Bluesky Says It Won’t Train AI On Your Posts
Bluesky, the social network surging in popularity, says it has “no intention” of training AI tools on users content. “The social network made the announcement on the same day that X (formerly Twitter) is implementing its new terms of service that allow the platform to use public posts to train AI,” notes TechCrunch. From the report: “A number of artists and creators have made their home … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI and Others Seek New Path To Smarter AI as Current Methods Hit Limitations
AI companies like OpenAI are seeking to overcome unexpected delays and challenges in the pursuit of ever-large language models by developing training techniques that use more human-like ways for algorithms to “think.” From a report: A dozenAI scientists, researchers and investors told Reuters they believe that these … ⌘ Read more

Generative AI Doesn’t Have a Coherent Understanding of the World, MIT Researchers Find
Long-time Slashdot reader Geoffrey.landis writes: Despite its impressive output, a recent study from MIT suggests generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world. While the best-performing large language models have surprising capabilities that make it seem like the models are implicitly learn … ⌘ Read more

Jack Dorsey’s Block Scraps ‘Web5’ Project
Block will abandon development of its Web5 decentralized internet project and reduce investment in music streaming service Tidal to focus on bitcoin mining hardware and self-custody wallets, the payments company announced in its third-quarter letter to shareholders. The Jack Dorsey-led firm cited strong market demand for its bitcoin mining products and Bitkey wallet as key drivers behind the st … ⌘ Read more

Trump Wins US Presidency For Second Time
Major media outlets are beginning to declare former President Trump the winner of the 2024 presidential election. As with previous election announcements on Slashdot, this is your chance to talk about it and what it means for the future of our nation.

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](http://twitter.com/home?status=Trump+Wins+US+Presidency+For+Second+Time% … ⌘ Read more

Kremlin Says It Hopes $20.6 Decillion Fine Got Google’s Attention
An enormous fine levied by a Russian court on Google caught the attention of the Kremlin – which hopes Google will notice in turn. From a report: President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, commented on the sum on Thursday. It came after a court demanded payment equivalent of $20.6 decillion – an almost incomprehensible figure that exce … ⌘ Read more

AI Slop Is Flooding Medium
AI slop is flowing onto every major platform where people post online – and Medium is no exception. Wired: The 12-year-old publishing platform has undertaken a dizzying number of pivots over the years. It’s finally on a financial upswing, having turned a monthly profit for the first time this summer. Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine and other executives at the company have described the platform as “a home for human writing.” But … ⌘ Read more

The Fediverse Is Getting Its Own TikTok Competitor Called Loops
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Similar to how Mastodon offers an open source, distributed version of X, the fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor. This week, an app called Loops began accepting signups on its new platform for sharing short, looping videos. Still in the early stages, Loops is not yet open sourced, nor … ⌘ Read more

Encrypted Chat App ‘Session’ Leaves Australia After Visit From Police
Session, a small but increasingly popular encrypted messaging app, is moving its operations outside of Australia after the country’s federal law enforcement agency visited an employee’s residence and asked them questions about the app and a particular user. 404 Media reports: Now Session will be maintained by an entity in Switzerland. The mo … ⌘ Read more

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Rebrands As ‘World,’ Unveils Next Generation Orb
The blockchain-based identity verification company founded by Sam Altman is now called “World.” It also unveiled a new version of the “Orb” biometric devices the company uses to scan users’ eyes. CoinTelegraph reports: World, as it’s now known, also revealed a slew of other updates including a new version of its Orb biometric scanning device … ⌘ Read more

Trump Says Tim Cook Called Him To Complain About the EU
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Donald Trump said Apple CEO Tim Cook called him to discuss the billions of dollars that Apple has been fined in the European Union. Trump made the statement during his appearance on the PBD Podcast – and said that he won’t let the EU “take advantage” of US companies like Apple if reelected. “Two hours ago, thre … ⌘ Read more

Bluesky Is Now Courting Threads Users
Bluesky, the decentralized social network cofounded by Jack Dorsey, created a Threads account to court users frustrated by Meta’s moderation issues. Thurrott reports: This week, the Bluesky team also used Threads to share some tips on how to get started on Bluesky, how to get more engagement, and more. The company also emphasized its decentralized structure and more extensive customization options, … ⌘ Read more

Did Apple Just Kill Social Apps?
Apple’s iOS 18 update has introduced changes to contact sharing that could significantly impact social app developers. The new feature allows users to selectively share contacts with apps, rather than granting access to their entire address book. While Apple touts this as a privacy enhancement, developers warn it may hinder the growth of new social platforms. Nikita Bier, a start-up founder, called it “the en … ⌘ Read more

Epic Games Sues Google and Samsung Over App Store Restrictions
Epic Games filed a new antitrust lawsuit against Google and Samsung, alleging they conspired to undermine third-party app stores. The suit focuses on Samsung’s “Auto Blocker” feature, now enabled by default on new phones, which restricts app installations to “authorized sources” - primarily Google and Samsung’s stores.

