ICT news

• Vice Media Group Prepares For Bankruptcy

  03-05-2023 01:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  "Vice Media Group appears to be the latest digital media company in trouble," writes longtime Slashdot reader DesScorp. "The New York Times reports that the company is preparing for bankruptcy after being unable to find a buyer. Vice canceled Vice News Tonight only four days ago. The company, once valued at over $5.7 billion, has been bleeding cash, and major investors such as Disney will take a huge loss." From the report: In the event of a bankruptcy, Vice's largest debt holder, Fortress Inves
  
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• Microsoft Makes Linux Containers Native On Windows 11

  30-09-2026 00:00 via linux.slashdot.org
  BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: Microsoft has made WSL Containers generally available, giving Windows 11 developers a built-in way to build, run, and deploy Linux containers through Windows Subsystem for Linux. The release includes wslc.exe for managing containers, GPU support, networking improvements, health checks, storage mounts, and integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Intune. Microsoft also claims up to twice the performance when Linux environments access files
  
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• Mistral CEO Says US AI Safety Debate Masks Competitors' 'Negligence'

  29-09-2026 23:00 via slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Mistral Chief Executive Arthur Mensch has accused leading global artificial intelligence companies of using the debate over the safety of the technology as a cover-up for their "negligence." "The debate that we've seen in the U.S. has been a cover for the negligence of some of our competitors," Mensch told CNBC's Annette Weisbach, adding that it was necessary to make systems that can contain the AI agents. [...]"When you give them a lot of tools, th
  
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• McDonald's Reportedly Using AI to 'Dynamically' Price Its Burgers

  29-09-2026 22:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  McDonald's is reportedly using AI-powered pricing tools to recommend menu prices based on what customers near individual restaurants are willing to pay. Franchisees technically retain control over final prices, but some told Reuters they feel pressured to follow the algorithm's recommendations. "A corporate document reviewed by the publication shows that McDonald's tracks adherence to the platform, and notes any deviations from the algorithm's price recommendations," reports Engadget. From the r
  
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• 500K Facial Recognition Scans at UK Stations Yield Zero Arrests, One False Positive

  29-09-2026 21:00 via news.slashdot.org
  A six-month British Transport Police trial of live facial recognition at London railway stations scanned more than 500,000 faces, cost over 320,000 pounds, and produced just one alert with no arrests directly resulting from the technology. That one alert ended up being a false positive.Despite those results, BTP has extended the pilot through November and expanded it to selected Underground stations. The Guardian reports: British Transport Police said that since the extension there had been thre
  
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• OpenAI Unveils Always-On AI Agent 'Dots'

  29-09-2026 20:00 via slashdot.org
  In addition to the company's GPT-6.1 Astra announcement, OpenAI announced always-on AI agents called "Dots" that can proactively use a computer and connected apps to research, draft documents, write software and handle other tasks on a user's behalf. "OpenAI said it would roll out Dots to paid users starting Tuesday," reports Bloomberg. "Initially, OpenAI said, each user will have access to a single 'dot' that can act as an assistant. Over time, the company expects users to manage a slew of them
  
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• Google Says Chromebook Updates End In 2034, 'Many' Models Move to Googlebook OS

  29-09-2026 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google says ChromeOS will keep receiving regular updates and security patches through mid-2034, after which qualifying newer Chromebooks will be able to migrate to the new Googlebook OS. 9to5Google reports: Starting with Chromebook updates, Google says that "Chromebooks you have today will continue to receive updates through their supported lifetime," with all Enterprise and Education management capabilities remaining in place as well: "We will maintain support for current Chromebook devices run
  
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• California Is Banning Public Officials From Making Memecoins

  29-09-2026 18:00 via slashdot.org
  California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed AB 2409, barring California public officials from issuing memecoins and prohibiting companies from listing memecoins that use a public official's image or likeness. Engadget reports: The governor's office pointed to reports that about a million investors lost an alleged $3.8 billion on their purchases of the memecoin released by President Donald Trump in 2025 as a the motivation behind the new rule."No official should profit off their office -- and we're p
  
