Briefly informed: World Water Day, AI, Zippyshare, BundID
World Water Day 2023
The motto of World Water Day 2023 is “Accelerating Change”. Every year since 1992, International Water Day has been a reminder of the importance of water as a resource as the basis of all life. This year’s theme aims to highlight the importance of national and international cooperation in achieving the goal of ensuring clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
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The EU Court of Auditors is examining whether the EU is properly promoting artificial intelligence
The EU Commission wants to advance the development of artificial intelligence. The European Court of Auditors thinks so too. He is now examining whether the EU Commission’s strategy is any good and whether the use of communications based on it is effective. “Artificial intelligence is of crucial importance for the EU’s digital transformation, its industrial policy and its strategic autonomy. The revolution in this field is in full swing, but Europe is still lagging behind on key aspects such as financing,” criticizes the Court of Auditors. However, the notification does not contain any concrete allegations against specific funding programs or funded projects. The impression remains that the audit authority is going too slowly: “According to estimates, the amount invested in AI in the EU is only half as high as in the USA.”
Zippyshare says goodbye
After almost 17 years on the web, file hosting veteran Zippyshare will go out of business at the end of the month. This was reported by the BitTorrent blog TorrentFreak. According to the operators of Zippyshare, the platform has changed little over the years and is now “a dinosaur” that costs too much to operate in a world where ad blockers are rampant. Zippyshare was founded in 2006, in the pre-iPhone era. The service’s success rested on a solid but fundamental foundation: easy file hosting through a clean user interface at zero cost.
Ministry of Research celebrates increase in BundID numbers
Students and trainees don’t have much of a choice: If they – like other groups in the population – finally want to get a subsidy to cope with rising energy costs, they have to register for the BundID or present an Elster certificate. The Federal Research Ministry responsible for this is celebrating a milestone. Since the beginning of February, more than 1.3 million new digital citizen accounts have been created, which has to do with the linking of BundID registration and the energy price flat rate of 200 euros per person. More than a million of the applications have already been approved.
(mack)
