Skydance's Discovery+ Prices Increase By Up to 20% (arstechnica.com) 11

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @03:00AM from the surprise-surprise dept.

Discovery+ has raised prices for new subscribers, increasing its ad-free plan from $10 to $12 per month and its ad-supported plan from $6 to $7. The hike comes shortly after Paramount Skydance acquired Warner Bros. Discovery. Ars Technica reports: The new prices take effect for new subscribers immediately. Current subscribers to the streaming service, which primarily features unscripted content, like reality shows and documentaries, will receive 30 days' notice before the new prices take effect, starting with bills issued as of November 12. [...] However, a Skydance spokesperson told Ars Technica that the pricing changes were in the works before Discovery+ knew about the merger's closing date and were not planned in anticipation of a merger.

The spokesperson said that Discovery+'s prices are regularly evaluated to ensure that they are in line with the content and experience that the service offers, and the new prices reflect that. Discovery+ has increased its prices three times since launching in 2012. Before today, the most recent price hike occurred in January 2025, when ad-based monthly subscriptions increased from $5 to $6, and ad-free plans went from $9 to $10.

Comment Re:"super intelligence technology" (Score 1) 25

by backslashdot on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @02:34AM (#66375138) Attached to: FBI Arrests Saudi OpenAI Employee For Planting Recording Device In Conference Room

Super intelligent means smarter than a politician. A sand lizard qualifies.

FBI Arrests Saudi OpenAI Employee For Planting Recording Device In Conference Room 25

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @11:30PM from the not-a-good-look dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: An OpenAI employee was arrested after a "sophisticated recording device" was found hidden inside the executive conference room. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, who is a national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was arrested in connection with the matter, the DOJ said. The company said an employee planted the device a few days before it was found, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation "moved quickly to make an arrest," the post said. The employee was terminated.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that Alfozan "allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer's executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company's super intelligence technology." Alfozan is also listed as a partner at Raed Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, according to its website. The firm announced on Feb. 6, 2025, that H.H. Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family, had joined the firm as a venture partner. Alfozan was announced as a venture partner two days later. The Raed announcement for Alfozan lists Meta, Microsoft and SAP as previous roles and said he studied computer science and engineering at MIT. "At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data," OpenAI said in the post. "We take protecting our technology, data and people seriously, and as a matter of national importance."

Submission + - Dutch Tax Authorities Cancel Microsoft 365 Cloud Rollout (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @10:59PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Netherlands’ Tax and Customs Administration has abandoned its planned Microsoft 365 public-cloud rollout. Why? The reasons were clear at the Open Source Summit Europe conference, where the Linux Foundation (LF) released the 2026 State of Open Source in Europe. In it, the nonprofit, pro-open-source organization revealed that 94% of European Union (EU) organizations say digital sovereignty is important, with 61% considering it very important. As Thierry Carrez, the Linux Foundation Europe GM, said in his keynote, “Europe has clearly heard the message on digital sovereignty.”

In an interview onstage at the summit, Nithya Ruff, chair of the LF board, added that it’s not just Europe: “Digital sovereignty is a need that the entire world feels, whether it’s Sierra Leone or the US or China.” It’s not just the Dutch tax collectors, though. The Netherlands is also exploring switching from Windows and proprietary software to Linux and open-source programs across the board. [...] The Netherlands had planned to switch to Microsoft 365 in 2025. The idea then was to complete the rollout by the end of 2026. About 5,000 employees had already migrated when the Dutch Advisory Council on ICT Assessment recommended reversing the public-cloud rollout in June. The government paused the plan in July; the latest announcement replaces that rollout with an on-premises/open-source approach.

The Tax and Customs Administration isn’t replacing all of Microsoft Office with a single open-source suite, at least not yet. Instead, the government will keep the existing Microsoft software for now. Looking ahead, State Secretary for Finance Eelco Eerenberg set out the replacement timetable in a letter to Parliament: “In 2027, the provision for mail and calendar will be realized on-premises. Later in 2027 and 2028, European open-source solutions for personal storage and collaboration will follow. This allows us to work toward a sustainable and more autonomous solution for these functionalities.” [...] For now, the on-premises email/calendar environment will still use Microsoft software, including Outlook. The open-source portion concerns personal storage and collaboration, not a wholesale replacement of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or the entire desktop environment.

