Ars Technica

Elon Musk today said he has merged X and xAI in a deal that values the social network formerly known as Twitter at $33 billion. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.

xAI acquired X "in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt)," Musk wrote on X today.

X and xAI were already collaborating, as xAI's Grok is trained on X posts. Grok is made available to X users, with paying subscribers getting higher usage limits and more features.

Read full article

Comments

Microsoft released a new Windows Insider build of Windows 11 to its experimental Dev Channel today, with a fairly extensive batch of new features and tweaks. But the most important one for enthusiasts and PC administrators is buried halfway down the list: This build removes a command prompt script called bypassnro, which up until now has been a relatively easy and reliable way to circumvent the otherwise mandatory Microsoft Account sign-in requirement on new Windows 11 PCs and fresh installs of Windows 11 on existing PCs.

Microsoft's Windows Insider Program lead Amanda Langowski and Principal Product Manager Brandon LeBlanc were clear that this change is considered a feature and not a bug.

"We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11," Langowski and LeBlanc write in the post. "This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account."

Read full article

Comments

One of the most frustrating things about using a large language model is dealing with its tendency to confabulate information, hallucinating answers that are not supported by its training data. From a human perspective, it can be hard to understand why these models don't simply say "I don't know" instead of making up some plausible-sounding nonsense.

Now, new research from Anthropic is exposing at least some of the inner neural network "circuitry" that helps an LLM decide when to take a stab at a (perhaps hallucinated) response versus when to refuse an answer in the first place. While human understanding of this internal LLM "decision" process is still rough, this kind of research could lead to better overall solutions for the AI confabulation problem.

In a groundbreaking paper last May, Anthropic used a system of sparse auto-encoders to help illuminate the groups of artificial neurons that are activated when the Claude LLM encounters internal concepts ranging from "Golden Gate Bridge" to "programming errors" (Anthropic calls these groupings "features," as we will in the remainder of this piece). Anthropic's newly published research this week expands on that previous work by tracing how these features can affect other neuron groups that represent computational decision "circuits" Claude follows in crafting its response.

Read full article

Comments

Imagine working with special cameras that capture light your eyes can't even see—ultraviolet rays that cause sunburn, infrared heat signatures that reveal hidden writing, or specific wavelengths that plants use for photosynthesis. Or perhaps using a special camera designed to distinguish the subtle visible differences that make paint colors appear just right under specific lighting. Scientists and engineers do this every day, and they're drowning in the resulting data.

A new compression format called Spectral JPEG XL might finally solve this growing problem in scientific visualization and computer graphics. Researchers Alban Fichet and Christoph Peters of Intel Corporation detailed the format in a recent paper published in the Journal of Computer Graphics Techniques (JCGT). It tackles a serious bottleneck for industries working with these specialized images. These spectral files can contain 30, 100, or more data points per pixel, causing file sizes to balloon into multi-gigabyte territory—making them unwieldy to store and analyze.

When we think of digital images, we typically imagine files that store just three colors: red, green, and blue (RGB). This works well for everyday photos, but capturing the true color and behavior of light requires much more detail. Spectral images aim for this higher fidelity by recording light's intensity not just in broad RGB categories, but across dozens or even hundreds of narrow, specific wavelength bands. This detailed information primarily spans the visible spectrum and often extends into near-infrared and near-ultraviolet regions crucial for simulating how materials interact with light accurately.

Read full article

Comments

Since Trump took office on January 20, research funding from the National Institutes of Health has plummeted by more than $3 billion compared with the pace of funding in 2024, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

By this time in March 2024, the NIH had awarded US researchers a total of $1.027 billion for new grants or competitive grant renewals. This year, the figure currently stands at about $400 million. Likewise, funding for renewals of existing grants without competition reached $4.5 billion by this time last year, but has only hit $2 billion this year. Together, this slowdown amounts to a 60 percent drop in grant support for a wide variety of research—from studies on cancer treatments, diabetes, Alzheimer's, vaccines, mental health, transgender health, and more.

The NIH is the primary source of funding for biomedical research in the US. NIH grants support more than 300,000 scientists at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and other research organizations across all 50 states.

Read full article

Comments

Oracle isn’t commenting on recent reports that it has experienced two separate data breaches that have exposed sensitive personal information belonging to thousands of its customers.

