Growing Online Trafficking Of Endangered Species

Researchers from the University of Miami has sifted through thousands of online listings and found some of them are enabling the trafficking of endangered species. In their recent study, they identified 546 listings for endangered or trade-restricted animals representing 83 species.

The researchers developed a tool that automatically collects data across 148 English-text online marketplaces to analyze online sales of threatened animal species, according to their writeup published by Phys.org.

The tool was used to search for online sales of 13,267 animal species classified as at risk of global extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and 706 animal species listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The search was conducted over a period of 15 weeks in 2018.

Their study revealed that the shortfin mako is one of the most targeted threatened species in online wildlife trafficking. The endangered shark species is exploited for its jaws and other body parts, which are sold on hundreds of social media sites and open markets.

The researchers also identified other threatened shark species through their study, including the longfin mako, scalloped hammerhead, sandbar, and pelagic thresher. Sharks represented nine of the 10 most threatened species identified in this study.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), not all wildlife trade is illegal, but it becomes a serious problem when it overexploits species and threatens their survival in the wild. Efforts to crack down on wildlife trafficking have been implemented, but online trafficking is hard to address.

Professor Jennifer Jacquet, one of the authors of the study, explained that online platforms typically aren't held legally responsible for sales since they're considered marketplaces where buyers and sellers can connect for transactions.

Wildlife trafficking poses a threat not only to the endangered species but also to humans. Illegally traded species may become invasive when introduced to unfamiliar environments. Some species may carry zoonotic diseases that could transfer to humans and threaten global health.

Trafficking can also negatively impact biodiversity. According to the WWF, species and organisms in the wild work together to maintain balance in ecosystems, where we get food and clean water.

"Society has underestimated the threat posed by the trade in wildlife," Jacquet warned, per Phys.org.

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MIT Developed New Method In Fabrication

Several researchers at MIT have developed a new technique for fabricating materials, allowing them to become flexible while also staying strong and somewhat stiff.

According to the MIT News report, the research team achieved this by using a microscopic double-network design that combines microscopic struts and a woven architecture. This combination was first tested on a plexiglass-like polymer, which allowed it to stretch four times its size before breaking. However, the same technique could be applied to other materials, like glass, ceramics, and metals, extending its possibilities to other industries, like semiconductors.

This metamaterial design gets its strength from microscopic struts and trusses, making it rigid but brittle. However, by adding a thread-like structure made of coils that wrap around the linear support structure, the polymer material was able to stretch three times its size before failing, some ten times more than a material just using the basic lattice structure.

"We are opening up this new territory for metamaterials," says MIT Associate Professor Carlos Portela, who is part of the team behind this research. "You could print a double-network metal or ceramic, and you could get a lot of these benefits, in that it would take more energy to break them, and they would be significantly more stretchable."

The secret to its added flexibility comes from the knots and entanglements of the thread structure within the lattice frame. This allows it to absorb more stress, and when a crack appears on a strut, it’s unlikely to propagate through because of how the energy is spread unevenly through the material.

"Think of this woven network as a mess of spaghetti tangled around a lattice. As we break the monolithic lattice network, those broken parts come along for the ride, and now all this spaghetti gets entangled with the lattice pieces," Portela told MIT News. “That promotes more entanglement between woven fibers, which means you have more friction and more energy dissipation.”

Manufacturers can potentially apply this new technique in semiconductors, allowing them to build flexible chips that they can install on garments and other wearable accessories. Furthermore, the research team is exploring the use of two different materials for the structure. One example is to use polymers that react differently to temperature, so that the material becomes softer and more compliant in cold environments, while harder and more rigid in hot temperatures.

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Perplexity Ready To Launch AI Browser

The new AI company Perplexity has announced last February that it was building its own browser called Comet. In a recent interview with the TBPN podcast, CEO Aravind Srinivas gave some insight as to why the business appeared to be branching out from its artificial intelligence focus: It's to collect user data and sell them targeted advertisements.

"That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you," he said.

"Once you understand the user deeply enough, the user can probably trust you if you show them relevant sponsored content, as long as it's super personalized and hyper-optimized to that user," Srinivas said. "If any of the AI companies could do that, I think that could be a thing where brands could pay a lot more money to advertise there."

"We wanna get data, even outside the app to better understand you," Srinivas schemed, referring to tracking non-user data, as companies like Facebook and Google have been caught doing (and definitely still are, by the way.) "What are the things you’re buying, which hotels are you going [to], which restaurants are you going to, what are you spending time browsing, tells us so much more about you."

