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• Three Million Child Deaths Linked To Drug Resistance, Study Shows

  13-04-2025 23:02 via science.slashdot.org
  
  "More than three million children around the world are thought to have died in 2022 as a result of infections that are resistant to antibiotics," reports the BBC, citing a study by two leading experts in child health that used data from sources including the World Health Organization and the World Bank:Experts say this new study highlights a more than tenfold increase in AMR-related infections in children in just three years. The number could have been made worse by the impact of the Covid pande
  
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• Intel Says Employees Must Return To the Office 4 Days a Week

  25-04-2025 12:00 via slashdot.org
  
  New Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has mandated that employees return to the office four days a week starting September 1 to boost collaboration and decision-making. Tan also signaled upcoming job cuts and organizational changes, including a flatter management structure and fewer meetings. "When we spend time together in person, it fosters more engaging and productive discussion and debate," Tan wrote in a note to employees posted on Intel's website Thursday. "It drives better and faster decision-making.
  
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• Sydney Radio Station Secretly Used AI-Generated Host For 6 Months Without Disclosure

  25-04-2025 09:00 via radio.slashdot.org
  
  The Sydney-based CADA station secretly used an AI-generated host named "Thy" for its weekday shows over six months without disclosure. The Sydney Morning Herald reports: After initial questioning from Stephanie Coombes in The Carpet newsletter, it was revealed that the station used ElevenLabs -- a generative AI audio platform that transforms text into speech -- to create Thy, whose likeness and voice were cloned from a real employee in the ARN finance team. The Australian Communications and Medi
  
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• Air Pollution Still Plagues Nearly Half of Americans

  25-04-2025 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Air in the U.S. has gotten cleaner for decades, adding years to people's lives and preventing millions of asthma attacks, but nearly half of Americans still live with unhealthy air pollution, a new report finds. The report comes as the Trump administration is considering rolling back some key air quality regulations. Air quality across the country has improved dramatically since regulations like the Clean Air Act were put in place in the 1970s to gov
  
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• Waymo Reports 250,000 Paid Robotaxi Rides Per Week In US

  25-04-2025 04:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Waymo is now providing over 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S., up from 200,000 in February, as it expands into cities like Austin and grows partnerships with Uber and automakers. CNBC reports: "We can't possibly do it all ourselves," said Pichai on a call with analysts for Alphabet's first-quarter earnings. Pichai noted that Waymo has not entirely defined its long-term business model, and there is "future optionality around personal ownership" of vehicles equipped with Waymo's sel
  
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• US Agency To Ease Self-Driving Vehicle Deployment Hurdles, Retain Reporting Rules

  25-04-2025 03:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The Trump administration introduced a new framework to expedite self-driving vehicle deployment by reducing regulatory hurdles, while maintaining mandatory safety incident reporting. NHTSA is also expanding its exemption program, allowing domestically produced autonomous vehicles lacking traditional safety controls to operate on U.S. roads. Reuters reports: The Trump administration said Thursday it aims to speed up the deployment of self-driving vehicles but will maintain rules requiring reporti
  
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• You'll Soon Manage a Team of AI Agents, Says Microsoft's Work Trend Report

  25-04-2025 02:50 via slashdot.org
  
  ZipNada shares a report from ZDNet: Microsoft's latest research identifies a new type of organization known as the Frontier Firm, where on-demand intelligence requirements are managed by hybrid teams of AI agents and humans. The report identified real productivity gains from implementing AI into organizations, with one of the biggest being filling the capacity gap -- as many as 80% of the global workforce, both employees and leaders, report having too much work to do, but not enough time or ener
  
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• Employee Monitoring App Leaks 21 Million Screenshots In Real Time

  25-04-2025 02:10 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Cybernews: Researchers at Cybernews have uncovered a major privacy breach involving WorkComposer, a workplace surveillance app used by over 200,000 people across countless companies. The app, designed to track productivity by logging activity and snapping regular screenshots of employees' screens, left over 21 million images exposed in an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket, broadcasting how workers go about their day frame by frame. The leaked data is extremely s
  
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• Microsoft Brings Native PyTorch Arm Support To Windows Devices

  25-04-2025 01:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has announced native PyTorch support for Windows on Arm devices with the release of PyTorch 2.7, making it significantly easier for developers to build and run machine learning models directly on Arm-powered Windows machines. This eliminates the need for manual compilation and opens up performance gains for AI tasks like image classification, NLP, and generative AI. Neowin reports: With the release of PyTorch 2.7, native Arm builds for Windows on Arm are now readily available for Pytho
  
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• AMD Publishes Open-Source GIM Driver For GPU Virtualization, Radeon 'In The Roadmap'

  25-04-2025 00:50 via news.slashdot.org
  
  AMD has open-sourced its "GPU-IOV Module" for enabling SR-IOV-based virtualization on Instinct accelerators using the Linux kernel and KVM hypervisor, with features like GPU scheduling and VF/PF management. Notably, AMD plans to extend this virtualization support to client Radeon GPUs. Phoronix reports: The AMD GPU-IOV Module is for the Linux kernel and for providing SR-IOV based hardware virtualization in conjunction with the KVM hypervisor. GIM provides the GPU IOV virtualization, virtual func
  
