80 Million Galaxies, Anthropic, Google, More: Sunday Afte…

NEW RESOURCES Heise Online: 80 million galaxies: Gigantic astronomical catalog viewable online. “An international research group has compiled and made publicly available what it claims is the most comprehensive catalog of galaxies […]

Heise Online: 80 million galaxies: Gigantic astronomical catalog viewable online. “An international research group has compiled and made publicly available what it claims is the most comprehensive catalog of galaxies in the night sky. The project, named REGALADE, reportedly includes precise data on the distance and size of almost 80 million galaxies.” CNBC: Google joins Microsoft in telling users Anthropic is still available outside defense projects.

“Google said it will continue offering Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology for clients, excluding for defense work, a day after Microsoft issued a similar statement to customers.” Courthouse News Service: Google, Android users near final approval of $135M data transfer settlement. “U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi on Thursday granted preliminary approval to a class of Android users claiming Google — without informing or getting users’ consent — transmitted large amounts of information between Android devices and its own servers.

The transfers reportedly occurred when the devices were idle, untouched and with all apps closed. They also used people’s cellular data and didn’t compensate users for the data consumed.” Al Jazeera: OpenAI’s fund raising boom slows amid mounting debt. “‘OpenAI needs to generate $200bn in annual revenue by 2030 to justify their projections. That’s 15x growth in five years while costs keep exploding,’ George Noble, a veteran financial analyst, said in a post on X.

‘The diminishing returns are becoming impossible to hide. Competitors are catching up. The lawsuits are piling up,’ Noble added.” Associated Press: State actors are behind much of the visual misinformation about the Iran war. “A deluge of misrepresented or fabricated videos has spread widely online since the Iran war began last weekend, fueled in part by state-linked propaganda influence campaigns — particularly around who is winning the war and how bad casualties have been.” Business Insider: Alphabet CEO could earn up to $692M under a new pay package linked to Waymo.

“In an SEC filing posted on Friday, the company awarded CEO Sundar Pichai a three-year equity cycle that could be worth up to $692 million if the CEO meets the board’s performance targets.” Search Engine Journal: Report Shows WordPress Sites Are Getting Hacked At Faster Rate. “A new report about the state of WordPress security called attention to the hidden threat posed by premium plugins and to the fact that hackers are increasingly exploiting vulnerabilities before many sites can patch them.” The Center Square Michigan: Lawmakers propose moratorium on Michigan data centers.

“A bipartisan group of Michigan lawmakers have proposed a halt on the construction of all data centers in the state. The moratorium would pause construction until April 1, 2027 in an effort to give local communities the opportunity to research how to address the centers, which are flooding into Michigan.” The Register: Anthropic bods rework AI damage yardstick, find scant labor impact. “Some day, robots may fold clothes and ferry idle citizens about to spend their government-allocated basic income at depopulated pop-up stores.

But not today. At the moment, it appears AI has had almost no impact on those whose jobs are considered to be ‘exposed’ to automation.” Gizmodo: US Data Centers Could Require as Much Water as New York City by 2030, Study Shows. “AI is incredibly thirsty. The data centers that run these models already use massive amounts of water, and by 2030, those in the U.S. could require enough additional water capacity to rival New York City’s daily supply.” Good afternoon, Internet… This newsletter is free but most of the things that go into making it aren’t!

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Summary

This report covers the latest developments in android. The information presented highlights key changes and updates that are relevant to those following this topic.

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