For the first time, astronomers captured the shockwave of a supernova bursting through the surface of a dying red supergiant star, revealing a surprisingly symmetrical, grape-shaped explosion. Space.com reports: Seeing this moment in detail has previously been elusive because it's rare for a supernova to be spotted early enough and for telescopes to be trained on it -- and when they have been, the exploding star has been too far away. So, when supernova 2024ggi went boom on April 10, 2024 in the relatively nearby spiral galaxy NGC 3621, which is 22 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra, the Water Snake, astronomer Yi Yang of Tsinghua University in Beijing knew he had to act.

Although the supernova itself couldn't be resolved as anything put a point of light, the polarization of that light held the clues as to the geometry of the breakout. "The geometry of a supernova explosion provides fundamental information on stellar evolution and the physical processes leading to these cosmic fireworks," said Yang. "Spectropolarimetry delivers information about the geometry of the explosion that other types of observation cannot provide because the angular scales are too tiny," said another team-member, Lifan Wang of Texas A&M University.

The measurement showed that the shape of the breakout explosion was flattened, like an olive or grape. Crucially, though, the explosion propagated symmetrically, and continued to do so even when it collided with a ring of circumstellar material. "These findings suggest a common physical mechanism that drives the explosion of many massive stars, which manifests a well-defined axial symmetry and acts on large scales," said Yang. The findings will allow astronomers to rule out some models and strengthen others that describe what drives the shockwave in a supernova explosion. The findings have been described in a paper on the ESO website.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2346249/scientists-watch-supernova-shockwave-shoot-through-a-dying-star-for-first-time?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot. ... [>>>]

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Production is now underway at Toyota's new $13.9 billion battery plant in North Carolina, the company's first outside Japan. After the first batteries rolled off the production line at its new facility in Liberty, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Toyota said today marks a "pivotal moment" in the company's history. The facility is Toyota's 11th plant in the US and its first battery plant outside of Japan.

Toyota first announced plans to build EV batteries in the US almost four years ago. The nearly $14 billion facility will create up to 5,100 jobs in the area. In addition, the Japanese auto giant announced plans to invest an additional $10 billion in its US operations over the next five years. Since it first arrived in the US nearly 70 years ago, Toyota has invested close to $60 billion.

The mega site spans 1,850 acres, or about the size of 121 football fields, and can produce up to 30 GWh annually. Toyota will use the hub to develop and build lithium-ion batteries for its growing lineup of "electrified" vehicles, including battery electric (EV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and hybrid (HEV) models. Batteries from the plant will power the new Camry HEV, Corolla Cross HEV, RAV4 HEV, and Toyota's yet-to-be-announced three-row electric SUV.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2332244/toyota-opens-the-doors-to-its-first-ev-battery-plant-in-the-us?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Russia's first AI humanoid robot, Aldol, fell just seconds after its debut at a technology event in Moscow on Tuesday. "The robot was being led on stage to the soundtrack from the film 'Rocky,' before it suddenly lost its balance and fell," reports the BBC. "Assistants could then be seen scrambling to cover it with a cloth -- which ended up tangling in the process." Developers of Aldol blamed poor lighting and calibration issues for the collapse, saying the robot's stereo cameras are sensitive to light and the hall was dark.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2327202/russias-ai-robot-falls-seconds-after-being-unveiled?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Slashdot readers Tablizer and fjo3 share news that an AI-generated country song has topped the U.S. sales chart for the first time this week. ABC News reports: The new country tune, "Walk my Walk" by Breaking Rust, recently hit No. 1 on Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales chart, reaching over 3 million streams on Spotify in less than a month. That success has garnered mixed reactions from music fans and artists alike, particularly on TikTok, where hundreds of users have posted videos addressing the tune and others discussing the music in the comments.

Billboard has acknowledged Breaking Rust is an AI act and said it is one of at least six to chart in the past few months alone. "Ultimately, this feels like an experiment to see just how far something like this can go and what happens in the future and in other disciplines of art as well," senior entertainment reporter Kelley L. Carter told ABC News. "AI artists won't require things that a real human artist will require, and once companies start considering it and looking at bottom lines, I think that's when artists should rightly be concerned about it," she added.

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Waymo is rolling out robotaxi rides that use freeways across Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix for the first time -- "a critical expansion for the company that it says will reduce ride times by up to 50%," reports TechCrunch. From the report: That stat could help attract a whole new group of users who need to travel between the many towns and suburbs within the greater San Francisco Bay Area or quicken commutes across the sprawling Los Angeles and Phoenix metro areas. Using freeways is also essential for Waymo to offer rides to and from the San Francisco Airport, a location the company is currently testing in.

The service won't be offered to all Waymo riders at first, the company said. Waymo riders who want to experience freeway rides can note their preference in the Waymo app. Once the rider hails a ride, they may be matched with a freeway trip, according to the company.

The company's robotaxi routes will now stretch to San Jose, an expansion that will create a unified 260-mile service area across the Peninsula, according to Waymo. The company said it will also begin curbside drop off and pick up service at the San Jose Mineta International Airport. It already offers curbside service to the Sky Harbor Phoenix International Airport.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/238227/waymo-robotaxis-are-now-giving-rides-on-freeways?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Anthropic announced plans Wednesday to spend $50 billion on a U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out, starting with custom data centers in Texas and New York. The facilities, which will be designed to support the company's rapid enterprise growth and its long-term research agenda, will be developed in partnership with Fluidstack.

Fluidstack is an AI cloud platform that supplies large-scale graphics processing unit, or GPU, clusters to clients like Meta, Midjourney and Mistral. Additional sites are expected to follow, with the first locations going live in 2026. The project is expected to create 800 permanent jobs and more than 2,000 construction roles. The investment positions Anthropic as a major domestic player in physical AI infrastructure at a moment when policymakers are increasingly focused on U.S.-based compute capacity and technological sovereignty. "We're getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren't possible before. Realizing that potential requires infrastructure that can support continued development at the frontier," said CEO Dario Amodei. "These sites will help us build more capable AI systems that can drive those breakthroughs, while creating American jobs."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2217257/anthropic-to-spend-50-billion-on-us-ai-infrastructure?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader hadleyburg writes: For a user with an Android phone and who's happy to stick within the Google ecosystem, an Android tablet might seem like the more obvious choice over an iPad. Of course, iPads are a lot more popular, and asking about Android tablets is likely to invite advice about sticking with what everyone else has.

The Slashdot community on the other hand -- being a discerning and thoughtful crowd -- might have some experience in this area and be willing to share the pros and cons they have found.

