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Apple has “halted the development” of its own WiFi chip that was meant to replace Broadcom’s in its devices “for a while,” according to Ming-Chi Kuo. The notable analyst explained in a Medium post that he’s basing this report on his latest survey of the semiconductor industry’s foundries, equipment, packaging and testing. If you’ll recall, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the tech giant was working on its own wireless chips meant for devices slated for release in 2025. While Apple has yet to confirm the report, it’s not exactly hard to believe: The tech giant has been taking steps to design and manufacture more in-house components to lessen its reliance on outside companies. 

Kuo said Apple chose to devote most of its resources to developing its next-gen A-series and M-series processors instead. That way, it can ensure that the processors for its iPhones, iPads and MacBooks can enter production over the next couple of years. The analyst also explained that it’s riskier for Apple to use its own WiFi chips at a time when companies are switching their devices over to WiFi 6E. “Broadcom will be the biggest winner” in this situation, he said, since the iPhone 15 is expected to feature the new WiFi standard that allows access to the 6 GHz band.

While it’s unclear if Apple will ever release its own WiFi chip, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the company’s wireless chipset ambition isn’t entirely dead. In Kuo’s Twitter thread about the report, Gurman chimed in and said that the tech giant is still working on a combined WiFi-Bluetooth chip. Gurman previously said that the tech giant is also working on a chip that combines Bluetooth, cellular and WiFi in a single component, but he didn’t say if that one is still under development.

When The Information published a piece last week that said Apple is working on a cheaper mixed-reality headset, one of its sources claimed that the device could use the company’s in-house Bluetooth and WiFi chipset. That would allow Apple to keep costs and the device’s final retail price low, since it wouldn’t have to deal with a third party company’s pricing demands. 

Google is rolling out a feature to Android that will add an extra layer of privacy when you browse websites in Incognito mode. The tech giant has revealed in a blog post (via The Verge) that the ability to lock Chrome Incognito sessions behind biometric authentication on mobile is currently making its way to Android users after debuting on iOS. When this feature is switched on, you will have to verify your identity through face or fingerprint authentication every time you return to an Incognito tab after exiting Chrome or navigating away to another app. 

Locked Incognito sessions first became available on Android in 2022 — over a year after Google started testing it for iPhones and iPads — but as an experimental feature you’d have to activate via a flag. Based on 9to5Google’s experience using it on Android last year, this feature will show you a gray screen with the Incognito logo at the center when you come back to a tab protected by the privacy feature. You’ll then have to tap “Unlock Incognito” to open biometric authentication or choose to verify your identity with your PIN code. 

While the feature isn’t available for us yet, you can check out if you already have access to it by tapping on the three-dot menu at the top right corner of Chrome. Open Settings and then go to Privacy and Security to toggle on “Lock Incognito tabs when you leave Chrome” if you already see it as an option. 

It might not be long before every ridesharing car in New York City is electric. Mayor Eric Adams has outlined an agenda that will require “high-volume for-hire” vehicles at Uber, Lyft and similar companies to be zero-emissions by 2030. There will be “no new costs” for drivers, the administration says. The initiative would build on the city’s plans to electrify its own fleet.

Adams didn’t detail how this transition would take place. The Vergenotes that the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which already regulates NYC ridesharing, would likely be responsible for implementing the EV strategy.

At least some companies are already onboard with the idea. Uber “applaud[s]” Adams’ plan, according to a statement, while Lyft says it’s “excited” to work with the city. It’s not a difficult target for them, however. Uber and Lyft were already planning to go completely electric by 2030. They also have programs in place to encourage EV adoption across the US, such as Uber’s rentals through Hertz as well as Lyft’s incentives. Pressure elsewhere might also leave services with little choice. California will require that most ride-hailing cars are EVs by 2030, for instance.

Drivers may face challenges, however. EVs are currently more expensive than their combustion engine counterparts, and workers may have trouble affording them even if the maintenance costs are ultimately lower. EV prices are declining, but it may be a while yet before they’re truly affordable to a driver base struggling to improve pay.

There’s also the question of infrastructure. A 2022 study led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated that NYC would need over 1,000 150kW fast charging stations to adequately power 20,000 rideshare and taxi cars, even if 15 percent of drivers could top up overnight. The mayor’s proposal would electrify “100,000-plus” rides — the city may need a major investment in charging facilities to make the switch.

There’s plenty of concern that OpenAI’s ChatGPT could help students cheat on tests, but just how well would the chatbot fare if you asked it to write a graduate-level exam? It would pass — if only just. In a newly published study, University of Minnesota law professors had ChatGPT produce answers for graduate exams at four courses in their school. The AI passed all four, but with an average grade of C+. In another recent paper, Wharton School of Business professor Christian Terwiesch found that ChatGPT passed a business management exam with a B to B- grade. You wouldn’t want to use the technology to impress academics, then.

The research teams found the AI to be inconsistent, to put it mildly. The University of Minnesota group noted that ChatGPT was good at addressing “basic legal rules” and summarizing doctrines, but floundered when trying to pinpoint issues relevant to a case. Terwiesch said the generator was “amazing” with simple operations management and process analysis questions, but couldn’t handle advanced process questions. It even made mistakes with 6th grade-level math.

