ICT news

• 'AI Can't Think'

  25-11-2025 23:40 via slashdot.org
  In an essay published in The Verge, Benjamin Riley argues that today's AI boom is built on a fundamental misunderstanding: language modeling is not the same as intelligence. "The problem is that according to current neuroscience, human thinking is largely independent of human language -- and we have little reason to believe ever more sophisticated modeling of language will create a form of intelligence that meets or surpasses our own," writes Riley. Slashdot reader RossCWilliams shares the repor
  
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• US Banks Scramble To Assess Data Theft After Hackers Breach Financial Tech Firm

  25-11-2025 23:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Several U.S. banking giants and mortgage lenders are reportedly scrambling to assess how much of their customers' data was stolen during a cyberattack on a New York financial technology company earlier this month. SitusAMC, which provides technology for over a thousand commercial and real estate financiers, confirmed in a statement over the weekend that it had identified a data breach on November 12. The company said that unspecified hackers h
  
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• AI Could Replace 3 Million Low-Skilled Jobs in the UK By 2035, Research Warns

  25-11-2025 22:22 via news.slashdot.org
  Up to 3 million low-skilled jobs could disappear in the UK by 2035 because of automation and AI, according to a report by a leading educational research charity. The Guardian: The jobs most at risk are those in occupations such as trades, machine operations and administrative roles, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) said. Highly skilled professionals, on the other hand, were forecast to be more in demand as AI and technological advances increase workloads "at least in the s
  
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• American Influencers Can't Stop Praising Chinese EVs They Can't Buy

  25-11-2025 21:41 via news.slashdot.org
  Chinese automakers may not be able to sell their electric vehicles in the United States due to steep tariffs and software restrictions, but they have found an alternative path to American eyeballs through a coordinated campaign targeting car influencers on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. The effort, the Verge reports, is largely organized by DCar Studio, a platform that invites US-based creators to Los Angeles to test-drive vehicles from brands like BYD, Geely and Xiaomi. DCar is actually Dongch
  
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• RealPage Agrees To Settle Federal Rent-Collusion Case

  25-11-2025 21:01 via news.slashdot.org
  The Justice Department has reached an agreement to settle an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, a real estate software company that the government accused of enabling landlords to collude to raise rents. From a report: Using RealPage software, landlords shared information about their rents and occupancy rates with the company, after which an algorithm suggested what to charge renters. The government's suit, which was joined by several state attorneys general, accused RealPage of taking the conf
  
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• Jakarta Moves Ahead of Tokyo As World's Most Populated City

  25-11-2025 20:21 via news.slashdot.org
  schwit1 writes: Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, tops a ranking that is increasingly dominated by Asia: the world's most populated city. It edged out Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and Japan's Tokyo to earn the title in a new United Nations report. [PDF]
  With an estimated population of nearly 42 million residents, Jakarta soared from 33rd place in the previous rankings, in 2018, that were topped by Tokyo. It's followed by Dhaka, with 36 million, which the report says is "expected to become the world'
  
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• CISA Warns Spyware Crews Are Breaking Into Signal and WhatsApp Accounts

  25-11-2025 19:41 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: CISA has warned that state-backed snoops and cyber-mercenaries are actively abusing commercial spyware to break into Signal and WhatsApp accounts, hijack devices, and quietly rummage through the phones of what the agency calls "high-value" users.
  In an alert published Monday, the US government's cyber agency said it's tracking multiple miscreants that are using a mix of phishing, bogus QR codes, malicious app impersonation, and, in some cases, full-blown zero
  
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• Mumbai Families Suffer As Data Centers Keep the City Hooked on Coal

  25-11-2025 19:01 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Two coal plants in Mumbai (in India) that were scheduled to close last year continue operating after the state government of Maharashtra reversed shutdown decisions in late 2023 and extended the life of at least one facility by five years. The largest single factor the Indian conglomerate Tata cited in its petition for an extension was increased energy demand from data centers.
  The Guardian reports that Amazon operated 16 data centers in Mumbai last year. The company's official website lists thr
  
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• Nvidia Claims 'Generation Ahead' Advantage After $200 Billion Sell-off on Google Fears

  25-11-2025 18:28 via slashdot.org
  Nvidia pushed back against investor concerns about Google's competitive positioning in AI on Tuesday after the chipmaker's shares tumbled 4.4% and erased nearly $200 billion in market cap on fears that Alphabet's tensor processing units were gaining ground against its dominance in AI computing. The company said it was "delighted by Google's success" but asserted that it continues to supply chips to Google.
  Nvidia said it remains "a generation ahead of the industry" as the only platform that runs
  
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• Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program in Rural Peru

  25-11-2025 17:42 via tech.slashdot.org
  The abstract of a paper on NBER: This paper examines a large-scale randomized evaluation of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program in 531 Peruvian rural primary schools. We use administrative data on academic performance and grade progression over 10 years to estimate the long-run effects of increased computer access on (i) school performance over time and (ii) students' educational trajectories. Following schools over time, we find no significant effects on academic performance but some eviden
  
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• Adolescence Lasts Into 30s - New Study Shows Four Pivotal Ages For Your Brain

  25-11-2025 17:08 via science.slashdot.org
  The brain goes through five distinct phases in life, with key turning points at ages nine, 32, 66 and 83, scientists have revealed. From a report: Around 4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells. Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties when we "peak." They say the results could help us understand why the risk of mental health disorders and dementia varies through
  
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• Unpowered SSDs in Your Drawer Are Slowly Losing Data