Epic claims Auto Blocker creat … ⌘ Read more

Are AI Coding Assistants Really Saving Developers Time?
Uplevel provides insights from coding and collaboration data, according to a recent report from CIO magazine — and recently they measured “the time to merge code into a repository [and] the number of pull requests merged” for about 800 developers over a three-month period (comparing the statistics to the previous three months).

Their study “found no signific … ⌘ Read more

HP Is Adding AI To Its Printers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld, written by Michael Crider: The latest perpetrator of questionable AI branding? HP. The company is introducing “Print AI,” what it calls the “industry’s first intelligent print experience for home, office, and large format printing.” What does that mean? It’s essentially a new beta software driver package for some HP printers. According to the press release, … ⌘ Read more

Tor Project Merges With Tails
The Tor Project: Today the Tor Project, a global non-profit developing tools for online privacy and anonymity, and Tails, a portable operating system that uses Tor to protect users from digital surveillance, have joined forces and merged operations. Incorporating Tails into the Tor Project’s structure allows for easier collaboration, better sustainability, reduced overhead, and expanded training and outreach program … ⌘ Read more

Critical Unauthenticated RCE Flaw Impacts All GNU/Linux Systems
“Looks like there’s a storm brewing, and it’s not good news,” writes ancient Slashdot reader jd. “Whether or not the bugs are classically security defects or not, this is extremely bad PR for the Linux and Open Source community. It’s not clear from the article whether this affects other Open Source projects, such as FreeBSD.” From a report: A critical … ⌘ Read more

Apple A16 SoC Now Manufactured In Arizona
“Apple has begun manufacturing its A16 SoC at the newly-opened TSCM Fab 21 in Arizona,” writes Slashdot reader NoMoreACs. AppleInsider reports: According to sources of Tim Culpan, Phase 1 of TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona is making the A16 SoC of the iPhone 14 Pro in “small, but significant, numbers. The production is largely a test for the facility at this stage, but more production is expected … ⌘ Read more

LinkedIn Is Training AI on User Data Before Updating Its Terms of Service
An anonymous reader shares a report: LinkedIn is using its users’ data for improving the social network’s generative AI products, but has not yet updated its terms of service to reflect this data processing, according to posts from various LinkedIn users and a statement from the company to 404 Media. Instead, the company says it … ⌘ Read more

Ford Seeks Patent For Tech That Listens To Driver Conversations To Serve Ads
Ford is seeking a patent for technology that would allow it to tailor in-car advertising by listening to conversations among vehicle occupants, as well as by analyzing a car’s historical location and other data, according to a patent application published late last month. The Record: “In one example, the controller may moni … ⌘ Read more

Telegram Disables ‘Misused’ Features As CEO Faces Criminal Charges
Following the arrest of its CEO Pavel Durov last month, the encrypted messaging service said it has disabled some “outdated” and “misused” features used by anonymous users. The Verge reports: The first changes to the app following his arrest in France last month affect its built-in blog posts and a “People Nearby” location-based feature. […] … ⌘ Read more

PwC ‘Tipping the Balance’ of Hybrid Working and Will Start Tracking Its Workers’ Locations
PwC has demanded staff spend less time working from home – and it’s going to start tracking their location to ensure they comply. From a report: The accountancy firm informed its 26,000 U.K. employees in a memo that from January they’ll be expected to be at their desks – or with clients – at leas … ⌘ Read more

Bluesky Adds 2 Million New Users After Brazil’s X Ban
In the days following Brazil’s shutdown of X, the decentralized social networking startup Bluesky added over 2 million new users, up from just half a million as of Friday. “This rapid growth led some users to encounter the occasional error that would state there were ‘Not Enough Resources’ to handle requests, as Bluesky engineers scrambled to keep the servers stable un … ⌘ Read more

