Lenovo Unveils an Attachable AI Agent ‘Companion’ for Their Laptops
As the Mobile World Conference begins in Spain, Lenovo brought a new attachable accessory for their laptops — an AI agent. CNET reports:
The little circular module perches on the top of your Lenovo laptop display, attached via the magnetic Magic Bay on the rear. The module is home to an adorable animated companion called Tiko, who you can … ⌘ Read more

Does a Gas-Guzzler Revival Risk Dead-End Futures for US Automakers?
If U.S. automakers turn their backs on electric vehicles, “their sales outside the U.S. will shrivel,” warns Bloomberg. [Alternate URL.]

They’re already falling behind on the technology, relying on a 100% U.S. tariff on Chinese EVs to keep surging rivals like BYD Co. at bay…. While the American automakers “mostly understand the challenge … ⌘ Read more

Norway’s Consumer Council Calls for Right to Repair and Antitrust Enforcement - and Mocks ‘Enshittification’
The Norwegian Consumer Council, a government funded organization advocating for consumer’s rights, released a report on the trend of “enshittification” in digital consumer goods and services, suggesting ways consumers for consumers to resist. But they’ve also dra … ⌘ Read more

AIs Can’t Stop Recommending Nuclear Strikes In War Game Simulations
“Advanced AI models appear willing to deploy nuclear weapons without the same reservations humans have when put into simulated geopolitical crises,” reports New Scientist:

Kenneth Payne at King’s College London set three leading large language models — GPT-5.2, Claude Sonnet 4 and Gemini 3 Flash — against each other in simulated war games. The s … ⌘ Read more

Chronic Ocean Heating Fuels ‘Staggering’ Loss of Marine Life, Study Finds
Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy shared this report from the Guardian:

Chronic ocean heating is fuelling a “staggering and deeply concerning” loss of marine life, a study has found, with fish levels falling by 7.2% from as little as 0.1C of warming per decade. Researchers examined the year-to-year change of 33,000 populations in … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic’s Claude Pass ChatGPT, Now #1, on Apple’s ‘Top Apps’ Chart After Pentagon Controversy
“Anthropic may have lost out on doing business with the US government,” reports Engadget, “but it’s gained enough popularity to earn the number one spot on the App Store’s Top Free Apps leaderboard.”

Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant had already leaped to the #2 slot on Apple’s chart by late Friday … ⌘ Read more

America Used Anthropic’s AI for Its Attack On Iran, One Day After Banning It
Engadget reports:

In a lengthy post on Truth Social on February 27, President Trump ordered all federal agencies to “immediately cease all use of Anthropic’s technology” following strong disagreements between the Department of Defense and the AI company. A few hours later, the U.S. conducted a major air attack on Iran with … ⌘ Read more

Americans Listen to Podcasts More Than Talk Radio Now, Study Shows
“Podcasts have officially overtaken AM/FM talk radio as the more popular medium for spoken-word audio in the United States,” reports TechCrunch, citing Edison Research’s Share of Ear survey:

The researchers have tracked these statistics over the last decade, and almost always, the percentage of time people spent listening to podcasts increased … ⌘ Read more

North America’s Bird Populations Are Shrinking Faster. Blame Climate Change and Agriculture
“Billions fewer birds are flying through North American skies than decades ago,” reports the Associated Press, “and their population is shrinking ever faster, mostly due to a combination of intensive agriculture and warming temperatures, a new study found.”

Nearly half of the 261 species studi … ⌘ Read more

Collabora Clashes With LibreOffice Over Move To Revive LibreOffice Online
Slashdot reader darwinmac writes: The Document Foundation (TDF), the organization behind LibreOffice, has decided to bring back its LibreOffice Online project which been inactive since 2022. Collabora, a company that was a major contributor to the original LibreOffice Online, is not pleased with this development. After the origin … ⌘ Read more

Galileo’s Handwritten Notes Discovered in a Medieval Astronomy Text
In a library in Florence, Italy, historian Ivan Malara noticed handwritten notes on a book printed in the 1500s — and recognized the handwriting as Galileo’s. The finding “promises new insights into one of the most famous ideological transitions in the history of science,” writes Science magazine — since the book Galileo annotated was a r … ⌘ Read more

Some Linux LTS Kernels Will Be Supported Even Longer, Announces Greg Kroah-Hartman
An anonymous reader shared this report from the blogIt’s FOSS:

