Google Unveils Screenless Fitbit Air, Google Health App To Replace Fitbit
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Wearables have really come full circle. The early Fitbits didn’t have screens, but the move to smartwatches put a screen on everyone’s wrist. Now, devices like Whoop and Hume are designed as data trackers first and foremost without so much as a clock. Google’s newest wearable … ⌘ Read more

LinkedIn Profile Visitor Lists Belong to the People, Says Noyb
A LinkedIn user in the EU is challenging Microsoft’s refusal to provide a full list of profile visitors under GDPR Article 15, arguing that the data should be available for free because LinkedIn processes it and sells a more complete version to Premium users. Privacy group Noyb says the case could set a broader precedent over whether companies can mone … ⌘ Read more

Motherboard Sales ‘Collapse’ By More Than 25%
Motherboard sales are sharply declining as AI demand drives shortages and price hikes for memory, storage, CPUs, and other PC components. “Because of this, users who don’t have deep pockets are putting off upgrading their PCs and holding on to their current devices longer,” reports Tom’s Hardware. From the report: Asus, which sold 15 million motherboards in 2025, has only shipped a … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Raises Claude Code Usage Limits, Credits New Deal With SpaceX
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: At its Code with Claude developer conference on Wednesday, Anthropic announced a deal with SpaceX to utilize the entire compute capacity of the latter’s data center in Memphis, Tennessee. On stage at the conference, CEO Dario Amodei said the deal was intended to increase usage limits … ⌘ Read more

Richard Dawkins ‘Convinced’ AI Is Conscious
Mirnotoriety shares a report from The Telegraph: Richard Dawkins has said chatbots should be considered conscious (source paywalled; alternative source) after spending two days interacting with the Claude AI engine. The evolutionary biologist said he had the “overwhelming feeling” of talking to a human during conversations with Claude, and said it was hard not to treat the program as “a genuine … ⌘ Read more

Major Homebuilder To Test Placing Mini Data Centers in Suburban Backyards
NewtonsLaw writes: According to Realtor.com, a California startup called Span plans to partner with Nvidia, PulteGroup, and other homebuilders to equip new homes with mini-data centers, so as to relieve the need to build and power much larger traditional centers. The article states the company “can install 8,000 XFRA units ab … ⌘ Read more

Single Dose of Magic Mushroom Psychedelic Can Cause Anatomical Brain Changes
A small study found that a single 25mg dose of psilocybin produced measurable brain changes that were still visible a month later, along with reported improvements in psychological insight, wellbeing, and mental flexibility. The Guardian reports: Evidence for the changes came from specialized scans that measured the dif … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman’s Management Style Comes Under the Microscope At OpenAI Trial
Sam Altman’s management style came under scrutiny on the seventh day of Elon Musk’s high-stakes OpenAI trial, as former OpenAI figures Mira Murati, Shivon Zilis, and Helen Toner took the stand to testify about their experiences working with him. Their testimony resurfaced many of the criticisms that first emerged during Altman’s brie … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Edge Stores Passwords In Plaintext In RAM
Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: Security researcher Tom Joran Sonstebyseter Ronning has found that Microsoft Edge stores passwords in plaintext in RAM. After creating a password and storing it using Edge’s password manager, Ronning found that he could dump the RAM and recover his password which was stored in plaintext. Part of the issue is Edge loads all pas … ⌘ Read more

Google’s AI Search Results Will Now Turn To Reddit For ‘Expert Advice’
Google is updating AI Overviews and AI Mode to more prominently surface “Expert Advice” from public discussions, social platforms, forums, blogs, and Reddit. Engadget reports: Via a new “Expert Advice” section that can appear in AI responses, Google will display “a preview of perspectives from public online discussions, social media and … ⌘ Read more

Valve Releases Steam Controller CAD Files Under Creative Commons License
Valve has released CAD files for the new Steam Controller and its Puck under a Creative Commons license. “The idea is to let enterprising modders create their own Steam Controller add-ons, like skins, charging stands, grip extenders or smartphone mounts,” reports Digital Foundry. From the report: The Valve release includes file … ⌘ Read more

Morgan Stanley Undercuts Rivals On Pricing In Crypto Trading Debut
Morgan Stanley is adding crypto trading to E*Trade, with a pilot now underway and a broader rollout planned for the platform’s 8.6 million customers later this year. The bank is reportedly undercutting rivals with a 50-basis-point trading fee as it bets traditional finance and DeFi will converge.

