Tech News Weekly: Issue 46
Google making YouTube less likeable, Telemetry in Intel drivers, and Frank Sinatra singing Gangsta's Paradise
News
Operating Systems
Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 are running out of support in October 2023. Microsoft offers up to three years of Extended Security Updates for Server 2012 R2, at exorbitant costs.
Micro-patching service 0Patch will also support Windows Server 2012 R2 as well as Windows Server 2012 with critical security updates for the next three years at a fraction of the costs.
Microsoft continues to use Windows as an adverting vehicle for its cloud services. After pushing promotions to the Start Menu of Windows 11, Microsoft is releasing the change on Windows 10 as well. These highlight the advantages of a Microsoft Account to users of the operating system, including suggestions to back up files on OneDrive.
The new Windows Backup tool will be released for Windows 10 next month. It is not a “real” backup tool though, as it may only back up some folders and data to OneDrive. It lacks many of the other essential options of backups, including to store the data locally or select individual files or folders.
Mobile
Microsoft’s Authenticator application may soon send verification codes to a user’s WhatsApp account instead of via SMS. Microsoft believes that this improves the security of codes thanks to WhatsApp’s use of encryption.
Google has added an option to Android that informs users when an unknown tracker is nearby. The feature supports Apple AirTag devices only at the time and it is still rolling out to Android devices. The scanning happens automatically, but users may also run manual scans for trackers in their vicinity.
The official Android and iOS Gmail apps are getting Google Translate functionality baked in. The functionality is rolling out to devices in August 2023 and enables users to translate content manually or automatically, similarly to how it is done on the Gmail website.
Browser
Mozilla’s Firefox browser for Android will soon get full extensions support. Mozilla launched the redesigned version of Firefox in 2020 to the public and limited extensions support and several other features in the new browser. Now, after more than three years, Mozilla is restoring the functionality in the browser.
It is a welcome change, even though many may wonder what took Mozilla this long, as it is one of the few features that is setting Firefox for Android apart from most other browsers, including Chrome.
Google Chrome 116 has been released. The browser update fixes 26 security updates and it also includes a new Telemetry component that informs Google about the Safe Browsing feature.
Little Rat is a brand new open source extension for Chrome and Chromium-based browsers to alert users about network activities of browser extension. It is not capable of blocking any traffic and the installation is a bit complex, as it is not available on the Chrome Web Store. Still, it is a good tool to quickly check if extensions that should not communicate with servers do so.
Privacy and Security
Computer users who use devices with Intel graphics processing units may want to be cautious when it comes to installing the latest driver update. It includes Telemetry under the name Intel Computing Improvement Program. Users should select the custom setup option to uncheck the option, if they don’t want it installed and running on their devices.
The component gathers and sends lots of data to Intel. As always, companies claim that the data is anonymized and that personal data is not collected. The past has shown that this was not always the case.
Software Releases and Updates
Brave 1.57 adds the new “Forget by Default” mode and an option to resize the sidebar. It also updates Chromium to the latest version to address the security issues.
Notepad++ 8.5.6 fixes a crash and addresses a history cleaning issue that prevented document markers from being cleared.
Thunderbird 115.1.1, the “Supernova” version of the open source email client is a small point update that contains various fixes for the most part.
WizTree 4.15, a ultra-fast disk analyzer, has its UI tweaked a bit to look more like Windows 11. The update fixed several blurry UI elements on high DPI screens and adds support for exporting and importing TSV files.
Gaming and Entertainment
Google is changing the recommendation feature on YouTube, and not for the better for some users. Currently, there are two ways to get recommendations:
If you have enabled the YouTube Watch History feature and are signed-in to the account, it is based on viewing activity.
If you have disabled the YouTube Watch History, it is based on other factors, including likes and dislikes.
Soon, Google is removing the second option on YouTube and displaying no recommendations at all for these users. The site is alerting the user that the watch history is off, but the only recourse to get recommendations is to enable it, which some users may not want.
This is not the only change that is affecting viewers negatively. Google continues to test anti-ad-blocking popups on YouTube. Previously, users who received the popup could click on the x-icon of the popup to close it and start using the site. Now, with the latest version, Google added a timer to the popup, so that users have to wait between 30 and 60 seconds, before they can click on the close button. There is also the dreaded third popup, which does not allow access to YouTube unless the content blocker is turned off on the site or YouTube Premium is purchased.
Google’s main goal is to sell YouTube Premium subscriptions or getting users to turn off their ad-blockers.
Using private browsing mode with content blocker enabled, a third-party YouTube client or a different browser may help currently.
Disney announced a price increase for its streaming service Disney+. It will soon cost $13.99 per month in the United States and the price increases in other regions as well. The price of the ad-supported plan remains as is for the time being. The company plans to follow Netflix in going after customers who share their accounts with others.
