Google Fi warns customers that their data has been compromised

Google has notified customers of its Fi mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service that hackers were able to access some of their information, according to TechCrunch. The tech giant said the bad actors infiltrated a third-party system used for customer support at Fi’s primary network provider. While Google didn’t name the provider outright, Fi relies on US Cellular and T-Mobile for connectivity. If you’ll recall, the latter admitted in mid-January that hackers had been taking data from its systems since November last year.

T-Mobile said the attackers got away with the information of around 37 million postpaid and prepaid customers before it discovered and contained the issue. Back then, the carrier insisted that no passwords, payment information and social security numbers were stolen. Google Fi is saying the same thing, adding that no PINs or text message/call contents were taken, as well. The hackers only apparently had access to users’ phone numbers, account status, SMS card serial numbers and some service plan information, like international roaming. 

Google reportedly told most users that they didn’t have to do anything and that it’s still working with Fi’s network provider to “identify and implement measures to secure the data on that third-party system and notify everyone potentially impacted.” That said, at least one customer claimed having more serious issues than most because of the breach. They shared a part of Google’s supposed email to them on Reddit, telling them that that their “mobile phone service was transferred from [their] SIM card to another SIM card” for almost two hours on January 1st. 

The customer said they received password reset notifications from Outlook, their crypto wallet account and two-factor authenticator Authy that day. They sent logs to 9to5Google to prove that the attackers had used their number to receive text messages that allowed them to access those accounts. Based on their Fi text history, the bad actors started resetting passwords and requesting two-factor authentication codes via SMS within one minute of transferring their SIM card. The customer was reportedly only able regain control of their accounts after turning network access on their iPhone off and back on, though it’s unclear if that’s what solved the issue. We’ve reached out to Google for a statement regarding the customers’ SIM swapping claim and will update this post when we hear back. 

Google’s experimental ChatGPT rivals include a search bot and a tool called ‘Apprentice Bard’

Google employees have been testing several potential ChatGPT competitors as part of the tech giant’s bid to launch a response to OpenAI’s technology, according to CNBC. A previous New York Times report said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai declared “code red” and accelerated AI development to be able to unveil at least 20 AI-powered products this year. Now, CNBC has detailed several of the products the company is working on, including a chatbot called “Apprentice Bard” that uses Google’s LaMDA conversation technology.

Apparently, Google management asked the LaMDA team to prioritize working on a ChatGPT competitor, telling them that it takes precedence over any other project and even warning them not to attend unrelated meetings. Apprentice Bard reportedly looks and functions like ChatGPT in that a user can type a question or a prompt in a text box and then get a written response. 

CNBC says it saw samples proving the bot’s answers include information from recent events — something ChatGPT isn’t capable of, because it only has limited knowledge about anything that happened after 2021. In one example, Apprentice Bard was able to answer whether there will be another round of layoffs at Google. (Unlikely for this year, it said, seeing as the company is doing well financially.) If you’ll recall, Google’s LaMDA tech had gotten a former company engineer fired after he claimed that it had gained sentience.

Google is also reportedly testing a new search page that uses a question and answer format. The experimental home page features five potential question prompts replacing “I’m feeling lucky” under the search bar. After a user types in their query, the page generates human-like responses in gray bubbles. Underneath those responses are suggested follow-up questions, followed by the typical search results with links and headlines. In addition, Alphabet is working on a project called “Atlas” under its cloud unit. While CNBC didn’t have details on what it is, it’s still reportedly part of Google’s “code red” efforts.

It’s unclear at this point which of Google’s projects are going to be released to the public. Google AI chief Jeff Dean told employees during an all-hands meeting to discuss the company’s response to ChatGPT that it’s moving “more conservatively than a small startup.” Providing people wrong information will have a much bigger impact for a known company like Google, after all. Indeed, The Times previously said that the tech giant is prioritizing safety, accuracy and blocking out misinformation when it comes to the development of its search chatbot. If reports that Microsoft is incorporating ChatGPT’s technology into Bing as soon as this March are true, however, we’ll also likely see Google’s search chatbot in the near future. 

Amazon is offering a $50 gift card when you buy a year of Microsoft 365 Family

If you’ve been thinking about adding Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint to your home office, this may be a good day to sign up. Today only, Amazon is offering a 12-month subscription to Microsoft 365 Family bundled with a $50 Amazon gift card for $100. The price of the yearly subscription is usually $100, so you’re essentially getting a free gift card for signing up. The deal is only good through the end of the day and the subscription will auto-renew at the end of the year, so set a reminder if you want to cancel before that kicks in.   

The year-long subscription will come as a digital download and runs on PCs or Macs as well as smartphones and tablets running Apple’s iOS or Android OS. It covers up to six people and can run on five devices at the same time, with offline access included. Microsoft 365 is the new branding for the well-known Office software and the Family subscription includes access to Word, Excel, Outlook email and PowerPoint. It also comes with the Microsoft Teams video calling app, which updated last year to include a Live Share feature enabling easier real-time collaboration. You also get Clipchamp video editor, which Microsoft acquired in 2021. Included security add-ons like Microsoft Defender and ransomeware protection will help protect your data and devices. 

Each person gets 1TB of OneDrive personal cloud storage, which not only lets you store a large amount of files in the cloud, it lets you share photos and files with other OneDrive users, across pretty much any device. 

