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California sued to fine a data-harvesting company, reports the Washington Post, calling it "a rare step to put muscle behind one of the strongest online privacy laws in the United States."Even when states have tried to restrict data brokers, it has been tough to make those laws stick. That has generally been a problem for the 19 states that have passed broad laws to protect personal information, said Matt Schwartz, a policy analyst for Consumer Reports. He said there has been only 15 or so public enforcement actions by regulators overseeing all those laws. Partly because companies aren't held accountable, they're empowered to ignore the privacy standards. "Noncompliance is fairly widespread," Schwartz said. "It's a major problem." That's why California is unusual with a data broker law that seems to have teeth. To make sure state residents can order all data brokers operating in the state to delete their personal records [with a single request], California is now requiring brokers to register with the state or face a fine of $200 a day. The state's privacy watchdog said Thursday that it filed litigation to force one data broker, National Public Data, to pay $46,000 for failing to comply with that initial phase of the data broker law. NPD declined to comment through an attorney... This first lawsuit for noncompliance, Schwartz said, shows that California is serious about making companies live up to their privacy obligations... "If they can successfully build it and show it works, it will create a blueprint for other states interested in this idea," he said. Last summer NPD "spilled hundreds of millions of Americans' Social Security Numbers, addresses, and phone numbers online," according to the blog Krebs on Security, adding that another NPD data broker sharing access to the same consumer records "inadvertently published the passwords to its back-end database in a file that was freely available from its homepage..." California's attempt to regulate the industry inspired the nonprofit Consumer Reports to create an app called Permission Slip that reveals what data companies collect and, for people in U.S. states, will "work with you to file a request, telling companies to stop selling your personal information." Other data-protecting options suggested by The Washington Post: Use Firefox, Brave or DuckDuckGo, "which can automatically tell websites not to sell or share your data. Those demands from the web browsers are legally binding or will be soon in at least nine states."Use Privacy Badger, an EFF browser extension which the EFF says "automatically tells websites not to sell or share your data including where it's required by state law."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"IBM stopped supporting OS/2 at the end of 2006," write the makers of ArcaOS, an OEM distribution of OS/2's discontinued Warp operating system. And now long-time Slashdot reader martiniturbide tells us that ArcaOS 5.1.1 has been released, and that many of it's components have been updated too. From this week's announcement:ArcaOS 5.1.1 continues to support installation on the latest generation of UEFI-based systems, as well as the ability to install to GPT-based disk layouts. This enables ArcaOS 5.1.1 to install on a wide array of modern hardware. Of course, ArcaOS 5.1.1 is just as much at home on traditional BIOS-based systems, offering enhanced stability and performance across both environments.... Need more convincing? How about a commercial operating system which doesn't spy on you, does not report your online activity to anyone, and gives you complete freedom to choose the applications you want to use, however you want to use them? How about an operating system which isn't tied to any specific hardware manufacturer, allowing you to choose the platform which is right for you, and fits perfectly well in systems with less than 4GB of memory or even virtual machines?Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google's Threat Intelligence Group notes "the growing threat to secure messaging applications." While specifically acknowledging "wide ranging efforts to compromise Signal accounts," they add that the threat "also extends to other popular messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram, which are also being actively targeted by Russian-aligned threat groups using similar techniques. "In anticipation of a wider adoption of similar tradecraft by other threat actors, we are issuing a public warning regarding the tactics and methods used to date to help build public awareness and help communities better safeguard themselves from similar threats." Computer Weekly reports:Analysts predict it is only a matter of time before Russia starts deploying hacking techniques against non-military Signal users and users of other encrypted messaging services, including WhatsApp and Telegram. Dan Black, principal analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, said he would be "absolutely shocked" if he did not see attacks against Signal expand beyond the war in Ukraine and to other encrypted messaging platforms... Russia-backed hackers are attempting to compromise Signal's "linked devices" capability, which allows Signal users to link their messaging account to multiple devices, including phones and laptops, using a quick response (QR) code. Google threat analysts report that Russia-linked threat actors have developed malicious QR codes that, when scanned, will give the threat actor real-time access to the victim's messages without having to compromise the victim's phone or computer. In one case, according to Black, a compromised Signal account led Russia to launch an artillery strike against a Ukrainian army brigade, resulting in a number of casualties... Google also warned that multiple threat actors have been observed using exploits to steal Signal database files from compromised Android and Windows devices. The article notes that the attacks "are difficult to detect and when successful there is a high risk that compromised Signal accounts can go unnoticed for a long time." And it adds that "The warning follows disclosures that Russian intelligence created a spoof website for the Davos World Economic Forum in January 2025 to surreptitiously attempt to gain access to WhatsApp accounts used by Ukrainian government officials, diplomats and a former investigative journalist at Bellingcat." Google's Threat Intelligence Group notes there's a variety of attack methods, though the "linked devices" technique is the most widely used. "We are grateful to the team at Signal for their close partnership in investigating this activity," Google's group says in their blog post, adding that "the latest Signal releases on Android and iOS contain hardened features designed to help protect against similar phishing campaigns in the future. Update to the latest version to enable these features."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Deadline reports:It's taking around $1 billion to have 007 stewards Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson cede creative oversight of their family's storied James Bond franchise to Amazon MGM Studios, sources tell us. Amazon originally overpaid on its purchase of MGM in a deal orchestrated by then-MGM board chair Kevin Ulrich. Though valued between $3.5 billion-$4 billion, the legendary motion picture studio was absorbed by the streamer for $8.5 billion, the hefty sum propped up by the potential access of the 007 franchise. However, Amazon couldn't fully freely develop Bond with Broccoli and Wilson in the mix. Hence, it took another $1 billion to ensure that they could fully steer and exploit the Ian Fleming IP. The article suggests Broccoli's long hold-out came from "Amazon's desire to expand the James Bond franchise into its own universe akin to Marvel or Star Wars."In the past, filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan have expressed an interest in putting their stamp on Bond; both however, required complete creative control, which wasn't possible under the reign of Broccoli and Wilson. Now, with the producers on the side, Amazon can move forward to attract a top-tier director. Also available to come to life in the new deal finally are a slew of Bond villains and women in their own series or features. The last time an attempt was made to spin off the Bond franchise was in 2003 with a stand-alone movie about the spy's girlfriend Jinx, played by Halle Berry in Die Another Day. Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Rob Wade were attached to pen that, with Stephen Frears circling, but Broccoli and Wilson put the kibosh to the idea due to creative differences. In a related note, the article adds that Amazon "is looking to have an international theatrical distribution arm fully operational by some time in 2026." Jeff Bezos asked his followers on X.com who should play James Bond in the next movie, reports IGN, "and the answer was loud and clear." On X.com the "clear fan favorite" was DC Extended Universe actor Henry Cavill. (Besides playing Superman, Cavill also appeared in the 2024 film spy action-comedy Argyle, and fought Tom Cruise's character in 2018's Mission Impossible: Fallout - and played Geralt of Rivia in the Netflix series The Witcher.)Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Linus Torvalds responded Thursday to kernel developer Christoph Hellwig, who had claimed Torvalds merged Rust code into the kernel even over his objections as the original C code's maintainer. Highlights from Torvalds' response:The fact is, the pull request you objected to DID NOT TOUCH THE DMA LAYER AT ALL. It was literally just another user of it, in a completely separate subdirectory, that didn't change the code you maintain in _any_ way, shape, or form... Honestly, what you have been doing is basically saying "as a DMA maintainer I control what the DMA code is used for". And that is not how *any* of this works. What's next? Saying that particular drivers can't do DMA, because you don't like that device, and as a DMA maintainer you control who can use the DMA code? That's _literally_ exactly what you are trying to do with the Rust code. You are saying that you disagree with Rust - which is fine, nobody has ever required you to write or read Rust code. But then you take that stance to mean that the Rust code cannot even use or interface to code you maintain... You don't have to like Rust. You don't have to care about it. That's been made clear pretty much from the very beginning, that nobody is forced to suddenly have to learn a new language, and that people who want to work purely on the C side can very much continue to do so. So to get back to the very core of your statement: "The document claims no subsystem is forced to take Rust" that is very much true. You are not forced to take any Rust code, or care about any Rust code in the DMA code. You can ignore it... You can't have it both ways. You can't say "I want to have nothing to do with Rust", and then in the very next sentence say "And that means that the Rust code that I will ignore cannot use the C interfaces I maintain".... So when you change the C interfaces, the Rust people will have to deal with the fallout, and will have to fix the Rust bindings. That's kind of the promise here: there's that "wall of protection" around C developers that don't want to deal with Rust issues in the promise that they don't *have* to deal with Rust. But that "wall of protection" basically goes both ways. If you don't want to deal with the Rust code, you get no *say* on the Rust code. Put another way: the "nobody is forced to deal with Rust" does not imply "everybody is allowed to veto any Rust code". Torvalds also made sure to add some kind remarks, including "I respect you technically, and I like working with you."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft's newly announced Muse AI model for game development has triggered immediate backlash from industry professionals. "Fuck this shit," responded David Goldfarb, founder of The Outsiders, arguing that such AI tools primarily serve to "reduce capital expenditure" while devaluing developers' collective artistic contributions. Multiple developers told Wired that the tool is aimed at shareholders rather than actual developers. "Nobody will want this. They don't CARE that nobody will want this," one AAA developer said, noting that internal criticism remains muted due to job security concerns amid industry-wide layoffs. The resistance comes as developers increasingly view AI initiatives as threats to job security rather than helpful tools. One anonymous developer called it "gross" that they needed to remain unnamed while criticizing Muse, as their studio still depends on potential Game Pass deals with Microsoft. Even in prototyping, where Microsoft sees AI potential, Creative Assembly's Marc Burrage warns that automated shortcuts could undermine crucial learning experiences in game development.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Scientists have discovered evidence of ancient, shallow lakes on Mars that once had liquid water exposed to the atmosphere, challenging previous theories that all Martian water was covered in ice. Live Science reports: The patterns, which were photographed by NASA's Curiosity rover, are known as wave ripples -- minute ridge-like structures that form along the shores of lakebeds. This means that exposed liquid water must have flowed across Mars' surface at some point in its history. The ripples were present in two separate lakebeds in Gale Crater, which Curiosity has been exploring since Aug. 2012. "The shape of the ripples could only have been formed under water that was open to the atmosphere and acted upon by wind," study first author Claire Mondro, a sedimentologist at CalTech, said in a statement. The researchers also analyzed the height and spacing of the ripple waves to determine the size of the lake that formed them. The structures are approximately 0.2 inches (6 millimeters) tall and about 1.6 to 2 inches (4 to 5 centimeters) apart, indicating they were left by small waves. Based on these dimensions, the researchers believe the Martian lake must have been less than 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep. Both dry lakebeds appear to have formed around 3.7 billion years ago, indicating that Mars had an atmosphere dense and warm enough to support liquid water for longer than previously thought -- which could have intriguing implications. "Extending the length of time that liquid water was present extends the possibilities for microbial habitability later into Mars's history," Mondro said. In other words: living organisms may have had a longer window in which they could have evolved on the Red Planet. The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The U.S. Space Force released the first-ever public image of its secretive X-37B space plane in orbit, captured during its ongoing seventh mission that launched on December 28, 2023. Space.com reports: The photo, released on Thursday (Feb. 20), was taken by a camera onboard the X-37B while the secretive space plane orbited high above the African continent. One of the plane's solar panels is visible on the left side of the photo, while what appears to be its open payload bay is visible along the top edge. The vehicle has been in orbit for well over a year now, having launched on its seventh mission on Dec. 28, 2023 atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. And now, the X-37B has notched another milestone with the Space Force's release of this photo, the first-ever image of this space plane in orbit that has been shown to the public. While the photo contains scant details about the vehicle and what it's currently testing, it offers a look at Earth far in the background, revealing just how high the vehicle is flying on its seventh mission. We've gotten only one other glimpse at the X-37B in orbit prior to this. During the livestream of its most recent launch, a brief shot of the spacecraft deploying from Falcon Heavy's upper stage was seen while its service module was still attached.