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Submission + - NVIDIA CEO tells graduates to embrace AI despite fears it could replace them (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang delivered the commencement speech at Carnegie Mellon University this weekend, telling graduates they are entering âoean extraordinary momentâ as artificial intelligence reshapes science, computing, and industry. Huang described AI as a tool that will expand human knowledge and create opportunities for the next generation, encouraging students to âoerun, donâ(TM)t walkâ toward the future. NVIDIA, of course, sits at the center of the AI boom, supplying many of the GPUs powering modern machine learning systems.

But the speech also carried an awkward irony. Many graduates entering the workforce today are already wondering whether AI will shrink opportunities in coding, writing, customer support, and other white-collar fields. While tech executives continue presenting AI as empowering and productivity-enhancing, companies are increasingly experimenting with automation as a cost-cutting measure. Listening to AI billionaires hype the future of work can sometimes feel a bit like motivational speeches at a hamburger factory.

Submission + - Astronomers may have detected an atmosphere around a tiny, icy world past Pluto (apnews.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: The Associated Press is reporting on a new study in Nature Astronomy that suggests a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto harbors a thin, delicate atmosphere that may have been created by volcanic eruptions or a comet strike.

Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) or so across, this mini Pluto is thought to be the solar system’s smallest object yet with a clearly detected global atmosphere bound by gravity, said lead researcher Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

This so-called minor planet — formally known as (612533) 2002 XV93 — is considered a plutino, circling the sun twice in the time it takes Neptune to complete three solar orbits. At the time of the study, it was more than 3.4 billion miles (5.5 billion kilometers) away, farther than even Pluto, the only other object in the Kuiper Belt with an observed atmosphere.

This cosmic iceball’s atmosphere is believed to be 5 million to 10 million times thinner than Earth’s protective atmosphere, according to the the study appearing Monday 2026-05-04) in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Submission + - Tesla Admits Pre-2023 Hardware Will Never Achieve Full Autonomy 2

Submitted by DeanonymizedCoward
DeanonymizedCoward writes: According to Gizmodo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has admitted on an earnings call that Tesla's "Hardware 3," used in most pre-2023 models, does not have the capability to support fully autonomous driving. “Unfortunately, Hardware 3, I wish it were otherwise, but Hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD,” Musk said during the call. “We did think at one point it would, but relative to Hardware 4 it has only 1/8 the memory bandwidth of Hardware 4.”

All hope is not (yet) lost for owners of older Tesla vehicles, though: Musk proposes a "discounted trade-in" program, as well as the deployment of "mini-factories" to streamline the installation of new computers and cameras into older vehicles. It remains to be seen whether this will materialize.

Submission + - There Are Signs of a Massive AI Backlash (futurism.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: The public outrage over the tech industry’s obsession with AI is starting to boil over — and the pitchforks are coming out.

Most recently, a man allegedly lobbed a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s house. Days earlier, a councilman in Indianapolis said that somebody had fired a dozen bullets at his house, with a handwritten note reading “No Data Centers” left on his doorstep.

A similar story is playing out across swathes of rural America, with small towns continuing a years-long effort to keep environmentally damaging data centers that put a huge strain on water availability and the power grid out of their communities.

Earlier this week, voters in a small town in Missouri led a revolt, firing half of their city council over a recently-approved $6 billion data center deal.

Submission + - The secret, never-before-used CIA tool that helped find airman downed in Iran (nypost.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The CIA used a futuristic new tool called âoeGhost Murmurâ to find and rescue the second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran, The Post has learned.

The secret technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat and pairs the data with artificial intelligence software to isolate the signature from background noise, two sources close to the breakthrough said.

Submission + - Why It's Good to [Masturbate] Frequently, According to Science (404media.co) 1

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Regular ejaculation — for example, by masturbation — produces higher quality sperm, a finding that has implications for fertility science and assisted reproductive technologies, according to a comprehensive new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

It’s well-established that sperm quality in many animals can deteriorate as males age, but less is known about how the age of sperm cells independently impacts reproductive outcomes. To fill in this gap, scientists co-led by Krish Sanghvi and Rebecca Dean of the University of Oxford conducted a meta-analysis of more than 115 studies about human sperm storage that cumulatively involved nearly 55,000 men, as well as 56 studies of 30 non-human species.

