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

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Following the arrest of its CEO Pavel Durov last month, the encrypted messaging service said it has disabled some “outdated” and “misused” features used by anonymous users.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.

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

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:

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

Ukraine Turning To AI To Prioritize 700 Years of Landmine Removal
MattSparkes shares a report from NewScientist: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen so many landmines deployed across the country that clearing them would take 700 years, say researchers. To make the task more manageable, Ukrainian scientists are turning to artificial intelligence to identify which regions are a priority for de-mining, thou … ⌘ Read more

An AI-Generated Candidate Wants to Run For Mayor in Wyoming
An anonymous reader shared this report from Futurism:

An AI chatbot named VIC, or Virtually Integrated Citizen, is trying to make it onto the ballot in this year’s mayoral election for Wyoming’s capital city of Cheyenne.
But as reported by Wired, Wyoming’s secretary of state is battling against VIC’s legitimacy as a candidate — and now, an investigati … ⌘ Read more

Chemical Makers Sue Over Rule To Rid Water of ‘Forever Chemicals’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Chemical and manufacturing groups sued the federal government late Monday (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source) over a landmark drinking-water standard that would require cleanup of so-called forever chemicals linked to cancer and other health risks. The industry groups said th … ⌘ Read more

Apple Brings ChatGPT To Its Apps, Including Siri
Apple is bringing ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot experience, to Siri and other first-party apps and capabilities across its operating systems. From a report: “We’re excited to partner with Apple to bring ChatGPT to their users in a new way,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. “Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with O … ⌘ Read more

Nvidia Takes 88% of the GPU Market Share
As reported by Jon Peddie Research, Nvidia now holds 88% of the GPU market after its market share jumped 8% in its most recent quarter. “This jump shaves 7% off of AMD’s share, putting it down to 19% total,” reports XDA Developers. “And if you’re wondering where that extra 1% went, it came from all of Intel’s market share, squashing it down to 0%.” From the report: Dr. Jon Peddie, president of … ⌘ Read more

Elon Musk Says AI Could Eliminate Our Need to Work at Jobs
In the future, “Probably none of us will have a job,” Elon Musk said Thursday, speaking remotely to the VivaTech 2024 conference in Paris. Instead, jobs will be optional — something we’d do like a hobby — “But otherwise, AI and the robots will provide any goods and services that you want.”
CNN reports that Musk added this would require “universal high income” — a … ⌘ Read more

Google Search’s ‘udm=14’ Trick Lets You Kill AI Search For Good
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: If you’re tired of Google’s AI Overview extracting all value from the web while also telling people to eat glue or run with scissors, you can turn it off – sort of. Google has been telling people its AI box at the top of search results is the future, and you can’t turn it off, but that ignores how … ⌘ Read more

Amazon Defends Its Use of Signal Messages in Court
America’s Federal Trade Commission and 17 states filed an antitrust suit against Amazon in September. This week Amazon responded in court about its usage of Signal’s “disappearing messages” feature.

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp shares GeekWire’s report:

At a company known for putting its most important ideas and strategies into comprehensive six-page memos, quick messa … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI’s Sam Altman Wants AI in the Hands of the People - and Universal Basic Compute?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave an hour-long interview to the “All-In” podcast (hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and David Friedberg).

And when asked about this summer’s launch of the next version of ChatGPT, Altman said they hoped to “be thoughtful about how we do it, like we may releas … ⌘ Read more

Google Cloud Accidentally Deletes UniSuper’s Online Account Due To ‘Unprecedented Misconfiguration’
A “one-of-a-kind” Google Cloud “misconfiguration” resulted in the deletion of UniSuper’s account last week, disrupting the financial services provider’s than half a million members. “Services began being restored for UniSuper customers on Thursday, more than a week after the sy … ⌘ Read more