Tag Archives: hundreds

New Online Safety Regulations Put Hundreds of TikTok UK Moderators’ Jobs in Jeopardy

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TikTok is jeopardizing the roles of hundreds of UK content moderators, despite the implementation of stricter regulations aimed at curbing the dissemination of harmful materials online.

The popular video-sharing platform announced that hundreds of positions within its trust and safety teams could be impacted in the UK, as well as South and Southeast Asia, as part of a global reorganization effort.

Their responsibilities have been shifted to other European locations and third-party contractors, with some trust and safety roles still remaining in the UK, the company clarified.

This move aligns with TikTok’s broader strategy to utilize artificial intelligence for content moderation. The company stated that over 85% of materials removed for violating community guidelines have been identified and deleted through automation.

The reduction poses challenges for companies, necessitating age verification checks for users accessing potentially harmful content, even with new UK online safety laws now in effect. Organizations risk fines of up to £18 million or 10% of global revenue for non-compliance.

John Chadfield from the Communication Workers Union expressed concerns that replacing human moderators with AI could endanger the safety of millions of TikTok users.

“TikTok employees have consistently highlighted the real-world implications of minimizing human moderation teams in favor of hastily developed AI solutions,” he remarked.

TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, has a workforce of over 2,500 in the UK.

In the past year, TikTok has decreased its trust and safety personnel globally, often substituting automated systems for human workers. In September, the company laid off an entire team of 300 content moderators in the Netherlands, and in October, it disclosed plans to replace approximately 500 content moderation staff in Malaysia as part of its shift towards AI.

Recently, TikTok employees in Germany conducted a strike against the layoffs in its trust and safety team.

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Meanwhile, TikTok’s business is thriving. Accounts filed with Companies House reveal that combined operations in the UK and Europe reached $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion) in 2024, representing a 38% increase from the year before. The operating loss decreased from $1.4 billion in 2023 to $485 million.

A TikTok spokesperson stated that the company is “continuing the reorganization initiated last year to enhance its global operational model for reliability and safety.” This involves a focus on fewer global locations to increase efficiency and speed in the evolution of this essential function for technological progress.

Source: www.theguardian.com

HHS Reinstates Hundreds of Healthcare Workers

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On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services reinstated 328 federal employees who were at risk of termination, including those working on coal miners’ “black lung” disease evaluations and those addressing health concerns for 9/11 first responders.

These reinstated employees are affiliated with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dedicated to preventing and managing work-related health issues.

The Trump administration had previously aimed to eliminate a significant portion of NIOSH’s 1,300+ staff as part of a broader initiative to downsize the federal workforce.

In April and May, numerous NIOSH employees received termination letters, although some were temporarily reassigned for specific tasks. A memo from NBC News indicated that HHS’s acting chief human resources officer, Tom Nagy, informed staff on Tuesday about the revocation of those termination notices.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies Wednesday in Washington.
Samuel Column/Getty Images

During a House budget hearing on Wednesday morning, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed that 328 NIOSH employees had been reinstated. Approximately one-third of these employees are based in Morgantown, West Virginia, with another third located in Cincinnati where NIOSH has two facilities.

“Committee Kennedy has worked diligently to preserve key components of NIOSH,” stated a CDC spokesperson. “The Trump administration remains committed to supporting coal miners and firefighters, and under the Secretary’s leadership, NIOSH’s essential services will continue as HHS streamlines its operations. Ensuring workforce health and safety is a paramount concern for the department.”

The Morgantown facility houses the NIOSH Respiratory Hygiene Department, which manages programs that offer free x-rays to detect miners’ “black lungs” or lung damage caused by prolonged exposure to coal dust. A U.S. District Judge in West Virginia mandated HHS on Tuesday to restore the department and continue monitoring coal miners’ health. Representative Riley Moore, R-W.Va., noted during a House Budget hearing that 111 NIOSH employees in Morgantown were reinstated this week.

Among the 328 reinstatements, HHS has also brought back 15 employees within the World Trade Center Health Program, which addresses the treatment of cancer, asthma, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other illnesses linked to 9/11. The program has faced challenges in recent months due to staff layoffs and rehiring, complicating the registration of members and the assurance that their treatments are funded by federal resources.

