Tech News
Google is Adding More AI Overviews and a New 'AI Mode' To Search
technology - Posted On:2025-03-05 18:45:00 Source: slashdot
Google announced Wednesday it is expanding its AI Overviews to more query types and users worldwide, including those not logged into Google accounts, while introducing a new "AI Mode" chatbot feature. AI Mode, which resembles competitors like Perplexity or ChatGPT Search, will initially be limited to Google One AI Premium subscribers who enable it through the Labs section of Search. The feature delivers AI-generated answers with supporting links interspersed throughout, powered by Google's search index. "What we're finding from people who are using AI Overviews is that they're really bringing different kinds of questions to Google," said Robby Stein, VP of product on the Search team. "They're more complex questions, that may have been a little bit harder before." Google is also upgrading AI Overviews with its Gemini 2.0 model, which Stein says will improve responses for math, coding and reasoning-based queries. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Europe on Alert Over Suspected Sabotage of Undersea Cables
technology - Posted On:2025-03-05 17:15:00 Source: slashdot
European nations have heightened security after a series of suspected sabotage attacks on submarine infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, with officials increasingly pointing to Russia as the likely culprit. Finnish authorities detained the tanker Eagle S in December after it allegedly damaged three undersea fiber-optic connections with Estonia and one with Germany. The vessel, carrying Russian oil as part of a "shadow fleet" evading sanctions, made suspicious course changes while crossing cable routes. In November, two more submarine cables in the Baltic were damaged, with investigations focusing on Chinese-owned cargo ship Yi Peng 3, which reduced speed near the cables and turned off its transponder. NATO launched Baltic Sentry in January to enhance surveillance, deploying ships and naval drones off Estonia's coast. The alliance also established a coordination cell following the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. Russia has denied involvement, accusing NATO of using "myths" to increase its Baltic presence. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Urges DOJ To Reverse Course on Breaking Up Company
technology - Posted On:2025-03-05 10:15:00 Source: slashdot
Google is urging officials at President Donald Trump's Justice Department to back away from a push to break up the search engine company, citing national security concerns, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the discussions. From the report: Representatives for the Alphabet unit asked the government in a meeting last week to take a less aggressive stance as the US looks to end what a judge ruled to be an illegal online search monopoly, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private deliberations. The Biden administration in November had called for Google to sell its Chrome web browser and make other changes to its business including an end to billions of dollars in exclusivity payments to companies including Apple. Although Google has previously pushed back on the Biden-era plan, the recent discussions may preview aspects of the company's approach to the case as it continues under the Trump administration. A federal judge is set to rule on how Google must change its practices following hearings scheduled for next month. Both sides are due to file their final proposals to the judge on Friday. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Citi Copy-Paste Error Almost Sent $6 Billion to Wealth Account
it - Posted On:2025-03-04 15:00:00 Source: slashdot
Citigroup nearly credited about $6 billion to a customer's account in its wealth-management business by accident. From a report: The near-error occurred after a staffer handling the transfer copied and pasted the account number into a field for the dollar figure, which was detected on the next business day, the report added. The wealth division's near-miss was reported to regulators and the company has since set up a tool to help vet large, anomalous payments and transfers, according to the report. The error was related to an attempted transfer of funds between internal accounts, the report said. Last week, the Financial Times reported that Citigroup erroneously credited $81 trillion, instead of $280, to a customer's account and took hours to reverse the transaction. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Australia, With No Auto Industry To Protect, is Awash With Chinese EVs
technology - Posted On:2025-03-04 14:00:00 Source: slashdot
Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD is rapidly gaining market share in Australia, with sales rising 65% last year as nearly one in four EVs sold in the country was a BYD, according to EVDirect CEO David Smitherman. Chinese EVs now comprise roughly one-third of electric vehicles sold in Australia, which has no domestic auto industry to protect with tariffs, unlike the United States where both Trump and Biden administrations have effectively blocked Chinese EV imports. The Biden administration imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs to shield U.S. automakers from what it termed unfair competition. U.S. officials also blocked Chinese vehicle software over security concerns that Beijing could use internet-connected cars for surveillance. Australian authorities are monitoring U.S. developments but remain noncommittal despite security experts urging restrictions on Chinese connected car technology. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After Exam Fiasco, California State Bar Staff Recommend Reverting To In-person Exams
