Month: September 2023

Enlarge / The Anthropic Claude logo. (credit: Anthropic / Benj Edwards)

On Thursday, AI-maker and OpenAI competitor Anthropic launched Claude Pro, a subscription-based version of its Claude.ai web-based AI assistant, which functions similarly to ChatGPT. It's available for $20/month in the US or 18 pounds/month in the UK, and it promises five-times-higher usage limits, priority access to Claude during high-traffic periods, and early access to new features as they emerge.

Like ChatGPT, Claude Pro can compose text, summarize, do analysis, solve logic puzzles, and more.

Claude.ai is what Anthropic offers as its conversational interface for its Claude 2 AI language model, similar to how ChatGPT provides an application wrapper for the underlying models GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. In February, OpenAI chose a subscription route for ChatGPT Plus, which for $20 a month also gives early access to new features, but it also unlocks access to GPT-4, which is OpenAI's most powerful language model.

In 2021, when speedrunner Niftski became the first person to complete Super Mario Bros. in under 4 minutes, 55 seconds, we used the four-minute mile as a metaphor for the difficulty and importance of the achievement. But now that Niftski has pushed that time even lower—setting a new world record of 4:54.631 for a live, human-controlled full game run—we're left grasping for metaphors that accurately capture the performance.

Niftski's new record perfectly matches a "perfect" TAS of the game (i.e., a "tool-assisted speedrun" that uses frame-by-frame input recordings using an emulator) through seven of the run's eight levels. His best time is now running ahead of the "theory limit" of 4:54.798 that runner Bismuth set back in 2018 as the ideal human performance standard.

In the battle of man versus machine, Niftski is now just 0.35 seconds away from standing up, John Henry-style, against the standard of machine-made automation. Hey, I guess I did come up with a good metaphor after all.

Enlarge / Cisco Systems headquarters in San Jose, California, US, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. Cisco Systems Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 16. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Cisco on Thursday confirmed the existence of a currently unpatched zero-day vulnerability that hackers are exploiting to gain unauthorized access to two widely used security appliances it sells.

The vulnerability resides in Cisco’s Adaptive Security Appliance Software and its Firepower Threat Defense, which are typically abbreviated as ASA and FTD. Cisco and researchers have known since last week that a ransomware crime syndicate called Akira was gaining access to devices through password spraying and brute-forcing. Password spraying, also known as credential stuffing, involves trying a handful of commonly used passwords for a large number of usernames in an attempt to prevent detection and subsequent lockouts. In brute-force attacks, hackers use a much larger corpus of password guesses against a more limited number of usernames.

Ongoing attacks since (at least) March

“An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by specifying a default connection profile/tunnel group while conducting a brute force attack or while establishing a clientless SSL VPN session using valid credentials,” Cisco officials wrote in an advisory. “A successful exploit could allow the attacker to achieve one or both of the following:

Enlarge / A discolored plume of exhaust was visible beneath the Super Heavy booster's Raptor engines on the Starship rocket's April 20 test flight, a likely indication of a propellant leak or fire in the engine compartment. (credit: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it has closed an investigation into the problems SpaceX encountered on its first full-scale Starship test launch in April, but federal regulators won't yet give a green light for the next Starship flight.

"The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica," the FAA said in a statement, referring to the location of SpaceX's Starship launch facility at Boca Chica Beach in South Texas.

The nearly 400-foot-tall Starship rocket, the largest ever built, is standing on its launch pad in Texas for the upcoming test flight, which could happen before the end of this month, pending FAA approval.

Enlarge / Keychron's new C3 Pro mechanical keyboard. (credit: Keychron)

It's not officially autumn, but any parent back to ushering their kid to school before starting their own day of responsibilities will tell you it feels like fall. Alongside the start of school are usually new tech product announcements. This week, I had my eyes on a new smattering of PC keyboards (as you may have heard, I could use an upgrade). But many keyboard announcements felt like more of the same.

Take Logitech's keyboard releases this week. On Tuesday, it announced the G Pro X TKL wireless (dongle, Bluetooth, or wired) mechanical keyboard. It's part of Logitech's high-end series of gaming peripherals, but those accessories tend to appeal to non-gaming power users, too. For example, I've had great success using some of Logitech's gaming keyboards for work, including low-profile ones that helped speed up my typing. That's not what you're getting with the new G Pro X TKL.

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  Logitech's G Pro X TKL in magenta. [credit: Logitech ]

(credit: Kevin Purdy)

If you're like our staff, you'll understand that good cup of brewed coffee is a requirement every morning. Whether it's a simple French-pressed brew or an espresso-based drink with complex flavors and aromas, coffee has not only provided the fuel to get the Ars Technica stuff through our daily tasks but it's become a ritual that helps us start the day anew and grounds us—pun intended—amid the chaos of the world.

We asked the Ars staff to show off their coffee-making setups and tips below—they range from low to high tech, from hand-cranked grinders to automatic machines and all points in between, but all these methods have one thing in common: They make awesome coffee.

John Timmer's setup: Flavorful French press method

What I want from coffee-making equipment is purely a function of what I'm looking for from coffee. And that is as much flavor as you can possibly extract from beans that are roasted so dark that they risk absorbing all light and becoming a black hole. I want a thin sheen of random organic molecules floating on top of an explosion of bitter, complex flavors.

Enlarge (credit: Manuel Augusto Moreno | Moment)

Just two weeks after Elon Musk took over Twitter in fall 2022, he told employees that his big plan to save the social media platform from bankruptcy was to turn it into a bank. Since then, he has rebranded the platform as X, and banking regulators in eight US states have approved his applications for money-transmitting licenses.

Now, as X continues filing for money-transmitting licenses—in pursuit of turning X into an "everything app," a one-stop destination where users bank, shop, communicate, and basically spend all their time online—US banking regulators are being urged to reconsider approving X's applications to provide financial services, The Guardian reported. And Ars confirmed that states that already granted licenses are being pressured to revoke them.

In an open letter reviewed by Ars, lawyers at Walden Macht & Haran LLP—who are representing a Saudi family suing Twitter/X—warned both “attorneys general and banking commissioners across 50 states” that Musk's company should be considered "unfit" to hold banking licenses. They alleged that X is unfit for banking due to its alleged treatment of users’ personal data and "intentional complicity" in human rights violations. These grievances, The Guardian reported, also call into question whether X "can be trusted to abide by federal and state laws protecting consumer data and records."

Enlarge / Ryan Salame, former co-chief executive officer of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., exits federal court in New York on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame pleaded guilty to two criminal charges yesterday, becoming the fourth former associate of Sam Bankman-Fried to enter guilty pleas.

A money judgment of $1.56 billion was entered against Salame, but he will be allowed to satisfy the judgment by making a $6 million payment to the US and forfeiting two properties, a business, and a Porsche. He also agreed to provide $5.6 million in restitution to FTX debtors.

Salame faces maximum imprisonment of 10 years, consisting of five years for each charge. Salame was released on a $1 million bond and has sentencing scheduled for March 6, 2024. Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried's trial is scheduled to begin in early October.