The use case is someone not requiring any heavy usage -- no video editing or gaming -- just email, browsing, YouTube, video calls, and that sort of thing.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://ask.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2213205/ask-slashdot-are-there-any-good-android-tablets-out-there?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Valve is ready to rejoin the VR hardware race with the Steam Frame, a lightweight standalone SteamOS headset that can run games locally or stream wirelessly from a PC using new "foveated streaming" tech. It's set to launch in early 2026. Ars Technica reports: Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with 16 GB of RAM, the Steam Frame sports a 2160 x 2160 resolution display per eye at an "up to 110 degrees" field-of-view and up to 144 Hz. That's all roughly in line with 2023's Meta Quest 3, which runs on the slightly less performant Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor. Valve's new headset will be available in models sporting 256GB and 1TB or internal storage, both with the option for expansion via a microSD card slot. Pricing details have not yet been revealed publicly.

The Steam Frame's inside-out tracking cameras mean you won't have to set up the awkward external base stations that were necessary for previous SteamVR headsets (including the Index). But that also means old SteamVR controllers won't work with the new hardware. Instead, included Steam Frame controllers will track your hand movements, provide haptic feedback, and offer "input parity with a traditional game pad" through the usual buttons and control sticks.

For those who want to bring desktop GPU power to their VR experience, the Steam Frame will be able to connect wirelessly to a PC using an included 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E adapter. That streaming will be enhanced by what Valve is calling "foveated rendering" technology, which sends the highest-resolution video stream to where your eyes are directly focused (as tracked by two internal cameras). That will help Steam Frame streaming establish a "fast, direct, low-latency link" to the machine, Valve said, though the company has yet to respond to questions about just how much additional wireless latency users can expect. Further reading: Valve Enters the Console Wars

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/224252/valve-rejoins-the-vr-hardware-wars-with-standalone-steam-frame?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot. ... [>>>]

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: OpenAI asked a federal judge in New York on Wednesday to reverse an order that required it to turn over 20 million anonymized ChatGPT chat logs amid a copyright infringement lawsuit by the New York Times and other news outlets, saying it would expose users' private conversations. The artificial intelligence company argued that turning over the logs would disclose confidential user information and that "99.99%" of the transcripts have nothing to do with the copyright infringement allegations in the case.

"To be clear: anyone in the world who has used ChatGPT in the past three years must now face the possibility that their personal conversations will be handed over to The Times to sift through at will in a speculative fishing expedition," the company said in a court filing (PDF). The news outlets argued that the logs were necessary to determine whether ChatGPT reproduced their copyrighted content and to rebut OpenAI's assertion that they "hacked" the chatbot's responses to manufacture evidence. The lawsuit claims OpenAI misused their articles to train ChatGPT to respond to user prompts.

Magistrate Judge Ona Wang said in her order to produce the chats that users' privacy would be protected by the company's "exhaustive de-identification" and other safeguards. OpenAI has a Friday deadline to produce the transcripts.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2158208/openai-fights-order-to-turn-over-millions-of-chatgpt-conversations?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

OpenAI today released GPT-5.1, an update to its flagship model line. The update includes two versions: GPT-5.1 Instant, which OpenAI says adds adaptive reasoning capabilities and improved instruction following, and GPT-5.1 Thinking, which adjusts its processing time based on query complexity.

The Thinking model responds roughly twice as fast on simple tasks and twice as slow on complex problems compared to its predecessor. The company began rolling out both models to paid subscribers and plans to extend access to free users in coming days. OpenAI added three personality presets -- Professional, Candid, and Quirky -- to its existing customization options. The previous GPT-5 models will remain available through a legacy dropdown menu for three months.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2033254/openais-gpt-51-brings-smarter-reasoning-and-more-personality-presets-to-chatgpt?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Valve has unveiled a new Steam Machine console, taking a second shot at living room gaming a decade after its 2015 Steam Machine initiative failed. The 6-inch cube runs Linux-based SteamOS but plays Windows games through Proton, a compatibility layer built on Wine that translates Microsoft graphical APIs.

Valve spent over a decade working on SteamOS and ways to run Windows games on Linux after the original Steam Machines failed. The device promises six times the performance of the Steam Deck handheld using AMD's 2022-2023 technology. In an interaction with The Verge, Valve demonstrated Cyberpunk 2077 running at settings comparable to PS5 Pro or beyond on a 4K television. The console updates games in the background and includes automatic HDMI television control that Valve tested against a warehouse of home entertainment equipment. The system navigates entirely through gamepad controls and resumes games instantly from sleep mode.

Valve said pricing will be "comparable to a PC with similar specs" rather than subsidized like traditional consoles. PCs with similar GPUs have cost roughly $1,000 or more. Linux currently plays Windows games better than Windows in side-by-side tests.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/2019204/valve-enters-the-console-wars?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft employs various schemes to stop Edge users from switching to Chrome, and the latest includes financial rewards for sticking with the browser. As spotted by Windows Latest, select users who search on Bing within Microsoft Edge for a link to download Google Chrome are now shown an offer to stay with the browser. It gives users 1,300 Microsoft Rewards points, which can be redeemed for gift cards (examples include Amazon, Roblox, and Spotify) or donated to one of over 2 million nonprofits.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/200220/microsoft-is-offering-rewards-points-for-using-edge-instead-of-google-chrome?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The US is set to make its final penny. The Philadelphia Mint will strike its last batch of one-cent coins on Thursday, after more than 230 years of production. From a report: The coins will remain in circulation but the phase-out has already prompted businesses to start adjusting prices, as they say pennies are becoming harder to find. The government says the move will save money, or as President Donald Trump put it in February when he first announced the plans: "Rip the waste out of our great nation's budget, even if it's a penny at a time."

Pennies, which honour Civil War president Abraham Lincoln and are made of copper-plated zinc, today cost nearly four cents each to make -- more than twice the cost of a decade ago, according to the Treasury Department. It estimates the decision to end production will save about $56 million a year. Officials have argued that the rise of electronic transactions is making the penny, which first went into production in 1793, increasingly moot. The Treasury Department estimates that about 300 billion of the coins will remain in circulation, "far exceeding the amount needed for commerce."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/1849239/us-ends-penny-making-run-after-more-than-230-years?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The University of California, San Diego has documented a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering freshmen over the past five years, according to a report [PDF] released this month by the campus's Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions. Between 2020 and 2025, the number of students whose math skills fall below middle-school level increased nearly thirtyfold, from roughly 30 to 921 students. These students now represent one in eight members of the entering cohort.

