South Korea Floats ‘Citizen Dividend’ Using AI Profits
South Korea’s presidential policy chief is calling for a “citizen dividend” that would return some AI-driven profits and tax revenue to the public. The Straits Times. From the report: Presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom said in a Facebook post that a portion of the profits and tax revenue derived from the artificial intelligence boom “should be structurally returned to … ⌘ Read more

Instructure Pays Canvas Hackers To Delete Students’ Stolen Data
Instructure, the company behind the widely used Canvas learning platform, says it reached an agreement with the hackers who stole 3.5 terabytes of student and university data. The company says it received “digital confirmation” that the information was destroyed and that affected schools and students would not be extorted. The BBC reports: Paying cyb … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Employees Are ‘Tokenmaxxing’ Due To Pressure To Use AI Tools
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times (via Ars Technica): Amazon employees are using an internal AI tool to automate non-essential tasks in a bid to show managers they are using the technology more frequently. The Seattle-based group has started to widely deploy its in-house “MeshClaw” product in recent weeks, allowing emplo … ⌘ Read more

Google Announces Its Chromebook Successor: the Googlebook
Google is teasing a new line of “Googlebook” laptops for this fall, powered by a new Android-and-ChromeOS-derived operating system that will run Chrome, Android apps, phone-connected apps and files, and deeply integrated Gemini features. The company says Chromebooks will continue “after the launch of Googlebook” and “…all Chromebooks will continue to receive … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft’s $1 Billion AI Data Center Will ‘Switch Off Half of Kenya’
Microsoft and G42’s planned $1 billion AI data center in Kenya has stalled amid disagreements over power commitments, with President William Ruto saying the country would need to “switch off half the country” to support the project at full scale. Tom’s Hardware reports: The project, announced in May 2024 during Ruto’s visit to Washingto … ⌘ Read more

EU To Crack Down On TikTok, Instagram’s ‘Addictive Design’
The EU plans to target “addictive design” features on TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms, including endless scrolling, autoplay, push notifications, and recommendation loops that can steer children toward harmful content. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said new regulation could arrive later this year, alongside an EU age-verification app m … ⌘ Read more

eBay Rejects GameStop’s $56 Billion Takeover As ‘Neither Credible Nor Attractive’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: EBay on Tuesday rejected a $56 billion takeover bid from the much smaller GameStop over financing doubts, calling the proposal “neither credible nor attractive.” EBay, which has roughly four times GameStop’s market value, also underscored that its turnaround efforts under … ⌘ Read more

FCC Says Foreign-Made Routers Can Get Updates Until 2029
The FCC has softened its ban on foreign-made consumer routers, allowing vendors to keep issuing broader software and firmware updates for devices already in use in the U.S. through at least January 2029. Dark Reading reports: Under the original FCC ruling, foreign manufacturers were permitted to provide only limited maintenance and security patches to US custom … ⌘ Read more

First Real-Time Brain-Controlled Hearing Device
Researchers at Columbia demonstrated the first real-time brain-controlled hearing system that can identify which speaker a listener is focusing on in a noisy environment and automatically amplify that voice while suppressing others. “This breakthrough addresses the ‘cocktail party effect,’ a major limitation of conventional hearing aids, which often struggle to distinguish betw … ⌘ Read more

Arts and Cultural Engagement ‘Linked To Slower Pace of Biological Aging’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly, according to the latest study to link taking an active interest in art and culture with improved health. The findings are the first to show that both participating in arts activities and attending … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Testifies In OpenAI Trial
The Musk v. Altman trial entered its third week Monday, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former OpenAI co-founder and renowned AI researcher Ilya Sutskever taking the stand. Nadella testified that Elon Musk never raised concerns to him that Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI violated any special commitments, and said he viewed the partnership as clearly commercial f … ⌘ Read more

A Data Center Drained 30 Million Gallons of Water Unnoticed
A Georgia data center developed by QTS used nearly 30 million gallons of water through two unaccounted-for connections before residents complained about low water pressure and the county utility discovered the issue. “All told, the developer, Quality Technology Services, owed nearly $150,000 for using more than 29 million gallons of unaccounted-for water,” … ⌘ Read more

Digg Tries Again, This Time As an AI News Aggregator
Digg is relaunching again, this time as an AI-focused news aggregator rather than the Reddit-style community site it recently abandoned. TechCrunch reports: On Friday evening, the founder previewed a link to the newly redesigned Digg, which now looks nothing like a Reddit clone and more like the news aggregator it once was. This time around, the site is focused on rankin … ⌘ Read more

