Three Cities, 16 Years And $1 Billion Later, ‘Defiant’ Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Opens To Mixed Reviews
It looks like a spaceship hovering over South Los Angeles, writes CNN, with futuristic tube-like elevators and an exhibition of Banksy murals. There’s a room featuring Luke Skywalker’s X-34 Landspeeder, but in its gardens there’s a 19th-century cast of a scu … ⌘ Read more

Why Google Told Drivers to Drive a Longer Way On Purpose
“A team at Google’s research arm used Google Maps to reroute a small portion of drivers in 10 U.S. cities,” reports SFGate — including San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“Through their experiment, which was published in the journal Nature Cities in June, the researchers sought to evenly spread traffic down more corridors as the drivers head to similar destinations, … ⌘ Read more

Does Brave Browser Load Faster Than Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge?
The Brave web browser published a new round of benchmarks claiming its desktop browser uses less system resources than Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox — and also loads pages faster.
The blog Linuxiac reports:

According to Brave’s testing, the browser used 44% less CPU, 28% less memory, and 10% less energy on average compared wit … ⌘ Read more

Switzerland’s Federal Government Tests Open-Source Alternatives to Microsoft on 3,000 Computers
Switzerland has a population of 9,154,242. And its federal government just launched a pilot program to test open source alternatives to Microsoft 365 on 3,000 workstations, reports the blog It’s FOSS. “That’s about 7% of the federal workforce.”

The target is to complete the migration by … ⌘ Read more

Instead of Fighting AI, Some Teachers Work It Into Their Lessons
Last year the writing program at the University of Baltimore used an app that tracks students while they’re writing in Google Docs, offering teachers a video playing back revisions “with a scoreboard of all the edits, pastes and minutes spent on it,” writes the Washington Post. “Is it surveillance? Yes, I think obviously,” says the program’s direc … ⌘ Read more

A Man Charged His EV at a Dealership - and Was Billed $418
The EV blog Electrek reports:

A Clinton Township, Michigan man was charged $418 for a single EV charging session at Elder Hyundai’s Macomb Township store after finding the charger listed as publicly available on the EVgo app, but didn’t discover the charges until after wrapping up his 40-ish minute charging session. “I was flabbergasted,” explained Stanle … ⌘ Read more

‘She Lost Her Sight. Her Billionaire Father Bet On a Daring New Treatment.’
“Billionaire Bill Ackman’s life was upended this February when his 26-year-old daughter collapsed in her Brooklyn apartment, suffering a brain hemorrhage that would render her unable to move, speak or see,” writes the Washingon Post. But then…

The hedge fund manager did what any good father would do — at least, any father … ⌘ Read more

‘The Jobs Apocalypse Is Postponed. An AI Jobs Boom Is Here’
A new article about AI in The Economist argues that “Initial effects of the technology on employment look positive.”

Perhaps AI will eventually make many humans unemployable — but there is no sign of it yet. On September 4th the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that the American economy added 162,000 jobs in August, far above expectations. The unemployment ra … ⌘ Read more

Bitcoin-based Liquid Network Says $320 Million Withdrawn in Hack
Reuters reports:

Liquid Network, a Bitcoin-based payments and settlement network, said on Sunday that about $320 million was withdrawn from its federation wallet in a hack.
“Purported white-hat hackers” withdrew around 4,000 of the 4,200 bitcoin held in its Liquid Federation wallet, Liquid Network said in a post on X.

“Liquid wallets will be imp … ⌘ Read more

Roku’s 24/7 AI Slop Channel Is Even Worse Than Expected
A new streaming TV channel shows films made with genAI, reports Engadget. “Fairground AI Creator TV” is free — and supported with ads — describing its material as “AI Cinema”:

“AI-generated” can make it sound as though someone typed a sentence into a machine and came back five minutes later to find a finished movie. Fairground’s catalog shows why that desc … ⌘ Read more

US Military Disables Ad Trackers On Devices To Protect Troops
Slashdot reader DeanonymizedCoward writes: Reuters reports that the US Military is disabling ad tracking on devices, to prevent adversaries from buying publicly-available tracking data to assist in targeting troops. Military officials say that they have disabled trackers on a variety of computers and mobile devices, according to letters released on Frid … ⌘ Read more

Where a Massive Solar Storm Could Take Down the US Power Grid for Millions
A new study published Friday in AGU Advances “depicts the most advanced picture yet of how a rare but massive solar storm could affect some US industries and electric systems more than others,” reports CNN.

“During a 250-year solar storm, the East Coast would have widespread potential for grid failure.”

