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A small city in Kansas switched was forced to switch its water treatment facility to manual operations after a suspected cyberattack was discovered on September 22. The precautionary measure was taken "to ensure plant operations remained secure," the city said. It reassured residents that the drinking water is safe and the water supply remains unaffected. SecurityWeek.com reports: Arkansas City says it has notified the relevant authorities of the incident and that they are working with cybersecurity experts to address the issue and return the facility's operations to normal. "Enhanced security measures are currently in place to protect the water supply, and no changes to water quality or service are expected for residents," the city said. While the city's notification does not share further details on the incident, it appears that the water treatment plant might have fallen victim to a ransomware attack. Switching to manual operations suggests that systems were shut down to contain the attack, which is the typical response to incidents involving ransomware.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Hollywood Reporter: In a major coup for the artificial intelligence company, Stability AI says that Avatar, Terminator and Titanic director James Cameron will join its board of directors. Stability AI is the firm that developed the Stable Diffusion text-to-image generative AI model, an image- and video-focused model that is among those being closely watched by many in Hollywood, particularly in the visual effects industry. In fact, Stability AI's CEO, Prem Akkaraju, is no stranger to the business, having previously served as the CEO of visual effects firm WETA Digital. Sean Parker, the former president of Facebook and founder of Napster, also recently joined the AI firm as executive chairman. As a director, Cameron has long been eager to push the boundaries of what is technologically possible in filmmaking (anyone who has seen the Terminator franchise knows that he is also familiar with the pitfalls of technology run amok). He was among the earliest directors to embrace the potential of computer-generated visual effects, and he continued to use his films (most recently Avatar: The Way of Water) to move the entire field forward. "I've spent my career seeking out emerging technologies that push the very boundaries of what's possible, all in the service of telling incredible stories," Cameron said in a statement. "I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I've stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave. The convergence of these two totally different engines of creation will unlock new ways for artists to tell stories in ways we could have never imagined. Stability AI is poised to lead this transformation. I'm delighted to collaborate with Sean, Prem, and the Stability AI team as they shape the future of all visual media."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tony Isaac shares a report from NPR: After a decade of explosive growth, body cameras are now standard-issue for most American police as they interact with the public. The vast majority of those millions of hours of video are never watched -- it's just not humanly possible. For academics who study the everyday actions of police, the videos are an ocean of untapped data. Some are now using 'large language model' AI's -- think ChatGPT -- to digest that information and produce new insights. [...] The research found the encounters were more likely to escalate when officers started the stop by giving orders, rather than reasons for the interaction. While academics are using AI from anonymized videos to understand larger processes, some police departments have started using it to help supervise individual officers -- and even rate their performance. An AI system mentioned in the report, called TRULEO, assesses police officers' behavior through automated transcriptions of body camera footage. It'll evaluate both positive and negative conduct during interactions, such as traffic stops, and provide feedback to officers. In addition to flagging issues like swearing or abusive language, the AI can also recognize instances of professionalism.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, must serve 24 months in prison and forfeit $11 billion. "I've seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years. I've never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison," said Judge Lewis Kaplan during the sentencing hearing today. The Verge reports: Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and five conspiracy counts in December 2022 as part of a cooperation agreement with the government. Prosecutors had recommended a lenient sentence because of Ellison's "extraordinary" and "very timely" cooperation. Her own lawyers asked for no jail time, as did the federal Probation Department. Ellison was the key witness at the trial of FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried, where she testified for three days. A statement submitted by the prosecution before Ellison's sentencing said the speed at which she came clean made it possible to indict her ex-boyfriend Bankman-Fried quickly, "ensuring that he did not flee the Bahamas or further obstruct the government's investigation." The document also noted that Ellison was completely and immediately forthcoming in her meetings with the government. Ellison was also prompt in assisting John J. Ray, the new CEO charged with cleaning up the FTX mess, in locating and recovering customer assets, according to a statement written by Ray submitted by the defense. Her "early cooperation" was "valuable" in recovering debtors' assets, he wrote. Ellison is working on a deal where she will turn over "substantially all of her remaining assets after satisfying her forfeiture obligations" to the FTX debtors.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required makers of web browsers and mobile operating systems to let consumers send opt-out preference signals that could limit businesses' use of personal information. The bill approved by the State Legislature last month would have required an opt-out signal "that communicates the consumer's choice to opt out of the sale and sharing of the consumer's personal information or to limit the use of the consumer's sensitive personal information." It would have made it illegal for a business to offer a web browser or mobile operating system without a setting that lets consumers "send an opt-out preference signal to businesses with which the consumer interacts." In a veto message (PDF) sent to the Legislature Friday, Newsom said he would not sign the bill. Newsom wrote that he shares the "desire to enhance consumer privacy," noting that he previously signed a bill "requir[ing] the California Privacy Protection Agency to establish an accessible deletion mechanism allowing consumers to request that data brokers delete all of their personal information." But Newsom said he is opposed to the new bill's mandate on operating systems. "I am concerned, however, about placing a mandate on operating system (OS) developers at this time," the governor wrote. "No major mobile OS incorporates an option for an opt-out signal. By contrast, most Internet browsers either include such an option or, if users choose, they can download a plug-in with the same functionality. To ensure the ongoing usability of mobile devices, it's best if design questions are first addressed by developers, rather than by regulators. For this reason, I cannot sign this bill." Vetoes can be overridden with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. The bill was approved 59-12 in the Assembly and 31-7 in the Senate. But the State Legislature hasn't overridden a veto in decades. "It's troubling the power that companies such as Google appear to have over the governor's office," said Justin Kloczko, tech and privacy advocate for Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit group in California. "What the governor didn't mention is that Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Microsoft Edge don't offer a global opt-out and they make up for nearly 90 percent of the browser market share. That's what matters. And people don't want to install plug-ins. Safari, which is the default browsers on iPhones, doesn't even accept a plug-in."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI is rolling out its advanced voice interface for ChatGPT to all Plus and Team subscribers in the U.S., the company said Tuesday. The feature, unveiled four months ago, lets users speak to the AI chatbot instead of typing. Five new voices join the lineup, expanding user options. OpenAI claims improved accent recognition and smoother conversations since initial testing. VentureBeat adds: OpenAI's foray into adding voices into ChatGPT has been controversial at the onset. In its May event announcing GPT-4o and the voice mode, people noticed similarities of one of the voices, Sky, to that of the actress Scarlett Johanssen. It didn't help that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted the word "her" on social media, a reference to the movie where Johansson voiced an AI assistant. The controversy sparked concerns around AI developers mimicking voices of well-known individuals.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

wiredmikey writes: CrowdStrike says it has revamped several testing, validation, and update rollout processes to prevent a repeat of the embarrassing July outage that caused widespread disruption on Windows systems around the world. In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, CrowdStrike vice president Adam Meyers outlined a new set of protocols that include carefully controlled rollouts of software updates, better validation of code inputs, and new testing procedures to cover a broader array of problematic scenarios.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Steep online discounts aren't as sweet as they used to be. From a report: The average discount offered by online retailers in the US is down to 36% so far this year, data from Centric Market Intelligence shows. That's down two percentage points from last year, and down from an average of 42% in 2019 -- a 14% drop in real terms. Finding a bargain is getting tougher for a variety of reasons, according to retail experts who spoke with Sherwood. Sellers are having to pay more for raw materials, and they're shelling out more in customer-acquisition costs to get you to order from them. Fulfilling online orders is also generally more expensive than selling items in person. All these add up to increased costs that make it harder to offer discounts.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

