Welcome to the July 26, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• AI Gives Voice Back to U.S. Rep. Wexton
• AI Supercomputer Stirs Hope, Concern in Memphis
• Google DeepMind Takes Step Closer to Cracking Top-Level Math
• Technology Policy Experts Say It's Time to Rethink Data Privacy Protections
• Paralyzed Tennis Player Carries Olympic Torch Using Robotic Exoskeleton
• 'Digital Twin' Makes Wireless Networks Faster, More Reliable
• Police in Arizona to Use Drones as First Responders
• Test Flight Demonstrates Navigation by Cellphone Signals
• Security Firm Discovers Remote Worker Is North Korean Hacker
• FCC App Tests Accuracy of Broadband Coverage
• EU Cloud Scheme Needs More Privacy Safeguards, French Watchdog Says
• Push to Develop Generative AI, Without All the Lawsuits

AI Gives Voice Back to U.S. Rep. Wexton

U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) regained the voice she lost due to progressive supranuclear palsy with the help of an AI voice-cloning program from ElevenLabs. On Thursday, Wexton delivered the first-ever speech made on the House floor using an AI-cloned voice. The program lets Wexton type her thoughts into an iPad, which speaks the text aloud in her own voice. Wexton said AI voice-cloning technology "is humanizing, and it is empowering."
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AI Supercomputer Stirs Hope, Concern in Memphis

Startup xAI's plan to build the "world's largest supercomputer" at an industrial site in Memphis, TN, has local residents, city council members, and environmental advocates concerned over the project’s potential impact, and frustrated at its rapid progress despite a lack of public input. Announced in early June, construction work has already started and limited operations have begun. As Memphis and other cities vie to be major players in areas like AI, supercomputing, and quantum computing, concerns are mounting about the environmental downsides of hosting such projects.
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Google DeepMind Takes Step Closer to Cracking Top-Level Math

Google DeepMind's AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 systems partnered to tackle questions from the International Mathematical Olympiad, a global math competition for secondary-school students, together earning a silver medal. In each of the questions they successfully answered, the systems scored perfect marks, but for two out of the six questions, they were unable to even begin working towards an answer.
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Technology Policy Experts Say It's Time to Rethink Data Privacy Protections

The latest TechBrief released by ACM's global Technology Policy Council focuses on data privacy protections. “Few people realize that, in just the last decade, new technologies such as generative AI have made old approaches to ensuring data privacy obsolete,” said co-author Micah Altman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We call for a new set of best practices in our field to manage privacy risks. We also emphasize that privacy regulation must keep pace with privacy protection technologies."
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Paralyzed Tennis Player Carries Olympic Torch Using Robotic Exoskeleton

Olympic para-athlete Kevin Piette carried the Olympic Torch through Paris with help from a robotic exoskeleton. Manufactured by Wandercraft, the exoskeleton enabled Piette to walk 11 years after losing the use of his legs in an accident. Wandercraft's self-balancing, battery-operated exoskeletons received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance in 2022 for stroke rehabilitation.
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'Digital Twin' Makes Wireless Networks Faster, More Reliable

North Carolina State University computer science researchers led a team that developed an edge caching optimization method to predict a user's data needs. Dubbed D-REC, the method uses a digital twin of a defined wireless network to simulate the use of real-time data from the network to predict the data users are most likely to request. The network uses the predictions to make edge caching decisions.
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Police in Arizona to Use Drones as First Responders

Police departments across Arizona plan to use aerial drones in their first response to emergency situations. The city of Scottsdale’s police department will be the first in the state to use a special fleet of drones that can be deployed to potential crime scenes and emergencies. The drones will respond in real time to provide first responders a view of emergencies as human first responders make their way to the scene.
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Test Flight Demonstrates Navigation by Cellphone Signals

A new navigation system can track a plane at different altitudes at distances of more than 100 kilometers using cellphone signals. The system, developed by a team led by Ohio State University researchers, achieved precision in the single-digit meters, paving the way for use as a backup for GPS and protection against jamming and spoofing incidents. The researchers created the radio simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system in partnership with the U.S. Air Force.
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Security Firm Discovers Remote Worker Is North Korean Hacker

KnowBe4, a U.S. security training firm, disclosed that it had unknowingly hired a remote software engineer who turned out to be a North Korean hacker. The firm revealed in a blog post that as soon as the employee received a company-issued Mac, it began to load malware. The Mac's onboard security software detected the malware, however, and the company was able to prevent the hacker from using the device to compromise its internal systems.
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FCC App Tests Accuracy of Broadband Coverage

A new app from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lets users assess the accuracy of a provider's mobile coverage range by testing their mobile broadband speed. The repeated test function enables users to perform multiple tests without entering and certifying information each time, facilitating hands-free mobile tests while driving. The app also will provide a map overlay to show the test area, and will permit users to log into the FCC's National Broadband Map to review speed test results.
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EU Cloud Scheme Needs More Privacy Safeguards, French Watchdog Says

French privacy watchdog CNIL said improvements must be made to the data protection safeguards in the proposed EU certification scheme for cloud services (EUCS). The EUCS is intended to protect ICT packages sold in the EU from cyberattacks. However, the CNIL said, "In its current state, the EUCS no longer allows providers to demonstrate that they protect stored data against access by a foreign power."
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Push to Develop Generative AI, Without All the Lawsuits

Getty Images and Shutterstock are among the stock image companies using their own data to develop AI image generators to avoid the lawsuits plaguing Google, OpenAI, and other companies that scraped content from the Web when building their image generators and AI chatbots. Getty has partnered with Picsart on an AI image model and with Nvidia on an image generator and has provided images for an AI model being developed by Israeli startup Bria AI. Shutterstock is working on AI models with Databricks and Nvidia.
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