The Mathematics Department redesigned its remedial program this year to focus entirely on elementary and middle school content after discovering students struggled with basic fractions and could not perform arithmetic operations taught in grades one through eight. The deterioration extends beyond mathematics. Nearly one in five domestic freshmen required remedial writing instruction in 2024, returning to pre-pandemic levels after a brief decline.

Faculty across disciplines report students increasingly struggle to engage with longer and complex texts. The decline coincided with multiple disrupting factors. The COVID-19 pandemic forced remote learning starting in spring 2020. The UC system eliminated SAT and ACT requirements in 2021. High school grade inflation accelerated during this period, leaving transcripts unreliable as indicators of actual preparation. UC San Diego simultaneously doubled its enrollment from under-resourced high schools designated LCFF+, admitting more such students than any other UC campus between 2022 and 2024.

The working group concluded that admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students while straining limited instructional resources. The report recommends developing predictive models to identify at-risk applicants and calls for the UC system to reconsider standardized testing requirements.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/1834253/uc-san-diego-reports-steep-decline-in-student-academic-preparation?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot. ... [>>>]

Apple said Wednesday that European Union developers pocketed the savings from mandated commission reductions rather than lowering prices for consumers. The iPhone maker commissioned Analysis Group to study pricing behavior [PDF] after the Digital Markets Act forced Apple to cut its App Store fees from up to 30% to an average of 20%. The research examined 41 million transactions across 21,000 products between March and September 2024, generating 403 million euros in sales. Developers maintained or raised prices on nine out of 10 products. Non-EU developers captured 86% of the 20.1 million euros in reduced commissions. Price cuts occurred on 9% of products, but the study attributed these to normal pricing patterns unrelated to the fee reduction.

Apple argued the regulation creates barriers for innovators and exposes consumers to risks without delivering promised benefits.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/186201/apple-study-finds-mandated-fee-reductions-never-reached-european-consumers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Synopsys will lay off about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 2,000 employees, as the chip-design software maker looks to redirect investment towards growth opportunities, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The move comes after the company completed its $35 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of engineering design firm Ansys earlier this year and missed analysts' estimates for third-quarter revenue in September.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/1730230/synopsys-plans-10-job-cuts-after-ansys-deal-closure?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Amazon is rolling out a tougher approach to combat illegal streaming, with the United States-based tech company aiming to block apps loaded onto all its Fire TV Stick devices that are identified as providing pirated content. From a report: Exclusive data provided to The Athletic from researchers YouGov Sport highlighted that approximately 4.7 million UK adults watched illegal streams in the UK over the past six months, with 31% using Fire Stick (this has become a catch-all term for plug-in devices, even if not made by Amazon) and other IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) devices. It is now the second-most popular method behind websites (42%).

Amazon launched a new Fire TV Stick last month -- the 4K Select, which is plugged into a TV to facilitate streaming via the internet -- that it insists will be less of a breeding ground for piracy. It comprises enhanced security measures -- via a new Vega operating system -- and only apps available in Amazon's app store will be available for customers to download. Amazon insists the clampdown will apply to the new and old devices, but registered developers will still be able to use Fire Sticks for legitimate purposes.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/1615220/amazon-steps-up-attempts-to-block-illegal-sports-streaming-via-fire-tv-sticks?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

After acquiring software virtualization company Cameyo last year, Google has relaunched a version of the service that makes it easier for Windows-based organizations to migrate over to ChromeOS. From a report: Now called "Cameyo by Google," the Virtual App Delivery (VAD) solution allows users to run legacy Windows apps in the Chrome browser or as web apps, preventing organizations from being tied to Microsoft's operating system. Google says the new Cameyo experience is more efficient than switching between separate virtual desktop environments, allowing users to stream the specific apps they need instead of virtualizing the entire desktop. That allows Windows-based programs like Excel and AutoCAD to run side-by-side with Chrome and other web apps, giving businesses the flexibility to use a mix of Microsoft and Google services.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/167213/google-relaunches-cameyo-to-entice-businesses-from-windows-to-chromeos?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Sonder, a short-term rental company and former Airbnb rival, abruptly went out of business after Marriott ended its licensing deal on Nov. 9 -- leaving guests scrambling as they were told to vacate their rooms immediately. From a report: Paul Strack, 63, visiting Boston from Little Rock, Arkansas, told CBS News he received an email from Marriott on Sunday about his Sonder stay, but he initially mistook it for a scam. The email said that Marriott's agreement with Sonder had ended, and that "we are unable to continue your reservation beyond today."

"[W]e are kindly requesting that you check out of the property as soon as you are able," the email read, according to a copy obtained by CBS News. Because he had mistaken it for spam, he ignored it. But on Monday, after exploring Boston and returning to the family's accommodation at the end of the day, Strack found his room's door wide open and his family's belongings packed up and left in a hallway.

[...] Sonder on Monday said it would wind down operations immediately, and that it expects to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate its U.S. assets. The company describes itself as a global operator of "premium, design-forward apartments and intimate boutique hotels serving the modern traveler" that has faced financial challenges related to its agreement with Marriott, which the hotel chain terminated on Sunday.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/1528206/airbnb-rival-sonder-abruptly-shuts-down-orders-guests-to-leave?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Costing tens of thousands of dollars each, Nvidia's pioneering AI chips make up a hefty chunk of the $400 billion that Big Tech plans to invest this year -- a bill expected to hit $3 trillion by 2029. But unlike 19th-century railroads, or the Dotcom boom's fiber-optic cables, the GPUs fueling today's AI mania are short-lived assets with a shelf life of perhaps five years.

As with your iPhone, this stuff tends to lose value and may need upgrading soon because Nvidia and its rivals aim to keep launching better models. Customers like OpenAI will have to deploy them to stay competitive. So while it's comforting that the companies spending most wildly have mountains of cash to throw around (OpenAI aside), the brief useful life of the chips and the generous accounting assumptions underpinning all of this investment are less consoling.

Michael Burry, who made his name betting against US housing and who's recently turned to the AI boom, waded in this week, warning on X that hyperscalers -- industry jargon for the giant companies building gargantuan data centers -- are underestimating depreciation. Far from being a one-off outlay, there's a danger of AI capex becoming a huge recurring expense. That's great for Nvidia and co., but not necessarily for hyperscalers such as Google and Microsoft. Some face a depreciation tsunami that's forcing them to be extra vigilant about controlling other costs. Amazon has plans to eliminate roughly 14,000 jobs.

