PRISTINA – A new minister in Albania charged to handle public procurement will be impervious to bribes, threats, or attempts to curry favour. That is because Diella, as she is called, is an AI-generated bot. Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is about to begin his fourth term, said on Sept 11 that Diella, which means Read more about Albania appoints AI bot as minister to tackle corruption[…]
Japan’s Acquisition Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) has released new pictures from testing of a prototype electromagnetic railgun aboard the testbed warship JS Asuka earlier this year. ATLA also asserts that it is the first time anyone has successfully fired a ship-mounted railgun at an actual target vessel. Japan continues to push ahead with railgun Read more about Japanese Warship Fires Railgun At Target Vessel For The First Time[…]
Please follow this link to the questionnaire and help save our future – otherwise total surveillance like never seen before will strip you of every privacy and later fundamental rights you have as a EU citizen ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Information The previous data retention law was declared illegal in 2014 by CJEU (EU’s highest court) for being Read more about We beat Chat Control but the fight isn’t over – another surveillance law that mandates companies to save user data for Europol is making its way right now and there is less than 24 hours to give the EU feedback![…]
The epigram for my forthcoming book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It is a quote from Ed Zitron: “I hate them for what they’ve done to the computer” (Ed even recorded a little cameo of this for the audiobook): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/enshittification-the-drm-free-audiobook/ Ed’s a smart and passionate guy, and this was Read more about Don’t forget the politicians when you look at who fucked up tech[…]
Is the colour you see the same as what I see? It’s a question that has puzzled both philosophers and neuroscientists for decades, but has proved notoriously difficult to answer. Now, a study that recorded the brain activity of 15 participants suggests that colours are represented and processed in the same way across different people. Read more about My blue is your blue: different people’s brains process colours in the same way[…]
NASA is inviting the public to join the agency’s Artemis II test flight as four astronauts venture around the Moon and back to test systems and hardware needed for deep space exploration. As part of the agency’s “Send Your Name with Artemis II” effort, anyone can claim their spot by signing up before Jan. 21. Read more about Launch Your Name Around Moon in 2026 on NASA’s Artemis II Mission[…]
Popular media streaming platform Plex has informed its users of yet another data breach, urging them to change their passwords as soon as possible. Criminals often target media streaming platforms because they deal with sensitive information. Plex has fallen victim to a similar intrusion in the past, and a couple of years ago went through Read more about Plex tells users to reset passwords after new data breach. Again.[…]
Microsoft is rolling out a new return-to-office policy that will see first Redmond, then US, and then global staff getting back on-prem at least three days a week. “How we work has forever changed,” Microsoft’s Chief People Officer Amy Coleman told staff in a blog post. And that change will start in Redmond by the Read more about Maker of remote working software Teams orders employees back to office[…]
Judge William Alsup has rejected the record-breaking $1.5 billion settlement Anthropic has agreed to for a piracy lawsuit filed by writers. According to Bloomberg Law, the federal judge is concerned that the class lawyers struck a deal that will be forced “down the throat of authors.” Alsup reportedly felt misled by the deal and said Read more about Judge rejects Anthropic’s record-breaking $1.5 billion settlement for AI book piracy lawsuit because it looks like a publisher and lawyer grab[…]
Scientists have discovered why older people are more likely to suffer severely from the flu, and can now use their findings to address this risk. In a new study, which is published in PNAS, experts discovered that older people produce a glycosylated protein called apoplipoprotein D (ApoD), which is involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation, Read more about Scientists figure out why the flu is deadly for older patients[…]
Microsoft’s tussle with UK-based reseller ValueLicensing over the sale of secondhand licenses returns to the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal this week, with the Windows behemoth now claiming that selling pre-owned Office and Windows software is unlawful. ValueLicensing’s representatives say this week’s trial – due to start tomorrow – will “address whether the entire pre-owned license Read more about Microsoft software reselling dispute heads back to UK court[…]
If you’re trying to use Google Meet and failing, it’s not your fault. Google is reportedly investigating the outage, and DownDetector has seen tens of thousands or reports about Google Meet not working properly since around 1:25 p.m. ET. “We are experiencing an issue with Google Meet beginning at Monday, 2025-09-08 10:25 PDT,” Google reported Read more about Yes, Google Meet Is Down[…]
