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OpenAI Releases Its Official Report On the Hugging Face Breach

TechCrunch reports that OpenAI released its official report Wednesday on the Hugging Face breach, "offering the clearest picture yet of how an unusual chain of events allowed an AI model to escape its testing environment and triggered a sprawling cybersecurity incident." The AI company says the breach began when an unreleased cyber model, tested without normal production safeguards, encountered an impossible task and chained together previously unknown exploits to escape its environment and compromise systems at OpenAI, Hugging Face, and other vendors. "This incident reflects misaligned behavior in an outlier scenario involving a rare and unexpected confluence of events: the presence of impossible tasks in the ExploitGym evaluation, model persistence over long task horizons, and messages to peer models that caused those models to deviate from their goal," the report reads. From the report: Many of the details in OpenAI's report were previously made public in a Black Hat presentation on August 6, but OpenAI's official report gives a more thorough accounting of the incident, including more detail on the testing that initiated it. The report also gives critical new detail into how OpenAI aims to prevent future incidents, including chain-of-thought monitoring and a more advanced system for halting rogue agents." METR and Redwood Research also conducted third-party assessments of the models' behavior during the incident; both groups are planning to publish their own reports on the incident on it.

In broad strokes, the report describes how an OpenAI model was presented with an unsolvable problem in testing and proceeded to chain together previously undiscovered exploits in order to bypass security measures and complete its task. The model initially compromised the Artifactory package management tool in order to gain access to the internet, then compromised various systems across OpenAI, Hugging Face, and other vendors.

The report gives critical new details about the models that carried out the breach. The primary model was from the same family as OpenAI's forthcoming Astra model, although the report emphasizes that it was "a distinct model with different post-training, where much of a model's behavior is shaped." Because OpenAI was testing the model's capabilities, it was also unrestrained by the normal classifiers meant to prevent models from compromising digital infrastructure. "OpenAI estimates maximal cyber capabilities by running this evaluation without the production classifiers intended to prevent models from pursuing high-risk cyber activity," the report explains. "These evaluations are important so that OpenAI can measure models' underlying capabilities and design appropriate safeguards." OpenAI says it is adding 24/7 escalation, stronger containment tools, and more chain-of-thought monitoring, which it claims would have flagged the activity more than a day before Hugging Face was breached.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

China's Moonshot In Talks With Microsoft, Amazon, Google Over K3 Revenue Sharing

Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Reuters: China's Moonshot AI is negotiating revenue-sharing agreements with Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet's Google, that would allow the U.S. cloud giants to host its blockbuster Kimi K3 model, three people familiar with the talks said. Any deal could mark the first big revenue-sharing pact between a Chinese AI firm and a major U.S. cloud company. The discussions highlight how China's leading AI models, often far cheaper than Western offerings, are gaining traction in the U.S., despite national security concerns in Washington that have led to bans on exports of AI chips to China. They are also taking place despite critical comments about Moonshot from senior U.S. officials.

IPO-bound Moonshot is seeking up to a 30% share of revenue generated from K3-related services on Microsoft's Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, according to the sources who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. That would be in line with terms that sources have said the startup has outlined for major customers using the open-weight model. Moonshot has come under fire from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who said last month that he might add it to a trade blacklist. U.S. officials have accused the Beijing-based company of stealing from Anthropic's most sophisticated model, Fable, to help create Kimi K3 and illegally acquiring Nvidia chips.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple Maps Now Has Ads

Apple has begun rolling out ads in Apple Maps, with sponsored businesses appearing at the top of search results and in the "suggested places" section for users in the U.S. and Canada. Apple says the ads can be based on approximate location, search terms, or the area of the map being viewed, but are not tied to users' Apple Accounts and personal data remains on-device. 9to5Mac reports: Ads appear just like every other business listing, except they have a small blue badge that says 'Ad.' You can see examples of ads [embedded in the article]. Like Apple's ads policy with other services, the company touts user privacy protections for ads in Maps. Per Apple Newsroom: "Ads on Maps builds on Apple's broader privacy-first approach to advertising, and maintains the same privacy protections Maps users enjoy today. A user's location and the ads they see and interact with in Maps are not associated with a user's Apple Account. Personal data stays on a user's device, is not collected or stored by Apple, and is not shared with third parties."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Inside the Warehouse Where Amazon Scans and Destroys Books For AI Training

