How a Power Outage In Colorado Caused US Official Time To Be 4.8 Microseconds
Tony Isaac shares a report from NPR: The U.S. government calculates the country’s official time using more than a dozen atomic clocks at a federal facility northwest of Denver. But when a destructive windstorm knocked out power to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratory in Boulder on Wednesd … ⌘ Read more

The U.S. Could Ban Chinese-Made Drones Used By Police Departments
Tuesday the White House faces a deadline to decide “whether Chinese drone maker DJI Technologies poses a national security threat,” reports Bloomberg. But their article notes it’s “a decision with the potential to ground thousands of machines deployed by police and fire departments across the US.”

One person making the case against the drones is … ⌘ Read more

Trump Admin to Hire 1,000 for New ‘Tech Force’ to Build AI Infrastructure
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNBC:

The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new initiative dubbed the “U.S. Tech Force,” comprising about 1,000 engineers and other specialists who will work on artificial intelligence infrastructure and other technology projects throughout the federal government.

Participants wi … ⌘ Read more

Is America’s Tech Industry Already Facing a Recession?
America’s unemployment rate for tech jobs rose to 4% in November, and “has been steadily rising since May,” reports the Washington Post (citing data from the IT training/certifications company CompTIA).

Between October and November, the number of technology workers across different industries fell 134,000, while the number of people working in the tech industry decline … ⌘ Read more

Does AI Really Make Coders Faster?
One developer tells MIT Technology Review that AI tools weaken the coding instincts he used to have. And beyond that, “It’s just not fun sitting there with my work being done for me.”

But is AI making coders faster? “After speaking to more than 30 developers, technology executives, analysts, and researchers, MIT Technology Review found that the picture is not as straightforward as it might seem…”
… ⌘ Read more

2025 Was the Beginning of the End of the TV Brightness War
The television industry’s brightness war may have hit its inflection point in 2025, the year TCL and Hisense released the first consumer TVs capable of 5,000 nits under specific settings – a figure that would have seemed absurd not long ago when manufacturers struggled to reach 2,000 nits. LG introduced Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology, moving fr … ⌘ Read more

Trump’s Social Media Business Is Merging With a Nuclear Fusion Company
Tony Isaac shares a report from CNN: President Donald Trump’s social media and crypto company is making a huge bet on a far different industry – nuclear fusion, a potentially lucrative albeit commercially unproven energy technology that could help power a suddenly electricity-starved economy. Trump Media and Technology Group Thursday … ⌘ Read more

MIT Grieves Shooting Death of Renowned Director of Plasma Science Center
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community is grieving after the “shocking” shooting death of the director of its plasma science and fusion center, according to officials. Nuno FG Loureiro, 47, had been shot multiple times at his home in the affluent Boston subu … ⌘ Read more

US Threatens Penalties Against European Tech Firms Amid Regulatory Fight
U.S. officials excoriated the European Union for discriminating against American technology companies and threatened to penalize European tech companies in return, in a social media post on Tuesday. From a report: The pronouncement appeared to signal a rockier period for U.S.-E.U. trade relations, as the two governments work to fi … ⌘ Read more

Texas Sues TV Makers For Taking Screenshots of What People Watch
mprindle writes: The Texas Attorney General sued five major television manufacturers, accusing them of illegally collecting their users’ data by secretly recording what they watch using Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology.

The lawsuits target Sony, Samsung, LG, and China-based companies Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation. Att … ⌘ Read more

JPMorgan Steps Further Into Crypto With Tokenized Money Fund
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: JPMorgan Chase is joining the list of traditional financial firms seeking to bring blockchain technology to an investing staple: the money-market fund. The banking giant’s $4 trillion asset-management arm is rolling out its first tokenized money-market fund on the Ethereum blockchain. JPMo … ⌘ Read more

Merriam-Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year Is ‘Slop’
Merriam-Webster crowned “slop” its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting growing public awareness and and fatigue around low-quality, AI-generated content flooding the internet. “It’s such an illustrative word,” said Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president. “It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying and a little bi … ⌘ Read more

US Tech Force Aims To Recruit 1,000 Technologists
The Trump administration announced Monday the United States Tech Force, a new program to recruit around 1,000 technologists for two-year government stints starting as soon as March – less than a year after dismantling several federal technology teams and driving thousands of tech workers out of their jobs.

