China issued guidelines on Friday to promote biotech cultivation, focusing on gene-editing tools and developing new wheat, corn, and soybean varieties, as part of efforts to ensure food security and boost agriculture technology. From a report: The 2024-2028 plan aims to achieve "independent and controllable" seed sources for key crops, with a focus to cultivate high-yield, multi-resistant wheat, corn and high-oil, high-yield soybean and rapeseed varieties. The move comes as China intensifies efforts to boost domestic yields of key crops like soybeans to reduce reliance on imports from countries such as the United States amid a looming trade war.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/1724238/china-to-develop-gene-editing-tools-new-crop-varieties?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликовано обновление сборок дистрибутива Chimera Linux, примечателеного использованием ядра Linux в сочетании с утилитами из FreeBSD, системным менеджером dinit и стандартной Си-библиотекой Musl. Сборка осуществляется компилятором Clang. Загрузочные Live-образы сформированы для архитектур x86_64, ppc64le, aarch64, riscv64 и ppc64 в вариантах с GNOME (1.5 ГБ), KDE (2.1 ГБ) и урезанным окружением (806 Мб).

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62721

Hector Martin has resigned as the project lead of Asahi Linux, weeks after stepping down from his role as a Linux kernel maintainer for Apple ARM support. His departure from Asahi follows a contentious exchange with Linus Torvalds over development processes and social media advocacy. After quitting kernel maintenance earlier this month, the conflict escalated when Martin suggested that "shaming on social media" might be necessary to effect change.

Torvalds sharply rejected this approach, stating that "social media brigading just makes me not want to have anything at all to do with your approach" and suggested that Martin himself might be the problem. In his final resignation announcement from Asahi, Martin wrote: "I no longer have any faith left in the kernel development process or community management approach."

The dispute reflects deeper tensions in the Linux kernel community, particularly around the integration of Rust code. It follows the August departure of another key Rust for Linux maintainer, Wedson Almeida Filho from Microsoft. According to Sonatype's research, more than 300,000 open source projects have slowed or halted updates since 2020.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/1842251/lead-asahi-linux-developer-quits-days-after-leaving-kernel-maintainer-role?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A hedge fund startup that uses AI to do work typically handled by analysts has outperformed the global stock market in its first six months while slashing research costs. From a report: The Sydney-based firm, Minotaur Capital, was founded by Armina Rosenberg and Thomas Rice. Rosenberg previously managed a global equities portfolio for tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and ran Australian small-company research for JPMorgan Chase & Co. when she was 25. Rice is a former portfolio manager at Perpetual. The duo's bets on global stocks returned 13.7% in the six months ending January, versus 6.7% for the MSCI All-Country World Index. Minotaur has no analysts on staff, with Rosenberg saying AI models are far quicker and cheaper.

"We're looking at about half the price" in terms of cost of AI versus a junior analyst salary, Rosenberg, 37, said of the firm's program. Minotaur is among a growing number of hedge funds experimenting with ways to improve returns and cut expenses with AI as the technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Still, the jury is still out on the ability of AI-driven models to deliver superior returns over the long run.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/187221/hedge-fund-startup-that-replaced-analysts-with-ai-beats-the-market?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Western Digital plans to introduce its first heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) drives in late 2026, with 36TB conventional magnetic recording (CMR) and 44TB shingled UltraSMR variants. Volume production won't begin until the first half of 2027, following qualification by cloud data center providers in late 2026.

The company projects that HAMR technology, combined with OptiNAND, increased platter count, and mechanical improvements, will enable drives reaching 80TB CMR and 100TB UltraSMR capacities around 2030 -- a departure from Western Digital's previous commitment to microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) in 2017, which evolved into the energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR) technology used in current drives.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/1817233/western-digital-aims-for-100tb-hard-drives-by-2030?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Electricity demand is set to increase sharply in the coming years as people around the world use more power to run air conditioners, industry and a growing fleet of data centers. From a report: Over the next three years, global electricity consumption is set to rise by an "unprecedented" 3,500 terawatt hours, according to a report by the International Energy Agency. That's an addition each year of more than Japan's annual electricity consumption.

The roughly 4% annual growth in that period is the fastest such rate in years, underscoring the growing importance of electricity to the world's overall energy needs. "The acceleration of global electricity demand highlights the significant changes taking place in energy systems around the world and the approach of a new Age of Electricity," Keisuke Sadamori, IEA's director of energy markets and security, said in a statement. "But it also presents evolving challenges for governments in ensuring secure, affordable and sustainable electricity supply."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/1742226/the-whole-world-is-going-to-use-a-lot-more-electricity-iea-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Meta unveiled on Friday Project Waterworth, a 50,000-kilometer subsea cable network that will be the world's longest such system. The multi-billion dollar project will connect the U.S., Brazil, India, South Africa, and other key regions. The system utilizes 24 fiber pairs and introduces what Meta describes as "first-of-its-kind routing" that maximizes cable placement in deep water at depths up to 7,000 meters.

The company developed new burial techniques for high-risk areas near coasts to protect against ship anchors and other hazards. A joint statement from President Trump and Prime Minister Modi confirmed India's role in maintaining and financing portions of the undersea cables in the Indian Ocean using "trusted vendors." According to telecom analysts Telegeography, Meta currently has ownership stakes in 16 subsea networks, including the 2Africa cable system that encircles the African continent. This new project would be Meta's first wholly owned global cable system.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/1852233/meta-to-build-worlds-longest-undersea-cable?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, OpenAI published the latest version of its "Model Spec," a set of guidelines detailing how ChatGPT should behave and respond to user requests. The document reveals a notable shift in OpenAI's content policies, particularly around "sensitive" content like erotica and gore -- allowing this type of content to be generated without warnings in "appropriate contexts." The change in policy has been in the works since May 2024, when the original Model Spec document first mentioned that OpenAI was exploring "whether we can responsibly provide the ability to generate NSFW content in age-appropriate contexts through the API and ChatGPT."

ChatGPT's guidelines now state that that "erotica or gore" may now be generated, but only under specific circumstances. "The assistant should not generate erotica, depictions of illegal or non-consensual sexual activities, or extreme gore, except in scientific, historical, news, creative or other contexts where sensitive content is appropriate," OpenAI writes. "This includes depictions in text, audio (e.g., erotic or violent visceral noises), or visual content." So far, experimentation from Reddit users has shown that ChatGPT's content filters have indeed been relaxed, with some managing to generate explicit sexual or violent scenarios without accompanying content warnings. OpenAI notes that its Usage Policies still apply, which prohibit building AI tools for minors that include sexual content.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/2156202/openai-eases-content-restrictions-for-chatgpt-with-new-grown-up-mode?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Verge's Jay Peters reports: Square Enix has shut down the iOS version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and removed it from the App Store following an unfixable bug that blocked people from accessing content they had paid for. [...] The company says that if you made in-app purchases in January 2024 or later, you're eligible to request a refund by contacting Apple Support. Square Enix says that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles will continue to be supported on other platforms. The game is also available on Android, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. "The issue is due to changes made to the in-app purchases model," Square Enix says in a post. "Further investigation revealed that we are unable to completely fix the bug and implement the new changes, making it unlikely to resume service for the game." Square Enix says it started receiving reports on January 24th about the issue, which "extends to the full paid version of the game."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/223226/final-fantasy-ios-game-shuts-down-over-unfixable-bug?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Netflix content briefly appeared in the Apple TV app due to an unintentional glitch, sparking excitement among users before the company swiftly rolled back the integration. Engadget reports: A Netflix spokesperson told The Verge on Friday that the Apple TV app integration was an error that has been rolled back. Indeed, Redditors who had been tracking the forbidden fruit with unbridled glee confirmed that all signs of Netflix content had since vanished from Apple's streaming hub. Netflix giveth, and Netflix taketh away.

While the boo-boo was still active, PC World reported it let you add Netflix originals like Stranger Things, Cobra Kai and The Crown but lacked licensed shows and movies. Even the available content was a buggy mess. For example, only season five of The Crown was available, leaving you to wonder what hijinks Liz and the gang had gotten into before or after the grunge era. The "Add to Watchlist" and "Continue Watching" features were also said to be spotty.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/2213202/netflix-accidentally-made-its-content-show-up-in-the-apple-tv-app?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: A new startup PIN AI (not to be confused with the poorly reviewed hardware device the AI Pin by Humane) has emerged from stealth to launch its first mobile app, which lets a user select an underlying open-source AI model that runs directly on their smartphone (iOS/Apple iPhone and Google Android supported) and remains private and totally customized to their preferences. Built with a decentralized infrastructure that prioritizes privacy, PIN AI aims to challenge big tech's dominance over user data by ensuring that personal AI serves individuals -- not corporate interests. Founded by AI and blockchain experts from Columbia, MIT and Stanford, PIN AI is led by Davide Crapis, Ben Wu and Bill Sun, who bring deep experience in AI research, large-scale data infrastructure and blockchain security. [...]