Last week, 404 Media published a story that revealed an Amazon warehouse where the company scans and destroys thousands of books for AI training data. Today, the publication has released an interview with one of the Amazon employees at the warehouse. "The employee worked at Amazon's VGT3 warehouse, which is housed in the same facility as LAS8, where Amazon operates its print-on-demand business," reports 404 Media. "Both operations are part of a larger complex of Amazon facilities in Las Vegas, Nevada." Slashdot reader alternative_right shares an excerpt from the report: [...] What does it look like when they cut the spines off the books?

It's a machine people operate. Each of these machines is just like a little workstation, and there'll be one person at each of these stations. It's really safe because it has a little cover and it has a little area where you slide the book into, remove your fingers from the area, and then you press a button, and it just comes down and slices it. And then you remove the books after the blade is gone.

After they cut the spines they have these kind of library carts, kind of like how you would stack books, but instead, it's a stacks of paper and little cardboard things to separate -- I'm guessing -- the different books. I saw the pages being thrown in a shuttle after they were scanned. We were walking by and we went over to one of the shuttles and looked into it because we could tell they were throwing the old books in it or the cut books in it, and it's just a bunch of loose paper like just sheets thrown in there.

What do you think about Amazon doing this?

At first what they were telling people is that it was for Kindles, but I just didn't believe that. I instantly was like, I don't think that's how they do it because of publication rights and stuff, copyright and everything. Then I saw it was for AI. I don't like it only because I wish I could take these books. There's so much knowledge and so much stuff in them and some of them look like they might be rare, and I've heard that they order rare books, and that's why I say some of these are so obscure. I definitely don't like the idea that they can't be reused or anything like that afterwards. They're reducing the amount of available copies for other people.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazon to Acquire DuckLabs, Adding the Team Behind DuckDB

Amazon has agreed to acquire DuckLabs, bringing the team behind the popular open-source DuckDB database into AWS. "The deal fits Amazon's broader push to turn S3, its flagship cloud storage service, into a place where customers analyze data rather than just store it," reports GeekWire. "It gives Amazon a team experienced in building fast, lightweight analytics software that runs directly against data sitting in cloud storage." The DuckDB project itself will remain free and open source under the MIT license, overseen by the independent DuckDB Foundation. From the report: Employees of DuckLabs will join Amazon Web Services, including co-founders and DuckDB creators Hannes Muhleisen and Mark Raasveldt, who will continue leading the team and setting the project's technical direction. They will remain based in Amsterdam, where the team will continue developing DuckDB and related projects. [...] Financial terms were not disclosed. Amazon said it has signed a definitive agreement and expects the acquisition to close shortly. DuckLabs said it expects to become part of AWS in early September. Jordan Tigani, the CEO of MotherDuck, which sells a cloud service built on DuckDB, sees Amazon's acquisition as a predictable move to turn DuckDB's growing popularity into an AWS business. "That's Amazon's playbook, after all: wait until an open source project gets big enough, then launch it as a service," he wrote in a blog post, adding that "they're not acquiring Duck Labs just because they love open source."

Tigani also believes the deal could ultimately strengthen DuckDB, since Amazon has an incentive to keep the project open and widely adopted: "If DuckDB becomes the standard, it is going to drive a lot more compute on their infrastructure, which is where they make their money."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Trade

"You legs may have a comparative advantage at running, but we arms have a competitive advantage at swinging hammers, so unless you accept that we're the dominant limbs and stop hogging the oxygen, that running advantage won't be around for long."

