Air France, Airbus Guilty of Corporate Manslaughter In 2009 Air France 447 Crash
Long-time Slashdot reader UnknowingFool shares this report from the BBC:
Air France and Airbus have been found guilty of manslaughter over a 2009 plane crash which killed 228 people. The Paris Appeals Court found the airline and aircraft manufacturer “solely and entirely responsible” for the incident, in which flig … ⌘ Read more
Free Software Foundation’s Call for ‘LibreLocals’ Answered on Six Continents - With More Coming
The Free Software Foundation announced this week that “its global call for free software supporters to organize LibreLocals this May resulted in free software supporters organizing forty-six LibreLocal events on six continents thus far.” (And new dates and locations are being added daily. … ⌘ Read more
Friday Google’s AI-Powered Search Results Glitched on the Word ‘Disregard’
On Friday TechCrunch reported they could no longer Google the word “disregard”.
Google’s AI Overview responded “Understood. Let me know whenever you have a new prompt or question!” below an icon for hearing the word “disregard” pronounced — then displayed several inches of blank whitespace.
“The Merriam-Webster link is still in … ⌘ Read more
Researchers Say the Worst Climate Future is Less Likely. But the Best One is Also Slipping Away
Citing new research, the Associated Press reports that “modest gains in the fight to curb climate change have dialed back the most catastrophic of future heating.”
That’s the good news. But the same research “also confirmed that there’s no chance to limit warming to the international go … ⌘ Read more
Linux Kernel Flaw Lets Unprivileged Users Access Root-Only Files, Execute Arbitrary Commands as Root
Qualys’s Threat Research Unit (TRU) has discovered and published a logic flaw in Linux kernel “that permits an unprivileged local user to disclose sensitive files and execute arbitrary commands as root on default installations of several major distributions.” Friday their blo … ⌘ Read more
Tech CEOs Call for a Universal Basic Income. But What are the Alternatives?
The Washington Post looks at arguments that “AI’s coming upheaval may demand massive infusions of cash to everyday Americans”. But they also look at some of the alternatives:
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for similar public-relief measures, including, potentially, universal basic income, or UBI. Eventually “our current … ⌘ Read more
Caltech Could Lose Control of JPL For First Time In Decades
NASA plans to open competition for the contract to operate JPL for the first time in nearly a century, meaning Caltech’s historic role managing the iconic deep-space lab could come to an end when its current agreement expires in 2028. According to JPL, Caltech has managed the lab since the its inception in the 1930s, and has done so for NASA since the ag … ⌘ Read more
Pentagon Releases Second Batch of UFO Videos, First-Hand Testimony
The Pentagon released a second batch of UAP files, including 50 videos and documents showing unexplained objects over the Middle East, Syria, Iran, and in NASA recordings. Despite the reports, the agency stresses that it has found no evidence of extraterrestrial origin. The Guardian reports: In one video from the Middle East in 2019, … ⌘ Read more
SpaceX’s Upgraded Starship V3 Launches For First Time
SpaceX’s upgraded Starship V3 launched today from Starbase, Texas for the first time, successfully deploying 22 dummy Starlink satellites and completing a planned fiery splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Reuters reports: The towering vehicle, consisting of the upper-stage Starship astronaut vessel stacked atop a Super Heavy booster rocket, blasted off at about 5:30 p.m … ⌘ Read more
Google API Keys Remain Active After Deletion
Aikido Security found that deleted Google API keys can continue authenticating for a median of about 16 minutes and as long as 23 minutes, despite Google Cloud’s UI claiming that once a key is deleted it can no longer make API requests. Dark Reading reports: Joe Leon, researcher at Belgian startup Aikido Security, recently analyzed the revocation window – the time between a key’s dele … ⌘ Read more
Major Streamers Must Pay 15% of Revenues To Canadian Content, CRTC Says
Canada’s broadcast regulator says major streaming services such as Netflix must contribute 15% of their Canadian revenues to Canadian and Indigenous content. “That’s three times the five-per-cent initial contribution requirement the CRTC set out in 2024, which is being challenged in court by major streamers, including Apple and Amazon … ⌘ Read more
NTSB Wants PDF Removed After It Exposed Final Cockpit Audio From UPS Crash
The NTSB temporarily closed public access to nearly all investigation dockets after people used a spectrogram image from a PDF in the UPS flight 2976 crash file to reconstruct approximate cockpit voice recorder audio and post it online. “We show our work and we’ve been doing this type of thing for years. Nobody was aware that … ⌘ Read more
Trump Mobile Exposed Customers’ Personal Data, Including Phone Numbers and Home Addresses
Trump Mobile confirmed that a third-party platform exposed customers’ personal data to the open internet. The data included names, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and order IDs. TechCrunch reports: Chris Walker, a spokesperson for the Trump-branded phone maker, told TechCrunch that … ⌘ Read more
Spotify, UMG To Let Fans Make Their Own Music With AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Billboard: Spotify and Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a licensing deal for recorded music and publishing rights, enabling Spotify to launch generative AI music models in the future. With this deal, Spotify’s models will allow fans to create covers and remixes of their favorite songs from participating artists and … ⌘ Read more
This Cannes Film Cost $500,000 to Make. $400,000 Was AI Compute Costs.