And while Wall Street is used to financing fast-depreciating assets such as aircraft and autos, it's worrying that private credit funds are increasingly using GPUs as collateral to finance loans. This includes lending to more speculative startups known as neoclouds, who offer GPUs for rent. Microsoft alone has signed more than $60 billion of neocloud deals.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/1450226/ai-bubble-is-ignoring-michael-burrys-fears?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot. ... [>>>]

Researchers from four universities have released a study revealing that AI models remain easily detectable in social media conversations despite optimization attempts. The team tested nine language models across Twitter/X, Bluesky and Reddit, developing classifiers that identified AI-generated replies at 70 to 80% accuracy rates. Overly polite emotional tone served as the most persistent indicator. The models consistently produced lower toxicity scores than authentic human posts across all three platforms.

Instruction-tuned models performed worse than their base counterparts at mimicking humans, and the 70-billion-parameter Llama 3.1 showed no advantage over smaller 8-billion-parameter versions. The researchers found a fundamental tension: models optimized to avoid detection strayed further from actual human responses semantically.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/142219/researchers-surprised-that-with-ai-toxicity-is-harder-to-fake-than-intelligence?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Ryanair is trying to force users to download its mobile app by eliminating paper boarding passes, starting on November 12. As announced in February and subsequently delayed from earlier start dates, Europe's biggest airline is moving to digital-only boarding passes, meaning customers will no longer be able to print physical ones. In order to access their boarding passes, Ryanair flyers will have to download Ryanair's app.

"Almost 100 percent of passengers have smartphones, and we want to move everybody onto that smartphone technology," Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said recently on The Independent's daily travel podcast. Customers are encouraged to check in online via Ryanair's website or app before getting to the airport. People who don't check in online before getting to the airport will have to pay the airport a check-in fee. "There'll be some teething problems," O'Leary said of the move.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/0219222/ryanair-tries-forcing-app-downloads-by-eliminating-paper-boarding-passes?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

According to the Financial Times (paywalled), Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun, a deep-learning pioneer and Turing Award winner, is reportedly leaving the company to launch his own startup. Reuters reports: The owner of Facebook and Instagram has significantly increased its investments in artificial intelligence, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg reorganizing the company's AI initiatives under Superintelligence Labs. Zuckerberg hired Alexandr Wang, former CEO of data-labeling startup Scale AI to lead the new AI effort. As a result, LeCun, who had reported to chief product officer Chris Cox, is now reporting to Wang, the report said.

The company began investing in AI in 2013 by launching Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) unit and recruiting LeCun, who is a known skeptic of the large language model path to superintelligence. LeCun is also a Silver Professor of data science, computer science, neural science and electrical and computer engineering at New York University, according to his LinkedIn page. He is known for his work in deep learning and the invention of the convolutional neural network, which is widely used for image, video and speech recognition.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/027252/meta-chief-ai-scientist-yann-lecun-plans-to-exit-to-launch-startup?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

New submitter UsRanger175 shares a report from Space.com: The sun erupted in spectacular fashion this morning (Nov. 11), unleashing a major X5.1-class solar flare, the strongest of 2025 so far and the most intense since October 2024. The eruption peaked at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT) from sunspot AR4274, which has been bursting with activity in recent days. The blast triggered strong (R3-level) radio blackouts across Africa and Europe, disrupting high-frequency radio communications on the sunlit side of Earth.

This outburst is the latest in a series of intense flares from AR4274, which also produced an X1.7 flare on Nov. 9 and an X1.2 on Nov. 10. Those flares were accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that could combine and impact Earth overnight tonight, possibly triggering strong (G3) geomagnetic storm conditions and widespread auroras, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. The CME released today could also join the party as it speeds toward Earth at 4.4 million mph. NOAA predicts the CME could impact Earth around midday on Nov. 12. With this third CME added to the mix, it's possible that we could experience severe (G4) geomagnetic storm conditions.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/0212258/sun-unleashes-strongest-solar-flare-of-2025?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Atlantic: In China, you can buy a heavily discounted "used" electric car that has never, in fact, been used. Chinese automakers, desperate to meet their sales targets in a bitterly competitive market, sell cars to dealerships, which register them as "sold," even though no actual customer has bought them. Dealers, stuck with officially sold cars, then offload them as "used," often at low prices. The practice has become so prevalent that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to stop it. Its main newspaper, The People's Daily, complained earlier this year that this sales-inflating tactic "disrupts normal market order," and criticized companies for their "data worship."

This sign of serious problems in China's electric-vehicle industry may come as a surprise to many Americans. The Chinese electric car has become a symbol of the country's seemingly unstoppable rise on the world stage. Many observers point to their growing popularity as evidence that China is winning the race to dominate new technologies. But in China, these electric cars represent something entirely different: the profound threats that Beijing's meddling in markets poses to both China and the world.

Bloated by excessive investment, distorted by government intervention, and plagued by heavy losses, China's EV industry appears destined for a crash. EV companies are locked in a cutthroat struggle for survival. Wei Jianjun, the chairman of the Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor, warned in May that China's car industry could tumble into a financial crisis; it "just hasn't erupted yet." To bypass government censorship of bad economic news, market analysts have opted for a seemingly anodyne term to describe the Chinese car industry's downward spiral: involution, which connotes falling in on oneself.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/0150258/chinas-ev-market-is-imploding?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot. ... [>>>]

Google has unveiled Private AI Compute, a cloud platform designed to deliver advanced AI capabilities while preserving user privacy. As The Verge notes, the feature is "virtually identical to Apple's Private Cloud Compute." From the report: Many Google products run AI features like translation, audio summaries, and chatbot assistants, on-device, meaning data doesn't leave your phone, Chromebook, or whatever it is you're using. This isn't sustainable, Google says, as advancing AI tools need more reasoning and computational power than devices can supply. The compromise is to ship more difficult AI requests to a cloud platform, called Private AI Compute, which it describes as a "secure, fortified space" offering the same degree of security you'd expect from on-device processing. Sensitive data is available "only to you and no one else, not even Google."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/12/0137208/google-is-introducing-its-own-version-of-apples-private-ai-cloud-compute?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Disney is losing an estimated $4.3 million per day (about $30 million per week) from the ongoing YouTube TV blackout of ESPN, ABC, and other networks amid a contract dispute over carriage fees. Of course, YouTube is also feeling financial pressure from users who have already canceled or intend to cancel their service. Variety reports: Disney is losing an estimated $30 million per week from its networks being pulled off YouTube TV, which works out to nearly $4.3 million per day, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. The figure came in a research note from Morgan Stanley equity analysts Benjamin Swinburne and Thomas Yeh, who said in their financial forecast for Disney's year-end 2025 quarter, they are "layering in 14 days of impact from the ongoing YouTube TV blackout, which we estimate is a $60mm revenue headwind."

