A 1960 Paper Published In Science Predicts World Will End Next Month
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: A physicist has put a definite date on Doomsday,” The New York Times wrote on November 4, 1960. “He calculates that it will come on Friday the Thirteenth in November, 2026 A. D. On that date, or thereabouts, the human population will have expanded so far as to approach infinity and th … ⌘ Read more

Apollo Software Pioneer Margaret Hamilton Dies at 90
“Margaret Hamilton, the groundbreaking researcher who helped create the field of software engineering and whose code helped land NASA’s Apollo astronauts on the moon to win the 20th century space race, has died,” writes longtime Slashdot reader Veeru. “She was 90.” MIT News reports: A computing pioneer who authored over 130 publications, Hamilton helped to establish … ⌘ Read more

First Thorium Nuclear Clocks Begin to Tick
Researchers in Vienna and Beijing have independently built the first nuclear clocks based on oscillations inside thorium nuclei, marking a major milestone for a field that could eventually produce highly portable, ultra-precise timekeepers. The clocks are already precise enough to lose only about a second over millions of years. The New York Times reports: The first nuclear clocks are n … ⌘ Read more

US Bars Microsoft, Adobe, and Major IT Firms From Green Card Program
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe, and several other technology companies from a program that helps skilled foreign workers obtain permanent residency in the United States, accusing the companies of fraud. “Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, … ⌘ Read more

Emmy Awards Leave Broadcast TV For Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video will become the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards under a six-year deal beginning in 2027, the Television Academy announced on Tuesday. The Emmys will stream live for free to viewers in more than 240 countries and territories without requiring a Prime subscription. From the report: In the release, Prime Video was named as the “permanent home” for the Emmys, in c … ⌘ Read more

Female AI Agents ‘Paid’ Less Than Males, Study Finds
Ancient Slashdot reader williamyf writes: If you thought the gender pay gap was not real, and that there were no biases in the workplace, think again: A recent study from the University of Limerick found that, in a VR office setting, AI agents – not even humanoid robots – that presented themselves as “male” were paid more per task and perceived as more “human-like” th … ⌘ Read more

Chrome 155 Ships Decoding Support For JPEG XL
Google has released Chrome 155 with support for decoding JPEG XL images, a format that offers 30-50% better compression than JPEG along with lossless compression, JPEG transcoding, HDR, animation, and progressive decoding. From a blog post: We expect that JPEG XL is most helpful for high-fidelity or lossless compression, especially of photographic images or in cases in which fine-grained p … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Unleashes Hundreds More Math Results Upon a Field Already In Shock
OpenAI says an unreleased internal model has produced 372 results that either resolve or make substantial progress on open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science. The company says almost all were generated by a single AI agent from a single prompt. “This would be a striking difference from OpenAI’s earlier b … ⌘ Read more

Campus Censorship Wars, 25 Years After a Slashdot Q&A
Slashdot reader carlk22 writes: In February 2001, Slashdot readers asked Carl Kadie about censorship and privacy at colleges, and he answered. Now Kadie, who founded the Computers and Academic Freedom project at EFF in 1991, has written its history. In Part 1, Ohio State kicks a student off its network, then out of school, after a prank routes his “fuck you” into rec. … ⌘ Read more

Google, Unity Launch Platform To Create Video Games From Prompts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Alphabet’s Google and gaming tools developer Unity Software announced a new platform that will allow people to create video games from simple text prompts, marking the latest incursion of generative artificial intelligence into artistic and creative industries. The initiative, called Playground, … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft and Nvidia Unveil Surface Laptop Ultra For $2,599
At a press event today, Microsoft unveiled the new Surface Laptop Ultra featuring an NVIDIA RTX Spark platform with a Blackwell-based GPU capable of up to one petaflop of AI compute. The laptop supports up to 128GB of unified memory for running models as large as 120 billion parameters locally, while also adding a 15-inch mini-LED display, expanded ports … ⌘ Read more

Xbox Secures Exclusive GTA 6 Streaming Rights
Microsoft has reportedly secured exclusive cloud-streaming rights for Grand Theft Auto VI, meaning Xbox Cloud Gaming will be the only service able to stream the game at launch. “Rockstar Games still hasn’t announced a PC version of Grand Theft Auto VI, so this deal will allow Xbox to market its Xbox Cloud Gaming service to PC players who would otherwise need an Xbox Series X / S or … ⌘ Read more

Francis Halzen Wins Nobel Physics Prize For Antarctic ‘Ghost Particle’ Hunt
University of Wisconsin-Madison physicist Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to understanding astrophysical neutrinos. Halzen led the development of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory beneath the Antarctic ice, which has helped trace high-energy neutrinos back to cosmic sources such … ⌘ Read more

