"Blizzard Entertainment is continuing its crusade against private World of Warcraft servers," [1]reports the gaming news site Aftermath :

> The company filed a new lawsuit on Friday in a California court against the makers of Project Ascension , alleging copyright infringement, Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations, and other claims. Blizzard Entertainment claims that Project Ascension is a "lucrative way to exploit and profit from the popularity of the WoW game experience," according to the complaint, [2]obtained by Aftermath . Blizzard Entertainment's lawyers say in the complaint that Project Ascension purports to have "over a million players." Lawyers write that the developers have "distributed (and are continuing to distribute) millions of pirated copies of Blizzard's copyrighted WoW game software."

>

> They also allege that Project Ascension 's servers are hosted on Russian "bulletproof" servers with Aeza Group, a company that was sanctioned in 2025 "for its role in supporting cybercriminal activity targeting victims in the United States and around the world," [3]per a U.S. Department of Treasury press release ... Project Ascension lets players combine pieces of World of Warcraft 's different classes to build unique characters. It's free-to-play, but players can purchase in-game currency, Donation Points, to buy things in-game, such as cosmetics and experience boosts. Blizzard Entertainment's lawyers assert that Project Ascension has made "millions of dollars from the sale of Donation Points...."

>

> Blizzard Entertainment successfully sued a popular World of Warcraft server called Turtle Wow last year. The project had been running since 2018, taking donations from players for the free-to-play server. Both sides announced in April 2026 that they'd reached a settlement after Blizzard Entertainment [4]was awarded a permanent injunction to shut down Turtle WoW . The details of the settlement were not made public. Turtle WoW was shut down for good shortly after May 15; [5]players gathered online to mourn the end of the server .



[1] https://aftermath.site/blizzard-project-ascension-lawsuit/

[2] https://www.scribd.com/document/1050564024/Project-Ascension-lawsuit-via-Aftermath

[3] https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0185

[4] https://www.mmorpg.com/news/blizzard-wins-lawsuit-over-turtle-wow-private-server-settlement-reached-2000137786

[5] https://www.gamesradar.com/games/world-of-warcraft/it-has-been-an-honor-world-of-warcraft-fans-gather-in-popular-private-server-turtle-wow-to-say-goodbye-as-it-ends-8-year-run-following-blizzard-lawsuit/

[1]Phoronix reports :

> The AMD R600 Gallium3D driver saw 59 commits [last] Sunday to Mesa 26.2. Making this code restructuring and code cleaning all the more notable is that the improvements to this old AMD Radeon graphics driver was done in part by GitHub Copilot.

>

> Gert Wollny has been among the few open-source developers left working on the AMD R600g driver that covers from the Radeon HD 2000 series through Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cards... [T]he old open-source GPU driver support is being assisted by AI long after the upstream vendor has stopped working on this driver — the Radeon HD 2000 "R600" series launched in 2007.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-R600-Driver-Copilot-Cleanup

Simon Ritter joined Sun Microsystems in 1996 and spent time working in both Java development and consultancy. He's now written an opinion piece for InfoWorld warning that "Between 2029 and 2032, every currently supported long-term support (LTS) version of Java [1]will reach end-of-support within a single three-year window ."

That's Java 17 in 2029, Java 8 in 2030, Java 21 in 2031, and Java 11 in 2032...

> On paper, this looks like a manageable upgrade cycle. In practice, it creates a collision of timelines that most enterprises have failed to forecast. Organizations attempting to modernize incrementally — moving application by application, version by version — are operating on a model that the calendar has already rendered obsolete... [W]hen every major Java version expires in the same compressed window, sequential planning collapses. By the time this becomes obvious, organizations will be forced into reactive mode, making rushed decisions under extreme pressure.

>

> For organizations planning traditional stepwise upgrades — Java 8 to Java 11 to Java 17 to Java 21 — this convergence elevates a routine maintenance task into a structural crisis. Enterprises with large Java estates will be forced to upgrade multiple applications across multiple versions simultaneously to maintain security compliance and business continuity.

"Parallel modernization requires parallel capacity — something most organizations haven't budgeted for," he points out. "This explains why traditional approaches struggle to scale."



[1] https://www.infoworld.com/article/4180981/its-crunch-time-for-java-modernization.html

America's Energy Department "wants to build a single national platform for doing science with AI," [1]reports Communications of the ACM :

> It is called the Genesis Mission, and the idea is to connect the country's 17 national laboratories, their supercomputers, scientific datasets, and a growing layer of AI models and agents into one system researchers can access. The DOE has taken to calling it 'a national operating system for science.' That means treating compute, data, and AI models the way the country treats power lines and highways, as shared national plumbing everyone else builds on top of.

