• chevron_right

      FCC chairman celebrates court loss in case over Biden-era diversity rule

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025

    Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr celebrated an FCC court loss yesterday after a ruling that struck down Biden-era diversity reporting requirements that Carr voted against while Democrats were in charge.

    "An appellate court just struck down the Biden FCC's 2024 decision to force broadcasters to post race and gender scorecards," Carr wrote . "As I said in my dissent back then, the FCC's 2024 decision was an unlawful effort to pressure businesses into discriminating based on race & gender."

    The FCC mandate was challenged in court by National Religious Broadcasters, a group for Christian TV and radio broadcasters and the American Family Association. They sued in the conservative-leaning US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, where a three-judge panel yesterday ruled unanimously against the FCC.

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      Under RFK Jr., COVID shots will only be available to people 65+, high-risk groups

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025

    Under the control of anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Food and Drug Administration is unilaterally terminating universal access to seasonal COVID-19 vaccines; instead, only people who are age 65 years and older and people with underlying conditions that put them at risk of severe COVID-19 will have access to seasonal boosters moving forward.

    The move was laid out in a commentary article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine , written by Trump administration FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and the agency's new top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad.

    The article lays out a new framework for approving seasonal COVID-19 vaccines, as well as a rationale for the change—which was made without input from independent advisory committees for the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      Here’s how Windows 11 aims to make the world safe in the post-quantum era

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025 • 1 minute

    Microsoft is updating Windows 11 with a set of new encryption algorithms that can withstand future attacks from quantum computers in an attempt to jump-start what’s likely to be the most formidable and important technology transition in modern history.

    Computers that are based on the physics of quantum mechanics don’t yet exist outside of sophisticated labs, but it’s well-established science that they eventually will. Instead of processing data in the binary state of zeros and ones, quantum computers run on qubits, which encompass myriad states all at once. This new capability promises to bring about new discoveries of unprecedented scale in a host of fields, including metallurgy, chemistry, drug discovery, and financial modeling.

    Averting the cryptopocalypse

    One of the most disruptive changes quantum computing will bring is the breaking of some of the most common forms of encryption, specifically, the RSA cryptosystem and those based on elliptic curves. These systems are the workhorses that banks, governments, and online services around the world have relied on for more than four decades to keep their most sensitive data confidential. RSA and elliptic curve encryption keys securing web connections would require millions of years to be cracked using today’s computers. A quantum computer could crack the same keys in a matter of hours or minutes.

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      Trump admin lifts hold on offshore wind farm, doesn’t explain why

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025 • 1 minute

    On Monday, the developer of a large offshore wind farm being built off the coast of New York announced that the federal government had lifted a hold it had placed on the project roughly a month ago. The entire process has been shrouded in mystery. The government never fully enunciated its justification for the hold and hasn't yet commented on the fact that it had been lifted, although there is some hint that it was coupled to a reconsideration of a cancelled natural gas pipeline.

    Empire Wind is a large project being built off the southeast shore of Long Island by Equinor, a Norwegian energy company. The first of two phases, Empire Wind 1, will have an 800 MW capacity and has already received permitting and environmental approval. Equinor had started construction of the foundations for the towers that would hold the wind turbines and onshore facilities that would support this and future offshore projects.

    All that changed in mid-April when Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced via a social media post that the approval for Empire Wind had been rushed and his department would be reviewing it. A Fox News article published a few days later suggests that a review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration "found the Empire Wind approval process relied on rushed, outdated, and incomplete scientific and environmental analysis." But nobody else has indicated that any such report exists, despite requests from the press.

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      Adobe to automatically move subscribers to pricier, AI-focused tier in June

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025

    Subscribers to Adobe’s multi-app subscription plan, Creative Cloud All Apps, will be charged more starting on June 17 to accommodate for new generative AI features.

    Adobe’s announcement, spotted by MakeUseOf, says the change will affect North American subscribers to the Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which Adobe is renaming Creative Cloud Pro. Starting on June 17, Adobe will automatically renew Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers into the Creative Cloud Pro subscription, which will be $70 per month for individuals who commit to an annual plan, up from $60 for Creative Cloud All Apps. Annual plans for students and teachers plans are moving from $35/month to $40/month, and annual teams pricing will go from $90/month to $100/month. Monthly (non-annual) subscriptions are also increasing, from $90 to $105.

