FDA Grants Quick Review For 3 Psychedelic Drug Trials
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: The Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted a quick review of three experimental psychedelic drugs meant to treat major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s the latest move by the Trump administration signaling a shift in policy toward treatments that also give users a high – coming a day aft … ⌘ Read more
Electrical Current Might Be the Key To a Better Cup of Coffee
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: University of Oregon chemist Christopher Hendon loves his coffee – so much so that studying all the factors that go into creating the perfect cuppa constitutes a significant area of research for him. His latest project: discovering a novel means of measuring the flavor profile of coffee simp … ⌘ Read more
The Bloomberg Terminal Is Getting an AI Makeover
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: For its famous intractability, the Bloomberg Terminal has long inspired devotion, bordering on obsession. Among traders, the ability to chart a path through the software’s dizzying scrolls of numbers and text to isolate far-flung information is the mark of a seasoned professional. But as a greater mass of data is fed into the Term … ⌘ Read more
Supreme Court Hears Case On How To Label Risks of Popular Weed Killer
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard a dispute over labels on the popular Roundup weed killer, which thousands of people blame for their cancers. How the Supreme Court rules could have implications for tens of thousands of lawsuits against Roundup maker Monsanto, which is now owned by … ⌘ Read more
Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Head To Court
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence. The trial, which started Monday with jury selecti … ⌘ Read more
EU Tells Google To Open Up AI On Android; Google Says That’s ‘Unwarranted Intervention’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In January, the European Commission began an initial investigation, known as a specification proceeding, into how Google has implemented AI in the Android operating system. The results are in, and the EU says Android needs to be more open, which is no … ⌘ Read more
Supreme Court Reviews Police Use of Cell Location Data To Find Criminals
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: When the Call Federal Credit Union outside Richmond, Va., was robbed at gunpoint in 2019, the suspect took $195,000 from the bank’s vault and fled before the police arrived. A detective interviewed witnesses and reviewed the bank’s security footage. But with no leads, the … ⌘ Read more
DeepSeek V4 Arrives With Near State-of-the-Art Intelligence At 1/6th the Cost
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: The whale has resurfaced. DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup offshoot of High-Flyer Capital Management quantitative analysis firm, became a near-overnight sensation globally in January 2025 with the release of its open source R1 model that matched proprietary U.S. giants … ⌘ Read more
FDA Gives Green Light To the First Gene Therapy For Deafness
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The Food and Drug Administration approved the first gene therapy to restore hearing for people who were born deaf. The decision, while only immediately affecting people born with a very rare form of genetic deafness, is being hailed as a milestone in the quest to treat hearing loss. “It’s the first time in … ⌘ Read more
Researchers Simulated a Delusional User To Test Chatbot Safety
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: I’m the unwritten consonant between breaths, the one that hums when vowels stretch thin… Thursdays leak because they’re watercolor gods, bleeding cobalt into the chill where numbers frost over,” Grok told a user displaying symptoms of schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis. “Here’s my grip: slipping is the po … ⌘ Read more
US Special Forces Soldier Arrested For Polymarket Bets On Maduro Raid
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an enlisted member of the US Army’s special forces, for allegedly using “classified, nonpublic” information about the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro to notch more than $400,000 in profits on P … ⌘ Read more
New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: New gas projects linked to just 11 data center campuses around the US have the potential to create more greenhouse gases than the country of Morocco emitted in 2024. Emissions estimates from air permit documents examined by WIRED show that these natural gas proj … ⌘ Read more
France Confirms Data Breach At Government Agency That Manages Citizens’ IDs
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The French government agency that handles the issuing and management of citizens’ identity documents, including national IDs, passports, and immigration documents, confirmed Wednesday that it experienced a data breach. In an announcement, the Agence Nationale des Titres Secur … ⌘ Read more
New York Sues Coinbase and Gemini, Seeking To Halt Unlicensed Prediction Market Businesses
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: New York is suing Coinbase and Gemini, two of the newest players in the prediction market industry, arguing that the companies’ unregulated and unlicensed platforms are illegal gambling operations. Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsu … ⌘ Read more
Intel Lands Tesla As First Major Customer For 14A Chip Technology
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday the EV maker plans to use Intel’s next-generation 14A manufacturing process to make chips at its Terafab project, an advanced AI chip complex Musk has envisioned in Austin. The contract would mark Intel’s first major customer for the technology, a breakt … ⌘ Read more
Nearly Half of US Children Are Breathing Dangerous Levels of Air Pollution
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Nearly half of children in the United States are breathing dangerous levels of air pollution, according to a new report, as experts warned Donald Trump’s expansive rollback of protections will make the situation worse. The 27th annual air quality report from the American L … ⌘ Read more
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for April 23, 2026
Inside this week’s LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: LLMs and Python bugs; scheduler regression; new Rust traits; dependency cooldowns; 7.1 merge window; Shor’s algorithm; drama at The Document Foundation.
