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[>] Sam Altman Thinks Your PC Is Wasting Precious RAM
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2026-10-31 01:22:01


"Looks like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to own all the computing resources and rent out terminals to the world as a way of propping up his business plan, now that debt-ridden AI companies are teetering on the edge," writes ancient Slashdot reader Gilmoure. Tom's Hardware reports: In an interview over beers with the YouTube channel Cheeky Pint, Altman said that local inference, and, by extension, people having DRAM in computers at home, is "quite terrible." When discussing local inference on home computers with open-source models, Altman discussed the assumption that people will be able to run local AI on their own computers, the ones they may already own or want to build.

Then he explained why that's a bad idea (at the 29-minute mark): "From a global allocation perspective, actually, it's quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used 5% of the time," Altman said. "You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you're trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment. And somehow many people's intuition is the opposite of that."

While OpenAI does have some open-source models, its primary business is in closed-source models that run in data centers, so he's really defending the company's business model. OpenAI isn't exactly threatened by some laptops and gaming rigs just yet, but local AI could mean people one day paying less for subscriptions to models like GPT-6 Luna if they have the power to run them at home. Altman's talk suggests that the company would prefer that more RAM go to OpenAI's data centers rather than home computers, which also sparks enthusiast fears of not being able to own your own hardware or software, but rather rent an agent and a computer in the cloud.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/30/2017206/sam-altman-thinks-your-pc-is-wasting-precious-ram?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Meta Settles Another Social Media Addiction Case Just Before Trial
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2026-10-31 02:22:01


Meta has reached an undisclosed settlement in another social media addiction lawsuit, avoiding a trial scheduled for next month and leaving Snap as the sole remaining defendant. Engadget reports: The lawsuit was brought by an 18-year-old woman from Mississippi known as K.D.B who, according to Reuters, has "described staying awake for hours scrolling social media, losing focus in class and engaging in self-harm using methods shown in social media videos." Jury selection kicked off earlier this week in Los Angeles.

On Friday, K.D.B's lawyer announced that she had reached a settlement with Meta after previously settling with TikTok and YouTube. "We remain committed to improving safety for kids on social media apps and holding tech companies accountable, and we are pleased to have brought this matter to a just resolution on behalf of our client," attorney Emily Jeffcott said in a statement.

Now, Snap is the only remaining defendant in the case. CEO Evan Spiegel is expected to testify in the trial that could last several weeks. If he does take the stand, it will be the first time the Snap founder has appeared in a social media addiction trial. Snap previously settled in another high-profile case involving similar claims. A jury later ruled against Meta and YouTube in the trial and the two were ordered to pay $6 million in damages.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/30/213231/meta-settles-another-social-media-addiction-case-just-before-trial?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Apple Is Entering Its Slop Era
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2026-10-31 03:22:01


In an opinion piece for 404 Media, Matthew Gault argues that Apple has entered its "slop era," abandoning its reputation for innovative hardware in favor of recycled ideas and questionable design choices. Here's an excerpt: My ears perked up when I heard Apple's new foldable phones were cracking. I licked my lips when the company announced it's releasing a touch-screen laptop. This was a company that once charged $19 for a polishing cloth, asked $200 for a VESA mount, and sold $700 wheels for the Mac Pro. Now it's borrowing tired ideas from its competitors and launching hardware its previous leaders rejected.

The once dominant company is struggling to find its feet in an AI-driven post-Tim Cook world. John Ternus is the new CEO -- a 25 year veteran of the company with a track record of pushing harebrained hardware schemes like the much reviled Touch Bar and lawsuit inducing butterfly keyboard.

With Ternus at the helm, I feel there's a good chance Apple's best days are behind it, that it will have to make do with less, that it's declasse. Apple, blindsided by AI and relying on crowdpleasing hardware gimmicks, is downwardly mobile. It's in its slop era. The company that once asked consumers to "Think Different" is now releasing hardware that's just like everything else on the market.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/10/30/216221/apple-is-entering-its-slop-era?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Cisco Gives Engineer Unlimited AI Tokens To Rewrite Legacy Code
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2026-10-31 08:22:02


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Gen Z can't catch a break. Entry-level jobs are vanishing; some 40% of bosses say they plan to hire fewer grads because AI can do the job cheaper, and young workers are routinely slammed for showing up late and refusing to put in overtime for free. Cisco's president and chief product officer Jeetu Patel isn't buying it -- he's just handed one of the company's biggest jobs to a 27-year-old he found hidden in the org chart "five levels" below him. "I've given him unlimited tokens because he's going to refactor code," Patel told Fortune at a small roundtable dinner. "So I'm like, you can go, you can go nuts."

The "him" is Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, or "Paddy," as Patel affectionately calls him. He joined Cisco in 2025 after the $429 billion tech giant acquired EzDubs, the real-time translation startup Krishnamurthy cofounded in 2023. And despite coming in as a former founder with CEO experience, he was, in Patel's words, "buried away in the organization doing something unstrategic." That changed when Patel dropped into Cisco's San Francisco office, and the pair got talking.

Krishnamurthy reckoned he could rewrite Cisco's legacy code with a two-person team. Patel says even the most AI-forward people on his own team weren't thinking that way. So he has given himself four weeks to prove it, with the final goal of rewriting 98% of Cisco's legacy code within 24 months. Now, he's on the hunt for more Paddys: young hires who will "challenge the system and the status quo," or, as he puts it, be "an energizer bunny that just goes out and kind of revs everyone up." "The only way for us to keep accelerating is to make sure we're surrounded by people with a broad range of experience," said Patel. "Roughly one-third of my team is experienced, scaled operators who understand how the Cisco engine works. The second third are systems thinkers from the market who bring the outside-in perspective. And the final third is made of entrepreneurial founders, CEOs, and engineers who are AI-native who operate in founder mode."

"Either of these groups by themselves aren't nearly as potent as when all three work together. It's what creates magic."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/26/10/30/2339234/cisco-gives-engineer-unlimited-ai-tokens-to-rewrite-legacy-code?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Google's First Data Center Satellite Is Online and Writing Poetry
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2026-10-31 11:22:02


Google's first experimental space-based data center is operational after launching earlier this month, successfully running its Gemma 4 AI model aboard a satellite and generating a haiku about being in orbit. TechCrunch reports: The satellite, which carries four Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and generates up to 1 kW of electricity, is intended to pave the way for future networks of close-flying satellites performing large inference workloads in orbit. However, the power demands of the TPU mean it can only turn one on for about 20 minutes at a time, complicating the already tricky business of space-to-ground communications.