Google’s James Manyika: ‘The Productivity Gains From AI Are Not Guaranteed’
Google executive James Manyika has warned that AI’s impact on productivity is not guaranteed [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled], despite predictions of trillion-dollar economic potential. From the report: “Right now, everyone from my old colleagues at McKinsey Global Institute to Goldman Sachs are putting out these extra … ⌘ Read more

Apple Stands By Decision To Terminate Account Belonging To WWDC Student Winner
TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reports: Apple is standing by its decision to terminate the Apple Developer Account of Appstun, a mobile app company created by one of Apple’s own Worldwide Developer Conference 2021 student winners. According to an announcement published on Appstun’s website, Apple moved to terminate the devel … ⌘ Read more

Far-Right ‘Terrorgram’ Chatrooms Are Fueling a Wave of Power Grid Attacks
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: People in a quiet neighborhood in Carthage, a town in Moore County, North Carolina, heard a series of six loud pops a few minutes before 8:00 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2022. A resident named Michael Campbell said he ducked at the sound. Another witness told police they thought they were he … ⌘ Read more

Samsung TVs Will Get 7 Years of Free Tizen OS Upgrades
Samsung Electronics said it will provide Tizen OS updates for its newer TVs for at least seven years, starting with models released in March this year and some 2023 models. Business Korea reports: [Yoon Seok-woo, President of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business Division] emphasized that the seven-year free upgrade for Tizen applied to AI TVs would … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Copilot Studio Exploit Leaks Sensitive Cloud Data
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Dark Reading: Researchers have exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Copilot Studio tool allowing them to make external HTTP requests that can access sensitive information regarding internal services within a cloud environment – with potential impact across multiple tenants. Tenable researchers discovered the ser … ⌘ Read more

China Is Backing Off Coal Power Plant Approvals
Approvals for new coal-fired power plants in China dropped by 80% in the first half of this year compared to last, according to an analysis from Greenpeace and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. The Associated Press reports: A review of project documents by Greenpeace East Asia found that 14 new coal plants were approved from January to June with a total capacity of 10 … ⌘ Read more

VPN Apps Vanish from Brazilian App Store
Dozens of VPN apps have vanished from Brazil’s Apple App Store, including popular services NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark. Simone Magliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN, reports that at least 30 VPN apps have become unavailable, though their store listings remained visible. Proton VPN, a major free VPN provider, confirmed the App Store issues, speculating it could be “a bug, or Apple impleme … ⌘ Read more

New Research Reveals AI Lacks Independent Learning, Poses No Existential Threat
ZipNada writes: New research reveals that large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT cannot learn independently or acquire new skills without explicit instructions, making them predictable and controllable. The study dispels fears of these models developing complex reasoning abilities, emphasizing that while LLMs can genera … ⌘ Read more

Jobhunters Flood Recruiters With AI-Generated CVs
About half of all job seekers are using AI tools to apply for roles, inundating employers and recruiters with low-quality applications in an already squeezed labour market. From a report: Candidates are turning increasingly to generative AI – the type used in chatbot products such as ChatGPT and Gemini to produce conversational passages of text – to assist them in writing th … ⌘ Read more

Agile is Killing Software Innovation, Says Moxie Marlinspike
There’s a rot at the heart of modern software development that’s destroying innovation, and infosec legend Moxie Marlinspike believes he knows exactly what’s to blame: Agile development. Marlinspike argued that Agile methodologies, widely adopted over the past two decades, have confined developers to “black box abstraction layers” that limit creativ … ⌘ Read more

ICANN Reserves .Internal For Private Use at the DNS Level
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has agreed to reserve the .internal top-level domain so it can become the equivalent to using the 10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0 and 192.168.0.0 IPv4 address blocks for internal networks. From a report: Those blocks are reserved for private use by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which … ⌘ Read more

Monday Was Hottest Recorded Day on Earth: ‘Uncharted Territory’
World temperature reached the hottest levels ever measured on Monday, beating the record that was set just one day before, data suggests. From a report: Provisional data published on Wednesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which holds data that stretches back to 1940, shows that the global surface air temperature reached 62.87F (17.15C), co … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Latest Model Closes the ‘Ignore All Previous Instructions’ Loophole
Kylie Robison reports via The Verge: Have you seen the memes online where someone tells a bot to “ignore all previous instructions” and proceeds to break it in the funniest ways possible? The way it works goes something like this: Imagine we at The Verge created an AI bot with explicit instructions to direct you to our excellent re … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Outage Hits Users Worldwide, Leading To Canceled Flights
Microsoft grappled with a major service outage, leaving users across the world unable to access its cloud computing platforms and causing airlines to cancel flights. From a report: Thousands of users across the world reported problems with Microsoft 365 apps and services to Downdetector.com, a website that tracks service disruptions. “We’re inve … ⌘ Read more

AI Stocks Balloon Even As Earnings Lag, Jefferies Warns
An anonymous reader shares a report: A Jefferies basket of 27 large-cap AI stocks has surged 127% in value since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, adding about $10 trillion in market cap. However, 2025 earnings forecasts for these companies have increased only 25% over the same period, Jefferies warned in a note to clients.

