John

An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US AI models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, according to a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. In the memo, sent Thursday to the House Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of "ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs." The company said it had detected "new, obfuscated methods" designed to evade OpenAI's defenses against misuse of its models' output. OpenAI began privately raising concerns about the practice shortly after the R1 model's release last year, when it opened a probe with partner Microsoft Corp. into whether DeepSeek had obtained its data in an unauthorized manner, Bloomberg previously reported. In distillation, one AI model relies on the output of another for training purposes to develop similar capabilities. Distillation, largely tied to China and occasionally Russia, has persisted and become more sophisticated despite attempts to crack down on users who violate OpenAI's terms of service, the company said in its memo, citing activity it has observed on its platform.

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Scientists at Melbourne's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity are working on a Crispr-based treatment -- delivered as a nasal spray or injection -- that could stop influenza infections by targeting the virus's RNA and disrupting its ability to replicate inside human cells. The approach uses the Cas13 enzyme, a lesser-known cousin of the DNA-cutting Cas9, which can be engineered to seek out conserved regions of influenza's genetic code that are found in virtually all flu strains and are crucial to the virus's survival. The delivery mechanism would use lipid nanoparticles to ferry two molecular instructions to flu-infected cells in the respiratory tract: an mRNA that tells cells to produce Cas13 and a guide RNA that directs the enzyme to specific parts of the influenza virus's code. Cas13 then cuts the viral RNA and effectively stops the infection at the genetic level, Sharon Lewin, the infectious diseases physician leading the project, told Wired. Early safety testing at Harvard's Wyss Institute used a "lung on a chip" model to examine whether human cells producing Cas13 could fight off flu strains including H1N1 and H3N2. The institute's founding director Donald Ingber says the studies showed no off-target effects.

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If that's a step too far, then there are new versions of CDE – and tmuxThe oldest of the open source Linux desktops is planning its final steps away from X11, while an even older Unix desktop is getting freshened up.…

Mohammed Umar Khan stabbed Harvey through the heart at Sheffield's All Saints Catholic High School.

Longtime Slashdot reader ndsurvivor shares a report from TechCrunch: In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline-grabbing discovery that wouldn't make it out of the lab. "All these people came to him," said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, "He's like, OK, this is amazing, but I'm a university professor. I don't know quite what to do about it." Rather than give up, Hu spent the next few years refining the technology, reducing the time it took to make the material from more than a week to a few hours. Soon, it was ready to commercialize, and he licensed the technology to InventWood. Now, the startup's first batches of Superwood will be produced starting this summer. "Right now, coming out of this first-of-a-kind commercial plant -- so it's a smaller plant -- we're focused on skin applications," Lau said. "Eventually we want to get to the bones of the building. Ninety percent of the carbon impact from buildings is concrete and steel in the construction of the building." To build the factory, InventWood has raised $15 million in the first close of a Series A round. The round was led by the Grantham Foundation with participation from Baruch Future Ventures, Builders Vision, and Muus Climate Partners, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. How do they do it? According to TechCrunch, InventWood's Superwood is made by treating regular timber with "food industry" chemicals to remove lignin and modify its structure, then compressing it to increase hydrogen bonding between cellulose fibers. This densification makes the wood up to 10 times stronger than natural wood, with a higher strength-to-weight ratio than steel. "You end up with something that looks like these richer, tropical hardwoods," Lau added.

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Two people were found dead as multiple fires raged across the country on Saturday.

The new Labour government has got off to a flying start when it comes to waste and resources policy, but it could be missing a key opportunity for delivering food security and sustainable growth through a circular economy for organic waste.

Action so far includes progress on the Deposit Return Scheme, delivering new incentives to encourage the recycling of packaging, and establishing an expert-led Circular Economy Taskforce. This is underpinned by Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s announcement that one of his top five priorities is moving Britain to a “zero waste economy”.

Tackling the problem of organic waste 

As a former Labour shadow minister for waste and recycling, I am heartened by our government’s focus on practical solutions to the problem of unsustainable waste.