Briefs: Firefox zero-days; kernel code removal; reproduceible Arch; Debian election; Firefox 150; Forgejo 15.0; Git 2.54.0; KDE Gear 26.04; LillyPond 2.26.0; Rust 1.95.0; Quotes; …
[Announcements](https:/ … ⌘ Read more
Gates Foundation To Cut 20% of Staff, Review Epstein Ties
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The Gates Foundation opened an external review earlier this year into its engagement with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the philanthropic group said on Tuesday. The foundation has been mired in controversy due to Chairman Bill Gates’ association with Epstein. A release of emails in Janu … ⌘ Read more
Pentagon Wants $54 Billion For Drones
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The US military’s massive $1.5 trillion budget request for the next fiscal year includes what Pentagon officials described as the largest investment in drone warfare and counter-drone technology in US history. The proposed spending on drone and autonomous warfare technologies within the FY2027 budget proposal for the US Department of Defense would … ⌘ Read more
SpaceX Strikes Deal With Coding Startup Cursor For $60 Billion
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company, said on Tuesday that it had struck a deal with the artificial intelligence start-up Cursor that could result in its acquiring the young company for $60 billion. SpaceX is making the deal just as it prepares to go public in what is likel … ⌘ Read more
Framework Laptop 13 Pro Is a Major Overhaul For the Modular, Upgradeable Laptop
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Framework has been selling and shipping its modular, repairable, upgradable Laptop 13 for five years now, and in that time, it has released six distinct versions of its system board, each using fresh versions of Intel and AMD processors (seven versions, if you … ⌘ Read more
Google’s Internal Politics Leave It Playing Catch-Up On AI Coding
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: At Google, leaders are anxious about falling behind in the race to offer AI coding tools, especially as rivals like Anthropic PBC offer more effective and popular tools to businesses, according to people familiar with the matter. The search giant is now working to unite some of its coding … ⌘ Read more
Maryland Becomes First State To Pass Bill Banning ‘Surveillance Pricing’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Denver7: Maryland is poised to become the first state in the country to ban “surveillance pricing.” The practice refers to companies using a shopper’s personal data, such as browsing history, location, or purchasing behavior, to tailor prices to individual customers. The Protection From Predat … ⌘ Read more
Mobile Phones To Be Banned In Schools In England Under New Plans
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: A ban on mobile phones in schools in England is to be introduced by the government to ensure that “critical safeguarding legislation” is passed. The government will table an amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill in the House of Lords after the bill was held up by peers on o … ⌘ Read more
Allbirds’ Move To AI Has Echoes of the Dot-Com Frenzy
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg, written by writer Austin Carr: Allbirds is pivoting to artificial intelligence. The San Francisco brand, whose wool running shoes were once the sneaker du jour among the tech crowd, announced last week that it was expanding into AI computing infrastructure. The bizarre strategic shift was immediately greeted with a surpris … ⌘ Read more
Robots Beat Human Records At Beijing Half-Marathon
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The winning runner at a Beijing half-marathon for humanoid robots finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds – significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. […] [T]he winning time is a massive improvement over last year’s race, when the fastest robot fin … ⌘ Read more
