sciencehabit shares a repot from Science.org: Scientists have captured fungal spores cruising in the inhospitable environment of the stratosphere, much higher than commercial aircraft fly. When brought back to the lab, the researchers found that some of the spores -- including pathogens of plants and people -- had survived intercontinental trips and could be cultured in the lab. Although spores and microbes have been detected in the stratosphere before, the new results come from a cheap, homespun sampling device dangled from weather balloons, the project could help researchers figure out what traits and conditions allow spores to survive a swing through the stratosphere and how they get up there in the first place. The work could also be a first step towards an atmospheric monitoring system that could nip emerging fungal pathogens in the bud, the study's authors reported at a conference of the European Geophysical Union. After five preliminary flights, the team has already learned a lot. Based on DNA sequencing analysis, they identified spores from 235 genera, including fungi that infect blackberries and carrots in the United States and Japan, and one species, Naganishia albida, that can make immunocompromised people sick. In the lab, they were able to revive and culture spores from 15 different fungal species, among them several plant pathogens. Mostly, the results show that their sampler works. Now, the researchers want to set up regular flights to track airborne fungal biodiversity and seasonal variations. They also want to identify how events such as wildfires or volcanic eruptions inject spores into the stratosphere.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Chris Pelkey was killed in a road rage shooting in Chandler, Arizona, in 2021. Three and a half years later, Pelkey appeared in an Arizona court to address his killer. Sort of. "To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances," says a video recording of Pelkey. "In another life, we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness, and a God who forgives. I always have, and I still do," Pelkey continues, wearing a grey baseball cap and sporting the same thick red and brown beard he wore in life. Pelkey was 37 years old, devoutly religious and an army combat veteran. Horcasitas shot Pelkey at a red light in 2021 after Pelkey exited his vehicle and walked back towards Horcasitas's car. Pelkey's appearance from beyond the grave was made possible by artificial intelligence in what could be the first use of AI to deliver a victim impact statement. Stacey Wales, Pelkey's sister, told local outlet ABC-15 that she had a recurring thought when gathering more than 40 impact statements from Chris's family and friends. "All I kept coming back to was, what would Chris say?" Wales said. [...] Wales and her husband fed an AI model videos and audio of Pelkey to try to come up with a rendering that would match the sentiments and thoughts of a still-alive Pelkey, something that Wales compared with a "Frankenstein of love" to local outlet Fox 10. Judge Todd Lang responded positively to the AI usage. Lang ultimately sentenced Horcasitas to 10 and a half years in prison on manslaughter charges. "I loved that AI, thank you for that. As angry as you are, as justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness," Lang said. "I feel that that was genuine." Also in favor was Pelkey's brother John, who said that he felt "waves of healing" from seeing his brother's face, and believes that Chris would have forgiven his killer. "That was the man I knew," John said.

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Google has pushed back against Apple executive Eddy Cue's testimony that Safari searches declined last month, asserting it continues "to see overall query growth in Search" with "an increase in total queries coming from Apple's devices and platforms." The statement comes as Apple's Senior VP revealed under oath that the company is "actively looking at" revamping Safari to focus on AI-powered search engines, potentially threatening the estimated $20 billion-a-year deal making Google the default search provider on Apple devices. Cue testified that AI search providers including OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic will "eventually replace standard search engines." Google, in its response, pointed to ongoing enhancements to its search product, noting users are "accessing it for new things and in new ways, whether from browsers or the Google app, using their voice or Google Lens."

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Google has partnered with Elementl Power to develop at least 600 MW of nuclear capacity at each of three planned sites. It's unknown where the three proposed sites will be located or how much Google is investing. World Nuclear News reports: The two companies will work "with utility and regulated power partners to identify and advance new projects" and Elementl "will continue the evaluation of potential technology, engineering, procurement and construction, and other project partners, while prioritising specific sites for accelerated development." Elementl Power, founded in 2022, describes itself as a technology-agnostic advanced nuclear project developer which aims to provide "turn-key development, financing and ownership solutions for customers that want access to clean baseload power but may not want to own or operate nuclear power assets." It says its mission is to "to deploy over 10 gigawatts of next-generation nuclear power in the US by 2035." It is not Google's first nuclear power deal -- in October 2024 the company signed an agreement with Kairos Power to purchase power from its fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature small modular reactors, with a fleet of up to 500 MW of capacity by 2035. The aim of the power purchase agreement was to facilitate Kairos Power to develop, construct, and operate plants and sell energy, ancillary services, and environmental attributes to Google. At the time of that announcement Google said that it would help it achieve net-zero emissions across all of its operations and value chain by 2030. Further reading: Google tries to greenwash massive AI energy consumption with another vague nuclear deal (The Register)

