Tech Digest daily roundup: Who pays for Squid Game’s internet traffic?
The breakout success of the Korean drama Squid Game has prompted a local broadband provider to launch legal action to force the maker, Netflix, to help pay for the huge surge in traffic, the latest flashpoint in the argument over who should carry the burden of the spiralling costs of data fuelled by the global streaming boom. From Netflix’s latest global sensation and livestreamed Premier League football matches on Amazon Prime Video, to bandwidth-busting traffic when hit online games such as Fortnite or Call of Duty are updated, the demand for internet capacity has undergone unprecedented growth in recent years. Guardian
The UK must become a “science superpower” where British-built rockets will launch British-built satellites running everything from cybersecurity to delivering pizza, the new science minister George Freeman has told Sky News. Mr Freeman says he wants to put the days of Britain as a “science leader but innovation laggard” behind us, arguing UK consumers are ready to embrace new products like gene-edited meat that will improve animal welfare and tackle the climate crisis. But could the squeeze on public finances as well as increasingly sour relations with the EU could stymie the ambitions of the former biomedical venture capitalist? Sky News
Early adopters of Windows 11 are set to face a number of challenges that both individuals and businesses should consider before making the switch, analyst firm Gartner has warned. Speaking to TechRadar Pro over email, analyst Stephen Klenynhans explained that the level of risk associated with an early Windows 11 upgrade is “relatively moderate”, but sufficient enough to warrant consideration. According to Klenyhans, the potential issues can be broken down into three broad categories: user experience, software compatibility and hardware support. Tech Radar
Solar power is notoriously unreliable. The sun may be the solar system’s biggest energy source, putting out more than humanity could ever hope to use, but transforming that into usable power comes up against real-world problems of unreliable weather, a lack of ground coverage and – most troublesome of all – the dark of the night….But what if we could have solar panels that always face the sun, that are immune to the vagaries of British Isles weather, and which could never be accused of blighting the countryside? That is the idea behind out-there proposals for a series of giant solar farms floating in space, which are now being considered by the Government. Telegraph
Top science advisers to President Joe Biden are calling for a new “bill of rights” to guard against powerful new artificial intelligence technology. The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy on Friday launched a fact-finding mission to look at facial recognition and other biometric tools used to identify people or assess their emotional or mental states and character. Biden’s chief science adviser, Eric Lander, and the deputy director for science and society, Alondra Nelson, also published an opinion piece in Wired magazine detailing the need to develop new safeguards against faulty and harmful uses of AI that can unfairly discriminate against people or violate their privacy. AP News
