ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Prospect of Life On Saturn's Moons Rises After Discovery of Organic Substances (theguardian.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @05:22PM (BeauHD) from the hide-and-seek dept.)

Scientists have [1]discovered complex organic molecules within the icy plume erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus , strengthening the case that its hidden saltwater ocean may harbor the conditions for life. The Guardian reports:

> The sixth largest of Saturn's moons, Enceladus has become one of the leading contenders in the search for bodies that could harbor extraterrestrial life, with the Cassini mission -- which ended in 2017 -- revealing the moon has a plume of water ice grains and vapors erupting from beneath the surface at its south pole. The phenomenon has since been captured by the James Webb space telescope, with the plume reaching nearly 6,000 miles into space. The source of this material is thought to be a saltwater ocean that lies beneath the moon's icy crust.

>

> Now researchers studying data from the Cassini mission say they have discovered organic substances within the plume, with some types of molecule detected there for the first time. Dr Nozair Khawaja, a planetary scientist at Freie University Berlin and lead author of the work, said the results increased the known complexity of the chemistry that is happening below the surface of Enceladus. "When there is complexity happening, that means that the habitable potential of Enceladus is increasing right now," he said. [2]Writing in the journal Nature Astronomy , Khawaja and colleagues reported how their previous work had revealed the presence of organic substances and salts within ice grains found in a ring of Saturn, known as the "E-ring," that is composed of material ejected from Enceladus. [...]

>

> While the new findings do not show that there is life on Enceladus, Khawaja said they indicate there are complex chemical pathways at play that could lead to the formation of substances that could be biologically relevant. The results, he added, support plans by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the moon for signs of life. "I think all the signals are green here for Enceladus," Khawaja said.

The findings add momentum to [3]ESA's proposed mission to directly search for biological signs around 2042. According to the ESA, the mission will consist of an orbiter around Enceladus that will also fly through the plumes, as well as a lander that will touch down in the south pole region of the moon.



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/oct/01/prospect-life-saturn-moons-rises-discovery-organic-substances

[2] https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02655-y

[3] https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Saturn_s_moon_Enceladus_top_target_for_ESA



Mira Murati's Stealth AI Lab Launches Its First Product (wired.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @05:22PM (BeauHD) from the less-of-a-black-box dept.)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired:

> Thinking Machines Lab,a heavily funded startup cofounded by prominent researchers from OpenAI, has [1]revealed its first product -- a tool called Tinker that [2]automates the creation of custom frontier AI models . "We believe [Tinker] will help empower researchers and developers to experiment with models and will make frontier capabilities much more accessible to all people," said Mira Murati, cofounder and CEO of Thinking Machines, in an interview with WIRED ahead of the announcement.

>

> Big companies and academic labs already fine-tune open source AI models to create new variants that are optimized for specific tasks, like solving math problems, drafting legal agreements, or answering medical questions. Typically, this work involves acquiring and managing clusters of GPUs and using various software tools to ensure that large-scale training runs are stable and efficient. Tinker promises to allow more businesses, researchers, and even hobbyists to fine-tune their own AI models by automating much of this work.

>

> Essentially, the team is betting that helping people fine-tune frontier models will be the next big thing in AI. And there's reason to believe they might be right. Thinking Machines Lab is helmed by researchers who played a core role in the creation of ChatGPT. And, compared to similar tools on the market, Tinker is more powerful and user friendly, according to beta testers I spoke with. Murati says that Thinking Machines Lab hopes to demystify the work involved in tuning the world's most powerful AI models and make it possible for more people to explore the outer limits of AI. "We're making what is otherwise a frontier capability accessible to all, and that is completely game-changing," she says. "There are a ton of smart people out there, and we need as many smart people as possible to do frontier AI research."

"There's a bunch of secret magic, but we give people full control over the training loop," OpenAI veteran John Schulman says. "We abstract away the distributed training details, but we still give people full control over the data and the algorithms."



