ACM TechNews, Friday, October 4, 2024

Welcome to the October 4, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

Global semiconductor makers are monitoring supplies of high-purity quartz after operations were halted at two North Carolina mines due to Hurricane Helene. The mines produce more than 80% of the world's supply of high-purity quartz, which is used to make the inner layer in crucibles, the containers used to melt down silicon to make silicon wafers for semiconductors.
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Legislation signed by U.S. President Joe Biden on Oct. 2 will exempt certain U.S. semiconductor manufacturing facilities from federal environmental reviews. The law prevents projects receiving CHIPS Act grants from being subjected to additional environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to obtain federal permits. Supporters of the bipartisan legislation said the additional reviews could have imposed years-long delays on projects.
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A team led by researchers at Princeton University mapped the connections of the more than 140,000 neurons in a fruit fly's brain, marking the first full map of any complex brain. The team developed software to interpret millions of microscopic pictures taken of a fly's brain and programmed computers to recognize the cross-sections of neurons in each picture and stack them into the 3D shapes of the cells.
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The AV1 robot developed by Norwegian company No Isolation can take an absent child’s place in class. Shaped like a small version of a human head and torso, the robot can rotate 360 degrees and is fitted with a camera, microphone, and speaker. The student, who controls the AV1 remotely through an app, can swipe their finger around a screen to look at different corners of the classroom and can communicate to the class through the speaker.
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A survey of 755 security experts by the cybersecurity firm IANS and recruiting firm Artico Search found that average pay for corporate chief information security officers (CISOs) in the U.S. is $565,000 this year, up from $550,000 in 2023 and $495,000 in 2022. The survey also revealed merit increases averaged 6.4% of 2024 compensation. CISOs were able to achieve 31% increases in pay by changing employers or making a counterbid in the event of a competing job.
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Using publicly available AI-powered facial recognition technology and the livestreaming feature of Meta's Ray-Ban 2 smart sunglasses, I-Xray software developed by Harvard University student AnhPhu Nguyen lets users generate personal data for every person captured by the smart glasses in real time. The software uses a large language model to scrape data from various databases to locate the individuals' names, addresses, phone numbers, next of kin, and Social Security numbers and aggregates the data into a searchable profile accessible on the user's phone.
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The motorcade of U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was delayed by two Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco, CA, on Sept. 27. The first robotaxi backed up traffic after it failed to make a U-turn, requiring a police officer to drive it away. The second incident reportedly involved a confused self-driving taxi. It remains uncertain what caused the glitches.
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The European Commission (EC) has requested information from YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok on the parameters used by their algorithms to recommend content to users and their role in amplifying risks, including those related to the electoral process, mental health, and protection of minors. The requests, made under the Digital Services Act (DSA), "also concern the platforms' measures to mitigate the potential influence of their recommender systems on the spread of illegal content, such as promoting illegal drugs and hate speech," the EC said.
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The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is reviewing K-12 computer science (CS) learning standards as part of the implementation of Act 211. The law requires public schools to begin teaching CS basics to grades 6–8 students in the 2026–27 school year and to elementary school students by the 2027–28 school year.
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The U.K. datacenter industry not only faces challenges in locating sufficient land and power for new datacenters but also in finding skilled construction workers to build them. Given the specialized needs of datacenter operators, they cannot simply recruit more workers from traditional construction sectors.
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The Internet Archive (IA) faces a copyright-infringement lawsuit led by Universal Music Group and Sony Music over its Great 78 Project, which digitizes obsolete 78 rpm records. The record labels are targeting 4,142 recordings uploaded by the IA, with potential damages totaling more than $621 million.
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U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez issued a preliminary injunction on Oct. 2 to block a new California law that would allow any individual to sue for damages related to election deepfakes. Mendez said the law likely violates the First Amendment, though he acknowledged the risks posed by AI and deepfakes. Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed two other bills at the time aimed at cracking down on the use of AI to create false images or videos in political ads.
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