ICT news

• RAM Is So Expensive, Samsung Won't Even Sell It To Samsung

  04-12-2025 19:18 via hardware.slashdot.org
  A severe spike in global DRAM prices has pushed Samsung Semiconductor to refuse a long-term RAM order from its own sibling, Samsung Electronics. The move is forcing the smartphone division into short, expensive renegotiations, which will likely mean higher costs for consumer devices. PCWorld reports: Samsung subsidiaries are, naturally, going to look to Samsung Semiconductor first when they need parts. Such was reportedly the case for Samsung Electronics, in search of memory supplies for its new
  
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• OpenAI Has Trained Its LLM To Confess To Bad Behavior

  06-12-2025 04:03 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: OpenAI is testing another new way to expose the complicated processes at work inside large language models. Researchers at the company can make an LLM produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and (most of the time) owns up to any bad behavior. Figuring out why large language models do what they do -- and in particular why they sometimes appear to lie, cheat, and deceive -- is one of
  
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• Blackest Fabric Ever Made Absorbs 99.87% of All Light That Hits It

  06-12-2025 03:02 via science.slashdot.org
  alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: Engineers at Cornell University have created the blackest fabric on record, finding it absorbs 99.87 percent of all light that dares to illuminate its surface. [...] In this case, the Cornell researchers dyed a white merino wool knit fabric with a synthetic melanin polymer called polydopamine. Then, they placed the material in a plasma chamber, and etched structures called nanofibrils -- essentially, tiny fibers that trap light. "The light bas
  
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• AI Led To an Increase In Radiologists, Not a Decrease

  06-12-2025 02:01 via science.slashdot.org
  Despite predictions that AI would replace radiologists, healthcare systems worldwide are hiring more of them because AI tools enhance their work, create new oversight tasks, and increase imaging volumes rather than reducing workloads. "Put all that together with the context of an aging population and growing demand for imaging of all kinds, and you can see why Offiah and the Royal College of Radiologists are concerned about a shortage of radiologists, not their displacement," writes Financial Ti
  
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• Trump Wants Asia's 'Cute' Kei Cars To Be Made and Sold In US

  06-12-2025 01:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  sinij shares news of the Trump administration surprising the auto industry by granting approval for "tiny cars" to be built in the United States. Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump, apparently enamored by the pint-sized Kei cars he saw during his recent trip to Japan, has paved the way for them to be made and sold in the U.S., despite concerns that they're too small and slow to be driven safely on American roads.
  "They're very small, they're really cute, and I said "How would that do in t
  
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• Chinese-Linked Hackers Use Backdoor For Potential 'Sabotage,' US and Canada Say

  06-12-2025 00:23 via it.slashdot.org
  U.S. and Canadian cybersecurity agencies say Chinese-linked actors deployed "Brickstorm" malware to infiltrate critical infrastructure and maintain long-term access for potential sabotage. Reuters reports: The Chinese-linked hacking operations are the latest example of Chinese hackers targeting critical infrastructure, infiltrating sensitive networks and "embedding themselves to enable long-term access, disruption, and potential sabotage," Madhu Gottumukkala, the acting director of the Cybersecu
  
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• Meta Acquires AI Wearable Company Limitless

  05-12-2025 23:22 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Meta is acquiring AI wearable startup Limitless, maker of a pendant that records conversations and generates summaries. "We're excited that Limitless will be joining Meta to help accelerate our work to build AI-enabled wearables," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. CNBC reports: Limitless CEO Dan Siroker revealed the deal on Friday via a corporate blog post but did not disclose the financial terms. "Meta recently announced a new vision to bring personal superintelligence to everyone and a
  
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• India Reviews Telecom Industry Proposal For Always-On Satellite Location Tracking

