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The imprisonment of Reza Valizadeh, acknowledged to the AP by the U.S. State Department, came as Iran marked the 45th anniversary of the American Embassy takeover and hostage crisis on Sunday.

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Grindr is joining the trend for augmenting dating apps with AI, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. Described as a virtual wingman for online dating, the AI chatbot will proactively try to link prospective romantic partners and even help plan their dates when it officially debuts.

The main idea behind Grindr's development is to take the increasingly common AI chatbot experience, a la ChatGPT, and adapt it to a space where people are looking to connect. The chatbot would have more agency than the usually reactive chatbot, making decisions autonomously and completing tasks on behalf of users without them even asking. In the company's vision, the chatbot will seek out potential dates for users, even messaging on their behalf, then suggest they talk and offer topics for a conversation between users. It will even be able to design a date for them that they would both enjoy and make any reservations necessary.

One of Grindr's particular focuses is the idea of a bot-to-bot conversation between AI agents acting on behalf of different people. The idea seems to be to streamline the initial compatibility testing part of a first conversation. Instead, the AI agents would interact to determine compatibility before the people involved talk. That would theoretically cut down on dates going nowhere and could make Grindr more appealing for people burned out on bad dates.

Of course, this would entail sharing a lot of information about yourself with the AI. Considering Grindr's users are primarily gay and bisexual men who may not be public about their sexuality or live where it is stigmatized, that's a lot of trust to give an AI engine. Grindr claims measures to protect its users' identities and interactions are top of the list of priorities for the AI wingman.

AI romance

While Grindr's plans sound exotic now, there is a real push in the dating app space to augment products with AI. For instance, Tinder has a new feature to help you pick your best profile photo, while Bumble, in addition to photo help, wants AI to help users design their entire profile and smooth the initial conversation between users.

To build the AI, Grindr is working with Ex-human, a company whose AI is built on understanding human emotion. The model is being trained on data specifically relevant to Grindr's user base, including the phrases and style of speech unique to the community using the app. The concepts are still in early testing. The small test group will expand to 1,000 people by 2025 and 10,000 by the next year as Grindr gathers feedback. Grindr is aiming at a gradual feature rollout that will be able to do everything it envisions for its approximately 14 million users by 2027.

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From voters young and older to the potentially very wide gender gap, here's what to watch for as the election results come in.

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Nvidia has rebranded its flagship Blackwell Ultra products, in what appears to be a strategic shift at the chipmaker aimed at promoting the B300 and GB300 lines, both of which leverage CoWoS-L technology.

The move, first reported by TrendForce, will see the B200 Ultra series now be known as the B300, while the GB200 Ultra is known as the GB300.

The B300 series from Nvidia is expected to launch any time between the second and third quarters of 2025, with the B200 and GB200 series in particular set to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Nvidia’s shift has broader long-term implications

TrendForce noted Nvidia is in the process of refining chip segmentation across its Blackwell series in a bid to meet growing performance demands from CSPs, improve supply chain flexibility, and meet cost-performance needs among server OEMs.

The B300A series, for example, is aimed primarily at OEMS. Production of this series is expected to begin during the second quarter of 2025 as shipments of the H200 series begin winding down.

Notably, TrendForce said Nvidia had originally planned to launch the B200A series to specifically cater to server OEMs. The chipmaker later shifted to the B300A series during the design process, however, which the market research firm suggested indicated a “weaker demand for downgraded GPUs than anticipated”.

This shift in product strategy from Nvidia could have long-term implications, with TrendForce suggesting the move “reveals a clear pivot toward AI models that promise greater revenue in 2025”.

“The company is making significant investments in improving NVL rack solutions, assisting server system providers with performance optimization and liquid cooling for NVL72 systems,” analysis from TrendForce noted.

“Companies like AWS and Meta are being urged to transition from NVL36 to NVL72.”

Notably, shipment trends point toward Nvidia’s high-end GPU offerings surging in the year ahead, with overall shipment share anticipated to hit around 50% in 2024.

This, TrendForce said, marks a sizable 20% increase compared to the year prior - and it’s expected to continue. The Blackwell platform is projected to drive this further to a share of around 65% in 2025.

Nvidia driving CoWoS demand

In the year ahead, Nvidia is expected to play a “crucial role” in driving demand for CoWoS technology, according to TrendForce.

With the Blackwell series beginning to gain widespread enterprise appeal, CoWoS demand is forecast to increase by around 10% year-on-year.

“In light of recent changes, NVIDIA is likely to concentrate on supplying B300 and GB300 products to major North American CSPs—both leveraging CoWoS-L technology,” TrendForce said.

