The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Have Multimodel AI Now
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses now feature support for multimodal AI – without the need for a projector or $24 monthly fee. (We’re looking at you, Humane AI.) With the new update, the Meta AI assistant will be able to analyze what you’re seeing, and it’ll give you smart, helpful answers or suggestions. The Verge reports: First off, there are some expectations that ne … ⌘ Read more

HashiCorp Reportedly Being Acquired By IBM
According to the Wall Street Journal, a deal for IBM to acquire HashiCorp could materialize in the next few days. Shares of HashiCorp jumped almost 20% on the news. CNBC reports: Developers use HashiCorp’s software to set up and manage infrastructure in public clouds that companies such as Amazon
and Microsoft operate. Organizations also pay HashiCorp for managing security credentials. Founded … ⌘ Read more

Ex-Amazon Exec Claims She Was Asked To Ignore Copyright Law in Race To AI
A lawsuit is alleging Amazon was so desperate to keep up with the competition in generative AI it was willing to breach its own copyright rules. From a report: The allegation emerges from a complaint accusing the tech and retail mega-corp of demoting, and then dismissing, a former high-flying AI scientist after it discovered she w … ⌘ Read more

Linux Can Finally Run Your Car’s Safety Systems and Driver-Assistance Features
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: There’s a new Linux distro on the scene today, and it’s a bit specialized. Its development was led by the automotive electronics supplier Elektrobit, and it’s the first open source OS that complies with the automotive industry’s functional safety requirements. [… … ⌘ Read more

iPhone Sales Drop 19% in China
Apple’s iPhone sales dropped sharply in China in the first quarter of this year as the company saw strong competition from domestic brand Huawei, according to a new report from market research firm Counterpoint Research. CNBC: Apple saw sales of its iPhones fall 19.1% in the first three months of the year, Counterpoint’s data showed, as Chinese telecommunications and consumer electronics giant Huawei saw a resur … ⌘ Read more

AI Is Poisoning Reddit To Promote Products and Game Google With ‘Parasite SEO’
An anonymous reader shares a report: For years, people who have found Google search frustrating have been adding “Reddit” to the end of their search queries. This practice is so common that Google even acknowledged the phenomenon in a post announcing that it will be scraping Reddit posts to train its AI. And so, naturally, … ⌘ Read more

How GM Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On
General Motors (GM) has been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to insurance companies, leading to higher premiums for some drivers, according to a recent investigation. The affected drivers were not informed about the tracking, which was carried out through GM’s OnStar connected services plan and the Smart Driver program. The New York Time … ⌘ Read more

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments As Demand Falls ‘Sharply Beyond Expectations’
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United … ⌘ Read more

FTC To Vote On Noncompete Ban
The Federal Trade Commission is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on a proposal to ban noncompete agreements, which prevent workers from taking positions at competitors for a period of time after they leave a job. From a report: The ban could be a win for workers – particularly at the low end of the income scale. Critics of these agreements say they stifle innovation and wage growth by restricting workers’ ability to … ⌘ Read more

No One Buys Books Any More
The U.S. publishing industry is driven by celebrity authors and repeat bestsellers, according to testimony from a blocked merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. Only 50 authors sell over 500,000 copies annually, with 96% of books selling under 1,000 copies. Publishing houses spend most of their advance money on celebrity books, which along with backlist titles like The Bible, account for the bulk of th … ⌘ Read more

Fedora Linux 40 Officially Released
prisoninmate writes: Fedora Linux 40 distribution has been officially released – powered by the latest Linux 6.8 kernel series, and featuring the GNOME 46 and KDE Plasma 6 desktop environments, reports 9to5Linux: “Powered by the latest and greatest Linux 6.8 kernel series, the Fedora Linux 40 release ships with the GNOME 46 desktop environment for the flagship Fedora Workstation edition and the KDE Pl … ⌘ Read more

China’s Ageing Tech Workers Hit By ‘Curse of 35’
Chinese tech giant Kuaishou is laying off employees in their mid-30s as part of a company-wide restructuring plan dubbed “Limestone,” FT reported Tuesday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter. The move highlights the pervasive ageism in China’s tech sector, where younger workers are favored for their perceived willingness to work long hours and keep up with the latest techn … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Launches Phi-3 Mini, a 3.8B-Parameter Model Rivaling GPT-3.5 Capabilities
Microsoft has launched Phi-3 Mini, a lightweight AI model with 3.8 billion parameters, as part of its plan to release three small models. Phi-3 Mini, trained on a smaller data set compared to large language models, is available on Azure, Hugging Face, and Ollama. Microsoft claims Phi-3 Mini performs as well as models … ⌘ Read more

