ICT news

• Meta Stops Ex-Director From Promoting Critical Memoir

  13-03-2025 23:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Ancient Slashdot reader Alain Williams shares a report from the BBC: Meta has won an emergency ruling in the US to temporarily stop a former director of Facebook from promoting or further distributing copies of her memoir. The book, Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, who used to be the company's global public policy director, includes a series of critical claims about what she witnessed during her seven years working at Facebook.Facebook's parent company, Meta, says the ruling -- which orde
  
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• Anthropic CEO Floats Idea of Giving AI a 'Quit Job' Button

  13-03-2025 23:02 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei raised a few eyebrows on Monday after suggesting that advanced AI models might someday be provided with the ability to push a "button" to quit tasks they might find unpleasant. Amodei made the provocative remarks during an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations, acknowledging that the idea "sounds crazy.""So this is -- this is another one of those topics that's going to make me sound completely insane," Amod
  
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• Citigroup Plans To Slash IT Contractors, Hire Staff To Improve Controls

  13-03-2025 22:25 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Citigroup plans to dramatically reduce its reliance on IT contractors and hire thousands of employees for IT as the lender grapples with regulatory punishments over data governance and deficient controls. Citigroup's head of technology Tim Ryan told staff in recent weeks that the bank aims to cut back external contractors to 20% of those working in IT from the current 50%, according to an internal presentation to employees seen by Reuters.
  The briefing did no
  
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• Google's Gemini AI Can Now See Your Search History

  13-03-2025 21:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google is continuing its quest to get more people to use Gemini, and it's doing that by giving away even more AI computing. From a report: Today, Google is releasing a raft of improvements for the Gemini 2.0 models, and as part of that upgrade, some of the AI's most advanced features are now available to free users. You'll be able to use the improved Deep Research to get in-depth information on a topic, and Google's newest reasoning model can peruse your search history to improve its understandi
  
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• OpenAI Warns Limiting AI Access To Copyrighted Content Could Give China Advantage

  13-03-2025 21:10 via slashdot.org
  
  OpenAI has warned the U.S. government that restricting AI models from learning from copyrighted material would threaten America's technological leadership against China, according to a proposal submitted [PDF] to the Office of Science and Technology Policy for the AI Action Plan.
  In its March 13 document, OpenAI argues its AI training aligns with fair use doctrine, saying its models don't replicate works but extract "patterns, linguistic structures, and contextual insights" without harming comme
  
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• German Spy Agency Concluded COVID Virus Likely Leaked From Lab

  13-03-2025 20:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Germany's foreign intelligence service in 2020 put at 80%-90% the likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, two German newspapers reported on Wednesday.
  According to a joint report by publications Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung, Germany's spying agency BND had indications that the institute had conducted gain-of-function experiments, whereby viruses are modified to beco
  
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• Microsoft: Recent Windows Updates Make USB Printers Print Random Text

  13-03-2025 19:52 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft says that some USB printers will start printing random text after installing Windows updates released since late January 2025. From a report: The known issue affects Windows 10 (version 22H2) and Windows 11 (versions 22H2 and 23H2), but according to an update to the Windows release health dashboard, the latest Windows 11 24H2 is not impacted.
  "After installing the January 2025 Windows preview update (KB5050092), released January 29, 2025, or later updates, you might observe issues with
  
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• 'Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino'

  13-03-2025 19:14 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Apple's announcement that "more personalized Siri" features of Apple Intelligence would be delayed until "the coming year" reveals a troubling departure from the company's hard-earned reputation for reliability, long-time commentator John Gruber writes. Unlike other Apple Intelligence features that were demonstrated to media in June, the personalized Siri features -- promising personal context awareness, onscreen awareness, and in-app actions -- were never shown working to anyone outside Apple.
  
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• Mozilla Warns DOJ's Google Remedies Risk 'Death of Open Web'

  13-03-2025 18:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Mozilla has warned that the U.S. Department of Justice's proposed remedies in its antitrust case against Google would harm independent browsers and reduce competition in the browser market. The DOJ and several state attorneys general last week filed revised proposed remedies in the U.S. v. Google search case that would prohibit all search payments to browser developers, a move Mozilla says would disproportionately impact smaller players.
  "These proposed remedies prohibiting search payments to sm
  
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• Man Survives With Titanium Heart For 100 Days - a World First

  13-03-2025 18:03 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An Australian man in his forties has become the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial heart made of titanium. From a report: The device is used as a stopgap for people with heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart, and previous recipients of this type of artificial heart had remained in US hospitals while it was in place.
  The man lived with the device for more than three months until he underwent surgery to receive a donated human heart. The man is recovering well
  
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• Microsoft's Xbox Copilot Will Act As an AI Gaming Coach

  13-03-2025 17:05 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft is preparing to launch an AI-powered Copilot for Gaming soon that will guide Xbox players through games and act as an assistant to download and launch games. From a report: Copilot for Gaming, as Microsoft is branding it, will be available through the Xbox mobile app initially and is designed to work on a second screen as a companion or assistant.
  Microsoft is positioning Copilot for Gaming as a sidekick of sorts, one that will accompany you through games, offering up tips and guides a
  
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• Which Movies Do People Love to Hate? A Statistical Analysis

  13-03-2025 16:20 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  A new statistical analysis has identified the films audiences "love to hate," with Battlefield Earth, Morbius, Grease 2, and Cats topping the list of cinema's most detested productions. The study, published by data analyst Daniel Parris, examined review data from MovieLens to calculate both the percentage of one-star reviews and total disapproval magnitude for each release.
  A common thread among these widely derided titles: many were adaptations of popular books or shows, or attempted to capital
  
