ICT news

• Video Game Libraries Lose Legal Appeal To Emulate Physical Game Collections Online

  25-10-2024 23:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Earlier this year, we reported on the video game archivists asking for a legal DMCA exemption to share Internet-accessible emulated versions of their physical game collections with researchers. Today, the US Copyright Office announced once again that it was denying that request, forcing researchers to travel to far-flung collections for access to the often-rare physical copies of the games they're seeking.In announcing its decision, the Regi
  
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• FBI Investigates Claims China Tried To Hack Donald Trump's Phone

  25-10-2024 23:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Joe Biden's administration is investigating alleged Chinese efforts to hack US telecoms infrastructure amid reports hackers had targeted the phones of former president Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance. Financial Times: The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they were investigating "unauthorised access to commercial telecommunications infrastructure by actors affiliated with the People's Republic of China."
  The statement followed a report in the New York T
  
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• Climate Scientists Respond To Attacks on Objectivity

  25-10-2024 22:41 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Climate scientists who were mocked and gaslighted after speaking up about their fears for the future have said acknowledging strong emotions is vital to their work. From a report: The researchers said these feelings should not be suppressed in an attempt to reach supposed objectivity. Seeing climate experts' fears and opinions about the climate crisis as irrelevant suggests science is separate from society and ultimately weakens it, they said.
  The researchers said they had been subject to ridicu
  
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• Anthropic's AI Can Now Run And Write Code

  25-10-2024 22:01 via slashdot.org
  
  Anthropic's Claude chatbot can now write and run JavaScript code. TechCrunch: Today, Anthropic launched a new analysis tool that helps Claude respond with what the company describes as "mathematically precise and reproducible answers." With the tool enabled -- it's currently in preview -- Claude can perform calculations and analyze data from files like spreadsheets and PDFs, rendering the results as interactive visualizations.
  "Think of the analysis tool as a built-in code sandbox, where Claude
  
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• US Consumer Watchdog Cautions Businesses on Surveillance of Workers

  25-10-2024 21:21 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The top U.S. consumer finance watchdog warned businesses about potential legal problems they could face from using new technology such as artificial intelligence or algorithmic scores to snoop on and evaluate their employees. From a report: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday said "invasive" new tools to monitor workers are governed by a law designed to ensure fairness in credit reporting, giving employees specific rights. Employees have the right to consent to the collection of
  
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• OpenAI Says It Won't Release a Model Called Orion This Year

  25-10-2024 20:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI says that it doesn't intend to release an AI model code-named Orion this year, countering recent reporting on the company's product roadmap. "We don't have plans to release a model code-named Orion this year," a spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. "We do plan to release a lot of other great technology."
  The Verge reported on Thursday that Orion, which is expected to be OpenAI's next frontier model, would launch by December, and that trusted partner
  
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• PayPal To Share Customer Purchase Data with Retailers

  25-10-2024 20:01 via slashdot.org
  
  PayPal will begin sharing detailed customer purchase data, including clothing sizes and shopping preferences, with retailers for targeted advertising starting November 27, the payments company announced in a recent privacy update. The initiative affects PayPal's 391 million active consumer accounts worldwide. While customers can opt out through the app's settings, the GAO reports such opt-out rates typically remain below 7% across financial services.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• San Francisco Billboards Call Out Tech Firms For Not Paying For Open Source

  25-10-2024 19:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Drivers passing through San Francisco have a new roadside distraction to consider: billboards calling out businesses that don't cough up for the open source code that they use. The signs are the work of the Open Source Pledge -- a group that launched earlier this month. It asks businesses that make use of open source code to pledge $2,000 per developer to support projects that develop the code. So far, 25 companies have signed up -- but project co-founder Cha
  
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• Study Finds UBI Results Are Not Positive

  25-10-2024 18:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Seven Spirals writes: A working paper [PDF], published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, studies the employment effects of a guaranteed income by providing $1,000 per month to 1,000 low-income participants for three years, compared to a control group receiving $50 per month. The results show a decrease in labor market participation by 2 percentage points and a reduction of 1.3-1.4 hours in weekly work hours. Most of the additional free time was spent on leisure, and there were no sign
  
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• Hacker Returns $19.3 Million To Drained US Government Crypto Wallet

  25-10-2024 18:26 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A government-controlled wallet that had been drained of $20 million on Thursday received most of its funds back Friday, adding another layer of mystery to transactions flagged by blockchain analysts as likely being connected to a high-profile theft. From a report: The pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT had said in a tweet Thursday that the transfers resembled the playbook of a bad actor. Engaging with several decentralized finance protocols, the wallet had also tapped so-called instant excha
  
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• 'We Don't Know Where the Tipping Point Is': Climate Expert on Potential Collapse of Atlantic Circulation

  25-10-2024 17:21 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Scientists from 15 countries warned in an open letter that the potential collapse of the Atlantic Ocean's main circulation system (AMOC) has been "greatly underestimated" and could have devastating global impacts, according to oceanographer Stefan Rahmstorf who spoke to The Guardian. The AMOC system, which moves heat through the northern Atlantic and influences weather patterns across Europe, has shown signs of weakening over the past 60-70 years due to global warming, with indicators including
  
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• Microsoft Bets on Latest 'Call of Duty' To Power Up Video Games Strategy

  25-10-2024 16:46 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is seeking to boost its video games business with the release of the latest instalment of the Call of Duty franchise on Friday, pushing to increase subscription revenues through the new game to offset falling Xbox console sales. Financial Times: Black Ops 6 is the first of the best-selling series to be launched on the tech giant's Game Pass subscription service. It represents the biggest test of the company's gaming strategy [non-paywalled link] since its $75bn deal to acquire Activisi
  
