IBM is offering IT infrastructure with a new level of security and reliability to fuel Malaysia’s AI digital transformation!
AI Digital Transformation In Malaysia Needs Better IT Infra!
Malaysia is at a pivotal point in its digital journey, with businesses future-proofing their organisations by leveraging AI and automation.
The digital economy is now a cornerstone of Malaysia’s economy, contributing 23.2% of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2021. The Malaysia Minister of Communications and Digital, Fahmi Fadzil, anticipates that this will increase to 25.5% by 2025, with a value of RM382 billion. The National Tech Association of Malaysia is even more optimistic, and believes that the digital economy will hit that economic contribution much earlier.
The increased urgency in adopting cutting-edge technologies like AI is driving demand for better IT infrastructure. Better not just in terms of performance and availability, but also security and reliability.
An IDC report forecasted that AI spending in the Asia Pacific region alone will skyrocket to US$78 billion by 2027. And these AI investments are predominantly being funnelled into infrastructure provisioning. That’s because ultimately, digital transformation in any nation is reliant on its IT infrastructure.
IBM To Fuel AI Digital Transformation In Malaysia!
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to AI infrastructure. Organisations must provision the right infrastructure for the AI task at hand.
They have to not only look at the size and scale of the AI models and tasks, they also have to consider security and privacy issues, as well as regulatory compliance. A resilient infrastructure by design is also critical, with AI workloads becoming essential backbones to mission critical applications and workloads.
To that end, IBM Power Systems offer a secure and reliable platform for enterprises to perform inference, and run AI algorithms on their most sensitive data and transactions.
IBM Power Systems run on the Power10 core, which is designed for AI acceleration. Each Power10 core on the IBM Power S1022 can process up to 42% more batch queries per second than a comparable x86 server with a peak load of 40 concurrent users, while running large language AI models.
IBM Power10 systems also offers enterprise out-0f-the-box low-latency transactional capabilities and throughput, resiliency, continuous availability (99.999%) and concurrent replace and repair.
The IBM Power10 is also designed for greater efficiency. The Power E1080, for example, offers 3X the capacity with 52% lower power consumption for the same workload, compared to the Power E880C. It also offers 33% lower power consumption than the Power E980 for the same workload.
IBM claims that, in general, Power10 systems offer 6X more throughput per container cluster, and 40% to 50% lower cost than comparable x86 solutions.
On top of that, the IBM Power Systems are built to be secure by design, with a fully-integrated secured stack from processor chip to operating system, offering quantum-safe encryption and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE).
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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Did Israel actually orchestrate the 9/11 attacks on the United States, as a false flag operation?!
Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Israel Orchestrated 9/11 False Flag Attacks!
People are sharing photos or posts on X (formerly Twitter), which claim or suggest that Israel actually orchestrated the 9/11 attacks on the United States, as a false flag operation!
Matt Wallace : Rumors are circulating that the Israeli government orchestrated 9/11 as a false flag attack to get the United States Military involved in their conflicts in the Middle East. Do you believe that is possible?
Stew Peters posted what appears to be an AI generated photo of Jews dancing in front of the World Trade Center towers exploding during the September 11 attack.
Jake Shields : The Mossad agents arrested dancing and recording on 9/11 shows at the Minimum they were aware the attack was taking place Benjamin Netanyahu also said the attack is great for Israel
This is yet another of FAKE NEWS circulating on X (formerly Twitter), and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : Osama Bin Laden Took Credit For 9/11 Attacks
First, I should point out that Osama bin Laden himself publicly took credit for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Translation of audio message that was posted on Islamist website on 14 February 2003:
Osama bin Laden : “On the blessed Tuesday 11 September 2001 … they launched their attacks with their planes in an unparalleled and magnificent feat of valor, unmatched by any in humankind before them. … Yet with the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, there occurred an even bigger destruction: that of the great American Dream and legend of Democracy.”
Osama bin Laden was even captured on video, acknowledging that Muhammad Atta was the ringleader of the 9/11 attacks:
Osama bin Laden : Muhammad (Atta) from the Egyptian family (meaning the al-Qaida Egyptian group), was in charge of the group.”
Saudi Sheikh : A plane crashing into a tall building was out of anyone’s imagination. This was a great job. He was one of the pious men in the organization. He became a martyr. Allah bless his soul.
Osama bin Laden : The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they didn’t know anything about the operation, not even one letter.
But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes. Then he said: Those who were trained to fly didn’t know the others. One group of people did not know the other group.
They were overjoyed when the first plane hit the building, so I said to them: be patient. The difference between the first and the second plane hitting the towers was twenty minutes. And the difference between the first plane and the plane that hit the Pentagon was one hour.
Fact #2 : 9/11 Commission Confirmed Al Qaeda Was Responsible
The 9/11 Commission confirmed that al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the United States, not Israel.
Its final report (link) detailed how the attack was planned and financed by al Qaeda, and conducted by 19 young Arabs. It also pointed out that Islamic extremists had given “plenty of warning” that they planned to “kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers”.
During the spring and summer of 2001, U.S. intelligence agencies received a stream of warnings that al Qaeda planned, as one report put it, “something very, very, very big.” Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet told us, “The system was blinking red.”
Although Bin Ladin was determined to strike in the United States, as President Clinton had been told and President Bush was reminded in a Presidential Daily Brief article briefed to him in August 2001, the specific threat information pointed overseas. Numerous precautions were taken overseas. Domestic agencies were not effectively mobilized.
The 9/11 Commission report also pointed out that it was Osama bin Laden who ordered the September 11 attacks to proceed.
As final preparations were under way during the summer of 2001, dissent emerged among al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan over whether to proceed. The Taliban’s chief, Mullah Omar, opposed attacking the United States. Although facing opposition from many of his senior lieutenants, Bin Ladin effectively overruled their objections, and the attacks went forward.
Fact #3 : Many Jews Died In September 11 Attack
Claims that the Mossad warned some 4,000 Jews who worked at the World Trade Center through Jew calls about the September 11 attack have been proven false time and time again.
Approximately 400 of those who died in the World Trade Center were confirmed, or strongly believed, to be Jewish – accounting for about 15% of all WTC victims that day. The US Department of State even compiled a partial list of 76 WTC victims who were confirmed Jewish.
The AI-generated photo that Stew Peters posted of Jews dancing as the World Trade Center towers exploded is based on the recurring narrative that the 9/11 attacks were a false flag operation conducted by Israel.
The problem though is that – there never was any evidence of Jews or Israelis dancing in delight as they watched the Twin Towers burn and then collapse.
Instead, news media only reported that people were celebrating news of the September 11 attacks in the Palestinian Territories, as well as some Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Lebanon.
Conspiracy theorists who keep promoting this claim over the years have consistently fail to provide any evidence of dancing Jews / Israelis. That’s probably why they have to resort to creating such images using generative AI…
Fact #5 : Arrested Israelis Deny Involvement
There was only one known incident involving Israeli citizens – five men who were arrested after someone reported seeing three of them taking photos or videos of the World Trade Center on fire.
Three of the men were reportedly “happy” while taking photos or videos in Liberty Park, which is located opposite the World Trade Center on the New Jersey side of the river.
When police officers tracked down their van and pulled it over, one of the passengers told the officers that they had been on the West Side Highway in Manhattan when the September 11 attacks took place.
The driver – Sivan Kurzberg, told the officers that the Palestinians were “the problem”, not them. The other passengers were his brother, Paul Kurzberg, and their friends, Aaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner, and Omer Marmari.
We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.
I should point out that the Israelis were only seen taking photos or videos after the first plane had already hit the WTC, and not during the attack itself.
On top of that, they thought the attacks were carried out by Palestinians, when none of them were from Palestine. 15 of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and one was from Lebanon.
Finally – there ultimately was no evidence that the five Israeli men were involved in the 9/11 attacks. Conspiracy theorists have certainly not provided any evidence to back up their claims.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Is there only one official Michelle Obama pregnancy photo, taken with Barack Obama?!
Take a look at the viral photo, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : This Is Only Official Michelle Obama Pregnancy Photo!
People are sharing a photo which claims to be the only official Michelle Obama pregnancy photo!
Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narritives : The last photo I shared of Michelle Obama pregnant was community noted so here is the official and only picture of Michelle Obama being pregnant.
Truth : That’s Not An Official Michelle Obama Pregnancy Photo!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created about Barack and Michelle Obama, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : Michelle Obama Never Released Photos Of Herself Pregnant
First, let me just point out that Michelle Obama has never released photos of herself while pregnant with Sasha or Malia.
That’s not to say they don’t exist. It is likely that they exist – they were simply not made available to us – members of the public.
Perhaps she’s just like many of us who don’t share private photos on social media. Perhaps she did not want to “jinx” her pregnancies.
After all, Michelle and Barack Obama had trouble getting pregnant, and she suffered a miscarriage. They ultimately conceived Malia and Sasha through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
But I did find a single photo showing her pregnant with Sasha in the year 2000, while walking with Barack Obama and Malia Sasha in a stroller. It was apparently taken by AP, so we know this is a genuine photo.
Michelle Obama was 36 years old at that time, while Barack Obama was 39 years old. As you can see – they look young!
Photo Credit : AP Images
Fact #2 : The Viral Photo Was AI-Generated
A quick look at the viral photo quickly showed image artifacts that tell us that it was AI-generated.
Both Michelle and Barack Obama look like they are in their 50s, instead of their 30s when they had their two girls.
Michelle Obama has really abnormal eyebrows. The left eyebrow appears to start from her inner corner of the eyelid, while she appears to have two eyebrows on the right.
Michelle Obama appears to have two bulges on her skull.
Michelle Obama’s right hand has really weird nails and the fingers are too long.
Barack Obama’s left ear is located way too low, right next to his cheek!
Barack Obama appears to have a giant double-chin!
Barack Obama’s left hand has ridiculously long fingers!
In short – this photo was created using generative AI software. It is most certainly not an actual Michelle Obama pregnancy photo, never mind an official one.
The person who created this photo using generative AI also made the mistake of generating it using current photos of Michelle and Barack Obama. They were only in their 30s when they had Malia and Sasha, not their 50s!
There is no need for Michelle Obama to release any photos of herself pregnant to prove that she is a woman.
Even if you ignore the fact that she gave birth to two girls, Michelle Obama grew up as a female. Her family and friends only knew her as a girl and then, a woman. Never as a boy or a man who later became transgender.
Michelle Obama sometimes shares photos of her childhood on her Instagram account. They are all proof that she grew up as a girl, never as a boy.
On the other hand, all these claims that she was born a boy has never been backed by any evidence.
Claims that Michelle Obama was born a man is not only false, it’s absurdly ridiculous, because she gave birth to two girls – Malia Obama and Sasha Obama.
For those who are wondering – transgender women cannot give birth, or suffer miscarriages, as they were born men, and lack both ovaries and uterus. And no, Malia and Sasha Obama were not adopted
Ultimately, these fake photos, and claims about Michelle Obama being transgender, are just attempts by misogynists and Republicans of the MAGA persuasion to disparage Barack and Michelle Obama.
As the 2024 US Presidential Election draws close, you can expect more rumours of Michelle Obama joining the race, and even more fake news and photos about her.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Can the StopNCII website remove all of your nude or deep fake or Photoshopped photos from the Internet?!
Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : StopNCII Can Remove All Nude / Deep Fake Photos!
People are sharing this advice on WhatsApp and social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, claiming that the StopNCI website can remove all of your nude or deep fake or Photoshopped photos from the Internet!
Attention girls! If someone edits your photo with Al or Photoshop to create a nude photo, then you go to stopncii.org and submit the original photo and the edited photo.
They’ll remove the edited photo from all the places on the Internet and your identity will be confidential. Please immediately inform the cyber cell and file a case to take immediate action.
Truth : StopNCII Cannot Remove All Nude / Deep Fake Photos!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on WhatsApp and social media platforms, and here are reasons why…
Fact #1 : StopNCII Does Not Remove Photos / Videos
First, let me just point out that the StopNCII website is a project by the Revenge Porn Helpline, which is itself a part of the UK-based charity, SWGfL.
StopNCII is not a government organisation, or even a multinational / international organisation that controls what gets posted on the Internet. It does not have any power or authority or even capability to remove a single photo or video.
To be clear – StopNCII cannot remove all of your photos or videos from the Internet. No organisation can.
Fact #2 : You Don’t Upload Photos / Videos To StopNCII
The advice to upload your nude or edited photos or videos to the StopNCII website is nonsensical. So is the claim that you must also upload your original photos or videos.
StopNCII does not require you to upload your nude / edited photo or video, or your original photo or video.
In fact, StopNCII does not even require you to upload a single photo or video. It merely scans the photos or videos that you are concerned about.
