04 May 2026
Hacker News
Trademark violation: Fake Notepad++ for Mac
04 May 2026 9:40am GMT
GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay
04 May 2026 9:31am GMT
Over 8M Thermos jars and bottles recalled after 3 people lost vision
04 May 2026 8:40am GMT
Slashdot
Can Investors Trust AI Sales Figures? Asks Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece
A Wall Street Journal opinion piece warns of "a troubling trend" in AI's growth. "Rather than selling software, some AI companies are paying their partners to use it." It cites OpenAI's $1.5 billion joint venture with private-equity firms, Anthropic's $200 million contribution to a private-equity firm joint venture, and Google's $750 million subsidization of Gemini's adoption by consulting firms. "These agreements muddy the distinction between a company's sound growth trajectory and artificial financial engineering." [T]he scale and structure of the recent AI deals go beyond standard incentive mechanisms... When a seller pays customers to buy its products, it is unclear if its revenue growth reflects vibrant demand or a willingness to accept subsidies. Slashdot reader destinyland writes: This warning comes from a prominent figure in the investing community. For six years Robert Pozen was chairman of America's oldest mutual fund company, after five years at Fidelity. An advocate for corporate governance, he's currently a lecturer at MIT's business school (and the author of the book Remote Inc.: How to Thrive at Work...Wherever You Are). "As AI companies prepare initial public offerings, investors should scrutinize their numbers closely," Pozner writes, warning about "time-limited financial support". "In evaluating AI sales figures, analysts should consider the distorted incentives that the recent financing deals create," writes Pozner: Private-equity firms, enticed by promised returns, might demand rapid rollouts of AI products, rather than ensuring their orderly and safe development. Portfolio companies of private-equity firms may embrace AI tools not because they are needed but because adoption is mandated by their owners. Consultants may favor one set of AI models based on the subsidy instead of the merits. If guarantees and subsidies are major factors in the rapid adoption of AI tools, investors should be skeptical of AI companies' revenue projections. Many of their customers enticed by consultants will stop paying full price when the financial incentives are gone. Many of the portfolio companies of private-equity firms could back away from selected AI tools once these joint ventures expire. The challenge with evaluating these AI financing deals is the lack of transparency. At present, AI vendors don't separate revenue driven by subsidies or joint ventures from standard sales. The lesson from the telecom debacle is that financial engineering can obscure, for years, the difference between real customer demand and demand driven by incentives. When AI companies begin to finance their own product distribution, guaranteeing returns to investors and subsidizing sales, it's a signal for investors to dig deeper. Investing in an AI company? Ask what percentage of enterprise revenue is coming from subsidized channels or joint ventures, Pozner suggests. And the renewal/retention rate for customers not supported by subsidies or joint ventures...
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
04 May 2026 7:34am GMT
Hacker News
Stitch together lots of little HTML pages with navigations for interactions
04 May 2026 4:43am GMT
Slashdot
Roblox Blames Age-Verification Rollout for Lowered Growth. Stock Tumbles 22%
Age verification became mandatory for chat access on Roblox in January - and Friday morning Quartz reported it's apparently impacted the company's financials: Roblox cut its full-year 2026 bookings forecast by roughly $900 million at the midpoint on Thursday, blaming stronger-than-expected headwinds from its mandatory age-verification rollout on an audience that skews heavily toward children and teenagers. Full-year 2026 bookings are now projected at $7.33 billion to $7.60 billion, a range that sits roughly $900 million below the prior guidance of $8.28 billion to $8.55 billion; analysts had expected $8.38 billion, according to Yahoo Finance. Roblox