Deezer says AI-generated songs [1]now make up 44% of all new uploads to its platform , with nearly 75,000 arriving each day and more than two million per month. The company notes that consumption of these tracks is still very low, "between 1-3% of the total streams," and 85% are flagged as fraudulent. TechCrunch reports:

> The latest figure from Deezer highlights a continuous surge in AI-generated music uploads to the platform. Deezer reported receiving around 60,000 AI tracks per day in January, up from 50,000 in November, 30,000 in September, and just 10,000 in January 2025, when it first launched its AI-music detection tool.

>

> Songs tagged as AI-generated on Deezer are automatically removed from algorithmic recommendations and not included in editorial playlists. The company announced today that it will no longer store hi-res versions of AI tracks.

"AI-generated music is now far from a marginal phenomenon and as daily deliveries keep increasing, we hope the whole music ecosystem will join us in taking action to help safeguard artists' rights and promote transparency for fans," said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier in a [2]press release . "Thanks to our technology and the proactive measures we put in place more than a year ago, we have shown that it's possible to reduce AI-related fraud and payment dilution in streaming to a minimum."



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/20/deezer-says-44-of-songs-uploaded-to-its-platform-daily-are-ai-generated/

[2] https://newsroom-deezer.com/2026/04/ai-generated-tracks-represent-44-of-new-uploaded-music/

"After a Supreme Court of the United States ruling in Feb. 2026, many tariffs imposed by the Trump administration were [1]declared illegal because the president overstepped his authority," writes Slashdot reader [2]hcs_$reboot . "As a result, the U.S. government now [3]has to refund a massive amount of money, around $160-170+ billion, paid mainly by importers." According to the New York Times, the administration has now [4]begun accepting refund requests , "surrendering its prized source of revenue -- plus interest." From the report:

> For some U.S. businesses, the highly anticipated refunds could be substantial, offering critical if belated financial relief. Tariffs are taxes on imports, so the president's trade policies have served as a great burden for companies that rely on foreign goods. Many have had to choose whether to absorb the duties, cut other costs or pass on the expenses to consumers. By Monday morning, those companies can begin to submit documentation to the government to recover what they paid in illegal tariffs.

>

> In a sign of the demand, more than 3,000 businesses, including FedEx and Costco, have already sued the Trump administration in a bid to secure their refunds, with some cases filed even before the Supreme Court's ruling. But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump's policies -- including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought -- are not able to apply for direct relief.

>

> The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout. Many business owners said they weren't sure how easy the tariff refund process would be, particularly given Mr. Trump's stated opposition to returning the money. The administration has suggested that it may be months before companies see any money. Adding to the uncertainty, the White House has declined to say if it might still try to return to court in a bid to halt some or all of the refunds.

The money will mostly go to importers and companies, since they were the ones that directly paid the tariffs. While individual refunds with interest could take around 60 to 90 days to process, the overall effort will probably move much more slowly because of how large and complicated it will be.

There are also legal questions around whether companies would have to pass any of that money on to consumers. Slashdot reader AmiMoJo commented: "This is perhaps the biggest transfer of wealth in American history. Most of those companies will just pocket the refund and not pass any of it on to the consumer. If prices go down at all, they won't be back to pre-tariff levels. You paid the tariffs, but you ain't getting the refund."



[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/02/20/1529240/us-supreme-court-rejects-trumps-global-tariffs

[2] https://slashdot.org/~hcs_%24reboot

[3] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/06/2224256/trump-administration-says-it-cant-process-tariff-refunds-because-of-computer-problems

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/business/trump-administration-tariff-refunds.html

[1]DeanonymizedCoward writes:

> Engadget reports that Palantir has [2]posted to X a summary of CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska's 2025 book,

>> [3]The Technological Republic ,

> which [4]reads like a utopian idealist doodled on a Bond villain's whiteboard . While the post makes some decent points, it also highlights the Big-AI attitude that the AI surveillance state is in fact a good thing, and strongly implies that the Good Guys need to do war crimes before the Bad Guys get around to it.

"The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal," one of the 22 points states. "It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software."

The book is billed as "a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality," and other excerpts in the social media post include assertions such as: "Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public"; "National service should be a universal duty"; "The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone"; and "Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive."

The statement criticizes the West's resistance to "defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity," as well as the treatment of billionaires and the "ruthless exposure of the private lives of public figures."



