During the company’s GTC 2025 keynote today, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang announced Isaac GR00T N1 — the company’s first open-source, pre-trained yet customizable foundation model designed to accelerate the development and capabilities of humanoid robots. “The age of generalist robotics is here,” said Huang. “With Nvidia Isaac GR00T N1 and new data-generation and robot-learning frameworks, robotics developers everywhere will open the next frontier in the age of AI.” The Verge reports: Huang demonstrated 1X’s NEO Gamma humanoid robot performing autonomous tidying jobs using a post-trained policy built on the GR00T N1 model. […] Other companies developing humanoid robots who have had early access to the GR00T N1 model include Boston Dynamics, the creators of Atlas; Agility Robotics; Mentee Robotics; and Neura Robotics. Originally announced as Project GR00T a year ago, the GR00T N1 foundation model utilizes a dual-system architecture inspired by human cognition.

System 1, as Nvidia calls it, is described as a “fast-thinking action model” that behaves similarly to human reflexes and intuition. It was trained on data collected through human demonstrations and synthetic data generated by Nvidia’s Omniverse platform. System 2, which is powered by a vision language model, is a “slow-thinking model” that “reasons about its environment and the instructions it has received to plan actions.” Those plans are passed along to System 1, which translates them into “precise, continuous robot movements” that include grasping, moving objects with one or two arms, as well as more complex multistep tasks that involve combinations of basic skills.

While the GR00T N1 foundation model is pretrained with generalized humanoid reasoning and skills, developers can customize its behavior and capabilities for specific needs by post-training it with data gathered from human demonstrations or simulations. Nvidia has made GR00T N1 training data and task evaluation scenarios available for download through Hugging Face and GitHub.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Italian newspaper Il Foglio claims to have published the world’s first entirely AI-generated edition as part of a month-long experiment to explore AI’s impact on journalism. The special four-page supplement, available in print and online, features AI-written articles, headlines, and reader letters. The only thing the human journalists provided were prompts. The Guardian reports: The front page of the first edition of Il Foglio AI carries a story referring to the US president, Donald Trump, describing the “paradox of Italian Trumpians” and how they rail against “cancel culture” yet either turn a blind eye, or worse, “celebrate” when “their idol in the US behaves like the despot of a banana republic.” The front page also features a column headlined “Putin, the 10 betrayals,” with the article highlighting “20 years of broken promises, torn-up agreements and words betrayed” by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

In a rare upbeat story about the Italian economy, another article points to the latest report from Istat, the national statistics agency, on the redistribution of income, which shows the country “is changing, and not for the worse” with salary increases for about 750,000 workers being among the positive effects of income tax reforms. On page 2 is a story about “situationships” and how young Europeans are fleeing steady relationships. The articles were structured, straightforward and clear, with no obvious grammatical errors. However, none of the articles published in the news pages directly quote any human beings.

The final page runs AI-generated letters from readers to the editor, with one asking whether AI will render humans “useless” in the future. “AI is a great innovation, but it doesn’t yet know how to order a coffee without getting the sugar wrong,” reads the AI-generated response.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Trend Micro uncovered an eight-year-long spying campaign exploiting a Windows vulnerability involving malicious .LNK shortcut files, which attackers padded with whitespace to conceal commands. Despite being reported to Microsoft in 2023, the company considers it a UI issue rather than a security risk and has not prioritized a fix. The Register reports: The attack method is low-tech but effective, relying on malicious .LNK shortcut files rigged with commands to download malware. While appearing to point to legitimate files or executables, these shortcuts quietly include extra instructions to fetch or unpack and attempt to run malicious payloads. Ordinarily, the shortcut’s target and command-line arguments would be clearly visible in Windows, making suspicious commands easy to spot. But Trend’s Zero Day Initiative said it observed North Korea-backed crews padding out the command-line arguments with megabytes of whitespace, burying the actual commands deep out of sight in the user interface.

Trend reported this to Microsoft in September last year and estimates that it has been used since 2017. It said it had found nearly 1,000 tampered .LNK files in circulation but estimates the actual number of attacks could have been higher. “This is one of many bugs that the attackers are using, but this is one that is not patched and that’s why we reported it as a zero day,” Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness at the Zero Day Initiative, told The Register. “We told Microsoft but they consider it a UI issue, not a security issue. So it doesn’t meet their bar for servicing as a security update, but it might be fixed in a later OS version, or something along those lines.”

