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Submission + - Framework Laptops Get Modular Makeover With RISC-V Main Board (theregister.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Framework CEO Nirav Patel had one of the bravest tech demos that we've seen at a conference yet – modifying a Framework Laptop from x86 to RISC-V live on stage. In the five-minute duration of one of the Ubuntu Summit's Lightning Talks, he opened up a Framework machine, removed its motherboard, installed a RISC-V-powered replacement, reconnected it, and closed the machine up again. All while presenting the talk live, and pretty much without hesitation, deviation, or repetition. It was an impressive performance, and you can watch it yourself at the 8:56:30 mark in the video recording.

Now DeepComputing is taking orders for the DC-ROMA board, at least to those in its early access program. The new main board is powered by a StarFive JH7110 System-on-Chip. (Note: there are two tabs on the page, for both the JH7110 and JH7100, and we can't link directly to the latter.) CNX Software has more details about the SoC. Although the SoC has six CPU cores, two are dedicated processors, making it a quad-core 64-bit device. The four general-purpose cores are 64-bit and run at up to 1.5 GHz. It supports 8 GB of RAM and eMMC storage. [...]

In our opinion, RISC-V is not yet competitive with Arm in performance. However, this is a real, usable, general-purpose computer, based on an open instruction set. That's no mean feat, and it's got more than enough performance for less demanding work. It's also the first third-party main board for the Framework hardware, which is another welcome achievement. The company has now delivered several new generations of hardware, including a 16-inch model, and continues to upgrade its machines' specs.

Submission + - Explicit Deepfake Scandal Shuts Down Pennsylvania School (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An AI-generated nude photo scandal has shut down a Pennsylvania private school. On Monday, classes were canceled after parents forced leaders to either resign or face a lawsuit potentially seeking criminal penalties and accusing the school of skipping mandatory reporting of the harmful images. The outcry erupted after a single student created sexually explicit AI images of nearly 50 female classmates at Lancaster Country Day School, Lancaster Online reported. Head of School Matt Micciche seemingly first learned of the problem in November 2023, when a student anonymously reported the explicit deepfakes through a school portal run by the state attorney’s general office called "Safe2Say Something." But Micciche allegedly did nothing, allowing more students to be targeted for months until police were tipped off in mid-2024.

Cops arrested the student accused of creating the harmful content in August. The student's phone was seized as cops investigated the origins of the AI-generated images. But that arrest was not enough justice for parents who were shocked by the school's failure to uphold mandatory reporting responsibilities following any suspicion of child abuse. They filed a court summons threatening to sue last week unless the school leaders responsible for the mishandled response resigned within 48 hours. This tactic successfully pushed Micciche and the school board's president, Angela Ang-Alhadeff, to "part ways" with the school, both resigning effective late Friday, Lancaster Online reported.

In a statement announcing that classes were canceled Monday, Lancaster Country Day School—which, according to Wikipedia, serves about 600 students in pre-kindergarten through high school—offered support during this "difficult time" for the community. Parents do not seem ready to drop the suit, as the school leaders seemingly dragged their feet and resigned two days after their deadline. The parents' lawyer, Matthew Faranda-Diedrich, told Lancaster Online Monday that "the lawsuit would still be pursued despite executive changes." Classes are planned to resume on Tuesday, Lancaster Online reported. But students seem unlikely to let the incident go without further action to help girls feel safe at school. Last week, more than half the school walked out, MSN reported, forcing classes to be canceled as students and some faculty members called for resignations and additional changes from remaining leadership.

Submission + - Microsoft Minecraft and Amazon Music to Headline Code.org's 2024 Hour of Code

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Amid news reports of old 2016 email from Elon Musk (released as Microsoft was added to Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI) expressing concerns that OpenAI would "seem like Microsoft's marketing bitch" were it to accept a Microsoft offer calling for a $50 million discount on Azure credits in return for a promise by the nonprofit to 'evangelize' Azure as its preferred Cloud provider, tech-backed nonprofit Code.org interestingly issued a Thursday press-release announcing that Microsoft and Amazon will again provide signature tutorials for this year's Hour of Code for the world's K-12 schoolchildren. Microsoft and Amazon are Code.org's largest 'Lifetime Supporters', having donated somewhere north of $60 million to the nonprofit. An Amazon AWS Case Study features Code.org employees' endorsement of AWS as the Cloud provider behind the Hour of Code, and Code.org website pages sport "Powered by AWS" logos.