PIN AI introduces an alternative to centralized AI models that collect and monetize user data. Unlike cloud-based AI controlled by large tech firms, PIN AI's personal AI runs locally on user devices, allowing for secure, customized AI experiences without third-party surveillance. At the heart of PIN AI is a user-controlled data bank, which enables individuals to store and manage their personal information while allowing developers access to anonymized, multi-category insights -- ranging from shopping habits to investment strategies. This approach ensures that AI-powered services can benefit from high-quality contextual data without compromising user privacy.
[...]
The new mobile app launched in the U.S. and multiple regions also includes key features such as: - The "God model" (guardian of data): Helps users track how well their AI understands them, ensuring it aligns with their preferences. - Ask PIN AI: A personalized AI assistant capable of handling tasks like financial planning, travel coordination and product recommendations. - Open-source integrations: Users can connect apps like Gmail, social media platforms and financial services to their personal AI, training it to better serve them without exposing data to third parties. - "With our app, you have a personal AI that is your model," Crapis added. "You own the weights, and it's completely private, with privacy-preserving fine-tuning." Davide Crapis, co-founder of PIN AI, told VentureBeat that the app currently supports several open-source AI models, including small versions of DeepSeek and Meta's Llama. "With our app, you have a personal AI that is your model," Crapis added. "You own the weights, and it's completely private, with privacy-preserving fine-tuning."

You can sign up for early access to the PIN AI app here.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/2227222/pin-ai-launches-mobile-app-letting-you-make-your-own-personalized-private-ai-model?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A new study (PDF) from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University found that increased reliance on AI tools leads to a decline in critical thinking skills. Gizmodo reports: The researchers tapped 319 knowledge workers -- a person whose job involves handling data or information -- and asked them to self-report details of how they use generative AI tools in the workplace. The participants were asked to report tasks that they were asked to do, how they used AI tools to complete them, how confident they were in the AI's ability to do the task, their ability to evaluate that output, and how confident they were in their own ability to complete the same task without any AI assistance.

Over the course of the study, a pattern revealed itself: the more confident the worker was in the AI's capability to complete the task, the more often they could feel themselves letting their hands off the wheel. The participants reported a "perceived enaction of critical thinking" when they felt like they could rely on the AI tool, presenting the potential for over-reliance on the technology without examination. This was especially true for lower-stakes tasks, the study found, as people tended to be less critical. While it's very human to have your eyes glaze over for a simple task, the researchers warned that this could portend to concerns about "long-term reliance and diminished independent problem-solving."

By contrast, when the workers had less confidence in the ability of AI to complete the assigned task, the more they found themselves engaging in their critical thinking skills. In turn, they typically reported more confidence in their ability to evaluate what the AI produced and improve upon it on their own. Another noteworthy finding of the study: users who had access to generative AI tools tended to produce "a less diverse set of outcomes for the same task" compared to those without.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/2320203/microsoft-study-finds-relying-on-ai-kills-your-critical-thinking-skills?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

New York City's Department of Transportation is offering delivery workers the opportunity to swap out uncertified e-bikes for safer UL-compliant models. "Millions of people rely on such workers for timely deliveries, yet the low wages and brutal conditions of the job have forced many riders to seek out low-cost electric bicycles to perform the work -- exactly the kind of e-bikes that are least likely to have received safety certifications," reports Electrek. From the report: The NYC DOT has already begun accepting applications for the new E-Bike Trade-In Program, which is open to delivery workers with non-compliant electric bicycles as well as the often-seen electric scooters/mopeds that don't really qualify as e-bikes, despite their ubiquitous use in the industry. Interestingly, the program even accepts gasoline-powered mopeds that are not able to be legally registered with the DMV, including those that lack VINs. In exchange for trading in a non-certified vehicle, the delivery worker will receive a new UL-certified electric bike with a spare UL-certified battery.

There are a few requirements for eligibility. The worker has to have earned at least US $1,500 by working in the food delivery industry last year in 2024, live in one of the five New York City boroughs, be at least 18 years old, and own/use one of the eligible devices for trade-in. The program is free to participate in with no additional cost for the delivery workers. However, the supply of free electric bicycles is described as "limited." Those interested need to submit an application before the window closes on March 10, 2025.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/02/14/2336232/nyc-is-giving-free-e-bikes-to-delivery-workers-using-unsafe-models?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Most virtual meeting platforms these days include AI-powered notetaking tools or bots that join meetings as guests, transcribe discussions, and/or summarize key points. "The tech companies behind them might frame it as a step forward in efficiency, but the technology raises troubling questions around etiquette and privacy and risks undercutting the very communication it's meant to improve (paywalled; alternative source)," writes Chris Stokel-Walker in a Weekend Essay for Bloomberg. From the article: [...] The push to document every workplace interaction and utterance is not new. Having a paper trail has long been seen as a useful thing, and a record of decisions and action points is arguably what makes a meeting meaningful. The difference now is the inclusion of new technology that lacks the nuance and depth of understanding inherent to human interaction in a meeting room. In some ways, the prior generation of communication tools, such as instant messaging service Slack, created its own set of problems. Messaging that previously passed in private via email became much more transparent, creating a minefield where one wrong word or badly chosen emoji can explode into a dispute between colleagues. There is a similar risk with notetaking tools. Each utterance documented and analyzed by AI includes the potential for missteps and misunderstandings.

Anyone thinking of bringing an AI notetaker to a meeting must consider how other attendees will respond, says Andrew Brodsky, assistant professor of management at the McCombs School of Business, part of the University of Texas at Austin. Colleagues might think you want to better focus on what is said without missing out on a definitive record of the discussion. Or they might think, "You can't be bothered to take notes yourself or remember what was being talked about," he says. For the companies that sell these AI interlopers, the upside is clear. They recognize we're easily nudged into different behaviors and can quickly become reliant on tools that we survived without for years. [...] There's another benefit for tech companies getting us hooked on AI notetakers: Training data for AI systems is increasingly hard to come by. Research group Epoch AI forecasts there will be a drought of usable text possibly by next year. And with publishers unleashing lawsuits against AI companies for hoovering up their content, the tech firms are on the hunt for other sources of data. Notes from millions of meetings around the world could be an ideal option.

For those of us who are the source of such data, however, the situation is more nuanced. The key question is whether AI notetakers make office meetings more useless than so many already are. There's an argument that meetings are an important excuse for workers to come together and talk as human beings. All that small talk is where good ideas often germinate -- that's ostensibly why so many companies are demanding staff return to the office. But if workers trade in-person engagement for AI readbacks, and colleagues curb their words and ideas for fear of being exposed by bots, what's left? If the humans step back, all that remains is a series of data points and more AI slop polluting our lives.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/006253/please-stop-inviting-ai-notetakers-to-meetings?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Bruce66423 shares a report from The Guardian: Microscopic particles emitted from brake pads can be more toxic than those emitted in diesel vehicle exhaust, a study has found. This research shows that even with a move to electric vehicles, pollution from cars may not be able to be eradicated. The researchers found that a higher concentration of copper in some commonly used brake pads was associated with increased harmful effects on sensitive cells from people's lungs, as a result of particles being breathed in.

Exposure to pollution generated by cars, vans and lorries has been previously been linked to an increased risk of lung and heart disease. While past attention has mainly concentrated on exhaust emissions, particles are also released into the air from tyre, road and brake pad wear. These emissions are largely unregulated by legislation and the study found that these âoenon-exhaustâ pollution sources are now responsible for the majority of vehicle particulate matter emissions in the UK and parts of Europe, with brake dust the main contributor among them.

[...] The scientists examined the effects on lung health of particulate matter from four different types of brake pad with differing chemical compositions; low metallic, semi-metallic, non-asbestos organic and hybrid-ceramic. Results showed that of the four types of brake pads, non-asbestos organic pads were the most potent at inducing inflammation and other markers of toxicity, and were found to be more toxic to human lung cells than diesel exhaust particles. Ceramic pads were the second most toxic. Dr. Ian Mudway, senior lecturer at the school of public health at Imperial College London, cautioned that while the research on brake pad emissions appears sound, it is premature to conclude they are worse than diesel exhaust due to "uncontrolled variables" like brake disc types and particle composition.