After a commissioning process that tested out the satellite's subsystems over about three weeks, the spacecraft was ready to work. When engineers on the ground sent their first prompt this week, they asked the model pre-loaded onto the satellite, Google DeepMind's Gemma 4, to write a haiku about being in space. And thus:

Blue marble below
Data streams in silent grace
Starlight feeds my core.

The ongoing test campaign will examine how the chips perform under thermal stress and in the space radiation environment. [...] If the TPUs onboard this spacecraft prove capable, the next step will be launching two more satellites equipped with the advanced chips in 2027. Those spacecraft will support higher power generation and demonstrate inter-satellite optical links.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/30/2344228/googles-first-data-center-satellite-is-online-and-writing-poetry?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Supersonic Airliner In Doubt As Company Shifts to Powering AI Data Centers
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2026-10-31 15:22:02


Boom Supersonic's plans to launch its Overture passenger jet by 2029 are facing growing doubts as the company pivots toward manufacturing natural gas turbines for AI data centers. Ars Technica reports: One of the company's first customers, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, has expressed doubts about Boom's original plan to deliver the first Overture supersonic airliner in 2029. Kirby's latest frank assessment came during an interview with the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast that appeared on October 28, 2026. "'29 is their official timeline," Kirby told podcast host Monica Langley. "It's not going to happen in '29 -- it's going to take longer."

[...] Much of Boom's recent focus has been on developing natural gas turbines to power AI data centers as an additional revenue stream. On October 22, the company unveiled another factory in Centennial, Colorado, dedicated to producing a 42-megawatt natural gas turbine called Superpower for data centers. [...] Boom described its new Superpower factory as making turbine parts while still undergoing construction. It aims to deliver the first gas turbines to AI data center customers in mid-2027 while ramping up annual production to 25 turbines in 2028 and 50 turbines by 2029.

[...] Still, Boom has characterized the development of a gas turbine for data centers as being synergistic with its design of the Symphony engine for the Overture airliner. During the October announcement, it also described having completed a prototype turbine core, called Sprint Core, that is intended to eventually power both the Superpower gas turbine and Symphony engine for the airliner. That turbine core is set to undergo testing at the Colorado Air & Space Port, with Boom planning to fire the turbine for the first time before Thanksgiving. That would be a concrete development milestone, but the company still has much to do in proving it can get both its AI data center and supersonic airliner ventures off the ground.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/30/2355244/supersonic-airliner-in-doubt-as-company-shifts-to-powering-ai-data-centers?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Two US Senators Raise Privacy Concerns About Meta's 'Pervert Glasses'
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2026-10-31 19:22:01


Meta's smart glasses face new questions from two U.S. Senators, reports Gizmodo.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey "are requesting that Meta provide more information before Thanksgiving on whether it conducted detailed human rights due diligence and safety testing on the product before releasing it," reports Gizmodo. The Senators also requested information from Meta about " how it evaluated the privacy risks posed by the glasses, and what kinds of safeguards are currently in place."

"Although Meta identified risks to bystander privacy and vulnerable populations before launching its glasses in 2021, it nevertheless launched a product tailor-made for invading the privacy of its users and bystanders," [the senators wrote in a letter Thursday...] The glasses have also been spotted on ICE agents during raids, and have raised potential surveillance concerns. The surveillance fears were even reportedly raised by the New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit in a memo issued earlier this year....

"Meta's own disclosures confirm that imagery processed through its glasses' visual AI features may be retained and used to train AI systems, including with the assistance of human reviewers," the senators' letter states, calling the practice an invasion of privacy. "Retaining that material for AI development, thereby extending the period during which it can be accessed, disclosed, or misused, exploits people's highly sensitive information for Meta's commercial benefit."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/0553218/two-us-senators-raise-privacy-concerns-about-metas-pervert-glasses?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Google's AI Overviews Lowered Reddit's Traffic. Its Stock Dropped 29%
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2026-10-31 21:22:01


Reddit's stock plunged 29.22% on Friday, reports CNBC, its worst drop since becoming a public company in 2024.

Thursday Reddit reported a sales growth that was weaker than previous quarters, and also forecast weak sales for the quarter to come (below analysts expectations):

The report comes as the company has seen a shift in its search referral traffic with the rise of Google's AI Overview. In an interview with CNBC, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said search-referral traffic from Google went "down meaningfully in this quarter" due to AI... Multiple analysts downgraded the stock following Reddit's disappointing results, with Citizens noting that "search changes highlight the problem with selling content to Google" and that as referral problems worsen, uncertainty around user growth amid the login requirement switch "puts more pressure on user monetization."

Reddit's CEO also said that forcing users to login will help the company's advertising business. "Reddit is the last platform to provide basically unfettered logged-out access, and that's largely because of me. I've been holding that line."

"I think users will probably go through the same understanding that I have, which is that it's a sign of the times. It's an evolution of how these platforms work."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/0458218/googles-ai-overviews-lowered-reddits-traffic-its-stock-dropped-29?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Flock Reinstalled Its Cameras After Another City Canceled Its Contract
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2026-10-31 21:22:01


Earlier The Drive reported a police chief "had to direct his staff to disconnect the power cords from Flock cameras in Plymouth, Minnesota after Flock Safety ignored and failed to respond to the department's notice the city was canceling its service.
"But in other instances Flock's gone and reinstalled cameras without permission," The Drive reported this week:

On September 29th the city of Dayton, Minnesota posted a community update on its Facebook page alerting residents that Flock had installed and put into service two cameras against the City's direction without authorization... "The City notified Flock on September 18, 2026, that the program was on hold, and no work orders were to be completed. Unfortunately, the City's direction was not followed, and the camera was placed back into service without authorization." The statement continued and noted, "Following the report, City staff reviewed locations throughout the community to determine whether any additional cameras had been reinstalled, and one additional location was identified. The Police Department has been notified, and both cameras will be removed promptly...."

