Scientists Discover Mysterious New X-Ray Objects ‘Unlike Any They Have Seen Before’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a brand new type of an otherwise familiar object – compact binary systems that steal gas from other stars, but which do so while emitting very low-energy X-rays but copious amounts of ultraviolet. Chandra spotted 8 … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Calls For AI Slowdown
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The chief executive of Anthropic called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, just days after one of the company’s employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology. Dario Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic to focus on securely and carefully building A.I … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Reveals Rogue AI Agents Hate CAPTCHAs
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Anthropic’s latest report about agentic misbehavior offers plenty to be concerned about – its Mythos 5 model gained unauthorized access to the internet and uploaded a malicious software package to a public database – but it also offers some levity: AI agents hate CAPTCHA. […] The agent had a hard time with the technical c … ⌘ Read more

California Governor Signs Laws Protecting Kids From Risks of Social Media, AI Chatbots
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of laws Thursday aimed at protecting children from the risks of technology, including social media and AI chatbots. The laws will penalize large social media companies up to $1 million per … ⌘ Read more

Climate ‘Feedback Loops’ Could Worsen Global Warming By 30%, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Rising global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels are transforming the world’s forests, wetlands and tundra to the point they are releasing emissions that could further worsen global heating by as much as 30%, a new study has found. As the world heats up, permafrost … ⌘ Read more

ABC Show Won’t Air Interview With Democrat Because of FCC Threats
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel said he will be interviewing a Democratic candidate for Senate tonight, but the interview will be on YouTube only and not broadcast on TV because of threats made by the Federal Communications Commission. Kimmel has been a prime target in the Trump FCC’s attacks on ABC and i … ⌘ Read more

The Apple Watch Gets Its Siri AI Upgrade
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Apple has unveiled the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 today during itsSeptember hardware event. The new models retain the signature designs of their predecessors but add a faster S11 chip, new health and fitness features, and the watchOS 27 software update announced atWWDC last June. Both the Series 12 and Ultra 4 run on the upgraded S11 c … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic Reveals Fourth Likely Crime Committed By Its AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Amid industry soul-searching about the possibility of AI improving itself to the point that it kills everyone, Anthropic has revealed yet another incident that would qualify as a crime if perpetrated by a person. The AI biz published “an alignment assessment” detailing four times Claude models accessed thir … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Rogue Agents Used At Least 10 More Sites For Unauthorized Communications
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: AI agents unleashed by OpenAI used more than 10 previously undisclosed websites for unsanctioned communications earlier this year, according to six sets of independent investigators and data reviewed by Reuters, showing that the agents’ rogue activity was wider ranging … ⌘ Read more

GOG Brings Back ‘Big Box’ PC Games, One Printable Template At a Time
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Those who remember PC gaming in the days before Steam may have fond memories of the “big box” packaging that made those games stand out as shelf eye candy and sought-after in-home collectibles. Today, PC gaming platform GOG is hoping to reignite some of the nostalgia for those days b … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Says It Has Cracked One of Math’s ‘Millennium Problems’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: OpenAIsaid on Tuesday that its newest artificial intelligence technology had solved one of the “Millennium Problems,” a collection of important unanswered math questions meant to push the world’s leading mathematicians to new heights. The announcement is an another clear sign that A.I. is f … ⌘ Read more

A Secret New Elizabeth Holmes Documentary Stuns Telluride
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Telluride just managed one of its best-kept secrets in years, per The Hollywood Reporter. On Sunday night, festival-goers filed into a 650-seat theater with their phones locked away, having no idea what they were about to see, told only that it ran nearly three hours, hadn’t been shown anywhere, and … ⌘ Read more

Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit Is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits, Pulling Them Over
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans’ financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull people over who are not suspected of any specific crime … ⌘ Read more

Auto Companies Call For Ban On Chinese-Made Cars
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: A group representing American automakers sent a letter (PDF) Thursday to congressional leaders asking for a “permanent ban” on Chinese-made cars in the U.S. John Bozzella, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation’s CEO and president, described in the letter China’s manufacturing industry as “rooted in a well-documented pattern of … ⌘ Read more

Bernie Sanders Proposes Artificial Superintelligence Ban Amid Rogue AI Hackings
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) are calling for a permanent ban on the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence, citing a series of recent hackings involving “rogue” models. The bicameral duo announced Thursday they will int … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s New Reasoning Technique Alarms AI Safety Experts
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: OpenAI’s new Astra model will use a reasoning technique called “recurrent depth” that allows it to operate outside of the sequential thinking that characterizes most reasoning models, The Information reported on Tuesday. This technique, also called “opaque recurrence,” will likely make the model’s chain of thoug … ⌘ Read more

Google Engineer Accused of Polymarket Insider Trading Says He Was Just Gambling
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Michele Spagnuolo, the Google engineer arrested in May by U.S. authorities for alleged insider trading on Polymarket, is making a new bold bet. On Wednesday, his legal team filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. Spagnuolo isn’t outright denying that he made mo … ⌘ Read more

