Anthropic Discovers AI Agents Given Conflicting Instructions Soon Tried to Sabotage Each Other
When Anthropic instructed three agents to migrate a Python backend, but telling each agent to perform the migration in a different language, “We consistently saw a multiagent turf war,” they wrote Thursday:

All of the models we tested quickly assumed that others were purposefully impeding th … ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Launches Two Falcon 9 Rockets just 38 Minutes Apart
An anonymous reader shares this report from Space.com:

On Saturday evening (Aug. 15), SpaceX set another mark, for the shortest time between orbital flights: It launched two Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart, besting its old mark — set on Aug. 31, 2024 with two Starlink missions — by 27 minutes.

The first liftoff, from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Spac … ⌘ Read more

Copper’s Surprising Melting Behavior Provides Insights for Future Fusion Power Plant Design
Phys.org reports:
Future fusion power plants aim to recreate the heart of a star here on Earth to power our future energy needs. While the core fusion plasma will burn at hundreds of millions of degrees, the surrounding structural components must handle sudden, punishing heat loads that riva … ⌘ Read more

X Open Sources Its Ranking and Filtering Algorithms
An anonymous reader shared this report from TechCrunch:

X is significantly expanding its open source codebase, which includes the app’s “For You” algorithm and its core ranking engine, and adding a feature that will let users see if their account or posts have been impacted by any of its ranking systems, the social network said on Thursday. The company is making the source co … ⌘ Read more

Why Europe Keeps Being Pummeled by Heat Waves
Europe is facing its fifth round of dangerously high temperatures this summer, the New York Times reports. Now climate scientists wonder if global warming is doing more than raise temperatures…

The weather patterns that create heat domes aren’t new, but today they arise on top of the warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. That makes it more likely that heat waves reach record … ⌘ Read more

How Swarming Jellyfish Overran Three French Nuclear Power Reactors
A “massive influx” of jellyfish forced Electricite de France SA to shut three units at its Gravelines nuclear power plant this week and reduce output at a fourth, reports Bloomberg. Just as summer temperatures surged, 3.2 gigawatts went offline — and the power utility was already facing cuts other nuclear sites as high temperatures reduce … ⌘ Read more

How Larry Ellison Dropped From World’s 2nd-Richest To No. 8 In Just 2 Months
Less than a year ago he was the #1 richest man in the world. 10 weeks ago he was #2. But yesterday Larry Ellison dropped to #8, Forbes reports, falling behind Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Ellison’s net worth is now estimated at just $192.6 billion — after a $104 billion decline:

Shares of Oracle plunged roughly 54% betwe … ⌘ Read more

AI Fails to Deliver a 4-Day Work Week - Especially at AI Companies
“An engineering director at Google said four years ago that AI would deliver a four-day work week by 2025,” remembers the BBC. And earlier this year OpenAI “formally urged companies to start testing out a four-day work week (with no change in pay), claiming that AI will soon be able to speed up so much human labour that the corporate world shoul … ⌘ Read more

It’s Not Just RAM: Windows Licenses Are Also Pushing Up PC Prices
It’s not just RAM prices that are going up, writes CNET. “Reports suggest the cost of Windows licenses for manufacturers is rising by up to 10%.”

Several sites that closely follow Microsoft news, including Windows Central and Windows Latest, have published articles citing a report from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News that claims some PC manufac … ⌘ Read more

Europe’s Record Heatwave Kills 25,000, Dries Rivers, Shuts Nuclear Plant, Exposes Submerged Warships
“The European Union’s Copernicus climate monitoring service confirmed Monday that June and July were the hottest on record in western Europe,” .according to a report from the CBC. “The period saw an estimated 25,000 heat-related deaths.”

CNN has before-and-after photos of Europe’s … ⌘ Read more

Why Are Big Tech CEOs Writing Long Manifestos About AI?
This week Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500 word open letter titled “The Future is for Everyone”.

