Submission + - WHO IS TIBO? THE OPENAI ROCKSTAR BLESSING CODEX USERS WITH USAGE RESETS (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: An OpenAI product leader has somehow become a rockstar among Codex users. Thibault Tibo Sottiaux has more than 500,000 followers, and his repeated usage resets have become such a big part of Codex culture that some developers actually plan their AI usage around his promises.

I am one of them. I have notifications turned on for his posts, and his resets have helped me keep building with Codex while staying on ChatGPT Plus instead of paying for Pro. Here is how the guy with the reset button became one of the most recognizable faces in the Codex community.

Submission + - Synthetic everything is warping America (axios.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: A shadowy polling firm confessed this week to faking survey results in two marquee races â" then claimed the entire operation was a "short-term social experiment" on misinformation.

Why it matters: An AI-enabled flood of synthetic and outright fabricated content is wreaking havoc on reality, poisoning the signals people rely on to understand politics, business and culture.

Submission + - Iran-linked hackers behind cyber attack that shut down UK power plant (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Alain Williams
Alain Williams writes: The government said that at no point was there a risk to the UK's energy system, but the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has contacted power companies to advise them about the risk of cyber attacks.

The Telegraph reported, external that the attack, which took place last month, was carried out by hackers affiliated to the Iranian regime.

For security reasons, neither the government nor the National Cyber Security Centre, which deals with attacks on critical infrastructure, would give further details of the site affected. However this was not an attack on an essential service such as a large power station.

Submission + - ByteDance Resolve Children's Privacy Litigation

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Justice Department Secures $400M Settlement with TikTok and ByteDance to Resolve Children’s Privacy Litigation

“Today, the Department of Justice announced a $400 million settlement with TikTok, ByteDance, and affiliated entities (TikTok) resolving litigation concerning compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and its implementing regulations (COPPA).

Under the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly. The settlement represents one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a COPPA case.”

Submission + - Vote by Mail? Only for "the Right people" ... (thehill.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced Friday new eligibility guidelines for mail-in ballots, complying with President Trump's March executive order restricting the practice — despite a federal court later striking it down.

USPS's 95-page unpublished report, slated for an official release on Aug. 26, detailed how it would distribute mail-in ballots for November's midterms. The requirements closely resemble Trump's blocked mandate, which ordered states to submit a list of eligible, voting citizens if they want their voters to received mail-in ballots.

The service's new policy, echoing Trump's order, gives states 60 days before the Nov. 3 midterms to notify USPS if they intend to submit a list of eligible voters based on citizenship data. Only then will USPS send mail-in or absentee ballots to the states' respective residents.

In June, Postmaster General David Steiner affirmed his intention to comply with the president's directive, telling senators in June that the policy will ensure "the right ballots are going to the right people."

Two months later, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani moved to block the order's enforcement nationwide, arguing its implementation would create unnecessary "confusion" and "chaos" ahead of November's midterms.

"That it is now less than 90 days before the November 3, 2026 midterm elections underscores the critical need for an injunction to prevent Defendants from changing election rules on the eve of the election," Talwani wrote in her ruling.

In response to the judge's ruling, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told The Hill the administration "will continue lawfully enacting the agenda President Trump was elected to enact — which includes the safety and security of American elections."

Trump has been a critic of mail-in ballots, frequently reiterating unproven claims that the voting method has been a vehicle for wide-spread voter fraud.

In late June, the president slammed a Supreme Court decision that affirmed mail-in ballots may count if they are postmarked by Election Day but arrive afterward. The president called it a "tremendous loss in the Supreme Court."

Nearly a third of ballots cast in the 2024 general election were submitted by mail, according to a June U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) report. The ballots accounted for 30.3 percent of votes cast that year, well above pre-pandemic levels.

Submission + - DHH gets $8 million from tech heavyweights to take desktop Linux mainstream (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: DHH has launched the Omacom Foundation with $8 million from Michael Dell, Jack Dorsey, Tobi Lutke, Patrick Collison, Matthew Prince, Brendan Iribe, Jason Fried, and DHH himself. The nonprofit is meant to support Omarchy, fund infrastructure, hold trademarks, promote the project, and back the open source software it depends on.

