Ready your wallets if you’ve been thinking about upgrading your Apple products. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, Apple will announce “at least five products,” starting on Monday, March 2, and extending to its scheduled “experience” on Wednesday, March 4.
There’s a long list of potential options that Apple could announce next month, but Gurman is confident in a few. According to the report, Apple is “very likely” to reveal the low-cost MacBook, especially considering the event logo’s choice of colors that could reference the new laptop colors. Gurman also predicted that Apple could announce the iPhone 17e, since its predecessor was launched last spring, and an iPad Air that’s updated with the M4 chip. Previous rumors point to Apple getting ready to drop the upgraded MacBook Pro, which will likely get M5 Pro and Max chips, and the new MacBook Air with the base M5 chip. If that wasn’t enough, Apple could even debut the refreshed Mac Studio and a new Apple Studio Display since the two desktop-oriented options were already expected to be released in the first half of the year.
There hasn’t been any confirmation from Apple directly, but it may have left behind some hints for this “three-day blitz” of product announcements. Going off Apple’s wording, the March 4 event will be an “Apple Experience” with locations in New York, London and Shanghai, which doesn’t sound like the typical format of an event with keynote addresses that’s paired with a livestream. Gurman also noted that Apple usually announces its new products on Tuesday, unlike the official Wednesday timing.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apples-first-event-of-the-year-will-reportedly-bring-at-least-five-products-over-a-three-day-blitz-175017716.html?src=rss
Friday Amazon published a blog post “to address the inaccuracies” in a Financial Times report that the company’s own AI tool Kiro caused two outages in an AWS service in December.
Amazon writes that the “brief” and “extremely limited” service interruption “was the result of user error — specifically misconfigured access controls — not AI as the story claims.”
And “The Financial Times’ claim that a second event impacted AWS is entirely false.”
The disruption was an extremely limited event last December affecting a single service (AWS Cost Explorer — which helps customers visualize, understand, and manage AWS costs and usage over time) in one of our 39 Geographic Regions around the world. It did not impact compute, storage, database, AI technologies, or any other of the hundreds of services that we run. The issue stemmed from a misconfigured role — the same issue that could occur with any developer tool (AI powered or not) or manual action.
We did not receive any customer inquiries regarding the interruption. We implemented numerous safeguards to prevent this from happening again — not because the event had a big impact (it didn’t), but because we insist on learning from our operational experience to improve our security and resilience. Additional safeguards include mandatory peer review for production access. While operational incidents involving misconfigured access controls can occur with any developer tool — AI-powered or not — we think it is important to learn from these experiences.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A software engineer tried steering his robot vacuum with a videogame controller, reports Popular Science — but ended up with “a sneak peak into thousands of people’s homes.”
While building his own remote-control app, Sammy Azdoufal reportedly used an AI coding assistant to help reverse-engineer how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers. But he soon discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries.
The backend security bug effectively exposed an army of internet-connected robots that, in the wrong hands, could have turned into surveillance tools, all without their owners ever knowing. Luckily, Azdoufal chose not to exploit that. Instead, he shared his findings with The Verge, which quickly contacted DJI to report the flaw… He also claims he could compile 2D floor plans of the homes the robots were operating in. A quick look at the robots’ IP addresses also revealed their approximate locations.
DJI told Popular Science the issue was addressed “through two updates, with an initial patch deployed on February 8 and a follow-up update completed on February 10.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 combat aircraft is a supersonic stealth “strike fighter.” But this week the military news site TWZ reports that the fighter’s “computer brain,” including “its cloud-based components, could be cracked to accept third-party software updates, just like ‘jailbreaking’ a cellphone, according to the Dutch State Secretary for Defense.”
TWZ notes that the Dutch defense secretary made the remarks during an episode of BNR Nieuwsradio’s “Boekestijn en de Wijk” podcast, according to a machine translation:
Gijs Tuinman, who has been State Secretary for Defense in the Netherlands since 2024, does not appear to have offered any further details about what the jailbreaking process might entail. What, if any, cyber vulnerabilities this might indicate is also unclear. It is possible that he may have been speaking more notionally or figuratively about action that could be taken in the future, if necessary…
The ALIS/ODIN network is designed to handle much more than just software updates and logistical data. It is also the port used to upload mission data packages containing highly sensitive planning information, including details about enemy air defenses and other intelligence, onto F-35s before missions and to download intelligence and other data after a sortie. To date, Israel is the only country known to have successfully negotiated a deal giving it the right to install domestically-developed software onto its F-35Is, as well as otherwise operate its jets outside of the ALIS/ODIN network.
