"More than 800,000 drivers for ride-hailing companies in California will soon be able to join a union," reports the Associated Press, "and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits under a measure signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom." Supporters said the new law will open a path for the largest expansion of private sector collective bargaining rights in the state's history. The legislation is a significant compromise in the yearslong... Read more ›
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ScienceAlert writes that some of the tiny nanoplastic fragments present in soil "can make their way into the edible parts of vegetables, research has found." A team of scientists from the University of Plymouth in the UK placed radishes into a hydroponic (water-based) system containing polystyrene nanoparticles. After five days, almost 5% of the nanoplastics had made their way into the radish roots. A quarter of those were in the... Read more ›
36
"It's not just you. The internet is getting worse, fast," writes Cory Doctorow. Sunday he shared an excerpt from his upcoming book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. He succinctly explains "this moment we're living through, this Great Enshittening" using Amazon as an example. Platforms amass users, but then abuse them to make things better for their business customers. And then they abuse those... Read more ›
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Friday OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced two changes coming "soon" to Sora: First, we will give rightsholders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls... Second, we are going to have to somehow make money for video generation. People are generating much more than we expected per user, and a lot of videos are being generated for very small audiences.... Read more ›
2
There's an 85-second ad (starring a humanoid robot) that argues "Technology promised to save us time. Instead it stole our focus. Opera Neon gives you both back." Or, as BleepingComputer describes it, Opera Neon "is a new browser that puts AI in control of your tabs and browsing activities, but it'll cost $19.90 per month." It'll do tasks for you, open websites for you, manage tabs for you, and listen... Read more ›
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The Washington Post notes AI's "increasingly outsize role" in propping up America's economic fortunes. "Last week, the United States reported that the economy expanded at a rate of 1.6 percent in the first half of the year, with most of that growth driven by AI spending. Without AI investment, growth would have been at about a third of that rate, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis." The... Read more ›
8
The book Life 3.0 remembers a 2017 conversation where Alphabet CEO Larry Page "made a 'passionate' argument for the idea that 'digital life is the natural and desirable next step' in 'cosmic evolution'," remembers an essay in the Wall Street Journal. "Restraining the rise of digital minds would be wrong, Page contended. Leave them off the leash and let the best minds win..." "As it turns out, Larry Page isn't... Read more ›
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Currently DNA synthesis companies "deploy biosecurity software designed to guard against nefarious activity," reports the Washington Post, "by flagging proteins of concern — for example, known toxins or components of pathogens." But Microsoft researchers discovered "up to 100 percent" of AI-generated ricin-like proteins evaded detection — and worked with a group of leading industry scientists and biosecurity experts to design a patch. Microsoft's chief science officer called it "a Windows... Read more ›
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"When someone searches for 'James Bond' on Prime Video now, all of the classic films will show up..." notes Parade. But recently Amazon's streaming service had tried new thumbnails with "matching minimalist backgrounds," so every Bond actor — from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig — "had a stylish image with '007' emblazoned over a color background." But in most of those "stylized" images, James Bond's guns were edited out. It... Read more ›
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If you upload an image to serve as the inspiration for a Sora video, "the app will reject your image if it detects a face — any face," writes Mashable." (Unless that person has agreed to participate.) All Sora videos also include a watermark, notes PC Magazine, and Sora banned the creation of AI-generated videos showing public figures. "But it turns out the policy doesn't apply to dead celebrities..." Unlike... Read more ›
24
Toyota sold just 61 BZ models in September, reports Electrek. "Including the Lexus RZ, which managed 86 sales, Toyota sold just 147 all-electric vehicles in the US last month, over 90% less than the 1,847 it sold in September 2024." Toyota's total sales were up 14% with over 185,700 vehicles sold, meaning EVs accounted for less than 0.1%... So, why is Toyota struggling to sell EVs when the market is... Read more ›
12
"Microsoft buys a lot of GPUs from both Nvidia and AMD," writes the Register. "But moving forward, Redmond's leaders want to shift the majority of its AI workloads from GPUs to its own homegrown accelerators..." Driving the transition is a focus on performance per dollar, which for a hyperscale cloud provider is arguably the only metric that really matters. Speaking during a fireside chat moderated by CNBC on Wednesday, Microsoft... Read more ›
0
The Greater Manchester Police force has 12,677 employees. But they've now suspended work-from-home privileges, reports the BBC, "following an investigation into so-called 'key-jamming', which can allow people to falsely appear to be working. "Twenty-six police officers, staff and contractors are facing misconduct proceedings following the probe, the force said." One constable told a hearing that a police detective working from home had made it look like his computer was in... Read more ›
31
From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today (EDT), the Free Software Foundation celebrates its 40th anniversary with an online and in-person event. "We will broadcast the talks and workshops via a fully free software livestream on fsf.org/live," according to the FSF's official "FSF40 Celebration" page. "Everyone will be able to join the discussion via the #fsf40 IRC channel on Libera.Chat." "4 decades, 4 freedoms, 4 all users" is the event's... Read more ›
0
An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post: Women tend to live longer than men. There are traditional explanations: Men smoke more. They drink more. They tend to engage in riskier behavior. But the fact that this lifespan gap holds true regardless of country or century indicates something deeper is also at play. A growing body of evidence suggests that women's relative longevity may derive, in part, from... Read more ›
24
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: CBS News has a TL;DR video report, but Jeremy Stern's earlier epic Class Dismissed [at Collosus.com] offers a deep dive into Alpha School, "the teacherless, homeworkless, K-12 private school in Austin, Texas, where students have been testing in the top 0.1% nationally by self-directing coursework with AI tutoring apps for two hours a day. Alpha students are incentivized to complete coursework to "mastery-level" (i.e., scoring... Read more ›
18
The food delivery robots that arrived in Atlanta in June "are not our friends," argues a headline at CNN. The four-wheeled Serve Robotics machines "get confused at crosswalks. They move with the speed and caution of a first-time driver, stilted and shy, until they suddenly speed up without warning. Their four wheels look like they were made for off-roading, but they still get stuck in the cracks of craggy sidewalks.... Read more ›
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"A small number of researchers are making real progress trying to create computers out of living cells," reports the BBC: Among those leading the way are a group of scientists in Switzerland, who I went to meet. One day, they hope we could see data centres full of "living" servers which replicate aspects of how artificial intelligence (AI) learns — and could use a fraction of the energy of current... Read more ›
3
Amazon will be adding facial recognition to its camera-equipped Ring doorbells for the first time in December, according to the Washington Post. "While the feature will be optional for Ring device owners, privacy advocates say it's unfair that wherever the technology is in use, anyone within sight will have their faces scanned to determine who's a friend or stranger." The Ring feature is "invasive for anyone who walks within range... Read more ›
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BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Signal has introduced the Sparse Post Quantum Ratchet (SPQR), a new upgrade to its encryption protocol that mixes quantum safe cryptography into its existing Double Ratchet. The result, which Signal calls the Triple Ratchet, makes it much harder for even future quantum computers to break private chats. The change happens silently in the background, meaning users do not need to do anything, but once... Read more ›
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19.05.2026 07:21
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