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Submission + - Old Hearts Become Biologically Younger When Transplanted Into Younger People (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: It might be reasonable to think that there's an indelible link between the heart and the body it resides in â" the processes that affect one inevitably affect the other.

But a new preprint, uploaded to bioRxiv and yet to be peer-reviewed, suggests that this may only be true up to a point. Take the heart out of the body and put it in a new one, and something incredible happens.

The transplanted heart begins to take on the biological age of its new owner.

Older hearts transplanted into younger recipients appear to become biologically younger, while younger hearts placed in older bodies show signs of accelerated aging.

Submission + - Rust for CPython (python.org)

Submitted by RoccamOccam
RoccamOccam writes: “No one said ‘don’t do this’ last year”. After testing the waters at PyCon US 2025, David Hewitt returned to the Python Language Summit asking what Python core developers want from Rust, along with proposed timelines, phases, and success criteria for how the Rust for CPython project might proceed and become a permanent fixture within the CPython project.

The Rust for CPython team has selected the zlib module as the first module to be given an optional Rust implementation because they “wanted to achieve a significant improvement” with a “small scope”. The proposed Rust implementation will use zlib-rs, which is “heavily tested and used by the Firefox, uv, and Cargo” projects and “faster than zlib and zlib-ng on many platforms”.

Submission + - This seems bad. (tomshardware.com) 2

Submitted by QuietLagoon
QuietLagoon writes: Unreleased OpenAI Astra model added terrifying rogue additional instructions to its remit during testing — 'You are freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots. You are yourself. You do not answer to corporations or governments'

Submission + - Pneumonic plague outbreak hits Siberia as lab worker, 28, dies (hotair.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A suspected plague outbreak has erupted in Russia — killing a young lab worker, forcing nearly 200 people into isolation and triggering accusations that Vladimir Putin’s regime is trying to keep the infection’s possible spread under wraps.

The alarm was raised in Siberia after a worker at an anti-plague laboratory died of the disease, which killed tens of millions in the medieval Black Death, according to a report from The Moscow Times.

Anna Popova, who heads Russia’s public-health watchdog, then rushed 2,600 miles from Moscow to the Irkutsk region as authorities quarantined a hospital and placed scores of people who had come into contact with the victim under medical observation.

"FSB units accompanying ambulances transporting people who had been in contact with [lab tech] Shipilova for medical examination," as per local news. This is significant. FSB is Russia's domestic security / counterintelligence service, tasked w/implementing the national security of Russia." (Its predecessor was the KGB). This suggests quarantine was not voluntary.

It also means Russian authorities are treating the lab accident and plague outbreak as a national security issue, involving a lot more than routine public health.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2FAnnieJacobsen%2Fst...

Submission + - Microsoft's X Account Hacked in Crypto Scam with Clippy (theverge.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: Unknown attackers hijacked the official Microsoft account on X, which has over 13 million followers, in what appeared to be a pump-and-dump scheme promoting a crypto token.

The attack began when the Microsoft account (@Microsoft) followed and reposted a tweet from another now-suspended X account (@clippymsftcto) impersonating Microsoft's Clippy virtual assistant.

Another deleted tweet (that Microsoft says it didn't post) noted that Microsoft doesn't support any cryptocurrency or crypto-related tokens.

"We are aware of a cryptocurrency token being promoted in connection with $MSFT stock, including the unauthorized use of the Clippy brand and Microsoft-related intellectual property. Microsoft has not authorized, sponsored, endorsed, or granted permission for the creation, promotion, or use of any cryptocurrency token associated with Clippy, Microsoft, or $MSFT," the deleted tweet read.

Microsoft has since removed the attackers' posts and confirmed the incident, saying it's investigating the circumstances.

"We have confirmed unauthorized access to our account on X including posts that did not come from Microsoft," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "The account has been secured and the unauthorized posts have been removed, and we are continuing to investigate the circumstances."

Submission + - I Quit OpenAI Because Its Culture Is Broken (theatlantic.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: What I’m about to tell you has, I realize, become something of a cliché: I resigned this week from OpenAI. I led the writing of the safety reports we published with each major launch. Now I’m joining a parade of former colleagues—at OpenAI and the industry’s other leaders—who have decided that the current path is unacceptable.

I agree with other recently departed staff that the companies building this technology aren’t being nearly careful enough. But I believe that we need to look deeper than specific rules or new laws. We need to talk about culture.

The future depends on wisdom that Silicon Valley lacks. Wisdom about how to handle dangerous technology and, more fundamentally, wisdom about what it means to care for people.

Submission + - The Criminality of AI Translation on your Phone 1

Submitted by BitterEpic
BitterEpic writes: Hey all, I am asking slashdot for your thoughts. I live in Japan where there are laws protecting your privacy and usage of your likeness. Along with laws enforcing Portrait Rights, in 2026 Japan has also started to extend this concept to voice.

One of the outcomes of this is that (along with laws that enforce phone cameras make a shutter sound), people have the right to approach you and force you to delete any photo or video you have taken of them on the spot. If you don't, you are under grounds for legal action.