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• UK Investigation Says Apple, Google Hampering Mobile Browser Competition

  13-03-2025 15:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Britain's competition watchdog has concluded that Apple and Google are stifling competition in the UK mobile browser market, following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The inquiry found Apple's iOS policies particularly restrictive, requiring all browsers to use its WebKit engine while giving Safari preferential access to features.
  Apple's practice of pre-installing Safari as the default browser also reduces awareness of alternatives, despite allowing users to cha
  
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• Keep Kids Off Roblox If You're Worried, Its CEO Tells Parents

  13-03-2025 15:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Parents who are worried about their children being on Roblox should not let them use it, the chief executive of the gigantic gaming platform has said. From a report: The site, which is the most popular in the UK among young gamers aged eight to 12, has been dogged by claims of some children being exposed to explicit or harmful content through its games, alongside multiple reported allegations of bullying and grooming.
  But its co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki insisted that the company is vigilant
  
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• Anthropic CEO Says Spies Are After $100 Million AI Secrets In a 'Few Lines of Code'

  13-03-2025 14:00 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei is worried that spies, likely from China, are getting their hands on costly "algorithmic secrets" from the U.S.'s top AI companies -- and he wants the U.S. government to step in. Speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event on Monday, Amodei said that China is known for its "large-scale industrial espionage" and that AI companies like Anthropic are almost certainly being targeted. "Many of these algorithmic sec
  
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• CISA Releases Thirteen Industrial Control Systems Advisories

  13-03-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA released thirteen Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on March 13, 2025. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.ICSA-25-072-01 Siemens Teamcenter Visualization and Tecnomatrix Plant Simulation
  ICSA-25-072-02 Siemens SINEMA Remote Connect Server
  ICSA-25-072-03 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP
  ICSA-25-072-04 Siemens SiPass integrated AC5102/ACC-G2 and ACC-AP
  ICSA-25-072-05 Siemens SINAMICS S200
  ICSA-25-072
  
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• Legacy 32-bit PhysX Removal Cripples Performance On New GPUs

  13-03-2025 11:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: Gamer's Nexus performed tests on the effect of removing legacy 32-bit PhysX on the newest generation of Nvidia cards with older games, and the results are not good. With PhysX on, the latest generation Nvidia was slightly beaten by a GTX 580 (released 2010) on some games and handily beaten by a GTX 980 (2014) on some games.With the launch of the 5000 series, NVidia dropped 32-bit CUDA support going forward. Part of that change was dropping support f
  
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• Supercomputer Draws Molecular Blueprint For Repairing Damaged DNA

  13-03-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Using the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, researchers have modeled a key component of nucleotide excision repair (NER) called the pre-incision complex (PInC), which plays a crucial role in DNA damage repair. Their study, published in Nature Communications, provides new insights into how the PInC machinery orchestrates precise DNA excision, potentially leading to advancements in treating genetic disorders, preventing premature aging, and understan
  
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• Large Study Shows Drinking Alcohol Is Good For Your Cholesterol Levels

  13-03-2025 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Researchers at Harvard University led the study, and it included nearly 58,000 adults in Japan who were followed for up to a year using a database of medical records from routine checkups. Researchers found that when people switched from being nondrinkers to drinkers during the study, they saw a drop in their "bad" cholesterol -- aka low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or LDL. Meanwhile, their "good" cholesterol -- aka high-density lipoprote
  
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• Netflix Used AI To Upscale 'A Different World' and It's a Melted Nightmare

  13-03-2025 03:30 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Netflix has deployed AI upscaling on the 1987-1993 sitcom "A Different World," resulting in significant visual artifacts documented by technology commentator Scott Hanselman. The AI processing, intended to enhance the original 360p footage for modern displays, has generated distortions resembling "lava lamp effects" on actors' bodies, improperly rendered mouths, and misshapen background objects including posters and tennis rackets. This marks Netflix's second controversial AI implementation in r
  
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• Google Claims Gemma 3 Reaches 98% of DeepSeek's Accuracy Using Only One GPU

  13-03-2025 02:03 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Google says its new open-source AI model, Gemma 3, achieves nearly the same performance as DeepSeek AI's R1 while using just one Nvidia H100 GPU, compared to an estimated 32 for R1. ZDNet reports: Using "Elo" scores, a common measurement system used to rank chess and athletes, Google claims Gemma 3 comes within 98% of the score of DeepSeek's R1, 1338 versus 1363 for R1. That means R1 is superior to Gemma 3. However, based on Google's estimate, the search giant claims that it would take 32 of Nvi
  
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• Saudi Investment Fund Pays $3.5 Billion To Capture Pokemon Go

  13-03-2025 01:25 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is acquiring Nianticâ(TM)s gaming division for $3.5 billion through its subsidiary Savvy Games Group. Niantic's titles include the hit mobile game Pokemon Go, Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom. "Despite launching almost a decade ago, Pokemon Go is still amongst the highest-grossing mobile games in the world, with 30 million monthly players," notes the BBC. From the report: Scopely is one of the biggest names in mobile gaming, with its most succ
  
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• Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player

  13-03-2025 00:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  According to The Verge, Sonos has abandoned its plans to release a streaming video player this year. From the report: The news was announced by the company's leadership during an all-hands call today. That product, codenamed Pinewood, was set to be Sonos' next major hardware launch. It was already deep into development and has spent months in beta testing. But now the team behind it will be reassigned to other projects as interim CEO Tom Conrad reprioritizes the company's future roadmap and cont
  
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