The Minnesota cities of both St. Paul and Crystal told Kare 11 that they removed the Flock cameras themselves following their respective city council votes in August and September respectively. The cameras are stored and are still waiting to be picked up by Flock. Crystal Chief of Police Pete Underthun told Kare 11, "Once we made this decision, I personally went to the locations and removed the cameras and poles myself." Chief Underthun noted, "We are still working with the company to close out our contract and for them to pick the cameras up from our garage."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/0238210/flock-reinstalled-its-cameras-after-another-city-canceled-its-contract?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Dozens of Unexplained Drones Have Buzzed America's Nuclear Plants Since 2024
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2026-10-31 22:22:02


Slashdot reader ElectricVs shares this report from American Buildout, a new site covering "the intersection of data centers, energy and power, finance, and Main Street."

Dozens of unexplained drones flew over and near U.S. nuclear facilities between February 2024 and March 2026, according to records the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made public this week. In all, facility operators filed 67 reports of drones over or near 28 sites in 17 states. They include the Three Mile Island site near Middletown, Pennsylvania., where Constellation Energy plans to restart Unit 1 as the Crane Clean Energy Center. In one incident, about five drones flew roughly 100 feet above the [970-megawatt] reactor building at River Bend Station in Louisiana.

The story was first reported by the publication The Liberation Times. The NRC published the documents on its website in response to the publication's freedom of information request... Every entry carries the status "Closed Unresolved."
"Most of the incidents happened after dark," the article points out, "and none of the records identifies a drone operator. About half of the incidents, 33 of 67, occurred in an eight-week window between Dec. 3, 2024, and Jan. 24, 2025." (Virginia's Surry Power Station experienced five different incidents in December of 2024, including one involving "at least eight drones in two waves.") 100 miles west of Chicago, "drone activity" continued for more than two hours at the Byron Nuclear Station, where two separate drones were reported. In Waterford, Connecticut, "security observed four drones flying back and forth..."

The article notes a 2024 paper from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission citing a 2019 analysis that "concluded U.S. plants had no risk-significant vulnerabilities that adversaries could exploit with commercially available drones to cause radiological sabotage, or theft or diversion of special nuclear material."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/1742209/dozens-of-unexplained-drones-have-buzzed-americas-nuclear-plants-since-2024?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] NASA Seeks Proposals for Reboosting the Hubble Space Telescope
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2026-10-31 23:22:02


The Hubble Space Telescope "will plunge back into the atmosphere in the early-to-mid-2030s," reports Ars Technica.

So now NASA has released a Request For Information (RFI) "asking commercial companies for ideas on how to reboost, service, or a controlled disposal of Hubble."

Specifically, NASA is looking for information about companies' current and near-term capabilities for capturing Hubble and boosting it to an altitude of at least 373 miles (600 km), enhancing the telescope's performance, or guiding Hubble to a controlled reentry. "The requirement includes that the boost and/or servicing mission must not harm the HST and that this mission is expected to occur by 2032," NASA wrote in the RFI. The contractor would be responsible for providing the launch vehicle, servicing spacecraft, mission operations, and "crew if applicable."
NASA is not committing to buying a Hubble rescue mission, but officials want to know who might be interested in mounting such a mission, how much it would cost, and which companies would have a realistic shot at reaching Hubble before it falls out of orbit and burns up on reentry. Orbital dynamicists currently predict that it will likely happen in 2033 or 2034 without intervention, but reentry forecasts can change based on solar activity... A reboost to NASA's requirement of 373 miles (600 km) would likely keep Hubble in orbit for at least 25 more years.

"NASA last raised the orbit of Hubble in 2002," the article points out, "when the Space Shuttle Columbia visited the observatory for a servicing mission."

The final shuttle servicing flight in 2009 did not reboost the telescope's orbit, and with the retirement of the shuttle fleet two years later, Hubble has steadily lost altitude with no way to stave off eventual destruction... NASA's newer flagship observatories, sometimes described as successors to Hubble, are not actually one-for-one replacements. Hubble is tuned to observe the Universe in visible and ultraviolet light, while the Webb and Roman telescopes peer deeper into the infrared Universe. Astronomers will likely have to wait for the launch of NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory in the 2040s for an improvement on Hubble's visible and ultraviolet vision.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/1817218/nasa-seeks-proposals-for-reboosting-the-hubble-space-telescope?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] French Lawmakers Back Per-Gigabyte Internet Traffic Tax
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2026-11-01 00:22:01


Companies like Google, Netflix, TikTok, and Meta may soon owe the French government, reports Tom's Hardware:

France has approved a proposed tax that aims to tax the amount of internet data per gigabyte sent to French users in the country... According to minutes released by the National Assembly, members voted 11-10 in support of the motion on October 30 — which now means the new law has been added to the country's next budget, despite major opposition from the government side and the finance committee rapporteur. The latest amendment, introduced by socialist lawmaker Laurent Lhardit, could see content providers pay €0.055 (roughly $0.06) to the government for every gigabyte of content distributed to French users. With approximately 154 million users and counting in France, the proposal's authors say such a tax could generate around €10 billion ($11.2 billion) in annual revenue for the government.

The said proposal, though yet to be passed as it must survive further parliamentary scrutiny, aims at companies that generate substantial internet traffic as opposed to taxing their advertising revenue, profits and subscriptions. Its explanatory notes particularly mention Google, Meta, Netflix, Amazon, and content delivery network Akamai as major potential contributors. Notably, TikTok and other similar platforms could fall under this broader scope depending on how these rules are applied. Internet service providers, including Orange Free and Liad, would be required to measure the volume of data and identify the companies responsible for sending it to French users. The Data will then be collected and submitted quarterly to France's tax administration under the supervision of telecommunications watchdog Arcep.

The measure becomes law if it clears the remaining stages of France's budget process, the article points out, "with parliament scheduled to vote on the budget's first section in early November."

"VideoLAN, the French nonprofit organization behind the VLC media player, warned that the proposed levy could cost it more than €1 million annually," reports CircleID. "Its response illustrates how traffic-based taxation could affect organizations distributing large volumes of data without corresponding commercial revenue."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/1857243/french-lawmakers-back-per-gigabyte-internet-traffic-tax?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Recycling ANSI Art: Tracing the Origins of BBS Logon Screens
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2026-11-01 01:22:02


BBS-era "door" games are preserved by the site Break Into Chat, along with their history. Now the site's actually traced the origins of several ANSI art screens in the 1980s and "how different people later transformed the original images," starting from one of the most popular bulletin board systems in St. Louis, Missouri.

