Welcome to our latest round-up of news from the technology and hosting world. Here’s what we’ve discovered this month.
CERN Mouse Robot
Scientists at CERN and the UK Atomic Energy Authority have developed a miniature robot, the size of a mouse, to improve inspection and maintenance at the Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border.
Called PipeINEER, the robot combines the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s experience in the remote handling of dangerous environments with CERN’s scientific and engineering expertise. It will be used to inspect the collider’s narrow pipes, which are difficult for humans to access because they are located in extremely cold, cramped spaces deep underground.
PipeINEER is small enough to move freely through the collider’s pipe system, where it can take highly detailed images and use AI to find defects. This is expected to make inspections faster, safer, and more precise throughout the 27-kilometre collider, which has over 1,200 dipole magnets that steer particle beams at the speed of light.
While the robot was designed for this specific research environment, the technology opens up new possibilities for using autonomous inspection systems in other challenging industrial and engineering settings.
London Data Centre Policy
London’s City Hall is developing a new policy for data centres in response to growing concerns about their energy and water use, and their overall impact on the environment.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) says its goal is to balance the economic benefits of new data centres with the pressure they put on local infrastructure and climate goals. With many of the UK’s planned new data centres set to be built in and around London, the growing conflict between expanding digital infrastructure and sustainability efforts has become a persistent issue.
The new policy aims to keep the growth benefits of data centres while addressing challenges related to electricity supply, land use and water resources. There are also worries that the rapid growth in data centres could interfere with other planning goals, such as building new homes in areas of west London where the power grid is already under stress.
National Compute Resources
UK Research and Innovation is investing £76 million to create four new national compute resources (NCRs) aimed at making advanced research tools more accessible across the UK. This will see computing centres set up at University College London and the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge and Edinburgh. These will provide powerful CPU and GPU computing resources that can support various types of research in fields ranging from climate studies to artificial intelligence.
The University of Edinburgh will lead the launch by upgrading its Cirrus supercomputer for future national projects. UCL will run its Charger system on HPE technology hosted by DataVita, and Birmingham will use its Baskerville resource for important projects, such as reducing carbon emissions across industries, weather forecasting and analysing medical data.
The funding will cover both the purchase of the computing resources and five years of specialised support until 2031. At least two of these systems are expected to commence operations this summer.
NK Fake Worker Threat
Microsoft has warned that North Korean hacker groups are using AI tools to create fake remote workers so they can infiltrate Western companies. The MS threat intelligence team found that the hacker groups are using generative AI to make digital IDs more convincing. This includes creating more realistic names, email formats, CVs and social media profiles. Moreover, these IDs are being tailored for specific jobs, and research shows these tactics are being used on various job recruitment sites.
The hackers are also using advanced technology to swap faces in images for IDs and profile pictures and using voice-changing software during interviews to hide accents, making their fake identities seem more credible.
By using AI tools, attackers can better match their job applications to specific job requirements and, once hired, maintain daily communication without arousing suspicion. Microsoft also pointed out that the same technologies are being used in voice phishing and email scams, while new smart AI tools let hackers automate parts of their phishing attacks and information-gathering processes.
Managers AI Reliance
According to a study by Confluent, a growing number of UK business leaders are turning to AI for important decisions, with many now trusting AI more than their colleagues in stressful situations. The study found that 62% of leaders use AI for most of their decision-making, and nearly half prefer AI advice to that of a human.
Worryingly, the increasing reliance on AI seems to be affecting confidence, with research showing that leaders start to doubt their own judgement when it doesn’t align with what the AI suggests.
While the research shows a growing need for systems that provide quick, data-driven advice in areas such as managing employees and overall business strategy, there are concerns that business leaders may become too dependent on AI, especially when decisions are made based on outdated or incomplete information.
To make automated decision support more precise and useful for operations, Confluent noted that more companies are planning to increase investment in data streaming tools to improve the quality and speed of the information their AI systems rely on.
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