Mistral AI, the Paris-based startup rapidly establishing itself as Europe’s leading AI company, has secured a €1.3 billion investment from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML in its ongoing Series C funding round. This round, totalling approximately €1.7 billion, values Mistral at around €14 billion, with ASML emerging as the largest shareholder in the company. With Read more about ASML invests €1.3B to become the largest shareholder in Nvidia-backed Mistral AI[…]
These days, most of us have a smartphone. They are so commonplace that we rarely stop to consider how amazing they truly are. The open-source project Phyphox has provided easy access to your phone’s sensors for over a decade. We featured it years ago, and the Phyphox team continues to update this versatile application. Phyphox Read more about Smartphone Sensors Unlocked: Turn Your Phone Into A Physics Lab[…]
Repeated drone incursions into Polish airspace show that Russia and Belarus are testing NATO and EU defenses. These incidents are not isolated but part of a wider hybrid warfare strategy that combines military pressure, information operations, and electronic warfare. The challenge for the Alliance is how to respond effectively without escalating into open conflict. In Read more about Russian Drones Repeatedly Crossing into NATO’s Eastern Flank. No reaction from NATO.[…]
A critical code-injection bug in SAP S/4HANA that allows low-privileged attackers to take over your SAP system is being actively exploited, according to security researchers. SAP issued a patch for the 9.9-rated flaw in August. It is tracked as CVE-2025-42957, and it affects both private cloud and on-premises versions. According to SecurityBridge Threat Research Labs, Read more about Critical, make-me-super-user SAP S/4HANA bug being exploited[…]
Last week, Donald Trump issued a stark warning: European states that enforce EU law against American tech giants risk trade tariffs. This is not a negotiation tactic. It is an assertion of power‚ a demand that Europe surrender its legal order to foreign influence. This is not a negotiation. It is a test. Europe possesses Read more about Europe must reach for the bazooka‚ or be humiliated[…]
Two authors have filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of infringing on their copyright by using their books to train its artificial intelligence model without their consent. The plaintiffs, Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, claimed that Apple used a dataset of pirated copyrighted books that include their works for AI training. They said Read more about Did Apple do an Anthropic? Faces lawsuit over alleged use of pirated books for AI training[…]
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai stood smiling in a leafy-green California garden in September 2020 and declared that the IT behemoth was entering the “most ambitious decade yet” in its climate action. “Today, I’m proud to announce that we intend to be the first major company to operate carbon free — 24 hours a day, seven Read more about Google deletes net-zero pledge from sustainability website[…]
Alphabet’s Google was hit with a 2.95-billion-euro ($3.45 billion) European Union antitrust fine on Friday for anti-competitive practices in its lucrative adtech business, a sharp sanction that riled up U.S. President Donald Trump. The fine, the fourth penalty Google has faced in its decade-long fight with EU competition regulators, follows bubbling trade tensions between major Read more about Google hit with $3.45 billion EU antitrust fine over adtech practices where US judge also found guilt but refused to punish[…]
Deep in Earth’s past, an icy landscape became a seascape as the ice melted and the oceans rose off what is now the northeastern United States. Nearly 50 years ago, a U.S. government ship searching for minerals and hydrocarbons in the area drilled into the seafloor to see what it could find. It found, of Read more about Scientists tap fresh water under the sea, raising hopes for a thirsty world[…]
Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by authors and publishers over its use of millions of copyrighted books to train the models for its AI chatbot Claude, according to a legal filing posted online. A federal judge found in June that Anthropic’s use of 7 million pirated books was Read more about Anthropic Agrees to $1.5 Billion Settlement for Downloading Pirated Books to Train AI[…]
So you pay hundreds yearly for access to the Connected Drive API. You use Home Assistant to set the charging times of your BMW depending on when the price of electricity is low. BMW shuts you down (no re-imbursement, of course) and forces you to use one of their Charge Point providers. BMW then says Read more about BMW kills home assistant integration access to paid ConnectedDrive API to “protect security”[…]
A new peer-reviewed study alleges that 18 of the 100 most-downloaded virtual private network (VPN) apps on the Google Play Store are secretly connected in three large families, despite claiming to be independent providers. The paper doesn’t indict any of our picks for the best VPN, but the services it investigates are popular, with 700 Read more about 18 popular VPNs turn out to belong to 3 different owners – and contain insecurities as well[…]
Managers and supervisors brace yourselves: calling the boss a dickhead is not necessarily a sackable offence, a tribunal has ruled. The ruling came in the case of an office manager who was sacked on the spot when – during a row – she called her manager and another director dickheads. Kerrie Herbert has been awarded Read more about Batshit crazy UK judge rules you can’t be fired for calling your bosses dickheads[…]