Tag Archives: author_name|Mariella Moon

Apple reaches possible settlement with the startup it sued for trade secret theft

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Apple has reached a possible settlement with Rivos, the Mountain View startup it accused in 2022 of poaching its employees and stealing its trade secrets. In the companies' filing seen by Bloomberg and Reuters, they told the US District Court for the Northern District of California that they have signed an agreement that "potentially settles the case." Their deal would allow Apple to conduct a forensic examination of Rivos' systems, as well as of its activities. 

When Apple sued Rivos, it said the startup led a "coordinated campaign" to hire away employees from its chip design division. Apple also accused the defendant of instructing the employees it hired away to steal presentations and other proprietary information for unreleased iPhone chip designs that cost billions of dollars to develop. Rivos countersued Apple last year, accusing the larger company of restricting employees' ability to work elsewhere and of hindering emerging startups' growth by using anticompetitive measures. 

The court dismissed Apple's trade secret claims against Rivos in April 2023, though the company was allowed to file a revised complaint. Apple already settled with its six former employees who filed a countersuit against Apple along with Rivos after they dropped their claims against each other last month. Both companies are now requesting the court to put their cases on hold until March 15, when they expect the settlement to be completed. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-reaches-possible-settlement-with-the-startup-it-sued-for-trade-secret-theft-121513902.html?src=rss

Ex-Apple engineer sentenced to six months in prison for stealing self-driving car tech

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Xiaolang Zhang, the former Apple employee who pleaded guilty to stealing information about the development of the company's self-driving vehicle, has been sentenced to 120 days in prison followed by a three-year supervised release. Zhang was arrested back in 2018 at San Jose International Airport just as he was about to board a flight to China. He initially pleaded not guilty until he changed his tune in 2022 and admitted to stealing trade secrets. In addition to serving time behind bars, he also has to pay restitution amounting to $146,984, according to the court document of his sentencing first seen by 9to5Mac. Zhang originally faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The former Apple employee worked as a hardware engineer for the company's decade-old autonomous vehicle initiative codenamed Project Titan. Based on Apple's complaint, Zhang transferred a 25-page document containing engineering schematics of a circuit board for the company's self-driving vehicle to his wife's laptop via AirDrop. He also saved a copy of technical manuals that described Apple's prototype to that laptop, in addition to stealing circuit boards and a Linux server from the company's development labs. 

Zhang resigned from Apple following a paternity leave and a trip to China, telling the iPhone maker that he was going to work in the country for XPeng Motors. That reportedly triggered an investigation, since XPeng is also working on autonomous driving technology, which revealed that Zhang was caught on CCTV taking hardware from Apple's labs and transferring files to his wife's computer. He's expected to surrender himself by June 19, after which he will be sent to a minimum-security facility as close as possible to his home in San Jose, California. 

Apple's self-driving vehicle has been in the works for a decade, but it has yet to launch a product consumers can buy. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently reported that the company changed its plans and is now developing an EV like Tesla's instead of a full-fledged autonomous vehicle. The long-awaited Apple Car is now projected to debut no earlier than 2028. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ex-apple-engineer-sentenced-to-six-months-in-prison-for-stealing-self-driving-car-tech-110537599.html?src=rss

Midjourney might ban Biden and Trump images this election season

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With the rise of AI tools that can quickly create modified images and videos, making fake images to spread political misinformation leading to the upcoming US presidential election has become easier than ever. Midjourney's solution to that might be to ban political images altogether, according to Bloomberg. David Holz, Midjourney's CEO, reportedly told users during a chat session on Discord that the company is close to banning images such as those of Biden and Trump over the next 12 months.

"I know it's fun to make Trump pictures — I make Trump pictures," he told users who attended the session. "Trump is aesthetically really interesting. However, probably better to just not — better to pull out a little bit during this election. We'll see." As Bloomberg notes, people had previously used the company's AI to generate deepfakes of Trump getting arrested. The company ended free trials for its AI image generator after those images — along with those infamous deepfakes of the pope wearing a Balenciaga-inspired coat — went viral.

At the moment, the company already has rules in place prohibiting the creation of "misleading public figures" and "events portrayals" with the "potential to mislead." Bloomberg was still able to create modified images of Trump covered in spaghetti using the older version of Midjourney's system, though, whereas the newer version refused to generate modified images of the former President. Of course, even if Midjourney does ban images of high-profile politicians, it will only be protecting its platform from drawing the ire of critics and becoming the center of attention this election season. It will not prevent the use of AI tools in political disinformation campaigns or the spread fake information meant to manipulate the elections as a whole. 

Other tech companies have also taken steps to help prevent political disinformation, or at least to help make it easier to identify. ChatGPT will soon start tagging images created using DALL-E 3, while Meta is working to develop technology that can detect and signify whether an image, video or audio clip has been generated using AI.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/midjourney-might-ban-biden-and-trump-images-this-election-season-064442076.html?src=rss

Funimation will stream its last anime on April 2

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Sony's Funimation purchased Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia for $1.175 billion in 2020, and they kicked off their transformation into a unified anime subscription service under the latter's name a year after the deal was announced. By 2022, Crunchyroll has already added more than 50 shows that were either exclusive to Funimation and weren't available with dubs to its library. Now, it sounds like they're almost done unifying their services: Funimation has revealed that it's going to shut down its old app and website on April 2. 

