Comment at the risk of No true Scotsman (Score 1) 59
actual Republicans are extinct.
Audible Is Giving Publishers AI Tools To Quickly Make More Audiobooks (theverge.com)
Amazon's Audible is expanding its audiobook offerings by giving select publishers access to its AI-powered production tools that will let them more easily convert books into audiobooks with over 100 customizable AI voices to choose from. It will also launch an AI translation tool in beta later this year to help publishers translate and localize audiobooks into multiple languages, with both automated and human-assisted options. The Verge reports: Audible says its new AI narration technology leverages Amazon's advanced AI capabilities and will be made available to interested publishing partners in the coming months in one of two ways. For publishers wanting to be hands-off, an end-to-end service managed by Audible handles the "entire audiobook production process" right up to publication, while a self-service option will give publishers access to the same tools so they can independently direct the entire production process.
With both options, publishers are able to "choose from a quickly growing and improving selection of more than 100 AI-generated voices across English, Spanish, French, and Italian with multiple accent and dialect options, and will be able to access voice upgrades for their titles as our technology evolves," according to Amazon. [...] Publishers will also be able to review translations themselves or opt for a human review through Audible with a professional linguist.
With both options, publishers are able to "choose from a quickly growing and improving selection of more than 100 AI-generated voices across English, Spanish, French, and Italian with multiple accent and dialect options, and will be able to access voice upgrades for their titles as our technology evolves," according to Amazon. [...] Publishers will also be able to review translations themselves or opt for a human review through Audible with a professional linguist.
Submission + - FCC Threatens EchoStar Licenses For Spectrum That's 'Ripe For Sharing' (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has threatened to revoke EchoStar licenses for radio frequency bands coveted by rival firms including SpaceX, which alleges that EchoStar is underutilizing the spectrum. "I have directed agency staff to begin a review of EchoStar's compliance with its federal obligations to provide 5G service throughout the United States per the terms of its federal spectrum licenses," Carr wrote in a May 9 letter to EchoStar Chairman Charles Ergen. EchoStar and its affiliates "hold a large number of FCC spectrum licenses that cover a significant amount of spectrum," the letter said.
Ergen defended his company's wireless deployment but informed investors that EchoStar "cannot predict with any degree of certainty the outcome" of the FCC proceedings. The letter from Carr and Ergen's statement is included in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted by EchoStar today. EchoStar's stock price was down about 8 percent in trading today. EchoStar bought Dish Network in December 2023 and offers wireless service under the Boost Mobile brand. As The Wall Street Journal notes, the firm "has spent years wiring thousands of cellphone towers to help Boost become a wireless operator that could rival AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, but the project has been slow-going. Boost's subscriber base has shrunk in the five years since Ergen bought the brand from Sprint." [...]
EchoStar will have to prove its case in the two FCC proceedings. The FCC set a May 27 deadline for the first round of comments in both proceedings and a June 6 deadline for reply comments. The proceedings could result in the FCC letting other companies use the spectrum and other remedies. "In particular, we seek information on whether EchoStar is utilizing the 2 GHz band for MSS consistent with the terms of its authorizations and the Commission's rules and policies governing the expectation of robust MSS," the SpaceBureau's call for comments said. "We also seek comment on steps the Commission might take to make more intensive use of the 2 GHz band, including but not limited to allowing new MSS entrants in the band."
Ergen defended his company's wireless deployment but informed investors that EchoStar "cannot predict with any degree of certainty the outcome" of the FCC proceedings. The letter from Carr and Ergen's statement is included in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing submitted by EchoStar today. EchoStar's stock price was down about 8 percent in trading today. EchoStar bought Dish Network in December 2023 and offers wireless service under the Boost Mobile brand. As The Wall Street Journal notes, the firm "has spent years wiring thousands of cellphone towers to help Boost become a wireless operator that could rival AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, but the project has been slow-going. Boost's subscriber base has shrunk in the five years since Ergen bought the brand from Sprint." [...]