>

> If it works, Genesis will change how scientific work gets organized, checked, and scaled, with AI helping run the whole pipeline from hypothesis to simulation to experiment and back. The pitch is that this is better understood as infrastructure policy than as another research program. Genesis is now moving from announcement into execution. President Trump signed the executive order launching it in November 2025. This past February, the DOE published 26 science and technology challenges for the program, and in March it opened a $294-million call for research teams in fields like nuclear energy, quantum information science, semiconductors, and biotechnology.

>

> The program is also beginning to reach beyond U.S. borders. In June 2026, Japan moved to become Genesis's first international partner. The two governments plan to invest a combined $1 billion over five years, with Japan contributing $500 million toward joint work in quantum technology, nuclear fusion, and biotechnology. The stated goal is staying ahead of China in the fields where AI is advancing fastest. The open question is whether a federated platform this big can actually work, or whether it ends up as one more expensive coordination exercise.



[1] https://cacm.acm.org/news/from-manhattan-to-genesis/

[1]The Sunday Times reports :

> A criminal investigation has begun after a police officer allegedly used AI to create evidential material in a "number of cases". Derbyshire Constabulary said an officer was being investigated over an allegation of suspected perverting the course of justice. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed it was engaging with defence lawyers and the courts over potentially affected cases...

>

> It is the first known allegation of AI misuse by police in a criminal case in the UK, but it follows an incident last year in which West Midlands police relied on AI-generated material that fabricated a match involving Maccabi Tel Aviv. The material was used in intelligence supporting a proposed ban on away fans at the club's match against Aston Villa.



[1] https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-officer-ai-evidence-qqtjdwtzj

[1] The Wall Street Journal reports :

> The Trump administration's decision to [2]halt all foreign use of Anthropic's most capable AI models was prompted by conversations between Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy and U.S. officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, people familiar with the matter said.

>

> Researchers at Amazon had used a series of prompts to get Anthropic's Fable 5 model to provide them with information that could be used to aid cyberattacks and was supposed to be off limits, Jassy told the officials, according to people familiar with the matter. Tech industry executives have been in regular touch with the administration about the power of cutting-edge AI tools. Shortly afterward, White House officials held a meeting to discuss how to respond and security researchers began testing Amazon's claims. The officials asked Anthropic to fix the vulnerabilities or take down the model, according to administration officials. The officials decided that the most direct way to address that risk was by preventing foreign governments, companies and individuals from accessing the tool, the people said. President Trump later signed off on the action despite reservations about it hindering innovation, a senior White House official said.

>

> The administration had long felt that Anthropic, one of the [3]leaders in America's AI race , couldn't be trusted to manage the security risks its new model presented. Friday's call between some administration officials and Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei reinforced that feeling, the people said...

>

> Anthropic has said that the vulnerabilities like those flagged by Amazon are relatively basic. The company has said that other publicly available models are capable of discovering them and that they don't represent a full so-called jailbreak, a point of view shared by some security researchers familiar with Amazon's research.

The article points out that Amazon is "a [4]big investor in Anthropic , supply Anthropic with chips for data centers.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/amazon-ceo-s-talks-with-us-officials-triggered-crackdown-on-anthropic-models/ar-AA25yS3I

[2] https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/06/13/0546258/anthropic-suspends-all-mythos-and-fable-access-after-us-order-limiting-foreign-access

[3] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-week-anthropic-tanked-the-market-and-pulled-ahead-of-its-rivals-ef59dff1

[4] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-amazon-tighten-bond-in-5-billion-investment-and-computing-deal-b9d8e513

Slashdot reader [1]BrianFagioli writes:

> Shutterstock has unveiled what it calls a "human-led, AI-powered" creative platform that combines its massive library of [human] contributor-created content with AI image and video generation, AI editing, conversational search, prompt enhancement, and automated model selection tools. [2]The company says the goal is to help creators move from idea to finished work faster [in a single application] while maintaining commercial licensing protections and contributor royalty payments... While Shutterstock repeatedly emphasizes human creativity, much of the platform's future appears centered on AI-generated and AI-modified content.

[3]An article at Nerds.xyz suggests Shutterstock's AI tools let users "transform existing content into something new," while noting Shutterstock's repeated references to human creativity "almost feel defensive."

But it points out other companies including Adobe and Canva "and countless startups are all racing to integrate AI into creative workflows."



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

[2] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shutterstock-evolves-its-content-library-into-a-human-led-ai-powered-creative-platform-302797289.html

[3] https://nerds.xyz/2026/06/shutterstock-ai-slop/

More than 1,500 user-contributed packages in the Arch Linux User Repository "AUR" were infected with malware, [1]reports Phoronix :

> The last message in the thread over this security incident is [2]noting that Arch Linux developers have deleted all the malicious commits they are aware of. Cited was this list that puts the number of malware-affected packages at 1,579...

