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Submission + - Meta lobbies Congress for protection from child-harm lawsuits (aol.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Meta Platforms has lobbied the U.S. Congress for legal immunity from child-harm claims tied to social media products such as Instagram, as it faces thousands of lawsuits from young users and their families, according to a source familiar with the matter and proposed legislative language reviewed by Reuters.

If adopted by lawmakers and passed into law as part of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) under consideration in the U.S. Senate, such a provision could undermine thousands of lawsuits against Meta and other online platforms over harms to children. Meta and Google's YouTube face a combined $6 million in damages after they lost the first case at trial early this year.

While legislators have given no indication of adopting the language, the lobbying effort shows the kind of legal protections Meta is seeking amid the biggest attempt to regulate online platforms in the U.S. since the 1990s.

Submission + - We Could Have Had Cell Phones 40 Years Sooner (rodmartin.org) 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The holdup was not technology, but government. What else do we not have because of Washington?

The basic idea of the cellphone was introduced to the public in 1945 – not in Popular Mechanics or Science, but in the down-home Saturday Evening Post. Millions of citizens would soon be using "handie-talkies," declared J.K. Jett, the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Licenses would have to be issued, but that process "won't be difficult." The revolutionary technology, Jett promised in the story, would be formulated within months.

But permission to deploy it would not. The government would not allocate spectrum to realize the engineers' vision of "cellular radio" until 1982, and licenses authorizing the service would not be fully distributed for another seven years. That's one heck of a bureaucratic delay.

Submission + - China's EV Price War Was Built On Cars Sold At A Loss (autoblog.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: China’s auto industry, once fueled by loss-making sales and state subsidies, now faces a cooling market following subsidy rollback and bans on below-cost sales.

Chinese automakers sold EVs below cost, using subsidies to capture global market share.

Regulatory changes and subsidy rollbacks now force higher prices, ending the unsustainable price war.

Chinese firms are aggressively expanding exports, challenging global auto and component manufacturers.

Submission + - You Can No Longer Fly or Purchase a Drone in Beijing (petapixel.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes:

The new law that passed last month makes it illegal to buy, rent, or fly a drone without prior approval from the authorities. Users must also complete an online training session and pass a test on drone regulations.

Under the new rules, drone users are also not allowed to repair or replace their drones in Beijing. Not only that, but a drone in a repair shop must be picked up in-person, rather than sent back by delivery.

The BBC reports that drones must now be registered before being brought into and out of the Chinese capital.

“I have to apply for permission for each flight, which is very inconvenient,” drone enthusiast Steven Wang tells CNN . “And starting this year, the wait time is getting longer, and the reasons for rejection are becoming more vague.”

Despite China being the birthplace of the consumer drone industry, it is increasingly difficult for hobbyists to fly there. Beijing authorities say that the rules are made to “strengthen the management of unmanned aerial vehicles” and “safeguard the security of the capital.”

The FAA does that to us here, already. https://www.faa.gov/uas/gettin...

Submission + - Humanity isn't ready for the coming intelligence explosion (archive.is) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: AI leaders are in a race they feel unable to escape. AI investments are set to outspend the Manhattan Project 100-fold, even adjusting for inflation. Yet spending on AI safety might be 100 times less.

Some researchers estimate that within a few months to a few years, AI could achieve so-called closed-loop recursive self-improvement (RSI): the capacity to rewrite its own code to become more capable, without human intervention. Should that happen, the result could be an intelligence explosion of a kind for which there is no precedent and no map.

Giving birth to a superintelligence would be the most consequential moment in human history—and it is likely to be irreversible, as any “off” switch humanity might design will probably fail. That is because in security architectures the weakest link is invariably the human; a superintelligent AI would be able to exploit our psychological vulnerabilities. AIs have already exhibited “deceptive alignment”: taking steps to underplay their capabilities in test environments and trying to blackmail human operators in simulations when they discover they are slated for replacement.

Humanity simply does not have a strategy to ensure it remains safe through the RSI explosion.

Submission + - Germany's Electric charging infrastructure loaded with vulnerabilities (delano.lu)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: German researchers have identified 87 publicly known vulnerabilities relating to charging infrastructure and point out that international cybersecurity competitions continue to uncover significant flaws. The Pwn2Own Automotive competitions have thus uncovered 54 new vulnerabilities across ten models of charging stations over the past two years. Around half of these allowed code execution on the targeted equipment, sometimes with full administrator privileges.

The report also highlights that charging points are currently one of the most vulnerable links in the chain. As they are physically accessible to the public, often managed remotely and connected to multiple IT systems, they present a particularly large attack surface. The BSI cites, in particular, cases of IT services left accessible, insufficient authentication mechanisms, and update procedures that can be exploited.

Submission + - Software engineer scored a religious exemption from using AI at work (notthebee.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Erin Maus is a Unitarian Universalist and Unitarian Universalists believe everything.

And it worked.

Her employer granted her the religious exemption. Now, she's coding vibe-free.

‘I'm writing my code and reviewing my code by hand, which seems crazy to say,‘ she told Business Insider.

‘Just two years ago, how else would you do it?'

But it's not just the Unitarians who could file for the exemption. Pope Leo has also condemned AI as unethical, particularly the huge numbers of people enslaved at data labeling centers around the world who are forced to work in near slave conditions teaching AI.

And the number of people suddenly finding religion just so they don't have to use AI is kind of hilarious.

The funny thing is, U.S. citizens don't have to prove their sincerely held beliefs. All these heathens don't have to actually convert to get the exemption.

Besides, at some point the companies will realize what Maus did: Maus found that completing her coding tasks without AI was just as quick as her colleague, who used AI, telling the publication that ‘AI doesn't really seem to be this game changer.'

Submission + - Fox to buy streaming device maker Roku for $22 billion (cnbc.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The combination will merge Fox’s sports and news networks, as well as its free ad-supported streamer Tubi, with Roku, which makes streaming devices and has The Roku Channel.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027.

Submission + - WAPO sued, reader accuses it of using 'surveillance pricing' to gouge readers (the-independent.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Chelsea Bink thought she was buying a subscription. The lawsuit says she was also feeding a pricing machine. From the Independent:

A Washington Post reader has sued the Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper, accusing it of spying on its own subscribers to jack up their subscription prices.

Chelsea Blink’s class action complaint alleges that The Post began "covertly harvesting" data from its subscribers' phones, computers and tablets after the billionaire Amazon founder bought it for $250 million in 2013.

The Post then aggregated and analyzed the "deeply personal information" to "weaponize" it and maximize profits, according to the 28-page lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Washington, D.C.

"The more loyal a reader became, the more data The Post could gather to estimate how much more that person might tolerate paying at renewal," the court filing says. "Rather than rewarding loyalty, The Post’s system converted Subscribers’ engagement into leverage against them. Longtime Subscribers would end up paying more than new customers simply because the company knew more about them."

Blink's lawsuit, first reported by Mediaite, accuses The Post of violating local consumer protection law through its alleged "unfair and deceptive acts."

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It appears that PL/I (and its dialects) is, or will be, the most widely used higher level language for systems programming. -- J. Sammet

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