After poring over malicious .LNK samples, the security shop said it found the vast majority of these files were from state-sponsored attackers (around 70 percent), used for espionage or information theft, with another 20 percent going after financial gain. Among the state-sponsored crews, 46 percent of attacks came from North Korea, while Russia, Iran, and China each accounted for around 18 percent of the activity.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to Politico, Gov. Gavin Newsom has distributed prepaid burner phones to around 100 California business leaders, giving them direct access to him and reinforcing his pro-business stance. “If you ever need anything, I’m a phone call away,” read one of the notes. From the report: It was Newsom’s idea, a representative said, and has already yielded some “valuable interactions.” That arrangement surprised some people POLITICO spoke with, largely because Newsom is already known as an inveterate texter whose digits live in many business titans’ contacts. He’s also long been seen as more aligned with business interests than the Legislature, the proverbial adult in the room when private pillars like Silicon Valley need a sympathetic ear or a veto. But Newsom wanted to convey that he’s intent on maintaining California’s competitive edge. Phones are still going out.

The California Protocol Foundation picked up the tab. That organization gets money from businesses and nonprofits for gubernatorial expenses like trips abroad — or, evidently, burner phones — so taxpayers aren’t on the hook. It also drew leftover funds from Newsom’s inauguration account, which itself drew business, so in a roundabout way California’s private sector helped fund phones nurturing ties with the private sector.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HyperX just introduced a new wireless headset that can keep rocking for up to 200 hours on a single charge. That’s over a week of constant music. The Cloud III S is a followup to 2023’s original wireless headset, but brings Bluetooth audio into the mix. The robust battery allows for the aforementioned 200 hours of listening when using Bluetooth.

That metric drops to around 120 hours when streaming audio via a 2.4GHz wireless connection. Just like the original, the headphones ship with a USB dongle for 2.4GHz. However, it can connect without a dongle when using certain newer HP Omen gaming laptops.

HyperX

A long-lasting battery isn’t the only innovation the Cloud III S brings to the table. It’s also fully customizable, via magnetic ear plates. These are 3D-printed on demand, which is something HyperX has been experimenting with for a while. Users can create and buy these customized 3D-printed ear plates directly from HyperX, but only in select countries.

There’s also a removable boom mic for traveling, but that won’t impede the ability to take calls or trash talk other gamers. The headphones feature a backup omni-directional mic, which is a nice touch.

The HyperX Cloud III S is expected to hit store shelves in May, but pricing hasn’t been solidified yet. For reference, the original Cloud III launched for $170. The new headset will be available in an all-back or black and red.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/hyperxs-new-cloud-iii-s-wireless-headset-streams-bluetooth-audio-for-200-hours-on-a-single-charge-184838572.html?src=rss

Sarah Wynn-Williams joined Facebook in 2011 when it was very much in its “move fast and break things” era. A former United Nations diplomat, she had aspirations of helping Facebook boost its standing on the global stage.

Over nearly seven years at the company, she had a front-row seat to some of Facebook’s most consequential (and controversial) moments. Last week, she published Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, a memoir about her time at the company and how she slowly became disillusioned about Facebook’s role in the world.

Since it was announced, Meta has thrown the full weight of its PR machine against the book. The company initiated arbitration proceedings, which resulted in a ruling that now prevents Wynn-Williams from promoting her own book. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the arbitrator’s decision “affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published.” He said that “urgent legal action was made necessary by Williams, who more than eight years after being terminated by the company, deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to shelves after waiting for eight years.”

Her publisher, Flatiron Books, said in a statement it was “appalled” by Meta’s actions, noting that “the arbitrator’s order makes no reference to the claims” in the book, which “went through a thorough editing and vetting process.”

After reading the book, it’s easy to see why Meta PR has made such a fuss. Wynn-Williams worked closely with the company’s top executives, traveling around the world with Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg as they met with foreign leaders and shaped the policies that would define Facebook. She also delivers many firsthand accounts of what Zuckerberg, Sandberg and current Chief of Global Affairs Joel Kaplan did and said behind closed doors. Much of it isn’t pretty.

Here are some of her most shocking claims:

Zuckerberg requested to be “gently mobbed” during a visit to Asia

Wynn-Williams was often tasked with organizing the meetings various Facebook executives took with heads of state and other government officials. One of the more bizarre details is Zuckerberg’s request ahead of a three-week long trip to Asia. According to Wynn-Williams, Zuckerberg requested that she arrange either a “peace rally” or a “riot” during his visit. Facebook’s CEO never explains the request, but Wynn-Williams speculates he wanted “to test out how effective his product is in turning Facebook’s online tools into offline power.”

