Submission + - Pavel Durov exposes U.S. law that forces engineers to install back doors (x.com) 3

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Pavel Durov blows Tucker Carlson’s mind by exposing U.S. law that forces engineers to install back doors—and bans them from telling their own company

This is why Telegram didn’t set up shop in America.

“You know what’s interesting, in the U.S., you have a process that allows the government to actually force any engineer in any tech company to implement a back door and not tell anyone about it.”

“Using this process called the gag-order, you know there are certain legal procedures.”

Carlson, stunned, asked: “Not tell his own employer about it?”

Durov confirmed: “Yes, exactly. If you tell your own boss, you can end up in jail. Like, gag order.”

Carlson: “Actually?!”

Durov: “Yeah.”

Carlson: “So your employees have a legal obligation to act as fifth column spies? Saboteurs against you, your employees?”

Durov didn’t hesitate: “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t move to the U.S. with my team.”

Submission + - New Code.org Curriculum Aims to Make Schoolkids Python-Literate and AI-Ready

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The old Code.org curriculum page for middle and high school students has been changed to include a new Python Lab in the tech-backed nonprofit's K-12 offerings. Elsewhere on the site, a Computer Science and AI Foundations curriculum is described that includes units on 'Foundations of AI Programming [in Python]' and 'Insights from Data and AI [aka Data Science].' A more-detailed AI Foundations Syllabus 25-26 document promises a second semester of material is coming soon: "This semester offers an innovative approach to teaching programming by integrating learning with and about artificial intelligence (AI). Using Python as the primary language, students build foundational programming skills while leveraging AI tools to enhance computational thinking and problem-solving. The curriculum also introduces students to the basics of creating AI-powered programs, exploring machine learning, and applying data science principles."

Newly-posted videos on Code.org's YouTube channel appear to be intended to support the new Python-based CS & AI course. "Python is extremely versatile," explains a Walmart data scientist to open the video for Data Science: Using Python. "So, first of all, Python is one of the very few languages that can handle numbers very, very well." A researcher at the Univ. of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) adds, "Python is the gold standard and what people expect data scientists to know [...] Key to us being able to handle really big data sets is our use of Python and cluster computing." Adding to the Python love, an IHME data analyst explains, "Python is a great choice for large databases because there's a lot of support for Python libraries."

Code.org is currently recruiting teachers to attend its CS and AI Foundations Professional Learning program this summer, which is being taught by Code.org's national network of university and nonprofit regional partners (teachers who signup have a chance to win $250 in DonorsChoose credits for their classrooms). A flyer for a five-day Michigan Professional Development program to prepare teachers for a pilot of the Code.org CS & A course touts the new curriculum as "an alternative to the AP [Computer Science] pathway" (teachers are offered scholarships covering registration, lodging, meals, & workshop materials).

Interestingly, Code.org's embrace of Python and Data Science comes as the nonprofit changes its mission to 'make CS and AI a core part of K-12 education' and launches a new national campaign with tech leaders to make CS and AI a graduation requirement. Prior to AI changing the education conversation, Code.org in 2021 boasted that it had lined up a consortium of tech giants, politicians, and educators to push its new $15 million Amazon-bankrolled Java AP CS A curriculum into K-12 classrooms. Just three years later, however, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was boasting to investors that Amazon had turned to AI to automatically do Java coding that he claimed would have otherwise taken human coders 4,500 developer-years to complete.

Submission + - FAA To Eliminate Floppy Disks Used In Air Traffic Control Systems (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The head of the Federal Aviation Administration just outlined an ambitious goal to upgrade the U.S.’s air traffic control (ATC) system and bring it into the 21st century. According to NPR, most ATC towers and other facilities today feel like they’re stuck in the 20th century, with controllers using paper strips and floppy disks to transfer data, while their computers run Windows 95. While this likely saved them from the disastrous CrowdStrike outage that had a massive global impact, their age is a major risk to the nation’s critical infrastructure, with the FAA itself saying that the current state of its hardware is unsustainable.

