Financial firms are once again lining up to attempt to get their proposed spot bitcoin exchange-traded-funds approved by

Here's a scary statistic: There's a victim of identity theft every 3 seconds in the

By Jeffrey Dastin and Aditya Soni SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Sam Altman is returning as CEO of OpenAI just days after

When archaeologists explored an underwater cavern in southern Mexico in 2014, they were shocked by what they found. The cavern is known as Sac Uayum, and is located in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. It is technically a cenote – a natural pit that comes about after limestone bedrock collapses, exposing groundwater beneath. Local villagers were said to be terrified of the spot, because pits like this were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings. Archaeologist Bradley Russell, from College of St Rose, and a group of divers scaled down roughly 20 metres into the unknown. Inside the pit were two chambers with human bones and skulls scattered across the floors of each. The skulls were elongated, as part of an ancient practice that is thought to have involved flattening people’s heads during infancy. Archaeologists still don’t know why the ancient culture did this – but it ain't pretty. The cenote sits just outside the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Mayapán, and the researchers think this shows that, like the modern day locals, the ancient Mayans kept their distance too. Local legend says that Sac Uayum is guarded by a feathered, horse-headed serpent. Older residents of the nearby village of Telchaquillo tell stories of people seeing the serpent perching in a tree, leaping up, spinning around three times, and diving into the water. Russell explained to National Geographic that the sinkhole is said to be “evil”. “To this day, people do not get drinking water from that cenote, it is generally considered taboo. “It’s off-limits, people do not let their children plan near there and there’s a lot of beliefs around this cenote having evil forces or malevolent forces associated with it. “Cenotes are important because the main access to the water that you get is through these sinkholes. “They are also believed to be access to the Mayan underworld and the homes of Gods. “Mayapan is a large city, it’s incredibly dense, there’s nothing like it in the classic period, it’s incredibly dense for Maya history, there’s nothing quite like it.” He added that the location of Sac Uayum – south of Mayapan – is a clue as to what was going on. In Maya beliefs, south is the direction associated with the underworld. Alternatively, Russell also suggested they could have been plague victims. "You wouldn't want them near the rest of the population. And you wouldn't want to drink the water either.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The second-generation Amazon Echo Frames ($269.99) make improvements on the original model by strengthening the

More than 700 users reported issues with Wells Fargo's banking system Thursday, according to Downdetector, with problems ranging from transferring funds to declining ATM cards.

By Ian Ransom HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) -North Korea's Ri Song Gum set a weightlifting world record at the Asian Games

France’s ban of iPhone 12 sales due to radiation fears could have Europe-wide implications, regulators in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have warned. Apple will have to recall all iPhone 12 phones in France if corrective updates do not work, the country’s National Frequency Agency (ANFR) said on Tuesday, after tests revealed electromagnetic radiation that was 40 per cent above the legal limit. On Wednesday, the Dutch digital watchdog said it was looking into the ANFR report and is seeking an explanation from the US tech giant. “A norm has been exceeded. Fortunately, there is no acute safety risk but we will very shortly have a talk with producer,” Angeline van Dijk, an inspector with the Nederlandse Rijksinspectie Digitale Infrastructuur (RDI), told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. “The Netherlands attaches as much importance as France to safe use of mobile phones. Mobile phones must comply with European norms.” Belgium and Germany followed with statements of their own on Thursday, with network regulators saying that the French procedure could have a guiding function for the whole of Europe. The Independent has reached out to Apple for comment. Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s junior minister for digital economy, said on Tuesday that the ANFR’s data would be shared with other EU member states, potentially leading to a “snowball effect” for Apple. “Apple is expected to respond within two weeks,” he told the French newspaper Le Parisien. “If they fail to do so, I am prepared to order a recall of all iPhones 12 in circulation. The rule is the same for everyone, including the digital giants.” The iPhone 12 series of smartphones were already set to be discontinued following the unveiling of the iPhone 15 on Tuesday, meaning any sales ban would not have a significant impact on Apple’s phone sales. A continent-wide recall would have considerable implications for the world’s richest company, however, if a solution is not found. Read More iPhone 15: Everything Apple killed off at its major live event Everything Apple killed off at iPhone 15 event The iPhone has gone all grown-up. Here’s why we should be grateful Why Apple getting rid of lightning cable iPhone charger is a big deal