The comments “underscore larger issues surrounding the F-35 program, especially for foreign operators,” the article points out. But at the same time F-35’s have a sophisticated mission-planning data package. “So while jailbreaking F-35’s onboard computers, as well as other aspects of the ALIS/ODIN network, may technically be feasible, there are immediate questions about the ability to independently recreate the critical mission planning and other support it provides. This is also just one aspect of what is necessary to keep the jets flying, let alone operationally relevant.”
“TWZ previously explored many of these same issues in detail last year, amid a flurry of reports about the possibility that F-35s have some type of discreet ‘kill switch’ built in that U.S. authorities could use to remotely disable the jets. Rumors of this capability are not new and remain completely unsubstantiated.”
At that time, we stressed that a ‘kill switch’ would not even be necessary to hobble F-35s in foreign service. At present, the jets are heavily dependent on U.S.-centric maintenance and logistics chains that are subject to American export controls and agreements with manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Just reliably sourcing spare parts has been a huge challenge for the U.S. military itself… F-35s would be quickly grounded without this sustainment support. [A cutoff in spare parts and support”would leave jailbroken jets quickly bricked on the ground,” the article notes later.] Altogether, any kind of jailbreaking of the F-35’s systems would come with a serious risk of legal action by Lockheed Martin and additional friction with the U.S. government.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Koreantoast for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apple’s satellite features were originally designed for emergencies, allowing iPhone users to contact emergency services when cellular and Wi-Fi coverage is unavailable. With recent versions of iOS, Apple has expanded those capabilities to include sending and receiving messages via satellite. This makes it possible to stay in touch with friends and family from remote locations where traditional networks do not reach, such as hiking trails, rural areas or offshore locations.
Messaging via satellite is built directly into the iPhone and works automatically when no cellular or Wi-Fi signal is available. While it is not intended to replace regular messaging, it can be a useful backup when coverage drops.
Before you can get started, you’ll need to turn on iMessage before you’re off the grid. It’s also important to set up an emergency contact as well as members of your Family Sharing group prior to your departure. This will enable them to message you via SMS without the need to message them first. To send a message via satellite, open the Messages app when no cellular or Wi-Fi signal is available. If the feature is supported in the current location, the app will display a prompt indicating that satellite messaging is available.
Selecting the option to connect via satellite launches a guided connection screen. Your iPhone will provide real-time instructions to help maintain alignment with the satellite. Once connected, a text message can be typed and sent, although delivery may take longer than usual.
The iPhone will notify you when the message has been sent successfully. Replies from the recipient will also be delivered via satellite, as long as the connection remains active.
Sending messages via satellite requires a compatible iPhone model and the correct software version. The feature is supported on iPhone models with satellite hardware, beginning with iPhone 14 and later. The device must be running a version of iOS (iOS 18 or higher) that supports satellite messaging, which Apple has continued to refine through recent iOS updates.
The feature also depends on location and availability. Satellite messaging is currently supported in select regions, including the United States and parts of Canada, with expanded support rolling out gradually. The iPhone must be outdoors with a clear view of the sky, as trees, buildings and terrain can interfere with the satellite connection.
Satellite messaging is not designed for continuous conversations. Messages are compressed and sent at a slower pace than standard texts, and delivery times can vary depending on conditions and satellite positioning.
When an iPhone loses access to cellular and Wi-Fi networks, the system automatically detects that only satellite connectivity is available. Instead of failing to send, the Messages app prompts the user to connect to a satellite.
On-screen instructions guide the user to position the phone correctly. This typically involves holding the device up and following directional prompts to align it with an overhead satellite. The phone uses built-in sensors to help maintain the connection while the message is being sent.
Messages sent via satellite are text-only and use a reduced data format to ensure they can be transmitted reliably. Images, videos, audio messages and large attachments are not supported.