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• Florida Invokes Extinction Fears In Legal Bid To Halt OpenAI Development

  29-09-2026 17:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The state of Florida is seeking a temporary injunction to stop OpenAI from continuing to develop what it calls a "reckless, unacceptably risky product" without the deployment of "third-party approved safety guardrails." The new legal motion (PDF), filed Monday morning, is part of a civil lawsuit the state of Florida originally filed in June, arguing that ChatGPT represented "a threat to the public safety of Floridians," specifically by preyi
  
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• El Nino Bursts Through Temperature Record Months Before Peak

  29-09-2026 13:00 via news.slashdot.org
  The current El Nino has already surpassed the highest Pacific temperature anomaly recorded in the modern era, reaching 3.05C above the 1991-2020 average months before its expected peak. The commonly used ONI measure is also on the verge of breaking the 2015 record. Forecasts cited by The Guardian suggest the event could reach about 4.0C later this year. From the report: The latest data shows the temperature rise at the heart of El Nino in the Pacific Ocean has now reached 3.05C. That is higher t
  
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• Microbes Could Survive On Saturn's Moon Enceladus

  29-09-2026 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  New research suggests Enceladus may be an especially promising place to search for extraterrestrial life: microbes similar to those found near Earth's hydrothermal vents survived in lab conditions designed to mimic the Saturnian moon's subsurface ocean. A separate study also found that material blasted from Enceladus' plumes may naturally separate and concentrate salts, organics and potential biosignatures into individual ice grains, potentially making them easier for future spacecraft to detect
  
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• Bananas That Don't Go Brown To Hit Supermarkets Thanks to DNA Editing

  29-09-2026 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: It is the bane of every fruit bowl: sliced banana that turns brown before it has reached the table. But such woes could soon be a thing of the past, with gene-edited bananas that keep their freshly peeled color now one step closer to reaching British shoppers. According to Tropic, the Norwich-based agricultural-biotechnology company that developed the fruit, the bananas have the same taste and texture but stay "fresh, yellow and appetizing l
  
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• China Broadens Travel Curbs To Encompass Family of Top AI Talent

  29-09-2026 01:00 via slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Business Standard: China has expanded overseas travel restrictions for top AI professionals in private firms to include the families of key personnel, further tightening measures designed to prevent the outflow of critical know-how and information to the US. Government agencies have recently begun to share the wider restrictions with affected people, which include prominent startup founders as well as the heads of strategically important comp
  
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• AMD Acquires Fei-Fei Li's World Labs For $8.2 Billion

  29-09-2026 00:00 via slashdot.org
  AMD has agreed to acquire Fei-Fei Li's World Labs for about $8.2 billion in stock, making it the chipmaker's second-largest acquisition and giving it a major foothold in "world models" that simulate 3D environments for robotics and other physically grounded AI. CNBC reports: AI researchers expect world models will be able to help develop robots and other physically-grounded artificial intelligence applications. AMD plans to keep World Labs separate from its chipmaking business until the transact
  
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• TikTok to Pay Alabama $100 Million, Limit Teen Use In First State Settlement

  28-09-2026 23:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  TikTok has agreed to pay Alabama at least $100 million and adopt new restrictions for teenage users, including a two-hour daily limit, overnight access restrictions, stronger age verification, a ban on beauty filters, and an option for a non-personalized feed. The settlement could grow to as much as $300 million if enough other state attorneys general join similar agreements. The Guardian reports: A trial had been set to begin on Monday in the southern US state over claims by Alabama that TikTok
  
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• Data Center Developer Offers $10,000 Checks To Nearby Households