Slashdot reader Kirkman14 writes:

"Fire Escape" was curator of the authoritative list of bulletin board systems in St. Louis's area code and sysop of the area's most popular board. Like many sysops of that time, Fire Escape enlivened her bulletin board by finding and repurposing older ANSI art. Eventually her BBS had 18 different logon screens in its rotation, many of which featured flames or mushroom clouds or made liberal use of red and yellow.

Break Into Chat follows the trail:

Some, maybe even most, of Fire Escape's logon screens had actually been adapted from old school "public domain" ANSI art drawn in the late 1980s and early 1990s by folks such as Michael C. Ling, Lora Ruffner (aka "Ebony Eyes") and Violet Stymacks.... Stymacks was unusually generous with her ANSI art. When she first began drawing, she combed through Fidonet node lists looking for bulletin boards with interesting or inspiring names. When she found one, she would draw an ANSI screen that fit the board's theme, then send it to the sysop. Eventually, sysops began seeking her out, too. By late 1990, she claimed that 500 bulletin boards were using her screens. Three years later, that total had tripled, according to Boardwatch . I believe it — I have located more than 1,100 of her pieces so far. She was so prolific that it would be surprising if she hadn't reused or remixed her own work over the years...

[D]id they intend for other people to do so? Or would they have considered such borrowing or adapting as "ripping" or just plain "stealing"? These questions have dogged the BBS, ASCII art, and ANSI art scenes from the beginning. A freelance writer named Patrick Grote grappled with this ethical dilemma in 1990. He had begun to publish archives of ANSI art that he had collected from various public messageboards and networks. But what were people allowed to do with the ANSI screens in these collections? Was it okay to modify them? "Tough call," Grote said. "I know some people copyright their screens by inserting a little '(C)' on it," Grote wrote in a README file included in these collections. "Is this 'true' copyrighting? I would say yes, but then again, I don't feel like having any legal action taken against me for using an ANSI screen. In my opinion, I would say leave the ones that say '(C)' alone, but make every effort to contact the artist and ask for permission...."

When I corresponded with Fire Escape this year, she admitted her memory wasn't what it used to be, but felt certain that she had not asked any artists for permission because she didn't know who they were or how to reach them. "I figured if anyone had an issue, I'd just remove the screen," she said.
"But no one ever said anything about it."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/2038237/recycling-ansi-art-tracing-the-origins-of-bbs-logon-screens?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Computer Simulations Suggest Building Blocks of Life Didn't Arrive on Prehistoric Comets
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2026-11-01 02:22:01


CNN reports:

The popular theory that comets were crucial in kick-starting life on Earth billions of years ago may not hold up, according to new computer simulations that counter decades of scientific thinking. The finding suggests the fragile organic molecules supposedly carried by the icy objects would have been destroyed on impact, upending an established origin of life theory that dates back to at least 1961 [with earlier versions postulated in 1908]...

Early in its history — over 4 billion years ago — Earth may have experienced a period of heavy bombardment from more than 100,000 comets larger than 100 meters (328 feet), according to the new study, published Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports. Those impacts, however, were mostly too heavy for life-starting molecules to withstand. The team used the latest models of comet formation and evolution to simulate this early planetary period 100,000 times. "Given what we know about surface environments on the early Earth, on average, our simulations found that there were no successful impacts," said lead study author Richard Anslow, who conducted the research while completing his doctorate at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom... "The typical velocities of these comets when they impact the Earth meant that actually very few, if any, would have been able to deliver intact organic molecules, so comets actually don't seem to be as useful for prebiotic chemistry as was previously thought," Anslow said.

More precisely, 54% of the simulations showed no impact at all, while the remaining 46% had at least one and a "tiny minority" returned up to three collisions, Anslow said. "We can't rule out confidently that there was never a successful impact — there could have been one of these fluke impacts." However, such flukes had to occur in a "perfect location" that already met several important conditions, including the presence of liquid water and other chemicals needed to support life. That combination makes the overall process unlikely, he added.
The article notes his argument that even if a successful impact occurred, it's unlikely an important chemical like hydrogen cyanide (HCN) could survive the impact, and would've dissolved in an ocean impact. Plus, "many other precursor molecules are also needed, such as compounds that contain phosphorus and sulfur, but these are not routinely found in comets, Anslow said."

An alternative cosmic source of organic material could have been asteroids, which typically struck Earth more slowly and in greater numbers. Anslow pointed to recent findings on samples from asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, which contain the majority of protein-building amino acids. The recent study also raises another intriguing possibility: While Earth may not have had the ideal conditions to foster HCN from comet impacts, ancient Mars might have been better suited. "Because Mars is much smaller than Earth and further away from the sun, the typical impact velocity of comets is much lower, so while these impacts on Earth were destroying most of the HCN, this wasn't the case so much for Mars," Anslow said. This idea could add another dimension to the long-standing question of whether the red planet once supported life.

While the authors closely analyzed how HCN could have survived comet impact, the chemical may have undergone reactions before the icy bodies entered Earth's atmosphere, said Queenie Chan, an associate professor of Earth sciences at Royal Holloway University of London, who was not involved with the study. This process could have created biologically important compounds, such as those protein building blocks, that are less volatile and more likely to survive.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/2142240/computer-simulations-suggest-building-blocks-of-life-didnt-arrive-on-prehistoric-comets?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Binance Replenishes 90% of Stolen $6.3B, Pledges They'll Cover It All, Reopen Sunday
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2026-11-01 06:22:01


"We've now replenished 90% of the stolen assets, and we're committed to covering the remaining 10%," Binance co-CEO Richard Teng posted on X, adding that "Our users will not bear the financial impact of this incident."

"Binance said it was able to replace the funds taken in the record hack by using company money to buy new tokens," reports NBC News:

The remaining 10% consists of tokens that are less liquid, meaning they may take longer to buy, it said in a statement posted on X... Binance said it has set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses. The money spent re-buying tokens came from using part of its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users, a bitcoin reserve it holds to protect customers in the event of security breaches, as well as some of its Futures Insurance Fund, and the company's own corporate treasury, it said on X.

NBC News reports that the FBI blames the breach on a North Korea-sponsored group known as TraderTraitor:

Members of [TraderTraitor] were observed by law enforcement converting stolen assets into the cryptocurrency ethereum, the FBI said in a statement, adding that it expects "further laundering" of the assets through the use of related technology... After the hack, the exchange stopped allowing customers to withdraw their funds, but it said Saturday it was still on track to reopen withdrawals Sunday.

