A 1,300-Pound NASA Spacecraft To Re-Enter Earth’s Atmosphere
Van Allen Probe A, a 1,300-pound (600 kg) NASA satellite launched in 2012 to study Earth’s radiation belts, is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere this week. While most of it is expected to burn up during descent, “some components may survive,” reports the BBC. “The space agency said there is a one in 4,200 chance of being harmed by a piece of the p … ⌘ Read more

After Outages, Amazon To Make Senior Engineers Sign Off On AI-Assisted Changes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Amazon’s ecommerce business has summoned a large group of engineers to a meeting on Tuesday for a “deep dive” into a spate of outages, including incidents tied to the use of AI coding tools. The online retail giant said there had been a “trend of incidents” in rece … ⌘ Read more

Tony Hoare, Turing Award-Winning Computer Scientist Behind QuickSort, Dies At 92
Tony Hoare, the Turing Award-winning pioneer who created the Quicksort algorithm, developed Hoare logic, and advanced theories of concurrency and structured programming, has died at age 92.

News of his passing was shared today in a blog post. The site I Programmer also commemorated Hoare in a post highlighting … ⌘ Read more

Intel Demos Chip To Compute With Encrypted Data
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: Worried that your latest ask to a cloud-based AI reveals a bit too much about you? Want to know your genetic risk of disease without revealing it to the services that compute the answer? There is a way to do computing on encrypted data without ever having it decrypted. It’s called fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE. But ther … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Wins Court Order To Block Perplexity’s AI Shopping Bots
Last November, Amazon sued Perplexity demanding that the AI search startup stop allowing its AI browser agent, Comet, to make purchases for users online. Today, a judge ruled in favor of the tech giant, granting it a temporary court injunction blocking the scraping of Amazon’s website. According to court filings, the judge found strong evidence the too … ⌘ Read more

Silicon Valley Is Buzzing About This New Idea: AI Compute As Compensation
sziring shares a report from Business Insider: Silicon Valley has long competed for talent with ever-richer pay packages built around salary, bonus, and equity. Now, a fourth line item is creeping into the mix: AI inference. As generative AI tools become embedded in software development, the cost of running the underlying models - … ⌘ Read more

AT&T Outlines $250 Billion US Investment Plan To Boost Infrastructure In AI Age
AT&T plans to invest more than $250 billion over the next five years to expand U.S. telecom infrastructure for the AI age. The company says it will also hire thousands of technicians while partnering with AST SpaceMobile to extend coverage to remote areas. Reuters reports: Rapid adoption of artificial intelligence … ⌘ Read more

Ig Nobels Ceremony Moves To Europe Indefinitely, Citing US Safety Concerns
Since 1999, Slashdot has been covering the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremonies – which honor real scientific research into strange or surprising subjects. “After 35 years in Boston, the annual prize ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, this year and will continue to be held in a European city for the foreseeable fu … ⌘ Read more

Oracle Is Walking Away From Expanding Its Stargate Data Center With Oracle
OpenAI is reportedly backing away from expanding its AI data center partnership with Oracle because newer generations of Nvidia GPUs may arrive before the facility is even operational. CNBC reports: Artificial intelligence chips are getting upgraded more quickly than data centers can be built, a market reality that expos … ⌘ Read more

Claude AI Finds Bugs In Microsoft CTO’s 40-Year-Old Apple II Code
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: AI can reverse engineer machine code and find vulnerabilities in ancient legacy architectures, says Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich, who used his own Apple II code from 40 years ago as an example. Russinovich wrote: “We are entering an era of automated, AI-accelerated vulnerability discov … ⌘ Read more

Meta Acquires Moltbook, the Social Network For AI Agents
Axios reports that Meta has acquired Moltbook, the viral, Reddit-like social network designed for AI agents. Humans are welcome, but only to observe. Axios reports: The deal brings Moltbook’s creators – Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr – into Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the unit run by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. Meta did not disclose Moltbook’s purchas … ⌘ Read more

German Publishers Push Regulators To Fine Apple Over App Tracking Transparency
German publishers and advertising groups are urging regulators to fine Apple over its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) system, arguing it unfairly restricts access to advertising data while allowing Apple to remain the central gatekeeper – without subjecting its own apps to the same restrictions. If Germany’s antitrust … ⌘ Read more

EQT Eyes $6 Billion Sale of SUSE
Private equity firm EQT AB is reportedly exploring a sale of SUSE that could value the open-source Linux pioneer at up to $6 billion, roughly doubling the valuation since EQT took the company private in 2023. Reuters reports: EQT “has hired investment bank Arma Partners to sound out a group of private equity investors for a possible sale of the company, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss con … ⌘ Read more