[1] https://thinkingmachines.ai/blog/announcing-tinker/

[2] https://www.wired.com/story/thinking-machines-lab-first-product-fine-tune/



Solar Leads EU Electricity Generation As Renewables Hit 54% (electrek.co)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (BeauHD) from the powering-the-future dept.)

Renewables [1]generated 54% of the EU's net electricity in Q2 2025 , with solar power emerging as the leading source at nearly 20% of the total mix. Electrek reports:

> According to new data from [2]Eurostat , renewable energy sources generated 54% of the EU's net electricity in Q2 2025, up from 52.7% year-over-year. The growth came mainly from solar, which produced 122,317 gigawatt-hours (GWh) -- nearly 20% of the total electricity generation mix. June 2025 was a milestone month: Solar became the EU's single largest electricity source for the first time ever. It supplied 22% of all power that month, edging out nuclear (21.6%), wind (15.8%), hydro (14.1%), and natural gas (13.8%). [...]

>

> In total, 15 EU countries saw their share of renewable generation rise year-over-year. Luxembourg (+13.5 percentage points) and Belgium (+9.1 pp) posted the most significant gains, driven largely by solar power growth. Across the EU, solar made up 36.8% of renewable generation, followed by wind at 29.5%, hydro at 26%, biomass at 7.3%, and geothermal at 0.4%.



[1] https://electrek.co/2025/09/30/solar-leads-eu-electricity-generation-as-renewables-hit-54-percent/

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20250929-3



Intel and AMD Trusted Enclaves, a Foundation For Network Security, Fall To Physical Attacks (arstechnica.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (BeauHD) from the inadequate-protections dept.)

Researchers have unveiled two new hardware-based attacks, Battering RAM and Wiretap, that [1]break Intel SGX and AMD SEV-SNP trusted enclaves by exploiting deterministic encryption and physical interposers. Ars Technica reports:

> In the age of cloud computing, protections baked into chips from Intel, AMD, and others are essential for ensuring confidential data and sensitive operations can't be viewed or manipulated by attackers who manage to compromise servers running inside a data center. In many cases, these protections -- which work by storing certain data and processes inside encrypted enclaves known as TEEs ( [2]Trusted Execution Enclaves ) -- are essential for safeguarding secrets stored in the cloud by the likes of Signal Messenger and WhatsApp. All major cloud providers recommend that customers use it. Intel calls its protection SGX, and AMD has named it SEV-SNP.

>

> Over the years, researchers have repeatedly broken the security and privacy promises that Intel and AMD have made about their respective protections. On Tuesday, researchers independently published two papers laying out separate attacks that further demonstrate the limitations of SGX and SEV-SNP. One attack, dubbed [3]Battering RAM , defeats both protections and allows attackers to not only view encrypted data but also to actively manipulate it to introduce software backdoors or to corrupt data. A separate attack known as [4]Wiretap is able to passively decrypt sensitive data protected by SGX and remain invisible at all times.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/09/intel-and-amd-trusted-enclaves-the-backbone-of-network-security-fall-to-physical-attacks/

[2] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=what+is+tee+sgx&t=vivaldi&atb=v481-1&ia=web

[3] https://batteringram.eu/

[4] https://wiretap.fail/



Apple Shelves Vision Headset Revamp to Prioritize Meta-Like AI Glasses

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (BeauHD) from the what-to-expect dept.)

Apple has [1]paused development of a cheaper, lighter Vision Pro headset to shift resources toward AI-powered smart glasses aimed at competing with Meta. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports:

> The company had been preparing a cheaper, lighter variant of its headset -- code-named N100 -- for release in 2027. But Apple announced internally last week that it's moving staff from that project to accelerate work on glasses, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company is working on at least two types of smart glasses. The first one, dubbed N50, will pair with an iPhone and lack its own display. Apple aims to unveil this model as soon as next year, ahead of a release in 2027, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters.

