Welcome to the March 11, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• Your Personal Data All Over the Web—Is There a Better Way?
• Tiny Swimming Robot Thinks for Itself
• More States to Fund Digital Maps for First Responders
• Scientists Sign Effort to Prevent AI Bioweapons
• Realistic Digital Marilyn Monroe Makes Debut at Tech Conference
• Hackers Breached Key Microsoft Systems
• D-Wave Says Its Quantum Computers Can Solve Otherwise Impossible Tasks
• Researchers Jailbreak Chatbots with ASCII Art
• Drones Beat First Responders to the Scene
• Europe's Biggest 3D-Printed Building Rises in Just 140 Hours
• Java Developers Wanted
• Compact Chips Advance Precision Timing

Your Personal Data All Over the Web—Is There a Better Way?

ACM A.M. Turing Award laureate Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, says a particular problem with how his invention has evolved is the way personal data is handled. When you log in and store such data on a website, it can only be used within that website. The Solid open source software project aims to change that, giving individuals the ability to choose which organizations can access their data, for what purpose, and for how long. Berners-Lee says that technology would allow personal data storage to be "centered around people, instead of around apps."
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Tiny Swimming Robot Thinks for Itself

Swimming microrobots smaller than grains of sand with enough computing power to perform a simple task on their own were unveiled by a group of electrical engineers led by Marc Miskin at the University of Pennsylvania. The robots incorporate microprocessor chips that are about 100 micrometers wide with 128 bits of programmable memory. The researchers programmed them via a sequence of light flashes to measure the temperature of the surrounding fluid and telegraph the value back, which they successfully accomplished.
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More States to Fund Digital Maps for First Responders

School districts across the country increasingly are hiring companies to generate digital maps of their buildings to improve response times in emergencies. Several states that have implemented or proposed legislation for digital school mapping include standards calling for the maps to be overlaid with aerial imagery and gridded coordinates, as well as site-specific labeling for rooms, doors, hallways, stairwells, and more. The maps can be integrated with wearable panic buttons and other security systems.
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Scientists Sign Effort to Prevent AI Bioweapons

Over 90 biologists and other scientists who specialize in technologies used to design new proteins last week signed an agreement that seeks to ensure their AI-aided research will move forward without exposing the world to serious harm. The biologists, who include Nobel laureate Frances Arnold, also said the benefits of current AI technologies for protein design “far outweigh the potential for harm.” The agreement does not seek to suppress the development or distribution of AI technologies, but to regulate the use of equipment needed to manufacture new genetic material.
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Realistic Digital Marilyn Monroe Makes Debut at Tech Conference

Digital Marilyn, a digital version of Marilyn Monroe created with the help of AI, made its debut Friday at the South by Southwest tech conference. Appearing via computer screen in a black turtleneck sweater, the actress' avatar conversed in her familiar voice. Digital Marilyn was built by Soul Machines, a firm that specializes in creating realistic digital people, in partnership with Authentic Brands Group, whose portfolio of brands include the likeness rights to Monroe and other dead celebrities.
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Hackers Breached Key Microsoft Systems

Microsoft revealed that a breach of its systems by Russian state-backed hackers was more extensive than previously thought when first disclosed in January. Microsoft believes the hackers have used information stolen from Microsoft's corporate email systems to access “some of the company's source code repositories and internal systems,” the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. An accompanying blog post said the hacker group may be using the information it stole “to accumulate a picture of areas to attack and enhance its ability to do so.”
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D-Wave Says Its Quantum Computers Can Solve Otherwise Impossible Tasks

D-Wave is claiming its Advantage quantum computer and prototype Advantage2 achieved "computational supremacy" by calculating transverse field Ising model problems faster than the world's most powerful classical computer. D-Wave researchers contend it would take millions of years for the Frontier supercomputer to solve the same problems. D-Wave’s “quantum annealing” computers differ from quantum computers produced by others, and have been criticized as only being able to solve certain classes of optimization problem.
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Researchers Jailbreak Chatbots with ASCII Art

ArtPrompt, developed by researchers in Washington and Chicago, can bypass large language models' (LLMs) built-in security features. The tool generates ASCII art prompts to get AI chatbots to respond to queries they are supposed to reject, like those referencing hateful, violent, illegal, or harmful content. ArtPrompt replaces the "safety word" (the reason for rejecting the submission) with an ASCII art representation of the word, which does not trigger the ethical or security measures that would prevent a response from the LLM.
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Drones Beat First Responders to the Scene

A drone first responder program launched by the police and fire departments in Fremont, CA, gives dispatchers information gathered from the drone's onboard video camera so the appropriate resources can be deployed, and first responders know what they are dealing with before they arrive. The DJI Matrice 30T drone operates autonomously as it makes its way to the scene, and once on site, a human operator uses an adapted PlayStation 5 controller to manually operate the drone.
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Europe's Biggest 3D-Printed Building Rises in Just 140 Hours

The 6,600-square-foot Wave House in Heidelberg, Germany, is the largest 3D-printed building in Europe. The datacenter was built by Peri 3D Construction using a COBOD BOD2 printer, which extrudes layers of a recyclable cement-like mixture. Named for the wave design of its walls, the Wave House was erected in about 140 hours, after which the roof, doors, lighting, wiring, and datacenter components were installed. The exterior was painted by a robot.
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Java Developers Wanted

The Java Developer Productivity Report from Perforce Software, based on a survey of hundreds of Java developers, architects, and team leads across 72 countries, revealed that 60% of respondents said their firms would add Java developers this year, and 42% said their firms would boost their Java tools budget. The survey also found that 11% were using Java 21, 24% were using Java 8, and 18% were using Java 11.
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Compact Chips Advance Precision Timing

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed compact chips that can convert light into microwaves, reducing timing jitter to 15 femtoseconds, and allowing for more stable and precise microwave signals. The researchers directed light from a semiconductor laser into a reference cavity, where a frequency comb converted high-frequency light into lower-pitched microwave signals. Said NIST’s Frank Quinlan, “A lot of what this research is about is how we utilize the advantages of optical signals by shrinking the size of components and making everything more accessible.”
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