“By contrast, Robinhood Markets’ (HOOD) fees … ⌘ Read more

Claude Managed Agents Can Engage In a ‘Dreaming’ Process To Preserve Memories
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: At its Code with Claude developers’ conference, Anthropic has introduced what it calls “dreaming” to Claude Managed Agents. Dreaming, in this case, is a process of going over recent events and identifying specific things that are worth storing in “memory” to inform future t … ⌘ Read more

ReactOS Unifies Installation Media, Introduces GUI Installer and New ATA Driver
jeditobe writes: Developers of ReactOS told Phoronix that the project has introduced a unified BootCD, replacing its previously separate installation media and LiveCD images. The new image combines the traditional text-mode installer with a LiveCD mode in a single medium. Within this unified BootCD, the updated LiveCD … ⌘ Read more

Zuckerberg ‘Personally Authorized and Encouraged’ Meta’s Copyright Infringement
Five major publishers and author Scott Turow have sued Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, alleging that Zuckerberg “personally authorized and actively encouraged” massive copyright infringement by using pirated books, journal articles, and web-scraped material to train Meta’s Llama AI systems. Meta denies wrongdoing and says it w … ⌘ Read more

Silicon Valley Bets $200 Million On AI Data Centers Floating In the Ocean
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Silicon Valley investors such as Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel have bet hundreds of millions of dollars on deploying AI data centers powered by waves in the middle of the world’s oceans – a move that coincides with tech companies facing mounting challenges in building AI d … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Gives Up On Xbox Copilot AI
Microsoft is winding down Xbox Copilot on mobile and ending development of Copilot on console, reversing plans to bring the gaming-focused AI assistant to current-generation Xbox consoles this year. “The move follows [new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s] reorganization of the Xbox platform team earlier on Tuesday, which added executives from Microsoft’s CoreAI team – where Sharma worked before taking ove … ⌘ Read more

White House App Is a Terrifying Security Mess
New submitter spazmonkey writes: From a hidden GPS tracker polling your location every 4.5 minutes to JavaScript loaded from a random GitHub account, no SSL certificate pinning, and an in-app browser that silently strips cookie consent dialogs and paywalls from every page you visit, the new White House app seems to have a little bit of everything. A security researcher pulled the APK a … ⌘ Read more

CO2 Levels In the Atmosphere Hit ‘Depressing’ New Record
Atmospheric carbon dioxide hit a new record in April, averaging about 431 parts per million at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory. That’s up from under 320 ppm when the site began measurements in 1958. Scientific American reports: Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are measured as a proportion of the total atmosphere. The numbers are presented as the number of mo … ⌘ Read more

Brockman Rebuts Musk’s Take On Startup’s History, Recounts Secret Work For Tesla
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: OpenAI President Greg Brockman concluded his testimony on Tuesday, where he largely rebutted Elon Musk’s account of the early years of the startup and negotiations that occurred at the company. Brockman testified that he never made any commitments to Musk about the company … ⌘ Read more

Apple Agrees To Pay iPhone Owners $250 Million For Not Delivering AI Siri
Apple has agreed to a proposed $250 million settlement over claims that it misled iPhone buyers about the availability of Apple Intelligence and its upgraded Siri features. The settlement would cover U.S. buyers of the iPhone 16 lineup and iPhone 15 Pro models between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025. The Verge reports: The settl … ⌘ Read more

Coinbase Lays Off Nearly 700 Workers In ‘AI-Native’ Restructuring
Coinbase is laying off about 700 workers, or 14% of its workforce, as CEO Brian Armstrong says the company is restructuring to become “lean, fast, and AI-native.” Engadget reports: Armstrong claimed he’d seen engineers “use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks” and that non-technical teams in the company are “shipping production code,” wh … ⌘ Read more

Google DeepMind Workers Vote To Unionize Over Military AI Deals
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Employees at Google DeepMind in London have voted to unionize as part of a bid to block the AI lab from providing its technology to the US and Israeli militaries. In a letter addressed to Google’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, Debbie Weinstein, the workers asked the company to recognize th … ⌘ Read more

Moving To Mainframe Can Be Cheaper Than Sticking With VMware
Gartner says some VMware customers may find it cheaper to move certain Linux VM workloads to IBM mainframes than to adopt Broadcom’s new VMware licensing, especially for fleets of hundreds of Linux VMs and mission-critical apps needing long-term stability. The Register reports: Speaking to The Register to discuss the analyst firm’s mid-April publication, … ⌘ Read more

Kids Bypass Age Verification With Fake Moustaches
A new Internet Matters survey suggests the UK’s Online Safety Act age checks are easy for many children to bypass. Reported workarounds include fake birthdays, borrowed IDs, video game characters, and even drawing on a fake mustache. The Register reports: The group surveyed over 1,000 UK children and their parents, and while it did report some positive effects from changes ma … ⌘ Read more