stock fell almost 22% in premarket trading.... Daily active users rose 35% year over year to 132 million, while hours engaged climbed 43% to 31 billion hours... Daily Active Users and hours engaged fell below forecasts of 143.8 million and 33.68 billion, respectively, according to Yahoo Finance... Users who have not completed age checks have faced restricted communication features, and the process has weighed on the platform's ability to bring in new users. Russia's blocking of the platform, which took effect in December 2025, added further drag on user growth, according to Yahoo Finance. As of the end of the first quarter, 51% of global daily active users had completed age verification, with 65% of U.S. users having done so, Roblox said.... The safety push has come with legal costs. Roblox accrued $57 million in the first quarter for settlements and settlement proposals with certain states over youth-related consumer protection and digital safety matters, with payments structured over multiple years, the company said. Roblox acknowledged in a letter to shareholders that "our aggressive push to enhance safety lowers our expectations for topline growth in 2026." But they argued that it also "makes our platform fundamentally better and amplifies the long-term growth potential of Roblox through more effective content targeting, tailored communication experiences, and improved community sentiment."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
04 May 2026 4:34am GMT
Hacker News
Humanoid Robot Actuators
04 May 2026 3:42am GMT
Slashdot
NetHack 5.0 Released
"So yesterday the Devteam (it is always the Devteam) released version 5.0 of legendary and venerable rogueike compuer game NetHack," writes the Rogue-like games column @Play. "It is 39 years old..." MilenCent (Slashdot reader #219,397) writes: In addition to play changes it's left for players to discover, this version updates the code to compile with C99, makes it much easier to cross compile the code for other systems than the one running, and now uses Lua for its dungeon generation. Happy hacking! For new players, "Nethack 5.0 now has an optional tutorial in the early phases of the game that might help you," notes the Rogue-like games column @Play: Three systems binaries are provided: Windows, MS-DOS and Amiga. Yes, Nethack still supports MS-DOS, and yes, it still supports classic Amiga: it explicitly supports AmigaDOS 3.0, meaning it can still run on 68000 machines... That these are the only systems they provide binaries for shouldn't be seen as an indication that these are the "most important" platforms for Nethack, it's more that, since it's entirely open source, building it yourself is entirely possible, and more expected than with most software. Nethack can be built for Linux, Windows 8-11, AmigaDOS, MacOS (I'm not sure if this includes classic Mac too but it might), Windows CE (wow), OS/2 (additional wow), BeOS, VMS and multiple Unixes... Another option is to play through public Nethack servers. The most popular of these are probably alt.org and Hardfought.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
04 May 2026 2:09am GMT
OpenAI Introduces AI-Generated Pets for Its Codex App
"Vibe coding just got a whole lot more adorable," writes Engadget: OpenAI introduced AI-generated pets to the Codex app, its agentic tool that helps with coding. These "optional animated companions" don't do any coding themselves, but serve as a floating overlay that can tell you what Codex is working on, notify you when Codex completes a task or whether it needs your input on something. The new feature lets developers see Codex's active thread, without having to switch away from your current open app. "The feature ships with eight built-in variations - including a cat and dog," reports Mashable. "But the more interesting play is the custom pet creator." Users can prompt Codex directly to generate their own companion, then share it online. A quick scroll through the homepage reveals the community has already gotten to work. Current creations include Goku, Patrick Star, Microsoft's long-retired Clippy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and - naturally - a goblin. There's also Grogu, Dobby, a tiny Bob Rossi, and a "Doge-style Shiba Inu dog"...
