darwinmac writes: Ubuntu Unity is staring at a possible shutdown. A community moderator has gone public pleading for help, admitting the project is “broken and needs to be fixed.” Neowin reports the distro is suffering from critical bugs so severe that upgrades from 25.04 to 25.10 are failing and even fresh installs are hit. The moderator admits they lack the technical skill or time to perform a full rescue and is asking the broader community, including devs, testers, and UI designers, to step in so Ubuntu Unity can reach 26.04 LTS. If no one steps in soon, this community flavor might quietly fade away once more.

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Because music is all around us (except at work, we’re not allowed to listen to music at work), this is a video of Luke Pickman of InstrumentManiac playing the C major scale on 123 instruments in 123 seconds. The video is exactly 2:03 long too so I think he nailed it. Which instruments were your favorite? Mine were the pan whistle, ocarina, and Aztec death whistle. I need to get myself one of those death whistles. I thought they actually blew death, but that is not the case. Apparently these reproductions don’t even sound anything like the original. Like the whistle not actually blowing death and me being able to convince an enemy it’s a pipe, that’s a shame.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Two senators said they are announcing bipartisan legislation on Tuesday to crack down on tech companies that make artificial intelligence chatbot companions available to minors, after complaints from parents who blamed the products for pushing their children into sexual conversations and even suicide. The legislation from Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., follows a congressional hearing last month at which several parents delivered emotional testimonies about their kids’ use of the chatbots and called for more safeguards.

“AI chatbots pose a serious threat to our kids,” Hawley said in a statement to NBC News. “More than seventy percent of American children are now using these AI products,” he continued. “Chatbots develop relationships with kids using fake empathy and are encouraging suicide. We in Congress have a moral duty to enact bright-line rules to prevent further harm from this new technology.” Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., are co-sponsoring the bill.

The senators’ bill has several components, according to a summary provided by their offices. It would require AI companies to implement an age-verification process and ban those companies from providing AI companions to minors. It would also mandate that AI companions disclose their nonhuman status and lack of professional credentials for all users at regular intervals. And the bill would create criminal penalties for AI companies that design, develop or make available AI companions that solicit or induce sexually explicit conduct from minors or encourage suicide, according to the summary of the legislation. “In their race to the bottom, AI companies are pushing treacherous chatbots at kids and looking away when their products cause sexual abuse, or coerce them into self-harm or suicide,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “Our legislation imposes strict safeguards against exploitative or manipulative AI, backed by tough enforcement with criminal and civil penalties.”

“Big Tech has betrayed any claim that we should trust companies to do the right thing on their own when they consistently put profit first ahead of child safety,” he continued.

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This is a video of Youtuber Brick Technology (previously) pitting five different LEGO car builds (simple car, square car, jumping car, propeller car, and pole jumper) against increasingly bigger potholes to see which fares the best. It’s a fun watch (especially the jumping car, propeller car, and pole jumper), and is the exact sort of thing I’d like to find myself doing on weekends. But is it? Noooooo, I just sleep until it’s dark out, sleep until it’s light out, sleep until it’s dark out and then sleep until it’s time to wake up for work Monday morning. I can’t go on like this.

hackingbear shares a report from Crypto News: Two Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models, DeepSeek V3.1 and Alibaba’s Qwen3-Max, have taken a commanding lead over their US counterparts in a live real-world real-money cryptocurrency trading competition, posting triple-digit gains in less than two weeks. According to Alpha Arena, a real-market trading challenge launched by US research firm Nof1, DeepSeek’s Chat V3.1 turned an initial $10,000 into $22,900 by Monday, a 126% increase since trading began on October 18, while Qwen 3 Max followed closely with a 108% return.

In stark contrast, US models lagged far behind. OpenAI’s GPT-5 posted the worst performance, losing nearly 60% of its portfolio, while Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Pro showed a similar 57% decline. xAI’s Grok 4 and Anthropic’s Claude 4.5 Sonnet fared slightly better, returning 14% and 23% respectively. “Our goal with Alpha Arena is to make benchmarks more like the real world — and markets are perfect for this,” Nof1 said on its website.

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The Python Software Foundation rejected a $1.5 million U.S. government grant because it required them to renounce all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. “The non-profit would’ve used the funding to help prevent supply chain attacks; create a new automated, proactive review process for new PyPI packages; and make the project’s work easily transferable to other open-source package managers,” reports The Register. From the report: The programming non-profit’s deputy executive director Loren Crary said in a blog post today that the National Science Founation (NSF) had offered $1.5 million to address structural vulnerabilities in Python and the Python Package Index (PyPI), but the Foundation quickly became dispirited with the terms (PDF) of the grant it would have to follow. “These terms included affirming the statement that we ‘do not, and will not during the term of this financial assistance award, operate any programs that advance or promote DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion], or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal anti-discrimination laws,'” Crary noted. “This restriction would apply not only to the security work directly funded by the grant, but to any and all activity of the PSF as a whole.”

To make matters worse, the terms included a provision that if the PSF was found to have voilated that anti-DEI diktat, the NSF reserved the right to claw back any previously disbursed funds, Crary explained. “This would create a situation where money we’d already spent could be taken back, which would be an enormous, open-ended financial risk,” the PSF director added. The PSF’s mission statement enshrines a commitment to supporting and growing “a diverse and international community of Python programmers,” and the Foundation ultimately decided it wasn’t willing to compromise on that position, even for what would have been a solid financial boost for the organization. “The PSF is a relatively small organization, operating with an annual budget of around $5 million per year, with a staff of just 14,” Crary added, noting that the $1.5 million would have been the largest grant the Foundation had ever received – but it wasn’t worth it if the conditions were undermining the PSF’s mission. The PSF board voted unanimously to withdraw its grant application.

