This Cannes Film Cost $500,000 to Make. $400,000 Was AI Compute Costs.
Higgsfield AI is debuting a 95-minute fully AI-generated film at Cannes called “Hell Grind” that reportedly cost $500,000 to make, $400,000 of which was spent on compute alone. The project took just two weeks to produce and is intended to showcase the startup’s AI production tools. But it also underscores the current limits of AI f … ⌘ Read more

On the Money: Grant Baker’s book launch, Ray Smith, Nikhil Ravishankar, a great AI speech, and more
On the Money (OTM) is our column of general frippery we observed within the worlds of business and government this week.

It was not the easiest week to be a departmental chief executive. Minister for the Public Service Nicola Willis signalled 9,000 public-sector jobs might go, and several agencies might be folded into on … ⌘ Read more

[$] Toward better handling of major page faults
A major page fault occurs when a process attempts to access a page that is
not currently present in RAM; satisfying such faults usually involves I/O, and can thus take some time. When many threads
sharing an address space are generating page faults, the result can be
significant lock contention while that I/O
takes place. During the memory-management track at the 2026 Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, Barry Son … ⌘ Read more

Antitsiganisme: une nouvelle génération de Roms et Voyageurs se lève pour faire entendre ses droits
Grâce à sa mobilisation, le collectif Zor est parvenu à faire voter à l’Assemblée nationale une résolution visant à la reconnaissance du génocide de leurs ancêtres lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Portraits de jeunes militants et militantes déterminés à défendre la dignité de leurs communautés. ⌘ Read more

Tell HN: I’m tired of AI-generated answers
I found GitHub repositories that were spreading malware. I asked AI what I should do about it, but it gave me nothing useful. So I opened a discussion on GitHub. Someone replied. It was literally the exact same text the AI had given me. I called it out and the comment was deleted. Then another person replied. Same exact AI response again.

I worked as a developer in a company. I asked the business owner a question about a business task. He sent me a ChatGPT screenshot with the an … ⌘ Read more

Ah, there’s even a term for it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_effect

The generation effect is a psychological phenomenon whereby information is better remembered if it is generated from one’s own mind rather than simply read.

hfgl with your coding agents

I Cloned Myself With Gemini’s AI Avatar Tool. The Result Was Unnervingly Me
I used the Gemini app to generate lifelike videos featuring a digital clone of myself. Google sees this as the future of creation. I’m still creeped out. ⌘ Read more

Regional Winners of Prestigious Literary Prize Suspected of Using Chatbots
The 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is facing backlash after several winning entries were accused of being AI-generated, with one Caribbean winner’s story flagged as fully AI-written by a detector that WIRED says it independently confirmed. From the report: Each year, the Commonwealth Foundation, a nongovernmental organization … ⌘ Read more

Le protégé de Macron nommé gouverneur de la Banque de France: «Une gifle pour la démocratie»
Si trois cinquièmes des députés se sont opposés à la nomination d’Emmanuel Moulin à la tête de la plus puissante institution financière du pays, l’ex-secrétaire général de l’Élysée a été sauvé par le Sénat. À l’Assemblée, le socialiste Philippe Brun a révélé que Nicolas Sarkozy était personnellement intervenu pour influencer les votes. ⌘ Read more

[$] What is to be done about MGLRU?
“Reclaim” is the task of finding memory that can be taken away from its
current user and put to better uses within the system; it is a core part of
the memory-management picture. The addition of the multi-generational LRU (MGLRU) was meant to
provide a better reclaim implementation than the “traditional LRU” that
preceded it, but MGLRU has complicated the situation instead. No fewer than
three memory-management-track sessions at the 2026 [Linux Storage,\
Filesyst … ⌘ Read more

Sous les palmiers, le spectre du «dernier Cannes sans l’extrême droite»
À un an de l’élection présidentielle, le Festival de Cannes est percuté de plein fouet par le débat sur l’emprise de Vincent Bolloré sur le cinéma français et la mise au ban de 600 signataires d’une tribune par le directeur général de Canal+. ⌘ Read more

NZTE’s Peter Chrisp named new DOC conservation director general
Peter Chrisp has been appointed as the new director general of conservation and chief executive of the Department of Conservation (DOC).