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
04 May 2026 12:29am GMT
03 May 2026
Hacker News
Debunking the CIA's “magic” heartbeat sensor [video]
03 May 2026 11:45pm GMT
Let's Buy Spirit Air
03 May 2026 11:36pm GMT
Slashdot
AI Cameras are Being Deployed Across the Western US for Early Detection of Wildfires
The Associated Press reports: On a March afternoon, artificial intelligence detected something resembling smoke on a camera feed from Arizona's Coconino National Forest. Human analysts verified it wasn't a cloud or dust, then alerted the state's forest service and largest electric utility. One of dozens of AI cameras installed for the utility Arizona Public Service had spotted early signs of what came to be known as the Diamond Fire. Firefighters raced to the scene and contained the blaze before it grew past 7 acres (2.8 hectares). As record-breaking heat and an abysmal snowpack raise concerns about severe wildfires, states across the fire-prone West are adding AI to their wildfire detection toolbox, banking on the technology to help save lives and property. Arizona Public Service has nearly 40 active AI smoke-detection cameras and plans to have 71 by summer's end, and the state's fire agency has deployed seven of its own. Another utility, Xcel Energy in Colorado, has installed 126 and aims to have cameras in seven of the eight states it serves by year's end... ALERTCalifornia is a network of some 1,240 AI-enabled cameras across the Golden State that work similar to the system in Arizona.... Pano AI, whose technology combines high-definition camera feeds, satellite data and AI monitoring, has seen a growing interest in its cameras since launching in 2020. They've been deployed in Australia, Canada and 17 U.S. states, including Oregon, Washington and Texas... Last year, its technology detected 725 wildfires in the U.S., the company said... Cindy Kobold, an Arizona Public Service meteorologist, said the technology notifies them about 45 minutes faster on average than the first 911 call.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 11:29pm GMT
Hacker News
The 'Hidden' Costs of Great Abstractions
03 May 2026 11:12pm GMT
Slashdot
Carbon Pollution Is Making Food Less Nutritious, Risking the Health of Billions
A new meta-analysis found nutrients in food decreased over the last 40 years, reports the Washington Post. "Many of humanity's most important crops - including wheat, potatoes, beans - contain fewer vitamins and minerals than they did a generation ago." "The invisible culprit behind this damaging phenomenon? Carbon dioxide pollution." Surging concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere, caused largely by burning fossil fuels, have produced potent changes in the way plants grow - from increasing their sugar content to depleting essential nutrients like zinc... "The diets we eat today have less nutritional density than what our grandparents ate, even if we eat exactly the same thing," said Kristie Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington's Center for Health and the Global Environment. People in wealthy countries with strong health care systems will have many tools to cope with the change, experts said. But for the world's poorest and most vulnerable, the consequences could be devastating. One study concluded that by the middle of the century the phenomenon could put more than a billion additional women and children at risk of iron-deficiency anemia - a condition that can cause pregnancy complications, developmental problems and even death. Meanwhile, some 2 billion people across the globe who already suffer from some form of nutrient shortage could see their health problems grow even worse. "The scale of the problem is huge," Ebi said. Plants depend on carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis - but that doesn't mean they grow better when there's more carbon in the air, scientists say. A sweeping survey of changes among 32 compounds in 43 crops found that nearly every plant that humans eat is harmed by rising CO2 levels... On average, they found, nutrients have already decreased by an average 3.2 percent across all plants since the late 1980s, when the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was about 350 parts per million. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader GameboyRMH for sharing the news.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 10:29pm GMT
Hacker News
DeepClaude – Claude Code agent loop with DeepSeek V4 Pro
03 May 2026 10:13pm GMT
Introduction to Atom
03 May 2026 10:08pm GMT
Slashdot
Robots Are Building Clay Homes In Texas Using Dirt From the Ground
A startup south of Austin is using robots to build homes out of clay pulled directly from the ground, reports a local news station: The materials are gathered on site, mixed, and placed on a build plate. From there, a robot lowers from above, picks up the clay with a claw, carries it to the wall and drops it into place. Later, the same robot switches tools, using a hammer attachment to pound the material into shape. "It's kind of trying to replicate how a human might build an adobe house," said software engineer Anastasia Nikoulina... Using machine learning, the system constantly evaluates the wall, adjusting how it builds to create a flat, solid surface... The project is underway at Proto-Town, a ranch between Lockhart and Luling where startups test new technologies, from anti-drone systems to nuclear reactors. The company plans to build their next home on the property, with hopes to do more than 20 homes over the next year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 8:59pm GMT