In Funimation's End of Services' page, it said most of its content has already been migrated to Crunchyroll. Those who've yet to leave Funimation, will automatically be transferred — all they need to do is use their existing credentials to log into Crunchyroll's website. After they do log in, they'll get a prompt telling them that their Watch and History lists are being migrated, as well. 

Viewers who have a Funimation and a Crunchyroll account will be prompted to merge their data from both services or to choose to use their data from one of them. And after April 2, their billing will go through Crunchyroll's and will follow its pricing, which starts at $8 a month. Unfortunately, Funimation customers who own digital copies complementing the DVDs or Blu-rays they purchased will lose access to them because Crunchyroll does not support them. "[W]e are continuously working to enhance our content offerings and provide you with an exceptional anime streaming experience," Funimation said. "We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to explore the extensive anime library available on Crunchyroll."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/funimation-will-stream-its-last-anime-on-april-2-131526671.html?src=rss

Apple releases an AI model that can edit images based on text-based commands

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Apple isn't one of the top players in the AI game today, but the company's new open source AI model for image editing shows what it's capable of contributing to the space. The model called MLLM-Guided Image Editing (MGIE), which uses multimodal large language models (MLLMs) to interpret text-based commands when manipulating images. In other words, the tool has the ability to edit photos based on the text the user types in. While it's not the first tool that can do so, "human instructions are sometimes too brief for current methods to capture and follow," the project's paper (PDF) reads. 

The company developed MGIE with researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara. MLLMs have the power to transform simple or ambiguous text prompts into more detailed and clear instructions the photo editor itself can follow. For instance, if a user wants to edit a photo of a pepperoni pizza to "make it more healthy," MLLMs can interpret it as "add vegetable toppings" and edit the photo as such.

Photos of pizzas, cheetas, a computer and a person.
Apple

In addition to changing making major changes to images, MGIE can also crop, resize and rotate photos, as well as improve its brightness, contrast and color balance, all through text prompts. It can also edit specific areas of a photo and can, for instance, modify the hair, eyes and clothes of a person in it, or remove elements in the background. 

As VentureBeat notes, Apple released the model through GitHub, but those interested can also try out a demo that's currently hosted on Hugging Face Spaces. Apple has yet to say whether it plans to use what it learns from this project into a tool or a feature that it can incorporate into any of its products.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-releases-an-ai-model-that-can-edit-images-based-on-text-based-commands-081646262.html?src=rss

The EU wants to criminalize AI-generated porn images and deepfakes

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Back in 2022, the European Commission released a proposal for a directive on how to combat domestic violence and violence against women in other forms. Now, the European Council and Parliament have agreed with the proposal to criminalize, among other things, different types of cyber-violence. The proposed rules will criminalize the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, including deepfakes made by AI tools, which could help deter revenge porn. Cyber-stalking, online harassment, misogynous hate speech and "cyber-flashing," or the sending of unsolicited nudes, will also be recognized as criminal offenses.

The commission says that having a directive for the whole European Union that specifically addresses those particular acts will help victims in Member States that haven't criminalized them yet. "This is an urgent issue to address, given the exponential spread and dramatic impact of violence online," it wrote in its announcement. In addition, the directive will require member states to develop measures that can help users more easily identify cyber-violence and to know how to prevent it from happening if possible or how to seek help. It will require them to provide their residents with an online portal where they can send in reports, as well. 

In its reporting, Politico suggested that the recent spread of pornographic deepfake images using Taylor Swift's face urged EU officials to move forward with the proposal. If you'll recall, X even had to temporarily block searches for the musician's name after the images went viral. "The latest disgusting way of humiliating women is by sharing intimate images generated by AI in a couple of minutes by anybody," European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová told the publication. "Such pictures can do huge harm, not only to popstars but to every woman who would have to prove at work or at home that it was a deepfake." At the moment, though, the aforementioned rules are just part of a bill that representatives of EU member states still need to approve. "The final law is also pending adoption in Council and European Parliament," the EU Council said. According to Politico, if all goes well and the bill becomes a law soon, EU states will have until 2027 to enforce the new rules.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-eu-wants-to-criminalize-ai-generated-porn-images-and-deepfakes-105037524.html?src=rss

Disney+ has started cracking down on password sharing in the US

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Disney+ started getting strict about password sharing in Canada last year, and now it's expanding the restriction to the US. According to The Verge, the streaming service has been sending out emails to its subscribers in the country, notifying them about a change in its terms of service. Its service agreement now states that users may not share their passwords outside of their household "unless otherwise permitted by [their] service tier," suggesting the arrival of new subscription options in the future. 