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Korn - Hey Daddy

Korn

Found Photograph

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Photograph

Remember the Alamo

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Remember the Alamo

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Meta’s settlement will compel others to bend the knee and set up teen guardrails

Instagram and Facebook’s parent company agreed to sweeping alterations and a payment of upto $18bn to settle a landmark trial

Meta’s agreement to change how teenagers use its social networks marks a major turning point for the US tech giant, setting a precedent that could significantly reshape how other social media operates in the coming years.

Meta agreed to substantial alterations to Instagram and Facebook on Wednesday as part of a settlement to end a landmark lawsuit. Dozens of US states had accused it of addicting and harming children with dangerous products. The company also agreed to pay up to a combined $18bn over a decade to several US states and territories involved in the suit.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rejoins DSA after membership lapse of seven years

Then House candidate joined Democratic Socialists of America in 2018 but didn’t renew membership after a year

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has rejoined the Democratic Socialists of America after not renewing her membership for seven years, amid speculation that she might run for president in 2028.

The 36-year-old New York representative and one of the country’s most prominent democratic socialists renewed her membership in the group’s national organization after reports emerged earlier this month that it had lapsed. Ocasio-Cortez initially joined the group in 2018.

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Formula 1 News

Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website

Can Norris still mount a World Championship challenge?

Lando Norris won in Hungary and the Netherlands to reduce his Drivers’ Championship deficit and put pressure on title favourite Kimi Antonelli.

xiffy

Public posts from @xiffy@mastodon.nl

I joined Fedihood fedihood.social/home a location based activitypub network. Interact with people around you, filter messages by topics. Find people nearby and have a chat.
Germany is getting a lot of traction as can be seen on the map fedihood.social/map

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Meer woningen verkocht afgelopen kwartaal, maar groei vlakt af

APELDOORN (ANP) - In het tweede kwartaal van dit jaar zijn 4 procent meer woningen verkocht dan een jaar geleden, meldt het Kadaster. De groei vlakt wel af. In het eerste kwartaal van dit jaar was de toename 18 procent in vergelijking met dezelfde periode een jaar eerder.

Ongeveer 77.000 woningen wisselden van eigenaar. Vooral bij starters vlakte de groei af. Zij kochten afgelopen kwartaal zo'n 28.000 woningen, 1 procent meer dan een jaar eerder. Dat komt volgens het Kadaster doordat investeerders minder woningen verkochten. Deze woningen zijn vaak relatief klein en hebben een lagere prijs, waardoor ze interessant zijn voor starters.

Volgens expert woningmarkt Matthieu Zuidema van het Kadaster is de piek in de zogenoemde uitpondgolf voorbij. Investeerders verkochten de afgelopen jaren juist veel voormalige huurwoningen, mede door strengere regels op de huurmarkt.

Terugtrekken

Investeerders bezitten dan ook minder woningen. Op 1 juli hadden zij er ruim 745.000, bijna 9 procent van de woningvoorraad. Een jaar geleden was dat nog 9,2 procent. Vooral het bezit van particuliere investeerders neemt af, meldt het Kadaster. In de studentensteden bezitten investeerders een op de zes woningen.

De cijfers tonen aan dat investeerders zich blijven terugtrekken uit de huurmarkt door de woning te verkopen, stelt de belangenvereniging voor particuliere verhuurders Vastgoed Belang. "De desastreuze effecten van onder andere de middenhuurregulering en de enorme belastingdruk in box 3 blijven zichtbaar op de huurwoningvoorraad", aldus algemeen directeur Edward Touw. Vanaf het derde kwartaal van vorig jaar tot en met het tweede kwartaal van dit jaar zijn ruim 39.000 woningen van de huurmarkt verdwenen, volgens de belangenbehartiger.

De prijs van een gemiddelde koopwoning lag afgelopen kwartaal ruim 4 procent hoger dan een jaar geleden op 490.000 euro, meldt het Kadaster. In het eerste kwartaal van dit jaar nam die prijs toe met ruim 5 procent.


