Goldman Sachs has officially rolled out a generative AI assistant across the company to enhance productivity, with around 10,000 employees already using it for tasks like summarizing documents and data analysis. Reuters reports: With the AI tool's official company-wide launch, Goldman joins a long list of big banks already leveraging the technology to shape their operations in a targeted manner and help employees in day-to-day tasks. [...] The GS AI assistant will help Goldman employees in ..

An anonymous reader quotes a report from OilPrice.com: China installed its highest solar power capacity for a single month in May, according to official data, which showed mind-boggling figures that the country installed more solar capacity in a month than any other nation did for the entire 2024. With 93 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity installed in May, China smashed its own record of 71 GW in December 2024, per data from the National Energy Administration cited by Bloomberg. China's solar ..

Microsoft is turning the Xbox App on PC into a universal game launcher by integrating libraries from multiple storefronts like Steam. The feature is currently limited to those in the Xbox Insider program. From the announcement: With the aggregated gaming library, players can conveniently launch games from Xbox, Game Pass, Battle.net and other leading PC storefronts from a single library within the Xbox PC app. Whether you're on a Windows PC or a handheld device, your Xbox library, hundreds of ..

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ExtremeTech: Microsoft has changed how Windows 11 manages System Restore points after its June 2025 security update. The update, KB5060842, says that starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, System Restore points will be kept for up to 60 days. After 60 days, restore points older than 60 days will no longer be available for use. [...] The change does not change the way restore points are created or used; it only sets a clear time limit for how long they ..

In a podcast interview with The Verge's Nilay Patel, Hinge CEO Justin McLeod described integrating AI into dating apps as promising but warned against relying on AI companionship, likening it to "playing with fire" and consuming "junk food," potentially exacerbating the loneliness epidemic. He emphasized Hinge's mission to foster genuine human connections and highlighted upcoming AI-powered features designed to improve matchmaking and provide coaching to encourage real-world interactions. ..

Magic Lantern, the popular open-source suite of software enhancements for Canon DSLR cameras, has returned under new leadership. The revived project aims to offer regular updates and support for additional models, including compatibility for Canon's newer mirrorless cameras equipped with DIGIC X processors. PetaPixel reports: The new lead developer, names_are_hard, announced Magic Lantern's return yesterday on Magic Lantern's forums, seen by Reddit r/cinematography users and confirmed on the ..

jalvarez13 writes: My venerable HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus is showing its age and it has become expensive to operate due to the cost of the original cartridges. I tried some alternative cartridges but the printer rejects them. Now that schools still require kids to print stuff at home (mine are in 2nd and 4th grade), and my wife also needs to use the printer, I think it may be wise to invest in a good-quality printer that has a lower cost per page (maybe laser?). In that context, I'd love to ..

Disabling Intel graphics security mitigations in GPU compute stacks for OpenCL and Level Zero can yield a performance boost of up to 20%, prompting Ubuntu's Canonical and Intel to disable these mitigations in future Ubuntu packages. Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Intel does allow building their GPU compute stack without these mitigations by using the "NEO_DISABLE_MITIGATIONS" build option and that is what Canonical is looking to set now for Ubuntu packages to avoid the significant ..

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: After a court ordered OpenAI to "indefinitely" retain all ChatGPT logs, including deleted chats, of millions of users, two panicked users tried and failed to intervene. The order sought to preserve potential evidence in a copyright infringement lawsuit raised by news organizations. In May, Judge Ona Wang, who drafted the order, rejected the first user's request (PDF) on behalf of his company simply because the company should have hired a ..

Apple's iOS 26 introduces Recovery Assistant, a feature that allows users to restore malfunctioning iPhones without requiring a Mac or PC. The system automatically boots devices into Recovery mode when startup issues occur, displaying the message "This iPhone encountered an issue while starting." Users can then initiate recovery through another Apple device like an iPad, which downloads and installs a newer iOS version onto the malfunctioning iPhone. Apple described Recovery Assistant as "a new ..