The program will primarily recruit early-career software engineers an … ⌘ Read more

Chinese Whistleblower Living In US Is Being Hunted By Beijing With US Tech
A former Chinese official who fled to the U.S. says Beijing has used advanced surveillance technology from U.S. companies to track, intimidate, and punish him and his family across borders. ABC News reports: Retired Chinese official Li Chuanliang was recuperating from cancer on a Korean resort island when he got an urgent call: … ⌘ Read more

China Leads Research in 90% of Crucial Technologies - a Dramatic Shift this Century
China is leading research in nearly 90% of the crucial technologies that “significantly enhance, or pose risks to, a country’s national interests,” according to a technology tracker run by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) – an independent think-tank. Nature: The ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker e … ⌘ Read more

Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
The rollout of a type of genetic technology called a gene drive for tackling malaria could be edging closer after a lab study supports its success ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Builds Location Verification Tech That Could Track Where Its AI Chips End Up
Nvidia has developed location verification technology that could determine which country its AI chips are operating in, Reuters reports, citing a source, a capability that may help address ongoing concerns about the smuggling of advanced semiconductors to restricted markets like China. The feature, which Nvid … ⌘ Read more

‘Time to go’: Calls for UTS VC to resign after staff no confidence vote
The union-run vote comes as controversial, consultant-designed redundancies continue and politicians call for resignations. ⌘ Read more

IBM To Buy Confluent For $11 Billion To Expand AI Services
IBM is buying Confluent for $11 billion in a major push to own real-time data streaming infrastructure essential for enterprise AI workloads. It marks Big Blue’s biggest acquisition since Red Hat in 2019. Bloomberg reports: The AI boom has touched off billions of dollars in deals for businesses that build, train or leverage the technology, propelling the valu … ⌘ Read more

Lenovo’s Next Gaming Laptop May Have a Rollable OLED Screen That Stretches Ultrawide
Lenovo may be preparing to unveil a gaming laptop that uses rollable OLED technology to expand horizontally into an ultrawide 21:9 display, according to a Windows Latest report suggesting the device could appear at CES 2026 in January. The Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable would differ from the company’s existing T … ⌘ Read more

Japan is facing a dementia crisis – can technology help?
Elderly people aged 65 and over now make up nearly 30% of Japan’s population. ⌘ Read more

EU Urged to Soften 2035 Ban on Internal Combustion Engine Cars
Friday six European Union countries “asked the European Commission to water down an effective ban on the sale of internal combustion engine cars slated for 2035,” reports Reuters

The countries have asked the EU Commission to allow the sale of hybrid cars or vehicles powered by other, existing or future, technologies “that could contribute to the goa … ⌘ Read more

Many Privileged Students at US Universities are Getting Extra Time on Tests After ‘Disability’ Diagnoses
Today America’s college professors “struggle to accommodate the many students with an official disability designation,” reports the Atlantic, “which may entitle them to extra time, a distraction-free environment, or the use of otherwise-prohibited technology.”

Their st … ⌘ Read more

The Anxieties of Full-Body MRI Scans (Not Covered by Insurance)
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank calls himself “a highly creative hypochondriac” — who just paid for an expensive MRI scan to locate abnormal spots as tiny as 2 millimeters.

He discusses the pros and cons of its “diffusion-weighted imaging” technology combined with the pattern recognition of AI, which theoretically “has the potential to save … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Has Trained Its LLM To Confess To Bad Behavior
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: OpenAI is testing another new way to expose the complicated processes at work inside large language models. Researchers at the company can make an LLM produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and (most of the time) owns up to any bad behavior. Figuring out why … ⌘ Read more

‘World’s first drone war’: Russia-Ukraine war pits technology against manpower
When it comes to weaponry, Russia has strength in manpower despite Ukraine’s early technological edge while Europe’s arms production efforts are running into infrastructure hurdles. ⌘ Read more

