Survey: Most Europeans Favour Replacing Lawmakers With Artificial Intelligence

Terrible news for humanity but great news for Skynet: A survey has found that 51% of Europeans would reduce the number of lawmakers in their respective parliaments and hand those seats to an artificial intelligence (AI) that would have access to their data.

According to CNBC, the survey was conducted by IE University’s Center for the Governance of Change and had 2,769 respondents from 11 countries across the world. IE University itself is based in Spain.

Oscar Jonsson, one of the researchers behind the study, told CNBC, “Everyone’s perception is that that politics is getting worse and obviously politicians are being blamed so I think it (the report) captures the general zeitgeist.”

He noted the decades-long decline of belief in democracy as a system of government. Replacing lawmakers with AI was particularly popular in Spain, where 66% of respondents favoured the idea.

On the flip side, 69% of people surveyed in the UK opposed it along with 60% of Americans and 54% of Germans. In an awkward sign for the ruling Chinese Communist Party, roughly 75% of the respondents in China supported the idea.

There’s a notable generation gap too. Most Europeans aged 25 to 44 supported the idea, while a majority of those aged above 55 rejected it.

Kaspersky Says 2020 Most Productive Year For Ransomware 2.0 In Asia Pacific

It’s no surprise that you’ve been hearing about a lot more ransomware attacks lately. Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky confirmed a significant increase in Ransomware 2.0 attacks in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region last year.

Ransomware 2.0 refers to the hacker shift from locking data to stealing data and holding it for ransom. “2020 was the most productive year for ransomware families who moved from hostaging data to exfiltrating data, coupled with blackmailing,” said Kaspersky Lead Malware Analyst Alexey Shulmin.

He added, “In APAC, we noticed an interesting re-emergence of two highly-active groups, REvil and JSWorm. Both resurfaced as the pandemic raged in the region last year and we see no signs of them stopping anytime soon.”

REvil, in particular, has achieved quite a bit of infamy in the last few months. The hacker group reportedly claimed they breached Acer and demanded from the company the largest known ransom ever of US$50 million (~RM205.6 million). Separately, it was reported that REvil ransomware can apparently change Windows passwords and then automate a system’s file encryption via Safe Mode.

Kaspersky noted that, back in 2019, REvil hackers mostly targeted victims in the Asia Pacific – particularly in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Last year, however, the cybersecurity firm detected the group’s presence in almost all countries and territories.

According to Kaspersky, the biggest chunk of REvil’s industrial targets falls under the Engineering and Manufacturing category (30%) followed by Finance (14%) and Professional and Consumer Services (9%).

Most expensive TV in the world. USD 1,600,000 📺

Hey! You consider yourself a gamer? Well, have you picked up your brand new $499 Playstation 5 or X box Series X yet? No? Oh boy… you are way behind, my friend. Well, don’t fret. We’re sure that you will get one sooner or later. In the meantime, why not start lookin for that perfect 4k television to play your next console on? Why not buy this bad boy-- if you’ve got the funds that is. We should warn you… it may just cause more than the house you want to put it in! We’d like to introduce you to the Titan Zeus. Let us assure you, it deserves its name. This tv is bigger than an elephant, and holds the title of most expensive television in the entire world at an astonishing 1.6 million dollars. Suddenly that $499 video game console doesn’t seem so bad, huh? Just a drop in the bucket compared to the price of the screen that you want to play it on! All joking aside, today we look at the specs and features of the Titan Zeus-- so you can decide if it’s worth that 1.6 mill! We gotta say, after watching our video today and learning all about the ins, outs, and all that is in between for this incredible viewing device, we think you may become a believer, and start saving up just a bit more so that you can pick up the Titan Zeus! King of all televisions and projectors!