Four economists across Central European University, Bielefeld University and the Kiel Institute have built a general equilibrium model of the open-source software ecosystem and concluded that vibe coding -- the increasingly common practice of letting AI agents select, assemble and modify packages on a developer's behalf -- erodes the very funding mechanism that keeps open-source projects alive.

The core problem is a decoupling of usage from engagement. Tailwind CSS's npm downloads have climbed steadily, but its creator says documentation traffic is down about 40% since early 2023 and revenue has dropped close to 80%. Stack Overflow activity fell roughly 25% within six months of ChatGPT's launch. Open-source maintainers monetize through documentation visits, bug reports, and community interaction. AI agents skip all of that.

The model finds that feedback loops once responsible for open source's explosive growth now run in reverse. Fewer maintainers can justify sharing code, variety shrinks, and average quality falls -- even as total usage rises. One proposed fix is a "Spotify for open source" model where AI platforms redistribute subscription revenue to maintainers based on package usage. Vibe-coded users need to contribute at least 84% of what direct users generate, or roughly 84% of all revenue must come from sources independent of how users access the software.

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YouTube has confirmed that it is blocking background playback -- the ability to keep a video's audio running after minimizing the browser or locking the screen -- for non-Premium users across third-party mobile browsers including Samsung Internet, Brave, Vivaldi and Microsoft Edge.

Users began reporting the issue last week, noting that audio would cut out the moment they left the browser, sometimes after a brief "MediaOngoingActivity" notification flashed before media controls disappeared. A Google spokesperson told Android Authority that the platform "updated the experience to ensure consistency," calling background play a Premium-exclusive feature.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: PayPal said on Tuesday it was booting its CEO and replacing him with its board chair Enrique Lores, sparing no ambiguity as to why: "The pace of change and execution was not in line with the Board's expectations," it said in a statement. One group that was blindsided was HP, where Lores was until Tuesday serving as CEO, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lores' switchup sent them rushing to launch a search process, those people said. HP's board does have internal candidates which it's considering for the top job, according to a person familiar with the board's thinking. As chair of PayPal's board, Lores played a role in a process evaluating internal and external candidates. It was unclear when or if he recused himself from the final decision to name him as CEO. But HP's board was only made aware that Lores was taking the CEO role at PayPal in recent weeks, the people said.

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While disappointed not to appear at last week’s Barcelona Shakedown, Williams team boss James Vowles has expressed confidence that the squad will ultimately avoid entering the 2026 campaign on the “back foot”.

DoE trims NEPA paperwork for advanced reactors

The Department of Energy says advanced nuclear reactor designs - many of which have so far existed mainly at the experimental, testing, or demonstration stage - generally pose limited environmental risk and can qualify for a streamlined environmental review for future projects.…

Yes, it already had Unistore

Snowflake is launching a PostgreSQL database-as-a-service within its AI data environment to place transactional workloads alongside analytics and AI under a single set of governance rules.…

Een 32-jarige man uit het Gelderse Borculo zou tussen 2013 en 2024 tientallen kinderen hebben afgeperst. Hij dreigde naaktfoto’s van de kinderen te openbaren – tenzij de slachtoffers seks met hem hadden. Bij sommige kinderen gebeurde dat ook, blijkt tijdens de eerste zittingsdag in de rechtbank van Groningen.

Het zal je  maar gebeuren. Op een dag die je in gemoedelijk gezinsverband had willen doorbrengen, krijg je de mededeling dat je naam is opgedoken in de Epstein-files.

The final Utah edition of the hub for American independent film saw slow sales and a mixed bag of movies but a future in Colorado could bring a refresh

Sundance is over. Well, not quite. The Sundance we all know, with Robert Redford as its head and Park City, Utah, as its location, is over. The festival’s beloved founder died last year months after the festival also opted for a move to Boulder, Colorado.

But on the alarmingly snow-light ground, there was also chatter about what would become of Sundance as a whole, once the shining beacon of American independent cinema, after it entered a new phase. There were standout films as ever but again not quite enough to override concerns over what the festival now represents in a harsh new world where it’s arguably easier to make an indie (or whatever cobbling together bits of AI slop might be called) but harder to get it sold.

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