ICT news

• NetBSD Bans AI-Generated Code

  17-05-2024 04:02 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Seven Spirals writes: NetBSD committers are now banned from using any AI-generated code from ChatGPT, CoPilot, or other AI tools. Time will tell how this plays out with both their users and core team. "If you commit code that was not written by yourself, double check that the license on that code permits import into the NetBSD source repository, and permits free distribution," reads NetBSD's updated commit guidelines. "Check with the author(s) of the code, make sure that they were the sole autho
  
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• Wild New Study Suggests Gravity Can Exist Without Mass

  14-06-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  A new study by astrophysicist Richard Lieu suggests that gravity can exist without mass, proposing thin, shell-like layers of 'topological defects' as an alternative to dark matter for explaining the gravitational binding of galaxies. This theory posits that these defects create a gravitational force without detectable mass, potentially eliminating the need for dark matter in current cosmological models. Clare Watson reports via ScienceAlert: Lieu started out trying to find another solution to t
  
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• FAA is Investigating New Incident Involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 Jet in Midair

  14-06-2024 07:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  New submitter wgoodman writes: A Boeing 737 Max 8 jet experienced a rare but potentially serious problem recently known as a Dutch roll before landing safely. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the incident during a Southwest Airlines flight last month. Less than an hour after taking off from Phoenix on May 25th, the plane experienced an uncontrolled side-to-side yawing motion known as a Dutch roll while cruising at 32,000 feet. The pilots of Southwest flight 746 w
  
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• Microsoft Postpones Windows Recall After Major Backlash

  14-06-2024 05:18 via it.slashdot.org
  
  In an unprecedented move, Microsoft has announced that its big Copilot+ PC initiative that was unveiled last month will launch without its headlining "Windows Recall" AI feature next week on June 18. From a report: The feature, which captures snapshots of your screen every few seconds, was revealed to store sensitive user data in an unencrypted state, raising serious concerns among security researchers and experts.
  Last week, Microsoft addressed these concerns by announcing that it would make ch
  
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• A Growing Number of Americans Are Getting Their News From TikTok

  14-06-2024 02:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  According to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, TikTok is the second most popular source of news for Americans after X, "though most TikTok users don't primarily think of the shortform video app as a news source," notes The Verge. The survey looked at how Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X play a role in Americans' news diets. From the report: Among TikTok users, only 15 percent say keeping up with the news is a major reason they use the app. Still, 35 percent of those surveyed said they
  
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• OIN Expands Linux Patent Protection Yet Again (But Not To AI)

  14-06-2024 02:02 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  Steven Vaughan-Nichols reports via ZDNet: While Linux and open-source software (OSS) are no longer constantly under intellectual property (IP) attacks, the Open Invention Network (OIN) patent consortium still stands guard over its patents. Now, OIN, the largest patent non-aggression community, has expanded its protection once again by updating its Linux System definition. Covering more than just Linux, the Linux System definition also protects adjacent open-source technologies. In the past, prot
  
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• Google's Privacy Sandbox Accused of Misleading Chrome Browser Users

  14-06-2024 01:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Richard Speed reports via The Register: Privacy campaigner noyb has filed a GDPR complaint regarding Google's Privacy Sandbox, alleging that turning on a "Privacy Feature" in the Chrome browser resulted in unwanted tracking by the US megacorp. The Privacy Sandbox API was introduced in 2023 as part of Google's grand plan to eliminate third-party tracking cookies. Rather than relying on those cookies, website developers can call the API to display ads matched to a user's interests. In the announce
  
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• Amazon Says It'll Spend $230 Million On Generative AI Startups

  14-06-2024 00:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amazon says that it will commit up to $230 million to startups building generative AI-powered applications. The investment, roughly $80 million of which will fund Amazon's second AWS Generative AI Accelerator program, aims to position AWS as an attractive cloud infrastructure choice for startups developing generative AI models to power their products, apps and services. Much of the new tranche -- including the entire portion set aside for the
  
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• Police Arrest Conti and LockBit Ransomware Crypter Specialist

  14-06-2024 00:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  The Ukraine cyber police, supported by information from the Dutch police, arrested a 28-year-old Russian man in Kyiv for aiding Conti and LockBit ransomware operations by making their malware undetectable and conducting at least one attack himself. He was arrested on April 18, 2024, as part of a global law enforcement operation known as "Operation Endgame," which took down various botnets and their main operators. "As the Conti ransomware group used some of those botnets for initial access on br
  
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• Oracle Is Shutting Down Its Ad Business

  13-06-2024 23:20 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  During its earnings call on Monday, Oracle CEO Safra Catz told analysts that it is shutting down its ads business. "In Q4, we decided to exit the advertising business, which had declined to about $300 million in revenue in fiscal year '24," said Catz, according to an earnings transcript. Adweek's Catherine Perloff reports: In August 2022, Business Insider reported that Oracle Advertising made $2 billion in revenue. At the time, revenue was only growing by 2% a year and many employees had been la
  
