Apple has unveiled a new feature, Share Item Location, which lets iPhone users securely share the location of AirTags with third parties, such as airlines, to aid in recovering lost luggage. This feature, part of Apple’s iOS 18.2 public beta and set to become widely available soon, is designed to enhance the efficiency of baggage tracking during air travel, offering travellers greater peace of mind. How the Feature Works Using the Find My app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, users can now create a secure link to share the location of their AirTag, visible on an interactive map. The link, valid for seven days and equipped with end-to-end encryption, enables airline personnel to view real-time updates of the item’s whereabouts. For security, the link expires automatically after the bag is located, and the user can disable it at any time. Each map update includes timestamps, ensuring accuracy for both the traveller and airline. Adoption by Major Airlines This feature is already being integrated by major airlines like Delta, United, British Airways, and Singapore Airlines, with over 15 carriers planning to adopt it by the close of 2024. By implementing Apple’s AirTag location data into their customer service processes, airlines are expected to significantly improve the way they handle delayed or misplaced luggage. Integration with Global Systems SITA, a leader in air transport technology, will integrate Apple’s Share Item Location feature into its WorldTracer system, which is utilised by over 500 airlines worldwide. This partnership aims to streamline the luggage-tracking process, benefitting both travellers and airline staff by providing quicker, more accurate information on lost baggage. Commitment to Data Privacy Privacy remains at the core of Apple’s approach. The Find My network is designed with strict data security, ensuring end-to-end encryption and user anonymity. Only authorised airline representatives can access the shared location data, which Apple believes will foster trust among users. Bringing Confidence to Travellers With this latest feature, Apple is addressing a common source of frustration for travellers. By offering a simple and secure way to share an item’s location, Apple’s Share Item Location feature represents a significant step forward in utilising technology to support seamless travel experiences.

Officials in Hong Kong said Wednesday they have discovered dinosaur fossils in the city for the first time on a remote, uninhabited island that's part of a geopark. Experts have initially confirmed the fossils were part of a large dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, about 145 million to 66 million years ago, the government said in a statement. They will need to conduct further studies to confirm the species of the dinosaur. Experts speculate that the dinosaur was likely buried by sand and gravel after its death before it was later washed to the surface by a large flood, and subsequently buried again at the discovery site, it said. The government said the conservation department in March informed its Antiquities and Monuments Office about a sedimentary rock containing substances suspected to be vertebrate fossils. The rock was found on Port Island in the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark in the city's northeastern waters. The government said it commissioned mainland Chinese experts to conduct field investigations. Port Island is closed to the public from Wednesday until further notice to facilitate future investigations and excavations. The fossils will be on display at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of the city's popular shopping districts, starting on Friday. The government is also planning to open a temporary workshop for the public to observe experts' preparation of fossil specimens by the end of 2024.

