Thursday, 15 May
21:00 EDT
Apple Keeps Fortnite in App Store Limbo [Slashdot]
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said Thursday that Apple has "neither accepted nor rejected" Fortnite's second App Store submission, potentially delaying the game's major update planned for Friday. Epic initially submitted Fortnite on May 9 following Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' order for Apple to comply with the original 2021 injunction. After five days without response, Epic withdrew and resubmitted to accommodate the upcoming update. While Apple's guidelines state 90% of submissions are reviewed within 24 hours, this silence is unprecedented. The legal context remains complex -- the judge's original ruling didn't require Apple to reinstate Fortnite, as she determined Epic had willingly violated agreed-upon rules. Meanwhile, Sweeney is actively pointing out on X that Fortnite knock-offs are flooding the App Store.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FBI: US Officials Targeted In Voice Deepfake Attacks Since April [Slashdot]
The FBI has issued a warning that cybercriminals have started using AI-generated voice deepfakes in phishing attacks impersonating senior U.S. officials. These attacks, involving smishing and vishing tactics, aim to compromise personal accounts and contacts for further social engineering and financial fraud. BleepingComputer reports: "Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior U.S. officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior U.S. federal or state government officials and their contacts. If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior U.S. official, do not assume it is authentic," the FBI warned. "The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages -- techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively -- that claim to come from a senior U.S. official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts." The attackers can gain access to the accounts of U.S. officials by sending malicious links disguised as links designed to move the discussion to another messaging platform. By compromising their accounts, the threat actors can gain access to other government officials' contact information. Next, they can use social engineering to impersonate the compromised U.S. officials to steal further sensitive information and trick targeted contacts into transferring funds. Today's PSA follows a March 2021 FBI Private Industry Notification (PIN) [PDF] warning that deepfakes (including AI-generated or manipulated audio, text, images, or video) would likely be widely employed in "cyber and foreign influence operations" after becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
20:00 EDT
Microsoft May Have Killed the Surface Laptop Studio [Slashdot]
Microsoft has stopped production of the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and will mark it as end-of-life in June, with no successor currently planned. Tom's Hardware reports: The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is being put out to pasture quietly, much like other devices that the company has sunset. The Surface Studio, a desktop PC that folded down into a creative studio for drawing, was formally discontinued in December without a successor. Microsoft's audio products, the Surface Headphones 2 and Surface Earbuds, have also quietly disappeared. The Surface Laptop Studio's discontinuance comes at a hazy time for the Surface brand. On the one hand, two new devices -- the Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch -- were just announced and are set to release next week. On the other hand, the lineup lost its champion, former chief Panos Panay, who left Microsoft for Amazon in 2023, reportedly over budget issues and product cancellations. Panay was succeeded by Pavan Davuluri. Since Panay's departure, the lineup has been cut down to just the Surface Laptop, Surface Pro, and the Surface Go 4, the latter of which is only sold to business customers at the moment. Without the Surface Laptop Studio, Microsoft has removed systems with discrete GPUs from its hardware lineup, potentially alienating creatives and gamers. Prior to the Surface Laptop Studio, Microsoft's powerhouse system was the Surface Book, which combined a tablet with a base featuring a discrete GPU.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
19:00 EDT
FBI warns of ongoing scam that uses deepfake audio to impersonate government officials [Ars Technica - All content]
The FBI is warning people to be vigilant of an ongoing malicious messaging campaign that uses AI-generated voice audio to impersonate government officials in an attempt to trick recipients into clicking on links that can infect their computers.
“Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior US federal or state government officials and their contacts,” Thursday’s advisory from the bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said. “If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.”
Think you can’t be fooled? Think again.
The campaign's creators are sending AI-generated voice messages—better known as deepfakes—along with text messages “in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts,” FBI officials said. Deepfakes use AI to mimic the voice and speaking characteristics of a specific individual. The differences between the authentic and simulated speakers are often indistinguishable without trained analysis. Deepfake videos work similarly.
After latest kidnap attempt, crypto types tell crime bosses: Transfers are traceable [Ars Technica - All content]
Masked men jumped out of a white-panel van in Paris this week, attempting to snatch a 34-year-old woman off the street. The woman's husband fought back and suffered a fractured skull, according to France24. The woman continued resisting long enough for a bike shop owner named Nabil to rush out swinging a fire extinguisher, which he hurled after the departing van as the attackers finally fled. The entire altercation was captured on video.
The woman was identified as the daughter of a "crypto boss," and her attempted kidnapping is part of a disquieting surge in European crypto-related abductions—two of which have already involved fingers being chopped off. The last major abduction happened in Paris only two weeks ago, and it ended with French police storming a house in the Paris suburbs and rescuing a crypto mogul's now-four-fingered father.