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• New Android Spyware Is Targeting Russian Military Personnel On the Front Lines

  25-04-2025 00:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Russian military personnel are being targeted with recently discovered Android malware that steals their contacts and tracks their location. The malware is hidden inside a modified app for Alpine Quest mapping software, which is used by, among others, hunters, athletes, and Russian personnel stationed in the war zone in Ukraine. The app displays various topographical maps for use online and offline. The trojanized Alpine Quest app is being p
  
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• South Korea Says DeepSeek Transferred User Data, Prompts Without Consent

  24-04-2025 23:30 via slashdot.org
  
  South Korea's data protection authority said on Thursday that Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek transferred user information and prompts without permission when the service was still available for download in the country's app market. From a report: The Personal Information Protection Commission said in a statement that Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co Ltd did not obtain user consent while transferring personal information to a number of companies in China and the Unit
  
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• Apple To Strip Secret Robotics Unit From AI Chief Weeks After Moving Siri

  24-04-2025 22:50 via apple.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple will remove its secret robotics unit from the command of its artificial intelligence chief, the latest shake-up in response to the company's AI struggles. Apple plans to relocate the robotics team from John Giannandrea's AI organization to the hardware division later this month, according to people with knowledge of the move.
  That will place it under Senior Vice President John Ternus, who oversees hardware engineering, said the people, who asked not to
  
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• India's Delhi Plans To Curb Gasoline Car Sales, Ban Gas-Guzzling Bikes To Shed Polluter Tag

  24-04-2025 22:14 via news.slashdot.org
  
  India's capital New Delhi plans to limit gasoline and diesel-powered cars a family can buy as well as ban sales of fuel-guzzling motorbikes and scooters, according to a draft policy aimed at cleaning up one of the world's most polluted cities. From a report: The measures represent one of the most drastic steps the city has lined up to tackle pollution, which often forces local authorities to ban some construction, shut schools and disrupt flights in the city of more than 30 million people during
  
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• 11-Year-Old GTA V Dominated Twitch in 2024

  24-04-2025 21:35 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Grand Theft Auto V topped Twitch viewership charts in 2024 with a staggering 1.4 billion hours watched, according to data released by the streaming platform. The 11-year-old game outperformed all competitors, including League of Legends, which also surpassed the billion-hour mark.
  Competitive shooters filled the remaining top spots, with Valorant recording 804 million hours, Fortnite exceeding 500 million, and Call of Duty reaching 451 million hours watched. V-Tubers -- streamers using animated
  
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• Google AI Fabricates Explanations For Nonexistent Idioms

  24-04-2025 20:53 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google's search AI is confidently generating explanations for nonexistent idioms, once again revealing fundamental flaws in large language models. Users discovered that entering any made-up phrase plus "meaning" triggers AI Overviews that present fabricated etymologies with unwarranted authority.
  When queried about phrases like "a loose dog won't surf," Google's system produces detailed, plausible-sounding explanations rather than acknowledging these expressions don't exist. The system occasiona
  
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• Young Men in US Abandoning College Education at Record Rates

  24-04-2025 20:11 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Male college enrollment in Lake County, Ohio plummeted by more than 15% over the last decade -- the steepest decline among any large U.S. county. Nationwide, men now constitute virtually the entirety of the 1.2 million student drop in college attendance between 2011 and 2022.
  Financial concerns dominate decision-making, with even public in-state education costing approximately $25,000 annually. One high school senior secured a $15/hour collision repair job, Bloomberg reports, calculating he'll e
  
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• AI Tackles Aging COBOL Systems as Legacy Code Expertise Dwindles

  24-04-2025 19:25 via developers.slashdot.org
  
  US government agencies and Fortune 500 companies are turning to AI to modernize mission-critical systems built on COBOL, a programming language dating back to the late 1950s. The US Social Security Administration plans a three-year, $1 billion AI-assisted upgrade of its legacy COBOL codebase [alternative source], according to Bloomberg.
  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has repeatedly stressed the need to overhaul government systems running on COBOL. As experienced programmers retire, organizatio
  
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• AI Compute Costs Drive Shift To Usage-Based Software Pricing

  24-04-2025 18:47 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The software-as-a-service industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation, abandoning the decades-old "per seat" licensing model in favor of usage-based pricing structures. This shift, Business Insider reports, is primarily driven by the astronomical compute costs associated with new "reasoning" AI models that power modern enterprise software.
  Unlike traditional generative AI, these reasoning models execute multiple computational loops to check their work -- a process called inference-time c
  
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• Even the US Government Says AI Requires Massive Amounts of Water

  24-04-2025 18:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A Government Accountability Office report released this week reveals generative AI systems consume staggering amounts of water, with 250 million daily queries requiring over 1.1 million gallons -- all while companies provide minimal transparency about resource usage. The 47-page analysis [PDF] found cooling data centers -- which demand between 100-1000 megawatts of power -- constitutes 40% of their energy consumption, a figure expected to rise as global temperatures increase.
  Water usage varies
  
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• New Smartphone Labels For Battery Life and Repairability Are Coming To the EU

  24-04-2025 17:22 via it.slashdot.org
  
  The European Union has announced details of new mandatory labels for smartphones and tablets sold in the bloc, which include ratings for energy efficiency, durability, and repairability. From a report: Hardware will also have to meet new "ecodesign requirements" to be sold in the EU, including a requirement to make spare parts available for repair.
  The labels, which will be required for any devices that go on sale from June 20th onwards, are similar to existing ones for home appliances and TVs.
  
