Welcome to the February 16, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

Please note: In observance of the U.S. Presidents' Day holiday, TechNews will not be published on Monday, Feb. 19. Publication will resume Wednesday, Feb. 21.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• Mapping the World’s Corals Reveals More Reefs Than Previously Known
• Sewers Helping to Monitor Disease Outbreaks
• Parents of Gun Violence Victims Use AI to Recreate Voices
• Google to Share Oil and Gas Methane Leaks Spotted from Space
• Open Source Security Chip Released
• Waymo Recalls Software After Two Self-Driving Cars Hit the Same Truck
• VR Headset Could Combat Astronaut Isolation on Mars
• Microsoft, OpenAI Say U.S. Rivals Use AI in Hacking
• Online Images Reinforce Gender Stereotypes More Than Text
• Punjabi University Introduces System to Enhance Typing in Gurmukhi Script
• Your Body Is Your Next Security Key
• Chicago to Stop Using Gunshot Detection Technology
• Robot Darts Around with a Tiny Brain

Mapping the World’s Corals Reveals More Reefs Than Previously Known

Comprehensive high-resolution mapping of the world’s corals has revealed that reefs cover about 348,000 square kilometers (134,000 square miles) of the globe’s surface, compared to previous estimates ranging from roughly 154,000 to 301,000 square kilometers. A study led by researchers at the University of Queensland used over 100 trillion pixels of detailed images from satellites and a CubeSat constellation, together with datasets from hundreds of different sources that were used to train a machine to classify the presence of reefs at different depths globally.
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Sewers Helping to Monitor Disease Outbreaks

Since the Covid-19 breakout, public health authorities around the world have begun to monitor sewage systems in real time to detect the presence of infectious disease pathogens. Traditionally, wastewater surveillance has involved manually collecting samples, but now many processes are automated. In Queensland, Australia, for example, sewers are equipped with autosamplers that gather samples hourly, while in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operate a national wastewater surveillance system using technology provided by Alphabet-owned Verily.
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Parents of Gun Violence Victims Use AI to Recreate Voices

Parents of six victims of gun violence used AI to recreate their children’s voices, as part of a new campaign launched on the sixth anniversary of a shooting in Parkland, FL. The Shotline, created by gun control advocacy groups Change the Ref and March For Our Lives, allows anyone to send the AI-generated voices of the victims to members of U.S. Congress.
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Google to Share Oil and Gas Methane Leaks Spotted from Space

Google and environmental group Environmental Defense Fund are partnering to expose sources of methane emissions from oil and gas operations. Data from a satellite called MethaneSAT, which will launch next month, will be processed with the help of Google Cloud. Google also will create a map of oil and gas infrastructure, using AI to identify its components. Satellite emissions data will be overlayed on the Google map, to assist in understanding which equipment is responsible for most emissions.
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Open Source Security Chip Released

A commercial silicon chip that includes open source, built-in hardware security has been announced by the OpenTitan coalition. Using a processor core based on the open source architecture RISC-V, the Earl Grey chip includes a number of built-in hardware security and cryptography modules, all of which work together in a self-contained microprocessor.
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Waymo Recalls Software After Two Self-Driving Cars Hit the Same Truck

Waymo, the self-driving car division of Alphabet, issued a recall for its software after two of its vehicles hit the same pickup truck minutes apart in Phoenix, where the company operates a driverless ride-hailing service. The pickup was being towed backwards and at an angle rather than being lined up directly behind a tow truck. Both Waymo cars incorrectly interpreted what their cameras were seeing and wrongly predicted how the truck was going to move.
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VR Headset Could Combat Astronaut Isolation on Mars

French startup Coreod Space unveiled its Space Agent Traveler (SAT) VR helmet at CES 2024. Its goal is to use AI to provide psychological aid to future space colonists and users in other extreme situations. Explained Coreod Space’s Élise Jabès, "SAT, our AI-powered psychological assistant, is designed to provide continuous support to astronauts, functioning almost as if it were an additional crew member accompanying them throughout their journey."
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Microsoft, OpenAI Say U.S. Rivals Use AI in Hacking

Russia, China, and other U.S. rivals are using large language models (LLMs) to improve their hacking abilities and find new targets for cyber espionage, according to a new report from Microsoft and OpenAI that, for the first time, specifically associated top-tier government hacking teams with uses of LLM. Microsoft said it had cut off the groups’ access to tools based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It added that it would notify the makers of other tools it saw being used and continue to share which groups were using which techniques.
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Online Images Reinforce Gender Stereotypes More Than Text

Online images "exacerbate gender bias" more than text by significantly under-representing women, according to research led by Douglas Guilbeault of the University of California, Berkeley. The researchers analyzed more than a million images from Google, Wikipedia, and the IMDb film database, as well as billions of words on those platforms. They looked for potential bias in nearly 3,000 social categories, including jobs such as doctor or lawyer, or roles such as neighbor or colleague. Both text and images over-represented men, but the images displayed even more gender bias than the words, the researchers found.
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Punjabi University Introduces System to Enhance Typing in Gurmukhi Script

Researchers at India's Punjabi University created a system to improving typing in Gurmukhi script on the Internet. Called 'PURAN', the system offers sentence suggestions in Gurmukhi as users type online. This innovation seeks to simplify and expedite the process of expressing thoughts in the Gurmukhi script, making the Punjabi language more accessible and contemporary in the digital landscape.
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Your Body Is Your Next Security Key

Biometric scanning and AI advances could replace the need for badges to enter buildings and regular password resets to access websites. Today, some medical offices use palm scanners to check in patients, while a face or fingerprint can unlock a smartphone. Facial recognition, meanwhile, has become more common in airports, stadiums, and concert venues. In the near future, security industry experts say, advances in AI and sensor technology will help organizations use multiple pieces of biometric data at once to enhance security.
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Chicago to Stop Using Gunshot Detection Technology

Chicago plans to stop using the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system later this year, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office announced, following criticism of the technology's inaccuracy, racial bias, and law enforcement misuse. The system, which relies on AI and a network of microphones to identify gunshots, is used in about 150 cities, according to SoundThinking, a public safety technology company that provides the system. Since 2018, the city has spent $49 million on it.
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Robot Darts Around with a Tiny Brain

Researchers at the Netherlands' University of Groningen and Germany's Bielefeld University developed a robot that can move like an insect. They created a model of the neuronal activity of insects, with a focus on having the resulting robot move toward a target area with the least apparent motion. Using the model, the robot will act like an insect and center itself in the middle of a corridor.
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