    Further, in an apparent attempt to push generative AI users to more expensive subscriptions, as of June 17, Adobe will give single-app subscribers just 25 generative AI credits instead of the current 500.

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      Chicago Sun-Times prints summer reading list full of fake books

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025

    On Sunday, the Chicago Sun-Times published an advertorial summer reading list containing at least 10 fake books attributed to real authors, according to multiple reports on social media. The newspaper's uncredited "Summer reading list for 2025" supplement recommended titles including "Tidewater Dreams" by Isabel Allende and "The Last Algorithm" by Andy Weir—books that don't exist and were created out of thin air by an AI system.

    The creator of the list, Marco Buscaglia, confirmed to 404 Media that he used AI to generate the content. "I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first. This time, I did not and I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. No excuses," Buscaglia said. "On me 100 percent and I'm completely embarrassed."

    A check by Ars Technica shows that only five of the fifteen recommended books in the list actually exist, with the remainder being fabricated titles falsely attributed to well-known authors. AI assistants such as ChatGPT are well-known for creating plausible-sounding errors known as confabulations , especially when lacking detailed information on a particular topic. The problem affects everything from AI search results to lawyers citing fake cases .

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      Universal releases one last Jurassic World Rebirth trailer

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025

    Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali star in Jurassic World Rebirth .

    Jurassic World Rebirth is coming to theaters for the Fourth of July weekend, and Universal Pictures has released one final trailer to whet audience appetites for the film.

    As previously reported , this is the fourth installment in the Jurassic World series and seventh film overall in the franchise spawned by 1993's Jurassic Park . This time around, Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali step into the leading roles since the film is meant to be a fresh start for the franchise—although it does feature a return to the original research facility. Gareth Edwards—who directed 2014's Godzilla— signed on to direct a script penned by David Koepp, who wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World (1997).

    Per the official premise:

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      2025 Hyundai Ioniq 9 first drive: Efficient, for a big one

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025 • 1 minute

    Hyundai provided flights from Washington to Savannah and accommodation so Ars could drive the Ioniq 9. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

    SAVANNAH, Georgia—Hyundai's massive new Metaplant factory in Georgia is actually painted a subtle shade of green, not white, but you'd need someone to point that out to you. It's a shining example of the latest in car manufacturing—bright lights and white walls inside, knee-saving wooden floors on the production line, recaptured waste energy and solar—you name it. Hyundai even uses dog-like robots to check some welds. The vast facility is responsible for North American production of the electric Ioniq 5 and, now, the all-new Ioniq 9 SUV as well.

    That Hyundai would make a three-row SUV with its class-leading electric powertrain was a no-brainer. The E-GMP platform, with its 800 V powertrain, was designed for medium to large EVs, after all. In 2021 it debuted the Seven concept , which explored the idea of a living room on wheels. I'm not sure why the nameplate skipped a couple of digits, but the production Ioniq 9 tries to keep as true to that theme as possible within the confines of real life.

    Although they look quite different from one another, a common design language called "parametric pixels" ties together the Ioniq 9 with its smaller siblings the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 sedan . Creases catch the light even with the matte-gold paint of our test car, like the line ahead of the rear wheels that calls back to the collar on a traditional Korean garment. As ever, there are some other wonderful names for the design language: my favorite is "aerosthetic lounge," but when you look at the images, also think of words like "teutonic," "boat tail," and "integrated." When you hear the shape was inspired by a pebble, it makes sense that the drag coefficient is a slippery 0.27.

    Read full article

    Comments

    • chevron_right

      Zero-click searches: Google’s AI tools are the culmination of its hubris

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 20 May 2025

    Google is constantly making changes to its search rankings, but not all updates are equal. Every few months, the company bundles up changes into a larger "core update." These updates make rapid and profound changes to search, so website operators watch them closely.

    The March 2024 update was unique. It was one of Google's largest core updates ever, and it took over a month to fully roll out. Nothing has felt quite the same since. Whether the update was good or bad depends on who you ask—and maybe who you are.

    It's common for websites to see traffic changes after a core update, but the impact of the March 2024 update marked a seismic shift. Google says the update aimed to address spam and AI-generated content in a meaningful way. Still, many publishers say they saw clicks on legitimate sites evaporate, while others have had to cope with unprecedented volatility in their traffic. Because Google owns almost the entire search market, changes in its algorithm can move the Internet itself.

    Read full article

    Comments