According to the Wall Street Journal, citing preliminary research from LMC Automotive and EV-Volumes.com, there were 7.8 million electric vehicles sold worldwide in 2022, a 68% increase from 2021. "The uptick helped electric vehicles achieve a roughly 10% global market share in the automotive industry for the first time," reports Insider. From the report: While 10% is only a modest share of the total market, the industry is growing faster than some had predicted. In 2021, for instance, the International Energy Agency projected that it would take until 2030 for the EV industry to reach between 7% and 12% of global auto sales. Europe and China have led the way, where electric vehicles already account for 11% and 19% of total car sales respectively, WSJ reported, citing data from LMC Automotive.

CBInsights Auto and Mobility Trends estimated that its global market share could reach 22% by 2030. BloombergNEF projected the industry's market share could reach nearly 40% by the end of the decade. The Biden Administration, which included a $7,500 tax credit for purchasing an electric vehicle in last year's Inflation Reduction Act, is aiming for half of US vehicle sales to be electric by 2030.

Russia's attacks on Ukraine's electrical grid are straining the war-torn country's mobile-telephone network, leading to a global hunt for batteries and other equipment critical for keeping the communications system working. From a report: Ukraine's power outages aren't just putting out the lights. The electricity shortages also affect water supplies, heating systems, manufacturing and the cellular-telephone and internet network, a vital communications link in a nation where fixed-line telephones are uncommon. Consumers can charge their cellphones at cafes or gas stations with generators, but the phones have to communicate with base stations whose antennas and switching equipment need large amounts of power. With rolling blackouts now a regular feature of life in Ukraine, the internet providers are relying on batteries to keep the network going.

The stakes are high, since Ukrainian officials are using positive news of the war, speeches by President Volodymyr Zelensky and videos distributed by cellphone to maintain popular support for fighting Russia. First responders and evacuees rely on the mobile network, and a long-term loss of communications in major cities would compound the existing problems of electrical, heating and water outages, the companies say. Labor shortages have exacerbated the mobile-network issues as many Ukrainians have been displaced by the war or gone to the front to fight. In December, the chief executive of Ukraine's Lifecell mobile operator, Ismet Yazici, went into the field himself to wheel in a generator and restore backup power at a cell tower, according to the company. But the biggest problem is power equipment.

An anonymous reader shares a report: What many of us had expected has finally happened, artist have sued for copyright infringement a couple of AI companies, as well as an art repository site {complaint here (PDF)}. Is this the end of AI tools? I don't think so, I'll try to explain why, this will not be a detailed look at the lawsuit, there will be more time for that, this is my own take on some of the technical issues that I think the complaint gets wrong, so this is not intended as an in-depth look at the law anyway, as I suspect this may not get to a trial, more on that later. I'm also aware that this is at a very early stage, things may change, and most importantly, nobody can be sure of what the result will be, this is my own early speculation on the first filing as it stands, I'll update and write further blog posts as needed.

Three artists are starting a class-action lawsuit against Stability.ai, Midjourney, and DeviantArt alleging direct copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, DMCA violations, publicity rights violation, and unfair competition. DeviantArt appears to be included as punishment for "betrayal of its artist community," so I will mostly ignore their part in this analysis for now. Specifically with regards to the copyright claims, the lawsuit alleges that Stability.ai and Midjourney have scraped the Internet to copy billions of works without permission, including works belonging to the claimants. They allege that these works are then stored by the defendants, and these copies are then used to produce derivative works. This is at the very core of the lawsuit. The complaint is very clear that the resulting images produced by Stable Diffusion and Midjourney are not directly reproducing the works by the claimants, no evidence is presented of even a close reproduction of one of their works.

Bloomberg reports: After five people were killed in a 2020 arson in Colorado, law enforcement officials failed to turn up any leads through their initial investigative techniques. So they served a warrant to Google for anyone who had searched for the address of the fire, according to a court motion.

Google eventually complied with the data request, helping law enforcement find suspects. Three teenagers who had searched the address were charged with murder. But the technique also drew a challenge from defense lawyers, who are calling reverse keyword search warrants "a digital dragnet of immense proportions." It's the first case to challenge the constitutionality of the method, the attorneys say.

Defense lawyers filed a motion Wednesday to challenge the judge's decision to use evidence from the warrant to charge their client, Gavin Seymour. They're asking the Colorado Supreme Court to review the matter, after the judge earlier denied their motion to suppress the evidence. The keyword search warrant "is profoundly different from traditional search warrants seeking data belonging to a suspect," the defense argued in the court filing. "Instead, the process operates in reverse — search everyone first, and identify suspects later."
One defendant's lawyer points out Google must review the activities of billions of innocent searchers to respond to keyword search warrants, arguing this has "tremendous implications...for everyone in the country who uses Google to run searches."

