ICT news

• Google Developing Software AI Agent

  13-05-2025 03:25 via developers.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: After weeks of news about Google's antitrust travails, the tech giant will try to reset the narrative next week by highlighting advances it is making in artificial intelligence, cloud and Android technology at its annual I/O developer conference.
  Ahead of I/O, Google has been demonstrating to employees and outside developers an array of different products, including an AI agent for software development. Known internally as a "software development lifecycle ag
  
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• Biggest Offshore Wind Project In US To Resume Construction

  17-01-2026 08:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  A federal judge has temporarily lifted the Trump administration's suspension of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, allowing construction on the largest offshore wind project in the U.S. to resume. CNBC reports: Judge Jamar Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion's request for a preliminary injunction Friday. Dominion called the Trump suspension "arbitrary and illegal" in its lawsuit. "Our team will now focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVO
  
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• Pesticides May Drastically Shorten Fish Lifespans, Study Finds

  17-01-2026 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Even low levels of common agricultural pesticides can stunt the long-term lifespan of fish, according to research led by Jason Rohr, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Signs of aging accelerated when fish were exposed to the chemicals, according to the study, published in Science, which could have implications for other organisms. [...] The research found that fish from pesticide-affected lakes showed shortened telomeres
  
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• Judge Orders Anna's Archive To Delete Scraped Data

  17-01-2026 03:02 via yro.slashdot.org
  Anna's Archive has been hit with a U.S. federal court default judgment and permanent injunction over its scraping and distribution of OCLC's WorldCat data, which occurred more than two years ago. According to the ruling, the shadow library must delete all copies of its WorldCat data and stop scraping, using, storing, or distributing the data. "It is expected that OCLC will use the injunction to motivate third-party intermediaries to take action against Anna's Archive," reports TorrentFreak. From
  
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• Patch Tuesday Update Makes Windows PCs Refuse To Shut Down

  17-01-2026 02:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  A recent Microsoft Patch Tuesday update has introduced a bug in Windows 11 23H2 that causes some PCs to refuse to shut down or hibernate, "no matter how many times you try," reports The Register. From the report: In a notice on its Windows release health dashboard, Microsoft confirmed that some PCs running Windows 11 23H2 might fail to power down properly after installing the latest security updates. Instead of slipping into shutdown or hibernation, affected machines stay stubbornly awake, drain
  
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• Trump Wants Tech Companies To Foot the Bill For New Power Plants

  17-01-2026 01:45 via hardware.slashdot.org
  The Trump administration urged the largest electricity grid in the U.S. to make big tech companies pay for new power plants to support the surging electricity demand from AI and data centers. CNBC reports: Electricity prices have exploded in recent years on PJM Interconnection due in part to the data centers that tech companies are building to train and power artificial intelligence. The PJM grid serves more than 65 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C. Its service area includes n
  
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• Supreme Court Hacker Posted Stolen Government Data On Instagram

  17-01-2026 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Last week, Nicholas Moore, 24, a resident of Springfield, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to repeatedly hacking into the U.S. Supreme Court's electronic document filing system. At the time, there were no details about the specifics of the hacking crimes Moore was admitting to. On Friday, a newly filled document -- first spotted by Court Watch's Seamus Hughes -- revealed more details about Moore's hacks. Per the filing, Moore hacked not only into the
  
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• Cloudflare Acquires Team Behind Open Source Framework Astro

  17-01-2026 00:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Cloudflare has acquired the core team behind the open source JavaScript framework Astro, bringing its creators in-house while pledging to keep Astro fully open source. The New Stack reports: Astro is used by major brands like IKEA, Unilever, Visa and OpenAI to build fast, content-driven websites. Search engines prioritize fast-loading and clean pages, the Cloudflare statement noted. Websites that rely heavily on JavaScript for initial rendering often struggle to deliver the required speed, which
  
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• Canada Reverses Tariff On Chinese EVs

  16-01-2026 23:40 via news.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader hackingbear shares a report from the Washington Times: Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff [back to 6.1%] on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. He said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to about 70,000 over five years. Prior to the 100% t
  
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• TSMC Says AI Demand Is 'Endless' After Record Q4 Earnings

  16-01-2026 23:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) reported record fourth-quarter earnings and said it expects AI chip demand to continue for years. During an earnings call, CEO C.C. Wei told investors that while he cannot predict the semiconductor industry's long-term trajectory, he remains bullish on AI. "All in all, I believe in my point of view, the AI is real -- not only real, it's starting to grow into our daily life. And w
  
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• Britain Has 'Moved Away' From Aligning With EU Regulation, Financial District's Ambassador Says

  16-01-2026 22:20 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The prospect of Britain realigning its financial rules with the European Union has passed, and the country should avoid linking its regulations to any single jurisdiction, the ambassador for London's financial services sector told Reuters. Nearly a decade after Brexit, newly appointed Lady Mayor of London Susan Langley said that while maintaining dialogue with the EU remained important -- particularly on defence -- Britain should work with all nations that sh
  