“The whole idea is to replace the system. No more floppy disks or paper strips,” acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau told the House Appropriations Committee last Wednesday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also said earlier this week,” This is the most important infrastructure project that we’ve had in this country for decades. Everyone agrees — this is non-partisan. Everyone knows we have to do it.” The aviation industry put up a coalition pushing for ATC modernization called Modern Skies, and it even ran an ad telling us that ATC is still using floppy disks and several older technologies to keep our skies safe. [...]

Currently, the White House hasn’t said what this update will cost. The FAA has already put out a Request For Information to gather data from companies willing to take on the challenge of upgrading the entire system. It also announced several ‘Industry Days’ so companies can pitch their tech and ideas to the Transportation Department. Duffy said that the Transportation Department aims to complete the project within four years. However, industry experts say this timeline is unrealistic. No matter how long it takes, it’s high time that the FAA upgrades the U.S.’s ATC system today after decades of neglect.

Submission + - Discord's CTO Is Just As Worried About Enshittification As You Are (engadget.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Discord co-founder and CTO Stanislav Vishnevskiy wants you to know he thinks a lot about enshittification. With reports of an upcoming IPO and the news of his co-founder, Jason Citron, recently stepping down to hand leadership of the company over to Humam Sakhnini, a former Activision Blizzard executive, many Discord users are rightfully worried the platform is about to become, well, shit. "I understand the anxiety and concern," Vishnevskiy told Engadget in a recent call. "I think the things that people are afraid of are what separate a great, long-term focused company from just any other company." According to Vishnevskiy, the concern that Discord could fail to do right by its users or otherwise lose its way is a topic of regular discussion at the company.

"I'm definitely the one who's constantly bringing up enshittification," he said of Discord's internal meetings. "It's not a bad thing to build a strong business and to monetize a product. That's how we can reinvest and continue to make things better. But we have to be extremely thoughtful about how we do that." The way Vishnevskiy tells it, Discord already had an identity crisis and came out of that moment with a stronger sense of what its product means to people. You may recall the company briefly operated a curated game store. Discord launched the storefront in 2018 only to shut it down less than a year later in 2019. Vishnevskiy describes that as a period of reckoning within Discord.

"We call it embracing the brutal facts internally," he said of the episode. When Vishnevskiy and Citron started Discord, they envisioned a platform that would not just be for chatting with friends, but one that would also serve as a game distribution hub. "We spent a year building that component of our business and then, quite frankly, we quickly knew it wasn't going well." Out of that failure, Discord decided to focus on its Nitro subscription and embrace everyone who was using the app to organize communities outside of gaming. Since its introduction in 2017, the service has evolved to include a few different perks, but at its heart, Nitro has always been a way for Discord users to get more out of the app and support their favorite servers. [...] Vishnevskiy describes Nitro as a "phenomenal business," but the decision to look beyond gaming created a different set of problems. "It wasn't clear exactly who we were building for, because now Discord was a community product for everyone, and that drove a lot of distractions," he said.