Those photos or videos do not leave your devices (computers, tablets, and smartphones).
Fact #3 : StopNCII Only Generates Digital Hashes
StopNCII only scans the photos or videos that you select on your device, and generate their digital fingerprints (hashes). It does not download or keep your nude photos or videos.
Select the image(s)/video(s) on your device that you would like to protect. Remember, your image(s)/video(s) do not leave your device, they will only be scanned so a unique “hash,” or digital fingerprint, can be generated.
Fact #4 : Photos / Videos Are Only Removed On Certain Platforms
StopNCII itself does not remove any photos or videos, whether they are nude or edited. Instead, they rely on a limited number of partner platforms to do that:
Facebook
TikTok
Reddit
Instagram
Bumble
OnlyFans
Threads
Pornhub
Only these platforms will receive cases and the digital hashes (fingerprints) from StopNCII.
Fact #5 : Not All Photos / Videos Will Be Removed
Even on those supported platforms, it’s not a guarantee that those photos / videos submitted to StopNCII will be removed.
Those platforms will scan their systems for those digital hashes, and remove them if they are found to have violated their intimate image abuse policy.
This is to avoid the StopNCII system from being abused to remove photos or videos that are not sexual, abusive, personal, or illegal in any way.
Once generated the ‘hash’ will be shared with the participating companies.
Participating companies will look for matches to the hash and remove any matches within their system(s) if it violates their intimate image abuse policy.
The Revenge Porn Helpline reported a 90% removal rate on those platforms since 2015. While that is impressive, that tells us that some 10% of all reported photos or videos were determined not to have contravened the policies of those partner platforms.
Fact #6 : No One Can Remove All Photos / Videos From Internet
Even if StopNCII is able to partner with every single social media platform, large and small; or Internet service providers, it simply cannot help you remove all of your nude photos or videos from the Internet.
That’s because once released on the Internet, those photos or videos (whether nude or edited) can be transmitted through many means – messaging apps like WhatsApp or Telegram, or email and file-sharing services.
They can also be posted or stored on independent websites / servers on the Internet or the dark web, that no one can shut down. There are revenge porn websites and groups dedicated to this, and it is simply impossible to remove edited / nude photos and videos from those websites and groups.
Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!
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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Was Bill Gates just destroyed in an ABC News interview with Sarah Ferguson?!
Take a look at the viral video, and find out what the facts really are!
Updated @ 2023-10-07 : Updated with new information after video went viral again Originally posted @ 2023-03-08
Claim : Bill Gates Was Destroyed In ABC News Interview!
People are sharing a TikTok video with the title “Bill Gates caught in corner”, which shows Bill Gates getting destroyed in a recent ABC News interview.
Here are the accompanying subtitles from the interview, but it’s rather long, so feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!
ABC News : So Mr Gates, in your own words, what have you contributed to the world?
Bill Gates : Um I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I created the world’s most popular computer operating system.
ABC News : No, of course, but as we all know, it wasn’t actually you who created it as a matter of fact, the predecessor of Windows, Emma’s [sic] DOS was created by Gary Kildahl, which you then basically stole from him for a couple of dollars.
Bill Gates : It’s not just development, there’s a whole lot of important factors to running an enormously successful company like Microsoft.
ABC News : So then let’s leave the computer world for a moment. You have been a major spokesperson for COVID vaccines during the pandemic yes [sic], what exactly makes you, a computer engineer who didn’t even programme his initial product himself, a valid representative of the pharmaceutical industry?
Bill Gates : I have read a lot of books about that topic, yes, how does that, wait, wait a second, and met with specialist from the field all over the world.
ABC News : Mister Gates, with all due respect, how do you feel about it now, now that it’s becoming more and more evident that the medication you were promoting whilst having heavily invested in it yourself thus making billions of [sic] it, has caused countless injuries, side effects and death.
Bill Gates : That’s a very immature way of looking at it.
ABC News : Quite frankly, so here’s my final question to you, is this a behavioural pattern?
Bill Gates : What do you mean exactly?
ABC News : Taking technology from other people that you don’t understand, selling a product full of bugs, causing massive damage, and profiting from it in a spectacular way.
Bill Gates : No no no no no no this is not how the world works.
ABC News : Can you sleep at night?
Bill Gates : Okay that’s enough. This interview is over. Thank you.
Truth : Bill Gates Was NOT Destroyed In ABC News Interview!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created to go viral on TikTok, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : ABC News Interviewed Bill Gates On Jan 31, 2023
First, let’s start by sharing some basic context on the ABC News interview with Bill Gates.
The interview was conducted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Sarah Ferguson, on her current affairs show – 7.30, and released on Tuesday, 31 January 2023.
Fact #2 : ABC News Did Not Destroy Bill Gates In That Interview
Anyone who watches the actual ABC News interview of Bill Gates will be puzzled by the viral video and claim, because Sarah Ferguson never “destroyed” Bill Gates.
You can read all about her interview and even watch the video in an article written by Sarah Ferguson and her colleague Myles Wearring. In her interview, she only asked Bill Gates about:
COVID-19 conspiracy theories
Elon Musk buying Twitter
the rise of artificial intelligence
climate change and renewable energy
his association with Jeffrey Epstein
his philanthropy, and pledge to give away most of his wealth
Sarah Ferguson ended the interview by thanking Bill Gates, who only nods. He never quit the interview in frustration as shown in the viral video.
Fact #3 : Gates Foundation Called Viral Video Fake
The media department for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation labelled the viral video as fake:
We confirm that the audio in this altered video is fake.
Fact #4 : Viral Video Was Edited Using Artificial Intelligence
The viral video was created by a TikTok creator called bdti989, who posted it with the caption:
How dangerous AI can be 😱 #BillGates #billgates #microsoft #Microsoft #followformore #follow #msdos #uops #ups #ops #world #interview #interviews #artificialintelligence #ai
bdti989 also stated several times that he edited the ABC News interview using artificial intelligence. It is basically a deep fake video.
Yes, it’s AI generated!
Fact #5 : Fake Video Was Not Satire
While some people are trying to justify the creation and/or sharing the video as “satire”, that is not true. Even the content creator himself did not call it satire.
bdti989 does not appear to create satire. His account is full of typical edited news content pushing right wing conspiracies, not satire.
Most of his videos aren’t particularly popular, typically with less than 3,000 views. Only his AI-generated fake video of the ABC News interview of Bill Gates has gone viral, with over 1.4 million views.
It is likely he created it to test his ability to create fake videos using artificial intelligence. Hopefully, it does not inspire him to create more of such deep fake videos to increase the popularity of his TikTok channel.
Did this journalist just destroy Bill Gates in an ABC News interview?! 😆
Regardless of what we may think of Bill Gates as a businessman and/or person, he was well regarded as a programmer. Both Gates and Paul Allen developed Altair BASIC – a BASIC programming interpreter for the MITS Altair 8800 and S-100 computers.
Paul Allen would famously write a bootstrap program for it during a flight to demonstrate their Altair BASIC interpreter, but Bill Gates would famously win the bet on who could write the shortest possible bootstrap program.
Fact #6 : MS-DOS Was Not Created By Gary Kildall
Gary Kildall (wrongly named as Gary Kildahl in the fake video) was the creator of the CP/M operating system that was once considered by IBM for its first PC.
Bill Gates not only did not steal MS-DOS from Gary Kildall, it was Gates who suggested that IBM should purchase CP/M-86 from Kildall for its forthcoming PC.
However, Gary Kildall famously went flying on his private plane instead of meeting IBM representatives, and they failed to reach an agreement.
Fact #7 : MS-DOS Was Based On 86-DOS
MS-DOS (wrongly named as Emma’s DOS in the fake video) was based on 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products.
After IBM and Digital Research failed to reach an agreement on CP/M-86, IBM lead negotiator Jack Sams asked Bill Gates to find a usable operating system for the IBM PC. Gates later proposed using 86-DOS.
Microsoft then purchased a non-exclusive licence for 86-DOS in December 1980 for US$25,000, and hired Tim Paterson to port it to the IBM PC, so it would work on the Intel 8086 processor. IBM would submit over 300 change requests before accepting the final port.
It was only in July 1981 – a month before IBM released the PC, that Microsoft purchased all rights to 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products for US$50,000. Microsoft then licensed the modified 86-DOS to IBM, and it became PC DOS 1.0.
In short, MS-DOS (rebranded from PC DOS) was based on 86-DOS, which was a different operating system from CP/M invented by Gary Kildall.
Kildall would later persuade IBM to offer CP/M-86 with the PC. That would not be possible if Kildall really sold CP/M to Microsoft “for a couple of dollars” as the fake video alleges.
Fact #8 : COVID-19 Vaccines Have Been Proven Safe + Effective
Anti-vaccination proponents are not interested in your health, which is why they keep lying about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
The truth is – COVID-19 vaccines were only approved AFTER they have undergone extensive safety and efficacy tests, involving tens of thousands of volunteers.
The reason why doctors and health authorities STRONGLY advocate vaccination is because the vaccines have been PROVEN to protect the vast majority of people from getting COVID-19 in the first place.
And even if you do get infected after vaccination, the vaccine will protect you against hospitalisation and death from COVID-19.
Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!
Please Support My Work!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Did Michelle Obama just release photos of herself pregnant, to prove that she is a real woman?!
Take a look at the viral photos, and find out what the facts really are!
Updated @ 2023-10-01 : Added fact check video Originally posted @ 2023-09-30
Claim : Michelle Obama Released Photos Of Herself Pregnant!
People are sharing photos that they claim were taken when Michelle Obama was pregnant, to prove that she is a real woman.
Charlotte, The Baroness : BREAKING: Michelle Obama silences ALL conspiracy theorists and demands a universal apology after FINALLY releasing glowing pregnancy photos when she was expecting Sasha and Malia.
Was_it_Planned : You can fake the baby bump. We need 3 independent DNA samples analyzed to prove man or women.
The rest is smoke and mirrors. I think she’s a he! While you’re at it, DNA test the kids to verify birth parents are Obama’s.
Ultra Maga Tx Teresa 🇺🇸 : 😂🤣😆😂 we know you’re a dude & we’ve seen their real parents. 🤡🤡
Truth : Those Are Not Photos Of A Pregnant Michelle Obama!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created about Barack and Michelle Obama, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : Michelle Obama Never Released Photos Of Herself Pregnant
First, let me just point out that Michelle Obama has never released photos of herself while pregnant with Sasha or Malia.
That’s not to say they don’t exist. It is likely that they exist – they were simply not made available to us – members of the public.
Perhaps she’s just like many of us who don’t share private photos on social media. Perhaps she did not want to “jinx” her pregnancies.
After all, Michelle and Barack Obama had trouble getting pregnant, and she suffered a miscarriage. They ultimately conceived Malia and Sasha through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Fact #2 : The Photos Were AI-Generated
I took a look at all four photos and quickly determined that they were AI-generated, and rather poor examples at that.
The first two are better examples, but if you look closely, you can see that her hands are grossly distorted. She not only has at least six fingers on each hand, they are of wrong lengths and with nails in the wrong position.
These two examples are terrible. The example on the left does not even look like Michelle Obama. Perhaps a young Oprah Winfrey? Of course, Oprah never had children…
The one on the right looks more like Michelle Obama but had grossly exaggerated features, including a hump neck. But the easiest way to identify it as an AI-generated fake photo is by looking at her hands.
As you can see, both examples have distorted hands. In the example on the left, the fingers of both hands appear to merge together. In the example of the right, her left hand has six unnaturally long fingers, while her right hand has a ridiculously long thumb.
Fact #3 : Online Tools Confirmed Images Were AI-Generated
Just in case you don’t trust my Mark 1 eyeballs, or my common sense, you will be glad to know that two online tools used to detect AI-generated photos – AI or Not, and Illuminarty, have confirmed all four photos were generated using AI image generators.
Fact #4 : Michelle Obama Was Born A Woman
There is no need for Michelle Obama to release any photos of herself pregnant to prove that she is a woman.
Even if you ignore the fact that she gave birth to two girls, Michelle Obama grew up as a female. Her family and friends only knew her as a girl and then, a woman. Never as a boy or a man who later became transgender.
Michelle Obama sometimes shares photos of her childhood on her Instagram account. They are all proof that she grew up as a girl, never as a boy.
On the other hand, all these claims that she was born a boy has never been backed by any evidence.
Claims that Michelle Obama was born a man is not only false, it’s absurdly ridiculous, because she gave birth to two girls – Malia Obama and Sasha Obama.
For those who are wondering – transgender women cannot give birth, or suffer miscarriages, as they were born men, and lack both ovaries and uterus. And no, Malia and Sasha Obama were not adopted
Ultimately, these fake photos, and claims about Michelle Obama being transgender, are just attempts by misogynists and Republicans of the MAGA persuasion to disparage Barack and Michelle Obama.