EchoStar will have to prove its case in the two FCC proceedings. The FCC set a May 27 deadline for the first round of comments in both proceedings and a June 6 deadline for reply comments. The proceedings could result in the FCC letting other companies use the spectrum and other remedies. "In particular, we seek information on whether EchoStar is utilizing the 2 GHz band for MSS consistent with the terms of its authorizations and the Commission's rules and policies governing the expectation of robust MSS," the SpaceBureau's call for comments said. "We also seek comment on steps the Commission might take to make more intensive use of the 2 GHz band, including but not limited to allowing new MSS entrants in the band."
Comment Re:and imagine (Score 1) 70
I got a reproduction Model F (F77 Model F Keyboard from modelfkeyboards.com) and it's great. I think it is a tiny bit better than my original Model M or the Unicomp, but it was rather expensive and it is dangerously heavy.
Student's Robot Obliterates 4x4 Rubik's Cube World Record (bbc.com) 9
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: A student's robot has beaten the world record for solving a four-by-four Rubik's cube -- by 33 seconds. Matthew Pidden, a 22-year-old University of Bristol student, built and trained the "Revenger" over 15 weeks for his computer science bachelor's degree. The robot solved the cube in 45.305 seconds, obliterating the world record of 1 minute 18 seconds. However, the human record for solving the cube is 15.71 seconds.
Mr Pidden's robot uses dual webcams to scan the cube, a custom mechanism to manipulate the faces, and a fully self-built solving algorithm to generate efficient solutions. The student now plans to study for a master's degree in robotics at Imperial College London.
Mr Pidden's robot uses dual webcams to scan the cube, a custom mechanism to manipulate the faces, and a fully self-built solving algorithm to generate efficient solutions. The student now plans to study for a master's degree in robotics at Imperial College London.
Comment corporate layoff stories (Score 1) 54
It's interesting that Slashdot posts this mention of Microsoft firing this small fraction of staff, but there was never coverage of Twitter firing more than 50% of its staff.
Comment Re:The way this is worded: (Score 1) 59
Wow. The broligarchy are really getting what they paid for here.
Can't wait to see what the foreign ones get. For example, a $400M (before the palace upgrades) Boeing 747 is a lot of cheddar on the plate - I mean tarmac.
Comment Re:The party of small government (Score 1) 59
States rights be damned.
And how would this regulation help constituents -- the not-billionaire ones who don't own AI companies?
Comment Re: The party of small government (Score 1) 59
It's easy to regulate AI art the state level.
"Any job offer for a job based in California must adhere to the following AI disclosure".
"Any mortgage offered in a Californian property must satisfy the following AI disclosure"
etc.
AI regulation need not be about regulating AI innovation; it's enough merely to make sure it's applied fairly. And almost all real-world applications are indeed local.
Google Wants To Make Stolen Android Phones Basically Unsellable (androidauthority.com) 13
Google is enhancing Android's Factory Reset Protection (FRP) to make stolen phones virtually unusable by detecting setup wizard bypasses and requiring a second factory reset until ownership is verified. Android Authority reports: You can factory reset an Android phone in several ways. However, triggering a reset through the Android recovery menu or Google's Find My Device service activates Factory Reset Protection (FRP). During setup after such a reset, the wizard requires you to verify ownership by either signing into the previously associated Google account or entering the device's former lock screen PIN, password, or pattern. Failing this verification step blocks setup completion, rendering the device unusable. [...]
Factory Reset Protection (FRP) is a valuable feature that discourages theft by rendering stolen Android phones useless to potential buyers if wiped improperly. However, FRP isn't foolproof; thieves have discovered numerous methods over the years to circumvent it. These bypasses typically involve skipping the setup wizard, allowing someone to use the phone without entering the previous owner's Google account details or screen lock.
During The Android Show: I/O Edition, Google announced plans to "further harden Factory Reset protections, which will restrict all functionalities on devices that are reset without the owner's authorization." While the company didn't elaborate much, a screenshot it shared suggests that Android will likely detect if someone bypasses the setup wizard and then force another factory reset, preventing unauthorized use until the user proves ownership. [...] Google stated this FRP improvement is coming "later this year." Since the stable Android 16 release is coming soon, this timeline suggests the feature won't be part of the initial launch. It might arrive later in one of Android 16's Quarterly Platform Releases (QPRs), but that remains to be seen.