CUDA Proves Nvidia Is a Software Company
Nvidia’s real AI moat isn’t “a piece of hardware,” writes Wired’s Sheon Han. It’s CUDA: a mature, deeply optimized software ecosystem that keeps machine-learning workloads tied to Nvidia GPUs. An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: What sounds like a chemical compound banned by the FDA may be the one true moat in AI. CUDA technically stands for Compute Unified Device Architecture, … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic’s Bug-Hunting Mythos Was Greatest Marketing Stunt Ever, Says cURL Creator
cURL creator Daniel Stenberg says Anthropic’s hyped Mythos bug-hunting model found only one confirmed low-severity vulnerability in cURL, plus a few non-security bugs, after he expected a much longer list. He argues Mythos may be useful, but not meaningfully beyond other modern AI code-analysis tools. “My personal … ⌘ Read more

GM Cutting Hundreds of Salaried IT Workers As It Trims Costs, Evaluates Needs
GM is laying off about 500 to 600 salaried IT workers, mainly in Austin, Texas, and Warren, Michigan, as it restructures its technology organization and trims costs. “GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future. As part of that work, we have made the difficult dec … ⌘ Read more

iPhone-Android RCS Conversations Are End-To-End Encrypted In iOS 26.5
Apple says end-to-end encryption for RCS messages between iPhone and Android is now available in iOS 26.5, though the feature is still considered beta and depends on carrier support on both sides. MacRumors reports: Apple says that it worked with Google to lead a cross-industry effort to add E2EE to RCS. iOS users will need iOS 26.5, while … ⌘ Read more

Students Boo Commencement Speaker After She Calls AI the ‘Next Industrial Revolution’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Speaking to graduates of University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication and Media on May 8, commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Tavistock Group, told graduating hum … ⌘ Read more

Google Says Hackers Used AI To Create Zero Day Security Flaw For the First Time
Google says it has seen the first evidence of cybercriminals using AI to create a zero-day vulnerability. “Google reported its findings to the unnamed firm affected by the vulnerability before releasing its report,” reports Politico. “The company then issued a patch to fix the issue.” From the report: Google Threat I … ⌘ Read more

Apple Now Requires Verification For Education Store
Apple now requires Education Store shoppers in the U.S. and several other countries to verify their student, educator, parent, or homeschool-teacher status through UNiDAYS, ending the previous honor-system approach. 9to5Mac reports: Starting today, Apple requires shoppers in the United States to complete verification when making a purchase via the Education Store. This c … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Says ‘Evil’ Portrayals of AI Were Responsible For Claude’s Blackmail Attempts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Fictional portrayals of artificial intelligence can have a real effect on AI models, according to Anthropic. Last year, the company said that during pre-release tests involving a fictional company, Claude Opus 4 would often try to blackmail engineers to avo … ⌘ Read more

Linux Kernel Starts Retiring Support for AMD’s 30-Year-Old K5 CPUs
Linux 7.1 started phasing out support for Intel’s 37-year-old i486 processor. Linux 7.2 removed drivers for the old AMD Elan 32-bit systems on a chip.

And now some i586 and i686 class processors are being removed, reports Phoronix:

Supporting those vintage GPUs without the Time Stamp Counter “TSC” instruction are becoming a burden… TSC-ca … ⌘ Read more

Ford’s Electrified Vehicle Sales Dropped 31% in April From One Year Ago
Ford’s sales of electrified vehicles — including hybrids and all-electric models — dropped 31% from April 2025, reports Electrek. “Hybrid sales fell 32% to 15,758 vehicles, while EV sales continued to crash with just 3,655 all-electric models sold last month, 25% fewer than in the year prior.”

After discontinuing the F-150 Lightning i … ⌘ Read more

Open Source Project Shuts Down Over Legal Threats from 3D Printer Company Bambu Lab
The free/open source project OrcaSlicer is a popular fork of 3D printer slicing software from Bambu Lab. But Tuesday independent developer Pawel Jarczak shuttered the project “following legal threats from Bambu Lab,” reports Tom’s Hardware:

Jarczak’s fork of OrcaSlicer would have allowed users to bypass Bamb … ⌘ Read more

Most Polymarket Users Lose Money, While Top 1% Claim 76.5% of Gains, Study Finds
In Polymarket’s prediction market, “most people end up losing money,” reports the Washington Post — typically a few bucks.