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Schoolchildren are using artificial intelligence systems to generate indecent images of other kids, experts have warned. The UK’s Safer Internet Centre, or UKSIC, said that schools had reported children trying to make indecent images of their fellow pupils with online AI image generators. The images themselves constitute child sexual abuse material and generating and sharing them could be a crime. But it could also have a drastically harmful impact on other children, or be used to blackmail them, experts warn. Some AI systems include safeguards specifically intended to stop them being used to generate adult images. But others do not, and what safeguards there are may be bypassed in some cases. UKSIC has urged schools to ensure that their filtering and monitoring systems were able to effectively block illegal material across school devices in an effort to combat the rise of such activity. David Wright, UKSIC director, said: “We are now getting reports from schools of children using this technology to make, and attempt to make, indecent images of other children. “This technology has enormous potential for good, but the reports we are seeing should not come as a surprise. “Young people are not always aware of the seriousness of what they are doing, yet these types of harmful behaviours should be anticipated when new technologies, like AI generators, become more accessible to the public. “We clearly saw how prevalent sexual harassment and online sexual abuse was from the Ofsted review in 2021, and this was a time before generative AI technologies. “Although the case numbers are currently small, we are in the foothills and need to see steps being taken now, before schools become overwhelmed and the problem grows. “An increase in criminal content being made in schools is something we never want to see, and interventions must be made urgently to prevent this from spreading further. “We encourage schools to review their filtering and monitoring systems and reach out for support when dealing with incidents and safeguarding matters.” In October, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which forms part of UKSIC, warned that AI-generated images of child sexual abuse are now so realistic that many would be indistinguishable from real imagery, even to trained analysts. The IWF said it had discovered thousands of such images online. Artificial intelligence has increasing become an area of focus in the online safety debate over the last year, in particular, since the launch of generative AI chatbot ChatGPT last November, with many online safety groups, governments and industry experts calling for greater regulation of the sector because of fears it is developing faster than authorities are able to respond to it. Additional reporting by Press Association Read More Bizarre bumps are appearing on Google’s latest smartphone Putin targets AI as latest battleground with West Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away Bizarre bumps are appearing on Google’s latest smartphone Putin targets AI as latest battleground with West Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away

Zoom has provoked outrage among its users after a change to its terms of service. This week, the company made a number of changes to its terms of service that related to the way it uses people's data and the content of their calls. They have led to widespread criticism from users, some of whom have quit over what they said was overly expansive permissions. In particular, critics focused on a passage in which users agreed to Zoom's "access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance, and storage" of data "for any purpose". The new terms said that data could be used for a variety of functions, including "machine learning or artificial intelligence" such was training new artificial intelligence models. Many feared that the expansive rules would mean that Zoom could, for instance, use the data of meetings to train generative artificial intelligence systems. A number of companies have faced backlash over fears that they could be gathering user data with a view to training artificial intelligence systems using it, and customers have become increasingly concerned about the potential invasion of privacy and ownership that could present. But now Zoom has said that the terms were misunderstood, and updated them with a new line intended to make clear that chats would not be used to train AI systems. "Zoom will not use audio, video or chat customer content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent," the terms now read. In a blog post addressing the controversy, Zoom said that it had introduced two new generative AI features, aimed at making it easier to summarise meetings and help with chats. At the moment they are offered on a free trial basis and administrators can choose whether they are turned on. "When you choose to enable Zoom IQ Meeting Summary or Zoom IQ Team Chat Compose, you will also be presented with a transparent consent process for training our AI models using your customer content," the company said in its update. "Your content is used solely to improve the performance and accuracy of these AI services. And even if you chose to share your data, it will not be used for training of any third-party models." Read More Now even Zoom tells staff: ‘Come back to the office’ OpenAI launches bot that will crawl the internet to educate GPT PayPal launches dollar-backed cryptocurrency

BEIJING China's cyberspace regulator said on Sunday its review has found that US Micron Technology’s products have serious