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• Fired Employee Accessed NCS' Computer 'Test System' and Deleted Servers

  13-06-2024 22:40 via it.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Singapore's CNA news channel: Kandula Nagaraju, 39, was sentenced to two years and eight months' jail on Monday (Jun 10) for one charge of unauthorized access to computer material. Another charge was taken into consideration for sentencing. His contract with NCS was terminated in October 2022 due to poor work performance and his official last date of employment was Nov 16, 2022. According to court documents, Kandula felt "confused and upset" when he was f
  
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• Congress Seeks Answers From Microsoft Boss After a 'Cascade' of Security Errors

  13-06-2024 22:01 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Speaking of Microsoft, the House Homeland Security committee is grilling Microsoft President Brad Smith Thursday about the software giant's plans to improve its security after a series of devastating hacks reached into federal officials' email accounts, challenging the company's fitness as a dominant government contractor. Washington Post adds:The questioning followed a withering report on one of those breaches, where the federal Cyber Safety Review Board found the event was made possible by a "
  
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• Mars Got Cooked by a Recent Solar Storm

  13-06-2024 21:22 via science.slashdot.org
  
  The sun fired off a volley of radiation-riddled outbursts in May. When they slammed into Earth's magnetic bubble, the world was treated to iridescent displays of the northern and southern lights. But our planet wasn't the only one in the solar firing line. From a report: A few days after Earth's light show, another series of eruptions screamed out of the sun. This time, on May 20, Mars was blitzed by a beast of a storm. Observed from Mars, "this was the strongest solar energetic particle event w
  
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• Indian Startup 3D Prints Rocket Engine in Just 72 Hours

  13-06-2024 19:20 via science.slashdot.org
  
  cusco writes: Indian space startup Agnikul used a 3-D printer from German company EOS to print an engine out of inconel, a high-performance nickel-chromium alloy, in one solid piece over the course of roughly 72 hours. While other companies like Relativity Space and Rocket Lab are using 3-D printers extensively, Agnikul's engine is unique in being printed in one go, rather than as multiple components that need to be stitched together. This approach significantly speeds up manufacturing time.
  The
  
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• Turkish Student Arrested For Using AI To Cheat in University Exam

  13-06-2024 18:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Turkish authorities have arrested a student for cheating during a university entrance exam by using a makeshift device linked to AI software to answer questions. From a report: The student was spotted behaving in a suspicious way during the exam at the weekend and was detained by police, before being formally arrested and sent to jail pending trial. Another person, who was helping the student, was also detained.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• China Is Testing More Driverless Cars Than Any Other Country

  13-06-2024 18:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Assisted driving systems and robot taxis are becoming more popular in China with government help, as cities designate large areas for testing on public roads. From a report: The world's largest experiment in driverless cars is underway on the busy streets of Wuhan, a city in central China with 11 million people, 4.5 million cars, eight-lane expressways and towering bridges over the muddy waters of the Yangtze River. A fleet of 500 taxis navigated by computers, often with no safety drivers in the
  
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• How Amazon Blew Alexa's Shot To Dominate AI

  13-06-2024 17:22 via slashdot.org
  
  Amazon unveiled a new generative AI-powered version of its Alexa voice assistant at a packed event in September 2023, demonstrating how the digital assistant could engage in more natural conversation. However, nearly a year later, the updated Alexa has yet to be widely released, with former employees citing technical challenges and organizational dysfunction as key hurdles, Fortune reported Thursday. The magazine reports that the Alexa large language model lacks the necessary data and computing
  
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• Wells Fargo Fires Employees for Faking Work By Simulating Keyboard Activity

  13-06-2024 16:41 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Wells Fargo fired more than a dozen employees last month after investigating claims that they were faking work. From a report: The staffers, all in the firm's wealth- and investment-management unit, were "discharged after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work," according to disclosures filed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. "Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behavior,"
  
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• Microsoft Chose Profit Over Security and Left US Government Vulnerable To Russian Hack, Whistleblower Says

  13-06-2024 16:00 via it.slashdot.org
  
  A former Microsoft employee claims the tech giant dismissed his repeated warnings about a security flaw that was later exploited in the SolarWinds hack, prioritizing business interests over customer safety. Andrew Harris, who worked on Microsoft's cloud security team, says he discovered the weakness in 2016 but was told fixing it could jeopardize a multibillion-dollar government contract and the company's competitive edge, ProPublica reported Thursday.
  The flaw, in a Microsoft product called Act
  
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• Firefox Browser Blocks Anti-Censorship Add-Ons At Russia's Request

  13-06-2024 15:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: The Mozilla Foundation,the entity behind the web browser Firefox, is blocking various censorship circumvention add-ons for its browser, including ones specifically to help those in Russia bypass state censorship. The add-ons were blocked at the request of Russia's federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor -- the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media -- according to a statement by Mozilla to
  
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• Roku TV Owners Complain That Motion Smoothing Is Stuck 'On' After an Update