Submission + - Mark Zuckerberg Buys $170M Mansion on 'Billionaire Bunker' Island In Miami (aol.com) 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:
  • Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have purchased a $170 million property in Miami's exclusive Indian Creek community
  • The mansion, still under construction, will feature nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, and luxury amenities like a 1,500-gallon aquarium
  • The purchase sets a record for Miami-Dade County and follows a rise in luxury real estate sales in Florida

Mark Zuckerberg is expanding his already impressive — sometimes controversial — real estate portfolio with a record-breaking purchase in Miami.

The Meta CEO, 41, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, 41, closed on a $170 million property in the sunshine state on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal . A spokesperson for the couple declined to comment to PEOPLE.

Submission + - Militaries are going autonomous—but will AI lead to new wars? (foommagazine.org)

Submitted by Gazelle Bay
Gazelle Bay writes: The invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties and provided a sickening laboratory for the development of the technology of war. Since then, major advancements have been made in unmanned drones and more generally, lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS), defined by the ability to search for and engage targets without a human operator.

Although the conflict has not yet birthed the first queasy sight of a fully autonomous battlefield, a conversion to fully autonomous forces is being actively pursued. "We strive for full autonomy,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, the deputy prime minister of Ukraine, to the Guardian in a June article. Others have long called for regulations or bans on LAWS. "Human control over the use of force is essential,” said the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at a meeting in May. “We cannot delegate life-or-death decisions to machines.” However, substantive, binding regulations have yet to be adopted by any nations that lead in the development of LAWS, as surveyed in a September 2025 book by Matthijs Maas.

Large-scale deployment of LAWS therefore looks increasingly likely to occur, even though researchers like Maas caution against seeing autonomous warfare as inevitable. "The military AI landscape at present is at a crossroads," Maas wrote. Regulations remain a possibility post-deployment, or in response to a stigmatization of the technology that it might cause.

Nonetheless, the reality that AI is likely to go to war has driven researchers to expand from a "prevailing preoccupation" on how AI will be used—for example, in the form of LAWS—to whether this use will significantly alter geopolitical norms. This was the intriguing argument made by scholars Toni Erskine and Steven Miller in a January article, as well as articles in an accompanying issue of the Cambridge Forum on AI: Law and Governance.

Amongst scholars, this shift from seeing LAWS as tools to seeing them as strategic influences has been far from totally uniform or completely new. Research on military AI and LAWS is spread across many sectors of academic study. Nonetheless, it is possible to sketch how and why such a shift has happened, and to explain some of the findings of the new research.

Surprisingly, some scholars have come to somewhat comforting conclusions. For example, in a July 2025 study from the RAND corporation, the authors assessed that AI is not likely to lead to big new wars. "AI’s net effect may tend toward strengthening rather than eroding international stability," the authors wrote.

Submission + - Trump family says U.S. dollar needs an upgrade and they are the ones to do it (cnbc.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: The value of USD1, which is marketed as a stablecoin, would track the dollar, much as the dollar when it was created in 1792 was initially pegged to the value of the then-dominant Spanish silver dollar.

The Trumps’ company, World Liberty Financial, touts USD1 as an improvement on official U.S. currency. The firm’s website brands its stablecoin as “The Dollar. Upgraded.” And it calls the coin “still the US dollar, but for a new era.”

Submission + - Trump reveals 'discombobulator' weapon was crucial to Venezuela raid (nypost.com)

Submitted by Tablizer
Tablizer writes: Trump commented on the weapon when asked about reports this month that the Biden administration purchased a pulsed energy device suspected of being the type that caused “Havana Syndrome.”

That revelation followed on-the-ground accounts from Venezuela describing how Maduro’s gunmen were brought to their knees, “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood.

A self-identified member of the deposed strongman’s team of guards recounted afterward that “suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation.”...

“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it. It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside,” the witness said.

“We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”

Submission + - ICE Is Going on a Surveillance Shopping Spree (eff.org)

Submitted by beadon
beadon writes: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a new budget under the current administration, and they are going on a surveillance tech shopping spree. Standing at $28.7 billion dollars for the year 2025 (nearly triple their 2024 budget) and at least another $56.25 billion over the next three years, ICE's budget would be the envy of many national militaries around the world. Indeed, this budget would put ICE as the 14th most well-funded military in the world, right between Ukraine and Israel.