The Microsoft 365 family subscription is activated as a digital download, but the $50 gift card will arrive as a physical card in the mail. And as we said, the deal ends today, so take advantage if you want to add Microsoft’s productivity apps to your setup. 

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A new AI voice tool is already being abused to deepfake celebrity audio clips

A few days ago, speech AI startup ElevenLabs launched a beta version of its platform that gives users the power to create entirely new synthetic voices for text-to-speech audio or to clone somebody’s voice. Well, it only took the internet a few days to start using the latter for vile purposes. The company has revealed on Twitter that it’s seeing an “increasing number of voice cloning misuse cases” and that it’s thinking of a way to address the problem by “implementing additional safeguards.”

While ElevenLabs didn’t elaborate on what it meant by “misuse cases,” Motherboard found 4chan posts with clips featuring generated voices that sound like celebrities reading or saying something questionable. One clip, for instance, reportedly featured a voice that sounded like Emma Watson reading a part of Mein Kampf. Users also posted voice clips that feature homophobic, transphobic, violent and racist sentiments. It’s not entirely clear if all the clips used ElevenLab’s technology, but a post with a wide collection of the voice files on 4chan included a link to the startup’s platform. 

Perhaps this emergence of “deepfake” audio clips shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing as a few years ago, we’d seen a similar phenomenon take place. Advances in AI and machine learning had led to a rise in deepfake videos, specifically deepfake pornography, wherein existing pornographic materials are altered to use the faces of celebrities. And, yes, people used Emma Watson’s face for some of those videos. 

ElevenLabs is now gathering feedback on how to prevent users from abusing its technology. At the moment, its current ideas include adding more layers to its account verification to enable voice cloning, such as requiring users to enter payment info or an ID. It’s also considering having users verify copyright ownership of the voice they want to clone, such as getting them to submit a sample with prompted text. Finally, the company is thinking of dropping its Voice Lab tool altogether and having users submit voice cloning requests that it has to manually verify. 

China’s biggest search engine is to set launch a ChatGPT rival in March

Chinese search giant Baidu aims to introduce a ChatGPT-like AI service that gives users conversational results, Bloomberg has reported. It’ll be based on the company’s Ernie system, a large-scale machine-learning model trained over several years that “excels at natural language understanding and generation,” Baidu said in 2021. 

Open AI’s ChatGPT has taken the tech world by storm of late, thanks to its ability to answer fact-based questions, write in a human-like way and even create code. Microsoft invested $1 billion in Open AI back in 2019, and reportedly plans to incorporate aspects of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. 

Google, meanwhile, likely sees the technology as a threat to its search business and plans to accelerate development of its own conversational AI technology. CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly declared a “code red” over ChatGPT and may be preparing to show off 20 or more AI-products and a chatbot for its search engine at its I/O conference in May. 

Baidu has reportedly seen lagging growth in search and sees ChatGPT-like apps as a potential way to leapfrog rivals. “I’m so glad that the technology we are pondering every day can attract so many people’s attention. That’s not easy,” he said during a talk in December, according to a transcript seen by Bloomberg.

ChatGPT has largely drawn positive attention, but the downsides have come into focus as well. Technology news site CNET was forced to correct AI-written articles due to errors and concerns about plagiarism. And New York City public schools recently banned ChatGPT over cheating concerns, because it can create articles and essays that can be difficult to distinguish from student-created content. 

Apple could limit WiFi 6E availability to iPhone 15 Pro models

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Apple Watch can now be used by pro surfers during competition

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Apple reportedly delays development of its own WiFi chips

Apple has “halted the development” of its own WiFi chip that was meant to replace Broadcom’s in its devices “for a while,” according to Ming-Chi Kuo. The notable analyst explained in a Medium post that he’s basing this report on his latest survey of the semiconductor industry’s foundries, equipment, packaging and testing. If you’ll recall, Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the tech giant was working on its own wireless chips meant for devices slated for release in 2025. While Apple has yet to confirm the report, it’s not exactly hard to believe: The tech giant has been taking steps to design and manufacture more in-house components to lessen its reliance on outside companies. 

Kuo said Apple chose to devote most of its resources to developing its next-gen A-series and M-series processors instead. That way, it can ensure that the processors for its iPhones, iPads and MacBooks can enter production over the next couple of years. The analyst also explained that it’s riskier for Apple to use its own WiFi chips at a time when companies are switching their devices over to WiFi 6E. “Broadcom will be the biggest winner” in this situation, he said, since the iPhone 15 is expected to feature the new WiFi standard that allows access to the 6 GHz band.

While it’s unclear if Apple will ever release its own WiFi chip, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the company’s wireless chipset ambition isn’t entirely dead. In Kuo’s Twitter thread about the report, Gurman chimed in and said that the tech giant is still working on a combined WiFi-Bluetooth chip. Gurman previously said that the tech giant is also working on a chip that combines Bluetooth, cellular and WiFi in a single component, but he didn’t say if that one is still under development.

When The Information published a piece last week that said Apple is working on a cheaper mixed-reality headset, one of its sources claimed that the device could use the company’s in-house Bluetooth and WiFi chipset. That would allow Apple to keep costs and the device’s final retail price low, since it wouldn’t have to deal with a third party company’s pricing demands.