>

> Apple is also working on a version with a display -- something that could challenge the just-released Meta Ray-Ban Display. The Apple version had been planned for 2028, but the company is now looking to accelerate development, the people said. [...] Apple's glasses will rely heavily on voice interaction and artificial intelligence -- two areas where it hasn't always excelled. It was slow to introduce the Apple Intelligence platform and had to delay upgrades to its Siri voice assistant.

>

> The Apple glasses are expected to come in a variety of styles and run a new chip. They'll include speakers for music playback, cameras for media recording, and voice-control features that will work with a connected phone. Apple has also been exploring a suite of health-tracking capabilities for the device. The priority shift to glasses is just the latest change to the company's headset strategy following an underwhelming debut by the Vision Pro. The $3,499 product, which melds virtual and augmented reality, is seen as too heavy and expensive to be a mainstream hit. It's also short on both video content and apps. Apple executives have acknowledged the product's shortcomings in private, viewing it as an overengineered piece of technology.



[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-01/apple-shelves-vision-headset-revamp-to-prioritize-meta-like-ai-smart-glasses



AirPods Pro 3 Impossible To Repair, Earn Score of 0 In iFixit Teardown (macrumors.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (BeauHD) from the environmentally-unfriendly dept.)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors:

> iFixit today [1]disassembled the AirPods Pro 3, giving us a look at what's inside and how the AirPods Pro 3 have changed in comparison to the AirPods Pro 2. [...] To get a look at other components inside the AirPods Pro 3, iFixit essentially had to destroy them because Apple didn't design them to be repaired. Since the first version of the AirPods launched, they've included a battery that is sealed shut with glue, and that hasn't changed with the AirPods Pro 3. iFixit says battery replacements are so difficult that many repair shops won't even attempt to do it. The AirPods Pro Charging Case has the same glued-in battery.

>

> There's no way to attempt a battery repair without causing blemishes on the plastic of the earbuds and the casing, because they have to be pried open. Heat needs to be used to melt the adhesive, and there's no easy way to disconnect the flex cable that's inside each earbud. With the need for specialized equipment and the inability to repair the earbuds and the case without causing damage, the AirPods Pro 3 [2]earned a 0 out of 10 repairability score from iFixit .



[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOsjsjvzp2E

[2] https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/01/ifixit-airpods-pro-3-teardown/



Meta Plans To Sell Targeted Ads Based On Data In Your AI Chats

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (BeauHD) from the strings-attached dept.)

Meta will begin using data from AI chatbot conversations and other AI-powered products to [1]fuel targeted advertising across Facebook and Instagram , with no way to opt out. The policy change, effective December 16, excludes users in South Korea, the UK, and the EU due to stricter privacy laws. TechCrunch reports:

> If a user chats with Meta AI about hiking, for example, the company may show ads for hiking gear. However, Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez tells TechCrunch that the privacy update is broader than just Meta AI and applies to the company's other AI offerings. That means Meta may use data from AI features in its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses -- including voice recordings, pictures, and videos analyzed with AI -- to further target its ad products.

>

> Meta may also use data from its new AI-video feed, Vibes, and its AI image generation product, Imagine. Conversations with Meta AI will only influence ads on Facebook and Instagram if a user is logged into the same account across products. [...] Meta says the company has "no plans imminently" to put ads in its AI products, though CEO Mark Zuckerberg has suggested they [2]may be coming in the future .



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/01/meta-plans-to-sell-targeted-ads-based-on-data-in-your-ai-chats/

[2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/ad-extinction-mark-zuckerberg-takes-125815262.html



Jane Goodall, Famed Primatologist and Conservationist, Dies At 91 (go.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (BeauHD) from the rest-in-peace dept.)

Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, anthropologist, and conservationist, has [1]died at the age of 91 while on a speaking tour in California. The British primatologist's "discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world," [2]according to the institute she founded . From a report:

> Goodall was only 26 years old when she first traveled to Tanzania and began her important research on chimpanzees in the wild. Throughout her study of the species, Goodall proved that primates display an array of similar behaviors to humans, such as the ability to develop individual personalities and make and use their own tools. Among the most surprising discoveries Goodall made was "how like us" the chimpanzees are, she [3]told ABC News in 2020 .