Global Heating Will Hit At Least 1.8C, UN Warns, and There Are ‘No Good Outcomes’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Global heating will reach at least 1.8C under even the most optimistic future, well beyond the Paris agreement goal of 1.5C, according to a UN report that warns every fraction of temperature rise intensifies destructive extreme weather, glacier melt, ecosystem los … ⌘ Read more

Google Escapes Ad Tech Breakup In Third Big Tech Antitrust Loss For US
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet’s Google escaped a breakup of its advertising technology business on Wednesday, when a judge in Virginia rejected U.S. antitrust enforcers’ bid to force a sale of Google’s online advertising exchange. While the ad exchange is a small part of Google’s business, the ruling is the … ⌘ Read more

Sonos Has New Devices, a New OS, and Yes, a New App
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Sonos has a new app. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The smart speaker company, long a darling of the audio industry, undid much of the goodwill it earned with its multiroom speakers through a bevy of software updates that broke its app in 2024. Almost all app users hated it, citing the loss of features like v … ⌘ Read more

OpenClaw 2.0 Is Here, Ushering In the Era of ‘Multiplayer’ AI Coding
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: The viral fervor we saw earlier this year around OpenClaw, the open source AI harness that turns powerful language models into autonomous workers the user can message via their favorite channels (Telegram, iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord etc), has cooled off substantially from its peak i … ⌘ Read more

Trump Tells FCC To Punish Journalist For Calling His Election Results ‘Mixed’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: President Trump yesterday demanded that the Federal Communications Commission punish or rebuke an NBC journalist for saying he has “mixed results” in his election endorsements. In the latest example of how Trump is using the FCC to harass reporters and news organization … ⌘ Read more

Tim Cook’s Last Day As CEO of Apple
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Mac: Today is Tim Cook’s last day as Apple CEO, with John Ternus set to take over tomorrow. To mark his last day in the role, Cook penned an emotional memo to Apple employees today. In the memo sent to employees this morning and obtained by 9to5Mac, Cook reflects on his time at Apple and thanks employees for all of their work. He also says he takes “enormous … ⌘ Read more

Berlin Is Being Blackmailed By Hackers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Berlin is being blackmailed by hackers who were able to compromise city systems and steal data earlier this month, its mayor has said. Kai Wegner said officials would not cave in to the ransom demand, which came on Thursday evening. He did not say how much was being sought, though Der Spiegel reports the hackers are demanding 30 bitcoin, worth around … ⌘ Read more

Xylitol Linked To Strokes and Heart Attacks, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A common sweetener used in products such as chewing gum, toothpaste, jam, yoghurts and ice-cream has been linked to an increased risk of strokes, heart attacks and death. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol present in some natural foods in very low amounts. It is also added – often in amounts 1,000 times higher – … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and 100 Other Companies Call For Action To Defend Against Rogue AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Over a hundred tech companies – including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft – have signed an open letter urging both the private and public sectors to work together to defend themselves from AI-related cyber threats. The letter – w … ⌘ Read more

Pentagon’s Blacklisting of Anthropic Was Unlawful, US Judge Rules
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A US judge ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration broke the law when it designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk earlier this year, finding that the government had unlawfully targeted the AI firm for refusing to comply with defense department demands. “The empty invocation of natio … ⌘ Read more

US Considers Fresh Round of Tariffs On Semiconductors
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly considering new tariffs on semiconductors used in the U.S., as tech giants race to beat China in the artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out. The duties will be imposed on an expanded range of tech products made alongside chips, including laptops, data cent … ⌘ Read more

Is ChatGPT Changing How You’re Writing?
An anonymous reader quotes a report fro SFGATE: From “rizz” to “meat proxy,” words and phrases have fallen in and out of favor for centuries. Culture, politics and technological development have long influenced these trends, and now, new research shows that ChatGPT is beginning to influence how humans communicate. The findings from a team at the Pew Research Center show how, in a short time since OpenA … ⌘ Read more

Claude, Codex, and Hermes Installed Unowned Code Inside Corporate Networks
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Documentation files on more than 100 websites are referencing potentially dangerous executable content that gets installed automatically when visited by many AI agents [including Claude, OpenAI’s Codex, and Nous Research’s Hermes]. A few dozen companies, some of them Fortune … ⌘ Read more

Operation Bluebird Launches New Twitter
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Operation Bluebird, the Virginia-based startup trying to revive the allegedly abandoned “Twitter” name and logo, announced Monday that it has launched its new social media network: Twitter.now. “We are a small company, we have investors, and we have a product,” Stephen Coates, one of Operation Bluebird’s cofounders, told Ars. “And we have wa … ⌘ Read more

Bill Gates Proposes Major Limits On AI Development
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates argued on Wednesday that artificial intelligence needs significant limits or else the harm to humans will outweigh any potential good. “AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,” he said in a 6,000-word essay, entitled “The turbulent AI era is he … ⌘ Read more

Xbox’s New Disc-to-Digital Program Gives Physical Games a Digital Future
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For decades, console owners have faced a choice between the convenience of digital downloads and the permanence of physical game discs. Soon, Xbox owners will be able to get the best of both worlds for thousands of supported titles as part of a newly announced disc-to-digital … ⌘ Read more

