A new study [PDF] reveals AI-generated code frequently references non-existent third-party libraries, creating opportunities for supply-chain attacks. Researchers analyzed 576,000 code samples from 16 popular large language models and found 19.7% of package dependencies — 440,445 in total — were “hallucinated.”
These non-existent dependencies exacerbate dependency confusion attacks, where malicious packages with identical names to legitimate ones can infiltrate software. Open source models hallucinated at nearly 22%, compared to 5% for commercial models. “Once the attacker publishes a package under the hallucinated name, containing some malicious code, they rely on the model suggesting that name to unsuspecting users,” said lead researcher Joseph Spracklen. Alarmingly, 43% of hallucinations repeated across multiple queries, making them predictable targets.
As Meta’s first-ever generative AI conference gets underway, the company is also previewing a significant update on its plans to bring AI features to WhatsApp chats. Buried in its LlamaCon updates, the company shared that it’s working on something called “Private Processing,” which will allow users to take advantage of generative AI capabilities within WhatsApp without eroding its privacy features.
According to Meta, Private Processing is an “optional capability” that will enable people to “leverage AI capabilities for things like summarizing unread messages or refining them, while keeping messages private.” WhatsApp, of course, is known for its strong privacy protections and end-to-end encryption. That would seem incompatible with cloud-based AI features like Meta AI. But Private Processing will essentially allow Meta to do both.
Meta has shared more details about how it will accomplish this over on its engineering blog but, as Wiredpoints out, it’s a similar model as Apple’s Private Cloud Compute (which allows the iPhone maker to implement Apple AI without sending all your data to the cloud). Here’s how Meta describes its approach.
We’re excited to share an initial overview of Private Processing, a new technology we’ve built to support people’s needs and aspirations to leverage AI in a secure and privacy-preserving way. This confidential computing infrastructure, built on top of a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), will make it possible for people to direct AI to process their requests — like summarizing unread WhatsApp threads or getting writing suggestions — in our secure and private cloud environment. In other words, Private Processing will allow users to leverage powerful AI features, while preserving WhatsApp’s core privacy promise, ensuring no one except you and the people you’re talking to can access or share your personal messages, not even Meta or WhatsApp.
The company seems well-aware such a plan will likely be met with skepticism. WhatsApp is regularly targeted by bad actors as it is. To address inevitable concerns from the security community, the company says it will allow security researchers and others to audit Private Processing, and will make the technology part of its bug bounty program that rewards people who find security vulnerabilities in its services.
It’s not clear when generative AI features may actually be available in WhatsApp chats — the company describes its announcement today as merely a “first look” at the technology — but it does note that Private Processing and “similar infrastructure” could have use cases beyond its messaging app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-has-a-plan-to-bring-ai-to-whatsapp-chats-without-breaking-privacy-193556026.html?src=rss
While there was no question we’d be getting another Prime Day in 2025, now it’s official: In a press release, Amazon has confirmed the return of what is sure to be biggest online sales event of the year. Here is everything we know so far about this year’s sale.
What is Prime Day?
While Amazon holds several sales throughout the year (including its recent Big Spring Sale and last year’s October Prime Big Deal Days),the summer sale is typically Amazon’s biggest, most-hyped annual event. It’s typically a two-day affair, with deals in virtually every category you can think of. Prime Day is usually when you can expect to see some products drop to record low prices, though not all deals are as great as they seem (I always vet deals with price tracking tools to make sure they’re legit).
When is Prime Day 2025?
While Amazon has announced the event will happen in July, they haven’t specified the dates yet. Last year, the 48-hour sale ran from Tuesday, July 16 to Wednesday, July 17. If I were a betting man, I’d wager the sale will be on July 15 and July 16 this year, but that’s just speculation. I’ll update this post once we know anything official.
Do you need to be a Prime Member to shop during Prime Day?
Since Prime Day happens in the summer, you can find deals on outdoorsy stuff, like gardening equipment, but the best discounts are usually on tech and Amazon devices. Amazon has already announced some categories that will be on sale, including electronics, kitchen, beauty, and apparel.
Prime Day is a good time to shop other retailers’ sales too
You can always expect major retailers to have their own competitive sales, the big ones being Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. I will be updating this post with details on those offerings as soon as they’ve been announced.