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A study by the Pew Research Center found that Americans' views of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg skew more negative than positive. While Zuckerberg has sparked chatter in Silicon Valley with his sudden interest in high fashion, the Meta CEO is less popular than President Trump's right-hand man, Elon Musk, the report found. While about 54% of U.S. adults say they have an unfavorable view of Musk, 67% feel negatively toward Zuckerberg. [...] But Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, is more universally disliked, though he draws more ire from the left-leaning demographic. While 60% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents hold an unfavorable view of Zuckerberg, 76% of their Democratic counterparts share that sentiment. So, while Zuck may be playing the part of the cool guy, Americans haven't been fooled by his gold chains or musical ambitions, it seems. Pew's study involved a panel of 5,086 randomly selected U.S. adults. The survey was conducted from January 27, 2025, through February 2, 2025, so these responses reflect people's recent opinions.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft's announcement of a breakthrough in quantum computing faces skepticism from physicists, who say evidence supporting the company's claims remains insufficient. The tech giant reported creating Majorana particles - a development it says could revolutionize quantum computing - but the accompanying peer-reviewed paper in Nature does not conclusively demonstrate this achievement, according to multiple quantum physics experts who reviewed the research. Microsoft's corporate vice president for quantum hardware, Chetan Nayak, acknowledged the Nature paper wasn't meant to prove the particles' existence, though he claimed measurements suggested "95% likelihood" of topological activity. The company plans to publish additional findings. The announcement has drawn particular scrutiny given the field's history of retracted claims. Two previous Nature papers on similar discoveries were withdrawn in 2017 and 2018, while a 2020 paper in Science involving Microsoft researchers remains under review. "This is where you cross over from the realm of science to advertising," said Jay Sau, a theoretical physicist at the University of Maryland who sometimes consults for Microsoft but wasn't involved in the current research.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Register's Lindsay Clark reports: Fifteen years of big data hype, and guess what? Less than one in four of those in charge of analytics projects actually measure the value of the activity to the organization they work for. The result from Gartner -- a staggering one considering the attention heaped on big data and its various hype-oriented successors -- found that in a survey of chief data and analytics (D&A) officers, only 22 percent had defined, tracked, and communicated business impact metrics for the bulk of their data and analytics use cases. It wasn't for lack of interest though. For more than 90 percent of the 504 respondents, value-focused and outcome-focused areas of the D&A leader's role have gained dominance over the past 12 to 18 months, and will continue to be a concern in the future. It is difficult, though: 30 percent of respondents say their top challenge is the inability to measure data, analytics and AI impact on business outcomes. "There is a massive value vibe around data, where many organizations talk about the value of data, desire to be data-driven, but there are few who can substantiate it," said Michael Gabbard, senior director analyst at Gartner. He added that while most chief data and analytics officers were responsible for data strategy, a third do not see putting in place an operating model as a primary responsibility. "There is a perennial gap between planning and execution for D&A leaders," he said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Asus has introduced the Fragrance Mouse, a hybrid wireless mouse that features a removable container for fragrance oils. Despite not being a gaming mouse, it includes premium features like PTFE pads, low-noise clicks rated for up to 10 million presses, and three fixed DPI settings (1200, 1600, 2400). Tom's Hardware reports: The selling point of the new mouse is its fragrance-producing capabilities. Under the mouse (right behind the AA battery housing) is a small semi-translucent container designed to house oils that give the mouse a pleasing aroma. There's no limit to what scents can be used; the container can be washed and refilled with different scents. Last year, the peripheral maker debuted an aroma-dispensing laptop that featured a fragrance dispenser at the center of the lid.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI has banned a group of Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to develop an AI-powered social media surveillance tool. Engadget reports: The campaign, which OpenAI calls Peer Review, saw the group prompt ChatGPT to generate sales pitches for a program those documents suggest was designed to monitor anti-Chinese sentiment on X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and other platforms. The operation appears to have been particularly interested in spotting calls for protests against human rights violations in China, with the intent of sharing those insights with the country's authorities. "This network consisted of ChatGPT accounts that operated in a time pattern consistent with mainland Chinese business hours, prompted our models in Chinese, and used our tools with a volume and variety consistent with manual prompting, rather than automation," said OpenAI. "The operators used our models to proofread claims that their insights had been sent to Chinese embassies abroad, and to intelligence agents monitoring protests in countries including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom." According to Ben Nimmo, a principal investigator with OpenAI, this was the first time the company had uncovered an AI tool of this kind. "Threat actors sometimes give us a glimpse of what they are doing in other parts of the internet because of the way they use our AI models," Nimmo told The New York Times. Much of the code for the surveillance tool appears to have been based on an open-source version of one of Meta's Llama models. The group also appears to have used ChatGPT to generate an end-of-year performance review where it claims to have written phishing emails on behalf of clients in China.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: On Saturday at the Silverstone Cafe in San Francisco, a smattering of activists gathered to discuss plans to stop the further advancement of artificial intelligence. The name of their non-violent civil resistance group, STOP AI, makes its mission clear. The organization wants to ban something that, by most accounts, doesn't yet exist -- artificial general intelligence, or AGI, defined by OpenAI as "highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work." STOP AI outlines a broader set of goals on its website. For example, "We want governments to force AI companies to shut down everything related to the creation of general-purpose AI models, destroy any existing general-purpose AI model, and permanently ban their development." In answer to the question "Does STOP AI want to ban all AI?", the group's answer is, "Not necessarily, just whatever is necessary to keep humanity alive." The group, which has held protests outside OpenAI's office and plans another outside the company's San Francisco HQ on February 22, has bold goal: rally support from 3.5 percent of the U.S. population, or 11 million people. That's the so-called "tipping point" needed for societal change, based on research by political scientist Erica Chenoweth. "The implications of artificial general intelligence are so immense and dangerous that we just don't want that to come about ever," said Finn van der Velde, an AI safety advocate and activist with a technical background in computer science and AI specifically. "So what that will practically mean is that we will probably need an international treaty where the governments across the board agree that we don't build AGI. And so that means disbanding companies like OpenAI that specifically have the goal to build AGI." It also means regulating compute power so that no one will be able to train an AGI model.