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msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 13:00 EDT

China's Biotech Advances Threaten US Dominance, Warns Congressional Report

China is moving fast to dominate biotechnology, and the U.S. risks falling behind permanently unless it takes action over the next three years, a congressional commission said. WSJ: Congress should invest at least $15 billion to support biotech research over the next five years and take other steps to bolster manufacturing in the U.S., while barring companies from working with Chinese biotech suppliers, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 12:00 EDT

Shopify CEO Says Staffers Need To Prove Jobs Can't Be Done By AI Before Asking for More Headcount

Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke is changing his company's approach to hiring in the age of AI. Employees will be expected to prove why they "cannot get what they want done using AI" before asking for more headcount and resources, Lutke wrote in a memo to staffers that he posted to X. From a report: "What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team?"... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 11:04 EDT

Micron To Impose Tariff-Related Surcharge on SSDs, Other Products

Micron has informed US customers it will implement surcharges on memory modules and solid-state drives starting Wednesday to offset President Trump's new tariffs, according to Reuters. While semiconductors received exemptions in Trump's recent trade action, memory storage products didn't escape the new duties. Micron, which manufactures primarily in Asian countries including China and Taiwan, had previously signaled during a March earnings call that tariff costs would be passed to customers.... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 10:00 EDT

Meta Got Caught Gaming AI Benchmarks

Meta released two new Llama 4 models over the weekend -- Scout and Maverick -- with claims that Maverick outperforms GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 Flash on benchmarks. Maverick quickly secured the number-two spot on LMArena, behind only Gemini 2.5 Pro. Researchers have since discovered that Meta used an "experimental chat version" of Maverick for LMArena testing that was "optimized for conversationality" rather than the publicly available version. In response, LMArena... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 07:16 EDT

India's 'Frankenstein' Laptop Economy Thrives Against Planned Obsolescence

In Delhi's Nehru Place and Mumbai's Lamington Road, technicians are creating functional laptops from salvaged parts of multiple discarded devices. These "Frankenstein" machines sell for approximately $110 USD -- a fraction of the $800 price tag for new models. Technicians extract usable components -- motherboards, capacitors, screens, and batteries -- from e-waste sourced locally and from countries like Dubai and China. "Most people don't care about having the latest model;... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 05:00 EDT

Bluesky Can't Take a Joke

On Bluesky, the joke's on you if you don't get the joke. The social network has become a "refuge" for those fleeing X and Threads, but its growing pains include a serious case of humor-impairment. When Amy Brown jokingly posted she was "screaming, crying, and throwing up" about price differences between Ohio and California Walgreens, literal-minded users scolded her for exaggerating. Brown, a former Wendy's social media manager who got... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 02:00 EDT

US's AI Lead Over China Rapidly Shrinking, Stanford Report Says

The U.S. is still the global leader in state-of-the-art AI, but China has closed the gap considerably, according to a new report from Stanford. Axios: Institutions based in the U.S. produced 40 AI models of note in 2024, compared with 15 from China and three from Europe, according to the eighth edition of Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Index, released on Monday. However, the report found that Chinese models have rapidly caught... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/08/2025 00:00 EDT

No, the Dire Wolf Has Not Been Brought Back From Extinction

Colossal Biosciences has claimed it "successfully restored" the extinct dire wolf after a "10,000+ year absence," but scientists clarify these are actually genetically modified grey wolves. The U.S. company announced three pups -- males Remus and Romulus born in October, and female Khaleesi born in January -- as dire wolves, but made only 20 genetic edits to grey wolves. Beth Shapiro of Colossal told New Scientist that just 15 modifications... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 22:00 EDT

States Are Banning Forever Chemicals. Industry Is Fighting Back

New Mexico's legislature passed bills last week that would ban consumer products containing PFAS, joining a small but growing number of states taking action against these persistent "forever chemicals." If signed by the governor, the legislation would prohibit the sale of many products with added per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in New Mexico, making it the third state after Maine and Minnesota to enact such comprehensive restrictions. At least... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 21:10 EDT

Framework Stops Selling Some of Its Laptops in the US Due To Tariffs

Framework -- a company that makes upgradeable and repairable laptops -- will pause sales on several versions of one of its models in America thanks to Trump's tariffs, it said. From a report: "Due to the new tariffs that came into effect on April 5th, we're temporarily pausing US sales on a few base Framework Laptop 13 systems (Ultra 5 125H and Ryzen 5 7640U). For now, these models will... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 17:00 EDT

