ICT news

• AI-Generated Slop Is Already In Your Public Library

  04-02-2025 23:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: Low quality books that appear to be AI generated are making their way into public libraries via their digital catalogs, forcing librarians who are already understaffed to either sort through a functionally infinite number of books to determine what is written by humans and what is generated by AI, or to spend taxpayer dollars to provide patrons with information they don't realize is AI-generated.Public libraries primarily use two companies to manage and lend ebooks: H
  
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• RISC-V Mainboard For the Framework Laptop 13 Is Now Available

  04-02-2025 23:10 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  The DeepComputing RISC-V Mainboard that Framework announced last year for its 13-inch laptops is now available for $199. Liliputing reports: If you already have a Framework Laptop 13 with an Intel or AMD motherboard, the new board is a drop-in replacement. But if you don't have a Framework Laptop you can also use the mainboard as a standalone computer: Framework sells a $39 Cooler Master case that effectively turns its mainboards into mini desktop computers. The RISC-V Mainboard comes from a par
  
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• $42 Billion Broadband Grant Program May Scrap Biden Admin's Preference For Fiber

  04-02-2025 22:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been demanding an overhaul of a $42.45 billion broadband deployment program, and now his telecom policy director has been chosen to lead the federal agency in charge of the grant money. "Congratulations to my Telecom Policy Director, Arielle Roth, for being nominated to lead NTIA," Cruz wrote last night, referring to President Trump's pick to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administratio
  
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• Red Hat Plans to Add AI to Fedora and GNOME

  04-02-2025 21:50 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  In his post about the future of Fedora Workstation, Christian F.K. Schaller discusses how the Red Hat team plans to integrate AI with IBM's open-source Granite engine to enhance developer tools, such as IDEs, and create an AI-powered Code Assistant. He says the team is also working on streamlining AI acceleration in Toolbx and ensuring Fedora users have access to tools like RamaLama. From the post: One big item on our list for the year is looking at ways Fedora Workstation can make use of artifi
  
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• Amazon, King of Online Retail, Can't Seem To Make Its Physical Stores Work

  04-02-2025 20:21 via slashdot.org
  
  Amazon's brick-and-mortar expansion has faltered, WSJ reported Tuesday, as the e-commerce giant plans to close its Amazon Go store in Woodland Hills, California, shrinking the cashierless convenience store chain to 16 locations across four states, down from roughly twice that number in early 2023.
  The company is pivoting to license its "Just Walk Out" technology, now used by more than 200 retailers including colleges and airports, while focusing its physical retail strategy on grocery stores thr
  
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• Cruise To Slash Workforce By Nearly 50% After GM Cuts Funding To Robotaxi Operations

  04-02-2025 19:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Autonomous vehicle company Cruise will lay off about half of its 2,100 employees and remove several top executives, including CEO Marc Whitten, as parent company General Motors shifts away from robotaxi development to focus on personal autonomous vehicles.
  The cuts come two months after GM said it would stop funding Cruise's robotaxi program to save $1 billion annually. Affected workers will receive severance packages including eight weeks of pay and benefits through April. The restructuring fol
  
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• Panasonic To Cut Costs To Support Shift Into AI

  04-02-2025 19:00 via slashdot.org
  
  Panasonic will cut its costs, restructure underperforming units and revamp its workforce as it pivots toward AI data centers and away from its consumer electronics roots, the company said on Tuesday. The Japanese conglomerate aims to boost profits by 300 billion yen ($1.93 billion) by March 2029, partly by consolidating production and logistics operations.
  Bloomberg reports that CEO Yuki Kusumi has declined to confirm if the company would divest its TV business but said alternatives were being c
  
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• Americans Kiss Job Hopping Goodbye

  04-02-2025 18:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Americans quit 39.6 million jobs in 2024, an 11% drop from 2023 and 22% below the 2022 peak, Labor Department data showed Tuesday, signaling an end to the post-pandemic job-switching frenzy. The monthly quit rate fell below pre-pandemic levels as workers faced diminishing options in a cooling labor market. Available positions per unemployed worker dropped to 1.1 from 2 in March 2022, while hiring declined to a monthly average of 3.5% in 2024 from 4.4% in 2021.
  Total hiring fell to 66 million in
  
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• Microsoft Quietly Makes It Harder To Install Windows 11 on Old PCs Ahead of Windows 10's End of Support

  04-02-2025 17:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has intensified efforts to block unsupported Windows 11 installations, removing documentation about bypassing system requirements and flagging third-party workaround tools as potential malware. The move comes as Windows 10 approaches end of support in October 2025, when users must either continue without updates, upgrade to Windows 11, or purchase new hardware compatible with Windows 11's TPM 2.0 requirement.
  Microsoft Defender now identifies Flyby11, a popular tool for installing Wind
  
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• Lung Cancer Diagnoses On the Rise Among Never-Smokers Worldwide

  04-02-2025 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The proportion of people being diagnosed with lung cancer who have never smoked is increasing, with air pollution an "important factor," the World Health Organization's cancer agency has said. From a report: Lung cancer in people who have never smoked cigarettes or tobacco is now estimated to be the fifth highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Lung cancer in never-smokers is also occurring almost exclusively as adenocarcinom
  
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• Chris Anderson Is Giving TED Away To Whoever Has the Best Idea for Its Future