At first, I think he’s joking. Peace rallies are not my area of expertise, and-to be frank-I’ve never been asked to organize a riot before. Especially one for a tech CEO. I assume something has been lost in his communication-that it’s some sort of mix-up. “Riot” and “peace rally” are such completely different things. Then Debbie emails to say that she ran into Mark and he told her that he wants a peace rally or a riot and we need to come up with some ideas that will enable him to be surrounded by people or be “gently mobbed.”

Zuckerberg refused to take meetings before noon, even with heads of state

Zuckerberg apparently had a “strict” policy about not taking any meetings before noon. This policy applied not only to internal meetings with others at Facebook, but heads of state. Wynn-Williams recounts how Zuckerberg’s “refusal” to take morning meetings almost derailed a planned meeting with the president of Colombia. That same year, she said she was forced to reschedule Zuckerberg’s address at the UN to a later time slot because, according to Wynn-Williams, “the United Nations isn’t important enough for Mark to do an event before noon.”

Meta built Zuckerberg a special room to protect him from Zika

Facebook took “extreme measures” to protect Zuckerberg from Zika during a visit to Peru for the APEC conference. To protect the CEO, who was apparently hoping to soon conceive his second child, the company opted “to build a ‘controlled structure’ on the site of the APEC conference center where ventilation, exposure to others, and bug mitigation can be overseen by Facebook.” Wynn-Williams dubbed it “operation perfect sperm.”

Zuckerberg’s “desperate” attempts to talk to Xi Jinping

Wynn-Williams spends a lot of time delving into Facebook’s plans to bring the social network to China. She also details Zuckerberg’s attempts to get face time with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In 2015, Zuckerberg flew to Seattle for a “longer than normal” handshake with Xi (who was in the city for a tech summit Zuckerberg was not invited to). He later caused a “diplomatic crisis” when he posted a photo of that handshake, which only shows the back of Xi’s head.

The following year, Zuckerberg and his team hoped to surreptitiously get the CEO in front of Xi at APEC in Peru. Facebook arranged for Zuckerberg to give a speech directly before an appearance by Xi, which meant the two men would be in adjacent dressing rooms. The goal, according to Wynn-Williams, was to engineer a “spontaneous encounter” during which Zuckerberg could make his pitch to get Facebook into China.

But when Xi arrived, he was flanked by “dozens and dozens” of men in military uniforms who created a barrier such that, according to Wynn-Williams, Xi didn’t even have to “risk making eye contact with Mark.” She says that Zuckerberg was “hurt” by the demonstration.

Sheryl Sandberg wanted Facebook to promote organ donation

Not long after starting at Facebook, Wynn-Williams says she was told that “Facebook’s first proactive initiative to build relationships with governments around the world will be organ donation.” The idea was apparently Sandberg’s, who ran into a former Harvard friend and transplant surgeon and “offered to help him source donors.”

But when Wynn-Williams brought up the logistical and legal issues that generally make it difficult to transport organs between countries, she says Sandberg was “indignant.”

“Do you mean to tell me that if my four-year-old was dying and the only thing that would save her was a new kidney, that I couldn’t fly to Mexico and get one and put it in my handbag?”

Facebook would later add organ donation to the “life events” users could add to their profiles.

Sheryl Sandberg and the plane crash that wasn’t

In 2013, an Asiana flight from Seoul to San Francisco crash-landed on a runway, killing two people and injuring more than 100 passengers. Sandberg, who was promoting her book Lean In at the time, was also traveling from Seoul to San Francisco that day. Following the crash, she posted on Facebook that she and several Facebook colleagues were originally meant to be on that flight but had “switched to United so we could use miles for my family’s tickets.”

Sandberg’s supposed near-miss generated multiple headlines, which isn’t surprising, as Wynn-Williams claims Sandberg was personally briefing reporters about the incident. Wynn-Williams was baffled by these reports. She writes that the Facebook COO “always flies United” and “never considered Asiana.” In her recollection, she and another colleague remarked to each other how “weird” it was for Sandberg to do this.

Why Zuckerberg and Sandberg’s Facebook posts get so much engagement

Wynn-Williams heavily implies that there may be some behind-the-scenes manipulation of Zuckerberg and Sandberg’s Facebook posts. She doesn’t offer any proof that this has happened, but says that a meeting attended by “someone from Mark’s personal communications team” raises the possibility.

According to Wynn-Williams, “Sheryl’s assistant describes his job as managing ‘engagement for Mark and Sheryl’s social media using all of Facebook’s tools.’” When Wynn-Williams asks directly if they are “gaming” the site’s algorithm, she says the assistant replies that “you don’t want to know.”