Google Fires More Employees Over Protest of Cloud Contract With Israel
Google has fired another 20 workers for participating in protests against its $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with the Israeli government, according to an activist group representing the workers. From a report: In total, the company has now fired around 50 employees over sit-in protests held in Google offices last week that were … ⌘ Read more

Toyota’s Hydrogen Future Is Crumbling As Owners File Lawsuits, Call For Buybacks
Toyota’s Mirai, a hydrogen-powered Fuel Cell EV initially heralded as the future of driving, has faced significant challenges due to inadequate hydrogen fueling infrastructure. As chronicled by InsideEVs, many owners have become disillusioned with the vehicle’s high operational costs, unreliable refueling options, an … ⌘ Read more

NASA Officially Greenlights $3.35 Billion Mission To Saturn’s Moon Titan
NASA last week formally approved a $3.35 billion mission to explore Saturn’s largest moon with a quadcopter drone. “Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s science mission directorate. “Ex … ⌘ Read more

Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Updates To Earth
quonset writes: Just over two weeks ago, NASA figured out why its Voyager 1 spacecraft stopped sending useful data. They suspected corrupted memory in its flight data system (FDS) was the culprit. Today, for the first time since November, Voyager 1 is sending useful data about its health and the status of its onboard systems back to NASA. How did NASA accomplish this feat of long distan … ⌘ Read more

California Is Grappling With a Growing Problem: Too Much Solar
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: In sunny California, solar panels are everywhere. They sit in dry, desert landscapes in the Central Valley and are scattered over rooftops in Los Angeles’s urban center. By last count, the state had nearly 47 gigawatts of solar power installed – enough to power 13.9 million homes and p … ⌘ Read more

Pareto’s Economic Theories Used To Find the Best Mario Kart 8 Racer
Data scientist Antoine Mayerowitz, PhD, applied Vilfredo Pareto’s (the early 20th-century Italian economist) theories to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to determine the best racer combinations. “When you break down the build options (including driver stats and various vehicle details) in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there are over 700,000 possible combination … ⌘ Read more

Apple Acquires Datakalab, a French Startup Behind AI and Computer Vision Tech
According to French business magazine Challenges, Apple has acquired Datakalab – a Paris-based startup specializing in artificial intelligence compression and computer vision technology. 9to5Mac reports: Datakalab described itself as “experts in low power, runtime efficient, and deep learning algorithms” that work on de … ⌘ Read more

Huawei Wants To Take Homegrown HarmonyOS Phone Platform Worldwide
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Huawei plans to expand its native HarmonyOS smartphone platform worldwide, despite coming under US-led sanctions that have deprived it of access to key technologies. “We will work hard to build up the HarmonyOS app ecosystem in the China market first, then, from country to country, we will … ⌘ Read more

Gaming Giant Embracer Group Is Splitting Into Three Companies
Jess Weatherbed reports via The Verge: Swedish gaming conglomerate Embracer Group announced plans on Monday to split itself into three distinct games and entertainment companies: Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. These will be separate, publicly listed companies, according to Embracer, which says the move w … ⌘ Read more

EU Opens Probe of TikTok Lite, Citing Concerns About Addictive Design
The European Union has opened a second formal investigation into TikTok under its Digital Services Act (DSA), an online governance and content moderation framework. The investigation centers around TikTok Lite’s “Task and Reward” feature that may harm mental health, especially among minors, by promoting addictive behavior. TechCrunch rep … ⌘ Read more

Home Assistant Has a New Foundation, Goal To Become a Consumer Brand
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Home Assistant, until recently, has been a wide-ranging and hard-to-define project. The open smart home platform is an open source OS you can run anywhere that aims to connect all your devices together. But it’s also bespoke Raspberry Pi hardware, in Yellow and Green. It’s entirely fre … ⌘ Read more

Europe Baked in ‘Extreme Heat Stress’ Pushing Temperatures To Record Highs
Scorching weather has baked Europe in more days of “extreme heat stress” than its scientists have ever seen. The Guardian: Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU’s Earth-watching service Copernicus a … ⌘ Read more