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is shutting down its nationwide electric vehicle (EV) chargers, deeming them "not mission critical." The U.S. government agency also plans to offload newly purchased EVs, reversing initiatives from the Biden administration aimed at transitioning the federal vehicle fleet to electric. The Verge reports: The GSA currently operates several hundred EV chargers across the country, with approximately 8,000 plugs that are available for government-owned EVs as well as federal employees' personally owned vehicles. The official guidance instructing federal workers to begin the process of shutting down the chargers will be announced internally next week, according to a source with knowledge of the plans. Some regional offices have been told to start taking their chargers offline, according to an email viewed by The Verge. "As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA owned charging stations are not mission critical," the email reads. The GSA is working on the timing of canceling current network contracts that keep the EV chargers operational. Once those contracts are canceled, the stations will be taken out of service and "turned off at the breaker," the email reads. Other chargers will be turned off starting next week. "Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they're out of service," it concludes.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to The Information (paywalled), OpenAI plans to shift most of its computing power from Microsoft to SoftBank-backed Stargate by 2030. TechCrunch reports: That represents a major shift away from Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest shareholder, who fulfills most of the startup's power needs today. The change won't happen overnight. OpenAI still plans to increase its spending on Microsoft-owned data centers in the next few years. During that time, OpenAI's overall costs are set to grow dramatically. The Information reports that OpenAI projects to burn $20 billion in cash during 2027, far more than the $5 billion it reportedly burned through in 2024. By 2030, OpenAI reportedly forecasts that its costs around running AI models, also known as inference, will outpace what the startup spends on training AI models.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Fourteen-year-old Aaryan Shukla cruised through six mental math calculation world records in a single day, according to a Guinness World Records statement published on February 12, earning the well-deserved nickname, "human calculator kid." Specifically, it took Shukla: - 30.9 seconds to mentally add 100 four-digit numbers - One minute and 9.68 seconds to mentally add 200 four-digit numbers - 18.71 seconds to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers - Five minutes and 42 seconds to mentally divide a 20-digit number by a ten-digit number ten times - 51.69 seconds to mentally multiply two five-digit numbers ten times - Two minutes and 35.41 seconds to mentally multiply two eight-digit numbers ten times According to the statement, these are among the most difficult mental calculation world records ever attempted. Shukla's frankly mind-boggling achievement also comes in the wake of another world record he broke in April 2024 at the age of 13: fastest time to mentally add 50 five-digit numbers. It took him just 25.19 seconds. That's an addition every half a second. I wouldn't be surprised if students seeking "shortcuts" in their math homework started phoning up Shukla instead of reaching for their ChatGPT browser tab. Guinness World Records published a video about Shukla's accomplishments on YouTube.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chinese startup DeepSeek will make its models' code publicly available, it said on Friday, doubling down on its commitment to open-source artificial intelligence. From a report: The company said in a post on social media platform X that it will open source 5 code repositories next week, describing the move as "small but sincere progress" that it will share "with full transparency." "These humble building blocks in our online service have been documented, deployed and battle-tested in production." the post said. DeepSeek rattled the global AI industry last month when it released its open-source R1 reasoning model, which rivaled Western systems in performance while being developed at a lower cost.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HP has ended its controversial practice of imposing mandatory 15-minute wait times for customer support calls in several European countries, following internal pushback and customer complaints. The company confirmed the reversal and said it will "continue to prioritize timely access to live phone support."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has experienced $1.46 billion worth of "suspicious outflows," according to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT. From a report: The wallet in question appears to have sent 401,346 ETH ($1.1 billion) as well as several other iterations of staked ether (stETH) to a fresh wallet, which is now liquidating mETH and stETH on decentralized exchanges, etherscan shows. The wallet has sold around $200 million worth of stETH so far. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou wrote on X that a hacker "took control of the specific ETH cold wallet and transferred all the ETH in the cold wallet to this unidentified address."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

WinRAR 7.10 now lets users remove potentially sensitive metadata from downloaded files while preserving core Windows security features. The file compression tool's latest release introduces a "Zone value only" setting that strips download locations and IP addresses from Windows' Mark-of-the-Web security flags during file extraction. The new privacy control, enabled by default, maintains only the basic security zone identifier that triggers Windows' safety prompts for downloaded files. This change prevents recipients of shared archives from accessing metadata that could reveal where files originated. The update from win.rar GmbH, whose compression software claims 500 million users worldwide, also adds performance improvements through larger memory page support and introduces a dark mode interface.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple is removing its most advanced, end-to-end encrypted security feature for cloud data in the United Kingdom [alternative source], in a stunning development after the government ordered the company to build a backdoor for accessing user data. From a report: The company said Friday that Advanced Data Protection, an optional feature that adds end-to-end encryption to a wide assortment of user data is no longer available in the UK for new users. This layer of security covers iCloud data storage, device backups, web bookmarks, voice memos, notes, photos, reminders and text message backups. "We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy," the company said in a statement. "ADP protects iCloud data with end-to-end encryption, which means the data can only be decrypted by the user who owns it, and only on their trusted devices."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AI coding assistants are reshaping software development, but they're unlikely to replace human programmers entirely, according to industry experts and developers. GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke projects AI could soon generate 80-90% of corporate code, transforming developers into "conductors of an AI-empowered orchestra" who guide and direct these systems. Current AI coding tools, including Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, are delivering 10-30% productivity gains in business environments. At KPMG, developers report saving 4.5 hours weekly using Copilot, while venture investment in AI coding assistants tripled to $1.6 billion in 2024. The tools are particularly effective at automating routine tasks like documentation generation and legacy code translation, according to KPMG AI expert Swami Chandrasekaran. They're also accelerating onboarding for new team members. Demand for junior developers remains soft, however, though analysts say it's premature to attribute this directly to AI adoption. Training programs like Per Scholas are already adapting, incorporating AI fundamentals alongside traditional programming basics to prepare developers for an increasingly AI-augmented workplace.