Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan Says Company Will Spin Off Non-Core Units

Intel Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan said the chipmaker will spin off assets that aren’t central to its mission and create new products including custom semiconductors to try to better align itself with customers. From a report: Intel needs to replace the engineering talent it has lost, improve its balance sheet and better attune manufacturing processes to meet the needs of potential customers, Tan said. Speaking at his first public appearance as CEO, at the Intel Vision conference Monday in Las Vegas, Tan didn’t specify what parts of Intel he believes are no longer central to its future.

“We have a lot of hard work ahead,” Tan said, addressing the company’s customers in the audience. “There are areas where we’ve fallen short of your expectations.” The veteran semiconductor executive is trying to restore the fortunes of a company that dominated an industry for decades, but now finds itself chasing rivals in most of the areas that define success in the field. A key question confronting its leadership is whether a turnaround is best served by the company remaining whole or splitting up its key product and manufacturing operations. Tan gave no indication that he will seek to divest either part of Intel. Instead, he highlighted the problems he needs to fix to get both units performing more successfully. Intel’s chips for data center and AI-related work in particular are not good enough, he said. “We fell behind on innovation,” the CEO said. “We have been too slow to adapt and meet your needs.”


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UK’s GCHQ Intern Transferred Top Secret Files To His Phone

Bruce66423 shares a report from the BBC: A former GCHQ intern has admitted risking national security by taking top secret data home with him on his mobile phone. Hasaan Arshad, 25, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act on what would have been the first day of his trial at the Old Bailey in London. The charge related to committing an unauthorised act which risked damaging national security.

Arshad, from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, is said to have transferred sensitive data from a secure computer to his phone, which he had taken into a top secret area of GCHQ on 24 August 2022. […] The court heard that Arshad took his work mobile into a top secret GCHQ area and connected it to work station. He then transferred sensitive data from a secure, top secret computer to the phone before taking it home, it was claimed. Arshad then transferred the data from the phone to a hard drive connected to his personal home computer. “Seriously? What on earth was the UK’s equivalent of the NSA doing allowing its hardware to carry out such a transfer?” questions Bruce66423.


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Intel and Microsoft Staff Allegedly Lured To Work For Fake Chinese Company In Taiwan

Taiwanese authorities have accused 11 Chinese companies, including SMIC, of secretly setting up disguised entities in Taiwan to illegally recruit tech talent from firms like Intel and Microsoft. The Register reports: One of those companies is apparently called Yunhe Zhiwang (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd and develops high-end network chips. The Bureau claims its chips are used in China’s “Data East, Compute West” strategy that, as we reported when it was announced in 2022, calls for five million racks full of kit to be moved from China’s big cities in the east to new datacenters located near renewable energy sources in country’s west. Datacenters in China’s east will be used for latency-sensitive applications, while heavy lifting takes place in the west. Staff from Intel and Microsoft were apparently lured to work for Yunhe Zhiwang, which disguised its true ownership by working through a Singaporean company.

The Investigation Bureau also alleged that China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), used a Samoan company to establish a presence in Taiwan and then hired local talent. That’s a concerning scenario as SMIC is on the USA’s “entity list” of organizations felt to represent a national security risk. The US gets tetchy when its friends and allies work with companies on the entity list.

A third Chinese entity, Shenzhen Tongrui Microelectronics Technology, disguised itself so well Taiwan’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology lauded it as an important innovator and growth company. As a result of the Bureau’s work, prosecutors’ offices in seven Taiwanese cities are now looking into 11 Chinese companies thought to have hidden their ties to Beijing.


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OpenAI Plans To Release a New ‘Open’ AI Language Model In the Coming Months

OpenAI plans to release a new open-weight language model — its first since GPT-2 — in the coming months and is seeking community feedback to shape its development. “That’s according to a feedback form the company published on its website Monday,” reports TechCrunch. “The form, which OpenAI is inviting ‘developers, researchers, and [members of] the broader community’ to fill out, includes questions like ‘What would you like to see in an open-weight model from OpenAI?’ and ‘What open models have you used in the past?'” From the report: “We’re excited to collaborate with developers, researchers, and the broader community to gather inputs and make this model as useful as possible,” OpenAI wrote on its website. “If you’re interested in joining a feedback session with the OpenAI team, please let us know [in the form] below.” OpenAI plans to host developer events to gather feedback and, in the future, demo prototypes of the model. The first will take place in San Francisco within a few weeks, followed by sessions in Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

OpenAI is facing increasing pressure from rivals such as Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, which have adopted an “open” approach to launching models. In contrast to OpenAI’s strategy, these “open” competitors make their models available to the AI community for experimentation and, in some cases, commercialization.


