Cisco Updates Networking Products in Bid To Tap AI-Fueled Demand
Cisco is updating its networking and security products to make AI networks speedier and more secure, part of a broader push to capitalize on the AI spending boom. From a report: A new generation of switches – networking equipment that links computer systems – will offer a 10-fold improvement in performance, the company said on Tuesday. That wil … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Warn Against Attempts To Change Definition of ‘Forever Chemicals’
A group of 20 internationally renowned scientists have issued a strong warning against attempts to narrow the definition of “forever chemicals” in what they describe as a politically or economically motivated effort to weaken regulation of the potentially harmful chemicals. From a report: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substanc … ⌘ Read more

New Grads Join Worst Entry-Level Job Market in Years
The Class of 2025 is encountering the worst entry-level job market in years with unemployment among recent degree-holders aged 22 to 27 reaching 5.8% this spring – the highest level in approximately four years and well above the national average. According to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data, 85% of the unemployment rate increase since mid-2023 stems from new labor mar … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Taps Google in Unprecedented Cloud Deal Despite AI Rivalry
OpenAI plans to add Alphabet’s Google cloud service to meet its growing needs for computing capacity, Reuters reported Tuesday, marking a surprising collaboration between two prominent competitors in the AI race. From the report: The deal, which has been under discussion for a few months, was finalized in May, one of the sources added. It under … ⌘ Read more

New Code.org Curriculum Aims To Make Schoolkids Python-Literate and AI-Ready
Longtime Slashdot reader theodp writes: The old Code.org curriculum page for middle and high school students has been changed to include a new Python Lab in the tech-backed nonprofit’s K-12 offerings. Elsewhere on the site, a Computer Science and AI Foundations curriculum is described that includes units on ‘Foundatio … ⌘ Read more

Meta Is Creating a New AI Lab To Pursue ‘Superintelligence’
Meta is preparing to unveil a new AI research lab dedicated to pursuing “superintelligence,” a hypothetical A.I. system that exceeds the powers of the human brain, as the tech giant jockeys to stay competitive in the technology race, New York Times reported Tuesday, citing four people with the knowledge of the company’s plans. From the report: Meta has tappe … ⌘ Read more

Second New Glenn Launch Slips Toward Fall As Program Leadership Departs
Blue Origin is falling far short of its goal to launch the New Glenn rocket eight times in 2025, with its second flight now delayed until at least mid-August. Key leadership changes were also announced, including the departure of the New Glenn program head, as the company faces pressure to increase launch cadence and compete with … ⌘ Read more

FAA To Eliminate Floppy Disks Used In Air Traffic Control Systems
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom’s Hardware: The head of the Federal Aviation Administration just outlined an ambitious goal to upgrade the U.S.’s air traffic control (ATC) system and bring it into the 21st century. According to NPR, most ATC towers and other facilities today feel like they’re stuck in the 20th century, with con … ⌘ Read more

If India Chokes Less, It Will Fry More
South Asia has warmed far more slowly than the rest of the world over the past four decades with temperatures rising just 0.09C per decade compared to 0.30C elsewhere on land, according to new climate research. Scientists believe this “warming hole” results from two factors that have masked the true impact of global warming: heavy aerosol pollution that reflects sunlight back to space and expanded … ⌘ Read more

ICANN Waves Hands in Protest at AFRINIC Election Arrangement
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has called for changes to the roster of officials appointed to oversee the forthcoming election at the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), the latest twist in a conflict that stretches back years and has left the African regional internet registry in limbo. From a report: AFRINIC i … ⌘ Read more

Apple’s macOS Tahoe To Be Final OS To Work On Intel Macs
Apple’s new macOS Tahoe 26 will be the final Mac operating system software that will work on Macs running Intel processors [non-paywalled source], the company said Monday following its developer conference. From a report: The announcement marks the beginning of the end of support for the legacy systems based on Intel’s chips, which Apple first shipped about 20 … ⌘ Read more

Apple Will End Support For Intel Macs Next Year
Apple announced that macOS 26 “Tahoe” will be the final version to support Intel-based Macs, with future macOS releases running exclusively on Apple Silicon devices (that is, 2020 M1 models and newer). They will, however, continue to receive security updates for a few more years. 9to5Mac reports: In some ways, Apple has already stopped supporting some non-Apple Silicon models of … ⌘ Read more

Ohio University Says All Students Will Be Required To Train and ‘Be Fluent’ In AI
Ohio State University is launching a campus-wide AI fluency initiative requiring all students to integrate AI into their studies, aiming to make them proficient in both their major and the responsible use of AI. “Ohio State has an opportunity and responsibility to prepare students to not just keep up, but lead in t … ⌘ Read more

