Sci-Tech news

• What happens when AI meets robotics?

  11-03-2018 02:39 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers in Texas aim to create robots that can cope with our messy world.
  
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• The telltale sign that exposes a narcissistic woman, according to new study

  22-09-2026 21:51 via dailymail.com
  
  A narcissistic woman may be harder to spot than many people realize. But a new study has found that how a woman handles betrayal can reveal hidden personality traits.
  
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• ABBYY gives old-school OCR a job in the AI pipeline

  22-09-2026 19:15 via theregister.com
  
  ABBYY has packaged its FineReader OCR engine as a self-hosted tool for turning documents into structured text that AI systems can use. The company's new FineParser runs in a Docker container on a CPU, without requiring a GPU. It aims to preserve the layout of a document as it extracts its contents. It takes images of documents, in multiple languages, and turns them into structured, formatted text – so that they can be processed using, for instance, modern generative AI LLMs. This isn't its
  
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• NightmareEclipse's latest zero-day leaves Microsoft Defender stuck in the past

  22-09-2026 18:36 via theregister.com
  
  Serial Microsoft zero-day leaker NightmareEclipse has found another way to mess with Windows Defender, this time by stopping the antivirus from updating itself. The security researcher, also known as Abdelhamid Naceri, released a proof-of-concept dubbed “BigDiskBuster” that is designed to prevent Microsoft Defender Antivirus from installing platform and security intelligence updates. “Made a funny tool, completely denies defender from updating so you're stuck with your current
  
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• Z.ai says sorry for slurping up your code, open sources ZCode

  22-09-2026 17:59 via theregister.com
  
  Chinese AI giant Z.ai has apologized after developers caught it pulling a Grok, packaging up and uploading user workspaces to cloud storage. In a case that’s highly reminiscent of the issues over which Elon Musk’s xAI was scrutinized in July, Z.ai’s code-generation harness wing, ZCode, was found packaging and git-encrypting entire user workspaces, including complete project histories, and shipping them off to Alibaba Cloud. Worse still, the private key used to decrypt the data
  
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• Privacy group slams EU for changing the data rules to cater to AI

  22-09-2026 17:30 via theregister.com
  
  The campaign group which forced the EU's highest court to strike down past US-EU data sharing deals has slammed the latest changes to European data protection laws designed to accommodate AI. Led by Austrian lawyer Max Schrems, None of Your Business (noyb) claims the proposal to alter the data protection legislation “in the context of AI” amounts to an abandonment of data protection principles. In September, the Commission said it would launch an “ambitious program” to st
  
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• Want your teenager to get better marks at school? Pay them to sleep, scientists say

  22-09-2026 17:25 via dailymail.com
  
  If getting your grumpy teenager to bed feels like an impossible battle, scientists may have found an unlikely solution: pay them.
  
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• Who signed off on that AI agent? Nobody? Thought so.

  22-09-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  If you were in any doubt that AI agents are capable of complex autonomous work, that skepticism should have faded this summer. In July, news emerged that an autonomous swarm of OpenAI agents running in a sandbox broke out of it, of their own accord. Tasked with solving some challenges on an internal security benchmark, they worked out how to communicate with each other using the JFrog Artifactory package manager. The software then realized that they could use vulnerabilities in that software to
  
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• UK Cops arrest 2 EvilTokens suspects, Microsoft seizes 50 phishing kit websites

  22-09-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  A coalition of law enforcement and private-sector tech companies led by Microsoft have disrupted the EvilTokens phishing service, arresting suspected website admins, taking down more than 50 websites, and notifying victims of compromised email accounts. EvilTokens is a notorious Microsoft device-code phishing kit that emerged in February, and, within months of launching, had been used by criminals to compromise 12,000 email inboxes across more than 10,000 organizations worldwide. Like other simi
  
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• Rare nor'easter to slam 13 states with hurricane-force winds and 12-foot waves starting TODAY: 'Very serious situation'

  22-09-2026 16:59 via dailymail.com
  
  Flood warnings and high wind alerts have been issued as millions of Americans are expected to be impacted by an early season nor'easter sweeping over the US.
  
