How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time
The idea that machines will be as smart as—or smarter than—humans has hijacked an entire industry. But look closely and you’ll see it’s a myth that persists for many of the same reasons conspiracies do.
The Morning After: Musk talks flying Teslas on Joe Rogan’s show
The biggest news stories this morning: Pentagon may award SpaceX a billion-dollar contract to help with Golden Dome, Apple Vision Pro M5 review, Acer...
DOJ Accuses US Ransomware Negotiators of Launching Their Own Ransomware Attacks - Slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: U.S. prosecutors have charged two rogue employees of a cybersecurity company that specializes in negotiating ransom payments to hackers on behalf of their victims with carrying out ransomware attacks of their own. Last month, the Department of Jus...
Trump Admin Blocking Billions In Already Awarded Broadband Grants To States That Enforce Net Neutrality Or Engage In Telecom Oversight
The Trump administration is promising to block billions in already-awarded infrastructure bill broadband grants to any states that enforce net neutrality or try to impose any sort of meaningful ove…
How to Opt-Out of Airlines Selling Your Travel Data to the Government
The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), owned by major U.S. airlines, collects billions of ticketing records and sells them to the government to be searched without a warrant. I managed to opt-out of that data selling.
Anthropic Projects $70 Billion in Revenue, $17 Billion in Cash Flow in 2028
Anthropic this summer hiked its most optimistic growth forecasts by roughly 13% to 28% over the next three years and projected generating as much as $70 billion in revenue in 2028, up from close to $5 billion this year, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s financials. The ...
WhatsApp launches long-awaited Apple Watch app | TechCrunch
For the first time, WhatsApp users will be able to use their Apple Watch to get call notifications, read full messages, record and send voice messages, and view media content more clearly.
The Numbers Show Xbox's Current Plan Isn't Working
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: It's time for Xbox to eat some humble pie and perform some real soul-searching. Microsoft released its latest quarterly earnings report and proved the worst of our fears about its gaming brand. Not only are Xbox hardware sales down significantly, but...
Austria's Ministry of Economy Has Migrated To a Nextcloud Platform In Shift Away From US Tech - Slashdot
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Even before Azure had a global failure this week, Austria's Ministry of Economy had taken a decisive step toward digital sovereignty. The Ministry achieved this status by migrating 1,200 employees to a Nextcloud-based cloud and collaboration platform h...
Bluesky Hits 40 Million Users, Introduces 'Dislikes' Beta - Slashdot
Bluesky has surpassed 40 million users and is launching a "dislikes" beta to improve its personalization algorithms and reduce toxic content. TechCrunch reports: With the "dislikes" beta rolling out soon, Bluesky will take into account the new signal to improve user personalization. As users "disli...
Kids Turn Podcast Comments Into Secret Chat Rooms, Because Of Course They Do
As anyone who has read Techdirt for any length of time knows full well, there’s been a years-long campaign to demonize kids and social media. Never mind that actual experts have said the data doesn…