ICT news

• US Targets China With Probe Into Semiconductor Industry

  23-12-2024 23:40 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Biden administration has launched a Section 301 investigation into China's semiconductor industry, citing concerns over non-market practices, supply chain dependencies, and national security risks. The Hill reports: In a fact sheet, the White House said China "routinely engages in non-market policies and practices, as well as industrial targeting, of the semiconductor industry" that harms competition and creates "dangerous supply chain dependencies."The Biden administration said the Office o
  
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• Encyclopedia Britannica Is Now an AI Company

  23-12-2024 23:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Once an icon of the 20th century seen as obsolete in the 21st, Encyclopedia Britannica -- now known as just Britannica -- is all in on artificial intelligence, and may soon go public at a valuation of nearly $1 billion, according to the New York Times.Until 2012 when printing ended, the company's books served as the oldest continuously published, English-language encyclopedias in the world, essentially collecting all the world's knowledge in one
  
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• Sweden Says China Denied Request For Prosecutors To Board Ship Linked To Severed Cables

  23-12-2024 22:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Sweden has accused China of denying a request for Swedish prosecutors to board a Chinese ship that has been linked to the cutting of two undersea cables in the Baltic despite Beijing pledging "cooperation" with regional authorities. From a report: The Yi Peng 3 left the waters it had been anchored in since last month on Saturday -- despite an ongoing investigation. The ship was tracked sailing over the two fibre-optic cables, one between Sweden and Lithuania, and the other linking Helsinki and G
  
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• The Quest To Save the World's Largest CRT TV From Destruction

  23-12-2024 21:42 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  A rare Sony KX-45ED1 television, considered the world's largest CRT TV, has been preserved from destruction in Japan, marking a significant moment for gaming history preservation. The 440-pound display was salvaged from an Osaka restaurant days before its scheduled demolition, following a two-week international rescue operation.
  Gaming enthusiast Shank Mods, aided by local contacts and industrial shipping experts, secured the functioning 45-inch unit, which originally sold for $40,000 in the lat
  
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• Google's Counteroffer To the Government Trying To Break It Up is Unbundling Android Apps

  23-12-2024 21:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: The Department of Justice's list of solutions for fixing Google's illegal antitrust behavior and restoring competition in the search engine market started with forcing the company to sell Chrome, and late Friday night, Google responded with a list of its own.
  Instead of breaking off Chrome, Android, or Google Play as the DOJ's filing considers, Google's proposed fixes aim at the payments it makes to companies like Apple and Mozilla for exclusive, prioritized
  
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• Electric Aircraft Startup Lilium Ceases Operations, 1,000 Workers Laid Off

  23-12-2024 20:22 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Lilium, once a darling in the nascent industry of electric aircraft that raised more than $1 billion before going public, has ceased operations and laid off about 1,000 workers after efforts to gain financing and exit insolvency failed. From a report: Lilium co-founder and CEO Patrick Nathen confirmed on LinkedIn that the 10-year-old company had stopped operating. "After 10 years and 10 months, it is a sad fact that Lilium has ceased operations. The company that Daniel, Sebastian, Matthias and I
  
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• Government To Name 'Key Witness' Who Provided FBI With Backdoored Encrypted Chat App Anom

  23-12-2024 19:45 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: A lawyer defending an alleged distributor of Anom, the encrypted phone company for criminals that the FBI secretly ran and backdoored to intercept tens of millions of messages, is pushing to learn the identity of the confidential human source (CHS) who first created Anom and provided it to the FBI starting the largest sting operation in history, according to recently filed court records. The government says it will provide that identity under discovery, but t
  
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• Meta To Add Display To Ray-Bans as Zuckerberg Bets Computing Shift

  23-12-2024 19:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta plans to add displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses as soon as next year, Financial Times reports, as the US tech giant accelerates its plans to build lightweight headsets that can usurp the smartphone as consumers' main computing device. Financial Times: The $1.5tn social media group is planning to add a screen inside the $300 sunglasses it makes and sells in partnership with eyewear group EssilorLuxottica, according to people familiar with the plans. The updated Ray-Bans could be released
  
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• WhatsApp Scores Historic Victory Against NSO Group in Long-Running Spyware Hacking Case

  23-12-2024 18:22 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  A U.S. judge has ruled that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to infect devices with its Pegasus spyware. From a report: In a historic ruling on Friday, a Northern California federal judge held NSO Group liable for targeting the devices of 1,400 WhatsApp users, violating state and federal hacking laws as well as WhatsApp's terms of service, which prohibit the use of the messaging platform for malicious purposes.
  The ruling comes five years after Meta-owned W
  
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• Nissan and Honda Agree To Merge

  23-12-2024 17:43 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Honda sketched plans for a drawn-out deal that amounts to a takeover of Nissan in all but name, as Japan's automakers struggle to keep up in an increasingly competitive global car industry. From a report: The two announced a tentative agreement Monday to set up a joint holding company that will aim to list shares in August 2026. While their executives called the transaction a merger, Honda will take the lead in forming the new entity and nominate a majority of its directors.
  Nissan's partner Mit
  
