Tag Archives: Internet & Networking Technology

Microsoft unbundles Teams and Office 365 for customers worldwide

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In October, Microsoft unbundled Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the European Union and Switzerland to avoid potential fines. Now, the company is expanding this offering, selling Microsoft Teams separately from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 worldwide, Reuters reports. "Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardise their purchasing across geographies," a Microsoft spokesperson told the publication.

Current users can now choose to keep their current deal or switch to one of the separate offerings — especially helpful for anyone who uses the Office suite but prefers another communication service like Zoom or Google Meet. Commercial customers new to Microsoft's offerings can pick up Teams on its own for $5.25, while Office sans Teams is going for anywhere from $7.75 to $54.75.

Microsoft's journey to unbundling Teams and Office started in 2020 when Slack filed an antitrust complaint with the EU. The now Salesforce-owned company alleged that it was illegal to include Teams in the Office suite and that Microsoft was blocking customers from removing the chat platform. The European Commission has subsequently been investigating this matter, with Microsoft announcing in April 2023 that it would separate Teams from Microsoft 35 and Office 365. Though the move went into effect last fall, Microsoft is still at risk of owing the EU a hefty fine if found to have broken antitrust laws.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-unbundles-teams-and-office-365-for-customers-worldwide-111031996.html?src=rss

Microsoft unbundles Teams and Office 365 for customers worldwide

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In October, Microsoft unbundled Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the European Union and Switzerland to avoid potential fines. Now, the company is expanding this offering, selling Microsoft Teams separately from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 worldwide, Reuters reports. "Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardise their purchasing across geographies," a Microsoft spokesperson told the publication.

Current users can now choose to keep their current deal or switch to one of the separate offerings — especially helpful for anyone who uses the Office suite but prefers another communication service like Zoom or Google Meet. Commercial customers new to Microsoft's offerings can pick up Teams on its own for $5.25, while Office sans Teams is going for anywhere from $7.75 to $54.75.

Microsoft's journey to unbundling Teams and Office started in 2020 when Slack filed an antitrust complaint with the EU. The now Salesforce-owned company alleged that it was illegal to include Teams in the Office suite and that Microsoft was blocking customers from removing the chat platform. The European Commission has subsequently been investigating this matter, with Microsoft announcing in April 2023 that it would separate Teams from Microsoft 35 and Office 365. Though the move went into effect last fall, Microsoft is still at risk of owing the EU a hefty fine if found to have broken antitrust laws.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-unbundles-teams-and-office-365-for-customers-worldwide-111031996.html?src=rss

NYC’s business chatbot is reportedly doling out ‘dangerously inaccurate’ information

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An AI chatbot released by the New York City government to help business owners access pertinent information has been spouting falsehoods, at times even misinforming users about actions that are against the law, according to a report from The Markup. The report, which was co-published with the local nonprofit newsrooms Documented and The City, includes numerous examples of inaccuracies in the chatbot’s responses to questions relating to housing policies, workers’ rights and other topics.

Mayor Adams’ administration introduced the chatbot in October as an addition to the MyCity portal, which launched in March 2023 as “a one-stop shop for city services and benefits.” The chatbot, powered by Microsoft’s Azure AI, is aimed at current and aspiring business owners, and was billed as a source of “actionable and trusted information” that comes directly from the city government’s sites. But it is a pilot program, and a disclaimer on the website notes that it “may occasionally produce incorrect, harmful or biased content.”

In The Markup’s tests, the chatbot repeatedly provided incorrect information. In response to the question, “Can I make my store cashless?”, for example, it replied, “Yes, you can make your store cashless in New York City” — despite the fact that New York City banned cashless stores in 2020. The report shows the chatbot also responded incorrectly about whether employers can take their workers’ tips, whether landlords have to accept section 8 vouchers or tenants on rental assistance, and whether businesses have to inform staff of scheduling changes. A housing policy expert that spoke to The Markup called the chatbot “dangerously inaccurate” at its worst.

The city has indicated that the chatbot is still a work in progress. In a statement to Engadget, Leslie Brown, a spokesperson for the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation, said, “In line with the city’s key principles of reliability and transparency around AI, the site informs users the clearly marked pilot beta product should only be used for business-related content, tells users there are potential risks, and encourages them via disclaimer to both double-check its responses with the provided links and not use them as a substitute for professional advice.”