The most recent data breach report, published Friday by Bleeping Computer, said that Oracle Health—a health care software-as-a-service business the company acquired in 2022—had learned in February that a threat actor accessed one of its servers and made off with patient data from US hospitals. Bleeping Computer said Oracle Health customers have received breach notifications that were printed on plain paper rather than official Oracle letterhead and were signed by Seema Verma, the executive vice president & GM of Oracle Health.

The other report of a data breach occurred eight days ago, when an anonymous person using the handle rose87168 published a sampling of what they said were 6 million records of authentication data belonging to Oracle Cloud customers. Rose87168 told Bleeping Computer that they had acquired the data a little more than a month earlier after exploiting a vulnerability that gave access to an Oracle Cloud server.

Read full article

Comments

Google acquired Nest in 2014 for a whopping $3.4 billion but seems increasingly uninterested in making smart home hardware. The company has just announced two of its home gadgets will be discontinued, one of which is quite popular. The Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector is a common fixture in homes, but Google says it has stopped manufacturing it. The less popular Nest x Yale smart lock is also getting the ax. There are replacements coming, but Google won't be making them.

Nest launched the 2nd gen Protect a year before it became part of Google. Like all smoke detectors, the Nest Protect comes with an expiration date. You're supposed to swap them out every 10 years, so some Nest users are already there. You will have to hurry if you want a new Protect. While they're in stock for the moment, Google won't manufacture any more. It's on sale for $119 on the Google Store for the time being.

Likewise, Google is done with the Nest x Yale smart lock, which it launched in 2018 to complement the Nest Secure home security system. This device requires a Thread-enabled hub, a role the Nest Secure served quite well. Now, you need a $70 Nest Connect to control this lock remotely. If you still want to grab the Nest x Yale smart lock, it's on sale for $229 while supplies last.

Read full article

Comments

The Federal Communications Commission's news distortion investigation into CBS drew a public rebuke from a bipartisan group of five former FCC commissioners, including two former chairmen.

The group criticizing current Chairman Brendan Carr includes Republican Alfred Sikes, the FCC chair from 1989 to 1993, and Democrat Tom Wheeler, the FCC chair from 2013 to 2017. They were joined by Republican Rachelle Chong, Democrat Ervin Duggan, and Democrat Gloria Tristani, all former commissioners.

"These comments are submitted to emphasize the unprecedented nature of this news distortion proceeding, and to express our strong concern that the Federal Communications Commission may be seeking to censor the news media in a manner antithetical to the First Amendment," the former chairs and commissioners told the FCC in a filing this week.

Read full article

Comments

More than half a year after an empty Starliner spacecraft safely landed in a New Mexico desert, NASA and Boeing still have not decided whether the vehicle's next flight will carry any astronauts.

In an update this week, the US space agency said it is still working through the process to certify Starliner for human missions. Whether it carries cargo or humans, Starliner's next flight will not occur until late this year or, more likely, sometime in 2026.

Two things stand out in the new information provided by NASA. First, there remains a lot of work left to do this year before Starliner will fly again, including extensive testing of the vehicle's propulsion system. And secondly, it is becoming clear that Starliner will only ever fly a handful of missions to the space station, if that, before the orbiting laboratory is retired.

Read full article

Comments

Google revealed the Pixel 9a last week, but its release plans were put on hold by a mysterious "component quality issue." Whatever that was, it's been worked out. Google now says its new budget smartphone will arrive as soon as April 10. The date varies by market, but the wait is almost over.

The first wave of 9a releases on April 10 will include the US, Canada, and the UK. On April 14, the Pixel 9a will arrive in Europe, launching in Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Finland. On April 16, the phone will come to Australia, India, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia.

You may think that takes care of Google's launch commitments, but no—Japan still has no official launch date. That's a bit strange, as Japan is not a new addition to Google's list of supported regions. It's unclear if this has anything to do with the previous component issue. Google says only that the Japanese launch will happen "soon." Its statements about the delayed release were also vague, with representatives noting that the cause was a "passive component."

Read full article

Comments

As a society, we have decided to carry expensive electronic devices that are made out of glass. It's a real problem, especially if you have butter fingers. Gorilla Glass maker Corning has announced a new material that might help save the day the next time you drop a phone. The company claims its latest Gorilla Glass Ceramic can withstand drops that would shatter lesser materials.

As the name implies, Corning's new glass incorporates ceramic components to improve strength compared to other types of hardened glass. Corning has offered a bit of data to support this claim. In its lab tests (PDF), Gorilla Glass Ceramic withstood 10 drops from one meter onto surfaces that closely resemble asphalt. Why Corning does not use real asphalt for this test is unclear. Regardless, the company says an unspecified "competitive" type of aluminosilicate glass would typically fail on the first drop.