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• Microplastics From Washing Clothes Could Be Hurting Your Tomatoes

  16-01-2026 21:44 via science.slashdot.org
  A new study from Cornell and University of Toronto researchers has found that polyester microfibers shed from synthetic clothing during laundry can interfere with cherry tomato plant development [non-paywalled source] when these particles accumulate in agricultural soil. Plants grown in contaminated soil were 11% less likely to emerge, grew smaller and took several days longer to flower and ripen.
  Household laundry is a leading source of this contamination. Treated sewage sludge retains roughly
  
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• PhD Students' Taste For Risk Mirrors Their Supervisors'

  16-01-2026 21:05 via news.slashdot.org
  A researchers' propensity for risky projects is passed down to their doctoral students -- and stays with trainees after they leave the laboratory, according to an analysis of thousands of current and former PhD students and their mentors. From a report: Science involves taking risks, and some of the most impactful discoveries require taking big bets. However, scientists and policymakers have raised concerns that the current academic system's emphasis on short-term outcomes encourages researchers
  
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• Partly AI-Generated Folk-Pop Hit Barred From Sweden's Official Charts

  16-01-2026 20:25 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A hit song has been excluded from Sweden's official chart after it emerged the "artist" behind it was an AI creation. I Know, You're Not Mine -- or Jag Vet, Du Ar Inte Min in Swedish -- by a singer called Jacub has been a streaming success in Sweden, topping the Spotify rankings.
  However, the Swedish music trade body has excluded the song from the official chart after learning it was AI-generated. "Jacub's track has been excluded from Sweden's official chart,
  
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• Ads Are Coming To ChatGPT in the Coming Weeks

  16-01-2026 19:45 via slashdot.org
  OpenAI said Friday that it will begin testing ads on ChatGPT in the coming weeks, as the $500 billion startup seeks new revenue streams to fund its continued expansion and compete against rivals Google and Anthropic. The company had previously resisted embedding ads into its chatbot, citing concerns that doing so could undermine the trustworthiness and objectivity of responses.
  The ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT answers on the free tier and the $8-per-month ChatGPT Go subscription in t
  
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• Seattle is Building Light Rail Like It's 1999

  16-01-2026 19:13 via news.slashdot.org
  Seattle was late to the light rail party -- the city rejected transit ballot measures in 1968 and 1971, missing out on federal funding that built Atlanta's MARTA, and didn't approve a plan including rail until 1996 -- but the Pacific Northwest city is now in the middle of a multibillion-dollar building boom that has produced the highest post-pandemic ridership recovery of any US light rail system.
  The Link system opened its first line in 2009, funded largely by voter-approved tax measures from 2
  
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• Verizon Offers $20 Credit After Nationwide Outage Stranded Users in SOS Mode For Hours

  16-01-2026 18:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  Verizon is offering affected customers a $20 account credit following a nationwide network outage on Wednesday that left users across the US unable to connect, forcing phones into SOS mode for roughly ten hours before the carrier restored service around 10:15PM ET.
  Customers will receive a text message when the credit becomes available and can redeem it through the myVerizon app by clicking "Take action."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• AI Has Made Salesforce Engineers More Productive, So the Company Has Stopped Hiring Them, CEO Says

  16-01-2026 17:49 via it.slashdot.org
  Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said this week that his company's software engineering headcount has remained "mostly flat" over the past year as internal AI tools have delivered substantial productivity gains.
  Speaking on TBPN, Benioff said he has about 15,000 engineers who are "more productive than ever." The company has redirected its hiring efforts toward sales and customer engagement roles, hiring 20% more account executives this year as it pushes its Agentforce agentic AI service.
  Human salesp
  
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• Ruby on Rails Creator Says AI Coding Tools Still Can't Match Most Junior Programmers

  16-01-2026 17:06 via developers.slashdot.org
  AI still can't produce code as well as most junior programmers he's worked with, David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of 37 Signals, said on a recent podcast [video link], which is why he continues to write most of his code by hand. Hansson compared AI's current coding capabilities to "a flickering light bulb" -- total darkness punctuated by moments of clarity before going pitch black again.
  At his company, humans wrote 95% of the code for Fizzy, 37 Signals' Kanb
  
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• China Clamps Down on High-Speed Traders, Removing Servers

  16-01-2026 16:26 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: China is pulling the plug on a key advantage held by high-frequency traders, removing servers dedicated to those firms out of local exchanges' data centers, according to people familiar with the matter.
  Commodities futures exchanges in Shanghai and Guangzhou are among those that have ordered local brokers to shift servers for their clients out of data centers run by the bourses, according to the people, who said the move was led by regulators. The change does
  
