Hugging Face raised $235 million in funding from Big Tech

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Hugging Face raised $235 million in funding from Big Tech
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The AI model repository Hugging Face has caught the eyes of Big Tech companies. The startup could raise $235 million in a Series D fundraising round and enhance its valuation to $4.5 billion.

AI startups are probably the next big thing in the tech industry as they raise hundreds of millions of dollars in funds from bigger companies. The most famous AI startup and the mastermind behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, is now worth around $30 billion. More AI startups are coming to life, and bigger tech companies are eager to find the next OpenAI.

Hugging Face is an AI model repository that is now at the center of attention. The startup is somehow the GitHub of machine learning, AI models, codes, and datasets. It raised $235 million in a Series D fundraising round from Amazon, Google, Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. IBM, and Salesforce. Hugging Face was founded in 2016 and is now valued at $4.5 billion.

Hugging Face accepts funds from Google, Amazon, etc

The investors in this AI model repository are among the most successful tech companies with a laser focus on generative AI for their future products. For instance, the Nvidia CEO believes AI-powered chips can reinvent computers.

Google and Amazon are at the forefront of integrating AI into their services. Amazon is also the preferred Could services provider for Hugging Face. More major companies might be interested in investing in this startup in the following fundraising rounds.

Clement Delangue, Hugging Face CEO, said the funding will be used “to grow the team currently at 170 and invest in more open source AI and platform building.” Delangue added that the massive investment in his startup shows the importance of the open-source community in building up the generative AI community.

“It’s a validation both for Hugging Face, but also for the broader open-source AI ecosystem,” Delangue added. “Companies want to build AI themselves and need open-source AI for this.”

AI companies are now more inclined to release their AI models to the public. This way, they can allow creative developers to work on the models and make them better, as well as identify the flaws.


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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra display to have eye-searing brightness

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Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra display to have eye-searing brightness
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Samsung is expected to equip the Galaxy S24 series with more advanced M13 OLED displays. If not the entire lineup, at least the Ultra model should get the new display tech (the Galaxy S23 series uses M12 displays). Along with the usual power efficiency and picture quality improvements, this change could bring a massive brightness boost. Rumors have it that the Galaxy S24 Ultra could boast a screen with a peak brightness of 2,500 nits.

We first heard about this brightness boost last week. A Twitter/X tipster named Itnyang claimed that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will have a peak display brightness of 2,200 nits. Noted tipster Ice Universe replied to the post saying that the figure isn’t correct. “The brightness is higher than this,” they said, without providing further information. The original poster, meanwhile, added that they have a test unit that supports 2,800 nits of brightness.

This suggested that Samsung is testing brightness levels as high as 2,800 nits for the Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, there was still some confusion about the final figure for the end product. Ice Universe may have just settled this confusion. The tipster claims that the upcoming Samsung flagship will deliver up to 2,500 of brightness. If true, that’s 750 nits brighter than the M12 OLED display found on the Galaxy S23 Ultra (1,750 nits of peak brightness).

The latest report from the tipster also confirms that the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s display size would remain unchanged from the current model. It will measure 6.78 inches diagonally (also mentioned as 6.8 inches sometimes). However, the reported aspect ratio suggests the screen will be ever so slightly taller (from 19.3:9 to 19.5:9). That’s confirmed by its resolution, which changes from 1440×3088 pixels to 1440×3120 pixels.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra will have a flat display

A higher peak brightness isn’t the only display-related change that you will see on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The phone will sport a completely new look thanks to a flat OLED panel on the front. Samsung will reportedly stop using curved screens on its flagship phones next year. The edges are rumored to be flatter as well, making the Galaxy S24 lineup look similar to iPhones.

While a flat display isn’t necessarily a bad decision, Samsung may put off a few prospective Galaxy S24 Ultra buyers by making the bezels wider. Leaks so far have shown chunky bezels around the display, much wider than bezels on the iPhone 15 Ultra and Xiaomi 14. We should get a clearer picture closer to the launch, which will happen in the early months of 2024.


