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Apple has joined several other tech companies in agreeing to abide by voluntary AI safeguards laid out by the Biden administration. Those who make the pledge have committed to abide by eight guidelines related to safety, security and social responsibility, including flagging societal risks such as biases; testing for vulnerabilities, watermarking AI-generated images and audio; and sharing trust and safety details with the government and other companies. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI were among the initial adoptees of the pact, which the White House announced last July. The voluntary agreement, which is not enforceable, will expire after Congress passes laws to regulate AI. Since the guidelines were announced, Apple unveiled a suite of AI-powered features under the umbrella name of Apple Intelligence. The tools will work across the company's key devices and are set to start rolling out in the coming months. As part of that push, Apple has teamed up with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence. In joining the voluntary code of practice, Apple may be hoping to ward off regulatory scrutiny of its AI tools. Although President Joe Biden has talked up the potential benefits of AI, he has warned of the dangers posed by the technology as well. His administration has been clear that it wants AI companies to develop their tech in a responsible manner. Meanwhile, the White House said in a statement that federal agencies have met all of the 270-day targets laid out in a sweeping Executive Order related to AI that Biden issued last October. The EO covers issues such as safety and security measures, as well as reporting and data transparency schemes. The White House says that agencies have met all the stipulated deadlines to date.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-agrees-to-stick-by-biden-administrations-voluntary-ai-safeguards-144653327.html?src=rss
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A grand jury in Kansas City has indicted Rim Jong Hyok, a North Korean intelligence operative who allegedly used ransomware to attack health providers' systems in the US, according to AP News. The State Department said Rim is part of a group called Andariel that's controlled by the North Korean intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau. Rim is not in the US government's custody. The agency is now offering a $10 million reward for information that would lead to his location or the location of a foreign operative who "engages in certain malicious cyber activities against US critical infrastructure." A Kansas medical center alerted the FBI about an attack that blocked personnel's access to patient files and lab test results, as well as prevented them from operating hospital equipment with their computers, was back in 2021. It's a common MO of Rim's Andariel group, which would infiltrate a computer system and infect it with Maui ransomware. The group would then ask their target for payment and would threaten to release sensitive information if they don't pay up. In the Kansas hospital's case, the group demanded a ransom in Bitcoin worth $100,000 within 48 hours. The group allegedly used the money it gets to buy more computers and servers to fund more cyberattacks. The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of the Treasury issued a joint cybersecurity warning in the midst of Andariel's attacks on healthcare providers in 2022. "The North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors likely assume healthcare organizations are willing to pay ransoms because these organizations provide services that are critical to human life and health," they wrote. Federal investigators said they followed the ransom the Kansas medical center paid across blockchains and found that someone had transferred the Bitcoin to an address belonging to two Hong Kong nationals. Based on the court documents seen by AP, the money was then transferred to a Chinese bank and withdrawn from an ATM in China close to the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge connecting the country to North Korea. Andariel and Rim are being accused of infiltrating 17 entities across 11 states, including four defense contractors, two US Air Force bases and NASA. The group was reportedly able to stay in NASA's computer system for three months and steal 17 gigabytes of classified information. During one of its operations that targeted a US defense contractor in November 2022, the State Department said the group was also able to extract over 30 gigabytes of data that include information on the material used in US military aircraft and satellites. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/north-korean-who-used-ransomware-to-attack-us-healthcare-providers-has-been-indicted-140008610.html?src=rss
