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From the opened-AI department: America's federal government is building a website and API called ai.gov to "accelerate government innovation with AI", according to an early version spotted by 404 Media that was posted on GitHub by the U.S. government's General Services Administration.
That site "is supposed to launch on July 4," according to 404 Media's report, "and will include an analytics feature that shows how much a specific government team is using AI..."
AI.gov appears to be an early step toward pushing AI tools into agencies across the government, code published on Github shows....
The early version of the page suggests that its API will integrate with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic products. But code for the API shows they are also working on integrating with Amazon Web Services' Bedrock and Meta's LLaMA. The page suggests it will also have an AI-powered chatbot, though it doesn't explain what it will do... Currently, AI.gov redirects to whitehouse.gov. The demo website is linked to from Github (archive here) and is hosted on cloud.gov on what appears to be a staging environment. The text on the page does not show up on other websites, suggesting that it is not generic placeholder text...
In February, 404 Media obtained leaked audio from a meeting in which [the director of the GSA's Technology Transformation Services] told his team they would be creating "AI coding agents" that would write software across the entire government, and said he wanted to use AI to analyze government contracts.
Posted by EditorDavid from Slashdot
From the I'll-be-seeing-you department: It's the technology "Google tried (and failed at) more than a decade ago," writes CNN. (And Meta and Amazon have also previously tried releasing glasses with cameras, speakers and voice assistants.)
Yet this week Snap announced that "it's building AI-equipped eyewear to be released in 2026."
Why the "renewed buzz"? CNN sees two factors:
- Smartphones "are no longer exciting enough to entice users to upgrade often."
- "A desire to capitalize on AI by building new hardware around it."
Advancements in AI could make them far more useful than the first time around. Emerging AI models can process images, video and speech simultaneously, answer complicated requests and respond conversationally... And market research indicates the interest will be there this time. The smart glasses market is estimated to grow from 3.3 million units shipped in 2024 to nearly 13 million by 2026, according to ABI Research. The International Data Corporation projects the market for smart glasses like those made by Meta will grow from 8.8 in 2025 to nearly 14 million in 2026....
Apple is also said to be working on smart glasses to be released next year that would compete directly with Meta's, according to Bloomberg. Amazon's head of devices and services Panos Panay also didn't rule out the possibility of camera-equipped Alexa glasses similar to those offered by Meta in a February CNN interview. "But I think you can imagine, there's going to be a whole slew of AI devices that are coming," he said in February."
More than two million Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses have been sold since their launch in 2023, the article points out. But besides privacy concerns, "Perhaps the biggest challenge will be convincing consumers that they need yet another tech device in their life, particularly those who don't need prescription glasses. The products need to be worth wearing on people's faces all day."
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From the stage-zero-gravity department: Space may be the perfect place to study cancer — and someday even treat it," writes Space.com:
On Earth, gravity slows the development of cancer because cells normally need to be attached to a surface in order to function and grow. But in space, cancer cell clusters can expand in all directions as bubbles, like budding yeast or grapes, said Shay Soker, chief science program officer at Wake Forest's Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Since bubbles grow larger and more quickly in space, researchers can more easily test substances clinging to the edge of the larger bubbles, too. Scientists at the University of Notre Dame are taking advantage of this quirk to develop an in-space cancer test that needs just a single drop of blood. The work builds on a series of bubble-formation experiments that have already been conducted on the ISS. "If cancer screening using our bubble technology in space is democratized and made inexpensive, many more cancers can be screened, and everyone can benefit," said Tengfei Luo, a Notre Dame researcher who pioneered the technology, speaking to the ISS' magazine, Upward. "It's something we may be able to integrate into annual exams. It sounds far-fetched, but it's achievable...."
Chemotherapy patients could save precious time, too. In normal gravity, they typically have to spend a half-hour hooked up to a needle before the medicine begins to take effect, because most drugs don't dissolve easily in water. But scientists at Merck have discovered that, in space, their widely used cancer drug pembrolizumab, or Keytruda, can be administered through a simple injection, because large crystalline molecules that would normally clump together are suspended in microgravity... Someday, microgravity could even help patients recovering from surgery heal faster than they would on Earth, Soker added. "Wound healing in high pressure is faster. That's the hyperbaric treatment for wounds...."
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From the all-you-can-be department: Meta's CTO, Palantir's CTO, and OpenAI's chief product officer are being appointed as lieutenant colonels in America's Army Reserve, reports The Register. (Along with OpenAI's former chief revenue officer).
They've all signed up for Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps, "an effort to recruit senior tech executives to serve part-time in the Army Reserve as senior advisors," according to the official statement. "In this role they will work on targeted projects to help guide rapid and scalable tech solutions to complex problems..."