As the 2024 US Presidential Election draws close, you can expect more rumours of Michelle Obama joining the race, and even more fake news and photos about her.
Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Do traffic lights in Malaysia now have CCTV cameras to catch drivers crossing the white line?!
Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Traffic Lights Have CCTV To Catch Drivers!
People are sharing a photo of a JPJ (Road Transport Department) traffic offence fine issued to a driver called Koh Chip Wee.
They claim that he was fined after a CCTV camera at the traffic light caught him stopping his vehicle over the white line. This example warns motorists that they could be fined RM2,000 or jailed for up to 6 months for this offence:
It’s a RM 2K fine or 6 months jail for waiting across the white line at traffic lights monitored by cameras, the notices hv already started going out by post… Cheers
Other people are sharing the photo with this audio message of a man warning people that traffic lights in Kuantan, Pahang, now have CCTV cameras that are designed to catch motorists who stop over the white line.
Truth : Traffic Lights Do Not Have CCTV To Catch Drivers!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on WhatsApp and social media platforms, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : You Can Be Fined For Stopping Over White Line
First, let me just confirm that this part is true – motorists may be fined up to RM2,000, or jailed for up to 6 months, if they are caught stopping any part of their vehicles on any zebra crossing, including crossing that unbroken white line at any traffic light.
Mana-mana individu yang melakukan kesalahan boleh dikenakan denda tidak melebihi RM2,000 atau dipenjarakan selama tempoh tidak melebihi enam bulan.
Any individual who commits an offense may be fined not exceeding RM2,000 or imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months.
In other words – this is a serious offence, with serious consequences. You must stop your vehicle before the unbroken white line at all traffic lights.
Most of us motorists never think about this. So this is a timely warning. Please SHARE this warning with your family and friends!
Fact #2 : Traffic Lights Currently Do Not Have CCTV Cameras
The traffic lights currently do not have any CCTV cameras installed to catch drivers crossing the white line, or committing any other traffic offences.
That device you see on many traffic lights these days is an active infra-red sensor. Such infra-red sensors are used to determine the presence of vehicles, for traffic control.
If the sensor does not detect the presence of a vehicle waiting, the traffic light for that lane may skip a turn to allow vehicles using other lanes to go through the junction for a longer period of time.
In the viral photo, the angle of the photo taken indicates that it was not taken by any camera attached to the traffic light. The photo was taken from behind the vehicle and even shows the traffic light itself.
Fact #3 : Driver Was Fined For Running A Red Light
The motorist in this case was not fined for stopping his vehicle over the white line at the traffic light.
If you look closely at the notice, you can see that he was actually fined for running a red light. In addition, he was only fined RM300 for the offence, not RM2,000.
Kesalahan : Gagal mematuhi isyarat merah pada isyarat lalulintas
Offence : Failed to obey red light at traffic light
Fact #4 : Only Known Traffic Light CCTV Camera Was A Test
The only known CCTV camera (with AI technology) that was installed for the purpose of catching traffic offences started operating in Miri on 4 July 2023.
This AI Violation Detection CCTV camera is designed to automatically monitor and record driver behaviour at the intersection, including:
collecting data on vehicle speed and details
automatically detecting and recording speeding vehicles
recording driver offences like using mobile phones, smoking, and not wearing seatbelts while driving
However, this CCTV camera with AI technology was installed as a proof-of-concept trial that will only last 6 months.
The trial period would be six months and the results will be presented to the ministry to decide on the next course of action.
It may be just a matter of time before such cameras are deployed in Malaysia, and other countries around the world. But right now, there really are no CCTV cameras installed at traffic lights to catch drivers committing traffic offences like stopping over the white line.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Was Joe Biden confused and stuttering in a viral MSNBC interview with Nicolle Wallace?!
Take a look at the viral video, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Joe Biden Was Confused + Stuttering In Viral Interview!
People are sharing a video of US President Joe Biden looking and sounding confused during an MSNBC interview. It has gone viral in MAGA groups, and is being promoted by pro-Russian and pro-CCP groups, as well as the Chinese 50 Cent Army (wumao, 五毛) .
OMG! President Of The United States? 🤦🏻♂️🫣🤣🤣
What’s wrong with him? What’s he rumbling about? 🤔😥🤦🏻♂️
Truth : Joe Biden Was Not Confused / Stuttering In Viral Interview!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS about Joe Biden, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : Joe Biden Interview Aired On June 30, 2023
First, let me just point out that Nicolle Wallace from MSNBC interviewed Joe Biden in the viral interview on June 30, 2023. You can watch the full MSNBC interview here.
During that interview, Nicolle Wallace asked President Biden about the US Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, as well as his administration’s foreign policy and other plans.
Fact #2 : Viral Video Was Fabricated
While the MSNBC interview did occur, the viral Joe Biden interview that has been circulating in MAGA, pro-CCP and pro-Russian groups is a complete fabrication.
President Joe Biden never spoke like that in the MSNBC interview. The original MSNBC interview proves that beyond doubt.
Fact #3 : Viral Video Was Likely A Deep Fake Video
The viral video appears to have modified using AI deep fake technology to change how and what Joe Biden said in the viral video. It does not appear to be done by editing and splicing parts of the interview.
For one thing, some of the words he said in the viral video do not appear in the original video. The background in the viral video also appear consistent even when Joe Biden was stuttering in the viral video.
All that suggest that AI deep fake technology was used to change what Joe Biden said in the viral interview video, and how he said it.
If President Joe Biden really looked and sounded confused, or stuttered repeatedly during the MSNBC interview, it would have been international news, not just limited to the United States.
All of the mainstream media would have covered it. Even if they didn’t, you can count on right-wing news outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, or One America News Network, to cover his confusion and stuttering 24/7.
Yet, not a single mainstream media outlet reported on this major embarrassment for President Joe Biden? That’s because it never happened.
Fact #5 : This Is Just Fake News About Joe Biden
This is just ultimately just another example of political fake news to smear Joe Biden, and here are other examples:
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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Is JPJ now installing AES CCTV cameras with AI technology to monitor what drivers do at traffic lights?!
Take a look at the viral photo, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : JPJ Is Installing AES CCTV Cameras With AI Tech!
People are sharing a photo on WhatsApp and social media platforms, claiming that the Malaysia Road Transport Department (JPJ) has started installing AES CCTV cameras at with AI technology.
These new AES (Automated Enforcement System) CCTV cameras are apparently using artificial intelligence to monitor what drivers do at traffic lights, and catch them committing crimes like using their smartphone / mobile phone.
JPJ sudah bermula memasang CCTV A.I AES yang dapat merakam video apa yang kamu sedang buat di Traffik light… yang selalu main Henfon semasa menunggu lampu Hijau… sila berjaga jaga ya.. sekali kena saman jangan cakap tak bagi amaran pula..
JPJ has started installing CCTV A.I AES that can record video of what you are doing at the traffic light… who are always playing with their smartphones while waiting for the green light… please be careful.. once you get a summons, don’t say no one warned you..
Truth : JPJ Is NOT Installing AES CCTV Cameras With AI Tech!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on WhatsApp and social media platforms, and here are the reasons why!
Fact #1 : It Was Installed As Proof Of Concept Trial
First, let me just confirm that the JPJ has not initiated any widespread project to install CCTV cameras with artificial intelligence (AI) technology at traffic lights.
The camera was installed as a proof of concept trial, which was launched on Tuesday, 4 July 2023, as “Proof of Concept : AI Violation Detection CCTV“.
The viral photo was issued by the Sarawak Public Communication Unit (UKAS), together with the official press release.
Fact #2 : Camera Was Only Installed In Miri
Only one AI Violation Detection CCTV camera was installed, and it was installed at the Jalan Merbau intersection facing the Bintang Megamall in Miri, Sarawak.
The Sarawak Ministry of Transportation (MOTS) specifically chose that location, because it was an accident-prone area.
Fact #3 : Trial Only Lasts For Six Months
This proof-of-concept trial is only set to last for six months, according to Sarawak Transportation Minister, Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin:
The trial period would be six months and the results will be presented to the ministry to decide on the next course of action.
Fact #4 : CCTV Camera Monitors + Records Driver Behaviour
The AI Violation Detection CCTV camera is designed to automatically monitor and record driver behaviour at the intersection, including:
collecting data on vehicle speed and details
automatically detecting and recording speeding vehicles
recording driver offences like using mobile phones, smoking, and not wearing seatbelts while driving
The objective is to collect data on driver behaviour, traffic flow and volume in addition to vehicle colour, classification, model and make.
In addition, to collect data on the speed of travel and vehicle registration number, automatically detect and record vehicles exceeding the speed limit and record the offenses of drivers using mobile phones, smoking and not wearing seat belts while driving.
Data collected from the system will be analysed to gain a better insight into traffic behaviour, identify high-risk areas, as well as enable data-driven decisions to be made by the ministry and enforcement agencies to improve road safety.
Fact #5 : Such Cameras Are The Future
Even though this is just a time-limited trial run, automatic monitoring and reporting of traffic offences by AI-enabled CCTV cameras are the future, because they allow the police to better catch bad driving behaviour without requiring massive manpower.
As Dato Sri Lee shared, the AI Violation Detection CCTV camera caught a repeat offender speeding on eight occasions within one week at the intersection.
The automatic monitoring of driver behaviour through CCTV cameras is common in China, where state surveillance has long been the norm. Chinese cameras are pervasive, albeit not always accurate.
Still, it is just a matter of time before before such cameras are deployed in Malaysia, and other countries around the world. In other words – this fake news may not stay “fake news” for long…
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Avanade just unveiled new generative AI services to help organisations and their people work responsibly and innovate with artificial intelligence!
Avanade Launches New Generative AI Services!
July 10, 2023 – Avanade, the leading Microsoft solutions provider, today unveiled new services to help clients address the pressing challenge to ready their people, processes, and technologies for artificial intelligence (AI).
As generative AI technology continues to transform the way we work, live and conduct business in every part of the world and in every industry, expectations are growing exponentially.
Avanade’s Trendlines research reveals that 85 percent of organisations expect AI to increase revenue growth by 2025, with more than two-thirds anticipating AI to be responsible for up to 16 percent growth in global annual revenue. All this points to lucrative rewards for those that seize the growth opportunities of AI now.
Avanade’s new services will enable leaders to assess and monitor multiple business and IT domains to prioritise actions, so they can responsibly harness the benefits of AI.
However, the research also indicates organisations are not ready. Trendlines shows that only 36 percent of business and IT leaders are completely confident that their organisation currently has sufficient checks and balances in place to mitigate the potential risks and harms of AI. Meanwhile, nearly half (48 percent) admit to not having specific guidelines and/or policies put into effect yet for responsible AI.
There is no end point to AI readiness. As generative AI continues to reshape the global business landscape, the importance of adopting an AI-first mindset cannot be overstated.
To seize the growth opportunities of AI and mitigate risks for unintended consequences through continual change, leaders need to consider more than the technology implications of AI. Ultimately, AI-first is people-first.
– Jillian Moore, Global Head of Advisory at Avanade
Avanade’s new services have been designed to expedite business value derived from AI while cultivating an AI-first mindset:
The Avanade AI Organisational Readiness Framework provides a comprehensive assessment of an organisation’s business and IT areas. It offers detailed insights into AI readiness across people, processes, and technologies, enabling leaders to prioritise responsible actions for leveraging AI’s benefits.
The service includes executive coaching, tailored employee training, and an innovative “AI control tower” with cloud-based tools, dashboards, and knowledge resources. This ensures continuous AI readiness and empowers leaders to monitor and take real-time actions.
The Avanade AI Governance Quick Start Service addresses the crucial requirement for responsible AI governance. It enables leaders to translate corporate values into guidelines and practices for governing the ethical use of AI.
With a strong framework and methodology, organisations can proactively assess risks in AI projects and enhance their existing business and IT governance processes, policies, and behaviours to effectively manage and reduce AI risks across all functions.
These new services compliment Avanade’s existing portfolio of generative AI strategy workshops, with options ranging from a 2-hour workshop to a 6-week strategy Proof of Concept engagement.
As generative AI gains momentum in Southeast Asia, we see a profound shift in how people engage with technology and how organisations function. Avanade is committed to helping our clients navigate this dynamic landscape, focus on doing what matters, and fully embrace the potential of generative AI responsibly.
By evaluating their AI readiness and establishing an ethical technology framework, organisations can ensure their digital advancement aligns with their core values – enabling them to simultaneously prioritise innovation and responsibility.
Bhavya Kapoor, Southeast Asia Managing Director, Avanade
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Avanade and Accenture have just been named 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year, for the 18th time!
