Author: precious

Amazon, in a bid to move the popular Echo Voice Command Alexa to a more secure cloud, has removed the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” feature on its Echo devices. In an email sent to Echo owners, Amazon explains that it is done to expand “Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud.” The “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” feature which was only enabled on 3 Echo devices — Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Show 10, and Echo Show 15 — allowed for audio recordings to be processed locally on the phone,…

With confirmation from the US Government as well as Cisco Talos, the Chinese state-sponsored threat actor nicknamed Salt Typhoon Group is said to have carried out an intrusive campaign against Telecom Networks in the US. As reported by The Wall Street Journal last year, cyberattacks were launched against US telecommunication companies such as AT&T and Verizon. However, it wasn’t until this year the US CISA confirmed the attack to be part of the Salt Typhoon campaign. This was followed by Cisco Talos’ confirmation who says in their blog post that “the threat actor was able to gain access to core…

In a bid to “make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World,” U.S. President Donald Trump has taken to social media to announce the names of five new digital assets to be included in a new U.S. strategic reserve for Cryptocurrencies. He announced in a Truth post that the Presidential Working Group directed by the president’s executive order on digital assets — that was signed into action in January — had gone ahead in stockpiling digital currencies such as XR P, SOL, ADA for future use. In a follow-up post about an hour later, he announced the…

Paystack, a leading fintech in Africa has launched its first-ever consumer product, expanding its focus to providing business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions after a marathon of nine years providing only business-to-business (B2B) services.  CEO and Co-Founder Shola Akinlade announced the launch of the new transfer app named Zap at a company event on Monday. Zap, as Paystack’s first consumer app, is designed to offer fast, secure, and reliable bank transfers in Nigeria, by aggregating other bank accounts of a customer into one system. With the aggregation or linking of all accounts to Zap, customers can then fund their accounts easily and make…

For a long time, teleportation was purely a concept for science fiction, as seen in stories like Star Trek, which made the idea seem far-fetched. But recent research from scientists at the University of Oxford has revealed that quantum teleportation — where quantum information is transferred between particles — is possible. While this doesn’t mean teleporting humans anytime soon, it opens doors to new possibilities in quantum computing, and secure communications, as this pushes the boundaries of what we thought we knew about the world of physics. Quantum Teleportation is a process that transfers the state of a quantum particle…

The U.S. Commerce Department has banned the Chinese-based AI-powered chatbot Deepseek from all government-owned devices. In a mass email that was circulated among the department’s staff, the importance of adequately protecting departmental information systems was emphasized. “To help keep Department of Commerce information systems safe, access to the new Chinese-based AI DeepSeek is broadly prohibited on all GFE [Government Furnished Equipment],” the email said. “Do not download, view, or access any applications, desktop apps, or websites related to DeepSeek.” The Chinese-based AI company, right from its R1 ‘reasoning’ model launch in January that caused quite some stir in the AI…

In addition to the recent 20% tariff imposition by President Trump on Chinese Imports, the U.S. has now added several Chinese companies to what is unofficially known as the “American Blacklist.” This includes a list of companies in select countries whose imports — or American exports — pose a certain kind of risk to the U.S. national security as well as trade sovereignty. Maintained by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, this trade blacklist is officially known as the “Entity List,” where Chinese companies take the lion’s share amongst other countries. Keeping the Biden administration screws tightened,…

The constantly changing nature of Quantum Computing has allowed for another breakthrough with the unveiling of China’s Zuchongzhi-3 Superconducting Quantum Computer, signifying a milestone and placing China at the forefront of the ever-evolving global quantum race. Developed by The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the Superconducting chip Zuchongzhi-3 is said to be 1 quadrillion times faster than the world’s most powerful and fastest classical supercomputers, Frontier. It directly competes with America’s Tech Giants’ contributions to Quantum Computing in the names of Google’s Willow Chip, Microsoft’s Majorana 1 Chip, IBM 1,121 condor processor, and Amazon’s Ocelot. China’s Quantum…

OpenAI’s latest reasoning models o3 and o4-mini represent significant advancements in the ever-evolving world of Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, these new models hallucinate by generating false or fabricated information at substantially higher rates than their predecessor model o1. The problem of AI hallucinations, where models generate plausible but false information, has long been recognized as one of the most persistent challenges in the development of Artificial Intelligence. Traditionally, newer AI models have demonstrated additional improvements in reducing hallucinations compared to their predecessors. However, the recent release of OpenAI’s o3 and o4-mini models seems to be an outlier and has shaken…

The European Commission (EU) has taken a significant antitrust decision against two tech giants, Apple and Meta, by fining them €500 million and €200 million, respectively, for violating the newly enacted Digital Markets Act (DMA). This landmark decision is the first financial penalties issued under the DMA, thereby highlighting the EU’s commitment to enforcing digital competition rules across the European markets. The DMA, which represents a comprehensive EU framework, was designed to create fair digital markets by preventing dominant tech companies from monopolizing the European digital market. It establishes guidelines that are aimed at enhancing consumer and business choices while…