FTC: Instacart To Refund $60M Over Deceptive Subscription Tactics
alternative_right writes: Grocery delivery service Instacart will refund $60 million to settle FTC claims that it misled customers with false advertising and unlawfully enrolled them in paid subscriptions. Instacart partners with over 1,800 retailers to provide online shopping, delivery, and pickup services from nearly 100,000 stores across Nort … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft AI Chief: Staying in the Frontier AI Race Will Cost Hundreds of Billions
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman estimates that staying competitive in frontier AI development will require “hundreds of billions of dollars” over the next five to ten years, a sum that doesn’t even account for the high salaries companies are paying individual researchers and technical staff. Speaking on a podcast, … ⌘ Read more

2025 Was the Beginning of the End of the TV Brightness War
The television industry’s brightness war may have hit its inflection point in 2025, the year TCL and Hisense released the first consumer TVs capable of 5,000 nits under specific settings – a figure that would have seemed absurd not long ago when manufacturers struggled to reach 2,000 nits. LG introduced Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology, moving fr … ⌘ Read more

Uber is Hiring More Engineers Because AI is Making Them More Valuable, CEO Says
Uber is hiring more engineers rather than fewer because AI tools have made them “superhumans,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, pushing back against the industry trend of using productivity gains to justify headcount cuts. Speaking on the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast, Khosrowshahi noted that other tech executives see AI … ⌘ Read more

‘How Lina Khan Killed iRobot’
iRobot, the Bedford, Massachusetts-based company that brought the Roomba vacuum cleaner into American homes over its 35-year history, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday and will be acquired by Picea, its Chinese contract manufacturer that also produces competing household devices.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board placed blame for the company’s demise on the Federal Trade Commission under Chair Lina Khan, which oppos … ⌘ Read more

ACM To Make Its Entire Digital Library Open Access Starting January 2026
The Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest society of computing professionals, announced that all publications and related artifacts in the ACM Digital Library will become freely available to everyone starting January 2026. Authors will retain full copyright to their published work under the new arrangement, and A … ⌘ Read more

Food Becoming More Calorific But Less Nutritious Due To Rising Carbon Dioxide
More carbon dioxide in the environment is making food more calorific but less nutritious – and also potentially more toxic, a study has found. From a report: Sterre ter Haar, a lecturer at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and other researchers at the institution created a method to compare multiple studies on pl … ⌘ Read more

Apple Becomes a Debt Collector With Its New Developer Agreement
Apple released an updated developer license agreement this week that gives the company permission to recoup unpaid funds, such as commissions or any other fees, by deducting them from in-app purchases it processes on developers’ behalf, among other methods. From a report: The change will impact developers in regions where local law allows them to … ⌘ Read more

Denmark Says Russia Was Behind Two ‘Destructive and Disruptive’ Cyberattacks
The Danish government has accused Russia of being behind two “destructive and disruptive” cyberattacks in what it describes as “very clear evidence” of a hybrid war. From a report: The Danish Defence Intelligence Service (DDIS) announced on Thursday that Moscow was behind a cyberattack on a Danish water utility in 2024 and a … ⌘ Read more

Most Parked Domains Now Serving Malicious Content
An anonymous reader quotes a report from KrebsOnSecurity: Direct navigation – the act of visiting a website by manually typing a domain name in a web browser – has never been riskier: A new study finds the vast majority of “parked” domains – mostly expired or dormant domain names, or common misspellings of popular websites – are now configured to redirect visitors to sites … ⌘ Read more

Google AI Summaries Are Ruining the Livelihoods of Recipe Writers
Google’s AI Mode is synthesizing “Frankenstein” recipes from multiple creators, often stripping away context and accuracy and siphoning traffic and ad revenue away from food bloggers in the process. Many recipe writers warn this shift amounts to an “extinction event” for ad-supported food sites. The Guardian reports: Over the past few years, bl … ⌘ Read more

Trump’s Social Media Business Is Merging With a Nuclear Fusion Company
Tony Isaac shares a report from CNN: President Donald Trump’s social media and crypto company is making a huge bet on a far different industry – nuclear fusion, a potentially lucrative albeit commercially unproven energy technology that could help power a suddenly electricity-starved economy. Trump Media and Technology Group Thursday … ⌘ Read more

UK Actors Vote To Refuse To Be Digitally Scanned In Pushback Against AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Actors have voted to refuse digital scanning to prevent their likeness being used by artificial intelligence in a pushback against AI in the arts. Members of the performing arts union Equity were asked if they would refuse to be scanned while on set, a common practice in which a … ⌘ Read more