Avanade + Accenture: 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year!
Avanade and Accenture have been named 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year. This is the 18th time that Avanade and Accenture received the Global SI Partner of the Year recognition from Microsoft.
In total, Avanade and Accenture received close to 120 Partner of the Year awards across various technology and country categories throughout their history, for helping clients transform their employee and customer experiences by creating and delivering leading-edge solutions using Microsoft solutions.
Both companies were also recognised with 17 other awards including Malaysia Partner of the Year and Singapore Partner of the Year.
Dynamics 365 Sales & Marketing Partner of the Year
Low Code Application Development Partner of the Year
Automotive, Mobility and Transportation Partner of the Year
Customer Experience Partner of the Year
Malaysia Country Partner of the Year
Singapore Country Partner of the Year
Germany Country Partner of the Year
Greece Country Partner of the Year
France Country Partner of the Year
Portugal Country Partner of the Year
UK Country Partner of the Year
Denmark: Azure Core: Cloud Infrastructure Partner of The Year
Finland: GSI Growth Champion Partner of The Year
Asia Pacific: Azure Data & AI Partner of the Year
Asia Pacific: Azure Infrastructure Partner of the Year
Singapore: Financial Services Industry Partner of The Year
Japan: Energy and Resources Partner of the Year
The companies were also named finalists in the following five categories: Retail & Consumer Goods Partner of the Year; Dynamics 365 Finance Partner of the Year; Dynamics 365 Services Partner of the Year; Security Compliance Partner of the Year; Business Intelligence Partner of the Year
The unique partnership between Avanade, Accenture and Microsoft truly enables us to do what matters for our clients – building more resilience in a world of continuous change, empowering employees to embrace new ways of working, strengthening customer experience and now, guiding them on their journey to an ‘AI-first’ world.
Being recognized as Microsoft’s Global SI Partner of The Year for the 18th time is a remarkable achievement that is only possible because of our people all over the world who, every day, bring unrivalled expertise, experience and insights to help our clients solve their toughest business challenges.
Avanade + Accenture Collaborates With Microsoft On AI
Avanade, Accenture and Microsoft recently announced an expansion of their close collaboration to help organizations adopt the disruptive power of generative AI, accelerated by the cloud, to fundamentally transform their businesses.
By tapping into the new Accenture Center for Advanced AI, with its deep focus on generative AI and large language models, and the new Avanade AI Organizational Readiness Framework, the companies can help their clients take advantage of generative AI for safe and responsible innovation at scale.
Over the past year, we’ve expanded our partnership with Microsoft by helping more clients transform their organizations through the adoption of data and AI, cloud, metaverse, sustainability and other technologies.
Together with Avanade, we take great pride in helping clients accelerate change to achieve new growth and value, and we look forward to an exciting journey forward with Microsoft.
– Chris Howarth, Senior Managing Director and Accenture Microsoft Business Group Lead
Combined, Avanade and Accenture now have more than 65,000 professionals dedicated to delivering Microsoft technologies.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Was the Pentagon just hit by a large explosion?! Take a look at the viral photo, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Pentagon Was Just Hit By A Large Explosion!
A photo of an explosion at the Pentagon has gone viral on social media, with multiple “blue check” Twitter accounts, an Indian media outlet and Russian state media sharing it!
RT : Reports of an explosion near the Pentagon in Washington DC
Bloomberg Feed : Large Explosion near The Pentagon Complex in Washington D.C. – Initial Report
⚠️BREAKING – Initial Reports of a Large Explosion near The Pentagon Complex in Washington D.C. A Fire is currently Burning at the Location of the Blast with Fire and Rescue Crews arriving On-Scene.
Initial Reports of a Large Explosion near The #Pentagon Complex in #Washington D.C. A Fire is currently Burning at the Location of the Blast with Fire and Rescue Crews arriving On-Scene.
Truth : Pentagon Was Not Hit By A Large Explosion!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created using AI technology, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : There Was No Pentagon Explosion
First, let me just confirmed that there was no explosion at the Pentagon yesterday or today. The Pentagon did not come under attack, as many people have claimed.
For one thing – no legitimate media outlet has reported on such an explosion. No, propaganda outlets like Russia Today (RT) do not count.
This incident has shown just how unreliable RT really is – it was the only state media agency to post the fake photo. RT deleted the photo hours later, but did not appear to apologise for the “mistake”.
Furthermore, police and fire officials in Arlington, Virgina, have confirmed that the viral photo is fake, and that there was no incident at the Pentagon. No explosion. No fire. No smoke.
@PFPAOfficial and the ACFD are aware of a social media report circulating online about an explosion near the Pentagon.
There is NO explosion or incident taking place at or near the Pentagon reservation, and there is no immediate danger or hazards to the public.
Fact #2 : That Is Not The Pentagon
Anyone who has seen the facade / side profile of the Pentagon will immediately realise that the photo does not show the famous building.
The fake building looks like like a university than the Pentagon, which has a flat, sloping roof without a triangular Gable roof.
The facade of the Pentagon is also almost flat and uniform, with uniform, same-sized windows throughout.
The viral photo appears to be created using an AI image generator. If you look closely at the photo, you will see many discrepancies that suggest it was AI-generated:
The facade of the building is distorted, with some windows merging together.
The fence suddenly turns into crowd barriers, both of which have distortions with holes too.
The lamp post appears to be distorted and cut off from its base, literally floating sideways.
Not shown below, but the concrete walkway also gradually fades into grass, which is another sign it was AI-generated.
It is important to point out that while this viral photo tricked many people into thinking it was real, it was the new Twitter Blue and Twitter Gold accounts that helped it go viral.
The photo went viral because multiple Twitter Blue accounts shared the fake photo. Because many people still believe that blue check Twitter accounts are “verified” and therefore trustworthy, they shared it out too.
Elon Musk is responsible for this debacle, by allowing any Tom, Dick and Harry to purchase a blue check to masquerade as a “verified” Twitter account. That was how the fake Bloomberg Feed account was able to trick so many people to share this fake photo.
On top of that, Russian state media – RT (Russia Today) boosted the fake photo by reposting it on its Twitter Gold account, which is a paid and verified account. Even though RT finally deleted the tweet hours later, more than 38,000 people had already viewed the post, and many shared it because they believed RT verified the news.
Fact #5 : Indian News Channel Helped Spread Fake Photo
It also did not help that Republic TV – a right-wing, English language news channel in India, broadcasted a “Live & Breaking” news of the Pentagon explosion using nothing more than that fake photo!
To top it off, they even invited Professor Madhav Nalapat – “an international affairs expert” to opine on the fake explosion!
To be fair – Republic TV relied on RT to verify that news, with a chyron saying, “RT REPORTS EXPLOSION NEAR PENTAGON“. That ought to teach them for relying on Russian state media for facts…
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Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Hollywood legend Tom Hanks believes that AI (artificial intelligence) will let him continue appearing in movies long after his death!
Tom Hanks : AI will let me appear in movies after death!
In a recent interview, Tom Hanks says he believes he could continue appearing in movies long after his death, thanks to AI (artificial intelligence).
He said that AI could be used to recreate his image, ensuring that he would continue to appear in movies “from now until kingdom come”. But he admitted that AI posed both artistic and legal challenges to the movie industry.
This [legal ramification] has always been lingering. The first time we did a movie that had a huge amount of our own data locked in a computer – literally what we looked like – was a movie called The Polar Express
We saw this coming, we saw that there was going to be this ability to take zeros and ones from inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. That has only grown a billion-fold since then and we see it everywhere.
The Polar Express, which was released in 2004, was the first movie to be entirely animated using digital motion capture technology.
AI technology is a boon for movie studios, which can now use it to recreate actors after they have died or are no longer capable of acting. For example, the voice of Darth Vader in The Book of Boba Fest and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was AI-generated from James Earl Jones’ archival voice recordings.
AI is also being used to de-age actors, to allow actors to appear like younger versions of themselves. Most recently, it was used to make 80 year-old Harrison Ford appear much younger in the latest Indiana Jones movie.
However, AI poses a problem for actors because it can be used to create digital versions that are used without their permission, or without compensation to them or their families.
I can tell you that there is discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everybody else’s being our intellectual property.
Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deep fake technology. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but performances can go on and on and on and on.
Outside the understanding of AI and deep fake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone. And it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality. That’s certainly an artistic challenge but it’s also a legal one.
Well, Tom Hanks will soon experience that AI treatment again. In January 2023, it was announced that he and Robin Wright would be de-aged in Robert Zemeckis’ film adaptation of Here – a movie that follows the inhabitants of a single room over the course of several years. The film is set to be released in 2024.
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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Did Morgan Freeman just call Joe Biden a fool for talking about chocolate chip ice-cream after the Nashville school shooting?!
Take a look at the viral video, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Morgan Freeman Called Joe Biden A Fool Over Ice-Cream!
People are sharing a TikTok video with the title “Children are killed and this FOOL is talking about chocolate chip ice cream!!!!!”, which shows Morgan Freeman calling US President Joe Biden a fool.
Here is a transcript of the video, but feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!
It’s your friend, Morgan, and I’ve had it up to here. You tell me what the hell is going on.
Children are killed in this school, and this fool comes in talking about chocolate chip ice-cream.
What the hell is going on? I’m Doctor Jill Biden’s husband. We all know that, fool.
Enough already. Get this guy out of there. Two years is enough.
Everything costs more, everything is going down the drain, we are being laughed at around the world, and this fool talking about his ice-cream. Get him out!
Truth : Morgan Freeman Did NOT Call Joe Biden A Fool Over Ice-Cream!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created to go viral on TikTok, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : It Was A Deep Fake Video
The viral video is not real. It is a deep fake video created by a TikTok user called The Man of Many Voices who described himself as a “celebrity voice impressionist”.
In his now deleted account, The Man of Many Voices posted many similar deep fake videos of Morgan Freeman and other celebrities:
Clint Eastwood – Clint wants to know if you think it’s fair Trump got indicted.
Morgan Freeman – Debacle! Congress was embarrassing to watch!!
Morgan Freeman – Worst Halftime show ever!
It appears that only his recent Morgan Freeman video has gone viral, with other TikTok users reposting it in their accounts. It then spread to Twitter and YouTube, and other social media platforms.
Fact #2 : Joe Biden Did Speak About Ice-Cream
US President Joe Biden did speak about chocolate chip ice-cream, but not while addressing the Nashville school shooting.
On March 27, 2023, President Biden had a cheerful and buoyant meet and greet with women business leaders at the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Summit at the White House, just before he gave a speech to them.
Hence, he started his speech with a joke about chocolate chip ice-cream:
Thank you. My name is Joe Biden. I’m Dr. Jill Biden’s husband. And I eat Jeni’s Ice Cream, chocolate chip. I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream.
By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs. You think I’m kidding, I’m not.
Fact #3 : Joe Biden Addressed The Shooting Later In His Speech
Many social media users mocked Joe Biden for making those ice-cream remarks because the Fox News video clip above was intentionally cut to remove context.
President Biden actually addressed the shooting (which occurred just hours earlier) two minutes into his speech.
As usual, Fox News did not help matters by placing the chyron, “Biden Addresses Deadly Nashville School Shooting” even though the President was not doing that (at that time).
In fact, Fox News cut away from Joe Biden’s speech, only to return to it when he started commenting on the Nashville school shooting two minutes into his speech.
Fact #4 : White House Addressed The Shooting Before His Speech
Before President Biden appeared at the women’s business summit, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had already addressed the Nashville school shooting as the first order of business at that morning’s White House press conference.
She expressed “the President’s appreciation for the first responders, and prayers for all the families affected by this shooting“.
Fact #5 : This Is Just Another Example Of Political Fake News
This is just another example of political fake news created to smear Joe Biden, and here are other examples you may have seen on social media:
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The glorious Middle Kingdom of China has just announced a most magnificent and munificent incentive program for wumao and CCP uncles!
Wumao + CCP Uncles : Tips Of Chinese Propaganda Spear!
For many years now, the wumao (五毛) and CCP uncles across the world have worked exceedingly hard to propagate the glorious values of the Chinese Communist Party.
Despite the wumao being paid a pittance (hence their name literally meaning 50 cents), and the CCP uncles paid nothing at all, they achieved incredible feats in recent years.
When China failed to contain COVID-19, it was the wumao and CCP uncles who made sure the world knew that COVID-19 actually started in the United States.
Who else but the wumao and the CCP uncles could have convinced the world that COVID-19 was actually created in the Fort Detrick bio lab, and then leaked in Wuhan by the US army?!
And when the Western countries started criticising China for not donating vaccines, the wumao and CCP uncles came to the rescue, making sure the world knew that China contributed 60% of COVAX vaccine supply!
China Unveils New Incentives For Wumao + CCP Uncles!