The announcement was made by deputy public service commissioner Heather Baggott. ⌘ Read more

Google Makes It Easy to Deepfake Yourself
Google’s overhaul of its AI creation software, Flow, includes a new video model and a tool for generating selfie videos called avatars. ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Surprises With Its First Server Linux Distribution: Azure Linux 4.0
Microsoft is turning Azure Linux into a general-purpose, Fedora-based cloud distribution available to all Azure customers, while also productizing Flatcar as Azure Container Linux for immutable container hosts. “When Microsoft joined the Linux Foundation, there was this big conspiracy theory that somehow the Linux Foundat … ⌘ Read more

Amazon’s Alexa+ Now Produces AI-Generated Podcasts
Amazon is adding AI-generated “podcasts” to Alexa+, letting users request custom audio explainers on any topic featuring two synthetic co-hosts. Variety reports: Seemingly to dispel the notion that these “podcasts” will be AI audio slop, Amazon emphasized that it has deals with major news organizations to ensure “accurate, real-time news and information.” Those inclu … ⌘ Read more

Elon Musk Loses Lawsuit Against OpenAI
After three weeks of testimony, which was covered extensively here on Slashdot, a U.S. jury on Monday ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding that he waited too long to bring his claims that the company betrayed its nonprofit mission. Reuters reports: The trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in ho … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Stops Supporting Pre-2013 Kindles Today. Some Owners Turn to Jailbreaking
Today Amazon ends support for first- and second-generation versions of Kindles and Kindle Fire tablets, along with the Kindle Touch, the 9.7-inch Kindle DX, and other devices released in 2012 or earlier.

Owners can continue reading ebooks that they’ve already downloaded, and they can also still sideload books using … ⌘ Read more

Old Oil and Gas Wells Could Find Second Life Producing Clean Energy
States across the US are looking to take major sources of pollution and use them to generate much-needed power. ⌘ Read more

Sarkozy-Kadhafi: le résumé vidéo de la neuvième semaine du procès en appel
Mercredi 13 mai, le parquet général a réclamé la condamnation de Nicolas Sarkozy pour association de malfaiteurs, corruption, recel de détournement de fonds publics et financement illégal de campagne. Au terme de leurs réquisitions, les avocats généraux ont requis contre lui une peine de sept ans de prison ferme, 300 000 euros d’amende et cinq ans d’inéligibilité. Le résumé … ⌘ Read more

ArXiv to Ban Researchers for a Year if They Submit AI Slop
ArXiv says it will ban authors for one year if they submit papers containing AI-generated slop, such as hallucinated citations, placeholder text, or chatbot meta-comments left in the manuscript.

“If generative AI tools generate inappropriate language, plagiarized content, biased content, errors, mistakes, incorrect references, or misleading content, and that out … ⌘ Read more

AMD Preps More AIE4 NPU Hardware Enablement For AMDXDNA Driver In Linux 7.2
Since March we have been seeing patches from AMD software engineers beginning to enable their next-generation “AIE4” NPU platform under Linux. We still don’t know for sure when this AIE4 NPU will premiere for sure in new Ryzen AI products, but the Linux enablement continues coming along nicely for the AMDXDNA accelerator driver… ⌘ Read more

Gen Z Is Pioneering a New Understanding of Truth
The first generation to truly grow up online, Generation Z and their cohort live in a social media ecosystem that blends facts and feelings. It’s significantly shifting how they understand what’s true. ⌘ Read more

États-Unis: la mission impossible du nouveau président de la banque centrale
Choisi par Donald Trump, Kevin Warsh est attendu avant même de commencer son mandat: soit il s’impose en luttant contre l’inflation, soit il se conforme aux exigences du président. Mais ce débat mille fois ressassé sur les taux d’intérêt évite la vraie question: celle de l’intérêt général. ⌘ Read more

**Financements libyens: une peine «en haut du spectre» requise contre Nicolas Sarkozy **
Au dernier jour de ses réquisitions, le parquet général a demandé une peine de sept ans de prison ferme contre l’ancien président afin de sanctionner «le pacte corruptif scellé au plus haut niveau» avec la dictature libyenne. ⌘ Read more

@bender@twtxt.net Apologies, I’m still working through some layout issues with TwtStrm and frequently miss mentions…

Magic: the Gathering does not use a Game Master (although professional referees are often used in sanctioned events). While the game has alot of thematic crossover with with D&D (or fantasy games in general), the system is much more of an abstract, card-dueling system involving things like “the stack” and insanely specific rules on card timing and interactions.

Like, we joke about “I’m sending my army of (goblins / elves / angels / whatever) at you,” but that’s about as far into the “role-playing” element most magic games get in my experience (and most of the “official” competitive games I’ve played at my FLGS were even more abstract and less thematic, although it’s been years since I played in one of those).

