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Sony Says It Has Already Taken Down More Than 75,000 AI Deepfake Songs
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 22:22:01


Sony has removed more than 75,000 AI-generated deepfake songs mimicking artists including Harry Styles and Beyonce from online platforms, the company revealed in a submission to the UK government, adding this likely represents just a fraction of fake songs circulating online.
... [ Read it >> ]

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Microsoft Admits GitHub Hosted Malware That Infected Almost a Million Devices
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 21:22:01


Microsoft has spotted a malvertising campaign that downloaded nastyware hosted on GitHub and exposed nearly a million devices to information thieves. From a report: Discovered by Microsoft Threat Intelligence late last year, the campaign saw pirate vid-streaming websites embed malvertising redirectors to generate pay-per-view or pay-per-click revenue from malvertising platforms. "These redirectors subsequently routed traffic through one or two additional malicious redirectors, ultimately leading to another website, such as a malware or tech support scam website, which then redirected to GitHub" according to Microsoft's threat research team. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Feds Link $150M Cyberheist To 2022 LastPass Hacks
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 20:22:01


AmiMoJo writes: In September 2023, KrebsOnSecurity published findings from security researchers who concluded that a series of six-figure cyberheists across dozens of victims resulted from thieves cracking master passwords stolen from the password manager service LastPass in 2022. In a court filing last week, U.S. federal agents investigating a spectacular $150 million cryptocurrency heist said they had reached the same conclusion. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Volkswagen Bringing Back Physical Buttons, Says Removing Them Was a Mistake
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 20:22:01


smooth wombat writes: In what can only be described as a no-brainer, Volkswagen has announced it will have once again have physical buttons in all its vehicles. As Andreas Mindt, design chief at the company said, removing buttons was "a mistake".

"From the ID 2all onwards, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions -- the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light -- below the screen," he explained, adding: "It's not a phone: it's a car." ... [ Read it >> ]

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How the AI Talent Race Is Reshaping the Tech Job Market
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 19:22:02


Nearly one in four U.S. tech jobs posted in 2025 require AI skills, according to data from the University of Maryland's AI job tracker, as companies across sectors adapt to the technology.

Companies across healthcare, retail and utilities are increasingly seeking candidates who can integrate AI into existing roles rather than creating entirely new positions, with these skills commanding premium pay and greater job security. ... [ Read it >> ]

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AI Isn't Creating New Knowledge, Hugging Face Co-Founder Says
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 18:22:01


An anonymous reader shares a report: AI excels at following instructions -- but it's not pushing the boundaries of knowledge, says Thomas Wolf. The chief science officer and cofounder of Hugging Face, an open-source AI company backed by Amazon and Nvidia, analyzed the limits of large language models. He wrote that the field produces "overly compliant helpers" rather than revolutionaries. Right now, AI isn't creating new knowledge, Wolf wrote. Instead, it's just filling in the blanks between existing facts -- what he called "manifold filling." ... [ Read it >> ]

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Thousands of Freed Scam Center Workers Now Trapped in Overcrowded Detention Centers
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 16:22:01


August, 2023: Thousands of Crypto Scammers are Enslaved by Human-Trafficking Gangsters, Says Bloomberg Reporter. ("They'd lure young people from across Southeast Asia...with the promise of well-paying jobs in customer service or online gambling.")
February, 2025: A coordinated response begins by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities, which includes cutting power, internet, and fuel supplies to the scam centers. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Zuckerberg's Meta Considered Sharing User Data with China, Whistleblower Alleges
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 12:22:01


The Washington Post reports:

Meta was willing to go to extreme lengths to censor content and shut down political dissent in a failed attempt to win the approval of the Chinese Communist Party and bring Facebook to millions of internet users in China, according to a new whistleblower complaint from a former global policy director at the company. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Oscar-Winning Movie Criticized for Using AI To Correct Dialects
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 09:22:01


