ICT news

• Meta's Reality Labs Has Now Lost Over $60 Billion Since 2020

  01-05-2025 23:20 via meta.slashdot.org
  Meta's Reality Labs posted a $4.2 billion operating loss in Q1 2025. According to CNBC, cumulative losses since 2020 now exceed $60 billion. From the report: Meta's Reality Labs unit is responsible for the company's Quest-branded virtual reality headsets and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. It's the key business unit that anchors CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans to build a new computing platform involving digital worlds accessible via VR and augmented reality devices. [...]Wall Street has questioned Meta'
  
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• Sam Altman's Eye-Scanning ID Project Launches In US

  01-05-2025 22:40 via slashdot.org
  Sam Altman's eye-scanning identity project, now called World, officially launched in the U.S. with six in-person registration sites. CNBC reports: Here's how it works: You go up to an Orb, a spherical biometric device, and it spends about 30 seconds scanning your face and iris, then creates and stores a unique "IrisCode" for you verifying that you're a human and that you've never signed up before. Then you get some of the project's cryptocurrency, WLD, for free, and you can use your World ID as
  
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• House Votes To Block California's Ban On New Gas-Powered Vehicles In 2035

  01-05-2025 22:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to block California from implementing plans to block new sales of gas-powered vehicles in a decade. In a 246-164 vote, members approved House Joint Resolution 88, which seeks to withdraw a waiver granted by the Environmental Protection Agency to California during the Biden administration to implement the ban. Thirty-five Democrats joined 211 Republicans in backing the measure. [...] The House also a
  
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• NIH To Suspend Funds For Research Abroad As It Overhauls Policy, Report Says

  01-05-2025 20:58 via news.slashdot.org
  Nature: A forthcoming policy from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will target - and at least temporarily stop -- funding to laboratories and hospitals outside the United States, threatening thousands of global-health projects and international collaborations on topics such as emerging infectious diseases and cancer.
  The NIH, the world's largest funder of biomedical research, plans to release the policy in the next week. Some agency staff members have already been instructed to hold fu
  
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• China Advances Abandoned US Nuclear Technology

  01-05-2025 20:18 via news.slashdot.org
  Chinese scientists have achieved a significant nuclear breakthrough by successfully refueling a thorium-based reactor while it remains operational, according to reports from Chinese state media.
  The experimental 2-megawatt thermal reactor, which came online in June 2024, represents the revival of technology originally developed and abandoned by the United States in the mid-20th century. The milestone was revealed during a closed meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where project leaders s
  
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• Google is Putting AI Mode Right in Search

  01-05-2025 19:23 via tech.slashdot.org
  A "small percentage" of Google's users in the US will begin seeing an AI Mode tab in Google Search "in the coming weeks," the company said Thursday, marking the tool's first deployment outside the company's experimental Labs environment.
  Unlike traditional search results that display URLs based on user queries, AI Mode generates conversational responses from Google's search index. The feature will appear as a dedicated tab positioned before the standard "All," "Images," and other search filters.
  
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• Video Game Website Polygon Sold To Valnet And Hit With Mass Layoffs

  01-05-2025 18:40 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The video game website Polygon has been sold to click-farm powerhouse Valnet and much of its masthead has been laid off, Kotaku has learned. The sale was subsequently announced in a press release. Multiple staff members have posted online about losing their jobs or about colleagues now being out of work.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Amazon CEO Jassy Warns of AI's Unprecedented Adoption Speed, Education Shortfalls

  01-05-2025 18:05 via news.slashdot.org
  Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has this week sounded the alarm on AI adoption speeds. Though self-described as an AI optimist, Jassy cautioned that this technological shift "may be quicker than other technology transitions in the past."
  Jassy pointed directly to declining education quality as "one of the biggest problems" facing AI implementation, not the technology itself. He questioned whether schools are adequately preparing students for future tool use, including coding applications.Read more of this
  
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• Nvidia and Anthropic Publicly Clash Over AI Chip Export Controls

  01-05-2025 17:20 via slashdot.org
  Nvidia publicly criticized AI startup Anthropic on Thursday over claims about Chinese smuggling tactics, just days before the Biden-era "AI Diffusion Rule" takes effect on May 15. The confrontation highlights growing tensions between AI hardware providers and model developers over export controls.
  "American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in 'baby bumps' or 'alongside live lo
  
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• Meta Now Forces AI Data Collection Through Ray-Ban Smart Glasses

  01-05-2025 16:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  Meta has eliminated key privacy protections for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses users in a policy update that took effect April 29th. The company now permanently enables Meta AI with camera functionality unless "Hey Meta" voice commands are completely disabled, while simultaneously removing users' ability to opt out of having their voice recordings stored in the cloud.
  These recordings are kept for up to a year for Meta's product development, with the company only deleting accidental voice interactio
  
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• Microsoft Hikes Xbox Console Prices By Up To $100, Games To Hit $80

  01-05-2025 16:03 via games.slashdot.org
  Microsoft is raising prices for Xbox consoles globally, with the flagship Series X jumping $100 to $599.99 in the US. The more affordable Series S will increase by $80 to $379.99, while game prices will reach $80 later this year.
  The company cited "market conditions and the rising cost of development" in a statement, adding that it continues to focus on "offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Study Accuses LM Arena of Helping Top AI Labs Game Its Benchmark