Greg Kroah-Hartman has updated the projected end-of-life (EOL) dates for several active longterm support kernels via a commit. The provided reasoning? It was done “based on lots of discussions with different companies and groups and the other stabl … ⌘ Read more

Anthropic’s Claude Leaps to #2 on Apple’s ‘Top Apps’ Chart After Pentagon Controversy
Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant “jumped to the No. 2 slot on Apple’s chart of top U.S. free apps late on Friday,” reports CNBC:

The rise in popularity suggests that Anthropic is benefiting from its presence in news headlines, stemming from its refusal to have its models used for mass domestic surveillance or for f … ⌘ Read more

Silicon Valley’s Ideas Mocked Over Penchant for Favoring Young Entrepreneurs with ‘Agency’
In a 9,000-word expose, a writer for Harper’s visited San Francisco’s young entrepreneurs in September to mockingly profile “tech’s new generation and the end of thinking.”
There’s Cluely founder Roy Lee. (“His grand contribution to the world was a piece of software that told people what to do.”) And the … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman Answers Questions on X.com About Pentagon Deal, Threats to Anthropic
Saturday afternoon Sam Altman announced he’d start answering questions on X.com about OpenAI’s work with America’s Department of War — and all the developments over the past few days. (After that department’s negotions had failed with Anthropic, they announced they’d stop using Anthropic’s technology and threatened to … ⌘ Read more

Duolingo Grows, But Users Disliked Increased Ads and Subscription Pushes. Stock Plummets Again
Friday was “a horrible day” for investors in Duolingo, reports Fast Company. But Friday’s one-day 14% drop is just part of a longer story.

Since last May, Duolingo’s stock has dropped 81%. Yes, the company faced a social media backlash that month after its CEO promised they’d become an “AI-fir … ⌘ Read more

New ‘Star Wars’ Movies Are Coming to Theatres. But Will Audiences?
“The drought of upcoming Star Wars movies is coming to an end soon,” writes Cinemablend. In May the The Mandalorian and Grogu opens, and one year later there’s the release of the Ryan Gosling-led Star Wars: Starfighter.

But “there are some insiders who already believe that Starfighter will be a bigger hit than The Mandalorian and Grogu … ⌘ Read more

US Threatens Anthropic with ‘Supply-Chain Risk’ Designation. OpenAI Signs New War Department Deal
It started Friday when all U.S. federal agencies were ordered to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s AI technology after contract negotiations stalled when Anthropic requested prohibitions against mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. But later Friday there were ev … ⌘ Read more

Antarctica’s Massive Neutrino Observatory Gets an Upgrade
There’s already 5,000 sensors embedded in Antarctica’s ice to look for evidence of neutrinos, reports the Washington Post. But in November scientists drilled six new holes at least a mile and a half deep and installed cables with hundreds more light detectors — an upgrade to the massive 15-year-old IceCube Neutrino Observatory to detect the charged particles … ⌘ Read more

‘World’s Largest Battery’ Soon At Google Data Center: 100-Hour Iron-Air Storage
Interesting Engineering reports:

US tech giant Google announced on Tuesday that it will build a new data center in Pine Island, Minnesota. The new facility will be powered by 1.9 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy from wind and solar, coupled with a 300-megawatt battery, claimed to be the ‘world’s largest’, with a 30-gi … ⌘ Read more

After US-Israel Attacks, 90 Million Iranians Lose Internet Connectivity
CNN reports that images from Iran’s capital “have shown cars jammed along Tehran’s street, with heavy traffic on major roads after today’s wave of attacks by the US and Israel.” And though Iran has a population of 93 million, the attacks suddenly plunged Iran into “a near-total internet blackout with national connectivity at 4% of or … ⌘ Read more

America’s Teenagers Say AI Cheating Has Become a Regular Feature of Student Life
Tuesday Pew Research announced their newest findings: that 54% of America’s teens use AI help with schoolwork:
One-in-five teens living in households making less than $30,000 a year say they do all or most of their schoolwork with AI chatbots’ help. A similar share of those in households making $30,000 to just under … ⌘ Read more

Startup Plans April Launch for a Satellite Reflect Sunlight to Earth at Night
A start-up called Reflect Orbital “proposes to use large, mirrored satellites to redirect sunlight to Earth at night,” reports the Washington Post, “with plans to bathe solar farms, industrial sites and even entire cities in light that could, if desired, reach the intensity of daylight….”