  04-02-2025 16:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Chris Anderson, who transformed TED from a small conference into a global platform for sharing ideas, announced today he's stepping down after 25 years at the helm. The nonprofit's leader is seeking new ownership through an unusual open call for proposals. Anderson told WIRED he wants potential buyers -- whether universities, philanthropic organizations, media companies or tech firms -- to demonstrate both vision and financial capacity.
  The organization, which charges $12,500 for its flagship co
  
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• Microsoft Veteran Ponders World Where Toothbrushes Need Reboots

  04-02-2025 15:41 via it.slashdot.org
  
  New submitter mastazi writes: In his latest post, veteran Microsoft developer Raymond Chen reflects on what it means living in a world where you might need to reboot your toothbrush, or perform a firmware update to your shoes!Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• China Launches Antitrust Investigation Into Google

  04-02-2025 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  China said Tuesday it has launched an antitrust investigation into Google, part of a swift retaliation after the U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods. From a report: The probe by China's State Administration for Market Regulation will examine alleged monopolistic practices by the U.S. tech giant, which has had its search and internet services blocked in China since 2010 but maintains operations there primarily focused on advertising.Read more of this story at Slashdo
  
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• Popular Linux Orgs Freedesktop, Alpine Linux Are Scrambling For New Web Hosting

  04-02-2025 14:00 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In what is becoming a sadly regular occurrence, two popular free software projects, X.org/Freedesktop.org and Alpine Linux, need to rally some of their millions of users so that they can continue operating. Both services have largely depended on free server resources provided by Equinix (formerly Packet.net) and its Metal division for the past few years. Equinix announced recently that it was sunsetting its bare-metal sales and services, or
  
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• CISA Partners with ASD’s ACSC, CCCS, NCSC-UK, and Other International and US Organizations to Release Guidance on Edge Devices

  04-02-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA—in partnership with international and U.S. organizations—released guidance to help organizations protect their network edge devices and appliances, such as firewalls, routers, virtual private networks (VPN) gateways, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, internet-facing servers, and internet-facing operational technology (OT) systems. The published guidance is as follows:“Security Considerations for Edge Devices,” led by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), a p
  
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• AI Systems With 'Unacceptable Risk' Are Now Banned In the EU

  04-02-2025 10:00 via slashdot.org
  
  AI systems that pose "unacceptable risk" or harm can now be banned in the European Union. Some of the unacceptable AI activities include social scoring, deceptive manipulation, exploiting personal vulnerabilities, predictive policing based on appearance, biometric-based profiling, real-time biometric surveillance, emotion inference in workplaces or schools, and unauthorized facial recognition database expansion. TechCrunch reports: Under the bloc's approach, there are four broad risk levels: (1)
  
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• Salesforce Cutting 1,000 Roles While Hiring Salespeople for AI

  04-02-2025 05:02 via slashdot.org
  
  Salesforce is cutting jobs as its latest fiscal year gets underway, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter, even as the company simultaneously hires workers to sell new artificial intelligence products. From the report: More than 1,000 roles will be affected, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Displaced workers will be able to apply for other jobs internally, the person added. Salesforce had nearly 73,000 worke
  
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• CERN's Mark Thomson: AI To Revolutionize Fundamental Physics

  04-02-2025 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Advanced artificial intelligence is to revolutionize fundamental physics and could open a window on to the fate of the universe, according to Cern's next director general. Prof Mark Thomson, the British physicist who will assume leadership of Cern on 1 January 2026, says machine learning is paving the way for advances in particle physics that promise to be comparable to the AI-powered prediction of protein structures that earned Google DeepM
  
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• Bonobos Can Tell When They Know Something You Don't

  04-02-2025 02:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A study found that bonobos can recognize when someone lacks knowledge they possess and take action to help, demonstrating a basic form of theory of mind. This suggests that the ability to understand others' perspectives is evolutionarily older than previously thought and may have existed in our common ancestors to enhance cooperation and coordination. New Scientist reports: [W]e have been missing clear evidence from controlled settings that primates can track a perspective that differs from thei
  
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• Senator Hawley Proposes Jail Time For People Who Download DeepSeek

  04-02-2025 01:50 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Senator Josh Hawley has introduced a bill that would criminalize the import, export, and collaboration on AI technology with China. What this means is that "someone who knowingly downloads a Chinese developed AI model like the now immensely popular DeepSeek could face up to 20 years in jail, a million dollar fine, or both, should such a law pass," reports 404 Media. From the report: Hawley introduced the legislation, titled the Decoupling America's Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China
  
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• TSA's Airport Facial-Recognition Tech Faces Audit Probe

  04-02-2025 01:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has launched an audit of the TSA's use of facial recognition technology at U.S. airports following concerns from lawmakers and privacy advocates. The Register reports: Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari notified a bipartisan group of US Senators who had asked for such an investigation last year that his office has announced an audit of TSA facial recognition technology in a letter [PDF] sent to the group Friday. "We have rev
  
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• Judge Denies Apple's Attempt To Intervene In Google Search Antitrust Trial

  04-02-2025 00:32 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A US District Court judge denied Apple's emergency request to halt the Google Search monopoly trial, ruling that Apple failed to show sufficient grounds for a stay. The Verge reports: Apple said last week that it needs to be involved in the Google trial because it does not want to lose "the ability to defend its right to reach other arrangements with Google that could benefit millions of users and Apple's entitlement to compensation for distributing Google search to its users." The remedies phas
  
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