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• Polish Radio Station Replaces Journalists With AI 'Presenters'

  25-10-2024 15:00 via radio.slashdot.org
  
  OFF Radio Krakow sparked controversy by replacing its journalists with AI-generated presenters in an experiment to attract younger audiences. CNN Business reports: Weeks after letting its journalists go, OFF Radio Krakow relaunched this week, with what it said was âoethe first experiment in Poland in which journalists ... are virtual characters created by AI." The station in the southern city of Krakow said its three avatars are designed to reach younger listeners by speaking about cultura
  
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• SpaceX Brings Home Astronauts After Boeing's Starliner Delays Extend ISS Mission

  25-10-2024 14:15 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Four astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday after their record ISS mission stretched to eight months due to Boeing capsule malfunctions and hurricane disruptions. The SpaceX Dragon capsule landed off Florida's coast before dawn, carrying NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
  Technical issues with Boeing's Starliner capsule in September, followed by Hurricane Milton and persistent rough seas, delayed their pla
  
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• Europe In Talks With SpaceX On Tackling Space Junk

  25-10-2024 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The European Space Agency is in talks with SpaceX about the possibility of Elon Musk's space venture joining an international charter designed to reduce a growing swarm of debris in space, Director General Josef Aschbacher told Reuters. The 22-nation agency is spearheading one of several efforts to roll back the mass of space junk swirling round the planet from past missions that poses a risk to active satellites. Aschbacher said 110 countries or
  
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• UnitedHealth Says Change Healthcare Hack Affects Over 100 Million

  25-10-2024 09:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  UnitedHealth Group said a ransomware attack in February resulted in more than 100 million individuals having their private health information stolen. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first reported the figure on Thursday. TechCrunch reports: The ransomware attack and data breach at Change Healthcare stands as the largest known digital theft of U.S. medical records, and one of the biggest data breaches in living history. The ramifications for the millions of Americans whose privat
  
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• Carbon Emissions Are Now Growing Faster Than Before the Pandemic

  25-10-2024 05:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: As the world emerged from the lockdowns of the covid-19 pandemic, many countries promised to rebuild their economies in a climate-friendly fashion, amid hopes the recovery effort could accelerate the global journey to net-zero emissions. In reality, the opposite has happened. Instead of a "green recovery," global greenhouse gas emissions are rising much faster now than they did in the decade preceding the global pandemic. Emissions rose 1.3
  
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• Google Photos Will Soon Show You If an Image Was Edited With AI

  25-10-2024 03:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Starting next week, Google Photos will label when an image was edited with AI. The Verge reports: "Photos edited with tools like Magic Editor, Magic Eraser and Zoom Enhance already include metadata based on technical standards from The International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to indicate that they've been edited using generative AI," John Fisher, engineering director of Google Photos, wrote in a blog post. "Now we're taking it a step further, making this information visible alongsid
  
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• Europe's Top Court Rules For Intel To End Long-Running Antitrust Case

  25-10-2024 03:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The EU Court of Justice ruled in favor of Intel, dismissing the European Commission's appeal and ending a nearly two-decade-long case over allegations that Intel's rebates to computer makers were anticompetitive. Reuters reports: The European Commission had fined Intel for giving rebates to computer makers Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel, which regulators said was an attempt to block Advanced Micro Devices. Regulators generally oppose rebates offered by
  
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• Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200S Tested: Competitively Priced With Creator Performance

  25-10-2024 02:20 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  MojoKid writes: Intel has lifted the embargo on independent reviews of its new Core Ultra 200S series Arrow Lake-S processors, which mark a shift in its desktop CPU strategy with symmetrical core/thread counts (no Hyperthreading) and a dedicated 13 TOPS NPU. This series features a disaggregated tiled design for the first time in Intel's desktop chips, focusing on efficiency and power reduction. The Core Ultra 5 245, priced around $300, and the Ultra 9 285K at $589 deliver strong performance, par
  
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• Goodreads' Founder Debuts AI-Powered App For Online Readers

  25-10-2024 01:40 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Smashing, a new app curating the best of the web from Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler, is now available to the public. Like Goodreads, the app aims to create a community around content. But this time, instead of books, the focus is on web content -- like news articles, blog posts, social media posts, podcasts, and more. In addition, Smashing is introducing an AI Questions feature that allows you to engage with the content being shared in di
  
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• Georgian Authorities Raid Homes of Disinformation Researchers Ahead of Elections

  25-10-2024 01:00 via politics.slashdot.org
  
  Ahead of Georgia's parliamentary elections, Georgian authorities raided the homes of disinformation researchers Eto Buziashvili and Sopo Gelava, seizing personal devices. The Record: Eto Buziashvili and Sopo Gelava, both employees of the Atlantic Council think tank, had their homes searched and their own and their family members' personal devices seized by investigators working for the country's Ministry of Finance, according to friends of the pair who spoke to Recorded Future News. Both women a
  
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• Amazon To Shut Down Speedy Brick-and-Mortar Delivery Service

  25-10-2024 00:20 via slashdot.org
  
  Amazon is shutting down its Amazon Today service, which provided same-day delivery from mall and brick-and-mortar retailers. The program will mostly wind down by December 2, 2024, with select partners fulfilling orders until January 2025. CNBC reports: A small amount of employees will be laid off and provided with severance, while others will be transitioned to other positions within Amazon, the company said. Employees who work on Amazon Today learned the news in a meeting on Monday, where some
  
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