Slashdot noted their idea i … ⌘ Read more

Google Quantum-Proofs HTTPS
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google on Friday unveiled its plan for its Chrome browser to secure HTTPS certificates against quantum computer attacks without breaking the Internet. The objective is a tall order. The quantum-resistant cryptographic data needed to transparently publish TLS certificates is roughly 40 times bigger than the classical cryptographic material used today. Today’s X.509 c … ⌘ Read more

Rubin Observatory Has Started Paging Astronomers 800,000 Times a Night
On February 24th, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory activated its automated alert system, sending out roughly 800,000 real-time notifications flagging asteroids, supernovae, flaring black holes and “other transient celestial events,” reports Scientific American. And this is only the beginning – that number is projected to climb into th … ⌘ Read more

Southern California Air Board Rejects Pollution Rules After AI-Generated Flood of Comments
Southern California’s air quality board rejected proposed rules to phase out gas-powered appliances after receiving more than 20,000 opposition comments generated through CiviClick, “the first and best AI-powered grassroots advocacy platform.” Phys.org reports: A Southern California-based public a … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Fires an Employee For Prediction Market Insider Trading
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: OpenAI has fired an employee following an investigation into their activity on prediction market platforms including Polymarket, WIRED has learned. OpenAI CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, disclosed the termination in an internal message to employees earlier this year. The employee, she said, “used confidenti … ⌘ Read more

Human Brain Cells On a Chip Learned To Play Doom In a Week
Researchers at Cortical Labs used living human neurons grown on a chip to learn how to play Doom in about a week. “While its performance is not up to par with humans, experts say it brings biological computers a step closer to useful real-world applications, like controlling robot arms,” reports New Scientist. From the report: In 2021, the Australian compan … ⌘ Read more

Hyperion Author Dan Simmons Dies From Stroke At 77
Author Dan Simmons, best known for the epic sci-fi novel Hyperion and its sequels, has died at 77 following a stroke. Ars Technica’s Eric Berger remembers Simmons, writing: Simmons, who worked in elementary education before becoming an author in the 1980s, produced a broad portfolio of writing that spanned several genres, including horror fiction, historical fiction, and sc … ⌘ Read more

CISA Replaces Bumbling Acting Director After a Year
New submitter DeanonymizedCoward shares a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is reportedly in crisis following major budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs under the Trump administration, says TechCrunch. The agency has now replaced its acting director, Madhu Gottumukkala, after a turbulent year marked by controversy and i … ⌘ Read more

Perplexity Announces ‘Computer,’ an AI Agent That Assigns Work To Other AI Agent
joshuark shares a report from Ars Technica: Perplexity has introduced “Computer,” a new tool that allows users to assign tasks and see them carried out by a system that coordinates multiple agents running various models. The company claims that Computer, currently available to Perplexity Max subscribers, is “a system that … ⌘ Read more

South Korea Set To Get a Fully Functioning Google Maps
South Korea has reversed a two-decade policy and approved the export of high-precision map data, paving the way for a fully functional Google Maps in the country. Reuters reports: The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement. Those conditions include blurrin … ⌘ Read more

Trump Orders Federal Agencies To Stop Using Anthropic AI Tech ‘Immediately’
President Donald Trump has ordered all U.S. federal agencies to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s AI technology, escalating a standoff after the company sought limits on Pentagon use of its models. CNBC reports: The company, which in July signed a $200 million contract with Pentagon, wants assurances that the Defense Depar … ⌘ Read more

US Military Accidentally Shoots Down Border Protection Drone With Laser
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a “seemingly threatening” drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said. The case of mistaken identity prompted the Federal Aviation Admini … ⌘ Read more

White House Stalls Release of Approved US Science Budgets
An anonymous reader shares a report: Weeks after the U.S. Congress rejected unprecedented cuts to science budgets that the administration of US President Donald Trump had sought for 2026, funding to several agencies that award research grants is still not freely flowing.

One reason is that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been slow to … ⌘ Read more

‘The Death of Spotify: Why Streaming is Minutes Away From Being Obsolete’
An anonymous reader shares a column: I’m going to take the diplomatic hat off here and say with brutal honesty: basically everybody in the music business hates Spotify except for the people who work there. It’s a platform that sucks artists for everything they have, it actively prevents community building, and, despite all … ⌘ Read more

AI Mistakes Are Infuriating Gamers as Developers Seek Savings
The $200 billion video game industry is caught between studios eager to cut ballooning development costs through AI and a player base that has grown openly hostile to the technology after a string of visible blunders.

