ICT news

• Why Google Should Be Afraid of a Missouri Republican's Google Probe

  15-11-2017 04:30 via rss.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Republican attorney general of Missouri has launched an investigation into Google's business practices. Josh Hawley wants to know how Google handles user data. And he plans to look into whether Google is using its dominance in the search business to harm companies in other markets where Google competes. It's another sign of growing pressure Google is facing from the political right. Grassroots conservatives increasingly see Google as fal
  
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• Google is Building an Experimental New Browser and a New Kind of Web App

  11-12-2025 22:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  Google's Chrome team has built an experimental browser called Disco that takes a query or prompt, opens a cluster of related tabs, and then generates a custom application tailored to whatever task the user is trying to accomplish. The browser launched Thursday as an experiment in Google's Search Labs.
  GenTabs, the core feature powering Disco, are information-rich pages created by Google's Gemini AI models -- ask for travel tips and the system builds a planner app; ask for study help and it creat
  
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• Cisco Stock Hits New All-Time High, 25 Years After the Dotcom Bubble Burst

  11-12-2025 21:45 via slashdot.org
  Cisco's stock price touched $80.25 on Wednesday, finally eclipsing its dotcom-era peak of $80.06 set on March 27, 2000 -- when the networking giant briefly surpassed Microsoft to become the world's most valuable company. The journey back took 25 years, eight months and 13 days. The company's fundamentals improved dramatically over that period, of course. Revenues have nearly quintupled since 1999, profits have quadrupled, earnings per share have grown eightfold, and margins have remained healthy
  
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• New York Becomes First State To Require Disclosure of AI Performers in Ads

  11-12-2025 21:05 via news.slashdot.org
  New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed two bills aimed at regulating the use of AI in entertainment, requiring disclosure when ads feature AI-generated performers and mandating consent from heirs before a deceased person's likeness can be used commercially. Hochul described both measures as "first in the nation" policies during a signing ceremony at SAG-AFTRA's New York City offices.
  The first bill compels ad producers to disclose the use of synthetic performers, and the second requir
  
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• Uber Pulls Back From Electric Cars, Slashing Incentives for Drivers

  11-12-2025 20:24 via tech.slashdot.org
  Uber has discontinued its monthly electric vehicle bonuses for drivers in the United States and Canada, marking the latest in a series of rollbacks from a company that once pledged to pour $800 million into helping its drivers transition away from gasoline-powered cars. The ride-hailing giant had previously eliminated its $1-per-ride EV perk last year, replacing it with monthly bonuses that required drivers to complete 200 rides. Those monthly payments are now gone too.
  The company is far behind
  
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• GPT-5.2 Arrives as OpenAI Scrambles To Respond To Gemini 3's Gains

  11-12-2025 19:45 via slashdot.org
  OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-5.2, its latest and what the company calls its "best model yet for everyday professional use," just days after CEO Sam Altman declared a "code red" internally to marshal resources toward improving ChatGPT amid intensifying competition from Google's well-received Gemini 3 model. The GPT-5.2 series ships in three tiers: Instant, designed for faster responses and information retrieval; Thinking, optimized for coding, math, and planning; and Pro, the most powerful tie
  
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• College Campuses Have Become a Front Line in America's Sports-Betting Boom

  11-12-2025 19:10 via news.slashdot.org
  Since the Supreme Court struck down the federal prohibition on sports betting in 2018, 39 states have legalized the activity, and college campuses have emerged as ground zero for what appears to be a generational gambling problem among young men. A 2023 NCAA survey found that 60% of college students have gambled on sports, and 16% of 18-to-22-year-olds engage in what the organization classifies as problematic gambling. A Siena University poll from January found that 28% of men aged 18-to-34 who
  
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• The Game Awards Are Losing Their Luster

  11-12-2025 18:36 via games.slashdot.org
  The Game Awards, which broadcasts tonight on Twitch, YouTube, and Prime Video, has become the biggest night on the video game calendar since launching in 2014, but the show's treatment of developers has drawn increasing criticism. At the 2023 ceremony, acceptance speeches were often cut off after roughly 30 seconds while Hideo Kojima received five minutes to discuss his upcoming game OD -- enough time for 13 acceptance speeches, Aftermath calculated. That year's show also ignored the industry's
  
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• Why Switzerland Is Weighing a 10 Million Population Limit

  11-12-2025 17:44 via news.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Growing support for far-right parties is pressuring European governments to introduce stricter controls on immigration. Switzerland is set to vote on a proposal that would take the idea to the next level -- imposing a cap on its population [non-paywalled link]. The initiative could lead eventually to a blanket ban on new arrivals if the number of residents rises from around 9 million currently to above 10 million, with little distinction made between refugees
  
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• AI Hackers Are Coming Dangerously Close to Beating Humans

  11-12-2025 17:13 via it.slashdot.org
  Stanford researchers spent much of the past year building an AI bot called Artemis that scans networks for software vulnerabilities, and when they pitted it against ten professional penetration testers on the university's own engineering network, the bot outperformed nine of them. The experiment offers a window into how rapidly AI hacking tools have improved after years of underwhelming performance.
  "We thought it would probably be below average," said Justin Lin, a Stanford cybersecurity resear
  
