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Comment I identify as an AI (Score 1) 78

Although the Administration believes that training of AI models on copyrighted
material does not violate copyright laws, it acknowledges arguments to the contrary
exist and therefore supports allowing the Courts to resolve this issue. Similarly,
Congress should not take any actions that would impact the judiciary’s resolution of
whether training on copyrighted material constitutes fair use.

My argument. If it's ok to use copyrighted material without compensation to train an AI model. I am an AI model and those mp3s and H264 files are just training.

Unless congress doesn't agree with the White House. Then I identify as a pirate.

Comment Re:The NY Times ain't what it used to be (Score 4, Interesting) 108

by FictionPimp (#66045590) Attached to: Hydropower Line From Quebec Could Power a Million NYC Homes

You are not wrong. I asked Claude:

The average American adult reads at roughly a 7th to 8th grade level, so that's the target for accessible news writing.
Most major news organizations aim for 6th to 8th grade. The Associated Press and USA Today tend to land around 6th to 7th grade. The New York Times sits a bit higher, closer to 8th to 9th grade, which reflects a somewhat more educated readership.
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula is the standard tool for measuring this. Short sentences, common words, and one idea per paragraph drive the score down, which is what you want for broad accessibility.
So if you asked me to write a news story for the average American adult, I'd target 7th grade as the sweet spot.

Submission + - r/linux poster unearths Meta's lobbying net behind OS Age Verfication blitz (archive.org)

Submitted by He Who Has No Name
He Who Has No Name writes: In an incredibly in-depth researched post that was removed by Reddit mods almost as soon as it went up but is preserved at Archive.org, Reddit user Ok_Lingonberry3296 has dug deep into lobbying activity and records across multiple states and at the federal level to unearth what — or who — is behind the nationwide state-level and federal legislation blitz of nearly identical age verification laws targeting operating systems instead of companies — with no carveout for open source, no awareness of how these centralized control models break when applied to a FOSS operating system like Linux, and no apparent regard for the avalanche of second order effects the legislation could cause in contexts like embedded devices, VMs, and data centers.

The culprit that emerges isn't a huge surprise: a recently created lobbying org called the Digital Childhood Alliance, which appears to be functionally a front group for the lobbying efforts of... (drumroll) ...Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, formerly Facebook.

Ok_Lingonberry3296 writes: "...Rep. Kim Carver (R-Bossier City), the sponsor of Louisiana's HB-570, publicly confirmed that a Meta lobbyist brought the legislative language directly to her. The bill as drafted required only app stores (Apple, Google) to verify user ages. It did not require social media platforms to do anything.

...Senator Jay Morris, who expanded the bill to include app developers alongside app stores after Google's senior director of government affairs publicly questioned why "Mark Zuckerberg is so keen on passing these bills." When Morris introduced his amendment, Meta went silent. The conference committee compromise maintained dual responsibility but kept the primary burden on app stores, which is what Meta wanted from the start.

At that same Senate hearing, Morris directly questioned DCA Executive Director Casey Stefanski about who funds her organization. She reportedly deflected, said she "wasn't comfortable answering," then under continued pressure admitted tech companies provide funding but refused to name them."

The research gets into funding, connected groups (on both sides of the political aisle) involved with lobbying, messaging, funding, and other parts of the legislative push, and most of all, tracks the money.

For those that want to dig into the research itself, OK_Lingonberry3296 posted their entire folder of research and sources on github, here: github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings

A quick synopsis of where the US laws currently stand:

CA | AB-1043 | Enacted, effective Jan 1, 2027
CO | SB26-051 | Passed Senate, in House committee
LA | HB-570 | Enacted, effective July 1, 2026
UT | SB-142 | Enacted, first in nation
TX | SB-2420 | Enjoined by federal judge
NY | S8102A | Pending
IL | HB-3304, HB-4140, SB-2037 | Pending
Federal | KOSA, ASAA | Pending

Submission + - Has Slashdot Become More Ads Than "News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters"? 2

Submitted by FictionPimp
FictionPimp writes: Load Slashdot's front page today without an ad blocker and count what you see before scrolling.

Above the fold, there are 6 distinct ad placements: a full-width Retool banner just below the navigation, a MongoDB Atlas inline banner styled to look like a site notice sitting directly above the first story, two sidebar ad units (one for a game dev course bundle, one for business software comparison), a "Sponsored Content" slot beginning to appear at the bottom edge, and a sticky MongoDB footer bar fixed to the bottom of the screen. MongoDB alone holds two simultaneous placements on the same page load. The ratio is 6 ads to 2 stories before you even scroll.

Slashdot has carried the tagline "News for nerds, stuff that matters" since Rob Malda was running the site out of a college dorm in 1997. It is now owned by Slashdot Media, the same parent as SourceForge, and the nav bar includes a "Thought Leadership" section, which is industry parlance for paid editorial content.

None of this is unique to Slashdot. Display advertising is how independent tech publications survive. But there is a meaningful difference between ads that share a page with content and ads that outnumber and surround the content, with some of them actively designed to look like part of the editorial feed.

The question for the Slashdot community: at what point does the original promise of the site, a curated community-moderated signal in a noisy web, get buried under the noise it was supposed to filter? Should the site be rebranded: "Ads for Nerds, News if we can fit it in"?

Submission + - AI Suspected in Bombing of Iran Girls School (futurism.com)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: In the aftermath of airstrikes that leveled a school and claimed the lives of 165 Iranian elementary students and staff, the Pentagon has refused to say whether the attack was suggested by an AI system. Given the United States’ reported use of AI to select at least some military targets in Iran, a major question remains unanswered: did the US use Anthropics' Claude to decide whether to annihilate an elementary school? When Futurism reached out to the Pentagon regarding the use of AI in recent military operations — specifically the targeting of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school — we were referred to US CENTCOM, one of eleven unified commands under the Pentagon’s umbrella. “We have nothing for you on this at this time,” CENTCOM said. Back in April of 2024, an investigation by +972 Magazine revealed that the Israeli army had leveraged an AI system called “Lavender” to select targets in its war on Gaza where a UN school was hit, similarly to how the Pentagon is reportedly using Claude in Iran.

Comment Why not apply this to code as well? (Score 4, Insightful) 47

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that AI-generated artwork cannot be copyrighted because it lacks human authorship, reaffirming that copyright law requires works to be created by humans. This decision follows a case involving Stephen Thaler's AI-generated artwork, which was denied copyright protection by the U.S. Copyright Office.

Comment Re:Is this really emigration? (Score 1) 393

by FictionPimp (#66012114) Attached to: Americans Are Leaving the US in Record Numbers

Access to a consistent cost for healthcare as I age. Living in more walkable areas without living in a large city. Weather. Food.

I like the area's I have visited. I like the attitudes of the people you find in places expats end up. I do not like the modern shift in political climate in the USA and especially in my state. I do not like the cost of living increase to mitigate that climate 5-10% by moving to another State.

Lastly, I shoot sporting clays/FITASC, there won't be a problem anywhere I go with doing that. I have no need for any other firearms. Hell, I could even get better service when my K-80 or F3 need work. I just ordered $12,000 in shotgun barrels and it's going to take forever to get from germany to my local shop and then to me.

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"Live or die, I'll make a million." -- Reebus Kneebus, before his jump to the center of the earth, Firesign Theater

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