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

[2] https://x.com/PalantirTech/status/2045574398573453312?s=20

[3] https://techrepublicbook.com/

[4] https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/palantir-posted-a-manifesto-that-reads-like-the-ramblings-of-a-comic-book-villain-181947361.html

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg, written by writer Austin Carr:

> Allbirds is pivoting to artificial intelligence. The San Francisco brand, whose wool running shoes were once the sneaker du jour among the tech crowd, [1]announced last week that it was expanding into AI computing infrastructure. The bizarre strategic shift was immediately greeted with a surprising frenzy on Wall Street, where shares of Allbirds soared 582% last Wednesday before dropping the next day. [...] Of course, the absurdity of Allbirds' situation echoed familiar Silicon Valley tropes -- from the endless startup pivots of the 2010s to the more recent boom-and-bust cycles of arbitrarily valued crypto coins. But it immediately [2]reminded me of the marketing ploys of the dot-com crash . After all, some of the more iconic fails ended up being retailers such as Pets.com, Webvan, etc., riding the web wave with little to show for it beyond terrible margins.

>

> One particular comparison from that period stands out as relevant to Allbirds: Zap.com. The holding company behind it, Zapata Corp., had a long and convoluted history, but was essentially selling fish-oil products by the time it decided to reinvent itself as an internet portal. It amassed a variety of web properties -- in media, e-commerce, gaming and so on -- and even once tried to acquire the search engine Excite. Spoiler alert: Zap flopped. Jen Heck, then a young employee at one of Zap's up-and-coming portfolio entities, remembers how quickly the hype of that web 1.0 turned to hell. As absurd as Zapata's pivot sounds today, it seemed feasible during the excitement of the internet revolution. "We went from like, 'Wow, this life thing is just so easy,' to it all ending so suddenly," Heck recalls. The ones who survived that tech bubble, she says, actually had differentiated products and the right creative thinkers building them -- and weren't just cynically jumping on the latest hot trend. "'Internet' was the magic word then, and 'AI' is the magic word now," Heck says.



[1] https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/04/15/1646259/struggling-shoe-retailer-allbirds-pivots-to-ai-stock-explodes-more-than-700

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-04-20/allbirds-pivot-to-ai-stirs-memory-of-dot-com-boom-and-bust

There's been a few complaints about Amazon's drone delivery service. "The automated mailmen are dropping off packages from 10 feet in the air," [1]reports the New York Post , "rendering the contents of each box susceptible to crashing and smashing."

One example? Tamara Hancock [2]filmed a drone delivering a bottle of Torani flavoring syrup to her home in Arizona (as a test of how Amazon handled fragile items). It was delivered it in a plastic bottle — not glass — but the massive drone drops the drone from so high that the impact cracked the bottle's cap. (In the video Hancock opens her delivery to find leaked flavoring syrup "everywhere.")

The delivery was hard to film, Hancock says, because "If the drone sees me in the back yard, it will not drop, because it is worried about hurting humans or animals." The Post notes Amazon's "AI-charged fleet" of drones are "Outfitted with industry-leading ' [3]sense and avoid' technology , the aerodynamic machines are equipped to drop off eligible items, weighing a maximum of five pounds, at designated areas in 60 minutes or less."

> The high-tech, however, apparently does not ensure gentle landings. Collisions, including a recent [4]crash-and-burn into a Texas building , as well as several [5]mid-flight malfunctions in rainy weather , have abounded since the drones' inaugural launch....

>

> Tasha, a separate Amazon user, [6]spotted the drone plunging a package near the paved driveway of a neighbor's yard. Unfortunately, its propellers caused other, previously delivered parcels to blow away, sending one into the street... In a statement to The Post, Amazon said it apologized for one of the "rare instances when products don't arrive as expected."

Amazon's drone fleet has been running since late 2024, the Post adds, and are now offering "ultra-fast" shipping in U.S. states including Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Kansas and Texas.

The machines do seem massive. I'm surprised neighbors aren't complaining about the noise ...