It's Goodbye Time for Jeeves and Ask.com - Relics of Yesterday's Internet
A 1999 press release bragged "Jeeves" answered 92.3 million questions in just three months. "In the digital wilds of Y2K, we came to him with our most probing questions," remembers the New York Times - whether it was Britney Spears or tamagotchis: We asked, and he answered: Jeeves, the digital butler of information, the online valet who led us into the depths of cyberspace. Now, like so many other relics of yesterday's internet, Jeeves - and his home, Ask.com - are no more. After almost 30 years, the question-and-answer service and former search engine shuttered on Friday. "To you - the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world - thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust," the company said in a notice posted on its now-defunct website... Created in Berkeley, Calif., in the days of the dot-com gold rush, Ask Jeeves first appeared on computer screens in 1996.... Their mascot, Jeeves, was modeled on the clever English butler character from the famed P.G. Wodehouse book series. Its search function was simple - type in a question, get an answer. But the quality of its responses was uneven, and the website was quickly eclipsed by Google and Yahoo as the world's go-to search engines. The site was bought by InterActive Corp. for more than $1 billion in 2005, and was given an injection of cash to help it compete as a search engine. It rebranded as Ask.com and as part of the reimagining, the site also ditched the character of Jeeves in 2006. Scrappy but inventive, the site was one of the first to introduce hyperlocal map overlays to its searches and incorporate thumbnails of webpages. "They are doing a lot of clever and interesting things," a Google executive noted of Ask.com at the time. Still, Ask.com struggled to compete and returned in 2010 to its bread and butter: question-and-answer style prompts. Even then, it faltered against newer, crowdsourced iterations like Quora and Google's unyielding march to the internet fore - the platform now dominates search traffic, and the world's general experience of the internet. A statement at Ask.com ends "by thanking its millions of users, and saying, 'Jeeves' spirit endures'," notes this article from Engadget: As sad as it is to see a relic of the early Internet days fade into obscurity, we still have Ask Jeeves to thank for why some users still punch in full questions when querying Google. On top of that, Jeeves was built to provide detailed answers in natural language, which could have arguably acted as a precursor to today's AI chatbots like ChatGPT. "Now, Ask.com joins the Internet graveyard that includes competitors like AltaVista, which shut down in 2013," the article points out. "With Ask.com gone, alongside AIM and AOL dial-up services also sunsetting, we're truly coming to an end of a specific era of the Internet." And the New York Times argues the memory of Jeeves now rests somewhere between Limewire and Beanie Babies... Slashdot reader BrianFagioli calls it "a quiet reminder of how quickly the web moves, and how even widely recognized names can drift into obscurity once the underlying technology leaves them behind."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 7:41pm GMT
Hacker News
New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag
03 May 2026 6:54pm GMT
Slashdot
Former Nintendo Executive Says Amazon Once Requested 'Illegal' Price Discounts
Amazon once tried to pressure Nintendo to break the law, says former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé. At a recent NYU lecture, he describes a conversation with an Amazon executive, Kotaku reports: "Amazon was looking to get bigger into the video game space," said Fils-Aimé. "Amazon's mentality back then is they wanted to have the lowest price out in the marketplace, even lower than Walmart... Essentially what Amazon wanted (was an) obscene amount of support, financial support, so they could have the lowest price and beat Walmart. I literally said to the executive, 'You know that's illegal, right? I can't do that'...." At the time, the Wii and DS were Nintendo's best selling hardware in history. Amazon originally sold books, but in the 2000s rapidly expanded with cheaper discounts to became a one-stop shop for almost everything. Everything except Nintendo, that is.... "Literally we stopped selling to Amazon," Fils-Aimé continued, "and it's because I wasn't going to do something illegal. I wasn't going to do something that would put at risk the relationship we have with other retailers." "The two sides have since made amends," notes the Verge, "and you can buy a Switch 2 through Amazon. But for a long time, Nintendo consoles had been largely unavailable on the site."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 6:28pm GMT
