Tech Digest daily roundup: World Cup uses drones to protect stadiums

Man-to-man marking will be paired with drone v drone security at this winter’s Fifa World Cup in Qatar. Unmanned aerial vehicles that shoot nets to bring down small “rogue” drones will help defend venues. Fortem Technologies will provide the interceptor drones, following an agreement with Qatar’s interior ministry. It says the agreement reflects growing fears about the threat potential drone attacks pose in general. Fortem says its system is a safe way to bring down drones in built-up locations, reducing the risks of injury that might be caused if weapons were used. BBC

Britain’s biggest banks are demanding that Facebook, Google and telecom giants pay hundreds of millions of pounds to help reimburse victims taken in by scammers on social media. Barclays, TSB, Lloyds and Santander have warned that technology companies are not shouldering their share of the burden from the wave of online fraud gripping Britain…At present, banks sign up to a voluntary code to reimburse people who lose their life savings if they are taken in by criminals and the money cannot be recovered. Around £462m was returned to customers in 2020 and 2021. Facebook, Instagram, Google and telecom companies currently pay nothing towards losses, despite more than three-quarters of scams taking place on social media, auction sites or dating apps, according to Barclays data. Telegraph 

You can already turn your smartphone into a guitar amp and a recording studio, so why not a turntable? Enter the Yamaha Design Lab TurnT – a hipster-friendly portable speaker that has a ‘stylus’ but doesn’t actually play vinyl. Rather, it plays virtual vinyl platters displayed on your phone’s screen. The idea? To bring a touch of analogue cool to digital music services such as Spotify. Simply drop the (faux) needle onto the (virtual) wax and you’re away. You can even swap albums by swiping your phone’s screen, as per this demo video..What HiFi

Google has sacked a senior software engineer after he claimed the company’s AI chatbot is a “sentient” being. The search engine’s parent company Alphabet said Blake Lemoine’s claims about LaMDA (its language model for dialogue applications) are “wholly unfounded”. “It’s regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters. Sky News

The next generation of Italian mobsters are infuriating Mafia bosses by flaunting their flashy lifestyles on TikTok. Gangsters in Naples are using the social media platform to post videos which show them driving expensive cars, partying at popular clubs and swigging bottles of champagne. Crescenzo Marino, the son of a Camorra boss, has more than 43,000 followers and nearly 900,000 likes. The Camorra is based in Campania, centred around Naples, and is the oldest and largest criminal organisation in Italy. Marino’s TikTok account includes clips of him wearing elaborate designer clothing and watches, cruising around Paris in a Ferrari, playing with pitbulls and meeting well-known rappers. Daily Mail