[1] https://nypost.com/2026/04/17/lifestyle/amazon-customers-claim-delivery-drones-are-damaging-orders/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYZL8nmDODw

[3] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/amazon-prime-air-drone-delivery-mk30-photos

[4] https://nypost.com/2026/02/09/us-news/amazon-delivery-drone-smashes-into-texas-apartment-building/

[5] https://nypost.com/2025/01/20/business/amazon-suspends-commercial-drone-deliveries-in-texas-and-arizona/

[6] https://www.tiktok.com/@tashaloveswill/video/7574478818237320461?embed_source=121374463%2C121468991%2C121439635%2C121749182%2C121433650%2C121404359%2C121497414%2C122221973%2C122122240%2C121351166%2C121811500%2C121960941%2C122122244%2C122122243%2C122122242%2C121487028%2C121679410%2C122258714%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%2C121885509%3Bnull%3Bembed_share&refer=embed&referer_url=nypost.com%2F2026%2F04%2F17%2Flifestyle%2Famazon-customers-claim-delivery-drones-are-damaging-orders%2F&referer_video_id=7574478818237320461

Zoom "has [1]partnered with World , Sam Altman's iris-scanning identity company (previously known as Worldcoin), " [2]reports Digital Trends , "to add real-time human verification inside meetings." Zoom is now inviting organizations to join the beta version of the rollout, which Digital Trends says "lets hosts confirm that every face on the call belongs to a real person, not an AI-generated imposter. "

> For those wondering [3]how World's Deep Face technology works , it includes a three-step process. It cross-references a signed image from a user's original Orb registration, a live face scan from the device, and the frame of the video that's visible to the other participants in the meeting. Only when the three samples match does a "Verified Human" badge appear next to the user's name...

>

> Hosts can also make Deep Face verification mandatory for joining meetings, preventing unverified participants from joining entirely. Mid-call, on-the-spot checks are also possible...



[1] https://news.zoom.com/zoom-and-tools-for-humanity/

[2] https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/zoom-will-now-check-if-you-are-a-human-or-an-ai-imposter-during-video-meetings/

[3] https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/wanna-scan-your-iris-for-crypto-sam-altmans-orb-comes-to-u-s/

The Brave browser "has introduced Brave Origin, a stripped-down version of its browser that removes built-in monetization features like Rewards and other extras tied to its business model," writes Slashdot reader [1]BrianFagioli "

> The stripped-down browser is available either as a separate browser download or as an upgrade to the existing Brave install, unlocked through [2]a one-time purchase that can be activated across multiple devices. The idea is simple on paper: pay once, and you get a cleaner, more minimal browsing experience without the add-ons that fund Brave's ecosystem. What makes the move unusual is the pricing model itself. While paying to support a browser is not controversial, charging users specifically to remove features [3]raises questions about whether those additions are seen as value or clutter.

>

> The situation gets even stranger [4]on Linux , where Brave Origin is reportedly available at no cost, creating an uneven experience across platforms and leaving some users wondering why they are being asked to pay for something others get for free.



[1] https://www.slashdot.org/~BrianFagioli

[2] https://account.brave.com/?intent=checkout&product=origin

[3] https://nerds.xyz/2026/04/brave-origin-browser/

[4] https://brave.com/origin/linux/nightly/

Axios reports that the NSA is [1]using Anthropic's restricted Mythos Preview model despite the Pentagon insisting the company poses a " [2]supply chain risk ." Axios reports:

> The government's cybersecurity needs appear to be outweighing the Pentagon's feud with Anthropic. The department moved in February to cut off Anthropic and force its vendors to follow suit. That case is ongoing. The military is now broadening its use of Anthropic's tools while simultaneously arguing in court that using those tools threatens U.S. national security.

>

> Two sources said the NSA was using Mythos, while one said the model was also being used more widely within the department. It's unclear how the NSA is currently using Mythos, but other organizations with access to the model are using it predominantly to [3]scan their own environments for exploitable security vulnerabilities.

>

> Anthropic restricted access to Mythos to around 40 organizations, contending that its offensive cyber capabilities were too dangerous to allow for a wider release. Anthropic only announced 12 of those organizations. One source said the NSA was among the unnamed agencies with access. The NSA's counterparts in the U.K. have said they have access to the model through the country's AI Security Institute.

Anthropic's CEO [4]met with top U.S. officials on Friday to discuss "opportunities for collaboration," according to a White House spokesperson, "as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology."



[1] https://www.axios.com/2026/04/19/nsa-anthropic-mythos-pentagon

[2] https://slashdot.org/story/26/03/05/2233247/pentagon-formally-designates-anthropic-a-supply-chain-risk

[3] https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/04/07/2115208/anthropic-unveils-claude-mythos-powerful-ai-with-major-cyber-implications

[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/04/18/039221/us-government-now-wants-anthropics-mythos-preparing-for-ai-cybersecurity-threats

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:

> The winning runner at a Beijing half-marathon for humanoid robots [1]finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds -- significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. [...] [T]he winning time is a massive improvement over last year's race, when the fastest robot finished in [2]two hours and 40 minutes .