Why One Man Is Fighting For Our Right To Control Our Garage Door Openers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A few years ago, Paul Wieland, a 44-year-old information technology professional living in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, was wrapping up a home renovation when he ran into a hiccup. He wanted to be able to control his new garage door with his smartphone. But the o … ⌘ Read more

AI Chatbots Can Sway Voters Better Than Political Ads
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: New research reveals that AI chatbots can shift voters’ opinions in a single conversation – and they’re surprisingly good at it. A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats … ⌘ Read more

Deep-sea mining tests impact over a third of seabed animals, scientists say
The findings contribute to a controversial debate that pits green technology against the environment. ⌘ Read more

Wider use of facial recognition could see biggest change in policing since DNA, minister says
The Home Office hopes a new public consultation will lead to new laws expanding the use of the technology by more police forces. ⌘ Read more

Wider use of facial recognition could see biggest change in policing since DNA, minister says
The Home Office hopes a new public consultation will lead to new laws expanding the use of the technology by more police forces. ⌘ Read more

Facial recognition could be used more widely by police
The Home Office hopes a new public consultation will lead to new laws expanding the use of the technology by more police forces. ⌘ Read more

After Nearly 30 Years, Crucial Will Stop Selling RAM To Consumers
Micron is shutting down its Crucial consumer RAM business in 2026 after nearly three decades, citing heavy demand from AI data centers. “The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage,” Sumit Sadana, EVP and chief business officer at Micron Technology, said in a statement. “Micron has made the dif … ⌘ Read more

WA’s surrogacy, IVF laws overhauled as legislation passes parliament
Same-sex couples, single people, transgender and intersex West Australians will be able to access assisted reproductive technology and surrogacy, almost a decade after reforms were first promised. ⌘ Read more

Amazon To Use Nvidia Tech In AI Chips, Roll Out New Servers
AWS is deepening its partnership with Nvidia by adopting “NVLink Fusion” in its upcoming Trainium4 AI chips. “The NVLink technology creates speedy connections between different kinds of chips and is one of Nvidia’s crown jewels,” notes Reuters. From the report: Nvidia has been pushing to sign up other chip firms to adopt its NVLink technology, with Intel, Qualco … ⌘ Read more

New satellite images show scale of China’s Philippine Sea flotilla
Private firm Starboard Maritime Intelligence says it has used satellite technology to track down the People’s Liberation Army Navy task group. ⌘ Read more

Colleges Are Preparing To Self-Lobotomize
The skills that future graduates will most need in an age of automation – creative thinking, critical analysis, the capacity to learn new things – are precisely those that a growing body of research suggests may be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process, yet universities across the United States are now racing to embed the technology into every dimension of their curricula.

O … ⌘ Read more

UK ‘Not in Favor’ of Dimming the Sun
The British government said it opposes attempts to cool the planet by spraying millions of tons of dust into the atmosphere – but did not close the door to a debate on regulating the technology. From a report: The comments in parliament Thursday came after a POLITICO investigation revealed an Israeli-U.S. company Stardust Solutions aimed to be capable of deploying solar radiation modification, as the t … ⌘ Read more

Can AI Transform Space Propulsion?
An anonymous reader shared this report from The Conversation:

To make interplanetary travel faster, safer, and more efficient, scientists need breakthroughs in propulsion technology. Artificial intelligence is one type of technology that has begun to provide some of these necessary breakthroughs. We’re a team of engineers and graduate students who are studying how AI in general, and a subset of AI call … ⌘ Read more

Smart cars used as ‘weapons’ by domestic violence abusers
A new eSafety advisory warns Australians about technology-facilitated abuse and provides advice on how to protect themselves from it. ⌘ Read more

AI Can Already Do the Work of 12% of America’s Workforce, Researchers Find
An anonymous reader shared this report from CBS News:

Artificial intelligence can do the work currently performed by nearly 12% of America’s workforce, according to a recentstudy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers, relying on a metric called the “Iceberg Index” that measures a job’s potential to be aut … ⌘ Read more

Black Sesame SoC Support To Be Merged For Linux 6.19
A new SoC vendor and in turn new SoC/platform support is set to premiere in the Linux 6.19 kernel with the initial Black Sesame Technologies C1200 support… ⌘ Read more

Uber Launches Driverless Robotaxi Service in Abu Dhabi, and Plans Many More
“A year after launching a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi, Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide and partner Uber can finally call that service driverless,” reports TechCrunch.
A company official hailed it as “a historic transportation milestone, as the first driverless AV deployment outside of the U.S … ⌘ Read more

Europe Fears It Can’t Catch Up in Great Power Competition
European leaders have spent years warning that the continent risked falling behind the U.S., China and Russia in the global contest for economic, technological and military dominance, and officials now believe they have reached that point.