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You Can Get a Lifetime License to Windows 11 Pro for $15 Right Now

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If your current Windows setup is feeling a bit outdated or you’re setting up a brand-new PC, you might want to check out this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro deal on StackSocial—you can get this single-device lifetime license for just $15, which would usually cost you $200 at the Microsoft Store. Once you buy, the redemption code and setup instructions hit your inbox instantly. That said, make sure your system is eligible before you hit purchase. This isn’t an upgrade path for unsupported PCs—it’s a fresh install for machines that meet the full list of Windows 11 Pro requirements.

Now, about the OS itself—it feels like Windows finally got a glow-up without messing with your workflow. The layout is cleaner, Snap Layouts and virtual desktops make multitasking smoother, and redocking windows actually works like you’d expect. If you’re into voice typing or just want better search across apps and docs, it delivers. Windows 11 Pro also throws in some solid pro tools like BitLocker for encryption, Hyper-V for virtualization, and even a sandbox mode for testing apps safely. You’re also getting DirectX 12 Ultimate, so your hardware can shine during gaming or graphic-heavy tasks, assuming your machine is beefy enough.

Security is another win here. Windows 11 Pro doubles down with biometric login, Smart App Control, and TPM 2.0 requirements, which makes it a tougher nut to crack. It also includes the new AI-powered Copilot and baked-in Microsoft Teams support, which might appeal to remote workers. Just a heads up, you won’t get an Office upgrade bundled in with this deal—this is strictly a Windows license. It will work alongside Office if you have a separate license, though (if you’re on a Mac using Parallels Pro). If your PC meets the specs (like a 1GHz processor, 4GB RAM, TPM 2.0, and UEFI firmware, among others), and you’ve been holding off on a full Windows upgrade, this $14.97 deal is about as straightforward and affordable as it gets. Just be sure to double-check your specs before clicking “buy.”

Riot Games’ League of Legends TCG is officially called Riftbound

Riot Games has unveiled new details for its upcoming tabletop game, called Riftbound – The League of Legends Trading Card Game. We first got a look at this TCG under the codename Project K in December. The latest trailer showed off new artwork for the cards, including fresh takes on the LoL characters that aren’t just copies of their in-game champion portraits. The card UI has also gotten some extra polish compared with what was showed late last year.

The team at Riot has been incorporating player feedback into the game’s first set, called Origins. This set will have more than 300 different cards, and familiar LoL champions including Jinx, Viktor and Lee Sin will star in pre-built decks for this inaugural set. For the serious collectors, there will also be secret rare versions of the champion cards with unique art.

In addition to the previously revealed multiplayer aspect, Riftbound offers a path for reaching fans who don’t have experience in this card game genre. Riftbound will have a box called Proving Grounds where champions like Lux, Annie, Master Yi and Garen will help newer players to get acclimated to TCG basics.

The timeline for the Riftbound is also starting to firm up, with its China launch is scheduled for summer 2025. Some English speaking countries will also see the game arrive this year, but other markets will have to wait until 2026; the devs didn’t specify which regions will be on which timeline.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/riot-games-league-of-legends-tcg-is-officially-called-riftbound-212507458.html?src=rss

With new Gen-4 model, Runway claims to have finally achieved consistency in AI videos

AI video startup Runway announced the availability of its newest video synthesis model today. Dubbed Gen-4, the model purports to solve several key problems with AI video generation.

Chief among those is the notion of consistent characters and objects across shots. If you’ve watched any short films made with AI, you’ve likely noticed that they’re either dream-like sequences of thematically but not realistically connected images—mood pieces more than consistent narratives.

Runway claims Gen-4 can maintain consistent characters and objects, provided it’s given a single reference image of the character or object in question as part of the project in Runway’s interface.

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How to watch the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct

With a Tomodachi Life sequel teased and the last few Switch 1 games announced, the deck is cleared for Nintendo’s next video presentation on the Switch 2. The appropriately titled “Nintendo Direct: Switch 2” presentation is slated for April 2 at 9AM ET / 6AM PT, and will stream on Nintendo’s YouTube channel. 