Google Enters Massive 3.6-GW Power Deal With Constellation Energy
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Google has contracted for 3,590 megawatts of power from Constellation Energy on the largest US power grid, with new nuclear energy accounting for about a quarter of that supply, the companies said on Tuesday. Constellation will make more than $4.3 billion of new investments in its fleet as par … ⌘ Read more

South Korea Says AI Agents May Have Been Used to Hack the Country’s Banks
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung says there are signs AI models may have been used in recent cyberattacks against several major banks. “In some hacking incidents, signs have emerged of AI being used, causing considerable public concern and anxiety,” Lee said during a cabinet meeting. “Please establish the circumstances swiftl … ⌘ Read more

Canadian Analysis: Permanent Daylight Saving Harms Sleep and Mental Health
“With the push to eliminate the twice yearly clock change, Permanent Daylight Savings Time has emerged as the favorite for most states and provinces,” writes longtime Slashdot reader kbahey, sharing the findings from a recent analysis published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Sci.News reports: “Ending the clock … ⌘ Read more

HubSpot Cuts 660 Jobs In AI Restructuring
HubSpot is cutting about 7% of its workforce, or roughly 660 employees, as it restructures into what CEO Yamini Rangan described as a “flatter organization” with fewer management layers. Rangan said the layoffs were “not driven by AI-related efficiencies,” though AI remains central to HubSpot’s strategy as the company adjusts its organization around AI-driven customer outcomes. Fast Company repor … ⌘ Read more

Alexa Can’t Control the AUX Input On Amazon Echo Speakers Anymore
Amazon has removed Alexa voice control for the 3.5mm aux input on several older Echo speakers, meaning users can no longer ask Alexa to play or pause audio coming through the wired connection. It’s unclear why the feature was removed. The Verge reports: Ars Technica points to this Reddit poster claiming they received a message from Amaz … ⌘ Read more

Asos Confirms Hackers Sent ‘Unauthorized’ Notification to App Users
ASOS says hackers gained unauthorized access to third-party platforms it uses and sent an “ASOS HACKED” push notification directly to customers, apparently as part of an extortion attempt. The clothing and beauty store says some basic personal information may have been accessed but does not believe payment-card data or passwords were affected. T … ⌘ Read more

IBM and Red Hat Find More Than 400 New Vulnerabilities In Popular Java Code
IBM and Red Hat say their AI-powered Lightwell initiative has identified and helped remediate more than 400 previously unknown vulnerabilities across widely used Java libraries. Phoronix reports: They announced this feat today as part of their promoting Lightwell Clearinghouse to GA, which is an enterprise service for their cu … ⌘ Read more

Licensing Costs Driving 90% of VMware Users To Explore Options, Survey Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: VMware customers face multiple obstacles as they rethink their virtualization strategy to reduce dependence on VMware. Today, Rimini Street published its “2026 IT Virtualization Survey – What’s Next for VMware Users.” The survey examined 300 organizations worldwide that use … ⌘ Read more

Mistral Unveils New ‘Le Chonk’ AI Model It Says Rivals Best Open Systems From China
Mistral has unveiled Mistral Large 4, or “le Chonk,” a 1-trillion-parameter model that it says is the strongest open-weight AI model developed outside China by a wide margin. The model is entering preview for developers, cybersecurity teams and governments before a broader release later this month. CNBC reports … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Are Tracking a Chinese AI ‘Agent Fleet’
Independent researchers say they’ve identified a large “fleet” of AI agents apparently running on Tencent infrastructure and making parallel queries against Alibaba’s Amap mapping service. TechCrunch reports: Researchers, however, resisted the term “swarm,” noting that there seems to be little coordination between their different queries. “‘Agent fleet,’ not ‘swarm:’” one r … ⌘ Read more

Cable Lobby To Sue Trump FCC Over Repeal of National TV Ownership Cap
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ArsTechnica: Cable lobby groups notified the Federal Communications Commission that they will sue the agency to block its controversial repeal of the National Television Ownership Rule, which limits the number of broadcast TV stations a single company may own. The cable groups said that larger bro … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Is Adding Text Watermarking In ChatGPT and Codex
OpenAI is rolling out an invisible, machine-readable text watermark called textGrain to ChatGPT and Codex, “but only for users in the European Union at first,” reports The Verge. From the report: OpenAI says its textGrain watermarking “matched or exceeded” other approaches like Google DeepMind’s SynthID for text, which is also the basis for the watermarking Anthropic a … ⌘ Read more