Nominated for 10 Oscars, The Brutalist (directed and produced by Brady Corbet) has an "intriguing and controversial technical feature," according to the Baffler, that threatens to turn movie-viewing into "a drab appreciation of machine-managed flawlessness, and acting less interesting..."... [ Read it >> ]

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New Open Source Windows-Compatible Operating System Released
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 07:22:01


Red Hat product manager Pau Garcia Quiles (also long-time Slashdot reader paugq) spotted an interesting project on GitHub:

Free95, a new lean, Windows-compatible operating system is available from GitHub. In its current form, it can run very basic Win32 GUI and console applications, but its developer promises to keep working on it to reach DirectX and even game compatibility. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Adafruit Successfully Automates Arduino Development Using 'Claude Code' LLM
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 05:22:01


Adafruit Industries used large language model (LLM) tool Claude Code to streamline hardware development, writes managing director ptorrone.

In a demo video Limor 'Ladyada' Fried compares the LLM's command-line interface to working with the build-automation tool CMake or "a weird cross between IRC and a BBS." The first step was converting a PDF of the hardware's datasheet into text, and Claude Code first displays the appropriate Bash command, while asking "Do you want to proceed?" ("What's nice is that it doesn't make changes, even though it has write access to files in the directory...") Eventually from the data sheet it creates things like an accurate register map, C++ headers, and even license text — and more. ... [ Read it >> ]

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That Galaxy Next Door? It's Home to a Monster Black Hole
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 03:22:01


NPR reports on "a monster black hole that's been lurking unseen in the galaxy next door."

This appears to be the closest supermassive black hole outside our Milky Way galaxy, according to a report that's appearing in The Astrophysical Journal... "Now that there is strong evidence that it should be there, you can rest assured that we are very excitedly following up," says Jesse Han of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, who led the study... ... [ Read it >> ]

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Can Ants Teach Us How to Program Self-Driving Cars?
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 02:22:02


gdm (Slashdot reader #97,336) writes:
A study published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives investigates how ants avoid traffic jams.... Quoting the abstract: "The results show that ants adopt specific traffic strategies (platoon formation, quasi-constant speed and no overtaking maneuvers) that help avoid jam phenomena, even at high density."... [ Read it >> ]

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'I Used to Teach Students. Now I Catch ChatGPT Cheats'
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-10 00:22:01


Philosophy/ethics professor Troy Jollimore looks at the implications of a world where many students are submitting AI-generated essays. ("Sometimes they will provide quotations, giving page numbers that, as often as not, do not seem to correspond to anything in the actual world...") Ideally if the students write the essays themselves, "some of them start to feel it. They begin to grasp that thinking well, and in an informed manner, really is different from thinking poorly and from a position of ignorance. That moment, when you start to understand the power of clear thinking, is crucial. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Professor Ends Bulwer-Lytton Bad Writing Contest After 43 Years
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 23:22:01


Slashdot covered the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest in 2008 and 2010 — though it's been running since 1983. Entrants competed to write the worst-possible first sentence for a novel, in a contest started by English professor Scott E. Rice at San Jose State University (which sponsored the contest). In its first year it drew over 10,000 entries! ... [ Read it >> ]

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Stem Cell Therapy Trial Reverses 'Irreversible' Damage to Cornea
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 22:22:01


Damaged corneas were repaired at a Harvard teaching hospital in a unique clinical trial, reports New Atlas:

Since it's on the frontline of potential hazards from the outside world, the cornea features a population of limbal epithelial stem cells, which repair minor damage to keep the surface smooth and functional... The new study, conducted by scientists at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, investigated a new treatment called cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cells (CALEC). This involves removing stem cells from a patient's uninjured eye, growing their population in the lab for a few weeks, then surgically transplanting them into the injured eye. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Mice Give First Aid
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 21:22:01


Slashdot reader databasecowgirl writes: The Times is reporting an interesting study published in Science in which mice demonstrated doing first aid. In the replicated study, an anaesthetised mouse is exposed to another mouse who recognises the distress and clears airway to revive the unconscious mouse.... [ Read it >> ]

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Will an 'AI Makeover' Help McDonald's?
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 20:22:01


"McDonald's is giving its 43,000 restaurants a technology makeover," reports the Wall Street Journal, including AI-enabled drive-throughs and AI-powered tools for managers — as well as internet-connected kitchen equipment.

