Die Integration von KI in IT-Systeme bietet Chancen und Risiken. Welche Sicherheitsimplikationen bestehen und wie der richtige Einsatz von KI-Technologien funktioniert, klärt dieser fundierte Onlinekurs. (Golem Karrierewelt, KI)
Die Integration von KI in IT-Systeme bietet Chancen und Risiken. Welche Sicherheitsimplikationen bestehen und wie der richtige Einsatz von KI-Technologien funktioniert, klärt dieser fundierte Onlinekurs. (Golem Karrierewelt, KI)
Running AI models without matrix math means far less power consumption—and fewer GPUs?
Enlarge/ Illustration of a brain inside of a light bulb. (credit: Getty Images)
Researchers claim to have developed a new way to run AI language models more efficiently by eliminating matrix multiplication from the process. This fundamentally redesigns neural network operations that are currently accelerated by GPU chips. The findings, detailed in a recent preprint paper from researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz, UC Davis, LuxiTech, and Soochow University, could have deep implications for the environmental impact and operational costs of AI systems.
Matrix multiplication (often abbreviated to "MatMul") is at the center of most neural network computational tasks today, and GPUs are particularly good at executing the math quickly because they can perform large numbers of multiplication operations in parallel. That ability momentarily made Nvidia the most valuable company in the world last week; the company currently holds an estimated 98 percent market share for data center GPUs, which are commonly used to power AI systems like ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
In the new paper, titled "Scalable MatMul-free Language Modeling," the researchers describe creating a custom 2.7 billion parameter model without using MatMul that features similar performance to conventional large language models (LLMs). They also demonstrate running a 1.3 billion parameter model at 23.8 tokens per second on a GPU that was accelerated by a custom-programmed FPGA chip that uses about 13 watts of power (not counting the GPU's power draw). The implication is that a more efficient FPGA "paves the way for the development of more efficient and hardware-friendly architectures," they write.
Enlarge/ The app lets you invoke ChatGPT from anywhere in the system with a keyboard shortcut, Spotlight-style. (credit: Samuel Axon)
OpenAI's official ChatGPT app for macOS is now available to all users for the first time, provided they're running macOS Sonoma or later.
It was previously being rolled out gradually to paid subscribers to ChatGPT's Plus premium plan.
The ChatGPT Mac app mostly acts as a desktop window version of the web app, allowing you to carry on back-and-forth prompt-and-response conversations. You can select between the GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and GPT-4o models. It also supports the more specialized GPTs available in the web version, including the DALL-E image generator and custom GPTs.
Microsoft has pretty much stopped making smartphones. Again. But before the company discontinued its Surface Duo line of dual-screen phones, Microsoft had allegedly begun work on a “Surface Duo 3” that would have had a foldable display rat…
Microsoft has pretty much stopped making smartphones. Again. But before the company discontinued its Surface Duo line of dual-screen phones, Microsoft had allegedly begun work on a “Surface Duo 3” that would have had a foldable display rather than two separate screens. While that’s hardly a revolutionary idea these days, it would have been a […]
The Olimex Neo6502pc is a modern mini computer designed to run some very old software. At its heart is a single-board computer that features a 6.25 MHz W65C02 processor that’s similar to the 6502 chip used in classic PCs and game consoles like t…
The Olimex Neo6502pc is a modern mini computer designed to run some very old software. At its heart is a single-board computer that features a 6.25 MHz W65C02 processor that’s similar to the 6502 chip used in classic PCs and game consoles like the Atari 2600 and Apple II, which makes it possible to run […]
In a mid-stage, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, researchers tested slow-release ketamine pills, taken twice weekly. The trial, sponsored by New Zealand-based Douglas Pharmaceuticals, found ketamine to be safe compared with placebo. At the trial's highest dose, the treatment showed some efficacy against depression in patients who had previously tried an average of nearly five antidepressants without success, according to the results published Monday in Nature Medicine.