  05-12-2025 22:21 via yro.slashdot.org
  India is weighing a proposal to mandate always-on satellite tracking in smartphones for precise government surveillance -- an idea strongly opposed by Apple, Google, Samsung, and industry groups. Reuters reports: For years, the [Prime Minister Narendra Modi's] administration has been concerned its agencies do not get precise locations when legal requests are made to telecom firms during investigations. Under the current system, the firms are limited to using cellular tower data that can only pro
  
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• The New York Times Is Suing Perplexity For Copyright Infringement

  05-12-2025 21:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  The New York Times is suing Perplexity for copyright infringement, accusing the AI startup of repackaging its paywalled reporting without permission. TechCrunch reports: The Times joins several media outlets suing Perplexity, including the Chicago Tribune, which also filed suit this week. The Times' suit claims that "Perplexity provides commercial products to its own users that substitute" for the outlet, "without permission or remuneration." [...] "While we believe in the ethical and responsibl
  
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• Cloudflare Says It Blocked 416 Billion AI Scraping Requests In 5 Months

  05-12-2025 20:19 via tech.slashdot.org
  Cloudflare says it blocked 416 billion AI scraping attempts in five months and warns that AI is reshaping the internet's economic model -- with Google's combined crawler creating a monopoly-style dilemma where opting out of AI means disappearing from search altogether. Tom's Hardware reports: "The business model of the internet has always been to generate content that drive traffic and then sell either things, subscriptions, or ads, [Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince] told Wired. "What I think peopl
  
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• Netflix To Buy Warner Bros. In $72 Billion Cash, Stock Deal

  05-12-2025 19:18 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  Netflix is buying Warner Bros. Discovery in an $82.7 billion deal that gives it HBO, iconic franchises, and major studio infrastructure. "Warner Bros. shareholders will receive $27.75 a share in cash and stock in Netflix," notes Bloomberg. "The total equity value of the deal is $72 billion, while the enterprise value of the deal is about $82.7 billion." From the report: Prior to the closing of the sale, Warner Bros. will complete the planned spinoff of its networks division, which includes cable
  
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• Why One Man Is Fighting For Our Right To Control Our Garage Door Openers

  05-12-2025 18:17 via hardware.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A few years ago, Paul Wieland, a 44-year-old information technology professional living in New York's Adirondack Mountains, was wrapping up a home renovation when he ran into a hiccup. He wanted to be able to control his new garage door with his smartphone. But the options available, including a product called MyQ, required connecting to a company's internet servers. He believed a "smart" garage door should operate only over a local Wi
  
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• QuickTime Turns 34

  05-12-2025 17:16 via news.slashdot.org
  On Dec. 2, QuickTime turned 34, and despite its origins in Apple's chaotic 1990s (1991 to be exact), "it's still the backbone of video on our devices," writes Macworld's Jason Snell. That includes MP4 and Apple's immersive video formats for Vision Pro. From the report: By the late '80s and early '90s, digital audio had been thoroughly integrated into Macs. (PCs needed add-on cards to do much more than issue beeps.) The next frontier was video, and even better, synchronized video and audio. There
  
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• Contractors With Hacking Records Accused of Wiping 96 Government Databases

  05-12-2025 16:15 via yro.slashdot.org
  Two Virginia brothers Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, previously convicted of hacking the U.S. State Department, were rehired as federal contractors and are now charged with conspiring to steal sensitive data and destroy government databases after being fired. "Following the termination of their employment, the brothers allegedly sought to harm the company and its U.S. government customers by accessing computers without authorization, issuing commands to prevent others from modifying the databases bef
  
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• AV1 Open Video Codec Now Powers 30% of Netflix Streaming

  05-12-2025 15:14 via news.slashdot.org
  Netflix says its open AV1 video codec now powers about 30% of all streaming on the platform and is rapidly becoming its primary delivery format thanks to major gains in compression, bandwidth efficiency, HDR support, and film-grain rendering. TVTechnology reports: The blog by Liwei Guo, Zhi Li, Sheldon Radford and Jeff Watts comes at a time when AV2 is on the horizon. [...] The blog revisits Netflix's AV1 journey to date, highlights emerging use cases, and shares adoption trends across the devic
  
