Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements For AI Sneakily Backed By OpenAI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: OpenAI hasn’t been shy about spending money lobbying for favorable laws and regulations. But when it comes to its involvement with child safety advocacy groups, the company has apparently decided it’s best to stay in the shadows – even if it means hiding from the people ac … ⌘ Read more

Rapid Snow Melt-Off In American West Stuns Scientists
Scientists say extreme March heat caused an unusually rapid collapse of snowpack across the American West that’s leaving major basins at record or near-record lows. “This year is on a whole other level,” said Dr Russ Schumacher, a Colorado State University climatologist. “Seeing this year so far below any of the other years we have data for is very concerning.” The Gu … ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Files To Go Public
Reuters reports that SpaceX has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, reportedly targeting a valuation above $1.75 trillion. Reuters reports: SpaceX puts more rockets in space than any other company and promises a chance to invest in humanity’s return to the moon and attempt to colonize Mars. The company aspires to put artificial intelligence data centers in space, while running a lucrative satellite communications system that o … ⌘ Read more

NASA Launches Artemis II Astronauts Around the Moon
NASA’s Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts around the moon and back, marking humanity’s first crewed lunar voyage in 53 years and the first test flight of NASA’s Orion capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) with people on board. Five minutes into the flight, Commander Reid Wiseman saw the team’s target: “We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it … ⌘ Read more

UFC-Que Choisir Takes Ubisoft To French Court Over the Crew Shutdown
Longtime Slashdot reader Elektroschock writes: When Ubisoft pulled the plug on The Crew’s servers without warning, players were left with a worthless game they’d already paid for. Now, consumer watchdog UFC-Que Choisir is fighting back, demanding gamers’ right to play regardless of publisher whims. Supported by the “Stop Killing Games” mov … ⌘ Read more

AI Can Clone Open-Source Software In Minutes
ZipNada writes: Two software researchers recently demonstrated how modern AI tools can reproduce entire open-source projects, creating proprietary versions that appear both functional and legally distinct. The partly-satirical demonstration shows how quickly artificial intelligence can blur long-standing boundaries between coding innovation, copyright law, and the open-source principles … ⌘ Read more

Cloudflare Announces EmDash As Open-Source ‘Spiritual Successor’ To WordPress
In classic Cloudflare fashion, the CDN provider used April Fool’s Day to unveil an actual, “not a joke” product. Today, the company announced EmDash – an open-source “spiritual successor” to WordPress that aims to solve plugin security. Phoronix reports: With the help of AI coding agents, Cloudflare engineers have been re … ⌘ Read more

Sweden Swaps Screens For Books In the Classroom
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In 2023, the Swedish government announced that the country’s schools would be going back to basics, emphasizing skills such as reading and writing, particularly in early grades. After mostly being sidelined, physical books are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and students are learning to write the old-fashioned way: by … ⌘ Read more

OnlyOffice Suspends Nextcloud Partnership For Forking Its Project Without Approval
darwinmac writes: OnlyOffice has suspended its partnership with Nextcloud after the latter forked its editors into a new project called Euro-Office, according to a report from Neowin. The move comes just days after Nextcloud and partners like IONOS announced the fork as part of a broader push for European digit … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Issues Copyright Takedown Requests To Remove 8,000+ Copies of Claude Code Source Code
Anthropic is using copyright takedown notices to try to contain an accidental leak of the underlying instructions for its Claude Code AI agent. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Anthropic representatives had used a copyright takedown request to force the removal of more than 8, … ⌘ Read more

CEO of America’s Largest Public Hospital System Says He’s Ready To Replace Radiologists With AI
Mitchell H. Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said hospitals could already replace many radiologists with AI for some imaging tasks – if regulators allowed it. He argued the technology presents an opportunity to simultaneously cut costs and expand access. Radiology Busin … ⌘ Read more

Robotaxi Outage In China Leaves Passengers Stranded On Highways
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: An unknown technical problem caused a number of robotaxis owned by the Chinese tech giant Baidu to freeze on Tuesday in the middle of traffic, trapping some passengers in the vehicles for more than an hour. In Wuhan, a city in central China where Baidu has deployed hundreds of its Apollo Go self-drivin … ⌘ Read more

