"For 55 years, San Diego Comic-Con has been offering fans and aficionados of all things comic and movie related a place to meet, gawk, show off, and in general bask in their geekery," writes longtime Slashdot reader smooth wombat. "That may be coming to an end. Due to hotels' price gouging the cost of rooms, Comic-Con may be moving." Forbes reports: "We would never want to leave, but if push came to shove and it became untenable for us, it's something that we would certainly have to look into," said David Glanzer, Chief Communication and Strategy Officer for Comic-Con International, the nonprofit group that puts on SDCC and WonderCon, in a phone interview Monday. "As event planners, we're always contacted by different cities and it would be reckless for us to not at least acknowledge that." Asked if the show was locked in to San Diego for 2025, Glanzer responded, "2025 is when our contract expires, unless something happens before the convention this year. And if so, I imagine we would make an announcement during the show."

The sticking point for the Convention is the behavior of some of the hotels in the area. For decades, SDCC has negotiated block rates for rooms that they offer to out-of-town attendees, exhibitors, professionals and guests at a discount. Typically, the more deluxe hotels within walking distance of the convention center run $275-335/night, and ones further out can be had for as low as $215 through the Con's hotel site for registered attendees. Competition for rooms in the desirable hotels has become so intense that the day the reservations open has become known as "Hotelocapylse."

Recently, Glanzer said some hotels have been making fewer and fewer rooms available in the blocks, knowing they can charge top dollar on the open market. Rates for non-block rooms during Comic-Con weekend at some of the bigger hotels can go for two or three times the ordinary high season rate, and even smaller hotels and Airbnbs in the area charge significantly more to take advantage of the peak demand. Now that opportunistic behavior is threatening to kill the golden goose that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors and hundreds of millions of dollars into the city in a single week. "If attendees opt not to come because they can't afford to stay at a hotel here, they'll go to another convention," said Glanzer. "And if that starts to happen, the studios won't be able to make as big an impact, and it becomes a downward spiral that no one wants to go down. If we can't accommodate the people who want to attend the show then we're in a pretty bad situation."

"I think there is a belief that because we opened the Comic-Con Museum here [in San Diego] and we have always had the show here, that we are anchored to San Diego and could never leave. Well, we don't want to leave, but we've run conventions in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, and they were very successful. I think there are a lot of cities that would want to accommodate us. In my experience with other science fiction cons I have attended, cities would bid for the convention."

AMD shares are up following the announcement that it plans to acquire Finnish artificial intelligence company Silo AI for about $665 million. Reuters reports: Acquiring Silo AI will help AMD improve the development and deployment of AMD-powered AI models and help potential customers build complex AI models with the company's chips, AMD said. Silo AI will also strengthen AMD's software development capabilities. While the deal will not impact AMD's financial performance, it "unlocks a significant amount of business moving forward," AMD Senior Vice President of AI, Vamsi Boppana said in an interview. AMD declined to discuss how much business the acquisition would generate over time.

Helsinki, Finland-based Silo AI specializes in end-to-end AI-driven solutions that help customers integrate the tech into their products and services. With operations in Europe and North America, the startup counts companies, including Philips, Rolls-Royce, and Unilever, among its customers. Silo AI's CEO and co-founder Peter Sarlin will continue to lead the unit as part of the AMD Artificial Intelligence Group, AMD said. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2024.

Amazon Web Services is the latest entrant to the generative AI game with the announcement of App Studio, a groundbreaking tool capable of building complex software applications from simple written prompts. TechCrunch's Ron Miller reports: "App Studio is for technical folks who have technical expertise but are not professional developers, and we're enabling them to build enterprise-grade apps," Sriram Devanathan, GM of Amazon Q Apps and AWS App Studio, told TechCrunch. Amazon defines enterprise apps as having multiple UI pages with the ability to pull from multiple data sources, perform complex operations like joins and filters, and embed business logic in them. It is aimed at IT professionals, data engineers and enterprise architects, even product managers who might lack coding skills but have the requisite company knowledge to understand what kinds of internal software applications they might need. The company is hoping to enable these employees to build applications by describing the application they need and the data sources they wish to use.

Examples of the types of applications include an inventory-tracking system or claims approval process. The user starts by entering the name of an application, calling the data sources and then describing the application they want to build. The system comes with some sample prompts to help, but users can enter an ad hoc description if they wish. It then builds a list of requirements for the application and what it will do, based on the description. The user can refine these requirements by interacting with the generative AI. In that way, it's not unlike a lot of no-code tools that preceded it, but Devanathan says it is different. [...] Once the application is complete, it goes through a mini DevOps pipeline where it can be tested before going into production. In terms of identity, security and governance, and other requirements any enterprise would have for applications being deployed, the administrator can link to existing systems when setting up the App Studio. When it gets deployed, AWS handles all of that on the back end for the customer, based on the information entered by the admin.

