Previse 2024: Technology Concepts in News

Here are some important technological concepts in the news that you should know for UPSC Prelims 2024:

The Digital Markets Act is the European Union law to make the markets in the digital sector more fair.
The law will create a safer internet, enhance consumer protections, empower citizens, and ensure high quality digital services.
There are clearly defined criterias to identify “gatekeepers”, which are large digital platforms providing core platform services like online search engines, app stores and messenger services.
This act is one of the first regulatory tools to regulate the gatekeeper power of the largest digital companies.

Starlink is a SpaceX project aiming to build a broadband network with a cluster of orbiting satellites.
It will create a low-cost, satellite-based broadband network that can provide global internet access.
These satellites will be placed in an altitude range between 350 km and 1,200 km in Low Earth Orbit.
Satellites are placed in low-earth orbits to reduce latency between a user seeking data and the server transmitting that data.

Deep Fakes involves the use of machine-learning algorithms to compile artificial images and audio together to replace a real person’s appearance, voice, or both and spread misinformation.
The term "deep fake" is short for a combination of the deep learning concept with something fake.
Use of machine learning models which use neural networks to manipulate images and videos are used to create deep fakes.
Deepfake technology is used for infamous purposes like scams and hoaxes, election manipulation, social engineering, celebrity pornography, automated disinformation attacks, identity theft, and financial fraud.

This act has made companies including Meta, Google, and Snap introduce changes to their platforms.
The changes include more disclosures on how they use artificial intelligence for personalized content to users and allowing them the option to opt out of being subjected to digital surveillance.
The legislation ensures greater accountability and transparency from large online platforms like social media networks and online marketplaces.

A London based company DeepMind has predicted the three-dimensional structures of more than 200 million proteins using AlphaFold.
AlphaFold is an AI-based protein structure prediction tool based on deep neural networks.
The main prediction is done by the black box called the hidden networks which is between the input and the output layers.
When protein sequences enter through one end of the AlphaFold, the predicted three-dimensional structures come out through the other.

Casgevy is a gene therapy for treating sickle cell disease and thalassaemia which became the world's inaugural licensed therapy based on the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology.
Sickle cell disease and thalassaemia are caused by errors in the gene for hemoglobin and the therapy uses the patient’s own blood stem cells, which are precisely edited using CRISPR-Cas9.
BCL11A gene is targeted by the therapy, which is crucial for switching from fetal to adult hemoglobin.
Fetal hemoglobin does not carry the same abnormalities as adult hemoglobin and the therapy produces more fetal hemoglobin to alleviate the symptoms of the two conditions.

It is an act common in airlines and online travel websites which trick the customers into buying things they did not mean to like premium seats.
This is deemed to be a cybercrime and the Ministry of Civil Aviation has told the low-cost airline IndiGo to fix its website.
Dark patterns are deceptive design techniques used in user interfaces to manipulate or deceive users into taking certain actions or making specific choices online.
These patterns exploit cognitive biases and behavioral patterns to trick or mislead users.

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GS3 | Science & Technology