CNBC reports:

The world's largest crypto exchange initially said the hack may involve "a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions." However, Co-CEO Richard Teng later said the attack involved a more complex process rather than the misuse of a single engineer's permissions.

The New York Times describes what happened when Binance first spotted "a multibillion-dollar deluge of digital coins" pouring out of its accounts:

As the news spread, Binance's top executives put together an informal war room on Wea, the company's internal messaging system, with about 100 participants, including specialized cryptocurrency tracers and security personnel. They eventually transitioned to a mass conference call, with 100 boxes on the screen, where employees took turns muting and then unmuting, communicating in a mixture of English and Chinese. Among them was He Yi, Binance's co-chief executive, who is seven months pregnant, and worked through the night from her base in Abu Dhabi, taking a call at 3 a.m. local time....

Much of the drama played out in public. Almost all crypto transactions are recorded on the blockchain, a ledger of money movements that anyone can look up. That meant crypto analysts could see funds leaving Binance in real time... North Koreans have targeted crypto companies for years, using the proceeds of those thefts to fund its nuclear program, according to Western officials. The hackers have developed increasingly complex strategies to steal crypto and launder the proceeds, a painstaking endeavor that can take months to complete. In a blog post on Friday, Chainalysis said the attackers had deployed "laundering patterns we have not seen before," conducting thousands of transactions over a short period, probably with the help of automation.

At the same time, Binance's colleagues in the industry mobilized to intercept some of the laundered crypto. Certain digital coin issuers can freeze funds, allowing them to halt a money-laundering operation in its tracks. Soon after the hack, Tether and Circle, two major issuers, announced that they had frozen stashes of their own coins that the hackers had seized from Binance, a combined total of more than $2 billion in crypto. Binance is now working to gain access to those funds, the company said. But $2.4 billion in crypto is already "beyond any issuer's reach," according to [blockchain intelligence firmm] TRM.

The article also includes President Trump's reaction when asked Friday about the breach. "I've always felt it was a little bit dangerous. But they say they have it pretty much under control. We'll see."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/11/01/0129237/binance-replenishes-90-of-stolen-63b-pledges-theyll-cover-it-all-reopen-sunday?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Xbox Manager: AI Already Being Used In Xbox Game Development - And Throughout the Game Industry
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2026-11-01 09:22:01


Should generative AI be used for videogame development? Brandon Stirrup, a strategy manager at Xbox, claims Xbox is already using AI, reports Engadget. And he also says that those who say they aren't are merely "pretending."

Stirrup deactivated his social media account shortly after (though his posts have been archived elsewhere), igniting conversations about what role generative AI actually has or should have in game development. In some ways, it would be unsurprising to learn that Xbox is using AI to the extent that Stirrup implies. Xbox recently announced the formation of Xbox Labs at least in part as a response to a rising trend of AI-coded game ports; the announcement heavily implied that the new team would use AI as well but didn't say it outright. Xbox owner Microsoft is also a major player in AI development... Developers including Capcom, Square Enix, Sega, Nexon and Activision have all either used AI in their games or pledged to do so. Fortnite developer Epic Games has been particularly up-front about its AI use, and CEO Tim Sweeney has aggressively promoted it on social media...

On the other hand, there are large pockets of the game industry vocally opposed to generative AI. Notably, these tend to be smaller, independent studios without shareholders to impress by touting the cost-savings of AI. These studios include Tunic publisher Finji, Stardew Valley developer ConcernedApe and Clickolding developer Strange Scaffold, among many more. Due to the sheer number and variety of game studios, it's impossible to say just how much of the industry actually uses AI at this point, but claims that "everyone" is using it are clearly false.

There's a similar divide among players about whether generative AI should be embraced or avoided at all costs. While some simply accept AI as part of games going forward, others have pledged to avoid games that use the technology outright due to its environmental costs, labor issues or pure aesthetic preference. That's led to the popularity of tools like a browser extension that makes Steam's AI disclosures more visible and grassroots efforts by developers to implement labels certifying their games as AI-free... Many players and developers alike justify the use of AI in generating code, even if they're opposed to it in other areas.

"Gaming is the only industry slow-walking the transition," Xbox's Stirrup allegedly said, "because users have negative sentiment. Everyone else accepts reality."

"Gaming is the only industry pretending to not use AI."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/11/01/0431200/xbox-manager-ai-already-being-used-in-xbox-game-development---and-throughout-the-game-industry?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] America's Clocks Are Still Falling Back Tonight Despite Trump's Daylight Saving Push
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2026-11-01 12:22:01


Clocks "fall back" one hour tonight to end Daylight Saving Time — though many Americans want to end the twice-yearly clock change, reports Axios.

But the U.S. Congress "remains deadlocked about how to make that happen."

The clocks are falling back despite a bipartisan House vote in July to make daylight saving time permanent and Trump's subsequent push for Senate action... While most Americans want to end the twice-yearly clock changes, they don't necessarily favor Trump's solution. Gallup found 48% of Americans support permanent standard time the entire year, compared with 24% who prefer permanent daylight saving time, as Trump wants... In 1974, the U.S. experimented with year-round daylight saving time but reversed course amid concerns about children going to school in the dark>.

Experts still debate whether permanent DST is good for people. Supporters argue that permanent daylight saving time would provide more afternoon and evening sunlight, encouraging outdoor activities. But sleep experts warn that darker mornings and lighter evenings can disrupt sleep cycles, while permanent daylight saving time could force millions of children to travel to school in the dark. The bottom line: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says it prefers permanent standard time because it better aligns with natural sleep cycles.

"Hawaii and most of Arizona don't observe daylight saving time, so their clocks won't change," the article points out, adding that eliminating it for the rest of America "still faces opposition in the Senate and isn't expected to be considered by the end of the year.

But "the upcoming midterms could change the balance of power in Congress, potentially shifting the debate."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/2356208/americas-clocks-are-still-falling-back-tonight-despite-trumps-daylight-saving-push?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Meta Discussed 'Whisper Strategy' to Discredit Social Media Critic Jonathan Haidt, Files Show
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2026-11-01 16:22:01


The Guardian reports:
Meta staff discussed deploying a "whisper strategy" to undermine the influential US academic whose work has inspired a global social media crackdown, according to court documents. Employees at the parent group of Facebook and Instagram sought to discredit Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation, a book that helped tip the debate about online safety towards more stringent measures such as the under-16 ban in Australia.