Chemically strengthened glass has been a key component in the proliferation of smartphones across the world. Since the company provided the glass for that first iPhone back in 2007, it has made glass for more than 7 billion devices. That makes Corning the largest glass supplier in the mobile industry, but it does face increasing competition in the budget and midrange segments.

Read full article

Comments

On Thursday, the Trump administration issued an executive order that took aim at one of the US's foremost cultural and scientific institutions: the Smithsonian. Upset by exhibits that reference the role of racism, sexism, and more in the nation's complicated past, the order tasks the vice president and a former insurance lawyer (?) with ensuring that the Smithsonian Institution is a "symbol of inspiration and American greatness"—a command that specifically includes the National Zoo.

But in the process of airing the administration's grievances, the document specifically calls out a Smithsonian display for accurately describing our current scientific understanding of race. That raises the prospect that the vice president will ultimately demand that the Smithsonian display scientifically inaccurate information.

The executive order, entitled "Restoring Truth And Sanity To American History," is filled with what has become a standard grievance: the accusation that, by recognizing the many cases where the US has not lived up to its founding ideals, institutions are attempting to "rewrite our nation's history." It specifically calls out discussions of historic racism, sexism, and oppression as undercutting the US's "unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness."

Read full article

Comments

When Nintendo finally officially revealed the Switch 2 in January, one of our major unanswered questions concerned whether games designed for the original Switch would see some form of visual or performance enhancement when running on the backward-compatible Switch 2. Now, Nintendo-watchers are pointing to a fleeting mention of "Switch 2 Edition games" as a major hint that such enhancements are in the works for at least some original Switch games.

The completely new reference to "Switch 2 Edition games" comes from a Nintendo webpage discussing yesterday's newly announced Virtual Game Cards digital lending feature. In the fine print at the bottom of that page, Nintendo notes that "Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games and Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games can only be loaded on a Nintendo Switch 2 system [emphasis added]."

The specific wording differentiating these "Switch 2 Edition" games from "Switch 2 exclusives" suggests a new category of game that is compatible with the original Switch but able to run with enhancements on the Switch 2. But it's currently unclear what Switch games will get "Switch 2 Edition" releases or how much developer work (if any) will be needed to create those new versions.

Read full article

Comments

In 2022, a team of researchers at Sony AI sat down and made an AI agent that was nearly unbeatable at the racing game Gran Turismo 7. More than just car control, the agent, called GT Sophy, also had to learn racing tactics and strategies—and even etiquette. Up against the world's best human players, Sophy beat the humans by 104 races to 52 in a match in 2021.

Since then, Sony AI and Polyphony Digital have been hard at work retraining it from being able to dominate the world's best with ease into something that's more fun for the rest of us to compete against. The latest refinement is GT Sophy 2.1, which appeared as part of GT7's latest update yesterday. It's now enabled at more tracks, and you can finally set up custom races at those tracks using the better AI.

“Since we first introduced GT Sophy three years ago, we have worked closely with [Polyphony Digital] to explore how AI can enhance gameplay and create more dynamic and fun racing experiences for players of all skill levels," said Kaushik Subramanian, senior staff research scientist at Sony AI. "With GT Sophy 2.1, we are giving players more control than ever over their interactions with GT Sophy by allowing them to fine-tune gameplay, experiment with new strategies, and advance their racing skills."

Read full article

Comments

Andrew Cunningham and Lee Hutchinson have spent decades of their lives with Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's Wheel of Time books, and they previously brought that knowledge to bear as they recapped each first season episode and second season episode of Amazon's WoT TV series. Now we're back in the saddle for season 3—along with insights, jokes, and the occasional wild theory.

These recaps won't cover every element of every episode, but they will contain major spoilers for the show and the book series. We'll do our best to not spoil major future events from the books, but there's always the danger that something might slip out. If you want to stay completely unspoiled and haven't read the books, these recaps aren't for you.

New episodes of The Wheel of Time season three will be posted for Amazon Prime subscribers every Thursday. This write-up covers episode five, "Tel'Aran'Rhiod," which was released on March 27.

Read full article

Comments

The EU is set to impose minimal fines on Apple and Facebook-owner Meta next week under its Digital Markets Act, as Brussels seeks to avoid escalating tensions with US President Donald Trump.

