#NL20 Beatles album to release John Lennon's AI voice |Binance terminates service in Netherlands |Russian hacker attacks Ukraine military system |Alibaba to launch E-commerce site in Europe| and more.
On the Beatles’ New Album, John Lennon’s Voice Will be Replaced by Artificial Intelligence:
Paul McCartney, member of the Beatles group confirmed that it will be releasing a new album by the end of the year 2023 but it also announced that the voice of famous John Lennon will be replaced by AI!
In the past, the Oasis band wrote, played, and recorded a song including vocals but the vocals were then pulled through AI which were fed to Liam’s voice(Oasis band member), replacing the original singer’s voice and cadence.
The Beatles album will undergo a similar process. According to McCartney, this technology provides new possibilities for musical creation that we have only dreamed of until now. All previous attempts to save and use these demos were unsuccessful due to poor sound quality, but AI helped them extract and refine the vocals, which they could then insert into the mix as if it had just been recorded.
“I’m concerned about how AI will continue to be used going forward since it can perform trickery and replace one person’s voice with another voice. It’s all a bit scary, but it’s also exciting because it’s the future,” McCartney concluded in an interview with BBC Radio 4.
Alibaba to launch local versions of its China e-commerce site in Europe:
Alibaba will expand one of its key China e-commerce sites into Europe, Michael Evans, president of Alibaba said on Thursday. This e-commerce service will be called “Tmall” in Europe.
“So you will see something called Tmall which we have in China, which means we will serve local brands and local consumers in the local market,” Evans said at the Viva Tech conference in Paris, France.
At present Alibaba is doing a pilot project in Spain which will be soon expanded into Europe. While Alibaba’s international push in online shopping is not new, it has focused on a site called AliExpress in Europe. However, AliExpress has goods shipped from China into Europe. Shipping times are often long though products may be cheaper than rivals. It’s unclear if this would be merged in any way with AliExpress.
Russian hackers unleash USB-based malware on Ukraine’s military:
Researchers from Broadcom wrote in their post that Russian attackers have taken unauthorized access to sensitive information about the Ukrainian military.
There were indications in some organizations that the attackers were on the machines of the organization’s human resources departments, indicating that information about individuals working at the various organizations was a priority for the attackers, among other things.
This new malware is in the form of a PowerShell script that spreads Pterodo, a Shuckworm-created backdoor. The script activates when infected USB drives are connected to targeted computers. The malicious script first copies itself onto the targeted machine to create a shortcut file with the extension rtf.lnk. The files have names such as video_porn.rtf.lnk, do_not_delete.rtf.lnk, and evidence.rtf.lnk. The names, which are mostly in the Ukrainian language, are an attempt to entice targets to open the files so they will install Pterodo on machines.
To cover its tracks, Shuckworm has created dozens of variants and rapidly rotated the IP addresses and infrastructure it uses for command and control. The group also uses legitimate services such as Telegram and its micro-blogging platform Telegraph for command and control in another attempt to avoid detection.
Binance terminates service in the Netherlands:
The termination of services is effective immediately, and no new customers from the Netherlands can open an account with the crypto exchange. From July 17 onwards, existing Dutch customers will only be able to withdraw assets from the Binance platform, and no further purchases, trades, or deposits will be possible from today.
Binance tried to find alternative ways to continue its work in the Dutch market but nothing seems to have helped. It is currently sending out emails to its Dutch customers with comprehensive information about the next steps it will be taking.
In April 2022, the crypto exchange was slapped with an administrative fine of over $3 million for operating in the country without the required license and registration. At the time, the Dutch central bank claimed that Binance had a large customer base in the country and a significant daily trading volume running into billions, thus the hefty penalty.
Microsoft to remove its built-in Teams client from Windows 11:
Microsoft Teams will be removed as a built-in functionality from Windows 11 since the downloaded app is more flexible to use. The original Teams integration in Windows 11, named Chat, was deeply woven into the operating system. Enabled by default, the Chat app was pinned to the taskbar and you’d have to dig into Settings to remove it. Chat offers consumers a way to use Microsoft Teams to contact friends and family. It was weirdly limited to just consumers though, making it useless for the vast majority of Microsoft Teams users that use the work version of the app.
Microsoft will also be ending the support to Cortana, the company announced a few weeks back along with Bing’s new chatbot update that can use your voice for answering the questions.
Quick Reads:
Google Lens can now search for skin conditions:
As mentioned in a recent blog post on Keyword, the latest skin condition detection feature in Google Lens enables users to identify moles or rashes on their skin without the need to provide any textual description. This functionality is activated by capturing an image within the Google Lens app or selecting an image from the device's gallery.
Mercedes to add ChatGPT in its MBUX infotainment system:
U.S. owners of Mercedes models having MBUX system will be able to opt into a beta program for ChatGPT functionality. You can join up simply by telling your car “Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program.”
‘Users will experience a voice assistant that not only accepts natural voice commands but can also conduct conversations. Soon, participants who ask the Voice Assistant for details about their destination, to suggest a new dinner recipe, or to answer a complex question, will receive a more comprehensive answer – while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.’, Mercedes described in its news.
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