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Netflix has officially launched a new AI-powered search feature that uses OpenAI's ChatGPT to deliver a conversational content discovery experience, allowing users to describe what they're looking for in natural language. The streaming giant is also getting into short videos with a new vertical feed set to rival Instagram Reels and TikTok. TechCrunch reports: Users can enter their preferences using natural phrases like "I want something funny and upbeat" or even more detailed requests, such as "I want something scary, but not too scary, and maybe a little bit funny, but not haha funny." The feature is set to roll out this week to iOS users as an opt-in beta. Some subscribers in Australia and New Zealand have already had access to it, as reported by Bloomberg last month. [...] Additionally, at the tech and product event, the company mentioned plans to use generative AI to update title cards in subscribers' preferred languages. Other features revealed on Wednesday include a short-form video feed for mobile users and a redesign of its TV homepage. Netflix's new mobile-only vertical feed allows users to easily scroll through clips of its original titles. Within this feed, users can tap on buttons to watch the entire show or movie immediately, save it to their "My List," or share it with friends. Of note is that the clips are curated from the "Today's Top Picks for You" section rather than being chosen from Netflix's entire library. This approach makes it specifically tailored to each user, ultimately encouraging viewers to watch the full shows.

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Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Last July it was announced Holly Million was stepping down as the GNOME Foundation's Exeuctive Director after less than a year at the helm. Richard Littauer took over as interim Executive Director while this week a new GNOME Foundation Executive Director was hired. GNOME's new Executive Director is Steven Deobald. Steven Deobald is a Canadian free software advocate and has been a GNOME user since 2002. As the GNOME Foundation Executive Director, Steven wants to focus on transparency and to better ensure financial stability of the GNOME Foundation. You can read Deobald's welcoming statements on blogs.gnome.org. Further reading: Is It Time For a Change In GNOME Leadership?

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: There's a new warehouse robot at Amazon that has a sense of touch, allowing it to handle a job previously only done by humans. Amazon unveiled the robot, called Vulcan, Wednesday at an event in Germany. CNBC got an exclusive first look at Vulcan in April, as it stowed items into tall, yellow bins at a warehouse in Spokane, Washington. An up-close look at the "hand" of the robot reveals how it can feel the items it touches using an AI-powered sensor to determine the precise pressure and torque each object needs. This innovative gripper helps give Vulcan the ability to manipulate 75% of the 1 million unique items in inventory at the Spokane warehouse. Amazon has used other robotic arms inside its warehouses since 2021, but those rely on cameras for detection and suction for grasp, limiting what types of objects they can handle. Vulcan can also operate 20 hours a day, according to Aaron Parness, who heads up the Amazon Robotics team that developed the machine. Still, Parness told CNBC that instead of replacing people in its warehouses, Vulcan will create new, higher skilled jobs that involve maintaining, operating, installing and building the robots. When asked if Amazon will fully automate warehouses in the future, Parness said, "not at all." "I don't believe in 100% automation," he said. "If we had to get Vulcan to do 100% of the stows and picks, it would never happen. You would wait your entire life. Amazon understands this." The goal is for Vulcan to handle 100% of the stowing that happens in the top rows of bins, which are difficult for people to reach, Parness said. [...] Amazon said Vulcan is operating at about the same speed as a human worker and can handle items up to 8 pounds. It operates behind a fence, sequestered from human workers to reduce the risk of accidents.

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Harman International, a Samsung subsidiary, announced it is acquiring Masimo's consumer audio division for $350 million in cash. "The deal is expected to finalized by the end of 2025, though it's still subject to regulatory approvals," notes Engadget. From the report: Samsung purchased Harman International back in 2017 for $8 billion, though it allowed the company to operate as an independent subsidiary. Harman's brands include JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG, Mark Levinson, Arcam and Revel. If and when the acquisition pushes through, Masimo's audio brands under Sound United will be added to the list, including Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz and Polk Audio. [...] As noted by The Verge, Samsung published a press release, where it briefly talked about the history of the brands it's acquiring. It mentioned some of Bowers & Wilkins' most iconic products, such as the Nautilus loudspeaker (pictured above) and its Zeppelin wireless speaker, as well as Denon's history as an early adopter of the CD player. Harman had a 60 percent market share in portable audio devices last year, and the company is looking to maintain that position with this purchase. Samsung also plans to apply the new brands' audio technologies to its smartphones, TVs, wireless earphones, soundbars and other devices in the future.