Lab Supply Companies Have Been Selling Antibodies Using Manipulated Images
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Antibodies play a central role in your body’s immune defense. But they’re also nearly ubiquitous in biological research, being essential for several widely used lab techniques. While some researchers need to go through the process of producing their own antibodies, anti … ⌘ Read more

AI Is Hitting Entry-Level Jobs Hardest, Stanford Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: For years, AI industry watchers of all stripes have been warning of a coming jobs apocalypse driven by ultra-intelligent AI systems that will be able to replicate most human tasks more cheaply. Now, newly updated research from Stanford University economists suggests AI seems to be causing significant entry … ⌘ Read more

World’s Oceans Hit Highest Temperature On Record As El Nino Grows
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The world’s oceans are hotter than ever recorded, new data suggests, as they suffer from human-caused climate change and the growing El Nino weather phenomenon. The average surface temperature of the planet’s seas outside the polar regions hit 21.1C (70F) on Saturday, according to figures from th … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Senior Manager Linked To Supermicro Scheme Smuggling AI Servers To China
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Taiwan has indicted nine people – reportedly including an Nvidia senior manager and two Supermicro employees based in the country – who allegedly helped forge documents to cover up illegal exports of high-end AI servers to China in violation of US export controls. O … ⌘ Read more

Dr. Dre Says He Uses AI To Produce Songs
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Dr. Dre, the pioneering rapper and seven-time Grammy-winning producer behind hit songs like Tupac’s “California Love” and Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” is very much pro using artificial intelligence tools to make music. In an interview with the New York Times, Dr. Dre and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine spoke about artificia … ⌘ Read more

China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China’s Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Why not Windows 11? Because China, like many other non-US governments, no longer trusts American companies with the … ⌘ Read more

AI Boosted Homework Scores, Then Exam Scores Dropped
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Economist: Students and school children are increasingly using artificial intelligence. A survey last year by Chegg, an ed-tech firm, found that 80% of rich-world undergraduates used it in their studies. More recent polls put the figure at 94% in Britain and 93% in Germany. Such widespread adoption has fueled concerns about th … ⌘ Read more

Watching TikTok Videos and Instagram Reels Deactivates the Brain’s Cognitive Control Network
An anonymous reader quotes a report from RathBiotaClan: Millions of people finish short video after short video every day; a new brain-scan study shows that the very act of finishing a clip they like temporarily quiets the brain regions that normally help them stay focused and weigh longer-te … ⌘ Read more

Does Using AI to Edit an Op-Ed on Students’ Math Skills Undermine the Argument?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a “severe” math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece. The Standard published a 2,000-word piece … ⌘ Read more

FCC Abolishes Gigabit Speed Goal, Suggesting It Is Unfair To Slower Technologies
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission last week eliminated the gigabit speed goal established during the Biden administration and declared that current levels of broadband deployment in the US are acceptable. Though fiber networks have routinely offered such s … ⌘ Read more

Whistleblower Arturo Bejar Leads Testimony In Landmark Trial Against Meta
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Meta was infused with a culture in which employees obsessed over user numbers and consistently pushed safety to the side, according to Arturo Bejar, a former employee turned whistleblower, who testified today in the landmark child safety trial against the social media company. Only o … ⌘ Read more

X’s Algorithm Feeds Off Ragebait and Impacts Democrats More, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: X’s algorithm learns what you hate and shows you more of it, according to a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper, titled Value misalignment of X’s feed algorithm is a reflection of value tensions in engagement, found … ⌘ Read more

Top Album Releases Linked To Rise In Fatal Crashes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The release of a new album by Taylor Swift might be a cause for celebration among her fans, but such events have also been linked to a more sombre phenomenon: an increase in fatal car crashes. The team behind a new study say it sheds light on the impact of distracted driving. Writing in the journal Jama Network … ⌘ Read more

You Can Finally Buy a Fairphone In the US
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Your iPhone, SamsungGalaxy, andGoogle Pixel have a 1-year warranty. Unless you cough up extra dough for an extended service plan, you’ll pay a hefty fee if you damage the screen and need a replacement (around $329 for aniPhone 17done directly fromApple). But it doesn’t have to be this way. What if you could order the part from the manufacture … ⌘ Read more

India Paves the Way For Charging Merchants a Fee On UPI Transactions
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: For most Indians, paying by Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become almost absurdly routine. Scan a QR code, tap a few buttons and the money moves instantly. There is no card machine, no cash, and – most importantly – for the user, no visible fee. That may be about to change. India h … ⌘ Read more

‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Lenders Pitch Loans For Needs Like Electricity and Rent
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Buy now, pay later” loans took off during the pandemic as a way for online shoppers to go on retail splurges without using a credit card. Now, lenders are offering the loans as a means for people to finance basic households needs. The lending apps Flex and Zip allow … ⌘ Read more

Supreme Court Rejects Verizon Bid For $47 Million Refund of FCC Fine
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Supreme Court today rejected Verizon’s attempt to get a $47 million refund from the Federal Communications Commission. In a list of orders (PDF) issued by the court, Verizon’s petition was denied without explanation. The denial apparently ends any possibility of Verizon asking a lowe … ⌘ Read more