Slashdot reader BrianFagioli writes: According to the research firm Gartner, 50% of U.S. consumers say they would prefer to do business with brands that avoid using GenAI in consumer facing content such as advertising and promotional messaging.

The survey of 1,539 Americans, conducted in October 2025, also found growing skepticism about the reliability of online information, with 61% saying they frequently question whether information they use for everyday decisions is trustworthy... Gartner found that 68% of consumers often wonder whether the content they see online is real, while fewer people now rely on intuition alone to judge credibility [only 27%]. Instead, more consumers are actively verifying information and checking sources.

Gartner's senior principal analyst offered suggests discretion for brands trying to use AI. "The brands that win will be the ones that use AI in ways customers can immediately recognize as helpful, while being transparent about when AI is used, what it's doing, and giving customers a clear choice to opt out."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A free built-in VPN is coming to Firefox on Tuesday, Mozilla announced this week:


Free VPNs can sometimes mean sketchy arrangements that end up compromising your privacy, but ours is built from our data principles and commitment to be the world's most trusted browser. It routes your browser traffic through a proxy to hide your IP address and location while you browse, giving you stronger privacy and protection online with no extra downloads. Users will have 50 gigabytes of data monthly in the U.S., France, Germany and U.K. to start. Available in Firefox 149 starting March 24.

We also recently shared that Firefox is the first browser to ship Sanitizer API, a new web security standard that blocks attacks before they reach you [for untrusted HTML XSS vulnerabilities].


"The roadmap for Firefox this year is the most exciting one we've developed in quite a while," says Firefox head Ajit Varma. "We're improving the fundamentals like speed and performance. We're also launching innovative new open standards in Gecko to ensure the future of the web is open, diverse, and not controlled by a single engine.

"At the same time we're prioritizing features that give users real power, choice and strong privacy protections, built in a way that only Firefox can. And as always, we'll keep listening, inviting users to help shape what comes next and giving them more reasons to love Firefox."


Two new features coming next week:


Split View puts two webpages side by side in one window, making it easy to compare, copy and multitask without bouncing between tabs. Rolling out in Firefox 149 on March 24.
Tab Notes let you add notes to any tab, another tool to help with multitasking and picking up where you left off. Available in Firefox Labs 149 starting March 24.
And Firefox also released a video this week introducing their new mascot Kit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The systemd project merged a pull request adding a new birthDate field to the JSON user records managed by userdb in response to the age verification laws of California, Colorado, and Brazil," reports the blog It's FOSS.

They note that the field "can only be set by administrators, not by users themselves" — it's the same record that already holds metadata like realName, emailAddress, and location:

Lennart Poettering, the creator of systemd, has clarified that this change is "an optional field in the userdb JSON object. It's not a policy engine, not an API for apps. We just define the field, so that it's standardized iff people want to store the date there, but it's entirely optional. "

In simple words, this is something that adds a new, optional field that can then be used by other open source projects like xdg-desktop-portal to build age verification compliance on top of, without systemd itself doing anything with the data or making it mandatory to provide. A merge request asking for this change to be repealed was struck down by Lennart, who gave the above-mentioned reasoning behind this, and further noted that people were misunderstanding what systemd is trying to do here.
"It enforces zero policy," Poettering said. "It leaves that up for other parts of the system."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jeff Bezos "is in early talks to raise $100 billion," reports the Wall Street Journal, "for a new fund that would buy up manufacturing companies and seek to use AI technology to accelerate their path to automation."

"The Amazon.com founder is meeting with some of the world's largest asset managers to raise funding for the project."

A few months ago, [Bezos] traveled to the Middle East to discuss the new fund with sovereign wealth representatives in the region. More recently, he went to Singapore to raise funding for the effort as well, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund, described in investor documents as a "manufacturing transformation vehicle," is aiming to buy companies in major industrial sectors such as chipmaking, defense and aerospace...

Bezos was recently appointed co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a new startup that is building artificial-intelligence models that can understand and simulate the physical world. Bezos plans to use the company's technology to boost the efficiency and profitability of businesses owned by the fund, a playbook that some investment firms are similarly deploying in sectors such as accounting and property management... [Prometheus has also hired employees from OpenAI and Google DeepMind, the article points out.]

While much of the AI revolution has been focused on large language models, billions of dollars have begun to flow to companies that are seeking to apply spatially focused AI systems toward industries including robotics and manufacturing... Amazon, one of [America's] largest employers, has closed in on the milestone of having as many robots as humans.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Op de A13 bij knooppunt Zestienhoven zijn zaterdagmiddag twee auto’s op elkaar gebotst. Door het ongeval zijn twee rijstroken afgesloten in de richting van Rotterdam, wat zorgt voor flinke vertraging. Volgens 112-correspondenten is een van de inzittenden naar het ziekenhuis vervoerd.

Het gaat Sparta de laatste weken niet echt voor de wind. Vorige week werd er kansloos met 4-0 verloren van Ajax en in de weken daarvoor pakte het maar twee punten. Nu komt FC Volendam op bezoek en dat lijkt een uitgelezen kans om weer eens drie punten bij te schrijven.