If that all sounds familiar, it could be become Google's Chrome browser has taken a similar approach. In fact, Comet is built on Chromium, the open-source browser base from Google. That's not to say Perplexity wouldn't take the chance to go straight to the source and acquire Chrome in the aftermath of Google's recent monopoly court ruling regarding online search.

The company emphatically notes that it does not "sell" or "share" personal information "as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act" — an oddly specific caveat. "Nor have we done so in the preceding 12 months." (It would be difficult to imagine how Comet is supposed to turn a profit on hyper-personal ad surveillance unless this line gets an update.)

In the ongoing hearings about Google and its potential sale of Chrome, Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said he thought Perplexity would be able to continue running the browser at its current scale. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't too keen on OpenAI acquiring the property.

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Google is Testing AI Overviews On YouTube

Google has started its AI Overview in the Google search results. This tool, powered by Google’s Gemini, tries to save users some clicks by aggregating information from the links populated in the search results and succinctly delivering what it believes to be the information that they are looking for.

The accuracy of these overviews, however, often leaves a lot to be desired, and the tool has been plagued with hallucinations since its launch (with varying degrees of hilarity).

Now Google is bringing the tool to YouTube, testing a video version of AI overviews for a small number of YouTube Premium members in the US across limited English search queries. While Google search results show LLM-generated text summaries, YouTube’s AI overviews will function as something of a highlight reel for certain videos.

In a post on YouTube Community forums, Google said that, "This new feature will use AI to highlight clips from videos that will be most helpful for your search query…This is most likely to show when you search for more information about products you’re shopping for (such as 'best noise cancelling headphones'), or when you search for more information about locations or things to do in those locations (such as 'museums to visit in San Francisco')."

This raises some questions about the revenue model for creators on YouTube and how AI-generated clip reels would affect their incomes. A major concern with AI overview in search is Google’s own summary absorbing traffic that would otherwise have gone to the publications shown in the search results. Bringing these tools to YouTube is likely to raise the same concerns for video content creators.

Google will be collecting feedback on these overviews from Premium members, who can vote with a thumbs up or thumbs down on the AI-generated highlight clips. Google hasn’t said how long this pilot will run for, or whether Google intends to expand YouTube’s AI overview to anyone beyond Premium subscribers.

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Many Are Drawn To Bug Hunting. What Is It?

There are very few technology careers that offer the chance to demonstrate ones skills in exclusive venues worldwide, from luxury hotels to Las Vegas e-sports arenas, peers cheering you on as your name moves up the leaderboard and your earnings rack up.

But that's what Brandyn Murtagh experienced within his first year as a bug bounty hunter.

Murtagh got into gaming and building computers at 10 or 11-years-old and always knew "I wanted to be a hacker or work in security".

He began working in a security operations centre at 16, and moved into penetration testing at 20, a job that also involved testing the security of clients' physical and computer security: "I had to forge false identities and break into places and then hack. Quite fun."

But in the past year he has became a full-time bug hunter and independent security researcher, meaning he scours organizations' computer infrastructure for security vulnerabilities. And he hasn't looked back.

Internet browser pioneer Netscape is regarded as the first technology company to offer a cash "bounty" to security researchers or hackers for uncovering flaws or vulnerabilities in its products, back in the 1990s.

Eventually platforms like Bugcrowd and HackerOne in the US, and Intigriti in Europe, emerged to connect hackers and organizations that wanted their software and systems tested for security vulnerabilities.

As Bugcrowd founder Casey Ellis explains, while hacking is a "morally agnostic skill set", bug hunters do have to operate within the law.

Platforms like Bugcrowd bring more discipline to the bug-hunting process, allowing companies to set the "scope" of what systems they want hackers to target. And they operate those live hackathons where top bug hunters compete and collaborate "hammering" systems, showing off their skills and potentially earning big money.

The payoff for companies using platforms like Bugcrowd is also clear. Andre Bastert, global product manager AXIS OS, at Swedish network camera and surveillance equipment firm Axis Communications, said that with 24 million lines of code in its device operating system, vulnerabilities are inevitable. "We realized it's always good to have a second set of eyes."

Platforms like Bugcrowd mean "you can use hackers as a force for good," he says. Since opening its bug bounty programme, Axis has uncovered – and patched - as many as 30 vulnerabilities, says Bastert, including one "we deem very severe". The hacker responsible received a US$ 25,000 (£19,300) reward.

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