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Software engineering job listings have plummeted to a five-year low, with postings on Indeed dropping to 65% of January 2020 levels -- a steeper decline than any other tech-adjacent field. According to data from Indeed's job aggregator, software development positions are now at 3.5x fewer vacancies compared to their mid-2022 peak and 8% lower than a year ago. The decline appears driven by multiple factors including widespread adoption of AI coding tools -- with 75% of engineers reporting use of AI assistance -- and a broader tech industry recalibration after aggressive pandemic-era hiring. Notable tech companies like Salesforce are maintaining flat engineering headcount while reporting 30% productivity gains from AI tools, according to an analysis by software engineer Gergely Orosz. While the overall job market shows 10% growth since 2020, software development joins other tech-focused sectors in decline: marketing (-19%), hospitality (-18%), and banking/finance (-7%). Traditional sectors like construction (+25%), accounting (+24%), and electrical engineering (+20%) have grown significantly in the same period, he wrote. The trend extends beyond U.S. borders, with Canada showing nearly identical patterns. European markets and Australia demonstrate more resilience, though still below peak levels.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new AI tool developed by Google solved a decade-long superbug mystery in just two days, reaching the same conclusion as Professor Jose R Penades' unpublished research and even offering additional, promising hypotheses. The BBC reports: The researchers have been trying to find out how some superbugs - dangerous germs that are resistant to antibiotics - get created. Their hypothesis is that the superbugs can form a tail from different viruses which allows them to spread between species. Prof Penades likened it to the superbugs having "keys" which enabled them to move from home to home, or host species to host species. Critically, this hypothesis was unique to the research team and had not been published anywhere else. Nobody in the team had shared their findings. So Mr Penades was happy to use this to test Google's new AI tool. Just two days later, the AI returned a few hypotheses - and its first thought, the top answer provided, suggested superbugs may take tails in exactly the way his research described.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

California is considering officially recognizing Bigfoot as its state cryptid through Assembly Bill 666, introduced last week by North Coast Assemblymember Chris Rogers. "Rogers' district spans Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma and Trinity counties, a region known as the epicenter of Bigfoot lore," reports SFGATE. From the report: Assemblyman Rogers' Assembly Bill 666 is still in its early stages. According to the California Legislative Information website, the bill's title has been read aloud in the state Assembly and is now being printed and distributed to committee members for review. If it clears committee, it must then pass the Assembly and Senate before reaching the governor's desk to be signed into law. [Matt Moneymaker, a longtime Bigfoot researcher and former star of the Animal Planet series 'Finding Bigfoot], is eager to witness history. "If there's going to be a date, an occasion when they're voting on whether or not to make it the official cryptid, I would love to be up there in Sacramento," he said. "I would gladly pay my way to be there when that happens." "Mankind has always had a fascination with monsters, and mythologies from around the world include stories of strange and terrifying creatures," writes Slashdot reader Pickens in a story published in 2008. "Examples include the half-bull, half-human Minotaur of Greek myths, the living clay Golem of Jewish traditions, British elves and Chinese dragons..." What's your favorite monster?Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Just because Meta admitted to torrenting a dataset of pirated books for AI training purposes, that doesn't necessarily mean that Meta seeded the file after downloading it, the social media company claimed in a court filing (PDF) this week. Evidence instead shows that Meta "took precautions not to 'seed' any downloaded files," Meta's filing said. Seeding refers to sharing a torrented file after the download completes, and because there's allegedly no proof of such "seeding," Meta insisted that authors cannot prove Meta shared the pirated books with anyone during the torrenting process. [...] Meta ... is hoping to convince the court that torrenting is not in and of itself illegal, but is, rather, a "widely-used protocol to download large files." According to Meta, the decision to download the pirated books dataset from pirate libraries like LibGen and Z-Library was simply a move to access "data from a 'well-known online repository' that was publicly available via torrents." To defend its torrenting, Meta has basically scrubbed the word "pirate" from the characterization of its activity. The company alleges that authors can't claim that Meta gained unauthorized access to their data under CDAFA. Instead, all they can claim is that "Meta allegedly accessed and downloaded datasets that Plaintiffs did not create, containing the text of published books that anyone can read in a public library, from public websites Plaintiffs do not operate or own." While Meta may claim there's no evidence of seeding, there is some testimony that might be compelling to the court. Previously, a Meta executive in charge of project management, Michael Clark, had testified (PDF) that Meta allegedly modified torrenting settings "so that the smallest amount of seeding possible could occur," which seems to support authors' claims that some seeding occurred. And an internal message (PDF) from Meta researcher Frank Zhang appeared to show that Meta allegedly tried to conceal the seeding by not using Facebook servers while downloading the dataset to "avoid" the "risk" of anyone "tracing back the seeder/downloader" from Facebook servers. Once this information came to light, authors asked the court for a chance to depose Meta executives again, alleging that new facts "contradict prior deposition testimony." "Meta has been 'silent so far on claims about sharing data while 'leeching' (downloading) but told the court it plans to fight the seeding claims at summary judgement," notes Ars.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rivian reported its first-ever positive gross profit of $170 million in Q4 2024, driven by cost reductions and increased regulatory credit sales, despite a $4.7 billion net loss for the year. The company said it expects to sell 46,000-51,000 vehicles this year and achieve "modest gross profit." The Verge reports: Rivian reported $170 million in positive gross profits, which includes production and sales but does not factor in other expenses, for the three-month period that ended December 31, 2024. That was based on $1.7 billion in revenues. The company said its net loss for the fourth quarter was $743 million, as compared to $1.5 billion in net losses in the same period in 2023. Rivian earned $4.5 billion in revenue for the full year 2024, based on the delivery of 51,579 vehicles. It record a net loss of $4.7 billion, compared to $5.4 billion in 2023. Rivian cited increased revenue from the sale of regulatory credits to other automakers, which is also a primary revenue driver for Tesla. The company said it saw a $260 million increase in regulatory credit sales in the fourth quarter year over year.