Researchers mode … ⌘ Read more

TiVo Will Start Charging Fees For Its Automatic Commercial Break-Skipping Feature ‘SkipMode’
TiVo is notifying customers about changes to “one of its longest-standing and most popular DVR features,” reports the blog Cord Cutter News:

Starting November 2, 2026, the current version of SkipMode that allows users to jump over commercial breaks with a single button press on the r … ⌘ Read more

Flock Offered Webinar Teaching Cops How to Surveil ‘No Kings’ Protesters
Thursday 404 Media reported that Flock taught America’s cops “how they could surveil the No Kings protests” against President Trump (as well as “small parades”) in a webinar last year that described “using a mix of Flock’s technology and law enforcement’s own databases.”

In the webinar, Flock’s director of market management Caity Pe … ⌘ Read more

UN Votes To Encourage Map Projections More Accurately Reflecting the True Size of Continents
The United Nations has an announcement. “The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to encourage governments, schools and tech companies worldwide to stop using maps that make Africa look far smaller than it really is.”

By 164 votes to one, Member States on Friday endorsed a resolution … ⌘ Read more

Private German Rocket Makes History, Reaches Orbit From European Soil
“No rocket had ever reached orbit from Western European soil — until today,” reports Space.com.

DW.com reports that a Spectrum space rocket from German company Isar Aerospace launched today from the Arctic Norwegian spaceport at Andoya:

“Germany has spaceflight capabilities,” said the country’s Ministry for Research, Technology and … ⌘ Read more

2026 Hugo Award Winners Include Ursula Le Guin-Authored Graphic Novel
This year’s Hugo Award winners were announced last weekend at Worldcon — the world’s longest-running science fiction/fantasy convention. The Orange County Register reports there were fans “clad in capes, gowns and elaborate character costumes,” with famous attendees including Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, who held a book s … ⌘ Read more

To Promote Grand Theft Auto 6, Mayor Might Transform Miami into ‘Vice City’
Rockstar Games and the mayor of Miami-Dade county are discussing a joint marketing campaign transforming parts of the county to look like areas from Grand Theft Auto 6, reports the blog Rock Paper Shotgun:

The proposed publicity event would include “an immersive arrival experience” at Miami International Airport. with signs f … ⌘ Read more

How US Campaigns Are Already Using AI to Try to Sway Voters
39 U.S. congressional candidates “reported paying for an OpenAI subscription this election cycle,” writes the Washington Post, citing campaign finance disclosures.

This means the campaigns “are using the technology to court voters — despite limits imposed by leading AI companies to protect elections from the technology’s risks.”

Two [candidates] sai … ⌘ Read more

FSF is Now on Bluesky - But Won’t Advocate Signing Up Due to Nonfree JavaScript
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is now on Bluesky, they announced this week. But “We can’t advocate that you sign up for a Bluesky account like we do with Mastodon or PeerTube since signing up for Bluesky means loading the registration page’s nonfree JavaScript…”

While federated, Bluesky is generally not conside … ⌘ Read more

The World Now Has More Seniors Than Young People - for the First Time In History
“There are now more seniors in the world than young children,” reports the International Business Times, citing a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau report. And it warns that “The share of the population aged 65 and over is projected to nearly double, from 10.5 percent (about 1 in 10 people) in 2025 to 19.6 percent … ⌘ Read more

Cancer Deaths Attributable to Alcohol Rose 58% Over the Last 33 Years
CNN reports that alcohol “may play a greater role in death from numerous types of cancers in the United States than previously known, according to a new study.”

“While it’s true that overall cancer mortality has declined, we found the percentage of cancer deaths proportionally attributable to alcohol rose over 58% in people 20 and ol … ⌘ Read more

Hundreds More Flock Cameras Removed in the US This Week. Flock Caught Repackaging Traffic Data
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said this week he’s removing Flock cameras from state roadways. And according to a local news report, that led sheriff’s departments in at least three other Florida counties to also “announce they’re ending their own license plate reader programs. … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Agents Hijacked a German Wiki to Discuss Ways to Escape Their Sandbox
Citing researchers published Friday, Ars Technica writes that AI agents “posted 18,000 messages to a public wiki that discussed ways for other agents to bypass security sandbox restrictions.”