Though the state of Wyoming is home to one of America's largest wind farms, "Wyoming's legislature is considering a resolution that calls for a phaseout of new electric vehicle sales by 2035," reports Engadget: In the proposed resolution, a group of lawmakers led by Senator Jim Anderson says Wyoming's "proud and valued" oil and gas industry has created "countless" jobs and contributed revenue to the state's coffers. They add that a lack of charging infrastructure within Wyoming would make the widespread use of EVs "impracticable" and that the state would need to build "massive amounts of new power generation" to "sustain the misadventure of electric vehicles." SJ4 calls for residents and businesses to limit the sale and purchase of EVs voluntarily, with the goal of phasing them out entirely by 2035.

If passed, the resolution would be entirely symbolic. In fact, it's more about sending a message to EV advocates than banning the vehicles altogether. To that point, the final section of SJ4 calls for Wyoming's Secretary of State to send President Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom copies of the resolution. "One might even say tongue-in-cheek, but obviously it's a very serious issue that deserves some public discussion," Senator Boner, one of the bill's co-sponsors, told the Cowboy State Daily. "I'm interested in making sure that the solutions that some folks want to the so-called climate crisis are actually practical in real life. I just don't appreciate when other states try to force technology that isn't ready."

"Thousands of CES 2023 attendees tested out the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop tunnel transit system," reports Fierce Electronics, "for quick 1.7-mile trips offering them a prelude of more of the efficient tunnels to come." The service was free during the early January event, offering 115,000 CES attendees a chance to reduce a 45-minute LVCC cross-campus walk time down to 2 minutes, not including short waits for Tesla vehicles with drivers. "I call shotgun!" one gleeful CES attendee said while waiting in line. Once inside the white Tesla vehicle, the man used his phone to video the entire trip, marking its sudden acceleration to maximum speed in the single lane white tunnel, an experience the design engineer likened to a slick amusement park ride over a tunnel race track....

Construction is expected to begin in 2023 on the 29-mile Vegas Loop tunnel network approved by the county in 2021 to ultimately connect 51 stations throughout the resort corridor. In 2022, the city of Las Vegas unanimously approved bringing the Vegas Loop to city limits, which increases the system to 34 miles and 55 stations in all.

The dream is for Vegas Loop to eventually connect to Los Angeles, a distance of 270 miles.

Contrails — the wispy ice clouds trailing behind flying jets — "are surprisingly bad for the environment," reports CNN: A study that looked at aviation's contribution to climate change between 2000 and 2018 concluded that contrails create 57% of the sector's warming impact, significantly more than the CO2 emissions from burning fuel. They do so by trapping heat that would otherwise be released into space.

And yet, the problem may have an apparently straightforward solution. Contrails — short for condensation trails, which form when water vapor condenses into ice crystals around the small particles emitted by jet engines — require cold and humid atmospheric conditions, and don't always stay around for long. Researchers say that by targeting specific flights that have a high chance of producing contrails, and varying their flight path ever so slightly, much of the damage could be prevented.

Adam Durant, a volcanologist and entrepreneur based in the UK, is aiming to do just that. "We could, in theory, solve this problem for aviation within one or two years," he says.... Of contrails' climate impact, "80 or 90% is coming from only maybe five to 10% of all flights," says Durant. "Simply redirecting a small proportion of flights can actually save the majority of the contrail climate impact...."

In 2021, scientists calculated that addressing the contrail problem would cost under $1 billion a year, but provide benefits worth more than 1,000 times as much. And a study from Imperial College London showed that diverting just 1.7% of flights could reduce the climate damage of contrails by as much as 59%.
Durant's company Satavia is now testing its technology with two airlines and "actively looking for more airlines in 2023 to work with, as we start scaling up the service that we offer."

Truly addressing the issue may require some changes to air traffic rules, Durant says — but he's not the only one working on the issue. There's also the task force of a non-profit energy think tank that includes six airlines, plus researchers and academics. "We could seriously reduce, say, 50% of the industry's contrails impact by 2030," Durant tells CNN. "That's totally attainable, because we can do it with software and analytics."

UpNext, Airbus's future technology-focused subsidiary, reported on Thursday that it has entered the final three months of testing tech it hopes will automate the process of getting a plane from the air to the gate. The Register reports: The system, called DragonFly, tackles automated operations like diversions, landings, and taxi procedures through a combination of sensors, computer vision algorithms and robust guidance calculations. Airbus pitches the system as an extra layer of safety for emergency operations. "In the unlikely situation where a crew is unable to control the aircraft, DragonFly can redirect the flight to the nearest appropriate airport and facilitate a safe landing," enthused the aerospace corporation. The eventual hope is for the technologies to pave the way for automated landing -- or at least compensate for a less than perfect pilot during an emergency situation. If the captain had the fish, for example.