“The site has already provided thousands of people with timely, accurate answers and offers a feedback option to help drive continuous improvements of the beta tool,” Brown said. “We will continue to focus on upgrading this tool so that we can better support small businesses across the city.”

Update, March 31 2024, 9:23AM ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nycs-business-chatbot-is-reportedly-doling-out-dangerously-inaccurate-information-203926922.html?src=rss

AT&T resets millions of customers’ passcodes after account info was leaked on the dark web

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AT&T says 7.6 million current customers were affected by a recent leak in which sensitive data was released on the dark web, along with 65.4 million former account holders. TechCrunch first reported on Saturday morning that the company has reset the passcodes of all affected active accounts, and AT&T confirmed the move in an update published on its support page. The data set, which AT&T says “appears to be from 2019 or earlier,” includes names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, according to TechCrunch.

TechCrunch reports that it alerted AT&T about the potential for the leaked data to be used to access customers accounts on Monday, after a security researcher discovered that the records included easily decipherable encrypted passcodes. AT&T said today that it’s “launched a robust investigation supported by internal and external cybersecurity experts.” The data appeared on the dark web about two weeks ago, according to AT&T.

It comes three years after a hacker known as ShinyHunters claimed in 2021 that they’d obtained the account data of 73 million AT&T customers. AT&T at the time told BleepingComputer that it had not suffered a breach and that samples of information shared by the hacker online did “not appear to have come from our systems.” The company now says that “it is not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors.” So far, it “does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in exfiltration of the data set.”

AT&T says it will reach out to both current and former account holders who have been affected by the leak. The company also says it will offer credit monitoring to those customers “where applicable.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/att-resets-millions-of-customers-passcodes-after-account-info-was-leaked-on-the-dark-web-160842651.html?src=rss

AT&T resets millions of customers’ passcodes after account info was leaked on the dark web

Posted on by

AT&T says 7.6 million current customers were affected by a recent leak in which sensitive data was released on the dark web, along with 65.4 million former account holders. TechCrunch first reported on Saturday morning that the company has reset the passcodes of all affected active accounts, and AT&T confirmed the move in an update published on its support page. The data set, which AT&T says “appears to be from 2019 or earlier,” includes names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, according to TechCrunch.

TechCrunch reports that it alerted AT&T about the potential for the leaked data to be used to access customers accounts on Monday, after a security researcher discovered that the records included easily decipherable encrypted passcodes. AT&T said today that it’s “launched a robust investigation supported by internal and external cybersecurity experts.” The data appeared on the dark web about two weeks ago, according to AT&T.

It comes three years after a hacker known as ShinyHunters claimed in 2021 that they’d obtained the account data of 73 million AT&T customers. AT&T at the time told BleepingComputer that it had not suffered a breach and that samples of information shared by the hacker online did “not appear to have come from our systems.” The company now says that “it is not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors.” So far, it “does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in exfiltration of the data set.”

AT&T says it will reach out to both current and former account holders who have been affected by the leak. The company also says it will offer credit monitoring to those customers “where applicable.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/att-resets-millions-of-customers-passcodes-after-account-info-was-leaked-on-the-dark-web-160842651.html?src=rss

Google will start showing AI-powered search results to users who didn’t opt in

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If you're in the US, you might see a new shaded section at the top of your Google Search results with a summary answering your inquiry, along with links for more information. That section, generated by Google's generative AI technology, used to appear only if you've opted into the Search Generative Experience (SGE) in the Search Labs platform. Now, according to Search Engine Land, Google has started adding the experience on a "subset of queries, on a small percentage of search traffic in the US." And that is why you could be getting Google's experimental AI-generated section even if you haven't switched it on. 

The company introduced SGE at its I/O developer conference in May last year, shortly after it opened up access to its ChatGPT rival Bard, now called Gemini. By November, it had rolled out the feature to 120 countries with more languages other than English, but it still remained opt in. Search Engine Land says Google will start showing you the experience even if you haven't opted in if you look up complex queries or if it thinks you could benefit from getting information from multiple websites. "How do I get marks off painted walls," is apparently one example. 

