TECH

Photo Credit: Richard Drew

Have a Google account you haven't used in a while? If you want to keep it from disappearing, you should sign in before the end of the week.

Under Google’s updated inactive-account policy, which the tech giant announced back in May, accounts that haven’t been used in at least two years could be deleted. Accounts deemed inactive will be erased in a phased-approach beginning Friday.

If you have an account that's at risk for deletion, you should receive multiple notices from Google sent to the email affiliated with that account and its recovery address (if one exits). But if you're still catching up on this new policy — and want to ensure that your content on Google Drive, Docs, Gmail and more is saved — here's what you need to know.

Photo Credit: Jack Guez

Months before OpenAI board member Ilya Sutskever would gain notoriety for his key role in the ouster of CEO Sam Altman, Sutskever co-authored a little-noticed but apocalyptic warning about the threat posed by artificial intelligence.

Superintelligent AI, Sutskever co-wrote on a company blog, could lead to "the disempowerment of humanity or even human extinction," since engineers are unable to prevent AI from "going rogue." The message echoed OpenAI's charter, which calls for avoiding AI uses if they "harm humanity."

The cry for caution from Sutskever, however, arrived at a period of breakneck growth for OpenAI. A $10 billion investment from Microsoft at the outset of this year helped fuel the development of GPT-4, a viral conversation bot that the company says now boasts 100 million weekly users.

Photo Credit: Barbara Ortutay

The company that created ChatGPT was thrown into turmoil Monday after Microsoft hired its ousted CEO and many employees threatened to follow him in a conflict that centered in part on how to build artificial intelligence that’s smarter than humans.

Photo Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is aiming for another test flight of its mega rocket on Friday after getting final approval from federal regulators.

The first launch of Starship ended in an explosion minutes after lifting off from South Texas in April.

Photo Credit: Kiichiro Sato

Nepal says it will ban TikTok, adding that social harmony and goodwill are being disturbed by “misuse” of the popular video-sharing app and that there is rising demand to control it.

Nepal’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the decision to ban TikTok was taken at a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Sharma said the decision was made because TikTok was consistently used to share content that “disturbs social harmony and disrupts family structures and social relations”.

“Colleagues are working on closing it technically,” she said, without specifying what triggered the ban.