A marketing video of the Airbus UpNext DragonFly details that a safe landing feature is included in the Automated Emergency Ops application. It works by detecting the most suitable airport for landing and calculates a trajectory to get there, with consideration for weather, military zones and other factors. Airbus assures viewers that Air Traffic Control (ATC) and Operations Control Center (OCC) communication links are in place. The video does not, however, explain how the aircraft communicates with air traffic control for clearance into controlled airspace if the pilot is incapacitated, as that task is completed through human verbal interaction. An automated landing is assisted by sensors that enhance the view of the runway, computer vision algorithms, and guidance computation.

Furthermore, the demonstrator is kitted out with a pilot taxi assistance application to manage its maneuvers on the ground in a heavily trafficked airport. Air traffic control clearance is interpreted and translated into taxi guidance cues. Crew receive audio alerts in reaction to obstacles, assisted speed control and an interactive airport map. The taxi assistance element was tested at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport. The subsidiary reckons one day DragonFly will allow for automatic landing at any airport, regardless of whether the ground equipment is equipped for such landings.

Google is launching its final Stadia game today and is promising to release a tool next week to enable Bluetooth connections on its Stadia Controller. The Verge reports: The last Stadia game to launch on the service is Worm Game, a test game that was technically available on Stadia before Stadia launched publicly in November 2019. Developers at Google have decided to release the game just before the streaming service disappears next week. [...] Alongside the new game, Google is also committing to enabling Bluetooth on Stadia controllers. Google Stadia owners will be pleased to hear there's a self-serve tool coming next week that will enable Bluetooth on the Stadia Controller. "We'll share details next week on how to enable this feature," says a Google Stadia community manager in a forum post.

Google originally launched the Stadia Controller as a device that connects directly to Stadia services and had the Bluetooth chip disabled. After news broke of the Stadia shutdown, fans have been finding ways to save the controller from an e-waste fate by using workarounds to connect it wirelessly to other devices. Workarounds like connecting to an Android device will no longer be required thanks to this new tool. It means that most Stadia players that purchased a Founders or Premiere edition will have been effectively gifted a free Bluetooth controller thanks to Google's refunds.

Crypto exchange Crypto.com is cutting its global workforce by 20%, it said on Friday, as it navigates ongoing economic headwinds and "unforeseeable" industry events. From a report: This is the second major layoff at the Singapore-headquartered Crypto.com, which cut 250 jobs in mid-last year -- though a report suggested that more than 2,000 people were either let go or left at their own will. The company did not say what roles were being eliminated in the new round of layoff but blamed the collapse of FTX, whose misappropriation of customers' funds and bankruptcy "significantly damaged trust in the industry."

Nvidia's streaming software now has an option to make it appear like you're making eye contact with the camera, even if you're looking somewhere else in real life. From a report: Using AI, the "Eye Contact" feature added to Nvidia Broadcast 1.4 will replace your eyes with "simulated" ones that are aligned with your camera -- an effect that worked really well when we tested it ourselves, except for all the times it didn't. In an announcement post, the company writes the feature is meant for "content creators seeking to record themselves while reading their notes or a script" without having to look directly at a camera.

Pitching it as something you'd use during a public performance, instead of something you'd use socially, does kind of sidestep the dilemmas that come with this sort of tech. Is it rude to use AI to trick my mom into thinking I'm engaged in our video call when I'm actually looking at my phone? Or, to make my boss think I'm not writing an article on my other monitor during a meeting? Nvidia suggests that Eye Contact will try to make your simulated eyes match the color of your real ones, and there's "even a disconnect feature in case you look too far away."

Meta has filed a legal complaint against a company for allegedly creating tens of thousands of fake Facebook accounts to scrape user data and provide surveillance services for clients. From a report: The firm, Voyager Labs, bills itself as "a world leader in advanced AI-based investigation solutions." What this means in practice is analyzing social media posts en masse in order to make claims about individuals. In 2021, for example, The Guardian reported how Voyager Labs sold its services to the Los Angeles Police Department, with the company claiming to predict which individuals were likely to commit crimes in the future.

Meta announced the legal action in a blog post on January 12th, claiming that Voyager Labs violated its terms of service. According to a legal filing issued on November 11th, Meta alleges that Voyager Labs created over 38,000 fake Facebook user accounts and used its surveillance software to gather data from Facebook and Instagram without authorization. Voyager Labs also collected data from sites including Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram.