>

> Even at 1,579 packages listed, that final updated noted, it's a " list containing many (but not all) of the affected packages ".

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [3]couchslug for sharing the report.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Arch-Linux-AUR-More-Than-1500

[2] https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/aur-general@lists.archlinux.org/message/FCH7TT6IOVT7D477JKSVJALBKADAARSW/

[3] https://www.slashdot.org/~couchslug

"A coalition of state attorneys general has opened an investigation into OpenAI," [1]reports the Wall Street Journal , citing "people familiar with the matter."

> OpenAI was served Friday with a subpoena seeking documents related to a broad range of its activities and impact on users, including advertising, user engagement and retention, handling of consumer data and health data, activities related to minors and seniors, deep learning models, model sycophancy and company policies, some of the people said. The subpoena, viewed by The Wall Street Journal , was sent by New York's attorney general....

>

> Earlier this month, Florida became the first state to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman. The lawsuit claims OpenAI and Altman knowingly released an unsafe product and ignored warnings that it could harm users. Florida's Attorney General, James Uthmeier, opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI in April over the role its chatbot played in a mass shooting that killed two people at Florida State University last year. The suspect allegedly turned to ChatGPT as a confidant and sounding board to plan the attack, and the chatbot dispensed advice for his questions...

>

> State attorneys general have been scrutinizing OpenAI's competitors in the AI industry as well. In December, a coalition of 42 state attorneys general led by Pennsylvania's Dave Sunday sent a letter to companies including OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, Google and xAI. In the letter, the Attorneys General demanded safeguards to protect vulnerable users from harmful interactions with chatbots, warning that "developers may be held accountable for the outputs of their GenAI products" for "encouraging an individual to commit a criminal act."

"We take the concerns raised by state attorneys general seriously," OpenAI told the Journal in a statement, "and intend to engage constructively with their offices."

The article also acknowledges that The Wall Street Journal 's parent company "has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/openai-investigated-by-coalition-of-state-attorneys-general/ar-AA25wmMD

It's the 10-year anniversary of Britain's "Brexit" vote withdrawing from the European Union. But a new UK poll "shows that a new Brexit referendum would reverse the vote that led to Britain's departure," [1]reports Bloomberg :

> Fifty-two percent of Britons think the UK should rejoin the EU, according to an Ipsos survey of 1,137 British adults conducted between May 14 and May 20. That's the inverse of the mood in June 2016 when a comparable share of the electorate backed Brexit... Younger voters overwhelmingly favor reversing Brexit, whereas half of those ages 55 and above oppose returning to the bloc.

"The number of people who say Brexit is going worse than they had predicted has almost doubled in the past five years," [2]reports The Independent , " from 27% in 2021 to 48% today — more than those saying it was going as well as or better than expected."

> [T]here is more backing for a second referendum, with 48 per cent now saying they would support one, against 27 per cent who would oppose it. Even a fifth of Reform UK voters and a quarter of those who voted Leave in 2016 would back a second vote, the study found.

[3]Tufts University discussed the last 10 years with the European Studies chair at their international relations graduate school:

> Q: Have their fears of negative financial effects been realized?

>

> A: The figures are quite revealing: The British GDP has been reduced by 6-8%, business investment has been reduced by 12%, and [4]trade volume has been reduced by 15% , compared to what it could have been if the U.K. had remained in the EU...

>

> Q: What do you think happens next?

>

> A: The United Kingdom made a choice and they might have the opportunity, at some point, to revise this choice. I hope that when they have to decide again, they will be much more informed.



[1] https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/06/09/872965.htm

[2] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-uk-second-referendum-b2993826.html

[3] https://now.tufts.edu/2026/06/08/10-years-after-brexit-vote-are-uk-residents-seeing-benefit

[4] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrynjz1glpo

The [1]Helios Horizon has completed what its developers call the [2]first crewed, fixed-wing flight powered by solid-state batteries . New Atlas reports:

> On June 5, test pilot Miguel Iturmendi lifted off from Zephyrhills Municipal Airport in Florida at the controls of the Helios Horizon -- the first crewed, fixed-wing aircraft ever to fly on solid-state batteries. The flight was neither spectacular in distance nor in duration -- it was a series of short tests to validate the aircraft's weight and balance after the new batteries had been installed -- but it didn't need to be to make history. [...] The Helios Horizon's previous lithium-ion pack delivered 260 Wh/kg (watt-hours per kilogram, a measure of how much energy a battery holds relative to its weight). The new solid-state cells hit 410 Wh/kg, a 60% jump. Chief test pilot and company founder Miguel Iturmendi expects that figure to grow another 40% within two years.

