Will the AI chatbot wave come for the federal government?

Will the AI chatbot wave come for the federal government?

Delayed air passengers, disgruntled phone customers and even hungry people craving a slice of pizza increasingly find their pleas to private companies being answered by artificial intelligence. Soon Canadians who need to reach out to the federal government could also find themselves talking to an employee who’s been helped by non-human assistants. Ottawa is working … Read more

Be warned: After global tech outage, phishing schemes and scammers may try to exploit you

Be warned: After global tech outage, phishing schemes and scammers may try to exploit you

Efforts to deal with a global tech outage that caused chaos for travellers, hospitals and banks are underway, but it may not be the end of your computer woes: Phishing schemes trying to reel in businesses and individuals are now coming to light. Security specialists are warning to be aware of malicious actors purporting to be tech specialists offering help to recover … Read more

Day of disruptions, dashed plans for many Canadians after global tech outage

Day of disruptions, dashed plans for many Canadians after global tech outage

Canadians weren’t spared the headaches of cancelled flights, delayed medical appointments and other problems caused by a failed cybersecurity software upgrade that caused a host of cascading issues around the globe on Friday. According to an alert sent by the global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s Falcon Sensor software … Read more

Airlines, banks, health care have operations disrupted in global IT outage

Airlines, banks, health care have operations disrupted in global IT outage

A global tech outage was disrupting operations in multiple industries on Friday, with airlines halting flights, some broadcasters off-air and everything from banking to health care hit by system problems. According to an alert sent by global cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike to its clients and reviewed by Reuters, the company’s Falcon Sensor software is causing Microsoft … Read more

Ransomware attack on England’s health system highlights life-threatening impact of cybercrime

Ransomware attack on England’s health system highlights life-threatening impact of cybercrime

The National Health Service in England is urging people with universal blood types to donate after a ransomware attack disrupted hospitals’ ability to match patients — underlining how cyberattacks can have serious and potentially life-threatening impacts. On June 3, hackers targeted pathology services provider Synnovis with ransomware. Ransomware attacks encrypt a company’s computer system, rendering it inoperable … Read more

Sask. urging federal government to ban AI voice cloning ahead of elections

Sask. urging federal government to ban AI voice cloning ahead of elections

Months before a provincial election, Saskatchewan is urging the federal government to ban the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for voice cloning. Justice Minister and Attorney General Bronwyn Eyre said having rules to ban AI-generated voice cloning is in the best interest of protecting democracy and electoral integrity.  “Those would become the communications rules for … Read more

OpenAI previews chatbot with real-time voice capabilities

OpenAI previews chatbot with real-time voice capabilities

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Monday it would release a new AI model called GPT-4o, capable of realistic voice conversation and able to interact across text and image, its latest move to stay ahead in a race to dominate the emerging technology. New audio capabilities enable users to speak to ChatGPT and obtain real-time responses … Read more

As AI becomes more human-like, experts warn users must think more critically about its responses

As AI becomes more human-like, experts warn users must think more critically about its responses

Tech giant Google has announced upgrades to its artificial intelligence technologies, just a day after rival OpenAI announced similar changes to its offerings, with both companies trying to dominate the quickly emerging market where human beings can ask questions of computer systems — and get answers in the style of a human response. It’s part of … Read more