The Ioniq-5 vehicles, developed by Motional atop a Hyundai platform, provide L4 autonomy and utilize a Continuous Learning Framework (CLF) designed to make the vehicles safer with every mile driven. Motional is a joint venture of Hyundai Motor Group and auto supplier Aptiv. “We will be deploying our robotaxis in major markets through our partnerships with ride-hailing networks,” Motional’s former VP of Engineering & Head Autonomy, Sammy Omari, told ZDNet earlier this year....

A UK survey comprising 5,000 knowledge workers, 750 hiring managers and 400 senior decision makers by consultancy AND Digital found that people at different levels of seniority within companies have “substantially different” ideas about what skills are most needed. This is causing significant challenges when it comes to closing talent gaps, and a mismatch “between what hiring managers know to be right and what their organizations choose to invest in”....

It’s been a fine business model for a long time, and rarely finer than during the pandemic. Yet, amid McDonald’s increasing reliance on tech-driven drive-thru and delivery, one issue seemed like it might disturb the firmament of success. McDonald’s was insisting that its franchisees owed it money for the fine technology that was driving business toward ever-higher revenues. Every six months, franchisees have to pay McDonald’s a fee, you see, for all the latest innovations – such as robot drive-thrus....

Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist of Meta Properties, owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is likely to tick off a lot of people in his field. With the posting in June of a think piece on the Open Review server, LeCun offered a broad overview of an approach he thinks holds promise for achieving human-level intelligence in machines. Implied if not articulated in the paper is the contention that most of today’s big projects in AI will never be able to reach that human-level goal....

The new preview builds on and fills in some features that didn’t make it into PowerShell 7, which became generally available earlier in March and is the successor to PowerShell Core 6.x. The 7.1 preview contains new modules and tooling that the PowerShell team are working on, but the features aren’t guaranteed to arrive when it ships, which should be about a week or two after .NET 5 is released this winter....

Those times include today, yesterday and always. For the longest time, Redmond has pressed, prodded and persisted in trying to force human beings to only use Microsoft products. Also: Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing is coming to the Windows 11 taskbar Why, just the other day Microsoft tried to tease me into moving up the line for the new AI-powered Bing chat by suggesting I make Microsoft my default everything. Now, it seems, the company has gone back to another form of pernickety, performative perturbation....

Microsoft rolled out advanced networking in May for its subsystem for running Android apps on Windows 11 PCs. SEE: Microsoft launches Entra: A new identity and access family of products That change allowed Android apps to connect to smart devices on the same local network as a Windows PC. Advanced networking was also made ‘on’ by default for newer x64 Windows builds for PCs with Intel and AMD chips. The “huge change to networking” in the latest release of WSA includes Android app access to local network devices for ARM computers....

Microsoft introduced Update Stack Packages as part of the announcement of a new Windows 11 build for the Dev Channel. That build, Windows 11 build 22478, includes a number of fixes plus new emoji built using the Fluent design language. Today’s test build also allows users to log into their PCs using facial recognition via Windows Hello on an external monitor if that monitor has a camera attached that supports it....

Microsoft flagged the new feature in its December updates for the Teams collaboration platform, which included end-to-end encryption for calls and fixes for an issue between Teams and Android that caused some devices to freeze after making an emergency call. Admins can disable the auto-expiration feature now it’s going to be on by default. Once rolled out, all new recordings automatically expire 60 days after they are recorded if no action is taken....

The first of the Build buzzwords I’m expecting to hear on May 24 is “Power Pages.” Microsoft sleuth “The Walking Cat” unearthed some references to Power Pages earlier this month and posted them to Twitter. One of the URLs referenced in the presentations he found made it clear that Power Pages is the new name for Power Apps portals (now that URL, https://make.powerpages.microsoft.com/, resolves to the Power Pages preview site and requires credentials to log in)....

Among those enthusiasts, it’s very popular to take things a step further by modifying their fight sticks to suit their exact preferences for feel or looks. Tweaks like different buttons and differently shaped gates for the control stick itself (more on this later) can make you feel like you’re using a bespoke tool instead of the same generic controller all of your opponents have. Also: The 4 best game consoles To support this desire, Monoprice released its Dark Matter Arcade Fighting Stick....