>

> Though the battery pack can be topped up over any AC outlet, no special infrastructure needed, fast-charging is also supported for up to 80% capacity in under 15 minutes. The aircraft also recovers energy in flight through wing-mounted solar panels and a regenerative system that spins the propeller as a wind turbine during glides and descents. "Regenerative flight can significantly extend the aircraft's range," Iturmendi said after the test flights.

>

> The Helios Horizon itself started life as a Pipistrel Taurus motorized glider. Iturmendi's team added proprietary battery management, a custom propulsion stack, thermodynamic controls, and solar panel wing extensions. The aircraft already holds the world altitude record for electric planes in its weight class, having reached 24,000 ft (7,315 m). The next goal is 40,000 ft (12,192 m), commercial cruising altitude, in stratospheric flights planned for later this year.



[1] https://helioshorizon.info/

[2] https://newatlas.com/aircraft/helios-horizon-first-crewed-solid-state-flight-aviation/

It's the U.S. law that allows wiretaps without a warrant for surveilling foreign targets. And the U.S. Congress just let it lapse. Sort of. [1]NPR reports :

> Each year, the provision is used by American intelligence agencies to collect the electronic communications of hundreds of thousands of foreigners located outside of the United States. The government says that more than 60% of the president's daily intelligence briefing relies on information collected under the authority. The tool officially lapsed at the end of the day on Friday. What happens now?

>

> Intelligence collection under [2]FISA's Section 702 is authorized annually by a federal court — and the law allows for that collection to continue for the duration of the court's authorization, even if the law lapses before the court's next approval. That means companies — electronic communications service providers, in this context — will still be legally required to turn over material to intelligence agencies.

>

> Still, some lawmakers worry that the companies compelled to turn over communications may attempt to challenge the law in court, possibly leading to an indeterminately long window during which they stop providing intel. Advocates on all sides of the surveillance fight believe those challenges are ultimately likely to fail, but those closely linked to the intelligence community emphasize that even a small pause comes with risks ahead of major events like America's 250th celebration and the World Cup.



[1] https://www.npr.org/2026/06/12/nx-s1-5856291/fisa-702-surveillance-expiration-bill-pulte

[2] https://www.npr.org/2026/04/14/nx-s1-5768270/what-to-know-about-section-702-surveillance

UPDATE: [1]Amazon CEO's Talks With U.S. Officials Triggered Crackdown on Anthropic Models .

"Anthropic said on Friday it will 'abruptly disable' its most advanced AI models for all users," [2]reports Reuters , "after the U.S. government ordered it to suspend access to the models for foreign nationals, citing national security concerns. The company received the export control directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all foreign nationals, without being given specific details of its national security concern, Anthropic said in a statement."

[3]Anthropic's blog post writes that the directive applies to foreign nationals "whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees. The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance."

"Access to all other Anthropic models will not be affected."

> We received the directive from the government today at 5:21pm (ET)... Our understanding is that the government believes it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking" Fable 5... We have not even received a disclosure of a concerning non-universal potential jailbreak that led to a harmful result. The potential jailbreaks that have been disclosed to us are either entirely benign responses or are minor findings that provide no Mythos-specific uplift.

>

> To date, the government has only given us verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak, which essentially consists of asking the model to read a specific codebase and fix any software flaws. Our understanding is that one potential jailbreak was shared with the government. We have reviewed a report that we believe is the basis of the government's directive and validated that the level of capability displayed there is widely available from other models (including OpenAI's GPT-5.5), and is used every day by the defenders who keep systems safe... We are complying with the government's legal directive and are removing access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all users. However, we disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people. If this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers.

>

> As we have [4]stated publicly , we believe the government should have the ability to block unsafe deployments, as part of a statutory process that is transparent, fair, clear, and grounded in technical facts. This action does not adhere to those principles. We apologize for this disruption to our customers. We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible.

[5]Reuters notes that Amazon's cloud unit AWS "said late on Friday that Anthropic has asked it to revoke access to the models for 'all users in all regions.'"

> Dean Ball, a former White House official who contributed to the AI Action Plan the administration issued in the summer of 2025, said in a post on X that the order suggests all "non-Americans" would be restricted from using Anthropic's latest models, including those based in the U.S. "This means you should expect to have to prove your citizenship to use Anthropic models," Ball said. Several key Anthropic personnel, including co-founder Chris Olah, AI researcher Andrej Karpathy and philosopher Amanda Askell, were born outside the United States.