Startup Pitches ‘Brainless Clones’ To Serve the Role of Backup Human Bodies
MIT Technology Review discovered that startup R3 Bio has pitched an ethically and scientifically explosive long-term vision beyond its public work on non-sentient monkey “organ sacks”: creating human “brainless clones” or replacement bodies for organs as part of an extreme life-extension agenda. From the report: Imagine it … ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Starlink Satellite Suffers Mysterious ‘Anomaly’ In Orbit
A Starlink satellite broke apart in orbit after suffering an unexplained “anomaly,” apparently due to an “internal energetic source” rather than a collision. “The incident appears to have created some debris, with fragments likely to fall to Earth over the next few weeks,” reports Scientific American. From the report: The satellite lost communication … ⌘ Read more

Russia Goes After VPNs As ‘Great Crackdown’ Gathers Pace
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Russia is going to further clamp down Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which are used by millions of Russians to get around internet controls and censorship, Russia’s digital minister said. In what has been cast by diplomats as Russia’s “great crackdown,” the authorities have repeatedly blocked mobile internet and … ⌘ Read more

Volvo Shifts Polestar 3 Production Entirely To the US
Polestar and Volvo are ending Polestar 3 production in Chengdu, China, and consolidating all output of the electric SUV at Volvo’s plant in South Carolina. “The move to consolidate global Polestar 3 production in Charleston help[s] generate efficiencies for both companies, whilst also underscoring our confidence in the plant and the role it plays in our manufacturin … ⌘ Read more

Oracle Cuts Thousands of Jobs Across Sales, Engineering, Security
bobthesungeek76036 shares a report from the Register: Oracle laid off thousands of employees on Tuesday as it ramps spending on AI infrastructure projects internally and with major technology partners. The layoffs were carried out via email, according to copies of the message viewed by Business Insider. The email told affected workers they … ⌘ Read more

Top Brussels Official Urges Europeans To Work From Home, Drive Less As Energy Crisis Deepens
A top EU official is urging Europeans to work from home, drive less, and cut air travel as the bloc braces for a prolonged energy crisis triggered by the Gulf conflict. The European Commission is also pushing member states to accelerate renewables and other energy-security measures as oil and … ⌘ Read more

Google Now Lets You Change Your Gmail Address
Google is rolling out a feature in the U.S. that lets some users change their Gmail address without creating a new account or losing their data. TechCrunch reports: Users who have access to this feature can go to their Google Account settings, navigate to Personal info > Email > Google Account email option. Tap on the “Change Google Account email” button to start the process of chang … ⌘ Read more

Global Ban On Digital Duties Expires After Stalled Talks At WTO Meeting
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A global ban on taxing digital streaming and downloads across national borders expired on Monday, after members of the World Trade Organization concluded an annual meeting without agreeing to extend it. U.S. representatives had pushed to extend the ban, which prevents the … ⌘ Read more

Australia Readies Social Media Court Action Citing Teen Ban Breaches
Australia is preparing possible court action against major social media platforms that are failing to enforce the country’s social media ban on under-16s. “Three months after the ban came into effect, the eSafety Commissioner said it was probing Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok for possible breaches of t … ⌘ Read more

Claude Code’s Source Code Leaks Via npm Source Maps
Grady Martin writes: A security researcher has leaked a complete repository of source code for Anthropic’s flagship command-line tool. The file listing was exposed via a Node Package Manager (npm) mapping, with every target publicly accessible on a Cloudflare R2 storage bucket. $ du -hs .35M .$ find -type f | sed ’s/^.*\.//’ | sort | uniq -c | sort -bVr 1332 ts … ⌘ Read more

Euro-Office Wants To Replace Google Docs and Microsoft Office
Euro-Office is a new open-source project supported by several European companies that aims to offer a “truly open, transparent and sovereign solution for collaborate document editing,” using OnlyOffice as a starting point. The project is positioned around European digital independence and familiar Office-style editing, though it has already drawn pushback f … ⌘ Read more

US Paves Way For Private Assets To Be Included In 401(k) Retirement Plans
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The Trump administration on Monday issued a long-awaited proposed rule to open up retirement plans to alternative assets, paving the way for private equity and cryptocurrencies to be added to 401(k) accounts. The measure, announced by the U.S. Department of Labor, is intended to eas … ⌘ Read more

Quadratic Gravity Theory Reshapes Quantum View of Big Bang
Researchers at the University of Waterloo say a new “quadratic quantum gravity” framework could explain the universe’s rapid early expansion without adding extra ingredients to Einstein’s theory by hand. The idea is especially notable because it makes testable predictions, including a minimum level of primordial gravitational waves that future experiments … ⌘ Read more

Scientists Shocked To Find Lab Gloves May Be Skewing Microplastics Data
Researchers found that common nitrile and latex lab gloves can shed stearate particles that closely resemble microplastics, potentially “increasing the risk of false positives when studying microplastic pollution,” reports ScienceDaily.