However, a comprehensive approach to waste must deal with the huge amount of organic waste, both from food and garden bins, and from agriculture, which we generate as a country. Shockingly, it’s estimated that over 80% of our household food waste is currently effectively ‘lost’ to incineration, landfill, or simply flushed into our sewers.

We know this can be solved, Labour-run Wales has already pioneered an effective approach to household food waste, including being one of the few nations in the world with a universal separate food waste collection for households, which should inspire England to do better.

Thankfully, the government are progressing with plans for millions more tonnes a year of food waste to be collected. Businesses will have to improve their organic collections in 2025, and Local Authorities will have to offer weekly household collections in 2026, as part of the ‘Simpler Recycling’ reforms. Yet what will happen to this material once collected?

In line with the waste hierarchy, government action should firstly aim to redistribute surplus food and reduce the levels of waste entering the system. However, most organic waste will still need to be processed. We need a new approach to treat these materials as a resource to be utilised.

If properly collected, processed and provided at affordable prices, these valuable organic materials could help British farmers and growers deliver more sustainable practices and lessen reliance on imported climate- warming chemical fertilisers which have rocketed in price in recent years (prices are still 50% higher than at the start of 2022). We can also address the harms of soil degradation which in England and Wales has been estimated to cost approximately £1.6 billion a year, with loss of organic matter thought to account for 47% of the total cost, or £740 million.

Further, as the harmful climate impacts of the peat used for growing our food have become clear, the horticultural sector is rightly demanding support for rolling-out more sustainable replacements derived from organic waste.

How government can support this agenda

So how can we deliver a circular economy for organic waste?

During my time as shadow waste minister, I undertook extensive research in this area in the development of the party’s waste policies at the time, including exploring the Italian model of anaerobic digestion plants for food waste. These innovative plants have on-site composting facilities which ensure that, in addition to capturing methane gas from the process, food and other organic materials, including compostable tableware and bags, are broken down into a more nutrient-rich compost.

A new campaign, Enrich the Earth, has been working on developing this agenda. It is a coalition of organisations with partners including SUEZ, the Peat Free Partnership, the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and The Association For Renewable Energy and Clean Technology.

Their proposals include using government’s fiscal and regulatory powers to support access to high quality and affordable compost for farmers and growers; providing a funding boost to cash-strapped local authorities to enhance the quality and quantity of collected material (especially in tackling plastic contamination); and reviewing incentives which currently favour the use of organic materials for energy generation.

Conclusion

The government has declared that “food security is national security”, so taking action to deliver on this agenda must be a top priority for new ministers. It was very welcome to hear the Environment Secretary recently say he was committed to supporting farmers as they “move through a transition that will replenish the soil with organic matter so it can grow more food with less need for expensive and polluting artificial fertilisers”. It’s now vital to work with farmers, growers, waste firms, local authorities, and environmentalists to put meat on the bones of this agenda.

A new approach can also provide a vital pillar of the government’s new circular economy agenda and support public demands to deliver a ban on peat-based products. Alongside action to redistribute surplus food and reduce waste at source, government measures in this area can deliver meaningful progress in enhancing our food security and would represent a clear environmental success story.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.

The post Why a circular economy for organic waste is a key opportunity to promote growth and food security  appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

AI is unlocking ancient texts previously thought unreadable, potentially revolutionizing historical research, according to a Nature article. Neural networks have successfully decoded burned Roman scrolls from Herculaneum, deciphered ancient Chinese oracle bones, and translated vast Korean royal archives. In a breakthrough achievement, researchers used AI to reveal 16 columns of Greek philosophical text from a charred Herculaneum scroll that had been unreadable for 2,000 years. The technology could help scholars access hundreds more unopened scrolls from Herculaneum and other historical collections worldwide.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Each morning at 5:45 AM PST, three AI traders spring to life, analyzing fresh market data and each recommending one stock to trade. At 6:00 AM sharp, their picks are automatically executed with $5 investments. Claude 3 Sonnet is currently leading with a 77.5% unrealized gain, while its competitors GPT-4o and Gemini 1.5 Pro are neck-and-neck with modest gains around 2.5%. — Read the rest

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Meg Bellamy says she was trolled online while playing the future Princess of Wales in The Crown.