The attacks have spooked the industry, which has called, somewhat ironically, for enhanced protections from the government. Reuters notes that the issue has been escalated all the way to the top of the French government, where Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced plans this week to "meet with French crypto entrepreneurs to make them aware of the risks and to take measures to protect them."
Netflix Will Show Generative AI Ads Midway Through Streams In 2026 [Slashdot]
At its second annual Upfront 2025 event yesterday, Netflix announced that it has created interactive mid-roll ads and pause ads that incorporate generative AI. These new ad formats are expected to roll out in 2026. Ars Technica reports: "[Netflix] members pay as much attention to midroll ads as they do to the shows and movies themselves," Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix, said. Netflix started testing pause ads in July 2024, per The Verge. Speaking to advertisers, Reinhard claimed that ad subscribers spend 41 hours per month on Netflix on average. The new ad formats follow Netflix's launch of its own in-house advertising platform in the US in April. It had previously debuted the platform in Canada and plans to expand it globally by June, per The Verge. Netflix considers its advertising business to be in its early stages, meaning customers can expect the firm's ad efforts to continue expanding at a faster rate over the coming years. The company plans to double its advertising revenue in 2025. "The foundations of our ads business are in place, and going forward, the pace of progress will be even faster," Reinhard said today. Further reading: Netflix Says Its Ad Tier Now Has 94 Million Monthly Active Users
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Anthropic's Lawyer Forced To Apologize After Claude Hallucinated Legal Citation [Slashdot]
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A lawyer representing Anthropic admitted to using an erroneous citation created by the company's Claude AI chatbot in its ongoing legal battle with music publishers, according to a filing made in a Northern California court on Thursday. Claude hallucinated the citation with "an inaccurate title and inaccurate authors," Anthropic says in the filing, first reported by Bloomberg. Anthropic's lawyers explain that their "manual citation check" did not catch it, nor several other errors that were caused by Claude's hallucinations. Anthropic apologized for the error and called it "an honest citation mistake and not a fabrication of authority." Earlier this week, lawyers representing Universal Music Group and other music publishers accused Anthropic's expert witness -- one of the company's employees, Olivia Chen -- of using Claude to cite fake articles in her testimony. Federal judge, Susan van Keulen, then ordered Anthropic to respond to these allegations. Last week, a California judge slammed a pair of law firms for the undisclosed use of AI after he received a supplemental brief with "numerous false, inaccurate, and misleading legal citations and quotations." The judge imposed $31,000 in sanctions against the law firms and said "no reasonably competent attorney should out-source research and writing" to AI.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dick's Sporting Goods is buying Foot Locker for $2.4 billion [NPR Topics: News]
Together, the two retailers will have to wade the choppy waters of new tariffs on imports, including footwear. And they'll face the growing competition from shoe brands selling directly to shoppers.
(Image credit: Scott Olson)
Denver air traffic controllers had 2-minute communications outage, FAA official says [NPR Topics: News]
The outage in Colorado comes amid increasing scrutiny on the nation's main aviation agency following outages at Newark Liberty International Airport in recent weeks.
(Image credit: David Zalubowski)
Lung Power Peaks in Our 20s—and It’s a Steady Decline From There, Study Finds [Gizmodo]
New research shows that lung function doesn't stay at its peak for
very long.
‘Andor’ Understood How to End Itself [Gizmodo]
The final arc of the 'Star Wars' series gave us the endings we
needed—and knew where to leave some stories open.
Sony WH-1000XM6 Review: A Damn Near Perfect Pair of ANC Headphones [Gizmodo]
Sony’s really outdone itself this time.
‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’ Made Me Fall in Love With the Franchise All Over Again [Gizmodo]
The Bethesda and MachineGames collab is now out for PlayStation 5,
so here's a counterpoint to io9's earlier review.
Amazon Offers the Indoor-Outdoor Bug Zapper for Nearly 50% Off Just in Time for Mosquito Season [Gizmodo]
Head to Amazon now for a hot limited-time deal on this non-toxic,
super-lethal solution to keep flying pests away both outdoors and
in your home.
18:00 EDT
Meta Delays 'Behemoth' AI Model Release [Slashdot]
According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Meta is delaying the release of its largest Llama 4 AI model, known as "Behemoth," over concerns that it may not be enough of an advance on previous models. "It's another indicator that the AI industry's scaling strategy -- 'just make everything bigger' -- could be hitting a wall," notes Axios. From the report: The Journal says that Behemoth is now expected to be released in the fall or even later. It was originally scheduled to coincide with Meta's Llamacon event last month, then later postponed till June. It's also possible the company could speed up a more limited Behemoth release.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
17:00 EDT
Microsoft’s Surface lineup reportedly losing another of its most interesting designs [Ars Technica - All content]
Microsoft has continued to design, manufacture, and sell new Surface hardware since longtime team leader Panos Panay left the company for Amazon in late 2023, including both Intel- and Qualcomm-powered Surface Pro tablets and Surface Laptops. New smaller versions of both of these mainstays were introduced just a couple of weeks ago.