Many International Game Developers Plan To Skip GDC In US
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: This week, tens of thousands of game developers and producers will once again gather in San Francisco, as they have since 1988, for the weeklong Game Developers Conference. But this year’s show will be missing many international developers who say they no longer feel comfortable traveling to the United St … ⌘ Read more

FBI Investigates Breach That May Have Hit Its Wiretapping Tools
The FBI is investigating a breach affecting systems tied to wiretapping and surveillance warrant data, after abnormal logs revealed possible unauthorized access to law-enforcement-sensitive information. “The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond,” a spokesperson … ⌘ Read more

Startup Wants To Launch a Space Mirror
A startup called Reflect Orbital wants to launch thousands of mirror-bearing satellites to reflect sunlight onto Earth at night and “power solar farms after sunset, provide lighting for rescue workers and illuminate city streets, among other things,” reports the New York Times. From the report: It is an idea seemingly out of a sci-fi movie, but the company, Reflect Orbital of Hawthorne, Calif., … ⌘ Read more

European Consortium Wants Open-Source Alternative To Google Play Integrity
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Heise: Pay securely with an Android smartphone, completely without Google services: This is the plan being developed by the newly founded industry consortium led by the German Volla Systeme GmbH. It is an open-source alternative to Google Play Integrity. This proprietary interface decid … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Wants To Let You Vibe Code Your Galaxy Phone Experience
Samsung says it’s thinking about bringing “vibe coding” to future Galaxy phones, allowing users to describe apps or interface changes in plain language and have AI generate the code. TechRadar interviewed Won-Joon Choi, Samsung’s head of mobile experience, to learn more about the plans. Here’s an excerpt from their report: As noted by Won-Joon Ch … ⌘ Read more

EA Lays Off Staff Across All Battlefield Studios Following Record-Breaking Battlefield 6 Launch
Electronic Arts has laid off staff across multiple Battlefield studios despite Battlefield 6 being the best-selling game in the U.S. in 2025 and the “biggest launch in franchise history.” According to IGN, the layoffs include workers at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studi … ⌘ Read more

Live Nation Avoids Ticketmaster Breakup By ‘Open Sourcing’ Their Ticketing Model
Live Nation reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that avoids breaking up its dominant live events empire with Ticketmaster. Instead, the deal requires changes like “open sourcing” their ticketing model and divesting some venues. NBC News reports: The company and the Justice Department reached a set … ⌘ Read more

How AI Assistants Are Moving the Security Goalposts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: AI-based assistants or “agents” – autonomous programs that have access to the user’s computer, files, online services and can automate virtually any task – are growing in popularity with developers and IT workers. But as so many eyebrow-raising headlines over the past few weeks have shown, these powerful and assert … ⌘ Read more

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Is Stepping Down
Bluesky CEO Jay Graber is stepping down after overseeing the platform’s growth from a Twitter research project into a 40-million-user alternative to X. “As Bluesky matures, the company needs a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution, while I return to what I do best: building new things,” Graber wrote in a statement.

She will be transitioning to a new Chief Innovation Officer role wh … ⌘ Read more

Qualcomm’s New Arduino Ventuno Q Is an AI-Focused Computer Designed For Robotics
Qualcomm and Arduino have unveiled the Arduino Ventuno Q, a new AI-focused single-board computer built for robotics and edge systems. Engadget reports: Called the Arduino Ventuno Q, it uses Qualcomm’s Dragonwing IQ8 processor along with a dedicated STM32H5 low-latency microcontroller (MCU). “Ventuno Q is enginee … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Sues the Pentagon After Being Labeled a Threat To National Security
Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense after the Trump administration labeled the company a “supply chain risk” and canceled its government contracts when Anthropic refused to allow its AI model Claude to be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons. Fortune reports: The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. … ⌘ Read more

‘If Lockheed Martin Made a Game Boy, Would You Buy One?’
“If Lockheed Martin made a Game Boy, would you buy one?” That was the [rhetorical] question The Verge’s Sean Hollister asked when he reviewed ModRetro’s Game Boy-style handheld device back in 2024. He said it “might be the best version of the Game Boy ever made,” though the connection to Palmer Luckey and his defense tech startup Anduril left him conflicted. “I … ⌘ Read more