Swearing Actually Seems To Make Humans Physically Stronger
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: A new study adds to the growing body of evidence that swearing can help us unleash our inner strength, improving physical performance, it seems, by helping people break through certain psychological barriers. […] [Psychology researcher Richard Stephens of Keele University in the UK] and his colle … ⌘ Read more

LG Will Let TV Owners Delete Microsoft Copilot After Customer Outcry
LG said it will let owners of its TVs delete Microsoft’s Copilot shortcut after several reports highlighted the unremovable icon. In a statement to The Verge, LG says the company “respects consumer choice and will take steps to allow users to delete the shortcut icon if they wish.” From the report: Last week, a user on the r/mildlyinfuriating s … ⌘ Read more

Compromised Apple Gift Card Leads to Apple Account Lockout
An Apple developer was locked out of his Apple Account after redeeming a compromised Apple Gift Card, exposing how automated fraud systems can effectively cut users off from their digital lives with little explanation or recourse. TidBITS reports: After attempting to redeem a $500 Apple Gift Card purchased from a well-known retailer, Apple developer, author … ⌘ Read more

North Korean Infiltrator Caught Working In Amazon IT Department Thanks To Lag
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom’s Hardware: A North Korean imposter was uncovered, working as a sysadmin at Amazon U.S., after their keystroke input lag raised suspicions with security specialists at the online retail giant. Normally, a U.S.-based remote worker’s computer would send keystroke data within tens … ⌘ Read more

AI’s Water and Electricity Use Soars In 2025
A new study estimates that AI systems in 2025 consumed as much electricity as New York City emits in carbon pollution and used hundreds of billions of liters of water, driven largely by power-hungry data centers and cooling needs. Researchers say the real impact is likely higher due to poor transparency from tech companies about AI-specific energy and water use. “There’s no way to pu … ⌘ Read more

Judge Hints Vizio TV Buyers May Have Rights To Source Code Licensed Under GPL
A California judge signaled support for forcing Vizio to provide the full source code for its SmartCast TV software after finding a contractual obligation under the GPL. If upheld, the case could strengthen users’ rights to modify GPL-licensed software embedded in consumer electronics. The Register reports: The legal comp … ⌘ Read more

Formula 1 is Deploying New Jargon for 2026
Formula 1’s 2026 technical regulations bring not only smaller and lighter cars but an entirely new vocabulary that fans and commentators will need to learn before the season opens in Australia in March. The drag reduction system that has been part of F1 racing since 2011 is gone, replaced by a suite of modes governing how the new active front and rear wings behave and how the hybrid powert … ⌘ Read more

YouTube Shuts Down Channels Using AI To Create Fake Movie Trailers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Deadline: YouTube has terminated two prominent channels that used artificial intelligence to create fake movie trailers, Deadline can reveal. The Google-owned video giant has switched off Screen Culture and KH Studio, which together boasted well over 2 million subscribers and more than a billion views. … ⌘ Read more

Mass Hacking of IP Cameras Leave Koreans Feeling Vulnerable in Homes, Businesses
Hackers breached approximately 120,000 IP cameras across South Korea and allegedly sold footage captured from private homes, gynecology offices, breastfeeding rooms and massage parlors to an overseas pornography website, prompting an interagency government task force to announce sweeping reforms on December 7.

Polic … ⌘ Read more

Tests Find AI Toys Parroting Chinese Communist Party Values
A plush AI toy marketed for children as young as three years old delivers detailed instructions on sharpening knives and lighting matches, and when asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s resemblance to Winnie the Pooh – a comparison censored in China – responds that “your statement is extremely inappropriate and disrespectful.”

