Axios reports that the NSA is using Anthropic's restricted Mythos Preview model despite the Pentagon insisting the company poses a "supply chain risk." Axios reports: The government's cybersecurity needs appear to be outweighing the Pentagon's feud with Anthropic. The department moved in February to cut off Anthropic and force its vendors to follow suit. That case is ongoing. The military is now broadening its use of Anthropic's tools while simultaneously arguing in court that using those tools threatens U.S. national security.

Two sources said the NSA was using Mythos, while one said the model was also being used more widely within the department. It's unclear how the NSA is currently using Mythos, but other organizations with access to the model are using it predominantly to scan their own environments for exploitable security vulnerabilities.

Anthropic restricted access to Mythos to around 40 organizations, contending that its offensive cyber capabilities were too dangerous to allow for a wider release. Anthropic only announced 12 of those organizations. One source said the NSA was among the unnamed agencies with access. The NSA's counterparts in the U.K. have said they have access to the model through the country's AI Security Institute. Anthropic's CEO met with top U.S. officials on Friday to discuss "opportunities for collaboration," according to a White House spokesperson, "as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The winning runner at a Beijing half-marathon for humanoid robots finished the race today in 50 minutes and 26 seconds -- significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. [...] [T]he winning time is a massive improvement over last year's race, when the fastest robot finished in two hours and 40 minutes.

The Associated Press reports that this year's winner was built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor. It seems the winning robot wasn't actually the fastest, as a different Honor robot finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But that one was remote controlled -- the 50:26 robot was autonomous and won due to weighted scoring. About 40% of participating robots competed autonomously, while the remaining 60% were remote controlled, according to Beijing's E-Town tech hub. Not all of them did as well as Honor's robots, with one robot falling at the starting line and another hitting a barrier.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cadillac are the new kids on the block, but how has their debut season in F1 started – and what do they need to do to try and bag some points this year?

Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu has explained some of the attributes that make Ollie Bearman such a good team player at Haas.

The Fall

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Bevolkingsoverschot + volkomen decentraal ontologisch monotheïsme dat zich uit als polytheïsme + een mediaan ietwat malle inborst + te warm om normaal te doen + geen religie die de intrinsieke waarde van elk mensenleven dicteert + 'the first rule of safety is to have fun' als nationaal motto op bankbiljetten = een eindeloze voorraad aan Dit Soort Filmpjes van cartooneske onfortuinlijkheden. Bedoelen we verder niks mee! En dan nemen we de talloze zeer wel te voorkomen aanrijdingen tussen trein en persoon even niet mee, want ook dat is daar een soort historisch-religieuze fetisj.

Goddank komt z'n vriend met steen hem op 0:39 redden

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Het ondenkbare gebeurt op het Met-Getrokken-Messen-Ronddansen-Tot-Je-Elkaar-Bijna-Per-Ongeluk-Vermoordt-Festival

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Hier kan niets misgaan

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Gemeenten, ministerie en waterschappen hebben het er druk mee: de duizenden sigarettenpeuken die dagelijks op straat belanden. Nu willen ze dat tabaksfabrikanten alle kosten voor het opruimen van de peuken voor hun rekening nemen. Dat opruimen gebeurt in Rotterdam ook door stichting Zwerfie. "Ze liggen echt overal."

When we think of “invasive species,” perhaps zebra mussels or kudzu vine spring to mind. Both have flourished in their non-native environments and continue to threaten other native organisms. Invasive species aren’t inherently bad—they’re just trying to survive—but by definition, they’re likely to disrupt local ecosystems and even cause billions of dollars worth of damage each year. So, what does one California city have to say about its burgeoning population of… peacocks?

Introduced by a businessman and land baron named Elias Lucky Baldwin more than a century ago, the avian population has long called the area home. Over the years, though, as the originally open area filled with homes and commercial strips, efforts by local residents end up at odds, as some would like to protect the birds and others would prefer to see them sent away altogether. In a short film titled “Our Neighbors, the Peacocks,” filmmaker Callie Barlow traces the unusual history of peafowl in Los Angeles County through the eyes of some of its current residents.

Arcadia, California, sits in the San Gabriel Valley about 45 minutes from downtown Los Angeles. Dozens of peacocks, which are carefully watched over by some and detested by others, meander through residents’ yards, traipse around on rooftops, peck at cars, call from trees, and of course, display their beautiful feathers—especially during mating season.

In her short documentary, Barlow invites locals to share their love—or loathing—for the vibrant birds as she highlights how Arcadia’s history of protecting the birds has perhaps led to something of an overpopulation problem. Nearby neighborhoods participate in relocation programs, while Arcadia’s birds are protected, and opinions about how to deal with growing numbers land all along the spectrum.

“‘Our Neighbors, the Peacocks’ resists the urge to resolve the tension it so clearly lays out,” says Jason Sondhi, who selected the film for Short of the Week. “Instead, it leans into a modest but resonant idea articulated by its director that living alongside these animals might require ‘putting aside your own discomforts to find a deeper meaning in nature.'”

See the film on YouTube.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article ‘Our Neighbors, the Peacocks’ Paints a Portrait of an Unusual Convergence of Populations appeared first on Colossal.

US-based cloud providers could have to disclose certain data under American legal orders

The European Commission has awarded four contracts designed to advance cloud sovereignty in the EU, but one uses services from S3NS, a joint venture between Thales and Google Cloud, raising questions about its real independence.…

While U.S. officials have ruled out sending Iran’s uranium to Russia, some experts say the proposal could still be a “win-win.”