“We may be overestimating microplastics, but there should be none,” said Anne McNeil, senior … ⌘ Read more

AI Data Centers Can Warm Surrounding Areas By Up To 9.1C
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: Andrea Marinoni at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues saw that the amount of energy needed to run a data centre had been steadily increasing of late and was likely to “explode” in the coming years, so wanted to quantify the impact. The researchers took satellite measurements of land su … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Plans To Build 100% Native Apps For Windows 11
Microsoft is reportedly shifting Windows 11 app development back toward fully native apps. Rudy Huyn, a Partner Architect at Microsoft working on the Store and File Explorer, said in a post on X that he is building a new team to work on Windows apps. “You don’t need prior experience with the platform.. what matters most is strong product thinking and a deep focus … ⌘ Read more

After 16 Years and $8 Billion, the Military’s New GPS Software Still Doesn’t Work
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last year, just before the Fourth of July holiday, the US Space Force officially took ownership of a new operating system for the GPS navigation network, raising hopes that one of the military’s most troubled space programs might finally bear fruit. The GPS Next- … ⌘ Read more

Samsung Is Bringing AirDrop-Style Sharing to Older Galaxy Devices
Samsung is reportedly planning to roll out AirDrop-style file sharing for older Galaxy phones via a Quick Share update. Early reports suggest the feature is appearing on devices from the Galaxy S22 through the S25, though it is not actually working yet. Android Central reports: As spotted by Reddit users (via Tarun Vats on X), a Quick Share a … ⌘ Read more

OkCupid Settles FTC Case On Alleged Misuse of Its Users’ Personal Data
OkCupid and parent company Match Group settled an FTC case dating back to 2014 over allegations that the dating app shared users’ photos and other personal data with a third party without proper disclosure or opt-out rights. Engadget reports: According to the FTC, OkCupid’s privacy policy at the time noted that the company wouldn’t shar … ⌘ Read more

Life With AI Causing Human Brain ‘Fry’
fjo3 shares a report from France 24: Too many lines of code to analyze, armies of AI assistants to wrangle, and lengthy prompts to draft are among the laments by hard-core AI adopters. Consultants at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have dubbed the phenomenon “AI brain fry,” a state of mental exhaustion stemming “from the excessive use or supervision of artificial intelligence tools, pushed beyond our co … ⌘ Read more

Judge Allows BitTorrent Seeding Claims Against Meta, Despite Lawyers ‘Lame Excuses’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: In an effort to gather material for its LLM training, Meta used BitTorrent to download pirated books from Anna’s Archive and other shadow libraries. According to several authors, Meta facilitated the infringement of others by “seeding” these torrents. This we … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Copilot Is Now Injecting Ads Into Pull Requests On GitHub
Microsoft Copilot is reportedly injecting promotional “tips” into GitHub pull requests, with Neowin claiming more than 1.5 million PRs have been affected by messages advertising integrations like Raycast, Slack, Teams, and various IDEs. From the report: According to Melbourne-based software developer Zach Manson, a team member used the AI to fix … ⌘ Read more

Sony Shuts Down Nearly Its Entire Memory Card Business Due To SSD Shortage
For the “foreseeable future,” Sony says it has stopped accepting new orders for most of its CFexpress and SD memory card lines due to the an ongoing memory supply shortage. “Due to the global shortage of semiconductors (memory) and other factors, it is anticipated that supply will not be able to meet demand for CFexpress m … ⌘ Read more

Tech CEOs Suddenly Love Blaming AI For Mass Job Cuts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Sweeping job cuts at Big Tech companies have become an annual tradition. How executives explain those decisions, however, has changed. Out are buzzwords like efficiency, over-hiring, and too many management layers. Today, all explanations stem from artificial intelligence (AI). In recent weeks, giants including Google, Amazon, … ⌘ Read more

New Company Hopes to Build Age-Verification Tech into Vape Cartridges
Their goal is to use biometric data and blockchain to build age-verification measures directly into disposable vape cartridges.

Wired reports on a partnership between vape/cartridge manufacturer Ispire Technology and regulatory consulting company Chemular (which specializes in the nicotine market) — which they’ve named “Ike Tech”:

[U … ⌘ Read more

Apple’s Early Days: Massive Oral History Shares Stories About Young Wozniak and Jobs
Apple’s 50th anniversary is this week — and Fast Company’s Harry McCracken just published an 11,000-word oral history with some fun stories from Apple’s earliest days and the long and winding road to its very first home computers:

Steve Wozniak, cofounder, Apple: I told my dad when I was in high school, “I’ … ⌘ Read more

Rivian and Lucid Win Right to Sell Their EVs Directly to Buyers in Washington State
The Wall Street Journal reports that Rivian “just won a yearslong battle with car dealers in Washington state that threatens the model of how cars are sold.”

