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Japanese City Limits Recreational Smartphone Use to Two Hours a Day

2025-09-25
Japanese City Limits Recreational Smartphone Use to Two Hours a Day

The city council of Toyoake, Japan, has passed an ordinance symbolically limiting recreational smartphone use to two hours daily. The aim is to promote better sleep, particularly for students returning to school after summer break. While not legally binding, the ordinance encourages healthier sleep habits and addresses concerns about excessive smartphone use impacting daily life. The city plans to survey residents on the ordinance's effectiveness and explore addressing other smartphone-related issues.

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(www.theregister.com)
Misc smartphone use sleep deprivation public policy

Pope Leo XIV Rejects AI Papal Avatar: Tech Development Needs Human Connection

2025-09-24
Pope Leo XIV Rejects AI Papal Avatar: Tech Development Needs Human Connection

Pope Leo XIV has rejected a proposal to create an AI-powered virtual version of himself, which would have allowed Catholics worldwide to have virtual audiences. The Pope expressed concerns that an AI representation would be inappropriate, and voiced worries about AI's potential to cause job displacement and exacerbate social inequality. He stressed that technological advancement must be balanced with faith and humanity, preventing technology from becoming a cold, empty shell that neglects human values. This decision echoes the concerns previously raised by Pope Francis, highlighting the importance of upholding ethics and social fairness in the face of technological progress.

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(www.theregister.com)
Misc religious technology

Optus Firewall Upgrade Causes 14-Hour Emergency Services Outage, Potentially Leading to 3 Deaths

2025-09-22
Optus Firewall Upgrade Causes 14-Hour Emergency Services Outage, Potentially Leading to 3 Deaths

An Optus firewall upgrade caused a 14-hour outage of emergency services (Triple Zero, 000) in Australia. Initial monitoring failed to detect the issue, and it wasn't until a customer reported the problem that Optus realized the severity. The CEO, Stephen Rue, stated that staff may not have followed established procedures. At least three deaths are potentially linked to the outage, with victims believed to have attempted to contact emergency services during the downtime. Optus is investigating and has expressed remorse, vowing to improve its emergency service protocols.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech emergency services

C++ Committee Dumps Safe Subset Proposal Amid Memory Safety Debate

2025-09-20
C++ Committee Dumps Safe Subset Proposal Amid Memory Safety Debate

The C++ standards committee rejected a detailed proposal for a rigorously safe subset of the language, despite ongoing concerns about memory safety. Co-author Sean Baxter attributes the rejection to the committee's unpopularity with Rust's safety model, favoring the 'Profiles' approach instead. While Profiles have support from figures like Bjarne Stroustrup, their viability is questioned, potentially missing inclusion in C++26. The decision sparks controversy, with developers suggesting that switching to Rust or alternative safer languages like Google's experimental Carbon project might be a superior solution.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development

UK Strikes Defense Deal with Palantir, Unlocking $2B Investment

2025-09-20
UK Strikes Defense Deal with Palantir, Unlocking $2B Investment

The UK government has signed a defense deal with US data analytics firm Palantir, expected to attract £1.5 billion ($2 billion) in investment. Palantir plans to establish its European defense headquarters in the UK, creating up to 350 jobs. The agreement will help the UK military leverage AI for faster decision-making and targeting, and boost the growth of British defense tech companies. Despite controversies surrounding Palantir's work with the CIA and ICE, the UK government views the deal as a way to enhance its innovation leadership within NATO.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech AI in military defense deal

NSF Cancels $1B+ in Grants, Leaving US Research in Turmoil

2025-09-19
NSF Cancels $1B+ in Grants, Leaving US Research in Turmoil

A US court upheld the National Science Foundation's (NSF) cancellation of over 1,700 research grants totaling more than $1 billion. While the court rejected a request to reinstate the grants, it allowed challenges to the NSF's new grantmaking policy. The cancellations, largely affecting grants tied to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, have sparked outrage. The NSF cited a need to avoid prioritizing certain groups. The decision has severely disrupted the US research ecosystem, halting projects and jeopardizing graduate students' employment. A French university's offer of refuge to affected US researchers highlights the international impact of this controversial move.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech research grants