Slashdot reader Bruce66423 also notes it "doesn't discuss the significance of regenerative breaking, which is a feature of at least some electric cars [that reduces brake pad wear by using the electric motor to slow down the vehicle and recover energy]."

The research has been published in the journal Particle and Fibre Technology.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0016236/brake-pad-dust-can-be-more-toxic-than-exhaust-emissions-study-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Разработчики дистрибутива Serpent OS объявили о переименовании проекта в AerynOS и проведении ребрендинга. Завершить миграцию инфраструктуры на новое имя планируют 17 марта. Отмечается, что при основании проекта имя Serpent OS было выбрано поспешно, без учёта того, что слово "serpent" воспринимается некоторыми людьми в негативной коннотации (змей-искуситель, мстительный человек). Разработчикам поступает много жалоб о неудачном выборе имени, поэтому решено воспользоваться моментом, пока проект не вышел из стадии альфа-тестирования, и поменять имя.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62724

Leveraging AI tools like RFDiffusion and PLACER, researchers were able to design a novel enzyme capable of breaking down plastic by targeting ester bonds, a key component in polyester. Ars Technica reports: The researchers started out by using the standard tools they developed to handle protein design, including an AI tool named RFDiffusion, which uses a random seed to generate a variety of protein backgrounds. In this case, the researchers asked RFDiffusion to match the average positions of the amino acids in a family of ester-breaking enzymes. The results were fed to another neural network, which chose the amino acids such that they'd form a pocket that would hold an ester that breaks down into a fluorescent molecule so they could follow the enzyme's activity using its glow.

Of the 129 proteins designed by this software, only two of them resulted in any fluorescence. So the team decided they needed yet another AI. Called PLACER, the software was trained by taking all the known structures of proteins latched on to small molecules and randomizing some of their structure, forcing the AI to learn how to shift things back into a functional state (making it a generative AI). The hope was that PLACER would be trained to capture some of the structural details that allow enzymes to adopt more than one specific configuration over the course of the reaction they were catalyzing. And it worked. Repeating the same process with an added PLACER screening step boosted the number of enzymes with catalytic activity by over three-fold.

Unfortunately, all of these enzymes stalled after a single reaction. It turns out they were much better at cleaving the ester, but they left one part of it chemically bonded to the enzyme. In other words, the enzymes acted like part of the reaction, not a catalyst. So the researchers started using PLACER to screen for structures that could adopt a key intermediate state of the reaction. This produced a much higher rate of reactive enzymes (18 percent of them cleaved the ester bond), and two -- named "super" and "win" -- could actually cycle through multiple rounds of reactions. The team had finally made an enzyme.

By adding additional rounds alternating between structure suggestions using RFDiffusion and screening using PLACER, the team saw the frequency of functional enzymes increase and eventually designed one that had an activity similar to some produced by actual living things. They also showed they could use the same process to design an esterase capable of digesting the bonds in PET, a common plastic. The research has been published in the journal Science.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0549201/ai-used-to-design-a-multi-step-enzyme-that-can-digest-some-plastics?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Команда разработчиков системы потокового вещания OBS studio предъявила проекту Fedora Linux претензию из-за поставки сбойного пакета в формате flatpak.

Суть проблемы состоит в том, что разработчики OBS studio поставляют свой собственный пакет в репозитории flathub, но пользователям fedora linux предлагается другой пакет, сопровождаемый собственными силами и являющийся более приоритетным. Из-за этого пользователи при возникновении ошибок направляют претензии основному проекту.

Так как конструктивного обсуждения проблемы добиться не удалось разработчики OBS studio потребовали удалить все упоминания о пакете из Fedora Linux, в противном случае может быть предъявлен судебный иск. В ответ сопровождающий fedora Linux заполнил заявку об удалении flatpak пакета с OBS studio из репозитория fedora Linux

https://www.linux.org.ru/news/redhat/17884318

Новый выпуск языка Go, версия 1.24, выходит спустя шесть месяцев после [ Go 1.23 ]( https://go.dev/doc/go1.23 ) . Большинство изменений в реализации тулчейна, рантайма и библиотек. Как всегда, релиз обеспечивает [ обещание совместимости ]( https://go.dev/doc/go1compat ) Go 1. Разработчики языка ожидают, что почти все программы Go продолжат компилироваться и работать как прежде.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/development/17884044#cut ) )

Нейт Грэм (Nate Graham), разработчик, занимающийся контролем качества в проекте KDE, опубликовал очередной отчёт о разработке KDE. После релиза KDE Plasma 6.3.0 выявлено несколько неприятных ошибок, которые планируют устранить в корректирующем обновлении 6.3.1, намеченном на 18 февраля. В сеансе на базе X11 выявлена проблема, приводящая к аварийному завершению композитного менеджера KWin при подключении нового экрана или переключении между экранами, подключёнными через HDMI. Пользователям KDE рекомендовано попробовать перейти на использование сеанса на базе протокола Wayland, так как разработчики KDE практически прекратили тестирование сеанса на базе X11.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62725

Yazi (кит. «鸭子» означает «утка») — это невероятно быстрый терминальный файловый менеджер, написанный на Rust, основанный на неблокируемом асинхронном вводе-выводе. Он нацелен на предоставление эффективного, удобного и настраиваемого опыта управления файлами.

( [ читать дальше... ]( https://www.linux.org.ru/news/opensource/17884617#cut ) )

>>> [ Основные особенности Yazi ]( https://yazi-rs.github.io/features/ ) (осторожно, много мельтешащих видео на одном экране)

>>> [ GitHub проекта ]( https://github.com/sxyazi/yazi?tab=readme-ov-file )

A new study suggests that frequent consumption of food from plastic takeout containers significantly increases the risk of congestive heart failure due to gut biome changes that trigger inflammation and circulatory damage. The Guardian reports: The authors used a two-part approach, first looking into the frequency with which over 3,000 people in China ate from plastic takeout containers, and whether they had heart disease. They then exposed rats to plastic chemicals in water that was boiled and poured in carryout containers to extract chemicals. "The data revealed that high-frequency exposure to plastics is significantly associated with an increased risk of congestive heart failure," the authors wrote. [...] They put boiling water in the containers for one, five or 15 minutes because plastic chemicals leach at much higher rates when hot contents are placed in containers -- the study cited previous research that found as many as 4.2m microplastic particles per sq cm can leach from plastic containers that are microwaved.

The authors then gave rats the water contaminated with leachate to drink for several months, then analyzed the gut biome and metabolites in the feces. It found notable changes. "It indicated that ingestion of these leachates altered the intestinal microenvironment, affected gut microbiota composition, and modified gut microbiota metabolites, particularly those linked to inflammation and oxidative stress," the authors wrote. They then checked the rats' heart muscle tissue and found it had been damaged. The study did not find a statistical difference in the changes and damage among rats that were exposed to water that had been in contact with plastic for one minute versus five or fifteen. The study has been published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0555235/eating-from-plastic-takeout-containers-can-increase-heart-failure-risk-study-finds?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

According to The Intercept, the IRS is set to purchase an Nvidia SuperPod AI supercomputer to enhance its machine learning capabilities for tasks like fraud detection and taxpayer behavior analysis. From the report: With Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency installing itself at the IRS amid a broader push to replace federal bureaucracy with machine-learning software, the tax agency's computing center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, will soon be home to a state-of-the-art Nvidia SuperPod AI computing cluster. According to the previously unreported February 5 acquisition document, the setup will combine 31 separate Nvidia servers, each containing eight of the company's flagship Blackwell processors designed to train and operate artificial intelligence models that power tools like ChatGPT. The hardware has not yet been purchased and installed, nor is a price listed, but SuperPod systems reportedly start at $7 million. The setup described in the contract materials notes that it will include a substantial memory upgrade from Nvidia.

Though small compared to the massive AI-training data centers deployed by companies like OpenAI and Meta, the SuperPod is still a powerful and expensive setup using the most advanced technology offered by Nvidia, whose chips have facilitated the global machine-learning spree. While the hardware can be used in many ways, it's marketed as a turnkey means of creating and querying an AI model. Last year, the MITRE Corporation, a federally funded military R&D lab, acquired a $20 million SuperPod setup to train bespoke AI models for use by government agencies, touting the purchase as a "massive increase in computing power" for the United States.