>

> The Associated Press [3]reports that this year's winner was built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor. It seems the winning robot wasn't actually the fastest, as a different Honor robot finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But that one was remote controlled -- the 50:26 robot was autonomous and won due to weighted scoring. About 40% of participating robots competed autonomously, while the remaining 60% were remote controlled, according to Beijing's E-Town tech hub. Not all of them did as well as Honor's robots, with one robot falling at the starting line and another hitting a barrier.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/19/robots-beat-human-records-at-beijing-half-marathon/

[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/04/19/0659220/china-pits-humanoid-robots-against-humans-in-half-marathon

[3] https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/humanoid-robot-sprints-victory-beijing-beating-human-half-132179294

[1] SpaceNews reports :

> Blue Origin's New Glenn suffered a malfunction of its second stage on the rocket's third flight April 19, stranding its payload in an unrecoverable "off-nominal" orbit and dealing the company a setback as it seeks to increase its flight rate... AST SpaceMobile had planned to launch 45 to 60 satellites this year for its D2D constellation, but BlueBird 7 is the first to launch since BlueBird 6 [2]launched on an Indian LVM3 rocket in December .

AST SpaceMobile still expects to have 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year, the article notes. (In an earnings call in March, AST SpaceMobile's CEO had promised they'd soon start "stacking" satellites, "batched in groups of either three, four, six or eight in a single launch.") He'd added that "To support our launch cadence during 2026, we expect the New Glenn booster to be reused every 30 days or less..."

There's some good news there, SpaceNews points out, since today saw the first successful reflight of a New Glenn first stage rocket:

> The booster, called "Never Tell Me The Odds" by Blue Origin, touched down on the company's landing platform, Jacklyn, in the Atlantic Ocean nearly nine and a half minutes after liftoff. The booster [3]launched NASA's ESCAPADE Mars mission on the NG-2 flight in November . However, the booster reuse on NG-3 was only partial since the stage's biggest component, its BE-4 engines, was new. "With our first refurbished booster we elected to replace all seven engines and test out a few upgrades including a thermal protection system on one of the engine nozzles," Dave Limp, chief executive of Blue Origin, said in [4]an April 13 social media post . "We plan to use the engines we flew for NG-2 on future flights."

The satellite will now be "de-orbited", AST SpaceMobile said in a statement. (They added that "The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company's insurance policy.")

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [5]schwit1 for sharing the news.



[1] https://spacenews.com/third-new-glenn-launch-suffers-upper-stage-malfunction/

[2] https://spacenews.com/indian-rocket-launches-ast-spacemobiles-next-gen-bluebird-6-satellite/

[3] https://spacenews.com/new-glenn-launches-nasas-escapade-mars-mission-lands-booster/

[4] https://x.com/davill/status/2043785791894368479

[5] https://slashdot.org/~schwit1

After 49 years of space travel, Voyager 1 "is running out of power," [1]reports NPR :

> The spacecraft runs on a radioisotope thermoelectric generator — a device that converts heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. It carries no solar panels, no rechargeable batteries. Just the slow, steady release of nuclear warmth, which diminishes by about 4 watts each year. After nearly five decades, that decline has become critical.

>

> During a routine maneuver in late February, Voyager 1's power levels fell unexpectedly, bringing the probe dangerously close to triggering an automatic fault-protection shutdown — a self-preservation response that would have forced engineers into a lengthy and risky recovery process. The team needed to act first. On April 17, mission engineers sent a sequence of commands to deactivate the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, known as the LECP, which is one of Voyager 1's remaining science instruments. The LECP has measured ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from both our solar system and the galaxy beyond it, helping scientists map the structure of interstellar space in a way no other instrument could...

>

> Voyager 1 now carries two operational science instruments: one that listens for plasma waves, and one that measures magnetic fields. Engineers believe the latest shutdown could buy the mission roughly another year of breathing room. The team is also developing a [2]more sweeping power conservation plan they informally call "the Big Bang" — a coordinated swap of several powered components all at once, trading older systems for lower-power alternatives. If testing on Voyager 2, planned for May and June 2026, goes well, the same procedure will be attempted on Voyager 1 no sooner than July. If it works, there is even a slim chance the LECP could once more continue to work.

>

> The engineers say they hope to keep at least one instrument operating on each spacecraft into the 2030s. It would leave both still reporting from places no machine has ever gone before.111

Voyager 1 is now 15 billion miles from Earth, the article points out. (Radio signals take 23 hours to arrive...)