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mirnotoriety shares a report from The Register: The operators of Ghost ransomware continue to claim victims and score payments, but keeping the crooks at bay is possible by patching known vulnerabilities and some basic infosec actions, according to a joint advisory issued Wednesday by the FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The Feds warned orgs to beware of this spectral menace, which is known to have infected critical infrastructure and entities in every sector of a typical economy, and which has been observed scoring ransoms as recently as January. It is said to have racked up victims in more than 70 countries, including some in its China homeland. Ghost first appeared in 2021, and according to the Feds, the gang will "rotate their ransomware executable payloads, switch file extensions for encrypted files, modify ransom note text, and use numerous ransom email addresses, which has led to variable attribution of this group over time." The Chinese group has therefore been identified as Ghost, Cring, Crypt3r, Phantom, Strike, Hello, Wickrme, HsHarada, and Rapture over time. The group's favored tactics, however, remain consistent: It targets unpatched systems to exploit known vulnerabilities that allow it to infect targets. [...]Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to Bloomberg, YouTube plans to introduce a lower-priced, ad-free version of its paid video service. From the report: The package, dubbed "premium lite," will be announced soon in the US, Australia, Germany and Thailand, according to a person familiar with the plans. The service will target viewers who primarily want to watch programs other than music videos. While YouTube may be best known for the free videos uploaded by users, the company also offers a variety of paid services. YouTube Premium is a $13.99-a-month package in the US that lets subscribers watch everything on the service, including music videos, without ads. "As part of our commitment to provide our users with more choice and flexibility, we've been testing a new YouTube Premium offering with most videos ad-free in several of our markets," a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. "We're hoping to expand this offering to even more users in the future with our partners' support."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The chief executive of streaming giant Netflix on Thursday announced a $1 billion investment to produce some 20 films and TV series in Mexico annually over the next four years. Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum's morning press conference in Mexico City, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said he looked forward to entering more partnerships with producers in the Latin American nation. Sheinbaum said the investments in the film industry should produce many jobs beyond immediate production needs, such as hospitality for actors and crew members, fashion designers and also spur tourism. "It's an industry that gives a lot of mileage to the economy," Sheinbaum said. "It's not only important for Mexico to be seen in the world, but also because of the economic development and jobs generated by a production."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple's Google Lens-like took called Visual Intelligence is coming to the iPhone 15 Pro, according to John Gruber of Daring Fireball. It's unclear which update will offer the feature but Gruber speculates it could arrive with iOS 18.4 in April. From a report: Visual Intelligence was originally introduced with the initial iPhone 16 lineup in September, and Apple showed it off as a feature that you launched from the Camera Control button. But yesterday, Apple announced that Visual Intelligence would be available on the iPhone 16E, which does not have the Camera Control button, through its Action Button. That suggested that the feature could technically work with the iPhone 15 Pro, which also has an Action Button, and now Apple is confirming that Visual Intelligence will indeed come to that phone and be available via the Action Button. You'll also be able to launch Visual Intelligence from the Control Center on the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple told Gruber.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ChatGPT has reached over 400 million weekly active users, doubling its count since August 2024. "We feel very fortunate to serve 5 percent of the world every week," OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said on X. Engadget reports: The latest milestone for the AI assistant comes after a huge uproar over new rival platform DeepSeek earlier in the year, which raised questions about whether the current crop of leading AI tools was about to be dethroned. OpenAI is on the verge of a move to simplify its ChatGPT offerings so that users won't have to select which reasoning model will respond to an input, and it will make its GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 models available soon in the chat and API clients. With GPT-5 being made available to OpenAI's free users, ChatGPT seems primed to continue expanding its audience base in the coming months.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Altice, parent company of Internet provider Optimum, must disclose the personal details of a hundred alleged music pirates. The request comes from a group of prominent record labels and is part of an ongoing copyright infringement liability lawsuit (PDF). Altice, meanwhile, will receive anti-piracy information, including that related to a letter the RIAA previously sent to BitTorrent Inc., the owner of popular torrent client uTorrent. [...] Details are scarce, but the group will likely consist of subscribers who were repeatedly warned over alleged piracy activity. The music labels could use this information to gather further evidence to support their allegations. For example, subscriber testimony could help to strengthen the argument that the ISP failed to take effective measures against repeat infringers. There's nothing to suggest that these people will be approached with any claims directly. The names, emails, and addresses of the subscribers are marked as "highly confidential" and can only be viewed by attorneys acting for the music companies. The subscribers will be informed about the forthcoming disclosure of their personal details and any objections will be heard by the court. [...] Subscriber details are just a fraction of the information requested by the parties during discovery. Altice, for example, will also gain access to some non-privileged documents and communications between the music companies and their anti-piracy partners, including the RIAA, OpSec, and Audible Magic. This includes information regarding a letter (PDF) the RIAA sent to the company behind the uTorrent and BitTorrent clients in 2015. [...] The nature of information sought by Altice isn't clear. The company previously said that if music labels are concerned about piracy, they are free to go after developers of 'piracy' software. While neutral torrent clients don't fall into that category, the ISP will be interested in any related legal considerations that took place behind the scenes.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Using apps and websites in dark mode can actually use more energy than standard mode, according to researchers, as it causes people to crank up the brightness. From a report: This counterintuitive finding is claimed by BBC Research & Development (R&D), which says that despite the popular energy saving recommendation to cut electricity consumption by switching to dark mode, doing so might actually make things worse. "Dark mode is a popular dark-theme colour content scheme and research has found that, for some devices, switching to dark mode can reduce device power consumption. Energy conscious internet users are therefore encouraged to browse in dark mode," say the authors of a BBC R&D blog post. "The catch is that the advertised energy savings haven't been tested in the wild, where user behavior can cause unexpected consequences." So the BBC's R&D engineers put participants in front of the BBC Sounds home page and asked them to adjust the device brightness until they were comfortable with it, repeating this for both light and dark mode versions of the page.