ICT news

• Chinese Pharma is On the Cusp of Going Global

  26-11-2025 23:41 via science.slashdot.org
  China's pharmaceutical industry has quietly evolved from a hub for generics and clinical trials into something more ambitious -- a genuine competitor in drug discovery that Western giants are now courting to fill gaps left by looming patent expirations worth over $300 billion by 2030. In the first half of 2025, nearly a third of global licensing agreements signed by big pharma involved Chinese firms, Economist reports, four times the share from 2021. Pfizer agreed in May to pay $1.25 billion to
  
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• How 'Stranger Things' Defined the Era of the Algorithm

  26-11-2025 23:01 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  As Stranger Things releases the first four episodes of its final season today, nearly a decade after its July 2016 premiere, the Netflix series has come to represent something broader than its own popularity -- the embodiment of streaming television's algorithmic philosophy. When the show first appeared, streaming was still finding its footing. Netflix had been producing original series for only a few years, and services like Disney+, Apple TV and HBO Max did not yet exist.
  The question then was
  
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• European Lawmakers Seek EU-Wide Minimum Age To Access AI Chatbots, Social Media

  26-11-2025 22:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  The European Parliament has passed a non-binding resolution urging an EU-wide minimum age of 16 to access social media, video-sharing platforms, and AI chatbots, with parental consent allowed for ages 13-16 and a hard ban for anyone under 13. "It also proposes additional measures, including a ban on addictive design features that keep children hooked to screens and manipulative advertising and gambling-like elements," reports Reuters. Furthermore, the draft "calls for the outright blocking of we
  
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• More Than Half of New Articles On the Internet Are Being Written By AI

  26-11-2025 21:45 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Conversation: The line between human and machine authorship is blurring, particularly as it's become increasingly difficult to tell whether something was written by a person or AI. Now, in what may seem like a tipping point, the digital marketing firm Graphite recently published a study showing that more than 50% of articles on the web are being generated by artificial intelligence. [...]It's important to clarify what's meant by "online content," the
  
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• SEC Must Not Let Crypto Companies 'Bypass' Rules, Stock Exchanges Say

  26-11-2025 21:05 via slashdot.org
  The Securities and Exchange Commission's possible plan to grant crypto companies relief from regulation to sell "tokenised" stocks risks harming investors, a group of stock exchanges said in a letter to the U.S. regulator this week. From a report: Several crypto companies plan to sell crypto tokens linked to listed equities to retail investors who want to get exposure to stocks without owning them directly. But to sell the products in the U.S., crypto companies which are not registered as broker
  
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• Pentagon Cited Alibaba on China Military Aid in Oct. 7 Letter

  26-11-2025 20:26 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The Pentagon concluded that Alibaba Group, Baidu and BYD should be added to a list of companies that aid the Chinese military, according to a letter to Congress sent roughly three weeks before Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a broad trade truce.
  Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg informed lawmakers of the conclusion in the Oct. 7 letter, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News, to the heads of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. It
  
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• OpenAI Needs At Least $207 Billion By 2030 Just To Keep Losing Money, HSBC Estimates

  26-11-2025 19:45 via news.slashdot.org
  OpenAI will need to raise at least $207 billion in new funding by 2030 to sustain operations while continuing to lose money, according to a new analysis from HSBC that models the company's cloud computing commitments against projected revenue. The bank's US software team updated its forecasts after OpenAI announced a $250 billion cloud compute rental deal with Microsoft in late October and a $38 billion deal with Amazon days later, bringing total contracted compute capacity to 36 gigawatts.
  HSBC
  
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• China's Dual Squeeze on European Industry Intensifies

  26-11-2025 19:11 via slashdot.org
  European manufacturers are facing a two-front assault from China that has German industry associations warning of deindustrialisation: on one side, artificially cheap Chinese goods are flooding into Europe, and on the other, Beijing has demonstrated its willingness to abruptly cut off access to critical inputs like rare earths and semiconductors.
  The alarm intensified in October when China added five rare earths to its export-licensing regime and then banned exports of computer chips made by Nex
  
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• NASA Rover Makes a Shocking Discovery: Lightning on Mars

  26-11-2025 18:28 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: It is shocking but not surprising. Lightning crackles on Mars, scientists reported on Wednesday. What they observed, however, were not jagged, high-voltage bolts like those on Earth, arcing thousands of feet from cloud to ground. Rather, the phenomenon was more like the shock you feel when you scuff your feet on the carpet on a cold winter morning and then touch a metal doorknob.
  "This is like mini-lightning on Mars," Baptiste Chide, a scientist at the Resear
  
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• Dell Says Windows 11 Transition is Far Slower Than Windows 10 Shift as PC Sales Stall

  26-11-2025 17:53 via tech.slashdot.org
  Dell has predicted PC sales will be flat next year, despite the potential of the AI PC and the slow replacement of Windows 10. From a report: "We have not completed the Windows 11 transition," COO Jeffrey Clarke said during Dell's Q3 earnings call on Tuesday. "In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS end of support, we are 10-12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation." Clarke said that means 500 million PCs can't run Windows 11, whi
  
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• Apple Set To Become World's Top Phone Maker, Overtaking Samsung

  26-11-2025 17:24 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Apple will retake its crown as the world's largest smartphone maker for the first time in more than a decade, lifted by the successful debut of a new iPhone series and a rush of consumers upgrading devices, according to Counterpoint Research. From a report: The iPhone 17 models introduced in September have been a hit both domestically in the US and in Apple's other critical market, China. They've enticed more people to upgrade, leading to double-digit year-over-year sales growth in both markets,
  
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• World's Central Banks Are Wary of AI and Struggling To Quit the Dollar, Survey Shows