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [3]fahrbot-bot for sharing the article.



[1] https://www.npr.org/2026/04/19/nx-s1-5789935/voyager-1-probe-nasa

[2] https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyager/2026/04/17/nasa-shuts-off-instrument-on-voyager-1-to-keep-spacecraft-operating/

[3] https://www.slashdot.org/~fahrbot-bot

[1] Live Science spoke with physicist David Gross , who today received the $3 million "Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics". He was part of a trio that won the 2004 physics Nobel prize for research that helped complete the Standard Model of particle physics. But when asked if physics will reach a unified theory of the fundamental forces of nature within 50 years, Gross has a surprising answer. "Currently, I spend part of my time trying to tell people... that the chances of you living 50 [more] years are very small."

Cold War estimates for a 1% chance of nuclear war each year seem low, Gross says. "The chances are more likely 2%. So that's a 1-in-50 chance every year."

> David Gross: The expected lifetime, in the case of 2% [per year], is about 35 years. [The expected lifetime is the average time it would take to have had a nuclear war by then. It is calculated using similar equations as those used to determine the "half-life" of a radioactive material.]

>

> Live Science: So what do you suggest as remedies to lower that risk?

>

> Gross: We had something called the Nobel Laureate Assembly for reducing the risk of nuclear war in Chicago last year. There are steps, which are easy to take — for nations, I mean. For example, talk to each other. In the last 10 years, there are no treaties anymore. We're entering an incredible arms race.

>

> We have three super nuclear powers. People are talking about using nuclear weapons; there's a major war going on in the middle of Europe; we're bombing Iran; India and Pakistan almost went to war. OK, so that's increased the chance [of nuclear war]. I would really like to have a solid estimate — it might be more, and I think I'm being conservative — but a 2% estimate [of nuclear war] in today's crazy world.

>

> Live Science: Do you think we'll ever get to a place where we get rid of nuclear weapons?

>

> Gross: We're not recommending that. That's idealistic, but yes, I hope so. Because if you don't, there's always some risk an AI 100 years from now [could launch nuclear weapons], but chances of [humanity] living, with this estimate, 100 years, is very small, and living 200 years is infinitesimal. So [the answer to] Fermi's question of "Where are the civilizations, all the intelligent organisms around the galaxy, and why don't they talk to us?" is that they've killed themselves...

>

> There are now nine nuclear powers. Even three is infinitely more complicated than two. The agreements, the norms between countries, are all falling apart. Weapons are getting crazier. Automation, and perhaps even AI, will be in control of those instruments pretty soon... It's going to be very hard to resist making AI make decisions because it acts so fast.

He points out that with the threat of climate change, "people have done something," even though "It's a much harder argument to make than about nuclear weapons.

"We made them; we can stop them."

Thanks to [2]hwstar (Slashdot reader #35,834) for sharing the article.



[1] https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/the-chances-of-you-living-50-years-are-very-small-theoretical-physicist-explains-why-humanity-likely-wont-survive-to-see-all-the-forces-unified

[2] https://www.slashdot.org/~hwstar

In October and through November, America's EV sales reached their lowest point since 2022 after government subsidies expired, [1]remembers Time . "But first-quarter data for 2026 shows that [2]used EV sales were 12% higher than the same time last year and 17% higher than the previous quarter.

"One factor likely helping push buyers toward these cars is high gas prices, which recently topped $4.00 a gallon for the first time in four years," they write — but it's not just in the U.S. Instead, they argue the U.S.-Iran conflict "is driving a global surge of interest in electric vehicles..."

> In the U.K., electric car sales reached a record high, with 86,120 vehicles [3]sold in March... The French online used-car retailer Aramisauto reported its share of EV sales nearly [4]doubled from February 16 to March 9, rising to 12.7% from 6.5%, while sales of fueled models dropped to 28% of sales from 34%, and sales of diesel models dropped to 10% from 14%. Germany's largest online car market, [5]mobile.de , told [6]Reuters that the share of EV searches on its website has tripled since the start of March — from 12% to 36%, with car dealers receiving 66% more enquiries for used EVs than in February.

>

> South Korea reported that registrations for electric vehicles more than doubled in March compared to the prior year, due in part to rising fuel prices and government subsidies... In New Zealand, more than 1,000 EVs were registered in the week that ended on March 22, close to double the week before, making it the country's biggest week for electric vehicle registrations since the end of 2023, according to the country's [7]Transport Minister , Chris Bishop.

