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Late last year, Amazon Luna and Ubisoft deepened their partnership by allowing subscribers to stream the developer’s games that they already own on PC. So it doesn’t really come as a surprise that Amazon has chosen to team up with Ubisoft to debut a new feature on its cloud gaming service: The capability to buy games from the platform and not just stream them. Subscribers can now purchase select Ubisoft games from the developer’s portal on Luna, and the selection includes several Assassin’s Creed titles, the Far Cry games, Child of Light and Watch Dogs. 

Customers will be able to purchase any game they want from within Luna, using their Amazon account and as long as their Ubisoft account is linked. The e-commerce giant says subscribers will own the license for any game they buy, and they’ll be able to play either on Luna-enabled devices or on a computer if they download the title for offline play via the Ubisoft Connect PC launcher. The list of Luna-enabled devices include Fire TV devices, Chromebooks and phones.

All the titles a customer buys will show up in their Luna library, and all their in-game purchases will sync to their Ubisoft account regardless of where they pay for them. Of course, they’ll only be able to stream the games on Luna as long as they’re a subscriber or a Prime member, but they’re not going to lose access to those titles completely if they stop paying for the service. 

As 9to5Google notes, this move gives Luna shades of Google Stadia, which was the only cloud gaming platform that allowed users to purchase games when it was still around. Unfortunately, Amazon didn’t say whether it has plans to expand game purchases and to sell titles from other developers. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-luna-subscribers-can-now-buy-individual-ubisoft-games-130047808.html?src=rss 

ChatGPT might be powered by homegrown chips in the future, if OpenAI does indeed decide to make its own. According to Reuters, the company is currently exploring the possibility of making its own artificial intelligence chips and has even evaluated a potential acquisition. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously blamed GPU shortages for users’ concerns regarding the company API’s speed and reliability, so he reportedly made acquiring more AI chips a priority. 

In addition to being able to address GPU shortages, OpenAI using its own chips could make costs associated with running its products more manageable. Based on an analysis by Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research, each ChatGPT query costs the company around 4 cents. The service reached 100 million monthly users in its first two months, which translates to millions of queries a day, though it did lose users for the first time in July. Rasgon said that if ChatGPT queries reach a tenth of what Google gets, then it would initially need $48.1 billion worth of GPUs and would spend $16 billion a year on chips going forward. 

At the moment, NVIDIA controls the market for chips meant for AI applications — the Microsoft supercomputer OpenAI used to develop its technology, for instance, uses 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs. That’s why other companies — bigger players in the tech industry — have chosen to start developing their own. Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest backer, has been working on an AI chip of its own since 2019, according to The Information. The product is codenamed Athena, and OpenAI has reportedly been testing the technology. 

OpenAI has yet to decide whether to push through with its plans, Reuters says. And even if it does choose to move forward, it could take years before it can start using it own chips to power its products. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-is-reportedly-considering-making-its-own-chips-113010353.html?src=rss 

Biotech company 23andMe, known for its DNA testing kits, confirmed to BleepingComputer that its user data is circulating on hacker forums. The company said the leak occurred through a credential-stuffing attack.

A credential-stuffing attack involves user information that has already been compromised (usernames and passwords, for example) from one organization, which a hacker obtains and attempts to reuse with a second organization — in this case, 23andMe. Because of the nature of credential-stuffing, it does not appear this was a breach of the company’s internal systems. Rather, accounts were broken into piecemeal. The perpetrators of this attack appear to have obtained quite sensitive information from the compromised accounts (genetic testing results, photos, full names and geographical location, among other things).

The initial leak comprised “1 million lines of data for Ashkenazi people,” according to BleepingComputer. By October 4, data was being offered for sale in bulk, in increments of 100, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 profiles. The scale of the attack is as yet unknown, but the scope of its impact has likely been exacerbated by 23andMe’s ‘DNA Relatives’ feature. “Relatives are identified by comparing your DNA with the DNA of other 23andMe members who are participating in the DNA Relatives feature,” the company states. After accessing an unknown number of profiles via credential-stuffing, the threat actor behind this breach apparently scraped the ‘DNA Relatives’ results for those profiles, netting much more sensitive data. According to the same FAQ page, “The number of relatives listed [..] grows over time as more people join 23andMe.” For the fiscal year 2023, the company reported it “genotyped” around 14 million customers.