Hacker News
BYOMesh – New LoRa mesh radio offers 100x the bandwidth
03 May 2026 6:03pm GMT
I recreated the Apple Lisa computer inside an FPGA [video]
03 May 2026 5:45pm GMT
Southwest Headquarters Tour
03 May 2026 5:02pm GMT
Slashdot
ChatGPT Became So Obsessed With Goblins That OpenAI Had to Intervene
The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI "recently gave its popular ChatGPT strict instructions. Stop talking about goblins." Recent models of the artificial-intelligence chatbot have been bringing up the creatures in conversations with users seemingly out of the blue, as well as gremlins, trolls and ogres. The goblin-speak caught the attention of programmers, who are often heavy users of the bot. Barron Roth, a 32-year-old product manager at a tech company, said the bot referred to a flaw in his code as a "classic little goblin." He said he counted more than 20 times it mentioned goblins, without any prompting... Several users speculated that goblin terminology was how the model characterized itself, in lieu of identifying as a person with a soul. Then OpenAI decided enough was enough. "Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user's query," reads an open source line in ChatGPT's base instructions for its coding assistant. The Journal calls this "a reminder that even as AI companies tout one advance after another in their technology, they are sometimes baffled by the things their own models do...." While training a "nerdy" personality for their model's customization feature, "We unknowingly gave particularly high rewards for metaphors with creatures," OpenAI explained in a log post. And "From there, the goblins spread." When we looked, use of "goblin" in ChatGPT had risen by 175% after the launch of GPT-5.1, while "gremlin" had risen by 52%... With GPT-5.4, we and our usersâ noticed an even bigger uptick in references to these creatures... Nerdy accounted for only 2.5% of all ChatGPT responses, but 66.7% of all "goblin" mentions in ChatGPT responses... The rewards were applied only in the Nerdy condition, but reinforcement learning does not guarantee that learned behaviors stay neatly scoped to the condition that produced them. Once a style tic is rewarded, later training can spread or reinforce it elsewhere, especially if those outputs are reused in supervised fine-tuning or preference data. It all started because the "nerdy" personality's prompt had said "You must undercut pretension through playful use of language. The world is complex and strange, and its strangeness must be acknowledged, analyzed, and enjoyed..." Now OpenAI calls this "a powerful example of how reward signals can shape model behavior in unexpected ways, and how models can learn to generalize rewards in certain situations to unrelated ones." But "fans of goblins don't have to fear," notes the Wall Street Journal. "OpenAI provided a command in its blog post that would remove its creature-suppressing instructions."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 4:34pm GMT
Hacker News
Bad Connection: Global telecom exploitation by covert surveillance actors
03 May 2026 4:15pm GMT
Slashdot
South Africa's Draft AI Policy Withdrawn Due to 'Fictitious' AI-Generated Citations
An official in South Africa withdrew a draft of the country's national AI policy, reports a local newspaper, "after it was found the draft policy was compiled using AI, which cited academic articles that were 'fictitious'." Earlier this month, minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced cabinet had approved the draft policy for public comment. [Ntshavheni] said the policy seeks to strengthen government's ability to regulate and adopt AI responsibly, while fostering innovation, job creation, and skills access. The article includes this quotes from the country's minister of communications/digital technologies department. "This unacceptable lapse proves why vigilant human oversight over the use of artificial intelligence is critical." Thanks to Slashdot reader Tokolosh for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 3:34pm GMT
Hacker News
A desktop made for one
03 May 2026 3:32pm GMT
Slashdot
Ransomware Is Getting Uglier As Cybercriminals Fake Leaks and Skip Encryption Entirely
"Ransomware activity jumped again in Q1 2026," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli, "with 2,638 victim posts on leak sites, up 22% year over year," according to a report from cybersecurity company ReliaQuest. But the bigger shift is how messy the ecosystem has become. Established groups like Akira and Qilin are still active, while newer players like The Gentlemen surged into the top tier with a 588 percent spike in activity. At the same time, questionable leak sites such as 0APT and ALP-001 are muddying the waters by posting possibly fake breach claims, forcing companies to investigate incidents that may not even be real. Meanwhile, actors like ShinyHunters are showing that ransomware does not always need encryption anymore. By targeting identity systems and SaaS platforms, attackers can steal data using legitimate access, often through phishing or even phone-based social engineering, and then extort victims without deploying traditional malware. With a record 91 active leak sites and faster attack timelines, the report suggests defenders should focus less on tracking specific groups and more on stopping common tactics like credential theft, remote access abuse, and large-scale data exfiltration.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 2:34pm GMT