GPS spoofing attacks are increasingly disrupting commercial flights worldwide, with over 1,100 daily incidents reported in August, up from dozens in February. The false signals, primarily originating from Russia, Ukraine, and Israel, confuse cockpit navigation systems, triggering false alarms and misdirecting flight paths, WSJ reports. Pilots report clocks resetting, erroneous warnings, and navigation errors lasting minutes to entire flights. While no major safety incidents have occurred, aviation officials warn that managing these disruptions could overburden crews during emergencies. Airlines, manufacturers, and regulators are scrambling for solutions, but new equipment standards to combat spoofing won't be ready until next year at the earliest. In the meantime, pilots receive briefings on identifying and responding to potential attacks, sometimes instructed to ignore safety system warnings.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services firm has an illegal monopoly over debit network markets and has attempted to unlawfully crush competitors, including fintech companies like PayPal and Square. From a report: The lawsuit follows a multiyear investigation of Visa which the company disclosed in 2021. "We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa's unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing -- but the price of nearly everything." Visa makes more than $7 billion a year in payment processing fees alone, and more than 60 percent of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa's network, the complaint claims. The government alleges that Visa's market dominance is partly due to the "web of exclusionary agreements" it imposes on businesses and banks. Visa has also attempted to "smother" competitors -- including smaller debit networks and newer fintech companies -- the complaint alleges. Visa executives allegedly feel particularly threatened by Apple, which the company has described as an "existential threat," the DOJ claims.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fourteen of the world's biggest banks and financial institutions are pledging to increase their support for nuclear energy [non-paywalled link], a move that governments and the industry hope will unlock finance for a new wave of nuclear power plants. FT: At an event on Monday in New York with White House climate policy adviser John Podesta, institutions including Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will say they support a goal first set out at the COP28 climate negotiations last year to triple the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050. They will not spell out exactly what they would do, but nuclear experts said the public show of support was a long-awaited recognition that the sector had a critical role to play in the transition to low-carbon energy. The difficulty and high cost of financing nuclear projects has been an obstacle to new plants and contributed to a significant slowdown in western countries since a wave of reactors was built in the 1970s and 1980s.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

silverjacket writes: A feature for The New Yorker describes a plan to use robots to mine lunar materials and build a radio telescope on the far side of the moon that will help answer questions about the early universe. An excerpt from the story: he dream of a lunar telescope dates to the nineteen-sixties. The moon has the advantage of being hundreds of thousands of miles away from earthly electronics; on the far side of the moon, in particular, there's virtually no noise from human technology or the Earth's magnetosphere. After the Apollo landings, however, interest in the moon waned. Jack Burns, an astrophysicist who is now at the University of Colorado Boulder, has been advocating for a moon-based telescope since 1984. "I never, never would have guessed that it would take this long," he told me. "I just won't accept no for an answer." Today, Burns is the chief scientist of FarView, as well as the primary investigator of a sort of mini-FarView: FARSIDE, which would have one or two hundred antennas instead of a hundred thousand. If FarView is built, it would be able to detect some of the oldest light in existence. The universe began 13.8 billion years ago as a dense, fast-expanding soup of matter and energy; around three hundred and eighty thousand years later, it had cooled enough for hydrogen atoms to hold together. After that came the Cosmic Dark Ages: millions of years without stars or galaxies, a period we know very little about. But hydrogen occasionally releases light with a wavelength of twenty-one centimetres -- radio waves. Some of that light is still around. Because twenty-one-centimetre radiation is stretched by the steady expansion of the universe -- it's now tens to hundreds of metres long -- scientists can figure out how old it is, and how far away. (The longer the wavelength, the older the light and the more distant its source.) This means that if scientists can build a radio telescope on the moon, they will be able to create a three-dimensional picture of the early universe.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The Pacific country of Kiribati might be surrounded by water, but on land its population is running dry. The ocean around them is steadily encroaching, contaminating underground wells and leeching salt into the soil. "Our waters have been infected," climate activist and law student Christine Tekanene says. "Those who are affected, they now can't survive with the water that changed after sea level rise." The freshwater crisis is just one of the many threats driven by rising seas in Kiribati. Its people live on a series of atolls, peaking barely a couple of metres above a sprawling tract of the Pacific Ocean. As global temperatures rise and ice sheets melt, Kiribati -- and other low-lying nations like it -- are experiencing extreme and regular flooding, frequent coastal erosion and persistent food and water insecurity. This week the United Nations general assembly will hold a high-level meeting to address the existential threats posed by sea level rise as the issue climbs the international agenda; last year the UN security council debated it for the first time. Wednesday's meeting aims to build political consensus on action to address the widespread social, economic and legal consequences of rising seas. Samoa's UN representative, Fatumanava Dr Pa'olelei Luteru, says the upcoming UN meeting is long overdue and "extremely important" for island nations. "Economically, militarily, we're not powerful," says Luteru, who also serves as the current chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). "At least within the context of the UN and the multilateral system we have the possibility and the opportunity to engage and achieve some of the things that are a priority for us."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The alleged Iranian hack of Donald Trump's orbit continued at least until mid-September and may be ongoing, a document the hackers shared with a progressive publication reveals. Iranian authorities have denied any involvement in the efforts to leak internal documents from Trump's campaign, which have reportedly been sent to major US publications including Politico and The New York Times, and to the Biden campaign. But the campaign and outside analysts have blamed the hack on the Iranians, who have ample reasons for hostility to the former president and also allegedly plotted his assassination. The publisher of the newsletter Popular Information, Judd Legum, writes this morning that a source under the name "Robert" shared a set of documents with him. Those included a research dossier on JD Vance matching other publications' descriptions of the hacked material. But the leak also included a legal letter to The New York Times complaining about an article that raised questions about the validity of Trump's image as a successful businessman.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

WordPress hosting service WP Engine on Monday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic after the latter's CEO Matt Mullenweg called WP Engine a "cancer to WordPress" last week. From a report: The notice asks Automattic and Mullenweg to retract their comments and stop making statements against the company. WP Engine, which (like Automattic itself) commercializes the open-source WordPress project, also accused Mullenweg of threatening WP Engine before the WordCamp summit held last week. "Automattic's CEO Matthew Mullenweg threatened that if WP Engine did not agree to pay Automattic -- his for-profit entity -- a very large sum of money before his September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, he was going to embark on a self-described 'scorched earth nuclear approach' toward WP Engine within the WordPress community and beyond, the letter read. "When his outrageous financial demands were not met, Mr. Mullenweg carried out his threats by making repeated false claims disparaging WP Engine to its employees, its customers, and the world," the letter added.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google is getting ready to show off updated Street View imagery in nearly 80 countries. The Verge: In a now-removed blog post seen by The Verge, Google announced that the new images are coming to countries like Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Japan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Serbia, South Africa, and more. Google is also bringing Street View to a handful of countries where it's never been available, including Bosnia, Namibia, Lichtenstein, and Paraguay. The company said its more portable Street View camera, which launched in 2022, will help offer images of "even more places in the future." Google Maps and Google Earth are getting sharper satellite imagery as well, thanks to the company's cloud-removal AI tool that takes out clouds, shadows, haze, and mist. This should result in "brighter, more vibrant" images, according to Google.