The number of doctoral graduates globally has grown steadily over recent decades, creating a massive imbalance between PhD holders and available academic positions. Among the 38 OECD countries, new doctorate holders almost doubled between 1998 and 2017. China's doctoral enrollment has exploded from around 300,000 students in 2013 to more than 600,000 in 2023. This growth has forced PhD graduates into non-academic careers at unprecedented rates. A 2023 study of more than 4,500 PhD graduates in ..

Hackers suspected of working on behalf of the Chinese government exploited a maximum-severity vulnerability, which had received a patch 16 months earlier, to compromise a telecommunications provider in Canada, officials from that country and the US said Monday. ArsTechnica: "The Cyber Centre is aware of malicious cyber activities currently targeting Canadian telecommunications companies," officials for the center, the Canadian government's primary cyber security agency, said in a statement. ..

Bacteria can be used to turn plastic waste into painkillers, researchers have found, opening up the possibility of a more sustainable process for producing the drugs. From a report: Chemists have discovered E coli can be used to create paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, from a material produced in the laboratory from plastic bottles. "People don't realise that paracetamol comes from oil currently," said Prof Stephen Wallace, the lead author of the research from the University of ..

Microplastics are present in all beverages, but those packaged in glass bottles contain more microplastic particles than those in plastic bottles, cartons or cans. This was the surprising finding of a study conducted by the Boulogne-sur-Mer unit of the ANSES Laboratory for Food Safety. The scientists hypothesised that these plastic particles could come from the paint used on bottle caps. Water and wine are less affected than other beverages. These findings have highlighted a source of ..

FICO credit scores will begin incorporating buy-now-pay-later data for the first time. From a report: With over 90 million Americans expected to use BNPL for purchases this year, critics argue that existing credit scores paint an incomplete picture of an individual's ability to pay back loans. Fair Isaac Corp., which runs FICO, said Monday that it will launch two separate credit scores including BNPL data. FICO Score 10 BNPL and FICO Score 10 T BNPL will "represent a significant advancement in ..

An anonymous reader shares a report: AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations, a senior U.S. official told Reuters, adding that the Chinese tech startup sought to use Southeast Asian shell companies to access high-end semiconductors that cannot be shipped to China under U.S. rules. The U.S. conclusions reflect a growing conviction in Washington that the capabilities behind the rapid rise of one of China's flagship AI enterprises may have been exaggerated and ..

IYO filed a trademark infringement lawsuit [PDF] against OpenAI and Jony Ive's company earlier this month, alleging the defendants deliberately adopted a confusingly similar name for competing products. The lawsuit surfaced after the Microsoft-backed startup quietly pulled promotional materials about its $6.5 acquisition billion deal with Ive's firm. The Northern District of California complaint targets OpenAI's $6.5 billion acquisition of "IO Products, Inc.," announced May 21, 2025. IYO, which ..

New York will construct the first major new U.S. nuclear power plant in more than 15 years, with Governor Kathy Hochul directing the state's public electric utility to add at least one gigawatt of nuclear generation capacity. The New York Power Authority will identify an upstate location and determine reactor design, either independently or through private partnerships. The project tests President Trump's May executive orders aimed at accelerating nuclear development through regulatory ..

Apple has quietly removed its day-old "The Parent Presentation" video from YouTube. From a report: The Parent Presentation is a customizable slideshow that explains why a Mac is a useful tool in college. [...] Students can customize the presentation slides, and then show it to their parents to convince them to buy them a Mac. In an accompanying YouTube video shared by Apple, comedian Martin Herlihy showed a group of high school students how to effectively use The Parent Presentation. Some users ..

The U.S. House chief administrative officer has banned WhatsApp from congressional staffers' government devices citing data vulnerability concerns. The cybersecurity office deemed the messaging app "high-risk" due to lack of transparency in data protection, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks, according to an email obtained by Axios. Staff cannot download or keep WhatsApp on any House device, including mobile, desktop, or web browser versions. Read more of this story ..