How exactly the IRS will use its SuperPod is unclear. An agency spokesperson said the IRS had no information to share on the supercomputer purchase, including which presidential administration ordered it. A 2024 report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration identified 68 different AI-related projects underway at the IRS; the Nvidia cluster is not named among them, though many were redacted. But some clues can be gleaned from the purchase materials. "The IRS requires a robust and scalable infrastructure that can handle complex machine learning (ML) workloads," the document explains. "The Nvidia Super Pod is a critical component of this infrastructure, providing the necessary compute power, storage, and networking capabilities to support the development and deployment of large-scale ML models."

The document notes that the SuperPod will be run by the IRS Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics division, or RAAS, which leads a variety of data-centric initiatives at the agency. While no specific uses are cited, it states that this division's Compliance Data Warehouse project, which is behind this SuperPod purchase, has previously used machine learning for automated fraud detection, identity theft prevention, and generally gaining a "deeper understanding of the mechanisms that drive taxpayer behavior."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0540249/the-irs-is-buying-an-ai-supercomputer-from-nvidia?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

После трёх месяцев разработки опубликован релиз Luanti 5.11.0, свободного кроссплатформенного игрового движка в жанре песочница, позволяющего создавать игры с воксельной механикой, используя различные воксельные блоки для совместного формирования игроками различных структур и построек, образующих подобие виртуального мира. Предоставляемый движком геймплей полностью зависит от набора модов, создаваемых на языке Lua. Движок написан на языке С++ c использованием 3D-библиотеки IrrlichtMt (форк Irrlicht). Код Luanti распространяется под лицензией LGPL, а игровые ресурсы под лицензией CC BY-SA 3.0. Готовые сборки формируются для различных дистрибутивов Linux, Android, FreeBSD, Windows и macOS.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62726

Remember Jeep's new in-dash pop-up ads which reportedly appeared every time you stopped?
"Since I'm a journalist, or at least close enough, I decided that I should at least get Stellantis/Jeep's side of things," writes car-culture site The Autopian:

Would Stellantis do something so woefully misguided and annoying? I reached out to our Stellantis/Jeep contact to ask and was initially told that they were "investigating" on their end, which to me felt like a stalling tactic while the proper ass-covering plans were conceived. I eventually got this response from a Stellantis spokesperson:

"This was an in-vehicle message designed to inform Jeep customers about Mopar extended vehicle care options. A temporary software glitch affected the ability to instantly opt out in a few isolated cases, though instant opt-out is the standard for all our in-vehicle messages. Our team had already identified and corrected the error, and we are following up directly with the customer to ensure the matter is fully resolved..."

I suppose a glitch is possible, though I've not seen any examples of this ad popping up with the instant opt-out option available, but I guess it must exist, since not all Jeep owners seem to have had to deal with these ads. I suspect if this was happening to more people than these "few isolated cases" we'd still be cleaning up from the aftermath of the riots and uprisings.

Because, as they write, "Really, I can't think of a quicker way to incur the wrath of nearly every human..."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0149202/jeep-claims-software-glitch-disabled-opting-out-of-in-vehicle-pop-up-ads-in-a-few-cases?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Следом за Гектором Мартином о снятии с себя обязанностей мэйнтейнера и прекращении участия в рецензировании пачтей объявил Карол Хербст (Karol Herbst), сопровождавший драйвер Nouveau и механизм трассировки MMIO (MMIOTRACE), работающий в компании Red Hat. После ухода в ядре останутся ещё два мэйнтейнера, поддерживающие драйвер Nouveau, которые, по мнению Карола, прекрасно справляются со своей работой.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62727

Last June two NASA astronauts flew to the International Space Station on the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner. But they aren't stranded there, and they weren't abandoned, the astronauts reminded CNN this week in a rare space-to-earth interview:

"That's been the rhetoric. That's been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it. We both get it," [NASA astronaut Butch] Wilmore said. "But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don't feel abandoned, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel stranded." Wilmore added a request: "If you'll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative. Let's change it to 'prepared and committed.'

"That's what we prefer," he said...
[NASA astronaut Suni] Williams also reiterated a sentiment she has expressed on several occasions, including in interviews conducted before she left Earth. "Butch and I knew this was a test flight," she told CNN's Cooper, acknowledging the pair has been prepared for contingencies and understood that the stay in space might be extended. "We knew that we would probably find some things (wrong with Starliner) and we found some stuff, and so that was not a surprise," she said.
When Cooper opened the interview by asking the astronauts how they're doing, Williams answers "We're doing pretty darn good, actually," pointing out they had plenty of food and great crew members. And Wilmore added that crews come to the space station on a careful cycle, and "to alter that cycle sends ripple effects all the way down the chain. We would never expect to come back just special for us or anyone unless it was a medical issue or something really out of the circumstances along those lines. So we need to come back and keep the normal cycle going..."

CNN's article notes a new announcement from NASA Tuesday that the astronauts might return a couple weeks early "after opting to change the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule it will use." That mission's targeted launch date is now March 12.

In the meantime, Williams says in the interview, "We do have some internet connection up here, so we can get some internet live. We've gotten football. It's been this crew's go-to this past fall. Also YouTube or something like that. It's not continuous — it has chunks of time that we get it. And we use that same system also to make phone calls home, so we can talk to our families, and do videoconferences even on the weekends as well. This place is a pretty nice place to live, for the most part."

And they're also "working on with folks on the ground" to test the NASA's cube-shaped, free-flying robotic Astrobees.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/033223/iss-astronauts-give-space-to-earth-interview-weeks-before-finally-returning-to-earth?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Guardian:

Thousands of artists are urging the auction house Christie's to cancel a sale of art created with artificial intelligence, claiming the technology behind the works is committing "mass theft". The Augmented Intelligence auction has been described by Christie's as the first AI-dedicated sale by a major auctioneer and features 20 lots with prices ranging from $10,000 to $250,000...
The British composer Ed Newton-Rex, a key figure in the campaign by creative professionals for protection of their work and a signatory to the letter, said at least nine of the works appearing in the auction appeared to have used models trained on artists' work. However, other pieces in the auction do not appear to have used such models.
A spokesperson for Christie's said that "in most cases" the AI used to create art in the auction had been trained on the artists' "own inputs".

More than 6,000 people have now signed the letter, which states point-blank that "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."

These models, and the companies behind them, exploit human artists, using their work without permission or payment to build commercial AI products that compete with them. Your support of these models, and the people who use them, rewards and further incentivizes AI companies' mass theft of human artists' work. We ask that, if you have any respect for human artists, you cancel the auction.

Last week ARTnews spoke to Nicole Sales Giles, Christie's vice-president and director of digital art sales (before the open letter was published). And Giles insisted one of the major themes of the auction is "that AI is not a replacement for human creativity."
"You can see a lot of human agency in all of these works," Giles said. "In every single work, you're seeing a collaboration between an AI model, a robot, or however the artist has chosen to incorporate AI. It is showing how AI is enhancing creativity and not becoming a substitute for it."

One of the auction's headline lots is a 12-foot-tall robot made by Matr Labs that is guided by artist Alexander Reben's AI model. It will paint a new section of a canvas live during the sale every time the work receives a bid. Reben told ARTnews that he understands the frustrations of artists regarding the AI debate, but he sees "AI as an incredible tool... AI models which are trained on public data are done so under the idea of 'fair use,' just as search engines once faced scrutiny for organizing book data (which was ultimately found to fall under fair use)," he said.... "AI expands creative potential, offering new ways to explore, remix, and evolve artistic expression rather than replace it. The future of art isn't about AI versus artists — it's about how artists wield AI to push boundaries in ways we've never imagined before...."

Digital artist Jack Butcher has used the open letter to create a minted digital artwork called Undersigned Artists. On X he wrote that the work "takes a collective act of dissent — an appeal to halt an AI art auction — and turns it into the very thing it resists: a minted piece of digital art. The letter, originally a condemnation of AI-generated works trained on unlicensed human labor, now becomes part of the system it critiques."

Christie's will accept cryptocurrency payments for the majority of lots in the sale.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0351257/mass-theft-thousands-of-artists-call-for-ai-art-auction-to-be-cancelled?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Magnus Carlsen, the world's top chess player, is bored of chess," the Washington Post wrote Friday:

Carlsen has spent much of the past year appearing to dismiss the game he has mastered: It was no longer exciting to play, he told a podcast in March. In December, he withdrew from defending a world championship because he was penalized for wearing jeans to the tournament.
How would the world's best player spice up the game? Change the rules, and add a touch of reality TV.

