ICT news

• Measuring Virus Exposure Risk Using a CO2 Sensor While Traveling

  20-11-2022 19:34 via science.slashdot.org
  hardaker writes: I wrote up the results from studying graphs of CO2 measurement data during a trip I took from Sacramento, California to London to attend the IETF-115 conference. Since CO2 is considered to be a potential proxy for measuring exposure to airborne viruses, it provided me with a rough guess about how safe (or not) I was at various points of my travel.
  TL;DR: big conference rooms: good, busses: bad, everything else: in between.
  "Numbers alone do not effectively measure risk absolutel
  
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• Nasa Announces Artemis III Mission No Longer Aims To Send Humans To Moon

  27-02-2026 19:54 via science.slashdot.org
  Nasa announced on Friday radical changes to its delayed Artemis III mission to land humans back on the moon, as the US space agency grapples with technical glitches and criticism that it is trying to do too much too soon. From a report: The abrupt shift in strategy was laid out by the space agency's recently confirmed administrator, Jared Isaacman. Announcing the changes on Friday, he said that Nasa would introduce at least one new moon flight before attempting to put humans back on the lunar su
  
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• A Chinese Official's Use of ChatGPT Accidentally Revealed a Global Intimidation Operation

  27-02-2026 19:03 via slashdot.org
  A sprawling Chinese influence operation -- accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official's use of ChatGPT -- focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. From a report: The Chinese law enforcement official used ChatGPT like a diary to document the alleged covert campaign of suppression, OpenAI said. In one instance, Chinese operators allegedly disguised themselves as US i
  
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• Metacritic Will Kick Out Media Attempting To Submit AI Generated Reviews

  27-02-2026 18:32 via games.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: While some see AI as a tool to be used, its specific use and how it is deployed responsibly is being heavily debated online across a wide range of industries. In terms of journalistic content, and in this particular instance, reviews, review aggregator Metacritic has taken a firm stance on content published and submitted to their platform, that have been generated by artificial intelligence in some way.
  In a statement by co-founder Marc Doyle, sent to Gamerea
  
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• Sam Altman Says OpenAI Shares Anthropic's Red Lines in Pentagon Fight

  27-02-2026 17:40 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic and the Pentagon: no AI for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons. If other leading firms like Google follow suit, this could massively complicate the Pentagon's efforts to replace Anthropic's Claude, which was the first model integrated into the military's most sensitive work. It would also be the first time th
  
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• Netflix Ditches deal for Warner Bros. Discovery After Paramount's Offer is Deemed Superior

  27-02-2026 17:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Netflix is walking away from a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets after the WBD board on Thursday deemed a revised bid by Paramount Skydance to be a superior offer. From a report: Earlier this week, Paramount raised its bid to buy the entirety of WBD to $31 per share, up from $30 per share, all cash. It was the latest amendment to Paramount's multiple offers in recent months -- and since moving forward with a hostile bid to buy the company -- and it's now unseated a
  
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• Microsoft: Computer Programming Is Dying, Long Live AI Literacy

  27-02-2026 16:21 via news.slashdot.org
  theodp writes: On Tuesday, Microsoft GM of Education and Workforce Policy (and former Code.org Chief Academic Officer) Pat Yongpradit posted an obituary of sorts for coders. "Computer programmers and software developers are codified differently in the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] data," Yongpradit wrote. "The modern AI-infused world needs less computer programmers (coders) and more software developers (more holistic and higher level). So when folks say that there is less hiring of computer p
  
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• Your Smart TV May Be Crawling the Web for AI

  27-02-2026 15:40 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Bright Data, a company that operates one of the world's largest residential proxy networks, has been running an SDK inside smart TV apps that turns those devices into nodes for web crawling -- collecting data used by AI companies, among other clients -- and most consumers have had no idea it was happening.
  The company has published more than 200 first-party apps to LG's app store alone and still lists Samsung's Tizen OS and LG's webOS as supported platforms, though LG says the SDK is "not offici
  
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• OpenAI Raises $110 Billion in the Largest Private Funding Round Ever

  27-02-2026 15:00 via slashdot.org
  OpenAI has closed what is now the largest private financing in history -- a $110 billion round at a $730 billion pre-money valuation that more than doubles the $40 billion raise it completed just a year ago, itself a record for a private tech company at the time.
  Amazon invested $50 billion, SoftBank put in $30 billion, and Nvidia committed $30 billion, and additional investors are expected to join as the round progresses. The valuation is a sharp jump from the $500 billion OpenAI commanded in a
  
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• Memory Price Hikes Will Kill Off Budget PCs and Smartphones, Analyst Warns

