Welcome to the October 30, 2023, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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AI Muddies Israel-Hamas War in Unexpected Way
The New York Times
Tiffany Hsu; Stuart A. Thompson
October 28, 2023
Disinformation researchers have found the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to spread falsehoods in the Israel-Hamas war is sowing doubt about the veracity of online content. The researchers discovered people on social media platforms and forums accusing political figures, media outlets, and others of attempts to influence public opinion through deepfakes, even when the content is authentic. Experts say bad actors are exploiting AI's availability to facilitate the so-called liar's dividend by convincing people genuine content is fake. Deepfake detection services like U.S.-based AI or Not also have been used to label content as fake, and synthetic media specialist Henry Ajder said such tools "provide a false solution to a much more complex and difficult-to-solve problem."
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Apple Safari Browser Still Vulnerable to Spectre Attacks
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany)
Julia Weiler
October 26, 2023
Researchers from Germany's Ruhr University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Michigan found that Apple's Mac and iOS systems remain vulnerable to an attack like 2018's Spectre, which shed light on a hardware vulnerability that lets attackers exploit sensitive data. The researchers demonstrated the vulnerability could be leveraged to access passwords, emails, and location data through Apple's Safari browser. In the new "iLeakage" attack, users are directed to a website controlled by the attacker, which allows the attacker to open the user's email app and read the contents of their inbox, or open other websites and automatically use the login data stored in the LastPass password manager if auto-fill is enabled. The vulnerability allows attackers to extract sensitive memory data from processes discarded by the central processing unit.
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2023 ACM SIGPLAN SLE Most Influential Paper Award for Tijs van der Storm, Others
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (Netherlands)
October 26, 2023
Tijs van der Storm at the Netherlands' Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and more than 20 colleagues received the Most Influential Paper Award at the 2023 ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Software Language Engineering (SLE) for their 2013 article on language workbenches. Domain Specific Language (DSL) programmers use language workbenches for efficient and less-error-prone DSL construction by specifying software solutions that highlight what is required rather than directing computers on how to achieve outcomes. Language workbenches automate many facets of language development, leaving programmers more time for language design. Van der Storm and his team analyzed state-of-the-art industry and academic language workbenches at the time, while a follow-up study compiled a list of future challenges to evaluate features between workbenches.
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Shape-Shifting Fiber Produces Morphing Fabrics
MIT News
Adam Zewe
October 26, 2023
The FibeRobo programmable fiber developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northeastern University researchers can change shape in response to temperature changes. The researchers used liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) resin, which causes the fiber to contract when heated; removing heat restores the fiber’s original molecular alignment, and shape. The fibers can be combined with conductive thread, which acts as a heating element when electric current runs through it, giving users digital control over a textile’s form. The MIT researchers used FibeRobo to demonstrate several applications, including an adaptive sports bra that tightens when the user begins exercising, and a compression jacket for a dog that would actuate and “hug” the dog based on a Bluetooth signal from the owner's smartphone.
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Chatbots Might Disrupt Math, Computer Science Classes. Some Teachers See Upsides
Associated Press
Claire Bryan
October 24, 2023
Some educators see chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT as potentially benefiting math and computer science education amid record low math scores and consideration of different instructional approaches. The University of Washington (UW)'s Min Sun feels pupils should use chatbots as personal tutors, asking them to explain operations they have trouble comprehending. Sun also said teachers can have ChatGPT recommend different levels of math problems for students with different familiarity with the concept. Artificial intelligence (AI) also can reduce novice programmers' educational load by showing them sample code. The UW's Magdalena Balazinska said, "With the support of AI, human software engineers get to focus on the most interesting part of computer science: answering big software design questions."
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Research Reveals Alarming Privacy, Security Threats in Smart Homes
IMDEA Networks (Spain)
October 26, 2023
A team led by researchers at Northeastern University and Spain's IMDEA Networks uncovered security and privacy issues within Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes. Northeastern's David Choffnes said these appliances can "allow nearly any company to learn what devices are in your home, to know when you are home, and learn where your home is." The researchers investigated local network interactions between 93 IoT devices and mobile applications, highlighting the unintentional disclosure of personally identifiable information by devices within local networks using standard protocols like Universal Plug and Play or multicast Domain Name System. Vijay Prakash at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering said a smart home can be identified from a media access control address, a universally unique identifier, and a unique device name.