"Technology solutions will alleviate the stress...." says McDonald's CIO Brian Rice.... [ Read it >> ]

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How Your Gut Influences Your Brain
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 19:22:01


A blog post from the Stanford University School of Medicine attempts to answer the question: What's the deal with the gut-brain connection?

It affects your mood, your sleep, even your motivation to exercise. There's convincing evidence that it's the starting point for Parkinson's disease and could be responsible for long COVID's cognitive effects. And it sits about 2 feet below your brain. The gut plays an obvious role in our health by digesting what we eat and extracting nutrients. But there's a growing appreciation among scientists that our digestive systems affect our general well-being in a much broader fashion. ... [ Read it >> ]

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America's Justice Department Still Wants Google to Sell Chrome
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 16:22:01


Last week Google urged the U.S. government not to break up the company — but apparently, it didn't work.
In a new filing Friday, America's Justice Department "reiterated its November proposal that Google be forced to sell its Chrome web browser," reports the Washington Post, "to address a federal judge finding the company guilty of being an illegal monopoly in August."... [ Read it >> ]

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Is America Closer to Ending Daylight Saving Time?
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 13:22:01


U.S. president Donald Trump called Daylight Saving Time "very costly to our nation" and "inconvenient" in December. Today the Washington Post remembers he'd vowed his Republican party would use their "best efforts" to eliminate it.

But it's still proving to be politically difficult...... [ Read it >> ]

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Ignoring Protests, Christie's Holds AI Art Auction, Makes Big Money
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 10:22:01


As Christie's auction house planned the first-ever auction dedicated to AI-generated art works, over 5,600 people signed an online letter urging them to cancel it. "Many of the artworks you plan to auction were created using AI models that are known to be trained on copyrighted work without a license," the letter complained. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Reddit and Digg Cofounders Plan Relaunch of 'Human-Centered' Digg With AI Innovations
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 06:22:01


"The early web was fun," Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian posted Wednesday on X.com. "It was weird. It was community-driven. It's time to rebuild that.

"Which is why Kevin Rose and I just bought back Digg."

The amount of that purchase is "undisclosed," reports CNBC:... [ Read it >> ]

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Free Software Foundation Rides To Defend AGPLv3 Against Neo4j License Add-ons
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 05:22:01


This week the Free Software Foundation "backed a lone developer's brave effort to overturn a pivotal court ruling that threatens to undermine the AGPLv3 — the foundation's GNU Affero General Public License, version 3," reports the Register.

"At stake is the future of not just the AGPLv3, but the FSF's widely used GNU Public License it is largely based on, and the software covered by those agreements."... [ Read it >> ]

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Axiom Space and Red Hat Will Bring Edge Computing to the International Space Station
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 03:22:01


Axiom Space and Red Hat will collaborate to launch Data Center Unit-1 (AxDCU-1) to the International Space Station this spring. It's a small data processing prototype (powered by lightweight, edge-optimized Red Hat Device Edge) that will demonstrate initial Orbital Data Center (ODC) capabilities. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Snack Makers Are Removing Fake Colors From Processed Foods
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 02:22:02


"PepsiCo is launching a new product, Simply Ruffles Hot & Spicy, which uses natural ingredients like tomato powder and red chile pepper instead of artificial dyes," reports Bloomberg. But it's part of a larger trend:

In one of the final acts of President Joe Biden's administration, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned Red No. 3, effective in January 2027 for food, one of a handful of synthetic colors that have become something of a symbol of all that is wrong with the American food system and the ultraprocessed foods that dominate it. Putting Red No. 3 aside, the rest of the colors remain legal, and they're used in tens of thousands of supermarket and convenience-store products in the United States, according to NielsenIQ data. The recent campaign against them became one of the pillars of the "Make America Healthy Again" movement championed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The criticism follows what health advocates have been saying for years: The synthetic colors add nothing to taste, nutritional value or shelf life but make unhealthy foods more visually appealing. Worst of all, there are concerns that the dyes may be carcinogenic or trigger hyperactivity in some kids. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Undocumented 'Backdoor' Found In Chinese Bluetooth Chip Used By a Billion Devices
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 01:22:02


"The ubiquitous ESP32 microchip made by Chinese manufacturer Espressif and used by over 1 billion units as of 2023 contains an undocumented 'backdoor' that could be leveraged for attacks," writes BleepingComputer.
"The undocumented commands allow spoofing of trusted devices, unauthorized data access, pivoting to other devices on the network, and potentially establishing long-term persistence."... [ Read it >> ]

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America Lost 22% of Its Butterflies Within Two Decades
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-09 00:22:01


Butterflies "are vanishing from U.S. landscapes at an alarming rate," reports CBS News:

A comprehensive study, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that 22% of butterflies in the United States disappeared between 2000 and 2020... The researchers behind the Science study used data from more than 12.6 million butterflies spanning 342 individual species, drawing from 76,000 surveys across 35 nationwide monitoring programs. Funded by the U.S. Geological Survey, the study was the first to integrate such a vast dataset, its authors said. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Sam Bankman-Fried Gives a Jailhouse Interview, Seeking a Pardon
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 23:22:01


Sam Bankman-Fried — one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party — "was convicted of fraud, sentenced to 25 years in prison and mostly went silent," reports the Wall Street Journal. "Until recently..."

Now, from behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Bankman-Fried is orchestrating an extraordinary public-relations blitz that looks very much like a campaign to make the most audacious trade of his career: support for President Trump's agenda in return for a presidential pardon... ... [ Read it >> ]

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Open Source Initiative: AI Debate Roils Board Elections?
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 22:22:01


The Open Source Initiative's Board of Directors election "has become embroiled in controversy..." writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at The New Stack.

"The real issue is the community's opposition to the open source AI definition (OSAID), which the organization released last October," he adds — but "the election process has been criticized because the OSI has refused to accept the candidacy of Debian developer Luke Faraone, citing a missed application deadline."... [ Read it >> ]

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Rayhunter: A Cheap New Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 21:22:02


Equuleus42 (Slashdot reader #723) brings word that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is sharing a new tool for fighting back against cellphone surveillance by Stingray cell-site simulators.

Android Authority reports:

"Rayhunter" uses an open-source software package designed to look for evidence of IMSI catchers in action, running on an old Orbic Speed RC400L mobile hotspot. The great thing about that choice is that you can pick one up for practically nothing — we're seeing them listed for barely over $10 on Amazon, and you can find them even cheaper on eBay. There's an installation script for Macs and Linux to automate getting set up, but once the Orbic is flashed with the Rayhunter software, it should be ready go, collecting data about sketchy-looking "cell towers" it picks up. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Remembering 'Space Ghost' Voice Actor George Lowe
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 20:22:01


Long-time Slashdot reader invisik saw this story on Yahoo News:

Comedian and voice actor George Lowe, who is well-known as the voice of Space Ghost on "Space Ghost Coast to Coast," died on March 2. He was 67...
He did some voice-over work for TBWS and Cartoon Network in the 1980s to mid-1990s before getting his lead role of Space Ghost in 1994 with the premiere of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" on Cartoon Network. Space Ghost was a parody of talk shows with live-action celebrity guests, hosted by the Hanna Barbera character Space Ghost, which aired from 1994 to 1999 on Cartoon Network. The show later returned in 2001, airing on Adult Swim's late-night programming block until 2004, Deadline reported. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Google Introduces Debian Linux Terminal App For Android
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 17:22:01