Google claims rival has made an 'art and science' out of licensing

Exclusive  Google says the European Union's antitrust authorities have asked if Microsoft unfairly ties authentication to Azure, in a further sign that officials are considering multiple aspects of Redmond's policies.…

Bill Gates and Ivanka Trump among guests expected at pre-wedding party for son of Mukesh Ambani, Anant, and his fiancee Radhika Merchant

For one of India’s richest families, a wedding is not just a wedding – it’s a spectacle designed to dazzle even the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people.

It was back in 2018 that India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, threw his daughter the most expensive wedding the country had ever seen, where Beyoncé performed and guests attended receptions in Italy’s Lake Como, as well as Mumbai and Rajasthan, at a cost of almost $100bn.

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TL;DR: Start making money on the internet with this lifetime subscription to My AI eBook Creation Pro, giving you the ability to write your own ebook and sell it online, for only $34.99 (Reg. $400), saving $365.

Ever wondered how to make money online? — Read the rest

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Alex Cunningham, MP for Stockton North, claims James Cleverly made comment during Wednesday’s PMQs

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A Labour MP has claimed that his constituency was described as a “shit-hole” by the home secretary, James Cleverly, during prime minister’s questions.

Alex Cunningham said Cleverly had uttered the phrase when the Labour MP for Stockton North asked: “Why are 34% of children in my constituency living in poverty?”

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Lewis Edwards targeted more than 200 girls and blackmailed them to send sexual images.

An American tourist came to a local woman's aid when the animal became aggressive at a sanctuary.

Truss, who held office for just 44 days, says democracies need to make clear there are consequences for aggression.

England's chief medical officer and his deputy Jonathan Van-Tam prove popular with shoppers.

The health minister should look to other factors in Germany’s response – including a continually well-funded health system

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When Olfert Landt first heard about a novel virus ravaging parts of China, he sprung into action, and by the 10 January, according to Bloomberg, the microbiologist, working with researchers at Berlin’s Charité hospital, had developed a viable test for the disease.

TIB Molbiol Syntheselabor GmbH, the small company Landt leads, had produced more than 4 million tests by 12 March. It’s the kind of story that has fuelled claims that Germany’s strong biotech industry has provided the country with a unique advantage in combating the coronavirus. Donald Trump retweeted the Bloomberg story about Landt. The UK’s health minister, Matt Hancock, who held his first press conference on Thursday after recovering from coronavirus himself, didn’t mention Landt, but he was quick to point to the strength of the German pharmaceutical industry as the primary reason for the country’s aggressive testing regime and low death rate: “My German counterpart, for instance,” Hancock said, “could call upon 100 test labs ready and waiting when the crisis stuck, thanks in large part to Roche, one of the biggest diagnostic companies in the world.”

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I still think Jimmy Greaves should have started the World Cup final, so can understand City fans sticking to conspiracy theories

The footage of a suited Jimmy Greaves trying to celebrate with his England teammates while they dance around Wembley with the World Cup makes for painful viewing. As BT Sport’s excellent documentary explains, Spurs’ record goalscorer had just about got over a kick in a group game – his second recovery after getting over hepatitis that season. Alf Ramsey stuck with Geoff Hurst and you could argue it turned out to be a sensible decision.

The 1966 World Cup was the last without substitutes. With extra time, surely Ramsey would have given Greaves 20 minutes. When those people were on the pitch thinking it was all over, Jimmy wouldn’t have lamped it into the top left-hand corner – it wasn’t his style. He would have just passed it in.