In America, Bloomberg also reports 605 high-speed EV charging stations switched on in just the first three months of 2025, "a [8]34% increase over the year-earlier period ," according to their analysis of federal data. A data platform focused on EV infrastructure tells Bloomberg that speedier and more reliable chargers are convincing more drivers to go electric and use public plugs.



[1] https://time.com/article/2026/04/08/how-the-iran-war-is-pushing-more-people-to-buy-evs/

[2] https://electrek.co/2026/04/07/used-evs-just-hit-a-sales-record-a-much-bigger-wave-is-coming/

[3] https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/car-registrations/

[4] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/used-ev-sales-jump-europe-iran-war-drives-up-petrol-prices-2026-03-26/

[5] http://mobile.de/

[6] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/used-ev-sales-jump-europe-iran-war-drives-up-petrol-prices-2026-03-26/

[7] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWXYjqnGobj/

[8] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-04-08/us-ev-fast-charging-network-grows-amid-high-gas-prices

NBC News reports on a 16-person clinical trial of " [1]personalized messenger RNA vaccines " which use the immune system to fight cancer cells. "The goal is not to eliminate existing tumors, but instead to stamp out lingering, undetected cancer cells, and later any new cells that form before they can cause a recurrence."

> Patients still have surgery to remove tumors. After that, the mRNA vaccines are personalized for each individual using genetic material taken from their unique tumor cells. In the clinical trial, after getting the vaccine, the patients also received chemotherapy, which is standard post-op treatment for operable pancreatic cancer... [The article notes that less than 13% of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer [2]live for more than five years , making it "one of the deadliest cancers."]

>

> [E]xperts have long believed that people with pancreatic cancer could not generate an immune response against tumors. But after nine doses of the personalized vaccine, [clinical trial participant Donna] Gustafson is one of eight people in the 16-person Phase 1 trial who did just that, producing an army of immune cells called T cells that seek out and destroy tumor cells... [Dr. Vinod Balachandran, a vaccine center director who is leading the trial, said] it was unclear whether the immune response would last and lead to the patients living longer... New data collected during the trial's six-year follow-up period shows that it may. Those findings will be presented Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting in San Diego. Six years after treatment, Gustafson and six others who responded to the treatment are still alive...

>

> More research is still needed. Genentech and BioNTech, the two drugmakers behind the vaccine, have already launched a larger Phase 2 clinical trial... Another team is working on an [3]off-the-shelf vaccine that targets a protein called KRAS that is present in as many as 90% of pancreatic cancers. In a small, early trial, about 85% of the participants mounted an immune response to the protein.



[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/pancreatic-cancer-mrna-vaccine-shows-lasting-results-early-trial-rcna331969

[2] https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/pancreas.html

[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/pancreatic-cancer-vaccine-prevents-recurrence-phase-1-clinical-trial-rcna223980

"Motorola has filed a lawsuit in India against social media platforms and content creators," [1]reports TechCrunch , "over posts it alleges are defamatory..."

> The lawsuit, filed in a Bengaluru court and obtained by TechCrunch, names platforms such as X, YouTube, and Instagram along with dozens of content creators, and seeks takedown of the content as well as broader restraint on what it describes as false or defamatory material related to the company's devices. In its over 60-page filing, Motorola has sought a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from publishing or sharing what it describes as false or defamatory content about its products, including reviews, videos, comments, and boycott campaigns.

>

> The complaint cites hundreds of posts across platforms, including videos alleging device issues and phones catching fire. But it is also targeting unfavorable product reviews and user commentary that the company alleges are false or defamatory. In a statement after publication, a Motorola spokesperson said it had initiated legal action "in the interest of public safety" against what it described as demonstrably false claims that its devices had exploded or caught fire.

One online creator told TechCrunch "they expect more such legal action in the future, as evolving rules around online content increase liability for creators and platforms — a trend reflected in [2]recently proposed changes to India's IT rules aimed at tightening oversight of online content."

A Motorola spokesperson "said the company did not seek to suppress legitimate reviews or criticism and was reviewing the scope of the proceedings, adding that it apologized to creators affected inadvertently."



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/15/motorola-sues-social-platforms-and-creators-over-posts-raising-speech-concerns-in-india/

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9mx2j3xlxo

Ahead of December's release of Avengers: Doomsday , Disney has unveiled "Infinity Vision," [1]reports Kotaku , which they describe as "a new theater-going experience that will be certain to transform your pedestrian $15 night out into an exotic $43 one." (Though those prices appear to be estimates...)

