Welcome to the January 27, 2025 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• Billionaire Building World’s Biggest Datacenter in India
• China to Host Human-Robot Half-Marathon
• Quantum Computing Error Correction with Dual Codes
• 'First AI Software Engineer' Bad at Job
• Taiwan Reports Unprecedented Undersea Cable Damage
• Big Tech Wants to Plug Datacenters into Power Plants
• Canada Invests Over $52 Million in Quantum Research Projects
• Use of Computer Evidence in U.K. Courts to Be Interrogated
• 'The Brutalist' Sparks Controversy After Film's Editor Reveals Use of AI
• Tech Companies Pledge to Do More Against Online Hate Speech in EU
• AI Boom Is Giving Rise to 'GPU-as-a-Service'
• Principles to Reduce NIDS Noise in SOCs

Billionaire Building World’s Biggest Datacenter in India

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group is building what may become the world’s largest datacenter by capacity, in the town of Jamnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The datacenter is expected to have a total capacity of three gigawatts; the largest datacenters today all have less than one gigawatt of capacity and are located in the U.S.
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China to Host Human-Robot Half-Marathon

Dozens of humanoid robots are expected to join a half-marathon to be held in Beijing in April. About 12,000 individuals are expected to take part in the race, running alongside robots from more than 20 companies that look like humans and have a mechanical structure capable of bipedal walking or running. Participating robots will be 0.5-2 meters (1.6-6.5 feet) tall, and their maximum extension distance from the hip joint to the sole of the foot will be at least 0.45 meters (1.5 feet).
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Quantum Computing Error Correction with Dual Codes

A method developed by researchers at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and Germany's RWTH Aachen University allows a quantum computer to switch between two different correction codes to ensure the system performs all computing tasks in an error-free manner. The researchers designed a quantum circuit using a full universal gate set on an ion-trap quantum computer. They added fault-tolerant code-switching between two different codes and prepared 12 distinct logical states that could not be supported by a single correction code.
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'First AI Software Engineer' Bad at Job

Auto-coder “Devin,” billed as "the first AI software engineer" when it was introduced last March by Cognition AI, performed badly on an exam from data scientists affiliated with Answer.AI, completing just three out of 20 tasks successfully. The service uses Slack as its main interface for commands, which are sent to its computing environment, a Docker container that hosts a terminal, browser, code editor, and planner. According to the examiners, Devin had a habit of getting stuck in technical dead-ends or producing overly complex, unusable solutions.
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Taiwan Reports Unprecedented Undersea Cable Damage

The Taiwanese government said its last undersea cable link to the Matsu Islands was fully disconnected early on Jan. 22, just a week after the failure of another cable link. So far this year, four subsea cables have experienced disruptions, compared with three in all of 2024. Taiwan has 14 international underwater submarine cables and 10 domestic ones. Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te has voiced support for the development of communications satellites and other technology to serve as backups.
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Big Tech Wants to Plug Datacenters into Power Plants

Tech giants increasingly are looking to strike deals with power plant owners to plug in directly, avoiding a more arduous process of linking to an electric grid that also serves others. An arrangement between Amazon Web Services and the Susquehanna nuclear plant in eastern Pennsylvania, called a “behind the meter” connection, is the first to come before the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC thus far has rejected the agreement, which could divert enough energy to power more than a half-million homes to the datacenter.
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Canada Invests Over $52 Million in Quantum Research Projects

The Canadian government said more than C$74 million (about $52 million) in funding will be given to 107 quantum science projects in the areas of quantum algorithms and encryption, quantum communications, quantum computing, quantum materials, and quantum sensing. These projects are intended to provide advanced training to more than 500 graduates and postdoctoral fellows across the country; foster domestic partnerships between universities and other organizations; and enable collaborations across the nation's regional quantum research and innovation hubs.
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Use of Computer Evidence in U.K. Courts to Be Interrogated

The U.K. Ministry of Justice is seeking feedback on the presumption that, absent evidence to the contrary, computers work correctly and that any software-generated evidence is accurate. The call for evidence was prompted by the Post Office Horizon scandal, in which flaws in the Post Office's accounting system resulted in the wrongful convictions of hundreds of sub-postmasters.
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'The Brutalist' Sparks Controversy After Film's Editor Reveals Use of AI

A debate has emerged about whether "The Brutalist" should be considered for an Oscar after film editor Dávid Jancsó disclosed that the AI tool Respeecher was used to enhance the accents of lead actors Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones when speaking Hungarian. Noting that "it's an extremely unique language," Jancsó said they "wanted to perfect it so that not even locals will spot any difference." AI also was used to produce architectural drawings and finished buildings shown in the film.
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Tech Companies Pledge to Do More Against Online Hate Speech in EU

The European Commission said on Jan. 20 that the voluntary code of conduct targeting online hate speech has garnered support from Facebook, X, YouTube, Dailymotion, Instagram, Jeuxvideo.com, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Snapchat, Rakuten Viber, TikTok, and Twitch. Under the revised code, which will be integrated into the Digital Services Act, the companies have pledged, among other things, to reduce hate speech on their platforms using automatic detection tools and to offer up data on the role of recommendation systems and the organic and algorithmic reach of illegal content prior to its removal.
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AI Boom Is Giving Rise to 'GPU-as-a-Service'

Kinesis, Hyperbolic, Runpod, and Vast.ai are among the firms offering access to computing power to AI startups via GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS). GPUaaS is more cost-effective for AI startups by eliminating the need to purchase and maintain physical infrastructure and allowing startups to pay for their exact amount of GPU usage. It also is more sustainable because it takes advantage of existing, unused processing units and does not require new servers.
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Principles to Reduce NIDS Noise in SOCs

Researchers at the Netherlands' Eindhoven University of Technology have identified actionable solutions to improve the efficiency of security operations centers (SOCs), with a focus on low-noise detection rules for Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS). Their study looked at 290,000 unique rules and 30 million alerts generated at a commercial SOC over an 11-month period. They will present their work at the ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ASIA CCS ’25) in Hanoi this August.
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