it - Posted On:2025-03-04 12:45:00 Source: slashdot
After California's bar exams were plagued last week with technical problems, the State Bar of California is recommending that the agency return to in-person tests as it scrutinizes whether the vendor behind the new testing system met the obligations of its contract. From a report: "Based on the administration of the February Bar Exam, staff cannot recommend going forward with Meazure Learning," Donna Hershkowitz, chief of admissions for the State Bar, wrote to the agency's Board of Trustees in a staff memo, referring to the vendor. Instead, she wrote, staff recommend reverting to in-person testing for the next round of exams in July. The State Bar's 13-member board, which is scheduled to meet March 5, will ultimately decide on plans for the July bar exam and remedies for test takers who faced problems. In a statement Monday, the State Bar said it is "closely scrutinizing whether Meazure Learning met its contractual obligations" in administering the February State Bar exam and will be "actively working with its psychometrician and other stakeholders to determine the full scope of necessary remediation measures for February 2025 bar exam test takers." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Releases SpeciesNet, an AI Model Designed To Identify Wildlife
technology - Posted On:2025-03-04 08:15:00 Source: slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google has open sourced an AI model, SpeciesNet, designed to identify animal species by analyzing photos from camera traps. Researchers around the world use camera traps -- digital cameras connected to infrared sensors -- to study wildlife populations. But while these traps can provide valuable insights, they generate massive volumes of data that take days to weeks to sift through. In a bid to help, Google launched Wildlife Insights, an initiative of the company's Google Earth Outreach philanthropy program, around six years ago. Wildlife Insights provides a platform where researchers can share, identify, and analyze wildlife images online, collaborating to speed up camera trap data analysis. Many of Wildlife Insights' analysis tools are powered by SpeciesNet, which Google claims was trained on over 65 million publicly available images and images from organizations like the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Zoological Society of London. Google says that SpeciesNet can classify images into one of more than 2,000 labels, covering animal species, taxa like "mammalian" or "Felidae," and non-animal objects (e.g. "vehicle"). SpeciesNet is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially largely sans restrictions. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
CISA Tags Windows, Cisco Vulnerabilities As Actively Exploited
it - Posted On:2025-03-04 05:15:00 Source: slashdot
CISA has warned U.S. federal agencies about active exploitation of vulnerabilities in Cisco VPN routers and Windows systems. "While the cybersecurity agency has tagged these flaws as actively exploited in the wild, it has yet to provide specific details regarding this malicious activity and who is behind it," adds Bleeping Computer. From the report: The first flaw (tracked as CVE-2023-20118) enables attackers to execute arbitrary commands on RV016, RV042, RV042G, RV082, RV320, and RV325 VPN routers. While it requires valid administrative credentials, this can still be achieved by chaining the CVE-2023-20025 authentication bypass, which provides root privileges. Cisco says in an advisory published in January 2023 and updated one year later that its Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is aware of CVE-2023-20025 publicly available proof-of-concept exploit code. The second security bug (CVE-2018-8639) is a Win32k elevation of privilege flaw that local attackers logged into the target system can exploit to run arbitrary code in kernel mode. Successful exploitation also allows them to alter data or create rogue accounts with full user rights to take over vulnerable Windows devices. According to a security advisory issued by Microsoft in December 2018, this vulnerability impacts client (Windows 7 or later) and server (Windows Server 2008 and up) platforms. Today, CISA added the two vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which lists security bugs the agency has tagged as exploited in attacks. As mandated by the Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01 issued in November 2021, Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies now have three weeks, until March 23, to secure their networks against ongoing exploitation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US To Halt Offensive Cyber Operations Against Russia