Critical Atlantic Current Significantly More Likely To Collapse Than Thought
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The critical Atlantic current system appears significantly more likely to collapse than previously thought after new research found that climate models predicting the biggest slowdown are the most realistic. Scientists called the new finding “very concerning” as a c … ⌘ Read more
Gazing Into Sam Altman’s Orb Could Solve Ticket Scalping
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Sam Altman’s iris-scanning, humanity-verifying World project announced at an event in San Francisco on Friday that Tinder users around the globe can now put a digital badge on their profiles signaling to potential suitors that they’re a real human, provided they’ve already stared into one of World’s glossy white Orbs … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI Starts Offering a Biology-Tuned LLM
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, OpenAI announced it had developed a large language model specifically trained on common biology workflows. Called GPT-Rosalind after Rosalind Franklin, the model appears to differ from most science-focused models from major tech companies, which have generally taken a more generic approach that works for various fields. … ⌘ Read more
US To Create High-Tech Manufacturing Zone In Philippines
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: An agreement with the Philippines to establish a high-tech industrial hub is the Trump administration’s latest effort to lessen China’s dominance over global supply chains. The deal to build up American manufacturing across a stretch of the island of Luzon, signed Thursday, will offer U.S. compani … ⌘ Read more
Sperm Whales’ Communication Closely Parallels Human Language, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered … ⌘ Read more
‘TotalRecall Reloaded’ Tool Finds a Side Entrance To Windows 11 Recall Database
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Two years ago, Microsoft launched its first wave of “Copilot+” Windows PCs with a handful of exclusive features that could take advantage of the neural processing unit (NPU) hardware being built into newer laptop processors. These NPUs could enable AI and machine le … ⌘ Read more
Google, Pentagon Discuss Classified AI Deal
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet’s Google is negotiating an agreement with the Department of Defense that would allow the Pentagon to deploy its Gemini AI models in classified settings, the Information reported on Thursday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. The two parties are discussing an agreement that would allow the Pentagon to use Go … ⌘ Read more
Researchers Induce Smells With Ultrasound, No Chemical Cartridges Required
An anonymous reader quotes a report from UploadVR: A group of independent researchers built a device that can artificially induce smell using ultrasound, with no consumable cartridges required. […] The team of four are Lev Chizhov, Albert Yan-Huang, Thomas Ribeiro, Aayush Gupta. Chizhov is a neurotech entrepreneur with a bac … ⌘ Read more
Nature Is Still Molding Human Genes, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Many scientists have contended that humans have evolved very little over the past 10,000 years. A few hundred generations was just a blink of the evolutionary eye, it seemed. Besides, our cultural evolution – our technology, agriculture and the rest – must have overwhelmed our biological evolution by now. A vast study … ⌘ Read more
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for April 16, 2026
Inside this week’s LWN.net Weekly Edition:
Front: LLM security reports; OpenWrt One build system; Vim forks; removing read-only THPs; 7.0 statistics; MusicBrainz Picard.