  25-11-2025 16:21 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Solid-state drives sitting unpowered in drawers or storage can lose data over time because voltage gradually leaks from their NAND flash cells, and consumer-grade drives using QLC NAND retain data for about a year while TLC NAND lasts up to three years without power. More expensive MLC and SLC NAND can hold data for five and ten years respectively. The voltage loss can result in missing data or completely unusable drives.
  Hard drives remain more resistant to
  
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• Singapore Orders Apple, Google To Prevent Government Spoofing on Messaging Platforms

  25-11-2025 15:46 via apple.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Singapore's police have ordered Apple and Google to prevent the spoofing of government agencies on their messaging platforms, the home affairs ministry said on Tuesday. The order under the nation's Online Criminal Harms Act came after the police observed scams on Apple's iMessage and Google Messages purporting to be from companies such as the local postal service SingPost. While government agencies have registered with a local SMS registry so only they can se
  
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• Microsoft To Preload File Explorer in Background For Faster Launch in Windows 11

  25-11-2025 15:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  In the latest Windows Insider beta update, Microsoft has announced that it is exploring preloading File Explorer in the background to improve launch performance. The feature will load File Explorer silently before users click on it and can be toggled off for those who prefer not to use it. Microsoft introduced a similar capability earlier this year for Office called Startup Boost that loads parts of Word in the background so the application launches more quickly. The company is also removing ele
  
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• EPA Approves New 'Forever Chemical' Pesticides For Use On Food

  25-11-2025 11:00 via news.slashdot.org
  The EPA has approved new pesticides that qualify as PFAS "forever chemicals" (paywalled; alternative source), sparking criticism from scientists and environmental groups who warn these decisions could increase Americans' exposure through food and water at a time when many states are moving to restrict such substances. The Washington Post reports: This month, the agency approved two new pesticides that meet the internationally recognized definition for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also kn
  
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• Ozone Hole Ranked As 5th Smallest In More Than 30 Years

  25-11-2025 08:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Scientists report that the Antarctic ozone hole in 2025 is the fifth-smallest since 1992, thanks largely to decades of global restrictions on ozone-depleting chemicals under the Montreal Protocol. ABC News reports: The ozone hole reached its greatest one-day extent for 2025 in early September, measuring 8.83 million square miles, about 30% smaller than the largest hole on record in 2006. NOAA and NASA scientists emphasize that recent findings show efforts to limit ozone-depleting chemical compou
  
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• Hacker Conference Installed a Literal Antivirus Monitoring System

  25-11-2025 04:30 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Hacker conferences -- like all conventions -- are notorious for giving attendees a parting gift of mystery illness. To combat "con crud," New Zealand's premier hacker conference, Kawaiicon, quietly launched a real-time, room-by-room carbon dioxide monitoring system for attendees. To get the system up and running, event organizers installed DIY CO2 monitors throughout the Michael Fowler Centre venue before conference doors opened on November 6. Atte
  
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• Mind-Altering 'Brain Weapons' No Longer Only Science Fiction, Say Researchers

  25-11-2025 03:02 via science.slashdot.org
  Researchers warn that rapid advances in neuroscience, pharmacology, and AI are bringing "brain weapons" out of science fiction and into real-world plausibility. They argue current arms treaties don't adequately cover these emerging tools and call for a new, proactive framework to prevent the weaponization of the human mind. The Guardian reports: Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando, of Bradford University, are about to publish a book that they believe should be a wake-up call to the world. [...] Th
  
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• Trump Launches Genesis Mission, a Manhattan Project-Level AI Push

  25-11-2025 02:25 via yro.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli writes: President Trump has issued a sweeping executive order that creates the Genesis Mission, a national AI program he compares to a Manhattan Project level effort. It centralizes DOE supercomputers, national lab resources, massive scientific datasets, and new AI foundation models into a single platform meant to fast track research in areas like fusion, biotech, microelectronics, and advanced manufacturing. The order positions AI as both a scientific accelerator and a national sec
  
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• Jony Ive and Sam Altman Say They Finally Have an AI Hardware Prototype

  25-11-2025 01:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Sam Altman and Jony Ive say they've settled on a prototype for OpenAI's first hardware device that could ship in "less than" two years. The Verge reports: In an interview with Laurene Powell Jobs at Emerson Collective's 2025 Demo Day, they said they are currently prototyping the device, and when asked about a timeframe, Ive said it could arrive in "less than" two years. Little has been revealed so far about the OpenAI device in development, but it's rumored to be screen-free and "roughly the siz
  
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• Japan's High-Stakes Gamble To Turn Island of Flowers Into Global Chip Hub

  25-11-2025 01:02 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The island of Hokkaido has long been an agricultural powerhouse -- now Japan is investing billions to turn it into a global hub for advanced semiconductors. More than half of Japan's dairy produce comes from Hokkaido, the northernmost of its main islands. In winter, it's a wonderland of ski resorts and ice-sculpture festivals; in summer, fields bloom with bands of lavender, poppies and sunflowers. These days, cranes are popping up across the isla
  
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• Amazon Pledges Up To $50 Billion To Expand AI, Supercomputing For US Government

  25-11-2025 00:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  Amazon is committing up to $50 billion to massively expand AI and supercomputing capacity for U.S. government cloud regions, adding 1.3 gigawatts of high-performance compute and giving federal agencies access to its full suite of AI tools. Reuters reports: The project, expected to break ground in 2026, will add nearly 1.3 gigawatts of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing capacity across AWS Top Secret, AWS Secret and AWS GovCloud regions by building data centers equipped with a
  
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