Study: Alphabetical Order of Surnames May Affect Grading
AmiMoJo writes: Knowing your ABCs is essential to academic success, but having a last name starting with A, B or C might also help make the grade. An analysis by University of Michigan researchers of more than 30 million grading records from U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades. This is due to sequential grading biases … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Ends California Drone Deliveries
Amazon confirmed it is ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The Central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site, after College Station, Texas. Operations were announced in June 2022. From a report: The retail giant is not offering details around the setback, only noting, “We’ll offer all current employees opportunities at other s … ⌘ Read more

Meta Opens Quest OS To Third Parties, Including ASUS and Lenovo
In a huge move for the mixed reality industry, Meta announced today that it’s opening the Quest’s operating system to third-party companies, allowing them to build headsets of their own. From a report: Think of it like moving the Quest’s ecosystem from an Apple model, where one company builds both the hardware and software, to more of a hardware fre … ⌘ Read more

Chinese Flying Taxi Sector Claims Global Lead Thanks To Regulatory Support
A Shanghai flying taxi company says that China’s “low altitude” industry is edging ahead of western rivals, thanks to more supportive regulators, technological breakthroughs and cut-throat competition in the Chinese logistics sector. From a report: The total market created by electric vertical take-off and landing, or eVTOL, a … ⌘ Read more

Europol Becomes Latest Law Enforcement Group To Plead With Big Tech To Ditch E2EE
Yet another international cop shop has come out swinging against end-to-end encryption - this time it’s Europol which is urging an end to implementation of the tech for fear police investigations will be hampered by protected DMs. The Register: In a joint declaration of European police chiefs published over the wee … ⌘ Read more

Apple Reportedly Stops Production of FineWoven Accessories
Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories, according to reliable Apple leaker and prototype collector known as “Kosutami.” From a report: In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kosutami explained that Apple has stopped production of FineWoven accessories due to its poor durability. The company may move to another non-leather material for its premium … ⌘ Read more

Biden Marks Earth Day by Announcing $7 Billion in Solar Power Grants
President Joe Biden travels to Triangle, Virginia, Monday to mark Earth Day, where he’ll unveil $7 billion in grant funding for solar power under the Inflation Reduction Act and announce new steps to stand up his administration’s American Climate Corps – a program popular with youth climate groups. From a report: The announcements come da … ⌘ Read more

AI Needs So Much Electricity That Tech Companies Are Getting Into Energy Business
An anonymous reader shares a report: To accommodate tech companies’ pivots to artificial intelligence, tech companies are increasingly investing in ways to power AI’s immense electricity needs. Most recently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman invested in Exowatt, a company using solar power to feed data centers, accordin … ⌘ Read more

Russian Court Sentences Meta Spokesperson To Six Years in Absentia, Calls Meta ‘Extremist Organisation’
A military court in Moscow on Monday sentenced Meta spokesperson Andy Stone to six years in prison for “publicly defending terrorism,” a verdict handed down in absentia, RIA news agency reported. Reuters: Meta itself is designated an extremist organisation in Russia and its … ⌘ Read more

Marketing Cancer Drugs To Physicians Increases Prescribing Without Improving Mortality
Abstract of a paper on National Bureau of Economic Research: Physicians commonly receive marketing-related transfers from drug firms. We examine the impact of these relationships on the prescribing of physician-administered cancer drugs in Medicare. We find that prescribing of the associated drug inc … ⌘ Read more

North Koreans Secretly Animated Amazon and Max Shows, Researchers Say
North Korean animators have been secretly working on major international TV shows, including an Amazon superhero series and an upcoming HBO Max children’s anime, according to a report by cybersecurity researchers. The findings, detailed in a report by the Stimson Center think tank’s 38 North Project and Google-owned security firm Mandiant, … ⌘ Read more

How CP/M Launched the Next 50 Years of Operating Systems
50 years ago this week, PC software pioneer Gary Kildall “demonstrated CP/M, the first commercially successful personal computer operating system in Pacific Grove, California,” according to a blog post from Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum. It tells the story of “how his company, Digital Research Inc., established CP/M as an industry standard and its subs … ⌘ Read more

What Happened After Amazon Electrified Its Delivery Fleet?
Bloomberg looks at America’s biggest operator of private electrical vehicle charging infrastructure: Amazon. “In a little more than two years, Amazon has installed more than 17,000 chargers at about 120 warehouses around the U.S.” — and had Rivian build 13,500 custom electric delivery vans.

