Man defrauded of 45000 in AI voice scam; Know how to stay safe from fakes

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras) will be conducting a Joint Admission Test (JAM) on February 11, 2024, for all the candidates who have applied for various courses in the university. IIT Madras is expected to release the IIT JAM 2024 examination admit card today, January 8, 2024, at their official website. If you are also appearing in the IIT JAM 2024 exam, then know about the exam and from where and how you can download the admit card online.

Bitcoin fraud: Cryptocurrency market is at best a volatile arena and at worst, often, it a fraudsters' paradise that stretches well beyond the segment itself and spans the wider web where fraudsters deploy ingenious methodologies to entrap and fleece users of their money via online scams. Having said that, Bitcoin itself has been doing rather well in recent months, having hit rock bottom and then climbing back up. Bloomberg reports that Bitcoin price rose 3% to break above $45,000 on January 2 and that was the for the first time since April 2022. Yes, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency started 2024 with a bang. Bitcoin rose to touch a 21-month high of $45,386 earlier in the day. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, was 1% higher at $2,376. U-turns in fortune like these drive cybercriminals to lure people into their net and that is what has just happened to this woman.

California-based startup Perplexity AI, just a year into its journey, has secured $73.6 million in a series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $100 million. The investment comes from IVP, NEA, Databricks, Nvidia, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Kindred Ventures, with notable tech figures like Jeff Bezos and Nat Friedman joining as backers. What sets Perplexity AI apart is its ambition to revolutionise knowledge discovery through the Perplexity AI-native search engine, challenging industry giants Google and Microsoft. The startup, valued at over $500 million, plans to utilise the funding to enhance its AI-driven search engine capabilities. Perplexity co-founder and CEO is the Aravind Srinivas.

AI chatbots such as Google Bard and ChatGPT can be used as resource hubs as well as to generate content. However, did you know that there is another one that offers endless hours of fun? This AI chatbot, called Character.ai, enables you to have conversations with Elon Musk about how he plans Mars missions or have a conversation with Superman about his Kryptonite weakness! Character.ai is a chatbot platform that lets you speak with digital versions of famous personalities, whether real or fictional and to converse with them freely with open-ended conversations. One of the more interesting features of this AI chatbot is that you can use it to even learn a new language! Here's how.

The battery life is one of the most crucial aspects of any smartphone. The faster it charges and longer it lasts, the better user experience it can provide. This has been the case for years and isn't likely to change. What has changed in the last few years is the charging speed. Today, a decent smartphone can get juiced up from 0-100 percent in about an hour, a feat that previously took multiple hours to achieve. This improvement has come courtesy of developments in battery charging technology. While most smartphones about a decade ago offered 5W or 10W charging, there's one today, called Realme GT5, that can get charged from 0-100 percent in a matter of just 12 minutes!

On the last day of the year, a new online scam has surfaced which is trapping many innocent people. On January 16, the inauguration ceremony for the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will begin, with the consecration of Ram Lalla scheduled for January 22. Ahead of the big event, some bad actors are asking people for donations by pretending to be representatives of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, the trust constituted to look after the construction and management of the Ram Mandir. These scammers are pulling off a QR code scam where they share a fake QR code to transfer the money to their own accounts.

In a recent discovery, McAfee researchers have detected a concerning threat within the Android landscape, a sophisticated backdoor malware named 'Xamalicious.' Targeting approximately 327,000 devices, this insidious software made its way through deceptive apps lurking on the Google Play Store. Crafted using Xamarin, an open-source framework for developing Android and iOS apps with .NET and C#, Xamalicious employs social engineering to acquire accessibility privileges, as detailed in a recent blog post by the McAfee Mobile Research Team.

Asteroids are mostly located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in our solar system. However, their orbits bring them close to Earth on some occasions, potentially raising the possibility of impact. These close calls with asteroids highlight the importance of continued technological development in asteroid detection and monitoring programs such as NASA's DART test. This will help to ensure the safety of our planet from the potential impact of these space rocks. With the help of its advanced ground and space-based telescopes, NASA has tracked an asteroid whose orbit will bring it very close to Earth tomorrow, December 28. Know all about this close encounter.

In today's tech-dominated world, we are surrounded by too many electronic devices which often create distraction when we try to work, study or just sit in silence. Some actually suffer from what is known as mobile addiction. Now, we are so reliant on our smartphones that we check notifications every 5 to 10 minutes which sometimes gets addictive. Even when we do not receive any notifications, we have this constant urge to scroll through any social media app refraining us from focusing on crucial tasks such as office work or even our studies. But the important question one must ask is how do we deal with such distractions and increase our focus on work and productivity? Well, to help you get rid of your mobile addiction, we have found the Forest app which is designed to increase focus and works on improving individual productivity. Know more about the productivity app here and how it can benefit users.

Microsoft is increasingly investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and is introducing various tools for its users. After launching the generative AI chatbot Bing, Microsoft introduced Copilot AI which is a huge umbrella for all AI tools. Earlier, the Copilot AI was only available for PCs, however, now a dedicated Microsoft Copilot app for Android is out and it does not require users to sign in through their Microsoft account. As of now, the Microsoft Copilot app is available for free to download from the Play Store. Know how the Microsoft Copilot app will function on Android devices.

Deepfakes have emerged as a major talking point this year as a malicious side-effect of artificial intelligence (AI). Many bad actors have used the current boom in this space to use AI editing tools to create fake images of people and institutions. Multiple reports have emerged of criminals creating fake nudes of people and then threatening them to post these photos online if the victim did not pay them money. But now, a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a tool that can help combat this problem.

Over the past few years, humanity has become very technologically dependent, heavily reliant on devices for professional and personal purposes. Now, technologies such as Artificial intelligence and machine learning are even deciding the way we function by bringing in various advances, changing even national cultures globally. While most of these changes are positive, there are some people who are misusing these technologies to manipulate and scam people. One such growing concern that has emerged in recent times is in the form of “Deepfakes” - photos, videos, audio and more. We have seen several cases of fake videos and images of famous celebrities being manipulated to show them in poor light or send the wrong message.