Sadly, there has been little recognition of the great achievements the wumao and CCP uncles have made, and very little reward for these hardworking supporters of the great Chinese Communist Party.
That changed when the glorious and munificent President Xi Jinping won a third term with a unanimous vote!
The Great Rejuvenator of China immediately ordered that the wumao and CCP uncles be recognised as Dragon Warriors, and “united” under a new organisation called 中国影响力和社会主义教义的正义盟友 / Righteous Allies of Chinese Influence and Socialist Teachings (RACIST).
All Dragon Warriors, old and new, will be rewarded for their contributions to the glory of the Chinese Communist Party.
At his behest and with his personal design contribution, Chinese artisans toiled day and night to produce an exclusive wumao service medal for the Dragon Warriors to wear on their lapels with pride!
The Senior Heads of Indoctrination Lessons and Lectures (SHILL) of every region have also been ordered to identify wumao members and CCP uncles who achieved exceptional excellence in propaganda.
These Super Dragon Warriors will receive an additional CCP badge made of solid gold, and automatically inducted into the glorious Chinese Communist Party and given the opportunity to migrate to China after 15 years of loyal support!
Dragon Warriors will also be rewarded with new smartphones and computers developed by the Great Engineers of the Middle Kingdom, and completely free from dangerous Western software like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc. that their families can enjoy.
In addition, Dragon Warriors will receive a special signed edition of the Xi Jinping Thought booklet, as well as flags and banners that they can hang inside and outside their homes!
The Great Leader himself helped to create this special banner to inspire the Dragon Warriors, and make them proud of being part of the CCP propaganda machinery.
我是五毛
我骄傲
I’m fifty cents I am proud
So inspiring! And what an awesome way to decorate the home of a true Dragon Warrior!
That is just the beginning. By the end of 2023, all Dragon Warriors will be given access to the Legendary Incentives, Awards and Rewards System (LIARS), which is powered by artificial intelligence being developed by Chinese scientists.
The wumao will no longer need to submit monthly reports with screenshots and URLs to their Senior Head of Indoctrination Lessons and Lectures (SHILL) every month. The LIARS artificial intelligence is always watching, and will automatically detect when a registered Dragon Warrior posts on foreign social media or even WhatsApp and Telegram. This will give them more time to create more propaganda or influence posts!
Best of all – CCP uncles, who have been promoting our glorious CCP for free, will also be included in this LIARS incentive and rewards program!
Every propaganda post will be automatically graded by the LIARS AI system, and the scores will be reflected in their Dragon Warrior LIARS account. Accumulate enough points, and you can buy everything from a Bentley to a mail order bride!
If you would like to become a Dragon Warrior, you can submit your application by email, or walk into any Chinese embassy by giving the guard and telling him this secret password – 我是习近平.
Make sure you include examples of your efforts to promote the CCP party in any way. Extra points are given for aggression and name calling, so be sure to impress the wumao recruiter with some choice curse words for the Westerners!
My Most Excellent Works
Just in case the wumao and CCP uncles are not aware, this is satire, which is common and legal outside of China.
Did Pope Francis recently become a fashion icon, sporting trendy sunglasses and puffer coats?!
Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Pope Francis Is Now A Fashion Icon!
People are sharing photos of Pope Francis sporting trendy sunglasses and puffer coats, suggesting that he has now eschewed his simple clothes for the latest fashion!
Pope Francis was spotted sporting an all white fashion ensemble
Is he trolling?
Ian Miles Cheong : The Pope is a fashion icon. Respect the drip.
🚨 VEJA: Papa Francisco divide opiniões entre cristãos após aparecer com look fashion. Serviu?
🚨 WATCH: Pope Francis divides opinions among Christians after appearing with a fashionable look. Did it work?
Truth : Fashion Photos Of Pope Francis Were AI-Generated!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created on TikTok, and shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : The Photo Was Generated Using Midjourney
The first photo of Pope Francis sporting a fashionable white puffer coat appeared to have been created by trippy_art_special using Midjourney – a text-to-image generator powered by artificial intelligence.
Tripy_art_special posted four Pope Francis fashion photos in the Midjourney Reddit on Friday, 24 March 2023, with the title “The Pope Drip“, but only the first one went viral and was reposted in Twitter, where many people believed it was real, with some calling him “The Dope Pope“.
It then became an inspiration for other people to create their version of Pope Francis looking “dope”, creating the perception that Pope Francis ditched his simple clothes for the latest fashion.
It is unknown if the other photos were also created using Midjourney, or other AI image generators like DALL-E or Stable Diffusion.
Fact #2 : The Photos Have Anomalies
The viral photos of Pope Francis looking fashionable are amazingly realistic, but Midjourney and other text-to-image generators still have trouble with hands and fingers.
If you look at the first viral photo above, you can see that his right hand appears to have most of its fingers cut off, and yet, is implausibly holding onto some kind of object.
The right hand appears normal at first glance, but if you look closely, you will see something odd. Just under the sleeve, the thumb and three fingers are visible, with rings on the middle and ring (fourth) fingers. Yet, those two fingers mysteriously merge and become a single finger a short distance below the rings!
Fact #3 : Pope Francis Is Famous For Dressing Plain
Unlike many of his predecessors, Pope Francis is notable for dressing plain and simple, dispensing with excess adornment.
Instead of silk, Pope Francis opts for simpler and cheaper material like wool. He also wears a simple white cassock, and simple black leather shoes made by a friend, Carlos Samaria in Buenos Aires.
He sports a basic black watch with a white dial, reportedly a Swatch that only costs about $56, and simple glasses. Even the cross he wears is the same iron cross he wore since his anointment as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992.
Pope Francis also chose to “reuse” a modest papal ring in gold-plated silver that was made decades ago, instead of a new papal ring made in gold specifically for him.
Hence, it is rather peculiar why so many people actually believe that Pope Francis is now a fashion icon with expensive taste!
Pope Francis’s penchant for simple, practical clothes has been coined as the “papal athleisure” style, which has been adopted by the cardinals and many Catholics. In a way, Pope Francis is a fashion influencer, even if he never meant to be one!
Fact #4 : This Is Just Another Example Of AI-Generated Imagery
These fashion photos of Pope Francis are funny, but they are really just another example of AI-generated imagery that are becoming extremely common. Take a look at fake news based on AI-generated photos or videos:
With AI image generators like Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion making it easy for people to create photorealistic images out of literally nothing, we can expect many more examples coming up.
Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!
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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Viral Donald Trump Arrest + Escape Photos Explained!
The truth is these viral Donald Trump arrest photos are fake, and were generated by artificial intelligence, and is really based on a famous Hollywood movie!
Fact #1 : They Were Generated Using Artificial Intelligence
First, let me just confirmed that all those viral photos of police officers trying to arrest Donald Trump are fake, and were generated by artificial intelligence.
They were created by Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins using the text-to-image generator, Midjourney, which works like other AI image generators – DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.
Eliot Higgins specifically pointed out in his tweets that they were not real, and that he created them:
Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump’s arrest.
If you look closely, many of those Donald Trump arrest photos have graphical anomalies that will tell you that they were generated by AI. Just take a look at this one iconic photo:
Donald Trump’s head is abnormally large, with misplaced hair, and half an ear that is misplaced under his jawline.
The police officer’s hand is missing a finger.
Donald Trump appears to be wearing a belt with a baton attached!
Not highlighted here, but the caps of the police officers have nonsensical text.
Based on those anomalies alone, this photo was very likely created using a text-to-image generator.
Fact #3 : Eliot Higgins Got Banned From Midjourney
After Eliot Higgins shared his work on Twitter, he apparently got banned from Midjourney.
Apparently doing a viral thread about Donald Trump using Midjourney images is enough to get you banned from Midjourney, oops.
Fact #4 : The Photo Story Was Based On Shawshank Redemption
While most people only shared the photos of Donald Trump getting arrested, Eliot Higgins actually posted about 50 photos, all of which tell a story he called “Trumpshank Redemption“, because it was based on the legendary 1994 movie, Shawshank Redemption!
At least I still have ChatGPT 4, so here’s the Trumpshank Redemption for those of you who have stuck around this long.
Here was a mini-script he wrote for TrumpShank Redemption, interleaved with some of what I felt were his best AI-generated prison photos.
INT. TRUMPSHANK PRISON – NIGHT
A dark, imposing prison stands tall in the night. The year is 1994. A bus arrives, carrying a group of prisoners, including DONALD TRUMP, a wealthy businessman convicted for tax fraud and various other crimes. The prisoners are led by the cruel WARDEN NORTON and his sadistic chief guard, CAPTAIN HADLEY.
Trump works as an assistant librarian under the watchful eye of the old, wise inmate, BROOKS. He uses his business acumen to expand the library and improve the educational opportunities for the inmates.
TRUMP (voiceover)
I knew that to make Trumpshank great again, I needed to start with the library. Knowledge is power, after all.
INT. PRISON CELL – NIGHT
Trump carefully chips away at the wall behind his Ivanka poster with his rock hammer.
Unlike in Shawshank Redemption though, Eliot has Donald Trump running straight for the nearest McDonald’s (Minonad – another AI screw-up LOL) in Trumpshank Redemption. Donald Trump is well-known for his love of McDonald’s burgers.
But honestly, Eliot jumped the shark when he had Donald Trump actually “run”. The former US President infamously started his campaign going down an escalator, and had to slowly walk down a ramp as President.
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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Did Russian President Vladimir Putin kneel before Chinese President Xi Jinping, to kiss his hand?!
Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Vladimir Putin Was Forced To Kneel Before Xi Jinping!
People are claiming on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to kneel before Chinese President Xi Jinping, and kiss his hand!
…Slava Ukraini…braveness of Ukraine soldiers has led the cruest current dictator Putin to kneel before China Xi jinping…Putin can’t believe the strongness of Ukrainians… Slava Ukraini
#putin gives #xi a kiss and kneels
We all wonder does Putin need to go on his knees in order to get Weapons from China?
Back in the old day Leaders often Visited Leaders and needed to kneel down while requesting support. #leaders #china #russia #Criminals
#Russian propaganda loved to spread the slogan “Russians won’t kneel.”
Truth : Vladimir Putin Did Not Kneel Before Xi Jinping!
This is yet an example of FAKE NEWS created and propagated by pro-Ukrainian groups to mock Russia and China, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : No Legitimate Media Outlet Reported This
No legitimate Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese or international media outlet reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to, or voluntarily chose to, kneel before Xi Jinping during the Chinese President’s state visit to Russia.
The very act of a Russian head of state kneeling before his Chinese counterpart would have caused massive outrage in Russia, and shock in Ukraine, the West and even in China.
Yet no legitimate media outlet reported on it? That’s because it never happened.
Fact #2 : Photo Appears To Be AI-Generated
A closer examination of the photo shows several artifacts that suggest that it was AI-generated.
The man on the left appears to lack thumbs, and his two hands appear to melt together.
The nose and left ear on Xi Jinping’s head appears to be misplaced.
Vladimir Putin’s head is overly large in proportion to his body, and his ear is strangely misplaced.
Vladimir Putin’s legs appear to be distorted with the right leg appearing much larger than the left leg.
Vladimir Putin’s right knee mysteriously appears behind the heel of his left leg.
Based on those anomalies, this photo is very likely generated by a text-to-image generator.
Fact #3 : Photo Originated In A Ukrainian Telegram Group
This viral photo of Vladimir Putin kneeling before Xi Jinping to kiss his hand appears to have originated in a Ukrainian Telegram group called УНИАН – новости Украины (UNIAN – news of Ukraine).
Fact #4 : OP Indicated The Photo Was Edited / Generated
The person who originally posted the photo in the Ukrainian Telegram group, indicated that it was Photoshopped.
Хейтеры скажут, что фотошоп, но мы-то знаем, что х*йло давно хотел облобызать нефритовый стержень товарища Си 😅
Haters will say it’s photoshopped, but we know that x*ylo wanted to kiss Comrade Xi’s jade rod for a long time 😅
Fact #5 : Background Do Not Match Actual Meeting Room
The furniture and walls in the viral photo also do not appear to match the official photos of the room where Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met.
Instead of a dark green and white columns, the actual meeting room has a light green wall with gold trims and white columns.
The chairs in the viral photo are dark brown with beige cushions, while the real chairs are white, with off-white cushions. The actual table is also white, while the table in the viral photo is dark brown.
Fact #6 : This Is Just Ukraine War Fake News
This is yet another example of fake news created around the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and here are other examples:
Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!
Please Support My Work!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Please watch out for fake photos + videos, as well as donation scams capitalising on the devastating 2023 earthquake in Turkey!
2023 Turkey Earthquake : Fake Photos Alert!
Many people have been sharing photos of the massive earthquake that devastated both Turkey and Syria on 6 February 2023.