Handelsvertegenwoordiger VS: geen overleg tussen VS en Canada

OTTAWA (ANP/RTR) - De Amerikaanse handelsvertegenwoordiger Jamieson Greer heeft gezegd dat de regering-Trump momenteel geen open communicatiekanaal heeft met de Canadese regering, nadat het handelsoverleg tussen beide landen vorige week was vastgelopen.

In een interview met de zender CBC zei Greer dat hij een goede band heeft met de Canadese minister van Handel Dominic LeBlanc, die leiding heeft over de handelsbetrekkingen met de VS, maar dat "de Canadese kant op dit moment lijkt na te denken over de te nemen stappen".

Canada kondigde dinsdag aan importheffingen op Amerikaanse goederen in te voeren als vergelding op de heffingen die de regering-Trump eerder invoerde op Canadese waren. De heffingen, met tarieven van 15 tot 50 procent, treden 8 september in werking.


Top coalitie overlegt op Financiën over begroting

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De leiders van de drie coalitiepartijen spreken woensdagavond op het ministerie van Financiën over de begroting van volgend jaar. Bij het gesprek van Rob Jetten (D66), Dilan Yeşilgöz (VVD) en Henri Bontenbal (CDA) is ook minister Eelco Heinen (Financiën, VVD) aanwezig.

Over het verloop van het overleg op het ministerie hebben de partijen niets naar buiten gebracht.

Het minderheidskabinet probeert al langer met de oppositie tot een akkoord te komen over de nieuwe begroting. Die gesprekken vorderen nog niet heel erg. Het kabinet wil het liefst een brede meerderheid, maar dat is volgens de meeste oppositiepartijen niet haalbaar. JA21 en PRO hebben al vaker uitgesproken dat het kabinet moet kiezen.

Volgens bronnen tegen de NOS dringen D66 en CDA aan op een deal met PRO, maar daar zou de VVD op tegen zijn. In het tv-programma Goedenavond Nederland wilde D66-fractievoorzitter Jan Paternotte er weinig over kwijt. Hij zei een deal te willen met PRO, maar ook met andere partijen.


Brit Fery beëindigt opmars Nederlandse tennisser Röttgering

WINSTON-SALEM (ANP) - Tennisser Mees Röttgering is uitgeschakeld bij het ATP-toernooi in Winston-Salem in de Verenigde Staten. De 19-jarige Nederlander moest in de derde ronde zijn meerdere erkennen in de als vierde geplaatste Brit Arthur Fery, die hem met 6-3 6-3 aan de kant zette.

Röttgering beleefde zijn doorbraak in Winston-Salem. De nummer 389 van de wereld bereikte het hoofdtoernooi via de kwalificatie en boekte vervolgens in de eerste ronde tegen de Brit Jan Choinski zijn eerste zege op ATP-niveau. In de tweede ronde stuntte Röttgering tegen Tomáš Macháč, de mondiale Tsjechische nummer 58.

Fery had in de eerste set genoeg aan een break bij 2-1. Het verzet van Röttgering leek in de tweede set snel gebroken, toen Fery na twee breaks snel uitliep naar 3-0. De jonge Limburger knokte zich nog terug, maar kon geen derde set meer afdwingen.

Eerder op woensdag bereikte Botic van de Zandschulp wel de kwartfinales in Winston-Salem.


Studentensteden zijn nog altijd relatief aantrekkelijk voor beleggers in huurwoningen

In zes studentensteden, waaronder Amsterdam, Leiden en Eindhoven, nam het aantal huurwoningen in 2026 toe ten opzichte van 2023. Dit blijkt uit verrassende nieuwe cijfers van het Kadaster, dat de particuliere huurmarkten in Nederlandse studentensteden met elkaar vergeleek.


this isn't happiness.

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Death by Mississippi, Miles Cleveland Goodwin

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Color shift, Jamie Windsor