Nov. 11 marks the 12th day of the Disney blackout on YouTube TV. The Morgan Stanley analysts wrote that they expect the Disney-YouTube TV dispute to be resolved later this week, but estimated that each week its networks are dark on YouTube TV will lower Disney's adjusted earnings per share by 2 cents.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/2242218/youtube-tv-blackout-is-costing-disney-an-estimated-43-million-per-day-in-lost-revenue?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: ClickFix often starts with an email sent from a hotel that the target has a pending registration with and references the correct registration information. In other cases, ClickFix attacks begin with a WhatsApp message. In still other cases, the user receives the URL at the top of Google results for a search query. Once the mark accesses the malicious site referenced, it presents a CAPTCHA challenge or other pretext requiring user confirmation. The user receives an instruction to copy a string of text, open a terminal window, paste it in, and press Enter. Once entered, the string of text causes the PC or Mac to surreptitiously visit a scammer-controlled server and download malware. Then, the machine automatically installs it -- all with no indication to the target. With that, users are infected, usually with credential-stealing malware. Security firms say ClickFix campaigns have run rampant. The lack of awareness of the technique, combined with the links also coming from known addresses or in search results, and the ability to bypass some endpoint protections are all factors driving the growth.

The commands, which are often base-64 encoded to make them unreadable to humans, are often copied inside the browser sandbox, a part of most browsers that accesses the Internet in an isolated environment designed to protect devices from malware or harmful scripts. Many security tools are unable to observe and flag these actions as potentially malicious. The attacks can also be effective given the lack of awareness. Many people have learned over the years to be suspicious of links in emails or messengers. In many users' minds, the precaution doesn't extend to sites that instruct them to copy a piece of text and paste it into an unfamiliar window. When the instructions come in emails from a known hotel or at the top of Google results, targets can be further caught off guard. With many families gathering in the coming weeks for various holiday dinners, ClickFix scams are worth mentioning to those family members who ask for security advice. Microsoft Defender and other endpoint protection programs offer some defenses against these attacks, but they can, in some cases, be bypassed. That means that, for now, awareness is the best countermeasure. Researchers from CrowdStrike described in a report a campaign designed to infect Macs with a Mach-O executive. "Promoting false malicious websites encourages more site traffic, which will lead to more potential victims," wrote the researchers. "The one-line installation command enables eCrime actors to directly install the Mach-O executable onto the victim's machine while bypassing Gatekeeper checks." ... [>>>]

Dave Knott writes: Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2026, the first major version of their flagship compiler in almost four years. Release notes are available here. The compiler has also been updated, including improved (but not yet 100%) C++23 core language and standard library implementations.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/2213205/visual-studio-2026-released?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Sony reported that PlayStation 5 sales have reached 84.2 million units, officially surpassing every Xbox console ever released. IGN reports: The PlayStation 5 is now up to 84.2 million copies sold after shifting an additional 3.9 million units during the three-month period ending September 30, Sony has announced. That's a slight increase on the 3.8 million PS5 units Sony sold during the same quarter last year, but it's an impressive result given the price of the console has actually gone up over the course of this generation, rather than come down. [...]

As an aside, unlike Sony, Microsoft does not make Xbox Series X and S sales figures public, but analysts have suggested the combined Xbox Series effort is being outsold by the PS5 by at least a factor of 2:1. The more appropriate comparison for the PS5 then, is with its predecessor, the PlayStation 4. Five years into the current console generation, the PS5 is slightly behind the PS4 (the PS4 sold-in to retailers more than 86.1 million units after five years on sale). But Sony has said this console generation is its most financially successful ever, with sales surpassing those made during the reign of all previous Sony consoles.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/2131217/ps5-has-now-officially-outsold-every-xbox-console-ever-released?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

A Munich court ruled that OpenAI violated German copyright law by training its models on lyrics from nine songs and allowing ChatGPT to reproduce them. OpenAI now faces damages as it considers an appeal. Reuters reports: The regional court in Munich found that the company trained its AI on protected content from nine German songs, including Groenemeyer's hits "Maenner" and "Bochum." The case was brought by German music rights society GEMA, whose members include composers, lyricists and publishers, in another sign of artists around the world fighting back against data scraping by AI.

Presiding judge Elke Schwager ordered OpenAI to pay damages for the use of copyrighted material, without disclosing a figure.
GEMA legal advisor Kai Welp said GEMA hoped discussions could now take place with OpenAI on how copyright holders can be remunerated. OpenAI had argued that its language models did not store or copy specific training data but, rather, reflected what they had learned based on the entire training data set.

Since the output would only be generated as a result of user inputs known as prompts, it was not the defendants, but the respective user who would be liable for it, OpenAI had argued. However, the court found that both the memorization in the language models and the reproduction of the song lyrics in the chatbot's outputs constitute infringements of copyright exploitation rights, according to a statement on the ruling.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/2124206/openai-used-song-lyrics-in-violation-of-copyright-laws-german-court-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Big G is finally making good on its promise to add its market-leading Nano Banana image-editing model to the app. The model powers a couple of features, and it's not just for Google's Android platform. Nano Banana edits are also coming to the iOS version of the app. [...] The Photos app already had conversational editing in the "Help Me Edit" feature, but it was running an older non-fruit model that produced inferior results. Nano Banana editing will produce AI slop, yes, but it's better slop.

Google says the updated Help Me Edit feature has access to your private face groups, so you can use names in your instructions. For example, you could type "Remove Riley's sunglasses," and Nano Banana will identify Riley in the photo (assuming you have a person of that name saved) and make the edit without further instructions. You can also ask for more fantastical edits in Help Me Edit, changing the style of the image from top to bottom. Google is very invested in getting people to use its AI tools, but less-savvy users might not be familiar enough with AI prompting to get the most out of Nano Banana. So Google Photos is also getting a collection of AI templates in a new "Create with AI" section. This menu will offer pre-formed prompts based on popular in-app edits. Some of the options you'll see include "put me in a high fashion photoshoot," "create a professional headshot," and "put me in a winter holiday card."

