Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the what-to-expect department: In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company's corporate workforce will shrink in the coming years as it adopts more generative AI tools and agents. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce." CNBC reports: Jassy wrote that employees should learn how to use AI tools and experiment and figure out "how to get more done with scrappier teams." The directive comes as Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since 2022 and made several cuts this year. Amazon cut about 200 employees in its North America stores unit in January and a further 100 in its devices and services unit in May. Amazon had 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees in its global workforce as of the end of March, according to financial filings. The company also employs temporary workers in its warehouse operations, along with some contractors.
Amazon is using generative AI broadly across its internal operations, including in its fulfillment network where the technology is being deployed to assist with inventory placement, demand forecasting and the efficiency of warehouse robots, Jassy said. [...] In his most recent letter to shareholders, Jassy called generative AI a "once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know." He added that the technology is "saving companies lots of money," and stands to shift the norms in coding, search, financial services, shopping and other areas. "It's moving faster than almost anything technology has ever seen," Jassy said.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the finger-pointing department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The Spanish government has said that the national grid operator and private power generation companies were to blame for an energy blackout that caused widespread chaos in Spain and Portugal earlier this year. Shortly after midday on April 28, both countries were disconnected from the European electricity grid for several hours. Businesses, schools, universities, government buildings and transport hubs were all left without power and traffic light outages caused gridlocks. While schoolchildren, students and workers were sent home for the day, many other people were stuck in lifts or stranded on trains in isolated rural areas.
In the immediate aftermath, the left-wing coalition government did not provide an explanation, instead calling for patience as it investigated. Nearly two months after the unprecedented outage, the minister for ecological transition, Sara Aagesen, has presented a report on its causes. She said the partly state-owned grid operator, Red Electrica, had miscalculated the power capacity needs for that day, explaining that the "system did not have enough dynamic voltage capacity." The regulator should have switched on another thermal plant, she said, but "they made their calculations and decided that it was not necessary."
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
World of Warcraft 2025 Summer Sale
Cataclysm Classic - PvP Season 11 Rewards Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Greetings!
We’ve made a couple updates to the way ranking and titles will be awarded for Cataclysm Classic’s final PvP Season, and we wanted to share them, below:
We increased the number of spots that will be receiving Rank One and Gladiator Titles for Season 11.
Having multiple alts in the Gladiator range no longer counts towards multiple slots when calculating the cutoff.
For example, if you have 4 characters that are all Gladiator in 3s, you only count as one spot. All your characters that are above the cutoff range will still get the respective reward.
Reminder: Cataclysm Classic’s Arena season will end the week of June 23, at 10:00 p.m. the night before weekly maintenance in each region (June 23 at 10:00 p.m. PDT for North America realms / 24 June at 22:00 CEST for European realms).
Thank you, as always, for all the feedback!
– The WoW Classic Team
Posted by from MMO Champion
MoP Classic: PvP Seasons, Base Resilience, and Max PvE Item Level Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Greetings!
We’ve updated several PvP-focused elements of the upcoming Mists of Pandaria Classic experience, and we would like to share them below:
During active Arena Seasons, the Conquest cap will go up every week for all characters. If a player does not reach the cap in a week, they will be able to catch up. This is a change we made in Cataclysm Classic, and we were pleased by the feedback.
For example, if you create a new character and hit max level 4 weeks into the Arena Season, your available Conquest cap will be 4 times the weekly cap, and you can catch up to everyone else without being permanently behind.
We are bringing back Gladiator and Rank One titles and rewards for 2v2s and 5v5s.
We will have a flat cutoff instead of a percentage of players for Rank One and Gladiator slots.
Having multiple alts in the Gladiator range no longer counts towards multiple slots when calculating the cutoff for that arena bracket size.
For example, if you have 4 characters that are all Gladiator in 3s, you only count as one spot and all 4 of those characters get Gladiator rewards.
Similarly, if you have 2 characters that are Gladiator in 2s, 2 characters that are Gladiators in 3s, and 4 characters that are Gladiator in 5s, you count as 1 character in 2s, 1 character in 3s, and 1 character in 5s for cutoffs. All of those characters get their Gladiator rewards.
If you have 2 characters that are Gladiator in 3s, and one character that is not, you count as 1 slot in 3s, your 2 characters get Gladiator rewards, and your character that was not Gladiator does not get the rewards.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the friends-turned-foes department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: OpenAI executives have discussed filing an antitrust complaint with US regulators against Microsoft, the company's largest investor, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions between the two long-term AI partners. OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT, has reportedly considered seeking a federal regulatory review of the terms of its contract with Microsoft for potential antitrust law violations, according to people familiar with the matter. The potential antitrust complaint would likely argue that Microsoft is using its dominant position in cloud services and contractual leverage to suppress competition, according to insiders who described it as a "nuclear option," the WSJ reports.