The foundation is already putting money to work by becoming the exclusive sponsor of Hyprland creator Vaxry under a three year deal with an option for two more years. Omarchy is an Arch Linux based operating system built around Hyprland and Quickshell, with a keyboard driven workflow aimed heavily at developers and power users.

Submission + - Chinese robot runs 100m sprint quicker than Usain Bolt's world record (theguardian.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: A robot named Lightning has run the 100m in 9.32 seconds, beating the human world record, China’s state broadcaster has reported.

The humanoid, developed by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor, reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during a test event for the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which began on Saturday. The performance surpassed the 9.58sec men’s 100m world record set by Usain Bolt 17 years ago at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

Submission + - OpenAI and Google Move Into K-12 Classrooms with New Kid-Friendly AI Offerings

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "OpenAI announced on Tuesday 'ChatGPT for Teens'", the NY Times reports, "a new mode in which the chatbot automatically limits some conversations to better protect young users, as scrutiny grows over the harmful effects of artificial intelligence." OpenAI added that it's also teaming with tech-backed nonprofit CodeAI to 'prepare the first AI generation', announcing a 'signature partnership' that it says will "give students and educators access to tools and resources that will help them learn how to use and benefit from AI [...] helping teens understand how AI works, direct it, question it, and create with it—with teachers playing a meaningful role in shaping how AI enters the classroom." Separately, CodeAI said it and OpenAI will be "helping students build foundational AI literacy" via the Hour of AI, through which it said "OpenAI and CodeAI will introduce millions of students to the basics of using AI thoughtfully and responsibly."

OpenAI's ChatGPT for Teens announcement came just days after the NY Times reported that Google turned on Gemini AI for K-12 students using its Google Classroom, a learning management system for posting assignments and turning in schoolwork that's used by 150+ million students and teachers worldwide. A new Gemini tab within Classroom will allow students of all ages to seek AI help on math problems and writing assignments. They can also generate course aids like study guides, quizzes and flashcards, as well as produce images. Last September, Google CEO Sundar Pichai briefed the White House on the tech giant's efforts to get Gemini for Education in 'every high school in America', which he noted "includes $3 million to Code.org [since rebranded as CodeAI] to transform its [K-12] curriculum and integrate new AI features." And in December, Google.org kicked off the inaugural 'Hour of AI' by announcing "over $5 million in new Google.org funding to bolster computer science teaching in the age of AI." The 5-day event during CS Education Week saw 13+ million schoolkids take AI tutorials, including Google's AI Quests offering.

The moves by Google and OpenAI in advance of children's return to classrooms for the 2026-27 school year further escalate the race among U.S. tech giants to train students on their AI tools. They also come just ahead of next month's release of NYT journalist Natasha Singer's Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools, "the inside story of how Big Tech catalyzed, co-opted, and ultimately came to capture computer science and AI education in America."

Submission + - 'Vibe coding' is changing the build-or-buy debate for restaurants (restaurantbusinessonline.com)

Submitted by chipperdog
chipperdog writes: In the vibe coding era, many restaurants are looking to create their own alternatives to expensive software licenses
From the article "Earlier this year, the eight-unit juice chain Keva gave all of its software providers an ultimatum: Lower our monthly rate, or weâ(TM)re going to use AI to replace you...About half of the chainâ(TM)s vendors agreed. The rest âoetold us to screw off,â"

Submission + - Brand Hype Has Existed Since the Bronze Age, Scientists Discover (404media.co)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Brands have completely taken over the modern world, from established corporate trademarks to the proliferation of online influencers. But the allure of brands is nothing new, according to a study about an ancient style of pottery called Qurayyah Painted Ware that was a progenitor of branding some 3,200 years ago.

This brand of pottery was popular in what is now Saudi Arabia during the Bronze Age. The tradition is distinguished by distinctive black-and-red geometric designs and stylized animal and human figures. These unique visual properties, along with a consistent production technique and quality, suggest that it was an early branded commodity that was made to be recognizable to the wider community.

