Welcome to the June 21, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• ACM Recognizes Innovators Who Solve Real-World Problems
• U.S. Bans Sales of Kaspersky Software over Russia Ties
• AI-Equipped Underwater Drones Help U.S. Navy Scan for Threats
• Officials Query if Any Deaths Directly Linked to U.K. Hospital Hack
• Tech Layoffs Impact Nearly 100,000 Workers So Far in 2024
• The Short, Happy Reign of CD-ROM
• YouTube's Algorithm More Likely to Recommend Right-Wing, Religious Content
• Autonomous Vehicles are Great at Driving Straight
• The 'Godfather of AI' Emerges
• Longtime MIT Professor and Prolific Computer Scientist Dies at 77
• ChatGPT Mentors 89-Year-Old App Developer
• Kenyan Wins Sh8.1m for Pest-Detecting Innovation
• McDonald's Ending Test of AI-Powered Drive-Thrus with IBM

ACM Recognizes Innovators Who Solve Real-World Problems

Carnegie Mellon University's Guy E. Blelloch, University of Maryland's Laxman Dhulipala, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Julian Shun were named to receive the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award for their work in algorithm engineering. Princeton University's Prateek Mittal was awarded the 2023 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for his work in Internet privacy and security. Andrew S. Tanenbaum of the Netherlands' Vrije Universiteit received the ACM Software System Award for the 1987 development of MINIX and his contributions to operating systems. Columbia University's David Blei received the ACM - AAAI Allen Newell Award for his work in machine learning, information retrieval, and statistics.
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U.S. Bans Sales of Kaspersky Software over Russia Ties

The U.S. on Thursday announced plans to bar the sale of antivirus software made by Russia's Kaspersky Lab in the U.S. "Russia has shown it has the capacity and the intent to exploit Russian companies like Kaspersky to collect and weaponize the personal information of Americans and that is why we are compelled to take the action," said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The new restrictions go into effect Sept. 29.
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AI-Equipped Underwater Drones Help U.S. Navy Scan for Threats

The U.S. Navy is boosting its deployment of AI-equipped underwater drones that rely on sonar sensors to detect objects and navigate the ocean after successful testing. The effort from the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit has helped cut in half the time it takes to comb the ocean floor for underwater mines, said Alex Campbell, the unit’s Navy service lead. The AI models parse underwater drone footage to distinguish, for example, fish traps from explosives.
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Officials Query if Any Deaths Directly Linked to U.K. Hospital Hack

In the wake of the June 3 ransomware attack against U.K. lab services provider Synnovis, which resulted in major disruptions at hospitals and clinics in London, healthcare providers are being asked to report any deaths or serious harms tied to the incident. The cyberattack resulted in the delay of 800 planned operations and 700 outpatient appointments, blood shortages, and disruptions to pathology services. Many services have yet to be restored.
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Tech Layoffs Impact Nearly 100,000 Workers So Far in 2024

So far in 2024, the number of layoffs announced by the technology industry is approaching 100,000, according to numbers compiled by layoffs.fyi. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are among more than 300 tech firms that have announced payroll reductions since the year's beginning. The layoffs reflect a trend that partially reflects a push by some tech giants to achieve increased efficiency after excessive hiring amid heightened demand for information technology products during the pandemic.
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The Short, Happy Reign of CD-ROM

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the peak year for the CD-ROM. Research firms Dataquest and Link Resources reported 17.5 million CD-ROM drives and $590 million in discs were sold in 1994. Though available for about a decade at that point, they gained popularity when the Microsoft Windows operating system emerged with better graphics and audio. CD-ROMs eventually could store up to 680 MB of data.
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YouTube's Algorithm More Likely to Recommend Right-Wing, Religious Content

Institute for Strategic Dialogue researchers found that YouTube's algorithm is more likely to recommend right-leaning and Christian videos to users than any other kind. The researchers found both child and adult accounts interested in male lifestyle videos were recommended Fox News content without ever watching that channel. Two mommy vlogger accounts, one that watched Fox News and another that watched MSNBC, were recommended Fox News, as well as videos with Bible verses without ever having watched religious content.
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Autonomous Vehicles are Great at Driving Straight

University of Central Florida researchers found advanced autonomous vehicles (AVs) are 35% less likely to be involved in moderate injury accidents and 90% less likely to be involved in fatal crashes, compared to human-driven vehicles. On the other hand, their study also found the AVs were more than five times more likely than human drivers to be involved in accidents at dawn and dusk, and had nearly double the human risk of an accident during a turn.
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The 'Godfather of AI' Emerges

2018 ACM A.M. Turing Award laureate Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of AI," will serve as an advisor on the board of CuspAI more than a year after leaving Google. Said Hinton, "I've been very impressed by CuspAI and its mission to accelerate the design process of new materials using AI to curb one of humanity's most urgent challenges — climate change." Meta's Yann LeCun, who shared the 2018 Turing Award with Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, said Meta will collaborate with CuspAI to speed discovery of new materials for carbon capture.
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Longtime MIT Professor, Prolific Computer Scientist Dies at 77

ACM Fellow Arvind Mithal, the Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), died on June 17 at age 77. Known for his work in dataflow computing and parallel computing, Arvind led development of the parallel computing languages Id and pH. In 2000, he founded fabless semiconductor manufacturer Sandburst, which was later acquired by Broadcom. With his MIT students, Arvind developed the Bluespec programming language, intended to automate the chip design process.
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ChatGPT Mentors 89-Year-Old App Developer

Tomiji Suzuki (pictured), 89, started coding in retirement and is now making apps for Japan's elderly demographic, using ChatGPT to fine-tune his skills. So far Suzuki has developed 11 free iPhone apps, including a slideshow of items to remember when leaving the house. To help him make the app "Outing Prep Voice Slide Show," released in April, Suzuki asked ChatGPT around 1,000 coding-related questions.
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Kenyan Wins Sh8.1m for Pest-Detecting Innovation

Esther Kimani (pictured), who studied computer science at Kenya's University of Eldorets, is the third woman in Africa and the second in Kenya to win the Royal Academy of Engineering's Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. She received the Africa Prize's largest-ever award of 8.1 million Kenyan shillings (about $63,000) to further develop a solar-powered device that leverages AI and machine learning to detect and identify agricultural pests and diseases, send real-time alerts to farmers suggesting customized interventions, and notify government agricultural officers.
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McDonald's Ending Test of AI-Powered Drive-Thrus with IBM

McDonald's said its global partnership with IBM, through which it tested an AI ordering system at certain drive-thrus, has ended. Sources said the AI-powered drive-thru assistant faced challenges that hindered order accuracy, such as difficulty interpreting different accents and dialects. In a prepared statement, McDonald’s said, “Our work with IBM has given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”
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