Amazon has a long way to go. The Seattle-based company says its … ⌘ Read more

Ex-White House Cyber Policy Director: Microsoft is a National Security Risk
This week the Register spoke to former senior White House cyber policy director A.J. Grotto — who complained it was hard to get even slight concessions from Microsoft:
“If you go back to the SolarWinds episode from a few years ago … [Microsoft] was essentially up-selling logging capability to federal agencies” instead of ma … ⌘ Read more

Startup is Building the World’s Largest Ocean-Based Carbon Plant - and It’s Scalable
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNN:
On a slice of the ocean front in west Singapore, a startup is building a plant to turn carbon dioxide from air and seawater into the same material as seashells, in a process that will also produce “green” hydrogen — a much-hyped clean fuel.

The cluster of low-s … ⌘ Read more

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Just Sent Its Last Message Home
Two months ago the team behind NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter released a video reflecting on its historic explorations of Mars, flying 10.5 miles (17.0 kilometers) in 72 different flights over three years. It was the team’s way of saying goodbye, according to NASA’s video.

And this week, LiveScience reports, Ingenuity answered back:

On April 16, Inge … ⌘ Read more

GPT-4 Can Exploit Real Vulnerabilities By Reading Security Advisories
Long-time Slashdot reader tippen shared this report from the Register:

AI agents, which combine large language models with automation software, can successfully exploit real world security vulnerabilities by reading security advisories, academics have claimed.

In a newly released paper, four University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC … ⌘ Read more

Is Rivos Building an RISC-V AI Chip?
Remember when Apple filed a lawsuit against chip startup Rivos (saying that in one year Rivos hired more than 40 former Apple employees to work on competing system-on-a-chip technology)? Apple settled that suit in February.

And now Tuesday Rivos announced that it raised $250 million, according to Reuters, “in a funding round that will enable it to manufacture its first server chip geared for artif … ⌘ Read more

Lying to Investors? Co-Founder of Startup ‘HeadSpin’ Gets 18-Month Prison Sentence for Fraud
The co-founder of Silicon Valley-based software testing startup HeadSpin was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison and a $1 million fine, reports SFGate — for defrauding investors.

Lachwani pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and a count of securities fraud in April 2023, after federal … ⌘ Read more

Should Automakers Feel Threatened by China’s Exports of Electric Cars?
The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S.-China rivalry “has a new flashpoint in the battle for technology supremacy: electric cars.”

“So far, the U.S. is losing.”

Last year, China became the world’s foremost auto exporter, according to the China Passenger Car Assn., surpassing Japan with more than 5 million sales overseas. New energ … ⌘ Read more

LXQt 2.0 Released: Lightweight Desktop is Almost Wayland Compatible
This week saw the release of the LXQt 2.0 desktop environment, reports 9to5Linux. And besides bringing Qt 6 support (and a new default application menu), it also brings support for the Wayland display protocol to more components:

The LXQt development is confident that the next major release, LXQt 2.1, will be fully Wayland compatible. The co … ⌘ Read more

How a Renewable Energy-Powered Bitcoin Startup Helps Electrify Rural Africa
CNBC visited a small group of bitcoin miners who “set up shop at the site of an extinct volcano” near Kenya’s Hell’s Gate National Park.

Their mine “consists of a single 500-kilowatt mobile container that, from the outside, looks like a small residential trailer.” But what’s more interesting is it’s operated by a startup ca … ⌘ Read more

EU: Meta Cannot Rely On ‘Pay Or Okay’
The EU’s European Data Protection Board oversees its privacy-protecting GDPR policies.

Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported that nearly two dozen civil society groups and nonprofits wrote the Board an open letter “urging it not to endorse a strategy used by Meta that they say is intended to bypass the EU’s privacy protections for commercial gain.”

Meta’s strategy is sometimes called “Pay or Okay,” w … ⌘ Read more

Ziplines Drones Complete Their 1 Millionth Delivery, Flying Over 70 Million Miles
San Francisco-based drone-delivery service Zipline “said Friday that it hit its 1 millionth delivery to customers,” reports CNBC, “and that it’s eyeing restaurant partnerships in its next phase of growth.”

Zipline’s clients already include more than 4,700 hospitals, according to the article, as well as major brand … ⌘ Read more

Some Astronomers Will Re-Examine a 102-Year-Old Theory About the Universe’s Expansion
Several “high-profile astronomers” will meet at London’s Royal Society (the UK’s national academy of sciences), “to question some of the most fundamental aspects of our understanding of the universe.reports Futurism:

As The Guardian reports, the luminaries of cosmology will be re-examining some basic a … ⌘ Read more