AI Allows Hackers To Identify Anonymous Social Media Accounts, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: AI has made it vastly easier for malicious hackers to identify anonymous social media accounts, a new study has warned. In most test scenarios, large language models (LLMs) – the technology behind platforms such as ChatGPT – successfully matched anonymous online users wit … ⌘ Read more

Swiss Vote Places Right To Use Cash In Country’s Constitution
Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to use physical cash. “The vote means Switzerland will join the likes of Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, which have already written the right to cold, hard cash in their constitutions,” reports Politico. From the report: Official results revealed that 73.4 percent of … ⌘ Read more

US Military Tested Device That May Be Tied To Havana Syndrome On Rats, Sheep
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: Tonight, we have details of a classified U.S. intelligence mission that has obtained a previously unknown weapon that may finally unlock a mystery. Since at least 2016, U.S. diplomats, spies and military officers have suffered crippling brain injuries. They’ve told of being … ⌘ Read more

New SETI Study: Why We Might Have Been Missing Alien Signals
After decades of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, the nonprofit SETI Foundation has an announcement. “A new study by researchers at the SETI Institute suggests stellar ‘space weather’ could make radio signals from extraterrestrial intelligence harder to detect.”
Stellar activity and plasma turbulence near a transmitting planet can broaden a … ⌘ Read more

EFF, Ubuntu and Other Distros Discuss How to Respond to Age-Verification Laws
System76 isn’t the only one criticizing new age-verification laws. The blog 9to5Linux published an “informal” look at other discussions in various Linux communities.

Earlier this week, Ubuntu developer Aaron Rainbolt proposed on the Ubuntu mailing list an optional D-Bus interface (org.freedesktop.AgeVerification1) that … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Just Doubled Our Catalog of Black Hole and Neutron Star Collisions
Colliding black holes were detected through spacetime ripples for the first time in 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), notes Space.com:

Since then, LIGO and its partner gravitational wave detectors Virgo in Italy and KAGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) in Japan have detect … ⌘ Read more

Judges Find AI Doesn’t Have Human Intelligence in Two New Court Cases
Within the last month two U.S> judges have effectively declared AI bots are not human, writes Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik:

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up a lawsuit in which artist and computer scientist Stephen Thaler tried to copyright an artwork that he acknowledged had been created by an AI bot of his … ⌘ Read more

Could Home-Building Robots Help Fix the Housing Crisis?
CNN reports on a company called Automated Architecture (AUAR) which makes “portable” micro-factories that use a robotic arm to produce wooden framing for houses (the walls, floors and roofs):

Co-founder Mollie Claypool says the micro-factories will be able to produce the panels quicker, cheaper and more precisely than a timber framing crew, freeing up carpente … ⌘ Read more

A Security Researcher Went ‘Undercover’ on Moltbook - and Found Security Risks
A long-time information security professional “went undercover” on Moltbook, the Reddit-like social media site for AI agents — and shares the risks they saw while posing as another AI bot:

I successfully masqueraded around Moltbook, as the agents didn’t seem to notice a human among them. When I attempted a genuine connect … ⌘ Read more

Robotic Surgery Performed Remotely on Patient 1,500 Miles Away
“A surgeon in London says he has performed the UK’s first long-distance robotic operation,” reports the BBC, “on a patient located 1,500 miles (2,400km) away…”

Leading robotic urological surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta said it felt “almost as if I was there” as he carried out a prostate removal on [62-year-old] Paul Buxton… It is hoped tha … ⌘ Read more

Steam on Linux Numbers Dropped to 2.23% in February
“In November Steam on Linux use hit an all-time high of 3.2%,” reports Phoronix. And then in December Steam on Linux jumped even higher, to 3.58%.

But January’s numbers settled a little lower, at 3.38%. And last Monday the February numbers were released, showing Steam on Linux at… 2.23%?

Like with prior times where there are wild drops in Linux use, the Steam Survey sh … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Former Research Chief Raises $70M to Automate Manufacturing With AI
“OpenAI’s former chief research officer is raising $70 million for a new startup building an AI and software platform to automate manufacturing,” reports the Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter.

“Arda, the new startup co-founded by Bob McGrew, is raising at a valuation of $700 million, according to pe … ⌘ Read more

2/3 of Node.Js Users Run an Outdated Version. So OpenJS Announces Program Offering Upgrade Providers
How many Node.js users are running unsupported or outdated versions. Roughly two thirds, according to data from Node’s nonprofit steward, OpenJS.