"This year, Code.org, in partnership with Amazon, introduces Music Lab: Jam Session, featuring new AI capabilities," explains Code.org of the new Amazon tutorial, which is accompanied by videos featuring Amazon Music employees. "Students can also explore career paths specifically in music and technology with the Amazon Music Career Tour."

"Minecraft Education has released a show stopping new Hour of Code tutorial: The Show Must Go On!," Code.org says of the new Microsoft tutorial. "Code.org celebrates a decade of partnership with Minecraft this year, reaching more than 300 million sessions of Minecraft Hour of Code since 2015!"

Together with OpenAI and others, Microsoft and Amazon have also partnered with Code.org on its TeachAI initiative to evangelize the use of and teaching of AI in schools. AI was chosen as the theme of last year's Hour of Code, which featured Microsoft and Amazon AI-themed tutorials as well as videos featuring employees from Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenAI. In an interesting coincidence, the Microsoft VP added as a defendant last week to Musk's amended OpenAI lawsuit was Dee Templeton, who the complaint explains serves as an advisor to Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott and was appointed to OpenAI's Board as a non-voting representative of Microsoft but "stepped down amid renewed enforcement by the FTC of the Clayton Act’s prohibition on interlocking directorates." Scott, who is credited as the crafter of Microsoft's OpenAI relationship, is also a Code.org Board member.

Submission + - WI Voters Were Unswayed by $3.3B AI Data Center Announcement by Microsoft, Biden

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Back in the day, one could influence voters for as little as $1 or with food or liquor. Today, however, even Microsoft's widely-publicized $3.3B Wisconsin AI Data Center announcement by U.S. President Joe Biden and Microsoft President Brad Smith (who Biden called out for helping his campaign just days later at a WA fundraiser) — at a politicized Racine County (WI) event last May where Biden slammed now President-elect Donald Trump for a failed Foxconn project on the same site — wasn't enough to convince Racine County voters to favor a Democrat for President in the 2024 election. Trump won 52.5% of the 100K or so Racine County votes compared to Vice President Kamala Harris's 46.3%, a one-point improvement over his performance there in 2020, en route to a victory in the swing state.

Interestingly, in his 2019 book Tools and Weapons, Microsoft's Smith — who supported the Harris campaign after Biden bowed out of the 2024 race — revealed that Microsoft led other tech giants who successfully used the promise of $300 million in pledges to support K-12 CS education to secure then First Daughter Ivanka Trump's assistance in persuading President Trump to sign a $1 billion Presidential order "to ensure that federal funding from the Department of Education helps advance [K-12] computer science," a key objective of the Microsoft-led Computing in the Core advocacy coalition and Microsoft's National Talent Strategy.

On the day after the Presidential election, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined other tech CEOs who took to social media to congratulate Trump on his victory. "Congratulations President Trump," Nadella tweeted. "We're looking forward to engaging with you and your administration to drive innovation forward that creates new growth and opportunity for the United States and the world."

Submission + - Landry-Sorting Robot Spurs AI Hopes and Fears At Europe's Biggest Tech Event (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This year’s Web Summit, in Lisbon, was all about artificial intelligence – and a robot sorting laundry. Digit, a humanoid built by the US firm Agility Robotics, demonstrated how far AI has come in a few years by responding to voice commands – filtered through Google’s Gemini AI model – to sift through a pile of colored T-shirts and place them in a basket. It wasn’t a seamless demonstration but the enthusiastic response, nearly two years on from the launch of ChatGPT, reflected the excitement about all things AI that pervaded Europe’s biggest annual tech conference.

