Nvidia’s Jetson Thor platform set for 2025 Nvidia is planning to launch its AI-powered Jetson Thor humanoid robot computing platform in the first half of 2025, staking a claim in what is expected to be a fast-growing humanoid robotics market. The latest addition to the Nvidia Jetson platform, Jetson Thor will focus exclusively on […]
Nvidia’s Jetson Thor platform set for 2025
Nvidia is planning to launch its AI-powered Jetson Thor humanoid robot computing platform in the first half of 2025, staking a claim in what is expected to be a fast-growing humanoid robotics market.
The latest addition to the Nvidia Jetson platform, Jetson Thor will focus exclusively on robotics and promises unprecedented levels of human/robot interaction. Nvidia says it will focus on rapid advancements in AI, particularly computer vision and natural language processing to allow robots to see and understand their surroundings with greater levels of sophistication.
Trump appoints ‘free speech warrior’ Carr to head FCC
Brendan Carr, the fierce Republican critic of Big Tech, has been named as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency which regulates TV, radio and the internet.
A lawyer and the senior Republican on the FCC, Carr has promised to tackle social media firms which censor conservative viewpoints, although his appointment will require approval by the US Senate.
He was the author of a chapter in Project 25, the blueprint/wish list for the second Trump presidency, in which he promised to reign in Google and Facebook and toughen the stance on Chinese social platform TikTok.
Meta gets EU fine for abusive practices on Facebook Marketplace
The European Commission has fined Meta €797.72 million for breaching EU antitrust rules.
According to the Commission, Meta linked its Facebook Marketplace classified ads service to Facebook and imposed unfair trading conditions on other online classified ad providers.
The Commission said that all Facebook users get automatic access and regular exposure to Facebook Marketplace whether they want it or not, and the company unilaterally imposes unfair trading conditions on other online classified ad providers who advertise on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
AI outpaces the law in celebrity voice cloning frauds
A UK government select committee has been warned that fraudulent cloning of celebrity voices is on the rise with Oprah Winfrey, Kylie Jenner and David Attenborough all falling victim to having their voices cloned without consent.
Dominic Lees, an expert in AI in film and television who is advising a UK parliamentary committee on the ethical use of AI in film-making, told The Guardian newspaper that UK privacy and copyright laws aren’t up to date with the challenges that AI technology presents.
AI voice cloning scams were up 30% in the UK in the last year, according to research by NatWest Bank this month.
Voice cloning is also reportedly being used by fraudsters to perpetrate a version of the “hi mum” text scam, in which fraudsters pose as children needing their parent to send funds urgently.
Face Lab recreates Richard III avatar complete with Yorkshire accent
A carefully researched digital avatar reconstruction of the head of medieval English king Richard III has gone on display at York Theatre Royal with a distinctive Yorkshire accent.
The king, who reigned from 1483 until his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, at the age of 32, had his remains discovered in a car park in Leicester in 2012 by historian Philippa Langley.
Now he has been further resurrected through a project at Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University with the help of experts from various fields including speech and language therapy, dentistry, forensic psychology and archaeology, led by craniofacial identification expert professor Caroline Wilkinson.
British Airways outage leaves pilots in the dark and passengers on the tarmac
UK airline British Airways was affected by an IT outage on Monday evening, 18 November, stranding BA passengers at airports across Europe.
Phone lines for the airline were reportedly having issues, along with the BA website, which went down shortly after 6pm on Monday evening, according to Downdetector. Pilots were reportedly left without information with planes full of people waiting for clearance to take off.
The issue was attributed to an IT glitch, which impacted much of the company’s software, leaving pilots to manually call Heathrow Airport to file flight plans.
