AI is now making laws, fusion power gets closer to reality and you’ll never guess what the word of the year is.
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These and more top tech stories on Hashtag Trending
I’m your host Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada and Tech News Day in the US.
We covered the story about the lawyer who used ChatGPT and got fined because it made up some case law that he was trying to present.
But now we’ve got the first time that ChatGPT has been used to actually make up laws.
The council of Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazil, has just approved legislation that was drafted by ChatGPT.
It’s a simple piece, aimed at preventing the city from charging taxpayers for replacing stolen water meters, as it was unanimously passed by the council’s 36 members in late November.
But at the time, most council members were unaware that the proposal’s text was generated by the AI chatbot – that is, until councilman Ramiro Rosário revealed he had used ChatGPT to write it.
Rosário said that he kept this information hidden initially, fearing the proposal wouldn’t have been considered otherwise.
This is the first known instance of AI-written legislation being passed by lawmakers. And while they were initially skeptical, the city’s council president acknowledged that using AI in this manner could become a trend.
The use of AI for legal documents is controversial, especially given the tendency of systems like ChatGPT to fabricate information.
But despite these concerns, Rosário believes that AI technology can be used effectively and responsibly and after all, there’s no law against it.
Sources include: The Register
Japan and the European Union have marked a significant milestone in nuclear fusion research with the world’s largest and most advanced tokamak. A tokamak uses huge powerful magnetic coils to accelerate plasma, which is then heated to up to 300 million degrees Celsius.
In its inaugural run the reactor created around 140 cubic meters of plasma the reactor generated one mega ampere. This is the largest ever created by humans.
The high temperatures inside the reactor mimic the Sun’s process, where hydrogen particles fuse to create helium, releasing energy as light and heat. This clean energy source, unlike nuclear fission, produces no radioactive waste and is considered an important technology for achieving net-zero emissions.
Sources include: The Register
It may be a little early for reflections on the year that was, but when I ran across this list it astonished me.
2023 has seen some really big companies fall victim to cyber attacks. If you follow our sister podcast CyberSecurity Today, you’ve probably heard these stories in real time. But when I saw them listed, it was something. See how many you remember.
- X (Twitter): In January, a database containing the email addresses of about 200 million users was sold on the dark web for just $2. This breach was due to a flaw in X’s API, allowing attackers to exploit the system and obtain email addresses linked to X accounts.
- Reddit: In February, Reddit was hit by a phishing attack, leading to a breach that exposed internal documents, source code, employee data, and limited advertiser information.
- ChatGPT: In March, a glitch in ChatGPT’s open-source library inadvertently exposed customer data, including partial credit card details and chat titles.
- MSI: In April, MSI fell victim to a ransomware attack, resulting in the theft of 1.5TB of data, including sensitive information like source code and private keys.
- T-Mobile: Is our May victim, with a breach affecting 800 customers, caused by unauthorized access to PIN-protected accounts.
- MOVEit: In June 2023, the MOVEit file transfer tool experienced a breach affecting 200 organizations globally, exposing personal information of up to 17.5 million individuals.
- ROBLOX: In July 2023, a breach revealed personal information of nearly 4,000 Roblox developers, obtained from developer conference attendees between 2017 and 2020.
- Duolingo: In August about 2.6 million Duolingo users had their personal information exposed on the dark web’s breach forums.
- SONY: In September 2023, Sony was attacked by a ransomware group, resulting in the theft of over 6,000 files, including build logs and Java files.
And that’s just to September….
Sources include: Analytics India Magazine
The Oxford University Press (OUP) has chosen “Rizz” as its word of the year for 2023. Rizz, which is really a clipped form of the word “charisma” charmed more than 32,000 voters.
“Rizz” is defined as style, charm, or attractiveness, particularly in the context of attracting a romantic or sexual partner. The term can also be used as a verb, with “to rizz up” meaning to attract, seduce, or chat up someone.
The popularity of “Rizz” surged in June 2023 following a BuzzFeed interview with actor Tom Holland, who humorously claimed to have “no rizz” despite his relationship with co-star Zendaya.
This linguistic pattern of clipping, where “Rizz” is derived from the middle of another word, is similar to how “fridge” comes from “refrigerator” and “flu” from “influenza.”
Oxford’s other finalists for the 2023 word of the year included “prompt,” “situationship,” and “swiftie.” In contrast, Merriam-Webster selected “authentic” as its word of the year, reflecting a “crisis of authenticity” in the age of artificial intelligence, with “Rizz” also being a runner-up choice for them.
Sources include: Axios
And that’s what’s trending today.
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I’m your host Jim Love. Get out there and Rizz up a terrific Tuesday!