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• Hard Drive Prices Have Surged By an Average of 46% Since September

  16-01-2026 15:40 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Tom's Hardware: Extensive research into the pricing of some of the best hard drives on the market for large capacity, economical storage indicates that prices are beginning to increase sharply, with some of the most popular models on the market seeing increases upwards of 60%. According to research from ComputerBase, pricing analysis on 12 of the most popular mainstream drives on the market indicates an average price increase of 46% over the last 4 months.
  While the research and price checks on
  
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• Code.org: Use AI In an Interview Without Our OK and You're Dead To Us

  16-01-2026 15:00 via news.slashdot.org
  theodp writes: Code.org, the nonprofit backed by AI giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon and whose Hour of AI and free AI curriculum aim to make world's K-12 schoolchildren AI literate, points job seekers to its AI Use Policy in Hiring, which promises dire consequences for those who use AI during interviews or take home assignments without its OK.
  Explaining "What's Not Okay," Code.org writes: "While we support thoughtful use of AI, certain uses undermine fairness and honesty in the hiring proces
  
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• Amazon Is Buying America's First New Copper Output In More Than a Decade

  16-01-2026 14:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Wall Street Journal: Amazon is turning to an Arizona mine that last year became the first new source of U.S. copper in more than a decade, to meet its data centers' ravenous appetite for the industrial metal.
  The mine was restarted as a proving ground for Rio Tinto's new method of unlocking low-grade copper deposits. Rio signed a two-year supply pact with Amazon Web Services, a vote of confidence for its Nuton venture, which uses bacteria and acid to
  
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• 'Star Wars' Boss Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down From Lucasfilm

  16-01-2026 11:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  After more than 13 years leading Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down. "When George Lucas asked me to take over Lucasfilm upon his retirement, I couldn't have imagined what lay ahead," said Kennedy. "It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm." The Associated Press reports: The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it will now turn to Dave Filoni to steer "Star Wars," as president and chief creative officer, into its
  
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• US Carbon Pollution Rose In 2025, a Reversal From Prior Years

  16-01-2026 08:00 via news.slashdot.org
  In a reversal from previous years, U.S. carbon emissions rose 2.4% in 2025 compared with the year before. NBC News reports: The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to a combination of a cool winter, the explosive growth of data centers and cryptocurrency mining and higher natural gas prices, according to the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. Environmental policy rollbacks by President Donald Trump's administration were not significant factors in the increase because t
  
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• Study Finds Weak Evidence Linking Social Media Use to Teen Mental Health Problems

  16-01-2026 04:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study. [...] Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their self-reported social media habits, gaming frequency and emotional difficulties to find out whether technology use genuinely predicted later mental health difficulties. Participants were ask
  
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• Amazon Is Making a Fallout Shelter Competition Reality TV Show

  16-01-2026 03:02 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Amazon is expanding the Fallout universe with Fallout Shelter, a ten-episode reality competition show where contestants face survival-style challenges and moral dilemmas for a cash prize. Engadget reports: Prime Video has greenlit a unscripted reality show titled Fallout Shelter. It will be a ten-episode run with Studio Lambert, the team behind reality projects including Squid Game: The Challenge and The Traitors, as its primary producer. Bethesda Game Studios' head honcho Todd Howard is attache
  
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• New York Introduces Legislation To Crack Down On 3D Printers That Make Ghost Guns

  16-01-2026 02:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  New York Governor Kathy Hochul is proposing first-of-its-kind legislation that would require 3D printers sold in the state to include built-in software designed to block the printing of gun parts used to make "ghost guns." The plan would also add criminal penalties for making 3D-printed firearms and hold printer owners or manufacturers liable if safety controls aren't in place. 3D Printing Industry reports: "From the iron pipeline to the plastic pipeline, these proposals will keep illegal ghost
  
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• Iran's Internet Shutdown Is Now One of the Longest Ever

  16-01-2026 01:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  Iran has imposed one of the longest nationwide internet shutdowns in its history, cutting more than 92 million people off from connectivity for over a week as mass anti-government protests continue. TechCrunch reports: As of this writing, Iranians have not been able to access the internet for more than 170 hours. The previous longest shutdowns in the country lasted around 163 hours in 2019, and 160 hours in 2025, according to Isik Mater, the director of research at NetBlocks, a web monitoring co
  
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• Astronauts Splash Down To Earth After Medical Evacuation From ISS

  16-01-2026 01:02 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Four astronauts evacuated from the International Space Station (ISS) have landed back on Earth after their stay in space was cut short by a month due to a "serious" medical issue. The crew's captain, Nasa astronaut Mike Fincke, exited the spacecraft first, smiling and wobbling slightly on his feet before lying down on a gurney, following normal procedures. Nasa's Zena Cardman, Japan's Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov followed, waving and be
  
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