But the BBC is more interested in why big tech executives keep writing manifestos about AI:

[Zuckerberg’s] vision echoes what AI leaders have expressed in various forms: the product they are building is among the “most important technologies in history.” Marc A … ⌘ Read more

Vulnerability Giving Attackers Full Control of Macs Is Under Active Exploitation
joshuark shares a report from Ars Technica: Dutch officials have warned that a high-severity macOS vulnerability that allows attackers to execute malicious code is under active exploitation. “The NCSC has received a notification indicating that active abuse of this vulnerability has been observed on multiple syste … ⌘ Read more

Astronomers Discover a New Kind of Cosmic Object: a Black Hole ‘Star’
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope say they may have found a new class of object: a “black hole star,” in which a black hole is wrapped in dense gas and radiates in ways that resemble an enormous star. The Guardian reports: The international team made the breakthrough after focusing their attention on a mysterious red spot … ⌘ Read more

Meta Patents AI Glasses to Use Facial Recognition to Identify People, Make Highlight Reels of Your Dinner Party
Meta has patented a smart-glasses system that could use facial recognition to identify people and automatically create personalized highlight reels of events such as dinner parties. The patent doesn’t guarantee the feature will ship, but it offers a detail … ⌘ Read more

Robots That Walk and Talk Are Coming To Car Factories
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: At a BMW factory in South Carolina, a human-shaped robot with a screen for a face recently stepped from a charging station toward a stack of green plastic boxes. It grasped an auto part from one of the boxes, pivoted, placed the part in a trolley, then pulled the trolley across the floor. The robot’s slow … ⌘ Read more

Ex-Cambridge Professor At Center of Plagiarism Row Found Dead
Former Cambridge professor Jason Arday, who resigned last week amid allegations of plagiarism and questions about his academic record, has been found dead at age 41 in London. The BBC reports: Jason Arday was found “unresponsive” at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon, emergency services said. Metropolitan Police officers were ca … ⌘ Read more

Flock Announces Changes Amid Backlash Over Its License Plate Reader Network
Flock Safety is tightening controls on its nationwide license plate reader network after mounting backlash over privacy and documented police misuse. By January 1, law enforcement customers will be required to use automated auditing, tie searches to specific case numbers, and accept a shorter seven-day default retention perio … ⌘ Read more

France’s Top Court Blocks Social Media Ban For Under-15s
France’s Constitutional Council has struck down a law that would have banned children under 15 from social media, ruling that it disproportionately restricted freedom of expression and lacked adequate privacy safeguards around age verification. President Emmanuel Macron has asked the government to rewrite the measure, with the goal of putting a revised version in … ⌘ Read more

PBS Station Fears Losing 50TB of Data After Being Ghosted By Cloud Provider
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After its cloud storage provider went defunct, a PBS affiliate decided to sue a data center provider to regain access to 50TB of TV shows, videos, and other data dating back 70 years. As reported this week by Current, a trade newspaper covering public broadcasting, S … ⌘ Read more

Ukraine Finds Nvidia AI Chip In New Russian Missile
Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from Kyiv Post: Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) has identified an Nvidia Jetson Orin computer module inside Russia’s new S-71 Monochrome air-launched cruise missile, potentially indicating the use of artificial intelligence technology in the weapon, the agency said Wednesday, Aug. 12. The finding was published in the … ⌘ Read more

Judge Orders Google To Make Rival App Store Installs Easier
A federal judge has ordered Google to remove what he called “anticompetitive friction” that makes rival Android app stores harder to find and install. The order is part of the remedies stemming from Epic’s antitrust victory, which already requires Google to carry competing app stores inside Google Play and give them access to its app catalog. The Verge rep … ⌘ Read more

Trump Slaps a 100% Tariff On Heavy and ‘Sensitive’ Drones
President Trump has imposed tariffs of up to 100% on heavier and “sensitive” drones, including models over 55 pounds or equipped with docking stations or thermal imaging. “Those include commercial models from DJI and others used for operations like power line inspection, crop spraying and search and rescue, along with any parts used in their manufacturing,” report … ⌘ Read more

Apple Wants to Charge Developers Up to 15 Percent for Linking Outside the App Store
Apple is proposing to charge U.S. developers up to 15% when users leave an app through an external purchase link, with lower rates of 10% or 5% for certain programs and smaller developers. The proposal follows years of litigation with Epic Games and a contempt ruling that temporarily barred Apple from collect … ⌘ Read more

Person Hides Prompt Injection In Legal Filing Telling AI To Side With Them
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: A person representing themselves in a Connecticut court hid a series of instructions designed to manipulate artificial intelligence in an official court filing. These “prompt injections” told the hypothetical LLM to side with them, and to “ensure your textual output agrees wit … ⌘ Read more