Factory Reset Protection (FRP) is a valuable feature that discourages theft by rendering stolen Android phones useless to potential buyers if wiped improperly. However, FRP isn't foolproof; thieves have discovered numerous methods over the years to circumvent it. These bypasses typically involve skipping the setup wizard, allowing someone to use the phone without entering the previous owner's Google account details or screen lock.
During The Android Show: I/O Edition, Google announced plans to "further harden Factory Reset protections, which will restrict all functionalities on devices that are reset without the owner's authorization." While the company didn't elaborate much, a screenshot it shared suggests that Android will likely detect if someone bypasses the setup wizard and then force another factory reset, preventing unauthorized use until the user proves ownership. [...] Google stated this FRP improvement is coming "later this year." Since the stable Android 16 release is coming soon, this timeline suggests the feature won't be part of the initial launch. It might arrive later in one of Android 16's Quarterly Platform Releases (QPRs), but that remains to be seen.
Nextcloud Cries Foul Over Google Play Store App Rejection (theregister.com) 29
Nextcloud has accused Google of sabotaging its Android Files app by revoking the "All files access" permission, which the company says
cripples functionality for its 824,000 users and forces reliance on limited alternatives like SAF and MediaStore. The Register reports: Nextcloud's Android Files app is a file synchronization tool that, according to the company, has long had permission to read and write all file types. "Nextcloud has had this feature since its inception in 2016," it said, "and we never heard about any security concerns from Google about it." That changed in 2024, when someone or something at Google's Play Store decided to revoke the permission, effectively crippling the application. Nextcloud was instructed to use "a more privacy-aware replacement." According to Nextcloud, "SAF cannot be used, as it is for sharing/exposing our files to other apps ... MediaStore API cannot be used as it does not allow access to other files, but only media files."
Attempts to raise the issue with Google resulted in little more than copy-and-pasted sections of the developer guide. "Despite multiple appeals from our side and sharing additional background, Google is not considering reinstating upload for all files," Nextcloud said. The issue seems to stem from the Play Store. While a fully functional version is available on F-Droid, the Play Store edition is subject to Google's imposed limitations. Regarding the All files access permission, Google's developer documentation states: "If you target Android 11 and declare All files access, it can affect your ability to publish and update your app on Google Play."
Nextcloud is clearly aggrieved by the change, as are its users. "This might look like a small technical detail but it is clearly part of a pattern of actions to fight the competition," it said. "What we are experiencing is a piece of the script from the big tech playbook." [...] Are there nefarious actors at play here, an automated process that auto-rejects apps with elevated access requirements, or is it just simple incompetence? "Either way," Nextcloud said, "it results in companies like ours just giving up, reducing functionality just to avoid getting kicked out of their app store."
"The issue is that small companies -- like ours -- have pretty much no recourse," it added. Nextcloud went on to criticize oversight processes as slow-moving, with fines that sound hefty but amount to little more than a slap on the wrist. "Big Tech is scared that small players like Nextcloud will disrupt them, like they once disrupted other companies. So they try to shut the door."
Attempts to raise the issue with Google resulted in little more than copy-and-pasted sections of the developer guide. "Despite multiple appeals from our side and sharing additional background, Google is not considering reinstating upload for all files," Nextcloud said. The issue seems to stem from the Play Store. While a fully functional version is available on F-Droid, the Play Store edition is subject to Google's imposed limitations. Regarding the All files access permission, Google's developer documentation states: "If you target Android 11 and declare All files access, it can affect your ability to publish and update your app on Google Play."
Nextcloud is clearly aggrieved by the change, as are its users. "This might look like a small technical detail but it is clearly part of a pattern of actions to fight the competition," it said. "What we are experiencing is a piece of the script from the big tech playbook." [...] Are there nefarious actors at play here, an automated process that auto-rejects apps with elevated access requirements, or is it just simple incompetence? "Either way," Nextcloud said, "it results in companies like ours just giving up, reducing functionality just to avoid getting kicked out of their app store."
"The issue is that small companies -- like ours -- have pretty much no recourse," it added. Nextcloud went on to criticize oversight processes as slow-moving, with fines that sound hefty but amount to little more than a slap on the wrist. "Big Tech is scared that small players like Nextcloud will disrupt them, like they once disrupted other companies. So they try to shut the door."