âoeIt is now understood that brands and proto-brands existed well before modern economies,â said researchers led by Marta Luciani of the University of Vienna. âoeIn this contribution we analyze the process by which the commodity itselfâ"decorated pottery vesselsâ"was developed into a brand not by added symbols but on the virtue of its visual identity, material consistency, technological continuity, centralized production, export circulation, local imitation, intentional commercial scope, and cultural reputation.â

Submission + - Simulated shopping sites (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

The cart is full. The items have been picked. The checkout button is waiting. You click "place order" — and then nothing happens. There’s no delivery driver on the way. No charge to your credit card. No package waiting at your door. And that’s the point.

Submission + - Battery fires at recycling centres are costing UK £1bn a year, figures sho (theguardian.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Fires at recycling centres caused by wrongly discarded lithium batteries such as those found in vapes are occurring at the rate of more than 10 a week, according to new figures.

Experts say the sheer volume of battery fires now occurring at waste facilities has reached a crisis that is putting lives at risk, costing £1bn a year and frustrating fire chiefs.

In figures shared with the Guardian, the Environment Services Association (ESA), the trade body for waste management companies, said its members had reported 1,518 fires in the year to March 2026. At least 541 of these fires were directly attributed to lithium ion batteries, the survey found. There were a further 216 battery fires in bin lorries.

Submission + - Microsoft Blames Windows Gaming Issues on RGB Lighting Devices (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Microsoft says ongoing issues causing games to crash or fail to launch after installing the August 2026 Windows updates may be caused by peripherals with RGB lighting. Microsoft explained when it confirmed it's investigating on Wednesday, this known issue affects games like ARC Raiders, MARVEL Tkon: Fighting Souls, and The Finals on systems running Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2.

"Following the release of Windows updates on August 11, 2026 (KB5121003) and later, Microsoft received reports of issues involving inability to run games as expected," Microsoft said on the Windows release health dashboard.

On impacted PCs, users are also experiencing gaming freezes, "EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION" errors, and even unexpected system restarts.

Embark Studios, the Swedish video game developer behind ARC Raiders and The Finals, also said these issues are caused by inpoutx64.sys, but added that they stem from changes made to the Windows kernel driver.

"We're aware of a crash that has been impacting some players since the most recent Windows update (KB5121003). This is a crash related to the file inpoutx64.sys, which changed with the Windows update," Embark said on Monday.

Until Microsoft ships an official fix, Embark shared a multi-step temporary workaround that requires users to delete the service and remove the inpoutx64 file from the Windows drivers folder.

Submission + - Defamation suit demanding Elsevier retract paper heads closer to trial (retractionwatch.com)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: A trial date has been set in a $1 billion defamation case against Elsevier that alleges the company published what plaintiffs say was a manipulated study about an air purifying technology over objections from peer reviewers. The case has already cost Elsevier a $10,000 sanction from a judge.

Submission + - China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China's Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Why not Windows 11? Because China, like many other non-US governments, no longer trusts American companies with their software and services. This approach is all about digital sovereignty. In addition, even before the recent trend of governments outside America moving away from Windows, Beijing has started a long-running push to replace foreign technology in sensitive systems with domestic, open-source alternatives.

[...] The Chinese government did not specify which Linux versions would replace Windows 10. However, the stock prices of Chinese Linux suppliers, Kylin Software and Tongxin Software Technology (commonly known as UnionTech), immediately jumped. These companies' respective operating systems, Kylin OS (no relation to Ubuntu Kylin) and UnionTech OS (UOS), were already positioned as domestic desktop and server replacements for Windows in government, state-owned enterprise, and critical-infrastructure environments. [...] Huawei's HarmonyOS 2, which began as an Android variant but is now a proprietary mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, is also being developed into a PC platform. HarmonyOS 2 won't be deployed anytime soon. Kylin and UOS are the only mature desktops that are ready for institutional desktop deployments.

