Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Zuckerberg 'Personally Authorized and Encouraged' Meta's Copyright Infringement

Five major publishers and author Scott Turow have sued Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, alleging that Zuckerberg "personally authorized and actively encouraged" massive copyright infringement by using pirated books, journal articles, and web-scraped material to train Meta's Llama AI systems. Meta denies wrongdoing and says it will fight the case, arguing that courts have recognized AI training on copyrighted material as potentially fair use. Variety reports: "In their effort to win the AI 'arms race' and build a functional generative AI model, Defendants Meta and Zuckerberg followed their well-known motto: 'move fast and break things,'" the plaintiffs say in their lawsuit. "They first illegally torrented millions of copyrighted books and journal articles from notorious pirate sites and downloaded unauthorized web scrapes of virtually the entire internet. They then copied those stolen fruits many times over to train Meta's multibillion-dollar generative AI system called Llama. In doing so, Defendants engaged in one of the most massive infringements of copyrighted materials in history."

The suit was filed Tuesday (May 5) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by five publishers (Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Elsevier and Cengage) and Turow individually. The proposed class-action suit seeks unspecific monetary damages for the alleged copyright infringement. A copy of the lawsuit is available at this link (PDF). [...] the latest lawsuit alleges that Meta and Zuckerberg deliberately circumvented copyright-protection mechanisms -- and had considered paying to license the works before abandoning that strategy at "Zuckerberg's personal instruction." The suit essentially argues that the conduct described falls outside protections afforded by fair-use provisions of the U.S. copyright code.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Silicon Valley Bets $200 Million On AI Data Centers Floating In the Ocean

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Silicon Valley investors such as Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel have bet hundreds of millions of dollars on deploying AI data centers powered by waves in the middle of the world's oceans -- a move that coincides with tech companies facing mounting challenges in building AI data center projects on land. The latest investment round of $140 million is intended to help the company Panthalassa complete a pilot manufacturing facility near Portland, Oregon, and speed up deployments of wave-riding "nodes" designed to generate electrical power, according to a May 4 press release. Instead of sending renewable energy to a land-based data center, the floating nodes would directly power onboard AI chips and transmit inference tokens representing the AI models' outputs to customers worldwide via satellite link.

Each node resembles a huge steel sphere bobbing on the water with a tube-like structure extending vertically down beneath the surface. The wave motions drive water upward through the tube into a pressurized reservoir, where it can be released to spin a turbine generator that produces renewable energy for the AI chips on board. Panthalassa claims the node's AI chips would also get cooled using the surrounding water, which could offer another advantage over traditional data centers. "Ocean-based compute might offer a massive cooling advantage because the ambient temperature is so low," Lee said. "Land-based data centers use a lot of electricity and fresh water for cooling."

The newest node prototype, called Ocean-3, is scheduled for testing in the northern Pacific Ocean later in 2026. The latest version reaches about 85 meters in length and would stand nearly as tall as London's Big Ben or New York City's Flatiron Building, according to the Financial Times. Panthalassa has already tested several earlier prototypes of the wave energy converter technology, including the Ocean-1 in 2021 and the Ocean-2 that underwent a three-week sea trial off the coast of Washington state in February 2024. The company's CEO and co-founder, Garth Sheldon-Coulson, said in a CBS interview that he hopes to eventually deploy thousands of the nodes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft Gives Up On Xbox Copilot AI

Microsoft is winding down Xbox Copilot on mobile and ending development of Copilot on console, reversing plans to bring the gaming-focused AI assistant to current-generation Xbox consoles this year. "The move follows [new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's] reorganization of the Xbox platform team earlier on Tuesday, which added executives from Microsoft's CoreAI team -- where Sharma worked before taking over Xbox -- to the Xbox side of the company," reports The Verge.

Sharma said in a post on X: Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers. Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this shift, you'll see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console. Since taking over for former Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in February, Sharma has scrapped the Microsoft Gaming brand and cut the price of Xbox Game Pass.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Formula 1 News

Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website

The transformative upgrades behind Red Bull's turnaround

Mark Hughes examines the extensive changes that Red Bull made to the RB22 for the Miami Grand Prix weekend.

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Bayern Munich v Paris Saint-Germain: Champions League semi-final, second leg – live

⚽ Champions League news, 8pm BST kick-off (first leg: 4-5)
Read today’s Football Daily | And follow us on Bluesky

Go on, treat yourself

The players are on a yellow card

Continue reading...

Bioluminescent algae’s blue light harnessed to make 3D-printed shapes

Scientists suggest algae could be embedded within biosensors that glow when toxins detected in the environment

The captivating blue glow emitted by a sea-dwelling species of algae has been harnessed by scientists in the US to make light-emitting structures.

Pyrocystis lunula is a bioluminescent single-celled organism that sometimes produces brief flashes of blue light. Large clumps of the algae are known to emit sparkling displays in waves breaking against beaches.

