Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses were recording users’ audio without the usual activation commands, and the company has since said it fixed the problem. Multiple owners reported that conversations were transcribed even though the “Hey Meta” wake prompt wasn’t used and the setting that allows recording without that prompt was turned off. Users also noticed the glasses’ white status light illuminate during those conversations. Meta confirmed the issue to press with a brief statement - “This issue has been resolved” - and said people can manage, review and delete voice logs of interactions with Meta AI via settings.
The malfunction affected more than one device: a Reddit user reported the behavior on three different pairs, including both second- and third-generation models, and others shared similar experiences. Meta did not disclose what caused the recordings. The incident compounds earlier revelations that videos captured by Meta glasses were sent to offshore contractors in Kenya for AI labeling, sometimes exposing intimate or disturbing footage. The episode reinforces broader privacy concerns about smart glasses’ ability to covertly record people and the risks when devices capture data without owners’ awareness.
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Neuralwatt emphasizes that prompt caching significantly impacts energy efficiency in AI models, with cache misses roughly doubling energy use. Proper harness design can reduce unnecessary recomputation, saving both energy and computational costs. (neuralwatt.com)
An integration in Home Assistant scans secrets without user authorization, causing privacy concerns. The user warns that this mechanism could be abused, despite no consent given. (github.com)
Cloudera has been ordered to pay back wages and faces a two-year debarment for discriminating against US workers. The settlement was secured by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Labor. (justice.gov)
911 emergency response system in the US struggles to effectively address mental health crises and properly route emergency calls. This highlights the need for specialized response protocols to improve outcomes. (themarshallproject.org)
The seeds for the NIST elliptic curves were generated using the drand48 random number generator seeded with the current UNIX timestamp in 1997-98. A team from Anthropic discovered and claimed the bounty by revealing this cryptographic history, donating the prize to Let’s Encrypt. (words.filippo.io)
Claude revealed that the seeds for the widely used ECDSA elliptic curve standards were generated using a Unix time seed in the C library's random-number generator, not by hashing humorous phrases as previously thought. This discovery clarifies the long-standing mystery about the origins of these cryptographic parameters. (anthropic.com)
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