There’s room for improvement. The Minnesota professors said they didn’t adapt text generation prompts to specific courses or questions, and believed students could get better results with customization. At Wharton, Terwiesch said the bot was adept at changing answers in response to human coaching. ChatGPT might not ace an exam or essay by itself, but a cheater could have the system generate rough answers and refine them.

Both camps warned that schools should limit the use of technology to prevent ChatGPT-based cheating. They also recommended altering the questions to either discourage AI use (such as focusing on analysis rather than reciting rules) or increase the challenge for those people leaning on AI. Students still need to learn “fundamental skills” rather than leaning on a bot for help, the University of Minnesota said.

The study groups still believed that ChatGPT could have a place in the classroom. Professors could teach pupils how to rely on AI in the workplace, or even use it to write and grade exams. The tech could ultimately save time that could be spent on the students, Terwiesch explains, such as more student meetings and new course material.

Dutch authorities arrested a hacker for obtaining and trying to sell the personal information of nearly every Austrian citizen in May 2020, according to Reuters. It includes almost nine million data sets, roughly lining up with Austria’s population.

The defendant, arrested in November in an Amsterdam apartment, was reportedly already known to international police. The 25-year-old defendant also offered “similar data sets” from Italy, the Netherlands and Colombia. Dutch police waited until now to announce the arrest to avoid hindering ongoing investigations.

Authorities say the hacker posted the information in an online forum. Police say the trove consists of “registration data,” essential info residents must provide to authorities. That includes their full name, address and date of birth — but not financial info, fortunately. Nevertheless, the police confirmed the material’s authenticity, adding that “since this data was freely available on the Internet, it must absolutely be assumed that these registration data are, in full or in part, irrevocably in the hands of criminals.”

New York City’s first flood-monitoring network is set to expand. Thanks to $7.2 million in funding from the city, the number of flood-prone areas FloodNet monitors with its sensors will increase from 31 to 500 across all five boroughs. The expansion is expected to start next month and take up to five years.

Data from the sensors is fed into a free web dashboard that residents, city agencies, researchers and anyone else can use to stay on top of and react to flood threats. The dashboard receives water-level readings from the sensors in real time. An interactive map shows where, when and how rapidly water is rising, whether that’s due to seawater surges at the coast or stormwater drains not being able to handle floods. The dashboard also includes historical data, which can help people to track the frequency and severity of floods over time.

Researchers from New York University, The City University of New York, Brooklyn College and the Science and Resilience Institute developed FloodNet. They had assistance from the mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, the NYC Office of Technology & Innovation and neighborhood community groups.

FloodNet’s solar-powered sensors are low cost and open-source. They use ultrasound to measure changes in water levels and wirelessly transfer data to a gateway hub, which then sends the information to FloodNet’s servers and the dashboard.

Sea levels in the city have risen by a foot in the last century, according to the New York City Panel on Climate Change. They’re expected to increase by between another eight and 30 inches by around 2050, and between 15 and 75 inches by the end of the century. More detailed flood data can help city planners and others prepare for permanent water level rises, along with weather events like hurricanes that can quickly wreak havoc.

The US Department of Justice has spent months infiltrating and disrupting the Hive ransomware group, the agency announced on Thursday. The DOJ says Hive has targeted over 1,500 victims in more than 80 countries, extorting hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments.

Working with German and Netherlands law enforcement, the FBI seized Hive’s servers and websites, allegedly slowing the group’s ability to attack and extort new victims. It first infiltrated Hive’s network in July 2022, providing over 300 decryption keys to Hive’s current victims and more than 1,000 keys to previous victims — preventing over $130 million in ransom payments. The agency hasn’t announced any arrests. However, it’s still investigating the group, according toNBC News.

Hive used a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, where administrators (essentially the ringleaders) create ransomware strains with easy-to-use interfaces. The administrators then recruit affiliates who use the ransomware software to carry out the theft — and likely much of the risk.

For example, Hive would steal a victim’s data and encrypt their system. The affiliate would then demand a ransom in exchange for the decryption key and a promise not to publish the data. (Of course, it would frequently target the most sensitive data to apply maximum pressure.) If the victims pay, affiliates and administrators would split the ransom 80 / 20. Those unwilling to pay would find their data leaked on the web.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says Hive gained access through single-factor logins via Remote Desktop, VPNs, exploiting FortiToken (software-based access key) vulnerabilities and phishing emails with malicious attachments.

“Last night, the Justice Department dismantled an international ransomware network responsible for extorting and attempting to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland today. “We will continue to work both to prevent these attacks and to provide support to victims who have been targeted. And together with our international partners, we will continue to disrupt the criminal networks that deploy these attacks.” The FBI recommends victims contact their local FBI field office.