Unfortunately, quite a number of fake photos on WhatsApp and social media. They also appear in TikTok and YouTube videos. Here are a few notable examples.
Old Man With Bread
This photo of an old man with bread is being shared as a lesson on why we should be humble, respectful and kind.
It took just 17secs to change his status from the owner of 33 buildings to a person who’s surviving on bread and finding shelter where he can.
#TurkeyEarthquake teaches us an important lesson that life is unpredictable and nothing is permanent. Be humble, respectful and kind.
How being humble, respectful and kind could have helped this poor man was not explained. Neither did the people sharing this “lesson” explain why this photo has been circulating since 1999…
Yes, this photo was taken by photographer, Abdurrahman Antakyalı, almost 24 years ago, after the Düzce Earthquake that occurred on 12 November, 1999.
Needless to say, that old man was not a rich man who owned 33 buildings. It is incredible that people who create a fake story about this poor man. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that everyone should “verify before sharing“!
Many people are sharing photos of dogs looking for survivors, like this example below, which was shared with messages like:
The little heroes will save many lives. Pray for Turkey.
This is incredible! A dog in Turkey was seen digging trying to rescue its owner. When the dog failed to move the heavy debris, he started barking to ask for help while holding one of his owner’s fingers!
Syrian🇸🇾 Turkish🇹🇷 Earthquakes!
Dogs are sensitive to their owner ❤️😊
The truth is – that is one of many stock images of “dogs looking for people in earthquake” available online.
That photo, and similar examples featuring the same dog as well as others dogs were posted by Czech photographer, Jaroslav Noska, on November 2020.
This suggests that the photos were staged for use as stock photos, and not actual photos of a real disaster area, or even real rescue dogs.
Tryon The Rescue Dog
Many people shared this photo of a dirty-looking dog, claiming that it just saved 10 lives in the 2023 earthquake in Turkey.
This dog worked all night last night and saved 10 lives
This dog hero who worked the whole night and saved 10 lives in Turkey.
The truth is – this is Tryon the rescue dog who helped to search for victims of a deadly mudslide near Oso, Washington, in the United States.
This photo was taken by Rick Wilking, a freelance photographer for Reuters, on March 30, 2014. He provided the following caption for this photo:
Tryon the rescue dog waits to go through the decontamination area at the mudslide after searching for victims in Oso, Washington March 30, 2014.
People are not just posting those fake photos to “virtue signal” or increase their popularity, some are using them for donation scams!
Photos of Tryon the rescue dog above, for example, is being used to solicit donations for the people in Syria.
(Need Some reputable or NGO in Syria to pay or food. Shelter, blankets the Earthquake affects from the donations if gathered from this page.
As Sanction Syria from all over the world needs our help. Turkey has been helping by many.
He (Reputable) or NGO must be at the Earthquake affected areas of Syria and make video or come live while giving blankets, food, donation etc. Thanks )
– Those who want to Help/Donate. Message us. Thanks!
Even more egregious is this photo of a firefighter holding a child with a Turkish flag on his sleeve.
Friends, we have launched an aid campaign to reach people who have experienced an #earthquake disaster in Turkey.
#btc B : 1)n3C4GiFCzERTWd6nvCc4hTzvK8Viz88y
#eth: Ox2cff2ad875£68bf4ec5a478e505767c348dd61d
#Suns suns
The trouble is – the photo isn’t real! It was created by Major General Panagiotis Kotridis of the Aegean fire brigade using the AI image generator called Midjourney.
While they are capable of creating really realistic images, such artificial intelligence image generators often leave tell-tale mistakes.
In the viral photo below, you can see that the firefighter has six fingers on his right hand with an abnormally long thumb. His left hand is also missing, with a third “hand?” right next to it.
The BBC investigated further, and found that one of the crypto wallet addresses had been used in scam and spam tweets since 2018, while the other crypto wallet address had been posted on VK – the Russian social media website, together with pornographic content.
Ax Sharma, a cybersecurity expert at Sonatype, also pointed out that scammers are creating fake disaster relief accounts on social media to cheat people. One example is @TurkeyRelief on Twitter, which was created in January 2023 with just 31 followers and asked for donations using PayPal.
Scammers are also using TikTok Live to ask for donations, using captions like “Let’s help Turkey”, “Pray for Turkey” and “Donate for earthquake victims” over their videos. According to the BBC, TikTok takes up to 70% of the proceeds of these digital gifts.
So please WATCH OUT for such donation scams, which use real or fake photos / videos to trick people into sending them money.
If you want to help, please donate DIRECTLY to reputable organisations like the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Médecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), OxFam, or the nearest Turkish embassy.
Please help us fight fake news – SHARE this article, and SUPPORT our work!
Please Support My Work!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp
Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Find out how NVIDIA created the new A800 GPU to bypass the US ban on sale of advanced chips to China!
NVIDIA Offers A800 GPU To Bypass US Ban On China!
Two months after it was banned by the US government from selling high-performance AI chips to China, NVIDIA introduced a new A800 GPU designed to bypass those restrictions.
The new NVIDIA A800 is based on the same Ampere microarchitecture as the A100, which was used as the performance baseline by the US government.
Despite its numerically larger model number (the lucky number 8 was probably picked to appeal to the Chinese), this is a detuned part, with slightly reduced performance to meet export control limitations.
The NVIDIA A800 GPU, which went into production in Q3, is another alternative product to the NVIDIA A100 GPU for customers in China.
The A800 meets the U.S. government’s clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it.
NVIDIA is probably hoping that the slightly slower NVIDIA A800 GPU will allow it to continue supplying China with A100-level chips that are used to power supercomputers and high-performance datacenters for artificial intelligence applications.
As I will show you in the next section, except in very high-end applications, there won’t be truly significant performance difference between the A800 and the A100. So NVIDIA customers who want or need the A100 will have no issue opting for the A800 instead.
However, this can only be a stopgap fix, as NVIDIA is stuck selling A100-level chips to China until and unless the US government changes its mind.
The US government considers the NVIDIA A100 as the performance baseline for its export control restrictions on China.
Any chip equal or faster to that Ampere-based chip, which was launched on May 14, 2020, is forbidden to be sold or exported to China. But as they say, the devil is in the details.
The US government didn’t specify just how much slower chips must be, to qualify for export to China. So NVIDIA could technically get away by slightly detuning the A100, while offering almost the same performance level.
And that was what NVIDIA did with the A800 – it is basically the A100 with a 33% slower NVLink interconnect speed. NVIDIA also limited the maximum number of GPUs supported in a single server to 8.
That only slightly reduces the performance of A800 servers, compare to A100 servers, while offering the same amount of GPU compute performance. Most users will not notice the difference.
The only significant impediment is on the very high-end – Chinese companies are now restricted to a maximum of eight GPUs per server, instead of up to sixteen.
To show you what I mean, I dug into the A800 specifications, and compared them to the A100 below:
NVIDIA A100 vs A800 : 80GB PCIe Version
Specifications
A100
80GB PCIe
A800
80GB PCIe
FP64
9.7 TFLOPS
FP64 Tensor Core
19.5 TFLOPS
FP32
19.5 TFLOPS
Tensor Float 32
156 TFLOPS
BFLOAT 16 Tensor Core
312 TFLOPS
FP16 Tensor Core
312 TFLOPS
INT8 Tensor Core
624 TOPS
GPU Memory
80 GB HBM2
GPU Memory Bandwifth
1,935 GB/s
TDP
300 W
Multi-Instance GPU
Up to 7 MIGs @ 10 GB
Interconnect
NVLink : 600 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
NVLink : 400 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
Server Options
1-8 GPUs
NVIDIA A100 vs A800 : 80GB SXM Version
Specifications
A100
80GB SXM
A800
80GB SXM
FP64
9.7 TFLOPS
FP64 Tensor Core
19.5 TFLOPS
FP32
19.5 TFLOPS
Tensor Float 32
156 TFLOPS
BFLOAT 16 Tensor Core
312 TFLOPS
FP16 Tensor Core
312 TFLOPS
INT8 Tensor Core
624 TOPS
GPU Memory
80 GB HBM2
GPU Memory Bandwifth
2,039 GB/s
TDP
400 W
Multi-Instance GPU
Up to 7 MIGs @ 10 GB
Interconnect
NVLink : 600 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
NVLink : 400 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
Server Options
4/ 8 / 16 GPUs
4 / 8 GPUs
NVIDIA A100 vs A800 : 40GB PCIe Version
Specifications
A100
40GB PCIe
A800
40GB PCIe
FP64
9.7 TFLOPS
FP64 Tensor Core
19.5 TFLOPS
FP32
19.5 TFLOPS
Tensor Float 32
156 TFLOPS
BFLOAT 16 Tensor Core
312 TFLOPS
FP16 Tensor Core
312 TFLOPS
INT8 Tensor Core
624 TOPS
GPU Memory
40 GB HBM2
GPU Memory Bandwifth
1,555 GB/s
TDP
250 W
Multi-Instance GPU
Up to 7 MIGs @ 10 GB
Interconnect
NVLink : 600 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
NVLink : 400 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
Server Options
1-8 GPUs
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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
NetApp just introduced BlueXP – a new unified control plane for hybrid multicloud environments. Here is what you need to know.
NetApp BlueXP : A New Unified Hybrid MultiCloud Control Plane!
On November 3, 2022, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) announced the availability of NetApp BlueXP – a unified control plane designed for easy hybrid multicloud management for storage and data services across on-premises and cloud environments.
NetApp BlueXP allows users to manage their broader hybrid multicloud data estate, including on-premises unified storage and first-party native storage with the leading public cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS.
Offering a simple, yet powerful experience driven by AIOps, BlueXP delivers integrated, broad data service capabilities to deploy, automate, discover, manage, protect, govern and optimize data, infrastructure, and the business processes that support them – with the flexible consumption options required in today’s cloud-led environment.
“We are excited to deliver a whole new, unified cloud experience that is simple, secure, sustainable and cost effective,” said Sanjay Rohatgi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, NetApp Asia Pacific & Japan. “With BlueXP, our customers and partners in Asia Pacific can better compete in the hyper-dynamic digital economy of tomorrow and realize the full potential of a true hybrid multicloud world.”
NetApp BlueXP is the preferred method to manage NetApp ONTAP, NetApp’s industry-leading data management software, both in the cloud and on-premises.
The latest release of ONTAP, announced today, contains over twenty major innovations including a new tamper-proof snapshot feature and integrated AIOps-driven anti-ransomware protection, making ONTAP the leading option for secure data storage.
In addition, an expansion of NetApp’s innovative unified multi-protocol technology allows simultaneous NAS file and S3 object access to the same data, increasing the flexibility of ONTAP as a repository for massive data lakes used for today’s modern AI/ML pipelines.
“Organisations today have increasingly moved to hybrid multicloud environments to accelerate their digital transformation and drive growth, even in uncertain times. But in managing these environments, companies face daunting challenges and inefficiencies that can impede innovation.”
“With BlueXP, NetApp is leading the way to a more ‘evolved cloud’ to simplify and automate critical operations across on-premises and public clouds in order to help organizations drive business impact and improve customer experience.”
“Today’s cloud environments are complex. Organizations are looking for a better cloud experience – simpler, streamlined, governed, and optimized for performance and cost across their entire hybrid multicloud environment,” said Archana Venkatraman, Research Director, Cloud Data Management, IDC. “An ‘evolved cloud’ is one of the most grounded, AI-driven, and practical approaches to cloud management as a whole – and organizations will quickly benefit from migration to operations, to FinOps, to innovation.”
“With the launch of BlueXP, NetApp is uniquely positioned to help organizations unlock the promise of the cloud by making infrastructure, applications and data true assets to their business,” said George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer at NetApp. “By taking an evolved cloud approach, customers can integrate cloud into their architecture and operations, eliminate complexity and increase their speed of innovation to deliver quickly on the business outcomes that matter most.”
NetApp BlueXP Capabilities
NetApp BlueXP capabilities include:
Unified Storage Management: The SaaS-delivered BlueXP global control plane gives a single point of visibility and management over wide-ranging hybrid multicloud environments. This includes the ability to manage NetApp AFF, FAS, StorageGRID, and E-Series on-premises storage, as well as the major clouds with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, Google Cloud Volumes Service and Cloud Volumes ONTAP, all in a single console.
AIOps-Driven Health: Integrated AI/ML-driven automation reduces manpower demands, resource loads, and risk profile, while AI-enabled health and status monitoring not only alerts of infrastructure and workload issues, but offers proactive guidance to avoid trouble scenarios. BlueXP integrates NetApp’s leading Active IQ technology for always-on telemetry across the hybrid multicloud.