Of je nu hoogtevrees hebt of geen zin in een pilotenopleiding, niet getreurd: vanaf nu kan je digitaal toch boven de skyline van Rotterdam vliegen. In de nieuwste update van ‘Microsoft Flight Simulator' heeft de havenstad namelijk een prominente rol gekregen. Ook een gedetailleerde versie van Kinderdijk is van de partij.

In een appartement aan de Kempenaar in Barendrecht heeft zaterdagmiddag een flinke brand gewoed. Hierbij kwam veel rook vrij en de woning raakte behoorlijk beschadigd. Niemand was thuis tijdens de brand en er vielen dan ook geen gewonden.

⚽ Updates from the 5.30pm GMT Premier League kick-off
⚽ Ten things to look out for | Table | Live scores

David Moyes makes one change to the Everton side that played well in defeat at the Emirates a week ago: Joey O’Brien replaces Tim Iroegbunam, with James Garner moving into midfield.

There are three changes for Chelsea. Malo Gusto, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia come in for Trevor Chalobah, who is injured, Malang Sarr and Andrey Santos. It’s only Lavia’s second Premier League start this season.

Continue reading...

With major developments collapsing, pressure is growing on councils to concede on affordable housing and public amenities

Donald Trump has done his best to crush the green shoots of the global, post-pandemic economic recovery – nowhere more so than in the UK.

The US president’s vandalism can be seen across the economic landscape, especially in the property sector, which has become more sensitive to international events since the spread of Covid-19 disrupted long-established supply chains and sent the cost of raw materials soaring.

Continue reading...

• Italian tumbles over guardrail down Cipressa climb

• 27-year-old conscious as she was transported to hospital

The Italian cyclist Debora Silvestri was taken to a hospital after a horrific-looking crash during the Milano-Sanremo one-day classic on Saturday. Several cyclists were caught up in the incident, with Silvestri tumbling over a guardrail as riders tried to avoid the pileup.

Silvestri’s team, Laboral Kutxa, said the 27-year-old was conscious as she was transported and that it would give an update on her condition later. The incident happened on the descent of the famous Cipressa climb, less than 20km (12 miles) from the end of the 156km route.

Continue reading...

• Manchester City striker completes fastest WSL hat-trick

• Manchester United go second after injury-time winner

Khadija Shaw scored the fastest hat-trick in Women’s Super League history as the leaders, Manchester City, beat Tottenham 5-2 at the Joie Stadium. The Jamaica international completed the feat in 13 first-half minutes to give the hosts a commanding lead after Olivia Holdt cancelled out Shaw’s opener.

Kerolin added another and an own goal from Amanda Nildén extended City’s lead before the break, with Bethany England’s late goal a reward for Tottenham’s improved second-half performance.

Continue reading...

We freely created various stylized characters.

Polly M.K. has added a photo to the pool:

photo-tez has added a photo to the pool:

SAKURA

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Franse aanklagers vermoeden dat Elon Musk seksueel getinte deepfakes op socialemediaplatform X heeft aangemoedigd om de waarde van zijn bedrijf "kunstmatig" op te drijven. Dat hebben ze laten weten aan Amerikaanse autoriteiten, werd zaterdag bekendgemaakt.

"De controverse die is ontstaan door seksueel expliciete deepfakes gegenereerd door Grok (de AI van X) kan opzettelijk zijn gecreëerd om de waarde van de bedrijven X en xAI kunstmatig te verhogen", aldus het parket van Parijs. Dat zou Musk volgens de aanklagers goed uitkomen met het oog op "de geplande beursgang in juni 2026 van de nieuwe entiteit die is ontstaan door de fusie" tussen zijn ruimtevaartbedrijf SpaceX en xAI, waartoe het socialemediaplatform behoort.

Sinds vorig jaar onderzoeken Franse autoriteiten X om beschuldigingen dat een algoritme werd gebruikt om in de Franse politiek in te grijpen. Dit onderzoek omvat inmiddels ook een onderzoek naar de verspreiding van Holocaustontkenningen en seksuele deepfakes door Musks AI-tool Grok.

NÜRBURGRING (ANP) - Max Verstappen heeft ook zijn tweede GT3-race op de Nürburgring gewonnen. De viervoudig wereldkampioen in de Formule 1 finishte, met zijn teamgenoten Daniel Juncadella en Jules Gounon, de vier uur durende race met ongeveer een minuut voorsprong op Jordan Pepper en Dan Harper in de BMW. De race was lang spannend, maar in het laatste deel maakte Verstappen het verschil in de Mercedes.

Verstappen reed de race uit de Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie op de Nordschleife als voorbereiding op de 24-uursrace van mei op dat circuit. Deelname aan die wedstrijd is een langgekoesterde wens van de 28-jarige Nederlander, die vooral door de nieuwe regels tot nu toe weinig plezier beleeft aan het Formule 1-seizoen. Hij wil al langer de koningsklasse combineren met langeafstandsraces.

Verstappen won in september ook al bij zijn debuut in een GT3-race op de Nürburgring.