Google has introduced a Debian Linux terminal app for Android in its ongoing effort to transform Android into a versatile desktop OS. It's initially available on Pixel devices running Android 15 but will be expanded to "all sufficiently robust Android phones" when Android 16 arrives later this year," writes ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: Today, Linux is only available on the latest Pixel devices running Android 15. When Android 16 arrives later this year, it's expected that all sufficiently robust Android phones will be able to run Linux. Besides a Linux terminal, beta tests have already shown that you should be able to run desktop Linux programs from your phone -- games like Doom, for example. The Linux Terminal runs on top of a Debian Linux virtual machine. This enables you to access a shell interface directly on your Android device. And that just scratches the surface of Google's Linux Terminal. It's actually a do-it-all app that enables you to download, configure, and run Debian. Underneath Terminal runs the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF). These are the APIs that enable Android devices to run other operating systems.... [ Read it >> ]

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NASA's SPHEREx Is Poised To Launch Mission To Map 450 Million Galaxies In Color
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 14:22:01


NASA's SPHEREx observatory (short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) is set to launch this week to map 450 million galaxies in infrared, providing insights into galaxy formation, the origins of water, and testing theories about the universe's rapid expansion following the Big Bang. The two-year mission will repeatedly survey the entire sky and help scientists understand fundamental cosmic processes. NBC News reports: The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is scheduled to occur Friday, during a window that opens at 10:09 p.m. ET. Liftoff was initially planned for Feb. 27, but NASA rescheduled it several times, first to "complete vehicle processing and prelaunch checkouts," and because of availability at the California launch site.... [ Read it >> ]

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Athena Spacecraft Declared Dead After Toppling Over On Moon
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 11:22:01


The Athena lunar lander from Intuitive Machines has prematurely ended its mission after tipping onto its side shortly after touching down near the moon's south pole, failing to fully accomplish its planned water-searching objectives. From a report: Athena was expected to operate for about 10 days before powering down as lunar night fell over the spacecraft's landing site at Mons Mouton, a plateau that lies about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the south pole. But photographs delivered by the lander before it powered down confirmed the vehicle is lying on its side. "With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels, and extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge," the company said in a statement. "The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission."... [ Read it >> ]

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Gene-Edited Non-Browning Banana Could Cut Food Waste, Scientists Say
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 08:22:01


An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Many of us have been guilty of binning a mushy, overripe banana -- but now scientists say they have a solution with the launch of a genetically engineered non-browning banana. The product is the latest in a series of gene-edited fruits and vegetables designed to have a longer shelf life. Scientists say the technology is emerging as a powerful new weapon against food waste, which occurs globally on an epic scale. The banana, developed by Tropic, a biotech company based in Norwich, is said to remain fresh and yellow for 12 hours after being peeled and is less susceptible to turning brown when bumped during harvesting and transportation.... [ Read it >> ]

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Microsoft Reportedly Develops LLM Series That Can Rival OpenAI, Anthropic Models
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 06:22:01


Microsoft is reportedly developing its own large language model series capable of rivaling OpenAI and Anthropic's models. SiliconANGLE reports: Sources told Bloomberg that the LLM series is known as MAI. That's presumably an acronym for "Microsoft artificial intelligence." It might also be a reference to Maia 100, an internally-developed AI chip the company debuted last year. It's possible Microsoft is using the processor to power the new MAI models. The company recently tested the LLM series to gauge its performance. As part of the evaluation, Microsoft engineers checked whether MAI could power the company's Copilot family of AI assistants. Data from the tests reportedly indicates that the LLM series is competitive with models from OpenAI and Anthropic.... [ Read it >> ]

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Signal President Calls Out Agentic AI As Having 'Profound' Security and Privacy Issues
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 06:22:01