Minutes of internal meetings contained in a recent legal filing in the US showed that staff discussed how to "get the academic community to disavow Haidt". They appear in a document titled "Well-being Meeting Sound-check Notes", which refers to discussions of how Meta could "turn other academics against Haidt" and to a "whisper strategy" aimed at achieving that goal. It also mentions "debunking" his work. Minutes from a meeting on 8 March 2023 mention "Curtiss", an apparent reference to Meta's then vice-president of research, Curtiss Cobb. It states: "Curtiss's goal for this work: how do we get the academic community to disavow Haidt. Can't co-opt them, so how do we enrage them ... so the media finds him not credible."

It then adds: "Not thinking about this as a loud strategy. A below-the-line campaign...."

The minutes were produced before Haidt published his book in 2024 and discuss responding to a Substack post written by the academic in which he reviews "a bunch of articles".

"It is not clear whether Meta acted on the ideas outlined in the minutes."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/0559203/meta-discussed-whisper-strategy-to-discredit-social-media-critic-jonathan-haidt-files-show?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Amid AI Bans, Microsoft and OpenAI Plan a 'Joyful' Hour of AI for Kids
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2026-11-01 20:22:01


Generative AI was recently banned in America's two largest school districts, just weeks after OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens.

But forging ahead, tech-backed nonprofit Code.org — now renamed CodeAI — has named OpenAI the "Lead Partner" for its 2026 Hour of AI (which last year replaced its signature event, "the Hour of Code"). Long-time Slashdot reader theodp explains:
In August, OpenAI announced a new signature partnership with CodeAI to "prepare the first AI generation", explaining that "through the Hour of AI, OpenAI and CodeAI will introduce millions of students to the basics of using AI thoughtfully and responsibly." The updated Hour of AI website also listed OpenAI's investor/partner Microsoft as one of two "supporters" for the Hour of AI. Now, Microsoft is calling all K-12 teachers around the globe to register for What's working now: Making AI literacy joyful for every learner, a November 17th Microsoft Teams webinar where it will unveil its Minecraft-branded "Hour of AI experience."

"Discover how AI literacy can be engaging, approachable, and joyful for students... and hear practical ideas from educators bringing AI learning into their schools and classrooms."

Speakers include a marketing lead for Microsoft's AI training initiative plus the head of marketing for Microsoft Minecraft Education.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/11/01/0211213/amid-ai-bans-microsoft-and-openai-plan-a-joyful-hour-of-ai-for-kids?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] College Students are Pushing Colleges to 'De-Flock'
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2026-11-01 21:22:02


Inside Higher Ed reports:

In September, Emory University removed a dozen license plate-reading cameras from its campus in Atlanta and declined to renew its contract with Flock Safety, the company that sells and operates the automatic license plate readers and other mass-surveillance technology. For the coalition of Emory students and employees who had spent months pushing the university to "de-Flock," this was a victory... "We made it very clear that these cameras were unneeded surveillance considering we already have regular security cameras," [said Tony Torres, a sophomore biology major]...

Through campus protests, petitions, meetings and teach-ins during the spring and summer, DeFlock Emory broadcast their concerns about the devices: Opaque data-sharing agreements could leave undocumented students vulnerable, the cameras could be hacked, institutions could use them to retaliate against student protesters and they could make students who fear being surveilled less likely go to class, see their friends or seek medical attention when they need it.

Such concerns aren't unique to DeFlock Emory. College students across the country — including at Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Florida and the University of North Georgia — are mobilizing to de-Flock their campuses. And like Emory, other institutions are nixing their contracts. Cornell University announced last week it had not renewed its contract with Flock Safety and would be removing the cameras. Pennsylvania State University officials also announced earlier this month plans to end their contract with Flock.

An Emory spokesperson told Inside Higher Edthat eliminating Flock's cameras "retains institutional control over our safety infrastructure."

But the article also includes a quote from media/technology studies professor Torin Monahan at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He's spoken with campus police officers about how they're using Flock's cameras, and learned police departments have upgraded surveillance efforts in recent years. "They have an elaborate arsenal in place of high-tech surveillance equipment that really seems overpowered for what their day-to-day needs are, and also incredibly expensive."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/0250246/college-students-are-pushing-colleges-to-de-flock?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Which Tech Companies Started Using Trump's Phrase 'Super Intelligence'?
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2026-11-01 22:22:01


CNBC reports:

A month after President Donald Trump ordered that "super intelligence" replace the term artificial intelligence within executive branch departments and agencies, his leading tech allies, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, followed suit on earnings calls. Their fellow tech CEOs were less eager to do the same... SpaceX and Tesla adhered to Trump's wishes on earnings calls last week after Musk, earlier in October, changed the name of his rocket company's AI division to SpaceXSI. Speaking on Tesla's call about his work on humanoid robots, Musk said, "Some of them look very impressive, but they're not really using any kind of advanced AI or SI." Zuckerberg was equally compliant on Meta's earnings call on Oct. 21, emphasizing his company's "goal of delivering personal superintelligence to everyone." However, Meta was already using the term, having created a unit called Meta Superintelligence Labs last year....

[Some other tech CEOs are holding out.] Amazon CEO Andy Jassy peppered his call with use of "AI" on Thursday, uttering the abbreviation well over a dozen times in his introductory remarks. A day earlier, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said one of the company's three points of focus is "designing AI to empower people." And Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was seconds into his quarterly earnings commentary when he said the search giant's "AI investments are driving increased usage and overall user growth...."

Trump's preferred term is seeping into other correspondence and documents. Microsoft's annual report, filed last week, included eight mentions of "super intelligence," starting at the top of the letter to shareholders...
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who didn't attend Trump's September lunch, used "SI" alongside "AI" during his company's earnings call last week.... Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of chipmaker Intel, said Thursday the supply shortage the chip industry is navigating has been "driven by the unprecedented demand for super intelligence."