Disney’s streaming service is still not profitable. Whether the price increase and attack on account sharing is going to change that remains to be seen. It could also lead to users cancelling the service.
Amazon is also increasing the price; this time of its Amazon Music Unlimited streaming service, which increases by $1 to $9.99 per month.
Hardware
Dell has been fined A$10 million (about $6.46 million USD) in Australia for misleading customers. The company sold add-on monitors with overstated discounts according to the judgement by Australia’s Federal Court.
Other
Article(s)
Voice deepfakes are already more powerful than you may think
Deepfakes have been around for some time, but the rise of more powerful AI has taken everything to the next level. One of the main concerns involves the voices of actors, singers and moderators, and the replacement of these actors with AI-generated voices.
Training of AI has been reduced significantly in the past one or two years. In some cases, all it takes is a couple of sentences spoken by someone to have AI generate a digital version of that voice that is capable of speaking like the owner of the voice. Microsoft claimed earlier this year that its AI is capable of simulating the voice of anyone with just 3 (three) seconds of audio from that person.
Some users have uploaded works to YouTube that sound surprisingly good, especially considering that most users don’t have the resources of multi-billion Dollar companies.
Ever wanted to listen to Frank Sinatra sing Gangsta’s Paradise? Now is your chance to do so:
Or how about Freddy Mercury singing Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On?
Clearly, there is a big market for this, which companies would like to exploit. For content creators, actors and singers, it is not as straightforward. Some like the idea of having their voices used in all kinds of creative projects, which could make some (voices) immortal. The fate may be reserved to the most prominent ones, however.
Others fear that they will be replaced by AI. Entire entertainment industry fields of work could wither and die once AI has been trained enough to take over.
For companies, it could mean purchasing the rights to someone’s voice and then using AI to create content using that voice. In some situations, this could lead to the same voice singing, moderating or talking for centuries or even more. Those who manage to convince Morgan Freeman to give them the rights to his voice could use it for an endless stream of documentaries and shows. Surely, some contracts might see that artists do get paid each time their voice is being used in projects, which could supply them with an endless stream of passive income.
Google is currently working out a deal with record labels to license melodies and voices of artists.
For home users, applications could be personal. Think of training AI using the voice of loved ones or close friends, to hear their voices whenever one wants to. It is an interesting business that could see incredible growth in the future. One such company is the startup DeepBrain AI, which, among other products, can create virtual avatars of loved ones. These avatars recreate the persona of a human, including their physique and voice.
While this can be used for good, it can also be used for evil. Imitating a voice could lead to new social engineering attacks.
Why you should not trust AI review highlights on Amazon blindly
Amazon announced this week that it is trialing a new AI feature called AI-generated customer review highlights. Basically, Amazon is using AI to summary the reviews of customers for a specific product. The main idea is to summaries the most important comments of customers about a product.
The new AI-powered feature provides a short paragraph right on the product detail page that highlights the product features and customer sentiment frequently mentioned across written reviews to help customers determine at a glance whether a product is right for them.
Amazon claims that this is making it easier for customers to “understand the common themes across reviews”. Instead of having to read through all reviews, or only the bad ones as some do, customers may read the AI-generated summary instead as a shortcut.
All highlights that the AI lists, such as ease of use or stability, may be selected to get a list of user comments returned that mentioned it.
While that sounds like a great timesaver at first, there are pitfalls that customers need to be aware of.
As is the case with any AI output at this time, it is necessary to verify it. Referred to as hallucination, AI may create content that is factually incorrect. What this means is that the AI may produce results that are false. To better understand how this can happen, one has to understand how Large Language Models work. Current AI is based on these models. The AI is trained on a large set of data and it learns to generate language using probability. In other words, it uses its training and the context of the prompt to determine which words should appear next to each other to provide an output to the user.
While it is too early to say how well Amazon’s AI is working on the rather narrow topic of summarizing user reviews on Amazon, it is almost certain that summaries may not be 100% accurate all the time.
Besides hallucination, there is also the chance that important information is omitted in favor of less important information. Amazon’s AI displays positive and negative traits of products, but it is unclear how these are weighted. Considering that Amazon has a vetted interest in selling products, weights may not be distributed evenly.
For Amazon customers interested in products, it is still a good idea to read user reviews as well. The summary may provide a quick overview, but this does not necessarily mean that the discovered traits are of interest to the individual customer.
Amazon is trialing the AI-generated feature in the United States. Select users of the mobile application may have access to it already.
Links
How They Bypass YouTube Video Download Throttling
Miracle Plant Used in Ancient Greece Rediscovered After 2,000 Years
Rockstar hires a team of modders it had previously banned from playing GTA 5
Study shows dementia more common in older adults with vision issues