[...] Digit is being used in warehouses by GXO, a US logistics company, to lift boxes and place them on conveyor belts. According to the chief executive of Agility Robotics, Peggy Johnson, a new role could be created managing teams of Digits doing physical work. “Employees who were previously doing this physical work, appreciate the fact that they can hand that off to Digit,” she said. “Then it allows them to do a number of other things, one of which is to be a robot manager."

Submission + - Diamond-based tech could transform chip cooling, CHIPS Act funding in the works (techspot.com)

Submitted by jjslash
jjslash writes: Akash Systems is exploring the use of synthetic diamond as a high-performance thermal conductor to address one of modern computing’s major challenges: managing heat in semiconductors. While the company’s claims of significant temperature and energy savings remain to be proven, its early approval for CHIPS Act funding suggests credibility in a field where venture capital support has been scarce. TechSpot reports:

Akash Systems, an Oakland-based startup, has landed a preliminary deal with the US government for major funding under the CHIPS Act. The company, which is developing diamond-based cooling technology for semiconductors, has signed a non-binding memorandum with the Department of Commerce. If finalized, it would net Akash $18.2 million in direct funds and $50 million in federal and state tax credits.

Submission + - Australia to Make Big Tech Liable for Citizens' Online Safety (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Australian government plans to enact laws requiring big tech firms to protect its citizens online, the latest move by the center-left Labor administration to crack down on social media including through age limits and curbs on misinformation. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced the government’s plan for a legislated Digital Duty of Care in Australia on Wednesday night, saying it aligned with similar laws in the UK and European Union. “It is now time for industry to show leadership, and for social media to recognize it has a social responsibility,” Rowland said in a speech in Sydney announcing the measures. It would “keep users safe and help prevent online harms.”

In response to the laws, Facebook and Instagram operator Meta Platforms Inc. called for the restrictions to be handled by app stores, such as those run by Google and Apple Inc., rather than the platforms themselves. The government has ignored those requests, but has yet to announce what fines companies would face or what age verification information will need to be provided. At the same time, Albanese has moved forward controversial laws to target misinformation and disinformation online, which opponents have labeled an attack on freedom of speech. His moves against big tech have already sparked confrontations with major players including entrepreneur Elon Musk, who called the Australian prime minister and his government “fascists.”

Submission + - VMware Makes Workstation and Fusion Free For Everyone (bleepingcomputer.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: VMware has announced that its VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation desktop hypervisors are now free to everyone for commercial, educational, and personal use. In May, the company also made VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro free for personal use, allowing students and home users to set up virtualized test labs and experiment with other OSs by running virtual machines and Kubernetes clusters on Windows, Linux, and macOS devices. Starting this week, the Pro versions and the two products will no longer be available under a paid subscription model.

"Effective immediately, both VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation will transition away from the paid subscription model, meaning you can now utilize these tools without any cost. The paid versions of these offerings – Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro – are no longer available for purchase," said Broadcom product marketing director Himanshu Singh. "If you're currently under a commercial contract, you can rest easy knowing that your agreement will remain in effect until the end of your term. You will continue to receive the full level of service and enterprise-grade support as per your contract."

While the free versions will include all the features available in the paid products, Broadcom will no longer provide users with support ticketing for troubleshooting. Broadcom plans to continue developing new features and improvements and ensure that updates are rolled out promptly. "We're actively investing in new features, usability improvements, and other valuable enhancements," Singh added. "Our engineering teams are committed to maintaining our high standards for stability, with timely updates and reliable performance."

Submission + - SpaceX Alums Find Traction On Earth With Their Mars-Inspired CO2-To-Fuel Tech (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A trend has emerged among a small group of climate tech founders who start with their eyes fixed on space and soon realize their technology would do a lot more good here on Earth. Halen Mattison and Luke Neise fit the bill. Mattison spent time at SpaceX, while Neise worked at Vanderbilt Aerospace Design Laboratory and Varda Space Industries. The pair originally wanted to sell reactors to SpaceX that could turn carbon dioxide into methane for use on Mars. Today, they’re building them to replace natural gas that’s pumped from underground. Their company, General Galactic, which emerged from stealth in April, has built a pilot system that can produce 2,000 liters of methane per day. Neise, General Galactic’s CTO, told TechCrunch that he expects that figure to rise as the company replaces off-the-shelf components with versions designed in-house.