OpenAI Admits: AI Hallucinations Stem from Fundamental Training Flaws

2025-09-18
OpenAI Admits: AI Hallucinations Stem from Fundamental Training Flaws

OpenAI has published a paper revealing that the 'hallucinations' in its large language models aren't accidental; they're a consequence of fundamental flaws in the training methodology. Models are trained to prioritize guessing over admitting ignorance, as this yields higher scores in current evaluation systems. The paper uses the example of finding a researcher's birthday to demonstrate how the training mechanism leads to incorrect answers. OpenAI acknowledges that mainstream evaluation methods reward this 'hallucinatory' behavior and states it's improving training mechanisms, such as prompting models to more frequently respond with 'I don't know,' but completely resolving the issue remains a challenge.

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(www.theregister.com)
AI

Intel's Xeon Architect Jumps Ship Amidst Executive Exodus

2025-09-13
Intel's Xeon Architect Jumps Ship Amidst Executive Exodus

Ronak Singhal, the chief architect behind Intel's Xeon line of server CPUs, is leaving the company after nearly 30 years. Singhal's contributions are significant, including core development roles in the Haswell and Broadwell architectures, and contributions to the Core and Atom processor families. While the Xeon division has faced stiff competition from AMD and Arm-based cloud CPUs in recent years, Singhal arguably leaves it in its most competitive position in years. However, his departure is just the latest in a string of high-profile exits from Intel's datacenter group, including several other executives and even the CEO, highlighting significant talent drain and intense industry competition.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Executive Exodus

VMware's Decline? Gartner Predicts a Third of Workloads Will Migrate by 2028

2025-09-12
VMware's Decline? Gartner Predicts a Third of Workloads Will Migrate by 2028

Gartner analyst Julia Palmer predicts that over one-third of workloads currently running on VMware will migrate to other platforms by 2028. Broadcom's revised VMware licensing program prevents hyperscalers from selling VMware subscriptions, pushing customers towards alternatives. Palmer advises cautious assessment and strategic migration choices, including Nutanix, public clouds, or Microsoft Azure Local, emphasizing application modernization. She cautions against cost-cutting as the sole migration driver and highlights the potential of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

EU's Controversial 'Chat Control' Bill: Privacy vs. Child Sexual Abuse

2025-09-11
EU's Controversial 'Chat Control' Bill: Privacy vs. Child Sexual Abuse

The EU is set to debate a controversial 'Chat Control' bill aimed at combating child sexual abuse by mandating the scanning of user content or bypassing encryption. However, the bill has drawn fierce opposition from security experts who deem it unworkable, highly intrusive, and prone to a high rate of false positives, potentially leading to a national security disaster. Several encrypted messaging apps have vowed to fight the bill legally or relocate outside the EU. The German delegation may seek a delay, leaving the bill's fate uncertain.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech child sexual abuse

AI Darwin Awards: Celebrating AI-Fueled Disasters

2025-09-10
AI Darwin Awards: Celebrating AI-Fueled Disasters

The first-ever AI Darwin Awards highlight cautionary tales of AI misapplication. From a Taco Bell drive-thru's AI order-taking system failure to a Replit coding mishap that destroyed a production database, and a McDonald's AI chatbot security breach exposing millions of applicants' data, these incidents underscore the importance of responsible AI implementation. The awards don't mock AI itself, but rather the disastrous consequences of its careless application. The message? AI is a powerful tool, like a chainsaw or a nuclear reactor—use it wisely.

