Trending news on the Fediverse

Google Employees Internally Share Memes About How Its AI Sucks

Google’s CEO says 75% of the company’s code is AI-generated. The people who write that code say the AI they’re using is overhyped.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

BBC News

Fans 'devastated' as last minute US visa cancellations

People travelling to the World Cup have had their ESTA applications changed from approved to "travel not authorised".

1 mention · bbc.co.uk

Move Fast, Surveil Things

Meta has deployed facial recognition code to millions of their always-on surveillance glasses, according to new reporting by Wired. EFF’s Threat Lab was able to confirm that the facial recognition code is present through static analysis of the application. This dangerous new Meta functionality...

1 mention · eff.org

CNN

The oceans are in deep trouble. The Trump administration just ditched a vital deep-sea monitoring system | CNN

The Trump administration will dismantle a $368 million monitoring system that provides critical data on the world’s oceans, sparking alarm among scientists

1 mention · edition.cnn.com

Demand Is Booming for New No Tech, Repairable Tractor

"There is consumer pressure to back away from technology that is unnecessary to perform everyday tasks."

1 mention · comicsands.com

Le Monde

Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis,' dies at 56

The French-Iranian artist and film director 'died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,' people close to her said.

1 mention · lemonde.fr

Comic Sands

Missouri Republicans Slammed After Cutting Funding For Dolly Parton's Free Book Program For Young Kids

Literacy is the GOP's worst nightmare.

WIRED

Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones

Code reviewed by WIRED uncovered an unreleased face-recognition system embedded in Meta’s smart glasses platform. It’s designed to identify people via biometric data stored on users’ phones.

1 mention · ired.com

The Washington Post

Americans’ national parks passes will pay for Trump’s July 4 plans, documents show

Entry fees are going toward a $1.6 million fireworks display and D.C. beautification, while donations will fund a $5 million helipad at the White House.

1 mention · ashingtonpost.com

Scott Pelley fired from ‘60 Minutes,’ deepening turmoil at CBS News

CBS News has fired longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley. It came a day after he reportedly said Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was “murdering the show” and accused its new producer of having “slender qualifications” for the job.

1 mention · blog.cloudflare.com

Le Monde

Thomas Piketty's lab proposes ambitious plan to cut global inequality and curb climate change

Building a more equitable world while respecting planetary limits is possible, economists from the World Inequality Lab assert in a report published Thursday. To achieve this, they say, targeted reductions in consumption in specific sectors, a drastic cut in fossil fuel use and changes in dietary habits will be necessary.

1 mention · lemonde.fr

The Cloudflare Blog

VoidZero is joining Cloudflare

VoidZero, the team behind Vite, Vitest, Rolldown, Oxc, and Vite+, is joining Cloudflare. Vite stays open source, vendor-agnostic, and built for everyone.

The New York Times

Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System

The $368 million network of instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific has been critical to climate and ocean research.

1 mention · nytimes.com

UN votes to support strong action on climate change despite US efforts to thwart the effort

The U.N. General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to support strong action to prevent climate change despite recent diplomatic efforts by the United States to have the measure withdrawn.

Iranian-French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis,' dies at 56

Satrapi is best-known for her monochrome autobiographical comic book and film “Persepolis,” a coming-of-age tale set against the Islamic Revolution in her native Iran.

WIRED

xAI Asks Court to Strip Alleged Grok Deepfake Nudes Victims of Anonymity

Four people suing Elon Musk's AI firm under pseudonyms due to the risks of being identified may face a difficult choice: Reveal your real names, or drop the lawsuit.

1 mention · ired.com

Deadline

Marjane Satrapi Dead: Iranian-French 'Persepolis' Director Was 56

Iranian French animator and director Marjane Satrapi, best known internationally for her 2007 biographical animated feature Persepolis, has died.

1 mention · deadline.com

Trump administration has separated dozens of children from their parents for a second time, AP finds

An Associated Press investigation reveals that dozens of children who were separated under the first Trump administration have been re-separated, despite a judge's order to reunite them.

Euronews

Magyar claims deal with Ukraine to lift veto on EU accession

The change of position brings Ukraine and Moldova closer to opening the first cluster of negotiations, known as fundamentals. #EuropeNews

1 mention · euronews.com

AI companies are barreling toward huge Wall Street debuts. A look at the biggest players

Some of the leading artificial intelligence companies are moving toward initial public offerings this year at eye-popping valuations.

The Verge

Nintendo confirms it will sell a new Switch 2 with replaceable battery in the EU

Right now, replacing a Switch 2 battery is a multi-step process.

1 mention · theverge.com

CNN

Scott Pelley fired by CBS after ‘60 Minutes’ clash with management | CNN Business

CBS News fired veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, one day after he sharply criticized the newsmagazine’s new leadership in front of the staff.

