Technology

Can FireFox find a way to prevent MicroSoft's embedded tracker from transmission? Block the identifying bits/code? Leaving everything else intact.

IRGC Claims It Destroyed Amazon's Bahrain Data Center

Being a Luddite Is Fun Again

Ticketmaster now wants ID verification, via Persona

So that’s a thing now I guess.

Nvidia and OpenAI in talks for up to $250 billion dollar backstop to fund AI infrastructure plans

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got to buy MSG’s privacy. Her fans aren’t so lucky.

Professor's invisible prompt trap catches 32 students cheating on their midterm with AI

In an online discussion post, Alcorn State University history professor Dr. Jason Gibson posed a question that represented part of his students’ midterm. It was about the…

Canadian legislator reads out apparent LLM response in floor speech

Scientists Build the First 3D Cloak That Makes Objects Invisible To Heat

On an infrared camera, a warm object normally stands out clearly against cooler surroundings. Researchers have now built a three-dimensional cloak that bends heat around an object, erasing its thermal outline while protecting the space inside from temperature extremes…

This approach could eventually improve heat control around microchips and sensitive electronic components. It may also help protect equipment in severe environments or reduce the thermal signatures used to locate people and machinery…

They printed a precise aluminum lattice in 3D to create highly conductive pathways through the cloak. Aluminum moves heat readily, allowing energy to travel quickly through selected regions. The remaining spaces were filled through mold casting with a rubbery material that transfers heat much more slowly.

Together, the materials created a controlled thermal route. Some sections accelerated heat flow while others restricted it, steering energy around the space occupied by the concealed object…

…In electronic systems, the cloak might redirect heat away from vulnerable components or prevent nearby heat sources from interfering with delicate devices.

It could also help protect equipment exposed to extreme temperatures. Security and defense applications are another possibility, including reducing the infrared signatures that allow thermal cameras to distinguish people or machinery from their surroundings…

…Concealing an object that produces its own heat presents a more difficult problem because that energy would continue building inside the protected region and could eventually reveal its location…

The researchers now plan to investigate smart, multifunctional cloaks capable of performing those active tasks. Such devices could eventually do more than hide a thermal signature by deliberately controlling where heat gathers, how it spreads, and where it leaves the protected region…

Schools across America are quietly admitting that screens in classrooms made students worse off and are reversing years of tech-first policies

Framework 16, one year later

Sony Pushing For All-Digital Future Even Though Only 27 Percent Of Ps5 Users Own Its Digital Edition

Memory chip maker CXMT debuts in Shanghai, up 470% at open and becomes the largest listed company in China

Thoughts on "Open" Models: The debate focuses on balancing open and closed models, with cost and geopolitical considerations influencing the push for open weight AI.

US prosecutors charge Atlanta man after GrapheneOS phone wipes itself during airport search

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1289238/us-prosecutors-charge-atlanta-man-after-grapheneos-phone-wipes-itself-during-airport-sea

Big Companies Are Starting to Hire Again, Defying Predictions of AI Wipeout

Complete article since it’s paywalled:

America’s biggest companies say they might need more people after all.

For months, major employers treated hiring as an expensive last resort. Now, a shift is emerging across industries. Companies ranging from railroad giant CSX to Google parent Alphabet GOOGL 0.65%increase; up pointing triangle have told investors in recent days that they plan to hire to meet growth goals or to seize on emerging technologies.

The push to expand head count, at least modestly, is a reversal from the prevailing corporate messaging during much of the AI era. Major employers largely held back on adding people due to economic uncertainties or a belief that artificial intelligence could shoulder more tasks on the job. But some executives say the costs and limitations of AI now demand that more people be added; others want to hire people back following layoffs.

“We actually need to accelerate hiring a bit. We’re a little bit behind right now,” Booz Allen Hamilton’s Chief Operating Officer Kristine Martin Anderson told investors Friday. “We’re addressing that now.”

The government contractor cut thousands of jobs last year as the Trump administration slashed federal contracts and asked firms to justify their costs. Total head count stood at roughly 30,900 as of June 30, down 7.5% from a year earlier. But the company now sees healthy demand for its services, including in national security for workers who need security clearances.

For much of the past 18 months, big employers were convinced fewer workers meant faster growth. U.S. public companies shrank their white-collar workforces. Now layoffs are shrinking. The most recent week of U.S. jobless claims was the lowest on record since 1969, according to federal data.

Part of the change in hiring also reflects a recalibration among employers about what AI can do, said Sarah Franklin, CEO of the human-resources platform Lattice. Many companies stopped hiring entry-level employees, thinking AI agents could pick up the slack. They have since realized that humans are necessary to work alongside AI.

“Just because you have coding agents doesn’t mean you’re not hiring engineers,” she said, adding that companies with AI sales agents also need salespeople.

Across Lattice’s thousands of clients, many are now back in hiring mode for a number of roles, particularly junior positions.

“There’s a big thirst for that,” Franklin said. “What you have now is a realization that you need the AI-native skills. You need this [entry-level] workforce, which is innovative, not calcified in thought. They’re also more affordable because they are newer to the workforce.”

The pickup in hiring goes beyond white-collar professions. Tool maker Snap-on said it plans to add employees to expand its business. CSX said its train and engine service head count will “increase modestly” in the coming months to help it meet higher demand, even as it looks to technology to make up for attrition in other parts of the company. The transport company noted its head count is still lower than it was a year ago.
Workers preparing the invert for concrete in the CSX Howard Street rail tunnel in Baltimore.
Workers at a CSX rail tunnel in Baltimore. Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Few companies are saying they plan to go on major hiring sprees, and employers are also making clear they are in the market for certain types of workers.

Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said the technology company expects to continue hiring in key investment areas such as AI and cloud computing. The software company ServiceNow wants to hire more “quota-bearing feet-on-the-street sales execs” to capture growth in areas like cybersecurity.

M. Keith Waddell, CEO of staffing firm Robert Half, said that AI’s impacts on the job market are proving to be “more benign than some have feared.” The firm works to place people in roles from tech to financial services, and some clients are recruiting again.

“Hiring demand continues to improve and market conditions are increasingly more supportive of our business,” he said.

Some caution, though, that much remains unclear as AI’s ultimate potential continues to evolve. “Do we need more people? Do we need less people?” asked Paul Osterman, a professor emeritus at MIT, and the author of “Disposable Workers,” a new book on the transformation of employment. “We have no idea. No one has any idea.”

Osterman said many companies treated employees as dispensable, cutting them when convenient, or downgrading them into contractor or part-time roles. He expects that trend to continue in this moment of flux.

“AI introduces so much uncertainty with employers, not sure knowing what they need or don’t need,” he said, adding that the drumbeat of AI’s power to displace humans and save shareholders money won’t stop. “Who’s going to be the victim of all that noise?”

Eminent Domain Could Be Used to Seize Your Land for AI Data Centers

If open weight models are the future, U.S. AI companies are going to have a hard time

Claude Shared Chats Were Searchable on Google. Here's Why That Matters

Many people assume that an AI “Share” link is effectively private unless they send it to someone. That’s not how the web works. Recently, users discovered that searches like site:claude.ai/share and site:claude.ai/public/artifacts returned publicly shared Claude conversations through search engines. Some indexed pages reportedly contained resumes, company discussions, code, and other sensitive information. Google began removing many results, but the incident highlights an important privacy lesson: once a conversation is published as a public webpage, it can become discoverable

The AI boom's hidden electricity bill — and why you're paying it