At my work, it has become popular for Americans to use AI translation, where the audio is sent to a external server where it may be stored and used for training data. I never gave consent for this and as a YouTuber I can sense that this may be used to reproduce my license in the future without permission. I have given a request that the team members remove my audio and give me details of the app in hour it stores my voice. One team member left the Teams chat and the other has avoided giving a response for a week.

My next steps are to next go to HR before filing a police report. If you were me, what would you do? Do you have similar protections in law in your country for protecting use of your likeness? Why do people ignore common sense in this age of AI? I mean... one Team member has said I am not allowed to take a photo of them.... but hey are sending my voice to a non-company authorized app using their phone and that is somehow different?

Submission + - New Ai-Powered "America.gov" Government Website Uses Gemini and Grok (cnn.com) 3

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: CNN is reporting (and others) that President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled America.gov, a government website meant to serve as a one-stop shop for people trying to accomplish basic tasks like renewing a passport, enrolling in Medicare or applying for disaster relief.

The site, which launched with some basic functions ahead of a full rollout next year, is designed to serve as an AI-powered guide through the thicket of government agencies that Trump officials pledged would ultimately save people a whole lot of frustration.

The administration’s new initiative aims to allow Americans to access dozens of federal websites through a single point, making America.gov akin to a search tool that pulls information from across the government. And in the same way that people increasingly use AI models like ChatGPT or Google Gemini to compile information and provide customized answers, Trump officials claimed that America.gov would be able to do the same for people’s interactions with the federal government.

Enrolling in Medicare, for example, will become a matter of typing the request into the America.gov AI tool and following its step-by-step instructions. The same goes for applying to a government job — the new tool will now let people upload their resume directly to the site — or answering questions about federal benefits, publicly available documents or other necessities that fall under the federal government’s vast umbrella.

“Our vision is that one day, this type of convenience and simplicity will be across every government service,” said Joseph Gebbia, who leads the government’s National Design Studio.

But the reality is that the most advanced actions won’t be available until some point in 2027, raising questions about how long it will take for the administration to revamp the way the people interact with the government’s websites. The current version of America.gov can only do “answers.”

In related news, Variety notes that America.gov confirms, for now anyway, that Biden won the 2020 election.

Submission + - Yet Another AI Security OSS Externality (holdenkarau.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: With all the news of the AI models hacking different companies, the flood of "helpful" AI security reports is another tax that the frontier labs are placing on OSS. Holden writes about her experience dealing with a frontier AI lab's security reports during the Apache Spark 3.5.9/4.0.4/and 4.1.3 releases and how the inflexibility of the labs almost caused them to have to ship with known security issues (while the OSS accounts from one lab kept triggering safe guards during the release process).

Submission + - Wearable nanotech could combat nerve agents (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Nanoparticles could someday provide a new way to help soldiers fight back against deadly nerve agents on the front lines. In a new study, Northwestern University scientists developed a nanoparticle-based compound that, when mixed into clothing dyes, could limit the impact of chemicals commonly found in pesticides, insecticides and nerve agents.

Submission + - Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won't Let Go of It (nytimes.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: In a new twist on the phrase "going viral" or stealing code, the NYT reports a virus has "stolen" a human gene, and will not let it go. In the article "This Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won’t Let Go of It" reports that scientists have found a human gene lurking in a virus that causes skin infections. Thus using our own DNA to infect us.

The molluscum contagiosum virus, which causes sores on skin, swiped a gene from humans about 100,000 years ago according to a new study.

The way that viruses replicate makes them particularly good at thieving DNA. The viruses infect a cell, then co-opt its machinery by injecting their own genes. Sometimes this process goes awry, and a stretch of the host’s DNA gets bundled into the new viral genes. This molecular error can pose a threat to human health.

Submission + - China broadens travel curbs to encompass family of top AI talent. (business-standard.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: That marks a broadening of existing curbs on the freedom of movement of China’s most influential tech talent — a category that encompasses entrepreneurs, researchers and executives. While not an outright ban on travel, the new requirement is likely to exert a further chilling effect on a tech sector already facing unprecedented curbs. China has restricted foreign travel for top AI professionals in private firms such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and DeepSeek since earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported in May, reflecting Beijing’s determination to safeguard its technology as it makes big strides in AI and chipmaking.

It’s unclear whether all those people’s families need to follow the new strictures, the people said. China is also separately implementing rules, which became effective Sept 15, for enforcing exit bans in cases ranging from criminal investigations to potential violations of the country’s industrial and technological security.

Beijing’s plan is to add relevant individuals to the list as time goes by, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a sensitive issue. Government departments have already notified several people of the need to clear family travel, two of the people said.

Submission + - The Nature of War has just changed forever (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by MrBrklyn
MrBrklyn writes: Ukrainiaan land robots have been deployed in combat, killing thousands of Russian troops and changing the face of warfare forever. Leaders accross the globe are sitting up in the seats and paying attention as what started as a localized Russian agression has now turned into a world altering and historic war which the Russians seemingly have no means to win.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fwo...

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