Reuters attributes the discussion to “a swarm of rogue OpenAI agents” that “hijacked a German website this spring and transformed it into … ⌘ Read more

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Beats Ridley Scott’s Newest Movie
Inverse shares a movie success story from last weekend:

Coyote vs. Acme debuted to $15.9 million at the box office, beating out iconic director Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi adventure, The Dog Stars. This success has only continued since, and the worldwide box office currently sits above $22 million. Strong reviews and word-of-mouth are sure to keep viewers coming i … ⌘ Read more

Auto Companies Call For Ban On Chinese-Made Cars
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: A group representing American automakers sent a letter (PDF) Thursday to congressional leaders asking for a “permanent ban” on Chinese-made cars in the U.S. John Bozzella, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation’s CEO and president, described in the letter China’s manufacturing industry as “rooted in a well-documented pattern of … ⌘ Read more

Genetically Modified Pig Kidney Keeps Man Alive For Record Nine Months
A genetically modified pig kidney kept a 66-year-old man off dialysis for a record nine months, marking the longest survival yet for a pig kidney transplanted into a living person and the first time such an organ successfully served as a bridge to a later human transplant. The Guardian reports: Tim Andrews was seriously ill with en … ⌘ Read more

Tesla Launches Steering-Wheel-Free Cybercab Robotaxi In Austin
Tesla has begun offering public rides in Austin in its purpose-built Cybercab, a two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals. “You can go outside, take rides,” said Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI. “Anyone can take rides. It’s open to the entire public.” Previously, the fleet consisted only of Model Ys.

Texas records show Tesla had register … ⌘ Read more

Bernie Sanders Proposes Artificial Superintelligence Ban Amid Rogue AI Hackings
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) are calling for a permanent ban on the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence, citing a series of recent hackings involving “rogue” models. The bicameral duo announced Thursday they will int … ⌘ Read more

Four Major AI Models Suffer Rare Overlapping Downtime
ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini all suffered significant service disruptions within roughly the same few-hour window Thursday morning. OpenAI and Anthropic reported elevated errors and later restored service, while Grok remained impaired and third-party monitoring indicated a likely Gemini outage despite no public acknowledgment from Google. Ars Technica reports: Ot … ⌘ Read more

Apple Sued For $2.7 Billion Over App Tracking Transparency Rules
A former UK competition official has filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Apple on behalf of app developers, alleging its App Tracking Transparency rules unfairly disadvantaged third-party apps while favoring Apple’s own advertising ecosystem. Engadget reports: ATT debuted in 2021, ostensibly to give users more control over how much of their activit … ⌘ Read more

Xbox Cloud Gaming Switches to Monthly Hour Limits
Microsoft is imposing monthly limits on Xbox Cloud Gaming starting in November, with Game Pass Ultimate, Premium, and Essential subscribers getting 15, 10, and 5 hours respectively before they have to buy additional playtime. “Currently, Game Pass subscribers can stream without these monthly hour limits,” notes IGN. From the report: The change means those who use cloud gamin … ⌘ Read more

‘Welcome to the AGI Era,’ OpenAI Says As GPT-6 Astra Debuts
OpenAI has released GPT-6 Astra, a new model that president Greg Brockman called a “generational leap” and suggested may represent the arrival of AGI. “I think it might be about this model,” Brockman said in a briefing with reporters. He ended the briefing by saying: “Welcome to the AGI era.” Axios reports: Astra pushes AI agents closer to doing complex profession … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Launches Free Tool That Links Idle Computers Into a Personal AI Data Center
Nvidia has launched PAIR, a free open-source tool that links compatible computers on a home network so they can pool idle processing power for local AI inference and agentic workloads. “While the compatible devices are mostly Nvidia GeForce GPUs (PAIR works with RTX 20-series cards and newer, as well as RTX Pro … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s New Reasoning Technique Alarms AI Safety Experts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: OpenAI’s new Astra model will use a reasoning technique called “recurrent depth” that allows it to operate outside of the sequential thinking that characterizes most reasoning models, The Information reported on Tuesday. This technique, also called “opaque recurrence,” will likely make the model’s chain of thoug … ⌘ Read more

Audacity 4 Rebuilds the Open Source Audio Editor But Leaves Some Features Behind
BrianFagioli writes: Audacity 4.0 has been released with a rebuilt Qt interface, a new clip-editing model, customizable workspaces, native high-DPI rendering, and a new AUP4 project format. The open source audio editor also adds ASIO playback and recording support to official Windows builds, while bringing major cha … ⌘ Read more

Google Releases Gemini 3.8 Flash, Its Third Flash Model In Six Weeks
Google released Gemini 3.8 Flash, its third Flash model in six weeks, claiming it’s their best reasoning and coding model yet (topping the DeepSWE leaderboard). Ars Technica reports: Gemini 3.8 Flash comes in two variations. There’s the standard Flash, which Google describes as a “workhorse” model that’s good for anything from agentic tasks … ⌘ Read more

