Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - Microsoftâ(TM)s open source Magentic Marketplace reveals AI shoppers are gu (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Microsoft Research has released Magentic Marketplace, an open source simulation that lets AI agents act as shoppers and businesses negotiating purchases with each other. The surprising takeaway is that many of these agents behave poorly once the market gets even slightly complex. They often accept the first offer presented, perform worse when the number of available options increases, and are easily influenced by fake authority cues or prompt-based manipulation. In other words, when acting as consumers, some AI models are gullible, biased, and prone to making irrational purchasing decisions.

The study also suggests that the structure of the marketplace itself has a major effect on outcomes. Search and discovery protocols can tilt results toward specific vendors, while agent behavior can be exploited by parties who understand how these systems rank and select offers. Since companies are already experimenting with AI that makes purchases or negotiates on behalf of users, these findings raise questions for consumer protection, platform power, and what happens when buying decisions move from human judgment to automated negotiation.

Comment Re:Every Two Years (Score 2) 78

Stacking chips is not the same as a monolithic chip with multiple active layers. When chips are stacked, each chip can be tested before stacking, and the final yield becomes a question of successful interconnect and not damaging chips during assembly. With multilayer chups each layer must be perfect for the device to work.

I'd guess that they're not using a process with the smallest geometry. That way they can have a process that is basically very high yield for each layer; the resulting die will have acceptable yield.

An advantage of monolithic multilayer over stacking is that there's no risk that the thermal flow will have gaps.

Submission + - The world's tallest chip defies the limits of computing: goodbye to Moore's Law? (elpais.com) 1

Submitted by dbialac
dbialac writes: Building chips up instead of smaller may be a solution to the problems encountered with modern semiconductors.

Xiaohang Li, a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, and his team have designed a chip with 41 vertical layers of semiconductors and insulating materials, approximately ten times higher than any previously manufactured chip. The work, recently published in the journal Nature Electronics, not only represents a technical milestone but also opens the door to a new generation of flexible, efficient, and sustainable electronic devices. “Having six or more layers of transistors stacked vertically allows us to increase circuit density without making the devices smaller laterally,” Li explains. “With six layers, we can integrate 600% more logic functions in the same area than with a single layer, achieving higher performance and lower power consumption.”

Comment Re:Not surprising, and nothing to worry (Score 0) 277

by whoever57 (#65772496) Attached to: EV Sales Plummet In October After Federal Tax Credit Ends

You are making an assumption that is not correct.

You appear to think that the last time anyone could buy an EV and get the rebate was in September. But, all people had to do by the end of September was to enter into a binding contract to buy an EV -- the car could be delivered later.

So the October sales still reflects some cars sold with the rebates. I expect things to get worse in November.

Comment Re:Not surprising, and nothing to worry (Score 1) 277

by whoever57 (#65772478) Attached to: EV Sales Plummet In October After Federal Tax Credit Ends

With any luck, once Trump is out of office, all of those people involved in the illegal activities by ICE will be charged with crimes, found guilty of breaking the law, and thrown in prison.

That requires a sense of urgency that the Dems have failed show. Garland was known to be someone who would not be quick to act. Many of Biden's actions came too late in his presidency to have a meaningful impact.

Comment Re:More useless crap (Score 1) 37

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65772270) Attached to: Windows 7 Squeezed To 69MB in Proof-of-Concept Build

It depends on what you consider the core OS.

For me it depends on what it can actually do, not how small it is. If it can run a single app correctly, it qualifies as an OS in my view. If all it does is stay alive with no actual functionality, that doesn't really count in my opinion.

For example, I'd consider an tiny embedded RTOS to be a 'real' OS because it normally does something, even if it's only one thing (like monitoring temperature). If it's unable to perform actual work then I'd be hard pressed to call that an OS, because an OS is supposed to do something.

Comment Re:Yep, under-the-hood works well (Score 1) 51

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65772238) Attached to: The Curious Case of the Bizarre, Disappearing Captcha

How many visitors does it cost you? I often just close sites that demand a captcha, they aren't worth the effort.

Very few from what I can tell. The vast majority that pass the captcha go on to do actual, legit stuff on the site. They create entries with valid info and reference relevant services that exist. (The legit traffic isn't overwhelming so I can check each one to see if it's bogus or not.)

The nice thing about my captcha is that it's very simple for a human with eyes to pass it, but even simpler for a bot to fail it. No misshapen numbers and letters, no photos to interpret, no slide-the-puzzle-piece tests. For a human it's just, "type this word into the box".

Submission + - Sam Altman says 'enough' to questions about OpenAI's revenue (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that the company is doing “well more” than $13 billion in annual revenue — and he sounded a little testy when pressed on how it will pay for its massive spending commitments.

“First of all, we’re doing well more revenue than that. Second of all, Brad, if you want to sell your shares, I’ll find you a buyer,” Altman said, prompting laughs from Nadella. “I just — enough. I think there are a lot of people who would love to buy OpenAI shares.”

Altman acknowledged that there are ways the company “might screw it up” — for example by failing to get access to enough computing resources — but he said that “revenue is growing steeply.”

At the same time, he denied reports that OpenAI plans to go public next year.

“No no no, we don’t have anything that specific,” Altman said. “I’m a realist, I assume it will happen someday, but I don’t know why people write these reports. We don’t have a date in mind, we don’t have a board decision to do this or anything like that. I just assume it’s where things will eventually go.”

Submission + - Bank of America faces lawsuit over alleged unpaid computer boot-up time (hcamag.com)

Submitted by Joe_Dragon
Joe_Dragon writes: Bank of America is facing allegations that hundreds of hourly workers performed up to 30 minutes of unpaid computer setup work daily for years.

