Welcome to the August 2, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• E.U. AI Rules Officially Take Effect
• China Wants to Start National Internet ID System
• Delta CEO Says Outage Cost Airline $500 Million
• Georgia Website That Lets Voters Cancel Registrations Displayed Personal Data
• Google Works to Reduce Non-Consensual Deepfake Porn in Search
• Quantum Computers, Coming to a Datacenter Near You
• DDoS Attack Triggers New Microsoft Global Outage
• Robot Reveals ‘Enigmatic’ Shapes on Bottom of Antarctic Ice
• Meta's AI Safety System Defeated by Space Bar
• 3D Printing Fabricates 3D Chip Circuits
• Apple Vision Pro Controlled by Thoughts via BCI
• Middlemen Game the H-1B Program

E.U. AI Rules Officially Take Effect

The European Union's AI law formally took effect on Thursday, covering any product or service offered in the bloc that uses AI. Restrictions are based on four levels of risk, with the vast majority of systems expected to fall under the low-risk category, such as content recommendation systems or spam filters. The provisions will come into force in stages, and Thursday’s implementation date starts the countdown for when they’ll kick in over the next few years.
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China Wants to Start National Internet ID System

Websites and apps in China verify users with their phone numbers, which are tied to personal ID numbers all adults are assigned. Now, the government wants to assume the job of user verification and give people a single ID to use across the Internet. Critics warn such a move would give the government more power to monitor what people do online.
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Delta CEO Says Outage Cost Airline $500 Million

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian (pictured) said Wednesday the disruptions last month caused by CrowdStrike software cost the airline $500 million, including lost revenue from cancelled flights, refunds, and hotel costs for stranded customers over a period of five days. Bastian said the carrier would pursue damages for the disruptions, adding, “If you’re going to be having access, priority access to the Delta ecosystem in terms of technology, you’ve got to test the stuff," he said.
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Georgia Website That Lets Voters Cancel Registrations Displayed Personal Data

Georgia election officials are urging people to use a state website to cancel voter registrations when someone moves out of state or dies, despite a Monday rollout of the site marred by a glitch that allowed people to access others’ personal data. The issue, which has been fixed, underscored concerns that the site could allow outsiders to unjustifiably cancel voter registrations.
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Google Works to Reduce Non-Consensual Deepfake Porn in Search

Google is changing its search engine to reduce the extent to which sexually explicit fake content ranks high in its search results. When AI-generated content features a real person’s face or body without their permission, that person can request its removal from search results. When Google decides a takedown is warranted, it now will filter all explicit results on similar searches and remove duplicate images, the company said Wednesday.
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Quantum Computers, Coming to a Datacenter Near You

Yuval Boger of quantum hardware manufacturer QuEra Computing says demand is on the rise at datacenters and high-performance computing (HPC) facilities for the integration of quantum processors, which poses several engineering challenges. David Rivas of superconducting quantum computer maker Rigetti noted that quantum computers already are hybrid devices, with the quantum processor connected to a classical control system, and said the control system one day will merge with that of HPC systems.
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DDoS Attack Triggers New Microsoft Global Outage

A global outage of Microsoft services on Tuesday was started by a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, the company said. An error in Microsoft’s DDoS protection measures then amplified the impact of the attack rather than mitigating it, the firm added. The outage lasted for around 10 hours, during which time customers reported issues with a range of Microsoft platforms.
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Robot Reveals ‘Enigmatic’ Shapes on Bottom of Antarctic Ice

An underwater robotic vehicle in the warming seas around Antarctica used sound waves to give scientists a detailed new look at the melting undersides of the continent’s giant ice shelves, revealing "enigmatic" formations. The Ran vehicle was programmed to travel back and forth beneath the Dotson Ice Shelf, collecting data with sound waves. The robot completed 14 missions, of which about half were deemed completely successful.
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Meta's AI Safety System Defeated by Space Bar

Meta last week unveiled Prompt-Guard-86M alongside its Llama 3.1 generative AI model, to detect prompt injection attacks. However, Robust Intelligence researcher Aman Priyanshu found the Prompt-Guard-86M classifier model is itself vulnerable to prompt injection attacks. Priyanshu explained adding spaces between the letters of a given prompt and leaving out punctuation "effectively renders the classifier unable to detect potentially harmful content."
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3D Printing Fabricates 3D Chip Circuits

A research team at the National University of Singapore demonstrated the use of 3D metal printing technology to fabricate a range of compact electronics. The CHARM3D technique uses direct ink writing to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) circuits. The team has used CHARM3D to fabricate a 3D circuit for a wearable battery-free temperature sensor, antennas for wireless vital sign monitoring, and metamaterials for electromagnetic wave manipulation.
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Apple Vision Pro Controlled by Thoughts via BCI

Brain-computer interface (BCI) company Synchron said its brain implant allowed a user to use the Apple Vision Pro headset. Synchron’s test subject was a man with ALS who played Solitaire, watched Apple TV, and sent text messages hands-free. Synchron's BCI has been implanted in at least six U.S. patients. It is inserted through the jugular vein and delivered to blood vessels that rest on the brain's surface, with no surgery required.
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Middlemen Game the H-1B Program

Last year, about 446,000 people sought H-1B visas, which permit U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, despite only about 85,000 visas being available. A Bloomberg News analysis excluding the smallest lottery participants found some companies manipulate the system, resulting in nearly half of the H-1Bs visas in the analysis going to outsourcing or staffing companies. More than 11,600 visas went to multinational outsourcing companies, which can use their vast overseas workforces to flood the lottery with entries, while 22,600 went to IT staffing firms, many of which submitted multiple entries for the same worker.
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