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The Wing and Walmart drone deliveries to customers are here

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The Wing and Walmart drone deliveries to customers are here
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A partnership between Wing and Walmart will bring drones to your doorstep. These drones will carry your Walmart orders for deliveries, so there’s no need to worry yourself. Only customers who live close to Walmart stores will be able to benefit from these kinds of air-borne deliveries.

For now, this partnership will only be those native to Dallas and some parts of Texas. Customers living in these areas will get their Walmart orders in 30 minutes or less. Considering that the delivery is air-borne and not restricted by traffic or similar forms of delay, it’d be an excellent choice for customers.

Walmart aims to use this means to get goods across to more users faster, efficiently, and in an eco-friendly fashion. Regarding this new service that brings Wing’s services to light, customers might have a ton of questions to ask. Some of these questions will involve Wing’s business, how the deliveries will work, the effectiveness of these drones, and what type of goods they can carry.

Wing and Walmart will be bringing your purchases to you with drones

Drone deliveries aren’t new for Walmart, as the company has been doing this for two years now. But this time they are partnering with Wing, a drone delivery company that is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google. This partnership aims to expand the drone delivery service that Walmart offers its customers.

While this partnership focuses on the Dallas metro, not all buildings in this region are eligible to get airborne deliveries. The deliveries will be coming from Walmart’s 8555 Supercentre at Preston Road in Frisco. From here, deliveries will be sent out to a 6-mile range covering all buildings in this area.

For customers wishing to confirm if their building will be eligible to get these deliveries, they can follow the guidelines Wing lists here. Drone deliveries aren’t new to either Wing or Walmart, as they both have experience with this method of getting goods to customers. According to Wing, deliveries within this area will take 30 minutes, making it quite effective.

The range of goods customers can get with this air-borne delivery service is great. Purchases such as groceries, quick meals, household essentials, and over-the-counter medicines will be air-borne. So if you live in the Dallas area, and you shop at Walmart, then you might just get the delivery of your purchases from a drone.


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Samsung Galaxy, iPhones make up top ten best-selling phones

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Samsung Galaxy, iPhones make up top ten best-selling phones
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According to research firm Omdia, Samsung and Apple phones dominated the best-selling chart for the first half of 2023. Five Galaxy models and five iPhones make up the top ten best-selling smartphones between January and June this year.

As usual, the latest iPhones are at the top. Omdia‘s chart is led by the iPhone 14 Pro Max with a total of 26.5 million shipments in the first six months of 2023. The iPhone 14 Pro follows with 21 million shipments. Apple also shipped 16.5 million units of the iPhone 14 during the same period.

The top three are followed by another iPhone, with the iPhone 13 sitting in the fourth spot with 15.5 million shipments. Finally, Samsung comes onto the scene. The Galaxy A14, which is a budget phone launched earlier this year, was the fifth-best-selling smartphone in the first half of 2023. The Korean firm sold 12.4 million units of the phone, which was the most popular Android phone of this period.

Next up, we have the Galaxy S23 Ultra with 9.6 million shipments. That’s the only Android flagship in the chart. As said earlier, the other three Android phones in Omdia’s top ten are also Samsung devices. They are the Galaxy A14 5G (9 million), Galaxy A54 5G (8.8 million), and Galaxy A34 5G (7.1 million). The iPhone 11 completes the chart. Apple sold 6.9 million units of the 2019 model during January-June 2023.

The economic slowdown hasn’t affected the premium smartphone market

The global smartphone market is experiencing a drop in sales due to an economic slowdown. However, the slowdown has particularly affected the sales of low-cost phones. The premium smartphone market is still growing. Since Apple is the preferred brand in the premium segment, iPhones dominating this chart isn’t surprising. Only four iPhones made it to Omdia’s top ten for the same period last year.

On the other hand, most Android OEMs primarily play in the budget and mid-range segment. The economic slowdown has hit this market hard, affecting the sales of Android phones. Xiaomi had two Redmi-series models in the top ten last year, but none this year. Omdia expects this trend to continue for the rest of 2023.