This disconnect has pushed the incremental price … ⌘ Read more

Whataburger App Becomes Unlikely Power Outage Map After Houston Hurricane
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Fast-food chain Whataburger’s app has gone viral in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, which left around 1.8 million utility customers in Houston, Texas without power. Hundreds of thousands of those people may remain without power for days as Houston anticipates a heat wave, wit … ⌘ Read more

FTC Study Finds ‘Dark Patterns’ Used By a Majority of Subscription Apps and Websites
The U.S. FTC, along with two other international consumer protection networks, announced on Thursday the results of a study into the use of “dark patterns” – or manipulative design techniques – that can put users’ privacy at risk or push them to buy products or services or take other actions they otherwise … ⌘ Read more

‘Girls In Tech’ Closes Its Doors After 17 Years
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: The Girls in Tech nonprofit women’s tech community is closing its doors after 17 years, according to a newsletter from founder Adriana Gascoigne. Gascoigne said the decision was made with “sadness and devastation” and was not made lightly. “It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Girls in Tech will be closing its doo … ⌘ Read more

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over GitHub Copilot AI Coding Assistant
A US District Court judge in San Francisco has largely dismissed a class-action lawsuit against GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI, which challenged the legality of using code samples to train GitHub Copilot. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs failed to establish a claim for restitution or unjust enrichment but allowed the claim for breach of open-sourc … ⌘ Read more

US Nuke Agency Buys Internet Backbone Data
A U.S. government agency tasked with supporting the nation’s nuclear deterrence capability has bought access to a data tool that claims to cover more than 90 percent of the world’s internet traffic, and can in some cases let users trace activity through virtual private networks, according to documents obtained by 404 Media. From the report: The documents provide more insight into the use c … ⌘ Read more

Speed Limiters Now Mandatory In All New EU Cars
An anonymous reader shares a report: Cars have been able to figure out when they’re speeding for a while, thanks to GPS as well as traffic sign recognition, and they’ve also been able to pump the brakes automatically when needed. Having a computer automatically slow down a car in response to posted speed limits, therefore, was not really a question of technical feasibility for so … ⌘ Read more

Google Maps Tests New Pop-up Ads That Give Users an Unnecessary Detour
An anonymous reader writes: Google Maps is testing a new ad format that could cause distractions while driving. It brings up a pop-up notification during navigation that covers the bottom half of the screen with an unnecessary detour suggestion.

Anthony Higman on X (formerly Twitter) recently spotted the new ad format during their co … ⌘ Read more

‘How Good Is ChatGPT at Coding, Really?’
IEEE Spectrum (the IEEE’s official publication) asks the question. “How does an AI code generator compare to a human programmer?”

A study published in the June issue of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering evaluated the code produced by OpenAI’s ChatGPT in terms of functionality, complexity and security. The results show that ChatGPT has an extremely broad range of success when it come … ⌘ Read more

Researchers Upend AI Status Quo By Eliminating Matrix Multiplication In LLMs
Researchers from UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, LuxiTech, and Soochow University have developed a new method to run AI language models more efficiently by eliminating matrix multiplication, potentially reducing the environmental impact and operational costs of AI systems. Ars Technica’s Benj Edwards reports: Matrix multi … ⌘ Read more

Windows 11 is Now Automatically Enabling OneDrive Folder Backup Without Asking Permission
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has made OneDrive slightly more annoying for Windows 11 users. Quietly and without any announcement, the company changed Windows 11’s initial setup so that it could turn on the automatic folder backup without asking for it. Now, those setting up a new W … ⌘ Read more

Multiple AI Companies Ignore Robots.Txt Files, Scrape Web Content, Says Licensing Firm
Multiple AI companies are ignoring Robots.txt files meant to block the scraping of web content for generative AI systems, reports Reuters — citing a warning sent to publisher by content licensing startup TollBit.

TollBit, an early-stage startup, is positioning itself as a matchmaker between content-hungry … ⌘ Read more