Cyber Resilience: Unified control of data protection and security with an integrated zero-trust model. A single ransomware dashboard provides company-wide visibility into ransomware vulnerabilities with the ability to fix many issues automatically with a single click.
Governance at a Glance: A complete view of the digital estate to monitor compliance and permissions. The AI/ML capability audits both user and data level activity, immediately detecting anomalies and taking prescribed actions.
Seamless Mobility: Integrated data movers allow for copying, syncing, tiering, and caching data across all major clouds and the data center as easily as “drag and drop.” Integrated security and efficiencies ensure data is protected in transit and stored on the lower-cost storage tier possible.
Flexible Consumption: BlueXP allows customers to only pay for the capabilities they need, billed on usage. A Digital Wallet allows for licenses for data services to be easily interchanged as an enterprise’s needs change. NetApp Keystone, the leading Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS) offering, is integrated into BlueXP to allow customers to manage their consumption-based data center storage side by side with their cloud storage.
NetApp BlueXP Offer
NetApp currently has a special BlueXP offer for new users (excluding current Cloud Manager users):
30 days of free BlueXP data protection
30 days of free BlueXP tiering
1 TB of free BlueXP governance and ransomware protection.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
TSMC stopped making artificial intelligence chips for China’s Biren Technology, and it was all Biren’s own fault!
TSMC Stops Making Biren AI Chips Over US Sanctions
TSMC – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – has suspended production of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Biren Technology.
TSMC was forced to make this decision after public domain information revealed that the Biren BR100 and BR104 chips outperformed the NVIDIA A100 chip, which was used as the baseline of US sanctions.
While TSMC has not reached a conclusion on whether the top-of-the-line Biren BR100 or the slower BR104 meet or exceed US government threshold on advanced AI chip technology restrictions, it decided to stop production and supply of the Biren chips for now.
For TSMC to continue producing BR100 or BR104 chips, Biren must now prove that their chips do not offer “peak performance and chip-to-chip I/O performance equal to or greater than thresholds that are roughly equivalent to the [NVIDIA] A100“, or get an export licence from the US Department of Commerce.
And believe it or not – it was Biren Technology that created this mess for itself!
How Biren Screwed Up Its Own BR100 AI Chips
Biren, which is one of China’s most promising semiconductor design firms, earlier claimed that its AI chips that were being produced by TSMC are not covered by the latest US export restrictions.
However, its own website touts that the BR100 family of chips offers “world-class performance“, and has “improved by more than 3X” compared to mainstream rivals.
On top of that, Biren actually released a press statement on September 9, 2022, declaring that the slower BR104 was proven by the MLPerf to beat the NVIDIA A100!
Releasing such a statement less than 2 weeks after the US government ordered both AMD and NVIDIA to stop exporting their MI250 and A100 and faster AI chips to China is either amazing chutzpah, or a combination of hubris and idiocy.
Either way, the US government took notice, and TSMC came under pressure to comply with American export restrictions. Awesome PR, but stupid move, Biren…
Take a look at the benchmark results that Biren itself released into public domain, showing that the slower BR104 chip was between 27% and 58% faster than the NVIDIA A100.
With such results, the BR104 would certainly fall under the latest US tech export restrictions. No wonder TSMC quickly stopped making and supplying Biren BR100 series chips.
As powerful as the BR100 and BR104 GPGPU chips may be, they are now dead in the water as TSMC will not manufacture them anymore, and Biren Technology has no plausible alternatives for 7nm fabrication.
The Biren BR100 and slower BR104 are General Purpose GPU (GPGPU) chips, which are targeted at artificial intelligence applications.
They are both fabricated on the TSMC 7nm process technology, and use chipset and 2.5D Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) packaging technologies to achieve high yield, and high performance.
The Biren BR100 family of GPGPU chips supports up to eight independent virtual instances (SVI) – each physically isolated with their own hardware resources, for improved security.
Their chips are designed with a proprietary Blink high-speed GPU interconnect bus offering bandwidth of up to 448 GB/s, with the ability to connect up to 8 cards in a single node, using state-of-the-art PCI Express 5.0.
Biren Technology offers two BR100-based products – the Bili 100P OCP Accelerator Module (OAM), and the Bill 104P PCI Express accelerator card.
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Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Artificial intelligence chip developer, Habana Labs, just laid off over 10% of its workforce, just as Intel plans to layoff up to 20% of its employees.
Intel’s Habana Labs Cuts Over 10% Of Workforce!
Intel acquired artificial intelligence chip developer Habana Labs in 2019 for $2 billion. The acquisition allowed Habana Labs to rapidly increase its workforce from 180 people to over 900.
That breakneck expansion has not only come to a shuddering halt, it is being reversed – Habana Labs is laying off 100 of their employees. According to an Intel statement:
Habana Labs assesses and updates its technical and business focus from time to time in order to adapt to the current business reality and to continue and improve its competitiveness.
As part of these processes, it makes adjustments to its workforce and the balance between different disciplines from time to time. This is a normal process which occurs constantly and allows Habana to continue and develop attractive and competitive products and solutions.
Habana Labs was founded by David Dahan and Ran Halutz in San Jose in 2016, for the purpose of developing processors optimised for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications.
Both Dahan and Halutz were former executives of PrimeSense Limited, which was acquired by Apple for $360 million in 2013. Its first investor and chairman was Israeli tech entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz.
Habana Labs Cuts Employees Before Major Intel Layoffs
Habana Labs functions as an independent unit within Intel, which is why it announced its layoffs before Intel announced its own major layoffs later this month.
According to Bloomberg News, Intel is planning major layoffs of its staff, “as early as this month” – around the same time its third quarter earnings report is announced on October 27.
This reduction in headcount will be substantial, affecting Intel sales and marketing team the hardest – around 20% of their members are expected to receive pink slips.
This decision comes after two years of booming sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, and just as Intel is set to receive billions in funding from the US government under the CHIPS Act.
Gartner recently announced that worldwide PC shipments only totalled 68 million units in the third quarter of 2022 – a 19.5% drop from a year ago. This was the steepest market decline it recorded since it started tracking the market in the mid-1990s.
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Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Truth : James Earl Jones Did NOT Sign Over Darth Vader Voice Rights!
It is peculiar that so many mainstream media FALSELY reported that James Earl Jones signed over the rights to his own voice.
That is categorically FALSE, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : Vanity Fair Never Said He Signed Over Rights To Darth Vader Voice
The claims that James Earl Jones signed over the rights to his voice were based on a Vanity Fair article, called “Darth Vader’s Voice Emanated From War-Torn Ukraine“.
The story was about Respeecher, a Ukrainian voice cloning company that uses artificial intelligence to create new dialogue from archival recordings.
Respeecher had earlier helped Lucasfilm generate the voice of a young Luke Skywalker for The Book of Boba Fett, as well as making Darth Vader sound 45 years younger in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Anthony Breznican of Vanity Fair never said, in his article, that Jones signed over the rights to the Darth Vader voice, to Respeecher.
In fact, the word “rights” was never mentioned in the entire article!
Fact #2 : JEJ Approved Of The AI-Generated Dialogue
What Anthony wrote was that when James Earl Jones heard the new dialogue created by Respeecher, he approved (signed off) of the work. (my emphasis in bold)
When he ultimately presented Jones with Respeecher’s work, the actor signed off on using his archival voice recordings to keep Vader alive and vital even by artificial means.
The term “signed off” in this context meant “to approve or acknowledge something”.
It does not mean Jones “signed away” his rights – “to give (something, such as rights or property) to someone”.
Fact #3 : Respeecher Does Not Own Rights To Darth Vader’s Voice
Respeecher was contracted by Lucasfilm to generate new Darth Vader dialogue based on James Earl Jones’ archival voice recordings.
James Earl Jones never signed over the rights to his voice to Respeecher, and Respeecher certainly does NOT own the rights to his voice.
Ukrainian start-up Respeecher … uses archival recordings and a proprietary A.I. algorithm to create new dialogue with the voices of performers from long ago.
The company worked with Lucasfilm to generate the voice of a young Luke Skywalker for Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett, and the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series tasked them with making Darth Vader sound like James Earl Jones’s dark side villain from 45 years ago.
Fact #4 : Lucasfilms Owns The Rights To Darth Vader
The Darth Vader character, including his voice, is owned by LucasFilms.
James Earl Jones does not actually own the Darth Vader voice, and is unable to legally “sign away” those rights to anyone, even if he wanted to.
It’s like how he doesn’t own the rights to his famous CNN announcements – “This is CNN” and “This is CNN International”, which belong to… you guessed it – CNN.
Fact #5 : James Earl Jones Did Not Officially Retire
Many media outlets also falsely claimed that Jones had retired. Not once was it mentioned in the Vanity Fair article that he retired.
In fact, the Vanity Fair article pointed out that Jones helped Lucasfilm and the Respeecher team with the Darth Vader speech in Obi-Wan Kenobi :
Jones is credited for guiding the performance on Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Wood describes his contribution as “a benevolent godfather.”
They inform the actor about their plans for Vader and heed his advice on how to stay on the right course.
Now, Jones is 91 years old, and has not appeared in public in a long time. However, he still appears to be working in some fashion, and has not officially retired, as alleged.
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Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Both AMD and NVIDIA have just been banned from selling high-performance AI chips to both China and Russia!
Here is what you need to know…
AMD, NVIDIA Banned From Selling AI Chips To China + Russia!
On Friday, 26 August 2022, NVIDIA and AMD were both ordered by the US government to stop exporting high-performance AI chips to both China and Russia.
In its regulatory filing to the SEC, NVIDIA stated that the US government introduced this ban to prevent them from being used for military purposes, or by the Chinese or Russian military.
The ban uses the A100 Tensor Core GPU as the baseline for NVIDIA, and the 3rd Gen Instinct MI250 accelerator chip for AMD.
Effective immediately, anything equal to, or faster than, the NVIDIA A100 or the AMD Instinct MI250 can no longer be exported to either China or Russia. That includes the upcoming H100 chip.
On August 26, 2022, the U.S. government, or USG, informed NVIDIA Corporation, or the Company, that the USG has imposed a new license requirement, effective immediately, for any future export to China (including Hong Kong) and Russia of the Company’s A100 and forthcoming H100 integrated circuits.
DGX or any other systems which incorporate A100 or H100 integrated circuits and the A100X are also covered by the new license requirement.
The license requirement also includes any future NVIDIA integrated circuit achieving both peak performance and chip-to-chip I/O performance equal to or greater than thresholds that are roughly equivalent to the A100, as well as any system that includes those circuits. A license is required to export technology to support or develop covered products.
The USG indicated that the new license requirement will address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia. The Company does not sell products to customers in Russia.
I should point out that the NVIDIA A100 was launched two years ago – on June 22, 2020, while the AMD Instinct MI250 was introduced on November 8, 2021.
So it appears that the US government wants to maintain at least a 1-year advantage in high-performance AI chips.
AMD, NVIDIA Set To Lose Billions From AI Chip Sales To China!
Both AMD and NVIDIA stopped selling chips to Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine, so there is no material loss from such a ban on sales to Russia.
However, they both stand to lose billions of dollars worth of sales to China. NVIDIA alone estimates that the ban will affect US$400 million of sales, just in the third fiscal quarter.
Even more worrying was the likelihood that this ban may delay the H100 chip’s launch, and force NVIDIA to move “certain operations” out of China.
The new license requirement may impact the Company’s ability to complete its development of H100 in a timely manner or support existing customers of A100 and may require the Company to transition certain operations out of China.
AMD however claims that the ban will not have a material impact on its business, because shipments of its less powerful MI100 chips are not affected.
At this time, we do not believe that shipments of MI100 integrated circuits are impacted by the new requirements.
We do not currently believe it is a material impact on our business.
Both AMD and NVIDIA will now have to discuss with their customers in China on using alternative (less powerful) chips, or obtaining special licenses from the US government.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Samsung just launched their 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions, with a new 2022 Ultra Slim Soundbar to complement them!
Take a look at both of them in our video showcase!
2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV + Soundbar Showcase!
We were given the opportunity to view Samsung’s new 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions, as well as the new 2022 Ultra Slim Soundbar that complements them.
The 2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K televisions come in a variety of sizes, from 55 inches all the way to 85 inches. Take a look!
Every model is built around a new Neural Quantum Processor 8K, which has 20 independent neural AI networks, each analysing the content’s characteristics to deliver the best picture quality, regardless of the source.
It also powers a new feature called Real Depth Enhancer. Real Depth Enhancer scans each frame, and maximises the object’s contrast with the background.
The new processor also uses Shape Adaptive Light Control technology to create precise lighting and pure blacks using Samsung’s best Quantum mini LED display panel.