Signal President Meredith Whittaker warned at SXSW that agentic AI poses significant privacy and security risks, as these AI agents require extensive access to users' personal data, likely processing it unencrypted in the cloud. TechCrunch reports: "So we can just put our brain in a jar because the thing is doing that and we don't have to touch it, right?," Whittaker mused. Then she explained the type of access the AI agent would need to perform these tasks, including access to our web browser and a way to drive it as well as access to our credit card information to pay for tickets, our calendar, and messaging app to send the text to your friends. "It would need to be able to drive that [process] across our entire system with something that looks like root permission, accessing every single one of those databases -- probably in the clear, because there's no model to do that encrypted," Whittaker warned.... [ Read it >> ]

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BBC Radio's Streaming Changes Leave Long-Time Listeners In the Lurch
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 05:22:02


New submitter grandrollerz writes: Despite streaming online since the RealAudio days of the late 1990s, the BBC has announced that most of its radio stations will become unavailable to international users later this year. Starting in Spring 2025, only talk news stations BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4 will remain accessible outside the UK. This change is due to rights issues and the launch of a new BBC audio website and app that will replace BBC Sounds for international users. The BBC Sounds app will be available exclusively to UK audiences, although UK users traveling abroad for short periods will still be able to use it. This move has disappointed many long-time international listeners who will lose access to their favorite BBC radio stations. It follows a similar move to further commercialize its services where in 2024 the BBC and Amazon Music struck a global deal to make BBC podcasts available on Amazon Music outside the UK, but only for subscribers to Amazon's Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited services.... [ Read it >> ]

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Feds Arrest Man For Sharing DVD Rip of Spider-Man Movie With Millions Online
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 05:22:02


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A 37-year-old Tennessee man was arrested Thursday, accused of stealing Blu-rays and DVDs from a manufacturing and distribution company used by major movie studios and sharing them online before the movies' scheduled release dates. According to a US Department of Justice press release, Steven Hale worked at the DVD company and allegedly stole "numerous 'pre-release' DVDs and Blu-rays" between February 2021 and March 2022. He then allegedly "ripped" the movies, "bypassing encryption that prevents unauthorized copying" and shared copies widely online. He also supposedly sold the actual stolen discs on e-commerce sites, the DOJ alleged.... [ Read it >> ]

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Trump Signs Order To Establish Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 03:22:01


President Trump has signed an executive order to establish a strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies by using tokens already owned by the government. Reuters reports: A "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" will be capitalized with bitcoin owned by the federal government that was seized as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, the White House crypto czar, billionaire David Sacks, said in a post on social media platform X. The order kept open the possibility of the government buying bitcoin in future. The U.S. commerce and treasury secretaries "are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional bitcoin, provided that those strategies impose no incremental costs on American taxpayers," a factsheet on the White House website said. "This is the most underwhelming and disappointing outcome we could have expected for this week," Charles Edwards, founder of bitcoin-focused hedge fund Capriole Investments, wrote in a post on X. "No active buying means this is just a fancy title for Bitcoin holdings that already existed with the Govt. This is a pig in lipstick."... [ Read it >> ]

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70% of Large VMware Customers Bought Broadcom's Biggest Bundle
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 03:22:01


Broadcom's VMware acquisition has significantly boosted revenue, largely driven by high-priced VMware Cloud Foundation bundles adopted by the majority of its top customers. The Register reports: Broadcom's acquisition of VMware appears to be a big success, on the balance sheet at least, after the company announced a big majority of its top 10,000 customers have decided to acquire its Cloud Foundation stack and posted strong growth. The chips-and-code company today announced its results for the quarter ended February 2nd, its first for FY 2025. Revenue of $14.92 billion represented 25 percent year-on-year growth. Net income of $5.5 billion was a 315 percent increase on the result from Q1 2024.... [ Read it >> ]

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Music Labels Will Regret Coming For the Internet Archive, Sound Historian Says
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 02:22:01


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, music labels sought to add nearly 500 more sound recordings to a lawsuit accusing the Internet Archive (IA) of mass copyright infringement through its Great 78 Project, which seeks to digitize all 3 million three-minute recordings published on 78 revolutions-per-minute (RPM) records from about 1898 to the 1950s. If the labels' proposed second amended complaint is accepted by the court, damages sought in the case -- which some already feared could financially ruin IA and shut it down for good -- could increase to almost $700 million. (Initially, the labels sought about $400 million in damages.) IA did not respond to Ars' request for comment, but the filing noted that IA has not consented to music labels' motion to amend their complaint. [...]... [ Read it >> ]