"Our primary role will be to serve as technical experts advising the Army's modernization efforts," [Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth] said on X...
As for Open AI's involvement, the company has been building its ties with the military-technology complex for some years now. Like Meta, OpenAI is working with Anduril on military ideas and last year scandalized some by watering down its past commitment to developing non-military products only. The Army wasn't answering questions on Friday but an article referenced by [OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin] Weil indicated that the four will have to serve a minimum of 120 hours a year, can work remotely, and won't have to pass basic training...
"America wins when we unite the dynamism of American innovation with the military's vital missions," [Palantir CTO Shyam] Sankar said on X. "This was the key to our triumphs in the 20th century. It can help us win again. I'm humbled by this new opportunity to serve my country, my home, America."
Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005
The official
Transformers YouTube account have uploaded the Transformers Cyberworld Elita-1 Video Profile. These is a short animation where we can watch Elita-1 transform from her new boat alt mode to robot mode, showing off some poses and then going back into alt mode. We can watch her stats on the background. We had previously reported
Optimus Prime and Grimlock, and
Bumblebee video profiles too. We may see more video profiles as we get closer to Cyberworld cartoon premiere on July 12th. Watch the videos after the break and then sound off on the 2005 Boards!
The post
Transformers Cyberworld Elita-1 Character Video Profile appeared first on
Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by EditorDavid from Slashdot
From the school-spirits department: Here's a lesson for today's colleges from the Associated Press. Online classes + AI = financial aid fraud.
"In some cases, professors discover almost no one in their class is real..."
Fake college enrollments have been surging as crime rings deploy "ghost students" — chatbots that join online classrooms and stay just long enough to collect a financial aid check... Students get locked out of the classes they need to graduate as bots push courses over their enrollment limits.
And victims of identity theft who discover loans fraudulently taken out in their names must go through months of calling colleges, the Federal Student Aid office and loan servicers to try to get the debt erased. [Last week], the U.S. Education Department introduced a temporary rule requiring students to show colleges a government-issued ID to prove their identity... "The rate of fraud through stolen identities has reached a level that imperils the federal student aid program," the department said in its guidance to colleges.
An Associated Press analysis of fraud reports obtained through a public records request shows California colleges in 2024 reported 1.2 million fraudulent applications, which resulted in 223,000 suspected fake enrollments. Other states are affected by the same problem, but with 116 community colleges, California is a particularly large target. Criminals stole at least $11.1 million in federal, state and local financial aid from California community colleges last year that could not be recovered, according to the reports... Scammers frequently use AI chatbots to carry out the fraud, targeting courses that are online and allow students to watch lectures and complete coursework on their own time...
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From the fueling-a-debate department: Will an expansion of biofuels increase greenhouse gas emissions, despite their purported climate benefits? That's the claim of a new report from the World Resources Institute, which has been critical of US biofuel policy in the past.
Ars Technica has republished an article from the nonprofit, non-partisan news organization Inside Climate News, which investigates the claim. Drawing from 100 academic studies on biofuel impacts, the Institute's new report "concludes that [U.S.] ethanol policy has been largely a failure and ought to be reconsidered, especially as the world needs more land to produce food to meet growing demand."
"Multiple studies show that U.S. biofuel policies have reshaped crop production, displacing food crops and driving up emissions from land conversion, tillage, and fertilizer use," said the report's lead author, Haley Leslie-Bole. "Corn-based ethanol, in particular, has contributed to nutrient runoff, degraded water quality and harmed wildlife habitat. As climate pressures grow, increasing irrigation and refining for first-gen biofuels could deepen water scarcity in already drought-prone parts of the Midwest...."
It may, in fact, produce more greenhouse gases than the fossil fuels it was intended to replace. Recent research says that biofuel refiners also emit significant amounts of carcinogenic and dangerous substances, including hexane and formaldehyde, in greater amounts than petroleum refineries. The new report points to research saying that increased production of biofuels from corn and soy could actually raise greenhouse gas emissions, largely from carbon emissions linked to clearing land in other countries to compensate for the use of land in the Midwest.
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From the loving-Linux department: Rocky Linux 10 "Red Quartz" has reached general availability, notes a new article in The Register — surveying the differences between "RHELatives" — the major alternatives to Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
The Rocky 10 release notes describe what's new, such as support for RISC-V computers. Balancing that, this version only supports the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 series; it drops Rocky 9.x's support for the older Pi 3 and Pi Zero models...