How good would an algorithm have to be to take over your job? It’s a new question for many workers amid the rise of ChatGPT and other AI programs that can hold conversations, write stories and even generate songs and images within seconds. For doctors who review scans to spot cancer and other diseases, however, AI has loomed for about a decade as more algorithms promise to improve accuracy, speed up work and, in some cases, take over entire parts of the job. Predictions have ranged from doomsday scenarios in which AI fully replaces radiologists, to sunny futures in which it frees them to focus on the most rewarding aspects of their work. That tension reflects how AI is rolling out across heath care. Beyond the technology itself, much depends upon the willingness of doctors to put their trust — and their patients’ health — in the hands of increasingly sophisticated algorithms that few understand. Even within the field, opinions differ on how much radiologists should be embracing the technology. “Some of the AI techniques are so good, frankly, I think we should be doing them now,” said Dr. Ronald Summers, a radiologist and AI researcher at the National Institutes of Health. “Why are we letting that information just sit on the table?” Summers’ lab has developed computer-aided imaging programs that detect colon cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and other conditions. None of those have been widely adopted, which he attributes to the “culture of medicine,” among other factors. Radiologists have used computers to enhance images and flag suspicious areas since the 1990s. But the latest AI programs can go much further, interpreting the scans, offering a diagnosis and even drafting written reports about their findings. The algorithms are often trained on millions of X-rays and other images collected from hospitals and clinics. Across medicine, the FDA has OK’d more than 700 AI algorithms to aid physicians. More than 75% of them are in radiology, yet just 2% of radiology practices use such technology, according to one recent estimate. For all the promises from industry, radiologists see a number of reasons to be skeptical of AI programs: limited testing in real-world settings, lack of transparency about how they work and questions about the demographics of the patients used to train them. “If we don’t know on what cases the AI was tested, or whether those cases are similar to the kinds of patients we see in our practice, there’s just a question in everyone’s mind as to whether these are going to work for us,” said Dr. Curtis Langlotz, a radiologist who runs an AI research center at Stanford University. To date, all the programs cleared by the FDA require a human to be in the loop. In early 2020, the FDA held a two-day workshop to discuss algorithms that could operate without human oversight. Shortly afterwards, radiology professionals warned regulators in a letter that they “strongly believe it is premature for the FDA to consider approval or clearance” of such systems. But European regulators in 2022 approved the first fully automatic software that reviews and writes reports for chest X-rays that look healthy and normal. The company behind the app, Oxipit, is submitting its U.S. application to the FDA. The need for such technology in Europe is urgent, with some hospitals facing monthslong backlogs of scans due to a shortage of radiologists. In the U.S., that kind of automated screening is likely years away. Not because the technology isn’t ready, according to AI executives, but because radiologists aren’t yet comfortable turning over even routine tasks to algorithms. “We try to tell them they’re overtreating people and they’re wasting a ton of time and resources,” said Chad McClennan, CEO of Koios Medical, which sells an AI tool for ultrasounds of the thyroid, the vast majority of which are not cancerous. “We tell them, ‘Let the machine look at it, you sign the report and be done with it.’” Radiologists tend to overestimate their own accuracy, McClennan says. Research by his company found physicians viewing the same breast scans disagreed with each other more than 30% of the time on whether to do a biopsy. The same radiologists even disagreed with their own initial assessments 20% of the time, when viewing the same images a month later. About 20% of breast cancers are missed during routine mammograms, according to the National Cancer Institute. And then there’s the potential for cost savings. On average, U.S. radiologists earn over $350,000 annually, according to the Department of Labor. In the near term, experts say AI will work like autopilot systems on planes — performing important navigation functions, but always under the supervision of a human pilot. That approach offers reassurances to both radiologists and patients, says Dr. Laurie Margolies, of Mount Sinai hospital system in New York. The system uses Koios breast imaging AI to get a second opinion on mammography ultrasounds. “I will tell patients, ‘I looked at it, and the computer looked at it, and we both agree,’” Margolies said. “Hearing me say that we both agree, I think that gives the patient an even greater level of confidence.” The first large, rigorous trials testing AI-assisted radiologists against those working alone give hints at the potential improvements. Initial results from a Swedish study of 80,000 women showed a single radiologist working with AI detected 20% more cancers among mammograms than two radiologists working without the technology. In Europe, mammograms are reviewed by two radiologists to improve accuracy. But Sweden, like other countries, faces a workforce shortage, with only about 70 breast radiologists in a country of 10 million people. Using AI instead of a second reviewer decreased the human workload by 44%, according to the study. Still, the study’s lead author says it’s essential that a radiologist make the final diagnosis in all cases. If an automated algorithm misses a cancer, “that’s going to be very negative for trust in the caregiver,” said Dr. Kristina Lang of Lund University. The question of who would be held liable in such cases is among the thorny legal issues that have yet to be resolved. One result is that radiologists are likely to continue double-checking all AI determinations, lest they be held responsible for an error. That’s likely to wipe out many of the predicted benefits, including reduced workload and burnout. Only an extremely accurate, reliable algorithm would allow radiologists to truly step away from the process, says Dr. Saurabh Jha of the University of Pennsylvania. Until such systems emerge, Jha likens AI-assisted radiology to someone who offers to help you drive by looking over your shoulder and constantly pointing out everything on the road. “That’s not helpful,” Jha says. “If you want to help me drive then you take over the driving so that I can sit back and relax.”