  28-09-2026 22:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom's Hardware: NorthPoint Development wants to build a data center on 1,300 acres in the Pocono foothills, near Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. As well as seeking to charm the local government with various funding packages, it has proposed paying checks of $10,000 per household. Despite the Pennsylvania town's median income of $60,000, the offer isn't being warmly welcomed by locals, reports the Wall Street Journal. Those interviewed were widely against th
  
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• Meta Taps MongoDB CEO Desai to Drive Enterprise AI Push

  28-09-2026 21:00 via developers.slashdot.org
  Meta has hired MongoDB CEO Chirantan "CJ" Desai to lead a new enterprise AI business aimed at turning Meta's models, agents and tools into products companies can deploy themselves. Reuters reports: Desai, a veteran technology executive, took over the role from Dev Ittycheria. MongoDB has appointed Ittycheria as interim CEO as it searches for a permanent replacement. "While the departure is disappointing, we believe MongoDB remains well-positioned strategically and view the share-price reaction a
  
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• Nvidia Unveils AI Agent Safety Platform With Hardware-Based Watchdog

  28-09-2026 20:00 via it.slashdot.org
  wiredmikey shares a report from SecurityWeek: Nvidia on Monday announced the Open Agent Safety Platform, which combines open source software and a reference system design to keep AI agents within set boundaries from testing through deployment. The chipmaker explained that the platform pairs the open-source OpenShell runtime with Sentry, an out-of-band watchdog running on BlueField-4 DPUs. Nvidia says Sentry can monitor agent activity independently and quarantine an agent that crosses its boundar
  
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• Amazon Evaluating Drone Deliveries In Australia, Asia

  28-09-2026 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  Amazon is preparing to expand Prime Air drone deliveries into Australia and potentially other Asia-Pacific markets, with a new regulatory role tasked with securing the approvals needed to launch service there. The Register reports: "As Prime Air evaluates Australia and other countries, we are hiring a Head of Regulatory Approvals, Australia -- the person responsible for navigating Australia's aviation regulatory system and securing every approval required to deliver to Australian customers by dr
  
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• Bill Gates Says an AI 'Kill Switch' Isn't Enough

  28-09-2026 18:00 via slashdot.org
  Bill Gates said an AI "kill switch" alone would be insufficient to address the technology's risks. "The kill switch is, that's kind of a weird thing. It's not enough to have a kill switch," the Microsoft co-founder said in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He said the more immediate concern is people using AI for cyberattacks or bioterrorism rather than systems acting autonomously. "We're not yet at the point where they autonomously grab computers and, you know, can't be
  
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• SpaceX Launches Starship Into Orbit

  28-09-2026 17:20 via science.slashdot.org
  SpaceX's Starship reached orbit for the first time, successfully deploying 26 operational Starlink V3 satellites after overcoming an early Raptor 3 engine shutdown during ascent. "SpaceX plans to eventually deploy 100,000 upgraded Starlink V3s to expand the company's wireless satellite internet services," notes Space.com. Here's the latest update from the report:SpaceX has decided to return Starship from orbit earlier than expected. After valuating the upper stage Ship's status during its first
  
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• Walmart Says It's Not Using Personal Info To Set Prices As It Expands Digital Shelf Labels

  28-09-2026 17:00 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Walmart is aiming to assuage customers' fears about its new pricing technology as it rolls out digital price labels at its stores. In a statement posted on the company's website, Walmart's CEO John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer isn't using personal information like income, shopping history or a customer's willingness to pay to set prices, and it won't be doing so in the future either. "We don't set differ
  
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• Are AI Chatbots Spreading Misinformation to US Voters?

