Month: June 2023

Enlarge / The Tunnel Falls chip in its natural habitat (dilution refrigeration hardware not shown). (credit: Intel)

Intel does a lot of things, but it's mostly noted for making and shipping a lot of processors, many of which have been named after bodies of water. So, saying that the company is set to start sending out a processor called Tunnel Falls would seem unsurprising if it weren't for some key details. Among them: The processor's functional units are qubits, and you shouldn't expect to be able to pick one up on New Egg. Ever.

Tunnel Falls appears to be named after a waterfall near Intel's Oregon facility, where the company's quantum research team does much of its work. It's a 12-qubit chip, which places it well behind the qubit count of many of Intel's competitors—all of which are making processors available via cloud services. But Jim Clarke, who heads Intel's quantum efforts, said these differences were due to the company's distinct approach to developing quantum computers.

Intel being Intel

So far, both the large companies and startups that are developing quantum computers have been focused on a single technology (transmons, trapped ions, etc.) that they're betting they can be the first to scale to useful qubit counts and error rates. To the extent that they have customers, those customers are simply developing the expertise needed to use the processors should they ever become viable. That can easily be achieved by accessing the hardware via a cloud service and using a software developer's kit instead of directly controlling the hardware. So, that's what nearly everyone other than Intel has been focused on providing.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Over 8,400 subreddits went dark from June 12 through June 14 in protest over new API pricing that is about to shutter many third-party Reddit apps. But now that the biggest uprising in Reddit history is slowing, what's next for Reddit?

Despite weeks of heated debate, Reddit still plans to begin its API pricing system on July 1. The social media company has until now provided free API access, but—after claiming it didn't want AI chatbots to profit off Reddit's content for free—it announced pricing changes so dramatic that popular third-party Reddit app Apollo faced a $20 million annual bill. Apollo now plans to close ahead of the API changes; so do other third-party apps.

With the blackout over on many subreddits, Reddit is banking on the outrage passing. But Reddit—once a thriving, distinct community—has depleted significant communal goodwill in this battle. Volunteer moderators remain apprehensive of a future without third-party apps, and thousands of subreddits still aren't public again. Reddit will try to grow revenue off a community whose most dedicated members remain anxious.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Peter Dazeley)

A judge in Colorado recently authorized law enforcement to evict Twitter from an office building in Boulder, according to news reports. The ruling came after the Elon Musk-owned company was sued by the building's landlord over unpaid rent.

"A judge for Boulder County's district court permitted law enforcement to evict the tenant on May 31, directing the tech giant to evacuate its suites at 3401 Bluff St. in Boulder and return them to the owner and landlord, Lot 2 SBO LLC," The Denver Post wrote yesterday.

This isn't even the only Boulder building where Twitter apparently failed to pay bills. At the other building on 1301 Walnut St., Twitter is reportedly facing demands for unpaid rent and unpaid cleaning bills.

Enlarge (credit: duncan1890 | iStock / Getty Images Plus)

Teens will likely soon be losing online privileges in Texas, which this week became the third state to require parental consent for minors under 18 to access social media. Utah passed a similar law in March, and Louisiana followed suit this month.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 18 into law on Wednesday. It takes effect on September 1, after which platforms will be required to verify ages of all minors, secure parental consent to register the minor as a user, or else risk legal action from the state attorney general or private actions from parents who report violations.

"Online platforms have been collecting data and manipulating our children's online behavior," the Texas House Republican Caucus tweeted Thursday after the bill, sponsored by Representative Shelby Slawson (R), was signed into law. Slawson also tweeted, thanking Abbott and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan for "prioritizing this issue."

Enlarge / The top of League of Graph's June 2023 rankings for League of Legends characters: Most popular, highest winrate, highest banrate, and winrate changes, after Patch 13.12. (credit: League of Graphs)

Wargraphs is a Paris-based company that, until last week, had one employee, 35-year-old Jean-Nicolas Mastin, and made two major products: League of Graphs and Porofessor.

If you don't play or watch League of Legends matches (or TeamFight Tactics or Legends of Runeterra), you've never heard of these apps. If you do, the dense stats of League of Graphs, and the in-game tool to see them, Porofessor, can be invaluable tools to understanding the win rates, character picks, and other deep stats of each competitive player. Gold, kills, and "creeps" per minute, "Kill participation," "Wards placed," and other stats are updated in real time, as are the popularities of each player character, providing some instant meta discussion.