The Verge says Disney+ told subscribers that they can analyze the use of their account to "determine compliance," though it didn't elaborate on how its methods work exactly. "We're adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household, and explaining how we may assess your compliance with these limitations," Disney+ reportedly wrote in its email. In its Service Agreement, the service describes "household" as "the collection of devices associated with [subscribers'] primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein." The rule already applies to new subscribers, but old ones have until March 14 to feel its effects. 

Disney's other streaming service, Hulu, also recently announced that it's clamping down on password sharing outside the subscriber's "primary personal residence." It used the same language in its its warning to users, also telling them that their accounts will be analyzed for compliance and that it will start enforcing the new rule on March 14. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-has-started-cracking-down-on-password-sharing-in-the-us-070317512.html?src=rss

An Elden Ring mobile game is reportedly in the works at Tencent

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Tencent is in the midst of developing an Elden Ring game for mobile phones, according to Reuters. Apparently, if the Shenzhen-based tech company's plan pushes through, fans are getting a free-to-play title with in-app purchases, similar to the gacha game Genshin Impact. That's a complete departure from the original Elden Ring action RPG, which sells for $60 from the get-go and isn't loaded up with microtransactions. 

That's pretty much all the details Reuters has reported — according to the news organization's sources, progress on the project has been slow, so it may take a while before we see the game. That is, if the game even gets released: Tencent recently shut down the development of much-awaited Nier mobile game that had been in the works for two years. Tencent reportedly couldn't find a monetization model that would allow it to recoup what it cost the company to license the franchise from Square Enix, along with what it's going to spend to bring the project to completion. 

Tencent and Sony purchased a 30 percent share of FromSoftware, the Japanese developer behind Elden Ring, back in 2022. The Chinese company also acquired the licensing rights to develop the game back then and put together a team with a "few dozen people" to work on a prototype. Reuters says Tencent is hoping to give its aging library of games a boost with a new title, and one based on a wildly successful game like Elden Ring has the potential to become a hit. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/an-elden-ring-mobile-game-is-reportedly-in-the-works-at-tencent-131229933.html?src=rss

Sony’s latest PS5 beta update gives DualSense controllers better audio

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The latest beta update for the PlayStation 5 will make it easier to hear what's going on in your game. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has announced the software update, which will enable DualSense and DualSense Edge wireless controllers to produce louder audio so that you can hear in-game sounds and audio chats more clearly. 

In addition to giving controllers the ability to produce louder sounds, the update also gives their noise cancellation feature a boost. Sony's announcement says the controllers now have better mic input, thanks to a new AI machine learning model. It'll give PS5's system the ability to suppress background noises, such as the game audio itself, allowing your voice to go through clearly and improving the quality of voice chats as a whole. 

The update brings non-sound-related improvements to the PS5, as well, including the option to adjust the console's power indicator under "Beep and Light" in System Settings. Plus, it will give you access to Share Screen tools that you can use as a viewer to interact with the host's gameplay. Want to catch the host's attention and make them notice a certain element in the game? There's a pointer you can move around or use to draw a line on the display and highlight objects in game. You'll also be able to send the host's screen emoji reactions. These new interactive tools for the Share Screen are enabled by default, but you can always switch them off in settings. Take note that they will only work if both you and the host already have access to the beta features. At the moment, the upgrades are only rolling out to select users in certain countries, but SIE plans to release them to all PS5 gamers around the world in the coming months. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-latest-ps5-beta-update-gives-dualsense-controllers-better-audio-113529372.html?src=rss

Apple Vision Pro users will have to go to a store to reset forgotten passcodes

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Can you imagine having to mail in a $3,499 gadget because you forgot the passcode you nominated to be able to use it? Customers who purchased the Apple Vision Pro may have to do just that if they forget their device's passcode. According to Bloomberg, the company has been telling buyers that the only way to reset their codes is to go to an Apple Store or to mail their mixed reality headset to AppleCare customer support. Apple will then reset their codes so they could use their device again. 

As Bloomberg notes, if a user enters an incorrect code too many times, their device will be disabled and they'll have to sit through a waiting period to be able to try again. They'll have to get Apple to reset their code if they still can't recall it after that waiting period, and getting the company to do will erase all the content on their headset. 

It's worth noting that some users on the Apple discussion forum still got locked out even though they entered the correct passcode — it's unclear if it's a bug affecting some units — so the issue could happen to anyone. Based on some other posts, Apple's Genius Bar personnel use an accessory called the Developer Strap that the company is selling to developers for $299 to connect the headset to iPads or laptops to be able to reset it. In at least one instance, Apple Geniuses reportedly failed to reset the user's headset and had to replace it altogether. 

The process to change the headset's passcode could still change in the future — the recently released Vision Pro, after all, is the first iteration of a brand new product category. For the sake of those who've already purchased one, we hope it's introduced through a software update instead of as an improvement in the next version. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-vision-pro-users-will-have-to-go-to-a-store-to-reset-forgotten-passcodes-070101287.html?src=rss