ICT news

• AI Summaries Turn Real News Into Nonsense, BBC Finds

  12-02-2025 23:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A BBC study published yesterday (PDF) found that AI news summarization tools frequently generate inaccurate or misleading summaries, with 51% of responses containing significant issues. The Register reports: The research focused on OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini, and Perplexity assistants, assessing their ability to provide "accurate responses to questions about the news; and if their answers faithfully represented BBC news stories used as sources." The assistants were gr
  
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• OpenAI Cancels Its o3 AI Model In Favor of a 'Unified' Next-Gen Release

  12-02-2025 22:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI has canceled the release of o3 in favor of a "simplified" product lineup. CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X that, in the coming months, OpenAI will release a model called GPT-5 that "integrates a lot of [OpenAI's] technology," including o3. TechCrunch reports: The company originally said in December that it planned to launch o3 sometime early this year. Just a few weeks ago, Kevin Weil, OpenAI's chief product officer, said in an interview that o3 was on track for a "February-March" launc
  
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• Apple Now Lets You Move Purchases Between Your 25 Years of Accounts

  12-02-2025 22:10 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last night, Apple posted a new support document about migrating purchases between accounts, something that Apple users with long online histories have been waiting on for years, if not decades. If you have movies, music, or apps orphaned on various iTools/.Mac/MobileMe/iTunes accounts that preceded what you're using now, you can start the fairly involved process of moving them over."You can choose to migrate apps, music, and other content yo
  
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• Oracle's Ellison Calls for Governments To Unify Data To Feed AI

  12-02-2025 19:56 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  Oracle co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison said governments should consolidate all national data for consumption by AI models, calling this step the "missing link" for them to take full advantage of the technology. From a report: Fragmented sets of data about a population's health, agriculture, infrastructure, procurement and borders should be unified into a single, secure database that can be accessed by AI models, Ellison said in an on-stage interview with former British Prime Minister Tony
  
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• Opendoor Cuts Jobs in India, Shifts Technical Hiring To Bay Area and Krakow

  12-02-2025 19:10 via slashdot.org
  
  Property group startup Opendoor has cut 65 jobs, mostly in India, and is shifting technical hiring to Bay Area and Krakow (Poland).
  Opendoor said in a statement: "As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency, optimize talent, and streamline operations, we have made the decision to consolidate our Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD) team structure. Moving forward, we will focus our technical hiring efforts in two main hubs: the Bay Area, California and Krakow, Poland."Read more of this
  
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• Google Will Use Machine Learning To Estimate a User's Age

  12-02-2025 18:33 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google will soon use machine learning to estimate the age of its users. From a report: In an update on Wednesday, Google said it's testing a machine learning model in the US to help determine whether someone is under 18, allowing it to "provide more age-appropriate experiences" across its platforms. The age estimation model will use existing data about users, including the sites they visit, what kinds of videos they watch on YouTube, and how long they've had an account to determine their age.Rea
  
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• Tech Leaders Hold Back on AI Agents Despite Vendor Push, Survey Shows

  12-02-2025 17:50 via slashdot.org
  
  Most corporate tech leaders are hesitant to deploy AI agents despite vendors' push for rapid adoption, according to a Wall Street Journal CIO Network Summit poll on Tuesday. While 61% of attendees at the Menlo Park summit said they are experimenting with AI agents, which perform automated tasks, 21% reported no usage at all.
  Reliability concerns and cybersecurity risks remain key barriers, with 29% citing data privacy as their primary concern. OpenAI, Microsoft and Sierra are urging businesses n
  
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• Children's Arithmetic Skills Do Not Transfer Between Applied and Academic Mathematics

  12-02-2025 17:05 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Children working in India's fruit and vegetable markets can perform complex mental calculations with ease, yet struggle with basic written math tests that determine their academic future, according to new research that raises troubling questions about mathematics education worldwide.
  The study, published in Nature, reveals how traditional education systems are failing to tap into the mathematical talents of students who develop practical skills outside the classroom, particularly those from lowe
  
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• Apple Explores Robotics Push For Smart Home Market, Analyst Says

  12-02-2025 16:22 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple is developing robots for its smart home ecosystem, though mass production is unlikely to begin before 2028, according to widely reliable TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The project remains in early proof-of-concept testing, with Apple exploring both humanoid and non-humanoid designs, he wrote in a post on X.
  The company is focusing on how users interact with robots rather than their physical appearance, prioritizing sensing hardware and software as core technologies, Kuo said. The tech
  
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• Google Fixes Flaw That Could Unmask YouTube Users' Email Addresses

  12-02-2025 15:43 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Google has fixed two vulnerabilities that, when chained together, could expose the email addresses of YouTube accounts, causing a massive privacy breach for those using the site anonymously.
  The flaws were discovered by security researchers Brutecat (brutecat.com) and Nathan (schizo.org), who found that YouTube and Pixel Recorder APIs could be used to obtain user's Google Gaia IDs and convert them into their email addresses. The ability to convert a YouTube c
  
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• Ex-Google Chief Warns West To Focus On Open-Source AI in Competition With China