it - Posted On:2025-03-03 19:30:00 Source: slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The United States has suspended its offensive cyber operations against Russia, according to reports, amid efforts by the Trump administration to grant Moscow concessions to end the war in Ukraine. The reported order to halt U.S.-launched hacking operations against Russia was authorized by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to The Record. The new guidance affects operations carried out by U.S. Cyber Command, a division of the Department of Defense focused on hacking and operations in cyberspace, but does not apply to espionage operations conducted by the National Security Agency. The reported order has since been confirmed by The New York Times and The Washington Post. The order was handed down before Friday's Oval Office meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to the reports. The New York Times said that the instruction came as part of a broader effort to draw Russian President Vladimir Putin into talks about the country's ongoing war in Ukraine. The Guardian also reports that the Trump administration has signaled it no longer views Russian hackers as a cybersecurity threat, and reportedly ordered U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA to no longer report on Russian threats. The newspaper cites a recent memo that set out new priorities for CISA, including threats faced by China and protecting local systems, but the memo did not mention Russia. CISA employees were reportedly informed verbally that they were to pause any work on Russian cyber threats. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Driverless Race Car Sets a New Autonomous Speed Record
technology - Posted On:2025-03-03 18:45:00 Source: slashdot
A fully driverless Maserati MC20 Coupe set a new autonomous land speed record, reaching 197.7 mph at the Kennedy Space Center. The Verge reports: The Maserati was running self-driving software developed by Politecnico di Milano, Italy's largest scientific and technological university. The team also worked with the Indy Autonomous Challenge, which most recently ran at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway during CES 2025. In the shadow of NASA's iconic Space Shuttles, the race car flew down the 2.8-mile runway at record-breaking speeds, surpassing the 192.2mph record that was also held by Indy Autonomous Challenge and PoliMOVE, set by an IAC AV-21 race car in April 2022. The Maserati MC20 is a stylish -- and expensive -- choice for the autonomous run. Retailing for at least $239,000, the race car sports a mid-mounted, twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 that Maserati calls the Nettuno. The engine makes serious power: 621 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque, which is sent through an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission to the rear wheels. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Lenovo's ThinkBook Flip Puts an Extra-Tall Folding Display On a Laptop
technology - Posted On:2025-03-03 10:45:01 Source: slashdot
Lenovo unveiled its ThinkBook "codename Flip" AI PC Concept at Mobile World Congress on Monday, featuring a flexible 18.1-inch OLED display that can transform between three configurations: a traditional 13.1-inch clamshell, a folded 12.9-inch tablet, or a laptop with an extra-tall vertical screen. Unlike the motorized ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 expected in June, the Flip uses the display's flexibility to fold behind itself, eliminating motors while gaining 0.4 inches of additional screen space. Users can mirror content on the rear-facing portion when folded or enjoy the full 2000x2664 resolution display in vertical orientation. The concept also features a SmartForcePad trackpad with LED-illuminated shortcut layers. While still in prototype phase, Lenovo has specs in mind: Intel Ultra 7 processor, 32GB RAM, PCIe SSD storage, and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tesla Moves Towards Launching an Uber Competitor
technology - Posted On:2025-03-01 13:15:00 Source: slashdot
"Tesla is taking steps to launch a ride-sharing service that could compete directly with Uber, Lyft and Waymo," reports Axios, noting that Tesla "has filed for a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, Bloomberg reported Thursday." "That classification means Tesla would own and control the fleet of vehicles," Bloomberg reported... "In its communications with California officials, Tesla discussed driver's license information and drug-testing coordination, suggesting the company intends to use human drivers, at least initially," Bloomberg reported. The company is seeking the same type of permit that Waymo uses to run its robotaxi business.Uber is gearing up to begin offering autonomous vehicle services in partnership with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta later this year. The article also adds that Musk "told investors in January that 'I'm confident that we will release unsupervised FSD in California this year,' referring to the company's Full Self-Driving system." But "Tesla has yet to apply for a permit to operate driverless vehicles..." notes the EV blog Electrek, adding "This is just a step for Tesla to test ride-hailing services ahead of autonomy." Reuters also points out that "Earlier in October, Tesla revealed the Cybercab, a robotaxi concept that had no steering wheel or control pedals... He has said the Cybercab will go into production in 2026 and will also be available for customers to buy for less than $30,000." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
COSMIC Desktop Alpha 6 Released
technology - Posted On:2025-03-01 05:15:00 Source: slashdot