Bruce66423 writes (slightly edited to add more context): A former potash mine at Wittelsheim in Alsace now entombs about 42,000 tonnes of toxic industrial waste, and scientists warn that, over time, contaminants could seep upward into the Alsace aquifer, which in turn feeds the transboundary Upper Rhine groundwater system supplying drinking water to millions in France, Germany and Switzerland. Campaigners argue that leaving the waste underground instead of removing it creates a long-term ..

The Python Software Foundation ("made up of, governed, and led by the community") does more than just host Python and its documnation, the Python Package Repository, and the development workflows of core CPython developers. This week the PSF released its 28-page Annual Impact Report this week, noting that 2024 was their first year with three CPython developers-in-residence and "Between Lukasz, Petr, and Serhiy, over 750 pull requests were authored, and another 1,500 pull requests by other ..

U.S. consumers "rank problems with public electric vehicle charging and the time it takes to recharge as their top two reasons for rejecting electric vehicles," writes the New York Times, citing figures from data analytics firm J.D. Power. But are things getting better? Automakers and charging companies are building new stations and updating their cars to allow drivers to more easily and quickly recharge their vehicles. They're also outfitting charging stations with items such as food and ..

The developer-focused analyst firm RedMonk releases twice-a-year rankings of programming language popularity. This week they also released a handy graph showing the movement of top 20 languages since 2 . Their current rankings for programming language popularity... 1. JavaScript 2. Python 3. Java 4. PHP 5. C# 6. TypeScript 7. CSS 8. C++ 9. Ruby 10. C The chart shows that over the years the rankings really haven't changed much (other than a surge for TypeScript and Python, plus a drop for Ruby). ..

OpenAI appears to have pulled a much-discussed video promoting the friendship between CEO Sam Altman and legendary Apple designer Jony Ive (plus, incidentally, OpenAI's $6.5 billion deal to acquire Ive and Altman's device startup io) from its website and YouTube page. [Though you can still see the original on Archive.org.] Does that suggest something is amiss with the acquisition, or with plans for Ive to lead design work at OpenAI? Not exactly, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who reports ..

"The worlds of Linux and Windows finally came together in real life..." writes The Verge: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, have surprisingly never met before. That all changed at a recent dinner hosted by Sysinternals creator Mark Russinovich... "No major kernel decisions were made," jokes Russinovich in a post on LinkedIn. More from the Linux news blog Linuxiac: The man on the left is Mark Russinovich, a software engineer, author, and ..

With no one behind the steering wheel, a Tesla robotaxi passes Guero's Taco Bar in Austin Texas, making a right turn onto Congress Avenue. Today is the day Austin became the first city in the world to see Tesla's self-driving robotaxi service, reports The Guardian: Some analysts believe that the robotaxis will only be available to employees and invitees initially. For the CEO, Tesla's rollout is slow. "We could start with 1,000 or 10,000 [robotaxis] on day one, but I don't think that would be ..

How AI will reshape the future of work? The Washington Post looks at India's $280 billion call-center and "business process outsourcing" industry, which employs over 3 million people. 2023 saw the arrival of a real-time "accent- altering software" now used by at least 42,000 call center agents: Those who use the software are engaging in "digital whitewashing," critics say, which helps explain why the industry prefers the term "accent translation" over "accent neutralization." But companies say ..

The goal isn't to stop generative music, but to make it traceable, reports the Verge "to identify it early, tag it with metadata, and govern how it moves through the system...." "Detection systems are being embedded across the entire music pipeline: in the tools used to train models, the platforms where songs are uploaded, the databases that license rights, and the algorithms that shape discovery." Platforms like YouTube and [French music streaming service] Deezer have developed internal ..

"When Apollo astronauts stumbled across shimmering orange beads on the moon, they had no idea they were gazing at ancient relics of violent volcanic activity," writes ScienceDaily. These glass spheres, tiny yet mesmerizing, formed billions of years ago during fiery eruptions that launched molten droplets skyward, instantly freezing in space. Now, using advanced instruments that didn't exist in the 1970s, scientists have examined the beads in unprecedented detail. The result is a remarkable ..