  13-06-2024 12:00 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Roku TV owners are complaining that motion smoothing is "suddenly enabled on their TVs with no way to turn it off," reports The Verge. From the report: Contributors on Reddit and in Roku's community forum reported seeing the change on TCL TVs running on Roku OS 13, as did a few staffers on The Verge. However, for others who have access to "Expert" picture settings, the same update is in place without a change, and the settings to control it are still available. For some people experiencing the p
  
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• Stoke Space Scores a Success In First Test Firing of Engine For Reusable Nova Booster

  13-06-2024 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Kent, Wash.-based Stoke Space successfully completed the first hot-fire test of its reusable Nova launch vehicle's first-stage engine, which reached 350,000 hp in under a second during a two-second test on June 5. GeekWire reports: During the two-second test, the engine ramped up to its target starting power level, producing the equivalent of 350,000 hp in less than a second, and held that power level until shutdown. At full power, the full-flow staged combustion engine is designed to produce ov
  
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• Apple To 'Pay' OpenAI for ChatGPT Through Distribution, Not Cash

  13-06-2024 06:13 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg: When Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and his top deputies this week unveiled a landmark arrangement with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone, iPad and Mac, they were mum on the financial terms. Left unanswered on Monday: which company is paying the other as part of a tight collaboration that has potentially lasting monetary benefits for both. But, according to people briefed on the matter, the partnership isn't expected to generate meaningful
  
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• Chemical Makers Sue Over Rule To Rid Water of 'Forever Chemicals'

  13-06-2024 05:30 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Chemical and manufacturing groups sued the federal government late Monday (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source) over a landmark drinking-water standard that would require cleanup of so-called forever chemicals linked to cancer and other health risks. The industry groups said that the government was exceeding its authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act by requiring that municipal water systems all but remove six synthetic
  
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• Norway Discovers Europe's Largest Deposit of Rare Earth Metals

  13-06-2024 02:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Rare Earths Norway has discovered Europe's largest proven deposit of rare earth elements in the Fen Carbonatite Complex, positioning Norway as a key player in Europe's effort to reduce reliance on China's rare earths supply. CNBC reports: Rare Earths Norway said in a June 6 statement that its Fen Carbonatite Complex in the southeast of the country boasts 8.8 million metric tons of total rare earth oxides (TREOs) with a reasonable prospect for economic extraction. Within the TREOs, which are cons
  
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• Japan Enacts Law Forcing Third-Party App Stores On Apple and Google

  13-06-2024 02:10 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  Following in the European Union's footsteps, Japan's parliament has enacted a law on Wednesday that will prohibit big tech from blocking third-party app stores. AppleInsider reports: The intention of the bill is that it will facilitate competition and reduce app prices. Japan's government reportedly believes that Apple and Google are a duopoly, and that they charge developers high fees that are then passed on to users. Big tech companies with App Stores will also prohibit companies from prioriti
  
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• Intel Is Trucking a 916,000-Pound 'Super Load' Across Ohio To Its New Fab

  13-06-2024 01:30 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Intel has begun ferrying around 20 "super loads" across Ohio for the construction of its new $28 billion Ohio One Campus. The extensive planning and coordination required for these shipments are expected to cause road closures and delays during the nine days of transport. Tom's Hardware reports: Intel's new campus coming to New Albany, OH, is in heavy construction, and around 20 super loads are being ferried across Ohio's roads by the Ohio Department of Transportation after arriving at a port of
  
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• Stable Diffusion 3 Mangles Human Bodies Due To Nudity Filters

  13-06-2024 00:50 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, Stability AI released weights for Stable Diffusion 3 Medium, an AI image-synthesis model that turns text prompts into AI-generated images. Its arrival has been ridiculed online, however, because it generate images of humans in a way that seems like a step backward from other state-of-the-art image-synthesis models like Midjourney or DALL-E 3. As a result, it can churn out wild anatomically incorrect visual abominations with eas
  
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• Adobe Says It Won't Train AI On Customers' Work In Overhauled ToS

  13-06-2024 00:10 via slashdot.org
  
  In a new blog post, Adobe said it has updated its terms of service to clarify that it won't train AI on customers' work. The move comes after a week of backlash from users who feared that an update to Adobe's ToS would permit such actions. The clause was included in ToS sent to Creative Cloud Suite users, which claimed that Adobe "may access, view, or listen to your Content through both automated and manual methods -- using techniques such as machine learning in order to improve our Services and
  
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• EU Announces Higher Tariffs of Up To 38% On Chinese EVs

  12-06-2024 23:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The European Union on Wednesday said it would impose higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, which it found benefit "heavily from unfair subsidies" and pose a "threat of economic injury" to EV producers in Europe. CNBC reports: On a preliminary basis, the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, concluded that the battery-electric vehicles value chain in China "benefits from unfair subsidization" and pronounced that it is in the EU's interest to impose "provisional counterva
  
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