New submitter TronNerd82 writes: Linuxiac reports that the 6th alpha release of the COSMIC desktop environment has been released. The new alpha release includes zooming, desktop icon management, some new scaling options, and improved accessibility features. Also included in the release are a number of bug fixes. These include, but are not limited to: - Fixing a crash issue in Steam, and fixing certain issues for Radeon RX GPUs - Fixing a bug that prevented icons from appearing in screenshots - Adding a layer of polish to the COSMIC Files application by adding folder size metadata and preventing crashes Also of note are a number of memory usage reductions across the board. COSMIC Alpha 6 also replaces the default font, changing from Fira Sans to Open Sans, with Noto Sans Mono as the default monospace font. Additional changes can be found in System76's official announcement. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Serbian Student's Android Phone Compromised By Exploit From Cellebrite
it - Posted On:2025-02-28 22:45:00 Source: slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Amnesty International on Friday said it determined that a zero-day exploit sold by controversial exploit vendor Cellebrite was used to compromise the phone of a Serbian student who had been critical of that country's government. [...] The chain exploited a series of vulnerabilities in device drivers the Linux kernel uses to support USB hardware. "This new case provides further evidence that the authorities in Serbia have continued their campaign of surveillance of civil society in the aftermath of our report, despite widespread calls for reform, from both inside Serbia and beyond, as well as an investigation into the misuse of its product, announced by Cellebrite," authors of the report wrote. Amnesty International first discovered evidence of the attack chain last year while investigating a separate incident outside of Serbia involving the same Android lockscreen bypass. [...] The report said that one of the vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2024-53104, was patched earlier this month with the release of the February 2025 Android Security Bulletin. Two other vulnerabilities -- CVE-2024-53197 and CVE-2024-50302 -- have been patched upstream in the Linux kernel but have not yet been incorporated into Android. Forensic traces identified in Amnesty International's analysis of the compromised phone showed that the Serbian authorities tried to install an unknown application after the device had been unlocked. The report authors said the installation of apps on Cellebrite-compromised devices was consistent with earlier cases the group has uncovered in which spyware tracked as NoviSpy spyware were installed. As part of the attack, the USB port of the targeted phone was connected to various peripherals during the initial stages. In later stages, the peripherals repeatedly connected to the phone so they could "disclose kernel memory and groom kernel memory as part of the exploitation." The people analyzing the phone said the peripherals were likely special-purpose devices that emulated video or sound devices connecting to the targeted device. The 23-year-old student who owned the phone regularly participates in the ongoing student protests in Belgrade. Any Android users who have yet to install the February patch batch should do so as soon as possible. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google's Taara Hopes To Usher in a New Era of Internet Powered by Light
technology - Posted On:2025-02-28 21:30:00 Source: slashdot
Alphabet's X division has developed a silicon photonic chip for its Taara project, which transmits internet via laser beams instead of fiber optic cables. The system delivers 20Gbps through "light bridges" that establish line-of-sight connections between transceiver units. The second-generation technology miniaturizes previous mechanical components -- including gimbals, mirrors, and lenses -- into solid-state circuitry the size of a fingernail. This chip enables a single laser transmitter to potentially pair with multiple receptors, significantly reducing costs from the current ~$30,000 per bridge setup. Taara has already demonstrated real-world viability by connecting Brazzaville and Kinshasa across the Congo River, providing the latter with five-fold cheaper internet access, and supplementing bandwidth at Coachella 2024. Project leader Mahesh Krishnaswamy claims Taara can deliver "10, if not 100 times more bandwidth" than Starlink in dense areas. X's Astro Teller suggests this technology could form the foundation for 7G networks as radio frequency bands become increasingly congested. Taara will soon "graduate" from X and seek external funding, with Alphabet maintaining a significant stake. Further reading: Official blog post. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft Begins Turning Off uBlock Origin, Other Extensions In Edge
technology - Posted On:2025-02-28 19:45:01 Source: slashdot
Microsoft Edge is following Chrome's lead by disabling uBlock Origin and other Manifest V2-based extensions in its browser. Neowin reports: The latest Edge Canary version started disabling Manifest V2-based extensions with the following message: "This extension is no longer supported. Microsoft Edge recommends that you remove it." Although the browser turns off old extensions without asking, you can still make them work by clicking "Manage extension" and toggling it back (you will have to acknowledge another prompt). Google started phasing out Manifest V2 extensions in June 2024, and it has a clear roadmap for the process. Microsoft's documentation, however, still says "TBD," so the exact dates are not known yet. This leads to some speculating about the situation being one of "unexpected changes" coming from Chromium. Either way, sooner or later, Microsoft will ditch MV2-based extensions, so get ready as we wait for Microsoft to shine some light on its plans. Another thing worth noting is that the change does not appear to be affecting Edge's stable release or Beta/Dev Channels. For now, only Canary versions disable uBlock Origin and other MV2 extensions, leaving users a way to toggle them back on. Also, the uBlock Origin is still available in the Edge Add-ons store, which recently received a big update. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Mozilla Responds To Backlash Over New Terms, Saying It's Not Using People's Data for AI