Submission + - 'Kill Switch'—Iran Shuts Down Musk's Starlink For First Time (forbes.com)

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: We have not seen this before. Iran’s digital blackout has now deployed military jammers, reportedly supplied by Russia, to shut down access to Starlink Internet. This is a game-changer for the Plan-B connectivity frequently used by protesters and anti-regime activists when ordinary access to the internet is stopped..

“Despite reports that tens of thousands of Starlink units are operating inside Iran,” says Iran Wire, “the blackout has also reached satellite connections.” It is reported that about 30 per cent of Starlink’s uplink and downlink traffic was (initially) disrupted," quickly rising “to more than 80 per cent” within hours.

Submission + - Coal power falls in India and China for first time in decades (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Coal-fired power generation fell in both China and India in 2025 for the first time in more than five decades, as non-fossil energy sources grew fast enough in both countries to meet rising electricity demand.

Electricity generated by coal plants fell by 1.6 per cent in China and by 3 per cent in India last year, marking “a historic moment” since the early 1970s that coal power has dropped in both countries in the same year.

The shift, driven by record installations and softer demand growth, could mark a turning point for the world’s two biggest coal users.

Submission + - CES Worst in Show Awards Call Out The Tech Making Things Worse (ifixit.com)

Submitted by chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, isn’t just about shiny new gadgets, as AP reports (https://apnews.com/article/ces-worst-show-ai-0ce7fbc5aff68e8ff6d7b8e6fb7b007d): this year brought back the fifth annual Worst in Show anti-awards (https://www.worstinshowces.com/), calling out the most harmful, wasteful, invasive, and unfixable tech at the Las Vegas show. The coalition behind the awards — including Repair.org, iFixit, EFF, PIRG, Secure Repairs and others — put the spotlight on products that miss the point of innovation and make life worse for users.

2026 Worst in Show winners include:
  Overall (and Repairability): Samsung’s AI-packed Family Hub fridge — overengineered, hard to fix, and trying to do everything but keep food cold.
  Privacy: Amazon Ring AI — expanding surveillance with features like facial recognition and mobile towers.
  Security: Merach UltraTread treadmill — AI fitness coach that also hoovers up sensitive data with weak security guarantees — including a Privacy Policy that declares the company "cannot guarantee the security of your personal information" (!!)
  Environmental Impact: Lollipop Star — a single-use music-playing electronic lollipop that epitomizes needless e-waste.
  Enshittification: Bosch eBike Flow App — pushing lock-in and digital restrictions that make gear worse over time.
  “Who Asked For This?”: Bosch Personal AI Barista — voice-assistant coffee maker that nobody really wanted.
  People’s Choice: Lepro Ami AI Companion — an overhyped “soulmate” cam that creeps more than comforts.

The message? Not all tech is progress. Some products add needless complexity, threaten privacy, or throw sustainability out the window — and the industry’s watchdogs are calling them out.

Submission + - Sal Khan: Companies Should Give 1% of Profits to Retrain Workers Displaced by AI (nytimes.com)

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: Sal Kahn (founder/CEO of the nonprofit Khan Academy), says companies should donate 1% of their profits to help retrain the people displaced by AI, in a new guest essay in the New York Times...

This isn’t charity. It is in the best interest of these companies. If the public sees corporate profits skyrocketing while livelihoods evaporate, backlash will follow — through regulation, taxes or outright bans on automation. Helping retrain workers is common sense, and such a small ask that these companies would barely feel it, while the public benefits could be enormous...

Roughly a dozen of the world’s largest corporations now have a combined profit of over a trillion dollars each year. One percent of that would create a $10 billion annual fund that, in part, could create a centralized skill training platform on steroids: online learning, ways to verify skills gained and apprenticeships, coaching and mentorship for tens of millions of people. The fund could be run by an independent nonprofit that would coordinate with corporations to ensure that the skills being developed are exactly what are needed. This is a big task, but it is doable; over the past 15 years, online learning platforms have shown that it can be done for academic learning, and many of the same principles apply for skill training...

To meet the challenges, we don’t need to send millions back to college. We need to create flexible, free paths to hiring, many of which would start in high school and extend through life. Our economy needs low-cost online mechanisms for letting people demonstrate what they know. Imagine a model where capability, not how many hours students sit in class, is what matters; where demonstrated skills earn them credit and where employers recognize those credits as evidence of readiness to enter an apprenticeship program in the trades, health care, hospitality or new categories of white-collar jobs that might emerge...

There is no shortage of meaningful work — only a shortage of pathways into it.

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