But the Phase II trial, which started with 231 participants, indicated that the pool of patients who may benefit from the treatment could be quite limited. The researchers behind the trial chose an unusual "enrichment" design to test the depression treatment. This was intended to thwart the high failure rates generally seen in trials for depression treatments, even in patients without treatment-resistant cases. But even after selecting patients who initially responded to ketamine, 59.5 percent of the enriched participants still dropped out of the trial before its completion, largely due to a lack of efficacy.
Langsam wird deutlicher, weshalb die Telekom in den USA den Glasfasernetzbetreiber Lumos gekauft hat. T-Mobile kommt mit FWA im 5G-Netz gut an und will mehr Festnetzkunden. (Telekom, Glasfaser)
Langsam wird deutlicher, weshalb die Telekom in den USA den Glasfasernetzbetreiber Lumos gekauft hat. T-Mobile kommt mit FWA im 5G-Netz gut an und will mehr Festnetzkunden. (Telekom, Glasfaser)
The mythological creatures are instead “chimeras of big cats and raptorial birds.”
Enlarge/ Painting of a gryphon, or griffin, a lion-raptor chimera from ancient folklore. (credit: Mark Witton)
The gryphon, or griffin, is a legendary creature dating back to classical antiquity, sporting the body, legs, and tail of a lion and the wings, head, and front talons of an eagle. Since the 1980s, a popular "geomyth" has spread that the griffin's unique appearance was inspired by the fossilized skeleton of a horned dinosaur known as Protoceratops. It's a fascinating and colorful story, but according to the authors of a new paper published in the journal Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, there is no hard evidence to support such a connection.
"Everything about griffin origins is consistent with their traditional interpretation as imaginary beasts, just as their appearance is entirely explained by them being [mythological] chimeras of big cats and raptorial birds," said co-author Mark Witton, a paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth. "Invoking a role for dinosaurs in griffin lore, especially species from distant lands like Protoceratops, not only introduces unnecessary complexity and inconsistencies to their origins, but also relies on interpretations and proposals that don’t withstand scrutiny.”
There are representations of griffin-like creatures in ancient Egyptian art dated to before 3000 BCE, while in ancient Greek and Roman texts the creatures were associated with gold deposits in Central Asia. By the Middle Ages, griffins were common figures in medieval iconography and in heraldry. The hippogriff named Buckbeak in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a related mythical creature, the product of a griffin and a mare.
News reports from South Korea, reveal that Internet provider KT actively installed malware on the computers of over half a million subscribers. The malware was intended to interfere with BitTorrent traffic, presumably as a network management solution. A police investigation suggests that cost savings likely played a role too, which is not surprising given local file-sharing habits.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
From a networking perspective, most Internet providers are generally not thrilled with BitTorrent users.
Historically, torrent traffic has placed quite a burden on the network, which is one of the reasons why Comcast quietly began throttling torrent traffic many years ago.
Another reason to limit torrent traffic is to reduce costs. BitTorrent users transfer large amounts of data that’s not always covered by cheap peering agreements, which can become quite costly.
Today, torrent traffic is a much smaller percentage of total traffic. Internet providers generally are better equipped to deal with it and all-out throttling has become a rarity in most countries. However, in South Korea, an even more concerning anti-torrent tactic was uncovered recently.
Last week, an in-depth investigative report from JBTC revealed that Korean Internet provider KT, formerly known as Korea Telecom, distributed malware onto subscribers’ computers to interfere with and block torrent traffic.
Webhard Torrents
File-sharing continues to be very popular in South Korea, but operates differently than in most other countries. “Webhard” services, short for Web Hard Drive, are particularly popular. These are paid BitTorrent-assisted services, which also offer dedicated web seeds, to ensure that files remain available.
Webhard services rely on the BitTorrent-enabled ‘Grid System’, which became so popular in Korea that ISPs started to notice it. Since these torrent transfers use a lot of bandwidth, which is very costly in the country, providers would rather not have this file-sharing activity on their networks.