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According to Bloomberg, the Trump administration plans to revise a set of chip trade restrictions called the "AI diffusion" rule, which were scheduled to take effect on May 15. CNBC reports: The rule, which was proposed in the last days of the Biden administration, organizes countries into three different tiers, all of which have different restrictions on whether advanced AI chips like those made by Nvidia, AMD, and Intel can be shipped to the country without a license. Chipmakers including Nvidia and AMD have been against the rule. AMD CEO Lisa Su told CNBC on Wednesday that the U.S. should strike a balance between restricting access to chips for national security and providing access, which will boost the American chip industry. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said earlier this week that being locked out of the Chinese AI market would be a "tremendous loss."

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Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, gave an ominous warning today that the iPhone could go the way of the iPod 10 years from now. From a report: Cue's remarks came during the Google Search antitrust remedies trial today while discussing how AI has the potential to reshape the tech industry and open the door to new entrants. Incumbents have a hard time ... we're not an oil company, we're not toothpaste -- these are things that are going to last forever ... you may not need an iPhone 10 years from now. Cue went on to say that the best thing Apple did was kill the iPod, a move he said was bold. "Why would you kill the golden goose," he added. That may seem like a silly thing for Apple to say, given that more than half of its revenue is iPhone sales. But Cue calls AI a "huge technological shift," and suggests that such shifts can humble companies that once seemed unassailable.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Broadcom has been sending cease-and-desist letters to owners of VMware perpetual licenses with expired support contracts, Ars Technica has confirmed. Following its November 2023 acquisition of VMware, Broadcom ended VMware perpetual license sales. Users with perpetual licenses can still use the software they bought, but they are unable to renew support services unless they had a pre-existing contract enabling them to do so. The controversial move aims to push VMware users to buy subscriptions to VMware products bundled such that associated costs have increased by 300 percent or, in some cases, more. Some customers have opted to continue using VMware unsupported, often as they research alternatives, such as VMware rivals or devirtualization. Over the past weeks, some users running VMware unsupported have reported receiving cease-and-desist letters from Broadcom informing them that their contract with VMware and, thus, their right to receive support services, has expired. The letter [PDF], reviewed by Ars Technica and signed by Broadcom managing director Michael Brown, tells users that they are to stop using any maintenance releases/updates, minor releases, major releases/upgrades extensions, enhancements, patches, bug fixes, or security patches, save for zero-day security patches, issued since their support contract ended. The letter tells users that the implementation of any such updates "past the Expiration Date must be immediately removed/deinstalled," adding: "Any such use of Support past the Expiration Date constitutes a material breach of the Agreement with VMware and an infringement of VMware's intellectual property rights, potentially resulting in claims for enhanced damages and attorneys' fees." [...] The cease-and-desist letters also tell recipients that they could be subject to auditing: "Failure to comply with [post-expiration reporting] requirements may result in a breach of the Agreement by Customer[,] and VMware may exercise its right to audit Customer as well as any other available contractual or legal remedy."

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The curl open source project is fighting against a flood of AI-generated false security reports. Daniel Stenberg, curl's original author and lead developer, declared on LinkedIn that they are "effectively being DDoSed" by these submissions. "We still have not seen a single valid security report done with AI help," Stenberg wrote. This week alone, four AI-generated vulnerability reports arrived seeking reputation or bounties, ArsTechnica writes. One particularly frustrating May 4 report claiming "stream dependency cycles in the HTTP/3 protocol stack" pushed Stenberg "over the limit." The submission referenced non-existent functions and failed to apply to current versions. Some AI reports are comically obvious. One accidentally included its prompt instruction: "and make it sound alarming." Stenberg has asked HackerOne, which manages vulnerability reporting, for "more tools to strike down this behavior." He plans to ban reporters whose submissions are deemed "AI slop."

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Data storage firm Seagate is working to develop a 100-terabyte hard drive by 2030, touting blistering demand from data centers for the 70-year-old technology in the artificial intelligence boom. From a report: BS Teh, Seagate's chief commercial officer, told CNBC that the company is aiming to launch such a drive -- which would have about three times the capacity of the firm's top-of-the-line hard drives -- by 2030. The largest hard disk drive Seagate currently produces is the 36-terabyte Exos M model, which it launched in January. "You may be thinking, 'Who would need it?'" Teh said, referring to the idea of a 100-terabyte hard drive. "Well, plenty." He added: "I think there's definitely strong demand. This is a key enabler for the industry to be able to deliver the storage capacity that the market needs, because there's no other technology that's able to produce this capacity of storage technology to meet the growth that the market needs."

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Apple is "actively looking at" revamping the Safari web browser on its devices to focus on AI-powered search engines, a seismic shift for the industry hastened by the potential end of a longtime partnership with Google. From a report: Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, made the disclosure Wednesday during his testimony in the US Justice Department's lawsuit against Alphabet. The heart of the dispute is the two companies' estimated $20 billion-a-year deal that makes Google the default offering for queries in Apple's browser. The case could force the tech giants to unwind the pact, upending how the iPhone and other devices have long operated. Cue noted that searches on Safari dipped for the first time last month, which he attributed to people using AI. Cue said he believes that AI search providers, including OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic, will eventually replace standard search engines like Alphabet's Google. He said he believes Apple will bring those options to Safari in the future. "We will add them to the list -- they probably won't be the default," he said, indicating that they still need to improve.