China Launches GPMI, a Powerful Alternative To HDMI and DisplayPort

AmiMoJo writes: The Shenzhen 8K UHD Video Industry Cooperation Alliance, a group made up of more than 50 Chinese companies, just released a new wired media communication standard called the General Purpose Media Interface or GPMI. This standard was developed to support 8K and reduce the number of cables required to stream data and power from one device to another. According to HKEPC, the GPMI cable comes in two flavors... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 16:00 EDT

Waymo May Use Interior Camera Data To Train Generative AI Models, Sell Ads

An anonymous reader shares a report: Waymo is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including video from interior cameras tied to rider identities, to train generative AI models, according to an unreleased version of its privacy policy found by researcher Jane Manchun Wong. The draft language reveals Waymo may also share this data to personalize ads, raising fresh questions about how much of a rider's behavior inside autonomous vehicles... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 15:00 EDT

UK Bans Fake Reviews and 'Sneaky' Fees For Online Products

The United Kingdom has banned "outrageous fake reviews and sneaky hidden fees" to make life easier for online shoppers. From a report: New measures under the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumer Act 2024 came into force on Sunday that require online platforms to transparently include all mandatory fees within a product's advertised price, including booking or admin charges. The law targets so-called "dripped pricing," in which additional fees -- like... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 14:00 EDT

Scientists Debate Actual Weight of the Internet

The internet's physical mass remains contested among scientists, with estimates ranging from a strawberry to something almost unimaginably small. In 2006, Harvard physicist Russell Seitz calculated the internet weighed roughly 50 grams based on server energy, a figure that would now equate to potato-weight given internet growth. Christopher White, president of NEC Laboratories America, has dismissed this calculation as "just wrong." White suggests a more accurate method that accounts for... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 13:00 EDT

Apple Rushes Shipments From India To Dodge Tariffs

Apple rushed five planeloads of iPhones from India to the U.S. in just three days to beat new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, Times of India reported Monday, citing sources. The urgent shipments during the final week of March aimed to avoid the 10% reciprocal tariff that took effect on April 5. The stockpiling will allow Apple to maintain current pricing temporarily. "The reserves that arrived at lower duty... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 12:00 EDT

Trump Opens Trade Talks Window While Threatening China With Steeper Tariffs

President Donald Trump signaled a potential diplomatic opening amid his aggressive tariff strategy on Monday, threatening China with an additional 50% tariff while simultaneously offering other nations a path to negotiate lower trade barriers. The ultimatum to Beijing demands China withdraw a 34% increase by April 8, 2025, or face supplementary tariffs effective April 9, which would push total levies on Chinese goods to 104% or higher. Trump has already... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 10:44 EDT

UK Effort To Keep Apple Encryption Fight Secret Is Blocked

A court has blocked a British government attempt to keep secret a legal case over its demand to access Apple user data. From a report: The UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a special court that handles cases related to government surveillance, said the authorities' efforts were a "fundamental interference with the principle of open justice" in a ruling issued on Monday. The development comes after it emerged in January that the... Read more ›

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Slashdot
msmash @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 10:01 EDT

Microsoft AI Chief Sees Advantage in Building Models '3 or 6 Months Behind'

Microsoft's AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says the company has deliberately chosen to build AI models "three or six months behind" cutting-edge developments, citing cost savings and more focused implementation. "It's cheaper to give a specific answer once you've waited for the first three or six months for the frontier to go first. We call that off-frontier," Suleyman told CNBC. "That's actually our strategy, is to really play a very tight... Read more ›

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Slashdot
EditorDavid @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 07:34 EDT

America's NIH Scientists Have a Cancer Breakthrough. Layoffs are Delaying It.

Scientists "demonstrated a promising step toward using a person's own immune cells to fight gastrointestinal cancers" at America's National Institutes of Health (or NIH), reports the Washington Post. But the results were published in Nature Medicine on Tuesday — "the same day the agency was hit with devastating layoffs..." The treatment approach is still early in its development; the personalized immunotherapy regimen shrank tumors in only about a quarter of... Read more ›

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Slashdot
EditorDavid @ Slashdot · 04/07/2025 03:34 EDT

Can Using a Dumber Phone Cure 'Brain Rot'?

Brain rot — the inability to think deeply after too much scrolling on a phone — afflicts "plenty of people," writes the New York Times' lead consumer technology writer. [Alternate URL here.] He's suffering from it too — "These days, it's tough to even finish a book." But is the answer just avoiding distractions with a stripped-down $600 phone "that barely does anything"? For a week he tested the Light... Read more ›

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