Smuggled Starlink Terminals are Beating Iran's Internet Blackout
An anonymous reader shared this report from the BBC: "If even one extra person is able to access the internet, I think it's successful and it's worth it," says Sahand. The Iranian man is visibly anxious, speaking to the BBC outside Iran, as he carefully explains how he is part of a clandestine network smuggling satellite internet technology - which is illegal in Iran - into the country. Sahand, whose name we have changed, fears for family members and other contacts inside the country. "If I was identified by the Iranian regime, they might make those I'm in touch with in Iran pay the price," he says. For more than two months, Iran has been in digital darkness as the government maintains one of the longest-running national internet shutdowns ever recorded worldwide... Sahand says he has sent a dozen [Starlink terminals] to Iran since January and "we are actively looking for other ways to smuggle in more". The human rights organisation Witness estimated in January that there are at least 50,000 Starlink terminals in Iran. Activists say the number is likely to have risen... Last year, the Iranian government passed legislation that made using, buying or selling Starlink devices punishable by up to two years in prison. The jail term for distributing or importing more than 10 devices can be up to 10 years. State-affiliated media has reported multiple cases of people being arrested for selling and buying Starlink terminals, including four people - two of them foreign nationals - arrested last month for "importing satellite internet equipment". "The BBC contacted SpaceX for more details about the use of Starlink in the country but did not receive a response."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 11:34am GMT
Claude, Microsoft Copilot Fail Again to Predict the Winners of the Kentucky Derby
In 2016 an online "swarm intelligence" platform generated a correct prediction for the Kentucky Derby - naming all four top finishers in order. (But its 2017 predictions weren't even close.) Slashdot checked in again on how modern AI systems performed in 2023, 2024, and 2025 - but their predictions were still pretty bad. Would AI-generated Derby predictions be any better in 2026? This year's winner was 24-to-1 longshot "Golden Tempo" - though a lot of oddsmakers had favored a horse named Further Ado (which ultimately only finished 11th). So when USA Today prompted Microsoft Copilot for its own picks for the Kentucky Derby, Copilot also went with Further Ado. (Even worse, it predicted Golden Tempo would come in... 13th.) Here's how Copilot's picks actually performed... Further Ado (finished 11th)Chief Wallabee (finished 4th)The Puma (SCRATCHED)Renegade (finished 2nd)Commandment (finished 7th)So Happy (finished 9th)Emerging Market (finished 10th)Danon Bourbon (finished 5th)Potente (finished 12th)Incredibolt (finished 6th)Robusta (finished 14th)Ocelli (finished 3rd)Golden Tempo (finished 1st)Pavlovian (finished 18th)Great White (SCRATCHED)Wonder Dean (finished 8th) Litmus Test (finished 17th)Albus (finished 15th)Six Speed (finished 13th)Intrepido (finished 16th) Copilot was told to use the latest odds, conditions, and analysis of favorites, best bets, expert picks, previous results and race history with the post positions, according to USA Today. And meanwhile, Yahoo Sports asked Claude "to simulate the race using the opening odds, draw and potential track conditions. We also asked it to factor in some human predictions." Like Microsoft Copilot, Claude also picked Further Ado to finish first (though it came in 11th) - and predicted that Golden Tempo (the eventual first-place finisher) would finish 12th. Further Ado (finished 11th)The Puma (SCRATCHED)Commandment (finished 7th)Chief Wallabee (finished 4th)Renegade (finished 2nd)Emerging Market (finished 10th)So Happy (finished 9th)Incredibolt (finished 6th)Danon Bourbon (finished 5th)Potente (finished 12th)Pavlovian (finished 18th)Golden Tempo (finished 1st) Litmus Test (finished 17th)Albus (finished 15th)Wonder Dean (finished 8th)Six Speed (finished 13th)Intrepido (finished 16th)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 7:34am GMT
Chinese Exports of Green Technologies Surged to Record Levels After Iran War Began