An anonymous reader shares a report: On Wednesday, Amazon claimed that it reached its goal of sourcing all its power from clean energy sources in the past year. If taken at face value, the announcement would mean it hit the milestone seven years ahead of schedule, which would be a monumental achievement. But environmental experts speaking to The New York Times, including a group of concerned Amazon employees, warn that the company is "misleading the public by distorting the truth." The company's claim of achieving 100 percent clean electricity is based in part on billion-dollar investments in over 500 solar and wind initiatives. The company's logic is that the energy these projects generate equals the electricity its data centers consume -- ergo, even Steven. But the renewable energy sources it uses for those calculations are fed into a general power grid, not exclusively into Amazon's operations. Environmental experts caution that the company is using "accounting and marketing to make itself look good," as The New York Times put it.

Scharon Harding reports via Wired: In 2019, Nike got closer than ever to its dreams of popularizing self-tying sneakers by releasing the Adapt BB. Using Bluetooth, the sneakers paired to the Adapt app that let users do things like tighten or loosen the shoes' laces and control its LED lights. However, Nike has announced that it's "retiring" the app on August 6 (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), when it will no longer be downloadable from Apple's App Store or the Google Play Store; nor will it be updated.

In an announcement recently spotted by The Verge, Nike's brief explanation for discontinuing the app is that Nike "is no longer creating new versions of Adapt shoes." The company started informing owners about the app's retirement about four months ago. Those who already bought the shoes can still use the app after August 6, but it's expected that iOS or Android updates will eventually make the app unusable. Also, those who get a new device won't be able to download Adapt after August 6.

Without the app, wearers are unable to change the color of the sneaker's LED lights. The lights will either maintain the last color scheme selected via the app or, per Nike, "if you didn't install the app, light will be the default color." While owners will still be able to use on-shoe buttons to turn the shoes on or off, check its battery, adjust the lace's tightness, and save fit settings, the ability to change lighting and control the shoes via mobile phone were big selling points of the $350 kicks.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: Federal regulators have for the first time banned a digital platform from serving users under 18 (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), accusing the app -- known as NGL -- of exaggerating its ability to use artificial intelligence to curb cyberbullying in a groundbreaking settlement. Anapp popular among children and teens, NGL aggressively marketed to young users despite risks of bullying on the anonymous messaging site, the Federal Trade Commission and the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office alleged in a complaint unveiled Tuesday.

The complaint alleged that NGL tricked users into paying for subscriptions by sending them computer-generated messages appearing to be from real people and offering a service for as much as $9.99 a week to find out their real identity. People who signed up received only "hints" of those identities, whether they were real or not, enforcers said. After users complained about the "bait-and switch tactic," executives at the company "laughed off" their concerns, referring to them as "suckers," the FTC said in an announcement. NGL, internet shorthand for "not gonna lie," agreed to pay $5 million and stop marketing to kids and teens to settle the lawsuit, which also alleged that the company violated children's privacy laws by collecting data from youths under 13 without parental consent.

The settlement marks a major milestone in the federal government's efforts to tackle concerns that tech platforms are exposing children to noxious material and profiting from it. And it's one of the most significant actions by the FTC under Chair Lina Khan, who has dialed up scrutiny of the tech sector at the agency since taking over in 2021. "We will keep cracking down on businesses that unlawfully exploit kids for profit," Khan (D) said in a statement. NGL co-founder Joao Figueiredo said in a statement Tuesday that the company cooperated with the FTC's investigation for nearly two years and viewed the "resolution as an opportunity to make NGL better than ever."

"While we believe many of the allegations around the youth of our user base are factually incorrect, we anticipate that the agreed upon age-gating and other procedures will now provide direction for others in our space, and hopefully improve policies generally."

After teasing support for the fediverse earlier this year, the newsletter platform and Substack rival Ghost has finally delivered. "Over the past few days, Ghost says it has achieved two major milestones in its move to become a federated service," reports TechCrunch. "Of note, it has federated its own newsletter, making it the first federated Ghost instance on the internet." From the report: Users can follow the newsletter through their preferred federated app at @index@activitypub.ghost.org, though the company warns there will be bugs and issues as it continues to work on the platform's integration with ActivityPub, the protocol that powers Mastodon and other federated apps. "Having multiple Ghost instances in production successfully running ActivityPub is a huge milestone for us because it means that for the first time, we're interacting with the wider fediverse. Not just theoretical local implementations and tests, but the real world wide social web," the company shared in its announcement of the news.

In addition, Ghost's ActivityPub GitHub repository is now fully open source. That means those interested in tracking Ghost's progress toward federation can follow its code changes in real time, and anyone else can learn from, modify, distribute or contribute to its work. Developers who want to collaborate with Ghost are also being invited to get involved following this move. By offering a federated version of the newsletter, readers will have more choices on how they want to subscribe. That is, instead of only being able to follow the newsletter via email or the web, they also can track it using RSS or ActivityPub-powered apps, like Mastodon and others. Ghost said it will also develop a way for sites with paid subscribers to manage access via ActivityPub, but that functionality hasn't yet rolled out with this initial test.