Joel Kaplan needed a geography lesson

Some of the most telling anecdotes in Careless People involve Kaplan, who joined Facebook’s policy team in 2011 and was promoted to Chief Global Affairs Officer earlier this year. She writes that Kaplan, who was a deputy chief of staff in the George W. Bush White House, was “surprised to learn Taiwan is an island” and that “often when we start to talk about pressing issues in some country in Latin America or Asia, he stops and asks me to explain where the country is.”

Kaplan slow-rolled Facebook’s response to problems in Myanmar

By now, Meta’s failures in Myanmar, where hate speech and misinformation on Facebook helped incite a genocide, are well documented. Wynn-Williams, who early in her tenure flew to Myanmar to try to sell officials there on the company’s connectivity projects, describes her futile attempts to get more resources for content moderation in the country.

She blames Kaplan in particular. She says she “started this long process of trying to hire someone for Myanmar in 2015” and found a human rights expert who fit the bill in May 2016, but Kaplan blocked her from making the hire in February of 2017. He allegedly told her to “move on and get over it.” She later concludes that “when it came to Myanmar, those people just didn’t matter to him.”

(Meta had broadly labeled Wynn-Williams’ claims about Facebook’s actions in Myanmar as “old news,” saying in a statement that “the facts here have been public record since 2018, and we have said publicly we know we were too slow to act on abuse on our services in Myanmar.”)

Kaplan’s alleged harassment

Wynn-Williams also accuses Kaplan of harassment and other inappropriate behavior. After complications while giving birth left her in a literal coma, she writes that Kaplan asked her over one of their “regular” calls during her maternity leave “where are you bleeding from” and got angry when she didn’t answer. Later, when she returned to work, he gave her an unofficial performance review on her first day back, saying that she wasn’t “responsive enough.”

Wynn-Williams eventually reports Kaplan’s behavior and an investigation is opened, but that “very quickly it seems to switch from an investigation of Joel, or the facts, to an investigation of me.” She’s fired at her next performance review.

Meta has disputed Wynn-Williams’ allegations. “This book is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Eight years ago, Sarah Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and toxic behavior, and an investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.”

Update, March 18, 2025, 1:57 PM PT: Wynn-Williams describes her tenure at Facebook as lasting seven years, beginning in 2011. But, according to a Meta spokesperson, she was fired in “late 2017.” This story has been updated to reflect that she worked at Facebook for “nearly” seven years.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-wildest-details-in-the-facebook-memoir-meta-is-trying-to-bury-183310491.html?src=rss

The brackets are set and the teams are en route to their respective arenas. The 2025 NCAA Tournaments, affectionately known to many as March Madness, begin this week. The men’s tournament begins first on March 18 with the women’s version tipping off on March 19. Both will begin with First Four or “play-in” games (depending on who you ask) before providing action on the court through the first weekend in April. Different broadcasters own the rights to each tournament, so streaming them both can be confusing. I’ve broken down the best, most affordable way to access each one so that you’ll be ready when the games begin.

When does March Madness start?

The men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament begins on Tuesday, March 18 with two of the so-called First Four matchups. These are the four games that are used to determine the final four teams in the main 64-team bracket. To some, they’re known as the “play-in games” although they’ve officially been part of the men’s tournament since 2011. The first game on March 18 begins at 6:40PM ET with another to follow at 9:10PM ET. The same schedule is expected for the second slate of games on Wednesday, March 19.

On the women’s side, March Madness is offset from the men’s tournament by a day. The first two of the First Four games are Wednesday, March 19 at 7PM ET and 9PM ET. The second pair of matchups follows on Thursday, March 20 in the same two time slots.

The 64-team bracket kicks off in earnest for the men at 12:15PM ET on Thursday, March 20. For the women, the main action begins at 11:30AM ET on Friday, March 21st. Here’s the full schedule for each tournament:

2025 Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

• First Four: March 18-19

• First round: March 20-21

• Second round: March 22-23

• Sweet 16: March 27-28

• Elite Eight: March 29-30

• Final Four: April 5

• Championship game: April 7

2025 Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament

• First Four: March 19-20

• First round: March 21-22

• Second round: March 23-24

• Sweet 16: March 28-29

• Elite Eight: March 30-31

• Final Four: April 4

• Championship game: April 6

How to stream the 2025 Men’s NCAA Tournament

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery share the broadcast rights to the men’s tournament, and as they have in years past, TV coverage will be spread across four networks. During the course of March Madness, games will air on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV, with the final rounds and championship game landing on CBS.