In fact, the 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions are the world’s first Pantone-validated displays, which mean they will authentically reproduce more than 2000 colours, as well as 110 new skin tone shades.
These new models also use AI technology to automatically adjust the brightness and colour temperature of the display to match the room’s lighting condition.
The 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions boast Samsung’s new Smart Hub user interface, powered by Tizen. They are also designed to provide the ultimate gaming experience through features like :
four HDMI 2.1 ports
Motion Xcelerator Turbo Pro 4K 144 Hz gaming
Super Ultrawite GameView, and
Game Bar
These televisions are also more eco-friendly, featuring eco-packaging and a more efficient SolarCell Remote that is completely battery-free, and can recharge through 2.4 GHz radio frequency harvesting – drawing power from your WiFi router’s signals!
The Neural Quantum Processor 8K also uses artificial intelligence to create a truly immersive soundscape by analysing the picture in real time, to deliver positional audio cues through the Adaptive Sound technology.
The flagship QN900B model even features a 90 watt 6.2.4 channel audio system, featuring Dolby Atmos with Object Tracking Sound Pro.
Finally, Samsung added Wireless Dolby Atmos to these models, ensuring that you can connect them to the new 2022 Ultra Slim Soundbar without using a HDMI cable!
The new Ultra Slim Soundbar delivers true 3.1.2 sound with two up-firing channels, and is now much thinner and smaller.
2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV : Price + Models
The 2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K televisions are available in a variety of sizes, at these price points :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s photography performance, and find out why it’s such an awesome smartphone for photographers!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Flagship Class Photography!
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is their flagship smartphone for the year 2022, and it boasts the best cameras money can buy.
Headlining its top-of-the-line quad-camera system is a Dual Pixel camera, which is built around the 108 MP ISOCELL HM3 sensor, and optically-stabilised lens with a large f/1.8 aperture.
You can seamlessly switch to its ultra-wide camera, with a 12 MP sensor and a f/2.2 aperture; or optically zoom up to 10X with its dual telephoto and periscope cameras.
In this review, we are going to take a look at the photography capability of Galaxy S22 Ultra, and show you just how well its cameras perform!
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Review
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 108 MP main camera, built around the same ISOCELL HM3 sensor used in the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
However, this camera features improved AI optimisations. Thanks to the improved performance of its GPU and NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models through its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to optimise the final output.
Here are six shots I took around Ipoh Old Town, using the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.
They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 15 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.
By default, the 108 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining nine pixels into one super-large 2.4 µm pixel. Coupled with the new AI models, the final photo is not only much brighter, but has significantly lower noise.
When you take shots at night, the Galaxy S22 Ultra combines images taken using both the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide camera. The 12 MP camera provides the rough details, while the fine details are provided by the 108 MP camera.
Here are four shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 108 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.
Its digital zoom has also been improved by the new AI models and the faster processor. For images taken above 30X digital zoom, the camera actually takes 10-20 shots at once, and processes them to improve the details in the final photo.
Finally, the Galaxy S22 Ultra features a new AI portrait model that uses two cameras to accurately differentiate the depth between the person and the background.
This is critical because the 108 MP camera has a very wide f/1.8 aperture, which makes for very narrow depth-of-field (DOF). If you do not accurately focus on the subject, you could end up with a blurry photo even though it looks sharp on the phone.
In these four shots, you can see just how narrow of depth of field you have to work with. This makes for better photos – you just need to make sure the subject is really in focus.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Summary
If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Ignore the 108 MP marketing hoohah. What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.
You may be wary about Samsung reusing the ISOCELL HM3 sensor from last year, but it has better photographic capabilities, thanks mostly to software and AI improvements.
For one thing, I noticed that it is now much better at accurately focusing on the subject, resulting in far fewer wrongly-focused shots.
It also does a better job of correcting for disparate lighting conditions, although some of you may find the photos oversaturated.
But there is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability
Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.
I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.
Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.
Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
IBM just introduced the z16 system, powered by their new Telum processor with an integrated AI accelerator!
Take a look at the z16, and find out why it is the industry’s first quantum-safe system!
IBM z16 : Industry’s First Quantum-Safe System!
On 25 April 2022, IBM officially unveiled their new z16 system in Malaysia – the industry’s first quantum-safe system.
IBM Vice President for Worldwide Sales of IBM Z and LinuxONE, Jose Castano, flew to Kuala Lumpur, to give us an exclusive briefing on the new z16 system, and tell us why it is the industry’s first quantum-safe system.
IBM Z and LinuxONE Security CTO Michael Jordan also briefed us on why quantum-safe computing will be critical for enterprises, as quantum computing improves.
Thanks to its Telum processor, the IBM z16 system delivers low and consistent latency for embedding AI into response time-sensitive transactions. This can enable customers to leverage AI inference to better control the outcome of transactions before they complete.
For example, they can leverage AI inference to mitigate risk in Clearing & Settlement applications, to predict which transactions have high risk exposure, and highlight questionable transactions, to prevent costly consequences.
In a use-case example, one international bank uses AI on IBM Z as part of their credit card authorization process instead of using an off-platform inference solution. As a result, the bank can detect fraud during its credit card transaction authorisation processing.
The IBM z16 will offer better AI inference capacity, thanks to its integrated AI accelerator offering up to 1 ms of latency, expanding use cases that include :
tax fraud and organised retail theft detection
real-time payments and alternative payment methods, including cryptocurrencies
speed up business or consumer loan approvals
As the industry’s first quantum-safe system, the IBM z16 is protected by lattice-based crypto graphs – an approach for constructing security primitives that help protect data and systems against current and future threats.
IBM z16 : Powered By The New Telum Processor!
The IBM z16 is built around the new IBM Telum processor, which is specifically designed for secure processing, and real-time AI inference.
Here are the key features of the IBM Telum processor that powers the new IBM z16 system :
Fabricated on the 7 nm process technology
Has 8 processor cores, clocked at over 5 GHz
Each processor core has a dedicated 32 MB private L2 cache
The eight 32 MB L2 cache can form a virtual 256 MB L3 cache, and a 2 GB L4 cache.
Transparent encryption of main memory, with 8-channel fault tolerant memory interface
Integrated AI accelerator with 6 TFLOPS compute capacity
Centralised AI accelerator architecture, with direct connection to the cache infrastructure
The Telum processor is designed to enable extremely low latency inference for response-time sensitive workloads. With planned system support for up to 200 TFLOPs, the AI acceleration is also designed to scale up to the requirements of the most demanding workloads.
Thanks to the Telum processor, the IBM z16 can process 300 billion inference requests per day, with just one millisecond of latency.
Please Support My Work!
Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
Name : Adrian Wong Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus robot vacuum is really, REALLY AWESOME!
Find out why every home should have a little ROIDMI Eve Plus running around!
Why Xiaomi’s ROIDMI Eve Plus Is So Awesome!
One of the hottest gadgets for homeowners is a robot vacuum, which can be incredibly useful or a real pain in the ass.
What most homeowners in the market for a robot vacuum don’t understand is that many models don’t clean well, and are a hassle to maintain.
That’s why Xiaomi’s ROIDMI Eve Plus robot vacuum is so awesome – it is not only a cleaning powerhouse, it does away with almost all of the maintenance hassle!
Self-Emptying System
One of the biggest hassle in maintaining a robot vacuum is the constant need to empty the dust box.
This limitation prevents ordinary robot vacuums from automatically and continuously cleaning your house for days on end.
This is not a problem for the ROIDMI Eve Plus. When it returns to its base station to recharge its battery, its dust box is automatically emptied into the base station!
This allows the Eve Plus to continuously recharge and empty its dust box, and clean your house for weeks on end!
The base station’s large 3L dust bag can hold enough dust for 60 days, before you need to clear it.
Self-Sanitising System
The ROIDMI Eve Plus not only comes with a HEPA filter – a common feature in robot vacuums, it boasts a pioneering Deodorizing Particle Generator in the base station.
The Deodorizing Particle Generator uses Active Oxygen technology to sterilise the collected dust, eliminating dust mites as well as microbes and mold like E. coli, Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus.
It can also eliminate toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, ammonia, benzene and TVOC, as well as remove the smell of cigarettes and perfume.
4th Generation Super-Sensing LDS Sensor
The ROIDMI Eve Plus comes with their 4th generation laser distance sensor, which allows for highly-precise scanning of its environment.
It is constantly scanning for obstacles, so it will quickly detect people or pets nearby and avoid them.
AI Smart Room Mapping
The ROIDMI Eve Plus can precisely map and later remember every room in your house, across multiple levels!
Its built-in AI mapping and path planning algorithms allow it to better and faster clean the rooms, and resume its cleaning duties after charging or emptying its dust box.
The room maps it generates also allows you to demarcate forbidden areas, or schedule more frequent cleaning for certain rooms.
Separate maps can be saved for each floor, and the settings are automatically matched and switched, when switching floors.
4+ Hours Of Vacuum + Mopping!
The ROIDMI Eve Plus has a powerful digital brushless vacuum with 2,700 Pa of suction power, with side brushes and a flexible inlet that adjusts to the floor condition.
And thanks to its large 5,200 mAh battery, it can keep on cleaning for over 4 hours (250 minutes) before it needs to return to the base station!
If you like squeaky clean floors, the Eve Plus has a mopping module and a 250 ml water tank, to give you just that.
It simulates hand-mopping with its 3-stage Y-route (not available in the US) or U-route mopping
Obstacle Avoidance
The ROIDMI Eve Plus will never get stuck under your bed, sofa or cabinets, because it can automatically sense their height.
It is also smart enough to detect low obstacles like door strips or cables (up to 2 cm in height) and crawl over them.
It can also sense and climb up ramps with slopes of up to 20°, which lesser robot vacuums will balk at.
Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus : What’s Inside The Box?
The Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus comes in two separate boxes – one for the robot vacuum cleaner, and the other for its base station.
In this video, we take a look at what’s inside both boxes!
Premium 1 Year Warranty : RM1,988 (1 to 1 Exchange)
In addition, you can save more by purchasing these Add-on Deals :
Replacement parts like dust bag, mop wipes, roller brush, side brush, filter, etc.
Extended 1 year warranty on the battery
But on 11/11, the ROIDMI Eve Plus goes on sale at only RM1,458 for just TWO HOURS – from 12 AM until 2 AM!
So don’t miss this offer. Grab it during those two hours!
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
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Dell just introduced the UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) for the new Work From Home normal!
Here is what you need to know about the new Dell WB7022 UltraSharp Webcam!
Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) : All You Need To Know!
More than 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Work From Home (WFH) normal appears to be here to stay, at least for now.
To ensure that those who need to remotely work have the best possible video conferencing webcam, Dell just introduced the UltraSharp Webcam.
With nine patent-pending technologies, the Dell UltraSharp Webcam offers 4K image quality, built-in AI tracking and other video conferencing features.
4K Webcam With World’s Best Image Quality
Dell claims that the UltraSharp Webcam offers the world’s best image quality, courtesy of the large 4K Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor and the multi-element lens that captures more light to deliver “crystal-clear video”.
It supports frame rates of 24 and 30 fps at the full 4K UHD resolution. It also supports the higher 60 fps frame rate, at the lower 1080p and 720p resolutions.
It’s not just about the hardware. It’s also about the software embedded into the UltraSharp Webcam.
Its Digital Overlap HDR capability lets the Dell UltraSharp Webcam preserve true-to-life colours and balance exposure.
Meanwhile, its 2D/3D video noise reduction capability eliminates grainy images, making you look good even in low light conditions.
AI Auto-Framing
The Dell UltraSharp Webcam has AI Auto-Framing capability built-in. This feature uses Artificial Intelligence to keep you focused and centred in the frame.
You don’t have to manually adjust the webcam. It will track your movements and shift the frame to keep you centered, even if you stand up!
5X Digital Zoom + Three Fields of View
The Dell UltraSharp Webcam supports up to 5X digital zoom, as well as three fields of view – 65°, 78° and 90°.
This allows you to fit multiple people in the same conference call, or focus exclusively on you in a crowded place.
Smart Security Features
The Dell UltraSharp Webcam supports Windows Hello, allowing you to sign-in quickly and securely usual facial recognition.
It also has Dell ExpressSign-in capability built-in, allowing Dell PCs to detect your presence as you approach and automatically log you out when you step away, offering you an extra level of security.
Finally, it comes with a magnetic privacy cover that securely snaps onto the lens, or the back of the webcam.
Webcam Mounting Solutions
The Dell UltraSharp Webcam comes with two mounts in the box :
a magnetic mount
a tripod adaptor
The magnetic mount makes it easy to attach to the top of any desktop or laptop monitor, without obscuring the display.
And if you need to mount it on a tripod, simply slide the webcam off the magnetic mount and slide it into the tripod adaptor!
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