Google tells Cloud employees to share desks, Canada launches investigation into TikTok and AI-generated images lose their copyright protection.
It’s Friday, February 24th. These stories and more on Trending Hashtags—Today’s Top Technology News. I’m your host, Jim Love.
In its latest cost-cutting moves, Google’s cloud unit has asked employees in five of its locations to transition to desk-sharing workspaces.
The new desk-sharing model is available across five of Google Cloud’s largest US locations – Kirkland, Washington; New York City; San Francisco; Seattle; and Sunnyvale, Calif.
Google previously said in its fourth-quarter earnings call that it expected to incur a cost of approximately $500 million related to reduced global office space and other real estate charges.
Employees and partners are being asked to share with their desk mates on alternate days, starting next quarter,
The memo announcing the change states that employees can come in on other days, but if they are on an unspecified day, They will use the “overflow drop-in space”.
Internal documents suggest the tech giant is pushing for a slow return to office patterns while ensuring “real estate efficiency” and continued investment in the development of the cloud unit.
The New Seating Arrangement Is Called “The Cloud Office Evolution” The company described hybrid working as “combining the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with flexibility.”
The company notes that the new workspace plan is not a temporary pilot and will lead to more efficient use of its space.
Following the announcement, memes rolled in, particularly on the “corpspeak” used by the company’s head of staff to promote the new desk-sharing model.
read a meme; “Not every cost-cutting measure needs to be worded convoluted to sound good to employees. A simple ‘we’re cutting office space to reduce costs’ will make leadership more credible.
Source: cnbc
Concerns about TikTok are spreading across the US and now into Canada and even the European Union.
Federal Privacy Commissioner of Canada, with with three provincial privacy commissioners, Started investigating TiktokInvestigating how video-streaming platforms collect Canadian users’ personal data.
The three participating provincial commissioners are Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.
Privacy watchdogs will assess whether TikTok’s data collection practices are in compliance with Canadian privacy legislation, in particular whether valid and meaningful consent is being obtained for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. The probe will also examine whether the company is meeting transparency requirements when collecting personal information from its users.
Source: IT World Canada
On the other hand, the European Commission has outright banned the use of TikTok on the devices of its employees.
The commission says it has around 32,000 permanent and contract employees.
They should remove the app as soon as possible and not later than 15th of March
tik tok said the decision of the commission was Based on misconceptions about its platform. E to, EU?
Source: BBC
Perhaps out of fear that the Edge browser will be used to download Chrome, and then go unused, Microsoft is aggressively trying to keep Customers on Edge and that Chrome is bombarding them with full size ads on the website.
Attempting to install Chrome using Edge Canary now gives results.Browser displaying two ads: a small ad that pops up on the screen the first time the Chrome website is loaded and a full-sized banner after the download starts.
The banner states that Edge uses the same technology as Chrome but with “the added trust of Microsoft”.
Google also shows banners to promote Chrome, but they appear only on the company’s websites.
But Microsoft cries foul every time a user wants to download another browser. Maybe AI is fueling Bing There may be a better strategy, after all some of its behavior has put people on edge.
Microsoft may be revising its strategy apparently, the latest Edge release didn’t get the banner.
In fact, as of today, the banner is not visible in Edge Canary, Dev and Stable. The beta is the only version that is still displaying the banner when you try to download Chrome.
Source: neovin
Pirate Final Cut Pro is no deal, Security researchers at Gemf Threat Labs found a cryptomining operation targeting a macOS pirated version of Final Cut Pro.
The software is distributed through The Pirate Bay, a popular torrent site that allows people to download and stream entertainment media and software.
It appears that users have also been uploading other macOS apps like Adobe Photoshop and Logic Pro X since 2019, All of them have payloads for cryptocurrency mining.
The malware has gone through three major evolution phases, each time adding more complex evasion techniques. According to Bleeping Computer, the security tools today only detect the first generation threat, which stopped circulating in April 2021.
The third and current generation appeared in October 2021 with the new ability to hide its malicious processes as system processes on Spotlight to avoid detection.
The latest version also includes a script that continually checks for Activity Monitor, and if it is launched, it immediately kills all of its processes in order to remain hidden from user inspections.
Latest version of macOS, codenamed “Ventura” There are more stringent code-signing checks that can render malware hidden within user-launched apps, especially pirated ones, ineffective.
However, this only blocks legitimate applications from running, not cryptocurrency miners, so Apple’s new security system still has some way to go to effectively protect users.
Source: bleeping computer
Images created using AI may not be protected by copyright.
At least that’s the case with the images used in the graphic novel “Zera of the Dawn,” according to a ruling by the US Copyright Office.
The graphic novel’s author, Chris Kashtanova, was informed that he was entitled to copyright for the portions of the book that he wrote and arranged, but not for the images produced by Midjourney.
This is the first ruling by a US court or agency on the scope of copyright protection for works created with AI.and comes in the form of generative AI software Such as Midjourney, Dall-E and ChatGPT are growing in popularity.
The author called it “great news” on Wednesday that the office granted copyright protection for the novel’s story and the way the images were arranged, which she said “includes a lot of uses for people in the AI arts community.” “
Kashtanova said he was considering how best to counter the argument that the images themselves were No “the direct expression of one’s creativity and therefore copyrightable.”
The decision may not apply to all AI images. “The fact that the specific output of Midjourney cannot be predicted by users makes Midjourney different than other tools used by performers for copyright purposes,” the US Copyright Office’s ruling said.
So naturally we went to the real authority on this and asked ChatGPT who owns the copyrights from the AI generated images, here we got the answer.
Ultimately, the question of copyright ownership of AI-generated images is a complex legal issue that may depend on the specific facts and circumstances of each case. As AI technology continues to develop, the legal framework may need to be adapted to more effectively address these issues.
It couldn’t have been said better.
Source: reuters
This is today’s top tech news
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I’m Jim Love, and on a personal note, I turn 67 today, so have a wonderful Friday. I have an old one.