“Our agents were faced with severe budget cuts, some of which should not have been enforced.

The program resumed processing registrations on May 1, as indicated by an internal email shared with NBC News regarding an extension of the James Zadroga Act, an advocacy group for 9/11 responders and survivors. Benjamin Shebat, the group’s executive director, is seeking more assurance.

“In light of the recent turbulent months, we need a public guarantee from our secretary that such disruptions will not occur again, and that the World Trade Center’s health program will remain unaffected,” Chevat expressed in an email.

In an agency email acquired by NBC News, NIOSH director John Howard mentioned that some positions within the institute are still being eliminated.

“We celebrate those who received reinstatement letters from HHS, while remembering that others have not,” Howard wrote. “I hope we can continue pushing for the return of everyone to NIOSH.”

Howard received his own termination notice in early April but later resumed his role. Bipartisan opposition from Congress members was voiced regarding his dismissal. An internal report of reinstated positions obtained by NBC News indicated that 56 roles in the NIOSH Director’s office were reinstated on Tuesday.

The original NIOSH layoffs were part of a large-scale restructuring intended to consolidate institutions into a new entity referred to as a healthy American administration. Kennedy mentioned on Wednesday morning that he could not share details of the restructuring due to a court order, which temporarily restricts further planning. A U.S. District Judge in San Francisco ordered the Trump administration last week to suspend the government overhaul, noting that any changes may require Congressional approval.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

The Snake Bit This Man Hundreds of Times—Now His Blood Saves Lives.

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Tim Friede has endured hundreds of snake bites. Presently, researchers are analyzing his blood with the aim of developing more effective snake bite treatments.

Friede has a long-standing fascination with reptiles and other venomous creatures. He used to milk scorpions and had a collection of dozens of snakes at his home in Wisconsin.

To protect himself from snake bites and satisfy his “simple curiosity,” he started injecting himself with small doses of snake venom, gradually increasing the amount to build his tolerance before allowing a snake to bite him.

“It was very frightening at first,” Friede said. “But the more you do it, the better you become at handling it, and the more comfortable you get.”

While no healthcare professional would endorse this practice, experts indicate that his approach sheds light on how the body functions. When the immune system encounters snake venom, it produces antibodies that can counteract the venom. If exposed to a small quantity, the body might respond before being overwhelmed, and prior exposure can lead to quicker reactions to larger doses.

For nearly two decades, Friede has endured snake bites and self-injections, yet he still keeps a fridge stocked with venom. In a video on his YouTube channel, he showcases the prominent fang marks on his arms from black mamba, taipan, and water cobra bites.

“I essentially wanted to test the boundaries of life and death as much as possible,” he stated.

In addition, Friede sought to contribute to science. He reached out to numerous scientists, requesting studies on the tolerance he had developed.

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 110,000 people die from snake bites annually. Developing antivenoms is both costly and challenging, often requiring large mammals like horses to produce antibodies through venom injections. These antivenoms tend to be effective against only specific snake species and can cause adverse reactions due to their non-human origin.

Tim Friede stands in a lab in Southern San Francisco, California, utilizing his blood to prepare anti-venom for various snake bites.
Centibacs via AP

Upon learning about Friede, Peter Kwon from Columbia University remarked, “Oh, wow, this is quite extraordinary. He is a uniquely special individual with remarkable antibodies developed over 18 years.”

In a publication in the Journal Cell on Friday, Kwon and collaborators shared insights on what Friede’s unique blood can accomplish. They have identified two antibodies capable of neutralizing venom from multiple snake species, aiming to create a treatment that could eventually provide broad protection.

This study is in its early stages—antivenoms are currently tested only on mice, with years needed before human testing can commence. While their experimental treatments show promise for certain snake categories, including mambas and cobras, they are less effective against vipers.

“Despite the potential, there is still much work to be done,” noted Nicholas Casewell, a snakebite researcher at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, in an email. Casewell was not part of the recent study.

Friede’s journey has not been without challenges. He mentioned that a bad snake bite resulted in part of his finger needing amputation, and some severe cobra bites sent him to the hospital.