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• AI Chatbots Can Sway Voters Better Than Political Ads

  05-12-2025 14:13 via politics.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: New research reveals that AI chatbots can shift voters' opinions in a single conversation -- and they're surprisingly good at it. A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates of the opposing party. The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence,
  
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• Satellite Captures the First Detailed Look At a Massive Tsunami

  05-12-2025 11:10 via news.slashdot.org
  NASA and CNES's SWOT satellite captured the first high-resolution, wide-swath image of a major tsunami in the open ocean after the July 2025 Kuril-Kamchatka quake. "Instead of a single neat crest racing across the basin, the image revealed a complicated, braided pattern of energy dispersing and scattering over hundreds of miles," reports Earth.com. "These are details that traditional instruments almost never resolve. They suggest the physics we use to forecast tsunami hazards -- especially the a
  
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• Sugars, 'Gum,' Stardust Found In NASA's Asteroid Bennu Samples

  05-12-2025 08:07 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA's OSIRIS-REx samples from asteroid Bennu have revealed bio-essential sugars, a never-before-seen "space gum" polymer, and unusually high levels of supernova-origin dust. The findings bolster the RNA-world hypothesis, suggest complex organics formed early on Bennu's parent body, and show preserved presolar grains that escaped alteration for billions of years."All five nucleobases used to construct both DNA and RNA, along with phosphates, have already been found in the Bennu samples brought t
  
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• Republicans Drop Trump-Ordered Block On State AI Laws From Defense Bill

  05-12-2025 04:33 via politics.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A Donald Trump-backed push has failed to wedge a federal measure that would block states from passing AI laws for a decade into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday that a sect of Republicans is now "looking at other places" to potentially pass the measure. Other Republicans opposed including the AI preemption in the defense bill, The Hill reported, joining critics
  
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• RoboCop Statue Rises In Detroit

  05-12-2025 03:02 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  alternative_right quotes a report from the Guardian: The statue looms and glints at more than 11 feet tall and weighing 3,500 pounds, looking out at the city with, how to put it ... a characteristically stern expression? Despite its daunting appearance and history as a crimefighter of last resort, the giant new bronze figure of the movie character RoboCop is being seen as a symbol of hope, drawing fans and eliciting selfie mania since it began standing guard over Detroit on Wednesday afternoon.
  
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• US Probes Reports Waymo Self-Driving Cars Illegally Passed School Buses 19 Times

  05-12-2025 02:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  U.S. regulators are pressing Waymo for answers after Texas officials reported 19 instances of its self-driving cars illegally passing stopped school buses, including cases that occurred after Waymo claimed to have deployed a software fix. Longtime Slashdot reader BrendaEM shares the report from Reuters: In a November 20 letter posted by NHTSA, the Austin Independent School District said five incidents occurred in November after Waymo said it had made software updates to resolve the issue and ask
  
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• Microsoft Faces New Complaint For Unlawfully Processing Data On Behalf of Israeli Military

  05-12-2025 01:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  Ancient Slashdot user Alain Williams shares a report from Al Jazeera: The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has announced it filed a complaint against Microsoft, accusing the global tech giant of unlawfully processing data on behalf of the Israeli military and facilitating the killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. In the complaint, the council asked the Data Protection Commission -- the European Union's lead data regulator for the company -- to "urgently investigate" Microsoft Irelan
  
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• Plane Crashed After 3D-Printed Part Collapsed

  05-12-2025 00:23 via hardware.slashdot.org
  A light aircraft crashed in Gloucestershire after a 3D-printed plastic air-induction elbow softened from engine heat and collapsed, cutting power during final approach and causing the plane to undershoot the runway. Investigators say the part was made from "inappropriate material" and safety actions will be taken in the future regarding 3D printed parts. The BBC reports: Following an "uneventful local flight", the AAIB report said the pilot advanced the throttle on the final approach to the runw
  