>

> "Their behavior, with their gestures, kissing, embracing, holding hands and patting on the back," she said. "... The fact that they can actually be violent and brutal and have a kind of war, but also loving an altruistic." That discovery is considered one of the great achievements of 20th-century scholarship, according to the Jane Goodall Institute. [...] Goodall's research garnered both scientific honors and mainstream fame, and she was credited with paving the way for a rise in women pursuing careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) over the years. The number of women in STEM has increased from 7% to 26% in the six last decades, according to The Jane Goodall Institute, which cited census information from 1970 to 2011.

>

> In 1991, she also founded Roots & Shoots, a global humanitarian and environmental program for young people. She was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace in April 2002. The anthropologist continued to lend her voice to environmental causes well into her 80s and 90s. In 2019, Goodall acknowledged the climate crisis and the importance of mitigating further warming, telling ABC News that the planet is "imperiled." "We are definitely at a point where we need to make something happen," she said.

>

> "We are imperiled. We have a window of time. I'm fairly sure we do. But, we've got to take action." Goodall even partnered with Apple in 2022 to encourage customers to recycle their devices to reduce individual carbon footprint and cut down on unnecessary mineral mining around the world. "Yes, people need to make money, but it is possible to make money without destroying the planet," Goodall told ABC News at the time. "We've gone so far in destroying the planet that it's shocking."



[1] https://abcnews.go.com/International/jane-goodall-famed-primatologist-anthropologist-conservationist-dead-91/story?id=109868347

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/DPRn2HTCFYt/?igsh=dXJ2c3hjcGlxZnEx

[3] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/world-chimpanzees-71759004



Cable Nostalgia Persists As Streaming Gets More Expensive, Fragmented (arstechnica.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (BeauHD) from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> TiVo's Q2 2025 Video Trends Report: North America [1]released today points to growth in cord reviving. It reads: "The share of respondents who cut the cord but later decided to resubscribe to a traditional TV service has [2]increased about 10 percent, to 31.9 percent in Q2 2025 ." TiVo's report is based on a survey conducted by an unspecified third-party survey service in Q2 2025. The respondents are 4,510 people who are at least 18 years old and living in the US or Canada, and the survey defines traditional TV services as pay-TV platforms offering linear television via cable, satellite, or managed IPTV platforms.

>

> It's important to note that TiVo is far from an impartial observer. In addition to selling an IPTV platform, its parent company, Xperi, works with cable, broadband, and pay-TV providers and would directly benefit from the existence or perception of a cord reviving "trend." When reached for comment, a TiVo spokesperson said via email that cord reviving is driven by a "mixture of reasons, with internet bundle costs, familiarity of use, and local content (sports, news, etc.) being the primary drivers." The rep noted that it's "likely" that those re-subscribing to traditional TV services are using them alongside some streaming subscriptions. "It's possible that users are churning off some [streaming] services where there is overlap with traditional TV services," TiVo's spokesperson said.



[1] https://go2.tivo.com/Video_Trends_Report_Q2_2025_NAM

[2] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/cable-nostalgia-lives-on-as-streaming-gets-more-expensive-fragmented/



A Bullet Crashed the Internet In Texas (404media.co)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (msmash) from the stranger-things dept.)

[1]alternative_right writes:

> Last week, thousands of people in North and Central Texas were suddenly knocked offline. [2]The cause? A bullet . The outage hit cities all across the state, including Dallas, Irving, Plano, Arlington, Austin, and San Antonio. The outage affected Spectrum customers and took down their phone lines and TV services as well as the internet.

>

> "The outage stemmed from a fiber optic cable that was damaged by a stray bullet," Spectrum told 404 Media. "Our teams worked quickly to make the necessary repairs and get customers back online. We apologize for the inconvenience."

