The sponsor list for a major event has been released, encompassing various levels including Platinum, Gold, and Silver, as well as sponsorship categories such as Network, Registration, Reception, Special Events, Speaker Tracks, Travel, and Media. The list reveals a large-scale event with significant corporate sponsorship, creating considerable anticipation.
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Meta introduces Jagged Flash Attention, a game-changer for large-scale recommendation systems' performance and scalability. Traditional methods struggle with variable-length categorical features (like user interaction history), requiring extensive padding. Jagged Flash Attention efficiently handles these using jagged tensors, eliminating padding overhead. Combined with the TorchRec library, it delivers up to 10x performance improvements in Meta's production environment and supports training models with over 3 trillion parameters. This breakthrough significantly advances personalized recommendation systems.
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Ant Group, backed by Jack Ma, has developed AI model training techniques using domestically produced semiconductors from Alibaba and Huawei, achieving cost reductions of 20%. While still utilizing Nvidia chips, Ant primarily relies on AMD and Chinese alternatives for its latest models, mirroring similar results to Nvidia's H800. This highlights China's efforts to reduce reliance on high-end Nvidia chips. Ant's newly developed language models, Ling-Plus and Ling-Lite, even outperformed Meta's Llama in some benchmarks. These models, intended for healthcare and finance applications, signify a significant advancement in cost-effective AI development in China.
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A website mimicking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is spreading false and misleading claims about vaccines, using CDC logos, social media links, and authoritative language. Hosted by an NGO whose leader was the HHS Secretary until December 2024, the site raises serious legal concerns under federal impersonation statutes. It uses parental testimonials and selectively cited scientific arguments to support its claims, potentially misleading the public and undermining trust. The HHS Secretary's awareness and response to this apparent conflict of interest and potential violation of federal law remain unclear.
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The Google Pixel 9a is designed with kids in mind, offering a suite of safety and parental control features. Parents can manage their child's account and device using Google Family Link, controlling screen time, monitoring app usage, approving downloads, setting privacy options, and sharing location. A new 'School Time' feature restricts functionality and silences notifications during school hours. Additionally, Google Wallet for kids is rolling out on the Pixel 9a, enabling safer payments with Google Pay and allowing kids to add passes like movie tickets and library cards. Parents maintain control over payment cards and passes through Family Link.
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In its rush to release unredacted JFK assassination files, the Trump administration inadvertently published the Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information of potentially hundreds of former congressional staffers and others. At least one, former Justice Department official Joseph diGenova, plans to sue the National Archives for violating the Privacy Act. The released information stemmed from his involvement in the 1970s Church Committee investigation into CIA and other intelligence agency misconduct. The National Archives posted thousands of pages without a searchable format, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the breach. National security lawyer Mark Zaid confirmed the release impacted hundreds, many still alive, calling the action unnecessary and unhelpful to understanding the assassination. While DiGenova blames the Archives' sloppy review process, he doesn't fault Trump for the release itself.
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This week's newsletter aimed to explore the origins of firefighting through the story of Crassus, a wealthy Roman who allegedly operated a private fire brigade. However, the author discovered that the commonly told tale is weakly sourced and potentially exaggerated. The article pivots to a more accurate account of firefighting history, detailing the evolution from reliance on self-help and private brigades in ancient societies to the emergence of professional municipal fire departments in the 19th century and beyond. The article is richly illustrated with images showcasing the evolution of fire marks, firefighter attire and equipment, and heroic imagery from various periods, offering a blend of history and captivating visuals.
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The ARC Prize 2025 competition returns with ARC-AGI-2, a significantly harder AGI benchmark for AI while remaining relatively easy for humans. Focusing on tasks simple for humans but difficult for AI, ARC-AGI-2 highlights capability gaps not addressed by simply scaling up existing models. With a $1 million prize pool, the competition encourages open-source innovation towards efficient, general AI systems, aiming to bridge the human-AI gap and achieve true AGI.
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Google has introduced Gemini 2.5, its most intelligent AI model yet. The experimental 2.5 Pro version boasts top performance across various benchmarks, achieving the #1 spot on LMArena by a considerable margin. Gemini 2.5 models are 'thinking' models, capable of reasoning through their responses, leading to enhanced accuracy and performance. This reasoning extends beyond simple classification and prediction, encompassing information analysis, logical conclusions, contextual understanding, and informed decision-making. Building on prior work with reinforcement learning and chain-of-thought prompting, Gemini 2.5 represents a significant leap forward, combining a vastly improved base model with enhanced post-training. Google plans to integrate these thinking capabilities into all future models, enabling them to tackle more complex problems and support more sophisticated agents.
