Latest News
Last updated 25 Mar, 10:50 PM
BBC News
Iranians mark their New Year with anger, fear, and defiance - Cleaning her home for the festival, one Iranian told us: "Perhaps this dark night will finally give way to dawn."
Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial - A woman has been awarded $3m in a verdict that could have implications for hundreds of other cases in the US.
Dead students were tested for drugs and alcohol - but their killer was not, Nottingham inquiry hears - A public inquiry into the attacks heard killer Valdo Calocane refused toxicology samples in custody.
Doctors announce six-day strike in England as talks break down - The walkout over jobs and pay is one of the longest yet in the dispute, and will begin on 7 April in England.
Calls for urgent inquiry into high street child abuse claims - Political leaders call for an urgent investigation into alleged child sexual exploitation after a BBC report.
The Register
AI supply chain attacks don’t even require malware…just post poisoned documentation - A proof-of-concept attack on Context Hub suggests there's not much content santization A new service that helps coding agents stay up to date on their API calls could be dialing in a massive supply chain vulnerability.…
Scammers have virtual smartphones on speed dial for fraud - They cleverly mimic most traits of a real phone Smartphones have fast become the basis of our digital identities, securing payment systems and bank accounts. Now virtual devices that pretend to be real handsets have become a key tool for financial scammers, according to one company. …
Jen Easterly, cybersecurity's 'relentless optimist,' hopes feds come back to RSAC next year - Ex-CISA boss also says no reason to panic about AI and security RSAC 2026 "Everybody feels massive FOMO if they don't get to RSAC," Jen Easterly says.…
Only Trump can decide when cyberwar turns into real war - Four former NSA bosses walk onto the stage at RSAC… rsac 2026 There's a theoretical red line with cyber warfare. Cross it, and the US will respond with a physical attack like missile strikes. And that line "is whatever the President says it is," according to former NSA boss retired General Paul Nakasone.…
Meta cuts about 700 jobs as it shifts spending to AI - Forget the metaverse Meta has begun laying off employees as it focuses more of its cash on building out datacenters, training its own large language models, and recruiting talent for AI.…
New Scientist - Home
The brain's cleaning system can be boosted to rid Alzheimer's proteins - A duo of drugs that boosts our glympathic system, which clears waste from our brain, also improves the removal of proteins associated with the onset of Alzheimer's disease
Oldest known dog extends the genetic history of our canine companions - The remains of dogs from more than 14,000 years ago have been found in Turkey and the UK, revealing that domesticated animals were spread across Europe by hunter-gatherers
How working out like an astronaut can reduce back pain and slow ageing - The same principles that help astronauts stay strong in microgravity can help us all resist the slow collapse of ageing – and it’s not all about hitting the gym more
Landmark experiment reveals a big unexpected problem with cloning - A 20-year study has shown that, like photocopying photocopies, cloning doesn't produce perfect copies – with big implications for farming, conservation and de-extinction
Ancient elephant bones reveal vivid details of a Neanderthal hunt - Researchers have re-analysed a set of elephant bones and a wooden spear found in Germany in 1948, which provide compelling evidence of Neanderthals' big game hunting abilities
Hacker News
Running Tesla Model 3's computer on my desk using parts from crashed cars - Comments
The EU still wants to scan your private messages and photos - Comments
ARC-AGI-3 - Comments
Earthquake scientists reveal how overplowing weakens soil at experimental farm - Comments
90% of Claude-linked output going to GitHub repos w <2 stars - Comments
Slashdot
Canada's Immigration Rejected Applicant Based On AI-Invented Job Duties - New submitter haroldbasset writes: Canada's Immigration Department rejected an applicant because the duties of her current job did not match the Canadian work experience she had claimed, but the Department's AI assistant had invented that work experience. She has been working in Canada as a health scientist -- she has a Ph.D. in the immunology of aging -- but the AI genius instead described her as "wiring and assembling control circuits, building control and robot panels, programming and troubleshooting." "It's believed to be the first time that the department explicitly referred to the use of generative AI to support application processing in immigration refusals," reports the Toronto Star. "The disclaimer also noted that all generated content was verified by an officer and that generative AI was not used to make or recommend a decision." The applicant's lawyer was shocked "how any human being could make this decision." "Somehow, it hallucinated my client's job description," he said. "I would love to see what the officer saw. Something seriously went wrong here." The applicant's refusal came just as Canada's Immigration Department released its first AI strategy, which frames artificial intelligence as a way to improve efficiency, service delivery, and program integrity. The department says it has long used digital tools like analytics and automation to flag fraud risks and triage applications, and is now also experimenting with generative AI for tasks such as research, summarizing, and analysis. In this case, however, the department insisted the decision was made by a human officer and that generative AI was not involved in the final decision. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple Can Create Smaller On-Device AI Models From Google's Gemini - Apple reportedly has full access to customize Google's Gemini model, allowing it to distill smaller on-device AI models for Siri and other features that can run locally without an internet connection. MacRumors reports: The Information explains that Apple can ask the main Gemini model to perform a series of tasks that provide high-quality results, with a rundown of the reasoning process. Apple can feed the answers and reasoning information that it gets from Gemini to train smaller, cheaper models. With this process, the smaller models are able to learn the internal computations used by Gemini, producing efficient models that have Gemini-like performance but require less computing power. Apple is also able to edit Gemini as needed to make sure that it responds to queries in a way that Apple wants, but Apple has been running into some issues because Gemini has been tuned for chatbot and coding applications, which doesn't always meet Apple's needs. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Supreme Court Sides With Internet Provider In Copyright Fight Over Pirated Music - Longtime Slashdot reader JackSpratts writes: The Supreme Court unanimously said on Wednesday that a major internet provider could not be held liable for the piracy of thousands of songs online in a closely watched copyright clash. Music labels and publishers sued Cox Communications in 2018, saying the company had failed to cut off the internet connections of subscribers who had been repeatedly flagged for illegally downloading and distributing copyrighted music. At issue for the justices was whether providers like Cox could be held legally responsible and required to pay steep damages -- a billion dollars or more in Cox's case -- if they knew that customers were pirating music but did not take sufficient steps to terminate their internet access. In its opinion released (PDF) on Wednesday, the court said a company was not liable for "merely providing a service to the general public with knowledge that it will be used by some to infringe copyrights." Writing for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas said a provider like Cox was liable "only if it intended that the provided service be used for infringement" and if it, for instance, "actively encourages infringement." Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote separately to say that she agreed with the outcome but for different reasons. [...] Cox called the court's unanimous decision a "decisive victory" for the industry and for Americans who "depend on reliable internet service." "This opinion affirms that internet service providers are not copyright police and should not be held liable for the actions of their customers," the company said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Stephen Colbert To Write Next 'Lord of the Rings' Movie - An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Stephen Colbert already has a new job lined up for when he ends his 11-year run as host of "The Late Show" in May -- the comedian and well-known J.R.R. Tolkien superfan announced he will co-write and develop a new film in the blockbuster "Lord of the Rings" franchise. Colbert joined "LOTR" director Peter Jackson to reveal the news in a video announcement. "I'm pretty happy about it. You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me," the late-night host told Jackson, who led the Oscar-winning team behind the nearly $6 billion original "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" trilogies. [...] Colbert said the next installment will be based on parts of Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring" book that didn't make it into the original movies. "The thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in (The Fellowship of the Ring) that y'all never developed into the first movie back in the day ... and I thought, 'Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story.'" he said. Colbert said he discussed the idea with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, to work out the framing of the story. "It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile and give you a call, but about two years ago, I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it," Colbert told Jackson. Colbert said he, McGee and Jackson have been working alongside screenwriter Philippa Boyens on the development of the story. "I could not be happier to say that they loved it, and so that's what we're going to be working on," Colbert said. Colbert's LOTR movie, tentatively titled "Shadow of the Past," will be the second of two new upcoming films in the franchise from Warner Bros. Discovery. The first of which is called "The Hunt for Gollum" due to be released in 2027. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case - A jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a landmark social media addiction case, ruling that addictive design features such as infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations harmed a young user and contributed to her mental health distress. The verdict awards $3 million in compensatory damages so far and could pave the way for more lawsuits seeking financial penalties and product changes across the social media industry. "Meta is responsible for 70 percent of that cost and YouTube for the remainder," notes The New York Times. "TikTok and Snap both settled with the plaintiff for undisclosed terms before the trial started." From the report: The bellwether case, which was brought by a now 20-year-old woman identified as K.G.M., had accused social media companies of creating products as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. K.G.M. sued Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and Google's YouTube over features like infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations that she claimed led to anxiety and depression. The jury of seven women and five men will deliberate further to decide what further punitive damages the companies should pay for malice or fraud. The verdict in K.G.M.'s case -- one of thousands of lawsuits filed by teenagers, school districts and state attorneys general against Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, which owns Snapchat -- was a major win for the plaintiffs. The finding validates a novel legal theory that social media sites or apps can cause personal injury. It is likely to factor into similar cases expected to go to trial this year, which could expose the internet giants to further financial damages and force changes to their products. The verdict also comes on the heels of a New Mexico jury ruling that found Meta liable for violating state law by failing to protect users of its apps from child predators. Read more of this story at Slashdot.