Google told the publication that for these tests, it will only show AI overviews if it has confidence that they will show information better than what Search results might surface. Apparently, the company is conducting these tests, because it wants to get feedback from more people, specifically from those who didn't choose to activate the feature. That way it can have a better idea of how generative AI can serve those who may not be tech-savvy or those who couldn't care less about generative AI. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-will-start-showing-ai-powered-search-results-to-users-who-didnt-opt-in-093036257.html?src=rss

Google will start showing AI-powered search results to users who didn’t opt in

Posted on by

If you're in the US, you might see a new shaded section at the top of your Google Search results with a summary answering your inquiry, along with links for more information. That section, generated by Google's generative AI technology, used to appear only if you've opted into the Search Generative Experience (SGE) in the Search Labs platform. Now, according to Search Engine Land, Google has started adding the experience on a "subset of queries, on a small percentage of search traffic in the US." And that is why you could be getting Google's experimental AI-generated section even if you haven't switched it on. 

The company introduced SGE at its I/O developer conference in May last year, shortly after it opened up access to its ChatGPT rival Bard, now called Gemini. By November, it had rolled out the feature to 120 countries with more languages other than English, but it still remained opt in. Search Engine Land says Google will start showing you the experience even if you haven't opted in if you look up complex queries or if it thinks you could benefit from getting information from multiple websites. "How do I get marks off painted walls," is apparently one example. 

Google told the publication that for these tests, it will only show AI overviews if it has confidence that they will show information better than what Search results might surface. Apparently, the company is conducting these tests, because it wants to get feedback from more people, specifically from those who didn't choose to activate the feature. That way it can have a better idea of how generative AI can serve those who may not be tech-savvy or those who couldn't care less about generative AI. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-will-start-showing-ai-powered-search-results-to-users-who-didnt-opt-in-093036257.html?src=rss

Google used AI to accurately predict floods up to 7 days in advance

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Google just announced that it has been using AI to successfully predict riverline floods, up to seven days in advance in some cases. This isn’t just tech company hyperbole, as the findings were actually published in the esteemed science journal Nature. Floods are the most common natural disaster throughout the world, so any early warning system is good news.

Floods have been notoriously tricky to predict, as most rivers don’t have streamflow gauges. Google got around this problem by training machine learning models with all kinds of relevant data, including historical events, river level readings, elevation and terrain readings and more. After that, the company generated localized maps and ran “hundreds of thousands” of simulations in each location. This combination of techniques allowed the models to accurately predict upcoming floods.

The approach built “highly accurate models for very particular locations”, but Google hopes to use these techniques to eventually solve the problem at global scale. While the company did successfully predict some floods a full seven days in advance, the average came in at around five days. Still, Google’s confident that it has extended the “reliability of currently-available global nowcasts from zero to five days.” It’s also significantly improved forecasting in underrepresented regions, like some parts of Africa and Asia.

All told, this technology allowed Google to provide accurate flood forecasting in 80 countries, with a total population of 460 million. The company made these forecasts available in Google Search, Google Maps, and via Android notifications. This information is also available via the company’s proprietary Flood Hub web app, which began operations back in 2022.

So what’s next? Google will continue to explore the “potential of machine learning to create better flood forecasting models” and has teamed up with academic researchers to fine tune the AI-driven approach. The company hopes this will eventually result in a “global end-to-end flood forecasting platform.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-used-ai-to-accurately-predict-floods-up-to-7-days-in-advance-191353201.html?src=rss

Meta previews ‘fediverse sharing’ for Threads

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Meta is continuing its slow march toward compatibility with the fediverse. The company has been experimenting with making posts from a handful of accounts available on Mastodon since the end of last year. Now, it’s offered a brief preview of how the integration works and what it might look like once more people have the ability to share from Threads directly to the fediverse.

Instagram engineer Peter Cottle gave a short presentation on “Threads in the Fediverse” at FediForum, a virtual event for decentralized social media enthusiasts. In the demo, Cottle explains how Threads users will be able to opt-in to fediverse sharing and offered some insight into how Meta is thinking about its role in the fediverse.

In a short video demo, first spotted by The Verge, Cottle shows off a new account setting called “fediverse sharing.” As the name suggests, the menu will enable users to make their posts viewable from Mastodon and other platforms that use ActivityPub. Notably, it appears to also come with lengthy disclaimers explaining exactly what that will mean for their content.