“The slump in the mid- to low-end market is expected to continue into the second half of this year, and the increasing portion of the premium market is expected to continue in the second half of this year with the launch of the new iPhone 15 series,” said Jusy Hong, Senior Research Manager at Omdia. “Overall iPhone shipments this year will be similar to last year or decrease slightly due to weak demand for standard and plus models.”

Samsung Apple best selling phones H1 2023


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ElevenLabs AI can clone your voice in 30 languages

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ElevenLabs AI can clone your voice in 30 languages
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Following a successful beta testing phase, ElevenLabs has officially launched its new AI platform, which can convincingly mimic voices in an impressive array of 30 languages.

According to ElevenLabs, the big breakthrough centers around its new Multilingual v2 AI model, which can not only detect languages automatically, including Korean, Dutch, and Vietnamese, but can also generate these languages with their particular emotional nuances. This AI model, combined with a user-friendly interface where users only need to upload a few speech samples to clone their voices, simplifies the process for everyday users.

In terms of options, ElevenLabs offers two types of voice cloning services. The first is a text-to-speech tool, which transforms written content into spoken words. The second is the “VoiceLab,” designed to clone specific voices.

“With this release, we’re one step closer to making this dream a reality and making human-quality AI voices available in every dialect. Our text-to-speech generation tools help level the playing field and bring top-quality spoken audio capabilities to all the creators out there,” said ElevenLabs CEO and co-founder Mati Staniszewski.

Ethical and moral complications

While this new development is certainly a big step forward in AI, several major concerns persist. These include the potential misuse of voice cloning software by threat actors to replicate the voices of prominent figures for promoting hate speech and misinformation. However, the company has acknowledged those concerns and has implemented safeguards, including limiting voice cloning to paid accounts and introducing AI-based detection tools.

Another concern involves AI potentially replacing the jobs of voice-over artists, as companies may find using AI more cost-effective. Additionally, the fact that publishers like Lukeman Literary are already using AIs to translate their audiobooks into other languages suggests that this trend will grow further with time.

“It used to take Lukeman’s team weeks to produce a single audiobook because it required them to find the right voiceover artist, book a recording studio, record and manage the post-production. Now, the entire process takes a few hours,” said ElevenLabs.


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Lockbit 3.0 Builder Leaked: Anyone Can Blend Ransomware

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Lockbit 3.0 Builder Leaked: Anyone Can Blend Ransomware
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Lockbit 3.0 Ransomware Builder Leaked

It has come to the attention of researchers that the LockBit 3.0 builder has suffered from a leak, which now allows anyone to create various versions of the LockBit ransomware according to their own preferences. This poses a serious security risk that should not be taken lightly.

LockBit” is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group that has been active since September 2019. LockBit has developed several variants: LockBit 1.0, LockBit 2.0, LockBit 3.0, and LockBit Green.

Lockbit 3, also known as Lockbit Black, was detected for the first time in 2019. Due to its complex architecture and encryption methods, it evades traditional scan engines.

Securelist’s investigation team, GERT, detected the intrusion attempt of the Lockbit 3 variant and shared the detailed report on their blog.

What is New in LockBit 3?

Lockbit Black is a highly complex ransomware variant with undocumented kernel-level Windows functions and strong protection against reverse engineering.

Many security experts confirmed the leakage of a builder for LockBit 3.0 in September 2022, and various groups started to abuse the builder.

Kaspersky’s protection system detected the lockbit threat as “Trojan.Win32.Inject.aokvy”.The techniques and intrusion attempts are identical to those of other ransomware groups listed by Kaspersky.

However, the ransom demand procedure was significantly different from the one that this threat actor was known to use. The attacker used a different ransom note with a title from the National Hazard Agency, a previously unknown group.

“The ransom note used in this case directly described the amount to be paid to obtain the keys and directed communications to a Tox service and email, unlike the Lockbit group, which uses its own communication and negotiation platform.”

Ransom note

Many other threat groups started abusing exfiltrated builders to create their own ransomware notes and communications channels.