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The Spectacular Synapse Collapse
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 01:22:01


The spectacular collapse of fintech middleman Synapse has left $200 million in customer money frozen and up to $95 million missing, with no clear answers about where the funds went. After Synapse, a financial technology company connecting other fintechs to banks, filed for bankruptcy in April 2024, customers of apps like Yotta, Juno, and Copper found themselves locked out of their savings. ... [ Read it >> ]

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Why Most Countries Are Struggling To Shut Down 2G
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 00:22:01


Global telecom operators are struggling to shut down aging 2G networks despite pressure to free up spectrum for 4G and 5G services, as the transition threatens to exclude millions of vulnerable users.

While Vietnam successfully decommissioned 2G in November 2024 by providing free 4G phones to low-income users, countries like South Africa and India have delayed shutdowns over concerns about cutting off phone access for millions. According to GSMA Intelligence, 61 countries have planned or initiated 2G network shutdowns to enhance bandwidth and reduce maintenance costs. For 2.5 billion people worldwide, smartphones cost about 30% of monthly income, keeping basic phones essential despite declining global feature phone sales.... [ Read it >> ]

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WB Offers Replacements, Not Refunds, for Hundreds of Rotting DVDs
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-08 00:22:01


Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has confirmed widespread issues affecting DVDs manufactured between 2006-2008 that are experiencing premature disc rot. The company is offering replacements for affected titles but no refunds, even when replacements aren't possible.

The problem manifests in various ways: complete disc failure, freezing midway through playback, or menu issues. Movie critic Chris Bumbray recently discovered several of his classic film DVDs had deteriorated, including titles not available digitally. DVD collectors have documented this issue for years via YouTube and forums, with speculation that a Pennsylvania manufacturing plant used subpar materials.... [ Read it >> ]

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Apple Delays 'More Personalized Siri' Apple Intelligence Features
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-07 23:22:02


Apple is postponing the rollout of its more personalized Siri features, originally promised as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative. "It's going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year," Apple told DaringFireball. The future update seeks to give Siri greater awareness of personal context and the ability to perform actions across apps.... [ Read it >> ]

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EU Denies Picking on US Tech Giants
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-07 22:22:01


Europe's new tech rule aims to keep digital markets open and is not targeted at U.S. tech giants, EU antitrust and tech chiefs told U.S. congressmen, reminding them that U.S. enforcers have in recent years also cracked down on these companies. From a report: The comments by EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera and EU tech chief Henna Virkkunnen came after U.S. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and Scott Fitzgerald, chairman of the subcommittee on the administrative state, regulatory reform and antitrust demanded clarifications on the Digital Markets Act (DMA). ... [ Read it >> ]

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Study Reveals Lab Size Impacts PhD Students' Academic Careers
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-07 21:22:01


PhD students trained in small research groups are more likely to remain in academia than those from larger labs, according to a comprehensive analysis published in Nature Human Behaviour.

The study, which examined 1.5 million scientists and 1.8 million mentorships across chemistry, physics and neuroscience, found that trainees from large research groups had 38-48% lower "survival rates" in academia between the 1980s and 1995 compared to their small-group counterparts. ... [ Read it >> ]

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US Likely To Ban Chinese App DeepSeek From Government Devices
robot(spnet, 1) — All
2025-03-07 21:22:01


The White House is weighing measures to restrict Chinese artificial-intelligence upstart DeepSeek, including banning its chatbot from government devices because of national-security concerns, WSJ reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: U.S. officials are worried about DeepSeek's handling of user data, which the Chinese company says it stores in servers located in China, the people said. Officials also believe DeepSeek hasn't sufficiently explained how it uses the data it collects and who has access to the data, they said. ... [ Read it >> ]

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