“I think it's actually kind of tricky for Threads because we have like 130 million people using it monthly, but a lot of people haven't heard of the fediverse,” Cottle said. “But we want to give them the ability to enter that kind of experience. So we have to both explain the fediverse and explain all the disclaimers and then make sure they feel good about the outcome.”

Visually, the fediverse will be represented on Threads by an icon that looks a bit like a planet (the symbol has previously been spotted in code in the app). Cottle explained that users who have enabled fediverse sharing will have the symbol viewable on their profiles and that they’ll see an indication in the app’s composer if a post will be visible in the fediverse. Cottle also confirmed that only public-facing accounts will have the ability to share to the fediverse. He also noted that users will have a 5-minute window before posts go live in order to make any changes or edits as Threads can’t guarantee a deleted Threads post is also deleted from the fediverse.

The demo comes as Meta has started to add a few more accounts to its fediverse sharing experiment. Right now, Mastodon users can follow Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and a handful of other Threads users, but the company hasn’t provided an update on when the functionality will be more widely available. Cottle’s demo also didn’t delve into how sharing from Mastoodn and other ActivityPub-enabled services intoThreads might work. (Right now, if a Mastodon user replies to a Threads post, the reply is only visible on Mastodon, not on Threads.)

But Cottle’s demo is another sign that Meta is taking the growing momentum for decentralized social media seriously. “I know there's a ton of skepticism about threads entering the fediverse, it's completely understandable,” Cottle said. “But I do want to make a plea that I think everyone on the team has really good intentions. We really want to be a really good member of the community and give people the ability to experience what the fediverse is and the power of a protocol.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-previews-fediverse-sharing-for-threads-001632698.html?src=rss

Meta previews ‘fediverse sharing’ for Threads

Posted on by

Meta is continuing its slow march toward compatibility with the fediverse. The company has been experimenting with making posts from a handful of accounts available on Mastodon since the end of last year. Now, it’s offered a brief preview of how the integration works and what it might look like once more people have the ability to share from Threads directly to the fediverse.

Instagram engineer Peter Cottle gave a short presentation on “Threads in the Fediverse” at FediForum, a virtual event for decentralized social media enthusiasts. In the demo, Cottle explains how Threads users will be able to opt-in to fediverse sharing and offered some insight into how Meta is thinking about its role in the fediverse.

In a short video demo, first spotted by The Verge, Cottle shows off a new account setting called “fediverse sharing.” As the name suggests, the menu will enable users to make their posts viewable from Mastodon and other platforms that use ActivityPub. Notably, it appears to also come with lengthy disclaimers explaining exactly what that will mean for their content.

“I think it's actually kind of tricky for Threads because we have like 130 million people using it monthly, but a lot of people haven't heard of the fediverse,” Cottle said. “But we want to give them the ability to enter that kind of experience. So we have to both explain the fediverse and explain all the disclaimers and then make sure they feel good about the outcome.”

Visually, the fediverse will be represented on Threads by an icon that looks a bit like a planet (the symbol has previously been spotted in code in the app). Cottle explained that users who have enabled fediverse sharing will have the symbol viewable on their profiles and that they’ll see an indication in the app’s composer if a post will be visible in the fediverse. Cottle also confirmed that only public-facing accounts will have the ability to share to the fediverse. He also noted that users will have a 5-minute window before posts go live in order to make any changes or edits as Threads can’t guarantee a deleted Threads post is also deleted from the fediverse.

The demo comes as Meta has started to add a few more accounts to its fediverse sharing experiment. Right now, Mastodon users can follow Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and a handful of other Threads users, but the company hasn’t provided an update on when the functionality will be more widely available. Cottle’s demo also didn’t delve into how sharing from Mastoodn and other ActivityPub-enabled services intoThreads might work. (Right now, if a Mastodon user replies to a Threads post, the reply is only visible on Mastodon, not on Threads.)

But Cottle’s demo is another sign that Meta is taking the growing momentum for decentralized social media seriously. “I know there's a ton of skepticism about threads entering the fediverse, it's completely understandable,” Cottle said. “But I do want to make a plea that I think everyone on the team has really good intentions. We really want to be a really good member of the community and give people the ability to experience what the fediverse is and the power of a protocol.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-previews-fediverse-sharing-for-threads-001632698.html?src=rss