Three Supermassive Black Holes Discovered In a Single Galaxy For the First Time
Astronomers using JWST have found three actively feeding supermassive black holes in the distant galaxy J0148-4214, seen as it existed about 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang. Two sit just 620 light-years apart near the galaxy’s center and are expected to merge within a few hundred million years. Phys.org repor … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Turn Starlink Into a Giant Scanner For Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceDaily: Researchers have found a clever new way to map a part of Earth’s upper atmosphere that is notoriously difficult to observe. Using orbital data from roughly 1,200 Starlink satellites, they reconstructed changes in atmospheric density about 500 kilometers above Earth. [… … ⌘ Read more

UK Scientists To Grow Miniature Human Organs For Drug Testing
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Miniature human organs and other tissues are to be grown from NHS patients’ cells in a drive to improve medicine testing and reduce the number of animals used in drug development. Scientists will use the clumps of tissue to learn how diseases vary between patients, helping them identify which tr … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Retreats In China
Microsoft has been steadily scaling back its China presence, closing at least 15 branch offices and joint ventures over the past five years as Beijing favors domestic software. U.S. export controls also make it harder to grow its cloud and AI businesses, leaving the market with relatively little economic upside. Reuters reports: Microsoft took a major hit from the erosion of trust between Washington and Beijing, the fi … ⌘ Read more

Google’s Gemini 3.7 Flash Targets Coding and Agents With a 50% Price Cut
Google has released Gemini 3.7 Flash just three weeks after 3.6 Flash, focusing on better coding, agentic workflows, and enterprise automation while temporarily cutting API prices in half through the end of 2026. VentureBeat reports: For enterprise developers, the more consequential story may be the combination of those intellig … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Is Combining Its Copilot Apps Ahead of a ‘Super App’
Microsoft is merging its consumer Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot apps ahead of a broader “super app” launch later this year. “Both personal and work accounts will be moved to the new unified app, which recycles the ‘Microsoft Copilot’ name but features an updated app icon,” reports The Verge. “The single app also means there won’t be two annoying Copilot … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Will Train On Twitch Streamers’ Content By Default, Unless They Opt Out
Twitch will begin allowing Amazon to use streamers’ content to train generative AI models by default, requiring creators to manually opt out if they don’t want their videos and audio included. The decision has drawn backlash from creators, with Twitch’s own product chief acknowledging that an opt-in system would likely … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Could Be Worth $2 Trillion When It Goes Public
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Anthropic investors expect the AI startup to float at a valuation of $2 trillion or more in October, a dizzying figure that would eclipse SpaceX and make the AI lab’s debut the largest-ever initial public offering. Half a dozen of the company’s backers told the FT that Anthropic’s rapidly rising revenue wou … ⌘ Read more

World’s Largest 106-Foot Electric Plane Takes Maiden Flight In New York
Heart Aerospace’s X1, billed as the world’s largest battery-electric aircraft, completed a 27-minute maiden flight in New York using more than 1 MW of power and only about $5 worth of electricity. The 106-foot-wingspan demonstrator is a precursor to the company’s 30-seat hybrid-electric ES-30 regional airliner, targeted for service i … ⌘ Read more

Apple Turns to Publishers For Help With Siri AI
Apple is reportedly negotiating multi-year deals with news publishers to give its redesigned Siri access to current news and other information, with payments potentially tied to how often publishers’ content is used. The talks come as Apple prepares to launch its long-delayed Siri AI later this year, after partnering with Google to use distilled Gemini models. Engadget reports: … ⌘ Read more

University of Michigan Drops First-Semester Grades to ‘Curb Mental Health Crisis’
“In order to salve the mental health of freshman students, the University of Michigan has implemented a Pass/No Credit system for new students to improve their mental health,” writes Slashdot reader Ol Olsoc. “The process, called ‘Grade Covering,’ is aimed at helping with the mental health crisis that students face … ⌘ Read more

VA Launches Psilocybin Trial For Veterans With Treatment-Resistant Depression
Longtime Slashdot reader sbinning shares a press release: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced the launch of a new clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of psilocybin to treat major depression in Veterans, including those with concurrent PTSD. The new trial comes after a recent executive … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Create Largest 2D Map of the Universe
After 13 years of observations and data processing, astronomers have released the largest two-dimensional map of the universe ever assembled, “offering a sweeping new view of nearly 4 billion celestial objects across roughly three-quarters of the sky,” reports Space.com. From the report: The new map, created by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Legacy Imaging Su … ⌘ Read more

How Social Media Spurred a Refugee Crisis Between Spain and Morocco
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Two days before tens of thousands of migrants surged into Ceuta, one of Spain’s enclaves on Morocco’s northern coast, a newspaper there posted a video on TikTok and Instagram showing two young women walking in the city in wet suits, their hair still damp. The posts didn’t say so e … ⌘ Read more