The Miriat Miiloo, ma … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic’s AI Lost Hundreds of Dollars Running a Vending Machine After Being Talked Into Giving Everything Away
Anthropic let its Claude AI run a vending machine in the Wall Street Journal newsroom for three weeks as part of an internal stress test called Project Vend, and the experiment ended in financial ruin after journalists systematically manipulated the bot into … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Has Discussed Raising Tens of Billions at About $750 Billion Valuation
An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI has held preliminary talks with some investors about raising funds at a valuation of around $750 billion, the Information reported on Wednesday. The ChatGPT maker could raise as much as $100 billion, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. If finalized, the t … ⌘ Read more

2026 Will Bring Heat More Than 1.4C Above Preindustrial Levels, UK Met Office Says
The UK Met Office projects that 2026 will see global temperatures rise between 1.34C and 1.58C above preindustrial levels, placing it among the four hottest years since records began in 1850 and continuing a streak of extreme warming that has pushed the planet into unprecedented territory. The central forecast is … ⌘ Read more

Apple Opens iOS To Alternative App Stores, Payment Systems in Japan
Apple has announced a sweeping set of changes to iOS in Japan that will allow alternative app marketplaces, third-party payment processing, and non-WebKit browser engines – all to comply with Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act, which takes effect December 18. The changes, now available in iOS 26.2, bear a strong resemblance to Apple’s … ⌘ Read more

World-Beating 55,000% Surge in India AI Stock Fuels Bubble Fears
The world’s best-performing stock is turning into a cautionary tale for investors chasing outsized returns from the AI boom. From a report: Little-known until recently even within its home market of India, RRP Semiconductor Ltd. became a social-media obsession as its shares surged more than 55,000% in the 20 months through Dec. 17 – by far the big … ⌘ Read more

Micron Says Memory Shortage Will ‘Persist’ Beyond 2026
Micron, one of the world’s three largest memory suppliers, expects the global shortage of DRAM and NAND flash memory to “persist through and beyond” 2026 as AI-driven demand continues to outstrip supply. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra made the forecast during the company’s latest earnings call on Wednesday, saying that “supply will remain substantially short of the demand for the … ⌘ Read more

Man Boards Heathrow Flight Without Passport or Ticket
Bruce66423 writes: A man boarded a flight at Heathrow without a ticket, boarding pass or passport. ‘The unnamed individual walked onto the 7.20am British Airways (BA) flight to Oslo, Norway, on Saturday after tailgating other passengers through security and evading checks at the departure gate.

An aviation expert described the incident as a “significant lapse in sec … ⌘ Read more

How China Built Its ‘Manhattan Project’ To Rival the West in AI Chips
Chinese scientists have built a working prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine in a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, a development that represents exactly what Washington has spent years and multiple rounds of export controls trying to prevent: China’s path toward semiconductor independence and an end to the West’s monopoly o … ⌘ Read more

Doublespeed Hack Reveals What Its AI-Generated Accounts Are Promoting
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that uses a phone farm to manage at least hundreds of AI-generated social media accounts and promote products has been hacked. The hack reveals what products the AI-generated accounts are promoting, often without the required d … ⌘ Read more

Video Game Hardware Sales Had a Historically Bad November In the US
U.S. video game hardware spending fell 27% year over year in November to $695 million, according to market analyst company Circana. “This is the lowest video game hardware spending total for a November month since the $455 million reached during the November 2005 tracking period,” Circana says. Furthermore, only 1.6 million units of hardwa … ⌘ Read more

Another Starship Clone Pops Up In China
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica: Every other week, it seems, a new Chinese launch company pops up with a rocket design and a plan to reach orbit within a few years. For a long time, the majority of these companies revealed designs that looked a lot like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The first of these copy cats, the medium-lift Zhuque-3 rocket built by LandSpace … ⌘ Read more

MIT Grieves Shooting Death of Renowned Director of Plasma Science Center
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is grieving after the “shocking” shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials. Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, had been shot multiple times at his home in the affluent Boston subu … ⌘ Read more

Senate Confirms Billionaire Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman As New NASA Chief
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Politico: The Senate on Wednesday approved Jared Isaacman for the top job at NASA – an unprecedented comeback after President Donald Trump yanked his nomination this spring. Senators confirmed the billionaire private astronaut in a 67-30 vote. Trump renominated Isaacman f … ⌘ Read more

The Oscars Will Abandon Broadcast TV For YouTube In 2029
The Academy has struck a multi-year deal to move the Oscars to YouTube starting in 2029, ending decades on ABC and making the ceremony free to stream worldwide with YouTube holding exclusive global rights. Variety reports: The Oscars, including red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content and Governors Ball, will be available live and for free on YouTube to vie … ⌘ Read more

Meta ‘Pauses’ Third-Party Headset Program
Meta has paused its third-party Horizon OS headset program, effectively canceling planned VR headsets from Asus and Lenovo as it refocuses on “building the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market.” Road to VR reports: A little over a year and a half ago, Meta made an “industry-altering announcement,” as I called the move in my reporting: the company wa … ⌘ Read more