Some tips for shopping during Prime Day
If this will be your first Prime Day, you need to know some basic things about Amazon sales:
There’s a new animated Star Wars show coming soon and it’s set to actually premiere in the game Fortnite. Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld will be available to watch in-game starting on May 2 at 10AM ET. This is two full days before the show streams on Disney+.
Viewing will take place in a new in-game location called Star Wars Watch Party Island. Epic Games says that this area was built using Unreal Editor for Fortnite and uses official assets to create a “breathtaking environment inspired by a galaxy far, far away.” Players will only have access to the first two episodes.
For the uninitiated, Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld is an anthology series consisting of animated shorts. It takes a look at the criminal underworld, centering on the bounty hunter Cad Bane and the force-sensitive assassin Asajj Ventress.
This is part of a larger collaboration between Fortnite and Star Wars. The game will receive new Star Wars content every week for use in Battle Royale. Players will be able to pilot X-wings and duke it out as Emperor Palpatine. A dark side version of Jar Jar Binks will also be a playable character.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/new-star-wars-series-will-premiere-in-fortnite-of-all-places-185859342.html?src=rss
After making the decision to exit the smartphone market back in 2021, LG is preparing to sunset its Android update servers for good. This move comes as no surprise to those following the phone market, but it’s no less disheartening, particularly to those still rocking an LG handset.
The kill switch will be pulled on June 30, 2025, roughly
The Venn diagram of “quirky input hardware fans” and “retro gaming enthusiasts” is nearly a circle, so we’re rock-solid confident that you will find this new mouse colorway from 8BitDo quite tantalizing indeed. The Retro R8 mouse isn’t a new product, and the extant pointing device is already well-regarded, but now the company has introduced
The likelihood of a cyclist or pedestrian being fatally injured is 44% higher if they are hit by an SUV or light truck compared to smaller passenger cars, according to new research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, published today.
Researchers used real-world collision data from more than 680,000 collisions over the last 35 years as part of a new analysis of existing studies.
The odds of fatal injury increased by 44% for people of all ages struck by an SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle), compared to those hit by a regular passenger car, while the odds for children increased by 82%, and 130% among children under the age of 10.
More SUVs
SUVs have become the most popular new car segment. Getty Images
The authors of the study estimate that the proportion of car crashes involving an SUV is around 45% in the USA and around 20% in Europe, with SUVs said to be making up 48% of new car sales globally in 2023, up from 15% in 2010.
They say that if all SUVs were replaced with regular passenger cars, the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed in car crashes would decrease by an estimated 17% in the USA and by 8% in Europe.
Anna Goodman, assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and senior author of the study, says there has been a huge increase in the sale of ever-larger cars worldwide with the “findings indicating that this proliferation of larger vehicles threatens to undermine all the road safety gains being made on other fronts”.
The study suggests fatalities among children under the age of 10 increased by 130%. Getty Images
A previous study highlighted a key reason for the increased risk is likely to be the taller and blunter profile of the front end of SUVs, with a taller front end meaning a pedestrian or cyclist is struck higher up on their body (e.g. the pelvis not the knees for an adult, or the head not the pelvis for a child). It also means the pedestrian or cyclist is more likely to be thrown forward onto the road, at which point the striking vehicle may hit them a second time or roll over their body.
Oliver Lord, UK Head of the Clean Cities Campaign, responded to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine research with this statement: “It’s alarming to see fresh evidence confirming SUVs are linked to more fatal crashes. No-one buying a car would want to put children at greater risk.
“We urgently need government to take action on carspreading. Councils could introduce fairer parking charges that reflect the size and weight of these vehicles, while government reviews taxes to address the real harm caused by supersized SUVs. That would provide more opportunity to invest in priorities like fixing potholes and better public transport.”
SUVs pose a higher threat to cyclists than other cars. Steve Sayers / Our Media
Elsa Robinson, who worked on the study as an MSc Public Health student, says: “analysing over half a million crashes from countries from across the world tells us that SUVs and other similarly large vehicles are much more likely than traditional passenger cars to cause serious harm if they strike a pedestrian or cyclist.
“Our findings also highlight that these larger vehicles are particularly dangerous for children, especially young children. This could be because children are shorter in height, and are therefore more vulnerable to the risks of being hit by vehicles with a tall front end.”
Kosmos 482, a failed Soviet Venus probe, is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry in mid-May after orbiting Earth for 53 years. Gizmodo reports: The lander module from an old Soviet spacecraft is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere during the second week of May, according to Marco Langbroek, a satellite tracker based in Leiden, the Netherlands. “As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact,” Langbroek wrote in a blog update. “The risks involved are not particularly high, but not zero.”
Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in Kazakhstan. The mission was an attempt by the Soviet space program to reach Venus, but it failed to gain enough velocity to enter a transfer trajectory toward the scorching-hot planet. A malfunction resulted in an engine burn that wasn’t sufficient to reach Venus’ orbit and left the spacecraft in an elliptical Earth orbit, according to NASA. The spacecraft broke apart into four different pieces, with two of the smaller fragments reentering over Ashburton, New Zealand, two days after launch. Meanwhile, two remaining pieces, believed to be the payload and the detached upper-stage engine unit, entered a higher orbit measuring 130 by 6,089 miles (210 by 9,800 kilometers).
The failed mission consisted of a carrier bus and a lander probe, which together form a spherical pressure vessel weighing more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms). Considering its mass, “risks are similar to that of a meteorite impact,” Langbroek wrote. As of now, it’s hard to determine exactly when the spacecraft will reenter. Langbroek estimates that the reentry will take place on May 10, but a more precise date will get clearer as the reentry date nears.
Google dumped io_uring after $1M in bug bounties. A proof-of-concept program has been released to demonstrate a so-called monitoring “blind spot” in how some Linux antivirus and other endpoint protection tools use the kernel’s io_uring interface.…
Valve and CodeWeavers today announced the much anticipated beta release of Proton 10.0 as the newest version of their downstream version of Wine that powers Steam Play for running Windows games on Linux…
The LWN.net fediverse (Mastodon) feed has moved; we are now known as @LWN@lwn.net. The migration magic has
shifted many of our followers over automatically but, if you follow that
stream, you might want to make sure that you have shifted to the new
source.
Introduced last month in the Vulkan 1.4.311 spec was VK_KHR_shader_bfloat16 for supporting BF16 types within SPIR-V shaders. Merged today for Mesa 25.2 is that BFloat16 support for Intel’s open-source Vulkan Linux driver…
South Korean telecom network SK Telecom is providing free SIM card replacements to all 25 million mobile subscribers following an April 19 security breach where malware compromised Universal Subscriber Identity Module data.
Despite the company’s announcement, only 6 million replacement cards will be available through May 2025. The stolen data potentially includes IMSI numbers, authentication keys, and network usage information, though customer names, identification details, and financial information remain secure. The primary risk is unauthorized SIM swapping attacks, where threat actors could clone SIM cards.
There have been some solid games released so far this year, but all eyes in the gaming world, from zealous fans to industry analysts, are still squarely focused on Grand Theft Auto VI. Development studio Rockstar has been steadfast in that it will be getting the game out the door sometime in 2025. However, a former developer has shared some
If you’ve received an innocent-sounding text from a number you don’t recognize, it’s not actually innocent. It’s likely the start of a “wrong phone number” scam, which is increasingly being used to steal money and information from victims. I personally have been sent variations on this theme: “Hello! I hope you had a good day.” “Are you able to work?” and just “Hello.”
Research from security firm McAfee reported by CNBC indicates that around 25% of Americans have received wrong number texts. But this isn’t the only widespread text message scam currently circulating. The unpaid tolls and unpaid parking fee schemes are phishing attempts that may seem legitimate at first glance but ultimately lead you to hand your credit card information over to thieves. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost $470 million to text message scams in 2024, a five-fold increase over 2020.
How the wrong number scam works
The wrong number text scam starts with a random and seemingly harmless text from an unfamiliar number, the first objective of which is to prompt a response and confirm that your phone number is active.
After that, scammers try to build a relationship (often romantic) and gain your trust over days and months by preying on loneliness and a desire for connection. This can turn into a so-called “pig butchering” scam, with fraudsters soliciting investments or convincing you to hand over retirement savings, a long con that potentially comes with a big payday. But even if victims don’t end up sending money, any information they provide (even if innocuous) can be used or sold on the dark web.
AI has enabled this scam in several ways: It can help tailor more believable texts by area code, as well as cull social media profiles to identify potential targets and locate their phone numbers, making it more efficient for scammers. It may also collect enough information for fraudsters to gain access to social media accounts, lock them down, and demand a ransom.