Kaspersky’s telemetry found 396 LockBit samples, 312 of which were generated using the leaked builder, and Ransom notes in 77 pieces that didn’t mention “LockBit.”

Keep informed about the latest Cyber Security News by following us on Google News, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook.


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Google Calendar users will now see Microsoft Outlook attendees

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Google Calendar users will now see Microsoft Outlook attendees
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Microsoft Office and Google Workspace are two of the most popular office suites on the planet. There’s no doubt that there are people who use both in their professional lives. The issue is that these services don’t really talk to each other. However, according to 9To5Google, Google Calendar can now show Microsoft Outlook attendees.

It’s not uncommon for users to be thrust in to more than one software ecosystem for their job. Folks could use Google Docs to type up documents and share this document to their colleagues using Microsoft Outlook. That’s why this feature is so welcomed.

Outlook users have the ability to invite Google Calender users to meetings. This is useful if you’re inviting someone from a different company to a meeting in yours. However, the experience hasn’t been the greatest. When the Google Calendar user receives the invitation, the Outlook user’s name wouldn’t be visible in the list of attendees. Obviously, you’d want to know who’s going to be attending your meeting.

Now, Google Calendar users will be able to see Outlook attendees

Google announced this in a short blog post. When an Outlook user organizes a meeting, they will be visible as the meeting organizer to the Google Calendar user. This will eliminate any guessing game as to who’s going to be involved in the meeting.

This feature stands apart from most other Workspace updates, as it’s available to all accounts. It applies to all plans whether they’re paid or not. It’s rolling out starting today, so there’s a chance that you won’t see it right away. If you don’t see it, then you’ll want wait a little bit. This is a gradual rollout that’s going to be taking place over the next two weeks.

Speaking of Google Workspace

If you operate a business, and you’re thinking about taking it to the next level, then you should getting a Google Workspace membership. You’ll gain access to a ton of useful business tool and additional features that free users don’t have. You can find out more by filling the link below.

Learn more about Google Workspace


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Samsung’s 5K ViewFinity S9 monitor is available for purchase

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Samsung’s 5K ViewFinity S9 monitor is available for purchase
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Samsung today has begun selling its first 5K monitor, the ViewFinity S9, available directly through Samsung’s website and at participating retailers. Samsung officially announced the ViewFinity S9 monitor at CES 2023 back in January. It’s a new premium monitor with a sleek design that should easily fit into any setup.

Now this isn’t a gaming monitor so it’s not what we’d suggest if you’re looking for something of that nature. But it is going to be perfect for home offices, a work display, or even schools. It’s a 27-inch panel so it’s not super large. It also boasts high color accuracy with DCI-P3 99% color gamut. Which means it should be nice for photo editing, video editing, digital art and the like. To top that off it’s Pantone Validated, with Samsung saying it has “authentic reproduction of more than 2,000 Pantone colors and 100 Pantone SkinTone shades on screen.” It can also easily be turned vertical if you need it to.

The Samsung ViewFinity S9 is available for $1,599.99

Just because this isn’t a gaming monitor and because it’s smaller, doesn’t mean it’s inexpensive. In fact, being a 5K display, and Samsung’s first one at that, was reason enough to suspect this would have a high price tag.

The interesting thing is that while this isn’t really a gaming monitor, it can still be used for some light or casual gaming. It boasts a 60Hz refresh rate. And that’s not bad for many games. It also comes with Samsung Gaming Hub pre-installed. And you can use that to connect to services like Xbox Game Pass, GeForce NOW and more for playing games in the cloud.

The monitor will support both Windows and Mac and comes with some neat extras. Like the modular slim 4K webcam that can be attached and detached. There’s also a remote for menu and setting management. Additionally, it has a slim metal build. It just might be the perfect display for digital artists and photo editors.

Samsung ViewFinity S9 – Best Buy

Samsung ViewFinity S9 – Samsung


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Jupiter X Core Plugin Flaws Threatened 172K Websites

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Jupiter X Core Plugin Flaws Threatened 172K Websites
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Researchers discovered numerous security flaws in the WordPress plugin Jupiter X Core that allow website hijacking. Users must rush to update their sites with the latest plugin version to receive the patches and avoid potential attacks.

