ICT news

• 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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• 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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• 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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• ASUS Stops Producing Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB

  16-01-2026 00:20 via tech.slashdot.org
  Reports suggest ASUS has effectively ended production of NVIDIA's RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB GPUs due to a severe memory crunch driven by AI infrastructure demand, even as NVIDIA insists it's still shipping all GeForce SKUs. YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed broke the news in its most recent video where it states ASUS "explicitly" told them the RTX 5070 Ti is "currently facing a supply shortage" and has "placed the model into end of life status." The shift leaves PC gamers facing fewer high-VRA
  
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• Italy's Privacy Watchdog, Scourge of US Big Tech, Hit By Corruption Probe

  15-01-2026 23:40 via yro.slashdot.org
  The powerful data privacy watchdog in Italy long known for aggressively policing U.S. and Chinese AI giants is under investigation for possible corruption and embezzlement. Reuters reports: Rome prosecutors are investigating the agency's president, Pasquale Stanzione, and three other board members over alleged excessive spending and possible corruption behind its decisions, Italian news agencies including ANSA as well as the judicial source, who did not wish to be named, said. Stanzione, when as
  
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• Oracle Trying To Lure Workers To Nashville For New 'Global' HQ

  15-01-2026 23:02 via developers.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Oracle is trying -- and sometimes struggling -- to attract workers to Nashville, where it is developing a massive riverfront headquarters.
  The company is hiring for more roles in Nashville than any other US city, with a special focus on jobs in its crucial cloud infrastructure unit. Oracle cloud workers based elsewhere say they've been offered tens of thousands of dollars in incentives to move. Chairman Larry Ellison made a splash in April 2024
  
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• Boeing Knew About Flaws in UPS Plane That Crashed in Louisville, NTSB Says

  15-01-2026 22:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  The National Transportation Safety Board said in a report this week that a UPS cargo plane that crashed in Louisville, Ky., last year, killing 15, had a structural flaw that the manufacturer Boeing had previously concluded would not affect flight safety. The New York Times: The N.T.S.B. has said that cracks in the assembly holding the left-side engine in place may have contributed to the November crash, though it has not officially cited a cause. The part had fractured in similar fashion on at l
  
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• Raspberry Pi's New Add-on Board Has 8GB of RAM For Running Gen AI Models

  15-01-2026 21:45 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Raspberry Pi is launching a new add-on board capable of running generative AI models locally on the Raspberry Pi 5. Announced on Thursday, the $130 AI HAT+ 2 is an upgraded -- and more expensive -- version of the module launched last year, now offering 8GB of RAM and a Hailo 10H chip with 40 TOPS of AI performance.
  Once connected, the Raspberry Pi 5 will use the AI HAT+ 2 to handle AI-related workloads while leaving the main board's Arm CPU available to compl
  
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• Why Go is Going Nowhere

  15-01-2026 21:02 via news.slashdot.org
  Go, the ancient board game that China, Japan and South Korea all claim as part of their cultural heritage, is struggling to expand its global footprint because the three nations that dominate it cannot agree on something as basic as a common rulebook.
  When Go was registered with the International Mind Sports Association alongside chess and bridge, organizers had to adopt the American Go Association's rules because the East Asian trio failed to reach consensus. In 2025, China's Ke Jie withdrew fr
  
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• Students Increasingly Choosing Community College or Certificates Over Four-Year Degrees

  15-01-2026 20:22 via news.slashdot.org
  DesScorp writes: CNBC reports that new data from the National Student Clearinghouse indicates that enrollment growth in four year degree programs is slowing down, while growth in two year and certification programs is accelerating: Enrollments in undergraduate certificate and associate degree programs both grew by about 2% in fall 2025, while enrollment in bachelor's degree programs rose by less than 1%, the report found. Community colleges now enroll 752,000 students in undergraduate certificat
  
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• Microsoft is Closing Its Employee Library and Cutting Back on Subscriptions

  15-01-2026 19:41 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft's library of books is so heavy that it once caused a campus building to sink, according to an unproven legend among employees. Now those physical books, journals, and reports, and many of Microsoft's digital subscriptions to leading US newspapers, are disappearing in a shift described inside Microsoft as an "AI-powered learning experience."
  Microsoft started cutting back on its employee subscriptions to news and reports services in November, with so
  
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• Many People Who Come Off GLP-1 Drugs Regain Weight Within 2 Years, Review Suggests

  15-01-2026 19:02 via science.slashdot.org
  Many people who stop using weight loss drugs will return to their previous weight within two years, a new review of existing research has found. CNN adds: This rate of weight regain is significantly faster than that seen in those who have lost weight by changing other lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise, rather than relying on GLP-1 medications, researchers from the University of Oxford report in a paper published Wednesday in The BMJ journal.
  GLP-1, which stands for glucagon-like pepti
  
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• Amazon Threatens 'Drastic Action' After Saks Bankruptcy

  15-01-2026 18:21 via slashdot.org
  Amazon wants a federal judge to reject Saks Global's bankruptcy financing plan, writing in court papers the beleaguered department store "burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a year" and failed to hold up their agreement. From a report: When Saks acquired Neiman Marcus for $2.7 billion in December 2024, Amazon invested $475 million into the venture on the grounds the retailer would start selling its products on Amazon's website and the tech company would offer technology a
  
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• The United States Needs Fewer Bus Stops

  15-01-2026 17:48 via tech.slashdot.org
  American buses in cities like New York and San Francisco crawl along at about eight miles per hour -- barely faster than a brisk walk -- and one surprisingly simple fix could make them faster without requiring new infrastructure or controversial policy changes. The issue, according to a Works in Progress analysis, is that US bus stops sit far too close together.
  Mean spacing in American cities is roughly 313 meters, about five stops per mile, while older cities like Philadelphia, Chicago and San
  
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• Apple is Fighting for TSMC Capacity as Nvidia Takes Center Stage

  15-01-2026 17:07 via apple.slashdot.org
  Apple, which spent years as TSMC's undisputed top customer and helped the Taiwanese foundry become the semiconductor industry's most important manufacturer, is now fighting for production capacity as Nvidia's AI chip orders consume an ever-larger share of the company's leading-edge wafer supply.
  TSMC CEO CC Wei visited Cupertino last August to deliver unwelcome news: Apple would face the largest price increase in years and the iPhone maker would no longer have guaranteed access to production cap
  
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