Continue reading...

Arsenal no longer fear falling short and now have clear sight of immortality | David Hytner

In the space of a week the mood has changed, with positive energy replacing suffering, and two trophies are suddenly within reach

It was a soundbite designed to go viral, the kind the ex-pros in the TV studios are always looking to confect; snappy, heavy on hyperbole, bang in the moment. Thierry Henry made it pop on Tuesday night as he interviewed Bukayo Saka on CBS Sports after Arsenal had beaten Atlético Madrid to advance to the Champions League final. “We were the Invincibles. You will be the Unforgettables,” Henry said.

There it was, as laid out by one of the greats, the goalscoring hero of Arsenal’s unbeaten bolt to the 2004 Premier League title, the last one they won.

Continue reading...

Epstein-linked billionaire accused of rape privately reached out to federal judge to defend his ‘good name’

Leon Black has denied he ever met or raped ‘Jane Doe’. In an exclusive statement, Doe tells the Guardian ‘I am still here. And I am not done’

Lawyers for Leon Black, the billionaire investor who has been accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a teenage girl inside Jeffrey Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2002, reached out to a powerful federal judge in 2024 to raise doubts about the alleged victim’s claims, a Guardian investigation found.

The move set off a months-long court proceeding, which was conducted outside of public view and led US district judge Jed Rakoff to reverse a $2.5m award that had been granted to the alleged victim in a separate Epstein-related class action lawsuit, according to court records. She was later given a much smaller settlement in the class action case.

Continue reading...

VK: Voorpagina

Volkskrant.nl biedt het laatste nieuws, opinie en achtergronden

Mbo-studenten hebben meer aan onderwijskwaliteit dan aan mooie woorden

Hij sprak de taal nog niet zo goed, en zei: ‘Mijn hart... Nederland’

Onderzoeker hantavirus Marco Goeijenbier: ‘Alles wat we nu kunnen doen, is eigenlijk symptoombestrijding’

chair in laboratory

conspectus_bs posted a photo:

chair in laboratory

Kodak Portra 400 with Mamiya 645 super and Sekor 45 mm

Saw You Playing in the Ozone

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Saw You Playing in the Ozone

Charli Blake

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Charli Blake

Taking It Hard, Just LIke You Knew I Would

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Taking It Hard, Just LIke You Knew I Would

The Ponderosa

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

The Ponderosa

On a Street in San Francisco

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

On a Street in San Francisco

Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Medewerker supermarkt bedreigd met mes | Jongen op fatbike gewond na aanrijding

In dit blog houden we je op de hoogte van het belangrijkste en meest opvallende 112-nieuws uit de regio van woensdag 6 mei.

Medewerker supermarkt bedreigd met mes, dader vlucht zonder buit

Een supermarkt in Schiedam-West is woensdagavond het doelwit geworden van een mislukte overval. Een jongen met een mes bedreigde het winkelpersoneel, maar is er zonder buit vandoor gegaan. De politie is nog naar hem op zoek.

KIJKT ende ZIET. Drie lijken presenteren nieuw album

the rolling stones presenteren hun nieuwe album foreign tongues

Kostelijk avondje in New York waar de legendarische lijken Mick (vzmh), Keith (vzmh) en Ronnie (ozmh) het nieuwe Stones-album Foreign Tongues presenteerden omdat ze helegaar niet kunnen stoppen met doorgaan. Charlie (alive and drumming) was om ons onbekende redenen afwezig maar is uiteraard wel gewoon op het album te horen met zijn stokslagen. Conan O'Brien - vorige week nog in de Amsterdamse studio van Jinek, kleine wereld - trad op als spreekstalmeester en warmde de aanwezige lijken op, zodat het niet bleef bij louter bridge spelen en sherry drinken. Gelukkig werden er herinneringen opgehaald aan Beatle Paul McCartney, die o zo graag een keer met een echte band mee wilde spelen, en aan Robert Smith van The Cure, die ook onder het spinrag vandaag was gekropen voor een robbertje pingelen. Na alle anekdoterie was er ook nog fijne muziek van The Stones. Ofschoon het vorige album Hackney Diamonds, met Angry, Mess it up, Lady Gaga en Sydney Sweeney, op het eerste oor wel een beter album is, zijn de nieuwe nummers toch weer ouderwets Rock & Rollerig en precies wat we van de grootste Rock & Roll-band aller tijden verwachten. Al met al een aardige, 25e toevoeging voor in uw platenkast. Maar het definitieve oordeel leest u ongetwijfeld terug in de VrijMibo van 10 juli, als de plaat eenmaal is verschenen. Voor nu: meer iconenbeeld hieronder.

O ZE LEVEN NOG!

Social

Wat een eer voor McCartney

SocialSocial

Muziek!

SocialSocial