Running parallel to this, HBM procurement is also anticipated to rise, TrendForce found. Current projections for the year ahead suggest the chip maker will account for more than 70% of the global HBM market.

This once again marks an increase of around 10% annually. A key factor here is that all models across the B300 series will feature HBM3e 12hi.

With production expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, this will drive demand, TrendForce said. Suppliers could be left waiting, however.

This marks the first mass production of a 12hi stack product by Nvidia, analysts noted, therefore the company could take at least two quarters to “refine processes and stabilize production yields”.

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Cyfirma Research recently discovered a serious security vulnerability affecting users of iTunes on Windows systems.

This local privilege escalation vulnerability, classified as CVE-2024-44193, allows attackers with limited access to elevate their privileges, potentially compromising entire systems.

The vulnerability, present in iTunes for Windows version 12.13.2.3 and earlier, poses a critical threat to the security of systems, making timely updates and patching essential.

Urgent iTunes update addresses this escalation risk

The core issue behind CVE-2024-44193 lies in improper permission management, specifically related to the AppleMobileDeviceService.exe.

Attackers can exploit the CVE-2024-44193 vulnerability by manipulating the files within the C:\ProgramData\Apple\Lockdown directory. With inadequate permission settings, even low-privileged users can write arbitrary files to this directory, enabling attackers to create opportunities for privilege escalation.

This vulnerability is not difficult to trigger, and thus makes its exploitation particularly concerning, as attackers can use various tools, such as NTFS junctions and opportunistic locks, to craft sophisticated exploit chains resulting in the execution of arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

The exploitation of CVE-2024-44193 follows a structured sequence of steps, allowing attackers to manipulate the AppleMobileDeviceService.exe and gain elevated privileges. First, attackers create arbitrary files within the Lockdown directory, leveraging tools like Oplock to halt processes at key moments. They can then exploit NTFS junctions, which redirect file deletions to critical system areas.

These actions culminate in the deletion of essential system files, giving the attacker administrative access. The ease of exploitation, combined with the widespread use of iTunes, particularly in enterprise environments, increases the vulnerability's risk profile. Organizations are urged to update iTunes to version 12.13.3 or later to mitigate the risk.

The impact of this vulnerability is severe, as it grants attackers administrative-level access to the targeted system. With SYSTEM-level privileges, attackers can manipulate system files, install malware, access sensitive data, and even disrupt services. This makes CVE-2024-44193 a critical risk for organizations, particularly those with large numbers of unmanaged or outdated systems running vulnerable versions of iTunes.

At the moment, there is no confirmed evidence of this vulnerability being actively exploited in the wild and there is also no active discussion of this vulnerability in underground forums. However, its potential for widespread use remains high due to the low complexity of the attack.

CVE-2024-44193 affects iTunes for Windows globally, impacting a variety of industries that rely on Windows-based systems. Media and entertainment, education, government, and corporate environments are particularly vulnerable due to the widespread use of iTunes. Additionally, organizations handling sensitive data or operating in high-risk environments may face increased exposure to attacks.

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Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 3.

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Here are some hints, and the answers, for the Nov. 3 Strands puzzle, No. 245.

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Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #245) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… In my kingdom

NYT Strands today (game #245) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• MAID
• MOAT
• MATH
• LOOSE
• MICE
• SOLO

NYT Strands today (game #245) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Life, organized

NYT Strands today (game #245) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: left, 4th row

Last: right, 3rd row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #245) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #245, are…

• CLASS
• PHYLUM
• ORDER
• FAMILY
• SPECIES
• GENUS
• DOMAIN
• SPANGRAM: TAXONOMY

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Perfect

You might need to be a bit of a science geek to solve today's Strands, because it features a few words that not everyone will be familiar with. Or at least that many people won't have heard since school biology lessons.

TAXONOMY, as the spangram has it, is the subject of the game – and that word is a tricky one to find in its own right. But harder still are surely PHYLUM and GENUS, with the first of those in particular a word that really doesn't appear in any other context.

My own game went very well, because I am a bit of a science geek, and I got lucky with my early guesses. I found CLASS while searching for hint words to use in this column, and put that together with the theme clue of 'In my kingdom' to establish what the central concept was. I then found the likes of FAMILY, SPECIES and – yes – PHYLUM, and was able to complete the set with no major hiccups.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday, 2 November, game #244)

• PRINTER
• SCISSORS
• PENCILS
• STAPLER
• RULER
• SPANGRAM: OFFICESUPPLIES

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.