malfunctioned.
Tesla denied liability for both accidents, blamed driver error and said Autopilot is safe when monitored by humans. The company said, “There are no self-driving cars on the road today.”
But owner Elon Musk has often tweeted about his test-driving of a Tesla equipped with “Full Self-Driving” software and even made promises that Tesla would achieve self-driving capability.
It faced a trial in April for an accident that injured a driver and won. But the stakes for the upcoming trials are much higher because people died.
Either way, the trials will reveal a lot about Musk’s assertions on the technology. Critics say wins could raise confidence and sales for the software and losses, especially with big damages, will change the narrative going forward.
Tesla filed an emergency motion to keep the deposition transcripts of employees and other documents a secret. But one of the victim’s attorneys said he will oppose that motion, adding “”The great thing about our judicial system is Billion Dollar Corporations can only keep secrets for so long.”
Source: Reuters
Using a weak but easy to remember or satisfying password is the bane of our online security, and a goldmine for hackers.
A recent article in the Bleeping Computer explains that hackers are well aware of this and are committed to exploit the mistakes we make, as well the password policies that let them get away with it.
At the end of the day, cracking passwords still essentially comes down to guessing and any clues as to what makes up the structure of a password is very helpful to hackers.
So here are four common password mistakes we make that hackers take advantage of:
First, users start with a base, rarely random, something relevant to them that they tweak, like capitalizing the first letter. As a result, attackers exploit common base terms through dictionary attacks or social media, which offers heaps of information about a targeted user, like birthdays or family names. It’s laughable that the most common base terms today are “password”, “admin”, or “welcome”.
A short password length is another scourge. Attackers use brute force techniques to rapidly iterate and try all potential password combinations through endless login attempts until the right one is found. Many organizations continue to enforce a short password length of eight characters. And if a user is given the option to create a shorter password, they’re going to take it.
Thirdly, users would go for predictable passwords inspired by the layout of a keyboard. Some would look complex, but if you look at a keyboard, they could be right next to each other, offering an easy-to-remember ‘keyboard walk’ for the end user. The pattern “qwerty” was found over 1 million times among compromised passwords.
The final common mistake is password reuse. According to Google, 65 per cent of people reuse passwords. This is partly why cybercriminals go to great lengths to steal credential information and sell it online – it’s likely a stolen password from one site could be exploited elsewhere too.
Avoiding these mistakes would be a start to being safer online but organizations need to have an effective password policy. They also need to have a system to easily audit their Active Directory and make sure any strong passwords that are compromised are quickly changed.
Source: Bleeping Computer
Google Flights has released a new feature that will tell travelers when is the cheapest time to book.
Google explains that it will roll out insights that could tell users that the cheapest time to book their trip is currently two months prior to departure or that, typically, prices for their trip have generally declined closer to the date of departure.
Users can also turn on price tracking to receive notifications when flight prices fall significantly for their preferred or flexible dates.
Some flights will also feature a price guarantee badge, which means Google is confident the fare won’t get any lower before departure. If it does, Google will refund the difference via Google Pay. This is part of a pilot program available for select itineraries in the U.S.
Source: TechCrunch
That’s the top tech news stories for today. Hashtag Trending goes to air 5 days a week, with a special weekend interview show we call “the Weekend Edition.”
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I’m your host, James Roy. Have a Terrific Tuesday!