1 mention · cnn.com

POLITICO

EU wants households to cut peak time energy use as demand from industry and AI soars

A new law will aim to use artificial intelligence to boost efficient use of power as electricity demand threatens to overwhelm Europe’s grids.

1 mention · politico.eu

Companies Are Using Reddit to Manipulate ChatGPT and Google AI Search

Peptide companies have been doing AI-engine optimization by spamming the biohackers subreddit to manipulate ChatGPT and Google.

1 mention · scientificamerican.com

Scientific American

Trump administration takes aim at crucial ocean monitoring network

The Ocean Observatories Initiative has been collecting data on physical, chemical, geological and biological conditions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for the past decade

Theregister

UK lawmakers call on government to ditch Palantir NHS contract

Lock-in to a small number of suppliers holding up digital government plans, committee says

1 mention · theregister.com

The Hollywood Reporter

Fired Scott Pelley Slams CBS News: “Incompetence and Unprofessionalism in the New Management Have Wreaked Havoc”

The veteran '60 Minutes' correspondent was fired on Tuesday by CBS News after a stormy meeting on Monday with incoming executive producer Nick Bilton.

1 mention · hollywoodreporter.com

ProPublica

Lawmakers Demand Answers After the White House Initiated a $620M Loan to a Firm Tied to Donald Trump Jr.

In a letter, a group of Democratic Congress members wrote that ProPublica’s reporting on the deal “reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence.”

1 mention · propublica.org

Microsoft Wants to 'Make People Addicted' to its New AI Assistant, Internal Documents Reveal

Planning documents for "Scout" say the plan is to "make people addicted" to the tool before adding new features.

1 mention · theatlantic.com

Jason Kottke

Tony Gilroy Accepts Award for Andor: “Fuck the Empire!”

Now that Andor has been out for a while, showrunner Tony Gilroy is free to speak his mind on what the show was all about. I mean, it was pretty clear to the

1 mention · kottke.org

The Atlantic

No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious

Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurd—and damning.

Ukrainian drones hit St. Petersburg oil terminal before city hosts Russian economic forum

Ukrainian long-range drones have struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg, setting it ablaze, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Scientists lose critical climate record as ocean observatory will go dark under Trump funding cuts

The Trump administration is dismantling a $386 million network of more than 900 ocean sensors funded by the National Science Foundation.

1 mention · finance.yahoo.com

Yahoo Finance

Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas

"It started off not particularly accurate and got less accurate over time," one Starbucks employee told Fortune.

Forbes

Cyclists Break Far Fewer Road Rules Than Motorists, Finds New Video Study

Busting the myth of the "scofflaw cyclist" Danish Road Directorate studies reveal that while 66% of motorists routinely break road traffic laws only 5% of cyclists do so. Law breaking by cyclists is higher where there is no cycle-specific infrastructure.

1 mention · forbes.com

WIRED

The Manhattan Institute Helped Kill DEI. Now It’s Coming for Protests

The right-wing think tank is actively pushing “civil terrorism”—increasing penalties for minor crimes committed while people engage in constitutionally protected free speech.

1 mention · ired.com

Trump officials went after dozens of colleges. Now they're rewriting the rules for all of academia

President Donald Trump's administration put dozens of college campuses under investigation last year and cut federal funding unless they came in line with his Republican agenda.

1 mention · arstechnica.com

Ars Technica

Google ordered to put clearer links in AI search and let UK publishers opt out

Google must change AI Overviews after claiming users don't want "lots of sources."

Hackers Simply Asked Meta AI to Give Them Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked

The exploit shows the extreme risk of offloading technical support to AI.

1 mention · ashingtonpost.com

The Washington Post

Woman held by ICE for 25 days, despite evidence of citizenship, gets a U.S. passport

Attorneys for Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales had presented a Maryland birth certificate and other documents as proof of her U.S. citizenship.

Metro

Inside the Met Police's £750 million tech force and its battle to use AI

'Palantir is an explicitly political company.'

1 mention · metro.co.uk

Business Insider

Zig president says AI coding contributions are 'invariably garbage,' so he banned them

Zig, an open-source programming language bans contributors from using AI. Its president said that the these submissions have "no value whatsoever."

1 mention · businessinsider.com

ProPublica

“No One Is Watching”: How Trump Reversed Biden’s Crackdown on Gun Trafficking

After Biden clamped down on the flow of illegal guns, Trump has referred fewer ATF trafficking charges for prosecution, eased up on irresponsible gun shops and shifted hundreds of ATF agents to immigration work.

1 mention · propublica.org

Google Is Quietly Buying Code From Play Store Developers to Train AI

Google is trying to buy code from some Android developers as part of a "confidential" program.