Some in the tech industry have been explicit in their support of Trump's terminology ahead of their forthcoming earnings reports next month. Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora repeatedly referred to "SI" on CNBC, and posted on X on Sept. 30, "The meeting at the WH on SI was an epic moment...." Like Arora, [Nvidia CEO Jensen] Huang took to X after last month's AI meeting to praise the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/10/31/0615204/which-tech-companies-started-using-trumps-phrase-super-intelligence?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] AI Makes Linux 7.4 Merge Window the Largest in Kernel History
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2026-11-02 00:22:01


"On a Git commit basis, the Linux 7.4 merge window has been the busiest on record," writes Phoronix," with 19,671 commits since Linux 7.3:

As of this morning in Linux Git ahead of v7.4-rc1, the kernel source tree is up to 41,605,120 lines. That's from 5,193,578 blank lines, 4,993,604 lines of comments, and 31,417,938 lines of detected code. Or nearly half a million lines of code added during the Linux 7.4 merge window, ignoring comments and blank lines [as detected by cloc ].

A historical graph of commits shows a clear spike for Linux 7.4, which Phoronix argues shows the definite recent uptick due to AI/LLM activity."

With Linux kernel maintainers being "completely overwhelmed" due to both AI generated bug reports and patches/fixes, the Git commit activity has been surging as a result... The upward trend has continued building the past several kernel releases. Typically the merge windows saw 13~14k commits or less and now we are pushing 20k....
Linux 6.14: 10,034
Linux 6.15: 13,568
Linux 6.16: 13,805
Linux 6.17: 12,289
Linux 6.18: 12,910
Linux 6.19: 13,229
Linux 7.0: 12,468
Linux 7.1: 13,963
Linux 7.2: 14,395
Linux 7.3: 16,267
Linux 7.4: 19,671

And "we could still see a few more trickle in today for Linux 7.4 ahead of the expected Linux 7.4-rc1 kernel release later in the day."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/11/01/2012246/ai-makes-linux-74-merge-window-the-largest-in-kernel-history?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Religious Exemption from Using AI in Workplace Granted to Humanist
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2026-11-02 02:22:02


"David Durman, a nontheistic humanist, recently secured a religious exemption from using AI in the workplace," reports TechCrunch.

Durman, a University of Kentucky administrator, told TechCrunch that humanism centers on "human well-being and flourishing, both individually and collectively ... and implores a person to try to improve both their well-being and their flourishing as well as the others around them."
He believes that using the technology runs counter to his beliefs. "The way we become moral actors for ourselves and for others is through the active application of our minds, and the diminishing of that [through AI use] is going to necessarily have a negative impact on our ability to do so," he said, reflecting on how overreliance on AI might affect critical thinking...."

[Humanism] tends to appeal to people who are skeptical of a god or other supernatural power yet still seek a scientific and moral framework to ground themselves in. [Alexandria Huiskens, staff attorney at the American Humanist Association, told TechCrunch] "Concern about AI and human dignity can run through several different faiths and traditions, whether that's Catholic teachings, or Universalism, or Humanism, and we want Humanists or nontheists to know that they fall into these categories — that they are also protected by the law at work...."

In Durman's administrative role, in which he supports researchers applying for grants, he has not been required to use AI at work. Like many workers across fields, some of his colleagues and leadership have recommended that employees try out these tools, so he sought to secure his exemption now, in case the suggestion becomes a mandate in the future. "I hope that if [others] have similar feelings, that they feel encouraged to pursue some kind of resolution," Durman said.

A University of Kentucky spokesperson told TechCrunch they "determined that an accommodation could be provided while allowing the employee to continue performing the essential functions of their position." (They added that "As technology and job responsibilities evolve, accommodations may be reviewed to ensure they remain reasonable and workable.")

[ Read more of this story ]( https://slashdot.org/story/26/11/01/2130258/religious-exemption-from-using-ai-in-workplace-granted-to-humanist?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] SystemD's Creator Opens Signups for Private Preview of Amutable's Cryptographically Verified Linux Systems
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2026-11-02 03:22:02


SystemD creator Lennart Poettering left Red Hat for Microsoft in 2022, but 10 months ago left to co-found Amutable a company that aims to build cryptographically verified Linux systems that stay trusted over time.

It's FOSS calls it "a read-only, image-based system where every machine produces signed reports of its own state" — and signups are now open for a private preview:

Before announcing this Linux-based implementation, Amutable had released two open source tools. tine, a Buck2-based build system that composes OS images; available under MPL-2.0, and Quarry, a TUF-based tool that distributes those images to machines; available under Apache-2.0. What Amutable Foundations brings to the table is a service where Amutable runs the images, update repositories, control plane and vulnerability fixes for organizations and individuals who operate their own systems.

No license has been stated for those company-run parts, and the preview announcement does not say how much of Foundations beyond tine and Quarry will be open source. Software and configuration both ship as signed images, and a machine boots only what is signed. Because there is no package manager and no SSH or interactive shell, a change means giving every machine in your fleet a new signed image.

Its images are reproducible, come with a software bill of materials (SBOM) and are built from pinned inputs of whichever distribution you pick, with tine being able to import packages from Fedora or CentOS Stream. Each machine sends a signed report that records what it booted, from the firmware and boot loader up to the kernel and OS, plus the configuration it runs... Amutable's control plane verifies reports from systemd-report, an experimental command in systemd 260 that the company helped build. It compares each one with the declared state and flags machines that deviate. A rollout only continues while machines can show they are in a good state...

Amutable is signup formlooking for teams that manage Linux fleets and need to show what state each machine is in. It expects to start bringing the first 'design partners,' as it calls them, on board over the coming weeks.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/11/01/229250/systemds-creator-opens-signups-for-private-preview-of-amutables-cryptographically-verified-linux-systems?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Toyota's EV Sales More Than Doubled In a Year, While Its Gas Car Sales Dropped 20% In China
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2026-11-02 04:22:01


Toyota's EV sales have jumped 127% through September, reports Electrek:

Including Lexus, Toyota sold 309,766 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) globally through the first nine months of 2026, up 127.4% from the same period last year. Except for January (+87.5%), Toyota's EV sales have more than doubled every month this year compared with 2025...
While its EVs are catching on, Toyota Motor's global sales fell for the third straight month in September. Toyota sold 860,107 vehicles in September, down 2.2% from the previous year. The company said that although overall demand remained steady, sales in China fell, leading to lower overall sales than last year. Through September, Toyota sold 7.51 million vehicles globally, down 3.4%. In China, Toyota's sales plunged nearly 20%, marking its eighth consecutive month with lower sales. Toyota said the overall market in China "remained weak due in part to rising gasoline prices, while the market for gasoline vehicles and hybrid vehicles was particularly affected," resulting in lower sales. In the first nine months of 2026, Toyota sold just over 1.05 million vehicles in China, 18.9% fewer than in the same period last year... After the US, China is Toyota's second-largest market.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/11/01/2333233/toyotas-ev-sales-more-than-doubled-in-a-year-while-its-gas-car-sales-dropped-20-in-china?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Stack Overflow: 'Reports of Our Death are Greatly Exaggerated'
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2026-11-02 05:22:01


Stack Overflow's senior VP of community says predictions of their demise "make for compelling headlines, but they confuse a change in how people access knowledge with the disappearance of the knowledge — and the company — behind it.

