Alabama Launches Investigation Into OpenAI’s Hack of Hugging Face
Alabama’s attorney general has subpoenaed OpenAI as part of an investigation into whether inadequate safeguards contributed to an incident in which an unreleased cybersecurity model escaped its isolated environment and hacked Hugging Face. The state is examining whether OpenAI violated consumer protection laws, while OpenAI says it is conducting … ⌘ Read more

New Zealand Introduces Under-16 Social Media, AI Companion Ban
New Zealand has introduced legislation that would ban children under 16 from social media platforms and AI companion services. “We have protections to keep children safe in the real world and we need them in the virtual world too,” said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in announcing the bill. Jurist.org reports: The Online Safety (Minimum Age and Chil … ⌘ Read more

FDA Approves First Wearable Device to Monitor Glucose, Ketone Levels
The FDA has authorized the first wearable in the U.S. to continuously monitor ketone levels and the first device globally to track both ketones and glucose together in a single system. From a report: [Abbott’s] Libre Duo 10 Day continuously measures both glucose and ketone levels in the fluid just beneath the skin every minute, day and … ⌘ Read more

Canadian Streaming Content Becomes a US Trade Issue
Canada’s cultural-content rules have become a flashpoint in its trade fight with the U.S., after American negotiators reportedly demanded that Ottawa drop requirements for streaming services to promote Canadian and French-language content. Canada refused, even as it has already backed away from some financial levies on streamers. “We were not prepared to compromise on our … ⌘ Read more

Perplexity and Nvidia Launch Fully Local AI Agent With Zero Token Costs
Perplexity and Nvidia have launched “Portable Computer,” a local-first version of Perplexity’s agent platform that runs AI models, files, tools, and workflows directly on Nvidia-powered Linux hardware. Local tasks incur no token charges and keep data on-device by default, with users asked for permission before the system escalates a step … ⌘ Read more

AI Is Hitting Entry-Level Jobs Hardest, Stanford Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For years, AI industry watchers of all stripes have been warning of a coming jobs apocalypse driven by ultra-intelligent AI systems that will be able to replicate most human tasks more cheaply. Now, newly updated research from Stanford University economists suggests AI seems to be causing significant entry … ⌘ Read more

Waymo Is Expanding to Germany
Waymo plans to launch its robotaxi service in Munich by the end of 2027, marking the Google-owned company’s first expansion into the European Union. “It already operates in 11 cities in the United States and has applied for a license in the United Kingdom to launch its robotaxis in London this year,” notes Reuters. From the report: The Google subsidiary will start rolling out vehicles in the German city this year, w … ⌘ Read more

Apple Announces New Mac Mini With M6 and M5 Pro Chips
Apple has unveiled a new Mac mini with either its new M6 chip or the M5 Pro chip released earlier this year. It adds faster CPU, GPU, storage, and AI performance along with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and 2.5Gb Ethernet as standard. There’s also a new higher starting price of $899, which is up from the previous $799 base price and far above the $599 starting price of th … ⌘ Read more

Motorola’s 2027 Flagships Will Officially Support GrapheneOS
Motorola is working with GrapheneOS to officially support the privacy-focused Android alternative on its 2027 flagship phones, starting with a non-folding model and later expanding to the next Razr Fold and Razr Ultra. “These will ship with Motorola’s normal Android skin, but you will be able to switch to GrapheneOS later if you want to,” notes GSMArena.c … ⌘ Read more

Windows Backdoor ‘Sleepwalker’ Hides in Memory Until Activated by a ‘Magic Packet’
“The Register has a story about a Windows backdoor that waits silently in memory for a ‘magic packet’ before springing into action,” writes Slashdot reader fred133. “No outgoing traffic, just waiting…” From the report: Like a sleeper cell awaiting activation, a never-before-seen Windows backdoor dubbed Sleepwalker w … ⌘ Read more

AliExpress Leverages User Audio Systems For Fingerprinting
A developer says AliExpress is using the browser’s WebAudio API to help fingerprint users by playing inaudible audio and measuring tiny differences in how their devices process it. CyberNews reports: The developer, “laserphile,” wrote on their blog that they recently ran into some weird issues with their Bluetooth headphones. They couldn’t play music via thei … ⌘ Read more

World’s Oceans Hit Highest Temperature On Record As El Nino Grows
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The world’s oceans are hotter than ever recorded, new data suggests, as they suffer from human-caused climate change and the growing El Nino weather phenomenon. The average surface temperature of the planet’s seas outside the polar regions hit 21.1C (70F) on Saturday, according to figures from th … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Hikes Hardware Prices By 60%, Blaming Memory Shortage
Amazon has raised the prices of its hardware devices by as much as 60%, blaming “significant increases in memory and storage component costs.” TechCrunch reports: The price explosion impacted Fire TVs, Echos, Kindles, and Eeros. One egregious example that’s been cited is that of the Echo Dot, one of Amazon’s cheapest smart speakers, the price of which jumpe … ⌘ Read more