  27-02-2026 14:00 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Ballooning memory prices are forecast to kill off entry-level PCs, leading to a decline in global shipments this year -- and a similar effect is going to hit smartphones. Analyst biz Gartner is projecting a drop in PC shipments of more than 10 percent during 2026, and a decline of around 8 percent for smartphones, all due to the AI-driven memory shortage. Some types of memory have doubled or quadrupled in price since last year, and Gartner b
  
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• Moon's Ancient Magnetic Field May Have Flickered On and Off

  27-02-2026 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  sciencehabit quotes a report from Science Magazine: For decades, planetary scientists have pored over a mystery hidden within the Moon rocks retrieved by Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and '70s. Minerals in the rocks record the imprint of a magnetic field, nearly as powerful as Earth's, that existed more than 3.5 billion years ago and seemed to persist for millions of years. But generating a magnetic field requires a dynamo -- a churning, molten core -- and most researchers believed the Moon's t
  
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• NASA Reveals Identity of Astronaut Who Suffered Medical Incident Aboard ISS

  27-02-2026 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader ArchieBunker shares a report from NBC News: NASA revealed that astronaut Mike Fincke was the crew member who suffered a medical incident at the International Space Station in January, which prompted the agency to carry out the first evacuation due to a medical issue in the space station's 25-year history. The rare decision to cut a mission short and bring Fincke and three other crew members home early made for a dramatic week in space early this year.In a statement relea
  
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• Anthropic CEO Says AI Company 'Cannot In Good Conscience Accede' To Pentagon

  27-02-2026 04:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday the artificial intelligence company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Pentagon's demands to allow wider use of its technology. The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it's not walking away from negotiations, but that new contract language received from the Defense Department "made virtually no progress on preventing Claude's use for mass surveillance of Americans or
  
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• Four Convicted Over Spyware Affair That Shook Greece

  27-02-2026 01:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  A Greek court has convicted four individuals linked to the marketing of Predator spyware in the wiretapping scandal that shook the country in 2022. The BBC reports: In what became known as "Greece's Watergate," surveillance software called Predator was used to target 87 people -- among them government ministers, senior military officials and journalists. The four who had marketed the software were found guilty by an Athens court of misdemeanours of violating the confidentiality of telephone comm
  
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• Colorado Lawmakers Push for Age Verification at the Operating System Level

  27-02-2026 01:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  Colorado lawmakers are proposing SB26-051, a bill that would require operating systems to register a user's age bracket and share it with apps via an API. PCMag reports: The bill comes from state Sen. Matt Ball and Rep. Amy Paschal, both Democrats. "The intent is to create thoughtful safeguards for kids online through a privacy-forward framework for age assurance," Ball told PCMag. "Unlike some laws in other states, SB 51 doesn't require users to share personally identifiable information or use
  
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• Jack Dorsey's Block Cuts Nearly Half of Its Staff In AI Gamble

  27-02-2026 00:20 via slashdot.org
  Jack Dorsey's Block is cutting more than 4,000 jobs, or nearly half its workforce, as part of a deliberate shift toward becoming a smaller, "intelligence-native" company built around AI. The Verge reports: "We're not making this decision because we're in trouble," Dorsey says. "Our business is strong. Gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. But something has changed. We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creat
  
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• What's the Point of School When AI Can Do Your Homework?

  26-02-2026 23:40 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: There's a new agentic AI called Einstein that will, according to its developers, live the life of a student for them. Einstein's website claims that the AI will attend lectures for you, write your papers, and even log into EdTech platforms like Canvas to take tests and participate in discussions. Educators told me that Einstein is just one of many AI tools that can do homework for students, but should be seen as a warning to schools that are in
  
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• Google Launches Nano Banana 2 Model With Faster Image Generation

  26-02-2026 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google has launched Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), a faster, more realistic image generation model that becomes the default across Gemini, Search, Lens, and Flow. TechCrunch reports: The new Nano Banana 2 retains some of the high-fidelity characteristics of the Pro model but produces images faster. The company says you can create images with a resolution ranging from 512px to 4K, in different aspect ratios. Nano Banana 2 can maintain character consistency for up to five characters and f
  
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• Chinese Official's Use of ChatGPT Revealed a Global Intimidation Opperation

  26-02-2026 22:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  New submitter sabbede shares a report from CNN Politics: A sprawling Chinese influence operation -- accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official's use of ChatGPT -- focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The Chinese law enforcement official used ChatGPT like a diary to document the alleged covert campaign of suppression, OpenAI said. In one instance, Chinese operat
  
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• iPhone and iPad Are First Consumer Devices Cleared for NATO Classified Data

  26-02-2026 21:40 via mobile.slashdot.org
  Apple's iPhone and iPad running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have become the first consumer mobile devices cleared for NATO-restricted classified data. No special software or settings are required. MacRumors reports: Apple's devices are the first and only consumer mobile products that have reached this government certification level after security testing and evaluation by the German government. iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 are now certified for use with classified data in all NATO nat
  
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• Firefox 148 Lets You Kill All AI Features in One Click

  26-02-2026 20:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Mozilla has released Firefox 148 for Windows, macOS and Linux, bringing a new AI Settings section that lets users disable all of the browser's AI-powered features in one click and then selectively re-enable the ones they actually want, such as the local translation tool that works locally rather than in the cloud.
  The update also patches more than 50 security vulnerabilities -- none known to be under active exploitation -- over half of which Mozilla classifies as high risk, including five sandbo
  
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• Which Piece of Speculative Fiction Had the Greatest Single-Day Stock Market Impact?

