Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: An anonymous reader shares a report: Meta's latest whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, got a warm reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Careless People author who the company has fought to silence described the company's chief executive as someone willing to shapeshift into whatever gets him closest to power. The message was one that lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism were very open to. Their responses underscore that amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg's latest pivot in cozying up to the right, his perception in Washington has not yet totally changed, even as he reportedly lobbies President Donald Trump to drop the government's antitrust case against the company.

"He's recently tried a reinvention in which he is now a great advocate of free speech, after being an advocate of censorship in China and in this country for years," subcommittee Chair Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, pointing to longtime conservative allegations that Meta has suppressed things like vaccine skepticism and the Hunter Biden laptop story. "Now that's all wiped away. Now he's on Joe Rogan and says that he is Mr. Free Speech, he is Mr. MAGA, he's a whole new man, and his company, they're a whole new company. Do you buy this latest reinvention of Mark Zuckerberg?"

"If he is such a fan of freedom of speech, why is he trying to silence me?" Wynn-Williams asked in response. Meta convinced an arbitrator to order her to stop making disparaging statements and halt further publishing and promotion of the book, which details Meta's alleged dealings with the Chinese government and claims of sexual harassment from a top executive.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the fwiw department: BrianFagioli writes: In a move that is sure to make longtime PC users do a double take, the Library of Congress has added two very unexpected sounds to its National Recording Registry. No, it's not another classic rock album or jazz staple. Believe it or not, it's actually the "Reboot Chime" from Windows 95 (that played when the operating system started) and the soundtrack from Minecraft!

Posted by Keith Nelson Jr from Kotaku
Apple TV+’s newest sci-fi series just released a trailer that surely was once an Elon Musk wet dream. Based on Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries series of books, the show’s trailer features Succession’s Alexander Skarsgård as a humanoid robot programmed to kill before gaining free will by hacking its own system.…

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by Zack Zwiezen from Kotaku
Here’s something odd. Over on eBay someone seems to have spent $2,000 on a Steam Deck prototype which was being sold on the auction site for $3,000.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the brave-new-world department: The U.S. Army told the government it had a lot of success using AI to "process targets" during a recent deployment. It said that it had used AI systems to identify targets at a rate of 55 per day but could get that number up to 5,000 a day with "advanced artificial intelligence tools in the future." 404 Media: The line comes from a new report from the Government Accountability Office -- a nonpartisan watchdog group that investigates the federal government. The report is titled "Defense Command and Control" and is, in part, about the Pentagon's recent push to integrate AI systems into its workflow.

Across the government, and especially in the military, there has been a push to add or incorporate AI into various systems. The pitch here is that AI systems would help the Pentagon ID targets on the battlefield and allow those systems to help determine who lives and who dies. The Ukrainian and Israeli military are already using similar systems but the practice is fraught and controversial.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the sad-news-for-wallet department: Anthropic has unveiled a new premium tier for its AI chatbot Claude, targeting power users willing to pay up to $200 monthly for broader usage. The "Max" subscription comes in two variants: a $100/month tier with 5x higher rate limits than Claude Pro, and a $200/month option boasting 20x higher limits -- directly competing with OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro tier.

Unlike OpenAI, Anthropic still lacks an unlimited usage plan. Product lead Scott White didn't rule out even pricier subscriptions in the future, telling TechCrunch, "We'll always keep a number of exploratory options available to us." The launch coincides with growing demand for Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet, the company's first reasoning model, which employs additional computing power to handle complex queries more reliably.

Posted by Ethan Gach from Kotaku
Path Of Exile 2 had an incredible Early Access launch last December, but the honeymoon period is clearly over. Its first major update, Dawn of the Hunt, arrived last week and quickly led to review-bombing on Steam over difficulty spikes that made the game feel, according to some players at least, “like a massive…

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by Zack Zwiezen from Kotaku
I love achievements in video games. I remember playing Call of Duty 2 on Xbox 360 and getting my first one and thinking “Oh this is neat!” And over the last 20 years, I’ve grown to enjoy them more and more as they have become a digital scrapbook documenting my gaming accomplishments across different platforms. Which…

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by Zack Zwiezen from Kotaku
Calling all FPS fans! Humble Bundle is currently selling seven PC boomer shooters for less than $20. And these are some damn fine retro-themed shooters, too.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by Randall Munroe from XKCD
NOTIFICATION: Now dismissing a head of the Notification Hydra… NOTIFICATION: Success! You have dismissed a head of the Notification Hydra!