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Error 404, No More
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Caitlin Dawson
October 25, 2023
A multi-institutional research team developed the Finding Aliases for Broken Links Efficiently (FABLE) system, a tool for rediscovering webpages whose original links are dead. The University of Southern California's Harsha Madhyastha said a webpage is almost always relocated "programmatically" via software during a website restructuring, "and there is a pattern in how the old URLs are transformed to the new URLs." He added that a large number of broken links is correctable, since the pages at those links exist at new URLs. The researchers sifted through nearly 500,000 pages from Wikipedia, Medium, and StackOverflow to find broken links, then processed 20,000 such links on FABLE. They discovered about a quarter of the links had new URLs, and roughly 90% linked to the correct page.
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Underwater Robot Helps Scientists Clarify Antarctic Ice Melting
Interesting Engineering
Amal Jos Chacko
October 27, 2023
A Cornell University-led team of scientists in the U.S. and New Zealand used the Icefin underwater robot to explore Antarctic ice crevasses to better understand their role in rising global sea levels. The remotely operated robot charted the first three-dimensional model of ocean conditions in the grounding zone by navigating a crevasse in the base of the Ross Ice Shelf, measuring water temperature, pressure, and salinity. Icefin exposed a jet diverting water laterally through the crevasse, as well as rising and sinking currents and ice formations shaped by changing flows and temperatures. These findings could potentially enhance models for forecasting ice shelf melting and freezing rates at grounding zones.
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Blind Use of AI in Healthcare Can Lead to Invisible Discrimination
University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
October 26, 2023
Researchers from Denmark's University of Copenhagen, the Rigshospitalet teaching hospital, and the Technical University of Denmark found hidden biases in an artificial intelligence algorithm intended to calculate the risk of depression. The algorithm predicts the risk of an individual developing depression based on actual depression diagnoses. However, the researchers found that based on the variables used to train the algorithm, such as education, gender, and ethnicity, the algorithm was better able to predict risks among some population segments than others. The researchers calculated a variation of up to 15% between different groups. University of Copenhagen's Melanie Gantz said, "This means that even a region or municipality, which in good faith introduces an algorithm to help allocate treatment options, can distort any such healthcare effort."
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Astronomers Carry Out Largest-Ever Cosmological Computer Simulation
Royal Astronomical Society (U.K.)
Robert Massey
October 23, 2023
An international team of astronomers mapped the evolution of dark matter, ordinary matter, and neutrinos in what is thought to be the largest-ever cosmological computer model. The FLAMINGO simulations calculate the development of all universal elements, with virtual galaxies and galactic clusters forming in accordance with physics. These models theoretically may be able to reconcile tensions between measurements obtained by analyzing the cosmic microwave background and observations of the bending of light by galactic gravitational forces by informing researchers about possible biases in the data. Initial results demonstrate that neutrinos and ordinary matter play critical roles in predictive accuracy, but do not address these tensions.
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Device Promotes Efficient, Real-Time, Secure Wireless Access
Qualcomm Institute
Xochitl Rojas-Rocha
October 26, 2023
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego's Qualcomm Institute (QI) created a novel device called Crescendo to screen out interference from other radio signals in order to enhance wireless network access. QI's Dinesh Bharadia said, "Through meticulous analysis of spectrum usage, we can identify underutilized segments and hidden opportunities which, when leveraged, would lead to a cost-effective connectivity solution for users around the globe." Crescendo's adaptive software can sweep for traffic across a range of frequencies within an agency-controlled wideband spectrum, adjusting to and filtering out interference by dynamically tuning the signals it receives. Crescendo also provides a secure connection that enables real-time cyberattack detection through high signal fidelity.
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Airbus Helicopters Single-Joystick System Simplifies Copter Controls
New Atlas
David Szondy
October 25, 2023
Airbus Helicopters' FlightLab flying laboratory has successfully tested a single-joystick fly-by-wire computer-assisted control system for its CityAirbus NextGen electric vertical takeoff and landing prototype copter. The joystick enables the pilot to manage all the helicopter’s maneuvers and accommodates simpler interfaces that focus on providing the pilot the most critical information. Airbus Helicopters' Tomasz Krysinski said, "The advantage of an electric flight control system is enormous, especially when it comes to reducing pilot workload and ultimately enhancing mission safety. It is also a great example of how our demonstrators are used to mature the techno-bricks necessary to prepare the future of vertical flight."
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