Meta to track workers' clicks and keystrokes to train AI Meta will start tracking the way employees work, including their keystrokes and mouse clicks, to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models. The company, which owns Instagram and Facebook, told workers on Tuesday that a new tool will run on Meta's computers and internal apps, logging their activity to be used as training data for AI technology. A Meta spokesman told the BBC: If we're building agents to help people complete everyday tasks using computers, our models need real examples of how people actually use them. The data is not used for any other purpose, he said, adding that the tool has safeguards in place to protect sensitive content. But one Meta employee, who asked not to be identified, said having their smallest actions on a computer being used to train AI model as workers expect a slew of additional job cuts feels very dystopian.

A sewer robot that monitors pipework and raises blockage alerts before flooding occurs is set for its first mission. Pipebot Patrol is a 1.8m project led by Northumbrian Water and funded by the Ofwat Water Breakthrough Challenge. The robot can inspect miles of pipes over a 30-day period and automatically report back issues from underground. A spokesman for the water company said the robot would be a "game-changer" and would help cut down the number of emergency repairs. Northumbria Water said 10 organisations had played a part in the robot's development, including councils in Sunderland, Gateshead and Newcastle.

In the three months before August last year, Russia fired a total of 1,100, according to a report by Ukraine's general staff. A steep rise followed, with 818 drones recorded in August, 1,410 in September and more than 2,000 in October. But the numbers just keep going up. In May, for the first time, the number of drones exceeded 4,000. This month is likely to set a new record.

For more than three decades, the TrackPoint's iconic red rubbery nub has been a staple of IBM and Lenovo ThinkPad laptops. Lenovo has removed its famous TrackPoint from its latest ThinkPad laptops, calling it time for a change. Does that mean the TrackPoint is dead? It will still appear in the other ThinkPads made by Lenovo, said a company spokesman. But for the 14- and 15-inch ThinkPad X9 Aura Editions launched at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the TrackPoint has been removed entirely.

Ukrainian forces have killed or wounded more than 1,000 North Korean troops Russia has sent to fight them, according to Kyiv and officials in South Korea. "According to preliminary data, the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address on December 23. South Korean intelligence put the North Korean dead and wounded at 1,100, and said the North was preparing to send more troops. North Korea sent 11,000 troops to fight in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine counter-invaded in August. North Korean troops were evidently untrained in dealing with Ukrainian drones, which took a high toll.

The Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for a rare drone attack in central Tel Aviv that crashed into a building near the United States Embassy branch office early Friday, killing at least one person and wounding eight others. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that Israel's defense systems had apparently picked up the drone but failed to register it as a threat. No air-raid sirens were activated to warn civilians of the attack, despite Israel's extensive aerial defense system. "We are investigating why we did not identify it, attack it and intercept it," Admiral Hagari said. The Israeli military said the drone had likely flown from Yemen, where the Houthis are based, before approaching Tel Aviv from the coast.

The compound that was hit had been operated by UNRWA, the main U.N. body that aids Palestinians in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini, the director of UNRWA, wrote on social media that 6,000 Palestinians had been sheltering in the school complex. Khalil Daqran, a spokesman for Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah, said the bodies of at least 40 people killed in the attack had been brought to the hospital. At least some of the victims were women, children and older people, he added, although he declined to provide a precise figure. Colonel Lerner, the Israeli military spokesman, said he was "not aware of any civilian casualties" as a result of the strike. U.S. officials have been encouraging the Israeli military for months to use GBU-39s, which weigh at least 250 pounds, rather than larger 2,000-pound bombs because they are generally more precise.

Turnabout is fair play: At CES 2024, AMD launched desktop versions of its mobile Ryzen 8000 processors, bringing AI to the desktop alongside integrated graphics. And for AMD fans who aren't quite ready to make the leap to AMD's AM5 socket, whoa! There are new Ryzen 5000 desktop chips as well. AMD's launch adds four new Ryzen 8000 G-series processors to AMD's lineup. These are APUs, AMD's desktop chips that combine integrated graphics alongside the CPU die -- in this case, the RDNA 3- based Radeon 780M, Radeon 760M, and Radeon 740M that we saw integrated in the AMD Ryzen 8040 (8000) series chips AMD announced this December. All of the new Ryzen 8000 and 5000 chips will be available on Jan. 31.

The tensions spilling over from the war in Gaza to merchant shipping in the Red Sea escalated on Saturday when Britain and the United States said their militaries had shot down more than a dozen attack drones. The Houthis, an armed group that controls much of northern Yemen, have been staging drone and missile assaults on Israeli and American targets since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel. They have said they intend to prevent Israeli ships from sailing the Red Sea until Israel stops its war on Hamas, which rules Gaza. Both the Houthis and Hamas, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, are backed by Iran. The shipping industry was also bracing for potential economic fallout as the Red Sea, a vital sea lane, is increasingly drawn into the regional unrest.

Axel Springer, the publisher of Business Insider and Politico, said on Wednesday it was partnering with OpenAI, which will pay the German media group to allow ChatGPT to summarize current articles in responses generated by the chatbot. "ChatGPT users around the world will receive summaries of selected global news content from Axel Springer's media brands," which also includes the German tabloid Bild, the two companies said in a statement. The chatbot's answers will include material otherwise kept behind a paywall and offer "links to the full articles for transparency and further information", they said. Axel Springer will be paid for making its content available to the US artificial intelligence firm, a spokesman for the media group told AFP. The deal is valid for several years and does not commit either side to exclusivity, leaving them free to sign new agreements, the spokesman said without giving more detail.