The move could unravel one of the most important business partnerships in the AI industry -- a relationship that started with a $1 billion investment by Microsoft in 2019 and has grown to include billions more in funding, along with Microsoft's exclusive rights to host OpenAI models on its Azure cloud platform. The friction centers on OpenAI's efforts to transition from its current nonprofit structure into a public benefit corporation, a conversion that needs Microsoft's approval to complete. The two companies have not been able to agree on details after months of negotiations, sources told Reuters. OpenAI's existing for-profit arm would become a Delaware-based public benefit corporation under the proposed restructuring.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by Black Convoy from TFW2005
The Infantry X Transformers 40th Anniversary Modular Mechanical Watches Kickstarter campaign is now
officially live. These are a new set of high-end wrist watches featuring Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Megatron with G1-inspired designs, tool-free modular system (allowing you to swap bezels, straps, and cases in seconds), sapphire watch mirro, silicone watch strap and NH72 Seiko automatic movement. Each watch will also include character card, a card pack and a ID card of the
Transformers AR Card Game By Vanch Studios as rewards. You can support the
Kickstarter campaing on this link until July 17th 2025 at 7:00 AM EST. There are still some special
» Continue Reading.
The post
Infantry X Transformers 40th Anniversary Modular Mechanical Watches Kickstarter Live appeared first on
Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Take a Timely Tour Through the Turbulent Timeways
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Once more, the Bronze Dragonflight has discovered growing disturbances in the timeways, with several rapidly intersecting our own!
Starting today, Timewalk through a previous expansion each week for seven consecutive weeks, beginning and ending with the Battle for Azeroth. This grand tour through World of Warcraft's past delivers six new Timewalking Dungeons for players to undertake—Atal'Dazar, Freehold, King's Rest, Shrine of the Storm, Temple of Sethraliss, and Waycrest Manor.
Players can also shop at a new Battle for Azeroth vendor located in the harbors of Boralus and Dazar'Alor.
Also, for a limited time, the Timewalking quest available from the weekly quest giver will offer an increased reward—a Heroic level Cache of UndermineTreasures with items level 649-658. The reward upgrade is only available for this special Timewalking event.
Time to Buff Up
Those who run any Timewalking dungeon during the event get the “Knowledge of the Timeways” buff, granting a 5% increase to experience when killing monsters and completing quests.
Completing Timewalking dungeons increases the effect and also extends its duration. This is a stacking buff, and after four applications, it transforms into “Mastery of the Timeways,” increasing the experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests to 30%.
The buff lasts through death and is account-wide, which makes for an excellent opportunity to level up any alts.
Master the Timeways for a New Mount
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the price-to-pay department: Salesforce will raise prices by an average of 6% across its Enterprise and Unlimited Editions starting August 1, 2025, while simultaneously launching new AI-focused product tiers that significantly expand the cost structure for its platform. The price increases will affect Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and select Industries Clouds, though the company's Foundations, Starter, and Pro Editions will remain unchanged, the company said Tuesday.
Salesforce is justifying the move by citing "significant ongoing innovation and customer value delivered through our products." The company is also rolling out new Agentforce add-ons starting at $125 per user monthly, which provide unlimited AI agent usage for employees, while premium Agentforce 1 Editions begin at $550 per user monthly and include comprehensive AI capabilities plus cloud-specific features. Slack pricing has also been restructured, with the Business+ plan now costing $15 per user monthly and a new Enterprise+ tier added, though basic Slack access will be free for all Salesforce customers.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the new-normal department: Meetings starting after 8 p.m. are up 16% compared to a year ago, and at 10 p.m. almost a third of active workers are still monitoring their inboxes, according to research from Microsoft. Bloomberg: The company's annual work trends study, which is based on aggregated and anonymized data from Microsoft 365 users and a global survey of 31,000 desk workers, also found that almost 20% of employees actively working weekends are checking email before noon on Saturdays and Sundays [non-paywalled source], while over 5% are active on email again on Sunday evenings, gearing up for the start of the work week.