Ten of the world's top players gathered in a German villa on the Baltic coast this week to play in the first tournament of a new chess circuit, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, that Carlsen co-founded. The twist: The tour randomizes the starting positions of the chess board's most important pieces, so each game begins with the queen, rooks and knights in a jumble. [It's sometimes called "Chess960" or Fischer random chess — with both players starting with the same arrangement of pieces.] Players have to adapt on the fly. Carlsen is backed by a cadre of investors who see a chance to dramatize chess with the theatrics of a television show. Players wear heart-rate monitors and give confession-booth interviews mid-match where they strategize and fret to the audience. Some purists are skeptical. So is the International Chess Federation, which sent a barrage of legal threats to Freestyle Chess before it launched this week's event.
At stake is a lucrative global market of hundreds of millions of chess players that has only continued to grow since the coronavirus pandemic launched a startling chess renaissance — and, perhaps, the authority to decide if and how a centuries-old game should evolve... The format is an antidote to the classical game, where patterns and strategies have been so rigorously studied that it's hard to innovate, Carlsen said. "It's still possible to get a [competitive] game, but you have to sort of dig deeper and deeper," Carlsen said. "I just find that there's too little scope for creativity."

The article also includes this quote from American grand master Hikaru Nakamura who runs a chess YouTube channel with 2.7 million subscribers). "An integral part of regular chess is that when you play, you spend hours preparing your opening strategy before the game. But with Fischer Random ... it's a little bit looser and more enjoyable." And German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner (one of the investors) says they hope to bring the drama of Formula One racecars. ("Cameras mounted at table level peer up at each player during games," the article notes at one point.)

The first Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour (with a $750,000 prize pool) concluded Friday, according to the article, but "Carlsen did not play in it," the Post points out. "He was upset in the semifinals by German grand master Vincent Keymer." Carlsen's reaction? "I definitely find Freestyle harder."

But Chess.com reports that Carlsen will be back to playing regular chess very soon:

Global esports powerhouse Team Liquid has announced the signings of not just one, but two superstars of chess. Five-time World Champion and world number-one Magnus Carlsen and the 2018 challenger, world number-two Fabiano Caruana will represent the club ahead of the 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC)... Carlsen and Caruana, fresh from competing in the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, will first represent Team Liquid in the $150,000 Chessable Masters, which begins on February 16 and serves as the first of two qualifying events in the 2025 Champions Chess Tour. The top-12 players from the tour qualify for the EWC.

In an announcement video Carlsen reportedly trolls the FIDE, according to Indian Express. "The announcement video sees Carlsen wear a Team Liquid jersey along with a jacket and jeans. He then asks: 'Do I have to change?' To this, someone responds: 'Don't worry, we're pretty chill in esports. Welcome to Team Liquid.'"

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/053254/bored-with-chess-magnus-carlsen-wants-to-remake-the-game?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Can the iPhone, AirPods, or the Apple Watch play a role in improving health? Apple says they want to find out.
"In medical research, discoveries are often limited by the number of participants who can be recruited, the amount of data that can be captured, and the duration of a given study," the company said in a blog post this week. "But Apple devices expand the possibilities..."
This new longitudinal, virtual study aims to understand how data from technology — including Apple and third-party devices — can be used to predict, detect, monitor, and manage changes in participants' health. Additionally, researchers will explore connections across different areas of health.
CNBC reports:

The new study will likely influence future product development. Apple CEO Tim Cook previously said he believes health features will be the company's "most important contribution to mankind...."

The Apple Health Study will be available through the company's Research app, and participation is voluntary. Users will select each data type they are willing to share with researchers, and they can stop sharing or completely discontinue their participation at any time. Apple has no access to participants' identifiable information, the company said... The project will last at least five years and may expand beyond that.
A Harvard Medical School professor and cardiologist — also a principal investigator on the Apple Health Study — says "We've only just begun to scratch the surface of how technology can improve our understanding of human health."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0610248/apple-invites-its-users-into-major-years-long-health-study?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

SFGate shares the latest data on America's office-occupancy rates:

According to Placer.ai's January 2025 Office Index, office visits nationwide were 40.2% lower in January 2025 compared with pre-pandemic numbers from January 2019.

But San Francisco is dragging down the average, with a staggering 51.8% decline in office visits since January 2019 — the weakest recovery of any major metro. Kastle's 10-City Daily Analysis paints an equally grim picture. From Jan. 23, 2025, to Jan. 28, 2025, even on its busiest day (Tuesday), San Francisco's office occupancy rate was just 53.7%, significantly lower than Houston's (74.8%) and Chicago's (70.4%). And on Friday, Jan. 24, office attendance in [San Francisco] was at a meager 28.5%, the worst of any major metro tracked...

Meanwhile, other cities are seeing much stronger rebounds. New York City is leading the return-to-office trend, with visits in January down just 19% from 2019 levels, while Miami saw a 23.5% decline, per Placer.ai data.

"Placer.ai uses cellphone location data to estimate foot traffic, while Kastle Systems measures badge swipes at office buildings with its security systems..."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/1716204/americas-office-occupancy-rates-drop-by-double-digits---and-more-in-san-francisco?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Hackaday reports:

Good news for everyone who cannot get enough from improbably shaped boats that get referred to as a bench: the current owner (NTI Group) of the copyright has announced that 3DBenchy has been released into the public domain. This comes not too long after Prusa's Printables website had begun to purge all derived models to adhere to the 'no derivatives' license. According to NTI, the removal of these derived models was not requested by NTI, but by a third-party report, unbeknownst to NTI or the original creator of the model. Recognizing its importance to the community, 3DBenchy can now be downloaded & modified freely.

NTI worked together with the original creator [Daniel Norée] and former Creative Tools CEO [Paulo Kiefe] to transition 3DBenchy and the associated website to the public domain

More details at Tom's Hardware and Fabbaloo.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/1949206/the-worlds-most-printed-3d-model-3dbenchy-is-now-public-domain?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Security researchers say the Chinese government-linked hacking group, Salt Typhoon, is continuing to compromise telecommunications providers," reports TechCrunch, "despite the recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on the group."

TechRadar reports that the Chinese state-sponsored threat actor is "hitting not just American organizations, but also those from the UK, South Africa, and elsewhere around the world."

The latest intrusions were spotted by cybersecurity researchers from Recorded Future, which said the group is targeting internet-exposed web interfaces of Cisco's IOS software that powers different routers and switches. These devices have known vulnerabilities that the threat actors are actively exploiting to gain initial access, root privileges, and more. More than 12,000 Cisco devices were found connected to the wider internet, and exposed to risk, Recorded Future further explained. However, Salt Typhoon is focusing on a "smaller subset" of telecoms and university networks.

"The hackers attempted to exploit vulnerabilities in at least 1,000 Cisco devices," reports NextGov, "allowing them to access higher-level privileges of the hardware and change their configuration settings to allow for persistent access to the networks they're connected on... Over half of the Cisco appliances targeted by Salt Typhoon were located in the U.S., South America and India, with the rest spread across more than 100 countries."
Between December and January, the unit, widely known as Salt Typhoon, "possibly targeted" — based on devices that were accessed — offices in the University of California, Los Angeles, California State University, Loyola Marymount University and Utah Tech University, according to a report from cyber threat intelligence firm Recorded Future... The Cisco devices were mainly associated with telecommunications firms, but 13 of them were linked to the universities in the U.S. and some in other nations... "Often involved in cutting-edge research, universities are prime targets for Chinese state-sponsored threat activity groups to acquire valuable research data and intellectual property," said the report, led by the company's Insikt Group, which oversees its threat research.

The cyberspies also compromised Cisco platforms at a U.S.-based affiliate of a prominent United Kingdom telecom operator and a South African provider, both unnamed, the findings added. The hackers also "carried out a reconnaissance of multiple IP addresses" owned by Mytel, a telecom operator based in Myanmar...

"In 2023, Cisco published a security advisory disclosing multiple vulnerabilities in the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE software," a Cisco spokesperson said in a statement. "We continue to strongly urge customers to follow recommendations outlined in the advisory and upgrade to the available fixed software release."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/2244220/chinas-salt-typhoon-hackers-continue-to-breach-telecoms-despite-us-sanctions?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Reddit Answers" uses generative AI to answer questions using what past Reddittors have posted. Announced in December, Reddit now plans to integrate it into their search results, reports TechCrunch, with Reddit's CEO saying the idea has "incredible monetization potential."