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• Microsoft Offers Underperformers Cash To Quit

  24-04-2025 16:41 via slashdot.org
  
  Microsoft has instituted a new "globally consistent" performance improvement process. According to internal documents, employees flagged as underperformers now face two options: enter a performance improvement plan with "clear expectations and a timeline for improvement" or accept a "Global Voluntary Separation Agreement" worth 16 weeks' pay.
  Affected employees have five days to decide, and those choosing the improvement plan forfeit the severance option. The program, announced in an email from
  
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• Hackers Can Now Bypass Linux Security Thanks To Terrifying New Curing Rootkit

  24-04-2025 16:02 via linux.slashdot.org
  
  BrianFagioli writes: ARMO, the company behind Kubescape, has uncovered what could be one of the biggest blind spots in Linux security today. The company has released a working rootkit called "Curing" that uses io_uring, a feature built into the Linux kernel, to stealthily perform malicious activities without being caught by many of the detection solutions currently on the market.
  At the heart of the issue is the heavy reliance on monitoring system calls, which has become the go-to method for man
  
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• Scientists Say They Can Calculate the Cost of Oil Giants' Role In Global Warming

  24-04-2025 15:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: Oil and gas companies are facing hundreds of lawsuits around the world testing whether they can be held responsible for their role in causing climate change. Now, two scientists say they've built a tool that can calculate how much damage each company's planet-warming pollution has caused -- and how much money they could be forced to pay if they're successfully sued. Collectively, greenhouse emissions from 111 fossil fuel companies cau
  
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• Hubble Celebrates 35th Year In Orbit

  24-04-2025 12:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 35th anniversary in orbit, NASA and ESA released a series of new, out-out-of-this-world images spanning planets, nebulae, and galaxies. From a press release: Hubble today is at the peak of its scientific return thanks to the dedication, perseverance and skills of engineers, scientists and mission operators. Astronaut shuttle crews gallantly chased and rendezvoused with Hubble on five servicing missions from 1993 to 2009. The astronauts, including ESA ast
  
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• Quantum Messages Travel 254 km Using Existing Infrastructure For the First Time

  24-04-2025 09:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Researchers in Germany successfully demonstrated coherent quantum communications over 254 km of existing commercial telecom fiber, marking the first real-world deployment of such a system without cryogenic cooling. Phys.Org reports: Their system uses a coherence-based twin-field quantum key distribution, which facilitates the distribution of secure information over long distances. The quantum communications network was deployed over three telecommunication data centers in Germany (Frankfurt, Keh
  
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• Stroke Patients Have High Levels of Microplastics Clogging Their Arteries, Researchers Find

  24-04-2025 05:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: There is some microplastics in normal, healthy arteries," Dr. Ross Clark, a University of New Mexico medical researcher who led the study, told Business Insider before he presented his findings at the meeting of the American Heart Association in Baltimore on Tuesday. "But the amount that's there when they become diseased -- and become diseased with symptoms -- is really, really different," Clark said. Clark and his team measured micropla
  
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• Google Forcing Some Remote Workers To Come Back 3 Days a Week or Lose Their Jobs

  24-04-2025 03:40 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Five years removed from the onset of the Covid pandemic, Google is demanding that some remote employees return to the office if they want to keep their jobs and avoid being part of broader cost cuts at the company. CNBC reports: Several units within Google have told remote staffers that their roles may be at risk if they don't start showing up at the closest office for a hybrid work schedule, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. Some of those employees were previously approved for rem
  
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• New Jersey Sues Property Management Software Firm RealPage, Says Collusion With Landlords Drives Up Rents

  24-04-2025 03:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  New Jersey sued the property management software company RealPage, accusing it and 10 of the state's largest landlords of conspiring to drive up residential rents, violating federal and state antitrust laws and New Jersey consumer fraud laws. From a report: The complaint filed on Wednesday by state Attorney General Matthew Platkin said the defendants, including AvalonBay Communities illegally used RealPage's revenue management software and algorithms to inflate rents for apartments in multifamil
  
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• Draft Executive Order Outlines Plan To Integrate AI Into K-12 Schools

  24-04-2025 02:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A draft executive order from the Trump administration proposes integrating AI into K-12 education by directing federal agencies to promote AI literacy, train teachers, and establish public-private partnerships. "The draft is marked 'predecisional' and could be subject to change before it is signed, or it could be abandoned," notes the Washington Post. From the report: Titled "Advancing artificial intelligence education for American youth," the draft order would establish a White House task force
  
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