🔒 World Nearly Hit by Major Software Backdoor, AI's Growing Thirst for Internet Data, Self-Driving Trucks Hit U.S. Highways
Today’s pick
What we know about the xz Utils backdoor that almost infected the world. On Friday, a lone Microsoft developer rocked the world when he revealed a backdoor had been intentionally planted in xz Utils, an open source data compression utility available on almost all installations of Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. The person or people behind this project likely spent years on it. They were likely very close to seeing the backdoor update merged into Debian and Red Hat, the two biggest distributions of Linux, when an eagle-eyed software developer spotted something fishy. By Dan Goodin via Ars Technica
𝕏: FWIW, I didn't actually start looking due to the 500ms - I started looking when I saw failing ssh logins (by the usual automated attempts trying random user/password combinations) using a substantial amount of CPU. Only after that I noticed the slower logins. - Andres Freund (Tech) (@AndresFreundTec)
For Data-Guzzling AI Companies, the Internet Is Too Small. Companies racing to develop more powerful artificial intelligence are rapidly nearing a new problem: The internet might be too small for their plans. Ever more powerful systems developed by OpenAI, Google and others require larger oceans of information to learn from. That demand is straining the available pool of quality public data online at the same time that some data owners are blocking access to AI companies. By Deepa Seetharaman via WSJ
𝕏: A limiting factor of LLM-based artificial intelligence is training data. There’s a real challenge that there simply isn’t enough openly available data in certain fields to effectively train a generative AI. Generating games using LLMs is a simple example of where it’s a problem. - Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life)
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Ready or not, self-driving semi-trucks are coming to America's highways. Perched in the cab of a 35,000-pound semi-truck lumbering south on Interstate 45, AJ Jenkins watched the road while the big rig’s steering wheel slid through his hands. Jenkins was in the driver’s seat, but he wasn’t driving. The gigantic 18-wheeler was guiding itself. Over several miles on the popular trucking route between Dallas and Houston, the truck navigated tire debris, maneuvered around a raggedy-looking flatbed and slowed for an emergency vehicle. By Trisha Thadani via Washington Post
𝕏: It’s kind of annoying that the United States government is basically abandoning progress on climate to preserve car jobs but the only real innovation in the car industry in ~ 50 years is specifically focused on killing car jobs. Make it make sense. - (((Matthew Lewis))) progressive federalism SOS (@mateosfo)
The risks and rewards of generative AI in software development. As a 20-year veteran of writing code and as a CEO of a company that serves software developers, I had a reflexively skeptical reaction to early predictions that generative AI would eventually make most software development skills obsolete. While I’m still somewhat skeptical, my experience playing with gen AI in my daily development work has prompted me to open my aperture to what I think is possible. By Keith Pitt, Buildkite via VentureBeat
How an iPhone Powered by Google's Gemini AI Might Work. Apple and Google are reportedly in cahoots to integrate features from Google's Gemini generative AI service into iOS. Bloomberg broke the news, which was later corroborated by The New York Times. If the deal pans out, it will be a huge collaboration between two tech giants who have long duked it out in the hardware and software space. It also raises lots of questions about how Gemini would function on Apple’s devices—and which company would remain in control. By Boone Ashworth via WIRED
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