  26-02-2026 19:40 via slashdot.org
  Speaking of the Citrini's blog post, which imagines a near-future AI-driven economic collapse, and which ended up help triggering the S&P 500's worst single-day drop in nearly two weeks on Monday, FT Alphaville decided to track how US stock markets have moved on the release days of notable dystopian speculative fiction throughout history. The story adds: You may contend that this is facile. We would agree. You might contend that the comparisons make no sense because it's possible to read a b
  
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• The Government Just Made it Harder to See What Spy Tech it Buys

  26-02-2026 19:01 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: It might look like something from the early days of the internet, with its aggressively grey color scheme and rectangles nested inside rectangles, but FPDS.gov is one of the most important resources for keeping tabs on what powerful spying tools U.S. government agencies are buying. It includes everything from phone hacking technology, to masses of location data, to more Palantir installations.
  Or rather, it was an incredible tool and the basis for countless o
  
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• The AI Case Against Indian IT Ignores What Indian IT Actually Does

  26-02-2026 18:20 via slashdot.org
  A fictional memo set in June 2028, published by short seller Citrini Research, wiped roughly $10 billion off Indian IT stocks in a single trading session on February 24 and sent the Nifty IT index down as much as 5.3% -- its worst single-day fall since August 2023 -- on the argument that AI coding agents have collapsed the cost advantage of Indian developers to the price of electricity. The index has shed more than $68 billion in market value in February alone, its worst month since 2003.
  But th
  
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• New York Sues Valve For Enabling 'Illegal Gambling' With Loot Boxes

  26-02-2026 17:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve alleging that randomized loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 amount to a form of unregulated gambling, letting users "pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value." From a report: While many randomized video game loot boxes have drawn attention and regulation from various government bodies in recent years, the New York suit calls out Valve's system specifically for "enabl[ing] users
  
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• Burger King Will Use AI To Check If Employees Say 'Please' and 'Thank You'

  26-02-2026 17:03 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Burger King is launching an AI chatbot that will live in the headsets used by employees. The voice-enabled chatbot, called "Patty," is part of an overarching BK Assistant platform that will not only assist employees with meal preparation but also evaluate their interactions with customers for "friendliness."
  Thibault Roux, Burger King's chief digital officer, tells The Verge that the company compiled information from franchisees and guests on how to measure f
  
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• HBO Max's Password-Sharing Crackdown Will Expand Globally in 2026

  26-02-2026 16:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  HBO Max will be cracking down on password sharing around the world. From a report: The streamer first started cracking down on password sharing in the United States late last August. Subscribers are now able to add an additional out-of-household account for $7.99 a month. Before that August change, Warner Bros. Discovery had been testing for months to determine who may or may not be a "legitimate user," as CEO and President for Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming and Games JB Perrette descri
  
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• EBay Is Laying Off About 800 Workers, 6% of Global Workforce

  26-02-2026 15:00 via slashdot.org
  EBay is cutting about 800 jobs, or 6% of its full-time employees, saying the layoffs are needed to align its workforce with strategic priorities. From a report: "We are taking steps to reinvest across our business and align our structure with our strategic priorities, which will affect certain roles across our workforce," the San Jose, California-based company said early Thursday in a statement. "We are grateful for the contributions of the employees impacted and are committed to supporting them
  
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• Americans Are Leaving the US in Record Numbers

  26-02-2026 13:07 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: In its 250th year, is America, land of immigration, becoming a country of emigration? Last year the U.S. experienced something that hasn't definitively occurred since the Great Depression: More people moved out than moved in. The Trump administration has hailed the exodus -- negative net migration -- as the fulfillment of its promise to ramp up deportations and restrict new visas. Beneath the stormy optics of that immigration crackdown, however, lies a less-n
  
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• Cloudflare Experiment Ports Most of Next.js API in 'One Week' With AI

  26-02-2026 10:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A Cloudflare engineer says he has implemented 94% of the Next.js API by directing Anthropic's Claude, spending about $1,100 on tokens. The purpose of the experimental project was not to show off AI coding, but to address an issue with Next.js, the popular React-based framework sponsored by Vercel.
  According to Cloudflare engineering director Steve Faulkner, the Next.js tooling is "entirely bespoke... If you want to deploy it to Cloudflare, Netlify, or AWS Lam
  
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