Tech Digest roundup: British police ‘shot through’ with Chinese surveillance cameras, watchdog warns

Britain should be more concerned about Chinese-made CCTV cameras on the streets than spy balloons 60,000ft above ground, a watchdog has warned. New findings from the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner (OBSCC) said British police forces are “shot through” with Chinese cameras, drones and other surveillance equipment. The watchdog’s survey also suggested bodies using the equipment were “generally aware that there are security and ethical concerns about the companies supplying their kit”. Sky News 

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says he donated around $1.95bn (£1.6bn) worth of shares in his electric carmaker to charity last year. The donation of 11.6 million shares was described in a filing with US regulators as “a bona fide gift”. The filing did not name the recipient, or recipients, of the donation. Also on Wednesday, Mr Musk said that towards the end of this year would be a “good time” to find someone to succeed him as the chief executive of Twitter. The document lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed the donation was made between August and December last year. BBC

A leading AI researcher has claimed that artificial intelligence is starting to develop beyond an exponential rate. Jack Clark, who co-founded AI research startup Anthropic after spending four years at OpenAI, said that he believed the exponential progress over the last decade has now transitioned to a new level whereby huge advances will occur extremely quickly. “A mental model I have of AI is it was roughly linear progress from 1960s-2010, then exponential 2010-2020s, then has started to display ‘compounding exponential’ properties in 2021/22 onwards,” he wrote in a Twitter thread. Independent 

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is slated to debut later in the year as Qualcomm’s next-gen flagship SoC. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 launched in November last year with massive performance and efficiency improvements, and word on the grapevine claims the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could arrive even earlier. According to leaker Digital Chat Station, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is set to debut earlier in the year than one would expect. While the leaker doesn’t specify when exactly the chipset will launch, it’s safe to assume it will debut earlier than mid-November. Notebookcheck

More and more content creators on social media are rejecting traditional influencer culture and becoming “deinfluencers” instead, according to social media experts. Influencers have historically sold something to users. Whether that is the newest trending lipgloss or the viral “it” dress, the products – often available at a discount using influencers’ special codes – are perceived to provide a certain lifestyle, one that is aesthetically pleasing and on trend. However, a different type of viral trend is taking over. Content creators are deinfluencing users, giving advice on which promoted products are not worth the hype. The Guardian

Apple is pushing hard to become less dependent on Google. According to a report from the Financial Times, the company still holds a grudge against Google for releasing Android, which former CEO Steve Jobs went as far as calling “a stolen product.” With that in mind, Apple has started moving into areas that Google historically dominates. The best example here is Apple Maps. When Apple first launched its Maps service in 2012 to much fanfare, it was quickly ridiculed and dismissed…Since then, a lot has changed, and for people living in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Maps has become a viable alternative to Google Maps. Android Police