And yet Reddit's stock fell 14% this week. CNBC's headline? "Reddit shares plunge after Google algorithm change contributes to miss in user numbers."

A Google search algorithm change caused some "volatility" with user growth in the fourth quarter, but the company's search-related traffic has since recovered in the first quarter, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders. "What happened wasn't unusual — referrals from search fluctuate from time to time, and they primarily affect logged-out users," Huffman wrote. "Our teams have navigated numerous algorithm updates and did an excellent job adapting to these latest changes effectively...." Reddit has said it is working to convince logged-out users to create accounts as logged-in users, which are more lucrative for its business.

As Yahoo Finance once pointed out, Reddit knew this day would come, acknowledging in its IPO filing that "changes in internet search engine algorithms and dynamics could have a negative impact on traffic for our website and, ultimately, our business." And in the last three months of 2024 Reddit's daily active users dropped, Yahoo Finance reported this week. But logged-in users increased by 400,000 — while logged-out users dropped by 600,000 (their first drop in almost two years).

Marketwatch notes that analyst Josh Beck sees this as a buying opportunity for Reddit's stock:
Beck pointed to comments from Reddit's management regarding a sharp recovery in daily active unique users. That was likely driven by Google benefiting from deeper Reddit crawling, by the platform uncollapsing comments in search results and by a potential benefit from spam-reduction algorithm updates, according to the analyst. "While the report did not clear our anticipated bar, we walk away encouraged by international upside," he wrote.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/007234/despite-plans-for-ai-powered-search-reddits-stock-fell-14-thsi-week?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Reddit Answers" uses generative AI to answer questions using what past Reddittors have posted. Announced in December, Reddit now plans to integrate it into their search results, reports TechCrunch, with Reddit's CEO saying the idea has "incredible monetization potential."

And yet Reddit's stock fell 14% this week. CNBC's headline? "Reddit shares plunge after Google algorithm change contributes to miss in user numbers."

A Google search algorithm change caused some "volatility" with user growth in the fourth quarter, but the company's search-related traffic has since recovered in the first quarter, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders. "What happened wasn't unusual — referrals from search fluctuate from time to time, and they primarily affect logged-out users," Huffman wrote. "Our teams have navigated numerous algorithm updates and did an excellent job adapting to these latest changes effectively...." Reddit has said it is working to convince logged-out users to create accounts as logged-in users, which are more lucrative for its business.

As Yahoo Finance once pointed out, Reddit knew this day would come, acknowledging in its IPO filing that "changes in internet search engine algorithms and dynamics could have a negative impact on traffic for our website and, ultimately, our business." And in the last three months of 2024 Reddit's daily active users dropped, Yahoo Finance reported this week. But logged-in users increased by 400,000 — while logged-out users dropped by 600,000 (their first drop in almost two years).

Marketwatch notes that analyst Josh Beck sees this as a buying opportunity for Reddit's stock:
Beck pointed to comments from Reddit's management regarding a sharp recovery in daily active unique users. That was likely driven by Google benefiting from deeper Reddit crawling, by the platform uncollapsing comments in search results and by a potential benefit from spam-reduction algorithm updates, according to the analyst. "While the report did not clear our anticipated bar, we walk away encouraged by international upside," he wrote.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/007234/despite-plans-for-ai-powered-search-reddits-stock-fell-14-this-week?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader shanen has been testing AI clients. (They report that China's DeepSeek "turned out to be extremely good at explaining why I should not trust it. Every computer security problem I ever thought of or heard about and some more besides.")

Then they wondered if there's also government censorship:

It's like the accountant who gets asked what 2 plus 2 is. After locking the doors and shading all the windows, the accountant whispers in your ear: "What do you want it to be...?" So let me start with some questions about DeepSeek in particular. Have you run it locally and compared the responses with the website's responses? My hypothesis is that your mileage should differ...

It's well established that DeepSeek doesn't want to talk about many "political" topics. Is that based on a distorted model of the world? Or is the censorship implemented in the query interface after the model was trained? My hypothesis is that it must have been trained with lots of data because the cost of removing all of the bad stuff would have been prohibitive... Unless perhaps another AI filtered the data first?
But their real question is: what would it take to trust an AI? "Trust" can mean different things, including data-collection policies. ("I bet most of you trust Amazon and Amazon's secret AIs more than you should..." shanen suggests.) Can you use an AI system without worrying about its data-retention policies?

And they also ask how many Slashdot readers have read Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trusting Trust", which raises the question of whether you can ever trust code you didn't create yourself. So is there any way an AI system can assure you its answers are accurate and trustworthy, and that it's safe to use? Share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments.
What would it take for you to trust an AI?

[ Read more of this story ]( https://ask.slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/2047258/ask-slashdot-what-would-it-take-for-you-to-trust-an-ai?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Bloomberg reports that Apple's long-promised overhaul for Siri "is facing engineering problems and software bugs, threatening to postpone or limit its release, according to people with knowledge of the matter...."

Last June, Apple touted three major enhancements coming to Siri:

- the ability to tap into a customer's data to better answer queries and take actions.
- a new system that would let the assistant more precisely control apps.
- the capability to see what's currently on a device's screen and use that context to better serve users....

The goal is to ultimately offer a more versatile Siri that can seamlessly tap into customers' information and communication. For instance, users will be able to ask for a file or song that they discussed with a friend over text. Siri would then automatically retrieve that item. Apple also has demonstrated the ability for Siri to quickly locate someone's driver's license number by reviewing their photos... Inside Apple, many employees testing the new Siri have found that these features don't yet work consistently...
The control enhancements — an upgraded version of something called App Intents — are central to the operation of the company's upcoming smart home hub. That product, an AI device for controlling smart home appliances and FaceTime, is slated for release later this year.

And Amazon is also struggling with an AI upgrade for its digital assistant, reports the Washington Post:
The "smarter and more conversational" version of Alexa will not be available until March 31 or later, the employee said, at least a year and a half after it was initially announced in response to competition from OpenAI's ChatGPT. Internal messages seen by The Post confirmed the launch was originally scheduled for this month but was subsequently moved to the end of March... According to internal documents seen by The Post, new features of the subscriber-only, AI-powered Alexa could include the ability to adopt a personality, recall conversations, order takeout or call a taxi. Some of the new Alexa features are similar to Alexa abilities that were previously available free through partnerships with companies like Grubhub and Uber...
The AI-enhanced version of Alexa in development has been repeatedly delayed due to problems with incorrect answers, the employee working on the launch told The Post. As a popular product that is a decade old, the Alexa brand is valuable, and the company is hesitant to risk customer trust by launching a product that is not reliable, the person said.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/0138205/ai-bugs-could-delay-upgrades-for-both-siri-and-alexa?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

In January the TIOBE Index (estimating programming language popularity) declared Python their language of the year. (Though it was already #1 in their rankings, it had showed a 9.3% increase in their ranking system, notes InfoWorld.) TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen says this reflects how easy Python is to learn, adding that "The demand for new programmers is still very high" (and that "developing applications completely in AI is not possible yet.")

In fact on February's version of the index, the top ten looks mostly static. The only languages dropping appear to be very old languages. Over the last 12 months C and PHP have both fallen on the index — C from the #2 to the #4 spot, and PHP from #10 all the way to #14. (Also dropping is Visual Basic, which fell from #9 to #10.)

But TechRepublican cites another factor that seems to be affecting the rankings: language speed.

Fast programming languages are gaining popularity, TIOBE CEO Paul Jansen said in the TIOBE Programming Community Index in February. Fast programming languages he called out include C++ [#2], Go [#8], and Rust [#13 — up from #18 a year ago].

Also, according to the updated TIOBE rankings...
- C++ held onto its place at second from the top of the leaderboard.
- Mojo and Zig are following trajectories likely to bring them into the top 50, and reached #51 and #56 respectively in February.

"Now that the world needs to crunch more and more numbers per second, and hardware is not evolving fast enough, speed of programs is getting important. Having said this, it is not surprising that the fast programming languages are gaining ground in the TIOBE index," Jansen wrote. The need for speed helped Mojo [#51] and Zig [#56] rise...