[2]Disney's announcement calls it "a new certification for premium large format (PLF) theaters," helping ticket-buyers find "a huge screen with the sharpest, clearest color and sound," including laser projection "for superior brightness and clarity ") and "premium audio formats for fully immersive sound".

> Light on specifics, Disney says they will be certifying premium large format theaters for the Infinity Vision experience, highlighting laser projection and immersive audio quality. The new program will begin in the summer for a theater run of 2019's Avengers: Endgame ahead of Doomsday 's holiday release.

>

> Now you might be thinking: Giant screen? Booming audio? That sounds an awful lot like IMAX. The most consumer-recognized premium movie-going screen is the coveted throne for big blockbuster events, from Avatar to One Battle After Another . Unfortunately for Doomsday , IMAX screens are [3]already booked for the holiday season by Dune: Part Three , the anticipated return to Arrakis, where Timothée Chalamet's Muad'Dib will begin to go worm-mode. Locked out of the popular choice for doubling your ticket price, Disney appears to have made up a new one...

>

> Disney says they aim to certify 75 theaters in the United States and 300 internationally for the Infinity Vision program.



[1] https://kotaku.com/disney-creates-their-own-imax-to-charge-more-for-avengers-doomsday-tickets-2000688803

[2] https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/news/infinity-vision-movie-theaters/

[3] https://deadline.com/2026/04/dune-part-three-imax-70mm-1236782986/

Back in the 1990s, floppy disks "had a mere capacity of 1.44MB," [1]remembers XDA Developers , "which would soon become absolutely tiny for the increasingly large pieces of software that would come about."

> Floppy disks also felt quite fragile, and while we got "superfloppy" formats that were physically larger and had more capacity, those were pretty unwieldy as portable storage. Enter 1994, when a company called Iomega introduced its variant of a "superfloppy", the Zip drive... [T]he initial capacity introduced in 1994 reached a whopping 100MB, which was huge number when put up against the traditional floppy disk. Zip drives also had major performance benefits, with read speeds that could average 1.4MB/s, as opposed to the comparatively sluggish 16kB/s speeds of a traditional floppy disk, as well as a seek time of around 28ms seconds, whereas a floppy disk averaged 200ms. Zip drives weren't quite as fast as desktop HDDs, but for portable storage, this was a huge step forward...

>

> [I]n 1998, Iomega introduced the Zip 250 disks, which increased the capacity to 250MB, and, already in the new millennium, we got the Zip 750, which took that further to 750MB... It was an appealing enough proposition that big computer manufacturers like Dell started including a Zip drive in some of their PCs. Even Apple included Zip drives in some of its Power Macintosh models from the mid-to-late 90s. However, things started to shift towards the end of the decade as other portable formats rose to prominence, most notably CDs and USB flash drives.

>

> Despite their initial success, it didn't take long for users to start noticing a major drawback of Zip drives: many times, they would just fail. It wasn't necessarily related to age or any particular misuse of the disks, it just happened. It was a big enough phenomenon that it became known as the "click of death", and once it happened, your drive was gone. The problem was estimated by Iomega to affect around 0.5% of Zip drives, but while that sounds like a small number, when you sell products by the thousands, it becomes fairly widespread. It was a big enough issue that, in September 1998, a class action lawsuit was filed against Iomega for the common problems. Some of the complaints in that lawsuit were eventually dismissed by the court of Delaware, but others were not, and once the public became aware of the problems with Zip drives, it was hard for the brand to make a comeback.

>

> It didn't help that this happened around the same time as formats such as CDs were becoming more popular... And eventually, USB flash drives became the most popular way to carry data around since they were smaller and offered much faster speeds... Eventually, after seeing its profits plummet by the mid-2000s, Iomega was sold to a company called EMC in 2008, and in 2013, EMC and Lenovo formed a joint venture that took over Iomega's business and removed all of the Iomega branding from its products.

The article does note that "as late as 2014, some aviation companies were still using Zip drives to distribute updates for navigation databases." Are there any Slashdot readers who still remember their own Zip drive experiences?

Share your memories in the comments of that once-so-trendy storage technology from the 1990s...



[1] https://www.xda-developers.com/zip-drives-dominated-90s-vanished-almost-overnight/

Last May Duolingo's stock peaked at $529.05. But while the learning app passed $1 billion in revenue in 2025 and 50 million daily active users, today its stock price has dropped [1]more than 81% , to $100.51.