According to people familiar with the decisions, the iPhone maker is expected to be fined and ordered to revise its App Store rules, following an investigation into whether they prevent app developers from sending consumers to offers outside its platform.

Regulators will also close another investigation into Apple, which was focused on the company’s design of its web browser choice screen without any further sanctions.

Read full article

Comments

In the growing canon of AI security, the indirect prompt injection has emerged as the most powerful means for attackers to hack large language models such as OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4 or Microsoft’s Copilot. By exploiting a model's inability to distinguish between, on the one hand, developer-defined prompts and, on the other, text in external content LLMs interact with, indirect prompt injections are remarkably effective at invoking harmful or otherwise unintended actions. Examples include divulging end users’ confidential contacts or emails and delivering falsified answers that have the potential to corrupt the integrity of important calculations.

Despite the power of prompt injections, attackers face a fundamental challenge in using them: The inner workings of so-called closed-weights models such as GPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini are closely held secrets. Developers of such proprietary platforms tightly restrict access to the underlying code and training data that make them work and, in the process, make them black boxes to external users. As a result, devising working prompt injections requires labor- and time-intensive trial and error through redundant manual effort.

For the first time, academic researchers have devised a means to create computer-generated prompt injections against Gemini that have much higher success rates than manually crafted ones. The new method abuses fine-tuning, a feature offered by some closed-weights models for training them to work on large amounts of private or specialized data, such as a law firm’s legal case files, patient files or research managed by a medical facility, or architectural blueprints. Google makes its fine-tuning for Gemini’s API available free of charge.

Read full article

Comments

Welcome to Edition 7.37 of the Rocket Report! It's been interesting to watch how quickly European officials have embraced ensuring they have a space launch capability independent of other countries. A few years ago, European government satellites regularly launched on Russian Soyuz rockets, and more recently on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets from the United States. Russia is now non grata in European government circles, and the Trump administration is widening the trans-Atlantic rift. European leaders have cited the Trump administration and its close association with Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, as prime reasons to support sovereign access to space, a capability currently offered only by Arianespace. If European nations can reform how they treat their commercial space companies, there's enough ambition, know-how, and money in Europe to foster a competitive launch industry.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Isar Aerospace aims for weekend launch. A German startup named Isar Aerospace will try to launch its first rocket Saturday, aiming to become the first in a wave of new European launch companies to reach orbit, Ars reports. The Spectrum rocket consists of two stages, stands about 92 feet (28 meters) tall, and can haul payloads up to 1 metric ton (2,200 pounds) into low-Earth orbit. Based in Munich, Isar was founded by three university graduate students in 2018. Isar scrubbed a launch attempt Monday due to unfavorable winds at the launch site in Norway.

Read full article

Comments

Two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission who were fired by President Trump sued him today, saying their removals are "in direct violation of a century of federal law and Supreme Court precedent."

"Plaintiffs bring this action to vindicate their right to serve the remainder of their respective terms, to defend the integrity of the Commission, and to continue their work for the American people," said the lawsuit filed by Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya in US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Trump last week sent Slaughter and Bedoya notices that said, "I am writing to inform you that you have been removed from the Federal Trade Commission, effective immediately." They were then cut off from their FTC email addresses, asked to return electronic devices, and denied access to their offices.

Read full article

Comments

It's no secret that "driving while black" is a real phenomenon. Study after study has shown that minority drivers are ticketed at a higher rate, and data from speed cameras suggests that it's not because they commit traffic violations more frequently. But this leaves open the question of why. Bias is an obvious answer, but it's hard to eliminate an alternative explanation: Minority groups may engage in more unsafe driving, and the police are trying to deter that.

But now, Lyft has given a group of researchers access to detailed data from their drivers. The results confirm that minority drivers get more tickets, and they pay higher fines when they do. And the results also show that minorities aren't in any way more likely to speed or engage in unsafe driving. Which suggests, in their words, that the problem is "animus" against minority drivers.

The work was done thanks to cooperation from the ridesharing company Lyft, which provided data on its drivers in Florida, all 222,838 of them, along with a record of all the GPS pings their tracking systems sent into the company's servers. Combined with a detailed map of Florida's roads, along with their speed limits, they could determine when a given driver was speeding. They also obtained Florida police records of any accidents and cross-referenced their locations to any vehicle that experienced a sudden stop in that spot at the same time.

Read full article

Comments