Higgsfield AI is debuting a 95-minute fully AI-generated film at Cannes called “Hell Grind” that reportedly cost $500,000 to make, $400,000 of which was spent on compute alone. The project took just two weeks to produce and is intended to showcase the startup’s AI production tools. But it also underscores the current limits of AI f … ⌘ Read more
Venmo Redesign Makes New Users’ Posts Friends-Only by Default
Venmo is testing a major redesign that will make new users’ payment posts viewable by their friends by default instead of being public. The Verge reports: It’s a notable update for a platform that has struggled with privacy in the past. In 2021, BuzzFeed News tracked down President Joe Biden’s Venmo account and the accounts of people in his inner circle … ⌘ Read more
Samsung Chip Workers To Get $340,000 Average Bonus In AI Boom
Samsung is reportedly set to pay chip-division workers an average bonus of about $340,000 after reaching a tentative deal with its union, according to Bloomberg (paywalled). The deal ended a standoff that “could have cost the economy as much as 1 trillion won ($658 million) daily, with losses potentially multiplying to 100 trillion won ($68 billion) if in … ⌘ Read more
A Bipartisan Amendment Would End Police License Plate Tracking Nationwide
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: US lawmakers plan to introduce an amendment Thursday at a House committee markup hearing that would prohibit any recipient of federal highway funding from using automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling – a sweeping restriction that, if adopted, would bring … ⌘ Read more
Steve Wozniak Tells Graduates They All Have ‘AI’: Actual Intelligence
While other commencement speeches have been met with boos for hyping up artificial intelligence, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak reminded college graduates that they already posses “AI” of their own: “actual intelligence.” He framed AI as an attempt to duplicate brain-like routines, and encouraged students to “think different” as they enter … ⌘ Read more
At Least 80% Responsibility For Ill Health In Old Age Down to Individual, Study Says
A new Oxford Longevity Project report argues that individuals bear at least 80% of the responsibility for ill health in old age. “The report (PDF), launched at the Smart Ageing Summit in Oxford last week, argues that individuals have far greater control over their longevity than is commonly understood,” re … ⌘ Read more
AT&T Sues California In Bid To Stop Offering Traditional Phone Service
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: AT&T on Wednesday filed suit (PDF) against California officials seeking a court order declaring it does not have to continue offering traditional copper wire phone service to new customers as it vowed to spend $19 billion on modern telecom services. California requires the U.S. wirel … ⌘ Read more
Thousands of Zillow Listings In Chicago Have Vanished
Thousands of Chicago-area Zillow and Trulia listings disappeared after Midwest Real Estate Data cut off Zillow’s access to its feed, “in the latest escalation of a legal battle with Lisle-based Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED),” reports the Chicago Sun-Times. “The fight is over MRED’s private listing network, where homes for sale are shared among real estate profession … ⌘ Read more
Vivaldi 8.0 Arrives With ‘Most Significant Design Overhaul’ In Browser’s History
Vivaldi 8.0 is being pitched as the browser’s “most significant design overhaul” yet, featuring a new unified, edge-to-edge interface, six preset layouts, and deeper customization across tabs, toolbars, panels, and themes. The company is also taking a swipe at rivals chasing questionable AI features. Neowin reports: Af … ⌘ Read more
Trump Calls Off AI Executive Order Over Concern It Could Weaken US Tech Edge
Trump called off a planned AI executive order just hours before a signing ceremony because he said he was worried the framework could slow America’s lead over China. “We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump told reporters. The Associat … ⌘ Read more
Flipper One Could Be the Ultimate Linux Cyberdeck
BrianFagioli writes: Flipper Devices has finally revealed Flipper One, a Linux-powered cyberdeck that sounds less like a gadget and more like an attempt to rebuild portable ARM computing from the ground up. Unlike Flipper Zero, which focuses on offline protocols like RFID and Sub-1 GHz radio, Flipper One is all about networking, modular hardware, SDR experimentation, local … ⌘ Read more
US To Award $2 Billion To Quantum Companies, Take Equity Stakes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Quantum Insider: The Trump administration is preparing a new round of industrial policy aimed at quantum computing, with roughly $2 billion in grants expected to go to nine companies developing quantum hardware and related technologies. According to Reuters, citing a Wall Street Journal report, the U.S. Dep … ⌘ Read more
Spotify Will Start Reserving Concert Tickets For Fans