And there's been other changes, [2]reports Entrepreneur :

> In April 2025, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn made headlines after writing a memo calling the company " [3]AI-first ." In [4]the memo , von Ahn announced that the language-learning platform would track employees' AI use in performance reviews. Now, a year later, von Ahn is backtracking and rethinking how he measures employee performance. He told the Silicon Valley Girl [5]podcast earlier this month that Duolingo no longer considers AI use in performance reviews.

>

> The change arose after employees started to ask, "Do you just want us to use AI for AI's sake?" von Ahn explained. "We said no, look — the most important thing in your performance is that you are doing whatever your job is as well as possible. A lot of times, AI can help you with that, but if it can't, I'm not going to force you to do that," von Ahn said on the podcast. He felt as though the company was "trying to push something that in some cases did not fit" instead of "being held accountable for the actual outcome." The CEO is, however, still sticking to other "constructive constraints" he introduced in the April 2025 memo, including stopping contractor hiring in cases where AI can assume their workload...

>

> Von Ahn also mentioned that a few months ago, Duolingo had a day [6]dedicated to vibe coding , or prompting AI to create an app without manually writing a single line of code. Every single person at the company, from engineers to human resources professionals, had to vibe code an app. Vibe coding has made an impact at the company. One of Duolingo's latest offerings, a course [7]teaching users how to play chess , arose when two people vibe-coded the first prototype of it, the CEO said. Neither of them knew how to play chess or program, but they managed to use AI to create the whole chess curriculum and a prototype of the app in about six months last year. Now chess is Duolingo's fastest-growing course, according to von Ahn. "At this point, we have seven million daily active users that are learning chess," the CEO said on the podcast.



[1] https://slashdot.org/story/26/02/28/2321238/duolingo-grows-but-users-disliked-increased-ads-and-subscription-pushes-stock-plummets-again

[2] https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/duolingos-ceo-changing-how-he-measures-employee-performance-backlash

[3] https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/29/0049233/duolingo-will-replace-contract-workers-with-ai?sdsrc=rel

[4] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/below-is-an-all-hands-email-from-our-share-7322560533516226560-RGml/

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDeEATJcbJo

[6] https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/i-vibe-coded-an-app-for-free-in-5-minutes-heres-how/498794

[7] https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/duolingo-introduces-a-chess-course-for-all-skill-levels/490406

[1]kriston (Slashdot reader #7,886) writes:

> HP Anyware, the new name of the Teradici PCoIP remote desktop solution that was acquired by HP [2]in 2021 , is being discontinued.

"Maintenance and support for customers and partners with multi-year terms will continue until 31 October, 2029," a href="https://anyware.hp.com/hp-anyware-end-of-life">according to HP's announcement.

But HP is also announcing the planned End of Life for Anyware Trust Center and Trusted Zero Clients, with support now limited to setup and troubleshooting, no new updates or patches, and support ending in a little over six months on October 31, 2026. While for Desktop Access customers — Tera2 Zero Clients and PCoIP Management Console — "the previously announced EOL date remains December 31, 2029," sales have already ended for other customers. HP Anyware renewals are available for purchase through October 31 of 2027, but with a maximum one year term, with support ending October 31, 2028.

HP says the decision "enables us to focus our resources on product categories where we can deliver the greatest customer value and drive long-term innovation."



[1] https://www.slashdot.org/~kriston

[2] https://www.engineering.com/hp-to-acquire-pcoip-developer-teradici/

After Artemis II's astronauts returned to earth, "NASA has Artemis III in its sights," [1]reports the Associated Press :

> In a [2]mission recently added to the docket for next year, Artemis III's yet-to-be -named astronauts will practice docking their Orion capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are racing to have their company's lander ready first. Musk's Starship and Bezos' Blue Moon are vying for the all-important Artemis IV moon landing in 2028. Two astronauts will aim for the south polar region, the preferred location for [NASA Administrator Jared] Isaacman's envisioned $20 billion to $30 billion moon base. Vast amounts of ice are almost certainly hidden in permanently shadowed craters there — ice that could provide water and rocket fuel.

>

> The docking mechanism for Artemis III's close-to-home trial run is already at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The latest model Starship is close to launching on a test flight from South Texas, and a scaled-down version of Blue Moon will attempt a lunar landing later this year.



[1] https://apnews.com/article/nasa-artemis-moon-astronauts-apollo-74008cb58e79ed525ae5e1fe08a04ad9

[2] https://apnews.com/article/nasa-moon-artemis-astronauts-83132fc4f86c3491984844fc309e25d2