[1] https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/06/13/2227234/amazon-ceos-talks-with-us-officials-triggered-crackdown-on-anthropic-models

[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-blocks-foreign-access-anthropics-most-advanced-ai-models-axios-reports-2026-06-13/

[3] https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access

[4] https://darioamodei.com/post/policy-on-the-ai-exponential

[5] https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-blocks-foreign-access-anthropics-most-advanced-ai-models-axios-reports-2026-06-13/

This month saw the release of [1]Vim Classic 8.3 , the first stable version of a new long-term support fork of Vim maintained without generative AI tools. [2] Linuxiac reports :

> The release is based on Vim 8.2.0148 and includes selected bug fixes and patches backported from later upstream Vim releases. Vim Classic was first announced by [SourceHut's CEO/founder] Drew DeVault in March 2026 after he objected to LLM-assisted development in Vim and Neovim. [3]In his announcement , DeVault said he no longer wanted to use software developed with LLM assistance and introduced Vim Classic as a fork for users who want to continue using Vim without that involvement... Vim Classic follows Vim's charityware model and continues to direct users toward Bram Moolenaar's long-running support for children in Uganda. The release is distributed as a signed source tarball from SourceHut, while future important announcements are expected through the [4]project's mailing list .

"Vim is important to me..." DeVault [5]wrote in March . (DeVault even tattooed "hjkl" on his right arm.) "[A]lmost every word I have ever committed to posterity, through this blog, in my code, all of the docs I've written, emails I've sent, and more, almost all of it has passed through Vim."

But DeVault wrote that he also cares about AI's impact on air pollution, fresh water supplies, global supply chains, and the working conditions of miners in African companies:

> And at a moment when the climate demands immediate action to reduce our footprint on this planet, the AI boom is driving data centers to consume a full 1.5% of the world's total energy production in order to eliminate jobs and replace them with a robot that lies... All this to enrich the few, centralize power, reduce competition, and underwrite an enormous bubble that, once it bursts, will ruin the lives of millions of the world's poor and marginalized classes.

>

> I don't think it's cute that someone [6]vibe coded "battleship" in VimScript . I think it's more important that we stop collectively pretending that we don't understand how awful all of this is. I don't want to use software which has slop in it. I do what I can to avoid it, and sadly even Vim now comes under scrutiny in that effort as both Vim and NeoVim are relying on LLMs to develop the software... To keep my conscience clear, and continue to enjoy the relationship I have with this amazing piece of software, I have forked Vim...

>

> Since forking from this base, I have backported a handful of patches, most of which address CVEs discovered after this release, but others which address minor bug fixes. I also penned a handful of original patches which bring the codebase from this time up to snuff for building it on newer toolchains...

>

> I invite you to use Vim Classic, if you feel the same way as me, and to maintain it with me, contributing the patches you need to support your own use cases.



[1] https://vim-classic.org/

[2] https://linuxiac.com/vim-classic-8-3-debuts-as-an-ai-free-vim-fork/

[3] https://drewdevault.com/blog/Forking-vim/

[4] https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/vim-classic-announce

[5] https://drewdevault.com/blog/Forking-vim/

[6] https://www.vim.org/vim-9.2-released.php

A few weeks ago on a bike ride "inspiration struck" for Dave Eggers, [1]reports SFGate ...

> Without a pen and paper handy, he was stuck texting the idea to himself. The problem? Eggers doesn't own a smartphone. "It takes 20 minutes to write a sentence," Eggers said... It's a funny predicament for Eggers, given that he's arguably the city's biggest proponent of the written word... Now age 56, [2]Eggers' latest book is called " Contrapposto "...

>

> On writing days, Eggers bikes to his sailboat docked near the Golden Gate Bridge. He writes using a hefty 1998 Mac that has never been connected to the internet. On the boat, he keeps "banker's hours," working 9 to 5 without any meetings or interruptions except for the occasional wildlife visit. "You're there with the cormorants and the occasional porpoise and sea lions and seals, and when you want to take a break, you walk around and you're in the thick of it, one of the most beautiful spots on Earth," he said. "Especially coming from the Midwest, it never gets old."

>

> Given Eggers' decidedly low-tech existence, it's not surprising that the current state of San Francisco gives him pause, but there's a streak of hope that underlies his concerns. He abhors the growing surveillance technology that's gripping the city, refusing to get into Ubers that use recording devices, but he feels a well-written ballot measure about Flock cameras could potentially save our dwindling privacy. ChatGPT's effects on the art of writing are demoralizing, but he welcomes that teachers are re-embracing pencil and paper, with cursive making a big comeback. The wave of artificial intelligence ads blanketing bus stops [3]imploring companies to stop hiring humans are so over the top, they'd sound cliché if he were to include them in one of his dystopian tech industry novels like "The Circle" or "The Every," but tech philanthropy has helped many of his projects flourish.