“We think that’s a big missing piece in the energy mix right now,” said Mattison, the startup’s CEO. “Being able to own our supply chains, to be able to fully control all of the parameters, to challenge the requirements between components, all of that unlocks some real elegance in the engineering solution.” At commercial scale, the company’s reactors will be assembled using mass production techniques. It’s a contrast to how most petrochemical and energy facilities are built today. General Galactic is focused on producing methane. However, Mattison said the company isn’t necessarily looking to displace the fuel from heating and energy. “Those are generally going toward electrification,” he said. Instead, it intends to sell its methane to companies that use it as an ingredient or to power a process, like in chemical or plastic manufacturing. The company isn’t ruling out transportation entirely either. Mattison hinted that General Galactic is working on other hydrocarbons that could be used for transportation, like jet fuel. “Stay tuned,” he said.

Submission + - FBI Says Hackers Are Sending Fraudulent Police Data Requests To Tech Giants (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The FBI is warning that hackers are obtaining private user information — including emails and phone numbers — from U.S.-based tech companies by compromising government and police email addresses to submit “emergency” data requests. The FBI’s public notice filed this week is a rare admission from the federal government about the threat from fraudulent emergency data requests, a legal process designed to help police and federal authorities obtain information from companies to respond to immediate threats affecting someone’s life or property. The abuse of emergency data requests is not new, and has been widely reported in recent years. Now, the FBI warns that it saw an “uptick” around August in criminal posts online advertising access to or conducting fraudulent emergency data requests, and that it was going public for awareness.

“Cyber-criminals are likely gaining access to compromised US and foreign government email addresses and using them to conduct fraudulent emergency data requests to US based companies, exposing the personal information of customers to further use for criminal purposes,” reads the FBI’s advisory. [...] The FBI said in its advisory that it had seen several public posts made by known cybercriminals over 2023 and 2024, claiming access to email addresses used by U.S. law enforcement and some foreign governments. The FBI says this access was ultimately used to send fraudulent subpoenas and other legal demands to U.S. companies seeking private user data stored on their systems. The advisory said that the cybercriminals were successful in masquerading as law enforcement by using compromised police accounts to send emails to companies requesting user data. In some cases, the requests cited false threats, like claims of human trafficking and, in one case, that an individual would “suffer greatly or die” unless the company in question returns the requested information.

The FBI said the compromised access to law enforcement accounts allowed the hackers to generate legitimate-looking subpoenas that resulted in companies turning over usernames, emails, phone numbers, and other private information about their users. But not all fraudulent attempts to file emergency data requests were successful, the FBI said. The FBI said in its advisory that law enforcement organizations should take steps to improve their cybersecurity posture to prevent intrusions, including stronger passwords and multi-factor authentication. The FBI said that private companies “should apply critical thinking to any emergency data requests received,” given that cybercriminals “understand the need for exigency.”

Submission + - Google CEO Forbids Political Talk After Firing 28 Over Israeli Contract Protest (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in on the debate over the relative values of political expression and workplace coexistence by ordering employees to leave their political opinions at home. A day after firing 28 workers for participating in a sit-in protest of the tech giant’s cloud contract with Israel, Pichai warned staff that the office is not a place “to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics” in a company blog post.

Although Pichai didn’t specifically mention the protests or the Israel–Hamas war, he concluded that the $1.92 trillion company “is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform.” “We have a duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally,” Pichai continued. “When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that.”

Submission + - Google Asked To Remove 10 Billion 'Pirate' Search Results (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Rightsholders have asked Google to remove more than 10 billion 'copyright infringing' URLs from its search results. The search engine doesn't celebrate the milestone in any way, but the takedown notices document intriguing shifts in volume over time, as well as shifting takedown interests. [...] The path to 10 billion was turbulent. When Google first made DMCA details public it was processing a few million DMCA takedown requests in a year. That number swiftly increased to hundreds of millions and eventually reached a billion DMCA requests in 2016.