  01-05-2025 15:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A new paper from AI lab Cohere, Stanford, MIT, and Ai2 accuses LM Arena, the organization behind the popular crowdsourced AI benchmark Chatbot Arena, of helping a select group of AI companies achieve better leaderboard scores at the expense of rivals.
  According to the authors, LM Arena allowed some industry-leading AI companies like Meta, OpenAI, Google, and Amazon to privately test several variants of AI models, then not publish the scores of the lowest perf
  
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• Starting July 1, Academic Publishers Can't Paywall NIH-Funded Research

  01-05-2025 14:00 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader writes: NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has announced that the NIH Public Access Policy, originally slated to go into effect on December 31, 2025, will now be effective as of July 1. From Bhattacharya's announcement: NIH is the crown jewel of the American biomedical research system. However, a recent Pew Research Center study shows that only about 25% of Americans have a "great deal of confidence" that scientists are working for the public good. Earlier implementation of th
  
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• Duolingo Doubles Its Language Courses Thanks To AI

  01-05-2025 12:00 via slashdot.org
  Just a day after announcing its shift to an "AI-first" strategy -- which includes phasing out contract workers in favor of automation -- Duolingo revealed it is more than doubling its course offerings by launching 148 new language courses. The Verge reports: The company said today that it's launching 148 new language courses. "This launch makes Duolingo's seven most popular non-English languages -- Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin -- available to all 28 supported
  
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• Satellite Launches On Mission To 'Weigh' World's 1.5 Trillion Trees

  01-05-2025 09:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  The European Space Agency has launched the Biomass satellite to study the world's forests using the first space-based P-band synthetic aperture radar, aiming to accurately measure carbon storage and improve understanding of the global carbon cycle. CBS News reports: Forests on Earth collectively absorb and store about 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually, the ESA said. That regulates the planet's temperature. Deforestation and degradation, especially in tropical regions, means that stored c
  
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• Apple Must Halt Non-App Store Sales Commissions, Judge Says

  01-05-2025 07:05 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple violated a court order requiring it to open up the App Store to third-party payment options and must stop charging commissions on purchases outside its software marketplace, a federal judge said in a blistering ruling that referred the company to prosecutors for a possible criminal probe. From a report: U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided Wednesday with "Fortnite" maker Epic Games over its allegation that the iPhone maker failed to comply with an order she issued in 2021 after
  
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• Why Windows 7 Took Forever To Load If You Had a Solid Background

  01-05-2025 05:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Windows 7 came onto the market in 2009 and put Microsoft back on the road to success after Windows Vista's annoying failures. But Windows 7 was not without its faults, as this curious story proves. Some users apparently encountered a vexing problem at the time: if they set a single-color image as the background, their Windows 7 PC always took 30 seconds to start the operating system and switch from the welcome screen to the desktop.In a recent bl
  
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• Alleged 'Scattered Spider' Member Extradited to US

  01-05-2025 03:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs reports: A 23-year-old Scottish man thought to be a member of the prolific Scattered Spider cybercrime group was extradited last week from Spain to the United States, where he is facing charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and identity theft. U.S. prosecutors allege Tyler Robert Buchanan and co-conspirators hacked into dozens of companies in the United States and abroad, and that he personally controlled more than $26 million stolen from
  
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• Republicans In Congress Want a Flat $200 Annual EV Tax

  01-05-2025 02:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  New submitter LDA6502 writes: The Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is proposing a new annual federal vehicle registration fee of $200 for full EVs, $100 for hybrid EVs, and $20 for combustion vehicles. The tax would be tied to inflation, would be collected by the states, and would expire in 2035. Critics of the proposal note that it could result in low mileage EVs paying a far higher tax rate than heavy ICE trucks and SUVs. Ars Technica notes that the
  
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• Microsoft Puts Brakes on AI Spending as Profit Increases 18%

  01-05-2025 01:40 via slashdot.org
  After 10 consecutive quarters of rising AI-related investment, Microsoft has put on the brakes, spending over $1 billion less than the previous quarter (source paywalled; alternative source). Despite the slight slowdown, Microsoft posted stronger-than-expected results with $70 billion in revenue and $25.8 billion in profit. The New York Times reports: In the first three months of 2025, Microsoft spent $21.4 billion on capital expenses, down more than $1 billion from the previous quarter. The com
  
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• Apple Notifies New Victims of Spyware Attacks Across the World

  01-05-2025 01:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple sent notifications this week to several people who the company believes were targeted with government spyware, according to two of the alleged targets. In the past, Apple has sent similar notifications to targets and victims of spyware, and directed them to contact a nonprofit that specializes in investigating such cyberattacks. Other tech companies, like Google and WhatsApp, have in recent years also periodically sent such notifications
  
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• Millions of AirPlay Devices Can Be Hacked Over Wi-Fi

  01-05-2025 00:20 via it.slashdot.org
  A newly revealed set of vulnerabilities dubbed AirBorne in Apple's AirPlay SDK could allow attackers on the same Wi-Fi network to hijack tens of millions of third-party devices like smart TVs and speakers. While Apple has patched its own products, many third-party devices remain at risk, with the most severe (though unproven) threat being potential microphone access. 9to5Mac reports: Wired reports that a vulnerability in Apple's software development kit (SDK) means that tens of millions of those
  
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