“Since Polymarket launched in 2022, a few thousand people have lost the bulk of the money… and an even smaller group — .05 percent of users — has gone home with most of the overall profits, ac … ⌘ Read more

PlayStation3 Emulator Devs Politely Ask Contributors to Stop Submitting ‘AI Slop’ Pull Requests
Open-source PS3 emulator RPCS3 “has been around since 2011,” Kotaku notes, and has made 70% of the PlayStation 3’s library fully playable, “bolstered in part by the many users who contribute to its GitHub page.” But their dev team “took to X today to very kindly and civilly request that … ⌘ Read more

Honda Patents a Fake Clutch for Electric Motorcycles
An anonymous reader shared this report from Electrek:

A newly revealed Honda patent shows the company developing a simulated electronic clutch system for electric motorcycles, complete with torque-boost launches and even haptic feedback designed to mimic the feel of a combustion engine…. Instead of using a traditional mechanical clutch, the system uses electronics to … ⌘ Read more

Big Tech is Moving Data Through the Gulf Using Fiber-Optic Cables Alongside Iraq’s Oil Pipelines
Major American cloud companies with data centers in the Persian Gulf “are channeling data out of the war zone through fiber-optic cables that an Iraqi telecom has strung alongside crude-oil pipelines,” reports RestofWorld.org:

The data centers serve customers in more than 190 countri … ⌘ Read more

Challenging UPS and FedEx, Amazon Opens Its Shipping Network to All Businesses
This week Amazon opened up its parcel shipping, fulfillment, and distribution “to businesses of all types and sizes.” Any business can now ship, store, and deliver “using the same supply chain that supports Amazon,” according to Monday’s announcement of “Amazon Supply Chain Services.”

The move sent shares of UPS and FedEx “ … ⌘ Read more

GM Secretly Sold California Drivers’ Data, Agrees to Pay $12.75M In Privacy Settlement
“General Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent,” says California’s attorney general, “and despite numerous statements reassuring drivers that it would not do so.”

In 2024, The New York Times “reported that automakers including GM were sharing information about their c … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Relents, Lets its Programmers Use OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude
An anonymous reader shared this report from Futurism:

In November, Amazon leaders sent an internal memo to employees, pushing them to use its in-house code generating tool, Kiro, over third-party alternatives from competitors. “While we continue to support existing tools in use today, we do not plan to support addi … ⌘ Read more

Rocket Lab Reports Growing Demand for Commercial Space Products. Stock Surges 34%
For just the first three months of 2026, Rocket Lab’s launch business reports $63.7 million in revenue, reports CNBC — plus another $136.7 million from its space systems business. Besides beating Wall Street’s expectations, Rocket Lab also announced that its backlog has more than doubled from a year ago to $2.2 … ⌘ Read more

Unemployed Ticked Up in America’s IT Sector
IT sector unemployment “increased to 3.8% in April from 3.6% in March,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

But they add that the increase reflects “an ongoing uncertainty in tech as AI continues to play havoc with hiring. That’s according to analysis from consulting firm Janco Associates, which bases its findings on data from the U.S. Labor Department.”
On Friday, the department said the eco … ⌘ Read more

The EU Considers Restricting Use of US Cloud Platforms for Sensitive Government Data
CNBC reports:

The European Union is considering rules that would restrict its member governments’ use of U.S. cloud providers to handle sensitive data, sources familiar with the talks told CNBC.

The European Commission — the EU’s executive branch — is expected to present its “Tech Sovereignty Package” on Ma … ⌘ Read more

NYT: ‘Meta’s Embrace of AI Is Making Its Employees Miserable’
“Meta’s embrace of AI is making its employees miserable,” reports the New York Times.

And “After Meta said late last month that it would start tracking employees’ computer use, hundreds of workers spoke up.” (One employee even told Meta’s CTO in an internal post, “Your callousness to the concerns of your own employees is concerning.”
In an internal post … ⌘ Read more

‘Changing of the Guard’? AMD, Intel, and Micron Soar While Nvidia Lags
While Nvidia has dominated the “infrastructure boom” since 2022’s launch of ChatGPT and “the generative AI craze,” CNBC writes that “This week offered the starkest illustration yet of what MIzuho analyst Jordan Klein said could be a ‘changing of the guard in AI.’”

Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel notched gains of about 25% … ⌘ Read more

Open Source Registries Join Linux Foundation Working Group to Address Machine-Generated Traffic
Under the nonprofit Linux Foundation, “a new Sustaining Package Registries Working Group will seek to identify concrete funding, governance, and security practices,” reports ZDNet, “to keep code flowing as download counts grow…. Because software builds, continuous integration pipelin … ⌘ Read more

Will Maryland’s Utility Bills Increase $1.6B to Support Other States’ Datacenters?
To upgrade its grid for data centers, PJM Interconnection (which serves 13 states) plans to spend $22 billion — and charge nearly $2 billion of that to customers in Maryland, argues Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel. The money “will be recovered in rates for decades” and “drive up Maryland customer bills by … ⌘ Read more

Rush Rescue Mission for NASA’s $500M Space Telescope Passes Key Milestone
NASA’s $500 million Neil Gehrels Swift space observatory was launched in 2004. But it’s now “at risk of falling back through the atmosphere and burning up without intervention,” reports Spaceflight Now.