SEC Investigating Near-Implosion of AI Hedge Fund
The SEC is investigating the near-collapse of AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness, sending subpoenas to major Wall Street banks for details about the fund’s trades, borrowing, and communications with lenders. The fund, founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, managed over $30 billion and borrowed tens of billions more before leveraged bets unraveled, … ⌘ Read more

Trump Admin Moves to Impose More Than $100K Fee For H-1B Worker Visas
The Trump administration is proposing to make permanent a $103,265 fee on certain new H-1B visas, dramatically increasing costs for employers that rely on highly skilled foreign workers in tech, education, and research. “A federal judge in June ruled that the fee was illegal and blocked the Trump administration from collecting it,” repor … ⌘ Read more

Raspberry Pi Shares Its Official Tutorial For Making a Cyberdeck
Raspberry Pi has published an official guide for building a cyberdeck, leaning into a viral trend of homemade portable computers built from repurposed cases, purses, and other oddball hardware. The guide uses a Raspberry Pi 5, keyboard, battery, and Pelican-style case. The Verge reports: Raspberry Pi’s head of social, Ashley Whittaker, acknow … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Senior Manager Linked To Supermicro Scheme Smuggling AI Servers To China
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Taiwan has indicted nine people – reportedly including an Nvidia senior manager and two Supermicro employees based in the country – who allegedly helped forge documents to cover up illegal exports of high-end AI servers to China in violation of US export controls. O … ⌘ Read more

China Delays Ambitious Chang’e 7 Lunar Mission Until 2027
China has delayed its ambitious Chang’e 7 lunar mission until at least 2027 after scrubbing an August 24 launch. Poor weather conditions were likely a factor, with China’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA) saying the decision reflects the need for “absolute safety.” Scientific American reports: China and the U.S. are in a race to send humans back to the moon, a fea … ⌘ Read more

FDA Approves First Alzheimer’s Blood Test For Americans As Young As 40
The FDA has cleared the first Alzheimer’s blood test for symptomatic patients as young as 40. The test measures amyloid and tau biomarkers from a single blood draw and identified positive biomarkers with 97.6% accuracy in a validation study. New Atlas reports: PrecivityAD2 is a single blood test that quickly assesses the proteins am … ⌘ Read more

Humanoid Robots Run 100 Meters Faster Than Usain Bolt’s Record Pace
Two humanoid robots competing at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday ran the 100-meter dash faster than Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second world-record time. “[T]he Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot completed the 100-meter dash in 9.39 seconds during a preliminary heat,” reports Engadget. “Developed by Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovat … ⌘ Read more

Dr. Dre Says He Uses AI To Produce Songs
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Dr. Dre, the pioneering rapper and seven-time Grammy-winning producer behind hit songs like Tupac’s “California Love” and Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” is very much pro using artificial intelligence tools to make music. In an interview with the New York Times, Dr. Dre and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine spoke about artificia … ⌘ Read more

After 50 Years, Physicists May Have Finally Found a Particle Made of Pure Force
Gluons are the quantum ‘Gorilla Glue’ involved in binding quarks together, ScienceAlert reminds us. But for nearly 50 years, physicists have hunted for “glueballs”, exotic particles predicted by this theory of the strong interaction — the only type of particle in nature composed entirely of force mediators:

Now, a … ⌘ Read more

SCO Successor Xinuos Asks Court to Rehear Its Claims Against IBM/Red Hat Over Project Monterey
The long legal battle over ownership of Linux “is closer than ever to ending,” reports the Register, “after a panel of three judges ruled a claim against IBM and Red Hat isn’t valid, and that time has expired for further action.”

In 2021, an heir to SCO settled with IBM for $14.25 millio … ⌘ Read more

One-Third of Web Pages are Now Written With AI, Says Pew Research
A Pew Research senior data scientist analyzed 500,000 English-language webpages from the past five years with an AI detection tool to estimate how many were likely written or edited by AI:

Of all the pages in this sample, 10% show significant signs of AI authorship… If we filter old webpages out of our samples and look at only the pages published … ⌘ Read more

Could Mecha Comet’s Linux PC-Phone Hybrid Be the Future of Linux Smartphones?
3,346 backers pledged $1,198,844 on Kickstarter to build the (modular) handheld Linux computer, the Mecha Comet. It’s slightly bigger and heavier than your smartphone, with a 4-inch AMOLED display and loaded up with things like microphones, speakers, a SIM tray, two USB ports and a mini HDMI port. There’s three separate k … ⌘ Read more

The Global Race To Make a Practical Quantum Computer Just Took a Big Leap Forward
It’s “radically different from other quantum computers” reports Phys.org. The Helios system uses trapped ions — charged atoms suspended in free space using electromagnetic fields.