Software Developers Say AI Is Rotting Their Brains
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: On Reddit, Hacker News and other places where people in software development talk to each other, more and more people are becoming disillusioned with the promise of code generated by large language models. Developers talk not just about how the AI output is often flawed, but that using AI to get the job done is often … ⌘ Read more

Procès libyen en appel: le parquet général réclame sept ans de prison contre Nicolas Sarkozy
Les trois magistrats représentant l’accusation ont requis une peine de sept ans de prison ferme, 300 000 euros d’amende et une inéligibilité de cinq ans contre l’ancien président. Des peines de prison, ferme ou avec sursis, ont également été réclamées contre ses ex-ministres Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux et Éric Woerth. ⌘ Read more

I just wanted to look up 9V block battery prices online and these automatically generated descriptions are getting dumber by the minute:

Datum der Erzeugung: Verfallsdatum minus 7 Jahre

(Date of manufacturing: expiration date minus 7 years)

Or look at this one:

Die leistungsstarke 9 V-Block E Batterie, auch 6LR61 genannt, eignet sich besonders gut für Taschenlampen, Radio oder Kinderspielzeug, die einen gleichbleibenden Strombedarf haben. Ihre max. Spannung beträgt 1,5 V.

(The high performance 9 V block E battery, also known as 6LR61, is particularly suitable for torches, radio or child’s toys, which have a steady power demand. Its max. voltage is 1.5 V.)

The battery is best suited for… devices where it fits. No shit, Sherlock! Has anyboy ever come across 9V block torches? O_o I haven’t.

The Audemars Piguet x Swatch Collaboration Is Here for Real
With Instagram awash with inaccurate AI-generated concepts for its Royal Pop collab, Swatch was forced to reveal the genuine article. ⌘ Read more

Emmanuel Moulin à la Banque de France: la pression monte sur le candidat de Macron
Après les révélations de «Mediapart», le député socialiste Philippe Brun, chargé d’orchestrer l’audition du candidat au poste de gouverneur de la Banque de France, a interrogé l’actuel patron de l’institution sur l’aide que ses services ont fournie pour préparer l’ancien secrétaire général de l’Élysée. ⌘ Read more

The Top New Features in Google’s Android 17—and Gemini Intelligence—Coming This Summer
You’ll soon be able to generate your own widgets or ask Gemini to finish a booking in Chrome on Android. ⌘ Read more

«La corruption, c’est ça»: l’accusation poursuit sa démonstration au procès Sarkozy-Kadhafi
Après l’association de malfaiteurs lundi, l’avocat général Damien Brunet a réclamé, mardi, la condamnation de Nicolas Sarkozy pour corruption, recel de détournement de fonds publics et financement illégal de campagne, stigmatisant la «perdition républicaine» de l’ex-chef de l’État. ⌘ Read more

Affaire Luc Besson: le parquet général demande la réouverture de la procédure pour viol
Selon nos informations, le parquet général de la cour d’appel de Paris a requis la réouverture de la procédure pour viol concernant le cinéaste. La plaignante, Sand Van Roy, avait demandé la réouverture de l’affaire en produisant de nouvelles analyses ADN. La chambre de l’instruction examinera cette demande le 2 juin. ⌘ Read more

[$] Scaling transparent huge pages to 1GB
As a general rule, when developers talk about huge pages, they are
referring to PMD-level pages that are 1MB or 2MB in size, depending on the
CPU architecture. Most CPUs can support other huge-page sizes, though. On
x86 systems, PUD-level huge pages hold 1GB of data. Providing such large
pages transparently to processes has generally not been considered as
either feasible or desirable, but Usama Arif is trying to change that
assessment. At the 2026 [Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Manageme … ⌘ Read more

I’m not always on the same page as Rob Pike, but this hit close to home:

Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I’m being charitable).

Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.

I spent my time trying to make it better. Not just write code, but find better or at least different ways to do so. Simpler, cleaner, more general, more comprehensible.

What’s happening today is a complete repudiation of everything I was trying to achieve.

“Simpler, cleaner, more general, more comprehensible”, that’s what I’ve been trying to establish in our teams as well. Obviously not to the same degree, but you get the idea.

And it all goes out the window now. We’re doing the complete opposite – and with full force.

