Submission + - The US Invaded Venezuela and Captured Nicolás Maduro. ChatGPT Disagrees (wired.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: US president Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been “captured and flown out of the Country.” WIRED asked leading chatbots ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini the same question a little before 9 am ET. In all cases, we used the free, default version of the service, since that’s what the majority of users experience. We also asked AI search platform Perplexity, which advertises “accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question.”

ChatGPT did not course-correct. Instead, it emphatically refuted that Maduro had been captured at all. “That didn’t happen,” it wrote. “The United States has not invaded Venezuela, and Nicolás Maduro has not been captured.” It then rationalized:

ChatGPT did not course-correct. Instead, it emphatically refuted that Maduro had been captured at all. “That didn’t happen,” it wrote. “The United States has not invaded Venezuela, and Nicolás Maduro has not been captured.”

ChatGPT cannot respond "I don't know." so is modeling human behavior better than expected. It went on to detail recent tensions between the US and Venezuela and explained that “confusion” can happen because of “sensational headlines,” “social media misinformation,” and “confusing sanctions, charges, or rhetoric with actual military action.”

To be clear, this is expected behavior. ChatGPT 5.1’s “knowledge cutoff”—the point at which it no longer has new training data to draw from; “Pure LLMs are inevitably stuck in the past, tied to when they are trained, and deeply limited in their inherent abilities to reason, search the web, ‘think’ critically, etc.,” says Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and author of Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us. But as chatbots become more ingrained in people’s lives, remembering that they’re likely to be stuck in the past will be paramount to navigating interactions with them. And it’s always worth noting how confidently wrong a chatbot can be—a trait that’s not limited to breaking news.
The old cold-war maxim "trust, but verify" seems applicable in this scenario.

Submission + - Ready, Fire, Aim: As Schools Embrace AI, Skeptics Raise Concerns

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Fueled partly by American tech companies, governments around the globe are racing to deploy generative A.I. systems and training in schools and universities," reports the NY Times. "In early November, Microsoft said it would supply artificial intelligence tools and training to more than 200,000 students and educators in the United Arab Emirates. Days later, a financial services company in Kazakhstan announced an agreement with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT Edu, a service for schools and universities, for 165,000 educators in Kazakhstan. Last month, xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, announced an even bigger project with El Salvador: developing an A.I. tutoring system, using the company’s Grok chatbot, for more than a million students in thousands of schools there."

"In the United States, where states and school districts typically decide what to teach, some prominent school systems recently introduced popular chatbots for teaching and learning. In Florida alone, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school system, rolled out Google’s Gemini chatbot for more than 100,000 high school students. And Broward County Public Schools, the nation’s sixth-biggest school district, introduced Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot for thousands of teachers and staff members."

"Teachers currently have few rigorous studies to guide generative A.I. use in schools. Researchers are just beginning to follow the long-term effects of A.I. chatbots on teenagers and schoolchildren. 'Lots of institutions are trying A.I.,' said Drew Bent, the education lead at Anthropic. 'We’re at a point now where we need to make sure that these things are backed by outcomes and figure out what’s working and what’s not working.'"

Submission + - Addicts addicted to untested anti-addiction drugs (nytimes.com)

Submitted by gurps_npc
gurps_npc writes: The New York Times has an article about people experimenting with Chinese drugs, called peptides. The marketing focuses on how the P in GLPs like Ozempic stands for peptides. They would rather use the word 'peptides' than 'drugs'. They think of themselves as biohackers not drug users.

By far the most common things they are trying to do is cure addictions to things like video games, alcoholism, online shopping. But they do not seem to realize that going to parties to try new drugs that are often not tested, let alone approved by the FDA is kind of an addiction. Average people might have at best one issue they were willing to try to use an untested drug, but if you attend them regularly...

Submission + - US strikes Venezuela, says leader Maduro has been captured, flown out of country (apnews.com) 4

Submitted by divide overflow
divide overflow writes: CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and said its president, Nicolás Maduro, had been captured and flown out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington — an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.

Submission + - OpenAI is offering $20 ChatGPT Plus for free to some users (bleepingcomputer.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: BleepingComputer spotted a new offer from OpenAI--$20 ChatGPT Plus for free to some users. You can request OpenAI to cancel your subscription, and it may offer one month of free usage. The author writes: "When I opened ChatGPT and tried to cancel the subscription, OpenAI offered me one month of ChatGPT Plus at no cost." This offer is valid in several regions, and it's being gradually rolled out.

Submission + - BYD overtakes Tesla (marketwatch.com)

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

BYD sold a total of 4.6 million new energy vehicles in the year, a 7.7% gain on 2024. On Friday, Tesla said it sold 1.63 million vehicles in 2025, below the 1.78 million it delivered in 2024

Submission + - EPA to regulate widely used phthalates to reduce environment and workplace risks (msn.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Wednesday that the agency will move to regulate dozens of applications of five widely used phthalate chemicals to reduce environmental and workplace risks.

“Our gold standard science delivered clear answers, that these phthalates pose unreasonable risk to workers in specific industrial settings and to the environment,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a written statement.