The app is also getting a new "Ask" button, which is not to be confused with "Ask Photos." The former is a new contextual button that appears when viewing a photo, and the latter is Google's controversial natural language search feature. [...] When looking at a photo, you can tap the Ask button to get information about the content of the photo or find related images. You can also describe edits you'd like to see in this interface, and Nano Banana will make them for you.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/2119221/google-announces-even-more-ai-in-photos-app-powered-by-nano-banana?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot. ... [>>>]

FFmpeg, the open source multimedia framework that powers video processing in Google Chrome, Firefox, YouTube and other major platforms, has called on Google to either fund the project or stop burdening its volunteer maintainers with security vulnerabilities found by the company's AI tools. The maintainers patched a bug that Google's AI agent discovered in code for decoding a 1995 video game but described the finding as "CVE slop."

The confrontation centered on a Google Project Zero policy announced in July that publicly discloses reported vulnerabilities within a week and starts a ninety-day countdown to full disclosure regardless of patch availability. FFmpeg, written primarily in assembly language, handles format conversion and streaming for VLC, Kodi and Plex but operates without adequate funding from the corporations that depend on it. Nick Wellnhofer resigned as maintainer of libxml2, a library used in all major web browsers, because of the unsustainable workload of addressing security reports without compensation and said he would stop maintaining the project in December.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1947215/ffmpeg-to-google-fund-us-or-stop-sending-bugs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is escalating pressure on the defense industry to stop opposing military right-to-repair legislation, as House and Senate negotiators work to finalize the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. From a report: In a sharply-worded November 5 letter to the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) obtained by Reuters, Warren accused the industry group of attempting to undermine bipartisan efforts to give the Pentagon greater ability to repair weapons and equipment it owns.

She called the group's opposition "a dangerous and misguided attempt to protect an unacceptable status quo of giant contractor profiteering." Currently, the government is often required to pay contractors like NDIA members Lockheed Martin, Boeing and RTX to use expensive original equipment and installers to service broken parts, versus having trained military maintainers 3D print spares in the field and install them faster and more cheaply.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1917226/us-senator-challenges-defense-industry-on-right-to-repair-opposition?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

China has introduced a visa that will allow young foreign researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to move there without having to secure a job first. From a report: Before the introduction of the K visa, most foreign STEM researchers hoping to move to China had to find a job in advance and then apply for a work visa. The Chinese government is making "a serious bid" to attract the world's brightest minds in STEM, says Jeremy Neufeld, the director of immigration policy at the Institute for Progress, a think tank in Washington DC. South Korea, Singapore and several other countries have also launched STEM-oriented visa programmes.

The K visa was officially rolled out on 1 October, but Nature understands that applications are yet to open. Few details about eligibility have been released, except that restrictions will apply on the basis of an applicant's age, education and work experience. Foreign researchers who have graduated from 'famous' universities or institutes in China or abroad with a bachelor-or-higher degree in STEM will be eligible to apply. That also includes people who teach or research STEM topics in such organizations.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1857233/chinas-new-scientist-visa-is-a-serious-bid-for-the-worlds-top-talent?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Animal testing in science would be phased out faster under a new plan to increase the use of artificial intelligence and 3D bioprinted human tissues, a UK minister has said. The Guardian: The roadmap unveiled by the science minister, Patrick Vallance, backs replacing certain animal tests that are still used where necessary to determine the safety of products such as life-saving vaccines and the impact pesticides have on living beings and the environment. The strategy says phasing out the use of animals in science can only happen when reliable and effective alternative methods with the same level of safety for human exposure can replace them.

The government said new funding for researchers and streamlined regulation would help develop methods such as organ-on-a-chip systems -- tiny devices that mimic how human organs work using real human cells. Greater use of AI to analyse vast amounts of data about molecules and predict whether new medicines will be safe and work well on humans would be deployed, while 3D bioprinted tissues could create realistic human tissue samples, from skin to liver, for testing.

Other plans under the strategy include an end to regulatory testing on animals to assess the potential for skin and eye irritation and skin sensitisation by the end of 2026. By 2027, researchers are expected under the strategy to end tests of the strength of botox on mice, while by 2030 pharmacokinetic studies -- which track how a drug moves through the body over time -- on dogs and non-human primates will be reduced.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1854230/uk-unveils-plan-to-cut-animal-testing-through-greater-use-of-ai?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

BrianFagioli writes: Mozilla has released Firefox 145.0, and the standout change in this version is the official end of support for 32-bit Linux systems. Users on 32-bit distributions will no longer receive updates and are being encouraged to switch to the 64-bit build to continue getting security patches and new features. While most major Linux distributions have already moved past 32-bit support, this shift will still impact older hardware users and lightweight community projects that have held on to 32-bit for the sake of performance or preservation.

The rest of the update introduces features such as built-in PDF comments, improved fingerprinting resistance for private browsing, tab group previews, password management in the sidebar, and minor UI refinements. Firefox also now compresses local translation models with Zstandard to reduce storage needs. But the end of 32-bit Linux support is the change that will leave the biggest mark, signaling another step toward a web ecosystem firmly centered on 64-bit computing.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1757229/firefox-145-drops-support-for-32-bit-linux?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The furious push by AI hyperscalers to build out data centers will need about $1.5 trillion of investment-grade bonds over the next five years and extensive funding from every other corner of the market, according to an analysis by JPMorgan. From a report: "The question is not 'which market will finance the AI-boom?' Rather, the question is 'how will financings be structured to access every capital market?'" according to strategists led by Tarek Hamid.

Leveraged finance is primed to provide around $150 billion over the next half decade, they said. Even with funding from the investment-grade and high-yield bond markets, as well as up to $40 billion per year in data-center securitizations, it will still be insufficient to meet demand, the strategists added. Private credit and governments could help cover a remaining $1.4 trillion funding gap, the report estimates. The bank calculates an at least $5 trillion tab that could climb as high as $7 trillion, singlehandedly driving a reacceleration in growth in the bond and syndicated loan markets, the strategists wrote in a report Monday. The analysts project $300 billion in high-grade bonds going toward AI data centers next year. That could account for nearly one fifth of total issuance in that market, which a report from Barclays estimates will grow to $1.6 trillion.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1730232/ais-5-trillion-cost-needs-every-debt-market-jpmorgan-says?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The iPad Pro went on sale ten years ago, launching with a 12.9-inch screen that Apple believed would redefine computing through size alone. The company initially resisted making the device a laptop replacement and maintained strict limitations on multitasking, browser capabilities, and app installation. Over the past decade, Apple reversed course. The iPad Pro gained USB-C ports, external drive support, keyboard and trackpad accessories, and an improved Files app.