Jupiter X Core Plugin Flaws Risked WordPress Websites

The security researcher Rafie Muhammad from Patchstack discovered two different flaws in the Jupiter X Core WordPress plugin. Exploiting these vulnerabilities could allow an adversary to takeover target websites and execute malicious codes.

As explained in his post, the first of these vulnerabilities, CVE-2023-38388, is an unauthenticated file upload flaw affecting the plugin’s upload_files function. The researcher found the function lacking authentication checks, letting any unauthenticated user upload arbitrary files.

This critical severity vulnerability received a CVSS score of 9.0, and it affected the plugin version 3.3.5 and earlier.

The second vulnerability, CVE-2023-38389, existed in the ajax_handler function of the Facebook login process. An unauthenticated adversary could easily call the function while setting any value to the social-media-user-facebook-id meta of a user with the set_user_facebook_id function. Exploiting the vulnerability in this manner allows an adversary to hijack target accounts. In worst-case scenarios, hijacking a higher privileged account even leads to website takeovers.

This vulnerability also received a critical severity rating with a CVSS score of 9.8. The flaw affects the plugin versions 3.3.8 and earlier.

Bug Fixes Released With Plugin Updates

Upon discovering the vulnerabilities, the researcher reported the matter to the plugin developers. In response, Artbees first patched the vulnerability CVE-2023-38388 with the plugin version 3.3.8.

However, since this version developed another vulnerability (CVE-2023-38389), the developers worked again to fix the issue. Finally, Jupiter Core X plugin version 3.4.3 arrived with both patches.

Since the patches for both vulnerabilities have arrived, WordPress admins must update their websites with the latest plugin version at the earliest.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.


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Android 14 Beta 5.2 arrives with more bug fixes

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Android 14 Beta 5.2 arrives with more bug fixes
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Just over a week after the release of Android 14 Beta 5.1, Google is pushing yet another beta update to Pixel devices. It’s rolling out Android 14 Beta 5.2 with a bunch of bug fixes. All recent beta releases have mostly been bug-fixing updates as the company prepares for the stable Android 14 release.

The official release notes supplied by Google mention nine major bug fixes in Android 14 Beta 5.2. Among those is a network-related issue that has been bugging many users. Devices featuring E-UTRAN New Radio – Dual Connectivity (ENDC) have had problems connecting to 5G NR low-band frequencies. The company claims to have patched the bug with the latest release, though some users say the problem still exists.

Another major issue that Android 14 beta testers have been suffering lately is a failed reboot of the device. The bug caused devices to stall when rebooting. Beta 5.2 patches all the bugs responsible for this problem. Comments on this Reddit thread show how relieved users are.

The rest of the patches found in Android 14 Beta 5.2 are mostly specific to the Pixel Fold or the Pixel Tablet. These two big-screen devices have been having problems with fingerprint recognition. The sensor would occasionally become unresponsive without any apparent issue. Google has fixed it.

Additionally, the company has fixed problems like stuttering animations when viewing or tapping the notification for an ongoing call, system crashes after using the fingerprint sensor, screen flickering when unfolding the Pixel Fold, and sound issues when docking or undocking the Pixel Tablet. You can find the full release notes on the aforementioned Reddit thread.

The stable Android 14 update for Pixels is almost here

Google has announced that Beta 5 will be the last Android 14 beta update for Pixels. It released the update earlier this month and has now followed up with a couple of minor patches (beta 5.1 and Beta 5.3). While it’s unclear whether there will be a Beta 5.3 as well, the company has confirmed that there won’t be a Beta 6. This means the stable Android 14 update is just around the corner now.

While we wait for it, Pixel users enrolled in the beta program can download the latest release for improved system stability. The new firmware build number for the Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold is UPB5.230623.005.A1. That for other devices is UPB5.230623.005. Android 14 beta is available for the Pixel 4a, Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and Pixel 7a. Beta 5.2 doesn’t bring a new security patch or updates to Google Play services.


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