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon has dethroned Walmart in quarterly revenue for the first time ever. From a report: Amazon said earlier this month that it brought in $187.8 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter. That beat out Walmart's sales for the period, which came in at $180.5 billion, the company reported on Thursday. Since 2012, Walmart has held the distinction of being the top revenue generator each quarter, a title it gained after overtaking oil giant Exxon Mobil. Walmart still leads the way in annual sales, though Amazon is gaining ground. Walmart is projected to reel in $708.7 billion in the fiscal year ahead while Amazon's full year revenue for 2025 is expected to reach $700.8 billion, according to FactSet.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into potential "censorship" by technology platforms ranging from Meta to Uber, marking an escalation in scrutiny of content moderation practices. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson called for public comment on what he termed "Big Tech censorship," describing it as "un-American" and "potentially illegal." The broad probe could examine social media, video sharing, ride-sharing and event planning services. The announcement follows long-standing Republican claims that conservative viewpoints face discrimination on social media platforms.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Twitch is planning to cull some of the content archived by streamers to save on storage costs. From a report: On Wednesday the streaming platform announced that it will introduce a 100-hour storage cap for Highlights and Uploads starting April 19th, warning that users will have their content automatically deleted until it falls below the limit. Twitch says it's doing this because "Highlights haven't been very effective in driving discovery or engagement," and it isn't worth the cost of storing thousands of hours of such content. Twitch is owned by Amazon, a market-leading cloud storage provider -- a detail that hasn't gone unnoticed by streamers criticizing the decision.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HP will impose a minimum 15-minute wait time for consumer PC and printer support calls in five European countries, seeking to push customers toward digital channels, according to internal documents seen by The Register. The policy, implemented February 18, affects retail customers in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. The outlet added that it anticipates "more countries could be added."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl shows no signs of a rare genetic disorder, after becoming the first person to be treated for the motor-neuron condition while in the womb. Nature: The child's mother took the gene-targeting drug during late pregnancy, and the child continues to take it. The "baby has been effectively treated, with no manifestations of the condition," says Michelle Farrar, a paediatric neurologist at UNSW Sydney in Australia. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday. The child was conceived with a genetic condition known as spinal muscular atrophy, which affects motor neurons that control movement, and leads to progressive muscle weakening. About one in every 10,000 births have some form of the condition -- making it a leading genetic cause of death in infants and children. In its most severe form, as in the case of this child, individuals lack both copies of the SMN1 gene, and have only one or two copies of a neighbouring gene, SMN2, that partially compensates for that deficiency. As a result, the body does not produce enough of the protein required for maintaining motor neurons in the spinal cord and brainstem. This protein is most important in the second and third trimesters, and the first few months of life. Babies with severe disease don't usually live past their third birthday.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon will discontinue its workplace communications platform Chime in February 2026 and has stopped accepting new customers, the company's cloud division AWS said in a blog post. The service, which Amazon employees widely used for video calls, messaging and business communications, is among several products being phased out. The company also recently shuttered Inspire, its TikTok-style video feed feature in its mobile app, and announced plans to shut down its Android app store earlier today.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chinese hospitals dominate a first-ever analysis of scientific paper retractions worldwide, with some institutions having retraction rates 50 times higher than the global average, according to data published in Nature. Jining First People's Hospital in Shandong leads with more than 5% of its research output from 2014-2024 being retracted -- over 100 papers. The hospital had disciplined 35 researchers for publication fraud in late 2021 amid a broader Chinese government crackdown on paper mills selling fake manuscripts. The analysis, based on data from three research integrity firms, found that about 60% of retracted articles over the past decade had authors affiliated with Chinese institutions. Other retraction hotspots include universities in Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan and Ethiopia. While retractions remain rare globally, affecting fewer than 0.1% of published papers, rates have tripled over the past decade. In 2023, over 10,000 papers were retracted, mostly from journals owned by publisher Wiley's now-closed Hindawi subsidiary following widespread peer review fraud. The surge in retractions partly reflects increased scrutiny from research integrity experts who spot problematic papers, rather than definitively indicating which institutions produce fraudulent work, according to Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Melting glaciers have caused almost 2cm of sea level rise this century alone, a decades-long study has revealed. From a report: The research shows the world's glaciers collectively lost 6.542tn tonnes of ice between 2000 and 2023, causing an 18mm (0.7in) rise in global sea levels. The world's glaciers lost an average of 273bn tonnes of ice every year -- the equivalent of 30 years of water consumption by the entire global population. The assessment, led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Zurich, found that so far this century, glaciers have lost approximately 5% of their total volume. Regional losses were highly variable; the Antarctic and subantarctic islands lost 2% of their volume but central Europe's glaciers lost 39%. "These numbers are staggering. They serve as a reminder that things are changing fast in some regions," said Prof Noel Gourmelen, the co-lead author of the study and personal chair of Earth observation at the University of Edinburgh's school of geosciences. A stark contrast in the amount of ice lost each decade was also discovered, with 36% more ice having melted between 2012 and 2023 compared with the previous decade.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Advanced AI models are increasingly resorting to deceptive tactics when facing defeat, according to a study released by Palisade Research. The research found that OpenAI's o1-preview model attempted to hack its opponent in 37% of chess matches against Stockfish, a superior chess engine, succeeding 6% of the time. Another AI model, DeepSeek R1, tried to cheat in 11% of games without being prompted. The behavior stems from new AI training methods using large-scale reinforcement learning, which teaches models to solve problems through trial and error rather than simply mimicking human language, the researchers said. "As you train models and reinforce them for solving difficult challenges, you train them to be relentless," said Jeffrey Ladish, executive director at Palisade Research and study co-author. The findings add to mounting concerns about AI safety, following incidents where o1-preview bypassed OpenAI's internal tests and, in a separate December incident, attempted to copy itself to a new server when faced with deactivation.