[...] ... this transition won't be easy. For agencies now moving off the government Windows build, the issue will be more demanding than simply swapping one desktop interface for another. Migration requires application testing, peripheral and driver validation, identity system integration, document-format compatibility, staff retraining and, in many cases, replacement or adaptation of Windows-dependent line-of-business software. The report provides no details on exactly how this transformation will occur. But the speed of the shift suggests that these issues are already being addressed in China's centralized managed desktop stack.

Submission + - San Francisco Bay Area dethroned as largest tech talent market (sfgate.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: The San Francisco Bay Area, epicenter of the artificial intelligence boom, is home to a massive amount of tech workers employed by some of the world's most valuable companies, from Apple to Nvidia.

But for the first time, New York has eclipsed the Bay Area as the home of the largest "tech talent workforce," a report by real estate and investment firm CBRE shows. The firm has published the annual report for 13 years.

Last year, the New York Metro Area's tech talent workforce reached 394,300, surpassing the Bay Area's 375,730, according to the report. Fueled by mass layoffs, the Bay Area's tech talent workforce dropped by 6% from 2022 to 2025. New York's tech talent workforce, on the other hand, grew by more than 8% during that period

Submission + - AI Boosted Homework Scores, Then Exam Scores Dropped (economist.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Students and school children are increasingly using artificial intelligence. A survey last year by Chegg, an ed-tech firm, found that 80% of rich-world undergraduates used it in their studies. More recent polls put the figure at 94% in Britain and 93% in Germany. Such widespread adoption has fueled concerns about the impact the technology might be having on learning. Teachers report marking identikit essays that they suspect are churned out by ChatGPT. Yet firm evidence on AI’s educational effects has been lacking.

David Stromberg of Stockholm University and Victor Lei and Wu Yanhui of the University of Hong Kong set out to fill the gap. They tracked 27,000 pupils aged 12-18 in China, where AI adoption has been fast. Around 80% reported using models such as Doubao and DeepSeek; the other 20% formed the control group.

The results are eye-opening. After six months, pupils using AI saw their average homework score rise by 18% across all subjects. The time they took to complete each assignment fell from an average of 64 minutes to 45. But come exam time, the same students scored 20% below their classmates who had not called on AI’s help. Homework scores once predicted exam performance; now those who score highest are, perversely, more likely to do worse in exams.

Submission + - Chinese Property Developer Evergrande's Founder Sentenced to Life in Prison (npr.org)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: Chinese property developer Hui Ka Yan, founder of the Evergrande real estate group, has been sentenced to life in prison and the companies fined a total of $2.3 billion, a court in the southern city of Shenzhen said Thursday. The decision marks a milestone in Evergrande's saga after it collapsed with more than $300 billion in liabilities when Chinese authorities cracked down on excessive borrowing in the real estate industry in 2020. That triggered a crunch among many developers and brought on a downturn in the property market that has weighed on the broader economy ever since. Hui pleaded guilty in April to various charges including illegal absorption of public deposits, fraud and bribery after he was arrested in China. Born to a poor family in rural Henan province, Hui was raised by his grandmother before setting up Evergrande in 1996. In 2018 he thanked the Chinese Communist party for providing “everything that Evergrande and I have”.

Submission + - SpaceX's orbital data centers would create a new category of e-waste (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Elon Musk’s talk about maintaining a million-strong AI data center satellite megaconstellation may not exactly be practical or economical, but it might be unique. It’s about the closest we’ve come to confronting a scheme that would export a considerable amount of valuable materials into space. Humans aren’t doing a great job of material sustainability, but normally we’re talking about stuff escaping a recycling pipeline rather than escaping Earth’s gravitational pull.

Given the roughly five-year expected lifetime for data center GPUs, about 200,000 of the 1 million proposed SpaceX AI1 satellites would be decommissioned each year. Based on their May 29 FCC filing, about 40,000 would definitely deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. (Those materials would largely be dispersed throughout the atmosphere, turning a resource into a diffuse contaminant that slowly settles over the globe. One related issue: the aluminum would cause an unknown amount of ozone depletion over a period of decades.) Some or all of the remaining 160,000 satellites would be moved outward into a distant “disposal” orbit, instead. Either way, they’re lost from a “material life cycle” point of view.

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