Bangladesh participated in Japan IT Week, Spring, 2024 held from April 24- 26, 2024 at the Tokyo Big Sight. Ambassador of Bangladesh to Japan Shahabuddin Ahmed and Managing Director of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority G S M Jafarullah, ndc, inaugurated Bangladesh Pavilion on 24th April. In the evening on the same day, Embassy of Bangladesh organized a seminar titled 'Digital Bangladesh: Your IT Destination' at the Seminar Hall of Tokyo Big Sight, in collaboration with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), UNIDO ITPO Tokyo and Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS). Ambassador Shahabuddin Ahmed in his speech urged Japanese companies to invest in Bangladesh. G S M Jafarullah, ndc, Managing Director of Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority, highlighted investment opportunists in the Hi-Tech Parks in Bangladesh. Senior Director of JETRO Yukihide Nakayama spoke about the business environment in Bangladesh while Masahiro Horikawa, CEO of BJIT Inc. shared his business experiences in Bangladesh. Dr. Ariful Haque, Minister (Commerce) of the Embassy delivered a presentation on support services to Japanese companies by the Embassy. On behalf of BASIS, Rejwanur Kabir, COO, Destiny Inc. explained about Bangladesh’s thriving IT sector, investment and business opportunities for Japanese companies and strength of exhibitor companies. Japan IT Week is one of the major events on information technology in Asia. This year around 900 exhibitors from 20 countries across the world participated in the event. Seventeen Bangladeshi IT companies participated in the event under the auspices of Hi-Tech Park Authority. Japanese companies showed keen interest to Bangladeshi IT companies, and it is expected that Bangladesh’s participation in this fair will help boost Bangladesh’s IT and ITES export to Japan. On the evening of 26th April, Bangladesh Embassy organized an Opinion Exchange & Networking Event on “Promoting Bangladesh’s IT & ITES Sector in Japan” at the Bangabandhu Auditorium of the Embassy with the participation of the Bangladeshi exhibitors of Japan IT Week, Bangladeshi IT Professionals in Japan and Embassy Officials.

Russia's robot lander the Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the moon after it had spun into uncontrolled orbit, the country’s space agency Roscosmos reported on Sunday. Readf more: Chinese spacecraft enters Mars’ orbit, joining Arab ship “The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the moon,” read a statement from the agency. Read more:Spacecraft buzzes Jupiter’s mega moon, 1st close-up in years Roscosmos said it lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday after it ran into trouble while preparing for its pre-landing orbit after reporting an “abnormal situation ” that its specialists were analyzing. “During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roscosmos said in a Telegram post. The spacecraft was scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, racing to land on Earth’s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft. Read more:UAE spacecraft takes close-up photos of Mars' little moon The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain water. The frozen water in the rocks could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel. The launch earlier this month was Russia’s first since 1976 when it was part of the Soviet Union.

TECNO has partnered with VOGUE, to capture the essence of “Style in Motion” during the London Fashion Week. TECNO teamed up with VOGUE to capture the underlying emotions and individuality that lie within the realm of minimalistic designs, according to a press release. Also read: Skoot-Walton to work on production of high-tech e-bikes Under the guidance of renowned photographer Aria Shahrokhshahi, TECNO's CAMON 20 Series redefined fashion expression by capturing the power of emotional storytelling, it said.  “TECNO and VOGUE's collaboration is a celebration of emotional storytelling and the profound impact it can have on the fashion landscape. By emphasizing the connection between fashion and emotions, they have redefined the way fashion is perceived and experienced,” added the release. Also read: Walton to hold first-ever mega 'International Advanced Components and Technology Expo' in August TECNO also announced the upcoming TECNO CAMON 20 Series Fashion Festival in Bangladesh, scheduled to take place on July 17. The festival will showcase the latest trends and designs, bringing together fashion enthusiasts, industry professionals, and influencers from Bangladesh. As fashion continues to evolve, TECNO's collaboration with VOGUE has set a new standard for capturing and celebrating the emotions and stories behind fashion. Through the integration of technology and fashion, they have paved the way for a future where style and emotions go hand in hand, the release also said.  