Spotify is launching “Reserved,” a new feature that will set aside concert tickets for Premium subscribers it identifies as an artist’s most dedicated fans based on streams, shares, and other activity. “Getting concert tickets today can feel like a race you’re set up to lose,” Spotify wrote in a post on Thursday. “You show up at the right time, refresh endles … ⌘ Read more
Waymo Pauses Atlanta Service As Its Robotaxis Keep Driving Into Floods
Waymo has paused service in Atlanta after one of its driverless cars entered a flooded street and got stuck. It follows a similar pause in San Antonio that prompted a recent software recall (PDF) over flood avoidance. TechCrunch reports: Waymo admitted that it hadn’t finished developing a “final remedy” for avoiding flooded areas when … ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Hires Analyst With Influential Video Game Blog To Fix Xbox
Microsoft has hired games analyst and investor Matthew Ball as Xbox’s new chief strategy officer. With a long track record of analyzing the video game market and industry’s biggest shifts, Ball’s background could help Xbox rethink its hardware and console strategy at a moment when competition is tougher than ever. Engadget reports: Ball i … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI Claims It Solved an 80-Year-Old Math Problem
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: OpenAI claims its new reasoning model has produced an original mathematical proof disproving a famous unsolved conjecture in geometry, which was first posed by Paul Erdos in 1946. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s because this isn’t the first time OpenAI has made such a bold claim. Seven months ago, the AI giant’s … ⌘ Read more
SpaceX Reveals Its Finances For the First Time
SpaceX has revealed its financials for the first time as it prepares for a potentially massive IPO. The New York Times reports: SpaceX’s revenue soared to $18.7 billion in 2025, up 33 percent from a year earlier, the company disclosed in a filing required of firms that are seeking to go public. In the first three months of this year, revenue rose to $4.7 billion from $4.1 billion i … ⌘ Read more
NASA Expects Chinese Crewed Mission Around the Moon In 2027
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says he expects China to fly taikonauts around the moon in 2027, “ratcheting up perceptions of a space race between China and the United States,” reports SpaceNews. He is using that prospect to argue for a revamped Artemis strategy and an accelerated path toward a U.S. lunar return. From the report: “The next time the w … ⌘ Read more
Colossal Biosciences Is Growing Chickens In a 3D-Printed Artificial Eggshell
Colossal Biosciences says it has grown chickens inside 3D-printed artificial eggshells. “The company says the egg technology could help conserve at-risk bird species,” reports MIT Technology. “It could also play a role in a project to re-create the extinct giant moa, a flightless 12-foot-tall bird that once lived in New … ⌘ Read more
Intuit To Lay Off Over 3,000 Employees To Refocus On AI
Intuit is reportedly cutting about 3,000 jobs, or 17% of its workforce, as it restructures around AI and simplifies its corporate organization. TechCrunch reports: The layoffs come during a bad year for the tech workforce. The tech industry has already cut more than 100,000 jobs this year, per Statista, and is on track to outpace both 2024 and 2025 if the layoff trend c … ⌘ Read more
Google Publishes Exploit Code Threatening Millions of Chromium Users
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google on Wednesday published exploit code for an unfixed vulnerability in its Chromium browser codebase that threatens millions of people using Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and virtually all other Chromium-based browsers. The proof-of-concept code exploits the Browser Fetch programming inte … ⌘ Read more
RHEL 10.2 Released With New AI Command Line Assistance
Red Hat has released RHEL 10.2 and 9.8 with new AI-assisted command-line tools. The releases also add updated developer toolchains such as Go 1.26, LLVM 21, Rust 1.92, Python 3.14, and PHP 8.4. Phoronix reports: Red Hat Enterprise Linux has introduced the goose command for power users. Goose is an optional CLI AI assistance with model context protocol (MCP) integrati … ⌘ Read more
GitHub’s Internal Repos Breached Via Employee’s Use of Malicious VS Code Extension
Longtime Slashdot reader Himmy32 writes: GitHub has announced on X that their internal repositories have been breached through a compromised VS Code Extension on an employee’s workstation. Bleeping Computer reported that the attack is linked to TeamPCP who have been in the news for a recent campaign affecting Checkm … ⌘ Read more
Anna’s Archive Hit With Global Domain Takedown Order
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A coalition of thirteen major publishers has won a massive $19.5 million default judgment against shadow library Anna’s Archive. A New York federal judge fully approved the publishers’ requests, issuing a broad permanent injunction that orders more than twenty specific global registries, hosts, and service providers t … ⌘ Read more
Seagate Sparks Memory Sell-Off As CEO Says It Would ‘Take Too Long’ To Build New Factories