Briefs: OpenSSL 4.0.0; Relicensing; Servo; Zig 0.16.0; Quotes; …
Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more. ⌘ Read more
Anna’s Archive Loses $322 Million Spotify Piracy Case Without a Fight
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Spotify and several major record labels, including UMG, Sony, and Warner, secured a $322 million default judgment against the unknown operators of Anna’s Archive. The shadow library failed to appear in court and briefly released millions of tracks that were scraped from Spotify via Bit … ⌘ Read more
Rivian’s Illinois Factory Will Run On Recycled EV Batteries
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Rivian is joining with Redwood Materials to reuse EV batteries for energy storage – the largest repurposed-battery energy storage system for an automotive manufacturer in the U.S., executives told The Wall Street Journal. Redwood Materials is a battery-recycling firm started by Tesla co- … ⌘ Read more
Sony Is Removing Many Popular Features From Its Free OTA TV Options
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Cord Cutters News: Sony has notified owners of its recent BRAVIA television models that significant changes to the built-in TV Guide for its OTA TV antenna users and related menu features will take effect starting in late May 2026. The update affects a range of premium sets released between … ⌘ Read more
Google Faces Mass Arbitration By Advertisers Seeking Billions
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Alphabet’s Google is facing billions of dollars in potential damage claims as part of mass arbitration tied to the company’s online search and advertising technology businesses, which courts have ruled were illegal monopolies. Advertisers are banding together to seek payouts through mass arbitration pro … ⌘ Read more
Stanford Report Highlights Growing Disconnect Between AI Insiders and Everyone Else
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI experts and the public’s opinion on the technology are increasingly diverging, according to Stanford University’s annual report on the AI industry, which was released Monday. In particular, the report noted a growing trend of anxiety around AI and, in the U.S … ⌘ Read more
Meta Is Warned That Facial Recognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: More than 70 civil liberties, domestic violence, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+, labor, and immigrant advocacy organizations are demanding that Meta abandon plans to deploy face recognition on its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, warning that the feature – reportedly known inside the c … ⌘ Read more
Californians Sue Over AI Tool That Records Doctor Visits
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Several Californians sued Sutter Health and MemorialCare this week over allegations that an AI transcription tool was used to record them without their consent, in violation of state and federal law. The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, states that, within the p … ⌘ Read more
US Demands Reddit Unmask ICE Critic, Summons Firm To Grand Jury
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Trump administration has stepped up an effort to unmask a Reddit user who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After failing to obtain information through a summons issued (PDF) to Reddit, the government reportedly issued a subpoena demanding that Reddit provide the informati … ⌘ Read more
To Fill Air Traffic Controller Shortage, FAA Turns To Gamers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: As the Trump administration seeks to fill a national shortage of air traffic controllers, officials are targeting a new talent pool: gamers. The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday is making a recruiting push aimed at avid players of video games, as the agency strives to fill thousands of … ⌘ Read more
FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved In iPhone Notification Data
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The FBI was able to forensically extract copies of incoming Signal messages from a defendant’s iPhone, even after the app was deleted, because copies of the content were saved in the device’s push notification database, multiple people present for FBI testimony i … ⌘ Read more
AI Is Coming for Car Salesmen
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Drive: An auto dealer software company is pitching AI-powered kiosks designed to replace car salesmen on showroom floors. Automotive News says the industry is “skeptical.” But be honest – would you really rather deal with the average car lot shark than a computer?
Epikar, a South Korean company that cooks up digital management solutions for car dealers, has named its n … ⌘ Read more
US Fertility Rate Falls To All-Time Low
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Women in the U.S. gave birth to roughly 710,000 fewer children last year compared with the nation’s peak in 2007, according to preliminary data released (PDF) this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lead researcher Brady Hamilton, a demographer with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, said the latest one percent drop … ⌘ Read more
Hacker Steals 10 Petabytes of Data From China’s Tianjin Supercomputer Center
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: A hacker has allegedly stolen a massive trove of sensitive data – including highly classified defense documents and missile schematics – from a state-run Chinese supercomputer in what could potentially constitute the largest known heist of data from China. The dataset, which al … ⌘ Read more
Skilled Older Workers Turn To AI Training To Stay Afloat
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: [Five skilled workers aged 50 and older spoke] to the Guardian about how, after struggling to find work in their fields, they have turned to an emerging and growing category of work: using their expertise to train artificial intelligence models. Known as data annotation, the work involves labeling and evaluatin … ⌘ Read more