ICT news

• California's Governor Just Vetoed Its Controversial AI Bill

  29-09-2024 23:51 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  "California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB 1047, a high-profile bill that would have regulated the development of AI," reports TechCrunch.The bill "would have made companies that develop AI models liable for implementing safety protocols to prevent 'critical harms'."The rules would only have applied to models that cost at least $100 million and use 10^26 FLOPS (floating point operations, a measure of computation) during training.
  SB 1047 was opposed by many in Silicon Valley, including comp
  
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• New Flexible RISC-V Semiconductor Has Great Potential

  29-09-2024 21:38 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "For the first time, scientists have created a flexible programmable chip that is not made of silicon..." reports IEEE Spectrum — opening new possibilities for implantable devices, on-skin computers, brain-machine interfaces, and soft robotics.
  U.K.-based Pragmatic Semiconductor produced an "ultralow-power" 32-bit microprocessor, according to the article, and "The microchip's open-source RISC-V architecture suggests it might cost less than a dollar..." This shows potential for inexpensive
  
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• SpaceX Pausing Launches to Study Falcon 9 Issue on Crew-9 Astronaut Mission

  29-09-2024 20:38 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "SpaceX has temporarily grounded its Falcon 9 rocket," reports Space.com, "after the vehicle experienced an issue on the Crew-9 astronaut launch for NASA."
  Crew-9 lifted off on Saturday (Sept. 28) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aloft aboard the Crew Dragon capsule "Freedom" [for a 5-month stay, returning in February with Starliner's two astronauts]. Everything appeared to go well. The Falcon 9's first
  
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• 67% of American Tech Workers Interested In Joining a Union

  29-09-2024 19:34 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader AsylumWraith writes: Visual Capitalist has posted an article and graph showing that, on average, 67% of US tech workers would be interested in joining a union. The percentage is highest at companies like Intuit, with 94% or respondents indicating they'd be interested in joining a union. On the other end of the scale, fewer than half of the employees at Apple, Tesla, and Google, who were surveyed were interested in such a move.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Are Your Phone's 5G Icon and Signal Bars Lying to You?

  29-09-2024 18:34 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post:Look at the top right corner of your phone. You might see an icon with "5G" and another with vertical bars showing the strength of your internet connection. Those symbols don't mean what you think they do.
  If your phone shows "5G," you're not necessarily connected to the latest and zippiest cellphone network technology. It might just mean that 5G connections are available nearby. And the bars are a cellular version of a shrug. There
  
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• America's FDA Approves First New Drug for Schizophrenia in Over 30 Years

  29-09-2024 17:34 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Thursday America's Food and Drug Administration approved Cobenfy, "the first new drug to treat people with schizophrenia in more than 30 years," reports ABC News:Most schizophrenia medications, broadly known as antipsychotics, work by changing dopamine levels, a brain chemical that affects mood, motivation, and thinking [according to Jelena Kunovac, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the Department of Psychiatry]. Cobenfy
  
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• Clean Energy Should Get Cheaper and Grow Even Faster

  29-09-2024 16:34 via news.slashdot.org
  
  J. Doyne Farmer is the director of the complexity economics program at the Institute for New Economic Thinking in Oxford's research and policy unit. And he reminds us that solar and wind energy "are very likely to get even less expensive and grow quickly," pointing out that "the rate at which a given kind of technology improves is remarkably predictable."The best-known example is Moore's Law... Like computer chips, many other technologies also get exponentially more affordable, though at differe
  
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• Are AI Coding Assistants Really Saving Developers Time?

  29-09-2024 13:34 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Uplevel provides insights from coding and collaboration data, according to a recent report from CIO magazine — and recently they measured "the time to merge code into a repository [and] the number of pull requests merged" for about 800 developers over a three-month period (comparing the statistics to the previous three months).
  Their study "found no significant improvements for developers" using Microsoft's AI-powered coding assistant tool Copilot, according to the article (shared by Slash
  
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• California's Governor Vetoes Bill Requiring Speeding Alerts in New Cars

  29-09-2024 09:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  California governor Gavin Newsom "vetoed a bill Saturday that would have required new cars to beep at drivers if they exceed the speed limit," reports the Associated Press:
  In explaining his veto, Newsom said federal law already dictates vehicle safety standards and adding California-specific requirements would create a patchwork of regulations. The National Highway Traffic Safety "is also actively evaluating intelligent speed assistance systems, and imposing state-level mandates at this time ri
  
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• Can AI Developers Be Held Liable for Negligence?

  29-09-2024 05:34 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Bryan Choi, an associate professor of law and computer science focusing on software safety, proposes shifting AI liability onto the builders of the systems:
  To date, most popular approaches to AI safety and accountability have focused on the technological characteristics and risks of AI systems, while averting attention from the workers behind the curtain responsible for designing, implementing, testing, and maintaining such systems...
  I have previously argued that a negligence-based approach is
  
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• US Transportation Safety Board Issues Urgent Alert About Boeing 737 Rudders

  29-09-2024 04:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  America's National Transportation Safety Board "is issuing 'urgent safety recommendations' for some Boeing 737s..." reports CNN, "warning that critical flight controls could jam."The independent investigative agency is issuing the warning that an actuator attached to the rudder on some 737 NG and 737 MAX airplanes could fail... "Boeing's 737 flight manual instructs pilots confronted with a jammed or restricted rudder to 'overpower the jammed or restricted system (using) maximum force, including
  
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• Why Boeing is Dismissing a Top Executive

  29-09-2024 03:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Last weekend Boeing announced that its CEO of Defense, Space, and Security "had left the company," according to Barrons. "Parting ways like this, for upper management, is the equivalent to firing," they write — though they add that setbacks on Starliner's first crewed test flight is "far too simple an explanation."Starliner might, however, have been the straw that broke the camel's back. [New CEO Kelly] Ortberg took over in early August, so his first material interaction with the Boeing De
  
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• How I Booted Linux On an Intel 4004 from 1971

  29-09-2024 01:07 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Long-time Slashdot reader dmitrygr writes: Debian Linux booted on a 4-bit intel microprocessor from 1971 — the first microprocessor in the world — the 4004. It is not fast, but it is a real Linux kernel with a Debian rootfs on a real board whose only CPU is a real intel 4004 from the 1970s.
  There's a detailed blog post about the experiment. (Its title? "Slowly booting full Linux on the intel 4004 for fun, art, and absolutely no profit.")
  In the post dmitrygr describes testing speed o
  
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• Gen Z Grads Are Being Fired Months After Being Hired

  29-09-2024 00:07 via it.slashdot.org
  
  "After complaining that Gen Z grads are difficult to work with for the best part of two years, bosses are no longer all talk, no action — now they're rapidly firing young workers who aren't up to scratch just months after hiring them," writes Fortune.
  "According to a new report, six in 10 employers say they have already sacked some of the Gen Z workers they hired fresh out of college earlier this year."Intelligent.com, a platform dedicated to helping young professionals navigate the future
  
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