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Speaking of California, its governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law a a bill that requires schools to limit or ban the use of smartphones, amid a growing consensus that excess usage can increase the risk of mental illness and impair learning. From a report: Thirteen other states this year have banned or restricted cellphones in school or recommended local educators do so, after Florida led the way by banning phones in class in 2023, according to Education Week. California, with nearly 5.9 million public school students, has followed the lead of its own Los Angeles County, whose school board banned smartphones for its 429,000 students in June. That same month U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a warning label on social media platforms, akin to those on cigarette packages, likening the problem to a mental health emergency. Murthy cited a study in the medical journal JAMA showing adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media may be at heightened risk of mental illness, while referring to a Gallup poll showing the average teen spends 4.8 hours per day on social media. California's bill, which passed 76-0 in the state assembly and 38-1 in the senate, requires school boards or other governing bodies to develop a policy to limit or prohibit student use of smartphones on campus by July 1, 2026, and update the policy every five years.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Paper or paper? In California, shoppers will have only one bag option at the checkout line starting in 2026. A decade ago, California became the first U.S. state to ban single-use plastic bags, the flimsy sacks that regularly blew into waterways, littered streets and collected in landfills. The prohibition, in the nation's most populous state, was considered a turning point in the effort to reduce plastic waste. But the move backfired in a way that few supporters expected. Californians in 2021 actually tossed nearly 50 percent more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed in 2014, according to data from CalRecycle, California's recycling agency. A loophole in the initial ban allowed retailers to provide thick-walled plastic bags and charge 10 cents a piece for them. Though technically reusable and recyclable, the heavier-duty sacks still ended up in many trash cans after a shopping trip. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Sunday banning the sale at grocery checkouts of all plastic bags (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), regardless of thickness. The only option for customers who lack their own reusable shopping bags will be buying paper bags for 10 cents each. "We deserve a cleaner future for our communities, our children and our earth," said Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democratic assemblywoman and co-author of the bill, in a statement. "It's time for us to get rid of these plastic bags and continue to move forward with a more pollution-free environment." Plastic bags are typically used for 12 minutes before being discarded, according to the California Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy group. But those bags live in oceans and landfills for hundreds of years, and can contaminate drinking water and food in the form of microplastics. SB 1053 will go into effect on January 1st, 2026. It also changes the definition of a "recycled paper bag," requiring all bags with that label to be made of at least 50% post-consumer recycled materials starting January 1st, 2028.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

schwit1 shares a report SpaceNews with the caption: "Failures aren't failures if you learn from them." From the report: Chinese commercial rocket firm Deep Blue Aerospace conducted a first-stage rocket hop test Sunday, experiencing a partial failure during the final moments of landing. Deep Blue Aerospace carried out the test at 1:40 a.m. Eastern (0540 UTC) Sept. 22 at the firm's Ejin Banner Spaceport in Inner Mongolia using a Nebula-1 rocket first stage. Footage of the vertical liftoff, vertical landing test shows the rocket ascending to a predetermined altitude before shutting off two of the three engines used for the 179-second flight. Landing legs deployed as planned, and the stage hovered above its planned landing spot. However an anomaly during the final engine shutdown phase led to a higher-than-expected landing altitude, leading to partial damage. You can watch the landing attempt and explosion here.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A startup called Amogy has successfully converted a 67-year-old diesel tugboat to run on clean ammonia, marking a significant milestone in the transition to zero-emissions propulsion in the maritime industry. The Associated Press reports: Amogy's system uses ammonia to make hydrogen for a fuel cell, making the tug an electric-powered ship. The International Maritime Organization set a target for international shipping to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by, or close to, 2050. Shipping needs to cut emissions rapidly and there are no solutions widely available today to fully decarbonize deep-sea shipping, according to the Global Maritime Forum, a nonprofit that works closely with the industry. There is a lot of interest in ammonia as an alternative fuel because the molecule doesn't contain carbon, said Jesse Fahnestock, who leads the forum's decarbonization work. Ammonia is widely used for fertilizer, so there is already infrastructure in place for handling and transporting it. Ton for ton, it can hold more energy than hydrogen, and it can be stored and distributed more easily. The tugboat ran on green ammonia produced by renewable electricity. A 2,000-gallon tank fits in the old fuel tank space, for a 10-to 12-hour day at sea. It splits liquid ammonia into its constituents, hydrogen and nitrogen, then funnels the hydrogen into a fuel cell that generates electricity for the vessel without carbon emissions. The process does not burn ammonia like a combustion engine would, so it primarily produces nitrogen in its elemental form and water as emissions. The company says there are trace amounts of nitrogen oxides that it's working to completely eliminate. Amogy first used ammonia to power a drone in 2021, then a tractor in 2022, a semi-truck in 2023, and now the tugboat to prove the technology. Woo said their system is designed to be used on vessels as small as the tugboat and as large as container ships, and could also make electricity on shore to replace diesel generators for data centers, mining and construction, or other heavy industries. The company has raised about $220 million. Amazon, an enterprise with immense needs for shipping, is among the investors. Nick Ellis, principal of Amazon's $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund, said the company is excited and impressed by what Amogy is doing. By investing, Amazon can show ship owners and builders it wants its goods delivered with zero emissions, he added.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil on Monday alleging the company carried out a "decades-long campaign of deception" in which the oil and gas giant misled the public on the merits of plastic recycling. The complaint accuses the company of using slick marketing and misleading public statements for half a century to claim recycling was an effective way to deal with plastic pollution, according to a press release from Bonta's office published Monday. It alleges the company continues to perpetuate the "myth" of recycling today. The case, filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court, seeks to compel ExxonMobil "to end its deceptive practices that threaten the environment and the public," the statement said. Bonta is also asking the court to rule ExxonMobil must pay civil penalties, among other payments, for the harm inflicted by plastic pollution in California. "Plastics are everywhere, from the deepest parts of our oceans, the highest peaks on earth, and even in our bodies, causing irreversible damage -- in ways known and unknown -- to our environment and potentially our health," Bonta said. "For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn't possible. ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health," he said. [...] Lawsuits against oil and gas companies for their role in climate change and air pollution are becoming more common, but Monday's is the first in the country to take on a fossil fuel company for its messaging around plastic recycling. The statement said that ExxonMobil "falsely promoted all plastic as recyclable, when in fact the vast majority of plastic products are not and likely cannot be recycled, either technically or economically." The lawsuit also alleges Exxon "continues to deceive the public by touting "advanced recycling" as the solution to the plastic waste and pollution crisis." Advanced -- or chemical -- recycling is a technology promoted by many oil companies, but which has been plagued by missed targets, closed or shelved plants and reports of fires and spills. [...] At the heart of the suit is the allegation ExxonMobil's messaging caused consumers to buy and use more single-use plastic than they otherwise would have. In response to the lawsuit, ExxonMobil pointed the finger back at California, which it said has an ineffective recycling system that officials have known about for decades: "They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills." ExxonMobil contends chemical recycling does work. "We're bringing real solutions, recycling plastic waste that couldn't be recycled by traditional methods," the company said in a statement. A copy of the Attorney General's complaint can be found here (PDF).Read more of this story at Slashdot.