Ever since 23andMe went public in 2021, the company has faced extra scrutiny for its data protection practices — rightly so, since it deals with sensitive medical data derived from saliva sampling, including predispositions for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes and even cancer. On its website the company claims it “exceeds” data protection standards for its industry.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/23andme-user-data-breached-in-credential-stuffing-attack-231757254.html?src=rss 

NASA will give the public a look at the asteroid sample brought back to Earth by its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft next week. A livestream of the reveal is set for 11 AM ET on Wednesday, October 11. The capsule containing rocks and dust taken from the surface of the near-Earth asteroid “Bennu” touched down at a Department of Defense training site in the Utah desert on September 24, and scientists have since been at work making their initial analyses.

OSIRIS-REx grabbed its sample from Bennu back in 2020 and spent the subsequent year-and-a-half observing the asteroid from above, before starting to make its way back toward Earth in May 2021. After its dropoff last month, the canister was brought to Houston, Texas to be opened at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. OSIRIS-REx, on the other hand, is still in space, now heading to an asteroid called Apophis under a new mission name, OSIRIS-APEX.

Asteroid Bennu is estimated to be over 4.5 billion years old, meaning its materials could hold clues into the formation of the solar system and how the building blocks of life made it to Earth. And, to scientists’ delight, the mission managed to capture more material than anyone expected. “The very best ‘problem’ to have is that there is so much material, it’s taking longer than we expected to collect it,” said Christopher Sneadr, NASA’s deputy OSIRIS-REx curation lead. With the livestream coming up, we’ll soon know more about what they’ve found in that material so far.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-will-reveal-what-osiris-rex-brought-back-from-asteroid-bennu-on-wednesday-213651949.html?src=rss 

Car dealers can give buyers an instant rebate for purchasing certain electric vehicles starting in January of 2024, according to new guidance released by the IRS. The memo says eligible vehicles may qualify for a tax credit of up to $7,500. However, the credit amount will depend on whether an EV and its buyer meet certain requirements, and when a car is actually purchased. 

For an electric car to qualify, it needs to have a minimum battery capacity of seven kilowatt hours. Buyers can’t claim the credit if their adjusted gross income exceeds certain thresholds – $300,000 if married and filing jointly, and $150,000 for the majority of single taxpayers. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the EV also can not exceed specific price points. For sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, the cap is $80,000, for example. But for average electric vehicles to qualify, they can’t be more than $55,000, which really narrows the benefit for cheaper car makers. While it’s a bummer that you can’t get the rebate for an $81,000 Porche Taycan, you can probably get the benefit for something like the Nissan Leaf S that goes for $27,400.

Some EVs bought before 2024 might qualify for the rebate too, if they were bought and weren’t intended for resale. For vehicles placed in service on or after April 18, 2023, the IRS says the potential rebate will depend on a variety of factors including the vehicle’s make and battery capacity. There are also requirements in place for length of ownership to prevent unscrupulous buyers from snapping up an EV, reselling it and pocketing the rebate.

The IRS lists eligible vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles on FuelEconomy.gov. It says the list will be updated as more vehicle eligibility requirements take effect.

All in all, the proposed guidance by the IRS is in line with the Biden administration’s goal of having 50 percent of new car sales be driven by EVs before 2030. The hope is an instant rebate will incentivize more buyers to purchase an electric car rather than having to wait to see any tangible reward for their purchase when they file their taxes. Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emissions Transportation Association, commends the IRS’ memo stating, “This guidance makes it easy for everyone to access the IRA’s new and used electric vehicle tax credits at the point of sale.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ev-buyers-will-get-an-instant-rebate-for-every-car-purchased-starting-in-2024-211224909.html?src=rss