Murena and Mandrake Linux founder Gael Duval was sick of it by 2017. He wanted his data to be his data, and he wanted open-source software. Almost five years later, Duval and his co-developers launched the Murena One X2. It’s the first high-end Android phone using the open-source /e/OS Android fork to arrive on the market. The privacy heart of the Murena One is /e/OS V1. There have been many attempts to create an alternative to Google-based Android and Apple’s iOS – Ubuntu One, FirefoxOS, and Windows Mobile – but all failed....

A new petition seeks to halt these quick and massive developments and calls for AI labs to pause – for at least six months – the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. Also: AI pioneer Cerebras opens up generative AI where OpenAI goes dark The petition, driven by industry experts, seeks to protect society from the “profound risks to society and humanity” that AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can provoke....

The Singapore-based broadband and mobile services provider announced over the Christmas weekend that it was exiting Australia, as part of efforts to pivot towards profitability and cut its operational costs. Its residential and business subscribers on the national broadband network (NBN) will be moved to Superloop, with the bulk of migration works expected to be carried out in February next year. Asked if it was planning a similar move in New Zealand, where it launched its services in 2014, MyRepublic did not offer a definitive answer....

The salty region refers to Mount Sharp, the “sulfate-bearing unit,” that is enriched with salty minerals. “Scientists hypothesize that billions of years ago, streams and ponds left behind the minerals as the water dried up,” NASA said Wednesday. The minerals in this region could, therefore, give scientists clues as to how and why Mars’ climate changed from being more Earth-like to what it is today. These minerals were originally spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter years before Curiosity even landed on Mars and the rover’s arrival in this region has, therefore, been eagerly expected....

For the soft cap to kick in, total NBN costs before rebates for any telco would need to rise 7% across a three-month rolling average, and the telco would need to keep customer churn below a threshold of 10% on top of its yearly historical churn. A fair use provision is floated as being set around the 30% to 40% mark. The proposal arrives after retailers kicked up a stink when NBN attempted multiple times to taper off its CVC boost due to the pandemic outbreak in 2020....

“As of 26 October 2021, NBN co has purchased 361,451.33 kilometres of optical fibre,” it said in Senate Estimate Questions on Notice. “The relatively small amount of copper purchased (61,102km) is largely used to connect the new optical fibre to existing legacy networks.” In October 2015, NBN kicked off with 1,800kms of copper, subsequently increased to 15,000kms and 16,600kms, and by February 2019 was sitting at almost 30,000kms. NBN has previously said the copper is used for links between existing pillars and new nodes, as well as for extensions on fibre-to-the-curb deployments (FttC) for lead-ins to reach the FttC distribution point unit....

To try to get Office 2016 and 2019 users to move to a more recent version of Office – like Office LTSC or Office 2021 – from versions of Office that have exited mainstream support, Microsoft basically is playing a game of chicken with customers. Continuing to use Office 2016 and 2019 might be risky because some features may encounter “unexpected issues.” (Or, you know, they may not….) Because of this possibility, Microsoft’s official statement is these non-subscription Office clients won’t be “supported” by Microsoft after that date, even though users won’t be stopped from connecting to those services....

A review of the telco’s retail staff has now found underpayment of wages from between 1 January 2014 to 17 March 2020 for workers covered by the Optus retail enterprise bargaining agreement. The Communication Workers Union said on Monday the average underpayment amount from the review was AU$757, with interest and superannuation to be paid on top. “Optus will be communicating with affected employees, former and current, detailing the error and will make rectification payments on or around 1 October 2021 for current employees and December for former employees,” the union said....

COVID-19 locked people in their homes, making an already dominant entertainment colossus swell up like it was shot with steroids. Last year, American gamers spent almost $57 billion on their fix, a 27 percent surge from the previous year. A majority 55 percent of gamers said they played more games during the pandemic than beforehand, and an overwhelming 90 percent said they planned to keep on playing as the world reopens....