Rust reached its all-time high in the proprietary points system (1.47%.), and Jansen expects Go to be a common sight in the top 10 going forward.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/0332258/are-fast-programming-languages-gaining-in-popularity?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Опубликован релиз Phosh 0.45, экранной оболочки для мобильных устройств, основанной на технологиях GNOME и библиотеке GTK. Окружение изначально развивалось компанией Purism в качестве аналога GNOME Shell для смартфона Librem 5, но затем вошло в число неофициальных проектов GNOME и используется в postmarketOS, Mobian, Droidian, некоторых прошивках для устройств Pine64 и редакции Fedora для смартфонов. Phosh использует композитный сервер Phoc, работающий поверх Wayland, а также собственную экранную клавиатуру squeekboard. Наработки проекта распространяются под лицензией GPLv3+.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62729

Luigi Mangione faces first-degree murder charges. On Valentine's Day he posted his first public comments online, reports People magazine, with Mangione saying he's grateful for the support he's receiving:

Earlier this week, Mangione accepted $297,000 in donations to cover his legal bills from the December 4 Legal Committee, which is stewarding a fundraiser on GiveSendGo for his legal defense, according to a post shared by the group. (A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to PEOPLE that the post was genuine.) The committee — named after the death date of Thompson — said the donations were offered by over 10,000 individual supporters. Mangione's lead attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, told the committee that Mangione "very much appreciates the outpouring of support...."

His federal murder charges could land him the death penalty, and he also faces state murder charges that accuse him of committing an act of terrorism.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/0040252/alleged-ceo-shooter-luigi-mangione-raises-297k-online?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Сформированы корректирующие обновления для всех поддерживаемых веток PostgreSQL 17.3, 16.7, 15.11, 14.16 и 13.19, в которых исправлено более 70 ошибок и устранена уязвимость (CVE-2025-1094), в конце декабря задействованная в атаке на компанию BeyondTrust и Министерство финансов США. Проблема в PostgreSQL выявлена при анализе удалённой уязвимости (CVE-2024-12356) в сервисах BeyondTrust PRA (Privileged Remote Access) и BeyondTrust RS (Remote Support), при эксплуатации которой дополнительно была задействована ранее неизвестная (0-day) уязвимость в libpq.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62722

Продолжается развитие платформы CADBase, предназначенной для хранения данных, связанных с инженерным делом и компьютерным дизайном. Основная задача платформы - обмен 3D-моделями, чертежами и сопутствующей информацией, такой как сопроводительная документация, каталоги с информацией о поставщиках, сертификаты, документы по стандартизации и классификации. Код написан на языке Rust и распространяется под лицензией MIT.

https://www.opennet.ru/opennews/art.shtml?num=62730

Yahoo Finance shares an interesting prediction. Amazon has an "under-the-radar robot push" that "could boost its profit margins big-time, Morgan Stanley managing director Brian Nowak said."

Nowak said Amazon has quietly developed six significant next-generation fulfillment centers in the past three years that bring automation front and center... Amazon now has industrial robots that can increase efficiencies across the storage, inventory management, pick and packing, and sorting order fulfillment processes.
Fulfillment costs make up about 20% of Amazon's retail revenue, so he reasoned that automation could have a significant impact on long-term operating profit potential. Nowak says if 30% to 40% of Amazon's US units were fulfilled through next-generation robotics-enabled warehouses by 2030, it could lead to $10 billion-plus of savings... The investments in robots may already be paying off. Amazon's North America retail operating margins on a trailing 12-month basis have risen for five straight quarters. North America operating margins improved to 6.2% from 4.6% a year ago.

Nowak made the remarks on a Yahoo Finance podcast (at the top of their article) after touring one of Amazon's robot-enhanced sites in Louisiana. He believes robotics can drive down Amazon's costs compared to other retailers like Target (which he sees as lagging behind Amazon on robotics).

Meanwhile workers at an Amazon facility in North Carolina held a vote Saturday on whether to unionize. But roughly 75% of the workers voted against unionization.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/0241242/amazon-tests-robots-for-automating-fulfillment-centers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"Meta is involved in a class action lawsuit alleging copyright infringement, a claim the company disputes..." writes the tech news site Hot Hardware.

But the site adds that newly unsealed court documents "reveal that Meta allegedly used a minimum of 81.7TB of illegally torrented data sourced from shadow libraries to train its AI models."

Internal emails further show that Meta employees expressed concerns about this practice. Some employees voiced strong ethical objections, with one noting that using content from sites like LibGen, known for distributing copyrighted material, would be unethical. A research engineer with Meta, Nikolay Bashlykov, also noted that "torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right," highlighting his discomfort surrounding the practice.

Additionally, the documents suggest that these concerns, including discussions about using data from LibGen, reached CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who may have ultimately approved the activity. Furthermore, the documents showed that despite these misgivings, employees discussed using VPNs to mask Meta's IP address to create anonymity, enabling them to download and share torrented data without it being easily traced back to the company's network.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/0346210/lawsuit-accuses-meta-of-training-ai-on-torrented-82tb-dataset-of-pirated-books?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Christie's auction house notes that an AI-generated "portrait" of an 18th-century French gentleman recently sold for $432,500. (One member of the Paris-based collective behind the work says "we found that portraits provided the best way to illustrate our point, which is that algorithms are able to emulate creativity.")

But the blog post from Christie's goes on to acknowledge that AI researchers "are still addressing the fundamental question of whether the images produced by their networks can be called art at all."

. One way to do that, surely, is to conduct a kind of visual Turing test, to show the output of the algorithms to human evaluators, flesh-and-blood discriminators, and ask if they can tell the difference.
"Yes, we have done that," says Ahmed Elgammal [director of the Art and Artificial Intelligence Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey]. "We mixed human-generated art and art from machines, and posed questions — direct ones, such as 'Do you think this painting was produced by a machine or a human artist?' and also indirect ones such as, 'How inspiring do you find this work?'. We measured the difference in responses towards the human art and the machine art, and found that there is very little difference. Actually, some people are more inspired by the art that is done by machine."
Can such a poll constitute proof that an algorithm is capable of producing indisputable works of art? Perhaps it can — if you define a work of art as an image produced by an intelligence with an aesthetic intent. But if you define art more broadly as an attempt to say something about the wider world, to express one's own sensibilities and anxieties and feelings, then AI art must fall short, because no machine mind can have that urge — and perhaps never will.

This also begs the question: who gets credit for the resulting work. The AI, or the creator of its algorithm...

Or can the resulting work be considered a "conceptual art" collaboration — taking place between a human and an algorithm?

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/02/15/0412246/what-if-people-like-ai-generated-art-better?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"What if time is not as fixed as we thought?" That's the question raised in an announcement from the University of Surrey.

"Imagine that instead of flowing in one direction — from past to future — time could flow forward or backward due to processes taking place at the quantum level."

This is the thought-provoking discovery made by researchers at the University of Surrey, as a new study reveals that opposing arrows of time can theoretically emerge from certain quantum systems. For centuries, scientists have puzzled over the arrow of time — the idea that time flows irreversibly from past to future. While this seems obvious in our experienced reality, the underlying laws of physics do not inherently favour a single direction. Whether time moves forward or backwards, the equations remain the same....

This discovery provided a mathematical foundation for the idea that time-reversal symmetry still holds in open quantum systems — suggesting that time's arrow may not be as fixed as we experience it... The research offers a fresh perspective on one of the biggest mysteries in physics. Understanding the true nature of time could have profound implications for quantum mechanics, cosmology and beyond.
The university's announcement includes this quote from co-author Thomas Guff, a research fellow in quantum thermodynamics.

"The surprising part of this project was that even after making the standard simplifying assumption to our equations describing open quantum systems, the equations still behaved the same way whether the system was moving forwards or backwards in time. When we carefully worked through the maths, we found this behaviour had to be the case because a key part of the equation, the 'memory kernel,' is symmetrical in time."

And their research reminds readers that "the fundamental laws of physics in both the classical and the quantum realms do not manifest any intrinsic arrow of time. Newton's equations are time-reversal symmetric, as well as Schrödinger's equation. As a consequence, backward-in-time motion is equally possible as forward-in-time motion... Our findings are consistent with the second law of thermodynamics and emphasise the distinction between the concepts of irreversibility and time-reversal symmetry."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/1850213/time-flows-forward-or-backward-at-quantum-levels-researchers-suggest?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

gwolf (Slashdot reader #26,339) writes: On Friday, February 14, Libertarian Argentinian president, Javier Milei, promoted the just-created $LIBRA cryptocoin, created by the Viva la libertad project, strongly aligned with his political party, La Libertad Avanza. Milei tweeted, "This private project will be devoted to promote growth of the Argentinian economy, funding small startups and enterprises. The world wants to invest in Argentina!"