Submission + - Student's Robot Obliterates 4x4 Rubik's Cube World Record (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A student's robot has beaten the world record for solving a four-by-four Rubik's cube – by 33 seconds. Matthew Pidden, a 22-year-old University of Bristol student, built and trained the "Revenger" over 15 weeks for his computer science bachelor's degree. The robot solved the cube in 45.305 seconds, obliterating the world record of 1 minute 18 seconds. However, the human record for solving the cube is 15.71 seconds.
Mr Pidden's robot uses dual webcams to scan the cube, a custom mechanism to manipulate the faces, and a fully self-built solving algorithm to generate efficient solutions. The student now plans to study for a master's degree in robotics at Imperial College London.
Mr Pidden's robot uses dual webcams to scan the cube, a custom mechanism to manipulate the faces, and a fully self-built solving algorithm to generate efficient solutions. The student now plans to study for a master's degree in robotics at Imperial College London.
Republicans Try To Cram Decade-Long AI Regulation Ban Into Budget Reconciliation Bill (404media.co) 59
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Late last night, House Republicans introduced new language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that will immiserate the lives of millions of Americans by cutting their access to Medicaid, and making life much more difficult for millions more by making them pay higher fees when they seek medical care. While a lot of attention will be justifiably given to these cuts, the bill has also crammed in new language that attempts to entirely stop states from enacting any regulation against artificial intelligence.
"...no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act," says the text of the bill introduced Sunday night by Congressman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The text of the bill will be considered by the House at the budget reconciliation markup on May 13.
That language of the bill, how it goes on to define AI and other "automated systems," and what it considers "regulation," is broad enough to cover relatively new generative AI tools and technology that has existed for much longer. In theory, that language will make it impossible to enforce many existing and proposed state laws that aim to protect people from and inform them about AI systems. [...] In theory none of these states will be able to enforce these laws if Republicans manage to pass the Budget Reconciliation bill with this current language.
"...no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act," says the text of the bill introduced Sunday night by Congressman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The text of the bill will be considered by the House at the budget reconciliation markup on May 13.
That language of the bill, how it goes on to define AI and other "automated systems," and what it considers "regulation," is broad enough to cover relatively new generative AI tools and technology that has existed for much longer. In theory, that language will make it impossible to enforce many existing and proposed state laws that aim to protect people from and inform them about AI systems. [...] In theory none of these states will be able to enforce these laws if Republicans manage to pass the Budget Reconciliation bill with this current language.
Submission + - Republicans Try To Cram Decade-Long AI Regulation Ban Into Spending Bill (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Late last night, House Republicans introduced new language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that will immiserate the lives of millions of Americans by cutting their access to Medicaid, and making life much more difficult for millions more by making them pay higher fees when they seek medical care. While a lot of attention will be justifiably given to these cuts, the bill has also crammed in new language that attempts to entirely stop states from enacting any regulation against artificial intelligence. “...no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act,” says the text of the bill introduced Sunday night by Congressman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The text of the bill will be considered by the House at the budget reconciliation markup on May 13.
That language of the bill, how it goes on to define AI and other “automated systems,” and what it considers “regulation,” is broad enough to cover relatively new generative AI tools and technology that has existed for much longer. In theory, that language will make it impossible to enforce many existing and proposed state laws that aim to protect people from and inform them about AI systems. [...] In theory none of these states will be able to enforce these laws if Republicans manage to pass the Budget Reconciliation bill with this current language.
That language of the bill, how it goes on to define AI and other “automated systems,” and what it considers “regulation,” is broad enough to cover relatively new generative AI tools and technology that has existed for much longer. In theory, that language will make it impossible to enforce many existing and proposed state laws that aim to protect people from and inform them about AI systems. [...] In theory none of these states will be able to enforce these laws if Republicans manage to pass the Budget Reconciliation bill with this current language.
Comment Re: Oh (Score 1) 70
Sometimes the "best" tool for a job is the one you're used to.
That's what my wife says.
That she's used to you or you're a tool?
Slashdot Top Deals
The rule on staying alive as a program manager is to give 'em a number or give 'em a date, but never give 'em both at once.