[...] Meetings are often spontaneous. Some 57% of the gatherings tallied by Microsoft came together without a calendar invite, and even 10% of scheduled meetings were booked at the last minute. [...] Mass emails, those which loop in more than 20 participants, are on the rise, climbing 7% from last year.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the enough-is-enough department: Veteran columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols declared that Firefox was "dead" to him in a scathing opinion piece Tuesday that cites Mozilla's strategic missteps and the browser's declining technical performance as evidence of terminal decline. Vaughan-Nichols argues that Mozilla has fundamentally betrayed user trust by removing a longstanding promise never to sell personal data from its privacy policy in February, replacing it with a weaker pledge to "protect your personal information."
The veteran technology writer also criticized Mozilla's decision to discontinue Pocket, a popular article-saving service, and Fakespot, which identified fake online reviews, while pursuing what he called a misguided AI strategy. He cited user reports of Firefox running up to 30% slower than Chrome, consuming excessive memory, and failing to properly load major websites. Mozilla has also become financially more vulnerable, he argued, noting CFO Eric Muhlheim's admission that the company depends on Google for 90% of its revenue. According to federal data he cited, Firefox holds just 1.9% of the browser market, leading him to conclude the browser is "done."
Posted by from MMO Champion
Patch 11.1.7 Legacy of Arathor Live This Week
Patch 11.1.7 launches this week in North America and Europe.
What is Releasing This Week?
Several new content additions are coming in Patch 11.1.7.
Official Patch Notes
Rise of the Red Dawn Campaign Quests
Lorewalking
Overcharged Delves
UI Additions
New Mounts
Turbulent Timeways
What is Releasing July 1?
Greedy Emmisary Event
Official Patch 11.1.7 Notes
Here are the official patch notes for the War Within Patch 11.1.7.
Rise of the Red Dawn Campaign Quests
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the reality-check department: A new benchmark assembled by a team of International Olympiad medalists suggests the hype about large language models beating elite human coders is premature. LiveCodeBench Pro, unveiled in a 584-problem study [PDF] drawn from Codeforces, ICPC and IOI contests, shows the best frontier model clears just 53% of medium-difficulty tasks on its first attempt and none of the hard ones, while grandmaster-level humans routinely solve at least some of those highest-tier problems.
The researchers measured models and humans on the same Elo scale used by Codeforces and found that OpenAI's o4-mini-high, when stripped of terminal tools and limited to one try per task, lands at an Elo rating of 2,116 -- hundreds of points below the grandmaster cutoff and roughly the 1.5 percentile among human contestants. A granular tag-by-tag autopsy identified implementation-friendly, knowledge-heavy problems -- segment trees, graph templates, classic dynamic programming -- as the models' comfort zone; observation-driven puzzles such as game-theory endgames and trick-greedy constructs remain stubborn roadblocks.
Because the dataset is harvested in real time as contests conclude, the authors argue it minimizes training-data leakage and offers a moving target for future systems. The broader takeaway is that impressive leaderboard jumps often reflect tool use, multiple retries or easier benchmarks rather than genuine algorithmic reasoning, leaving a conspicuous gap between today's models and top human problem-solvers.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the behind-the-scenes department: Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: A new documentary released last week on Netflix goes into detail about events leading up to the destruction of OceanGate's submersible, Titan that imploded on June 18, 2023 while attempting to visit the wreckage of the RMS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland. The Titan used a carbon-fiber hull instead of more traditional materials like steel or titanium. "Through exclusive access to whistleblower testimony, pivotal audio recordings, and footage from the company's early days, the film provides an unprecedented look at the technical challenges, moral dilemmas, and shockingly poor decisions that culminated in the catastrophic expedition," explains Netflix in an article.
Some highlights:
- Titan's original carbon-fiber hull had been replaced with a second carbon-fiber one after the first one developed noticeable cracks.
- Three scale models of the second hull failed tests. OceanGate decided to manufacture the second hull regardless of these failures.
- Loud pops were heard in many dives; CEO Stockton Rush dismissed these as "seasoning".
- Many employees raised numerous safety concerns. They were fired like lead pilot and head of marine operations, David Lochridge. Or they quit.
- Some employees like Emily Hammermeister wanted to quit earlier, but external conditions like the COVID pandemic made it difficult. After the scale models failed, she refused to bolt anyone in the future submersible. She was given the two options of being fired or quit; she quit in the middle of the pandemic.
- Rush's blindness to inconvenient facts: After the crack was discovered, Rush questioned Director of Engineering, Tony Nissen, about why Nissen did not anticipate the possibility of a crack. Nissen: "I wrote you a report that showed you it was there." Nissen had warned repeatedly that the hull's fibers were breaking (the pops) with each dive. Rush: "Well, one of us has to go."
< This article continues on their website >