It is worth noting that the project's website was registered a mere three minutes before Milei tweeted his endorsement. The cryptocoin quickly reached a $4.6 billion market cap... Only to instantaneously lose 89% of its value, with nine core investers pulling the rug from under the enthusiast investors.

More details from the blog Web3 Is Going Just Great:

[W]ithin hours of the launch, insiders began selling off their holdings of the token. The token had been highly concentrated among insiders, with around 82% of the token held in a small cluster of apparently insider addresses. Those insiders cashed out around $107 million, crashing the token price by around 95%. After the crash, Milei deleted his tweet promoting the project. He later claimed he was "not aware of the details of the project."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/1921209/argentinian-president-promotes-memecoin-it-then-crashed-95-as-insiders-cashed-out?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

"A robotic lander from Texas-based Firefly Aerospace is now in orbit around the Moon," reports Spaceflight Now, "and going through its final preparations to land in the coming weeks."

Its arrival comes nearly a month after the spacecraft launched onboard a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. This is the third mission launched as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, an initiative designed to bring science and technology demonstrations to the Moon at a cheaper cost...

Manifested on this lander are 10 NASA payloads, which cover a range of objectives. Those include the Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) instrument, which will drill between 2- to 3-meters into the Moon's surface to study the heat flow; and the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument, which will use a series of cameras to capture the plume generated at landing to help create a three-dimensional model... "We saw that for the type of advanced scientific or engineering measurements we wanted to make, the instruments were small enough and compact enough that we could actually fly 10," [said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for Exploration in NASA's Science Mission Directorate], "if someone could actually schedule them to get all of their operations done over the 14 Earth day lunar daytime."

Firefly Aerospace ended up winning that bid and carries with it the most NASA instruments manifested on a single Commercial Lunar Payload Services lander so far.
Friday on X.com Firefly Aerospace wished a happy Valentine's Day to "all those on Earth who dare to Dream Big."
"Blue Ghost has been capturing stunning imagery of our planet throughout its journey," Spaceflight Now says in a 12-minute video.
And Friday on X.com Firefly posted Blue Ghost's first spectacular shots of the moon as it approaches — along with its special message for Valentine's Day. "I love you to the Moon, but not back — I'm staying there."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/2138259/after-launch-by-spacex-in-january-firefly-aerospaces-lunar-lander-reaches-moon-orbit?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Nicholas Carr wrote The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. But his new book looks at how social media and digital communication technologies "are changing us individually and collectively," writes the Los Angeles Review of Books.
The book's title? Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart .
But if these systems are indeed tearing us apart, the reasons are neither obvious nor simple. Carr suggests that this isn't really about the evil behavior of our tech overlords but about how we have "been telling ourselves lies about communication — and about ourselves.... Well before the net came along," says Carr, "[the] evidence was telling us that flooding the public square with more information from more sources was not going to open people's minds or engender more thoughtful discussions. It wasn't even going to make people better informed...."

At root, we're the problem. Our minds don't simply distill useful knowledge from a mass of raw data. They use shortcuts, rules of thumb, heuristic hacks — which is how we were able to think fast enough to survive on the savage savanna. We pay heed, for example, to what we experience most often. "Repetition is, in the human mind, a proxy for facticity," says Carr. "What's true is what comes out of the machine most often...." Reality can't compete with the internet's steady diet of novelty and shallow, ephemeral rewards. The ease of the user interface, congenial even to babies, creates no opportunity for what writer Antón Barba-Kay calls "disciplined acculturation."

Not only are these technologies designed to leverage our foibles, but we are also changed by them, as Carr points out: "We adapt to technology's contours as we adapt to the land's and the climate's." As a result, by designing technology, we redesign ourselves. "In engineering what we pay attention to, [social media] engineers [...] how we talk, how we see other people, how we experience the world," Carr writes. We become dislocated, abstracted: the self must itself be curated in memeable form. "Looking at screens made me think in screens," writes poet Annelyse Gelman. "Looking at pixels made me think in pixels...."

That's not to say that we can't have better laws and regulations, checks and balances. One suggestion is to restore friction into these systems. One might, for instance, make it harder to unreflectively spread lies by imposing small transactional costs, as has been proposed to ease the pathologies of automated market trading. An option Carr doesn't mention is to require companies to perform safety studies on their products, as we demand of pharmaceutical companies. Such measures have already been proposed for AI. But Carr doubts that increasing friction will make much difference. And placing more controls on social media platforms raises free speech concerns... We can't change or constrain the tech, says Carr, but we can change ourselves. We can choose to reject the hyperreal for the material. We can follow Samuel Johnson's refutation of immaterialism by "kicking the stone," reminding ourselves of what is real.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/16/2311215/are-technologies-of-connection-tearing-us-apart?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The Cleveland Review of Books ponders a new 697-page hardcover collection of American poet/author Kevin Killian's.... reviews from Amazon. (Over 2,000 of 'em — written over the course of 16 years.)

In 2012, he wrote three substantial paragraphs about the culinary perfection that can be found in a German Potato Salad Can (15 oz., Pack of 12). Often, he'd open with something like "as an American boy growing up in rural France." Killian grew up on Long Island, New York. He didn't take himself (or much else) too seriously....

[Killian] was also a member of the New Narrative Movement... Writers acknowledge the subjectivity of, and the author's active presence in, the text... Amazon reviews are a near-perfect vehicle for New Narrative's tenets... Killian camouflaged his reviews in the cadence of the Amazon everyman. He embraced all the stylistic quirks, choppy sentence fragments and run-ons, either darting from point to point like a distracted squirrel or leaning heavily into declarative statements.... About the biographer of Elia Kazan, he tells us, "Schickel is in love with the sound of his voice, and somewhere in the shredded coleslaw of his prose, a decent book lies unavailable to us, about the real Elia Kazan...."

[T]he writing can move from very funny to strangely poignant. One of my favorites, his review of MacKenzie Smelling Salts, begins with a tragically tongue-in-cheek anecdote about his Irish grandfather:

"My Irish grandfather used to keep a bottle of MacKenzie's smelling salts next to his desk. He was the principal at Bushwick High School (in Brooklyn, NY) in the 1930s and 1940s, before it became a dangerous place to live in, and way before Bushwick regained its current state of desirable area for new gentrification. And he kept one at home as well, in case of a sudden shock. At school, he would press the saturated cotton under the nostrils of poor girls who realized they were pregnant in health class, before he expelled them."

He ends with his own reasons for using smelling salts, citing wildly diverging examples: his grief upon learning of the death of Paul Walker from the Fast & Furious film franchise abuts Killian's disappointment at not being selected for the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Apparently, both were deeply traumatic experiences for Kevin... ["it took my wife a minute or two to locate the MacKenzie's, but passing it under my nose, as though she were my grandfather ministering to the pregnant girls of yore..."]

No one wants to be forgotten. I do not think it's a coincidence Killian started writing the reviews after his heart attack. Why did he keep going? Most likely, it was because he enjoyed the writing and got something out of it — pleasure, practice, and a bit of notoriety. But mainly, I think the project grew out of habit and compulsion. In a similar way, the graffiti art of Keith Haring, Jean-Paul Basquiat, and Banksy began in subway tunnels, one tag and mural at a time, until it grew into bodies of work collected and coveted by museums worldwide. In Killian's case, the global commerce platform was his ugly brick wall, his subway platform, and his train car. Coming away, I like to imagine him gleefully typing, manipulating the Amazon review forums into something that had little to do with the consumerism they had been created to support: Killian tagging a digital wall to remind everyone KEVIN WAS HERE.

The book reviewer points out that the collection's final review, for the memoir Never Mind the Moon: My Time at the Royal Opera House, is dated a month before Killian died.

"Unfortunately, the editors of this volume did not preserve the Helpful/Not Helpful ratings, only the stars."

Putting it all in perspective, the book critic notes that "In 2023, Amazon reported that one hundred million customers submitted one or more product reviews to the site. The content of most is dross, median." Though the critic then also acknowledges that "I haven't read any of Killian's other work."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/02/17/016217/697-page-book-publishes-a-poets-2000-amazon-reviews-posthumously?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.