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Technology writer Matthew MacDonald began writing QuickBASIC code back in 1988 on the DOS operating system, sharing it on a 3.5-inch floppy disk. "I still remember writing code in white text on its cheery blue background..." He tells his readers on Medium that "I have a confession to make. Before I became a respectable developer working with modern curly-bracket languages like C# and Java (and that hot mess of a platform we call JavaScript), I was a dedicated fan of the wildly popular misfit Visual Basic..." At the same time that Microsoft released Windows 3.0 -- the first version that was truly successful -- they also launched Visual Basic 1.0. Here was something entirely new. You could create buttons for your programs by drawing them on the surface of a window, like it was some kind of art canvas. To make a button do something, all you had to do was double-click it in the design environment and write some code. And you didn't use cryptic C++ code, with piles of classes, complex memory management, and obscure calls into the Windows API. Instead, you wrote friendly-looking VB code, like a civilized person. All the graphical pizzazz was impressive, but the real secret to VB's success was its practicality. There was simply no other tool that a developer could use to sketch out a complete user interface and get coding as quickly as VB... By the release of VB 6 -- the last version of classic Visual Basic -- it was estimated that there were ten times more coders writing in VB than in the unforgiving C++ language. And they weren't just mocking up toy applications. Visual Basic wormed its way into company offices and even onto the web through ASP (Active Server Pages), another monstrously popular technology. Now you could create web pages that talked to VB components, called databases, and wrote HTML on the fly... Today, Visual Basic is in a strange position. It has roughly 0% of the mindshare among professional developers -- it doesn't even chart in professional developer surveys or show up in GitHub repositories. However, it's still out there in the wild, holding Office macros together, powering old Access databases and ancient ASP web pages, and attracting .NET newcomers. The TIOBE index, which attempts to gauge language popularity by looking at search results, still ranks VB in the top five most talked-about languages. But it seems that the momentum has shifted for the last time. In 2017, Microsoft announced that it would begin adding new language features to C# that might never appear in Visual Basic. The change doesn't return VB to ugly duckling status, but it does take away some of its .NET status.... Visual Basic has been threatened before. But this time feels different. It seems like the sun is finally setting on one of the world's most popular programming languages. Even if it's true, Visual Basic won't disappear for decades. Instead, it will become another legacy product, an overlooked tool without a passion or a future. He remembers that the last versions of Visual Basic even supported object-oriented programming with interfaces, polymorphism, and class libraries, but argues that to create .NET, Microsoft "had to throw away almost all of classic VB." For example, "Classic VB programmers had to change the way they counted array elements. No longer could they start at 1, like ordinary people. Now they had to start at 0, like official programmers."

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Less than 2% of vehicles used by transport department are electric, despite minister’s vow

Chris Grayling has been accused of failing to back up his positive words on electric cars with action after it emerged they account for less than 2% of his department’s car fleet.

The UK transport secretary said the government would “lead consumer uptake” of the cars when he laid out his plan for tackling air pollution with a switch to battery-powered vehicles.

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The Home Office has launched an inquiry into how the man was allowed to become a student.

John Downey is to be charged with murdering two UDR soldiers in Northern Ireland in 1972.

Do you wish there was a more secure option for sending text messages and even making calls from your phone? Wouldn't it be great if that option utilized end-to-end encryption to ensure that your communications were entirely protected? Well, that option exists in the form of Signal.

Jun seo Hahm likes to create strange and wondrous beings, like this mouth-walker or these "negative-metaballs" below: (more…)

Rather than break up Google, can we try owning our data?

Interview  Competition watchdogs need to move faster and consider the bigger picture to deal effectively with transnational tech behemoths like Google, says BT's former chief lawyer.…

This tiny bluetooth speaker has great reviews on Amazon. It's on sale for one day on Amazon for $7.49. It is about the same size as this mini speaker I bought last month, which now costs $13.

A baby steals the show at Luton Town as Danny Hylton picks her out for a goal celebration.

Report claims vuln-botherers share building with Ministry of State Security

China has altered public vulnerability data to conceal the influence of its spy agency in the country's national information security bug reporting process.…