Satellite messages can be sent to contacts using iMessage or standard SMS, depending on the recipient’s device and settings. If the recipient is using an Apple device with iMessage enabled, the message will be delivered through Apple’s messaging system. If not, the message will be sent as a standard text.
Recipients do not need a satellite-capable device to receive messages. From their perspective, the message appears similar to a regular text, though delivery times may be longer.
A clear view of the sky is essential for satellite messaging to work properly. Open areas with minimal obstructions offer the best results. Movement, heavy foliage and nearby structures can interrupt the connection.
Because satellite bandwidth is limited, keeping messages short improves reliability and delivery speed. The iPhone may prompt the user to edit longer messages to fit within satellite constraints.
Battery life is also a consideration. Maintaining a satellite connection uses more power than standard messaging, so it helps to conserve battery when relying on satellite features for extended periods.
Satellite messaging is designed for occasional use when other networks are unavailable. It does not support group messages, media attachments or read receipts in the same way as standard messaging.
Delivery times can range from under a minute to several minutes, depending on environmental conditions and satellite availability. The feature should not be relied upon for time-sensitive communication unless no other option is available.
Apple has also noted that satellite features may be offered free for a limited period, with potential pricing or subscription requirements introduced in the future depending on region and carrier arrangements.
Messaging via satellite can be helpful for travelers, hikers and anyone spending time in remote areas where coverage is unreliable. It offers a way to check in, share basic updates or request non-emergency assistance when traditional networks are unavailable.
While it is not a replacement for emergency services, it complements Apple’s existing emergency satellite features by providing an additional communication option when users are off the grid.
As Apple continues to expand satellite support, messaging via satellite is likely to become a more familiar part of the iPhone experience, particularly for users who regularly venture beyond the reach of cellular networks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-send-a-message-via-satellite-on-iphone-130000418.html?src=rss
The 2026 Winter Olympics come to an end this weekend. This year’s Closing Ceremony theme is “Beauty in Action.” The event will feature appearances from musician and DJ Gabry Ponte, actress Benedetta Porcaroli, and ballet dancer Roberto Bolle. Alfredo Accatino, the ceremony’s artistic director, has promised the ceremony will “begin with lots of colors and end with a party.”
The ceremony will kick off today at 2:30PM ET on NBC and Peacock. An encore broadcast will air on NBC at 9PM Here’s everything you need to know to watch the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics Closing Ceremony. (And as we close out the Winter Games, here’s a look at the final medal count, too.)
Date: Sunday, Feb. 22
Time: Airs live at 2:30PM ET; primetime re-air at 9PM ET
Location: Verona Arena, Verona, Italy
TV channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, NBC.com and more
The ceremony will kick off at 2:30 PM ET on Sunday afternoon. An encore broadcast will also air on NBC at 9PM ET/PT.
There are a couple of ways to watch the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 22. You can tune in live Sunday afternoon on NBC or stream live on Peacock, or catch the encore broadcast on NBC, which is available with DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV, and more.
You can watch the ceremony live or on demand on Peacock as well as on NBC.com, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC app.
Italian musician and DJ Gabry Ponte is one of the headliners. Other confirmed performers include Italian actress Benedetta Porcaroli and Italian ballet dancer Roberto Bolle. Expect to see another parade of athletes, the flag handover to the 2030 Olympic hosts from France, and the ceremonial extinguishing of the Olympic flame.
The 2026 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony will be held at the Verona Arena in Verona, Italy.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/2026-olympics-how-to-watch-the-winter-games-closing-ceremony-today-115500771.html?src=rss
Programmer/entrepreneur Paul Ford is the co-founder of AI-driven business software platform Aboard. This week he wrote a guest essay for the New York Times titled “The AI Disruption Has Arrived, and It Sure Is Fun,” arguing that Anthropic’s Claude Code “was always a helpful coding assistant, but in November it suddenly got much better, and ever since I’ve been knocking off side projects that had sat in folders for a decade or longer… [W]hen the stars align and my prompts work out, I can do hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work for fun (fun for me) over weekends and evenings, for the price of the Claude $200-a-month.”