The tools, in development since at least 2013, are dense, colorful, and can be loaded into your game with the help of another tool, Overwolf—itself the recipient of $52.5 million in funding two years ago, valuing the company at more than $500 million. And they're based on Riot Games' API.

Enlarge / Medical examiner or forensic scientist with dead man's corpse in morgue. (credit: Getty Images)

Federal prosecutors have charged seven people in an alleged nationwide network that trafficked stolen human body parts and remains taken from Harvard Medical School and an Arkansas mortuary—a "heinous crime" that involved the desecration of stillborn babies, faces, brains, hearts, skin, genitalia, bones, and other body parts in exchanges that netted defendants thousands of dollars.

Key figures in the alleged network are: Cedric Lodge, 55, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, who managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School; and Candace Chapman Scott, 36, of Little Rock, Arkansas, who worked at a local mortuary and crematorium.

According to US Attorney Gerard Karam, between 2018 and 2022, Lodge stole organs and other parts from cadavers donated for medical research and education before their scheduled cremation. At times, Lodge allegedly allowed buyers to enter the morgue and look through cadavers, essentially shopping for the body parts they wanted to purchase. Shoppers sometimes bought them directly, transporting them out of the state on their own. At other times, Lodge shipped them or brought them to his home in New Hampshire, where he had help selling them from his wife, Denise Lodge, 63, who is also charged.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto)

Twitter was sued yesterday by music publishers who are seeking about $250 million in damages for alleged copyright violations. Members of the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) trade group say that Twitter does little to stop copyright infringement and doesn't pay for music rights like other social media companies do.

"Twitter knows perfectly well that neither it nor users of the Twitter platform have secured licenses for the rampant use of music being made on its platform as complained of herein," said the complaint filed against X Corp. (aka Twitter) in US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. "Nonetheless, in connection with its highly interactive platform, Twitter consistently and knowingly hosts and streams infringing copies of musical compositions... Twitter also routinely continues to provide specific known repeat infringers with use of the Twitter platform, which they use for more infringement."

Unlike Twitter, social media firms "TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat have entered into agreements with Publishers and other rights holders that compensate creators of musical compositions for use of their works on those platforms," the lawsuit said. The plaintiffs asked for up to $150,000 in statutory damages for each infringed work and provided a list of about 1,700 infringed works. That adds up to about $250 million, but the court exhibit said the list of songs is a "non-exhaustive, illustrative list of works infringed by Twitter." This list "will be amended as the case proceeds," the lawsuit said.

Enlarge / The EU flag in front of an AI-generated background. (credit: EU / Stable Diffusion)

On Wednesday, European Union officials voted to implement stricter proposed regulations concerning AI, according to Reuters. The updated draft of the "AI Act" law includes a ban on the use of AI in biometric surveillance and requires systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT to reveal when content has been generated by AI. While the draft is still non-binding, it gives a strong indication of how EU regulators are thinking about AI.

The new changes to the European Commission's proposed law—which have not yet been finalized—intend to shield EU citizens from potential threats linked to machine learning technology.

The changes come amid the proliferation of generative AI systems that imitate human conversational abilities, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4, which have triggered controversial calls for action among AI scientists and industry executives regarding potential societal risks. However, the EU's proposed AI Act is over two years old now, so it isn't just a knee-jerk response to AI hype. It includes provisions that guard against other types of AI harm that are more grounded in the here and now than a hypothetical AI takeover.

Enlarge / Megaupload executives Mathias Ortmann (L) and Bram van der Kolk (R) are seen in court during an extradition hearing in Auckland on September 24, 2015. (credit: MICHAEL BRADLEY / Stringer | AFP)

Two Megaupload coders were sentenced to prison in New Zealand yesterday after pleading guilty to fraud and promising to testify against former Megaupload CEO Kim Dotcom, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Mathias Ortmann, a former chief technology officer who held 25 percent of Megaupload shares, was sentenced to two years and seven months. Bram van der Kolk, who led Megaupload software programming and held 2.5 percent of Megaupload shares, was sentenced to two years and six months.

Ars could not immediately reach Ortmann's and van der Kolk's lawyers to comment. The High Court in Auckland did not immediately respond to Ars' request to review the judgment.