Posted by Keith Nelson Jr from Kotaku
To the surprise of no one living above ground, HBO won’t be done telling the story of The Last of Us Part II by the end of the TV adaptation’s upcoming second season. Today, HBO announced the Emmy-winning, nightmare-inducing, tear-ripping drama has been renewed for a third, and it needed to be unless HBO wanted to…

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: WordPress.com has released an AI-powered site builder in early access that constructs complete websites with generated text, layouts, and images. The tool operates through a chatbot interface where users input specifications, resulting in a fully formed site that can be further refined through additional prompts.

While WordPress.com claims the builder creates "beautiful, functional websites in minutes," it currently cannot handle ecommerce sites or complex integrations. Users need a WordPress.com account for the free trial, but publishing requires a hosting plan starting at $18 monthly (less with annual subscriptions). The builder only works with new WordPress instances, not existing sites.

This launch comes as parent company Automattic recently cut 16% of its workforce and faces a lawsuit from hosting company WP Engine, which offers competing site-building tools.

Posted by Ethan Gach from Kotaku
Switch 2 preorders were originally supposed to go live today but were halted by Nintendo in the U.S. and Canada after President Trump’s latest round of tariffs threatened to torpedo its original $450 price. The White House is now suddenly backing off the most extreme import taxes less than a day after they went into…

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the no-stones-unturned department: The battle for AI talent is so hot that Google would rather give some employees a paid one-year vacation than let them work for a competitor. From a report: Some Google DeepMind staff in the UK are subject to noncompete agreements that prevent them from working for a competitor for up to 12 months after they finish work at Google, according to four former employees with direct knowledge of the matter who asked to remain anonymous because they were not permitted to share these details with the press.

Aggressive noncompetes are one tool tech companies wield to retain a competitive edge in the AI wars, which show no sign of slowing down as companies launch new bleeding-edge models and products at a rapid clip. When an employee signs one, they agree not to work for a competing company for a certain period of time. Google DeepMind has put some employees with a noncompete on extended garden leave. These employees are still paid by DeepMind but no longer work for it for the duration of the noncompete agreement.

Several factors, including a DeepMind employee's seniority and how critical their work is to the company, determine the length of noncompete clauses, those people said. Two of the former staffers said six-month noncompetes are common among DeepMind employees, including for individual contributors working on Google's Gemini AI models. There have been cases where more senior researchers have received yearlong stipulations, they said.

Posted by Billy Givens from Kotaku
There’s no shortage of excellent armor to find and wear in The First Berserker: Khazan. But if you’ve chosen to go with the Dual Wield weapon option, you may be drawn to the Fallen Guardian Set and its attractive bonuses. Before you can get the blacksmith to make this armor for you, however, you’ll have to get your…

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by Zack Zwiezen and Ethan Gach from Kotaku
On April 2, Nintendo revealed a lot about the Switch 2 via a big Direct. And in the days since that event we’ve learned more about the Switch 2 via statements from Nintendo, interviews, and more. For example, did you know that Nintendo confirmed Friend Codes are back, or that the Switch 2 carts will taste disgusting?

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the unlocking-new-possibilities department: Google is opening up its Google Maps Platform data so that cities, developers, and other business decision makers can more easily access information about things like infrastructure and traffic. The Verge: Google is integrating new datasets for Google Maps Platform directly into BigQuery, the tech giant's fully managed data analytics service, for the first time. This should make it easier for people to access data from Google Maps platform products, including Imagery Insights, Roads Management Insights, and Places Insights.

Posted by Billy Givens from Kotaku
Success in The First Berserker: Khazan comes from a mixture of skill, character stats, and gear. You can’t do a lot about your skill without practice, but you can certainly help improve your loadout with better items, weapons, and armor. That’s where the Bard Set comes in, boosting your experience gain while also…

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by Jared Alexander from Kotaku
This story originally appeared on The Root, our sister site, on Tuesday, April 8.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by Zack Zwiezen from Kotaku
Spring is nearly here! The birds are chirping. The grass is returning. Everywhere you look you see green. It’s so nice to be outside again. Anyway, whatever, let’s stay inside and play free video games like Hogwarts Legacy, Battlefield 1, Blue Prince, and War of the Monsters.

< This article continues on their website >