The exponential growth curve eventually flattened out and around 2017, the takedown volume started to decline. The decrease was in part due to various anti-piracy algorithms making pirated content less visible in search results. By downranking pirate sites, infringing content became harder to find. As a result, Google processed fewer takedown notices, a welcome change for both rightsholders and the search engine. Today, Google continues to make pirate sites less visible in search, but the reduction in takedown notices didn’t last. On the contrary, over the past several months, Google search processed a record number of DMCA notices.

Last summer, the search giant recorded the 7 billionth takedown request and after that the numbers shot up, adding billions more in the year that followed. The company is now handling removal requests at a rate of roughly 2.5 billion per year; a new record. This represents more than 50 million takedown requests per week and roughly 5,000 every minute. [...] While the 10 billionth reported URL is undoubtedly a milestone, this number is largely driven by a few rightsholders, reporting outfits, and domain names. The aforementioned takedown outfit Link-Busters, for example, accounts for roughly 15% of all reported links, nearly 1.5 billion. Similarly, the ten most prolific rightsholders, including the BPI, HarperCollins, and VIZ Media, are responsible for 40% of all reported links. These ten companies are only a tiny fraction of the 600,000 rightsholders that reported pirated links, however. A small group of domains also receives a disproportionate amount of attention. In total, 5,400,061 domains have been reported, with the top domains having dozens of millions of flagged URLs each. However, most domains have only a few flagged links, some of which are erroneous.

Submission + - Meta Permits Its AI Models To Be Used For US Military Purposes (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Meta will allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on national security to use its artificial intelligence models for military purposes, the companysaidon Monday, in a shift from its policy that prohibited the use of its technology for such efforts. Meta said that it would make its A.I. models, called Llama, available to federal agencies and that it was working with defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen as well as defense-focused tech companies including Palantir and Anduril. The Llama models are “open source,” which means the technology can be freely copied and distributed by other developers, companies and governments.

Meta’s move is an exception to its “acceptable use policy,” which forbade the use of the company’s A.I. software for “military, warfare, nuclear industries,” among other purposes. In a blog post on Monday, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said the company now backed “responsible and ethical uses” of the technology that supported the United States and “democratic values” in a global race for A.I. supremacy. “Meta wants to play its part to support the safety, security and economic prosperity of America — and of its closest allies too,” Mr. Clegg wrote. He added that “widespread adoption of American open source A.I. models serves both economic and security interests.”

Submission + - Perplexity CEO Offers To Replace Striking NYT Staff With AI (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The CEO of AI search company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, has offered to cross picket lines and provide services to mitigate the effect of a strike by New York Times tech workers. The NYT Tech Guild announced its strike Monday, after setting November 4 as its deadline months earlier. The workers represented provide software support and data analysis for the Times, on the business side of the outlet. They have been asking for an annual 2.5% wage increase and to cement a current two days per week in-office expectation, among other things. [...] Picketers demonstrated in front of the NYT building in New York as negotiations continued. Meanwhile, on X, formerly known as Twitter, Perplexity’s CEO offered to step in for the striking workers.

Replying to Semafor media editor Max Tani quoting the publisher, Srinivas wrote: “Hey AG Sulzberger @nytimes sorry to see this. Perplexity is on standby to help ensure your essential coverage is available to all through the election. DM me anytime here.” Many on X immediately castigated Srinivas for acting as a scab — a derogatory term for people willing to perform the jobs of striking workers. It is widely considered a disreputable behavior in matters of labor and equity. By undercutting collective action, scabs limit the ability of workers to bargain with those in positions of power. Srinivas may simply be trying to make sure people have the information they need on election day. The company has lately unveiled its own elections info hub and map. But to offer its services explicitly as a replacement for striking workers was bound to be an unpopular move.

Though TechCrunch asked Perplexity for comment, Srinivas responded to TechCrunch’s post on X saying that “the offer was *not* to ‘replace’ journalists or engineers with AI but to provide technical infra support on a high-traffic day.” The striking workers in question, however, are the ones who provide that service to the NYT. It’s not really clear what services other than AI tools Perplexity could offer, or why they would not amount to replacing the workers in question.