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Google unveiled Gemini 2.5, its most intelligent AI model yet. An experimental version, 2.5 Pro, achieves top ranking on LMArena, significantly outperforming competitors. Gemini 2.5's key innovation is its 'thinking' capabilities: it reasons before responding, leading to enhanced accuracy and performance. This reasoning extends beyond simple classification and prediction; it involves analyzing information, drawing logical conclusions, understanding context and nuance, and making informed decisions. Building upon prior work with reinforcement learning and chain-of-thought prompting, Gemini 2.5 combines an improved base model with advanced post-training. Google plans to integrate these thinking capabilities into all future models, enabling them to tackle more complex tasks and power more sophisticated, context-aware agents.
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Quad9, a non-profit organization, relies on grants and partnerships to operate. Using Quad9 can prevent ransomware attacks, protect your bank account, and stop your computer from being used in illicit criminal activities. These protections, and millions of other interventions, directly save you, your business, and the companies you rely on (like banks and e-commerce firms) money. We hope this understanding inspires you to donate to Quad9, individually or through corporate sponsorship.
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Tired of complex Linux distro configurations? Bootc lets you build an OS like an application! Using container technology, you can easily create atomic distros, ensuring consistent system operation. The article uses Nginx as an example to showcase Bootc's simplicity and introduces the Universal Blue project, which uses Bootc to build a desktop experience comparable to SteamOS. Bootc opens up new avenues for building stable and user-friendly Linux desktops, making it worth learning for all Linux enthusiasts.
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This post details how the author automated their Steam game publishing pipeline using GitHub Actions. By simply creating a new tag, the workflow automatically compiles the 2D hide-and-seek game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and WebAssembly, creates a GitHub release, and finally deploys to Steam. The author provides a detailed walkthrough including build scripts, Steam API usage, and necessary configurations such as generating Steam keys and setting up GitHub Actions variables. This is a great example of leveraging automation to streamline the game release process and is highly valuable for indie game developers.
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A technical issue with Google Maps has resulted in the loss of Timeline data for numerous users. Google recently transitioned Timeline data storage from the cloud to local devices to improve privacy. However, a technical glitch during this transition led to the accidental deletion of location history for many. Google has confirmed the issue; only users who proactively created encrypted cloud backups can recover their data.
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By the early 1900s, reverse painting, or tinsel painting in its American iteration, had fallen out of favor, considered a feminine craft and outdated. However, starting in the 1910s, artists like Marsden Hartley and Rebecca Salsbury James revitalized the technique, expanding on traditional themes and exploring new color palettes, lines, and spatial approaches, giving a modernist twist to this old craft. This coincided with similar work by Janoszanka in Poland, showcasing the power of artistic innovation to reinterpret traditional techniques.
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The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating Ticketmaster following the sale of Oasis reunion tour tickets, which resulted in outrageously inflated prices and numerous customer complaints. The CMA's concerns center on Ticketmaster's labeling practices and information provision. They found that Ticketmaster sold 'platinum' tickets at more than double the standard price without adequately informing consumers that this didn't guarantee better seats or perks. The CMA also criticized Ticketmaster's handling of standing room tickets, where cheaper tickets were sold out before more expensive options were presented to those waiting online. The CMA is working with Ticketmaster to prevent similar issues in the future and ensure fans are fully informed when purchasing tickets.
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The German foreign ministry updated its travel advice for the US after three German citizens were denied entry and detained. The updated advice warns that even with an ESTA, entry isn't guaranteed, and minor visa overstays or false information can lead to arrest and deportation. While the ministry insists it's not a travel warning, the cases – including a US green card holder who was subjected to harsh interrogation and detention – highlight potential risks. One detainee, a tattoo artist, was held for over six weeks and allegedly placed in solitary confinement. The incidents serve as a cautionary tale for German travelers to the US, emphasizing the importance of accurate information and adherence to visa regulations.
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This Stratechery interview features OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, detailing OpenAI's journey from a research lab to a consumer tech giant, and the unexpected success of ChatGPT. Altman candidly discusses OpenAI's business model shift, its relationship with Microsoft, views on AI safety and regulation, and the future of AGI. The interview also touches on OpenAI's open-source strategy, GPT-5 development, and the implications of AI across various industries. Altman believes a billion-user AI platform will be more valuable than cutting-edge models, hinting at potential alternative monetization strategies beyond advertising.
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arXivLabs is a framework enabling collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved embrace arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only partners with those who share them. Have an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.