Apple on Monday unveiled a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter's ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public's imagination. After years of speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook hailed the arrival of the sleek goggles — dubbed "Vision Pro" — at the the company's annual developers conference held on a park-like campus in Cupertino, California, that Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs helped design. The device will be capable to toggling between virtual reality, or VR, and augmented reality, or AR, which projects digital imagery while users still see can see objects in the real world. Read more: Microsoft will pay $20M to settle U.S. charges of illegally collecting children's data “This marks the beginning of a journey that will bring a new dimension to powerful personal technology," Cook told the crowd. Although Apple executives provided an extensive preview of the headset's capabilities during the final half hour of Monday's event, consumers will have to wait before they can get their hands on the device and prepare to pay a hefty price to boot. Vision Pro will sell for $3,500 once it's released in stores early next year. “It's an impressive piece of technology, but it was almost like a tease,” said Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen. “It looked like the beginning of a very long journey." Instead of merely positioning the goggles as another vehicle for exploring virtual worlds or watching more immersive entertainment, Apple framed the Vision Pro as the equivalent of owning a ultrahigh-definition TV, surround-sound system, high-end camera, and state-of-the art camera bundled into a single piece of hardware. Read more: Apple is expected to unveil sleek headset aimed at thrusting the masses into alternate realities “We believe it is a stretch, even for Apple, to assume consumers would pay a similar amount for an AR/VR headset as they would for a combination of those products,” D.A. Davison Tom Forte wrote in a Monday research note. Despite such skepticism, the headset could become another milestone in Apple’s lore of releasing game-changing technology, even though the company hasn’t always been the first to try its hand at making a particular device. Apple's lineage of breakthroughs date back to a bow-tied Jobs peddling the first Mac in 1984 —a tradition that continued with the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, the Apple Watch in 2014 and its AirPods in 2016. The company emphasized that it drew upon its past decades of product design during the years it spent working on the Vision Pro, which Apple said involved more than 5,000 different patents. The headset will be equipped with 12 cameras, six microphones and variety of sensors that will allow users to control it and various apps with just their eyes and hand gestures. Apple said the experience won't cause the recurring nausea and headaches that similar devices have in the past. The company also developed a technology to create three-dimensional digital version of each user to display during video conferencing. Read more: OPPO launches MR Glass developer edition Although Vision Pro won't require physical controllers that can be clunky to use, the goggles will have to either be plugged into a power outlet or a portable battery tethered to the headset — a factor that could make it less attractive for some users. “They’ve worked hard to make this headset as integrated into the real world as current technology allows, but it’s still a headset,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Yory Wurmser, who nevertheless described the unveiling as a “fairly mind-blowing presentation.” Even so, analysts are not expecting the Vision Pro to be a big hit right away. That's largely because of the hefty price, but also because most people still can't see a compelling reason to wear something wrapped around their face for an extended period of time. If the Vision Pro turns out to be a niche product, it would leave Apple in the same bind as other major tech companies and startups that have tried selling headsets or glasses equipped with technology that either thrusts people into artificial worlds or projects digital images onto scenery and things that are actually in front of them — a format known as “augmented reality.” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been describing these alternate three-dimensional realities as the “metaverse.” It's a geeky concept that he tried to push into the mainstream by changing the name of his social networking company to Meta Platforms in 2021 and then pouring billions of dollars into improving the virtual technology. But the metaverse largely remains a digital ghost town, although Meta's virtual reality headset, the Quest, remains the top-selling device in a category that so far has mostly appealed to video game players looking for even more immersive experiences. Cook and other Apple executives avoided referring to the metaverse in their presentations, describing the Vision Pro as the company's first leap into “spatial computing” instead. The response to virtual, augmented and mixed reality has been decidedly ho-hum so far. Some of the gadgets deploying the technology have even been derisively mocked, with the most notable example being Google's internet-connected glasses released more than a decade ago. Microsoft also has had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset released in 2016, although the software maker earlier this year insisted it remains committed to the technology. Magic Leap, a startup that stirred excitement with previews of a mixed-reality technology that could conjure the spectacle of a whale breaching through a gymnasium floor, had so much trouble marketing its first headset to consumers in 2018 that it has since shifted its focus to industrial, health care and emergency uses. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives estimated Apple will sell just 150,000 of the headsets during its first year on the market before escalating to 1 million headsets sold during the second year — a volume that would make the goggles a mere speck in the company's portfolio. By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million of its marquee iPhones a year. But the iPhone wasn't an immediate sensation, with sales of fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.