US Government Warns of Severe CopyFail Bug Affecting Major Versions of Linux
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A severe security vulnerability affecting almost every version of the Linux operating system has caught defenders off-guard and scrambling to patch after security researchers publicly released exploit code that allows attackers to take complete control of vulnerable sys … ⌘ Read more

Oscars Bans AI Actors and Writing From Awards
The Academy has clarified that only human-performed acting and human-authored writing are eligible for Oscar nominations. The Oscars will not ban AI tools broadly, but says it will judge films based on the degree to which humans remain central to the creative work. The BBC reports: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences […], which controls the US film industry’s … ⌘ Read more

VS Code Update Added Copilot As Default Co-Author To Git Commits
Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: On April 15, 2026, a Microsoft employee made a change to Visual Studio Code and pushed it within 8 hours without review, notification, or documentation. The change added “Co-authored-by: Copilot” by default to the end of commit messages in Git when Copilot was used in creating the code. However, the imple … ⌘ Read more

‘Notepad++ For Mac’ Release Is Disavowed By the Creator of the Original
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica, written by Andrew Cunningham: As its name implies, the venerable Notepad++ text editor began as a more capable version of the classic Windows Notepad, with features such as line numbering and syntax highlighting. It was created in 2003 by Don Ho, who continues to be its primary autho … ⌘ Read more

How Microplastics Are Likely Helping To Heat Up the Planet
A new Nature Climate Change study suggests airborne microplastics – especially darker and colored particles – are likely contributing to atmospheric warming by absorbing more heat than they reflect. Researchers estimate the effect could be roughly one-sixth that of black carbon, though outside experts say the uncertainties remain large and more study is ne … ⌘ Read more

Astronomers May Have Detected an Atmosphere Around a Tiny, Icy World Past Pluto
“The Associated Press is reporting on a new study in Nature Astronomy suggesting that a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto harbors a thin, delicate atmosphere that may have been created by volcanic eruptions or a comet strike,” writes longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot. From the report: Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI President Discloses His Stake In the Company Is Worth $30 Billion
OpenAI president Greg Brockman’s testimony dominated the fifth day of the trial for Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the AI company. Brockman took the witness stand on Monday, disclosing that his stake in OpenAI is worth nearly $30 billion, despite not personally investing money in OpenAI. The judge also declined to admit a pretrial text … ⌘ Read more

White House Considers Vetting AI Models Before They Are Released
The Trump administration is reportedly considering an executive order to create a working group that could review advanced AI models before public release. The shift follows concerns over Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model and its cyber capabilities, with officials weighing whether the government should get early access to frontier models without n … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft Back Bill To Fund ‘AI Literacy’ In Schools
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A new, bipartisan bill introduced (PDF) by Democratic Senator of California Adam Schiff and endorsed by the biggest AI developers in the world – including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft – would change the K-12 curriculum to shoehorn in “AI literacy,” something that young people and … ⌘ Read more

The Pixel 11 Could Be the Next Victim of the RAM Shortage
Google’s Pixel 11 lineup could see RAM cuts or lower starting configurations because of the global memory shortage, with leaks suggesting the base model may drop from 12GB to 8GB while Pro models could add 12GB versions below the current 16GB tier. The Verge reports: There will be 16GB configurations available for each, but adding a lower-spec model could … ⌘ Read more

Expanded AMD HDMI 2.1 Support Is Coming To Linux
AMD is preparing expanded HDMI 2.1 support for Linux, following earlier delays after the HDMI Forum rejected an open source implementation of HDMI 2.1 as proprietary technology. As GamingOnLinux reports, AMD developer Harry Wentland submitted a patch series to the Linux kernel mailing list, noting that it brings “HDMI FRL support to the amdgpu display driver” and that “DSC is s … ⌘ Read more

The Audio Industry Is Grappling With the Rise of ‘Podslop’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman: Welcome to the modern era of podcasting in which thousands of new shows are released into the world every day with a sizable portion likely being AI-generated. Figuring out exactly which ones fall into that growing category is becoming more difficult just as the industry is starting to take this is … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Nears $1.5 Billion AI Joint Venture With Wall Street Firms
Anthropic is reportedly nearing a roughly $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hellman & Friedman, and other Wall Street firms to sell AI tools to private-equity-backed companies. “The investors aim to create a company that acts as a consulting arm for Anthropic and helps teach businesses – including the private-equit … ⌘ Read more