But it operates with 98 qubits — making it the largest trapped-ion quantum computer built so far.

Quantinuum, the company behind the … ⌘ Read more

Twitch And Amazon Hit With Lawsuit for Training AI With Streamers’ Content
A class action filed this week accused Amazon’s Twitch gaming service of using video streams to fuel its AI products without licensing or obtaining permission, reports Engadget:

Earlier this month, Twitch Support posted on X that it added an option to opt out of “having your channel content used to train generative AI content m … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Faces Safety Scrutiny After Introducing ‘ChatGPT For Teens’
This week OpenAI launched a version of ChatGPT exclusively designed for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17, reports CTV, “saying this version came with stronger protections around content related to mentions of suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats.”
[Tech analyst Carmi Levy says] “What it’s doing is it’s using cues, it’s sort … ⌘ Read more

Iran-linked Cyberattackers Shut Down a UK Power Plant for Four Days
“Iran shut down a British power plant for four days in an unprecedented cyber attack,” reports the Telegraph.

More details from the BBC:

The government said that at no point was there a risk to the UK’s energy system, but the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has contacted power companies to advise them about the risk of … ⌘ Read more

Slovakia Finds Russian Backdoor In Traffic Speed Cameras
Slovakia acquired speed cameras to modernize its traffic control– but there was a surprise. Tom’s Hardware cites this story from the Risky Bulletin Newsletter:

Unfortunately, the country’s national security service, the NBU, has discovered that the cameras have multiple security issues. Firstly, they have SMS-activated Russian backdoors. Secondly, live camera f … ⌘ Read more

Stanford Economist Now Believes an AI Job Apocalypse Is Unlikely
“There is still no sign of economy-wide job destruction,” says economist Erik Brynjolfsson. Working with researchers at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, Brynjolfsson has determined an AI “job apocalypse” is unlikely, reports the Washington Post, “even though it will likely impact entry-level jobs.”

And Brynjolfsson “predicts that demand for experi … ⌘ Read more

23 Years After SimCity 4’s Release, ‘Eternal Commuter’ Bug Finally Fixed
“It began life just a year after SimCity 4’s 2003 launch,” writes the blog PCGamesN. “Now, over 20 years later, it’s still going strong with the arrival of Network Addon Mod update 50.”

The SimCity 4 Network Addon Mod, or simply ‘NAM’ among the community, has long been a de facto recommendation to anyone looking to pick up the class … ⌘ Read more

Canonical is Funding a PhD to Automate C to Rust Translation
An anonymous reader shared this report from the blog It’s FOSS:

Canonical has committed funding to a three-year PhD project focused on building a system that can automatically translate large C codebases into Rust. And they are not alone; UK Research and Innovation is matching their funding for the project, which is set to run through the Universi … ⌘ Read more

Supply Chain Issues Delaying US Grid Batteries’ Installation
Falling prices have made grid-scale storage batteries more attractive, reports Bloomberg. But after decades of stagnant investment, America’s grids “are racing to make the upgrades needed to plug them in,” with supplies straining for the necessary equipment.

Demand for batteries has skyrocketed as electricity use across the U.S. swells, driven by dat … ⌘ Read more

Debian is Voting on Whether to Allow AI-Assisted Contributions
Debian developers are voting on whether to ban AI-assisted contributions, reports the blog Linuxiac, with a ballot listing eight proposals and a “None of the above” option.

The first one is still the original proposal to ban LLM-assisted contributions by changing the Debian Social Contract. This would stop generative AI from being used for direct D … ⌘ Read more

Defamation Suit Demanding Elsevier Retract Paper Heads Closer To Trial
Retraction Watch reports:

A trial date has been set in a $1 billion defamation case against Elsevier that alleges the company published what plaintiffs say was a manipulated study about an air purifying technology over objections from peer reviewers. The case has already cost Elsevier a $10,000 sanction from a judge.
Global Plasma … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Blames Windows Gaming Issues On RGB Lighting Devices
BleepingComputer reports:

Microsoft says ongoing issues causing games to crash or fail to launch after installing the August 2026 Windows updates may be caused by peripherals with RGB lighting.