Google on Wednesday disclosed plans to infuse its dominant search engine with more advanced artificial-intelligence technology, a drive that's in response to one of the biggest threats to its long-established position as the internet's main gateway. The gradual shift in how Google's search engine runs is rolling out three months after Microsoft's Bing search engine started to tap into technology similar to that which powers the artificially intelligent chatbot ChatGPT, which has created one of Silicon Valley's biggest buzzes since Apple released the first iPhone 16 years ago. Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., already has been testing its own conversational chatbot called Bard. That product, powered by technology called generative AI that also fuels ChatGPT, has only been available to people accepted from a waitlist. But Google announced Wednesday that Bard will be available to all comers in more than 180 countries and more languages beyond English. Bard's multilingual expansion will begin with Japanese and Korean before adding about 40 more languages. Now Google is ready to test the AI waters with its search engine, which has been synonymous with finding things on the internet for the past 20 years and serves as the pillar of a digital advertising empire that generated more than $220 billion in revenue last year. "We are at an exciting inflection point," Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told a packed developers conference in a speech peppered with one AI reference after another. "We are reimagining all our products, including search." More AI technology will be coming to Google's Gmail with a "Help Me Write" option that will produce lengthy replies to emails in seconds, and a tool for photos called "Magic Editor" that will automatically doctor pictures. The AI transition will begin cautiously with the search engine that serves as Google's crown jewel. The deliberate approach reflects the balancing act that Google must negotiate as it tries to remain on the cutting edge while also preserving its reputation for delivering reliable search results — a mantle that could be undercut by artificial intelligence's penchant for fabricating information that sounds authoritative. The tendency to produce deceptively convincing answers to questions — a phenomenon euphemistically described as "hallucinations" — has already been cropping up during the early testing of Bard, which like ChatGPT, relies on still-evolving generative AI technology. Google will take its next AI steps through a newly formed search lab where people in the U.S. can join a waitlist to test how generative AI will be incorporated in search results. The tests also include the more traditional links to external websites where users can read more extensive information about queried topics. It may take several weeks before Google starts sending invitations to those accepted from the waitlist to test the AI-injected search engine. The AI results will be clearly tagged as an experimental form of technology and Google is pledging the AI-generated summaries will sound more factual than conversational — a distinct contrast from Bard and ChatGPT, which are programmed to convey more human-like personas. Google is building in guardrails that will prevent the AI baked into the search engine from responding to sensitive questions about health — such as, "Should I give Tylenol to a 3-year-old?" — and finance matters. In those instances, Google will continue to steer people to authoritative websites. Google isn't predicting how long it will be before its search engine will include generative AI results for all comers. The Mountain View, California, company has been under intensifying pressure to demonstrate how its search engine will maintain its leadership since Microsoft began to load AI into Bing, which remains a distant second to Google. The potential threat caused the stock price of Google's parent, Alphabet Inc., to initially plunge, although it has recently bounced back to where it stood when Bing announced its AI plans to great fanfare. More recently, The New York Times reported Samsung is considering dropping Google as the default search engine on its widely used smartphones, raising the specter that Apple might adopt a similar tactic with the iPhone unless Google can show its search engine can evolve with what appears to be a forthcoming AI-driven revolution. As it begins to ingrain AI in its search engine, Google is aiming to make Bard smarter by connecting with the next generation of a massive data set known as a "large language model," or LLM, that fuels it. The LLM that Bard relies on is dubbed Pathways Language Model, or PaLM. The AI in Google's search engine will draw upon the next-generation PaLM2 and another technology known as a Multitask Unified Model, or MUM. Although people will have to wait to see how Google's search engine will deploy generative AI to find answers, a new tool will be immediately available. Google is adding a new filter called "Perspectives" that will focus on what people are saying online about whatever topic is entered into the search engine. The new feature will be placed along existing search filters for news, images and video.  