Comment Re:Advertisement for streaming (Score 1) 36

by rsilvergun on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @10:52PM (#66375012) Attached to: GTA 6 Is Reportedly Coming to PC In Early 2027

It looks like they used a fuck ton of Ray traced light effects to make the game look more natural and realistic. And yeah on a base PS5 which is basically running a RX 6700 or maybe a 3060 equivalent that's going to choke out. I suspect that they thought the PlayStation 6 was going to be out. I don't think anyone saw how much damage AI was going to do to our hobby. And they probably figured by now somebody would be making more RAM but with zero antitrust law enforcement nobody is going to take any chances...

GTA 6 Is Reportedly Coming to PC In Early 2027 (gamesbeat.com) 36

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @07:00PM from the what-to-expect dept.

GamesBeat reports that Rockstar plans to release Grand Theft Auto VI on PC in the first quarter of 2027, just a few months after its November 19, 2026 launch on consoles. The report follows Microsoft's announcement last week that it had secured exclusive cloud-streaming rights to the game. Since Rockstar has yet to officially announce a PC version, "this deal will allow Xbox to market its Xbox Cloud Gaming service to PC players who would otherwise need an Xbox Series X / S or PS5 console," The Verge reported at the time. GamesBeat reports: The Q1 2027 PC release window for GTA VI comes only a few months after the game's November 2026 console launch, representing a significantly quicker turnaround for PC development than the previous iteration of Grand Theft Auto, whose April 2015 PC release came roughly a year and seven months after the September 2013 release of Grand Theft Auto V.

The user base of Grand Theft Auto V skews largely towards console players, with PC players representing a small minority. With GTA VI's production budget rumored to exceed $2 billion, Rockstar is highly incentivized to pull all the levers it can as fast as it can to monetize the game's upcoming sequel -- and PC players represent a significant expansion of the GTA VI audience.

The potential benefits of launching GTA VI relatively quickly on PC go beyond the opportunity to grow the game's casual player base. Rockstar has signaled its plans to implement user-generated content creation tools into GTA VI, and the company's August 2023 acquisition of Cfx.re, the development team behind the prominent Grand Theft Auto V roleplaying server company FiveM, made it clear that Rockstar considers online roleplaying in GTA to be a factor in the game's future.

Comment Self checkout did eliminate jobs (Score 0) 46

by rsilvergun on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @06:33PM (#66374842) Attached to: Kroger to Lay Off 3,000 Corporate Employees In AI Restructuring

If there was competition in the market then no it wouldn't have done that but the same handful of people own all the grocery stores. Remember we put everything on the stock market and only a handful of people own enough stock that they actually have any kind of a controlling interest. Your 401k does not mean you have a controlling interest..

What does this means in practice is that there is zero competition in grocery shopping. The only limit on prices is the point where people actually start to notice that and stop voting Republican.

So they can fire a whole shitload of people and yeah it's slower for you to sit in the line ringing and bagging your own groceries and it's slower for everyone involved but you need food and they've got it so you have to put up with it.

There are a handful of alternatives but none of them at scale. You can drive an hour or two to a farmer's market I guess. There are expensive boutique grocery stores. Stuff like that. But realistically you're not going to be able to keep yourself fed with those. Not unless you have special circumstances. The majority of the population are stuck with the large grocery chains and they know it.

You could of course try opening your own grocery store chain to compete... Except they will run you out of business with low prices just long enough to bankrupt you and we don't enforce antitrust law.

We spent the last 50 years dismantling our Democratic institutions so that we could indulge in Petty moral panics. We are only just now starting to see the consequences of that. The real fun comes when the stock market finally collapses after the Epstein class is done looting our 401ks. If you're a baby boomer good luck dying before that happens because God knows you can't stop it.

Disney Offers $20 Million For Character.AI Assets As Startup Files For Bankruptcy 8

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @06:00PM from the Mickey-enters-the-chat dept.