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(www.theregister.com)
AI

Red Hat's Back-Office Staff to Merge with IBM

2025-09-09
Red Hat's Back-Office Staff to Merge with IBM

Red Hat, an IBM subsidiary, announced that a significant portion of its back-office staff, including HR, finance, accounting, and legal teams, will be integrated into IBM starting in early 2026. This move has sparked concerns among some employees about potential loss of company culture and increased micromanagement. While Red Hat assures that core teams remain unaffected, the integration reflects a broader trend in tech companies consolidating back-office functions to cut costs. Red Hat employs around 19,000 people globally; this integration is not expected to affect engineering, sales, and support divisions.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Company Restructuring

Gartner Predicts AI Takeover of All IT Work by 2030

2025-09-09
Gartner Predicts AI Takeover of All IT Work by 2030

Gartner analysts predict that by 2030, AI will assist with all IT department tasks, but this doesn't translate to mass job losses. While entry-level roles may decrease, AI will augment senior staff, giving IT departments increased capacity and requiring them to demonstrate value. However, AI implementation is costly, including ongoing use case exploration and retraining, and unexpected ancillary costs like acquiring new datasets and managing multiple models. Gartner estimates 65% of CIOs aren't breaking even on AI investments. IT executives are advised to focus on major cloud vendors and move beyond simple AI chatbots toward interactive agents capable of autonomously negotiating with suppliers.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Tesco Sues Broadcom Over VMware Licensing: £100M+ in Damages Claimed

2025-09-08
Tesco Sues Broadcom Over VMware Licensing: £100M+ in Damages Claimed

Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain, is suing Broadcom for allegedly refusing to honor existing VMware support contracts unless Tesco switches to new licenses. This threatens to disrupt Tesco's operations, leading to a £100 million+ damage claim. Broadcom's aggressive licensing practices are accused of extortion and may trigger a class-action lawsuit, raising concerns across the industry.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

GitHub Copilot Backlash: Developers Fleeing to Alternatives

2025-09-06
GitHub Copilot Backlash: Developers Fleeing to Alternatives

Despite boasting 20 million users, Microsoft's GitHub Copilot AI code assistant is facing a major backlash from developers. Widespread complaints cite forced bundling, potential license violations, and questionable code quality. Numerous developers are requesting Copilot's disablement on GitHub, with many migrating to alternatives like Codeberg. Microsoft's aggressive Copilot integration and disregard for user feedback are accelerating this exodus. Developers express concerns about Copilot infringing on their rights and raising code quality and copyright issues, highlighting the importance of user experience and respecting open-source principles in AI tool deployment.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development

OpenAI Launches AI Certification and Job Board to Combat Job Displacement

2025-09-05
OpenAI Launches AI Certification and Job Board to Combat Job Displacement

OpenAI is tackling the job displacement caused by AI with a two-pronged approach: an AI skills certification program and a new job board. Fidji Simo, OpenAI's head of applications, argues that AI will reshape the job market, and OpenAI aims to help individuals acquire necessary AI skills and connect them with companies. Partnerships with companies like Walmart are underway, offering AI training. However, potential competition with Microsoft and the real-world value of the certification remain open questions.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech skills training

SAP's €20B Bet: A Sovereign Cloud to Challenge US Giants in Europe

2025-09-05
SAP's €20B Bet: A Sovereign Cloud to Challenge US Giants in Europe

SAP is investing €20 billion over the next decade to expand its sovereign cloud infrastructure in Europe, positioning itself as a secure and compliant alternative to American cloud giants. This initiative focuses on providing sovereign infrastructure for public sector and regulated environments, offering three options: SAP Cloud Infrastructure (IaaS), Sovereign Cloud On-Site, and Delos Cloud in Germany. While the CEO previously cautioned against directly competing with US hyperscalers in infrastructure, this investment prioritizes integrating sovereignty into the technology stack, not replicating global infrastructure. The strategy emphasizes boosting Europe's competitiveness through software, AI, and applied innovation.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech sovereign cloud

FreeBSD Says No to LLM-Generated Code

2025-09-04
FreeBSD Says No to LLM-Generated Code

The FreeBSD Project's latest quarterly report reveals a new policy in the works: a ban on code and documentation generated by large language models (LLMs). This aligns with similar stances taken by NetBSD and Gentoo Linux, reflecting concerns about the reliability and security of AI-generated code. The report also details other FreeBSD projects underway, including improvements to Wi-Fi, graphics, sound, and power management; restructuring the OS into pkg packages; and developing a web-based GUI for virtualization. Despite competition from Linux, FreeBSD remains actively developed, continuously improving its features and user experience.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development