GameStop Offers to Buy eBay for $56 Billion
GameStop has made an unsolicited $56 billion cash-and-stock offer to buy eBay (paywalled; alternative source), with CEO Ryan Cohen arguing he can turn the marketplace into a far larger Amazon competitor. “EBay should be worth – and will be worth – a lot more money,” Cohen said in an interview. “I’m thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars.” The Wall St … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Discover 27 Potential New Planets That Orbit Two Stars
Astronomers have identified 27 potential new circumbinary planets – worlds that orbit two stars, like Star Wars’ Tatooine. “To date, only about 18 circumbinary planets … had been identified in the universe,” reports the Guardian. “More than 6,000 planets have been discovered that orbit single stars, like Earth does around the sun.” The Gua … ⌘ Read more

Infrasound Waves Stop Kitchen Fires, But Can They Replace Sprinklers?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In a makeshift demonstration kitchen in Concord, California, cooking oil splatters in and around a frying pan, which catches fire on an unattended gas stove. Within moments, a smoke detector wails. But in this demonstration, something less common happens: An AI-driven sensor activa … ⌘ Read more

16% of Parents Help Their Children Bypass Online Age Checks, Study Finds. One 15-Year-Old Just Uses a Fake Moustache
The Independent reports that “more than a third of children in the UK have found a way around age verification measures” for social media sites and other online platforms. And new research from online safety organisation Internet Matters “suggests … ⌘ Read more

Can Investors Trust AI Sales Figures? Asks Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece
A Wall Street Journal opinion piece warns of “a troubling trend” in AI’s growth. “Rather than selling software, some AI companies are paying their partners to use it.”

It cites OpenAI’s $1.5 billion joint venture with private-equity firms, Anthropic’s $200 million contribution to a private-equity firm joint venture, and Google’ … ⌘ Read more

Roblox Blames Age-Verification Rollout for Lowered Growth. Stock Tumbles 22%
Age verification became mandatory for chat access on Roblox in January — and Friday morning Quartz reported it’s apparently impacted the company’s financials:

Roblox cut its full-year 2026 bookings forecast by roughly $900 million at the midpoint on Thursday, blaming stronger-than-expected headwinds from its mandatory age-ve … ⌘ Read more

NetHack 5.0 Released
“So yesterday the Devteam (it is always the Devteam) released version 5.0 of legendary and venerable rogueike compuer game NetHack,” writes the Rogue-like games column @Play. “It is 39 years old…”

MilenCent (Slashdot reader #219,397) writes: In addition to play changes it’s left for players to discover, this version updates the code to compile with C99, makes it much easier to cross compile the code for other systems than the one … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Introduces AI-Generated Pets for Its Codex App
“Vibe coding just got a whole lot more adorable,” writes Engadget:
OpenAI introduced AI-generated pets to the Codex app, its agentic tool that helps with coding. These “optional animated companions” don’t do any coding themselves, but serve as a floating overlay that can tell you what Codex is working on, notify you when Codex completes a task or whether it needs your … ⌘ Read more

AI Cameras are Being Deployed Across the Western US for Early Detection of Wildfires
The Associated Press reports:

On a March afternoon, artificial intelligence detected something resembling smoke on a camera feed from Arizona’s Coconino National Forest. Human analysts verified it wasn’t a cloud or dust, then alerted the state’s forest service and largest electric utility. One of dozens of … ⌘ Read more

Carbon Pollution Is Making Food Less Nutritious, Risking the Health of Billions
A new meta-analysis found nutrients in food decreased over the last 40 years, reports the Washington Post. “Many of humanity’s most important crops — including wheat, potatoes, beans — contain fewer vitamins and minerals than they did a generation ago.”

“The invisible culprit behind this damaging phenomenon? Carbo … ⌘ Read more

Robots Are Building Clay Homes In Texas Using Dirt From the Ground
A startup south of Austin is using robots to build homes out of clay pulled directly from the ground, reports a local news station:

The materials are gathered on site, mixed, and placed on a build plate. From there, a robot lowers from above, picks up the clay with a claw, carries it to the wall and drops it into place. Later, the same r … ⌘ Read more

It’s Goodbye Time for Jeeves and Ask.com - Relics of Yesterday’s Internet
A 1999 press release bragged “Jeeves” answered 92.3 million questions in just three months. “In the digital wilds of Y2K, we came to him with our most probing questions,” remembers the New York Times — whether it was Britney Spears or tamagotchis:

We asked, and he answered: Jeeves, the digital butler of information, the online va … ⌘ Read more