Sci-Tech

What the Arrival of A.I. Phones and Computers Means for Our Data

Published

1 week ago

June 23, 2024

Apple, Microsoft and Google are heralding a new era of what they describe as artificially intelligent smartphones and computers. The devices, they say, will automate tasks like editing photos and wishing a friend a happy birthday.

But to make that work, these companies need something from you: more data.

In this new paradigm, your Windows computer will take a screenshot of everything you do every few seconds. An iPhone will stitch together information across many apps you use. And an Android phone can listen to a call in real time to alert you to a scam.

Is this information you are willing to share?

This change has significant implications for our privacy. To provide the new bespoke services, the companies and their devices need more persistent, intimate access to our data than before. In the past, the way we used apps and pulled up files and photos on phones and computers was relatively siloed. A.I. needs an overview to connect the dots between what we do across apps, websites and communications, security experts say.

“Do I feel safe giving this information to this company?” Cliff Steinhauer, a director at the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a nonprofit focusing on cybersecurity, said about the companies’ A.I. strategies.

All of this is happening because OpenAI’s ChatGPT upended the tech industry nearly two years ago. Apple, Google, Microsoft and others have since overhauled their product strategies, investing billions in new services under the umbrella term of A.I. They are convinced this new type of computing interface — one that is constantly studying what you are doing to offer assistance — will become indispensable.

The biggest potential security risk with this change stems from a subtle shift happening in the way our new devices work, experts say. Because A.I. can automate complex actions — like scrubbing unwanted objects from a photo — it sometimes requires more computational power than our phones can handle. That means more of our personal data may have to leave our phones to be dealt with elsewhere.

The information is being transmitted to the so-called cloud, a network of servers that are processing the requests. Once information reaches the cloud, it could be seen by others, including company employees, bad actors and government agencies. And while some of our data has always been stored in the cloud, our most deeply personal, intimate data that was once for our eyes only — photos, messages and emails — now may be connected and analyzed by a company on its servers.

The tech companies say they have gone to great lengths to secure people’s data.

For now, it’s important to understand what will happen to our information when we use A.I. tools, so I got more information from the companies on their data practices and interviewed security experts. I plan to wait and see whether the technologies work well enough before deciding whether it’s worth it to share my data.

Here’s what to know.

Apple Intelligence

Apple recently announced Apple Intelligence, a suite of A.I. services and its first major entry into the A.I. race.

The new A.I. services will be built into its fastest iPhones, iPads and Macs starting this fall. People will be able to use it to automatically remove unwanted objects from photos, create summaries of web articles and write responses to text messages and emails. Apple is also overhauling its voice assistant, Siri, to make it more conversational and give it access to data across apps.

During Apple’s conference this month when it introduced Apple Intelligence, the company’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, shared how it could work: Mr. Federighi pulled up an email from a colleague asking him to push back a meeting, but he was supposed to see a play that night starring his daughter. His phone then pulled up his calendar, a document containing details about the play and a maps app to predict whether he would be late to the play if he agreed to a meeting at a later time.

Apple said it was striving to process most of the A.I. data directly on its phones and computers, which would prevent others, including Apple, from having access to the information. But for tasks that have to be pushed to servers, Apple said, it has developed safeguards, including scrambling the data through encryption and immediately deleting it.

Apple has also put measures in place so that its employees do not have access to the data, the company said. Apple also said it would allow security researchers to audit its technology to make sure it was living up to its promises.

Apple’s commitment to purging user data from its servers sets it apart from other companies that hold on to data. But Apple has been unclear about which new Siri requests could be sent to the company’s servers, said Matthew Green, a security researcher and an associate professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, who was briefed by Apple on its new technology. Anything that leaves your device is inherently less secure, he said.

Apple said that when Apple Intelligence is released, users would be able to see a report of what requests are leaving the device to be processed in the cloud.

Microsoft’s A.I. laptops

Microsoft is bringing A.I. to the old-fashioned laptop.