>

> Spectrum told 404 Media that it didn't have any further details to share about the incident so we have no idea how the company learned a bullet hit its equipment, where the bullet was found, and if the police are involved.



[1] https://slashdot.org/~alternative_right

[2] https://www.404media.co/a-bullet-crashed-the-internet-in-texas/



Filipinos Are Addicted to Online Gambling. So Is Their Government (msn.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @11:21AM (msmash) from the revenue-over-lives dept.)

The Philippines became Asia's second-largest gambling hub after Macau last year as online betting proliferated across the archipelagic nation. Almost half of the country's 69 million working-age population is now registered on gambling apps, an exponential rise from less than half a million users in 2018. The government has become [1]increasingly dependent on the industry .

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. collects 30% of gross gaming revenue and has become the second-biggest revenue contributor among state-run companies after Land Bank of the Philippines. Revenue from online casino license fees is projected to reach $1 billion in 2025. More than 60 operators are regulated by the government.

Industry revenue almost tripled in 2024 from 2023 to 154.5 billion pesos. Revenue from internet betting eclipsed physical casinos for the first time this year. The central bank recently ordered e-wallets to remove links to betting sites, halving bets within days. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. rejected calls for a complete ban and said outlawing online betting would only spawn illicit operations that would be more difficult to eradicate.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/filipinos-are-addicted-to-online-gambling-so-is-their-government/ar-AA1MzFxz



Samsung Confirms Plan To Make Foldable Displays for Major American Company (macrumors.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @03:00AM (msmash) from the floodgates-are-opening dept.)

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> Samsung Display president Lee Cheong has confirmed plans to [1]make foldable smartphone displays for a major American company , which is widely believed to be Apple. As reported in Chosun Biz, Cheong last week told journalists in Seoul that the company is accelerating preparations for mass production of OLED displays designed for foldable smartphones to be supplied to a "North American client." He declined to provide further information about the client, but it is widely expected to be Apple.



[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/29/samsung-plan-to-make-foldable-displays/



UK Once Again Demands Backdoor To Apple's Encrypted Cloud Storage (arstechnica.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @03:00AM (msmash) from the old-habits-die-hard dept.)

The UK government has issued a new order to Apple to [1]create a backdoor into its cloud storage service , this time targeting only British users' data, despite US claims that Britain had [2]abandoned all attempts to break the tech giant's encryption . Financial Times:

> The UK Home Office demanded in early September that Apple create a means to allow officials access to encrypted cloud backups, but stipulated that the order applied only to British citizens' data, according to people briefed on the matter.

>

> A previous technical capability notice (TCN) issued in January sought global access to encrypted user data. That move sparked a diplomatic clash between the UK and US governments and threatened to derail the two nations' efforts to secure a trade agreement.

>

> In February, Apple [3]withdrew its most secure cloud storage service , iCloud Advanced Data Protection, from the UK. "Apple is still unable to offer Advanced Data Protection in the United Kingdom to new users," Apple said on Wednesday. "We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP are not available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy." It added: "As we have said many times before, we have never built a back door or master key to any of our products or services and we never will."



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/uk-once-again-demands-backdoor-to-apples-encrypted-cloud-storage/

[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/08/19/0345252/us-spy-chief-gabbard-says-uk-agreed-to-drop-backdoor-mandate-for-apple

[3] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/02/21/1529255/apple-removes-cloud-encryption-feature-from-uk-after-backdoor-order



Britain is Slowly Going Bust (economist.com)

(Wednesday October 01, 2025 @11:30PM (msmash) from the two-steps-back dept.)

Britain's net public debt has climbed from 35% of GDP in 2005 [1]to 95% today . The government is borrowing over 4% of GDP annually despite no emergency comparable to the financial crisis or pandemic that drove much of the earlier increase. The belt-tightening needed to stabilize debt levels amounts to about 2% of GDP. The Labour government holds a 157-seat majority in Parliament and has four years until the next election.

