Alphabet’s Google has revealed two innovative AI systems, AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2, which demonstrate significant advancements in solving complex mathematical problems. These systems tackled abstract math more effectively than previous AI models, showcasing enhanced reasoning capabilities.
DeepMind, Google’s AI unit, reported that these models managed to solve four out of six questions at the 2024 International Math Olympiad. AlphaProof, which integrates the Gemini language model with the AlphaZero system, solved three problems, including the most challenging one, while AlphaGeometry 2 solved another.
These achievements mark the best performance by an AI system in the competition to date, with some problems solved in minutes and others taking up to three days. Meanwhile, Microsoft-backed OpenAI is developing a similar project known as ‘Strawberry,’ raising concerns among its staff about its potential impact on humanity.
The US cybersecurity company has successfully restored 97% of its Windows sensors following a global outage caused by a faulty software update. The issue, which began nearly a week ago, affected 8.5 million devices running Microsoft’s Windows operating system, leading to significant disruptions in services, including flights, healthcare, and banking.
The outage was triggered by a fault in CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform sensor, a security agent designed to protect devices from threats. The fault caused computers to crash and display the notorious blue screen of death. In response, CrowdStrike deployed a fix and mobilized all resources to support customers, enhancing recovery efforts with automatic recovery techniques.
The recovery comes amidst scrutiny over the cybersecurity firm’s quality control measures. Despite the challenges, CrowdStrike’s swift response has helped mitigate further impact and restore critical services globally.
Apple Maps is now accessible via web browsers through a beta version launched on Wednesday. Users can get driving and walking directions, view ratings and reviews, and use many of the same features available in the iOS app. The beta site, beta.maps.apple.com, allows users to explore cities, order food, and get business information. Apple plans to add more features, including Look Around, soon.
Currently, the web version supports English and works on Safari and Chrome for Mac and iPad, as well as Chrome and Edge on Windows PCs. Apple intends to expand support to other languages, browsers, and platforms. Developers using MapKit JS can link to the web version.
Since its 2012 iPhone debut, Apple Maps has gradually added features like detailed city maps, multi-stop routing, cycling directions, EV routing, and offline navigation. The web version represents a significant expansion and aims to compete with Google Maps, which has long been available on the web.
Meanwhile, the Overture Maps Foundation, supported by Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, released its first mapping dataset on Wednesday. This dataset is available for developers to use in their apps, adding more competition to the digital mapping space.
Microsoft has announced a partnership with Lumen Technologies to expand its capacity for AI workloads using LT’s network equipment. The tech giant, which has faced challenges due to data center infrastructure shortages, aims to meet the growing demand for AI services at its data centers.
In April, Microsoft revealed that the shortage of necessary infrastructure was limiting its ability to fully leverage the boom in AI technology. The company, which has invested heavily in OpenAI and its ChatGPT technology, continues to pour billions into cloud infrastructure to stay ahead of competitors like Google and Amazon.
As part of the deal, Lumen Technologies will switch to Microsoft’s Azure cloud services to reduce costs. The transition is expected to improve Lumen’s cash flow by over $20 million in the next year, aiding the company’s efforts to restructure its debt and achieve financial stability.
Why does this matter?
The collaboration comes as Microsoft also makes strides in AI development with projects like Vall-E-2, which achieves human-like speech, and its commitment to expanding AI in education in Hong Kong. These initiatives highlight Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to maintain its leadership in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
A global system failure on 19 July 2024, caused by a CrowdStrike Windows update, left gate screens blue and blank at airports worldwide. The update resulted in failures with Windows servers, virtual machines, and end point systems, affecting 8.5 million devices. Experts believe the update may have skipped quality checks, leading to widespread ‘blue screens of death’ and inoperable systems.
Organisations have struggled to restore operations, with Gartner releasing guidelines for immediate and long-term measures. Security teams are advised to be vigilant for opportunistic attacks, such as phishing and ransomware, as hackers exploit the chaos. The incident underscores the importance of resilience in the face of interconnected system vulnerabilities.
Chris Morales of Netenrich warned of potential phishing attacks, credential stuffing, and brute-force breaches during the outage. Gartner also highlighted the need to manage employee burnout as help desk staff face increased workloads. Ensuring temporary measures are properly decommissioned will be crucial to avoid further issues.
Long-term recommendations include focusing on resilience through redundant systems, continuous data backup, and comprehensive supply chain oversight. Jenna Wells of Supply Wisdom emphasised the importance of proactive business continuity plans to mitigate future incidents, stating that it’s not a matter of if but when an event will occur.