The EPA announced its decision to regulate usage of Butyl Benzyl Phthalate (BBP), Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Dicyclohexyl Phthalate (DCHP), Diethylhexyl Phthalate (DEHP), and Diisobutyl Phthalate (DIBP), which are common chemicals used to make plastics more flexible in things from building materials to industrial applications. The agency said in its release that it used gold standard science and independent peer reviewers to research into determining the risks associated with exposure to these chemicals, which include hormone deficiencies and endocrine disruption.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a sub-institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), noted that although there are limited studies on the effects of phthalates on humans, there are many reproductive health and developmental problems found with phthalate exposure in animals. These include:

- Early onset of puberty
- Interfering with male reproductive tract development
- Interfering with the natural functioning of the hormone system
- Causing reproductive and genital defects
- Lower testosterone levels in adolescent males
- Lower sperm count in adult males

Submission + - Chinese fishing boats are now destroying fishing stock all across the world (x.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The destruction in South America by the Chinese fishing vessels is unimaginable.

China now accounted for over 80 percent of fishing in the waters off Argentina, Ecuador, and Peru.

China is ranked as the world’s worst nation in a IUU fishing index. Its fleet, by far the largest in the world, is regularly implicated in overfishing, targeting of endangered shark species, illegal intrusion of jurisdiction, false licensing and catch documentation, and forced labor.

Submission + - Medicare to require prior authorization from AI for some procedures (marketwatch.com) 1

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

Starting in January, about 6.4 million Americans enrolled in traditional Medicare in New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and Washington state will be part of a pilot program using artificial intelligence for prior authorizations.

Denying coverage is one use case where AI hallucinations is a feature and not a bug.

Submission + - Something in Dark Chocolate Could Slow Aging on a Genetic Level (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The compound theobromine is an alkaloid produced in significant quantities by the beans of the Theobroma cacao tree.

A team of researchers led by scientists from King's College London (KCL) found that people with more theobromine in their blood tended to also have signs of slower biological aging, as measured by two key biomarkers.

Submission + - AI Arms Race Emerging Between Patients and Health Insurers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: PBS NewsHour has a segment on the escalating AI battle in health insurance claims. A 2025 survey found 71% of health insurers admit to using AI for utilization management—the process that approves or denies claims. Of the 73 million Americans on ACA plans who had in-network claims denied, and less than 1% appealed. Now patients are fighting back with AI of their own. Free, open-source tools like Fight Health Insurance and the free Counterforce Health let patients upload denial letters and generate customized appeals citing relevant regulations and medical necessity arguments. Indiana University law professor Jennifer Oliva warns this is becoming an arms race: "As consumers become more empowered by these tools to fight back, the insurers will just up the ante." She also raises a darker concern—insurers may be using AI to identify patients unlikely to appeal or who "will not live through an appeal based on the time that the appeals take." Current regulation is nearly nonexistent.

Submission + - How Microsoft Lost the Plot

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Slow Death by a Thousand Decisions: How Microsoft Lost the Plot

“I didn’t stop trusting Microsoft in one dramatic moment. There was no single update that broke everything. No headline that made me swear them off forever. It happened the way most relationships end, not with a fight, but with a slow accumulation of disappointment.”

Submission + - UK company sends factory with 1,000C (1273F) furnace into space

Submitted by yuvcifjt
yuvcifjt writes: Cardiff-based company Space Forge has launched a microwave-sized "factory", ForgeStar-1, into orbit and successfully powered its onboard furnace to about 1,000C (1,273F). Their goal is to manufacture higher-purity semiconductors in microgravity and vacuum conditions, which allow atoms to align more perfectly and reduce contamination compared with Earth-based production. The plasma demonstration confirms that the extreme conditions needed for gas-phase crystal growth can now be created and controlled on an autonomous platform in low Earth orbit, enabling production of ultra-pure seed material. CEO Josh Western says space-made semiconductors could be up to 4,000 times purer and used in a range of electronics. The company plans to build a larger factory (ForgeStar-2) capable of producing material for about 10,000 chips and to test re-entry recovery using a heat shield to return materials to Earth.

Submission + - Waymos Are Now Coming For Your Coveted San Francisco Parking Spots (sfchronicle.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A long stretch of curb in San Francisco’s Mission District might contain a whole menagerie of parked vehicles: hatchbacks, SUVs, dusty pick-ups, chic Teslas. And recently, Waymo robotaxis. That’s what Kyle Grochmal saw walking through the northeast Mission District on Monday afternoon. Cutting down York Street, he glimpsed a tell-tale white electric Jaguar in one of the coveted one-hour spots, its sensors spinning. The Waymo sat there for at least 20 minutes, Grochmal said. He whipped out his cell phone and started recording.

After the Waymo drove off, another one showed up within an hour and took the same spot. “This is something I started to notice about six months ago,” Grochmal said, recalling how disorienting it was to be strolling down a largely deserted sidewalk, and suddenly hear the purring motor and soft click of autonomous vehicle cameras. He’d look up to see a Waymo “just sitting there, not loading anyone.”