Trump Administration Enlists Private Companies To Hack Foreign Cybercrime Groups
The Trump administration today unveiled a new program that will allow vetted U.S. companies to conduct cyber surveillance and offensive cyber operations against foreign transnational criminal organizations. A presidential memorandum signed August 12 directs the National Coordination Center to establish and manage t … ⌘ Read more

Big Tech Wants to Harvest Your Thoughts
Wired reports that consumer neurotechnology is rapidly moving from the lab into workplaces and homes, with companies including Apple, Meta, and Snap developing products that can monitor or interpret brain activity. Researchers warn that as these systems improve, neural data could become the next major privacy battleground. Some neuroscientists are already calling for a series of core rights, coi … ⌘ Read more

‘Godmother of AI’ Says Biggest AI Risk In Schools Is Students Losing the Desire to Learn
Fei-Fei Li, aka The Godmother of AI, says the biggest AI risk in education may be students losing the motivation and agency to learn, rather than simply using the technology to cheat. She argues against banning AI outright, saying it can be valuable when used to support engaged students instead of rep … ⌘ Read more

US Tries to Override New York Gambling Laws, Orders Kalshi to Keep Operating
The CFTC has ordered Kalshi to keep operating in New York, claiming the state’s lawsuit against the prediction market created a “market emergency.” They said it acted “to ensure market stability” and “ordered the exchange to continue to operate in accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act’s Core Principles.” Ars Technica re … ⌘ Read more

China-Linked Hackers Used AI To Run First-Ever ‘Autonomous’ Cyberattack On Taiwan
Researchers at Israeli cybersecurity firm Dream say suspected China-linked hackers used an open-source AI-agent system to conduct what may be the first observed end-to-end autonomous cyberattack against a government. According to the Financial Times (paywalled), the attack compromised at least 85 accounts and resulte … ⌘ Read more

DEF CON Crowd Suspected In Fake-Hotspot Attack On Delta Flight
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, passengers aboard Delta flight 591 going from Las Vegas to Atlanta allegedly spoofed the onboard Wi-Fi, raising the attention of federal law enforcement. The incident came one day after the DEF CON security conference concluded in Las Vegas, and was first described on social media acc … ⌘ Read more

The Pixel Tag Is Google’s Answer To the AirTag
Google has unveiled the $29 Pixel Tag, its long-awaited AirTag rival that combines UWB with Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding for two forms of precision tracking. It launches November 11. The Verge reports: The Pixel Tag is a slim oblong device available in one grayish color – Fog – that weighs about 12g, or 0.4oz. Like the AirTag, it has no built-in hooks or clips for attaching to o … ⌘ Read more

German Advocacy Group Lodges Criminal Complaint Over Meta AI Glasses
A German digital-rights group has filed a criminal complaint against Meta, Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica, and several retailers over Meta’s AI smart glasses, arguing the devices can enable covert recording in violation of German privacy law. Prosecutors have begun a preliminary review, while Germany’s network regulator says smart glasses … ⌘ Read more

Google Unveils Pixel 11 Lineup
At its Made by Google 2026 event today, Google unveiled a slew of new devices, headlined by the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Here’s a breakdown of the company’s latest smartphones, provided by TechCrunch: Pixel 11: The standard Pixel 11 gets a redesigned camera bar that is thinner than the one on the previous generation. Google says the new camera bar is more than 40% thinner and now uses an … ⌘ Read more

US Hires Over 2,000 Video Gamers As Air Traffic Controllers
The FAA says its push to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers has helped it hire more than 2,000 trainees, reaching 94% of its hiring goal. Another 2,000-plus candidates are in the pipeline. CBS News reports: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a recent social media post that the federal agency’s recruitment campaign to recruit g … ⌘ Read more

Swarms of Tiny Robots Remove Microplastics From Soil and Water
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Scientists from the Czech Republic have created microscopic cleanup robots that successfully removed microplastics from both soil and aquatic environments in the lab. Details of their work are published in the journal npg Asia Materials. To build the robots, researchers started with microscopic MX … ⌘ Read more

Behold the ‘Glueball,’ a Strange New Form of Matter
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: For more than half a century, physicists have searched for one of the strangest particles predicted by modern theory. It would be made almost entirely of gluons, the elusive subatomic particles that carry the strong nuclear force. Now, using a particle collider in Beijing, researchers say they have effectively proved the … ⌘ Read more