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• Disney Puts $1 Billion Into OpenAI, Licenses 200+ Characters for AI-Generated Videos and Images

  11-12-2025 16:22 via slashdot.org
  Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and has entered into a three-year licensing deal that will let users generate AI-powered short videos and images featuring more than 200 characters from its Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar franchises.
  The new features are expected to launch in 2026 through Sora, OpenAI's short-form video platform, and ChatGPT. A selection of user-generated short videos will also be available to stream on Disney+. The licensing agreement excludes any talent likenesses
  
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• Opera Wants You To Pay $20 a Month For Its AI Browser

  11-12-2025 15:45 via tech.slashdot.org
  Opera has opened its AI-powered browser Neon to the public after a couple of months of testing, and anyone interested in trying it will need to pay $19.90 per month. The Norway-based company first unveiled Neon in May and launched it in early access to select users in October. Like Perplexity's Comet, OpenAI's Atlas, and The Browser Company's Dia, Neon bakes an AI chatbot into its interface that can answer questions about pages, create mini apps and videos, and perform tasks. The browser uses yo
  
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• US Could Ask Foreign Tourists For Five-Year Social Media History Before Entry

  11-12-2025 15:05 via news.slashdot.org
  Tourists from dozens of countries including the UK could be asked to provide a five-year social media history as a condition of entry to the United States, under a new proposal unveiled by American officials. From a report: The new condition would affect people from dozens of countries who are eligible to visit the US for 90 days without a visa, as long as they have filled out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form. Since returning to the White House in January, President Dona
  
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• New OpenAI Models Likely Pose 'High' Cybersecurity Risk, Company Says

  11-12-2025 14:00 via it.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: OpenAI says the cyber capabilities of its frontier AI models are accelerating and warns Wednesday that upcoming models are likely to pose a "high" risk, according to a report shared first with Axios. The models' growing capabilities could significantly expand the number of people able to carry out cyberattacks. OpenAI said it has already seen a significant increase in capabilities in recent releases, particularly as models are able to operate longe
  
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• Cybersecurity Performance Goals 2.0 for Critical Infrastructure

  11-12-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA released updated Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPG 2.0) with measurable actions for critical infrastructure owners and operators to achieve a foundational level of cybersecurity. 
  This update incorporates lessons learned, aligns with the most recent National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework revisions, and addresses the most common and impactful threats facing critical infrastructure today.  
  CPG 2.0 includes a new component
  
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• 2025 CWE Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses

  11-12-2025 13:00 via cisa.gov
  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in collaboration with the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute (HSSEDI), operated by the MITRE Corporation, has released the 2025 Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Weaknesses. This annual list identifies the most critical weaknesses adversaries exploit to compromise systems, steal data, or disrupt services. 
  Prioritizing the weaknesses outlined in the Top 25 is integral to
  
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• Sperm Donor With Cancer-Causing Gene Fathered Nearly 200 Children Across Europe

  11-12-2025 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  schwit1 shares a report from CBS News: perm from a donor who unknowingly carried a cancer-causing gene has been used to conceive nearly 200 babies across Europe, an investigation by 14 European public service broadcasters, including CBS News' partner network BBC News, has revealed. Some children conceived using the sperm have already died from cancer, and the vast majority of those who inherited the gene will develop cancer in their lifetimes, geneticists said. The man carrying the gene passed s
  
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• NASA Loses Contact With MAVEN Mars Orbiter

  11-12-2025 08:00 via science.slashdot.org
  NASA has lost contact with its MAVEN Mars orbiter after it passed behind Mars. When it remerged from behind the planet, the spacecraft never resumed communications. SpaceNews reports: MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered orbit around Mars in September 2014. The spacecraft's primary science mission is to study the planet's upper atmosphere and interactions with the solar wind, including how the atmosphere escapes into space. That is intended to help scientists understand how the planet cha
  
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• ChatGPT Is Apple's Most Downloaded App of 2025

  11-12-2025 04:30 via apple.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Apple on Wednesday released its annual list of the most downloaded apps and games for the year. For the U.S. market, OpenAI's ChatGPT topped the ranks of free iPhone apps (not including games) with the most installs in 2025. The AI app was followed by Threads, Google, TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, and Google's Gemini. ChatGPT made it to No. 4 last year, but the top spot was taken by Chinese shopping app Temu. In 202
  
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• Operation Bluebird Wants To Relaunch 'Twitter' For a New Social Network

  11-12-2025 01:50 via tech.slashdot.org
  A startup called Operation Bluebird is petitioning the US Patent and Trademark Office to strip X Corp of the "Twitter" and "tweet" trademarks, hoping to relaunch a new Twitter with the old brand, bird logo, and "town square" vibe. "The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.'s products, services, and marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark," the petition states. "The TWITTER bird was grounded." Ars Technica reports: If s
  
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• Google Faces Fines Over Google Play If It Doesn't Make More Concessions