The current M5 model includes OLED screens in 13- and 11-inch sizes. iPadOS 26 added free-form multitasking, a menu bar and the Preview app. The webcam now sits in landscape orientation. Despite these advances, the device remains constrained by App Store-only software installation, The Verge writes, limited system access, and the absence of desktop-class browsers. Apple spent years positioning the iPad as a third category between phones and computers. The hardware and accessories now support full computer functionality, but artificial software limitations remain in place.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1618220/the-ipad-pro-at-10-a-decade-of-unrealized-potential?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Apple has launched the iPhone Pocket, a knitted bag designed to hold iPhones. The limited edition collaboration with Japanese designer Issey Miyake costs $229.95 for the crossbody version. A shorter version is priced at $149.95. Apple said the 3D-knitted design was inspired by "a piece of cloth" and was born from the idea of creating an additional pocket for any iPhone and small everyday items. Yoshiyuki Miyamae, design director at Miyake Design Studio, said the product "speaks to the bond between iPhone and its user" and explores "the joy of wearing iPhone in your own way." Steve Jobs mocked similar $29 iPod Socks as "a revolutionary new product" in 2004.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1533206/apples-230-iphone-sock?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity has verified around 17.5 million people through its iris-scanning Orb device. The company has set a goal of reaching 1 billion users, so it is less than 2% of the way there. The startup has raised $240 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital and Khosla Ventures. PitchBook estimates its valuation at $2.5 billion.

The Orb is a volleyball-sized metal sphere that scans irises to generate a World ID. Users can claim tokens of the cryptocurrency Worldcoin, currently worth around 80 cents per coin. Business Insider spoke to former Tools for Humanity employees, a former Orb operator from Kenya, and a former head of operations in Mexico City. Some questioned whether the company had a clear long-term strategy. Nick Maynard, vice president of fintech market research at Juniper Research, said he does not see a killer use case that will drive major traction. The company also continues to face regulatory headwinds. In October, agencies in the Philippines, Colombia and Thailand took action to halt operations. German authorities determined last year that the company's data protection measures would not be sufficient to protect against cybercriminals or state attackers.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/158200/sam-altmans-worldcoin-project-struggles-toward-billion-user-ambition-with-175-million-sign-ups?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Samsung is rolling out new conversational AI across its 2025 TVs that lets users ask questions about what's on the screen and beyond it. From a report: First announced in September, the generative AI update is rolling out now with support for several languages. Vision AI Companion is based on an upgraded, generative AI-based version of Samsung's virtual assistant Bixby. Samsung suggests you can use it to ask questions about on-screen content -- what that actor is famous for, who painted that artwork, or what the final score was in a football game. It can go beyond that though, offering TV and movie recommendations along with cooking advice, travel tips, and local restaurant discovery.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1444257/samsung-brings-generative-ai-powered-bixby-to-its-tvs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

The UK and China today signed a new bilateral agreement on scientific collaboration [non-paywalled source], narrowing the scope of their partnership to exclude sensitive technologies. Lord Patrick Vallance, Britain's science and technology minister, met his Chinese counterpart Chen Jiachang in Beijing and agreed to focus cooperation on health, climate, planetary sciences, and agriculture.

The previous agreement from 2017 had included satellites, remote sensing technology and robotics. Those fields are absent from the new accord. The countries announced no new funding for joint research. Vallance said the UK had "deliberately gone for areas which we think are not carrying such a security risk."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/1355205/uk-signs-scaled-back-scientific-collaboration-with-china?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: The UK Department for Education is "replacing its narrowly focused computer science GCSE with a broader, future-facing computing GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] and exploring a new qualification in data science and AI for 16-18-year-olds." The move aims to correct unintended consequences of a shift made more than a decade ago from the existing ICT (Information and Communications Technology) curriculum, which focused on basic digital skills, to a more rigorous Computer Science curriculum at the behest of major tech firms and advocacy groups to address concerns about the UK's programming talent pipeline.

The UK pivot from rigorous CS to AI literacy comes as tech-backed nonprofit Code.org leads a similar shift in the U.S., pivoting from its original 2013 mission calling for rigorous CS for U.S. K-12 students to a new mission that embraces AI literacy. Code.org next month will replace its flagship Hour of Code event with a new Hour of AI "designed to bring AI education into the mainstream" with the support of its partners, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Code.org has pledged to engage 25 million learners with the new Hour of AI this school year.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/0125233/uk-secondary-schools-pivoting-from-narrowly-focused-cs-curriculum-to-ai-literacy?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

China's CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months, "adding evidence to the hope that the world's biggest polluter has managed to hit its target of peak CO2 emissions well ahead of schedule," reports the Guardian. From the report: Rapid increases in the deployment of solar and wind power generation -- which grew by 46% and 11% respectively in the third quarter of this year -- meant the country's energy sector emissions remained flat, even as the demand for electricity increased. China added 240GW of solar capacity in the first nine months of this year, and 61GW of wind, putting it on track for another renewable record in 2025. Last year, the country installed 333GW of solar power, more than the rest of the world combined. [...]

The analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea), for the science and climate policy website Carbon Brief, found China's CO2 emissions were unchanged from a year earlier in the third quarter of 2025, thanks in part to declining emissions in the travel, cement and steel industries. But China has a record of underpromising and overdelivering on climate targets. Li Shuo, the director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a US-based thinktank, said in a recent note that the latest Chinese climate targets should be seen as a baseline and not a ceiling.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/11/0119210/chinas-co2-emissions-have-been-flat-or-falling-for-past-18-months-analysis-finds?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: It appears that Neom -- Saudi Arabia's hugely expensive, architecturally bizarre urban development project -- is floundering and close to collapse. A new report from the Financial Times cites high-level sources within the project to paint a picture of dysfunction and failure at the heart of the quixotic effort. Neom was envisioned as a vast series of fantastical urban developments spread across the coast of the Red Sea. At the center of the project is The Line -- a proposed 105-mile-long city which developers had initially projected could house as many as 9 million people by the year 2030.

The Line is defined by bizarre architectural flourishes that, as the story notes, have seemed impossible even to the execs tasked with making them a reality. One such addition is an upside-down building, dubbed "the chandelier," that is supposed to hang over a "gateway" marina to the city: "As architects worked through the plans, the chandelier began to seem implausible. One recalled warning Tarek Qaddumi, The Line's executive director, of the difficulty of suspending a 30-story building upside down from a bridge hundreds of metres in the air. 'You do realize the earth is spinning? And that tall towers sway?' he said. The chandelier, the architect explained, could 'start to move like a pendulum,' then 'pick up speed,' and eventually 'break off,' crashing into the marina below."