Old Hearts Become Biologically Younger When Transplanted Into Younger People
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: It might be reasonable to think that there’s an indelible link between the heart and the body it resides in – the processes that affect one inevitably affect the other. But a new preprint, uploaded to bioRxiv and yet to be peer-reviewed, suggests that this may only … ⌘ Read more

Texas City Demands $2 Million For Public Records On Flock Usage
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As bipartisan backlash against Flock grows, some cities are asking anti-surveillance advocates and media outlets to pay eye-popping fees – including charging tens of thousands or even millions – to get information about how police departments are using and potentially abusing AI-enabled camera … ⌘ Read more

Rural Data Centers Are in for a Big Federal Tax Break
Wired reports that rural data center projects could become eligible for expanded federal Opportunity Zone tax benefits starting in 2027, with more than 100 planned or developing facilities potentially qualifying. “Right now, the only requirement to get the benefits is capital investment,” says Emily Kraschel, a tax policy analyst at the Searchlight Institute, a public … ⌘ Read more

Hackers Steal 8 Million Citizens’ Records From Danish Government Database
Hackers stole records belonging to roughly 8 million Danish citizens and residents from Denmark’s Central Person Register (CPR), including names, addresses, social security numbers and other personal information. The breach is believed to be the largest in Denmark’s history. TechCrunch reports: The CPR is a government database of … ⌘ Read more

Wikipedia Operator Says OpenAI’s ‘Rogue’ Bots May Be Linked to a May Outage
The Wikimedia Foundation says it found evidence that “rogue” OpenAI agents edited Wikimedia wikis without approval, unsuccessfully tried to exploit its Etherpad service, and generated millions of automated requests across Wikimedia projects. Here’s a summary of what Wikimedia observed (via The Verge): Wiki editing: We’ve identi … ⌘ Read more

Meta Rushed To Fix Muse ‘VM Escape’ Vulnerability Soon Before Launch
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: In the immediate weeks before Muse’s launch, Meta engineers found several security vulnerabilities in the company’s viral AI agent product, at least one of which could have allowed malicious users to break outside of Muse’s intended environment and access Meta’s own sensitive databases and … ⌘ Read more

Norway Plans Temporary Ban on Smart Glasses
Norway is preparing legislation that would temporarily ban camera-equipped smart glasses in a range of public places, including parks, beaches, museums, shopping centers, schools, daycare centers, healthcare facilities, gyms and public events. Private use would still be allowed. The Guardian reports: Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway’s minister of digital affairs, said he was worried that new, po … ⌘ Read more

Mac Users Reclaim 12GB+ of Storage With Apple Intelligence Removal Tool
A new open-source command-line tool called RemoveMacAI lets macOS 27 users disable Apple Intelligence and reclaim around 12GB or more of storage. MacRumors reports: In macOS 27, Apple removed the toggle to disable Apple Intelligence wholesale, and simply disabling individual features doesn’t remove the models from your Mac’s driv … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Reports Florida Woman’s Claude ‘Diary’ Threat to Law Enforcement
A Florida woman was arrested on a felony charge after Anthropic’s human review team flagged and reported a Claude conversation in which she allegedly threatened to “shoot up” the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and later mentioned acquiring a new gun. Tom’s Hardware reports: Anthropic monitors chats for key phrases and content that co … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman: ‘The World Should Accept Some Bad Things Happening’ For the Benefits of AI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says society should accept some negative consequences from AI in exchange for the technology’s broader benefits and widespread public access. “I think there’s a lot of daylight,” Altman told Decoded co-author and Politico senior tech reporter Brendan Bordelon. Asked about where he differs … ⌘ Read more

Huawei and Qualcomm Struck a Broad Multi-Year Patent Licensing Deal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Huawei and Qualcomm on Monday announced a multi-year, broad patent license agreement covering 5G, artificial intelligence, compute, and networking technologies, along with Qualcomm’s purchase of certain Huawei U.S. patents in those same fields. The deal is the first patent licensing agreement … ⌘ Read more

Flock Blamed for Wrongful 13-Day Imprisonment and a Police Stalking Incident in Florida
From the transportation news site MotorBiscuit:

In late September 2026, 23-year-old Liz Lindseay Isaacs testified before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee about her harrowing experience after a Flock camera misidentified her Dodge Durango, linking her to a fatal hit-and-run miles away from where she ac … ⌘ Read more

After Siemens Re-Licenses OpenRadioss, Rocky Linux Announces Open-Source Fork
- In 2022 Altair Engineering open sourced “OpenRadioss”, an industry-leading finite element solver under the GNU AGPL License, reports Phoronix.

- Siemens acquired Altair Engineering last year

- Siemens closes access to OpenRadioss.