Bangladesh remained without internet access for the fifth consecutive day as the government declared a public holiday on Monday. Authorities maintained strict control following a Supreme Court ruling that reduced a contentious quota system for government jobs, which had triggered violent protests. Despite an apparent calm, the nation witnessed military personnel patrolling the capital and other areas after a curfew with a shoot-on-sight order was imposed days earlier.
The protests, primarily led by students, erupted over a quota reserving 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans from Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence. Clashes between police and protesters resulted in over a hundred deaths, according to local newspapers, though official figures have not been released. In response to the Supreme Court’s decision to reduce the veterans’ quota to 5%, protesters have called for the restoration of internet services and the removal of security officials from university campuses.
Despite the court ruling, tensions in Bangladesh remain high. Protesters issued a 48-hour ultimatum for the government to end the digital crackdown and return the country to normalcy. The US Embassy in Dhaka described the situation as highly volatile, warning Americans to avoid large crowds and reconsider travel plans. The protests have presented a significant challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, highlighting ongoing political strife between her Awami League party and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Russian officials have claimed that Moscow was largely unaffected by a global IT systems outage, attributing this to the country’s increased self-sufficiency due to Western sanctions. These sanctions, imposed over Russia’s war in Ukraine, have led companies like Microsoft to suspend new product sales and scale down operations in Russia.
The outage, caused by CrowdStrike’s ‘Falcon Sensor’ software, did not impact Russian systems, as local cybersecurity firms like Kaspersky Labs dominate the market. The Kremlin, along with major companies such as Rosatom and leading banks, reported no disruptions.
Financial and currency markets in Russia also remained stable. Preparations for potential disconnections from foreign software due to sanctions have been ongoing, with significant investments in domestically developed software. VTB, Russia’s second-largest lender, plans to increase its use of local software to 95% by the end of the year.
However, IT experts caution that the risks of insufficiently tested software updates are universal. Eldar Murtazin, an IT expert, noted that while Russian software performed well during the current incident, future glitches remain a possibility if proper controls are not maintained.
According to a blog post from Microsoft on Saturday, a global tech outage caused by a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected nearly 8.5 million Microsoft devices. That number represents less than one percent of all Windows machines, but the impact was significant, grounding flights, interrupting broadcasts, and disrupting access to essential services such as healthcare and banking.
Despite the relatively small percentage of devices affected, the outage had broad economic and societal effects due to critical enterprises’ widespread use of CrowdStrike’s services. Microsoft noted that CrowdStrike has helped develop a solution to accelerate the fix for Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure. The company is also collaborating with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform to share information about the outage’s effects across the industry.
The air travel industry was particularly hard hit, with thousands of flights cancelled and passengers experiencing extensive delays. Delta Air Lines, one of the hardest-hit airlines, reported over 600 flight cancellations by Saturday morning, with more expected throughout the day as the industry worked to recover from the IT outage.
CrowdStrike reported on Sunday that many of the 8.5 million Microsoft devices affected by a global tech outage that occurred on Friday are now back online and functioning. The outage, linked to a software update, had disrupted services for millions of users worldwide.
Efforts to restore operations have been successful, with a significant number of devices returning to normal. The swift recovery underscores the importance of robust cybersecurity measures and efficient response protocols in mitigating the impact of such widespread outages.
As systems continue to be restored, the focus remains on ensuring stability and preventing future disruptions. The incident highlights the critical need for continuous vigilance and rapid response in the tech industry to maintain service reliability and user trust.
Recent research from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has uncovered significant insights into the capabilities of large language models (LLMs). The study found that while LLMs excel in familiar scenarios, they struggle with novel tasks, raising questions about their true reasoning abilities versus reliance on memorisation.
The researchers compared LLMs’ performance on common tasks to hypothetical scenarios that deviated from their training data. For instance, models like GPT-4 showed proficiency in arithmetic using base-10 but faltered with other number bases, indicating a lack of generalisable addition skills. The pattern was consistent across various tasks, including spatial reasoning and chess, where models performed no better than random guessing in unfamiliar settings.
Lead author Zhaofeng Wu emphasised the importance of these findings, noting that as AI becomes more integrated into society, it must handle diverse scenarios reliably. The study’s insights aim to inform the development of more adaptable and robust future LLMs. The team plans to expand their research to include more complex and varied tasks, further exploring AI’s limitations and improving interpretability.
Supported by the MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab, the MIT Quest for Intelligence, and the National Science Foundation, the study was presented at the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL).