  28-09-2026 10:34 via politics.slashdot.org
  Are AI chatbots quietly shaping the perceptions of U.S. voters? Voters trying to educate themselves about candidates "are unknowingly being served partisan talking points in the guise of neutral news summaries," write two news researchers in Politico magazine:Leading AI chatbots cite partisan websites masquerading as independent local news outlets nearly half of the time when people ask about candidates and issues that the partisan sites have covered in the midterm campaign, according to a new a
  
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• Apple Faces $5.7 Billion Patent Infringement Verdict Over iPhone And Apple Watch Haptics

  28-09-2026 06:04 via apple.slashdot.org
  "A federal jury in San Diego awarded Taction Technology more than $5.7 billion in damages Friday after finding that Apple infringed claims from two haptics patents,"
  reports CNBC:Taction sued Apple in 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The company alleged that Apple was improperly "capitalizing on Taction's innovation and success" by selling devices that infringed on its vibration technology, according to the complaint. Apple initially won dismissal in 2023,
  
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• Just How Big is the AI Buildout - and How Risky?

  28-09-2026 01:34 via slashdot.org
  A new Brookings Institution study notes the "strikingly physical" economic footprint of AI's buildout, from specialized chips and electricity to purpose-built data centers. (Two-thirds of a data center's costs are IT equipment, with one-third going to real estate and its associated power infrastructure.) "At an average of 3.63 percent of GDP per year, the projected buildout would be larger relative to the economy than the major U.S. canal, railroad, electrification, highway, and telecommunicatio
  
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• Waymo Says Its Self-Driving Cars Reduced Injury-Causing Accidents by 82%

  27-09-2026 21:04 via tech.slashdot.org
  Waymo's self-driving car technology "continues to outperform human benchmarks," the company claimed this week. "It was involved in 841 fewer injury-causing crashes — an 82% reduction compared to human drivers."
  Electrek reports:We've seen various Waymo crash data before, with Waymo claiming crash reductions. That's all well and good when the company says it, but we've also seen independent data confirming similar (though lower) crash reduction numbers...
  Waymo has enough miles that it's re
  
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• After Dozens of Incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic, OpenAI Pauses Model Training to Build More Safeguards

  27-09-2026 16:34 via slashdot.org
  "OpenAI said it has paused training of its latest AI models," reports the Associated Press, "as reports of AI agents going rogue mount."The decision to halt development came just hours after the company disclosed Friday that it was reviewing several incidents from the summer in which OpenAI agents searching federal government websites acted in unexpected ways beyond what was asked of them while gathering and distributing information... OpenAI said in a statement that it will resume training "onl
  
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• Critical Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Exploited in Citrix NetScaler ADC, Gateway

  27-09-2026 14:00 via cisa.gov
  CISA is amplifying Citrix’s disclosure of eight new vulnerabilities affecting Citrix NetScaler ADC and Citrix NetScaler Gateway products: CVE-2026-88771, CVE-2026-88772, CVE-2026-88773, CVE-2026-88774, CVE-2026-88775, CVE-2026-88776, CVE-2026-88777, and CVE-2026-88778. 
  CISA has added CVE-2026-88771 and CVE-2026-88772 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog. Both are critical, zero-day vulnerabilities that can independently enable remote code execution. CISA has received
  
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• New Tin-based Solar Cells Trap Heat 1,000 Times Longer, Could Beat 33% Limit

  27-09-2026 12:04 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Could this push solar cell efficiency beyond the theoretical 33% limit? Interesting Engineering reports:
  Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that tin-based perovskite solar cells can slow heat loss from high-energy "hot electrons..."
  When sunlight strikes a panel, photons jump-start electrons into action. The most energetic photons create super-charged hot electrons... [but] in fractions of a trillionth of a second, these high-energy particles rapidly cool, dumpin
  
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• China and the US Say They've Agreed to Start Talks About AI

  27-09-2026 07:36 via news.slashdot.org
  The United States and China have agreed to "launch a dialogue" on AI, reports Reuters.On artificial intelligence, the two sides agreed to hold a dialogue on the technology's risks and benefits, with the next round of discussions set for November, and to set up a communication channel for AI-related incidents, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the White House said.
  The White House said that the leaders had agreed to use the term "super intelligence" in place of "artificial intelligence." In a sepa
  
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