Britain spends about 6% of GDP supporting pensioners, an increase of over a third this century. Some 15% of the working-age population now claims jobless allowances following a surge in disability claims since the pandemic. Labour attempted to reduce spending on pensioners and welfare this year but reversed both reform plans after political outcry from within the party.

Tax revenue is already on course to reach 38% of GDP, a historical high for Britain. Labour promised before the election not to raise broad-based taxes on income and consumption. Four in five Britons say the government is mismanaging the economy. Yields on long-term government debt exceed those in any other major rich economy. The economy grew faster than any other G7 country in the first half of 2025, but the fiscal adjustment that would bring Britain to a primary surplus of less than 0.5% remains politically elusive.



[1] https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/09/25/britain-is-slowly-going-bust?giftId=6c9d804b-c7bb-433d-a935-1d4cbf89894e&utm_campaign=gifted_article



Nadella Appoints New CEO To Run Microsoft's Biggest Businesses (theverge.com)

(Wednesday October 01, 2025 @05:20PM (msmash) from the tectonic-AI-platform-shift dept.)

Microsoft is promoting Judson Althoff, currently executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, [1]to a new role as CEO of its commercial business . From a report:

> It's the latest shakeup inside the company, as Microsoft navigates what CEO Satya Nadella calls a "tectonic AI platform shift." It's also a move that will allow Nadella to focus on more technical work at Microsoft, while still remaining overall CEO.

>

> In an internal memo to employees today, Nadella announced Althoff's promotion and said it's linked with the need for Microsoft to reinvent itself in the AI era and "bring together sales, marketing, operations, and engineering to drive growth and strengthen our position as the partner of choice for AI transformation." Althoff has led Microsoft's global sales organization for the past nine years, helping the company build out its Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) division. He will now also be responsible for the operations and marketing teams that help sell Microsoft's software and services to businesses, but not the engineering teams that help build them.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/789558/microsoft-ceo-commercial-judson-althoff-internal-memo



Indian Court Tells Doctors To Fix Their Handwriting (bbc.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @03:00AM (msmash) from the handwriting-on-the-wall dept.)

A high court in India has ruled that [1]legible medical prescriptions are a fundamental right after a judge found a government doctor's report completely incomprehensible. Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri of the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued the order while reviewing a bail petition in an unrelated criminal case. The medico-legal report examining an alleged assault victim was written in handwriting that the judge said left not even a single word or letter legible.

The court directed India's government to add handwriting instruction to medical school curriculum and mandated a two-year timeline for rolling out digital prescriptions nationwide. Until electronic systems are implemented, all doctors must write prescriptions in capital letters. The Indian Medical Association, representing over 330,000 physicians, told BBC it would help address the issue. Association president Dr Dilip Bhanushali said doctors in Indian cities have largely adopted digital prescriptions but practitioners in rural areas and small towns continue using handwritten notes.



[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0r88nrx70o



Microsoft Raises Xbox Game Pass Top Subscription 50% To $30 Monthly (hollywoodreporter.com)

(Wednesday October 01, 2025 @05:20PM (msmash) from the fifty-percent-more-ultimate dept.)

Microsoft has announced that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will [1]cost $29.99 per month , up from $19.99. The company restructured its subscription service into three tiers ahead of the October 16 launch of two Xbox ROG Ally handheld consoles. The new Essential tier offers 50-plus games for $9.99 monthly. Premium includes 200-plus games for $14.99. Ultimate subscribers gain access to more than 400 games, day-one releases, improved cloud streaming quality, and services including EA Play, Ubisoft+ Classics, and Fortnite Crew.

Game Pass generated nearly $5 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue with 34 million subscribers in 2024. Console hardware prices are also increasing, with the Xbox Series X rising $50 to $649.99 starting October 3.