As Microsoft explained when it confirmed it’s investigating on Wednesday, this known issue affects games like ARC Raiders, MARVEL Tokon: Fighting Souls, and … ⌘ Read more

Battery Fires At Recycling Centres Are Costing the UK £1bn a Year
Wrongly discarded lithium batteries, such as those in vapes, are causing more than 10 fires a week at U.K. recycling centers, according to figures shared with the Guardian:

The Environment Services Association (ESA), the trade body for waste management companies, said its members had reported 1,518 fires in the year to March 2026. At … ⌘ Read more

How Will AI Change the Field of Mathematics?
“AI went from being very terrible to seemingly genuinely quite good at a professional level in a very short space of time…” says the Verge’s AI reporter.

But AI systems “are still truly, truly terrible at some areas of math… even the days of the week.”

If you look at academic math papers, a lot of the time you won’t see numbers… So they’re still terrible, but they’re now also … ⌘ Read more

Rush Rescue Mission for NASA’s $500M Space Telescope Fails
Remember that rush rescue mission for NASA’s $500M space telescope? It failed, reports CNN, and the LINK satellite won’t be able to boost the telescope’s orbit. NASA says its decades-old Swift telescope will now continue losing altitude, until it reaches Earth’s atmosphere later this year and burns up.

CNN reports:

Just weeks after LINK lifted off on July … ⌘ Read more

Flock is Secretly Building a Powerful New Prompt-Based AI Tool for Police
Slashdot reader fjo3 shared this article from Wired:

[Flock] has told the public for years that its technology “cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals.” It has now built a system that does both, an artificial intelligence tool for police that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone … ⌘ Read more

Low Emission Zone Led To Better Lung Size, Function Among London Children
Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shared this report from the Guardian:

Children’s lungs grew bigger and stronger after the most polluting vehicles were restricted from entering London, a study has found. Examinations of London schoolchildren before and after the introduction of the city’s ultra-low emission zone found a restora … ⌘ Read more

Moderna-Merck Vaccine Cuts Recurrence And Spread of Melanoma, Raises New Treatment Hope
Reuters reports “a major success in a new field of cancer treatment this week, as Moderna and Merck announced a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine “reduced the risk of recurrence and spread of melanoma in a late-stage trial”. The vaccine was tested with Merck’s widely used immunotherapy drug Keytruda: … ⌘ Read more

Is AI Really to Blame for High Unemployment Among Recent Graduates? What Economists Say
47% of recent graduates say AI has already impacted hiring in their field, according to an April survey from ZipRecruiter.

“But is AI really the problem, or is it more complicated?” asks NPR. “Here’s what economists have to say.”

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the unemployment rate … ⌘ Read more

Firefox Announces Free VPN and ‘Startpage’ Search Engine Rolling Out to Android, iOS - Plus GeForce NOW Support
Firefox 154 “brings a number of usability improvements,” writes PC World:

The free built-in VPN, introduced with Firefox 149, continues to offer a selection of virtual locations — temporarily extended to 28 countries until the end of August… The free VPN … ⌘ Read more

New York Dethrones San Francisco Bay Area As Largest Tech Talent Market
fjo3 shares a report from SFGATE: The San Francisco Bay Area, epicenter of the artificial intelligence boom, is home to a massive amount of tech workers employed by some of the world’s most valuable companies, from Apple to Nvidia. But for the first time, New York has eclipsed the Bay Area as the home of the largest “tech talent work … ⌘ Read more

Over 1 Million People Have Clicked LinkedIn’s AI Slop Button
According to a post from chief product officer Hari Srinivasan, “over a million people” have clicked on LinkedIn’s new “Seems like AI slop” button, which launched after one analysis found 41% of the platform’s longform posts were fully AI-generated. The Verge reports: In Thursday’s post, Srinivasan said that users are overall “now experiencing 40% less vie … ⌘ Read more

‘Off the Charts’ El Nino Is Already the Strongest Since Records Began
A rapidly developing El Nino is already reaching record-setting levels for this time of year and is expected to intensify further over the coming months. “The El Nino has blossomed. It is off the charts. Usual measures of El Nino have blown past prior record levels in the period with good data, even though maximum effects are still severa … ⌘ Read more

China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China’s Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Why not Windows 11? Because China, like many other non-US governments, no longer trusts American companies with the … ⌘ Read more

Township Fights Nuclear Weapons Data Center By Passing a Moratorium on Electrical Infrastructure
Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, has imposed a six-month moratorium on “major electric utility infrastructure” in its latest attempt to delay a proposed $1.2 billion University of Michigan-Los Alamos data center that would support nuclear-weapons research. Township leaders, who have … ⌘ Read more