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Microsoft’s Phi-3 shows the surprising power of small, locally run AI language models

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a new, freely available lightweight AI language model named Phi-3-mini, which is simpler and less expensive to operate than traditional large language models (LLMs) like…

Hackers infect users of antivirus service that delivered updates over HTTP

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Hackers abused an antivirus service for five years in order to infect end users with malware. The attack worked because the service delivered updates over HTTP, a protocol vulnerable…

Windows vulnerability reported by the NSA exploited to install Russian malware

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Kremlin-backed hackers have been exploiting a critical Microsoft vulnerability for four years in attacks that targeted a vast array of organizations with a previously undocumented tool, the software maker…

LastPass users targeted in phishing attacks good enough to trick even the savvy

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Password-manager LastPass users were recently targeted by a convincing phishing campaign that used a combination of email, SMS, and voice calls to trick targets into divulging their master passwords,…

LLMs keep leaping with Llama 3, Meta’s newest open-weights AI model

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Benj Edwards) On Thursday, Meta unveiled early versions of its Llama 3 open-weights AI model that can be used to power text composition, code generation, or chatbots. It…

Microsoft’s VASA-1 can deepfake a person with one photo and one audio track

Enlarge / A sample image from Microsoft for "VASA-1: Lifelike Audio-Driven Talking Faces Generated in Real Time." (credit: Microsoft) On Tuesday, Microsoft Research Asia unveiled VASA-1, an AI model that can create a…

Broadcom says “many” VMware perpetual licenses got support extensions

Enlarge (credit: Getty) Broadcom CEO Hock Tan this week publicized some concessions aimed at helping customers and partners ease into VMware’s recent business model changes. Tan reiterated that the controversial changes, like the…

Kremlin-backed actors spread disinformation ahead of US elections

Enlarge (credit: da-kuk/Getty) Kremlin-backed actors have stepped up efforts to interfere with the US presidential election by planting disinformation and false narratives on social media and fake news sites, analysts with Microsoft reported…

OpenAI winds down AI image generator that blew minds and forged friendships in 2022

Enlarge / An AI-generated image from DALL-E 2 created with the prompt "A painting by Grant Wood of an astronaut couple, american gothic style." (credit: AI Pictures That Go Hard / X) When…

Why the US government’s overreliance on Microsoft is a big problem

Enlarge (credit: Joan Cros via Getty) When Microsoft revealed in January that foreign government hackers had once again breached its systems, the news prompted another round of recriminations about the security posture of…