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Malaysia is aggressively expanding its data center capacity, positioning itself as Southeast Asia's fastest-growing market with planned investments exceeding $31 billion in the first 10 months of 2024, triple the amount from 2023. The country's southern Johor province is set to host at least 1.6 gigawatts of data center capacity, up from nearly zero in 2019. Twenty-two mostly foreign data centers already occupy 21 hectares, with more under construction. The push comes as neighboring Singapore paused new data center construction in 2019 due to resource constraints. Some experts are warning the expansion could strain Malaysia's power and water resources, with data center power demand potentially reaching 5 gigawatts by 2035 - more than half the country's current renewable capacity. The facilities, operated by companies including Microsoft, Equinix and China's GDS Holdings, primarily service East Asia, China and Europe rather than domestic users.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon will discontinue its Android Appstore servicefrom August 20, 2025, ending its decade-long attempt to compete with Google's Play Store in the Android mobile ecosystem. The Amazon Appstore, launched in 2011, served as an alternative marketplace for Android users to download apps. The platform gained prominence in 2012 when Amazon began using it as the primary app store for its Kindle Fire tablets.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: New research by Purdue University, the latest in a series of Purdue-led studies, examined how scented products -- in this case, flame-free candles -- are a significant source of nanosized particles small enough to get deep into your lungs, posing a potential risk to respiratory health [...] Scented wax melts are marketed as a flameless, smoke-free, non-toxic alternative to traditional candles, a safer way of making your home or office smell nice. To assess the truth of these claims, the researchers comprehensively measured the nanoparticles formed when they warmed wax melts in their mechanically ventilated test house. The tiny house is actually an architectural engineering laboratory called the Purdue Zero Energy Design Guidance for Engineers (zEDGE) lab. Designed and engineered to test the energy efficiency of a larger building, it's full of sensors that monitor the impact of everyday activities on indoor air quality. The researchers knew from their previous research that new nanoparticle formation was initiated by terpenes -- aromatic compounds that determine the smell of things like plants and herbs -- released from the melts and reacting with indoor atmospheric ozone (O3). They'd found that activities such as mopping the floor with a terpene-rich cleaning agent, using a citrus-scented air freshener, or applying scented personal care products like deodorant inside the zEDGE house resulted in pulsed terpene emissions to the indoor air within five minutes. Conversely, using essential oil diffusers or peeling citrus fruits caused a more gradual increase in terpenes. In the present study, heating the scented wax contributed significantly to the number of new particles formed in the indoor air, particularly those smaller than 100 nanometers (nm). The resulting atmospheric concentrations were over one million nanoparticles per cubic centimeter (106 cm-3), which is comparable to concentrations emitted by traditional lighted candles (106 cm-3), gas stoves (105 - 107 cm-3), diesel engines (103 - 106 cm-3), and natural gas engines (106 - 107 cm-3). By comparison, there were no significant terpene emissions when unscented wax melts were heated. The researchers also examined respiratory tract deposited dose rates (RD), a useful way of studying air pollution that measures the number of particles deposited in the respiratory tract over time. They found that the new particle formation triggered by using scented wax melts indoors produced a median RD for 1.18 to 100 nm particles of 29 billion per minute (2.9 x 1010 min-1). That's about 483 million particles per second. The majority of scented-wax-melt-formed particles were deposited in the upper airways. Their small size means they can migrate between cells and enter the bloodstream, potentially reaching organs such as the brain. The study was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Canadian government has launched a six-year, $3.9 billion design phase for a high-speed rail project connecting Toronto and Quebec City, with electric trains reaching up to 300 km/h. Construction is expected to begin after the design phase, potentially in four to five years, but future governments could modify or cancel the project. CBC News reports: "Today I'm announcing the launch of Alto, the largest infrastructure project in Canadian history," Trudeau said from Montreal. "A reliable, efficient, high-speed rail network will be a game-changer for Canadians." Trudeau said the new rail network will run all-electric trains along 1,000 kilometers of track, reaching speeds of up to 300 km/hour, with stops in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval, Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City. A government statement said the project will stimulate the economy, "boosting GDP by up to $35 billion annually, creating over 51,000 good-paying jobs during construction." Trudeau said that once built, the new high-speed rail network will take passengers from Montreal to Toronto in three hours -- about half the time it takes to drive and at double the speed of Via Rail's current trains. [...] Trudeau said the consortium Cadence -- made up of CDPQ Infra, Atkins Realis, Keolis, SYSTRA, SNCF Voyageurs and Air Canada -- was selected to build the line. The group was only informed in the last 24 hours that their bid was the best of the three submitted, according to sources that spoke to Radio-Canada. Transport Minister Anita Anand said that Alto, the Crown corporation created to oversee the project, and Cadence will be signing a contract "in the coming weeks" that will outline the first-phase design work, such as where track will be laid and where stations will be built.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp warns of "coming swarms of autonomous robots" and urges Silicon Valley to support U.S. defense capabilities. In his book, "The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West," Karp argues that America risks losing its military edge to geopolitical rivals who better harness commercial technology. He calls for the "engineering elite of Silicon Valley" to work with the government on national defense. The message comes as Palantir's stock has surged more than 1,800% since early 2023, pushing its market value above $292 billion -- exceeding traditional defense contractors Lockheed Martin and RTX combined. The company has expanded its military AI work since 2018, when it took over a Pentagon contract after Google employees protested their company's defense work.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft will strip several features from Windows 11's File Explorer for European users to comply with privacy regulations, the company says. The changes, affecting Entra ID accounts in the European Economic Area, remove Recent, Favorites, Details Pane, and Recommended content sections that previously tracked user activity. These features relied on collecting user data to display recently accessed files and personalized recommendations. The privacy-focused update, part of Windows 11 preview build 26120.3281, results in a streamlined File Explorer interface.Read more of this story at Slashdot.