As Bloomberg news, Arc Raiders, a surprise hit from Stockholm-based Embark Studios that sold 12 million copies in three months, was br … ⌘ Read more

Smartphone Market To Decline 13% in 2026, Marking the Largest Drop Ever Due To the Memory Shortage Crisis
An anonymous reader shares a report: Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to decline 12.9% year-on-year (YoY) in 2026 to 1.1 billion units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. This decline will bring … ⌘ Read more

Nasa Announces Artemis III Mission No Longer Aims To Send Humans To Moon
Nasa announced on Friday radical changes to its delayed Artemis III mission to land humans back on the moon, as the US space agency grapples with technical glitches and criticism that it is trying to do too much too soon. From a report: The abrupt shift in strategy was laid out by the space agency’s recently confirmed administr … ⌘ Read more

A Chinese Official’s Use of ChatGPT Accidentally Revealed a Global Intimidation Operation
A sprawling Chinese influence operation – accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official’s use of ChatGPT – focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. From a report: The Chines … ⌘ Read more

Metacritic Will Kick Out Media Attempting To Submit AI Generated Reviews
An anonymous reader shares a report: While some see AI as a tool to be used, its specific use and how it is deployed responsibly is being heavily debated online across a wide range of industries. In terms of journalistic content, and in this particular instance, reviews, review aggregator Metacritic has taken a firm stance on con … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman Says OpenAI Shares Anthropic’s Red Lines in Pentagon Fight
An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic and the Pentagon: no AI for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons. If other leading firms like Google follow suit, this could massively complicate the Pentag … ⌘ Read more

Netflix Ditches deal for Warner Bros. Discovery After Paramount’s Offer is Deemed Superior
Netflix is walking away from a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets after the WBD board on Thursday deemed a revised bid by Paramount Skydance to be a superior offer. From a report: Earlier this week, Paramount raised its bid to buy the entirety of WBD to $31 p … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft: Computer Programming Is Dying, Long Live AI Literacy
theodp writes: On Tuesday, Microsoft GM of Education and Workforce Policy (and former Code.org Chief Academic Officer) Pat Yongpradit posted an obituary of sorts for coders. “Computer programmers and software developers are codified differently in the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] data,” Yongpradit wrote. “The modern AI-infused world needs less … ⌘ Read more

Your Smart TV May Be Crawling the Web for AI
Bright Data, a company that operates one of the world’s largest residential proxy networks, has been running an SDK inside smart TV apps that turns those devices into nodes for web crawling – collecting data used by AI companies, among other clients – and most consumers have had no idea it was happening.

The company has published more than 200 first-party apps to LG’s app s … ⌘ Read more

Canonical Talks Up RISC-V This Year With Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Canonical put out a new blog post today highlighting their RISC-V work over 2025 that included switching to the RVA23 profile baseline for Ubuntu 25.10 and moving forward. Now with RVA23-compatible RISC-V hardware coming to market this year, Canonical is talking up the RISC-V possibilities when paired with the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release… ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Raises $110 Billion in the Largest Private Funding Round Ever
OpenAI has closed what is now the largest private financing in history – a $110 billion round at a $730 billion pre-money valuation that more than doubles the $40 billion raise it completed just a year ago, itself a record for a private tech company at the time.

Amazon invested $50 billion, SoftBank put in $30 billion, and Nvidia committed $3 … ⌘ Read more

Memory Price Hikes Will Kill Off Budget PCs and Smartphones, Analyst Warns
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Ballooning memory prices are forecast to kill off entry-level PCs, leading to a decline in global shipments this year – and a similar effect is going to hit smartphones. Analyst biz Gartner is projecting a drop in PC shipments of more than 10 percent during 2026, and a … ⌘ Read more

Genode OS 26.02 Halfway Done Migrating From GitHub To Codeberg
Genode OS 26.02 is out as the latest feature update to this open-source operating system framework that also serves as the basis for their Sculpt general purpose OS… ⌘ Read more

Moon’s Ancient Magnetic Field May Have Flickered On and Off
sciencehabit quotes a report from Science Magazine: For decades, planetary scientists have pored over a mystery hidden within the Moon rocks retrieved by Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and ‘70s. Minerals in the rocks record the imprint of a magnetic field, nearly as powerful as Earth’s, that existed more than 3.5 billion years ago and seemed to persist f … ⌘ Read more