Warner Bros. Discovery Splits Streaming From Cable TV
Warner Bros Discovery will split into two separate publicly traded companies – one focused on its studios and streaming assets like HBO, DC Studios, and HBO Max, and the other on its declining cable networks including CNN and TNT Sports. The move, which unwinds the 2022 WarnerMedia-Discovery merger, is expected by mid-2026 and is “the latest unraveling of dec … ⌘ Read more

Apple Lets Developers Tap Into Its Offline AI Models
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple is launching what it calls the Foundation Models framework, which the company says will let developers tap into its AI models in an offline, on-device fashion. Onstage at WWDC 2025 on Monday, Apple VP of software engineering Craig Federighi said that the Foundation Models framework will let apps use on-device A … ⌘ Read more

Apple Unveils a Dedicated Games App
At WWDC 2025, Apple announced a new dedicated Games app coming to Mac, iPhone, and iPad with features like leaderboards, matchmaking, and integration with Apple Arcade. Engadget’s Jessica Conditt describes it as “a revamp of Game Center” that behaves “more like a modern gaming hub, a la Xbox or GOG Galaxy.” From the report: You can see what your friends are playing and challenge them to specific feats … ⌘ Read more

China Shuts Down AI Tools During Nationwide College Exams
According to Bloomberg, several major Chinese AI companies, including Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent, have temporarily disabled certain chatbot features during the gaokao college entrance exams to prevent cheating. “Popular AI apps, including Alibaba’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Doubao, have stopped picture recognition features from responding to questions about te … ⌘ Read more

Apple Finally Brings Mac-like Windowing and Menu Bar To iPad
Apple unveiled iPadOS 26 at its Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, introducing what appears to be the most significant productivity overhaul in the tablet operating system’s history. The update brings dynamically resizable windows that users can drag by their corners, a menu bar accessible through swipe gestures or cursor movement, and Expose for … ⌘ Read more

YouTube Will ‘Protect Free Expression’ By Pulling Back On Content Moderation
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: YouTube videos may be getting a bit more pernicious soon. Google’s dominant video platform has spent years removing discriminatory and conspiracy content from its platform in accordance with its usage guidelines, but the site is now reportedly adopting a lighter-touch app … ⌘ Read more

Seagate’s New 4TB Xbox Expansion Card Costs More Than the Xbox Series S
An anonymous reader shares a report: Seagate has announced a new 4TB version of its storage expansion card for the Xbox Series X and S consoles. It’s the first time the company has introduced a new capacity since launching 2TB and 512GB versions of the expansion card in late 2021.

The 4TB card is available starting today through … ⌘ Read more

Apple’s New Design Language is Liquid Glass
Apple today introduced Liquid Glass, a new design language that brings transparency and glass shine effects across macOS, iPadOS, iOS, and its other software platforms. Alan Dye, Apple’s VP of human interface, described the update as the company’s “broadest design update, ever” and “the first time we’re introducing a universal design across our platforms.”

The design overhaul adds glass … ⌘ Read more

Major US Grocery Distributor Warns of Disruption After Cyberattack
United Natural Foods (UNFI), a major distributor of groceries to Whole Foods and other retailers, said on Monday that it was hit by a cyberattack, warning of disruptions to its ability to fulfill and distribute customer orders. From a report: UNFI said in a Monday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it became aware of … ⌘ Read more

Sea Acidity Has Reached Critical Levels, Threatening Entire Ecosystem
The world’s oceans are in worse health than realised, scientists have said today, as they warn that a key measurement shows we are “running out of time” to protect marine ecosystems. From a report: Ocean acidification, often called the “evil twin” of the climate crisis, is caused when carbon dioxide is rapidly absorbed by the ocean, w … ⌘ Read more

A Researcher Figured Out How To Reveal Any Phone Number Linked To a Google Account
A cybersecurity researcher was able to figure out the phone number linked to any Google account, information that is usually not public and is often sensitive, according to the researcher, Google, and 404 Media’s own tests. From a report: The issue has since been fixed but at the time presented a privacy issue in … ⌘ Read more

Meta in Talks for Scale AI Investment That Could Top $10 Billion
An anonymous reader shares a report: Meta is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment into AI startup Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter. The financing could exceed $10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time.