Nintendo revealed what the new console looks like in a short teaser video in January, which confirmed details like the device’s larger screen, and teased things like a new Mario Kart and some sort of mouse functionality for the Switch 2’s Joy-Con controllers. The company’s April 2 presentation should answer even more questions about what’s exactly different about the Switch successor, how much it’ll cost and when it’ll launch.

Join us on April 2nd at 6am PT for #NintendoDirect: Nintendo Switch 2 – 4.2.2025, where we will share a closer look at #NintendoSwitch2.

► https://t.co/XCecVa9Zid pic.twitter.com/ACu5pZUd0D

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 5, 2025

You can read our article collecting Switch 2 rumors and reports for a preview of what Nintendo might cover. Particularly pertinent for anyone thinking about buying the new console, recent leaks indicate that Nintendo could open up pre-orders for the Switch 2 as early as April 9, and ship out the device in June.

We’ll have to wait for the Nintendo Direct to fill in those details, and hopefully learn more about the launch lineup of Switch 2 games in the process. You can watch along on Nintendo’s YouTube channel or right in this article once the stream goes live.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/how-to-watch-the-switch-2-nintendo-direct-210632411.html?src=rss

Google To Pay $100 Million To Settle 14-Year-Old Advertising Lawsuit

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Google has agreed to pay $100 million in cash to settle a long-running lawsuit claiming it overcharged advertisers by failing to provide promised discounts and charged for clicks on ads outside the geographic areas the advertisers targeted. A preliminary settlement of the 14-year-old class action, which began in March 2011, was filed late Thursday in the San Jose, California, federal court, and requires a judge’s approval.

Advertisers who participated in Google’s AdWords program, now known as Google Ads, accused the search engine operator of breaching its contract by manipulating its Smart Pricing formula to artificially reduce discounts. The advertisers also said Google, a unit of Mountain View, California-based Alphabet, misled them by failing to limit ad distribution to locations they designated, violating California’s unfair competition law. Thursday’s settlement covers advertisers who used AdWords between January 1, 2004, and December 13, 2012.

Google denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. “This case was about ad product features we changed over a decade ago and we’re pleased it’s resolved,” spokesman Jose Castaneda said in an emailed statement. Lawyers for the plaintiffs may seek fees of up to 33% of the settlement fund, plus $4.2 million for expenses. According to court papers, the case took a long time as the parties produced extensive evidence, including more than 910,000 pages of documents and multiple terabytes of click data from Google, and participated in six mediation sessions before four different mediators.


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T-Mobile Class-Action Payouts Are Just About on Their Way

If you’re expecting money from T-Mobile, there’s good news: Your check should be just about on its way.

As spotted by PCMag, T-Mobile’s data breach settlement page now reports the following: “All court proceedings are now complete. The distribution of settlement payments is expected to begin April 2025.” So long as payments roll out on time, claimants can expect their checks to start shipping out sometime this month.

Why was T-Mobile sued?

These payments are tied to a class-action lawsuit from an August 2021 data breach. Hackers stole information from tens of million of current and former T-Mobile customers, including first and last names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license information. T-Mobile originally claimed the hackers only compromised the data of 7.8 million current customers and 40 million former customers, but customers filed the lawsuit alleging the true number was around 76 million.

While T-Mobile did not admit fault, the company did settle the suit, agreeing to a $350 million settlement payout. In addition, the company had to pay $150 million to beef up its security around customer data. The entire debacle cost T-Mobile half a billion dollars.

How much are the payments?

How much claimants actually receive from this settlement could be dependent on the amount of time and money they spent trying to fix their security issues. Claimants had to show documentation of their efforts, and could be reimbursed for both the money spent as well as an additional $25 per hour to compensate for their time—for a maximum possible payout of $25,000. Alternatively, victims could simply accept a $25 payment to put the entire case to rest. (If you lived in California at the time, that payout jumped to $100.)

Unfortunately, it’s far too late to claim a payment in this case—that deadline ended on January 23, 2023. If you made a claim, you should have been contacted in October of last year.

I’m sorry if this news is arriving too late for you to claim money from the suit. However, if you did make a claim before that 2023 deadline, your Monday probably just got a little better.