Friede is currently working with Centivax, which is developing a treatment, and he is hopeful that his 18-year journey might someday lead to a lifesaving solution for snake bites. However, his advice for those inspired to follow his path is straightforward: “Don’t do this,” he cautioned.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

The latest technology enables scanning of faces in 3D from hundreds of meters away

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The new imaging device can capture 3D scans of human faces hundreds of meters away

Aon McCarthy of Heriot Watt University

After 325 meters apart, your eyes can probably distinguish a person’s head from the body. However, new laser-based devices can create three-dimensional models of faces.

Aongus McCarthy The University of Heriot Watt in Scotland and his colleagues have built a device that can create detailed three-dimensional images containing 1 millimeter ridges and indents a few hundred meters apart. An imaging technique called Lidar is used to emit pulses of laser light, collide with the object and is reflected on the device. Based on how long it takes each pulse to return, Lidar can determine the shape of the object.

To reach this level of detail, the team had to carefully tune and align many different components, McCarthy said, including small parts that direct the laser pulse into the device. To enable discrimination between single light particles, the researchers used photodetectors based on extremely thin superconducting wires, a component not common in LIDAR. Exclude sunlight that could enter the detector and break down the image was another challenge.

Researchers tested the rider system on a roof near the lab by taking detailed three-dimensional images of the team members’ heads from 45 meters and 325 meters apart. On a small scale, they captured LEGO figurines from a distance of 32 meters.

The imaging system can scan LEGO characters from 32 meters away

Aon McCarthy of Heriot Watt University

Another test imaged a segment of a communications tower one kilometre away. “It was a very difficult test. I couldn’t control what the scene could do due to the bright background. [that we were imaging]McCarthy says.

Feihu Xu At the University of Science and Technology in China, the team previously used LIDAR for imaging From 200km awayMcCarthy and his colleagues say they achieved “amazing results” in terms of the device’s depth resolution. “It’s the best so far,” he says.

Lidar says that modern technology is only becoming more relevant Vivek Goyal at Boston University, Massachusetts. He says that being able to create detailed 3D maps of the surroundings is also important for self-driving cars and some robots, but before using them for this purpose, new devices need to be made smaller and more compact. There is.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

There are hundreds of viruses on your toothbrush

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Our toothbrushes contain not only bacteria but also a huge number of viruses.

Kathryn Ziegler/Getty Images

Hundreds of viruses that infect bacteria have been found on toothbrushes and showerheads. However, this is not a cause for concern as the virus is not harmful to humans and studying how it works may reveal new ways to kill drug-resistant bacteria.

our toothbrushes Shower heads are full of bacteria From our mouths and from our water supplies. However, little is known about the viruses that are also present on these surfaces.

To get a better image, Erica Hartman Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois wiped down 92 shower heads and 36 toothbrushes from the bathrooms of people living in the United States.

By analyzing the DNA sequences of swab samples, researchers discovered more than 600 viruses known to infect bacteria called bacteriophages. Most viruses that are harmless to humans originate from toothbrushes, and many have never been reported before. “This is a crazy story, and it just highlights how much novelty there is out there,” Hartman said.

Although the researchers did not test whether viruses affected the thousands of bacteria they also discovered, Hartman said bacteriophages tend to do one of two things. They can hijack the bacteria's molecular machinery to make copies of themselves and kill the bacteria as they exit. Alternatively, they can be integrated into the bacterial genome and change the bacteria's behavior.

The bacteriophages that Hartman and her colleagues identified are likely present on moist surfaces around the house, such as inside sinks and refrigerators. “We expect them everywhere,” she says.

“This is an interesting resource that allows us to better understand the breadth and detail of phage activity in the home,” he says. jack gilbert at the University of California, San Diego.

Genetically engineered bacteriophages can be used to kill drug-resistant bacteria when antibiotics don't work, so the discovery of so many new bacteriophages could point the way to further treatments. states that there is. dark bock mule at the Rheinwaal University of Applied Sciences, Germany.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Astronomers find hundreds of massive gas clouds streaming away from the Milky Way’s center

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Using new 21 cm radio observations made with NSF's Green Bank Telescope, astronomers have discovered that more than 250 clouds of neutral gas are blasting out into interstellar space from the center of the Milky Way. These clouds are likely the product of the same phenomenon that created the Fermi bubble.