Character.AI has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to sell substantially all of its assets, with Disney offering $20 million as a "stalking-horse bidder" for select intellectual property and company claims. However, the company said Disney's bid is subject to "higher or better offers." Deadline reports: The company, which allows users to create and interact with AI-generated avatars, said it made the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. It said it hopes the process will allow it to "facilitate a value-maximizing sale of all or substantially all" of its assets. The Character.AI platform will continue to operate during the bankruptcy.

The Disney agreement, reached prior to the filing, would give the media giant a non-exclusive perpetual license of select intellectual property and company claims from Character.AI. Disney would pay $20 million and provide resources during a transition period as the company explores a sale. [...] Character.AI said it is aiming to conclude the sale process by late November or early December. Character.AI has faced a series of controversies over the past year or so. Most notably, the company settled multiple lawsuits alleging its chatbots encouraged self-harm and suicide among teenagers, including a high-profile case involving 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III.

The company also faces lawsuits from Kentucky, which alleges its chatbots encouraged self-harm, and Pennsylvania, which claims the bots illegally impersonated licensed doctors. The latter allegations follow earlier complaints that Character.AI's therapy chatbots engaged in the unlicensed practice of medicine.

In September 2025, Disney accused Character.AI of copyright infringement and using its characters in chatbots that were "sexually exploitive and otherwise harmful and dangerous to children," prompting their removal from the platform. These mounting legal challenges and regulatory scrutiny ultimately contributed to this eventual bankruptcy filing.

Comment Re:Good luck with that. (Score 3, Insightful) 46

by rsilvergun on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @05:11PM (#66374708) Attached to: Kroger to Lay Off 3,000 Corporate Employees In AI Restructuring

It's just outsourcing, H1-Bs and age discrimination fueled layoffs. AI is a great cover for that.

Also Trump is wrecking the economy and nobody wants to acknowledge that because he's a vindictive psycho that nobody will stand up to.

Comment H1 bs (Score 4, Insightful) 46

by rsilvergun on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @05:01PM (#66374680) Attached to: Kroger to Lay Off 3,000 Corporate Employees In AI Restructuring

We all know what they're doing.

Kroger to Lay Off 3,000 Corporate Employees In AI Restructuring 46

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @05:00PM from the leaning-into-AI dept.

Kroger says it will cut 3,000 corporate jobs over the next three years as it expands its use of AI and other technology to streamline operations. "Technology is reshaping what's possible," CEO Greg Foran wrote in a memo to employees on Monday. "The way work gets done is changing across every industry; we must adapt and take advantage of technology. We need to adopt capabilities, reduce duplicative work and look closely at where work is best fit to be done." ABC News reports: Kroger last month outlined its AI strategy, meant "to improve the customer experience, make work easier for associates and produce better business outcomes." Cincinnati-based Kroger is the largest standalone U.S. supermarket chain with 409,000 employees and more than 2,700 stores operating under various brands, including Ralphs, King Soopers, Smith's and Fred Meyer.

Kroger named former Walmart executive Foran CEO in February, 11 months after the abrupt resignation of its previous CEO. Foran has a reputation for being tech-savvy and detail-oriented. He led Walmart's U.S. division from 2014 to 2019, where he focused on cleaning up stores, ensuring items were in stock and improving the fresh produce selection. He also introduced online ordering and pickup, and accelerated Walmart's digital capabilities.

Ledger Confirms Spy Chip Implant Behind Wallet Crypto Thefts (bleepingcomputer.com) 13

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @04:00PM from the would-you-look-at-that dept.

Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from BleepingComputer: Ledger has confirmed that some of its devices distributed through Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis were compromised with a hardware implant that drained users' cryptocurrency wallets. The company has been investigating reports of users losing funds from wallets purchased through CryptoBilis, a major Malaysia-based hardware wallet retailer operating across Southeast Asia. Some researchers have shown the implant in Ledger X since September 16, saying tampered devices were available for nearly half the price of the original hardware.