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I dont expect much from a device as small as a ring. Theres no room for a lot of hardware, so it only really needs to do a few things well. A sleep tracker that doesnt get in the way of, well, sleeping, is my holy grail, and smart rings are a tantalizing option. Samsungs Galaxy Ring promises to monitor my slumber and log my daily activity, and do so comfortably and unobtrusively, all for $400. Thats $100 more than its closest competitor, the Oura Ring, though the latter charges an additional $6 a month to use its software. Oura has been around for over five years, and in that time, it has developed more sophisticated ways to deliver insights to its customers, while Samsung is just starting. But for a debut effort, the Galaxy Ring has been a surprisingly informative health-tracking device for those with compatible Samsung phones. The Galaxy Rings weight and design Of all the wearables available, rings are among the smallest and lightest. My Galaxy Ring is a size seven, which is the third tiniest Samsung makes. That puts it at about 2.3 grams, or just under 0.1 ounces light, which is about half the 4 to 6 grams that Ouras rings weigh, depending on their size. Thanks to that lack of weight and the devices slim profile, I barely feel it on my finger when trying to fall asleep, which, for a sensitive sleeper like me, is a huge deal. The only thing that sometimes bothers me are the red and green LEDs flashing in my dark bedroom, but theyre not so bright to keep me up after I close my eyes. Im extremely finicky, and dont like wearing a ring when my hands are even the slightest bit wet, so I frequently took the wearable off. But if youre less sensitive than me, youll be happy to know the Galaxy Ring will survive soap and running water. I wore it while washing my hands a few times, taking the ring off afterwards for my fingers to fully dry. When I eventually put the device back on after having applied lotion and sunscreen, I was happy to see that the creams did not get in the way of its sensors getting readings. Because I frequently took the ring on and off, I did have mini panic attacks a few times when I thought it fell out of my pocket. Thankfully, in those situations, I was able to use Samsungs location-tracking app to see that it wasnt too far away and was likely in my pants. The problem with the rings lack of components, though, is that I cant play an audible alarm to help find it. That absence of features is a compromise Im happy to make in exchange for the Galaxy Rings barely-there footprint. What Samsung does offer here also feels good enough for a basic health tracker, though it does pale in comparison to the competition. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The Galaxy Ring as a sleep tracker Ive mostly used the Galaxy Ring to track my sleep and general activity, since it doesnt log any workout beyond walking and running. For the most part, all I really have to do with the ring is make sure I place it on my index finger, where it fits more snugly than the middle. This helps ensure my blood oxygen readings are accurate, or I end up with numbers that are wildly low. Beyond that, I spent most of my testing time on Samsungs Wear and Health apps, poring over my sleep data. Weve come a long way since the early days where Fitbits only looked at the duration of your rest, guessing based on how still you are whether youve fallen asleep. These days, using your heart rate to determine whether youre in REM or deep sleep is table stakes, and on that front Samsung delivers as expected. Sam Rutherford for Engadget I obviously cant tell you what stages Im in as I sleep, but I did like that Samsung not only presents the data clearly, but also adds helpful context. It tells me why its important to have time in the REM zone, and whether 11 minutes in deep sleep was enough for recovery. The app also helps me understand how I compare to other people, without me having to navigate to a separate app or browser. I did find that the Ring noted accurately what times I fell asleep and awoke, and even logged a midday nap in the app (though it didnt show sleep cycle data for that period). It took a few days, but once a baseline was established, the Galaxy Ring started telling me what my skin temperature was throughout the night, highlighting my peak and lowest numbers. Ive been pleasantly surprised to find that my coldest temperature to date has been on one night in Singapore, which goes against my assumption that the local heat and humidity would affect these readings. Its been mollifying to see that my stats seem normal, although my blood oxygen levels have varied wildly depending on which finger I wear the ring on. Its even gone as low as 76 percent, which would be concerning, but Ive stopped caring much about that section of my sleep insights, since it seems my review unit might be a little loose. You dont have to spend as much time as I do digging into the numbers Samsung, like most other modern sleep-tracking services, will assign a sleep score to tell you how well you slept. There are also graphs to help you understand your trends at a glance. Its important to note that Samsung said the energy score, sleep tracking and Wellness Tips features are based on Galaxy AI, meaning theyll require a Galaxy phone, Samsung Health app and Samsung account to work. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The Galaxy Ring as an activity tracker Samsungs ring might not track a wide variety of exercises, but the data it does gather is surprisingly comprehensive. I was fully expecting the walks it automatically detected to only show me basic stats like duration and, perhaps, step count. But it actually presented my average speed, cadence, heart rate, heart rate zones, calories burned and distance traveled too. Im pretty impressed, but I must point out that Oura offers a Workout heart rate feature that lets you manually start and end heart-rate tracking sessions from your phone. It also automatically detects at least 40 different activities, including yardwork, cycling, snowboarding, horseback riding and HIIT. Oura also frequently adds new metrics like cardiovascular age and capacity, as well as experimental features like Symptom Radar to guess when you might not be feeling well. Its ahead of Samsung in the game here and seems to be fighting to keep that gap open. I guess if youre going to pay an extra $6 a month, you better get a significantly superior service. In my experience, both Samsung and Oura are fairly accurate at tracking activity. In the last few days, Ive been surprised to see the Galaxy Ring had tracked pretty much every time I went with my parents to a nearby hawker center, even though the walks only took fewer than 10 minutes. Compared to the Apple Watch Series 9 I usually wear, Samsung is more likely to include a short trip in its apps activity log, which was not only more rewarding but also felt like a more complete picture of my day. Sam Rutherford for Engadget My problems with Samsung Health One area where the Galaxy Ring (and rings in general) falls short of smartwatches is in delivering any sort of notification. As an activity tracker, this is mainly a problem when it comes to pushing stand reminders. Both Samsung and Oura will serve alerts on your phone when youve been stationary for too long, prompting you to get up and move. Wristworn wearables typically buzz and tell you on the screen, and its a lot harder to miss or ignore them. Ive definitely had a few days where I was in an editing or writing hole and only noticed numerous alerts to move hours later when I looked at my Galaxy phone. This isnt a major problem, and is another small tradeoff Im happy to accept since the Ring is so small. But I do have two specific complaints for Samsung, and they both pertain to the app. My first issue is the confusing interface for automatic activity detection. When you go into the Rings settings to enable this (which is unfortunately not turned on by default), youll see the words Activities to detect under a tinier label called Auto detect workouts. Next to the larger font is a grayed out toggle that turns blue when you slide it to the right. Pushing this switch on didnt actually enable the feature. Tapping on the words Activities to detect brought me into a different page with rows for Walking and Running, each accompanied by their own toggles. Youll also have to press each of these activities to go into another page and turn on location tracking. Because of this, I spent my first few days with the Galaxy Ring confused why my walks werent being logged, despite having turned on the main toggle. A better layout with improved organization that requires fewer taps and pages would really help here. My other gripe is a more specific situation. As Im concurrently testing the Galaxy Watch Ultra, the information collected by that smartwatch is also considered by Samsung Health when calculating my energy score. This is actually a good thing, as Id prefer to use a Galaxy Watch to log my gym sessions and rely on the ring everywhere else. But because the Galaxy Watch Ultra is so inaccurate when its not being worn, it actually recorded random workout sessions, like two bike rides that I never took. This caused the Health app to think I had overexerted myself and it ended up recommending I take it super easy the next day, when in reality I had done very little. Yes, I can manually delete these entries, but when Im busy and just want to glance at my energy score, this causes confusion. Why was my score so low? Did I somehow sleep poorly? I can already imagine hypochondriacs spiraling if they didnt know what happened. Luckily, Samsung clearly labels at the bottom of each workout record which device detected the activity. This is unlikely to be a huge problem unless you have both the Galaxy Ring and Watch like I do, and is something that seems easy enough to fix. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The Galaxy Rings battery life Samsung says the Galaxy Ring can deliver continuous usage for up to seven days, and in my experience thats fairly accurate. But youll have to be able to tolerate seeing the battery levels drop all the way to zero to get the full week. In the two weeks or so that Ive worn the ring, it consistently dropped to under 20 percent by day six, and would basically die on day seven. Charging the devices 18mAh battery shouldnt take too long. Samsung says 30 minutes will get you 40 percent of the way, and when I placed the Ring in its case for about 5 minutes, it went up by two percent. If I hadnt been trying to gauge its battery life for this review, I would probably have recharged it any time I wasnt wearing it, and likely wouldnt have ever run out of juice. Other issues For its debut smart ring, Samsungs delivered a satisfactory product that mostly delivers. Compared to the Oura