Yes, that doesn't sound great. Now, according to those sources the FT talked to, the project is looking more and more like a hugely expensive pipe dream that will never come to pass: "Today, with at least $50 billion spent, the desert is pock-marked with piling, and deep trenches stretch across the landscape. But Prince Mohammed, who chairs Neom, has dramatically scaled back the first phase of the plans. Neom told the FT that The Line remained 'a strategic priority' that would ultimately 'provide a new blueprint for humanity by changing the way people live.' But they described it as a 'multi-generational development of unprecedented scale and complexity.'" ... [>>>]

Slashdot reader alternative_right shares an exclusive BBC interview with Vyacheslav "Tank" Penchukov, once a top-tier cyber-crime boss behind Jabber Zeus, IcedID, and major ransomware campaigns. His story traces the evolution of modern cybercrime from early bank-theft malware to today's lucrative ransomware ecosystem, marked by shifting alliances, Russian security-service ties, and the paranoia that ultimately consumes career hackers. Here's an excerpt from the report: In the late 2000s, he and the infamous Jabber Zeus crew used revolutionary cyber-crime tech to steal directly from the bank accounts of small businesses, local authorities and even charities. Victims saw their savings wiped out and balance sheets upended. In the UK alone, there were more than 600 victims, who lost more than $5.2 million in just three months. Between 2018 and 2022, Penchukov set his sights higher, joining the thriving ransomware ecosystem with gangs that targeted international corporations and even a hospital. [...]

Penchukov says he did not think about the victims, and he does not seem to do so much now, either. The only sign of remorse in our conversation was when he talked about a ransomware attack on a disabled children's charity. His only real regret seems to be that he became too trusting with his fellow hackers, which ultimately led to him and many other criminals being caught. "You can't make friends in cyber-crime, because the next day, your friends will be arrested and they will become an informant," he says. "Paranoia is a constant friend of hackers," he says. But success leads to mistakes. "If you do cyber-crime long enough you lose your edge," he says, wistfully.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/11/10/2320251/a-jailed-hacking-kingpin-reveals-all-about-cybercrime-gang?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot. ... [>>>]

The European Commission is considering turning its non-binding 2020 guidance on "high-risk vendors" into a legal requirement that would effectively force EU member states to phase out Huawei and ZTE from mobile and fixed-line networks. Bloomberg reports: Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen wants to convert the European Commission's 2020 recommendation to stop using high-risk vendors in mobile networks into a legal requirement, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private. While infrastructure decisions rest with national governments, Virkkunen's proposal would compel EU countries to align with the commission's security guidance.

The EU is increasingly focused on the risks posed by Chinese telecom equipment makers as trade and political ties with its second-largest trading partner fray. The concern is that handing over control of critical national infrastructure to companies with such close ties to Beijing could compromise national security interests.

Virkkunen is examining ways to limit the use of Chinese equipment suppliers in fixed-line networks, as countries push for the rapid deployment of state-of-the-art fiber cables to expand high-speed internet access. The commission is also considering measures to dissuade non-EU countries from relying on Chinese vendors, including by withholding Global Gateway funding from nations that use the grants for projects involving Huawei equipment, according to the people.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/11/10/2257257/eu-eyes-banning-huawei-zte-corp-from-mobile-networks-of-member-countries?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

Linux kernel developers are moving toward enabling Microsoft C Extensions (-fms-extensions) by default in Linux 6.19, with Linus Torvalds signaling no objection. While some dislike relying on Microsoft-style behavior, the patches in kbuild-next suggest the project is ready to "bite the bullet" and adopt the extensions system-wide. Phoronix reports: Rasmus Villemoes argued with Kbuild: enable -fms-extensions that would allow for "prettier code" and others have noted in the past the potential for saving stack space and all around being beneficial in being able to leverage the Microsoft C behavior: "Once in a while, it turns out that enabling -fms-extensions could allow some slightly prettier code. But every time it has come up, the code that had to be used instead has been deemed 'not too awful' and not worth introducing another compiler flag for. That's probably true for each individual case, but then it's somewhat of a chicken/egg situation. If we just 'bite the bullet' as Linus says and enable it once and for all, it is available whenever a use case turns up, and no individual case has to justify it..."

The second patch is kbuild: Add '-fms-extensions' to areas with dedicated CFLAGS to ensure -fms-extensions is passed for the CPU architectures that rely on their own CFLAGS being set rather than the main KBUILD_CFLAGS. Linus Torvalds chimed in on the prior mailing list discussion and doesn't appear to be against enabling -fms-extensions beginning with the Linux 6.19 kernel.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/11/10/2250251/the-linux-kernel-looks-to-bite-the-bullet-in-enabling-microsoft-c-extensions?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Privacy activists say proposed changes to Europe's landmark privacy law, including making it easier for Big Tech to harvest Europeans' personal data for AI training, would flout EU case law and gut the legislation. The changes proposed by the European Commission are part of a drive to simplify a slew of laws adopted in recent years on technology, environmental and financial issues which have in turn faced pushback from companies and the U.S. government.

EU antitrust chief Henna Virkkunen will present the Digital Omnibus, in effect proposals to cut red tape and overlapping legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Artificial Intelligence Act, the e-Privacy Directive and the Data Act, on November 19. According to the plans, Google, Meta Platforms, OpenAI and other tech companies may be allowed to use Europeans' personal data to train their AI models based on legitimate interest.

In addition, companies may be exempted from the ban on processing special categories of personal data "in order not to disproportionately hinder the development and operation of AI and taking into account the capabilities of the controller to identify and remove special categories of personal data." [...] The proposals would need to be thrashed out with EU countries and European Parliament in the coming months before they can be implemented. "The draft Digital Omnibus proposes countless changes to many different articles of the GDPR. In combination this amounts to a death by a thousand cuts," Austrian privacy group noyb said in a statement. "This would be a massive downgrading of Europeans' privacy 10 years after the GDPR was adopted," noyb's Max Schrems said.

"These proposals would change how the EU protects what happens inside your phone, computer and connected devices," European Digital Rights policy advisor Itxaso Dominguez de Olazabal wrote in a LinkedIn post. "That means access to your device could rely on legitimate interest or broad exemptions like security, fraud detection or audience measurement," she said. ... [>>>]