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• Staff at AI companies are being signed off work with stress - as many complain of the mental toll of working on systems they fear could destroy society

  22-09-2026 16:53 via dailymail.com
  
  Staff at leading AI companies and safety institutions are being signed off from work with stress, according to a new report
  
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• Gen Z are in a sex RECESSION, study reveals - with a fifth reporting they've never had a partner

  22-09-2026 16:20 via dailymail.com
  
  They are the generation that grew up with Tinder, Bumble and social media at their fingertips. But Gen Z are in a sex recession, according to a new study.
  
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• Well-done hack flames 3.2M Burger King Russia users

  22-09-2026 16:13 via theregister.com
  
  Russian Burger King patrons have been left with a bad taste after cyber crooks flame-broiled 3.2 million customers in a whopper of a breach, serving up their personal data for anyone hungry enough to consume it. Troy Hunt’s Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) slurped up all the data leaked after the August 2024 attack on Mindbox, Burger King Russia’s marketing platform, concluding that miscreants had grilled the platform and extracted tasty morsels of customers’ basic personal information
  
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• Sick of wearing sweaty headphones after the gym? Beats 360 feature interchangeable cushions that can be swapped in and out in seconds

  22-09-2026 16:06 via dailymail.com
  
  Called Beats 360, the £299.95 headphones are sold alongside a range of ear cups and headband cushions, which can be swapped in and out in seconds.
  
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• Category 5 hurricane explodes in the Pacific as models reveal potential path toward several US states

  22-09-2026 16:00 via dailymail.com
  
  Hurricane Polo developed into a monster Category 5 storm Tuesday morning. Forecasting models show potential paths of its remnants hitting several US states over the next few days.
  
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• EU datacenter green scorecard finally escapes Brussels

  22-09-2026 15:32 via theregister.com
  
  Brussels has adopted its long-awaited sustainability rating scheme for energy-guzzling datacenters, with minimum performance standards potentially next. The European Commission this week unveiled its Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package. It includes a common EU rating scheme and electronic label intended to make facilities' environmental performance easier to compare. A separate 12-week consultation asks whether minimum standards should be introduced to phase out the least efficient technologie
  
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• Register reader hit with surprise bill after Microsoft portals disagreed

  22-09-2026 15:00 via theregister.com
  
  A synchronization issue between Microsoft systems left at least one customer facing an unexpected bill after two portals showed different credit balances. A Register reader found themself on the hook for $16,000 in September after a balance that looked healthy had actually hit rock bottom and a subscription switched to pay-as-you-go. Our reader was one of many who signed up for Microsoft for Startups, a program that offers eligible businesses credits and other resources to build on Microsoft&rsq
  
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• Civo plots 40 edge datacenters to power Britain's sovereign AI

  22-09-2026 14:13 via theregister.com
  
  UK cloud provider Civo plans to build 40 edge datacenters to bring sovereign AI services closer to customers, with the first due to open in Hertfordshire by March 2027. The longer-term target is 1 GW of capacity across the country, with Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 systems providing the computing power to run AI applications from UK-owned facilities. The Hertfordshire site is expected to open with 8 MW of capacity and eventually expand to 38 MW. Civo says it has secured five further sites in Lancashi
  
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• Why is it still so warm in the UK? Met Office predicts temperatures could hit 26C in late-September heatwave - as furious Brits plead 'please give us a break'

  22-09-2026 13:57 via dailymail.com
  
  The Met Office predicts that southern areas could reach 26°C today, while people in the north can expect balmy highs of 22°C.
  
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• Campaigners tell Burnham not to trade away the UK's tech tax to please Trump

  22-09-2026 13:38 via theregister.com
  
  Campaigners are urging Prime Minister Andy Burnham to defend the UK's Digital Services Tax (DST) when he meets Donald Trump in New York later today. Civil society organizations have written to Burnham and Chancellor John Healey, asking them to resist pressure to scrap the tax. Trump regards it as one of the European levies that create unfair trade barriers for US companies and has threatened the UK with a "big tariff" if it keeps the DST. Introduced in 2020, the DST applies a 2 percent tax to ce
  
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• Six-year-old Chinese girl sets new Rubik's Cube world record with average time under 4.5 seconds

  22-09-2026 13:36 via dailymail.com
  
  Lian Yunzhi broke the record for the 3x3x3 puzzle twice in just three days during competitions in Wuhan and Guangzho
  
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• Why is it still so warm in the UK? Met Office predicts temperatures could hit 26°C in late-September heatwave - as furious Brits plead 'please give us a break'

  22-09-2026 13:16 via dailymail.com
  
  The Met Office predicts that southern areas could reach 26°C today, while people in the north can expect balmy highs of 22°C.
  