Fortunately, a mission to prevent that “just passed a notable prelaunch testing milestone.”
On Friday, NASA announced that th … ⌘ Read more

The Trump Phone Either Is Or Isn’t Closer To Delivery
September 2025? January 2026? Delivery dates keep slipping for the Trump Organization’s “Trump Phone” — a gold-coloured Android smartphone priced at $499 (£370). But in March the Verge spotted signs the phone was moving forward:

FCC listings for a smartphone with the trade name “T1” show that it was tested late last year, and granted certification by the FCC in Janu … ⌘ Read more

Plant Seeds Do Something Incredible When the Sound of Rain Strikes
“Plant seeds can sense the vibrations generated by falling raindrops,” reports ScienceAlert, “and respond by waking from their state of dormancy to welcome the water, new research shows…. to germinate in ‘anticipation’ of the coming deluge.”
The finding, discovered by MIT mechanical engineers Nicholas Makris and Cadine Navarro, offers th … ⌘ Read more

Cisco Releases Open-Source ‘DNA Test for AI Models’
Cisco has released an open-source tool “to trace the origins of AI models,” reports SC World, “and compare model similarities for great visibility into the AI supply chain.”

[Cisco’s Model Provenance Kit] is a Python toolkit and command-line interface (CLI) that looks at signals such as metadata and weights to create a “fingerprint” for AI models that can then be compared to … ⌘ Read more

Social Media Sites Got Information from Ad Trackers on US State Health Insurance Sites
All 20 of America’s state-run healthcare marketplace sites “include advertising trackers that share information with Big Tech companies,” reports Gizmodo, citing a report from Bloomberg:

Per the report, seven million Americans bought their health insurance through state exchanges in 2026, and many of them ma … ⌘ Read more

10 People Called Police to Report Bigfoot Sighting in Ohio
CNN reports on a “sudden surge of claimed sightings” of “unidentified figures averaging 8 feet tall in wooded areas” along Ohio’s Mahoning River.

“And it stopped just as quickly as it started,” says Jeremiah Byron, host of the Bigfoot Society Podcast, which collected and mapped the reports …. Byron doesn’t take every report at face value, making sure he t … ⌘ Read more

Newspaper Chain’s Reporters Withhold Their Bylines to Protest ‘AI-Assisted’ Articles
A chain of 30 U.S. newspapers including the Sacramento Bee, the Miami Herald and the Idaho Statesman “has started to use a new AI tool that can summarize traditional articles and spit out different versions for different audiences,” reports the New York Times.

And the chain’s reporters “are not happy about it … ⌘ Read more

Why Some US Schools Are Cutting Back On the Technology They Spent Billions On
America’s school districts “spent billions on technology during the pandemic,” reports the Washington Post.

“But now some states are limiting in-school screen time because of concerns about its impact on children.”

Nationwide [U.S.] schools invested at least $15 billion and possibly as much as $35 billion from federal … ⌘ Read more

Humanoid Robot Becomes Buddhist Monk In South Korea
A four-foot humanoid robot named Gabi has become a monk at a Buddhist temple in Seoul, participating in a modified initiation ceremony where it pledged to respect life, obey humans, act peacefully toward other robots and objects. “Robots are destined to collaborate with humans in every field in the future,” Hong Min-suk, a manager at the Jogye Order, the largest sect … ⌘ Read more

Fiber Optic Cables Can Eavesdrop On Nearby Conversations
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Cold War spies planted bugs in walls, lamps, and telephones. Now, scientists warn, the cables themselves could listen in. A fiber optic technique used to detect earthquakes can also pick up the faint vibrations of nearby speech, researchers reported this week here at the general assembly of the European Geos … ⌘ Read more

NASA Keeps Track As Mexico City Sinks Into the Ground
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Walking into Mexico City’s sprawling central Zocalo is a dizzying experience. At one end of the plaza, the capital’s cathedral, with its soaring spires, slumps in one direction. An attached church, known as the Metropolitan Sanctuary, tilts in the other. The nearby National Palace also seems off-kilter. The tee … ⌘ Read more

Does Fidelity’s Reorganization Signal the Beginning of the End for ‘Small-Team Agile’?
Longtime Slashdot reader cellocgw writes: Hiding inside another layoff report, Fidelity is reorganizing: “The changes are aimed at moving the teams away from an ‘agile’ makeup – comprising smaller, siloed squads – and toward larger teams built to move faster on projects.” OMG, as they say: “Sudden outbrea … ⌘ Read more