  26-11-2025 16:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: AI is not a core part of operations at most of the world's central banks and digital assets are off the table, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. The working group of 10 central banks from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia managing roughly $6.5 trillion in assets also found that the institutions that have delved deepest so far into AI are the most cautious about the risks.
  The primary co
  
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• The Underwater Cables That Carry the Internet Are in Trouble

  26-11-2025 15:48 via tech.slashdot.org
  The roughly 500 fiber-optic cables lying on the ocean floor carry more than 95% of all internet data -- not satellites, as many might assume -- and they face growing threats from natural disasters, terrorists and nation-states capable of disrupting global communications by dragging anchors or deploying submarines against the infrastructure.
  The cables are protected by layers of copper, steel, and plastics, but they remain vulnerable at multiple points: earthquakes can disturb them on the seafloo
  
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• Malaysia's Johor Bans Low-Tier Data Centers Over Water Strain

  26-11-2025 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  Malaysia's Johor, one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing data center hubs, has announced it will no longer approve applications for Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centers because of their enormous water consumption -- up to 50 million liters daily, or roughly 200 times what higher-tier facilities require.
  The Malaysian state has approved 51 data center projects as of November 2025. 17 centers are already operational, 11 are under construction and 23 received approval this year. The announcement follows
  
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• Texas Buys $5 Million In BTC ETF As States Edge Toward First Government Crypto Reserves

  26-11-2025 14:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Texas has purchased $5 million worth of BlackRock's bitcoin ETF as an initial step toward creating the first state-level bitcoin reserve in the U.S.
  "[O]ther states having previously invested in such funds with public-employee retirement money," notes CoinDesk. "Michigan has been building such an investment, and Wisconsin sold its $350 million pension-fund stake in the BlackRock ETF in May. From the report: A few weeks ago, Texas moved past its deadline to "capture the industry's best practices
  
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• Study Claims To Provide First Direct Evidence of Dark Matter

  26-11-2025 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Nearly a century ago, scientists proposed that a mysterious invisible substance they named dark matter clumped around galaxies and formed a cosmic web across the universe. What dark matter is made from, and whether it is even real, are still open questions, but according to a study, the first direct evidence of the substance may finally have been glimpsed. More work is needed to rule out less exotic explanations, but if true, the discovery w
  
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• China Launches An Emergency Lifeboat To Bring Three Astronauts Back To Earth

  26-11-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  China launched an uncrewed Shenzhou 22 spacecraft to serve as an emergency lifeboat for three astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station after a docked return craft was found to have a cracked window likely caused by space debris. "A Long March 2F rocket fired its engines and lifted off with the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft, carrying cargo instead of a crew, at 11:11 pm EST Monday (04:11 UTC Tuesday)," reports Ars Technica. "The spacecraft docked with the Tiangong station nearly 250 miles (400 kilom
  
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• Britain Plots Atomic Reboot As Datacenter Demand Surges

  26-11-2025 04:30 via news.slashdot.org
  The UK is seeking to fast-track new atomic development to meet soaring energy demands driven by AI and electrification. According to a new report published by the government's Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce, excessive regulation has made Britain the most expensive place in the world to build nuclear projects. The report is calling for a sweeping overhaul to accelerate reactor construction -- everything from "streamlining regulation" to relaxing environmental and safety constraints. The Register re
  
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• Plex Is Now Enforcing Remote Play Restrictions On TVs

  26-11-2025 03:02 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Plex is beginning to enforce new restrictions on remote streaming for its TV apps, requiring either a Plex Pass or the cheaper Remote Watch Pass to watch media from servers outside your home network. How-To Geek reports: Plex is now rolling out the remote watch changes to its Roku TV app. This means that you will need a Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass for your Plex account if you want to stream media from a server outside your home. If you're only watching media from your own server on the same l
  
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• HP To Cut About 6,000 Jobs By 2028, Ramps Up AI Efforts

  26-11-2025 02:25 via slashdot.org
  HP plans to cut 4,000-6,000 jobs by 2028 "as part of a plan to streamline operations and adopt artificial intelligence," reports Reuters. From the report: HP's teams focused on product development, internal operations and customer support will be impacted by the job cuts, CEO Enrique Lores said during a media briefing call. "We expect this initiative will create $1 billion in gross run rate savings over three years," Lores added. The company laid off an additional 1,000 to 2,000 employees in Feb
  
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• Warner Music Group Partners With Suno To Offer AI Likenesses of Its Artists

  26-11-2025 01:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  Warner Music Group has reached a licensing deal with Suno that will let users create AI-generated music using the voices and likenesses of artists who opt in. WMG says participating artists will have "full control" over how their likeness and music are used. "These will be new creation experiences from artists who do opt in, which will open up new revenue streams for them and allow you to interact with them in new ways," Suno says, adding that users will be able to "build around" an artist's sou
  
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• Google Maps Will Let You Hide Your Identity When Writing Reviews

  26-11-2025 01:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCMag: Four new features are coming to Google Maps, including a way to hide your identity in reviews. Maps will soon let you use a nickname and select an alternative profile picture for online reviews, so you can rate a business without linking it to full name and Google profile photo. Google says it will monitor for "suspicious and fake reviews," and every review is still associated with an account on Google's backend, which it believes will discourage b
  
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• Poland Probes Apple Again Over App Tracking Transparency Rules

  26-11-2025 00:20 via apple.slashdot.org
  Poland has launched a new antitrust investigation into Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules, questioning whether Apple misled users about privacy while giving its own apps a competitive advantage over third-party developers. AppleInsider reports: On November 25, Poland's UOKiK has started another investigation into App Tracking Transparency, and whether Apple had restricted competition in mobile advertising. Reuters reports that, to the anti-monopoly regulator, ATT may have limited advertiser
  
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