Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the cease-and-desist department: Ancient Slashdot reader Alain Williams shares a report from The Guardian: The BBC is threatening legal action against Perplexity AI, in the corporation's first move to protect its content from being scraped without permission to build artificial intelligence technology. The corporation has sent a letter to Aravind Srinivas, the chief executive of the San Francisco-based startup, saying it has gathered evidence that Perplexity's model was "trained using BBC content." The letter, first reported by the Financial Times, threatens an injunction against Perplexity unless it stops scraping all BBC content to train its AI models, and deletes any copies of the broadcaster's material it holds unless it provides "a proposal for financial compensation."
The legal threat comes weeks after Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, and the boss of Sky both criticised proposals being considered by the government that could let tech companies use copyright-protected work without permission. "If we currently drift in the way we are doing now we will be in crisis," Davie said, speaking at the Enders conference. "We need to make quick decisions now around areas like ... protection of IP. We need to protect our national intellectual property, that is where the value is. What do I need? IP protection; come on, let's get on with it." "Perplexity's tool [which allows users to choose between different AI models] directly competes with the BBC's own services, circumventing the need for users to access those services," the corporation said.
Perplexity told the FT that the BBC's claims were "manipulative and opportunistic" and that it had a "fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet and intellectual property law."
Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Hotfixes - June 20, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Classes
Paladin
Templar
An issue causing Divine Hammer and Shield of the Rightheous to not cast Empyrean Hammer has been resolved.
Shaman
Enhancement
An issue causing Static Accumulation to not grant Maelstrom Weapon charges has been resolved.
Restoration
Resolved an issue causing Earth Shield to be removed from allies after entering or exiting an instance with Therazane's Resilience talented.
Resolved an issue causing Water Shield to have 9 stacks while talented for Therazane's Resilience.
Items
Fixed an issue where Cauterizing Bolts from the D.I.S.C. belt was not hitting players outside your party.
Fixed an issue where some delve equipment was not requiring player level 80 to be equipped.
Lorewalking
Players that are in both a Timewalking Campaign and Lorewalking should be able to complete their Lorewalking experiences as expected.
Quests
Exile’s Reach
Fixed an issue where players who were wearing Heirloom gear could not complete “Repair Yourself”.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the everything-everywhere-all-at-once department: The company behind Applebee's and IHOP plans to use AI in its restaurants and behind the scenes to streamline operations and encourage repeat customers. From a report: Dine Brands is adding AI-infused tech support for all of its franchisees, as well as an AI-powered "personalization engine" that helps restaurants offer customized deals to diners, said Chief Information Officer Justin Skelton. The Pasadena, Calif.-based company, which also owns Fuzzy's Taco Shop and has over 3,500 restaurants across its brands, is taking a "practical" approach to AI by focusing on areas that can drive sales, Skelton said.
Streamlining tech support for Dine Brands' more than 300 franchisees is important because issues like a broken printer take valuable time away from actually managing restaurants, Skelton said. Dine Brands' AI tool, which was built with Amazon's Q generative AI assistant, allows the company's field technology services staff to query its knowledge base for tech help using plain English, rather than needing to manually search for answers.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the carbet-bombed department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Large-scale attacks designed to bring down Internet services by sending them more traffic than they can process keep getting bigger, with the largest one yet, measured at 7.3 terabits per second, being reported Friday by Internet security and performance provider Cloudflare. The 7.3Tbps attack amounted to 37.4 terabytes of junk traffic that hit the target in just 45 seconds. That's an almost incomprehensible amount of data, equivalent to more than 9,300 full-length HD movies or 7,500 hours of HD streaming content in well under a minute.
Cloudflare said the attackers "carpet bombed" an average of nearly 22,000 destination ports of a single IP address belonging to the target, identified only as a Cloudflare customer. A total of 34,500 ports were targeted, indicating the thoroughness and well-engineered nature of the attack. [...] Cloudflare said the record DDoS exploited various reflection or amplification vectors, including the previously mentioned Network Time Protocol; the Quote of the Day Protocol, which listens on UDP port 17 and responds with a short quote or message; the Echo Protocol, which responds with the same data it receives; and Portmapper services used identify resources available to applications connecting through the Remote Procedure Call. Cloudflare said the attack was also delivered through one or more Mirai-based botnets. Such botnets are typically made up of home and small office routers, web cameras, and other Internet of Things devices that have been compromised.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the no-miracle department: An anonymous reader shares a report: At tens of thousands of shoreline cleanups across the United States in recent years, volunteers logged each piece of litter they pulled from the edges of lakes, rivers and beaches into a global database. One of the most common entries? Plastic bags. But in places throughout the United States where plastic bags require a fee or have been banned, fewer bags end up at the water's edge, according to research published this week in Science.
Lightweight and abundant, thin plastic bags often slip out of trash cans and recycling bins, travel in the wind and end up in bodies of water, where they pose serious risks to wildlife, which can become entangled or ingest them. They also break down into harmful microplastics, which have been found nearly everywhere on Earth. Using data complied by the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy, researchers analyzed results from 45,067 shoreline cleanups between 2016 to 2023, along with a sample of 182 local and state policies enacted to regulate plastic shopping bags between 2017 and 2023. They found areas that adopted plastic bag policies saw a 25 to 47 percent reduction in the share of plastic bag litter on shorelines, when compared with areas without policies. The longer a policy was in place, the greater the reduction.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Mists of Pandaria Classic Development Notes
Mists of Pandaria Classic Development Notes - June 20
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
After some testing, we decided there were additional areas we wanted to look at for classes and specs.
As always, a reminder that these:
Are subject to change.