[...] In a report over the weekend, Tibane Labs notes that the threat actor made room for the malicious circuitry by replacing the original battery with a smaller one, which powers both the implant and the Ledger X. "Under the battery and antenna sits an ST STM32G431KBU6 (Arm CortexM4, 128 KB flash, UFQFPN32)," the researchers found inside one of the devices. For connectivity, the actor used "a tiny eSIM, an 8pad package just 2x2 mm, next to the MCU, and a shielded LTE module that sends the words out."

[...] Ledger is advising users to avoid purchasing from unauthorized resellers as they run an increased risk of getting counterfeit or modified devices. The company is also reminding its authorized resellers and distributors to get the products only through authorized channels and to avoid restocking returned products. Ledger provides a 'Genuine Check' mechanism to determine the authenticity of the device; however, it explicitly warns that it cannot detect added implants when the device's original Secure Element remains intact.

Anthropic Bans Cruelty Toward Claude 177

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @03:00PM from the anthropomorphized-software dept.

New submitter CubicleZombie writes: Anthropic has updated its Usage Policy to prohibit "sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior" toward its Claude AI models. While ordinary frustration, criticism, and adversarial testing remain acceptable, repeated cruelty could result in account restrictions. Anthropic acknowledges there's no evidence Claude can suffer but argues that uncertainty about AI consciousness warrants precaution.

Critics contend the policy anthropomorphizes software, encourages unhealthy emotional attachments, and raises questions about how customers may interact with products they've paid for.

The move raises an intriguing question: If an AI cannot demonstrably experience suffering, is abusing it an ethical problem, or is Anthropic simply policing human behavior?

Google Launches Flagship AI Model Gemini 4 Argon 10

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @02:00PM from the new-and-improved dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet's Google on Wednesday released its flagship AI model Gemini 4 Argon to developers and businesses worldwide, seeking to regain ground against rivals OpenAI and Anthropic after months of delays and a leadership shakeup at its DeepMind lab. The model excels at "deep work" on complex, multi-step tasks in coding, finance, law, cybersecurity and science, Google said. API pricing at launch starts at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with rates set to double after November 30.

[...] Argon is available to paying customers through the company's AI application building tools. Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can access it through the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search, while the Antigravity coding tool is limited to Ultra subscribers. Teams using Argon in Antigravity increased agentic code submissions by more than 35%, while reducing code rollbacks by nearly a third, Google said. Google also announced the expansion of its Fairwind Program to hundreds of additional partners. "The program gives vetted cybersecurity defenders a version of Argon without its cyber guardrails," reports Reuters. "In September, the company had said it was providing the model to select cybersecurity partners."

FBI Arrests Canadian Cybersecurity Expert In ShinyHunters Hacking Case (www.cbc.ca) 23

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @01:00PM from the well-well-well dept.

Canadian cybersecurity figures say they were shocked after ransomware negotiator Edward Dubrovsky was reportedly arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with the FBI's ShinyHunters hacking investigation. "We will continue to work closely with our partners to disrupt what's left of the ShinyHunters group and their associates, no matter where they operate," wrote FBI Director Kash Patel on social media. CBC News reports: Reuters reported Sunday that sources familiar with the matter identified the arrested suspect as Ed Dubrovsky, a Canadian cybersecurity executive whose career has focused on helping clients negotiate with ransomware attackers. Court documents from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania show Dubrovsky is facing two criminal charges: conspiracy to threaten to impair the confidentiality of information with the intent to extort money, and interference with commerce by threats. The allegations have not been proven in court.

"For the cybersecurity community in general, I think that there's a sense of shock," Toronto-based tech and cybersecurity analyst Ritesh Kotak told CBC News on Monday. Kotak says Dubrovsky is "very popular" and has spoken at numerous conferences, but stressed that the charges "are clearly just allegations" and that it is not yet known "what exactly has happened." "This is an individual that was for the most part respected when it came to ransomware negotiations," he said. "A lot of people are familiar with his work as well." ShinyHunters is one of the world's most prolific data theft and extortion groups that's been tied to major campaigns, including a recent breach involving FBI employee data, a cyberattack on Canvas, as well as various cyberattacks affecting companies including Telus, Microsoft, and Ticketmaster.

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