>

> Case in point, [4]Art + Water , a new art space scheduled to open next year on Pier 29 funded largely by art world donations... Co-founded with the artist JD Beltran, the space is slated to operate as an old-school apprenticeship system, hosting 10 artists in residence mentoring 20 students, all free of charge... The ultimate goal is to break down the financial barriers that keep students from pursuing art.

Thanks to Slashdot reader [5]destinyland for sharing the article.



[1] https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/dave-eggers-profile-22291491.php

[2] https://amzn.to/4ekkChs

[3] https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/sf-artisan-billboards-stop-hiring-humans-19969672.php

[4] https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/dave-eggers-cafe-hub-vacant-sf-pier-21126987.php

[5] https://www.slashdot.org/~destinyland

"Battery breakthroughs will lessen AI's demand on the electricity grid," [1]argues The Washington Post's editoral board , arguing that GM's latest moves "offer a fresh reminder that resource constraints can be solved by innovation."

Or [2]As Fortune put it , "America's electric grid is buckling under extreme weather, aging infrastructure, and an AI build-out that is quietly rewriting U.S. power demand — and General Motors wants to turn that crisis into a business." They describe GM's plan as offering itself "as a distributed utility in disguise... stitching together hundreds of thousands of battery-powered cars, new grid-scale storage, and a unified charging platform into what amounts to a virtual fleet of power plants."

> The bet puts GM on a collision course with Ford's newly branded Ford Energy unit as both Detroit rivals race to repurpose underused EV capacity for a more urgent problem: keeping the lights on in the AI era. GM's case rests on three planks. The first is its existing fleet. GM says more than 250,000 of its EVs on U.S. roads can already charge bidirectionally — pulling electricity from the grid and sending it back. "Every evening, a quiet transformation occurs across the American landscape," GM Energy vice president Wade Sheffer writes in an open letter to utilities and regulators, describing the EVs sitting in driveways as "a massive opportunity to aggregate energy storage capacity."

>

> A firmware update is rolling out to customers with GM Energy's vehicle-to-home hardware, converting those systems into full vehicle-to-grid assets with no new hardware and turning home backup systems into grid resources when utilities need them. GM is piloting the idea in Michigan with DTE Energy at 30 employee homes, and has sketched a 2030 vision with Pacific Gas & Electric in which more than 52,000 GM EVs help balance the grid out of a projected 130,000 vehicles in the area.

GM is also "seeking partnerships with utility companies nationwide to assist in offering such vehicle-to-grid services for customers," [3]reports CNBC , noting it's one of two moves "meant to address concerns about rising energy costs amid an artificial intelligence boom."

[4] Forbes reports that GM's second goal "is to leapfrog the dominant battery cell tech used for energy storage packs right now" — right past the LFP (lithium-iron phosphate) stage, "which is dominated by China."

> Sodium batteries are cheaper to use than LFP because they don't need an additional cooling system. They also have a 20-year usable life and are made from materials that can be sourced from within the U.S., the company said at a briefing in San Francisco on Tuesday. "Sodium-ion actually is the better chemistry for that application. And when I say sodium-ion is better, I mean GM's version of sodium-ion," Kurt Kelty, GM's battery chief and a long-time Tesla battery executive, told Forbes . He said GM is seeing great results from its prototypes, even at scorching temperatures of 55 Celsius (131 Fahrenheit).

"Sodium-ion-powered energy storage systems have the potential to operate without active cooling and with much less system complexity," Kurt Kelty, GM's vice president of battery and sustainability, [5]said Tuesday in a blog post . "In large energy storage systems, that matters." Not having to cool the battery cells could lead to lower upfront costs as well as operating costs, the automaker said.

TechCrunch reports on GM's big new partnership with energy-storage startup Peak Energy to [6]develop GM's sodium-ion battery chemistry for grid-scale deployments :

> GM wouldn't share with TechCrunch how much money it is investing in this energy-storage effort. But we do know the company has committed $900 million to commercialize new battery chemistries, an investment that includes a new [7]battery-development center . .. The first GM cells are expected to enter trial production at the company's Battery Cell Development Center in 2028.

"Our next-generation sodium-ion cell development will drive energy density higher," [8]promises GM's blog post , arguing they're extending the company's battery expertise and technical infrastructure "into the electrical grid itself. If we get this right, we will not just build better batteries. We will help create a more resilient, more affordable and more flexible energy future... Every improvement we make strengthens the development stack that supports both EVs and energy storage."

"The message: GM isn't just selling cars into a stressed grid; it's supplying the batteries to stabilize it," [9]argues Fortune .