Submission + - Perplexity Will Show Live US Election Results Despite AI Accuracy Warnings (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Friday, Perplexity launched an election information hub that relies on data from The Associated Press and Democracy Works to provide live updates and information about the 2024 US general election, which takes place on Tuesday, November 5. "Starting Tuesday, we'll be offering live updates on elections using data from The Associated Press so you can stay informed on presidential, senate, and house races at both a state and national level," Perplexity wrote in a blog post. The site will pull data from special data sources (called APIs) hosted by the two organizations. As of Monday, Perplexity's hub currently provides interactive information on voting requirements, poll times, and summaries about ballot measures, candidates, policy positions, and endorsements. Users can ask questions about the information similar to using a chatbot like ChatGPT.

Perplexity's embrace of providing election information is an exception in the AI field. Wary about accidentally providing misinformation, competitor AI assistants from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic currently direct users elsewhere or decline to answer election questions. OpenAI's ChatGPT Search directs election result queries to The Associated Press and Reuters. Perplexity describes its new elections hub as "an entry point for understanding key issues." But like other AI models, Perplexity can produce confabulations (plausible incorrect information) when generating responses. That could present an accuracy problem because the site's Voter Guide service uses AI language models to summarize and interpret information pulled from the web.

Submission + - Nvidia To Join Dow Jones Industrial Average, Replacing Intel (cnbc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Nvidia is replacing rival chipmaker Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a shakeup to the blue-chip index that reflects the boom in artificial intelligence and a major shift in the semiconductor industry. Intel shares were down 1% in extended trading on Friday. Nvidia shares rose 1%. The switch will take place on Nov. 8. Also, Sherwin Williams will replace Dow Inc. in the index, S&P Dow Jones said in a statement (PDF).

With the addition of Nvidia, four of the six trillion-dollar tech companies are now in the index. The two not in the Dow are Alphabet and Meta. While Nvidia has been soaring, Intel has been slumping. Long the dominant maker of PC chips, Intel has lost market share to Advanced Micro Devices and has made very little headway in AI. Intel shares have fallen by more than half this year as the company struggles with manufacturing challenges and new competition for its central processors. Intel said in a filing this week that the board’s audit and finance committee approved cost and capital reduction activities, including lowering head count by 16,500 employees and reducing its real estate footprint. The job cuts were originally announced in August.

The Dow contains 30 components and is weighted by the share price of the individual stocks instead of total market value. Nvidia put itself in better position to join the index in May, when the company announced a 10-for-1 stock split. While doing nothing to its market cap, the move slashed the price of each share by 90%, allowing the company to become a part of the Dow without having too heavy a weighting. The switch is the first change to the index since February, when Amazon replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance. Over the years, the Dow has been playing catchup in gaining exposure to the largest technology companies. The stocks in the index are chosen by a committee from S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Submission + - Ghost Jobs Are Wreaking Havoc On Tech Workers (sfgate.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you’ve recently been laid off and have started the arduous process of looking for a new job, you’ve probably seen them on networking platforms like LinkedIn: postings for roles that are 30 days old, maybe more, with suspiciously wide salary ranges. They usually have hundreds, or even thousands, of hopeful applicants vying for the same position, but if you do a quick cross-check and notice that the role isn’t posted on the company’s actual website — or any of their social media pages — you should probably stop drafting that cover letter, because it’s possible they’re not hiring at all. “Ghost jobs,” or ads for positions that aren’t actually open, are a common phenomenon in the tech industry, which has been plagued by layoffs and budget cuts over recent years. As unemployed workers struggle to regain their footing, recruiters and career coaches who spoke with SFGATE warned that these fake jobs posted by real companies serve multiple, sometimes insidious purposes.

According to a 2024 survey from MyPerfectResume, 81% of recruiters admitted to posting ads for positions that were fake or already filled. While some respondents said employers did it to maintain a presence on job boards and build a talent pool, it’s also used to commit psychological warfare: 25% said ghost jobs helped companies gauge how replaceable their employees were, while 23% said it helped make the company appear more stable during a hiring freeze. Another damning 2024 report from Resume Builder said that 62% companies posted them specifically to make their employees feel replaceable. They also made ads to “trick overworked employees” into believing that more people would be brought on to alleviate their overwhelming workload.