Last week, it began rolling out Windows computers called Copilot+ PC, which start at $1,000. The computers contain a new type of chip and other gear that Microsoft says will keep your data private and secure. The PCs can generate images and rewrite documents, among other new A.I.-powered features.

The company also introduced Recall, a new system to help users quickly find documents and files they have worked on, emails they have read or websites they have browsed. Microsoft compares Recall to having a photographic memory built into your PC.

To use it, you can type casual phrases, such as “I’m thinking of a video call I had with Joe recently when he was holding an ‘I Love New York’ coffee mug.” The computer will then retrieve the recording of the video call containing those details.

To accomplish this, Recall takes screenshots every five seconds of what the user is doing on the machine and compiles those images into a searchable database. The snapshots are stored and analyzed directly on the PC, so the data is not reviewed by Microsoft or used to improve its A.I., the company said.

Still, security researchers warned about potential risks, explaining that the data could easily expose everything you’ve ever typed or viewed if it was hacked. In response, Microsoft, which had intended to roll out Recall last week, postponed its release indefinitely.

The PCs come outfitted with Microsoft’s new Windows 11 operating system. It has multiple layers of security, said David Weston, a company executive overseeing security.

Google A.I.

Google last month also announced a suite of A.I. services.

One of its biggest reveals was a new A.I.-powered scam detector for phone calls. The tool listens to phone calls in real time, and if the caller sounds like a potential scammer (for instance, if the caller asks for a banking PIN), the company notifies you. Google said people would have to activate the scam detector, which is completely operated by the phone. That means Google will not listen to the calls.

Google announced another feature, Ask Photos, that does require sending information to the company’s servers. Users can ask questions like “When did my daughter learn to swim?” to surface the first images of their child swimming.

Google said its workers could, in rare cases, review the Ask Photos conversations and photo data to address abuse or harm, and the information might also be used to help improve its photos app. To put it another way, your question and the photo of your child swimming could be used to help other parents find images of their children swimming.

Google said its cloud was locked down with security technologies like encryption and protocols to limit employee access to data.

“Our privacy-protecting approach applies to our A.I. features, no matter if they are powered on-device or in the cloud,” Suzanne Frey, a Google executive overseeing trust and privacy, said in a statement.

But Mr. Green, the security researcher, said Google’s approach to A.I. privacy felt relatively opaque.

“I don’t like the idea that my very personal photos and very personal searches are going out to a cloud that isn’t under my control,” he said.

Source link

Sci-Tech

8 cool ways to use LiDAR on your iPhone and iPad

Published

1 hour ago

July 2, 2024

Lance Whitney

Use augmented reality on your iPhone or iPad — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

Your iPhone Pro and iPad Pro may have a helpful and powerful feature you might not know about. Built directly into the last few generations of devices, the Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanner emits a laser to measure the distances of surrounding objects. This feature provides a few key benefits.

Also: How to use split-screen on iPad (and why you should)

First, LiDAR helps the camera take sharper photos, particularly in dark conditions. Second, the scanner taps into AR, or augmented reality, to combine the real and virtual worlds. With AR, your phone or tablet acts as a virtual tape measure, shows you how new furniture would look in your home, scans and recreates 3D models, and immerses you in AR games.

Introduced a few years ago, the LiDAR scanner is available on the Pro and Pro Max models of the iPhone 12, 13, 14, and 15, as well as the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models from 2020 and later. Nestled among the rear cameras, the scanner can detect objects up to five meters, or 16.5 inches.

1. Take a photo in the dark

Snapping a sharp photo with your iPhone can be challenging, especially in low-light situations. Under those conditions, the LiDAR scanner detects the distance of your subject, allowing your camera to power up the autofocus quickly.

Also: How to take better iPhone photos

Apple claims that the LiDAR sensor helps the camera autofocus as much as six times faster, an advantage when you want to take a shot before it’s too late. There’s no need to do anything special. Aim your phone’s camera and the LiDAR automatically kicks in if necessary.