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• Man vs robot: Influencer takes on 6ft humanoid in a terrifying cage fight - and it doesn't end well for him

  22-09-2026 13:15 via dailymail.com
  
  It might sound like the plot of a bonkers sci-fi film, but the world has now witnessed the very first human vs robot boxing match.
  
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• Super El Niño breaks the temperature record months BEFORE its peak - as scientists warn it will be largest in at least 1,000 years

  22-09-2026 13:12 via dailymail.com
  
  Super El Niño has broken temperature records months before it reaches its peak, experts have revealed.
  
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• NHS Trust IT blunder overwrites 11 years of maternity records

  22-09-2026 12:45 via theregister.com
  
  Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust managed to overwrite a maternity database spanning more than a decade after someone forgot to change a setting in a reused set of computer instructions. The mishap happened on August 18, when staff carrying out routine technical work to copy a radiotherapy database for reporting used a set of pre-written instructions that had previously been run against another hospital system. There was just one problem: a setting needed changing first, and nobody chang
  
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• Longtime SUSE staff asked if they'd opt for 'voluntary separation'

  22-09-2026 12:00 via theregister.com
  
  SUSE has offered "voluntary separation" to eligible employees as the veteran Linux vendor reshapes its business, The Register can confirm. One source said People, Strategy and Transformation Executive Lisa Sherwell contacted them with the offer after an online company meeting broadcast from Singapore, during which executives joked about being past their own sell-by dates. Asked about the program, a SUSE representative told us: "As part of our ongoing efforts to align our business structure with
  
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• Commodore's forgotten Amiga Unix gets a modern revival

  22-09-2026 11:15 via theregister.com
  
  A vintage Unix window manager and an entire vintage UNIX operating system that uses it have received modern updates. Yes, AI helped, but we're here for it. The Commodore Amiga is one of the best-loved computers of the 1980s: The Register celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015. Its many fans remember it primarily as a home computer and, in its day, the ultimate games machine. Later in the Amiga's life, however, Commodore hoped to sell its more powerful models as Unix workstations. In 1991, Commo
  
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• GOV.UK founder warns AI gold rush could leave Britain locked in

  22-09-2026 10:30 via theregister.com
  
  Britain risks swapping its dependence on foreign technology suppliers for an even deeper reliance on a handful of AI providers, according to GOV.UK founder Mike Bracken. Bracken, who founded the Government Digital Service (GDS) and served as the UK's first Government Chief Data Officer, says governments and other institutions are gradually giving up control over critical systems as they pile more technology dependencies onto their operations. "Institutions rarely lose sovereignty in a crisis. Th
  
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• Alibaba Cloud plans six-year stroll to 20GW of datacenters, reveals chip to power them

  22-09-2026 07:42 via theregister.com
  
  Chinese tech giant Alibaba has outlined an ambition to expand its datacenter fleet to 20GW of capacity, and chip that will help it get there. CEO Eddie Wu announced those ambitions today at Alibaba’s Apsara conference, where he delivered a speech that likened current AI applications to light bulbs, because electric light was an early application of electricity but the really important stuff came along decades later. He also compared AI to steam engines. “Steam and combustion engines
  
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• Early Reader Weighs In On Crucible of Tokens

  22-09-2026 05:26 via technocracy.news
  
  Crucible of Tokens is the capstone of my trilogy, started 10 months ago with The Final Betrayal with Courtenay Turner. Then came The New Economics of Technocracy, which explained the mechanics of “You will own nothing.” Now comes the “gloves off” accusation that tokenization, driven by AI, is going to strip the world bare of real property, in terms of deeds, titles, and ownership in general. Keep your hand on your wallet. Take courage and take cover,  because it&rsqu
  
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