Wednesday Newsbytes: Google Tries to Kill AI Clickbait; Microsoft Ends Support for Android Apps; HP Introduces Rent-A-Printer… and more
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Google Is Finally Trying to Kill AI Clickbait
On Tuesday, Google announced changes to combat AI spam in search. An SEO expert says these new rules could “change everything.”
Google is taking action against algorithmically generated spam. The search engine giant just announced upcoming changes, including a revamped spam policy, designed in part to keep AI clickbait out of its search results.
“It sounds like it’s going to be one of the biggest updates in the history of Google,” says Lily Ray, senior director of SEO at the marketing agency Amsive. “It could change everything.”
In a blog post, Google claims the change will reduce “low-quality, unoriginal content” in search results by 40 percent. It will focus on reducing what the company calls “scaled content abuse,” which is when bad actors flood the internet with massive amounts of articles and blog posts designed to game search engines.
“A good example of it, which has been around for a little while, is the abuse around obituary spam,” says Google’s vice president of search, Pandu Nayak. Obituary spam is an especially grim type of digital piracy, where people attempt to make money by scraping and republishing death notices, sometimes on social platforms like YouTube. Recently, obituary spammers have started using artificial intelligence tools to increase their output…
Microsoft is ending support for Android apps on Windows
You can no longer install the Amazon Appstore on Windows, but existing users have a year before it goes away.
Microsoft is pulling the plug on Android apps for Windows. The company said it’s ending support for Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), the underlying component behind the Amazon Appstore (and other Android apps) in Windows 11. Microsoft told Engadget it was responding to “evolving customer needs.”
Microsoft first said in 2021 that Windows 11 would be able to run Android apps. When it arrived the following year, users could install the Amazon Appstore, and some individual Android apps were found in the Microsoft Store. The rollout was viewed as an answer to the dual threats of Android apps on Chromebooks and iOS apps on Apple Silicon Macs.
A Microsoft spokesperson clarified to Engadget why it’s now terminating the feature. “As part of our commitment to meeting evolving customer needs, we periodically update our product offerings,” they said. “This involves introducing new technical innovations and retiring products. Microsoft remains dedicated to an open platform and ecosystem, and we look forward to continuing to bring the best experiences and apps to Windows.”
With Microsoft blazing full-tilt into all things AI, it may now see its past attempts at making Windows a dramatically better touch-focused platform as no longer worth the resources…
HP is in the rent-a-printer business now
You already barely own your printer, anyway, but is renting it better?
HP has a new proposition in a time when (companies like it have made sure) you don’t really control much about your computer anyway: why don’t you just let HP rent you one? The company debuted a subscription service today — just like CEO Enrique Lores said it would last month — called the HP All-In Plan. It’s essentially an extension of HP’s Instant Ink, and like that plan, you’ll have ink sent to you as you approach empty, but unlike it, your monthly fee also covers the printer itself.
Which printer you get depends on the plan you choose. They start at $6.99 per month for 20 pages’ worth of prints and whatever the current HP Envy model is, and go all the way up to a $35.99-a-month affair that gets you an OfficeJet Pro and 700 pages. If you go over your page allotment, HP will add more for a dollar per block of 10–15 pages…
A medical tech company that handles billions of records was hacked. What you should know.
U.S. health officials Tuesday urged insurance companies to take immediate steps to ease a digital logjam following a massive data hack that snarled administrative functions for hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and millions of patients.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked insurers to waive prior authorizations and Medicare’s contractors to accept paper bills from doctors and hospitals. These temporary measures aim to address administrative problems that have emerged from the recent data hack of an influential company owned by UnitedHealth Group.
On Feb. 21, Change Healthcare, a property of UnitedHealth Group, disclosed that hackers had disrupted operations for the company that processes 15 billion health-related transactions yearly. Change Healthcare operates a digital “clearinghouse” that connects doctors, hospitals and other health providers with insurance companies that pay for medical care and authorize medical services. Since news of the hack became public last month, doctors and hospitals have been unable to bill for some services and patients have had trouble picking up prescriptions.
Last Thursday, UnitedHealth Group said a ransomware group known as ALPHV or Blackcat was responsible for the attack that disrupted billing and care authorization systems nationwide…
Read more at USA Today via MSN.
AI worm that infects computers and reads emails created by researchers
Morris II represents new breed of ‘zero-click malware’, researchers warn
Security researchers have developed a self-replicating AI worm that can infiltrate people’s emails in order to spread malware and steal data.
Dubbed Morris II, after the first ever computer worm from 1988, the computer worm was created by an international team from the US and Israel in an effort to highlight the risks associated with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).
The worm is designed to target AI-powered apps that use popular tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. It has already been demonstrated against GenAI-powered email assistants to steal personal data and launch spamming campaigns.
The researchers warned that the worm represented a new breed of “zero-click malware”, as the victim does not have to click on anything to trigger the malicious activity or even propagate it. Instead, it is carried out by the automatic action of the generative AI tool.
“The study demonstrates that attackers can insert such prompts into inputs that, when processed by GenAI models, prompt the model to replicate the input as output (replication) and engage in malicious activities (payload),” the researchers wrote.
“Additionally, these inputs compel the agent to deliver them (propagate) to new agents by exploiting the connectivity within the GenAI ecosystem.”
The research was detailed in a study, titled ‘ComPromptMized: Unleashing zero-click worms that target GenAI-powered applications’.
Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, security researchers have noted the potential for hackers and cyber criminals to use some element of generative AI in order to carry out attacks…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