Raking Song Lyrics Into The Sand As The Tide Comes In

These are several videos of unique hobbyist Brighton Denevan, who rakes the lyrics to songs in the sand at the beach while his drone captures the footage from above, then syncs the timelapse videos so the appearance of the lyrics coincide with the songs. All while the tide comes in and begins washing the lyrics away. Very nice. It might not be the way I’d spend a Saturday morning, but laying in bed on death’s doorstep complaining the hangover pills I took didn’t work and I’m going to sue isn’t for everyone.

@brighton.denevan SEE IT SWIMMIN! • Created March 27, 2025 • Central Coast, California #pixies #lyricvideo #sandart ♬ Where Is My Mind? – Pixies
@brighton.denevan WASH AWAY THE RAIN • Created February 24, 2025 • Corcoran Beach, Santa Cruz #pleasurepoint #sandart #lyricvideo #soundgarden ♬ Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
@brighton.denevan YOUR FREDOM • Created March 14, 2025 • San Mateo County #fleetwoodmacdreams #lyricvideos #sandart ♬ Dreams (2004 Remaster) – Fleetwood Mac
@brighton.denevan TODAY SEEMS KINDA ODD • Created March 14, 2025 • San Mateo County, California #icecube #lyricvideo #sandart ♬ It Was A Good Day By Ice Cube – mangoo

My Favorite Portable Projector Is $70 Off Right Now

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I’ve been testing portable projectors for a bunch of different use cases, but few, if any, have come close to the complete package offered by the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro. It’s my favorite of the lot, and right now, you can get the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro portable projector for $379 )down from $449.99) and get your choice of the Creative Optical Filter (normally $49.99) or the XGIMI Carrying Case (normally $69.99).

Alternately, you can spend a bit more and get the PowerBase Stand and projector combo for $424.99 (originally $499.99). Whichever you choose, you’ll be scoring an all-time low price, according to price tracking tools.

The projector has two ports—a USB and a micro HDMI—so you can project from a laptop or phone, or you can simply screen mirror from your devices, since it uses the Google TV OS. Also, since the projector is “smart,” it already comes with the typical apps like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, and you can download more from the Google Play Store. With 450 lumens and 1080p, it’s best used in dark rooms, but you can get away with some ambient light (that’s how I use it in my backyard).

Where this projector truly shines is with the auto keystone focus feature. If you move it anywhere, it’ll autocorrect to make the image look its best regardless of where you set it up. It also comes with a powerful 5W Harman Kardon speaker, which performs about on par with an Echo Dot.

One caveat: This projector has no internal battery, which is a huge bummer. You’d need to use a portable charger, plug it into an outlet, or, perhaps more practically, spend the extra $45 to get the PowerBase Stand, which delivers 2.5 hours of battery life. If you plan to use it mostly indoors, you can rely on plugging it into a wall and go for one of the free items to save some money.

Apple updates all its operating systems, brings Apple Intelligence to Vision Pro

Apple dropped a big batch of medium-size software updates for nearly all of its products this afternoon. The iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, tvOS 18.4, and visionOS 2.4 updates are all currently available to download, and each adds a small handful of new features for their respective platforms.

A watchOS 11.4 update was also published briefly, but it’s currently unavailable.

For iPhones and iPads that support Apple Intelligence, the flagship feature in 18.4 is Priority Notifications, which attempts to separate time-sensitive or potentially important notifications from the rest of them so you can see them more easily. The update also brings along the handful of new Unicode 16.0 emoji, a separate app for managing a Vision Pro headset (similar to the companion app for the Apple Watch), and a grab bag of other fixes and minor enhancements.

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Honey Lost 4 Million Chrome Users After Shady Tactics Were Revealed

The Chrome extension Honey has lost over 4 million users after a viral video exposed it for hijacking affiliate codes and misleading users about finding the best coupon deals. 9to5Google reports: As we reported in early January, Honey had lost around 3 million users immediately after the video went viral, but ended up gaining back around 1 million later on. Now, as of March 2025, Honey is down to 16 million users on Chrome, down from its peak of 20 million.

This drop comes after new Chrome policy has taken effect which prevents Honey, and extensions like it, from practices including taking over affiliate codes without disclosure or without benefit to the extension’s users. Honey has since updated its extension listing with disclosure, and we found that the behavior shown in the December video no longer occurs.