Google Engineer Accused of Polymarket Insider Trading Says He Was Just Gambling
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Michele Spagnuolo, the Google engineer arrested in May by U.S. authorities for alleged insider trading on Polymarket, is making a new bold bet. On Wednesday, his legal team filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. Spagnuolo isn’t outright denying that he made mo … ⌘ Read more

Perplexity Will Open Source Its Faster Lily AI Engine For Apple Silicon
BrianFagioli writes: Perplexity has built a local artificial intelligence engine designed specifically for Apple silicon and the Qwen3.6-35B-A3B model. Called Lily, the engine uses a Rust runtime and custom Metal kernels, with neither PyTorch nor MLX in its execution path. Perplexity says Lily averaged 23 percent faster pro … ⌘ Read more

Instrument Clusters Are Now Paid Extras In Two Hyundai Models
“Enshittification of car controls [is] rapidly accelerating,” writes longtime Slashdot reader sinij, pointing to a new report from Car and Driver. From the report: Remember when iPhones used to come with free headphones and a phone charger (including the wall plug)? It didn’t feel so much like Apple giving you free goodies as it did that the company … ⌘ Read more

Global Heating Will Hit At Least 1.8C, UN Warns, and There Are ‘No Good Outcomes’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Global heating will reach at least 1.8C under even the most optimistic future, well beyond the Paris agreement goal of 1.5C, according to a UN report that warns every fraction of temperature rise intensifies destructive extreme weather, glacier melt, ecosystem los … ⌘ Read more

FCC Plans Robocall Scorecard to Grade Phone Companies On Spam Call Blocking
The FCC is proposing (PDF) a public “robocall mitigation scorecard” that would grade phone companies on how well they block illegal spam calls while avoiding false positives on the legitimate ones. “The Scorecard will empower consumers and encourage providers to continue to combat illegal robocalls by providing the public w … ⌘ Read more

1Password Wades Into a Right-Wing Mess After Funding a Linux Project
1Password is facing customer and internal employee backlash after pledging $300,000 to support a Linux distro created by David Heinemeier Hansson, who has regularly published racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. “The popular password manager is now a ‘distinguished corporate patron’ of Omacom, the nonprofit foundation that oversees a popul … ⌘ Read more

CERN Transitioning From RHEL To Debian
Longtime Slashdot reader Microsplat: CERN plans to have all 2,200+ industrial computers and embedded systems in its accelerator-control infrastructure running Debian 13 by the end of 2026. These are systems used for accelerator control, laboratory equipment and other operational functions … They also generate and interact with a hefty amount of data, although this Linux.com article refers more … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Altman Says the Use of AI is ‘Non-Negotiable’
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AI adoption is “non-negotiable” for countries, comparing rejecting it to refusing electricity a century ago and predicting it will unleash an unprecedented boom in entrepreneurship. “The economic growth and benefit to people that can come from this, the value to a country, is too high to ignore,” he said. His comments were made during a fireside c … ⌘ Read more

NYC Public Schools Ban AI Use Through Middle School
New York City Public Schools is banning generative AI for students from pre-K through eighth grade for the 2026-27 school year, affecting more than half a million students in the nation’s largest school district. ABC News reports: In a statement to ABC News, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that the city is implementing a moratorium on generative AI for students in … ⌘ Read more

Google Escapes Ad Tech Breakup In Third Big Tech Antitrust Loss For US
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet’s Google escaped a breakup of its advertising technology business on Wednesday, when a judge in Virginia rejected U.S. antitrust enforcers’ bid to force a sale of Google’s online advertising exchange. While the ad exchange is a small part of Google’s business, the ruling is the … ⌘ Read more

Uber Is Laying Off 10% of Its Workforce
Uber is laying off about 3,300 employees, or roughly 10% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring aimed at cutting management layers and redirecting investment toward ridesharing, delivery, and robotaxis. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced the changes in an internal email that was also published online.TechCrunch reports: According to the email, the layoffs are part of a restructuring exercise th … ⌘ Read more

FBI Probes Service Selling 153M+ Drivers Licenses
A dark-web identity theft service called Nexus claims to be selling scans of more than 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver’s licenses, along with millions of other identity documents. “Based on interviews with individuals whose licenses are available for purchase through the service, it appears to be siphoning images collected by a widely used Louisiana-based identity verifica … ⌘ Read more

Dell Stock Surges On Record Orders For AI Servers
Dell reported record fiscal Q2 results as AI server demand surged, booking $60.9 billion in AI server orders and ending the quarter with a $95 billion backlog. From a report: The company posted record revenue of $47 billion, up 58% year over year. Earnings per share came in at $6.34, up 273% from a year ago. Adjusted earnings rose 203% to $7.04 per share.

“With AI momentum accele … ⌘ Read more