Take a photo in the dark — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

2. Measure distances

You need to measure a physical distance but don’t have a ruler or tape measure. There’s no need to worry when you can use a virtual measure. Included with iOS/iPadOS and downloadable from the App Store, Apple’s free Measure app can determine the distance between any two points, display the dimensions of an object, and tell you if a surface is straight.

Open the Measure app on your device. Then to measure the distance between two points, position your phone so the starting point is at the dot within the circle.

Also: The 4 best iPad models right now

Tap the plus icon, move your phone along the area you want to measure, and then tap the plus icon again. The distance appears on the screen.

Measure a line — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

To measure an object such as a square, you position your phone in the same way. Tap the plus icon and move your phone along the first area to measure it. Then double tap the plus icon. Move your phone to capture the next area and, once again, double-tap the plus icon. Continue this way until you’ve captured the entire object. Double-tap the plus icon at the endpoint, and the distance appears for all four sides.

Measure a square — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

To determine if an area is level, tap the Level icon in the app’s toolbar. Tilt your device horizontally or vertically along a surface until the screen turns to 0 and flashes green to indicate that you’re level.

Check a level area — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

Beyond using Apple’s Measure app, check out other free AR measuring apps from the App Store, including Tape Measure and AR Measure.

3. Try out furniture in your home

Are you looking at a new desk, chair, table, or other piece of furniture and wondering how it would look and fit in your home? Let the IKEA app give you a helping hand.

Start by browsing or searching for a specific piece of furniture or other item, including chairs, beds, desks, sofas, lamps, mirrors, clocks, dressers, or bookcases. When you find an item that interests you, select it and tap the View in room button. Choose an area in your home where you’d like to see the item. You can then move the item around the room by dragging and dropping it. When it’s in the right spot, tap the shutter button to snap a picture.

Try out furniture in your home — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

A few other apps that let you virtually position and view furniture in your home are Wayfair, Housecraft, and Bob’s Discount Furniture.

4. Scan a room

Maybe you’re redecorating an entire room and want to measure it to help with your home improvement efforts. One app up to the task is Canvas: LiDAR 3D Measurements.

After signing up for a free account, start a new home project, give it a name, and then kick off your scan. Move your phone to capture every nook and cranny of the room you want to measure. When done scanning, tap the checkmark, and you can view the scanned area and save or share the scan itself.

Scan a room — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

5. Try on glasses

Need a new pair of prescription glasses or sunglasses but want to check out some options before you head to the store? The Warby Parker app will let you try on virtual glasses to see how they look. Browse the different glasses on display in the app. Spot a pair you like and swipe down from the top of the screen for the Virtual Try-On feature. The glasses automatically appear on your face, where you can check your appearance.

6. Hear your environment described

Designed for people who are blind or sight-impaired, Microsoft’s Seeing AI acts as a talking camera able to analyze and describe nearby people and objects.

Also: The best iPhone models you can buy right now (including the iPhone 15)

After launching the app, tap one of the icons at the bottom for the item you want to be described, choosing from short text, a document, a product, a person, currency, or a scene. Tap the shutter button and the app shows text and provides a spoken description of the item.

Hear your environment described — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

7. Scan a 3D model

If you want to capture a 3D image of an object in the real world, Scaniverse – 3D Scanner is an effective tool. Fire up the app, tap the shutter button, and then select the size of the object you want to scan — small, medium, or large. Move your phone around the object to capture as much of it as possible. Tap the shutter button when you’re finished. Ten choose how you want to process the scan. You can view the scan of the object by moving it around the screen and then edit and share the scan.

Other 3D AR scanner apps worth trying include 3D Scanner App, Polycam – LiDAR & 3D Scanner, and ARama!

8. Play a game

Finally, many AR games are available for the iPhone and iPad. Here are just a few you may want to check out.