[…] Scale AI, whose customers … ⌘ Read more

Apple Researchers Challenge AI Reasoning Claims With Controlled Puzzle Tests
Apple researchers have found that state-of-the-art “reasoning” AI models like OpenAI’s o3-mini, Gemini (with thinking mode-enabled), Claude 3.7, DeepSeek-R1 face complete performance collapse [PDF] beyond certain complexity thresholds when tested on controllable puzzle environments. The finding raises questions about th … ⌘ Read more

The Medical Revolutions That Prevented Millions of Cancer Deaths
Vox publishes a story about “the quiet revolutions that have prevented millions of cancer deaths….

“The age-adjusted death rate in the US for cancer has declined by about a third since 1991, meaning people of a given age have about a third lower risk of dying from cancer than people of the same age more than three decades ago… “

The dram … ⌘ Read more

‘AI Is Not Intelligent’: The Atlantic Criticizes ‘Scam’ Underlying the AI Industry
The Atlantic makes that case that “the foundation of the AI industry is a scam” and that AI “is not what its developers are selling it as: a new class of thinking — and, soon, feeling — machines.”

[OpenAI CEO Sam] Altman brags about ChatGPT-4.5’s improved “emotional intelligence,” which he says makes users feel like th … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Show Reforestation Helps Cool the Planet Even More Than Thought
“Replanting forests can help cool the planet even more than some scientists once believed, especially in the tropics,” according to a recent announcement from the University of California, Riverside.

In a new modeling study published in Communications Earth & Environment, researchers at the University of California, Riverside … ⌘ Read more

Caffeine Has a Weird Effect On Your Brain While You’re Asleep
A new study “adds a whole extra level of detail to our understanding of caffeine’s impact on the brain during sleep,” reports ScienceAlert:

Caffeine was shown to increase brain signal complexity, and shift the brain closer to a state of ‘criticality’, in tests run by researchers from the University of Montreal in Canada. This criticality refers to t … ⌘ Read more

UK Renewable Energy Firms are Being Paid Huge Sums to Not Provide Power
The U.K. electricity grid “was built to deliver power generated by coal and gas plants near the country’s major cities and towns,” reports the BBC, “and doesn’t always have sufficient capacity in the wires that carry electricity around the country to get the new renewable electricity generated way out in the wild seas and rural area … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Announces Upcoming Windows-Powered Handheld Xbox Device: the ‘ROG Xbox Ally’
Nintendo’s new Switch 2 console sold a record 3 million units after its launch Thursday. But then today Microsoft announced their own upcoming handheld gaming device that’s Xbox-branded (and Windows-powered).

Working with ASUS’ ROG division, they build a device that weighs more than the Nintendo Switch 2 … ⌘ Read more

NASA Pulls the Plug on Jupiter-Moon Lander, So Scientists Propose Landing It on Saturn
“NASA engineers have spent the past decade developing a rugged, partially autonomous lander designed to explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s most intriguing moons,” reports Gizmodo.

But though NASA “got cold feet over the project,” the engineers behind the project are now suggesting the probe could instea … ⌘ Read more

Mozilla Criticizes Meta’s ‘Invasive’ Feed of Users’ AI Prompts, Demands Its Shutdown
In late April Meta introduced its Meta AI app, which included something called a Discover feed. (“You can see the best prompts people are sharing, or remix them to make them your own.”)
But while Meta insisted “you’re in control: nothing is shared to your feed unless you choose to post it” — just two days later … ⌘ Read more

After ‘AI-First’ Promise, Duolingo CEO Admits ‘I Did Not Expect the Blowback’
Last month, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn “shared on LinkedIn an email he had sent to all staff announcing Duolingo was going ‘AI-first’,” remembers the Financial Times.

“I did not expect the amount of blowback,” he admits….

He attributes this anger to a general “anxiety” about technology replacing jobs. “I should have been more … ⌘ Read more

‘Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.’
The New York Times reports:
California State University announced this year that it was making ChatGPT available to more than 460,000 students across its 23 campuses to help prepare them for “California’s future A.I.-driven economy.” Cal State said the effort would help make the school “the nation’s first and largest A.I.-empowered university system…” Some faculty members have already built cus … ⌘ Read more

‘We Finally May Be Able to Rid the World of Mosquitoes. But Should We?’
It’s no longer a hypothetical question, writes the Washington Post. “In recent years, scientists have devised powerful genetic tools that may be able to eradicate mosquitoes and other pests once and for all.”

But along with the ability to fight malaria, dengue, West Nile virus and other serious diseases, “the development of this tec … ⌘ Read more

Could UK Lawyers Face Life in Prison for Citing Fake AI-Generated Cases?
The Associated Press reports that on Friday, U.K. High Court justice Victoria Sharp and fellow judge Jeremy Johnson ruled on the possibility of false information being submitted to the court. Concerns had been raised by lower-court judges about “suspected use by lawyers of generative AI tools to produce written legal arguments or wi … ⌘ Read more

How False UFO Stories Were Created - Sometimes Deliberately - by the US Military
Last year’s Pentagon report reviewing UFO reports “left out the truth behind some of the foundational myths about UFOs,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“The Pentagon itself sometimes deliberately fanned the flames, in what amounted to the U.S. government targeting its own citizens with disinformation.”