As recently as 2021, GM "all but eliminated" hybrids from its future product plans, reports the New York Times. "But then a funny thing happened." Car shoppers balked at the high prices of fully electric models and the challenges of charging them. In the last few years, sales of electric vehicles have grown at a much slower rate than automakers once expected. And hybrids have stepped in to fill the gap, accounting for a large and growing share of new car sales... In the first three months of ..

alternative_right writes: We certainly weren't looking for it. What we have confirmed is that metals have their own intrinsic, natural ability to heal themselves, at least in the case of fatigue damage at the nanoscale.' While the observation is unprecedented, it's not wholly unexpected. In 2013, Texas A&M; University materials scientist Michael Demkowicz worked on a study predicting that this kind of nanocrack healing could happen, driven by the tiny crystalline grains inside metals essentially ..

An artist cancelled their Duolingo and Audible subscriptions to protest the companies' decisions to use more AI. "If enough people leave, hopefully they kind of rethink this," the artist tells the Washington Post. And apparently, many more people feel the same way... In thousands of comments and posts about Audible and Duolingo that The Post reviewed across social media including on Reddit, YouTube, Threads and TikTok people threatened to cancel subscriptions, voiced concern for human ..

The education-news site EdSurge published "sponsored content" from Minecraft Education this month. "Students light up when they create something meaningful," the article begins. "Self-expression fuels learning, and creativity lies at the heart of the human experience." But they also argue that "As AI rapidly reshapes software development, computer science education must move beyond syntax drills and algorithmic repetition." Students "must also learn to think systemically..." As AI automates ..

"A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 out of 12 people with the most severe form of Type 1 diabetes," reports the New York Times. "One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin. The other two patients need much lower doses." The experimental treatment, called zimislecel and made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston, involves stem cells that scientists prodded to turn into pancreatic islet cells, which regulate blood glucose levels. The new islet cells ..

"Modern vehicles have quietly become rolling monuments to terrible user experience, trading intuitive physical controls for flashy but dangerous touchscreen interfaces," argues the site Cars & Horsepower, decrying "an industry-wide plague of poorly designed digital dashboards that dem attention from drivers than the road itself." The consequences are measurable and severe: studies now show touchscreen vehicles require up to four times longer to perform basic functions than their button-equipped ..

It's not just Amazon's CEO predicting AI will lower their headcount. "Top executives at some of the largest American companies have a warning for their workers: Artificial intelligence is a threat to your job," reports the Washington Post including IBM, Salesforce, and JPMorgan Chase. But are they really just trying to impress their shareholders? Economists say there aren't yet strong signs that AI is driving widespread layoffs across industries.... CEOs are under pressure to show they are ..

ScienceAlert reports: Casino lighting could be nudging gamblers to be more reckless with their money, according to a new study, which found a link between blue-enriched light and riskier gambling behavior. The extra blue light emitted by casino decor and LED screens seems to trigger certain switches in our brains, making us less sensitive to financial losses compared to gains of equal magnitude, researchers from Flinders University and Monash University in Australia found... The researchers ..

BlueSky has grown from roughly 10 million users in early November to 36.79 million today and its last 30 days of traffic looks very level. But instead of calling BlueSky's traffic "level", right-leaning libertarian Megan McArdle argues instead that BlueSky's "decline shows no sign of leveling out" (comparing the stable figures from the last month to a one-time spike seven months ago so they can write "It's now down about 50 percent"). And Wednesday the conservative UK magazine Spectator also ..

"The carbon cost of asking an artificial intelligence model a single text question can be measured in grams of CO2..." writes the Washington Post. And while an individual's impact may be low, what about the collective impact of all users? "A Google search takes about 10 times less energy than a ChatGPT query, according to a 2024 analysis from Goldman Sachs although that may change as Google makes AI responses a bigger part of search." For now, a determined user can avoid prompting Google's ..