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The Drug Enforcement Administration has quietly ended its body camera program barely four years after it began, ProPublica reports, citing an internal email. From the report: On April 2, DEA headquarters emailed employees announcing that the program had been terminated effective the day before. The DEA has not publicly announced the policy change, but by early April, links to pages about body camera policies on the DEA's website were broken. The email said the agency made the change to be "consistent" with a Trump executive order rescinding the 2022 requirement that all federal law enforcement agents use body cameras. But at least two other federal law enforcement agencies within the Justice Department -- the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- are still requiring body cameras, according to their spokespeople.

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Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom says AI companies are trying too hard to "juice engagement" by pestering their users with follow-up questions, instead of providing actually useful insights. From a report: Systrom said the tactics represent "a force that's hurting us," comparing them to those used by social media companies to expand aggressively. "You can see some of these companies going down the rabbit hole that all the consumer companies have gone down in trying to juice engagement," he said at StartupGrind this week. "Every time I ask a question, at the end it asks another little question to see if it can get yet another question out of me."

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Waymo's autonomous vehicles operating on Uber's platform in Austin are completing more trips per day than over 99% of human drivers in the market, according to Uber's Q1 2025 earnings report [PDF] released Wednesday. The fleet of approximately 100 autonomous Waymo vehicles, launched exclusively on Uber in March, has "exceeded expectations," CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated in the report. He cited the performance to "Waymo's safety record and rider experience coupled with Uber's scale and reliability." Uber has rapidly expanded its autonomous vehicle operations, reaching an annual run-rate of 1.5 million mobility and delivery AV trips across its network. The company plans to scale to hundreds of vehicles in Austin in the coming months, while preparing for a launch in Atlanta by early summer. Khosrowshahi said that autonomous vehicle technology represents "the single greatest opportunity ahead for Uber."

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IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the tech giant has used AI, and specifically AI agents, to replace the work of a couple hundred human resources workers. As a result, it has hired more programmers and salespeople, he said. From a report: Krishna's comments on Monday come as businesses sort through the workforce impacts of AI and AI agents, the independent bots that can autonomously perform tasks like analyze spreadsheets, conduct research and draft emails. While there haven't yet been widespread layoffs or downsizing as a result of AI across the economy, some business leaders have said they are holding down head count as they investigate the use of the technology. Meanwhile, the information-technology workforce has continued to shrink as AI weighs on hiring and some workers leave the field. For IBM, which this week hosts its annual Think conference in Boston, AI adoption has led it to boost hiring in some functions.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday released new documentation detailing its new "Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees." The rule, set to take effect on May 12, prohibits hidden fees for live events, hotels, and short-term rentals. It also bans practices such as "bait-and-switch pricing" and any actions that conceal or misrepresent total prices and fees. In a newly published FAQ, the FTC offers a guide for these types of businesses, providing detailed information about pricing transparency. The rule will impact businesses, including live-event ticket sellers and short-term lodging providers, like hotels, motels, Airbnb, or VRBO. Third-party platforms, resellers, and travel agents are also covered by the new regulation. (Airbnb already updated its service in advance of this new regulation to show users the total cost of their stay upfront.) [...] Also included in the FTC's new FAQ are the types of fees that can be excluded, such as taxes or government fees, shipping charges, and charges for optional goods or services people may select to buy as part of the same transaction. (Note that handling charges aren't on this list.) However, the FTC notes that businesses must disclose that it has excluded charges from the total price before asking for payment. For example, if a business excludes shipping charges from the advertised price, it's required to clearly state the amount and purpose of those charges.

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Researchers have discovered a mutation in the SIK3 gene that enables some people to function normally on just three to six hours of sleep. The finding, published this week in PNAS, adds to a growing list of genetic variants linked to naturally short sleepers. When University of California, San Francisco scientists introduced the mutation to mice, the animals required 31 minutes less sleep daily. The modified enzyme showed highest activity in brain synapses, suggesting it might support brain homeostasis -- the resetting process thought to occur during sleep. "These people, all these functions our bodies are doing while we are sleeping, they can just perform at a higher level than we can," said Ying-Hui Fu, the study's co-author. This marks the fifth mutation across four genes identified in naturally short sleepers. Fu's team hopes these discoveries could eventually lead to treatments for sleep disorders by revealing how sleep regulation functions in humans.

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