After interviewing 1,641 hiring managers, Resume Builder researchers found that 40% of employers posted fake job listings in 2024, and that three in 10 currently had ghost jobs listed. The idea to post them mostly trickled down from HR, followed by senior management and executives, their June 2024 article continued. Though the listings were posted on multiple hiring platforms, the majority of them appeared on LinkedIn and the companies’ websites. Evidence suggests this trend is taking hold throughout the Bay Area, too. A collaborative document circulating online reveals a growing list of employers accused of posting ghost jobs. Many of them, it turns out, are tech companies with offices based in California.

Submission + - Over 500 Amazon Workers Decry 'Non-Data-Driven' Logic For 5-Day RTO Policy (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: More than 500 Amazon workers reportedly signed a letter to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) CEO this week, sharing their outrage over Amazon's upcoming return-to-office (RTO) policy that will force workers into offices five days per week. In September, Amazon announced that starting in 2025, workers will no longer be allowed to work remotely twice a week. At the time, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the move would make it easier for workers "to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture." Reuters reported today that it viewed a letter from a swath of workers sent to AWS chief Matt Garman on Wednesday regarding claims he reportedly made during an all-hands meeting this month. Garman reportedly told attendees that 9 out of 10 employees he spoke with support the five-day in-office work policy. The letter called the statements “inconsistent with the experiences of many employees” and “misrepresenting the realities of working at Amazon,” Reuters reported. "We were appalled to hear the non-data-driven explanation you gave for Amazon imposing a five-day in-office mandate,’” the letter reportedly stated. [...]

In the letter, hundreds of Amazon workers reportedly lamented what they believe was a lack of third-party data shared in making the RTO policy. It said that Garman’s statements “break the trust of your employees who have not only personal experience that shows the benefits of remote work but have seen the extensive data which supports that experience." The letter included stories from 12 anonymous employees about medical, familial, and other challenges that the new RTO policy could create. The letter also reportedly pointed out the obstacles that a five-day in-office work policy has on groups of protected workers, like those providing childcare. The new policy will not align with Amazon’s "'Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer' leadership principle,’” the letter said. In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters that Amazon’s benefits include commuter benefits, elder care, and subsidized parking fees.

Submission + - Russia fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Hope Thelps
Hope Thelps writes: The BBC is reporting that Russia has fined Google more money than the entire world's GDP:

A Russian court has fined Google two undecillion roubles — a two followed by 36 zeroes — for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.

In dollar terms that means the tech giant has been told to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Despite being one of the world's wealthiest companies, that is considerably more than the $2 trillion Google is worth.

In fact, it is far greater than the world’s total GDP, which is estimated by the International Monetary Fund to be $110 trillion.

The fine has reached such a gargantuan level because — as state news agency Tass has highlighted, external — it is rapidly increasing all the time.

According to Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted he "cannot even pronounce this number" but urged "Google management to pay attention."

The company has not commented publicly or responded to a BBC request for a statement.

Russia media outlet RBC reports, external the fine on Google relates to the restriction of content of 17 Russian media channels on YouTube.

While this started in 2020, it escalated after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years later.

That saw most Western companies pull out of Russia, with doing business there also tightly restricted by sanctions.

Russian media outlets were also banned in Europe — prompting retaliatory measures from Moscow.

Submission + - Researchers say AI transcription tool used in hospitals invents things (apnews.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Tech behemoth OpenAI has touted its artificial intelligence-powered transcription tool Whisper as having near “human level robustness and accuracy.”

But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to making up chunks of text or even entire sentences, according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers. Those experts said some of the invented text — known in the industry as hallucinations — can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.

Experts said that such fabrications are problematic because Whisper is being used in a slew of industries worldwide to translate and transcribe interviews, generate text in popular consumer technologies and create subtitles for videos.

It’s impossible to compare Nabla’s AI-generated transcript to the original recording because Nabla’s tool erases the original audio for “data safety reasons,” Raison said.

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