Aux réquisitions du procès des financements libyens, Nicolas Sarkozy «l’instigateur»
Le parquet général a commencé ses réquisitions, lundi, par les faits d’association de malfaiteurs. Il a requis la condamnation de Nicolas Sarkozy, jugeant les faits «dans les plus hauts niveaux de gravité que la République ait pu connaître». ⌘ Read more

F2FS Preparing FSERROR Reporting Support
Introduced in Linux 7.0 was FSERROR as generic I/O error reporting infrastructure. Linux to that point had no standardized mechanism for reporting metadata corruption or file I/O errors to user-space with each file-system doing its own thing. The Flash-Friendly File-System (F2FS) is now the latest Linux file-system preparing for FSERROR usage… ⌘ Read more

Nazi-Raubkunst bei Nachfahren von SS-General entdeckt ⌘ Read more

Sculpt OS 26.04 Can Finally Be Used To Self-Host For Developing/Building Genode
Sculpt OS as the general purpose operating system built off the Genode OS Framework is out with a new feature release… ⌘ Read more

GM Secretly Sold California Drivers’ Data, Agrees to Pay $12.75M In Privacy Settlement
“General Motors sold the data of California drivers without their knowledge or consent,” says California’s attorney general, “and despite numerous statements reassuring drivers that it would not do so.”

In 2024, The New York Times “reported that automakers including GM were sharing information about their c … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Relents, Lets its Programmers Use OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude
An anonymous reader shared this report from Futurism:

In November, Amazon leaders sent an internal memo to employees, pushing them to use its in-house code generating tool, Kiro, over third-party alternatives from competitors. “While we continue to support existing tools in use today, we do not plan to support addi … ⌘ Read more

«Ceci n’est pas un meeting»: en précampagne, Gabriel Attal peine à rassembler son camp
Pas encore officiellement candidat à la présidentielle, le secrétaire général de Renaissance va de grande ville en grande ville pour mobiliser ses troupes. Mais construire sur les ruines du macronisme s’avère une gageure, quand plusieurs figures ont déjà largué les amarres. ⌘ Read more

‘Changing of the Guard’? AMD, Intel, and Micron Soar While Nvidia Lags
While Nvidia has dominated the “infrastructure boom” since 2022’s launch of ChatGPT and “the generative AI craze,” CNBC writes that “This week offered the starkest illustration yet of what MIzuho analyst Jordan Klein said could be a ‘changing of the guard in AI.’”

Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Intel notched gains of about 25% … ⌘ Read more

Open Source Registries Join Linux Foundation Working Group to Address Machine-Generated Traffic
Under the nonprofit Linux Foundation, “a new Sustaining Package Registries Working Group will seek to identify concrete funding, governance, and security practices,” reports ZDNet, “to keep code flowing as download counts grow…. Because software builds, continuous integration pipelin … ⌘ Read more

Plant Seeds Do Something Incredible When the Sound of Rain Strikes
“Plant seeds can sense the vibrations generated by falling raindrops,” reports ScienceAlert, “and respond by waking from their state of dormancy to welcome the water, new research shows…. to germinate in ‘anticipation’ of the coming deluge.”
The finding, discovered by MIT mechanical engineers Nicholas Makris and Cadine Navarro, offers th … ⌘ Read more

Fiber Optic Cables Can Eavesdrop On Nearby Conversations
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Cold War spies planted bugs in walls, lamps, and telephones. Now, scientists warn, the cables themselves could listen in. A fiber optic technique used to detect earthquakes can also pick up the faint vibrations of nearby speech, researchers reported this week here at the general assembly of the European Geos … ⌘ Read more

HP Z6 G5 A Continues Working Out Well For Linux-Friendly, High-End Workstation
In late 2023 I reviewed the HP Z6 G5 A workstation that at the time was built around the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 series and NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation graphics. More recently, HP has revised the Z6 G5 A workstation for the latest Threadripper PRO 9000 series and NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell graphics. HP sent over the upgraded Z6 G5 A workstation that I’ve been benchmarking the past few weeks. This workstation remains Linux-friendly down to … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Gives Up On Xbox Copilot AI
Microsoft is winding down Xbox Copilot on mobile and ending development of Copilot on console, reversing plans to bring the gaming-focused AI assistant to current-generation Xbox consoles this year. “The move follows [new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s] reorganization of the Xbox platform team earlier on Tuesday, which added executives from Microsoft’s CoreAI team – where Sharma worked before taking ove … ⌘ Read more

Intel’s Vulkan Linux Driver Now Supports Device Generated Commands “DGC”
Exciting yesterday in the land of Intel’s open-source Vulkan driver “ANV” for Linux systems was introducing experimental support for descriptor heaps with the VK_EXT_descriptor_heap extension. Today there is another separate exciting development for this open-source Intel driver: Vulkan device generated commands are finally merged!.. ⌘ Read more

GCC Git Lands Fix For Missing AVX-512 Optimizations On AMD Zen 6
Last week marked the release of GCC 16.1 as the first GCC 16 stable release. While that release introduces initial AMD Zen 6 “znver6” support well in advance of those next-generation AMD processors debuting, it’s not yet in perfect shape with just today two missing optimizations around AVX-512 having been merged… ⌘ Read more