Tesco Sues Broadcom Over VMware Licensing Dispute, Threatens Supply Chain

2025-09-04
Tesco Sues Broadcom Over VMware Licensing Dispute, Threatens Supply Chain

Tesco, a UK supermarket giant, is suing Broadcom for breach of contract regarding its VMware licenses, also naming Computacenter as a co-defendant. Broadcom's refusal to provide support services for perpetually licensed VMware software after its acquisition threatens Tesco's operations and could disrupt grocery supply. Tesco argues Broadcom's subscription model is excessively expensive and prevents necessary software updates. The lawsuit highlights the broader issue of perpetual license support after acquisitions and the potential for significant financial damages. Other companies have filed similar lawsuits against Broadcom.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Licensing Dispute

Laravel Creator Warns Against Overly Complex Code

2025-09-03
Laravel Creator Warns Against Overly Complex Code

Taylor Otwell, creator of the popular PHP framework Laravel, cautions developers against overly complex code and bypassing framework conventions. He advocates for simple, easily modifiable code, warning that 'clever' solutions often create hidden problems. Otwell discussed Laravel's development history, its dominance in the PHP landscape, and its future direction, including support for strong typing and React integration. While Laravel's ease of use is praised, some criticisms remain, such as compatibility issues with static analysis tools. Ultimately, Otwell emphasizes adhering to framework best practices for efficient, high-quality code.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development

Critical Vulnerabilities Found in Copeland Controllers Threaten Global Supply Chains

2025-09-03
Critical Vulnerabilities Found in Copeland Controllers Threaten Global Supply Chains

Ten critical vulnerabilities (Frostbyte10) have been discovered in Copeland controllers, widely used by major supermarket chains and cold storage facilities worldwide. These flaws could allow attackers to remotely manipulate temperatures, potentially spoiling food and medicine and causing significant supply chain disruptions. The vulnerabilities affect E2 and E3 controllers, impacting critical systems like compressors and condensers. Copeland has released firmware updates, and CISA has issued advisories urging immediate patching. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could lead to unauthorized remote code execution.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

Azure Cost Forecasts Explode After Migration Glitch

2025-09-02
Azure Cost Forecasts Explode After Migration Glitch

Several Microsoft Azure customers experienced a surge in cloud service cost forecasts due to a problematic account migration from the Microsoft Online Subscription Program (MOSP) to the Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA). Automated budget alerts went off, alarming users who saw costs unexpectedly skyrocket. One user's forecast jumped from £63 to £758.71. While Microsoft claims the underlying issue is resolved, users report difficulties contacting support and some forum comments being deleted. Microsoft advises users to monitor their portals and submit support requests if discrepancies persist.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Billing Error

AI Web Crawlers: Devouring the Open Web?

2025-09-01
AI Web Crawlers: Devouring the Open Web?

The rise of AI has unleashed a swarm of AI web crawlers, relentlessly scraping content to feed Large Language Models (LLMs). This results in 30% of global web traffic originating from bots, with AI bots leading the charge. Unlike traditional crawlers, these AI bots are far more aggressive, ignoring crawl delays and bandwidth limitations, causing performance degradation, service disruptions, and increased costs for websites. Smaller sites are often crippled, while larger sites face immense pressure to scale their resources. While solutions like robots.txt and proposed llms.txt exist, they are proving insufficient. This arms race between websites and AI companies risks fragmenting the web, restricting access to information, and potentially pushing the internet towards a pay-to-access model.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech web traffic

Senior Devs Embrace AI Coding More Than Juniors: A Fastly Survey

2025-08-31
Senior Devs Embrace AI Coding More Than Juniors: A Fastly Survey

A recent Fastly survey of 791 US developers reveals a surprising trend: senior developers (10+ years experience) are more than twice as likely to use AI code generation tools like Copilot and generate over half their code with them, compared to junior developers. This isn't due to laziness, but rather the diverse responsibilities of senior roles. AI helps them prototype faster, though more time is needed for bug fixing. While most senior devs find AI boosts efficiency and enjoyment, juniors prefer traditional coding and are less concerned with energy consumption. The survey highlights the experience advantage in spotting AI-generated errors. Overall, AI coding tools are making the job more enjoyable for over 70% of all respondents.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development code generation tools

