Technology

All attention might be on iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, but Apple hasn’t stopped working on its current crop of operating systems. And if you’re not running the betas, you need to know that Apple just shipped a slew of updates to fix some critical security holes. All told, Apple pushed eight updates on Wednesday: iOS 16.5.1 and iPadOS 16.5.1; iOS 15.7.7 and iPadOS 15.7.7; macOS Ventura 13.4.1, macOS Monterey 12.6.7, and macOS Big Sur 11.7.8; and watchOS 9.5.2 and watchOS 8.8.1. That covers more than a decade of devices going back to 2013 and includes the iPhone 6s, Apple Watch Series 3, and the original 12-inch MacBook. All of the updates fix the same vulnerability: Kernel Impact: An app may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. Apple is aware of a report that...

If you've just gotten your hands on a PlayStation 5, you're probably hungry to devour a whole new world of next-gen games and Sony exclusives. It's hard to pick and choose which games to grab, so you don't spend your last dime. If that's your dilemma, you're going to want to check out a PlayStation Plus membership. That said, the service was overhauled last year, and there are now three different tiers that will give you access to online play, exclusive discounts and a massive library of free games, so you don't have to linger in decision paralysis over which game to get or break the bank trying to play them all.Deals have been pretty hard to come by since the redesign. While Sony offered the first direct discount we've seen on the new PS Plus subscriptions at its massive Days of Play sal...

A lawyer and veteran diver who nearly boarded the missing Titanic tourist submersible is drawing attention to a decade-old video showing the retrieval of Apollo 11 rocket engines from a depth greater than the wreckage of the Titanic. The video, shared by David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, shows Bezos Expeditions recovering the Apollo 11 rocket engines at a depth of 14,000 feet. The wreckage of the Titanic, meanwhile, is at a depth of approximately 12,600 feet.  "I led this project and both search and recovery expeditions," Concannon wrote. "This is the type of equipment that needs to be on site but is not on site." The 2013 rocket engine recovery from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean was funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos via Bezos Expeditions. The engines were shed dur...

Comment on this storyCommentSenate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) laid out his early vision for regulating artificial intelligence in a keynote address Wednesday morning, kicking lawmakers’ efforts to both cultivate and control the development of AI tools like ChatGPT into high gear.Delivering his most expansive remarks on the topic since the recent explosion of generative AI tools in Silicon Valley, Schumer unveiled a “new process” for fielding input from industry leaders, academics and advocates and called on lawmakers advance legislation that “encourages, not stifles, innovation” while ensuring the technology is deployed “safely." “Congress must join the AI revolution,” Schumer said at an event hosted by a D.C.-based think tank, asking lawmakers to act with both urgency an...

In late March, Daniel Zhang unveiled what was called the “most significant” overhaul in the 24-year history of Alibaba, one of China’s original technology conglomerates, splitting the company into six units that would help them seek out investors from the public.Now, Mr. Zhang, the tech giant’s chairman and chief executive, is out of the top job and will step down from Alibaba’s board of directors, and two of the company’s co-founders have moved up into the leadership positions.Alibaba announced on Tuesday that Mr. Zhang, 51, will relinquish his top job in September. Instead, he will serve only as chief executive of Alibaba’s cloud computing division, a position he assumed in March when he unveiled the restructuring. Alibaba announced plans to spin off its cloud division in May, in prepar...

Comment on this storyCommentPresident Biden on Tuesday met with a group of civil society leaders who have been critical of Big Tech companies in the past to discuss the boom in artificial intelligence, part of a broader push by the U.S. government to get involved in conversations around AI tech and its potential risks.Biden, in brief remarks to reporters before the closed-door meeting in San Francisco, said that he was there to learn about the potential controls that could be put in place to protect people from the harms of the new tech.“Social media has already shown us the harm that powerful technology can do without the right safeguards in place,” Biden said. “I’d like to hear more from this group because I have a lot to learn. And we also have a lot to discuss.”The meeting included Tr...

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