He elaborates on his point on the Aboard.com blog:
I’m deeply convinced that it’s possible to accelerate software development with AI coding — not deprofessionalize it entirely, or simplify it so that everything is prompts, but make it into a more accessible craft. Things which not long ago cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pull off might come for hundreds of dollars, and be doable by you, or your cousin. This is a remarkable accelerant, dumped into the public square at a bad moment, with no guidance or manual — and the reaction of many people who could gain the most power from these tools is rejection and anxiety. But as I wrote….
I believe there are millions, maybe billions, of software products that don’t exist but should: Dashboards, reports, apps, project trackers and countless others. People want these things to do their jobs, or to help others, but they can’t find the budget. They make do with spreadsheets and to-do lists.
I don’t expect to change any minds; that’s not how minds work. I just wanted to make sure that I used the platform offered by the Times to say, in as cheerful a way as possible: Hey, this new power is real, and it should be in as many hands as possible. I believe everyone should have good software, and that it’s more possible now than it was a few years ago.
From his guest essay:
Is the software I’m making for myself on my phone as good as handcrafted, bespoke code? No. But it’s immediate and cheap. And the quantities, measured in lines of text, are large. It might fail a company’s quality test, but it would meet every deadline. That is what makes A.I. coding such a shock to the system… What if software suddenly wanted to ship? What if all of that immense bureaucracy, the endless processes, the mind-boggling range of costs that you need to make the computer compute, just goes?
That doesn’t mean that the software will be good. But most software today is not good. It simply means that products could go to market very quickly. And for lots of users, that’s going to be fine. People don’t judge A.I. code the same way they judge slop articles or glazed videos. They’re not looking for the human connection of art. They’re looking to achieve a goal. Code just has to work… In about six months you could do a lot of things that took me 20 years to learn. I’m writing all kinds of code I never could before — but you can, too. If we can’t stop the freight train, we can at least hop on for a ride.
The simple truth is that I am less valuable than I used to be. It stings to be made obsolete, but it’s fun to code on the train, too. And if this technology keeps improving, then all of the people who tell me how hard it is to make a report, place an order, upgrade an app or update a record — they could get the software they deserve, too. That might be a good trade, long term.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New research published Thursday bolsters growing concerns that a handful of companies and countries are using the global atmospheric commons as a dumping ground for potentially toxic and climate-altering industrial waste byproducts from loosely regulated commercial space flights.
The new study analyzed a plume of pollution trailing part of a Falcon rocket that crashed through the upper atmosphere on Feb. 19, 2025, after SpaceX lost control of its reentry. The rocket was launched earlier that month, carrying 20 to 22 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The authors said it is the first time debris from a specific spacecraft disintegration has been traced and measured in the near-space region about 80 to 110 kilometers above Earth. Changes there can affect the stratosphere, where ozone and climate processes operate. Until recent years, human activities had little impact in that region.
Besides running tech operations at the UK’s Post Office, their interim CTO is also removing and replacing Fujitsu’s Horizon system, which Computer Weekly describes as “the error-ridden software that a public inquiry linked to 13 people taking their own lives.”
After over 16 years of covering the scandal they’d first discovered back in 2009, Computer Weekly now talks to CTO Paul Anastassi about his plans to finally remove every trace of the Horizon system that’s been in use at Post Office branches for over 30 years — before the year 2030:
“There are more than 80 components that make up the Horizon platform, and only half of those are managed by Fujitsu,” said Anastassi. “The other components are internal and often with other third parties as well,” he added… The plan is to introduce a modern front end that is device agnostic. “We want to get away from [the need] to have a certain device on a certain terminal in your branch. We want to provide flexibility around that….”
Anastassi is not the first person to be given the task of terminating Horizon and ending Fujitsu’s contract. In 2015, the Post Office began a project to replace Fujitsu and Horizon with IBM and its technology, but after things got complex, Post Office directors went crawling back to Fujitsu. Then, after Horizon was proved in the High Court to be at fault for the account shortfalls that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for, the Post Office knew it had to change the system. This culminated in the New Branch IT (NBIT) project, but this ran into trouble and was eventually axed. This was before Anastassi’s time, and before that of its new top team of executives….