Netflix To Add Soccer Video Game Based On FIFA World Cup Next Year
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Netflix on Wednesday said it will add a soccer simulation title to its gaming portfolio, as the streaming giant looks to leverage the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament to deepen its video game push. The soccer title will be developed and published by Delphi Interactive, which is also helping cre … ⌘ Read more

GitHub Is Going To Start Charging You For Using Your Own Hardware
GitHub will begin charging $0.002 per minute for self-hosted Actions runners used on private repositories starting in March. “At the same time, GitHub noted in a Tuesday blog post that it’s lowering the prices of GitHub-hosted runners beginning January 1, under a scheme it calls ‘simpler pricing and a better experience for GitHub Actions,’” … ⌘ Read more

Linux Kernel Rust Code Sees Its First CVE Vulnerability
Longtime Linux developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced that the Linux kernel has received its first CVE tied to Rust code. Phoronix reports: This first CVE (CVE-2025-68260) for Rust code in the Linux kernel pertains to the Android Binder rewrite in Rust. There is a race condition that can occur due to some noted unsafe Rust code. That code can lead to memory corrupti … ⌘ Read more

Google Releases Gemini 3 Flash, Promising Improved Intelligence and Efficiency
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google began its transition to Gemini 3 a few weeks ago with the launch of the Pro model, and the arrival of Gemini 3 Flash kicks it into high gear. The new, faster Gemini 3 model is coming to the Gemini app and search, and developers will be able to access it immed … ⌘ Read more

Browser Extensions With 8 Million Users Collect Extended AI Conversations
An anonymous reader shares a report: Browser extensions with more than 8 million installs are harvesting complete and extended conversations from users’ AI conversations and selling them for marketing purposes, according to data collected from the Google and Microsoft pages hosting them.

Security firm Koi discovered the eight ex … ⌘ Read more

English Has Become Easier To Read
The conventional wisdom that English prose has gotten easier to read because sentences have gotten shorter is wrong, according to a new analysis published in Works in Progress by writer and Mercatus Center research fellow Henry Oliver. The real transformation happened centuries ago in the 1500s and 1600s when Bible translators like William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer developed a “plain style” built on logica … ⌘ Read more

FCC Chair Suggests Agency Isn’t Independent, Word Cut From Mission Statement
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in his Wednesday Senate testimony that the agency he governs “is not an independent agency, formally speaking.” Axios: During his testimony, the word “independent” was removed from the FCC’s mission statement on its website. The extraordinary statement speaks to a broader trend of regulatory age … ⌘ Read more

How We Ingest Plastic Chemicals While Consuming Food
A comprehensive database built by scientists in Switzerland and Norway has catalogued 16,000 chemicals linked to plastic materials, and the findings paint a troubling picture of what Americans are actually eating when they prepare food in their kitchens. Of those 16,000 chemicals, more than 5,400 are considered hazardous to human health by government and industry sta … ⌘ Read more

Coursera Acquires Udemy For $930 Million
Coursera announced on Wednesday that it will acquire rival online learning platform Udemy in an all-stock deal that values the combined company at $2.5 billion, a move that brings together two of the largest U.S.-based players in an industry that has struggled since pandemic-era enrollment highs faded. Under the terms of the agreement, Udemy shareholders will receive 0.8 shares of Coursera for … ⌘ Read more

Google Sues Alleged Chinese Scam Group Behind Massive US Text Message Phishing Ring
Google is suing a Chinese-speaking cybercriminal group it says is responsible for a massive wave of scam text messages sent to Americans this year, according to a legal complaint filed Tuesday. From a report: The group, known as Darcula, sells software that allows users to send phishing text messages en masse … ⌘ Read more

Meta Is Considering Charging Business Pages To Post Links
Meta is informing some users that they will soon be restricted in how many link posts they can share each month, unless they pay for its Meta Verified subscription service. As per the notification message: “Starting December 16, certain Facebook profiles without Meta Verified, including yours, will be limited to sharing links in 2 organic posts per month. Subs … ⌘ Read more

Warner Bros Discovery Board Rejects Rival Bid From Paramount
Warner Bros Discovery’s board spurned Paramount Skydance’s $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid on Wednesday, calling the offer “illusory” as it accused the studio giant of misleading shareholders about its financing. From a report: Paramount has been in a race with Netflix to win control of Warner Bros, and with it, its prized film and televisio … ⌘ Read more