The artist's concept is that clouds flowing from the center of the Milky Way are caught up in extremely hot winds and accelerated to speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second. Image credit: NSF/GBO/P. Vosteen.

It has long been known that energetic processes at the center of the Milky Way generate high-velocity hot winds that spread through intergalactic space with temperatures of millions of degrees and speeds of thousands of kilometers per second. Most large galaxies have winds like this.

The serendipitous discovery that some of this hot gas is trapped in cold hydrogen clouds was made by Australia's ATCA telescope, which measured 21cm radio emissions from interstellar hydrogen atoms.

This suggests that there may be an undiscovered population of clouds transporting material away from the Milky Way's core.

Hydrogen clouds are important in their own right, but they also act as probes for hot air.

Conditions in very hot winds are difficult to measure, but just as a few leaves thrown up on Earth indicate the direction and speed of the wind in the area, cold clouds can You can track its status.

The sensitivity of the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) makes it an ideal instrument for detecting faint signals from interstellar hydrogen, but mapping these clouds and understanding their true extent is essential. It wasn't easy.

Dr Felix James 'Jay' Rockman, senior astronomer at Green Bank Observatory, said: 'It took many years to systematically map hundreds of square degrees using GBT in search of weak hydrogen emissions. ” he said.

“Once we identify a few promising candidates, we can follow up with targeted observations with other telescopes to show us even more.”

“This cloud must have been ripped off from a region near the center of the Milky Way galaxy and flung outward by a burst of star formation or black hole activity.”

Some of these clouds have the fastest outflow velocities of any cloud ever observed in the Milky Way, and may even escape from the Milky Way.

In an unexpected development, new data from the APEX telescope reveals that some hydrogen clouds contain molecules and dense cold gas.

“No one would have expected that the clouds violently ejected from the Milky Way would harbor relatively fragile molecular material, but that's what happened,” Rockman said.

Astronomers using the MeerKAT array recently mapped hydrogen in several clouds with high angular resolution, showing that it evolves and gets shredded as it flows into interstellar space.

“These new results open the door to further discoveries,” Dr. Rockman said.

“How clouds that are accelerated to speeds of more than 400 kilometers per second remain stable is a mystery.”

“The chemical processes inside these clouds are very unusual and unexplored.”

Dr. Rockman and his colleague Dr. Enrico Di Teodoro of the University of Florence, findings in AAS243243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

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Felix Rockman and Enrico di Teodoro. 2024. New investigation of neutral clouds in the Milky Way's core wind. AAS243Abstract #2851

Source: www.sci.news

New study reveals hundreds of thousands of young stars in Sagittarius C region with solar mass

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Sagittarius C is located just 300 light-years from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

This image of the Sagittarius C region from ESO's Very Large Telescope includes hundreds of thousands of stars. Image credit: ESO/F. Nogueras-Lara.

The center of the Milky Way is the most prolific star-forming region in the entire galaxy.

But astronomers have discovered only a fraction of the young stars they had expected. There is “fossil” evidence that many more stars than we actually see were born recently.

This is because heading to the center of the Milky Way is not an easy task. Clouds of dust and gas block the light from the star, obscuring visibility.

“On average by volume, the galactic center stands out as the most prolific star-forming environment in the galaxy,” said ESO astronomer Francisco Nogueras Lara.

“Over the past 30 million years, we have witnessed the formation of about 1 million stars.”

“But crowding and high extinction rates have hampered their discovery, and so far only a fraction of the young star's expected mass has been confirmed.”

By studying the stellar population of Sagittarius C, Dr. Lara aimed to detect young stars hidden in the galactic center.

In his research, he analyzed the following data: HAWK-I infrared measuring instrument ESO's Very Large Telescope.

He found that Sagittarius C is much richer in young stars than other regions of the galactic center.

“We found that Sagittarius C contains the solar mass of hundreds of thousands of young stars,” Dr. Lara said.

“We compared our results to a recently discovered population of young stars in Sagittarius B1, located at the opposite end of the nuclear star disk.”

“The young stars in Sagittarius C are estimated to be about 20 million years old and likely represent the next evolutionary step for the slightly younger stars in Sagittarius B1.”

“Our discovery contributes to addressing the discrepancy between the expected number of young stars at the center of galaxies and the number of detected stars, and sheds light on their evolution in this extreme environment.”