RHEL 10 itself, and Rocky with it, now require x86-64-v3, meaning Intel "Haswell" generation kit from about 2013 onward. Uniquely among the RHELatives, AlmaLinux offers a separate build of version 10 for x86-64-v2 as well, meaning Intel "Nehalem" and later — chips from roughly 2008 onward. AlmaLinux has a history of still supporting hardware that's been dropped from RHEL and Rocky, which it's been doing since AlmaLinux 9.4. Now that includes CPUs. In comparison, the system requirements for Rocky Linux 10 are the same as for RHEL 10. The release notes say.... "The most significant change in Rocky Linux 10 is the removal of support for x86-64-v2 architectures. AMD and Intel 64-bit architectures for x86-64-v3 are now required."
A significant element of the advertising around RHEL 10 involves how it has an AI assistant. This is called Red Hat Enterprise Linux Lightspeed, and you can use it right from a shell prompt, as the documentation describes... It's much easier than searching man pages, especially if you don't know what to look for... [N]either AlmaLinux 10 nor Rocky Linux 10 includes the option of a helper bot. No big surprise there...
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From the AI-URLs department: Recently the Browser Company (the startup behind the Arc web browser) switched over to building a new AI-powered browser — and its beta has just been released, reports TechCrunch, "though you'll need an invite to try it out."
The Chromium-based browser has a URL/search bar that also "acts as the interface for its in-built AI chatbot" which can "search the web for you, summarize files that you upload, and automatically switch between chat and search functions."
The Browser Company's CEO Josh Miller has of late acknowledged how people have been using AI tools for all sorts of tasks, and Dia is a reflection of that. By giving users an AI interface within the browser itself, where a majority of work is done these days, the company is hoping to slide into the user flow and give people an easy way to use AI, cutting out the need to visit the sites for tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude...
Users can also ask questions about all the tabs they have open, and the bot can even write up a draft based on the contents of those tabs. To set your preferences, all you have to do is talk to the chatbot to customize its tone of voice, style of writing, and settings for coding. Via an opt-in feature called History, you can allow the browser to use seven days of your browsing history as context to answer queries.
The Browser Company will give all existing Arc members access to the beta immediately, according to the article, "and existing Dia users will be able to send invites to other users."
The article points out that Google is also adding AI-powered features to Chrome...
Posted by EditorDavid from Slashdot
From the Flat-land department: In a world first, a research team used 2D materials — only an atom thick — to develop a computer. The team (led by researchers at Pennsylvania State University) says it's a major step toward thinner, faster and more energy-efficient electronics.
From the University's announcement:
They created a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) computer — technology at the heart of nearly every modern electronic device — without relying on silicon. Instead, they used two different 2D materials to develop both types of transistors needed to control the electric current flow in CMOS computers: molybdenum disulfide for n-type transistors and tungsten diselenide for p-type transistors... "[A]s silicon devices shrink, their performance begins to degrade," [said lead researcher/engineering professor Saptarshi Das]. "Two-dimensional materials, by contrast, maintain their exceptional electronic properties at atomic thickness, offering a promising path forward...."
The team used metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) — a fabrication process that involves vaporizing ingredients, forcing a chemical reaction and depositing the products onto a substrate — to grow large sheets of molybdenum disulfide and tungsten diselenide and fabricate over 1,000 of each type of transistor. By carefully tuning the device fabrication and post-processing steps, they were able to adjust the threshold voltages of both n- and p-type transistors, enabling the construction of fully functional CMOS logic circuits.
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From the dueling-CEOs department: Last week Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said AI could eliminate half the entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. CNN called the remarks "part of the AI hype machine."
Asked about the prediction this week at a Paris tech conference, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged AI may impact some employees, but "dismissed" Amodei's claim, according to Fortune. "Everybody's jobs will be changed. Some jobs will be obsolete, but many jobs are going to be created ... Whenever companies are more productive, they hire more people."
And he also said he "pretty much" disagreed "with almost everything" Anthropic's CEO says.
"One, he believes that AI is so scary that only they should do it," Huang said of Amodei at a press briefing at Viva Technology in Paris. "Two, [he believes] that AI is so expensive, nobody else should do it ... And three, AI is so incredibly powerful that everyone will lose their jobs, which explains why they should be the only company building it. I think AI is a very important technology; we should build it and advance it safely and responsibly," Huang continued. "If you want things to be done safely and responsibly, you do it in the open ... Don't do it in a dark room and tell me it's safe."
An Anthropic spokesperson told Fortune in a statement: "Dario has never claimed that 'only Anthropic' can build safe and powerful AI. As the public record will show, Dario has advocated for a national transparency standard for AI developers (including Anthropic) so the public and policymakers are aware of the models' capabilities and risks and can prepare accordingly.
NVIDIA's CEO also touted their hybrid quantum-classical platformCUDA-Q and claimed quantum computing is hitting an "inflection point" and within a few years could start solving real-world problems
Executives from Meta, OpenAI, and Palantir Commissioned Into The US Army Reserve 2025-06-14 21:45:02