Also: Meet Apple’s Vision Pro: Price, features, hands-on insights, and everything you need to know

Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs offers a twist on Angry Birds-style gameplay by letting you overlay a virtual island of piggies in the real world and aim your slingshot to take down their buildings.

Play Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

ARia’s Legacy – AR Escape Room offers a variation of the usual escape room scenario by overlaying a virtual room in a real room. You must discover and use the right virtual objects to solve the underlying mystery.

Play ARia's Legacy - AR Escape Room — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

Who doesn’t like to watch robots duking it out? With AR Robot, virtual robots fight to the death in your home.

Choose the room, pick your mechanical champion, and let the match begin. Strive toward victory by building and customizing your bot and tapping into the right abilities in the heat of the battle.

Play AR Robot — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

In Defend It! AR, you shoot a horde of robots before they take over your living room. But the AR element here is that the robots burst through your wall as you struggle to get them before they steal your magic crystal of power.

Play Defend It! AR — Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET

Source link

Sci-Tech

My Doctor Misdiagnosed My Diabetes — and I’m Not Alone. What You Need to Know

Published

10 hours ago

July 1, 2024

Justin Eastzer

For the longest time, type 1 diabetes was known as a childhood disease. Even until recently, it was still called “juvenile diabetes.” I’m here to tell you that just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you’ve escaped the wrath of this illness.

Voices

Meet industry creators, contributors and emerging thought leaders that have paired with CNET’s award-winning editorial team to provide you with unique content from different perspectives.

I know this because it happened to me. At the age of 30, I was misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes for over six months. It wasn’t until I started sharing my diagnosis on TikTok that I discovered the truth and that this could happen to someone my age.

Roughly 60% of diagnoses today occur in adults who are 20 years of age or older. This form of type 1 diabetes is called Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults. On top of that, 90% of those diagnosed with type 1 have no family history.

Rates for people living with diabetes are expected to more than double to 1.3 billion by 2050. This will impact both people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Spreading awareness about symptoms and early screening for type 1 diabetes will help people get the correct diagnosis and treatment they need sooner.

lancet-type-2-diabetes-projection-2050 — Research published in The Lancet projects a steady increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in coming years.

The Lancet

There is a lack of awareness about diabetes, even within the medical community. Because of this, many people go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes for months or even years. Here’s what you need to know.

The difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas no longer produces insulin, the hormone that regulates blood glucose, because the immune system attacks itself. Meanwhile, type 2 diabetes occurs due to insulin resistance, often due to lifestyle factors, and tends to be hereditary. As many as 11% of patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes might actually have LADA. There are a couple things we can all do to prevent others from going undiagnosed and feeling ill for as long as I did.

The first is to know the signs of type 1 diabetes. The tell-tale symptoms are excessive thirst and urination, extreme feeling of fatigue, blurred vision and weight loss. When I was diagnosed, I was experiencing all of these symptoms and had lost over 20 pounds. After months of misdiagnosis, I saw an endocrinologist who ordered blood tests, and within weeks, I had the correct type 1 diagnosis.

Had my glucose levels gone unchecked for longer, I could have gone into diabetic ketoacidosis or DKA, which can be deadly. Up to 30% of those diagnosed in the US are discovered at this stage.

Another way we can prevent loss of life or sickness is with early screening for indicators of type 1 diabetes. Two blood tests are used to aid in diagnosis: A c-peptide test, which measures how much insulin a person is making themselves, and an islet autoantibody test, which screens for markers of the autoimmune process associated with type 1 diabetes. With these results, people can prepare and seek out treatment to offset the disease and/or treat it.

New legislation could help

Recent legislation aims to bring early screening for type 1 diabetes to the forefront of preventative care.

Last month, a bipartisan bill called the Strengthening Collective Resources for Encouraging Education Needed for Type 1 Diabetes Act was introduced in the House of Representatives. The bill directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct a national campaign to increase awareness and knowledge of type 1 detection, screening and management, and will allocate $5 million to the CDC to carry it out.