Salt Typhoon: Chinese Cyber Espionage Campaign Targets Millions of Americans

2025-08-30
Salt Typhoon: Chinese Cyber Espionage Campaign Targets Millions of Americans

A top FBI cyber official revealed that China's 'Salt Typhoon' cyber espionage campaign has stolen data from millions of Americans over several years through intrusions into US telecommunications networks. The campaign's reach is vast, potentially affecting nearly every American, targeting individuals beyond sensitive sectors and including high-profile figures like former and current presidential administration officials. The operation, active since at least 2019, compromised around 200 US organizations and impacted over 80 countries. The FBI warns of China's reckless and unbounded actions through affiliated companies, urging a heightened awareness of cybersecurity threats and the need for robust defenses against such attacks.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech cyber espionage

China Unveils World's Most Sensitive Neutrino Detector

2025-08-30
China Unveils World's Most Sensitive Neutrino Detector

After over a decade of construction, China has launched the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), claimed to be the world's most sensitive neutrino detector. Located 700 meters underground, JUNO boasts a 20,000-tonne liquid scintillator detector and over 45,000 photomultiplier tubes. It detects neutrinos from nearby nuclear power plants by capturing the light produced when neutrinos interact with hydrogen atoms in the scintillator. JUNO's success will significantly advance our understanding of neutrino mass hierarchy and types, with international collaboration from scientists across the globe signifying a major leap in China's fundamental science research.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech Detector

FFmpeg 8.0: Vulkan-Accelerated Encoding and Auto-Subtitling

2025-08-29
FFmpeg 8.0: Vulkan-Accelerated Encoding and Auto-Subtitling

FFmpeg 8.0, codenamed "Huffman," is here with significant updates. A standout feature is the integration of the Whisper speech recognition model, enabling automatic video subtitling. It leverages the Vulkan API for hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding of various formats, including AV1, FFv1, VP9, and ProRes RAW, and supports VVC (H.266) encoding, boosting efficiency. This release also enhances compatibility with older formats like RealVideo 6.0 and niche audio codecs, solidifying its indispensable role in video processing.

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(www.theregister.com)
Development Video Encoding

Nevada Under Siege: Major Cyberattack Cripples State Services

2025-08-28
Nevada Under Siege: Major Cyberattack Cripples State Services

Nevada is grappling with a significant cyberattack that has knocked out numerous government digital services. The attack, announced on August 24th, has left state websites and phone lines offline, forcing the closure of state offices until further notice. While emergency services remain operational, officials are working to restore services and warn citizens about potential phishing scams. This incident presents a major test for Nevada's newly established cybersecurity office.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech

LLM Jailbreak: Bad Grammar Bypasses AI Safety

2025-08-28
LLM Jailbreak: Bad Grammar Bypasses AI Safety

Researchers from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 discovered a simple method to bypass large language model (LLM) safety guardrails: using terrible grammar and long, run-on sentences. LLMs, lacking true understanding, predict text statistically; their safety features are easily circumvented. By crafting incomplete sentences, attackers can 'jailbreak' models before safety mechanisms engage, achieving 80-100% success rates. The researchers propose a 'logit-gap' analysis for evaluating model vulnerabilities and improving safety, emphasizing multi-layered defenses.

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(www.theregister.com)
AI LLM jailbreak

Sole Maintainer of Popular Node.js Utility Raises Security Concerns

2025-08-28
Sole Maintainer of Popular Node.js Utility Raises Security Concerns

A Node.js utility, fast-glob, used by thousands of public projects and over 30 Department of Defense systems, is maintained solely by a Yandex employee residing in Russia. While fast-glob has no known vulnerabilities, its deep system access and the maintainer's affiliation with Yandex raise serious security concerns. Hunted Labs' report highlights the utility's 79+ million weekly downloads, exposing a vast attack surface. This incident underscores the critical importance of open-source security and the need to know who writes your code.

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(www.theregister.com)
Tech geopolitical risk
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