If you already have a paid TV plan (such as traditional cable), the best way to watch the men’s tournament is with the March Madness Live app or website. Once you log in with your TV provider credentials, you can watch every game in one spot with features like multiview (up to four games at once) and “excitement alerts” that let you know when there’s a close game. The app also offers ways to follow your bracket, if you filled it out on MarchMadness.com. And when you’re watching on desktop, the crucial Boss Button will throw up a fake work screen when you need it. March Madness Live is also available on Amazon, Fire TV, Apple TV, iOS, macOS, Google Play, LG smart TVs, Roku and Xbox devices.

If you don’t have a compatible TV provider already, your best option is to actually use two services. It’s not ideal, I know, but it will save you a lot of money. Max’s Standard plan is $17/month and gives you access to live games from TNT, TBS and truTV. While you can watch NCAA Tournament games with the Basic with Ads tier, B/R Sports, which powers all of the live coverage on Max, will only be available on Standard and Premium levels starting March 30. Yes, Warner Bros. Discovery set its policy to change in the middle of the tournament to make more money. For the CBS games, you’ll need a Paramount+ with Showtime subscription that costs $13/month. So, in total, your best option to stream all of the men’s tournament is $30 spread across two apps. 

A live TV service like YouTube TV or Hulu plus Live TV is over $50 more per month at full price, but they would offer you “one-stop shopping” for all the games in the men’s tournament. YouTube TV is currently on sale for $70/month for the first six months you use it. 

How to stream the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament

ASSOCIATED PRESS

While Warner Brothers Discovery owns the rights to the men’s NCAA Tournament, ESPN has the women’s bracket locked down. Every game of the women’s tournament will be spread across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS, including the First Four matchups. The Final Four will be on ESPN, but the championship game will air on ABC. All three of those culminating games will stream on ESPN+.

Since ESPN+ won’t get every game, it’s not an option if you want to watch the entire tournament. You will be able to watch “select matchups” on both ESPN+ and Disney+, but ESPN hasn’t announced what those will be. So, unfortunately, your best bet is a live-TV streaming service like Sling, YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV for a comprehensive experience. Sling is the cheapest avenue here, with the requisite Orange and Sports Extra plans costing $34 (Sling is currently offering a discount on the first month of Orange). YouTube and Hulu live TV options are both the same price at $83/month (YouTube TV currently discounted to $70 for the first six months), so it’s a matter of which set of content and features you like best. YouTube TV offers a handy multiview tool so you can watch up to four games at once, but Hulu + Live TV comes with Disney+ and ESPN+ (both with ads) for that cost. (Opting for Hulu + Live TV only saves you one whole dollar per month if you don’t include the Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu bundling.)

If you’re a more casual fan who can afford to roll the dice on the “select” options on ESPN+, you can save some money. That service only costs $12/month. And if you already have a TV plan that includes the ESPN family of networks, the ESPN app is the best place to watch the tournament. The mix of scores and info, along with multiview streaming for up to four games at a time on Apple TV and Xbox, make the app a well-equipped conduit for the women’s tournament.

The March Madness website only shows scores and news for the women’s tournament. There are no live games available on the website.

What if I want to stream both the men’s and women’s tournaments?

ASSOCIATED PRESS

If you’re hoping to stream all of both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, I hope you ordered Samsung’s eight-TV bundle. In terms of streaming services, just jump straight to a live-TV option like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV. I prefer the former because of its multiview feature – a tool that Hulu doesn’t offer. At times when there are multiple games that you want to watch, especially during the first two rounds, you’ll want multiview in order to keep tabs on all of the action.

Are any of the March Madness games available to stream for free?

You can watch all of the games broadcast on CBS on the March Madness website and mobile apps without a TV provider. Sure, it’s a small sample of the tournament, but it’s completely free and a good option for casual fans who don’t have a paid TV plan they can exploit for more of the action. It’s also a good option for watching the first round at work, if your company hasn’t blocked streaming sites, or if you can discreetly watch on your phone.

For the women’s tournament, there aren’t any games available for free. Unless you have an old-school OTA antenna, in which case you can watch men’s games on CBS and women’s games on ABC without any kind of streaming plan. Of course, this is a streaming guide so I’d consider an antenna an extraordinary move in 2025.

If you were hoping to use a free trial period to watch March Madness, I’ve got bad news. None of them will be long enough to watch an entire tournament. Some of them don’t offer them at all, but the longest is YouTube TV at 10 days which wouldn’t get you through the second weekend.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-stream-every-march-madness-2025-game-181552865.html?src=rss