rPlus Energies has broken ground on a $1 billion solar + battery storage project in east-central Utah. Electrek reports: The Green River Energy Center in Emery County, Utah, is a 400-megawatt (MW) solar and 400 MW/1,600-megawatt-hour battery storage project that will supply power to western electric utility PacifiCorp under a power purchase agreement. EliTe Solar is supplying solar panels, and Tesla is providing battery storage. Sundt Construction is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the project. Securing over $1 billion in construction debt financing in July, the Green River project is expected to create around 500 jobs. Salt Lake City-based rPlus Energies gives the target completion date as 2026.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In a rare blog post today, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman laid out his vision of the AI-powered future, which he refers to as "The Intelligence Age." Among the most notable claims, Altman said superintelligence might be achieved in "a few thousand days." VentureBeat reports: Specifically, Altman argues that "deep learning works," and can generalize across a range of domains and difficult problem sets based on its training data, allowing people to "solve hard problems," including "fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all physics." As he puts it: "That's really it; humanity discovered an algorithm that could really, truly learn any distribution of data (or really, the underlying "rules" that produce any distribution of data). To a shocking degree of precision, the more compute and data available, the better it gets at helping people solve hard problems. I find that no matter how much time I spend thinking about this, I can never really internalize how consequential it is." In a provocative statement that many AI industry participants and close observers have already seized upon in discussions on X, Altman also said that superintelligence -- AI that is "vastly smarter than humans," according to previous OpenAI statements -- may be achieved in "a few thousand days." "This may turn out to be the most consequential fact about all of history so far. It is possible that we will have superintelligence in a few thousand days (!); it may take longer, but I'm confident we'll get there." A thousand days is roughly 2.7 years, a time that is much sooner than the five years most experts give out.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Steam has broken its record for the most PC players online, with 38,366,479 concurrent gamers. As IGN notes, that figure is a million more than the previous record, set last month. From the report: So, what helped propel Steam to new heights over the weekend? All the usual suspects were in the top 10 most-played games on Valve's platform, including Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Banana (yes, Banana has yet to split), and PUBG, with this year's Black Myth: Wukong, Satisfactory 1.0, Space Marine 2, and Valve's own Deadlock putting in work. Last week saw PlayStation exclusives God of War Ragnarok and Final Fantasy 16 both launch on Steam for the first time, which will have provided a modest boost, too. The popularity of Steam is gradually increasing as Valve's vice-like grip on the PC market tightens ever further. Competitors such as the Epic Games Store and CD Projekt's GOG occupy a relatively small piece of the PC gaming pie, with Steam continuing to enjoy record-breaking success even amid perceived downturns in the video game industry. The release of Steam Deck is yet another platform on which Steam operates.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: With the perennial tensions between proprietary and open source software (OSS) unlikely to end anytime soon, a $3 billion startup is throwing its weight behind a new licensing paradigm -- one that's designed to bridge the open and proprietary worlds, replete with new definition, terminology, and governance model. Developer software company Sentry recently introduced a new license category dubbed "fair source." Sentry is an initial adopter, as are some half dozen others, including GitButler, a developer tooling company from one of GitHub's founders. The fair source concept is designed to help companies align themselves with the "open" software development sphere, without encroaching into existing licensing landscapes, be that open source, open core, or source-available, and while avoiding any negative associations that exist with "proprietary." However, fair source is also a response to the growing sense that open source isn't working out commercially. "Open source isn't a business model -- open source is a distribution model, it's a software development model, primarily," Chad Whitacre, Sentry's head of open source, told TechCrunch. "And in fact, it places severe limits on what business models are available, because of the licensing terms." Sure, there are hugely successful open source projects, but they are generally components of larger proprietary products. Businesses that have flown the open source flag have mostly retreated to protect their hard work, moving either from fully permissive to a more restrictive "copyleft" license, as the likes of Element did last year and Grafana before it, or ditched open source altogether as HashiCorp did with Terraform. "Most of the world's software is still closed source," Whitacre added. "Kubernetes is open source, but Google Search is closed. React is open source, but Facebook Newsfeed is closed. With fair source, we're carving a space for companies to safely share not just these lower-level infrastructure components, but share access to their core product." Further reading: As Companies Try 'Open Source Rug Pull', Open Source Foundations Considered HelpfulRead more of this story at Slashdot.

Ars Technica's Dan Goodin reports: Five years ago, researchers made a grim discovery -- a legitimate Android app in the Google Play market that was surreptitiously made malicious by a library the developers used to earn advertising revenue. With that, the app was infected with code that caused 100 million infected devices to connect to attacker-controlled servers and download secret payloads. Now, history is repeating itself. Researchers from the same Moscow, Russia-based security firm reported Monday that they found two new apps, downloaded from Play 11 million times, that were infected with the same malware family. The researchers, from Kaspersky, believe a malicious software developer kit for integrating advertising capabilities is once again responsible. [...] The researchers found Necro in two Google Play apps. One was Wuta Camera, an app with 10 million downloads to date. Wuta Camera versions 6.3.2.148 through 6.3.6.148 contained the malicious SDK that infects apps. The app has since been updated to remove the malicious component. A separate app with roughly 1 million downloads -- known as Max Browser -- was also infected. That app is no longer available in Google Play. The researchers also found Necro infecting a variety of Android apps available in alternative marketplaces. Those apps typically billed themselves as modified versions of legitimate apps such as Spotify, Minecraft, WhatsApp, Stumble Guys, Car Parking Multiplayer, and Melon Sandbox. People who are concerned they may be infected by Necro should check their devices for the presence of indicators of compromise listed at the end of this writeup.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon, Meta, and Tesla were named by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) as some of the worst corporate underminers of democracy . These companies were accused of union busting, monopolizing media and technology, violating human rights, contributing to climate change, and fostering political movements that threaten democratic institutions. The full list of "corporate underminers of democracy for 2024" is Amazon, Blackstone Group, ExxonMobil, Glencore, Meta, Tesla and the Vanguard Group. The Register reports: The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) today published a list of seven companies it said were "emblematic" of the ways large international corporations have begun tossing their weight around to influence global affairs. Those businesses, ITUC noted, violate trade union and alleged human rights, monopolize media and technology, exacerbate the climate catastrophe and try to privatize public services in a way that "protects and expands [their] own profits by undermining democracy." "These companies deploy complex lobbying operations to undermine popular will and disrupt existing or nascent global policy that could hold them accountable," ITUC wrote. The desire for greater corporate power, the Confederation added, invariably puts corporate interests in bed with anti-democratic political movements like the modern far-right. Right-wing politicians, ITUC noted, tend to lower taxes, undercut higher wages for workers, crack down on trade unions, and the like - all things sure to please the likes of corporations like Amazon, Tesla, and Meta as evidenced by plenty of prior reporting and research. For Amazon, the ITUC criticized the company for becoming "notorious for its union busting and low wages, monopoly in e-commerce, egregious carbon emissions through its AWS [datacenters], corporate tax evasion and lobbying." Meta was accused of exploiting user data, undermining privacy laws, manipulating global information, and failing to regulate harmful content on its platforms. "Meta's algorithms can quite literally alter humanity's perceptions of reality," ITUC said. "Its revenue model exploits trillions of personalized data points to deliver highly effective advertising." Some have referred to the company as "a foreign state, populated by people without sovereignty, ruled by a leader with absolute power." As for Tesla, it was condemned for poor labor practices, anti-union politics, unsafe working conditions, human rights violations, and environmental damage in its supply chain. "The world's most highly-valued automaker has quickly become known as one of its most belligerent employers. Tesla's rapid market success has been outpaced only by the descent of its corporate leaders into anti-democratic, anti-union politics."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Cloudflare announced plans on Monday to launch a marketplace in the next year where website owners can sell AI model providers access to scrape their site's content. The marketplace is the final step of Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince's larger plan to give publishers greater control over how and when AI bots scrape their websites. "If you don't compensate creators one way or another, then they stop creating, and that's the bit which has to get solved," said Prince in an interview with TechCrunch. As the first step in its new plan, on Monday, Cloudflare launched free observability tools for customers, called AI Audit. Website owners will get a dashboard to view analytics on why, when, and how often AI models are crawling their sites for information. Cloudflare will also let customers block AI bots from their sites with the click of a button. Website owners can block all web scrapers using AI Audit, or let certain web scrapers through if they have deals or find their scraping beneficial. A demo of AI Audit shared with TechCrunch showed how website owners can use the tool, which is able to see where each scraper that visits your site comes from, and offers selective windows to see how many times scrapers from OpenAI, Meta, Amazon, and other AI model providers are visiting your site. [...]Read more of this story at Slashdot.