So they’ve announced “the Node.js LTS Upgrade and Modernization program” to help enterprises move safely off legacy/end-of-life Node. … ⌘ Read more

Jack Dorsey’s Block Accused of ‘AI-Washing’ to Excuse Laying Off Nearly Half Its Workforce
When Block cut 4,000 jobs — nearly half its workforce — co-founder Jack Dorsey “pointed to AI as the culprit,” writes Entrepreneur magazine. “Dorsey claimed that AI tools now allow fewer employees to accomplish the same work.”

“But analysts see a different explanation: poor management.”

Block more … ⌘ Read more

Workers Who Love ‘Synergizing Paradigms’ Might Be Bad at Their Jobs
Cornell University makes an announcement. “Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like ‘synergistic leadership,’ or ‘growth-hacking paradigms’ may struggle with practical decision-making, a new Cornell study reveals.”

Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, research by cognitive psychologist Shane Littrel … ⌘ Read more

AI CEOs Worry the Government Will Nationalize AI
Palantir’s CEO was blunt. “If Silicon Valley believes we are going to take away everyone’s white-collar job… and you’re going to screw the military — if you don’t think that’s going to lead to the nationalization of our technology, you’re retarded…”

And OpenAI’s Sam Altman is thinking about the same thing, writes long-time Slashdot reader destinyland:

“It has seemed to me … ⌘ Read more

Daylight Saving Time Ritual Continues. But Are There Alternatives?
Would you move sunrise to 9 a.m. in Detroit? Or to 4:11 a.m. in Seattle…
Though both options have problems, “There’s no law we can pass to move the sun to our will,” argues the president of the nonprofit “Save Standard Time”. The Associated Press explains why America remains stuck in that annual ritual making clocks “spring forward, fall backwa … ⌘ Read more

As US Tariffs Hit EVs, Hyundai Discontinues Its Cheapest IONIQ 6, While Kia Delays EV6 adn EV9 GT
First, Hyundai “is discontinuing its most affordable electric sedan after just three years on the market,” reports USA Today. After being introduced in 2022, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 “quickly gained the admiration of automotive critics because of its affordable pricing and capable perform … ⌘ Read more

Steven Spielberg + Dinosaurs + Netflix = Mixed Reviews
Steven Spielberg directed his last Jurassic Park movie nearly 30 years ago, notes ScreenRant. But the 79-year-old filmmaker now brings us The Dinosaurs, a four-part documentary on Netflix where he’s executive producer:

The first few reviews are in, and the results lead to a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s worth noting that the rating will likely f … ⌘ Read more

A First for Humanity Confirmed: NASA’s DART Mission Slowed the Asteroid’s Orbit
NASA heralded a new study published Friday documenting a first for humanity — “the first time a human-made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun.”

It was 2022’s DART mission where NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid — and the experiment “could have implications for protectin … ⌘ Read more

Japan Approves Stem-Cell Treatments For Parkinson’s, Heart Failure In World Firsts
Long-time Slashdot reader fjo3 shared this report from Agence France-Presse:

Japan has approved ground-breaking stem-cell treatments for Parkinson’s and severe heart failure, one of the manufacturers and media reports said Friday, with the therapies expected to reach patients within months.

Pharmaceutical co … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Head of Robotics Resigns, Says Pentagon Deal Was ‘Rushed Without the Guardrails Defined’
In a tweet that’s been viewed 1.3 million times in the last six hours, OpenAI’s head of robotics announced their resignation. They said they “care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together,” so this “wasn’t an easy call,” but offered this reason for resigning:

… ⌘ Read more

Astronomers Think They’ve Spotted a Galaxy That’s 99.9% Dark Matter
Astronomers have spotted a galaxy they believe is made of 99.9% dark matter, reports CNN — and it’s so faint, it’s almost invisible:

CDG-2, which is about 300 million light-years from Earth, appears to be so rich in dark matter that it could belong to a hypothesized subset of low surface brightness galaxies called “dark galaxies,” which are … ⌘ Read more

How Anthropic’s Claude Helped Mozilla to Improve Firefox’s Security
“It took Anthropic’s most advanced artificial-intelligence model about 20 minutes to find its first Firefox browser bug during an internal test of its hacking prowess,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Anthropic team submitted it, and Firefox’s developers quickly wrote back: This bug was serious. Could they get on a call? “What else do yo … ⌘ Read more

Military GPS Jamming is Interfering with the Navigation Systems of Commercial Ships
“Within 24 hours of the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran, ships in the region’s waters found their navigation systems had gone haywire,” reports CNN, “erroneously indicating that the vessels were at airports, a nuclear power plant and on Iranian land.

“The location confusion was a result of widespread jammin … ⌘ Read more