KT, one of South Korea’s largest ISPs with over 16 million subscribers, was previously caught meddling with the Grid System. In 2020, their throttling activities resulted in a court case, where the ISP cited ‘network management’ costs as the prime reason to interfere. The Court eventually sided with KT, ending the case in its favor, but that wasn’t the end of the matter.
An investigation launched by the police at the time remains ongoing. New reports now show that the raid on KT’s datacenter found that dozens of devices were used in the ‘throttling process’ and they were doing more than just limiting bandwidth.
KT Reportedly Distributed Malware to 600,000 Users
When Webhard users started reporting problems four years ago, they didn’t simply complain about slow downloads. In fact, the main concern was that several Grid-based Webhard services went offline or reported seemingly unexplainable errors. Since all complaining users were KT subscribers, fingers were pointed in that direction.
According to an investigation by Korean news outlet JBTC, the Internet provider actively installed malware on computers of Webhard services. This activity was widespread and effected an estimated 600,000 KT subscribers.
JBTC’s Report
The Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency, which carried out the raid and investigation, believes this was an organized hacking attempt. A dedicated KT team allegedly planted malware to eavesdrop on subscribers and interfere with their private file transfers.
“The team consisted of a ‘malware development’ section, a ‘distribution and operation’ section, and a ‘wiretapping’ section that looked at data sent and received by KT users in real time,” a follow-up report from JBTC explains.
The explosive allegation accuses KT of accessing and altering data on users’ computers to limit torrent traffic. Follow-up investigations have yet to get to the bottom of everything, but police have already identified more than a dozen persons of interest, who have been referred to the prosecutor.
Million-Dollar Questions
Why KT allegedly distributed the malware and what it precisely intended to do is unclear. The police believe there were internal KT discussions about network-related costs, suggesting that financial reasons played a role.
To illustrate what’s at stake, a sales manager from one of the Webhard companies said that torrent transfers save them significant bandwidth costs. This peer-to-peer upload bandwidth goes over KT’s network instead, presumably costing the ISP many millions of dollars per year.
KT, meanwhile, maintains that it merely intended to manage traffic on its network, presumably to keep everything running smoothly. Whatever the truth, that plan clearly backfired.
The JBTC report
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
“Unfortunately Collins has been significantly behind schedule.”
Enlarge/ NASA astronaut Christina Koch (right) poses for a portrait with fellow Expedition 61 Flight Engineer Jessica Meir, who is inside a US spacesuit for a fit check. (credit: NASA)
Almost exactly two years ago, as it prepared for the next generation of human spaceflight, NASA chose a pair of private companies to design and develop new spacesuits. These were to be new spacesuits that would allow astronauts to both perform spacewalks outside the International Space Station as well as walk on the Moon as part of the Artemis program.
Now, that plan appears to be in trouble, with one of the spacesuit providers—Collins Aerospace—expected to back out, Ars has learned. It's a blow for NASA, because the space agency really needs modern spacesuits.
NASA's Apollo-era suits have long been retired. The current suits used for spacewalks in low-Earth orbit are four decades old. "These new capabilities will allow us to continue on the ISS and allows us to do the Artemis program and continue on to Mars," said the director of Johnson Space Center, Vanessa Wyche, during a celebratory news conference in Houston two years ago.
Die Integration von KI in IT-Systeme bietet Chancen und Risiken. Welche Sicherheitsimplikationen bestehen und wie der richtige Einsatz von KI-Technologien funktioniert, klärt dieser fundierte Onlinekurs. (Golem Karrierewelt, KI) 
Langsam wird deutlicher, weshalb die Telekom in den USA den Glasfasernetzbetreiber Lumos gekauft hat. T-Mobile kommt mit FWA im 5G-Netz gut an und will mehr Festnetzkunden. (
From a networking perspective, most Internet providers are generally not thrilled with BitTorrent users. 
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