  11-12-2025 01:10 via news.slashdot.org
  EU regulators say Google's Play Store changes still don't meet fairness rules and are preparing a potentially hefty 2026 fine unless Google makes deeper concessions. Reuters reports: Google Play has been in the European Commission's crosshairs since March, with regulators singling out technical restrictions preventing app developers from steering users to other channels for cheaper offers. Another issue is the service fee charged by Google for facilitating an app developer's initial acquisition
  
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• India Proposes Charging OpenAI, Google For Training AI On Copyrighted Content

  11-12-2025 00:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: On Tuesday, India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade released a proposed framework that would give AI companies access to all copyrighted works for training in exchange for paying royalties to a new collecting body composed of rights-holding organizations, with payments then distributed to creators. The proposal argues that this "mandatory blanket license" would lower compliance costs for AI firms while ensuring that wri
  
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• Qualcomm Acquires RISC-V Chip Designer Ventana Micro Systems

  10-12-2025 23:50 via hardware.slashdot.org
  Qualcomm has acquired RISC-V startup Ventana to strengthen its CPU ambitions beyond mobile, "reinforcing its commitment and leadership in the development of the RISC-V standard and ecosystem," the company said in a press release. CRN Magazine reports: The San Diego-based company said Ventana's expertise in RISC-V, a free and open alternative to the Arm and x86 instruction set architectures, will enhance its CPU engineering capabilities and complement "existing efforts to develop custom Oryon CPU
  
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• Ubuntu Will Have Native AMD ROCm AI/ML and HPC Libraries In Next LTS Release

  10-12-2025 23:20 via news.slashdot.org
  Longtime Slashdot reader MadCow42 writes: Canonical just announced that they're packaging AMD's ROCm libraries (for AIML and HPC with both data-center GPUs as well as desktop/laptop GPUs), directly into the Ubuntu Universe archive. You can run ROCm on Ubuntu today but you have to install it via a script from AMD and manually remove and reinstall for any upgrades or bug fixes. Having it in Ubuntu as a normal Debian package will make it much easier to install and also to maintain in the long run v
  
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• Adobe Integrates With ChatGPT

  10-12-2025 22:50 via slashdot.org
  Adobe is integrating Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat directly into ChatGPT so users can edit photos, design graphics, and tweak PDFs through the chatbot. The Verge reports: The Adobe apps are free to use, and can be activated by typing the name of the app alongside an uploaded file and conversational instruction, such as "Adobe Photoshop, help me blur the background of this image." ChatGPT users won't have to specify the name of the app again during the same conversation to make additional chang
  
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• Cable Channel Subscribers Grew For the First Time In 8 Years Last Quarter

  10-12-2025 22:13 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Monday, research analyst MoffettNathanson released its "Cord-Cutting Monitor Q3 2025: Signs of Life?" report. It found that the pay TV operators, including cable companies, satellite companies, and virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) like YouTube TV and Fubo, added 303,000 net subscribers in Q3 2025. According to the report, "There are more linear video subscribers now than there were three months ago. That's the
  
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• Wells Fargo CEO Says More Job Cuts Coming at the Bank as AI Prompts 'Efficiency'

  10-12-2025 19:45 via slashdot.org
  Wells Fargo expects more job cuts and higher severance costs in this quarter that ends in three weeks, bank CEO and President Charlie Scharf said Tuesday at an investors conference in New York. He's also betting on AI to drive efficiency and, eventually, further workforce reduction.From a report: "As we've gone through the budgeting process, and even pre AI, we do expect to have less people as we go into next year," Scharf said at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York City.
  
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• Democrats Warn Their Party May Try To Unravel Any Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Deal

  10-12-2025 19:09 via politics.slashdot.org
  As the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery grows, two Democratic lawmakers are warning that their party may try to block or unravel any
  acquisition by Paramount when it returns to power. Semafor: In a letter to the WBD board and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent first shared with Semafor, Reps. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said they were concerned about the national security risk of letting foreign entities control a large portion of the US entertainment and media industry
  
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• Amazon Changes How Copyright Protection is Applied To Kindle Direct's Self-Published Ebooks

  10-12-2025 18:33 via news.slashdot.org
  Amazon says it will allow authors to offer their DRM-free ebooks in the EPUB and PDF formats through its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Starting on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made available in these more open formats. From a report: The decision to use Digital Rights Management (DRM), a copyright protection mechanism, is set by the authors when they publish their ebooks on Amazon's platform. The company notes these changes
  
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• HDMI Forum Continues To Block HDMI 2.1 For Linux, Valve Says

  10-12-2025 17:51 via linux.slashdot.org
  New submitter emangwiro shares a report: The HDMI Forum, responsible for the HDMI specification, continues to stonewall open source. Valve's Steam Machine theoretically supports HDMI 2.1, but the mini-PC is software-limited to HDMI 2.0. As a result, more than 60 frames per second at 4K resolution are only possible with limitations. In a statement to Ars Technica, a Valve spokesperson confirmed that HDMI 2.1 support is "still a work-in-progress on the software side." "We've been working on trying
  
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