joshuark shares a report: Microsoft has officially announced that Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is now deprecated, but plans to maintain current functionality and continue publishing updates through the channel. This move isn't surprising, as Microsoft first listed WSUS as one of the "features removed or no longer developed starting with Windows Server 2025" on August 13. In June, the company also revealed that it would also soon deprecate WSUS driver synchronization. While new features and development for WSUS will cease, Microsoft said today that it plans to continue supporting the service's existing functionality and updates, which will still be distributed, even after deprecation. "Specifically, this means that we are no longer investing in new capabilities, nor are we accepting new feature requests for WSUS," Microsoft's Nir Froimovici said on Friday. "However, we are preserving current functionality and will continue to publish updates through the WSUS channel. We will also support any content already published through the WSUS channel."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Customers of Kaspersky antivirus in the United States found out in the last few days that their cybersecurity software was automatically replaced with a new one called UltraAV, according to several customers. And while Kaspersky said earlier this month that its U.S. customers would be transitioned to UltraAV, many of its customers said they had no idea this was going to happen and that it would automatically be forced upon them. From a report: "Woke up to Kasperky [sic] completely gone from my system with Ultra AV and Ultra VPN freshly installed (not by me, just automatically while I slept)," a user on Reddit wrote. Others reported having the same experience in the same Reddit thread, as well as in other threads. A reseller, who until recently sold Kaspersky products prior to the recent sales ban, told TechCrunch that he was left "annoyed" by the move to automatically remove Kaspersky software and replace it with an entirely different antivirus. A former senior U.S. government cybersecurity official said that this was an example of the "huge risk" posed by the access granted by Kaspersky software. It's worth noting that, on the other hand, other customers did report receiving an email from Kaspersky about the transition to UltraAV.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The government of Bhutan is currently holding over $828 million in bitcoin, according to onchain data by Arkham Intelligence. From a report: "Unlike most governments, Bhutan's BTC does not come from law enforcement asset seizures, but from bitcoin mining operations, which have ramped up dramatically since early 2023," the crypto intelligence firm explained. Crypto intelligence firm Arkham highlighted the Kingdom of Bhutan's bitcoin holdings on social media platform X last week. Bhutan is a small, landlocked kingdom located in the eastern Himalayas, bordered by China to the north and India to the south. The country currently has a population of less than 800,000 people. We learned last year that Bhutan had been secretly mining bitcoin using its abundant hydroelectric resources since around 2019. The operation, which began when bitcoin was priced at approximately $5,000, aims to harness the country's vast renewable energy reserves to power mining rigs. Hydroelectricity already accounts for 30% of Bhutan's GDP and powers nearly all of its 800,000 residents. The government claimed last year that mining profits are used to subsidize power and hardware costs. This revelation makes Bhutan one of the few countries globally to run a state-owned bitcoin mine, alongside El Salvador. At over $800 million in Bitcoin holdings, the reserve accounts for nearly a third of Bhutan's 2022-calculated GDP.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Industrial civilisation is close to breaching a seventh planetary boundary, and may already have crossed it, according to scientists who have compiled the latest report on the state of the world's life-support systems. From a report: "Ocean acidification is approaching a critical threshold," particularly in higher-latitude regions, says the latest report on planetary boundaries. "The growing acidification poses an increasing threat to marine ecosystems." The report, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), builds on years of research showing there are nine systems and processes -- the planetary boundaries -- that contribute to the stability of the planet's life-support functions. Thresholds beyond which they can no longer properly function have already been breached in six. Climate change, the introduction of novel entities, change in biosphere integrity and modification of biogeochemical flows are judged to be in high-risk zones, while planetary boundaries are also transgressed in land system change and freshwater change but to a lesser extent. All have worsened, according to the data. Stratospheric ozone depletion has remained stable, however, and there has been a slight improvement in atmospheric aerosol loading, the research says. At a briefing outlining the findings, Levke Caesar, a climate physicist at PIK and co-author of the report, said there were two reasons the levels of ocean acidification were concerning.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft unveiled detailed security reforms Monday, five months after CEO Satya Nadella pledged to prioritize cybersecurity following major breaches. The 25-page Secure Future Initiative report [PDF] outlines technical and governance changes addressing criticisms in an April 2024 Cyber Safety Review Board report that deemed Microsoft's security culture "inadequate." Microsoft said it implemented significant security upgrades to its Entra ID and Microsoft Account systems, introducing Azure-managed hardware security modules for access token signing keys. The company has also purged 5.75 million inactive tenants to minimize potential attack vectors and adopted a new testing system with secure defaults to prevent legacy-related security issues. Concurrently, Microsoft has enhanced its network tracking capabilities, now monitoring over 99 percent of its physical network through a centralized inventory system, which aids in firmware compliance and logging. Internal security measures have been tightened, with engineering teams facing stricter access controls. Personal access tokens are now limited to seven days, SSH access has been disabled for internal engineering repositories, and access to critical engineering systems has been restricted to fewer groups. Additionally, Microsoft has extended its audit log retention period to a minimum of two years, bolstering its ability to investigate and respond to potential security incidents.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: YouTube Premium users around the world woke up to bad news today. In over a dozen countries, the price of YouTube Premium individual and family plans increased significantly. This is only the most recent sweep of price increases from Google, as many countries saw price jumps only months ago, with the United States being one of them last summer. Impacted countries include Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, UAE, Switzerland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Colombia, Thailand, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Denmark. The prices have gone up by as early as 40%.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Marc Benioff said Microsoft's Copilot AI hasn't lived up to the hype. The Salesforce CEO said on the company's second-quarter earnings call that its own AI is nothing like Copilot, which he said was unimpressive. From a report: "So many customers are so disappointed in what they bought from Microsoft Copilot because they're not getting the accuracy and the response that they want," Benioff said. "Microsoft has disappointed so many customers with AI." Microsoft Copilot integrates OpenAI's ChatGPT tech into the company's existing suite of business software like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that comes with Microsoft 365. Launched last year, Copilot is meant to help companies boost productivity by responding to employee prompts and helping them with daily tasks like scheduling meetings, writing up product announcements, and creating presentations. In response to Benioff's comments, Jared Spataro, Microsoft's corporate vice president for AI at work, said in a statement to Fortune that the company was "hearing something quite different" from its customers.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Messaging app Telegram will provide users' IP addresses and phone numbers to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests, according to Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov. From a report: The platform changed its terms of service to deter criminals from abusing it, Durov said in a post on Telegram Monday. The move comes less than a month after his arrest in France, where he faces charges of alleged complicity in the spread of child sexual abuse materials. The move represents a marked difference from Telegram's approach to government requests for data and its reputation for lax moderation. The United Arab Emirates-based platform has been notoriously non-responsive to takedown requests from governments around the world, and often ignored requests for information about suspected criminals.