A long-running lawsuit over Vizio's Linux-based smart TV software is headed to trial in August, with the Software Freedom Conservancy arguing that GPL rules require Vizio to release complete source code owners could use to modify, maintain, or strip ads and tracking from their TVs. Ars Technica reports: The outcome could reverberate across the industry. Because many of today's popular smart TV operating systems are Linux-based, the case may help determine how much control many owners have over their sets. Access to the full code would allow users to make meaningful changes to how their TVs work, including limiting ads or deactivating automatic content recognition.

[...] The Software Freedom Conservancy argues it has the right to Vizio OS's source code because it owns several Vizio TVs and because the operating system is based on Ubuntu, a Linux distribution. (SFC employees bought seven Vizio TVs from 2018 to 2021 after getting complaints about Vizio not sharing its TVs' source code, according to the complaint.) In general, the Linux kernel is provided under the terms of GPLv2, as noted by kernel.org, which is run by the Linux Kernel Organization.

SFC's lawsuit alleges that Vizio breached GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1 by failing to make available the complete source code for Vizio OS. The case is currently in the Orange County Superior Court of the State of California. The lawsuit targets Vizio specifically, but the impact could extend to other Linux-based smart TV OSes such as LG's webOS, Samsung's Tizen, and Roku's Roku OS. "We expect all companies who distribute Linux and other software using right-to-repair agreements like the GPL in their products would comply with these agreements," Denver Gingerich, the director of compliance at SFC, told Ars. [...] SFC expects a ruling within three to six months of the conclusion of the trial, which is currently scheduled for August 10.

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The 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is facing backlash after several winning entries were accused of being AI-generated, with one Caribbean winner's story flagged as fully AI-written by a detector that WIRED says it independently confirmed. From the report: Each year, the Commonwealth Foundation, a nongovernmental organization in London, awards its short story prize to one writer in each of five regions: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. One overall winner is then selected from that short list. Regional winners take home [about $3,350], while the top winner, to be announced next month, claims [about $6,700]. On May 12, the respected UK literary magazine Granta published the top five 2026 entries -- all previously unpublished, per the rules of the contest -- on its website. (It has hosted the winning submissions for the prize since 2012.) Within days, however, one entry aroused suspicion. "The Serpent in the Grove," a story by Jamir Nazir of Trinidad and Tobago, which had taken honors for the Caribbean region, struck a few people as bearing the stylistic tells of AI-generated text.

"Well, this is a first: a ChatGPT-generated story won a prestigious literary prize," wrote researcher and entrepreneur Nabeel S. Qureshi, a former visiting scholar of AI at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, in a post on X on Monday. "'Not X, not Y, but Z' sentences everywhere, the 'hums' trope, and plenty of other obvious markers of AI writing. A major milestone for AI, at any rate..." "They say the grove still hums at noon," Nazir's mysterious and atmospheric tale begins. In his screenshot of the opening paragraphs, Quereshi highlighted the second line as what he considered to be a signature example of AI syntax: "Not the bees' neat industry or the clean rasp of cutlass on vine, but a belly sound -- as if the earth swallows a shout and holds it there."

As the literary community undertook a closer read of Nazir's story, many criticized its language and metaphors as nonsensical, wondering how the Commonwealth judges could have seen any merit to them. Others shared screenshots showing that the AI-detection tool Pangram flagged "The Serpent in the Grove" as 100 percent AI-generated, a result that WIRED independently confirmed. (While no AI-detection software is perfect, third-party analysis has consistently determined Pangram to be the most accurate, with a near-zero rate of false positives.)

[...] Besides Nazir, two more winning authors have drawn allegations of using AI in their work. Pangram finds that "The Bastion's Shadow," by Maltese writer John Edward DeMicoli, winner for the Canada and Europe region, is fully AI-generated; it scans "Mehendi Nights," by Indian writer Sharon Aruparayil, winner for the Asia region, as partly AI-generated. Neither DeMicoli nor Aruparayil immediately returned requests for comment when reached through their respective social media accounts. The other two short-listed stories, by Holly Ann Miller of New Zealand and Lisa-Anne Julien of South Africa, deliver "fully human-written" results from Pangram. Wired also reports that one of the judges for the prize has been "accused of using AI to craft her descriptive blurb that accompanied the listing of 'The Serpent in the Grove' as a regional winner.'" Pangram labels the text as "AI-assisted."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The AI coding boom is now coming directly for Android app development. On Tuesday at Google IO 2026, the company announced new native Android app creation capabilities in its web-based Google AI Studio, shrinking a process that takes weeks of setup and coding down to minutes. The company also said that consumers will be able to use Gemini AI to find the apps they need, both on the Play Store and the web, expanding opportunities for developers to have their apps discovered.

Google says the new capabilities could make sense for anyone from a seasoned developer looking to prototype a new app quickly to a first-time creator. [...] The apps are built with the Kotlin programming language using Google's Jetpack Compose toolkit and with support integration with hardware sensors like GPS, Bluetooth, and NFC, the company says. However, the resulting creations, for now, are only meant to be used personally, as publishing for family and friends is still on the roadmap. The company suggests the technology could be used for the creation of personal utilities and simple social apps, hardware-enabled experiences, or AI-powered experiences. Google is also adding an "Ask Play" AI overlay to the Play Store that lets users discover apps through natural-language conversations. "Perhaps more importantly, apps will begin to be surfaced with users' conversations with Google's Gemini virtual assistant, exposing developers' apps to millions of users," adds TechCrunch.