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This article explores the evolution of AI coding, from traditional coding to code completion, chat-based coding, coding agents, agent clusters, and finally agent fleets. The author predicts that coding agents will dramatically increase development efficiency but also bring high costs. The future role of programmers will shift to managing and coordinating AI agents. The article highlights that younger programmers are more readily adopting AI than senior developers, reshaping the software development industry's talent structure. The author concludes that learning to effectively utilize coding agents is crucial for future success in the field.
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PicoRuby is a lightweight mruby implementation with a small footprint: 256KB ROM and under 128KB RAM (32-bit architecture). Highly portable, it depends only on standard C libraries and supports microcontrollers like the Raspberry Pi Pico. Still under development, it provides API documentation, demo videos, and build tools. The `rake` command builds three executables: `picorbc` (compiles Ruby to mruby VM code), `picoruby` (executes Ruby code directly), and `r2p2` (for specific use). Developed by HASUMI Hitoshi and Monstarlab with funding from the Ruby Association.
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A software engineer successfully ran Meta's Llama 2 large language model on a 2005 PowerBook G4. This vintage laptop, equipped with only a 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 processor and 1GB of RAM, achieved AI inference by porting the open-source llama2.c project and leveraging AltiVec vector extensions. It's a testament to ingenuity and the boundless possibilities of technology.
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The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat containing discussions among US National Security Council members about a military strike on Houthi militias in Yemen. Goldberg received detailed information about the strike, even before it happened. The White House appeared unaware of the breach, with President Trump expressing shock at the news. This incident exposed a significant security vulnerability within the Trump administration, raising questions about the suitability of encrypted apps like Signal for sensitive government communications.
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LangManus is a community-driven open-source AI automation framework that integrates language models with tools for web search, crawling, and Python code execution. Developed by former colleagues in their spare time, this project aims to explore multi-agent and deep research, participating in the GAIA leaderboard. LangManus employs a hierarchical multi-agent system with roles such as Coordinator, Planner, Supervisor, Researcher, Coder, Browser, and Reporter, supporting various LLM integrations including Qwen and OpenAI-compatible models. The project is open-sourced under the MIT license and welcomes community contributions.
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This app is fantastic for learning music theory and piano, especially for singers wanting to improve their pitch. It teaches piano skills crucial for accurate singing. However, it lacks lessons on sharps and flats, a significant omission. While additional lessons are available as in-app purchases, their content isn't specified. The practice mode allows flat training, but lacks the structured approach of the main lessons and doesn't label sharps and flats on the keys. A great app, but incomplete without comprehensive sharp and flat instruction.
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A rare case of Brucellosis caused by B. suis, a bacteria typically found in pigs, has been reported in the US. The patient, not a hunter, consumed wild boar meat gifted by a local hunter in 2017, handling raw meat and blood directly. While Brucella species have been removed from the select agents list to facilitate research and vaccine development, this case underscores the dangers of consuming undercooked wild game and the importance of food safety.
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The Prospero Challenge invites developers to render an implicit surface defined by 7866 mathematical expressions as quickly as possible. Participants explore various optimization techniques, including expression pre-parsing, Numba acceleration, GPU computation, and LLVM compilation, using tools like Python, Numpy, CUDA, and JIT compilers. Solutions have achieved millisecond rendering times and significantly reduced memory consumption. The challenge encourages experimentation and the sharing of results to advance the state of the art in implicit surface rendering.
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The ocean floor, despite covering 71% of Earth, remains largely unexplored. Now, the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite mission is providing unprecedented detail. By measuring minuscule changes in ocean surface height (down to centimeters) caused by the gravitational pull of underwater mountains, SWOT creates detailed maps of the seafloor. This technology reveals previously unknown seamounts and significantly improves our understanding of ocean currents, marine life, and undersea resources. It complements existing ship-based sonar efforts, bringing us closer to a complete global seafloor map by 2030, with implications for undersea construction, navigation, and scientific research.
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This article critiques Apple's App Store review process, arguing that its inefficiency hinders developers from leveraging AI tools for rapid app development and release. With the rise of AI-assisted development tools, software development speed has dramatically increased, yet Apple's App Review process remains cumbersome, pushing developers towards alternative platforms like React Native or cloud-based deployments. The author suggests that if Apple doesn't improve its App Review process, it risks losing developers and ultimately impacting its market position.
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This article details the removal of the OpenH264 extension from the Freedesktop SDK. Initially, to address H.264 patent issues, Cisco's libopenh264 was used via a Flatpak extension. However, this approach presented challenges: an invalid SSL certificate, security risks, and difficult updates. The Freedesktop SDK integrated H.264 decoding into the codecs-extra extension, which includes other codec libraries and is automatically installed as a runtime extension. This solved the numerous problems associated with the OpenH264 extension, reducing maintenance overhead and improving security.
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