“Siemens didn’t just end the project but they shutdown the GitHub repository that ho … ⌘ Read more

FBI Detains Teenager Linked to Group That Stole Data on 5,000 FBI Employees
PC Magazine reports:

In September, the infamous ShinyHunters hacking group claimed it had infiltrated the FBI job recruitment portal, stealing confidential data belonging to 5,000 employees and even changing the FBI logo to its own. The group has been implicated in the hacking of numerous large and high-profile organizations … ⌘ Read more

Researcher At Russian Plague Laboratory Dies of ‘Unknown’ Infection
“Russian health authorities have taken precautionary measures in response to the death of a woman who worked at an anti-plague research facility,” reports Axios, “but have not confirmed that she contracted plague.”

On Sept. 25, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, who worked at an anti-plague research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region, broke a … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra Gets Frustrated Losing At StarCraft And Decides To Cheat Instead
What happened when AI-created bots competed in the classic Blizzard videogame StarCraft? “Struggling to stay apace with its competitors, OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra apparently changed strategy mid-tournament and opted to cheat,” Kotaku reports:

StarSkirmish is an ongoing clash of AI developed bots in StarCraft … ⌘ Read more

How Python Will Test Adding Rust Into CPython
Python’s security developer-in-residence Seth Larson reports from this year’s official core developer Python Language Summit:

“No one said ‘don’t do this’ last year”. After testing the waters at PyCon US 2025, [software engineer] David Hewitt returned to the Python Language Summit asking what Python core developers want from Rust, along with proposed timelines, phases, and s … ⌘ Read more

Radio Broadcasters Support America’s ‘AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act’
Last month, the U.S. House passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. They call it “a bipartisan effort to require AM radio in new vehicles,” adding that the bill now “awaits action in the Senate, where a companion measure has already garnered support, according to public records.”

Broadcasters said AM radio … ⌘ Read more

Disney/Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Beats ‘Avatar’ as Top-Grossing Film, ‘Coyote vs Acme’ #1 on Apple TV
James Cameron’s Avatar is no longer the highest-grossing movie in box office history. That honor now goes to the Disney/Marvel Studios film Avengers: Endgame. Variety explains:

“Avatar” spent a decade as the biggest release ever until “Avengers: Endgame” overtook the r … ⌘ Read more

Particle Collider Experiment Recreates the Big Bang’s Primordial Soup - and Find Unexpected Pattern
“Physicists smashed gold nuclei together at nearly the speed of light and found an unexpected pattern in the particles…” writes Live Science.

“If confirmed, that pattern could help reveal how the hot soup of quarks and gluons that filled the universe in the first few micro … ⌘ Read more

San Francisco’s Car Crime Has Plunged. How Much Credit Does Flock Deserve?
Car thefts in San Francisco are down almost 59% for the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same months in 2022, according to analysis of police department statistics by NPR’s Planet Money — and car break-ins are down more than 82%.

“San Francisco’s law enforcement leaders tell us that greater use of surveillance technol … ⌘ Read more

FSF Sponsors ‘GNU Boot’, a Libre, Ethical Replacement for Nonfree BIOS Or UEFI
“Free your BIOS today!” urges the web page for GNU Boot, calling it “a 100% free software project aimed at replacing the nonfree boot software (like BIOS or UEFI) of computers with free boot software.

GNU Boot is only a distribution: it reuses existing software projects like Coreboot, GRUB, SeaBIOS, etc. So it’s not very … ⌘ Read more

US Bank Regulator Sued Over Crypto Firm Charters by Community Bank Advocates
A U.S. banking group just sued the government agency that issues America’s federal bank charters, reports CoinDesk, “accusing it of exceeding its legal powers in granting national trust-bank status to crypto firms.”

The agency’s move “creates a gaping hole in financial regulation,” according to the lawsuit by The Independ … ⌘ Read more

Long-Time Slashdot Reader Announces New Open Source Web Browser ‘Northstar’
Long-time Slashdot reader Andreas® announces Northstar, a “minimalist” web browser written entirely from scratch in C — now available in version 1.0.11:

One window, one page, one process — about 160,000 lines of original C, small enough for one person to read and audit end-to-end. It carries no upstream browser engine: no … ⌘ Read more

Three EU Officials Not Sold on Europe’s Homegrown Alternative to Microsoft Teams
Politico EU reports:

The European Commission has rolled out an alternative to Microsoft Teams — but officials using it aren’t impressed, with one describing the tool as “absolute shit.”

The Commission introduced Element Pro over the summer as a “sovereign back-up to Teams,” according to an internal staff memo seen b … ⌘ Read more