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars in two years, CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday. From a report: Earlier this month, Musk had said that the first Starships to Mars would launch in two years "when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens." The CEO on Sunday said that the first crewed mission timeline will depend upon the success of the uncrewed flights. If the uncrewed missions land safely, crewed missions will be launched in four years. However, in case of challenges, crewed missions will be postponed by another two years, Musk said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sonos launched a disastrous app update in May, prompting CEO Patrick Spence to commission an internal investigation led by chief counsel Eddie Lazarus. The software release, plagued with missing features and bugs, has sparked widespread customer outrage and led to a $200 million revenue shortfall. Sonos shares have plummeted 25% this year. Lazarus interviewed about two dozen employees and reviewed meeting recordings before presenting his findings to the board in late July. Bloomberg: What has happened to Sonos is at its heart a cautionary tale of company leadership ignoring the perils of "technical debt," the term used by software engineers to describe the compounding threat of outdated code and infrastructure on security, usability and stability. For two decades, Sonos had allowed its tech debt to pile high. When it undertook in earnest its effort to revamp its app in mid-2022, the company knew it was sitting on infrastructure and code written in languages that were pretty much obsolete. The Sonos app had been adapted and spliced and tinkered with so often, the vast majority of work being performed for the new app was less about introducing new functionality than sorting out the existing mess. The company could have tackled its tech debt sooner but appears to have lacked a crucial element: urgency. It finally came in the form of the Sonos Ace headphones, the first product in the Sonos range to be fully mobile rather than using home or office Wi-Fi. The app needed to be rebuilt, as did the cloud computing setup underpinning it. Ace is a critical product for Sonos. Now that Sonos' pandemic sales boom has subsided, Wall Street has started to question where revenue growth will come from. Sonos Ace is a big part of the answer. Despite the company's lofty and well-earned reputation, Sonos' share of the $100 billion audio market is only around 2% because it has not gone toe-to-toe in the headphones category with Apple, Sennheiser, Bose and the rest.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg unleashed a scathing attack on a rival firm this week, calling WP Engine -- a managed WordPress hosting provider that has raised nearly $300 million in funding over its 14-year history -- a "cancer to WordPress." From a report: Mullenweg criticized the company -- which has been commercializing the open source WordPress project since 2010 -- for profiteering without giving much back, while also disabling key features that make WordPress such a powerful platform in the first place. [...] But speaking last week at WordCamp US 2024, a WordPress-focused conference held in Portland, Oregon, Mullenweg pulled no punches in his criticism of WP Engine. Taking to the stage, Mullenweg read out a post he had just published to his personal blog, where he points to the distinct "five for the future" investment pledges made by Automattic and WP Engine to contribute resources to support the sustained growth of WordPress, with Automattic contributing 3,900 hours per week, an WP Engine contributing just 40 hours. While he acknowledged that these figures are just a "proxy," and might not be perfectly accurate, Mullenweg said that this disparity in contributions is notable, as both Automattic and WP Engine "are roughly the same size, with revenue in the ballpark of half-a-billion [dollars]." [...] Mullenweg published a follow up blog post, where he calls WP Engine a "cancer" to WordPress. "It's important to remember that unchecked, cancer will spread," he wrote. "WP Engine is setting a poor standard that others may look at and think is ok to replicate."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The US Commerce Department on Monday will propose a ban on the sale or import of smart vehicles that use specific Chinese or Russian technology because of national security concerns, according to US officials. From a report: A US government investigation that began in February found a range of national security risks from embedded software and hardware from China and Russia in US vehicles, including the possibility of remote sabotage by hacking and the collection of personal data on drivers, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters Sunday in a conference call. "In extreme situations, a foreign adversary could shut down or take control of all their vehicles operating in the United States, all at the same time, causing crashes (or) blocking roads," she said. The rule would not apply to cars already on the road in the US that already have Chinese software installed, a senior administration official told CNN. The software ban would take effect for vehicles for "model year" 2027 and the hardware ban for "model year" 2030, according to the Commerce Department. The proposed regulatory action is part of a much broader struggle between the United States and China, the world's two biggest economies, to secure the supply chains of the key computing technology of the future, from semiconductors to AI software. China, in particular, has invested heavily in the connected car market, and inroads made by Chinese manufacturers in Europe have worried US officials.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In 2022 about 346,000 electric cars were reportedly sold in California. But the same year its greenhouse gas emissions dropped a whopping 9.3 million metric tons - the amount produced by 2.2 million gas-powered cars - lowering emissions 2.4% from the year before. "The biggest drop came from transportation, due largely to the increased use of renewable fuels," according to the state's Air Resources Board, touting a newly-released report. (And electricity sector emissions also fell by 2.6 million metric tons, or 4.1%, "even as electricity usage rose," according to The Hill - "a dichotomy that the regulators attributed to an increase in solar and wind power generation.") So despite a growing economy, "the latest data underscores a continued trend of steady emissions decline..." according to a statement from the Board. "Between 2000 to 2022, emissions fell by 20% while California's gross domestic product increased by 78%, pointing to the effectiveness of the state's climate change and air quality programs." And the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted per unit of economic output ("carbon intensity") has also dropped 55% in the last 20 years: [In 2022] the electricity sector had its lowest carbon intensity since 2000. Wind and solar now represent 30% of generation and in-state solar increased by 15% from 2021, driven by requirements under the state's Cap-and-Trade Program and Renewables Portfolio Standard. Furthermore, California increased its battery storage by 757% from 2019 through 2023, bolstering its renewable energy efforts. The storage capacity is enough to power 6.6 million homes for up to four hours. Industrial emissions declined by 2%, also falling to the lowest level in 22 years. While refinery emissions remained essentially flat, emissions from oil and gas extraction declined, as did emissions from other fuel use, cement manufacturing, and cogeneration facilities. [The Hill says 2022's industrial emissions were 21.7% below year-2000 levels, according to the report.] Livestock emissions, which are responsible for 70% of agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions, peaked in 2012 and once again saw reductions in 2022. The decrease is driven by the use of methane digesters funded by the California Climate Investments and incentivized by the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which capture emissions at the source and convert them to clean fuel. Landfill methane emissions also continued to decline in 2022. This decline can be attributed in part to the state's efforts to reduce disposal of organic waste, as well as the California Landfill Methane Regulation, which requires landfill operators to monitor and capture emissions escaping from their facilities. One local news site calls the drop in emissions "shocking," but adds that "the trend is expected to continue. In the second quarter of 2024, 118,181 zero-emission vehicles were purchased in the state, good for about one-quarter of all new car sales." California governor Gavin Newsom said his state "is proving that climate action goes hand-in-hand with economic growth. We've slashed carbon pollution by a whopping 20% since the turn of the century all while building the world's fifth largest economy. Cleaner air, more good jobs - that's the California way."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nature published an introduction to running an LLM locally, starting with the example of a bioinformatician who's using AI to generate readable summaries for his database of immune-system protein structures. "But he doesn't use ChatGPT, or any other web-based LLM." He just runs the AI on his Mac...Two more recent trends have blossomed. First, organizations are making 'open weights' versions of LLMs, in which the weights and biases used to train a model are publicly available, so that users can download and run them locally, if they have the computing power. Second, technology firms are making scaled-down versions that can be run on consumer hardware - and that rival the performance of older, larger models. Researchers might use such tools to save money, protect the confidentiality of patients or corporations, or ensure reproducibility... As computers get faster and models become more efficient, people will increasingly have AIs running on their laptops or mobile devices for all but the most intensive needs. Scientists will finally have AI assistants at their fingertips - but the actual algorithms, not just remote access to them. The article's list of small open-weights models includes Meta's Llama, Google DeepMind's Gemma, Alibaba's Qwen, Apple's DCLM, Mistral's NeMo, and OLMo from the Allen Institute for AI. And then there's Microsoft:Although the California tech firm OpenAI hasn't open-weighted its current GPT models, its partner Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, has been on a spree, releasing the small language models Phi-1, Phi-1.5 and Phi-2 in 2023, then four versions of Phi-3 and three versions of Phi-3.5 this year. The Phi-3 and Phi-3.5 models have between 3.8 billion and 14 billion active parameters, and two models (Phi-3-vision and Phi-3.5-vision) handle images1. By some benchmarks, even the smallest Phi model outperforms OpenAI's GPT-3.5 Turbo from 2023, rumoured to have 20 billion parameters... Microsoft used LLMs to write millions of short stories and textbooks in which one thing builds on another. The result of training on this text, says Sebastien Bubeck, Microsoft's vice-president for generative AI, is a model that fits on a mobile phone but has the power of the initial 2022 version of ChatGPT. "If you are able to craft a data set that is very rich in those reasoning tokens, then the signal will be much richer," he says... Sharon Machlis, a former editor at the website InfoWorld, who lives in Framingham, Massachusetts, wrote a guide to using LLMs locally, covering a dozen options. The bioinformatician shares another benefit: you don't have to worry about the company updating their models (leading to different outputs). "In most of science, you want things that are reproducible. And it's always a worry if you're not in control of the reproducibility of what you're generating." And finally, the article reminds readers that "Researchers can build on these tools to create custom applications..."Whichever approach you choose, local LLMs should soon be good enough for most applications, says Stephen Hood, who heads open-source AI at the tech firm Mozilla in San Francisco. "The rate of progress on those over the past year has been astounding," he says. As for what those applications might be, that's for users to decide. "Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty," Zakka says. "You might be pleasantly surprised by the results."