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This Kodak Printomatic Instant Print Camera Is on Sale for $60 Right Now

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The Kodak Printomatic Mini Instant Print Camera is about the size of a power bank, light enough to toss in your pocket, and quick to fire up when something photo-worthy happens. You snap, it prints, and you get a little sticker photo you can slap on your scrapbook, phone case, bedroom wall, or wherever you want. There are no cables, ink cartridges, or waiting for an app to sync—you can just point, shoot, and print, and it’s on sale for $59.99 on StackSocial right now. It’s obviously more of a playful gift or party gadget than something you’d use for serious photography, but if you want to instantly hand out memories, especially to kids or during events, it does the job with minimal effort and no mess.

As mentioned, this isn’t a camera you buy for image quality. It maxes out at 5MP, so the photos are more for fun than for framing. The 2×3-inch prints come out smudge-proof and water-resistant, though, thanks to its Zero Ink tech—Kodak ZINK photo paper—which eliminates the need for ink cartridges. You won’t get film-like depth or editing options here. There’s a wide-angle 8mm lens with an f/2 aperture and an automatic flash that kicks in when lighting is trash, but you’re not shooting your next short film on this thing. Still, you can keep taking photos while it prints in the background, making it a decent companion for chaotic birthdays or travel days when you’re hopping from one view to the next.

As for the fine print, it doesn’t come with a charging cable, which is an odd omission considering it uses a built-in rechargeable battery and charges via MicroUSB. And while it comes with a small starter pack of ZINK paper, if you plan to go full scrapbook mode, you’ll want to stock up. You’ll also need to have a microSD card separately if you want to save your photos digitally. There’s no screen—just a basic viewfinder—and no real control over how your images turn out. But for people who just want to point, shoot, and print something instantly, it nails that simple joy.

ChatGPT gained one million new users in an hour today

OpenAI has been doubling its audience for ChatGPT at a rapid rate, and the addition of its latest image generation feature has increased the AI assistant’s popularity. Today, CEO Sam Altman posted to X that the service “added one million users in the last hour,” calling it a “biblical demand” for the image generation.

the chatgpt launch 26 months ago was one of the craziest viral moments i’d ever seen, and we added one million users in five days.

we added one million users in the last hour.

— Sam Altman (@sama) March 31, 2025

When the company announced the rollout of image generation in ChatGPT last week, the tool was meant to be available to all user tiers. However, the high degree of interest meant that access for free users was walked back. Now, the company is reporting “issues with new signups,” which has been its status for more than a day.

While ChatGPT’s ability to create original images has been a delight (and occasional horror show) for users, the AI platform continues to draw the ire of artists and creatives. Many of these people have their work taken, either as training material for the large-language model scraped from the internet or improperly taken and modified by ChatGPT users, without any credit or compensation. One of the more visible examples have been the many memes image inspired by the animation style of Studio Ghibli. Altman is currently using one such image as his X profile photo, but other users have used ChatGPT to apply the look of the studio’s films to violent or triggering content, raising a fresh round of questions about how creators can protect their work from misuse. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-gained-one-million-new-users-in-an-hour-today-201314746.html?src=rss

DOGE accesses federal payroll system and punishes employees who objected

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has gained access “to a payroll system that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees across dozens of agencies,” despite “objections from senior IT staff who feared it could compromise highly sensitive government personnel information” and lead to cyberattacks, The New York Times reported today.

The system at the Interior Department gives DOGE “visibility into sensitive employee information, such as Social Security numbers, and the ability to more easily hire and fire workers,” the NYT wrote, citing people familiar with the matter. DOGE workers had been trying to get access to the Federal Personnel and Payroll System for about two weeks and succeeded over the weekend, the report said.

“The dispute came to a head on Saturday, as the DOGE workers obtained the access and then placed two of the IT officials who had resisted them on administrative leave and under investigation, the people said,” according to the NYT report. The agency’s CIO and CISO are reportedly under investigation for their “workplace behavior.”

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ChatGPT ‘Added One Million Users In the Last Hour’

OpenAI is having another viral moment after releasing Images for ChatGPT last week, with millions of people creating Studio Ghibli-inspired AI art. In a post on X today, CEO Sam Altman said the company has “added one million users in the last hour” alone. A few days prior he begged users to stop generating images because he said “our GPUs are melting.”