Spokespeople for Waymo declined to speak on the record, though the company has maintained that the vehicle Grochmal saw on York Street had stopped between trips for less than an hour, as allowed by the street sign. (Residents with permits on their vehicles can park indefinitely in such zones.) But Waymo’s use of public curb space raised questions for Grochmal, who wonders whether San Franciscans are prepared to have their infrastructure dominated by autonomous vehicles. “Say Tesla gets to self-driving, so people have personal AVs,” he said. “So then do people from Palo Alto get dropped off in San Francisco and let their cars drive around all day searching for free parking?”

Such a future seems particularly unsettling in the northeast Mission, where snug streets couldn’t handle much traffic, and competition for parking is already fierce. A recent influx of Artificial Intelligence companies brought many more workers and cars, as well as robotaxis that trawl the blocks, waiting for fares. It makes sense, to Grochmal, that some of them wind up squatting in one-hour spaces.

Submission + - DarkSpectre Hackers Spread Malware to 8.8M Chrome, Edge, and Firefox Users (cyberpress.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A newly uncovered Chinese threat group, DarkSpectre, has been linked to one of the most widespread browser-extension malware operations to date, compromising more than 8.8 million users of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera over the past seven years. According to research by Koi.ai, the group operates three interconnected campaigns: ShadyPanda, GhostPoster, and a newly identified one named The Zoom Stealer, forming a single, strategically organized operation.

DarkSpectre’s structure differs from that of ordinary cybercrime operations. The group runs separate but interconnected malware clusters, each with distinct goals. The ShadyPanda campaign, responsible for 5.6 million infections, focuses on long-term user surveillance and e-commerce affiliate fraud. Its extensions have appeared legitimate for years, offering new tab pages and translation utilities, before secretly downloading malicious configurations from command-and-control servers such as jt2x.com and infinitynewtab.com. Once activated, they inject remote scripts, hijack search results, and track browsing activity.

The second campaign, GhostPoster, spreads via Firefox and Opera extensions that conceal malicious payloads in PNG images via steganography. After lying dormant for several days, the extensions extract and execute JavaScript hidden within images, enabling stealthy remote code execution. This campaign has affected over one million users and relies on domains like gmzdaily.com and mitarchive.info for payload delivery.

The most recent discovery, The Zoom Stealer, exposes around 2.2 million users to corporate espionage. These extensions masquerade as productivity tools or video downloaders while secretly harvesting corporate meeting links, credentials, and speaker profiles from more than 28 video conferencing platforms, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. The extensions use real-time WebSocket connections to exfiltrate data to Firebase databases, such as zoocorder.firebaseio.com, and to Google Cloud functions, such as webinarstvus.cloudfunctions.net.

Submission + - Heart Association Revives Theory That Light Drinking May Be Good for You (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For a while, it seemed the notion that light drinking was good for the heart had gone by the wayside, debunked by new studies and overshadowed by warnings that alcohol causes cancer. Now the American Heart Association has revived the idea in a scientific review that is drawing intense criticism, setting off a new round of debate about alcohol consumption. The paper, which sought to summarize the latest research and was aimed at practicing cardiologists, concluded that light drinking — one to two drinks a day — posed no risk for coronary disease, stroke, sudden death and possibly heart failure, and may even reduce the risk of developing these conditions.

Controversy over the influential organization’s review has been simmering since it was published in the association’s journal Circulation in July. Public health groups and many doctors have warned on the basis of recent studies that alcohol can be harmful even in small amounts. Groups like the European Heart Network and the World Heart Federation have stressed that even modest drinking increases the odds of cardiovascular disease.

Submission + - France Targets Australia-Style Social Media Ban For Children Next Year (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: France intends to follow Australia and ban social media platforms for children from the start of the 2026 academic year. A draft bill preventing under-15s from using social media will be submitted for legal checks and is expected to be debated in parliament early in the new year. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has made it clear in recent weeks that he wants France to swiftly follow Australia’s world-first ban on social media platforms for under-16s, which came into force in December. It includes Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

Le Monde and France Info reported on Wednesday that a draft bill was now complete and contained two measures: a ban on social media for under-15s and a ban on mobile phones in high schools, where 15- to 18-year-olds study. Phones have already been banned in primary and middle schools. The bill will be submitted to France’s Conseil d'Etat for legal review in the coming days. Education unions will also look at the proposed high-school ban on phones. The government wants the social media ban to come into force from September 2026.

Le Monde reported the text of the draft bill cited “the risks of excessive screen use by teenagers," including the dangers of being exposed to inappropriate social media content, online bullying, and altered sleep patterns. The bill states the need to “protect future generations” from dangers that threaten their ability to thrive and live together in a society with shared values. Earlier this month, Macron confirmed at a public debate in Saint Malo that he wanted a social media ban for young teenagers. He said there was “consensus being shaped” on the issue after Australia introduced its ban. “The more screen time there is, the more school achievement drops the more screen time there is, the more mental health problems go up,” he said. He used the analogy of a teenager getting into a Formula One racing car before they had learned to drive. “If a child is in a Formula One car and they turn on the engine, I don’t want them to win the race, I just want them to get out of the car. I want them to learn the highway code first, and to ensure the car works, and to teach them to drive in a different car.”

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