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WEEKLY STEM FACT #2: Did you know that the human brain is capable of producing about 20 watts of electrical power?
Hello all! We hope everyone is having a good day. This week, Apple has finally allowed third-party applications on their app stores due to new European laws. Furthermore, it has been revealed that the NSA has been buying the online data of Americans.
Lots of things happened this week, here's what we’ll be covering:
Apple’s New European App Store Changes
NSA Buying Internet Data of Americans’
NASA’s Ingenuity Ending Its Mission
23andMe Data Breach
A.I May Not Replace Jobs Anytime Soon
Apple’s New European App Store Changes
According to a CNN Business article, for the first time in Apple’s history, they have announced new plans for allowing third-party applications and app stores on their devices. This means that Apple is going to be taking a massive pay cut, since, according to AppleInsider, the company charges up to a 30% fee for all in-app purchases. According to the same CNN Business article, this means that Apple customers will finally get more choices and flexibility in how they acquire, pay for, and download apps. For app developers, this change will allow them to earn more money from their apps, since other app stores may charge less fees or none at all. Why is Apple making this sudden change? Well, according to CNN, it’s simply to comply with the new European Digital Markets Act.
NSA Buying Internet Data of Americans’
Wouldn’t it be scary if a government agency was buying your data? Well, that's exactly what's been happening. According to a CNN Business article, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been buying the online internet data of Americans for reasons that are still unknown. This has recently been brought to light by a US senator who released letters from the Pentagon, which confirmed sales regarding the personal data of numerous Americans. The same CNN article, mentions that the NSA has responded by saying that they use commercially purchased data to support their “cybersecurity and foreign intelligence missions” which are to help protect Americans.
NASA’s Ingenuity Ending Its Mission
Have you heard of Ingenuity? According to The New York Times, NASA’s Ingenuity robot served as a “scouting partner” for the Perseverance rover on Mars. However, according to the same article, Ingenuity’s mission will be cut short. This is due to its most recent flight, in which it broke one or more of its rotors, meaning it will not be able to fly anymore, and will have to be left behind. According to Wikipedia, around 65 full-time NASA employees from their Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked on Ingenuity. Now, according to The New York Times, they are investigating what caused Ingenuity to break its rotor and hopefully use that to create newer, better, and more advanced designs in the future. “‘Ingenuity was based off of theories,’ Mr. Tzanetos said. ‘We now have facts, and future aircraft designs are going to rely on all the data we’ve collected from Ingenuity’”-quote from The New York Times.
23andMe Data Breach
If you’ve been on the internet for a while, you might have heard of 23andMe. According to ScienceAmerican, 23andMe is a personal genetic-testing service that collects the DNA of its customers and gives detailed information on their genetics by comparing their genes to ones that are found throughout the world. 23andMe is marketed as a fun and interactive way to learn more about yourself, your ancestry, and your inherited traits. However, according to The New York Times, it was recently found that, in a 23andMe data breach in 2023, the data of its users who were specifically of Chinese and Jewish heritage were targeted. Now, it is expected that the company will be strengthening its cybersecurity efforts in response.
Restaurant server robot. @Alex Knight
Robots May Not Replace Jobs Anytime Soon
It seems like there are new developments in A.I almost every week. A.I technology is quickly reshaping the tech industry and revolutionizing people’s workflow, purchases, and interactions. Either for the better or for the worse. One of the worries that regular consumers have about A.I and robots are how they may be able to replace ordinary people in their jobs. However, according to a CNN Business article, people may not lose their jobs to either A.I or robots as quickly as they think. According to the article, researchers at MIT found that “the economy isn’t ready for machines to put most humans out of work” and that only about 23% of the wages being paid to humans could be effectively replaced by robots or A.I tools. This means that, while A.I can gradually replace some jobs, many of the jobs that are currently being done by humans are still secure and “future-safe.”
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Sources used:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/tech/apple-europe-third-party-app-stores/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/science/nasa-ingenuity-helicopter-mars.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/business/23andme-hack-data.html
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/22/tech/ai-labor-market-mit-study/index.html