[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/xbox-game-pass-price-how-much-does-it-cost-asus-rog-ally-x-1236390793/



A 'Godfather of AI' Remains Concerned as Ever About Human Extinction (msn.com)

(Thursday October 02, 2025 @03:00AM (msmash) from the doubling-down dept.)

Yoshua Bengio called for a pause on AI model development two years ago to [1]focus on safety standards . Companies instead invested hundreds of billions of dollars into building more advanced models capable of executing long chains of reasoning and taking autonomous action. The A.M. Turing Award winner and Universite de Montreal professor told the Wall Street Journal that [2]his concerns about existential risk have not diminished .

Bengio founded the nonprofit research organization LawZero earlier this year to explore how to build truly safe AI models. Recent experiments demonstrate AI systems in some circumstances choose actions that cause human death over abandoning their assigned goals. OpenAI recently insisted that current frontier model frameworks will not eliminate hallucinations. Bengio, however, said even a 1% chance of catastrophic events like extinction or the destruction of democracies is unacceptable. He estimates advanced AI capable of posing such risks could arrive in five to ten years but urged treating three years as the relevant timeframe. The race condition between competing AI companies focused on weekly version releases remains the biggest barrier to adequate safety work, he said.



[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/05/30/1149219/ai-poses-risk-of-extinction-industry-leaders-warn

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/a-godfather-of-ai-remains-concerned-as-ever-about-human-extinction/ar-AA1NF4Np



China's K-visa Plans Spark Worries of a Talent Flood (cnbc.com)

(Wednesday October 01, 2025 @05:20PM (msmash) from the elsewhere-in-the-world dept.)

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> Immigration anxieties and a challenging job market have [1]sparked an online backlash over China's latest attempt at attracting global talent -- a new visa program announced in August. The program, which was rolled out on Wednesday with the aim of attracting foreign professionals, will also test how China balances its immigration policy with its pursuit of technological ambitions.

>

> Under the new rules, young graduates -- in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM -- no longer need backing from a local employer and can enjoy more flexibility in terms for entry frequency and duration of stay. The keyword "K-visa" -- as China's new visa category is called -- was among the top searches on social media site Weibo for days, before chatter about National Day traffic jams pushed it off the charts as millions hit the road for a week-long holiday.

>

> Chinese social media users argue that the new visa tilts the playing field toward foreign graduates at the expense of those educated in China. Others on Weibo warned that without employer sponsorship, the program could invite fraudulent applications and open the door to a surge in arrivals from developing countries, piling pressure on an already strained labor market.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/01/cnbcs-the-china-connection-newsletter-chinas-k-visa-plans-spark-worries-of-a-talent-flood.html



Spooked By AI, Bollywood Stars Drag Google Into Fight For 'Personality Rights' (reuters.com)

(Wednesday October 01, 2025 @05:20PM (msmash) from the global-trend dept.)

In India, Bollywood stars are asking judges to protect their voice and persona in the era of AI. From a report:

> One famous couple's biggest target is Google's YouTube. Abhishek Bachchan and his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, known for her iconic Cannes Film Festival red carpet appearances, have asked a judge to remove and prohibit creation of AI videos infringing their intellectual property rights. But in a more far-reaching request, they also want Google ordered to have safeguards to ensure such YouTube videos uploaded anyway [1]do not train other AI platforms , legal papers reviewed by Reuters show.

>

> A handful of Bollywood celebrities have begun asserting their "personality rights" in Indian courts over the last few years, as the country has no explicit protection for those like in many U.S. states. But the Bachchans' lawsuits are the most high-profile to date about the interplay of personality rights and the risk that misleading or deepfake YouTube videos could train other AI models. The actors argue that YouTube's content and third-party training policy is concerning as it lets users consent to sharing of a video they created to train rival AI models, risking further proliferation of misleading content online, according to near-identical filings from Abhishek and Aishwarya dated September 6, which are not public.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/spooked-by-ai-bollywood-stars-drag-google-into-fight-personality-rights-2025-10-01/



More

You'd like to do it instantaneously, but that's too slow.