"The war in Iran has sent oil-starved countries scrambling for fuel," CNN reported this week. And many of those countries now want renewable fuels, the article points out, "leaving them turning to the renewables king of the planet: China." Chinese exports of solar technology, batteries and electric vehicles all reached record highs in March, according to energy think tank Ember, a sign that the historic oil supply shock is accelerating the adoption of clean energy around the world... A Thursday report from Ember said China exported 68 gigawatts of solar technology in March, surpassing the previous record set in August by 50%. Fifty countries set new records for Chinese solar imports, with the most significant growth coming from emerging markets in Asia and Africa hit hardest by the energy crisis, according to the think tank. "Fossil shocks are boosting the solar surge," said Euan Graham, senior analyst at Ember, in the report. "Solar has already become the engine of the global economy, and now the current fossil fuel price shocks are taking it up a gear." Ember said exports of solar, batteries and EVs in total rose 70% in March year over year, according to Chinese customs data... China's battery exports reached $10 billion in March, with particularly high growth rates in the European Union, Australia and India, Ember said. Uncertainty over when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen has spurred deeper regional anxieties about energy securi"ty, helping to hasten the transition to clean energy, analysts said. The article notes how different countries are reacting to fuel Asian nations that depend on the Middle East for energy imports "are trying to mitigate fuel shortages by encouraging energy conservation and shortening work hours." The UK's Energy Secretary said this week that the country needed to reduce its reliance on gas for electricity. "As we face the second fossil fuel shock in less than 5 years, the lesson for our country is clear: The era of fossil fuel security is over, and the era of clean energy security must come of age." Pakistan "has been spared some of the impact from the war, since it began drastically importing cheap Chinese solar panels a few years ago. Using solar energy rather than costly oil imports is estimated to save the country billions of dollars each year." "According to the China Passenger Car Association, Chinese exports of electric vehicles and hybrids hit a record high in March, increasing 140% compared with the same period a year ago." Thanks to Slashdot reader AleRunner for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
03 May 2026 3:34am GMT
02 May 2026
Ars Technica
Research roundup: 6 cool science stories we almost missed
Crushing soda cans for science, why dolphins swim so fast, how urine helps mushrooms communicate, and more
02 May 2026 2:23pm GMT
Infrasound waves stop kitchen fires, but can they replace sprinklers?
Acoustic fire suppression goes commercial.
02 May 2026 11:30am GMT
01 May 2026
Ars Technica
Study: AI models that consider user's feeling are more likely to make errors
Overtuning can cause models to "prioritize user satisfaction over truthfulness."
01 May 2026 10:23pm GMT
The RAMpocalypse has bought Microsoft valuable time in the fight against SteamOS
Op-ed: Valve has made a dent in Windows' gaming share, but can it keep going?
01 May 2026 10:00pm GMT
Man dies covered in necrotic lesions after amoebas eat him alive
Doctors suspect three factors, each unremarkable on its own, contributed to his fate.
01 May 2026 9:05pm GMT
Ubuntu infrastructure has been down for more than a day
The outage has hampered communication concerning a critical vulnerability that gives root.
01 May 2026 7:12pm GMT
Senators ban themselves from prediction markets after candidates bet on own races
Senator decries "blatant, brazen corruption," wants to target Trump admin next.
01 May 2026 5:51pm GMT
Minnesota passes ban on fake AI nudes; app makers risk $500K fines
More evidence of Grok CSAM seen as Minnesota passes nudifying app ban.
01 May 2026 5:36pm GMT
Amazon stuck with months of repairs after drone strikes on data centers
AWS stops billing Middle East cloud customers as repairs to war damage drag on.
01 May 2026 5:09pm GMT
Scorpions go terminator mode and reinforce their weapons with metal
Different hunting patterns seem to dictate different distributions of metal.
01 May 2026 4:24pm GMT
GPT-5.5 matches heavily hyped Mythos Preview in new cybersecurity tests
New results suggest Mythos' cyber threat isn't "a breakthrough specific to one model."
01 May 2026 3:32pm GMT
Is your Purosangue SUV not sharp enough? Ferrari has you covered.
We'll soon get to see the brand's first EV; first, a more honed V12 four-seater.
01 May 2026 3:23pm GMT
Virgin Galactic reveals new ship, but it's running out of time and cash
It's not clear whether Virgin Galactic has the cash reserves to fund a prolonged test phase.
01 May 2026 2:42pm GMT
Apple may take "several months" to catch up to Mac mini and Studio demand
Chip shortages and demand from AI enthusiasts are both playing a part.
01 May 2026 2:10pm GMT
Women sue the men who used their Instagram feeds to create AI porn influencers
AI ModelForge is a platform that teaches men how to generate their own AI influencers.
01 May 2026 1:26pm GMT
Rocket Report: Falcon Heavy is back; Russia's Soyuz-5 finally debuts
Two launches this week delivered 61 more satellites to orbit for the Amazon Leo broadband network.
01 May 2026 12:39pm GMT