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

First released on July 11th, the Firefox-based Zen browser is "taking a different approach to the user interface," according to the blog It's FOSS. The Register says the project "reminds us strongly of Arc, a radical Chromium-based web browser... to modernize the standard web browser UI by revising some fundamental assumptions."[Arc] removes the URL bar from front and center, gets rid of the simple flat list of tabs, and so on. Zen is trying to do some similar things, but in a slightly more moderate way - and it's doing it on the basis of Mozilla's Firefox codebase... Instead of the tired old horizontal tab bar you'll see in both Firefox and Chrome, Zen implements its own tab bar... By default, this tab bar is narrow and just shows page icons - but there are some extra controls at the bottom of the sidebar, one of which expands the sidebar to show page titles too. For us, it worked better than Vivaldi's fancier sidebar. The article concludes it's "a new effort to modernize web browsing by bringing tiling, workspaces, and so on - and it's blissfully free of Google code." One Reddit comment swooned over Zen's "extraordinary" implementation of a distraction-free "Compact Mode" (hiding things like the sidebar and top bar). And It's Foss described it as a "tranquil," browser, "written using CSS, C++, JavaScript, and a few other programming languages, with a community of over 30 people contributing to it."The layout of the interface felt quite clean to me; there were handy buttons on the top to control the webpage, manage extensions, and a menu with additional options... The split-view functionality allows you to open up two different tabs on the same screen, allowing for easy multitasking when working across different webpages... I split two tabs, but in my testing, I could split over 10+ tabs... If you have a larger monitor, then you are in for a treat... The Zen Sidebar feature... can run web apps alongside any open tabs. This can be helpful in situations where you need to quickly access a service like a note-taking app, Wikipedia, Telegram, and others. On the customization side of things, you will find that Zen Browser supports everything that Firefox does, be it the settings, adding new extensions/themes/plugins, etc. The Register points out it's easy to give it a try. "Being based on Firefox means that as well as running existing extensions, it can connect to Mozilla's Sync service and pick up not just your bookmarks, but also your tabs from other instances." And beyond all that, "There's just something satisfying about switching browsers every now and again..." argues the tech site Pocket-Lint:Zen Browser's vertical tabs layout is superb and feels much better than anything available in standard Firefox. [Firefox recently offered vertical tabs and a new sidebar experience in Nightly/Firefox Labs 131.] The tab bar can be set to automatically hide and show up whenever you hover near it, and it also contains quick access buttons to bookmarks, settings, and browsing history. The tab bar also contains a profile switcher... One of the greatest parts of the Zen Browser is the community that has popped up around it. At its heart, Zen Browser is a community-driven project... Zen Browser themes are aesthetic and functional tweaks to the UI. While there aren't a ton available right now, the ones that are show a lot of promise for the browser's future... I've personally gotten great use out of the Super URL Bar theme, which makes your URL bar expand and become the focus of your screen while typing in it... There's a lot you can do to make Zen Browser feel nearly exactly like what you want it to feel like. The "Business Standard calls it "an open-source alternative to Chromium-based browsers," adding "Where Zen truly shines is it offers a range of customisation, tab management, and workspace management..."Their theme store offers a range of options, including modifications to the bookmark toolbar, a floating URL bar, private mode theming, and removal of browser padding. In addition to these, users can also choose from custom colour schemes and built-in theming options... The Sidebar is another neat feature which allows you to open tabs in a smaller, smartphone-sized window. You can view websites in mobile layout by using this panel. It's "focused on being always at the latest version of Firefox," according to its official site, noting that Firefox is known for its security features. But then, "We also have additional security features like https only built into Zen Browser to help keep you safe online." And it also promises automated Releases "to ensure security." It's FOSS adds that you can get Zen Browser for Linux, Windows, and macOS from its official website (adding "They also offer it on the Flathub store for further accessibility on Linux.") And its source code is available on GitHub.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

German law enforcement seized 47 cryptocurrency exchange services "that facilitated illegal money laundering activities for cybercriminals," according to BleepingComputer, "including ransomware gangs." Long-time Slashdot reader Arrogant-Bastard shares their report:The platforms allowed users to exchange cryptocurrencies without following applicable "Know Your Customer" regulations, meaning that users remained completely anonymous when making transactions. This created a low-risk environment for cybercriminals to launder their proceeds without fearing prosecution or being tracked. "Exchange services that enable such anonymous financial transactions and thus money laundering represent one of the most relevant building blocks in the criminal value chain of the cybercrime phenomenon," reads a Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announcement...When visiting any of the seized exchanges, you are now redirected to a warning page titled "Operation Final Exchange," which warns visitors that they have been deceived by the promises of anonymity by the operators of these platforms. The new site notes years-long promises from the exchanges "that their hosting cannot be found, that they do not store any customer data and that all data is deleted immediately after the transaction... "We have found their servers and seized them - development servers, production servers, backup servers. We have their data - and therefore we have your data. Transactions, registration data, IP addresses. "Our search for traces begins. See you soon."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The republic of Cyprus "has outstripped all other EU member states in embracing hot-water solar systems," reports the Guardian, "with an estimated 93.5 % of households exploiting the alternative energy form for domestic needs."EU figures show the eastern Mediterranean island exceeding renewable energy targets set in the heating and cooling of buildings thanks to the widespread use of the solar thermal technology... [First introduced in the late 1960s], the solar thermal systems not only collected solar energy as heat - usually generated through electricity and the burning of fossil fuels - they were extremely cost-effective and had helped spawn an entire industry [says Charalampos Theopemptou, the island's first environment commissioner and the head of the Cypriot parliament's environment committee]. "It's been great for low-income families and then there's the jobs: so many have been generated," the MP says. "There are the local manufacturers who produce the parts and then all the people who are trained to install them. It's big business." In his role as environment commissioner, Theopemptou pushed hard to make the solar systems obligatory on all newly constructed residential and commercial buildings... The popularity of the water heaters is such that a union of local solar thermal industrialists was established in 1977. Since then, more than 962,564 square cubic metres of "solar [panel] collectors" have been installed, the union says. Increasingly, the country's vibrant tourist industry has also resorted to the green solution with solar-powered hot water systems deployed in, they say, close to 100% of hotels... For Demetra Asprou, a retired engineer, it's obvious that a region blessed with more than 300 days of sunshine a year should embrace solar energy. "It reduces electricity costs, increases the efficiency with which hot water is provided and is kind to the environment," she says. "Why would anyone use other, more traditional means to heat up water when only a few hours of sunlight, between 11am and 2pm, is enough for a 200-litre [44-gallon] tank to be filled with warm water that will last 48 hours? On days when there is no sunlight, which is rare, you always have electricity as a backup if necessary... Installation costs may be three times higher today, but there are EU-funded grants that the government hands out and within a year it's all paid off," she says. "After that, you basically have free hot water and see your electricity bills greatly reduced. In a country like Cyprus, it's a no-brainer." Thanks to Slashdot reader votsalo for sharing the article.