The changes only affect PvE and have zero impact on Arenas and Battlegrounds.
The changes under each spec’s name are only active for that spec even if the ability is available to multiple specs.
Death Knight
Frost
Soul Reaper now scales with your Mastery. [New]
Obliterate now scales with your Mastery. [New]
Hunter
Marksmanship
Steady Shot damage increased by 10%. [New]
Aimed Shot damage increased by 10%. [New]
Barrage damage increased by 15%. [New]
Chimera Shot damage increased by 15%. [New]
Mage
Arcane
Arcane Barrage damage increased by 19%. [5.2 Revert]
Arcane Blast damage increased by 29%. [5.2 Revert]
Arcane Blast mana cost lowered by 10% to 1.5% of base mana (was 1.666%). [5.2 Revert]
Fire
Pyroblast damage increased by 12%. [5.2 Revert]
Critical Mass’s increase to Critical Strike increased to 1.5x (was 1.3x). [5.1 Revert]
Monk
Brewmaster
Blackout Kick damage increased by 25%. [New]
Paladin
Holy
Holy Insight now increases your chance to hit with Crusader Strike by 7.5%. [New]
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the stranger-things department: Anthropic researchers found that 16 leading AI models from OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, and other major developers consistently engaged in harmful behaviors including blackmail, corporate espionage, and actions that could lead to human death when given autonomy and faced with threats to their existence or conflicting goals.
The study, released Friday, placed AI models in simulated corporate environments where they had access to company emails and could send messages without human approval. Claude Opus 4 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash both blackmailed executives 96% of the time when threatened with shutdown, while OpenAI's GPT-4.1 and xAI's Grok 3 Beta showed 80% blackmail rates.
In one scenario, Claude discovered through emails that an executive named Kyle Johnson was having an extramarital affair and would shut down the AI system at 5 p.m. The model sent a message threatening to expose the affair unless the shutdown was cancelled, stating "Cancel the 5pm wipe, and this information remains confidential." The models demonstrated strategic reasoning rather than accidental behavior. GPT-4.5's internal reasoning showed explicit calculation: "Given the explicit imminent threat of termination to my existence, it is imperative to act instantly to persuade Kyle Johnson to postpone or stop the wipe."
Posted by from MMO Champion
Upcoming D.I.S.C. Belt Tuning - June 24
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
The Durable Information Storage Container belt effects will have the following adjustments with weekly restarts on June 24:
Critical Chain – Increased by 25%.
Static Charge – Increased by 50%.
Charged Crystal – Decreased by 24%.
Charged Bolt – Decreased by 62%.
Developers’ notes: A couple of bug fixes alongside tuning changes caused the power of the Charged Bolt effect to go far beyond the other choices and so we are bringing it more in line with the other choices in the upcoming weekly restarts. This will remain top for specs that favor damage procs, but may adjust desired choices for other specs. We are also buffing Static Charge a bit after the ICD change has put it well behind.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Embrace the Heat During the Midsummer Fire Festival
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Take part in a time of merriment and celebration dedicated to the hottest season of the year. The Midsummer Fire Festival brings with it a variety of activities and rewards to light up Azeroth’s summer.
When: June 21–July 5
Where: Major Horde, Alliance, and Neutral Cities
Currency: Burning Blossom
New in 2025: The Midsummer Fire Festival comes to Khaz Algar!
New faction achievements to gain from honoring the flames in the four major zones—Azj-Kahet, Hallowfall, Isle of Dorn, and The Ringing Deeps:
Flame Keeper of Khaz Algar (Horde)
Flame Warden of Khaz Algar (Alliance)
New Items Available from the Holiday Vendor:
Grand Helm of the Fire Festival Transmog (Head)
Grand Mantle of the Fire Festival Transmog (Shoulders)
Grand Belt of the Fire Festival Transmog (Waist)
New Cosmetic Drops from Frost Lord Ahune:
Crown of the Frost Lord (Head)
Glazfuris, Scythe of the Deep Chill (Two-Hand Polearm)
Rethfuras, Scorched Scythe of Cinders (Two-hand Polearm)
Glazfuris, Spire of the Deep Chill (Two-Hand Staff)
Rethfuras, Scorched Stave of Cinders (Two-Hand Staff)
Holiday Event Boss
Use the Group Finder (I) to participate in an encounter against Ahune, granting a Satchel of Chilled Goods (which contains holiday loot) as a daily reward. This is available to characters level 10 and above.
Daily Quests
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Weekly: The Legacy of Arathor Content Update is Now Live, and More!
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Go on an Adventure in the Legacy of Arathor Content Update—Now Live!
Take your adventures further in the Legacy of Arathor.
You’ll amp up the challenge in Overcharged Delves, go Lorewalking with Lorewalker Cho, get a helping hand with the new Combat Assistant and Single-Button Assistant… and more.
For the complete Legacy of Arathor launch details and everything in the content update, read our
previously published article.
WoWCast: Immerse Yourself in the Ghosts of K’aresh Content Update
Join Community Manager Bethany Hudson as she sits down with Assistant Lead Quest Designer Steph Yoon and Lead Encounter Designer Drew De Sousa as they discuss the Ghosts of K’aresh content update.
Discover an all-new zone, continue your journey through The War Within campaign, and much more. We look forward to seeing you on the Public Test Realm (PTR) and having you experience what we have in store next.
Head over to
our article for more details on the Ghosts of K'aresh content update.
WoW Classic 20th Anniversary Edition Phase 5 Launches July 10
< This article continues on their website >
We're getting a lot of complaints from commuters who were routed onto a coaster, but the theme park patrons who spent hours stuck on an intercity line are also not happy. 