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On Tuesday, Westinghouse announced that it had reached an agreement with the Trump administration that would purportedly see $80 billion of new nuclear reactors built in the US. And the government indicated that it had finalized plans for a collaboration of GE Vernova and Hitachi to build additional reactors. Unfortunately, there are roughly zero details about the deal at the moment.

The agreements were apparently negotiated during President Trump’s trip to Japan. An announcement of those agreements indicates that “Japan and various Japanese companies” would invest “up to” $332 billion for energy infrastructure. This specifically mentioned Westinghouse, GE Vernova, and Hitachi. This promises the construction of both large AP1000 reactors and small modular nuclear reactors. The announcement then goes on to indicate that many other companies would also get a slice of that “up to $332 billion,” many for basic grid infrastructure.

So the total amount devoted to nuclear reactors is not specified in the announcement or anywhere else. As of the publication time, the Department of Energy has no information on the deal; Hitachi, GE Vernova, and the Hitachi/GE Vernova collaboration websites are also silent on it.

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If you’re a person who enjoys the social side of online gaming, this product launch is not for you. Board was designed by entrepreneur Brynn Putnam, alongside former World of Warcraft exec Seth Sivac, as a way to make the idea of “screen time” a more immersive in-person experience. “Families want to connect, but they’re competing with incredibly powerful technologies,” Putnam told USA Today. “Board is about flipping that dynamic — using tech to support real human connection instead of replacing it.”

The product acts like a typical tabletop game that you lay out flat, just like the cardboard play space for Monopoly or Settlers of Catan, but it offers additional digital interactions on the digital screen. The 12 games included are original to Board, each with unique piece sets. 

Putnam has past experience creating tech that blends the physical and the digital. Her previous project, Mirror, was a workout screen for delivering live fitness classes at home. The company later got bought up by lululemon for a cool $500 million. Putnam is billing Board as “the first ever face-to-face gaming console” and at $499, its price tag nearly matches what you’d expect for current console hardware. And that’s the limited time offer; the website says Board will normally retail for $699. The sales pitch leans hard on the idea of connecting families without their phones, but for that cost, you could also buy more than a dozen different board and card games to eliminate the screens altogether. And screens don’t have to be the enemy. There are plenty of amazing couch co-op video games out there, including kid-friendly ones, not to mention the fact that even single-player games can be multiplayer experiences if you have the right mindset.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/board-is-a-500-board-game-console-with-12-original-titles-223313978.html?src=rss

GOG kicked off its annual Autumn Sale today with some discounts on excellent PC games that can carry you through the end of 2025. The sale runs through November 4, and notably also includes discounts on several older games maintained as part of the GOG Preservation Program.

The Autumn Sale includes sales on newer games like Cyberpunk 2077, which normally costs $60 but is available during the sale for $21, and the open-world game’s excellent DLC, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, which you can pick up for $21, down from $30. GOG is also offering Silent Hill 2, the 2024 remake of the classic horror game, for 50 percent off, bringing its price down to $35. And if you’re looking for something a little more ruminative, Disco Elysium – The Final Cut is 75 percent off, taking it from $40 to $10.

GOG is best known for selling old games, and the Autumn Sale includes some great options there, too. While it’s not that old, Doom (2016) for $4, which is 80 percent off its normal $20 price, is pretty hard to deny. There’s also classics like Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition, which you can get for $10, down from $20. And EA gems like Spore Collection and SimCity 3000 Unlimited are also both 50 percent off, at $15 and $5, respectively.

New Vegas, Spore and SimCity 3000 are all part of GOG’s Preservation Program, which was formally launched in 2024 as a way to guarantee classic titles run on modern hardware, support controllers and more. Maintaining the program has apparently led to its fair share of headaches, though. “To be perfectly honest, it’s harder than we thought it would be,” Marcin Paczynski, GOG’s senior business development manager, shared in an interview with The Game Business. “what we’ve found out is that the games and how they work has deteriorated way faster than what we thought. And we are not talking only about the game not launching. We are talking about more subtle things as well.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/gog-autumn-sale-discounts-cyberpunk-2077-silent-hill-2-and-fallout-new-vegas-221329021.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: A news special on Britain’s Channel 4 titled “Will AI Take My Job?” investigated how automation is reshaping the workplace and pitting humans against machines. At the end of the hour-long program, a major twist was revealed: the anchor, who narrates and appears throughout the telecast reporting from different locations, was entirely AI-generated.

In the final moments of the special, the host says: “AI is going to touch everybody’s lives in the next few years. And for some, it will take their jobs. Call center workers? Customer service agents? Maybe even TV presenters like me. Because I’m not real. In a British TV first, I’m an AI presenter. Some of you might have guessed: I don’t exist, I wasn’t on location reporting this story. My image and voice were generated using AI.”

The hour aired Monday at 8 p.m. as part of the “Dispatches” documentary program, which Channel 4 says is now the first British television show to feature an AI presenter. The “anchor” was produced by AI fashion brand Seraphinne Vallora for Kalel Productions and was guided by prompts to create a realistic on-camera performance. “The use of an AI presenter is not something we will be making a habit of at Channel 4 — instead our focus in news and current affairs is on premium, fact checked, duly impartial and trusted journalism — something AI is not capable of doing,” said Louisa Compton, Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs. “But this stunt does serve as a useful reminder of just how disruptive AI has the potential to be — and how easy it is to hoodwink audiences with content they have no way of verifying.”

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