technology - Posted On:2025-02-28 15:30:01 Source: slashdot
Mozilla has denied allegations that its new Firefox browser terms of service allow it to harvest user data for artificial intelligence training, following widespread criticism of the recently updated policy language. The controversy erupted after Firefox introduced terms that grant Mozilla "a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information" when users upload content through the browser, prompting competitor Brave Software's CEO Brendan Eich to suggest a business pivot toward data monetization. "These changes are not driven by a desire by Mozilla to use people's data for AI or sell it to advertisers," Mozilla spokesperson Kenya Friend-Daniel told TechCrunch. "Our ability to use data is still limited by what we disclose in the Privacy Notice." The company clarified that its AI features operate locally on users' devices and don't send content data to Mozilla. Any data shared with advertisers is provided only on a "de-identified or aggregated basis," according to the spokesperson. Mozilla explained it used specific legal terms -- "nonexclusive," "royalty-free," and "worldwide" -- because Firefox is free, available globally, and allows users to maintain control of their own data. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google's Sergey Brin Urges Workers To the Office at Least Every Weekday
technology - Posted On:2025-02-28 14:00:01 Source: slashdot
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has urged employees working on the company's Gemini AI products to be in the office "at least every weekday" [non-paywalled source] and suggested "60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity," according to an internal memo cited by The New York Times. The directive comes as Brin warned that "competition has accelerated immensely and the final race to A.G.I. is afoot," referring to artificial general intelligence, when machines match or surpass human intelligence. "I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts," Brin wrote in the Wednesday evening memo. The guidance does not alter Google's official policy requiring employees to work in-office three days weekly. Brin, who returned to Google following ChatGPT's 2022 launch, also criticized staff who "put in the bare minimum," calling them "highly demoralizing to everyone else." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
US Workers See AI-Induced Productivity Growth, Fed Survey Shows
technology - Posted On:2025-02-28 13:30:00 Source: slashdot
Workers reported saving a substantial number of work hours by using generative AI, according to research conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, along with Vanderbilt and Harvard universities. From a report: The researchers, drawing from what they identified as the first nationally representative survey of generative AI adoption, measured the impact of generative AI on work productivity by how much workers used the technology and how intensely. They found users are saving meaningful amounts of time. "On average, workers are 33% more productive in each hour that they use generative AI," the paper found. Among respondents that used generative AI in the previous week, 21% said it saved them four hours or more in that week, 20% reported three hours, 26% said two hours and 33% reported an hour or less. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Tweak Creates Crisis for Product-Review Sites
technology - Posted On:2025-02-28 10:30:01 Source: slashdot
Google changed its rules around how product-review sites appear in its search engine. In the process, it devastated a once-lucrative corner [non-paywalled source] of the news media world. From a report: Sites including CNN Underscored and Forbes Vetted offer tips on everything from mattresses and knife sets to savings accounts, making money when users click on links and buy products. They depend on Google to drive much of their traffic, and therefore revenue. But over the past year, Google created stricter rules that dinged certain sites that farm out articles to freelancers, among other things. The goal, Google has said, was to give users higher-quality search results. The outcome was a crisis for some sites. Traffic for Forbes Advisor, a personal-finance recommendation site, fell 83% in January from the same month the year before, according to data firm Similarweb. CNN Underscored and Buy Side from WSJ, which is operated by Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones, were both down by more than 25% in that period. Time magazine's Time Stamped and the Associated Press's AP Buyline, powered by Taboola Turnkey Commerce, ended their efforts in recent months. Taboola closed the commerce operation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.