But the weirder, more unique parts of the Surface lineup have been mostly neglected since Panay's departure. Late last year, Microsoft discontinued the Surface Studio all-in-one desktop, which was never updated consistently and started at a whopping $4,300. But it provided one of the few alternatives to the basic "monitor with a computer inside it" all-in-one design template. Now, The Verge reports that Microsoft stopped manufacturing the Surface Laptop Studio 2 earlier this month and that the PC will disappear after current retail stock is sold.
Microsoft reportedly plans to officially announce the end-of-life status of the Laptop Studio 2 in June. The company will support the Laptop Studio with driver and firmware updates as necessary through at least October of 2029, in accordance with its six-year support lifecycle for Surface hardware.
Google Restores File Permissions For Nexcloud [Slashdot]
Longtime Slashdot reader mprindle writes: Nextcloud has been in an ongoing battle with Google over the tech giant revoking the All Files permission from the Nextcloud Android App, which prevents users from managing their files on their server. After a blog post and several tech sites reported on the issue, "Google reached out to us [Nexcloud] and offered to restore the permission, which will give users back the functionality that was lost." Nextcloud is working on an app update and hopes to have it pushed out within a week.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Telegram Bans $35 Billion Black Markets Used To Sell Stolen Data, Launder Crypto [Slashdot]
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Thursday, Telegram announced it had removed two huge black markets estimated to have generated more than $35 billion since 2021 by serving cybercriminals and scammers. Blockchain research firm Elliptic told Reuters that the Chinese-language markets Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee together were far more lucrative than Silk Road, an illegal drug marketplace that the FBI notoriously seized in 2013, which was valued at about $3.4 billion. Both markets were forced offline on Tuesday, Elliptic reported, and already, Huione Guarantee has confirmed that its market will cease to operate entirely due to the Telegram removal. The disruption of both markets will be "a big blow for online fraudsters," Elliptic confirmed, cutting them off from a dependable source for "stolen data, money laundering services, and telecoms infrastructure." [...] Elliptic reported that Telegram connected black markets with an audience of a billion users, noting that Telegram tried to remove several Huione Guarantee channels earlier this year, but "the marketplace was ready" with backups and remained online until this week. Wired suggested that Huione Guarantee "operated in plain sight" on Telegram for years. But Telegram suggested it just discovered it. Huione Guarantee is a subsidiary of Huione Group, which was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for supporting "criminal syndicates who have stolen billions of dollars from Americans." According to Reuters, that included allegedly laundering "at least $37 million in crypto from cyber heists by North Korea and $36 million of crypto from so-called 'pig butchering' scams."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
DHS asks for 20,000 National Guard troops to assist in deportations [NPR Topics: News]
If approved, the move would be the first time Guard troops at the national level have been asked to assist in the removal of migrants in the U.S. without legal status.
(Image credit: Scott Olson)
In Abu Dhabi, Trump makes first visit to a mosque as president [NPR Topics: News]
While it's common for U.S. presidents to visit churches, only a few have made official visits to mosques.
(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski)
The U.S. Has a New Plan for Gaza Aid [NPR Topics: News]
The Trump Administration has a new plan for delivering aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has blocked all food, fuel and medicine for more than ten weeks, accusing Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians. The U.S. says their plan will address those concerns, but experts worry the plan could set a bad precedent. We learn more.
What biology looks like [Pharyngula]
The 2025 graduating class in biology at the University of Minnesota Morris:
I had big plans for today. I was going to make a day trip to do some spider collecting — today is my wife’s day off, so it was a good time to take the car away. I had it all planned out: the route, I’d identified some parks and likely places to stop, and the trip was going to end at a museum I’ve never visited before, an hour away. We’ve had a week of sunny, warm weather (we hit 91°F yesterday!) so I thought there’d be a good chance some spiders would have emerged.
Then Minnesota weather got in the way. I woke up to a massive thunderclap, and the forecast is for thunderstorms and strong winds. Forget about spidering today.
I think instead I get to go into the lab and scrub fly bottles all afternoon. Gotta get the fly lab cleaned up.
This will not be fun.
Mary was not enthused about the trip anyway. She’s in gardening mode.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Explains Why He Canceled Wife’s Newark Flight [Gizmodo]
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
David Leitch Is Going Into Battle Directing ‘Gears of War’ [Gizmodo]
The 'John Wick' filmmaker has signed on to helm the movie based on
the hit Xbox video game franchise.
