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Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, Apple has detailed its plans for self-driving car tech, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is taking a leave of absence, Facebook failed to remove child sex offender profiles, and more.
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In an interview with Bloomberg, Apple CEO Cook has said Apple is creating "autonomous systems" for cars and not a complete self-driving model itself (WIRED). "It’s a core technology that we view as very important," Cook told the publication. "We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects". The interview was recorded on June 5, the same time as Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference where it announced Siri updates, iOS 11, and its HomePod. In the interview with Bloomberg, Cook didn't rule out Apple eventually making its own vehicle but stressed it was working on the AI technologies needed for vehicles to operate. These are likely to include machine learning, machine vision and LiDAR systems.
Following the publication of independent investigators' recommendations in the wake of sexual harassment and discrimination scandals at troubled high-tech taxi firm Uber, CEO Travis Kalanick has taken an indefinite leave of absence from the company (The Guardian). In an email to staff, he wrote: "I need to take some time off of the day-to-day to grieve my mother, whom I buried on Friday, to reflect, to work on myself, and to focus on building out a world-class leadership team. If we are going to work on Uber 2.0, I also need to work on Travis 2.0 to become the leader that this company needs and that you deserve". Meanwhile, another Uber board member, David Bonderman, has resigned after he yesterday made sexist remarks during a company-wide meeting to address Uber's institutional sexism.
A BBC File on 4 investigation found 22 Facebook profiles belonging to convicted child sex offenders. Three weeks after the journalists reported the profiles to Facebook, six were still online, although Facebook's terms and conditions bar convicted sex offenders from using the social network. Facebook corroborates reports of sex offenders with police before deleting their accounts, and says that it is still waiting for confirmation on the final six accounts it's investigating. Facebook UK policy director Simon Milner said: "Our teams that focus on this work with the relevant local police force to get authorisation from them and it works. We've found in terms of our working relationship with law enforcement in this country and elsewhere they think we are amongst the most effective companies in dealing with this issue and we actually do have the right kind of arrangements in place." Figures obtained by File on 4 show that various social media platforms have been linked to over 7,000 reports of child sex crimes over the past three years.
Microsoft has once again made the unusual move of releasing a security patch for its long-dead Windows XP operating system to protect against the threat presented by more NSA malware released into the wild by the Shadow Brokers hacking group following the devastating WannaCry attacks (Ars Technica). In a blog post, Microsoft Cyber Defense Operations Center general manager Adrienne Hall wrote: "In reviewing the updates for this month, some vulnerabilities were identified that pose elevated risk of cyber attacks by government organizations, sometimes referred to as nation-state actors or other copycat organizations… These security updates are being made available to all customers, including those using older versions of Windows. Due to the elevated risk for destructive cyber attacks at this time, we made the decision to take this action because applying these updates provides further protection against potential attacks with characteristics similar to WannaCrypt".
The drawn-out takeover of early web search and service pioneer Yahoo by US telecoms giant Verizon is now complete (TechCrunch). The company plans to combine Yahoo's media brands, including TechCrunch, Engadget, Tumblr and Flickr, with brands acquired during the company's previous takeover of AOL to create new media company named Oath, under the direction of Tim Armstrong, previously CEO of AOL. Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer has resigned, taking a $23 million golden parachute.
Hackers are getting more and more innovative, and it's more important than ever that security professionals and business leaders understand what the latest trends and developments are to combat such threats. WIRED Security 2017 takes place in London on September 28.
Asgardia, the world's self-proclaimed first "space nation" has opened its doors to applications by people interested in becoming citizens (Motherboard). The group, founded by Russian computer scientist Igor Ashurbeyli, wants to create the foundation of a spacefaring nation free of both Earth's conflicts and its regulations. Ashurbeyli says: "The essence of Asgardia is Peace in Space, and the prevention of Earth's conflicts being transferred into space". The fledgeling nation – which has yet to get international recognition as such – announced its first space launch at a press conference: Asgardia-1, a 10x10x20cm cubesat, will be deployed by an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship on its way to the ISS. The first 100,000 people to register as Asgardian citizens will be able to store up to 300kb of data on the Asgardia-1 satellite, Ashurbeyli says. "What comes to mind? Maybe the photo of your little cat, or of your neighbour, or your mother, or your child. Whatever comes to your mind, this will be for as long as Asgardia exists, in other words, forever".
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos has said that the network's controversial cancellations of The Get Down and the Wachowskis' Sense8 came because the company had to ask itself if enough people were watching the shows to justify the amount of money they cost (WIRED). "A big expensive show for a huge audience is great," Sarandos said. "A big, expensive show for a tiny audience is hard even in our model to make that work very long". For a company so opaque – Netflix has traditionally refused to give viewership numbers – Sarandos’ word choice is surprisingly telling. As long as Netflix's subscriber numbers kept rising, the streaming service could use its piles of cash to make all the shows it wanted, from big hits to niche programming. But even the longest tail has an end; the company missed its new subscriber goal for the first quarter of this year. Eventually, it will need to narrow its production focus in favour of the most popular, highest-quality stuff possible. "It was inevitable," says Chris Smith, a professor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. "Even though Netflix is a digital platform and there’s a lot more shelf-life available for programming, at some point you do reach the law of diminishing returns".
Nintendo has revealed a new gameplay trailer for Super Mario Odyssey for the Switch, complete with skyscrapers, dinosaurs, and powerful hat attacks that can possess Mario's enemies (WIRED). The company has also announced that the Switch is getting a new, main-line Pokémon RPG, new Yoshi and Kirby games and, 10 years after the release of Metroid Prime 3, says that Metroid Prime 4 is now in development for the new console. Super Mario Odyssey is out on October 23.
The movie adaptation of Valiant Comics' voodoo-influenced Shadowman now has director Reginald Hudlin attached (Den of Geek). As well as directing movies and TV series including The Bernie Mac Show, Hudlin has comics writing experience under his belt, including a successful run of Black Panther. Shadowman, previously adapted into a well-loved 90s video game, follows New Orleans musician Jack Boniface, who gains the ability to access, influence and draw power from the Deadside, an alternate plane of reality that lies just next to our own. There is as yet no release date for the film.
Life is Strange creator Dontnod has revealed its forthcoming action RPG, Vampyr with an extended gameplay demo (PC Gamer). Set in London in 1918, at the height of the Spanish flu outbreak, the trailer reveals that your protagonist, the eponymous vampyr, Dr Jonathan Reid, will occupy a world in which vampires, monster hunters and flesh-eating undead skal are a part of the everyday fabric of the disease-wracked city. Vampyr is out in November.
In December 2016, Ukraine's power grid was hit by an unprecedented malware attack. Parts of Kiev were subjected to total darkness. The attack lasted no longer than an hour, only a brief glimpse into a new, early-stage cyber weapon. It was the first-known case of malware designed to specifically target electrical grid systems. Now, it has evolved to a new level of potency – and is out in the public domain. Security firm Dragos has named malware responsible for the attack 'Crash Override', stating in a blog that it "represents alarming tradecraft and the ability to disrupt operations".
With five Olympic medals, Ben Ainslie is one of the world's most successful sailors. His next challenge? To win the America's Cup. In this double issue, WIRED joins him and the Land Rover BAR team in Bermuda as he prepares for the race. Plus, we go inside the UK's new unicorn Improbable, and behind the lines at Elon Musk's distribution factory. Subscribe and save now. Out in print and digital. Subscribe now and save.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