  12-02-2025 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Former Google chief Eric Schmidt has warned that western countries need to focus on building open-source AI models or risk losing out to China in the global race to develop the cutting-edge technology. From a report: The warning comes after Chinese startup DeepSeek shocked the world last month with the launch of R1, its powerful-reasoning open large language model, which was built in a more efficient way than its US rivals such as OpenAI.
  Schmidt, who has become a significant tech investor and p
  
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• How 3D-Printed Parts Changed the NASCAR Cup Series

  12-02-2025 14:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Popular Science: In 2021, NASCAR unveiled its Next Gen platform that included a number of rule changes from the previous iteration. Now fully symmetrical and using composite body panels instead of metal, the latest NASCAR vehicles are more like the street versions of the Chevrolet Camaro, the Ford Mustang, and the Toyota TRD Camry. Race car driving isn't an inexpensive sport, and one of the goals for the Next Gen platform was to reduce operat
  
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• CISA and FBI Warn of Malicious Cyber Actors Using Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities to Compromise Software

  12-02-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have released a Secure by Design Alert, Eliminating Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities, as part of their cooperative Secure by Design Alert series—an ongoing series aimed at advancing industry-wide best practices to eliminate entire classes of vulnerabilities during the design and development phases of the product lifecycle. “Eliminating Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities” describes proven techniques to prevent or mitigate buffer ove
  
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• Man Who Hijacked SEC's X Account To Pump Bitcoin Faces Up To 5 Years In Prison

  12-02-2025 11:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Eric Council Jr. pleaded guilty to identity theft and access device fraud after hijacking the SEC's X account to falsely announce Bitcoin ETF approval. He was compensated in Bitcoin by co-conspirators, and while the Justice Department continues its investigation, Council faces up to five years in prison. Gizmodo reports: According to the Justice Department, Council accessed the SEC's account using an attack called SIM swapping, in which a perpetrator uses social engineering to trick a phone carr
  
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• The Mystery Behind the Best UFO Picture Ever Seen

  12-02-2025 08:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  In August 1990, two hikers in Scotland captured photographs of a mysterious diamond-shaped aircraft accompanied by a Harrier jet, but the images and story were suppressed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for decades. Was it a prank, a hoax, an optical illusion or something else entirely? The Guardian's Daniel Lavelle reports on "what really happened in Calvine." Here's an excerpt: On a misty evening in August 1990, two men hiking on the moors surrounding Calvine, a pretty hamlet in Perth and Kin
  
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• New Hack Uses Prompt Injection To Corrupt Gemini's Long-Term Memory

  12-02-2025 04:30 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, researcher Johann Rehberger demonstrated a new way to override prompt injection defenses Google developers have built into Gemini -- specifically, defenses that restrict the invocation of Google Workspace or other sensitive tools when processing untrusted data, such as incoming emails or shared documents. The result of Rehberger's attack is the permanent planting of long-term memories that will be present in all future sessions, o
  
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• 'Ne Zha 2' Becomes First Non-Hollywood Film To Hit $1 Billion

  12-02-2025 02:40 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Chinese animated film Ne Zha 2 has broken multiple box office records, becoming China's highest-grossing film of all time and the first non-Hollywood movie to surpass $1 billion in a single market. From a report: Helmed by Yang Yu, known as Jiaozi, the film hit the big screen during the lucrative Chinese New Year frame on Jan. 29, surpassing 2017's "Wolf Warrior 2" to become China's most-watched film. Meanwhile, its total revenue (including presales) hit 8 billion yuan (about 1.12 billion U.S. d
  
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• 'Serial Swatter' Who Made Nearly 400 Threatening Calls Gets 4 Years In Prison

  12-02-2025 02:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Alan W. Filion, an 18-year-old from Lancaster, Calif., was sentenced to four years in prison for making nearly 400 false bomb threats and threats of violence (source may be paywalled; alternative source) to religious institutions, schools, universities and homes across the country. The New York Times reports: The threatening calls Mr. Filion made would often cause large deployments of police officers to a targeted location, the Justice Department said in a news release. In some cases, officers w
  
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• KDE Plasma 6.3 Released

  12-02-2025 01:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Today, the KDE Project announced the release of KDE Plasma 6.3, featuring improved fractional scaling, enhanced Night Light color accuracy, better CPU usage monitoring, and various UI and security refinements.Some of the key features of Plasma 6.3 include:- Improved fractional scaling with KWin to lead to an all-around better desktop experience with fractional scaling as well as when making use of KWin's zoom effect.
  - Screen colors are more accurate with the KDE Night Light feature.
  - CPU usage
  
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• Tumblr To Join the Fediverse After WordPress Migration Completes

  12-02-2025 00:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse -- the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen. As it turns out, the current plan to tie Tumblr into the open social web will come about by way of the site's
  
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• PassMark Sees the First Yearly Drop In Average CPU Performance In Its 20 Years

  12-02-2025 00:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  For the first time since 2004, PassMark's global CPU benchmark data shows a decline in average processor performance, with laptop CPUs dropping 3.4% and desktop CPUs falling 0.5% year-over-year. Tom's Hardware reports: We see the biggest drop in laptop CPU performance results. PassMark recorded an average result of 14,632 across 101,316 samples last year. But, in 2025, the average score sat at an average of 14,130 points between 25,541 samples, decreasing the average score by 3.4%. The average d
  
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