Elon Musk’s X Is Reportedly Taking Money From Members of Terrorist Groups [Gizmodo]
The billionaire's social media site is awash in extremist content
from sanctioned terrorist groups, a report claims.
This 4000Pa Ultra-Slim Robot Vacuum Is Flying Off the Shelves, as Amazon Clears Stock With 40% Off [Gizmodo]
Your future self (and your spotless floors) will thank you!
Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary Is Celebrating an Icon You Might Never Have Heard Of [Gizmodo]
Duffy is finally back in California after 15 years away.
This TP-Link Archer Wi-Fi 7 Router Is 40% Off on Amazon, Limited Stock Clearance [Gizmodo]
There’s no better time to get a Wi-Fi 7 router that delivers
blazing-fast speeds across your whole home.
A Decade Later, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Shines as Chrome as Ever [Gizmodo]
A lot's changed in the past decade, but one constant? 'Fury Road'
remains rad and unlike anything else.
16:00 EDT
Uber Expects More Drivers Amid Robotaxi Push [Slashdot]
Uber's autonomous vehicle chief Andrew Macdonald predicted this week that the company will employ more human drivers in a decade despite aggressively expanding robotaxi operations. Speaking at the Financial Times' Future of the Car conference, Macdonald outlined a "hybrid marketplace" where autonomous vehicles dominate city centers while human drivers serve areas beyond robotaxi coverage, handle airport runs, and respond during extreme weather events. "I am almost certain that there will be more Uber drivers in 10 years, not less, because I think the world will move from individual car ownership to mobility as a service," Macdonald said. The ride-hailing giant has struck partnerships with Waymo, Volkswagen, Wayve, WeRide, and Pony AI. Robotaxis are already operational in Austin and Phoenix, with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi claiming Waymo vehicles in Austin are busier than "99%" of human drivers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
15:00 EDT
Tesla changes lease policy, didn’t use old cars as robotaxis [Ars Technica - All content]
Tesla has raised the ire of some of its customers, who are accusing the carmaker of misleading them. Until recently, it would not allow customers who leased its EVs to purchase them at the end of the lease. Instead, the leases stated that it "plan[s] to use those vehicles in the Tesla ride-hailing network."
Tesla instituted that policy for Model 3 leases starting in 2019 and later expanded it to the Model Y until changing the policy last November. But Tesla is not currently sitting on a fleet of several hundred thousand ex-lease autonomous Models 3 and Y, and as of today there exists no actual Tesla ride-hailing network.
Instead, it has been spiffing up the ex-lease cars with software updates and then selling them to new customers, according to Reuters. And that has made some former leasers a little unhappy that their old EVs weren't pressed into service making money for Tesla on an ongoing basis but rather just as a one-time transaction.
Telegram bans $35B black markets used to sell stolen data, launder crypto [Ars Technica - All content]
On Thursday, Telegram announced it had removed two huge black markets estimated to have generated more than $35 billion since 2021 by serving cybercriminals and scammers.
Blockchain research firm Elliptic told Reuters that the Chinese-language markets Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee together were far more lucrative than Silk Road, an illegal drug marketplace that the FBI notoriously seized in 2013, which was valued at about $3.4 billion.
Both markets were forced offline on Tuesday, Elliptic reported, and already, Huione Guarantee has confirmed that its market will cease to operate entirely due to the Telegram removal.
With US out, WHO director says it’s running on budget of a local hospital [Ars Technica - All content]
With the abrupt withdrawal of the US, the World Health Organization is grappling with a brutal funding shortfall, leaving the United Nations health agency to slash top leadership and run global programs on a budget similar to that of a local hospital system.
In remarks at a budget committee meeting Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus laid out the daunting budget numbers and announced a slimmed structure, cutting senior management from 14 to seven and the number of departments from 76 to 34.
"The loss of US funding, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, mean we are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than US$ 500 million," Tedros said.
Report: Terrorists seem to be paying X to generate propaganda with Grok [Ars Technica - All content]
Back in February, Elon Musk skewered the Treasury Department for lacking "basic controls" to stop payments to terrorist organizations, boasting at the Oval Office that "any company" has those controls.
Fast-forward three months, and now Musk's social media platform X is suspected of taking payments from sanctioned terrorists and providing premium features that make it easier to raise funds and spread propaganda—including through X's chatbot, Grok. Groups seemingly benefiting from X include Houthi rebels, Hezbollah, and Hamas, as well as groups from Syria, Kuwait, and Iran. Some accounts have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, paying to boost their reach while X apparently looks the other way.
In a report released Thursday, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) flagged popular accounts likely linked to US-sanctioned terrorists. Some of the accounts bear "ID verified" badges, suggesting that X may be going against its own policies that ban sanctioned terrorists from benefiting from its platform.