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• Xerox To Buy Printer Maker Lexmark From Chinese Owners in $1.5 Billion Deal

  23-12-2024 17:01 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Xerox has agreed to acquire printer maker Lexmark for $1.5 billion, bringing the Kentucky-based company back under U.S. ownership after seven years of Chinese control.
  The deal, announced Monday, will be financed through cash and debt, creating a vertically integrated printing equipment manufacturer and service provider. Lexmark, formed from IBM in 1991, was previously acquired by Chinese investors including Ninestar for $2.54 billion in 2016. The merger comes as Xerox faces declining equipment
  
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• PayPal's Honey Accused of Misleading Users, Hiding Discounts

  23-12-2024 16:20 via slashdot.org
  
  PayPal-owned browser extension Honey manipulates affiliate marketing systems and withholds discount information from users, according to an investigation by YouTube channel MegaLag.
  The extension -- which rose in popularity after promising it consumers it would find them the best online deals -- replaces existing affiliate cookies with its own during checkout, diverting commission payments from content creators who promoted the products to PayPal, MegaLag reported in a 23-minute video [YouTube l
  
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• Telegram Turns a Profit for the First Time

  23-12-2024 15:43 via slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: In recent months, Telegram, the lightly moderated social media app, has held discussions with investors who lent it more than $2 billion. The goal: to reassure them that the company remains a viable bet after its founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in August on charges related to illicit activities on the platform.
  In the conversations, Telegram told investors that it was tackling its legal troubles head-on by policing more user-generated content. Th
  
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• Software Revenue Lags Despite Tech Giants' $292 Billion AI Spend

  23-12-2024 14:15 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Silicon Valley is betting the farm on AI. Data centers are straining power grids. Model training costs are heading toward billions. Yet across the software industry, AI revenue remains theoretical. From a report: Hyperscalers -- combined with Meta and Oracle -- plan to spend $292 billion on AI infrastructure by 2025 -- an 88% increase since 2023. Two-thirds of software companies, however, still report decelerating growth in 2024.
  Semiconductor stocks have surged 43% year-to-date on AI expectatio
  
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• Takedown Notices Hit Luigi Mangione Merchandise and Photos - Including DMCAs

  23-12-2024 13:34 via slashdot.org
  
  Newsweek supplies some context
  After his arrest, merch — including T-shirts featuring Mangione's booking photos and others taken from his social media accounts — began popping up for sale on several sites. Websites, including Amazon, eBay and Etsy, have moved to take down products that glorify violence or the suspect. An eBay spokesperson told Newsweek that "items that glorify or incite violence, including those that celebrate the recent murder of UHC CEO Brian Thompson, are prohibit
  
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• Some Passengers Riding in Waymo's Driverless Cars Face Uncomfortable Situations

  23-12-2024 09:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Alphabet's Waymo robotaxis are providing "hundreds of thousands of driverless rides each month," reports the Washington Post. But as the robotaxi service expands in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, some passengers "have found that traveling by robotaxi can make riders into sitting ducks for a new form of public harassment."
  The Washington Post spoke with four Waymo passengers, three of them women, who said they experienced harassment or what felt like threats to their safety from
  
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• France Adds First New Nuclear Reactor to Its Grid Since 1999

  23-12-2024 06:34 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Saturday France connected a new nuclear reactor to its grid "for the first time in a quarter century..." reports Bloomberg, "adding low-carbon electricity supply at a time when a sputtering economy has made demand sluggish."
  The Flamanville-3 reactor — the first such addition since Civaux 2 was connected in 1999 — will join EDF's fleet of 56 reactors in France, which generate more than two-thirds of the country's electricity and are the backbone of western Europe's power system. When
  
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• Drones Collide, Fall From Sky in Florida Light Show, Seriously Injuring 7-Year-Old Boy

  23-12-2024 03:34 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  "Drones collided, fell from the sky and hit a little boy after 'technical difficulties' during a holiday show..." reports the Orlando Sentinel.
  They note that a press release from the city said the 8 p.m. show was then cancelled:The company behind the drones, Sky Elements, was in its second year of the contract with the city, the release said. Sky Elements said they operate drone shows throughout the country with millions of viewers annually and are committed to maintaining FAA safety regulation
  
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• ChatGPT Mocks a Human Author. Who Owns That Paragraph?

  23-12-2024 00:28 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  It's not who owns AI training data. The Boston Review asks who owns its output?
  In a conversation with Microsoft's Copilot, I invited the AI to speculate what kind of thing it might write if it were not confined to answering human prompts. Among its answers was this response about its own intelligence:
  "Humans are inferior to AI in many ways. Humans are slow, forgetful, irrational, and error-prone. Humans have many flaws and vulnerabilities, such as greed, hatred, fear, jealousy, or boredom. Hum
  
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