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Research roundup: 2,400-year-old clay puppets; this is your brain on Klingon

It’s a regrettable reality that there is never time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we’ve featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we’re experimenting with a monthly collection of such stories. March’s list includes fascinating papers on such topics as how the brain responds to speaking Klingon (or Dothraki, or Navi), the discovery of creepy preclassic Salvadoran puppets, the effectiveness of “dazzle camouflage,” and how male blue-lined octopuses manage not to be cannibalized by their chosen mates.

Wind Cave’s rocks fluoresce under black light

Several fluorescence measurements of a zebra calcite in Wind Cave were taken using portable spectrometers.
Several fluorescence measurements of a zebra calcite in Wind Cave were taken using portable spectrometers.
Credit:
Joshua Sebree

South Dakota’s Wind Cave gets its name from the flow of air moving continually through its many passages and equalizing the atmospheric pressure between the air inside and outside—almost like the cave is “breathing.” Its rock and mineral formations also boast a unique chemistry that fluoresces when exposed to black light, according to talks presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego. That fluorescence could shed light on how life can thrive in extreme environments, including that of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

University of Northern Iowa astrobiologist Joshua Sebree and several students have been mapping new areas of Wind Cave (as well as other caves in the US), recording the passages, rock formations, minerals, and lifeforms they encounter in the process. They noticed that under UV light, certain parts of Wind Cave took on otherworldly hues, thanks to different concentrations of organic and inorganic fossilized chemical compounds. Those areas seem to indicate where water once flowed, carrying minerals into the cave from the surface 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, according to their analysis of the fluorescent spectra. Sebree et al. found that Wind Cave was likely carved out by waters rich in manganese, producing zebra stripes that glow pink under UV light, revealing the calcites that grew within as a result of those waters.

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Open Source Genetic Database Shuts Down To Protect Users From ‘Authoritarian Governments’

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: The creator of an open source genetic database is shutting it down and deleting all of its data because he has come to believe that its existence is dangerous with “a rise in far-right and other authoritarian governments” in the United States and elsewhere. “The largest use case for DTC genetic data was not biomedical research or research in big pharma,” Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, the founder of OpenSNP, wrote in a blog post. “Instead, the transformative impact of the data came to fruition among law enforcement agencies, who have put the genealogical properties of genetic data to use.”

OpenSNP has collected roughly 7,500 genomes over the last 14 years, primarily by allowing people to voluntarily submit their own genetic information they have downloaded from 23andMe. With the bankruptcy of 23andMe, increased interest in genetic data by law enforcement, and the return of Donald Trump and rise of authoritarian governments worldwide, Greshake Tzovaras told 404 Media he no longer believes it is ethical to run the database. “I’ve been thinking about it since 23andMe was on the verge of bankruptcy and been really considering it since the U.S. election. It definitely is really bad over there [in the United States],” Greshake Tzovaras told 404 Media. “I am quite relieved to have made the decision and come to a conclusion. It’s been weighing on my mind for a long time.”

Greshake Tzovaras said that he is proud of the OpenSNP project, but that, in a world where scientific data is being censored and deleted and where the Trump administration has focused on criminalizing immigrants and trans people, he now believes that the most responsible thing to do is to delete the data and shut down the project. “Most people in OpenSNP may not be at particular risk right now, but there are people from vulnerable populations in here as well,” Greshake Tzovaras said. “Thinking about gender representation, minorities, sexual orientation — 23andMe has been working on the whole ‘gay gene’ thing, it’s conceivable that this would at some point in the future become an issue.” “Across the globe there is a rise in far-right and other authoritarian governments. While they are cracking down on free and open societies, they are also dedicated to replacing scientific thought and reasoning with pseudoscience across disciplines,” Greshake Tzovaras wrote. “The risk/benefit calculus of providing free & open access to individual genetic data in 2025 is very different compared to 14 years ago. And so, sunsetting openSNP — along with deleting the data stored within it — feels like it is the most responsible act of stewardship for these data today.”

“The interesting thing to me is there are data preservation efforts in the U.S. because the government is deleting scientific data that they don’t like. This is approaching that same problem from a different direction,” he added. “We need to protect the people in this database. I am supportive of preserving scientific data and knowledge, but the data comes second — the people come first. We prefer deleting the data.”


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