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Social

Weet u waar het dus te weinig over gaat? De meeste asielzoekers zoeken asiel omdat ze uit disfunctionele samenlevingen komen. En disfunctionele samenlevingen zijn gewoon de optelsom van de individuen waar deze samenlevingen uit bestaan. Dus waarom doen we dan elke keer opnieuw verbaasd als een hoog percentage asielzoekers disfunctionele individuen blijken?

Afijn, het bovenstaande, zoveelste verhaal uit Nieuw Europa. Links ziet u de dader, 37-jarige Palestijnse asielzoeker Qais Saleh, geboren op de Westelijke Jordaanoever. Hij claimt dat zijn vader gedood is door "de joden", en beschrijft hem als "jihadistische strijder".

In 2017 bereikte hij Griekenland en kreeg daar een beschermde status, maar in 2019 reisde hij naar Nederland en werd afgewezen, en uiteindelijk belandde hij via België in december 2020 in Duitsland. Duitsland probeert hem terug te sturen naar Griekenland, maar omdat Europa bezet wordt door het mensenrechten-matriarchaat is alles onmogelijk, behalve het vervangen van de West-Europese bevolking. Hij had overigens al een Duits strafblad, o.a. voor vandalisme en... illegaal verblijf. 

Begin mei vermoordde hij de 14-jarige Jermaine B., bijnaam "Bob de Bouwer", omdat hij zijn vader zo graag hielp met bouwen. Jermaine zou omgekomen zijn door "zwaar geweld tegen de nek". Mogelijk worden hier messteken mee bedoeld, maar BILD schrijft dat "dit nog niet bekend" is.

Het verhaal wordt vervolgens wat troebel, maar Jermaine en de dader lijken elkaar op een of andere manier te kennen. BILD schrijft:

"Jermaines ouders wisten van de ontmoetingen met de man. Ze kenden hem niet persoonlijk, maar hij kwam hen verdacht over. "Mijn ex-vriendin en ik hebben Jermaine verboden contact met hem te hebben, maar hij heeft zich daar niet aan gehouden," aldus Jermaines vader."

Jermaine's lichaam werd gevonden in een verlaten boshuis in Memmingen, Beieren. Het is onduidelijk of hij daar vermoord is, of dat de dader het lichaam daarheen verplaatst heeft. Tijdens dezelfde zoektocht trof de politie ook de dader in dat huis aan, die hen vervolgens met een mes aanviel en tijdelijk wist te ontkomen. Later die avond werd hij in een straat in Memmingen doodgeschoten door een speciale politie-eenheid. 

Eind slecht, al slecht. Op naar het volgende inheemse slachtoffer.

conspectus_bs posted a photo:

Kodak Portra 160 with Mamiya 645 super and Sekor 45 mm

F1 Unlocked is giving you and a guest the chance to experience the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2026 in unforgettable style.

From Gilles Villeneuve’s red Ferrari overalls to Jacques Villeneuve’s peroxide hair and baggy race suits, this is the story of the Canadian family’s unmistakable Formula 1 style legacy.

From Universe Today, an ongoing series of articles on A Brief-ish History of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Part I is entitled “Where is Everybody?”

NEW YORK (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - OpenAI, het moederbedrijf van ChatGPT, gaat snel een aanvraag indienen voor een beursgang in New York. Dat melden bronnen aan The Wall Street Journal. Dat zou binnen enkele dagen of weken kunnen gebeuren en mogelijk zelfs al komende vrijdag, aldus de zakenkrant.

OpenAI zou dan in september klaar willen zijn om de beursgang op Wall Street te maken. Het AI-bedrijf werkt bij de plannen samen met adviseurs van de zakenbanken Goldman Sachs en Morgan Stanley, aldus The Wall Street Journal.

Onlangs haalde OpenAI bij een nieuwe investeringsronde nog 122 miljard dollar op voor investeringen. Daarbij werd het door Sam Altman geleide bedrijf gewaardeerd op 852 miljard dollar.

Waardering

Zakenkrant Financial Times meldt dat door het in San Francisco gevestigde OpenAI op een waardering van meer dan 1 biljoen dollar wordt gemikt. De timing kan wel veranderen, afhankelijk van de marktomstandigheden en hoe SpaceX het doet op de beurs. Volgens persbureau Bloomberg kan SpaceX op 12 juni een notering krijgen. Het raket-, satelliet- en AI-bedrijf van Elon Musk streeft ernaar om 75 miljard dollar op te halen en mikt op een waarde van naar verluidt meer dan 2 biljoen dollar. De beursgang van SpaceX wordt daarmee de grootste ooit.

Musk verloor maandag nog een rechtszaak tegen het in 2015 opgerichte OpenAI. De jury vond dat OpenAI niet verantwoordelijk kan worden gehouden voor het feit dat het volgens Musk zou zijn afgeweken van zijn oorspronkelijke doel: de mensheid helpen. Daarbij was de wettelijke termijn om de zaak aan te spannen volgens de jury al verstreken.

OpenAI-rivaal Anthropic, het bedrijf achter chatbot Claude, zou ook plannen hebben voor een beursgang die dit jaar plaats zou kunnen vinden.

Soft power institution faces funding crisis linked to Covid-era government loan due to be repaid by September

Staff at the British Council in Italy will go on strike over deep cuts that would slash about 80% of its workforce due to a funding crisis facing the organisation.

Out of 130 of its teaching staff across Rome, Milan and Naples, 108 are being targeted as teaching activities in Italy face the axe. The move would end 80 years of British Council English language teaching in Italy as part of the organisation’s global mission to promote British culture and education across the world, sources said.

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