“As a secondary result, we discovered that Sagittarius C has a population of intermediate-aged stars (approximately 50% of the mass of stars between 2 billion and 7 billion years old), which is composed of a nuclear stellar disk. It does not exist in the innermost region of the world (which is dominated by stars older than 7 billion years).

“This confirms the existence of an age gradient, driving the formation of an inside-out nuclear star disk.”

of findings appear in the diary astronomy and astrophysics.

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F. Nogueras-Lara other. 2024. Hunt young stars at the center of the galaxy. Solar masses of hundreds of thousands of young stars in the Sagittarius C region. A&A 681, L21; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202348712

Source: www.sci.news

Google cuts hundreds of jobs in hardware, augmented reality, and Assistant divisions

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Google has laid off hundreds of employees across its hardware, voice assistant, and engineering teams as part of its cost-cutting measures.

Google said in a statement that the job cuts are aimed at “responsibly investing in our biggest priorities and important opportunities for the future.”

“Some teams continue to make these types of organizational changes, including the elimination of some roles globally,” the paper said.

Google previously announced it would eliminate hundreds of roles across its engineering, hardware, and Assistant teams, with most of the impact hitting the company's augmented reality hardware division. The job cuts follow pledges by executives at Google and its parent company Alphabet to cut costs. A year ago, Google announced it would lay off 12,000 people, or about 6% of its workforce.

On the same day that news of the layoffs broke, Google announced the following: Deprecating 17 “underutilized” features in Google Assistantuse voice commands to play an audiobook, send an email, or start a meditation session in Calm.

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), the Alphabet union described the layoffs as “another unnecessary layoff.”

“Our members and teammates work hard every day to build great products for our users, and our company cannot continue to lay off our colleagues while making billions of dollars every quarter.” the union wrote. “We will not stop fighting until our jobs are safe!”

Google achieved record growth in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, but its expansion has slowed over the past year, forcing it to adjust its business forecasts.

It's not the only technology company in this boat. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has cut more than 20,000 jobs. In December, Spotify announced it would lay off 17% of its global workforce in 2023, the music streaming service's third round of layoffs, in a bid to cut costs and improve profitability.

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Earlier this week, Amazon laid off hundreds of employees in its Prime Video and Studios divisions. The company also plans to lay off about 500 employees who work at live streaming platform Twitch. Amazon has cut thousands of jobs following a surge in hiring during the pandemic. In March, the company announced plans to lay off 9,000 employees, in addition to the 18,000 employees it announced in January 2023.

Google is currently in fierce competition with Microsoft, with both companies trying to take the lead in the field of artificial intelligence. Office software giants are ramping up their artificial intelligence offerings to rival Google. In September, Microsoft introduced its Copilot feature for business customers to integrate artificial intelligence into products such as search engine Bing, browser Edge, and Windows.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Amazon lays off hundreds of employees from Twitch and Prime Video

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According to an internal memo sent Wednesday, Amazon is planning to lay off hundreds of employees across streaming and studio operations. The announcement coincided with Twitch, a subsidiary of the e-commerce giant, revealing that it would lay off approximately 35% of its workforce, or around 500 people.

Last year, Amazon cut more than 27,000 jobs as part of its U.S. tech job cuts, marking a departure from the industry’s hiring surge during the pandemic. Facebook and Microsoft each laid off 10,000 employees, while Google cut 12,000 jobs last year.

Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, informed employees that, “As we increase our investments, we will also identify opportunities to reduce or eliminate investments in specific areas to make the most impact, allowing us to focus on content and product initiatives.”

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy acknowledged in a blog post that the company had grown too big based on optimism for faster expansion of the business. “There remains work to do to right-size the company,” Clancy wrote, citing that the size of the organization had been projected optimistically based on future growth rather than its current state.

In recent years, Amazon has been aggressively investing in its media business, including an $8.5 billion deal with MGM and the 2022 release of The Lord of the Rings on Prime Video. The company has also spent approximately $465 million on the first season of “The Power of Power.” Additionally, Amazon plans to run ads on Prime Video in certain markets and introduce a pricier ad-free subscription tier, similar to moves made by competitors like Netflix and Disney.

Source: www.theguardian.com