What to do if you receive a random text
If you receive a text from a number you don’t know, don’t respond, as doing so validates your phone number. Even if you don’t engage in this exchange any further, you may be targeted again in the future (and by different unfamiliar numbers). You also don’t need to try to find out who they are or whether you know them—if someone actually needs to reach you, they are likely to follow up with multiple messages or calls beyond a single “Hey, how are you?” And as with any scam, be wary of communication that provokes an emotional response or a sense of urgency.
You should mark wrong number messages as spam in your messaging app. In Messages on iOS, tap the Report Junk link that appears at the bottom of messages from unknown senders, then hit Delete > Report Junk. If you haven’t opened the message yet, you can also swipe left and tap the Trash icon > Delete and Report Junk. (Note that you can’t report a message if you’ve replied to it, which is another reason not to do so.)
On Android, you can block and report conversations in Google Messages: tap and hold, then tap Block > Report spam > OK. If you’ve already opened the conversation, hit More options > Details > Block & report spam > OK.
You can also forward spam messages to 7726, which helps wireless companies identify and block scams.
Carbon removal technologies, potentially a $250 billion market, are failing to gain traction as buyers remain scarce. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a need for 10 billion metric tons of carbon removals annually by 2050, yet only 175 million tons have been sold to date — less than 2% of requirements.
Microsoft dominates the market, accounting for 35% of all purchases and 76% of engineered removal solutions specifically. The market suffers from significant barriers: unproven technologies, vast price disparities ($80 per ton for forest projects versus $1,000 for direct air capture), and lack of standardization. Industry experts at a recent London gathering concluded that without more buyers willing to accept early adoption risks, the market cannot meaningfully grow.
This morning, Punchbowl News reported that Amazon was considering listing the cost of tariffs as a separate line item on its site, citing “a person familiar with the plan.” Amazon later acknowledged that there had been internal discussions to that effect but only for its import-focused Amazon Haul sub-store and that the company didn’t plan to actually list tariff prices for any items.
“This was never approved and is not going to happen,” reads Amazon’s two-sentence statement.
Amazon issued such a specific and forceful on-the-record denial in part because it had drawn the ire of the Trump administration. In a press briefing early this morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked a question about the report, which the administration responded to as though Amazon had made a formal announcement about the policy.
Though it started life on computers and mobile, YouTube is also among the most-used apps on TVs and gaming consoles. People use the service to watch gaming livestreams, video walkthroughs, and even YouTube Shorts on their much bigger screens—and the experience is about to get better. As part of its Q2 2025 update, Google has added a bunch of new features to YouTube for TVs, which should appear once you update the app.
New features in YouTube’s app for smart TVs
In keeping with its push for more YouTube Shorts everywhere, Google is now making short-form videos more prominent on TVs as well. The company has added a new row for Shorts in your “Watch Next” feed, and on the “Shorts Shelf” in the subscriptions tab. This gives Shorts greater prominence and has the added advantage of separating these videos from long-form content.
Meanwhile, YouTube for TVs now lets you loop any video. This option has been added to playback settings. Previously, you could only loop playlists via the mobile app. There’s also a new tab for podcasts, which lets you find and play those videos a lot quicker.
Sort by “shelves”
In this update, a big part of Google’s focus has been to create shelves that make it easier to locate different types of videos. This includes “Continue your search,” which lets you see your top three searches and find the video you were after. (This feature could also be useful to find creators you watch often, but don’t want to subscribe to just yet.) Another shelf is called “From your top channels,” and shows videos from the creators you watch the most.
There are a couple of new shelves dedicated to music, including “Listen again,” for music you frequently play, and “Live performances, remixes, and covers,” that helps you find alternative versions of your favorite music. The last new shelf is called “Primetime Channels,” steering you toward content from the channels you’ve purchased on YouTube.
The video streaming service said it has also completed rolling out Immersive Channel Previews, which allow creators to add a personal touch to their channels by putting up fullscreen background previews in their channel headers. Creators will also be able to see TVs as a device type in channel analytics, allowing them to more effectively track where people are watching their videos.
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
In the wake of a high-profile court decision that upended the state of Montana’s climate policy, Republican lawmakers in the state are pushing a suite of bills that could gut the state’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The full-court legislative press targets the state’s environmental analysis, air quality regulation, and judicial system. It stems from the Held v. Montana case in which 16 young people sued the state over its contributions to climate change, claiming its fossil fuel-centric approach to energy violated the state constitution’s guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment.” The plaintiffs won, and in December 2024, the Montana Supreme Court upheld their victory.