After fighting to sell its vehicles directly to buyers, Rivian threatened to take its case to voters with a ballot measure to permit direct sales. The … ⌘ Read more

Will Social Media Change After YouTube and Meta’s Court Defeat?
Yes, this week YouTube and Meta were found negligent in a landmark case about social media addiction.

But “it’s still far from certain what this defeat will change,” argues The Verge’s senior tech and policy editor, “and what the collateral damage could be.”

If these decisions survive appeal — which isn’t certain — the direct outcome would be multi … ⌘ Read more

Is It Time For Open Source to Start Charging For Access?
“It’s time to charge for access,” argues a new opinion piece at The Register. Begging billion-dollar companies to fund open source projects just isn’t enough, writes long-time tech reporter Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols:

Screw fair. Screw asking for dimes. You can’t live off one-off charity donations… Depending on what people put in a tip jar is no way to fu … ⌘ Read more

‘Project Hail Mary’: Real Space Science, Real Astrophotography
Project Hail Mary has now grossed $300.8 million globally after earning another $54.1 million this weekend from 86 markets, reports Variety, noting that after just nine days it’s now Amazon MGM’s highest-grossing film ever. And last weekend it had the best opening for a “non-franchise” movie in three years, adds the Associated Press — the best … ⌘ Read more

World’s Smallest QR Code - Smaller Than Bacteria - Could Store Data for Centuries
“Scientists have created a microscopic QR code so tiny it can only be seen with an electron microscope,” reports Science Daily. It’s “smaller than most bacteria and now officially a world record.”

“But this isn’t just about size; it’s about durability. By engraving data into ultra-stable ceramic materials, th … ⌘ Read more

This Friendly Robot Just Installed 100 MW of Solar Power
Utility-scale solar construction… by robots! It’s “one of the largest real-world demonstrations,” notes Electrek, with 100 MW of capacity installed by the “Maximo” robots from AES, one of the world’s top power companies.

Maximo uses AI “to automate the heavy lifting of solar panels and accelerate solar installation,” according to their web page, which sho … ⌘ Read more

Bluesky’s Newest Product: an AI Tool That Gives You Custom Feeds
“What happens when you can describe the social experience you want and have it built for you…?” asks Bluesky? “We’ve just started experimenting, but we’re sharing it now because we want you to build alongside us.”

Called “Attie” — because it’s built with Bluesky’s decentralized publishing framework, AT Protocol (which is open source) — the new a … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Gambles on $4B Push Into America’s Rural Areas, May Soon Carry More Parcels Than USPS
In many rural areas, America’s online shoppers can wait half a week or more for deliveries. But Amazon started a $4 billion “rural delivery push” last year, reports Bloomberg, and has now cut delivery times to under 24 hours for 1 in 5 rural and small-town households, with 48-hour delivery to 62 … ⌘ Read more

Apple Now Requires Device-Level Age Verification in the UK. Could the US Be Next?
Apple unveiled new device-level age restrictions in the UK on Wednesday. “After downloading a new update, users will now have to confirm that they are 18 or older to access unrestricted features,” reports Gizmodo.

“Users will be able to confirm their age with a credit card or by scanning an ID.”

For those underag … ⌘ Read more

Jupiter’s Lightning May Have the Force of Nuclear Weapons
How powerful is Jupiter’s lightning? Thick clouds cover the view, notes Science magazine. But using an instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft (orbiting Jupiter for the past decade), researchers determined Jupiter’s lightning bolts are 100 to 10,000 times more energetic than earth’s:

A single bolt of lightning on Earth releases about 1 billion joules of energy. … ⌘ Read more

What Made Bell Labs So Successful?
Bell Labs “created many of the foundational innovations of the modern age,” writes Jon Gertner, author of The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation — from transistors and telecommunications satellites to Unix and the C programming language.

But what was the secret to its success? he asks in a new article for the Wall Street Journal. Start with its lucky arrival in a “problem-ri … ⌘ Read more

Disney Ends $1B OpenAI Investment After Sora’s Surprise Closure. What’s Next?
Just six days ago — and 30 minutes after a Disney-OpenAI meeting about a project with Sora — Disney’s team was “blindsided” with the news Sora was being discontinued, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, describing OpenAI’s move as “a big rug-pull.”
Even some Sora employees were surprised by the cancellati … ⌘ Read more