Chatbots posing as journalists have been running almost 50 AI-generated “content farms”, according to an investigation by the anti-misinformation tracker NewsGuard. The concerned websites provide information on politics, health, environment, money, and technology at a “high volume” in order to give a quick turnover of material to saturate with advertisements for profit, according to the investigation, reports The Guardian. “Some publish hundreds of articles a day,” Newsguard’s McKenzie Sadeghi and Lorenzo Arvanitis said. “Some of the content advances false narratives. Nearly all of the content features bland language and repetitive phrases, hallmarks of artificial intelligence.” In all, 49 webpages in seven languages — English, Chinese, Czech, French, Portuguese, Tagalog, and Thai — have been identified as being "entirely or mostly" created by AI language models. Almost half of the sites had no obvious evidence of ownership or control, and only four could be contacted, said the report. One such site, Famadillo.com, claimed to have an “expert” to use AI to edit old articles that nobody read anymore, while GetIntoKnowledge.com acknowledged utilizing "automation at some points where they are extremely needed." Searching for typical error messages produced by services such as ChatGPT led to the discovery of AI-generated content. “All 49 sites identified by NewsGuard had published at least one article containing error messages commonly found in AI-generated texts, such as ‘my cutoff date in September 2021’, ‘as an AI language model’ and ‘I cannot complete this prompt’, among others,” the report also said. While the sites share AI authorship, their levels of success vary: ScoopEarth.com, has 124,000 Facebook followers for its celebrity biographies, while others, such as the finance site FilthyLucre.com, have not attracted a single follower on any platform.  

Geoffrey Hinton, a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), has resigned from Google, according to a statement he made to the New York Times. Hinton, who is considered the godfather of AI, expressed regret for his work and warned of the potential dangers associated with AI chatbots, reports BBC.  "Right now, they're not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be," he told BBC.  Hinton also acknowledged that his age, 75, played a role in his decision to retire from Google. "I'm 75, so it's time to retire," he said.  Current AI systems like ChatGPT are the result of Dr. Hinton's groundbreaking work in the fields of deep learning and neural networks. However, the cognitive psychologist and computer scientist told the BBC that the chatbot may soon surpass the amount of knowledge that a human brain can store. "At the moment, what we're observing is that things like GPT-4 much surpass a person in terms of its broad understanding. It's not as skilled at reasoning, but it can already make simple decisions,” he said.  He suggested that these chatbots could soon surpass human intelligence and expressed concern about "bad actors" who might use AI for nefarious purposes.  He praised Google for their responsible approach to AI and emphasized the need for caution and vigilance in the development of these technologies. "I actually want to say something positive about Google. And they're more credible if I'm not affiliated with Google," said Hinton.  Google's top scientist, Jeff Dean, stated in a statement, "We remain committed to a responsible approach to AI."