CNet’s AI SNFAU turned out to be merely the first pebble kicked down the slippery slope. In a Thursday morning internal memo acquired by the Wall Street Journal, Buzzfeed Chief Executive Jonah Peretti announced plans to embrace AI in both editorial and business operations and utilize text generation systems similar to CNet’s to produce, for example, the memeable quizzes that originally built Buzzfeed’s following. 

Such AI-powered quizzes could provide more personalized answers based on the user’s more specific responses rather than based on a score range or ranked choice system like they are today. Peretti envisions AI not only producing content on its own but drawing inspiration from human writers. We squishy meat sacks would serve as idea sources for AI text generators, or as Peretti described members of his own species, “cultural currency” and “inspired prompts.” He further argues that within the next two decades, AI will “create, personalize, and animate the content itself” rather than simply regurgitate (read: plagiarize) already existing works.

This announcement comes after Buzzfeed laid off 12 percent of its newsroom in December, blaming “challenging macroeconomic conditions.” On Monday, news broke that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been paying Buzzfeed millions to help generate creator content for Facebook and Instagram. 

On one hand, this seems a foolhardy move given the Low Orbit Ion Cannon-level fallout that CNet’s reputation has suffered since news broke that it had employed AI text generation systems to produce nearly 75 financial explainers since late 2022. More than half of those posts had to be updated on account of shoddy math (you’d think a computer would be better at that), plus the whole plagiarism thing. On the other hand, a lot of the flack that CNet took in the early days of the controversy was that it had tried to be cute and sneak in the fact that it was having chatbots write entire feature posts without actually telling anybody. Peretti’s announcement Thursday, at least does that.

Of course, Buzzfeed is far from alone in the burgeoning “pivot to ChatGPT” movement. Microsoft announced this week a multiyear, “multi-billion dollar” investment in OpenAI’s text generation systems — exactly two days before announcing that despite $52.7 billion in Q2 revenue, it would be laying off ten thousand (10,000) people on account of challenging macroeconomic conditions. 

Audi has finally revealed the Activesphere EV concept it promised last summer. The crossover is built to go off-road, complete with a rugged underbody, a liftable suspension and easy ways to carry your sports gear. The rear can transform into a loading area with enough room for your e-bikes, for instance. It nonetheless features a sedan-like profile and the creature comforts of past concepts, including a spacious, bright interior designed for relaxing while the vehicle is in self-driving mode.

The cabin reflects Audi’s confidence in augmented reality. Occupants wear AR glasses that provide vital performance figures (for the driver) as well as infotainment and virtual assistant controls. You won’t find a conventional row of screens or gauges, and the eyewear can even track your health while you ride an e-bike on a trail. When you’re ready to take control, the dash and steering wheel lift into place. Audi clearly expects you to only occasionally take the helm, such as when you’re venturing beyond asphalt.

This is the fourth model in Audi’s “sphere” electric concept line. The company kicked off the initiative with the shapeshifting Skysphere roadster in August 2021, and followed that a month later with the upscale Grandsphere sedan. Last year’s Urbansphere was intended as the SUV for future cities, where your car is as much an office (or a refuge from the outside world) as it is transportation.

As with past experiments, the Activesphere isn’t a preview of a production model. It’s Audi’s vision of motoring in the near future, not to mention a demonstration of technical prowess. It’s just a matter of whether or not the concept influences future cars. Audi has played it relatively safe with its existing EV lineup, which largely revolves around familiar-looking SUVs and the Porsche Taycan’s sibling, the e-tron GT. The brand expects to dramatically expand its electric offerings by 2026, though, so we wouldn’t rule out Activesphere-inspired rides.

You might not want to count on getting a Cybertruck this year despite promises to the contrary. During a conference call discussing Tesla’s latest earnings, company chief Elon Musk said mass production of the electric pickup won’t begin until 2024. He still expects manufacturing to kick off “sometime this summer,” but warned that output would be “very slow” early on. Tesla is still in the midst of installing assembly equipment.

Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, but has delayed its release multiple times. The company also warned that the final specs and pricing will change. The EV was originally supposed to start at $39,900 in its single-motor configuration and climb to nearly $70,000 for the tri-motor version. While the automaker is still taking deposits, it’s no longer promising specific configurations. The pandemic, a rough economy, longstanding supply chain issues and design tweaks are all expected to influence what you can ultimately buy.

This isn’t a new problem for Tesla. Production of the Model 3 started in July 2017, but was very limited until mid-2018 as the company struggled to clear factory bottlenecks. The Cybertruck poses unique challenges, however. Its signature cold-rolled steel body is said to be extra-tough, but also requires manufacturing techniques not normally used for cars. Most production is expected to take place at the Giga Texas factory near Austin, which formally opened last April.

The revised timeline may create problems. The Cybertruck is already entering a fiercer competitive landscape that includes the Ford F-150 Lightning, GMC Hummer EV and Rivian R1T. By the time Tesla’s production is in full swing, it will likely have to take on the Ram 1500 EV and Chevy Silverado EV as well as more affordable versions of existing trucks. An electric pickup is no longer the novelty it was four years ago, and it’s not clear if the finished Cybertruck will offer major advantages over its rivals.