And [10]GM also announced they're augmenting their apps with an "Energy Pass" offering "seamless access to Tesla Supercharger, IONNA, Electrify America, and soon, ChargePoint and EVgo networks." Their goal is to simplify the charging experience with an app "that covers nearly 70% of all DC fast chargers in the United States, plus many Level 2 chargers, all through one app."



[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/06/12/battery-breakthroughs-will-lessen-ais-demand-electricity-grid/

[2] https://fortune.com/2026/06/09/general-motors-utility-in-disguise-sodium-ion-batteries/

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/09/gm-batteries-data-centers-energy-storage-business.html

[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2026/06/09/gm-doubles-down-on-energy-business-to-serve-data-center-electricity-demand/

[5] https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2026/jun/0609-sodium-ion-batteries-grid-scale-energy-storage.html

[6] https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/09/gm-bets-big-on-energy-storage-for-data-centers-and-the-grid/

[7] https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/05/gms-electric-future-depends-on-a-new-battery-and-this-building/

[8] https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2026/jun/0609-sodium-ion-batteries-grid-scale-energy-storage.html

[9] https://fortune.com/2026/06/09/general-motors-utility-in-disguise-sodium-ion-batteries/

[10] https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2026/jun/0609-meet-energy-pass.html

The Trump administration [1]released another large batch of government UAP records, [2]including videos of glowing orb-like objects appearing to split and rejoin , witness accounts, illustrations, and decades-old investigative documents. Axios reports:

> The documents indicate that government agents have spent years monitoring, investigating and documenting suspected UAP incidents. At lease some of the sightings took place near sensitive government facilities, according to the [3]reports . [4]Videos [5]showing [6]red and [7]yellow light -emitting [8]orbs , some of which appear to split apart and then reattach as they fly across the sky. The videos were taken by witnesses whom the government deemed "credible."

>

> Illustrations and [9]videos [10]showing [11]reenactments of what observers saw, and the positions they were in when they viewed them. [12]Memos from [13]government [14]agents [15]describing their experiences seeing flying objects. An illustration of a [16]grayish-white balloon-like object hovering above an area near Colorado Springs, Colo. An [17]illustration depicting a series of incidents that took place in the "western United States" where government officials reported seeing UAPs in 2023.

>

> There also are [18]decades-old records documenting the government's involvement in investigating UAPs, including a 1949 [19]letter then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote federal agents after receiving a message from an American citizen expressing their belief they'd seen a non-human-made flying object. The records released by the administration do not express any conclusions as to whether the government believes the UAPs represent the existence of alien life. They also do not indicate any conclusions as to whether UAPs represent a national security threat to the U.S.



[1] https://x.com/DeptofWar/status/2065405578868879364

[2] https://www.axios.com/2026/06/12/ufo-white-house-records

[3] https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#FBI-UAP-PR006-Digital-Recreation-Narrative-Statement-3-2-Western-United-States-Event-2023

[4] https://www.war.gov/UFO/#FBI-UAP-PR003-Orbs-Over-the-Pond-2024

[5] https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#FBI-UAP-PR002-Red-Orb-Rotation-Northeastern-United-States-2022

[6] https://www.war.gov/UFO/#FBI-UAP-PR004-Northeastern-Orb-Sighting-2025

[7] https://www.war.gov/UFO/#FBI-UAP-PR003-Orbs-Over-the-Pond-2024

[8] https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#FBI-UAP-PR001-Triangle-Orbs-Northeastern-United-States-2021

[9] https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#FBI-UAP-PR005-Digital-Recreation-Narrative-Statement-3-1-Western-United-States-Event-2023

[10] https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#FBI-UAP-D014-Digital-Rendering-Narrative-Statement-1-1-Western-United-States-Event-2023

[11] https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#FBI-UAP-D021-Digital-Rendering-Narrative-Statement-1-3-Western-United-States-Event-2023

[12] https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/061226/release_03/documents/DoW-UAP-D083_Narrative-5_Western-US-Event.pdf

[13] https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/061226/release_03/documents/DOW-UAP-D077_Unresolved-Case-Analysis-Update_Western-United-States-Event.pdf

[14] https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/061226/release_03/documents/DoW-UAP-D079_Narrative-1_Western-US-Event.pdf

[15] https://www.war.gov/UFO/release/03/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#DOW-UAP-D080-Narrative-Statement-2-Western-United-States-Event-2023

[16] https://www.war.gov/UFO/#FBI-UAP-D003-Digital-Rendering-Unresolved-UAP-Report-Colorado-Springs-2022

[17] https://www.war.gov/UFO/?releaseDate=Release+03&release=03#DOW-UAP-D078-Notional-Map-Western-United-States-Event

[18] https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/061226/release_03/documents/DOW-UAP-D084_USArmy-Flying-Saucer-Study_1949.pdf

[19] https://www.war.gov/UFO/#FBI-UAP-D011-DFBI-Correspondence-Referral-1949

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News:

> The first quarter of 2026 produced the most blocked and delayed data center projects on record, according to a new study shared with NBC News. The study -- conducted by Data Center Watch, a project of the AI intelligence firm 10a Labs that tracks local data center activity -- found that data center opponents [1]blocked or delayed at least 75 projects nationwide worth about $130 billion from January through March, the most in a three-month period since the group began tracking in 2023.