ring, the Galaxy Ring is perfunctory. The ain bonus Samsung had over the competition is its double pinch gesture, that can dismiss alarms or remotely launch the camera on your Samsung phone. I wasnt able to test this feature because I tested the Ring with a Galaxy S24, and its only compatible with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. Samsung says double-pinch functionality is coming to the S24 lineup soon. Unlike the Oura ring, Samsungs wearable doesnt work with iPhones, though rumors are rife that iOS support is coming. For now, if youre in Apples ecosystem you wont be able to use the Galaxy Ring. Those who use a Samsung phone are more likely to appreciate the Galaxy Ring most. Other integrations like Find My and Samsung Health are available to anyone that installs the SmartThings app and has a Samsung account. Wrap-up Though the Galaxy Ring is fairly basic at the moment, it seems to have a lot of potential. Samsung needs to continue to invest in research to expand the insights it could deliver with the limited set of data the ring collects. Given the companys history with bringing new features to its watches, Health app and the Z series of foldable phones so far, it might just do that. If youre happy to spend $400 on a low-profile wearable sleep tracker that also logs your walks or runs, the Galaxy Ring will do the job.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-galaxy-ring-review-a-bit-basic-a-bit-pricey-130034811.html?src=rss
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Apple's well-specked 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, 18GB of memory and 512GB of storage is on sale for the lowest price we've seen yet at Amazon. You can pick one up for $1,699, a savings of $300 (15 percent) and the lowest price we've seen to date on this particular model. We're also seeing discounts across the board on various 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. Ad we noted in our review, Apple's MacBook Pro is one of the best ultraportables you can buy today thanks to the fast and efficient M3 Pro chip, gorgeous 14-inch screen, useful port selection and excellent keyboard and trackpad. It's particularly strong for content creation thanks to real-time decoding of commonly-used pro video formats a feature missing on many PC laptops. One issue we had with the MacBook Pro is that updates to the processor, RAM or storage add a lot to the price, and those things are important for video or photo editing. That makes this model a particularly good deal, because it's already well-equipped with 18GB of unified memory and an M3 Pro processor. If you don't need the M3 Pro's horsepower, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 chip is on sale for $1,749 and nets you 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Or, if your budget doesn't permit that, the 8GB/512GB M3 model is available for $1,399 or $200 off. You can also grab a 16-inch M3 Pro model with 18GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $2,249, a savings of $200 (10 percent) over the list price. Another great deal is on the 16-inch M3 Max model with 36GB of memory and 1TB of storage at $3,099, or $400 off. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-14-inch-macbook-pro-laptop-with-an-m3-pro-chip-is-300-off-at-amazon-123042013.html?src=rss
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Yesterday's Gran Turismo 7 game update 1.49 introduced all-new physics that have added extra realism and generally improved gameplay. However, the change is also causing some bizarre problems in specific situations, making cars bounce violently or just get hurled into the air. The physics updates are generally positive, adding "more natural cornering physics and acceleration/deceleration stability levels," according to the developer. Similar changes to tire physics and steering allow a more challenging and rewarding driving experience overall. #GT7 pic.twitter.com/1FhwzEnT8h (@AIPhard_T0yota) July 25, 2024 However, some bugs appear to have crept in as well, according to gtplanet and posts on Reddit's r/granturismo. High-horsepower vehicles, often with engine swaps and extreme suspension settings, are literally flying, bouncing or intersecting with the ground, according to multiple (hilarious) videos. The problem appears to happen when cars try to accelerate from low speeds, and mostly affects cars under AI control. It also happens during dynamic "Scapes Movies" scenes designed to show off landscapes from cars operated at slow speeds by AI. It's even been seen in GT Auto's garages. GT #GT7 pic.twitter.com/P0pciGU4A2 Pow_R(SUPRA_GT) (@powarmor0911) July 25, 2024 It's clearly a weird z-axis programming bug, but Gran Turismo's team is aware of the issue and working on it. "We are now aware of the following issue in the 1.49 Update released on July 25: Car Physics Simulation Unintended vehicle behavior is produced when a particular car setting is set within Car Settings," devs said in a post on X. A fix should be ready soon, so enjoy the comedy while it lasts. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gran-tourismo-7s-more-realistic-physics-update-is-launching-cars-into-orbit-120045578.html?src=rss
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