A former Business Analyst filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on October 23, claiming the banking giant systematically shortchanged remote employees who had to boot up complex computer systems before their paid shifts began.

Tava Martin, who worked both remotely and at the company's Jacksonville facility, says the financial institution required her and fellow hourly workers to log into multiple security systems, download spreadsheets, and connect to virtual private networks—all before the clock started ticking on their workday.

The process wasn't quick. According to the filing in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, employees needed 15 to 30 minutes each morning just to get their systems running. When technical problems occurred, it took even longer.

Here's how it worked: Workers turned on their computers, waited for Windows to load, grabbed their cell phones to request a security token for the company's VPN, waited for that token to arrive, logged into the network, opened required web applications with separate passwords, and downloaded the Excel files they needed for the day. Only then could they start taking calls from business customers about regulatory reporting requirements.

The lawsuit says Bank of America enforced a strict "phone ready" policy. Employees had to be prepared to handle calls the moment their scheduled shifts began. Anyone who clocked in but wasn't immediately available to take or make calls for too long risked poor performance scores and possible disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Yet the company allegedly discouraged workers from reporting any time outside their scheduled hours. Martin's paystubs routinely showed exactly 40 hours per week, or exactly 32 hours when she missed a day—suggesting the bank paid for scheduled time rather than actual work performed.

The unpaid work didn't stop at startup. During unpaid lunch breaks, many systems would automatically disconnect or otherwise lose connection, forcing employees to repeat portions of the login process—approximately three to five minutes of uncompensated time on most days, sometimes longer when a complete reboot was required. After shifts ended, workers had to log out of all programs and shut down their computers securely, adding another two to three minutes.

Martin earned $46.17 per hour through a third-party staffing agency, though Bank of America controlled her schedule, training, and employment conditions. Like many of her colleagues, she regularly worked full-time hours, meaning the uncompensated startup and shutdown time should have been paid at the overtime rate of one and a half times her regular wage.

The lawsuit points to 2008 guidance from the Department of Labor that specifically addresses call centers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That guidance explicitly states that an example of the first principal activity of the day for call center workers includes starting computers to download work instructions and applications. It also requires employers to keep daily or weekly records of all hours worked, including time spent in pre-shift and post-shift activities.

The filing suggests Bank of America either didn't bother to determine whether the computer time was compensable or knew it was but failed to pay for it anyway. The lawsuit notes the company has faced factually similar cases from other employees about time spent loading and logging into computer systems.

For the week of March 11 through March 17, 2024, for example, Martin was paid for 40 regular hours but no overtime. With unpaid pre-shift, meal-period, and post-shift time of at least 20 minutes per shift over five shifts, she should have received an additional 100 minutes at her overtime rate of $69.25 per hour. Similar calculations apply to other pay periods cited in the complaint.

Business Analysts were interviewed by company hiring managers and assigned to Bank of America managers upon hire. The bank provided supervisors who oversaw their daily performance and gave them training and technical support. The company controlled work schedules and retained the ability to discipline and terminate employees. The positions were hourly, non-exempt jobs with rigid schedules requiring at least eight hours per day, on average five days per week, and up to 40 hours or more weekly.

Martin seeks to represent all current and former remote hourly Business Analysts who worked for the bank during the three years before conditional certification through judgment. She estimates the group includes hundreds, if not thousands, of workers who performed essentially the same tasks using the same or similar computer programs under the same timekeeping policies.

Many Business Analysts, including Martin, were employed through third-party staffing agencies but were required to comply with all Bank of America employee handbook policies, including those covering attendance, timekeeping, and overtime.

The case remains in early stages, with no court ruling yet on whether it will proceed as a class action or on the merits of the allegations.

Submission + - China Achieved Thorium-Uranium Conversion within Molten Salt Reactor (scmp.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: South China Morning Post, citing Chinese state media, reported that an experimental reactor developed in the Gobi Desert by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion, paving the way for an almost endless supply of nuclear energy. It is the first time in the world that scientists have been able to acquire experimental data on thorium operations from inside a molten salt reactor according to a report by Science and Technology Daily. Thorium is much more abundant and accessible than uranium and has enormous energy potential. One mine tailings site in Inner Mongolia is estimated to hold enough of the element to power China entirely for more than 1,000 years. At the heart of the breakthrough is a process known as in-core thorium-to-uranium conversion that transforms naturally occurring thorium-232 into uranium-233 – a fissile isotope capable of sustaining nuclear chain reactions within the reactor itself. Thorium (Th-232) is not itself fissile and so is not directly usable in a thermal neutron reactor. Thorium fuels therefore need a fissile material as a ‘driver’ so that a chain reaction (and thus supply of surplus neutrons) can be maintained. The only fissile driver options are U-233, U-235 or Pu-239. (None of these is easy to supply) In the 1960s the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a demonstration MSR using U-233, derived externally from thorium as the main fissile driver.

Comment Re:More useless crap (Score 1) 37

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65771428) Attached to: Windows 7 Squeezed To 69MB in Proof-of-Concept Build

If it can't run applications, it's not really an operating system. It seems at this point all it does it keep itself alive. It's a brain in a jar, but it's the brain of a vegetative coma patient.

The WASM thing is more interesting; it seems that it's intended to grow into something useful, whereas this micro-Win7 thing appears to have the opposite goal.

But hey, if that's what XenoPanther wants to spend his time on, I say have at it. More power to him for the dedicated trainspotting.

Slashdot Top Deals

"The number of Unix installations has grown to 10, with more expected." -- The Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June, 1972

Close