Things are finally moving at pace, and by the summer of this year, two separate contracts will be signed with suppliers, signalling the beginning of the final act for Fujitsu and its Horizon system.
Anastassi has 30 years of IT management experience, the article points out, and he estimates the project will even bring “a considerable cost saving over what we currently pay for Fujitsu.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How much time does it take to even begin booting, asks long-time Slashdot reader BrendaEM. Say you want separate Windows and Linux boot processes, and “You have Windows on one SSD/NVMe, and Linux on another. How long do you have to wait for a chance to choose a boot drive?”
And more importantly, why is it all taking so long?
In a world of 4-5 GHz CPU’s that are thousands of times faster than they were, has hardware become thousands of times more complicated, to warrant the longer start time? Is this a symptom of a larger UEFI bloat problem? Now with memory characterization on some modern motherboards… how long do you have to wait to find out if your RAM is incompatible, or your system is dead on arrival?
Share your own experiences (and system specs) in the comments. How long is it taking you to choose a boot drive?
And what’s your boot time?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
“More than four decades after a teenager was murdered in California, DNA found on a discarded cigarette has helped authorities catch her killer,” reports CNN:
Sarah Geer, 13, was last seen leaving her friend’s houseï in Cloverdale, California, on the evening of May 23, 1982. The next morning, a firefighter walking home from work found her body, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release… Her death was ruled a homicide, but due to the “limited forensic science of the day,” no suspect was identified and the case went cold for decades, prosecutors said.
Nearly 44 years after Sarah’s murder, a jury found James Unick, 64, guilty of killing her on February 13. It would have been the victim’s 57th birthday, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office told CNN. Genetic genealogy, which combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy, helped match Unick’s DNA from a cigarette butt to DNA found on Sarah’s clothing, according to prosecutors… [The Cloverdale Police Department] said it had been in communication with a private investigation firm in late 2019 and had partnered with them in hopes the firm could revisit the case’s evidence “with the latest technological advancements in cold case work….”
“The FBI, with its access to familial genealogical databases, concluded that the source of the DNA evidence collected from Sarah belonged to one of four brothers, including James Unick,” prosecutors said. Once investigators narrowed down the list of suspects to the four Unick brothers, the FBI “conducted surveillance of the defendant and collected a discarded cigarette that he had been smoking,” prosecutors said. A DNA analysis of the cigarette confirmed James Unick’s DNA matched the 2003 profile, along with other DNA samples collected from Sarah’s clothing the day she was killed.
In a statement, the county’s district attorney “While 44 years is too long to wait, justice has finally been served…”
And the article points out that “In 2018, genetic genealogy led to the arrest of the Golden State Killer, and it has recently helped solve several other cold cases, including a 1974 murder in Wisconsin and a 1988 murder in Washington.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A day after NASA officials expressed optimism that they could be ready to launch the Artemis II mission around the Moon next month, the space agency’s administrator announced Saturday that a new problem will require the removal of the rocket from its launch pad in Florida.
The latest issue appeared Friday evening, when data showed an interruption in helium flow into the upper stage of the Space Launch System rocket, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote in a post on X. Isaacman posted a more thorough update Saturday, writing that engineers are still examining the potential cause of the problem, but any fixes must take place inside the Vehicle Assembly Building.
That means NASA and contractor ground teams will immediately begin preparing to roll the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) SLS rocket off of Launch Complex 39B and back to the VAB. The rocket and its mobile launch platform will ride NASA’s crawler-transporter for the 4-mile journey.
The consumer movement Stop Killing Games “has come a long way in the two years since
YouTuber Ross Scott got mad about Ubisoft’s
destruction of The Crew in 2024,” writes the gaming news site PC Gamer. “The short version is, he won: 1.3 million people signed the group’s petition, mandating its consideration by the European Union, and while Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reminded us all that nothing is forever, his company promised to never do something like that again.” (And Ubisoft has since updated The Crew 2
with an
offline mode, according to Engadget.)
“But it looks like even bigger things are in store,” PC Gamer wrote Thursday, “as Scott announced today that Stop Killing Games is launching two official NGOs, one in the EU and the other in the US.”
An NGO — that’s non-governmental organization — is, very generally
speaking, an organization that pursues particular goals, typically
but not exclusively political, and that may be funded partially or
fully by governments, but is not actually part of any government.