Seagate CEO Dave Mosley said Monday that building new memory chip factories or adding capacity would “take too long” to keep up with AI-driven storage demand. “If we took the teams off and started building new factories or bringing up new machines, that would just take too long. You would end … ⌘ Read more
Yearslong Fight Over Users’ Right To Tweak Smart TV Software Heads To Trial
A long-running lawsuit over Vizio’s Linux-based smart TV software is headed to trial in August, with the Software Freedom Conservancy arguing that GPL rules require Vizio to release complete source code owners could use to modify, maintain, or strip ads and tracking from their TVs. Ars Technica reports: The outcome could rever … ⌘ Read more
Regional Winners of Prestigious Literary Prize Suspected of Using Chatbots
The 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is facing backlash after several winning entries were accused of being AI-generated, with one Caribbean winner’s story flagged as fully AI-written by a detector that WIRED says it independently confirmed. From the report: Each year, the Commonwealth Foundation, a nongovernmental organization … ⌘ Read more
Google’s AI Studio Now Lets Anyone Build Android Apps In Minutes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The AI coding boom is now coming directly for Android app development. On Tuesday at Google IO 2026, the company announced new native Android app creation capabilities in its web-based Google AI Studio, shrinking a process that takes weeks of setup and coding down to minutes. The company also sa … ⌘ Read more
Google Accused of Pushing ‘Free For Life’ G Suite Users Onto Paid Plans
Google is again pressuring some longtime G Suite Legacy users to move onto paid Workspace plans, warning that accounts flagged as “commercial use” could lose access to Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and other services if appeals fail. “The trouble, according to users, is that the appeals system appears about as transparent as a brick,” adds … ⌘ Read more
Webb Discovers One of the Universe’s First Galaxies
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified an ultra-faint galaxy seen just 800 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy contains almost no heavy elements, shows signs of intense early stellar radiation, and could offer a rare glimpse into the first stages of galaxy formation. Phys.org reports: In a paper published in the journal Nature, a team o … ⌘ Read more
Minnesota Becomes First State To Ban Prediction Markets
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has signed the nation’s first law banning prediction market sites from operating in the state, and in response, the Trump administration has sued, teeing up a legal battle over the most far-reaching crackdown on popular services like Kalshi and Polymarket. It comes as states confront a growing st … ⌘ Read more
Plex Triples Lifetime Subscription Cost To $750
BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Plex is raising the price of a new Lifetime Plex Pass from $249.99 to $749.99 on July 1. That’s a $500 increase for media server software. Plex says it needs the money for “long-term development” and future features, but a lot of self-hosting folks are already wondering if this is basically a soft way of killing the Lifetime option with … ⌘ Read more
Google Changes Its Search Box for the First Time in 25 Years
Google is giving its iconic search box its first major redesign since 2001. The new design incorporates, you guessed it, artificial intelligence, “getting bigger and more interactive so that people can ask even longer questions and upload photographs and videos into queries,” reports the New York Times. “In addition, people can ask follow-up questions … ⌘ Read more
NextEra and Dominion’s $67 Billion Mega-Merger Is All About the Data Centers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Inside Climate News: A proposed merger of the largest utility in the country by market value, NextEra Energy, with the sixth-largest, Dominion, would create a megacompany at a time when data centers and rapid increases in electricity demand are reshaping the industry. The proposal … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI Co-Founder Andrej Karpathy Joins Anthropic
OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy has joined rival AI lab Anthropic. “The hire is a major coup for Anthropic in the high-stakes competition for elite AI talent – and another sign the company is emerging as a magnet for some of the industry’s most respected technical minds,” reports Axios. From the report: Karpathy will start this week on Anthropic’s pre-training team, which is re … ⌘ Read more
StanChart To Cut Over 7,000 Jobs, Boost AI To Replace ‘Lower-Value Human Capital’
The London-headquartered lender Standard Chartered announced plans to cut more than 7,000 jobs by 2030, with CEO Bill Winters saying the bank will replace some “lower-value human capital” through automation and AI while offering retraining to affected workers. “It’s not cost-cutting. It’s replacing in some cases lower-val … ⌘ Read more