The congr … ⌘ Read more

Russian Spies Are Analyzing Data From China’s WeChat App
An anonymous reader shared this report from The New York Times:

Russian counterintelligence agents are analyzing data from the popular Chinese messaging and social media app WeChat to monitor people who might be in contact with Chinese spies, according to a Russian intelligence document obtained by The New York Times. The disclosure highlights the rising level of … ⌘ Read more

ACLU Accuses California Local Government’s Drones of ‘Runaway Spying Operation’
An anonymous reader shared this report from SFGate about a lawsuit alleging a “warrantless drone surveillance program” that’s “trampling residents’ right to privacy”:

Sonoma County has been accused of deploying hundreds of drone flights over residents in a “runaway spying operation”… according to a lawsuit filed Wedne … ⌘ Read more

Bill Atkinson, Hypercard Creator and Original Mac Team Member, Dies at Age 74
AppleInsider reports:

The engineer behind much of the Mac’s early graphical user interfaces, QuickDraw, MacPaint, Hypercard and much more, William D. “Bill” Atkinson, died on June 5 of complications from pancreatic cancer…
Atkinson, who built a post-Apple career as a noted nature photographer, worked at Apple from 1978 … ⌘ Read more

AI Firms Say They Can’t Respect Copyright. But A Nonprofit’s Researchers Just Built a Copyright-Respecting Dataset
Is copyrighted material a requirement for training AI? asks the Washington Post. That’s what top AI companies are arguing, and “Few AI developers have tried the more ethical route — until now.

“A group of more than two dozen AI researchers have found tha … ⌘ Read more

Nintendo Switch 2 Has Record-Breaking Launch, Selling Over 3 Million Units
TweakTown writes that the Switch 2 “has reportedly beaten the record for the most-sold console within 24 hours and is on track to shatter the two-month record,” selling over 3 million units and tripling the PlayStation 4’s previous launch day sales.
So Nintendo’s first console in 8 years becomes “one of the most successful har … ⌘ Read more

‘King of the Hill’ (and Dale Gribble) Return To TV After 15 Years
Mike Judge always seemed to have secret geek sympathies. He co-created the HBO series Silicon Valley, as well as the movie Office Space (reviewed in 1999 by Slashdot contributor Jon Katz).

Now comes the word that besides rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer — and an animated scifi/action/horror film called Predator: Killer of Killers — Hulu … ⌘ Read more

Student Discovers Long-Awaited Mystery Fungus Sought By LSD’s Inventor
LSD “is used to treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction,” notes Science Daily. And now a microbiology student “has found a long sought-after fungus that produces effects similar to the semisynthetic drug…”

Morning glory plants live in symbiosis with fungi that produce the same ergot alkaloid … ⌘ Read more

Ask Slashdot: How Important Is It For Programmers to Learn Touch Typing?
Once upon a time, long-time Slashdot reader tgibson learned how to type on a manual typewriter, back in an 8th grade classroom.
And to this day, they write, “my bias is to nod approvingly at touch typists and roll my eyes at those who need to stare at the keyboard while typing…” But how true is that for computer professionals toda … ⌘ Read more

‘For Algorithms, a Little Memory Outweighs a Lot of Time’
MIT comp-sci professor Ryan Williams suspected that a small amount of memory “would be as helpful as a lot of time in all conceivable computations…” writes Quanta magazine.

“In February, he finally posted his proof online, to widespread acclaim…”

Every algorithm takes some time to run, and requires some space to store data while it’s running. Until no … ⌘ Read more

Washington Post’s Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta’s Apps (and Yandex)
Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps “were siphoning people’s data through a digital back door for months,” writes a Washington Post tech columnist, citing researchers who found no privacy setting could’ve stopped what Meta and Yandex were doing, since those two companies “circumvented privacy and security protections tha … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic’s AI is Writing Its Own Blog - Oh Wait. No It’s Not
“Everyone has a blog these days, even Claude,” Anthropic wrote this week on a page titled “Claude Explains.”

“Welcome to the small corner of the Anthropic universe where Claude is writing on every topic under the sun”.

Not any more. After blog posts titled “Improve code maintainability with Claude” and “Rapidly develop web applications with Claude” — Anthrop … ⌘ Read more