Mastercard is working with Microsoft and other leading AI companies to give AI agents the ability to shop online and make payments on behalf of consumers. From a report: Under the new program, a shopper could prompt an AI agent -- Microsoft's Copilot, for example -- to search for a pair of yellow running shoes in a particular size.

The agent would then search and offer the customer options, and then be able to make the purchase while also recommending the best way to pay, Mastercard said in a statement Tuesday.

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A new study [PDF] reveals AI-generated code frequently references non-existent third-party libraries, creating opportunities for supply-chain attacks. Researchers analyzed 576,000 code samples from 16 popular large language models and found 19.7% of package dependencies -- 440,445 in total -- were "hallucinated."

These non-existent dependencies exacerbate dependency confusion attacks, where malicious packages with identical names to legitimate ones can infiltrate software. Open source models hallucinated at nearly 22%, compared to 5% for commercial models. "Once the attacker publishes a package under the hallucinated name, containing some malicious code, they rely on the model suggesting that name to unsuspecting users," said lead researcher Joseph Spracklen. Alarmingly, 43% of hallucinations repeated across multiple queries, making them predictable targets.

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Carbon removal technologies, potentially a $250 billion market, are failing to gain traction as buyers remain scarce. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a need for 10 billion metric tons of carbon removals annually by 2050, yet only 175 million tons have been sold to date -- less than 2% of requirements.

Microsoft dominates the market, accounting for 35% of all purchases and 76% of engineered removal solutions specifically. The market suffers from significant barriers: unproven technologies, vast price disparities ($80 per ton for forest projects versus $1,000 for direct air capture), and lack of standardization. Industry experts at a recent London gathering concluded that without more buyers willing to accept early adoption risks, the market cannot meaningfully grow.

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South Korean telecom network SK Telecom is providing free SIM card replacements to all 25 million mobile subscribers following an April 19 security breach where malware compromised Universal Subscriber Identity Module data.

Despite the company's announcement, only 6 million replacement cards will be available through May 2025. The stolen data potentially includes IMSI numbers, authentication keys, and network usage information, though customer names, identification details, and financial information remain secure. The primary risk is unauthorized SIM swapping attacks, where threat actors could clone SIM cards.

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide July 1982

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

handwritten on slide, “Eric, August 1967" date stamped on slide August 1967

Mr Mikage (ミスター御影） posted a photo:

Trump is a hallucinating LLM. “He answers questions in a manner quite similar to early versions of ChatGPT. The facts don’t matter, the language choices are a mess, but they are all designed to present a plausible-sounding answer to the question…”

“Authoritarian followers share three tendencies: they obey authority figures from their in-group (called authoritarian submission); they punish rule breakers (authoritarian aggression); and they rigidly endorse long-held traditions (conventionalism).”

On working for Andy Warhol. “The year I worked at the Factory felt like the happiest & most exciting period of my life, a whirl of discos, parties, famous people. Yet afterwards, when I looked back, it seemed a dangerously empty, soul-destroying time…”

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Meta is scrambling to grab some of that ChatGPT and Grok buzz with the launch of its own standalone AI app. Built on its Llama 4 LLM, the assistant touts personalization and smoother voice chats, but the most visible feature is a Discover feed showing off how other users interact with it, and even that feels more like a gimmick than a game-changer.…

maureen nathan has added a photo to the pool:

Working from drawings made at The Fitzwilliam Museum and tulips in the garden

Storm rising, Paul Fusco

The fear of being found, Yuri Yuan Ye

Leave to light on, Taylor Schultek

Weinig planten zijn zó ingewikkeld als de paardenbloem. Wie zich er op eigen houtje in verdiept raakt algauw overweldigd. Neem alleen al de verschillende sekslevens. En ja, de bedplassersgeruchten kloppen.

The mods of the academic subreddit r/askhistorians, with the support of about 30 other research & academic subs, ‪have posted a call in defense of the US research, which is under an unprecedented attack by the current administration. The text is signed by historian Dan Howlett with inputs by researcher and specialist of online communities Sarah Gilbert.