Submission + - Automakers Worry China's Tariff Response will STOP All US Car Production Soon (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by hackingbear
hackingbear writes: In response to tariff imposed by the Trump administration to bring jobs back to the U.S., China has stopped nearly all trade on rare earth magnets in addition to counter tariff. Automakers warn that the blockade could stop all US car production in days. "Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components," a letter sent in May from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation to President Trump said. "In severe cases, this could include the need for reduced production volumes or even a shutdown of vehicle assembly lines." The materials, which were last built in the US at scale in the late 1990s, are scattered throughout vehicles. A modern, power-adjusting seat can use as many as 12 individual magnets. China has recently cracked down on rare earth smuggling by introducing a nation-wide tracking system and, imitating the U.S. secondary sanctions, China demands other countries from re-exporting Chinese rare earth products to the U.S. President Trump recently lashed out against Chinese officials for exploiting these gaps in American production. "China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. China hit back on Monday, accusing the US of violating and undermining the agreements reached in Geneva in May. China’s commerce ministry said on Monday: “The US has successively introduced a number of discriminatory restrictive measures against China, including issuing export control guidelines for AI chips, stopping the sale of chip design [EDA] software to China, and announcing the revocation of Chinese student visas.” In addition to the long-standing blockading of advanced semiconductors like nVidia GPUs and semiconductor equipment even if made by European company ASML since as far back as 1996 Wassena Agreement, the U.S. paused sales of commercial jet engine Leap-1C to Chinese plane maker Comac last week, threatening to stop the production of China's C919 airliner. While in theory possible, starting rare earth mining and refining can take 10 to 15 years for a country. In light of the urgency, several carmakers, both traditional and electric, are considering moving part of the manufacturing process to China. This could include building electric motors in Chinese factories or shipping American-made motors to China to have the magnets installed.

Submission + - KDE targets Windows 10 'exiles' claiming 'your computer is toast' (theregister.com)

Submitted by king*jojo
king*jojo writes: Linux desktop darling KDE is weighing in on the controversy around the impending demise of Windows 10 support with a lurid "KDE for Windows 10 Exiles" campaign.

KDE's alarming "Exiles" page opens with the text "Your computer is toast" followed by a warning that Microsoft wants to turn computers running Windows 10 into junk from October 14.

"It may seem like it continues to work after that date for a bit, but when Microsoft stops support for Windows 10, your perfectly good computer will be officially obsolete."

Beneath a picture of a pile of tech junk, including a rotary telephone and some floppy drives, KDE proclaims: "Windows 10 will degrade as more and more bugs come to light. With nobody to correct them, you risk being hacked. Your data, identity, and control over your device could be stolen."

Submission + - Code.org Changes Mission to "Make CS and AI a Core Part of K–12 Education"

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Way back in 2010, Microsoft and Google teamed with nonprofit partners to launch Computing in the Core, an advocacy coalition whose mission was "to strengthen computing education and ensure that it is a core subject for students in the 21st century." In 2013, Computing in the Core was merged into Code.org, a new tech-backed-and-directed nonprofit. And in 2015, Code.org declared 'Mission Accomplished' with the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which elevated computer science to a core academic subject for grades K-12.

Fast forward to June 2025 and Code.org has changed its About page to reflect a new AI mission that's near-and-dear to the hearts of Code.org's tech giant donors and tech leader Board members: "Code.org® is a nonprofit working to make computer science (CS) and artificial intelligence (AI) a core part of K–12 education for every student." The mission change comes as tech companies are looking to chop headcount amid the AI boom and just weeks after tech CEOs and leaders launched a new Code.org-orchestrated national campaign to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.

Submission + - AI Startup Revealed To Be 700 Indian Employees Pretending To Be Chatbots (latintimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A once-hyped AI startup backed by Microsoft has filed for bankruptcy after it was revealed that its so-called artificial intelligence was actually hundreds of human workers in India pretending to be chatbots. Builder.ai, a London-based company previously valued at $1.5 billion, marketed its platform as an AI-powered solution that made building apps as simple as ordering pizza. Its virtual assistant, "Natasha," was supposed to generate software using artificial intelligence. In reality, nearly 700 engineers in India were manually coding customer requests behind the scenes, the Times of India reported.

The ruse began to collapse in May when lender Viola Credit seized $37 million from the company's accounts, uncovering that Builder.ai had inflated its 2024 revenue projections by 300%. An audit revealed the company generated just $50 million in revenue, far below the $220 million it claimed to investors. A Wall Street Journal report from 2019 had already questioned Builder.ai's AI claims, and a former executive sued the company that same year for allegedly misleading investors and overstating its technical capabilities. Despite that, the company raised over $445 million from big names including Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority. Builder.ai's collapse has triggered a federal investigation in the U.S., with prosecutors in New York requesting financial documents and customer records.

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