Snippings

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While most Americans are loyal to their financial institution, 66% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they would switch banks if a better offer came along.

From: More Young Adults Get Financial Advice from Social Media.

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Motorola-owned DRN sells multiple license-plate-recognition cameras: a fixed camera that can be placed near roads, identify a vehicle’s make and model, and capture images of vehicles traveling up to 150 mph; a “quick deploy” camera that can be attached to buildings and monitor vehicles at properties; and mobile cameras that can be placed on dashboards or be mounted to vehicles and capture images when they are driven around.

Over more than a decade, DRN has amassed more than 15 billion “vehicle sightings” across the United States, and it claims in its marketing materials that it amasses more than 250 million sightings per month. Images in DRN’s commercial database are shared with police using its Vigilant system, but images captured by law enforcement are not shared back into the wider database.

The system is partly fueled by DRN “affiliates” who install cameras in their vehicles, such as repossession trucks, and capture license plates as they drive around. Each vehicle can have up to four cameras attached to it, capturing images in all angles. These affiliates earn monthly bonuses and can also receive free cameras and search credits.

From: License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars | WIRED.

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The scale and complexity of quantum systems that can be simulated using AI is advancing rapidly, says Giuseppe Carleo, a professor of computational physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Last month, he coauthored a paper published in Science showing that neural-network-based approaches are rapidly becoming the leading technique for modeling materials with strong quantum properties. Meta also recently unveiled an AI model trained on a massive new data set of materials that has jumped to the top of a leaderboard for machine-learning approaches to material discovery.

From: Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch | MIT Technology Review.

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The Australian government has pledged to legislate an age limit of 16 years for social media access, with penalties for online platforms that do not comply.

But the Labor government has not spelled out how it expects Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others to actually enforce that age limit. Anthony Albanese is facing pressure from the Coalition opposition to rush the bill through parliament in the next three weeks, although a federal trial into age assurance technology has not yet commenced.

Albanese and the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, did not rule out the potential for social media users to have their faces subject to biometric scanning, for online platforms to verify users’ ages using a government database, or for all social media users – regardless of age – being subject to age checks, only saying it would be up to tech companies to set their own processes.

From: Australia to ban under-16s from social media – but can’t say how TikTok, Instagram and others will enforce it | Internet safety | The Guardian.

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Dean Skurka, the president and CEO of Toronto-based WonderFi, was forced into a vehicle in downtown Toronto on Wednesday evening.

He was released after a C$1 million ransom was paid electronically, according to CBC, citing a source close to the police investigation.

Skurka has told CBC that “client funds and data remain safe, and were not impacted by this incident”.

From: Crypto CEO kidnapped, released after paying C$1m ransom.

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iDEAL stands out as the cheapest payment method by far, costing less than half the average of the other online payment methods in the sample and less than the lowest in-person payment method

From: Made in Europe – by Jeremy Light – Agenda: Payments.

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iDEAL stands out as the cheapest payment method by far, costing less than half the average of the other online payment methods in the sample and less than the lowest in-person payment method

From: Made in Europe – by Jeremy Light – Agenda: Payments.

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According to recent data from SWIFT, the dollar’s share of global payments has surged to 49.1% as of August 2024 – a 12-year high.

From: The dollar’s share of global payments has surged to 49.1%.

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US banks made a $1tn windfall from the Federal Reserve’s two-and-a-half-year era of high interest rates, an analysis of official data by the Financial Times has found.

From: Fed’s high-rates era handed $1tn windfall to US banks.

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Software engineering is by far the biggest beneficiary of the most advanced AI, which appears to have reduced demand for junior engineers, at least for now, according to job listing site Indeed.

From: Behind Microsoft Layoffs, Automation Efforts Boom — The Information.

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Fashion retailer Mango became one of the first to feature AI-generated glam bots in its adverts back in July — just days before the company reported its highest revenues in four decades. Mango is among the growing number of companies creating a new normal in advertising, in an industry that is worth $2.5 trillion. Bloomberg named Nike, Louis Vuitton and Levi Strauss & Co. as some of the clothing brands now embracing the idea.

From: Fashion models step aside as AI glam bots join them in ads: ‘It’s about faster content creation’.

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Vogue Singapore’s March 2023 issue featured an AI-generated model on its cover. “Marking the first issue under Vogue Singapore’s new editor-in-chief, Desmond Lim, the March 2023 cover is an homage to innovation, tradition and diversity”, the cover story stated.

From: With AI taking over, where does that leave the supermodel phenomenon? | Vogue India.

AI-generated models are receiving what Vogue calls a “cordial” reception, given their cost-effectiveness, time reduction, and democratization of creative resources (and presumably don’t show up late or have drug problems and so on).