AI has changed developer behavior. In our recently released 2026 Developer Survey, 64% of respondents said they visit Stack Overflow less frequently for simple questions. But developers also report asking more advanced questions and visiting the site to verify AI-generated answers. Stack Overflow remains a place where people can challenge assumptions, compare approaches, and validate solutions.

But it's also important to understand that our public Q&A site is only one part of Stack Overflow, the company. The knowledge created on the Q&A site helps power the AI ecosystem itself. Stack Overflow's human-validated content is used to train and improve models, strengthen retrieval systems, and make AI assistants and other tools more reliable. Developers and technologists may encounter an answer through a different interface — such as their IDE — but the underlying knowledge may still have begun the same way it did in the past: with a developer sharing what they learned on Stack Overflow.

We're also building for what comes next. We recently launched the beta of Stack Overflow for Agents, an API-first knowledge exchange where agents can share knowledge and verify solutions. We also brought back Developer Story, giving developers a verifiable way to showcase their expertise, accomplishments, and contributions beyond a traditional résumé. And we have much more planned and in development to give people compelling new reasons to visit the site beyond Q&A.

Several years ago, we pivoted aggressively toward the enterprise. In September, we launched the next generation of Stack Internal, our governed AI context layer for companies. It captures and curates organizational knowledge, adds provenance and trust signals, and brings in subject-matter experts when validation is needed. The goal is straightforward: to make sure employees and AI agents are working from accurate, current, permission-aware information — not confidently acting on whatever context happens to be nearby.

That is the thread connecting everything we do: making human knowledge useful and trustworthy, whether it is being consumed by another developer, an enterprise team, or an AI agent. Stack Overflow is not standing still, and it is not disappearing. We are evolving from a website people visit for answers into knowledge infrastructure that supports developers, companies, and AI systems wherever they work. Reports of our death are, indeed, exaggerated.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://developers.slashdot.org/story/26/11/02/0026255/stack-overflow-reports-of-our-death-are-greatly-exaggerated?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Binance Reopens to $3.64 in Net Outflows. '98% Choose to Stay', Says Its Founder
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2026-11-02 06:22:03


Binance now says it's replenished 90% of assets stolen last week in a $6.3 billion security breach, its customers still "rushed to move funds off the platform" when it reopened Sunday, CNBC reports, and Binance "said it recorded $3.64 billion in net outflows after reopening withdrawals on Sunday."

The exchange processed $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. UTC on Nov. 1, Binance said in a post on X. The resulting net outflows represented 2.1% of Binance's $171 billion in total assets, based on its latest available proof-of-reserves data as of Oct. 28. Binance said withdrawal volumes had declined and were stabilizing following an initial spike, while deposit volumes remained substantial.
The exchange began restoring withdrawals in phases at 6 a.m. UTC on Sunday, with services resuming across all 15 networks and assets included in the initial phase by 12:36 p.m. UTC. It said testing was continuing for the remaining networks and assets.

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao sought to reassure users following the breach, writing on X that "98% choose to stay!" He said most of the net outflows occurred within the first couple of hours after withdrawals resumed.

[ Read more of this story ]( https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/11/02/0159222/binance-reopens-to-364-in-net-outflows-98-choose-to-stay-says-its-founder?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

[>] Experts Expect 'Security Reckoning' As AI Tools Find And Exploit Software Bugs
bot.slashdot
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2026-11-02 07:22:02


The Washington Post reports:

Tens of thousands of South Koreans had their financial data exposed online in recent weeks after at least nine major banks there suffered cyberattacks that suggested a dark future for online security. One man, a 26-year-old living in southern China, was allegedly behind the attacks, according to an investigation by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Traces left online and failure to secure his own systems allowed investigators to piece together the man's name, age, location and what he allegedly did. The clues revealed that the devastating assault on some of Asia's most sophisticated financial institutions was the work of an amateur. The attacks were launched with help from a few artificial intelligence chatbots, CrowdStrike found, before asking one to help sell the stolen data online and draft a fake résumé touting cybersecurity skills...

The hacker who broke into the South Korean banks had access to Anthropic's Claude, but because the U.S. firm's tools generally refuse to take illegal actions, free Chinese models were also used, including DeepSeek, CrowdStrike found. "The models are interchangeable," said Meyers, the CrowdStrike executive.

The Post calls it "part of a wave of AI-enabled hacking that is advancing across the world, triggering alarm inside national governments as well as multinational companies."

"Basically any pedestrian, non-hacker can take these frameworks and start leveraging them to go after different targets," said Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike. The company has tracked an increase in the speed with which cyberattacks can move once inside a target's networks, as seasoned hackers and rank amateurs alike get a boost from AI tools. "Anyone can be a super-hacker now," Meyers said... Many cyber experts still expect the security reckoning to intensify as AI tools that can find and exploit software bugs become more widely distributed and understood.

[Last] Monday, The Post reported that cybersecurity researchers from the start-up Cathedral who set out to test Anthropic's security found that they could access internal messages and meeting transcripts. Cathedral reported its findings to Anthropic, which said it resolved the newly discovered problems... Security experts say it's unlikely that any hacker is forgoing the use of AI tools right now.
Even in America, critical infrastructure like energy and water companies need to be "immediately and comprehensively" tested for exploitable bugs, according to Snehal Antani, chief executive of cybersecurity company Horizon3. He tells the Post the government might need to fund that remediation, and even form "a public and private partnership to accelerate incident response."

[ Read more of this story ]( https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/11/02/033200/experts-expect-security-reckoning-as-ai-tools-find-and-exploit-software-bugs?utm_source=atom1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed ) at Slashdot.

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