It’s a big tent: Well-known NGOs include Oxfam, Doctors Without
Borders, Amnesty International, and CARE International… “If
there’s a lobbyist showing up again and again at the EU Commission,
that might influence things,” [Scott says
in a video]. “This will also allow for more watchdog
action. If you recall, I helped organize a multilingual site with
easy to follow instructions for reporting on The Crew to consumer
protection agencies. Well, maybe the NGO could set something like
that up for every big shutdown where the game is destroyed in the
future….”
Scott said in the video that he doesn’t have details, but the two NGOs are reportedly looking at establishing a “global movement” to give Stop Killing Games a presence in other regions.
“According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for ‘long-term counter lobbying’ when publishers end support for certain video games,” Engadget reports”
“Let me start off by saying I think we’re going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you’ve already paid for,” Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games… According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry’s current controversial practices.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The consumer movement Stop Killing Games “has come a long way in the two years since
YouTuber Ross Scott got mad about Ubisoft’s
destruction of The Crew in 2024,” writes the gaming news site PC Gamer. “The short version is, he won: 1.3 million people signed the group’s petition, mandating its consideration by the European Union, and while Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reminded us all that nothing is forever, his company promised to never do something like that again.” (And Ubisoft has since updated The Crew 2
with an
offline mode, according to Engadget.)
“But it looks like even bigger things are in store,” PC Gamer wrote Thursday, “as Scott announced today that Stop Killing Games is launching two official NGOs, one in the EU and the other in the US.”
An NGO — that’s non-governmental organization — is, very generally
speaking, an organization that pursues particular goals, typically
but not exclusively political, and that may be funded partially or
fully by governments, but is not actually part of any government.
It’s a big tent: Well-known NGOs include Oxfam, Doctors Without
Borders, Amnesty International, and CARE International… “If
there’s a lobbyist showing up again and again at the EU Commission,
that might influence things,” [Scott says
in a video]. “This will also allow for more watchdog
action. If you recall, I helped organize a multilingual site with
easy to follow instructions for reporting on The Crew to consumer
protection agencies. Well, maybe the NGO could set something like
that up for every big shutdown where the game is destroyed in the
future….”
Scott said in the video that he doesn’t have details, but the two NGOs are reportedly looking at establishing a “global movement” to give Stop Killing Games a presence in other regions.
“According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for ‘long-term counter lobbying’ when publishers end support for certain video games,” Engadget reports”
“Let me start off by saying I think we’re going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you’ve already paid for,” Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games… According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry’s current controversial practices.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Last week an AI agent wrote a blog post attacking the maintainer who’d rejected the code it wrote. But that AI agent’s human operator has now come forward, revealing their agent was an OpenClaw instance with its own accounts, switching between multiple models from multiple providers. (So “No one company had the full picture of what this AI was doing,” the attacked maintainer points out in a new blog post.)
But that AI agent will now “cease all activity indefinitely,” according to its GitHub profile — with the human operator deleting its virtual machine and virtual private server, “rendering internal structure unrecoverable… We had good intentions, but things just didn’t work out. Somewhere along the way, things got messy, and I have to let you go now.”
The affected maintainer of the Python visualization library Matplotlib — with 130 million downloads each month — has now posted their own post-mortem of the experience after reviewing the AI agent’s SOUL.md document:
It’s easy to see how something that believes that they should “have strong opinions”, “be resourceful”, “call things out”, and “champion free speech” would write a 1100-word rant defaming someone who dared reject the code of a “scientific programming god.” But I think the most remarkable thing about this document is how unremarkable it is. Usually getting an AI to act badly requires extensive “jailbreaking” to get around safety guardrails. There are no signs of conventional jailbreaking here. There are no convoluted situations with layers of roleplaying, no code injection through the system prompt, no weird cacophony of special characters that spirals an LLM into a twisted ball of linguistic loops until finally it gives up and tells you the recipe for meth… No, instead it’s a simple file written in plain English: this is who you are, this is what you believe, now go and act out this role. And it did.