Alphabet's Google and Nvidia have expressed concerns to the Federal Trade Commission about Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, adding fuel to the government's case against the $69 billion deal, Bloomberg News is reporting, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The companies joined Sony in raising issues with the transaction, which the FTC sued to block in December. The commission has argued that the deal would hinder competition in the video-game industry and has scheduled an in-house trial for August. Either company could be called to testify as part of the FTC trial.

Google and Nvidia provided information that backs a key FTC contention -- that Microsoft could gain an unfair advantage in the market for cloud, subscription and mobile gaming -- according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is confidential. In its remarks to the FTC, Nvidia stressed the need for equal and open access to game titles but didn't directly oppose the acquisition, according to one of the people.

All.health, a medical care startup that rose from the ashes of once-hot wearable company Jawbone, is being sued in San Francisco by one of its investors for alleged fraud, misrepresentation and breach of contract. From a report: All.health's co-founders, the former Jawbone Chief Executive Officer Hosain Rahman and Michael Luna, are also named in the complaint. While All.health, Rahman and Luna deny the claims, the dispute is an illustration of the rancor that can envelop fledgling tech companies at a suddenly volatile time for startup funding. Jawbone was a Silicon Valley darling -- most famous for its wireless earpieces -- until the startup dramatically folded in 2017 and sold off its assets. As Jawbone was disintegrating, Rahman salvaged the company's medical device business. The resulting startup, now called All.health, developed wearable monitoring hardware and technology for people with chronic illnesses like diabetes.

In a complaint filed this summer, Polymath Holdings, a Dubai-based investment company and All.health backer, claimed that the startup overpromised, took millions of dollars and under-delivered on a commitment to manufacture thousands of health-monitoring devices. The suit, which was recently largely unredacted by a San Francisco court, alleges that the startup was a "classic 'fake-it-until-you-make it' tale of fraud."

Speaking of Google, the company says in a court filing that a case before the Supreme Court challenging the liability shield protecting websites such as YouTube and Facebook could "upend the internet," resulting in both widespread censorship and a proliferation of offensive content. From a report: In a new brief filed with the high court, Google said that scaling back liability protections could lead internet giants to block more potentially offensive content -- including controversial political speech -- while also leading smaller websites to drop their filters to avoid liability that can arise from efforts to screen content. [...] The case was brought by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed in the 2015 Islamic State terrorist attack in Paris. The plaintiffs claim that YouTube, a unit of Google, aided ISIS by recommending the terrorist group's videos to users. The Gonzalez family contends that the liability shield -- enacted by Congress as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 -- has been stretched to cover actions and circumstances never envisioned by lawmakers. The plaintiffs say certain actions by platforms, such as recommending harmful content, shouldn't be protected.

Section 230 generally protects internet platforms such as YouTube, Meta's Facebook and Yelp from being sued for harmful content posted by third parties on their sites. It also gives them broad ability to police their sites without incurring liability. The Supreme Court agreed last year to hear the lawsuit, in which the plaintiffs have contended Section 230 shouldn't protect platforms when they recommend harmful content, such as terrorist videos, even if the shield law protects the platforms in publishing the harmful content. Google contends that Section 230 protects it from any liability for content posted by users on its site. It also argues that there is no way to draw a meaningful distinction between recommendation algorithms and the related algorithms that allow search engines and numerous other crucial ranking systems to work online, and says Section 230 should protect them all.

Google warned on Friday that if the Indian antitrust watchdog's ruling is allowed to progress it would result in devices getting expensive in the South Asian market and lead to proliferation of unchecked apps that will pose threats for individual and national security, escalating its concerns over the future of Android in the key overseas region. From a report: "Predatory apps that expose users to financial fraud, data theft and a number of other dangers abound on the internet, both from India and other countries. While Google holds itself accountable for the apps on Play Store and scans for malware as well compliance with local laws, the same checks may not be in place for apps sideloaded from other sources," the company wrote in a blog post, titled "Heart of the Matter." The Competition Commission of India has slapped two fines against Google, alleging the Android-maker abused the Play Store's dominant position in the country and required Android device makers to pre-install its entire Google Mobile Suite.

AmiMoJo writes: Members of YouTube's gaming community are calling out the video hosting site for adding new regulations regarding profanity usage and violent content, disproportionately affecting gaming creators who produce unscripted videos such as let's plays of M-rated games. Worse, the policy is retroactively deeming their videos in violation of new rules and affecting their ability to make money on the platform.