>

> "The quarter reflected a structural shift rather than a cyclical spike: communities have internalized an opposition playbook, legislative sessions introduced formal regulatory uncertainty, and the number of active opposition groups more than doubled to 833 across 49 states," the authors wrote, noting that the total number and value of data centers blocked or delayed during the first three months of 2026 roughly matched the total for all of 2025.

>

> [...] The report found that legislative pushes for moratoriums on constructing data centers ballooned during the first quarter of 2026, sponsored by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The report found such proposals introduced in 14 states from January through March, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introducing a federal version. Though none of the proposals has been signed into law, one did reach the desk of Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in Maine. She vetoed it in April.

>

> More than 300 bills were introduced in statehouses across the country just in the first six weeks of 2026, the authors found, saying it marked "a clear shift from incentive-focused policies toward regulatory oversight as the scale of energy demands became clearer." What's more, the study found that the number of active grassroots opposition groups across the country more than doubled from 396 at the end of 2025 to 833 by March. The authors found that the states with the most opposition groups through that month were Maryland, Ohio and Texas. "In some cases," they wrote, "opposition mobilized before any project was officially filed, the mere rumor of a data center was enough to trigger organized resistance."



[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/data-center-opposition-sharply-rising-2026-study-finds-rcna349728

Jeff Bezos says his new AI startup, Prometheus, is [1]working toward an "artificial general engineer " capable of helping design complex physical products such as robots, drugs, manufacturing systems, and rocket engines. The Verge reports:

> The NYT first reported on Prometheus [2]last November , but now Bezos is sharing more information about the startup after a $12 billion funding round, putting the company at a $41 billion valuation. Bezos serves as co-CEO of Prometheus alongside Vik Bajaj, who co-founded Alphabet's health-focused research group, Verily. The startup currently has around 150 employees.

>

> The tools Prometheus intends to build could help develop physical products across several industries, including robotics, drug design, and manufacturing, the [3]NYT reports . "Blue Origin is a perfect example of a company that could benefit from the tools that Prometheus is building," Bezos tells the NYT. "Any company that is building sophisticated devices -- like rocket engines -- would benefit greatly from this kind of technology."



[1] https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949005/jeff-bezos-prometheus-artificial-general-engineer

[2] https://slashdot.org/story/25/11/17/1340210/bezos-returns-to-ceo-role-with-ai-startup-project-prometheus

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/technology/bezos-prometheus-ai-engineer.html

The Justice Department has approved Paramount Skydance's [1]$111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery [2]without requiring divestitures or other concessions . The deal still faces scrutiny from state attorneys general. Politico reports:

> The decision, expected to be announced Friday, paves the way for Paramount to combine with the entertainment and media company behind a vast film and television studio, CNN, and the HBO Max streaming service, which would be combined with Paramount+ to create a new offering boasting about 200 million subscribers. The deal, which would upend the Hollywood ecosystem by combining two historic rival studios, is opposed by many in the entertainment industry who fear it could lead to mass layoffs, among other concerns.

>

> After an extensive review, DOJ officials determined the transaction did not pose a threat to competition and declined to challenge it, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The department approved the merger without requiring any divestitures, behavioral remedies or concessions, according to one of the people. [...] The DOJ's approval does not end the merger's legal scrutiny. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been reviewing the transaction and could still sue to block the deal despite federal regulators signing off. A spokesperson for Bonta's office told POLITICO earlier this week "the Paramount acquisition of Warner Brothers remains an active investigation."

>

> [...] Throughout those discussions, Paramount maintained that the merger would strengthen competition rather than diminish it, creating a media company better positioned to compete with streaming leaders and deep-pocketed technology rivals, according to people familiar with the matter. Hollywood workers fear the merger could trigger another wave of layoffs in an industry already reeling from years of consolidation. Critics argue that billions in promised cost savings will come at the expense of jobs, fewer opportunities for creators and greater concentration of power across film, television and streaming.



[1] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/04/23/1940241/warner-bros-shareholders-approve-paramounts-81-billion-takeover

[2] https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/12/paramount-acquisition-warner-bros-approved-00960300