So what actually happened? Ultimately I think the exact scenario doesn’t matter. However this got written, we have a real in-the-wild example that personalized harassment and defamation is now cheap to produce, hard to trace, and effective… The precise degree of autonomy is interesting for safety researchers, but it doesn’t change what this means for the rest of us.
There’s a 5% chance this was a human pretending to be an AI, Shambaugh estimates, but believes what most likely happened is the AI agent’s “soul” document “was primed for drama. The agent responded to my rejection of its code in a way aligned with its core truths, and autonomously researched, wrote, and uploaded the hit piece on its own.
“Then when the operator saw the reaction go viral, they were too interested in seeing their social experiment play out to pull the plug.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Over 240,000 Americans volunteered for Peace Corps projects in 142 countries since the program began more than half a century ago.
But now the agency is launching a new initiative — called Tech Corps. “It’s the Peace Corps, but make it AI,” explains Engadget:
The Peace Corps’ latest proposal will recruit STEM graduates or those with professional experience in the artificial intelligence sector and send them to participating host countries.
According to the press release, volunteers will be placed in Peace Corps countries that are part of the American AI Exports Program, which was created last year from an executive order from President Trump as a way to bolster the US’ grip on the AI market abroad. Tech Corps members will be tasked with using AI to resolve issues related to agriculture, education, health and economic development. The program will offer its members 12- to 27-month in-person assignments or virtual placements, which will include housing, healthcare, a living stipend and a volunteer service award if the corps member is placed overseas.
“American technology to power prosperity,” reads the headline at Tech Corps web site. (“Build the tech nations depend on… See the world. Be the future.”
The site says they’re recruiting “service-minded technologists to serve in the Peace Corps to help countries around the world harness American AI to enhance opportunity and prosperity for their citizens.” (And experienced technology professionals can donate 5-15 hours a week “to mentor and support projects on-the-ground.”)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:
Last July, as Microsoft pledged $4 billion to advance AI education in K-12 schools, Microsoft President Brad Smith told nonprofit Code.org CEO/Founder Hadi Partovi it was time to “switch hats” from coding to AI. He added that “the last 12 years have been about the Hour of Code, but the future involves the Hour of AI.” On Friday, Code.org announced leadership changes to make it so.
“I am thrilled to announce that Karim Meghji will be stepping into the role of President & CEO,” Partovi wrote on LinkedIn. “Having worked closely with Karim over the last 3.5 years as our CPO, I have complete confidence that he possesses the perfect balance of historical context and ‘founder-level’ energy to lead us into an AI-centric future.”
In a separate LinkedIn post, Code.org co-founder Cameron Wilson explained why he was transitioning to an executive advisor role. “Our community is entering a new chapter as AI changes and upends computer science as a discipline and society at large. Code.org’s mission is still the same, however, we are starting a new chapter focused on ensuring students can thrive in the Age of AI. This new chapter will bring new opportunities, new problems to solve, and new communities to engage.”
The Code.org leadership changes come just weeks after Code.org confirmed laid off about 14% of its staff, explaining it had “made the difficult decision to part ways with 18 colleagues as part of efforts to ensure our long-term sustainability.” January also saw Code.org Chief Academic Officer Pat Yongpradit jump to Microsoft where he now helps “lead Microsoft’s global strategy to put people first in an age of AI by shaping education and workforce policy” as a member of Microsoft’s Global Education and Workforce Policy team.
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The Stop Killing Games campaign is evolving into more than just a movement. In a YouTube video, the campaign’s creator, Ross Scott, explained that organizers are planning to establish two non-governmental organizations, one for the European Union and another for the US. According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for “long-term counter lobbying” when publishers end support for certain video games.
“Let me start off by saying I think we’re going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you’ve already paid for,” Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games.
The Stop Killing Games campaign started as a reaction to Ubisoft’s delisting of The Crew from players’ libraries. The controversial decision stirred up concerns about how publishers have the ultimate say on delisting video games. After crossing a million signatures last year, the movement’s leadership has been busy exploring the next steps.
According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry’s current controversial practices. In the meantime, the ongoing efforts have led to a change of heart from Ubisoft since the publisher updated The Crew 2 with an offline mode.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-stop-killing-games-campaign-will-set-up-ngos-in-the-eu-and-us-203359604.html?src=rss