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• Russia Blocks Roblox, Apple's FaceTime

  04-12-2025 23:22 via yro.slashdot.org
  Russia has blocked Apple's FaceTime and the gaming platform Roblox as part of a broader crackdown on foreign tech platforms. CBC News reports: Both restrictions are part of an accelerating clampdown on foreign tech platforms: In the case of FaceTime, Russian authorities allege it is being used for criminal activity, while Roblox was accused of distributing extremist materials and "LGBT propaganda." The move follows restrictions against Google's YouTube, Meta's WhatsApp and the Telegram messaging
  
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• EU Hits Meta With Antitrust Probe Over Plans To Block AI Rivals From WhatsApp

  04-12-2025 22:21 via yro.slashdot.org
  The EU has opened an antitrust investigation into Meta over a new WhatsApp policy that could block rival AI assistants from accessing the platform. Complaints from smaller AI developers triggered the probe, which could lead to fines of up to 10% of Meta's global revenue if the company is found to have abused its dominance. Reuters reports: EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from "abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors." She added interim
  
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• Bending Spoons Buys Eventbrite For $500 Million

  04-12-2025 21:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader williamyf writes: The Italian company Bending Spoons seems to be on an acquisitions spree. Their recent acquisitions of AOL and Vimeo are not yet finalized, yet on Dec. 2 they announced they are buying Eventbrite, a company specializing in publicizing and organizing local events, for just half a milliard USD. Bending Spoons' portfolio also includes other companies like Evernote and WeTransfer. Further reading: Private Equity Hipsters Are Coming For Your Favorite Apps (20
  
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• Microsoft 'Mitigates' Windows LNK Flaw Exploited As Zero-Day

  04-12-2025 20:19 via it.slashdot.org
  joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft has silently "mitigated" a high-severity Windows LNK vulnerability exploited by multiple state-backed and cybercrime hacking groups in zero-day attacks. Tracked as CVE-2025-9491, this security flaw allows attackers to hide malicious commands within Windows LNK files, which can be used to deploy malware and gain persistence on compromised devices. However, the attacks require user interaction to succeed, as they involve tricking potential
  
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• 30% of Doctors In UK Use AI Tools In Patient Consultations, Study Finds

  04-12-2025 18:17 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Almost three in 10 GPs in the UK are using AI tools such as ChatGPT in consultations with patients, even though it could lead to them making mistakes and being sued, a study reveals. The rapid adoption of AI to ease workloads is happening alongside a "wild west" lack of regulation of the technology, which is leaving GPs unaware which tools are safe to use. That is the conclusion of research by the Nuffield Trust thinktank, based on a survey
  
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• Subaru Owners Are Ticked About In-Car Pop-Up Ads For SiriusXM

  04-12-2025 17:16 via tech.slashdot.org
  Subaru owners are reporting full-screen SiriusXM pop-up ads appearing on their infotainment systems while driving -- sometimes even overriding Apple CarPlay. Subaru says the ads appear only twice a year, but frustrated drivers argue the practice is distracting, unsafe, and a sign of an industry trend that's likely to get worse. The Drive reports: At least one 2024 Crosstrek owner reported that the pop-up took over their screen even though they were using Apple CarPlay. To force-close an applicat
  
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• Meta Poaches Apple Design Exec Alan Dye

  04-12-2025 16:15 via tech.slashdot.org
  Apple's longtime human-interface chief Alan Dye is leaving to lead a new creative studio at Meta's Reality Labs, where he'll shape AI-driven design for devices like smart glasses and VR headsets. Dye will be replaced by Steve Lemay, who has had "a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999," according to a statement Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. TechCrunch reports: Shortly after the news broke of Dye's departure, Zuckerberg announced a new creative studio
  
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