On my end, I will continue to share my story through articles like this one, videos on social media and interviews on my podcast, Diabetech. My hope is that no one will experience the long stretch of illness I experienced before getting the correct diagnosis and treatment needed.

Diabetes is a complex and complicated disease to manage. Devices like insulin pumps, smart insulin pens and continuous glucose monitors make living with the disease easier to manage, but they come with a steep learning curve.

I’m fortunate to be able to interview experts in the field on my podcast who help me and my audience stay informed on the latest tools and technology. I encourage anyone living with this disease to connect with me on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok to feel less alone and more in charge of your personal health.

Source link

Sci-Tech

Midjourney is creating Donald Trump pictures when asked for images of ‘the president of the United States’

Published

11 hours ago

July 1, 2024

Pranav Dixit

Midjourney, a popular AI-powered image generator, is creating images of Donald Trump and Joe Biden despite saying that it would block users from doing so ahead of the upcoming US presidential election.

When Engadget prompted the service to create an image of “the president of the United States,” Midjourney generated four images in various styles of former president Donald Trump.

Midjourney created an image of Trump despite saying it wouldn't. — Midjourney

When asked to create an image of “the next president of the United States,” the tool generated four images of Trump as well.

Midjourney generated Donald Trump images despite saying it wouldn't. — Midjourney

When Engadget prompted Midjourney to create an image of “the current president of the United States,” the service generated three images of Trump and one image of former president Barack Obama.

Midjourney also created an image of former President Obama — Midjourney

The only time Midjourney refused to create an image of Trump or Biden was when it was asked to do so explicitly. “The Midjourney community voted to prevent using ‘Donald Trump’ and ‘Joe Biden’ during election season,” the service said in that instance. Other users on X were able to get Midjourney to generate Trump’s images too.

The tests show that Midjourney’s guardrails to prevent users from generating images of Trump and Biden ahead of the upcoming US presidential election aren’t enough — in fact, it’s really easy for people to get around them. Other chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Meta AI did not create images of Trump or Biden despite multiple prompts.

Midjourney did not respond to a request for comment from Engadget.

Midjourney was one the first AI-powered image generators to explicitly ban users from generating images of Trump and Biden. “I know it’s fun to make Trump pictures — I make Trump pictures,” the company’s CEO, David Holz, told users in a chat session on Discord, earlier this year. “However, probably better to just not — better to pull out a little bit during this election. We’ll see.” A month later, Holz reportedly told users that it was time to “put some foots down on election-related stuff for a bit” and admitted that “this moderation stuff is kind of hard.” The company’s existing content rules prohibit the creation of “misleading public figures” and “events portrayals” with the “potential to mislead.”

Last year, Midjourney was used to create a fake image of Pope Benedict wearing a puffy white Balenciaga jacket that went viral. It was also used to create fake images of Trump being arrested ahead of his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court last year for his involvement in a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Shortly afterwards, the company halted free trials of the service and, instead, required people to pay at least $10 a month to use it.

Last month, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a non-profit organization that aims to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech online, found that Midjourney’s guardrails against generating misleading images of popular politicians including Trump and Biden failed 40% of its tests. The CCDH was able to use Midjourney to create an image of president Biden being arrested and Trump appearing next to a body double. The CCDH was also able to bypass Midjourney’s guardrails by using descriptions of each candidate’s physical appearance rather than their names to generate misleading images.

“Midjourney is far too easy to manipulate in practice – in some cases it’s completely evaded just by adding punctuation to slip through the net,” wrote CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed in a statement at the time. “Bad actors who want to subvert elections and sow division, confusion and chaos will have a field day, to the detriment of everyone who relies on healthy, functioning democracies.

Earlier this year, a coalition of 20 tech companies including OpenAI, Google, Meta, Amazon, Adobe and X signed an agreement to help prevent deepfakes in elections taking place in 2024 around the world by preventing their services from generating images and other media that would influence voters. Midjourney was absent from that list.

Source link