The mood darkened over the summer when Europe found itself on the sidelines as Washington and Beijing negotiated a reset of glo … ⌘ Read more

Better Technology, Worse Motivation: GenAI’s Mediocrity Trap

While generative AI (GenAI) promises productive efficiency, it can paradoxically lead to lower-quality work. We conducted an experiment with professional illustrators and found that AI assistance flattens the quality curve—it accelerates initial gains but sharply diminishes the returns on sustained effort. Faced with this, a significant number of professionals made a strategic choice: they sacrificed the final quality to save time.

From http://www.jin-li.org/uploads/1/1/4/5/114595093/ai_and_motivation.pdf

I haven’t read this and can’t vouch for it; seems vaguely AI-boostery. Still, the conclusions are interesting. This seems to be the picture that is emerging about generative AI generally: most people don’t like it and find that degrades the quality of work. Coders seem to like it and think that it helps them, but in fact it makes the slower, less productive, and more bug prone.

By all measures it’s a bad technology. We should just be honest about it. There is no need to make excuses for multi-trillion-dollar corporations.

Inquest finds murder of Lilie James ‘was a premeditated killing’
A NSW coroner has urged young people to consider their use of location-sharing technology after the “senseless” murder of Lilie James at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. ⌘ Read more

@prologic@twtxt.net AI is slot machines for coders:

• “Before starting tasks, developers forecast that allowing AI will reduce completion time by 24%. After completing the study, developers estimate that allowing AI reduced completion time by 20%. Surprisingly, we find that allowing AI actually increases completion time by 19%–AI tooling slowed developers down.” https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/
  
• “Stack Overflow data reveals the hidden productivity tax of ‘almost right’ AI code”: https://venturebeat.com/ai/stack-overflow-data-reveals-the-hidden-productivity-tax-of-almost-right-ai-code
  

The same intermittent reward operant conditioning that gets people addicted to gambling and thinking that if they follow certain rituals they’ll win “next time” drives people’s beliefs that AI tools are making them more productive when they’re making them less productive. I’m going to guess that a side effect of this is that people think they’re typing less when in the longer term they’re typing the same amount or more when you factor in the productivity loss (as far as I’ve read the studies don’t measure this so I’m only guessing).

People are also being rapidly de-skilled by this technology: the more they use it, the more their actual skills atrophy. “Continuous exposure to AI might reduce the ADR (adesoma detection rate) of standard non-AI assisted colonoscopy, suggesting a negative effect on endoscopist behaviour.” (science speak for saying that radiologists get worse at seeing tumors in scans once they’ve used AI): https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(25)00133-5/abstract

Nobody who cares about the future should be using this stuff for anything.

https://fokus.cool/2025/11/25/i-dont-care-how-well-your-ai-works.html

AI systems being egregiously resource intensive is not a side effect — it’s the point.

And someone commented on that with:

I’m fascinated by the take about the resource usage being an advantage to the AI bros.

They’ve created software that cannot (practically) be replicated as open source software / free software, because there is no community of people with sufficient hardware / data sets. It will inherently always be a centralized technology.

Fascinating and scary.

Amanda’s husband seemed able to read her mind. Then she learnt why
Amanda’s husband always seemed to just know things. When fiddling around with her social media settings, she discovered how he had been using technology to gaslight her. ⌘ Read more

US Banks Scramble To Assess Data Theft After Hackers Breach Financial Tech Firm
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Several U.S. banking giants and mortgage lenders are reportedly scrambling to assess how much of their customers’ data was stolen during a cyberattack on a New York financial technology company earlier this month. SitusAMC, which provides technology for over a thou … ⌘ Read more