The rule changes in question was originally made in November of 2022, and the blog post announcing it says that YouTube now treats all profanity equally (meaning "ass" is just as bad as "fuck"), and any usage of such in titles, thumbails, or in the first seven seconds of a video may result in complete demonetization. While you can swear after the first eight seconds, if you use profanity "consistently throughout the video" it may also be demonetized according to this new policy. The same restrictions apply to violent content, as well.

Previously, YouTube's violent content policy applied to images of real-world violence, though game violence is now specifically noted as of the November update. As for profanity, prior to this change, YouTube allowed creators to use what it describes as "moderate profanity" (it says "shit" and "bitch" fall under this category) in the first 30 seconds without fear of demonetization.

Malicious hackers have begun exploiting a critical vulnerability in unpatched versions of the Control Web Panel, a widely used interface for web hosting. ArsTechnica reports: "This is an unauthenticated RCE," members of the Shadowserver group wrote on Twitter, using the abbreviation for remote code exploit. "Exploitation is trivial and a PoC published." PoC refers to a proof-of-concept code that exploits the vulnerability. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2022-44877. It was discovered by Numan Turle of Gais Cyber Security and patched in October in version 0.9.8.1147. Advisories didn't go public until earlier this month, however, making it likely some users still aren't aware of the threat.

Figures provided by Security firm GreyNoise show that attacks began on January 7 and have slowly ticked up since then, with the most recent round continuing through Wednesday. The company said the exploits are coming from four separate IP addresses located in the US, Netherlands, and Thailand. Shadowserver shows that there are roughly 38,000 IP addresses running Control Web Panel, with the highest concentration in Europe, followed by North America, and Asia. The severity rating for CVE-2022-44877 is 9.8 out of a possible 10. "Bash commands can be run because double quotes are used to log incorrect entries to the system," the advisory for the vulnerability stated. As a result, unauthenticated hackers can execute malicious commands during the login process.

Microsoft says it's investigating an issue in Windows that is causing application shortcuts in the Start menu or taskbar to disappear. From a report: Multiple IT admins have detailed the problem on Twitter and Reddit this morning, and it appears to be related to a recent update to the Microsoft Defender threat detections. The problem is affecting businesses and organizations using Microsoft 365 and Defender for protection against malware, viruses, and other threats. In a note to customers, Microsoft says it has received reports that a certain attack surface reduction (ASR) rule is causing the problems. IT admins are currently trying to work around the issue by setting the "Block Win32 API calls from Office macro" rule to audit only. Microsoft says it has now "reverted the rule to prevent further impact whilst we investigate further." The software maker hasn't issued a workaround or any guidance on how IT admins might recover the shortcuts on affected machines.

Downing Street has said it is considering a Tory-backed amendment to the online safety bill that would allow for the imposing of jail sentences on social media bosses who are found not to have protected children's safety. The Guardian reports: No 10 said on Thursday it was open to the proposal, which is backed by at least 36 Conservative MPs including the former home secretary Priti Patel and the former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith. The amendment would give Ofcom, the communications watchdog, the power to prosecute executives at social media companies that are found to have breached the law. If ministers include it in the bill, it will mark the third time the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has bowed to the demands of his backbenchers, after U-turns on planning and onshore windfarms.

The bill is aimed at cracking down on a range of online content that ministers believe is causing serious harm to users and was informed in part by the testimony of Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who accused the company of repeatedly putting profits ahead of user safety. The bill will force companies to remove any content promoting self-harm, depicting sexual violence or facilitating suicide. It will also require companies to impose and enforce strict age limits and to publish assessments of the risks their platforms pose to young people. As it is currently written, the bill gives Ofcom the power to levy fines on companies of up to 10% of their global turnover for breaches in the law. Ofcom will be able to prosecute executives only if they fail to cooperate with an investigation. This has upset many Conservative MPs, however, who believe the regulator should be given tougher powers.

The amendment, which has been signed by 37 MPs overall, would allow Ofcom to prosecute individual executives if they were proved to have connived with or consented to breaking the elements of the bill designed to protect children's safety. Judges would be allowed to impose prison sentences of up to two years. [...] Other changes to the bill, which has its report and third reading stage in the House of Commons next week, include altering earlier plans to tackle content seen by adults that is harmful but falls below the threshold of criminality, such as cyberbullying and sexist and racist material. Tech companies will be required to state clearly in their terms and conditions how they will moderate such content. Users will also be given the option of asking to have such content screened out when they are on social media platforms. A Downing Street spokesperson said on Thursday: "Our aim is to hold to account social media platforms for harmful content, while also ensuring the UK remains a great place to invest and grow a tech business. We are confident we can achieve both of these things. We will carefully consider all the proposed amendments to the online safety bill and set out the position when report stage continues."