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Many GitHub users this week received a novel phishing email warning of critical security holes in their code," reports Krebs on Security - citing an email shared by one of his readers:"Hey there! We have detected a security vulnerability in your repository. Please contact us at https://github-scanner[.]com to get more information on how to fix this issue...." Clicking the "I'm not a robot" button generates a pop-up message asking the user to take three sequential steps to prove their humanity. Step 1 involves simultaneously pressing the keyboard key with the Windows icon and the letter "R," which opens a Windows "Run" prompt that will execute any specified program that is already installed on the system. Step 2 asks the user to press the "CTRL" key and the letter "V" at the same time, which pastes malicious code from the site's virtual clipboard. Step 3 - pressing the "Enter" key - causes Windows to launch a PowerShell command, and then fetch and execute a malicious file from github-scanner[.]com called "l6e.exe...." According to an analysis at the malware scanning service Virustotal.com, the malicious file downloaded by the pasted text is called Lumma Stealer, and it's designed to snarf any credentials stored on the victim's PC. Even though this might fool some users, Krebs points out that Microsoft "strongly advises against nixing PowerShell because some core system processes and tasks may not function properly without it. What's more, doing so requires tinkering with sensitive settings in the Windows registry..." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sinij for sharing the article.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: On Thursday, Amazon Ads announced Video Generator and Live Image, "our first generative AI-powered technology designed to remove creative barriers and enable brands to produce lifestyle imagery that enhances ad performance." Amazon's blog post calls it "a new feature that uses generative AI technology to make it easier for advertisers to create more interesting and relevant video ads for customers. The new feature, Video generator, creates visually rich video content in a matter of minutes and at no additional cost. Using a single product image, Video generator curates custom AI-generated videos tailored to a product's distinct selling proposition and features, leveraging Amazon's unique insights to vividly bring a product story to life." An accompanying video demonstrates how Amazon's AI-powered tech can be used to animate still images, making it appear that steam is rising from a coffee mug, flowers are being blown in the wind, the night sky is changing breathtakingly behind a telescope, and that waves are breaking behind a smart speaker at the beach.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In the antitrust trial alleging Google had an ad-selling monopoly, "government lawyers have said some of their strongest evidence is in Google's own internal communications," reports the Wall Street Journal:[In 2010] a new crop of ad-tech companies were threatening Google's bottom line. "One way to make sure we don't get further behind in the market is picking up the one with the most traction and parking it somewhere..." [wrote YouTube Chief Executive Neal Mohan, who previously ran Google's display-ads business]. Google ended up buying one such company, AdMeld, for $400 million in 2011. Google shut down AdMeld two years later, after incorporating some of the startup's technology into its ad exchange, known commonly as AdX. The Justice Department argued that AdMeld was part of a larger trend: Google acquiring nascent rivals to corner the market and then locking customers into using its products by conditioning access to one software tool on them paying for another... In a 2016 email introduced by the government, Google executive Jonathan Bellack asked colleagues: "Is there a deeper issue with us owning the platform, the exchange, and a huge network? The analogy would be if Goldman or Citibank owned the NYSE [New York Stock Exchange]...." The Justice Department also cited a 2018 email from another then-executive, Chris LaSala, who raised concerns internally over the 20% cut that Google takes from many of its AdX customers, saying Google was extracting "irrationally high rent" from users. "I don't think there is 20% of value in comparing two bids," wrote LaSala. "AdX is not providing additional liquidity to the market. It is simply running the auction." Another former Google executive, Eisar Lipkovitz, testified that Google's omnipresence in ad-tech gives rise to conflicts of interest. Lipkovitz was rebuffed when he tried to get Google to lower the cut it took from AdX, he testified in a prerecorded deposition. The Justice Department finished presenting its case on Friday. Other witnesses included Google customers. One was Stephanie Layser, a former News Corp executive, who said she felt she had no choice but to use Google technology because the search giant has such market power that switching to another ad server would have meant losing out on millions in advertising revenue. Google's lawyer countered that "There will be no witness in this case who can say with clarity where this industry is going in the next five years." Or, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, "It makes no sense to focus on display ads, Google argues, when the industry is shifting to apps, social media and streaming services. Far from monopolizing the space, Google is actually losing ground, Google lawyer Karen Dunn said in her opening trial statement..."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Salon looks closer at a new $51,744-per-violation AI regulation officially approved one month ago by America's FTC - calling it a financial blow "If you're a digital media company whose revenue comes from publishing AI-generated articles and fake product reviews. But they point out the rules also ban "product review suppression."Per the ruling, that means it's a violation for "anyone to use an unfounded or groundless legal threat, a physical threat, intimidation, or a public false accusation in response to a consumer review... to (1) prevent a review or any portion thereof from being written or created, or (2) cause a review or any portion thereof to be removed, whether or not that review or a portion thereof is replaced with other content." Finally... The rule makes it a violation for a business to "provide compensation or other incentives in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative, regarding the product, service or business...." [T]he new rule also prevents secretly advertising for yourself while pretending to be an independent outlet or company. It bars "the creation or operation of websites, organizations or entities that purportedly provide independent reviews or opinions of products or services but are, in fact, created and controlled by the companies offering the products or services." In an earlier statement, FTC Consumer Protection Bureau head Sam Levine, said the new rule "should help level the playing field for honest companies. We're using all available means to attack deceptive advertising in the digital age," he said. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the article.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shared this story from SFGate:A boy who was kidnapped from an Oakland playground in 1951 has been found alive on the East Coast, a remarkable resolution to a mystery that has haunted his family for over half a century. On February 21, 1951, 6-year-old Luis Armando Albino was playing with his older brother Roger at Jefferson Square Park. The boys had recently immigrated with their mother and four other siblings from Puerto Rico... That afternoon, Luis and 10-year-old Roger walked down the block from their home at 730 Brush Street to play in the park. They were approached by a woman in her 30s, wearing a green bandana over her hair, who began chatting with Luis in Spanish. She promised she would buy him candy if he came along with her, and little Luis agreed to join her. Wary, Roger trailed the pair for a while before returning home to alert an adult to the strange encounter. Oakland police were called by frantic family members and a search was immediately launched... Antonia [the boy's mother] was convinced her son was alive. "She came once a week, then once a month, then at least once a year, to see the shake of the head, to have the answer 'no' translated for her although she could read it in the officers' faces," the Oakland Tribune wrote in 1966... Decades passed. In 2020, Luis' niece, Alida Alequin, took a DNA test on a whim, the Mercury News reported. The service returned several possible family members to the Oakland woman. One of them was a man who Alequin had never met. After some internet sleuthing, she began to suspect this man might be the missing uncle she'd heard so much about. She reached out to the man but didn't hear back. Earlier this year, Alequin tried again. Armed with photos, she took her evidence to the Oakland Police Department's missing persons unit. In short order, the FBI and California Department of Justice were also investigating Alequin's lead. They discovered the man was living on the East Coast, had worked as a firefighter and served two tours in Vietnam with the Marine Corps. This week, the Mercury News first reported that a DNA test confirmed what Alequin suspected: This was Luis Albino. In June, Luis flew to California to reunite with his family, among them his devoted brother Roger... For over 70 years, he lived on the East Coast believing he was the son of another couple.... When Luis met Alequin for the first time this summer, he held her in an embrace. "Thank you," he said, "for finding me."Read more of this story at Slashdot.