NZCity NewsLinks -

All Links

22 May 2024

Search

Raeward Fresh closing its doors in Richmond
The retail branch of the Foodstuffs’ grocer and butchery will close on Friday.

44 rescue missions completed for rescue helicopter in April
A woman who was crushed by the roof of a container in Dannevirke is one of the 44 missions the Grassroots Trust Rescue Helicopter completed.

The full cost of the Green Party’s Darleen Tana investigation
The Green MP has been suspended for almost 10 weeks.

Not breaking a contract - just paradigm shifting
Google calls it a paradigm shift, I call it a breach of the most important contract ever forged in the world of the web.

Coalition confirms $24m for Gumboot Friday charity I Am Hope
The move comes a week ahead of Budget 2024 and meets a commitment set out in coalition agreements.

Google, Meta, OpenAI pledge to develop AI safely at global summit

Report says China is accelerating the forced urbanization of rural Tibetans

Poland sets up commission to probe Russian intelligence activities

UK police say a man charged with helping Hong Kong intelligence service is found dead

A top ally of Pakistan's imprisoned former premier Imran Khan is released on bail in graft case

Finnish leaders lay the groundwork for hosting NATO forces

Porsche 911 Hybrid Beat Its Predecessor's 'Ring Time by 8.7 Seconds

Footage captures moment Liz Gunn and cameraman arrested at Auckland Airport
The anti-vaccination campaigner was found guilty of assault yesterday after the incident last year.

Microsoft debuts Phi Silica, AI specifically for Copilot+ PCs
In 2023, Microsoft was a big believer in large language models, running in the cloud. At Microsoft Build, the company launched Phi Silica, a small language model designed to run specifically on the NPUs in new Copilot+ PCs. In April, Microsoft announced Phi-3-mini, a model small enough to run on a local PC. Phi Silica is a derivative of Phi-3-mini, designed specifically to run on the Copilot+ PCs that Microsoft announced Monday. Most interactions with AI take place in the cloud; Microsoft’s existing Copilot service, even on your PC, talks to a Microsoft remote server. A cloud-based service like Copilot is known as a large language model (LLM), with billions of parameters that increase the accuracy of Copilot’s answers. Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG But Microsoft’s upcoming Recall PC search engine, which depends on the NPU, runs locally for privacy’s sake. Users don’t want Recall indexing incognito or anonymous searches. An LLM simply requires too much memory and storage space to run on a typical PC. That’s the justification for small language models, or SLMs. Microsoft has said that Recall and other AI will depend on these sorts of SLMs. Phi Silica uses a 3.3 billion parameter model, which Microsoft has fine-tuned for both accuracy and speed, even with the smaller language model. “Windows is the first platform to have a state-of-the-art small language model (SLM) custom built for the NPU and shipping inbox,” Microsoft said in a blog post. Executives also referred to Phi Silica as an “out of the box” solution,” however, which raises the question of whether the SLM will ship on Copilot+ PCs themselves, as a local version of Copilot. Microsoft has yet to answer that question, but it has until June 23 to do so, when Copilot+ PCs begin shipping. Windows

Young mother admits causing 4-week-old baby’s death, assaulting 2-year-old son
The young mother admitted causing her baby’s death and also assaulting her 2-year-old son.

Gwynne shows his talents with bat and ball
Southland Boys’ High School cricketer Alex Gwynne is worth keeping a close eye on following his recent feats for the school’s colts team.

Fast track committee not undermined by MP's donation - National
The National Party insists there has been no conflict of interest in David Macleod's chairing the committee considering the contentious fast-track bill.

Matthew Perry's death under investigation over ketamine level found in actor's blood
US police will investigate why the 54-year-old star had so much ketamine in his system when he died last year.

Mariachis. A flame-swallower. Mexico's disputes between street performers just reached a new high

German police see record number of politically motivated crimes

Japanese lesbian couple granted refugee status in Canada

Israel revokes decision to shut down Associated Press news agency's Gaza live feed

1 dead, 71 injured as Singapore Airlines flight hits severe turbulence

Watch live: Mike King joins government ministers at Budget 2024 mental health announcement
The announcement comes a week ahead of Budget 2024.

Suitcase murders: Trial date set for mother accused of killing children
A woman accused of murdering her two children and hiding their remains in suitcases will go on trial next year.