Serif, the design software developer behind Affinity, has introduced a six-month free trial for its creative suite, offering Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher on Mac, Windows PC, and iPad. This move, along with a 50% discount on perpetual licenses, aims to attract Adobe users and reassure them of Affinity's commitment to its one-time purchase pricing model despite its recent acquisition by Canva. The Verge reports: Affinity uses a one-time purchase pricing model that has earned it a loyal fanbase among creatives who are sick of paying for recurring subscriptions. Prices start at $69.99 for Affinity's individual desktop apps or $164.99 for the entire suite, with a separate deal currently offering customers 50 percent off all perpetual licenses.

This discount, alongside the six-month free trial, is potentially geared at soothing concerns that Affinity would change its pricing model after being acquired by Canva earlier this year. "We're saying 'try everything and pay nothing' because we understand making a change can be a big step, particularly for busy professionals," said Affinity CEO Ashley Hewson. "Anyone who takes the trial is under absolutely no obligation to buy."

"After sixteen years since the introduction of Python 3, the Fedora project announces that Python 2.7, the last of the Python 2 series, will be retired," according to long-time Slashdot reader slack_justyb.

From the announcement on the Fedora changes page: The python2.7 package will be retired without replacement from Fedora Linux 41. There will be no Python 2 in Fedora 41+ other than PyPy. Packages requiring python2.7 on runtime or buildtime will have to deal with the retirement or be retired as well.
"This also comes with the announcement that GIMP 3 will be coming to Fedora 41 to remove any last Python 2 dependencies," adds slack_justyb. GIMP 2 was originally released on March 23, 2004. GIMP will be updated to GIMP 3 with Python 3 support. Python 2 dependencies of GIMP will be retired.
Python 2's end of life was originally 2015, but was extended to 2020. The Python maintainers close with this: The Python maintainers will no longer regularly backport security fixes to Python 2.7 in RHEL, due to the the end of maintenance of RHEL 7 and the retirement of the Python 2.7 application stream in RHEL 8. We provided this obsolete package for 5 years beyond its retirement date and will continue to provide it until Fedora 40 goes end of life. Enough has been enough.

An anonymous reader shares a report: ChromeOS Flex extends the lifespan of older hardware and contributes to reducing e-waste, making it an environmentally conscious choice. Unfortunately, recent developments hint at a potential end for ChromeOS Flex. As detailed in a June 12 blog post by Prajakta Gudadhe, senior director of engineering for ChromeOS, and Alexander Kuscher, senior director of product management for ChromeOS, Google's announcement about integrating ChromeOS with Android to enhance AI capabilities suggests that Flex might not be part of this future.

Google's plan, as detailed, suggests that ChromeOS Flex could be phased out, leaving its current users in a difficult position. The ChromiumOS community around ChromeOS Flex may attempt to adjust to these changes if Google open sources ChromeOS Flex, but this is not a guarantee. In the meantime, users may want to consider alternatives, such as various Linux distributions, to keep their older hardware functional.

The Biden administration said Tuesday that it was providing $504 million in implementation grants for a dozen technology hubs in Ohio, Montana, Nevada and Florida, among other locations. From a report: The money would support the development of quantum computing, biomanufacturing, lithium batteries, computer chips, personal medicine and other technologies. The Democratic administration is trying to encourage more technological innovation across the country, instead of allowing it be concentrated in a few metro areas such as San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and New York City.

"The reality is there are smart people, great entrepreneurs, and leading-edge research institutions all across the country," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a call previewing the announcement. "We're leaving so much potential on the table if we don't give them the resources to compete and win in the tech sectors that will define the 21st century global economy."

Slashdot reader Required Snark shared this article from Ars Technica: Almost exactly two years ago, as it prepared for the next generation of human spaceflight, NASA chose a pair of private companies to design and develop new spacesuits. These were to be new spacesuits that would allow astronauts to both perform spacewalks outside the International Space Station as well as walk on the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Now, that plan appears to be in trouble, with one of the spacesuit providers — Collins Aerospace — expected to back out, Ars has learned. It's a blow for NASA, because the space agency really needs modern spacesuits.

NASA's Apollo-era suits have long been retired. The current suits used for spacewalks in low-Earth orbit are four decades old. "These new capabilities will allow us to continue on the International Space Station and allows us to do the Artemis program and continue on to Mars," said the director of Johnson Space Center, Vanessa Wyche, during a celebratory news conference in Houston two years ago. The two winning teams were led by Collins Aerospace and Axiom Space, respectively. They were eligible for task orders worth up to $3.5 billion — in essence NASA would rent the use of these suits for a couple of decades. Since then, NASA has designated Axiom to work primarily on a suit for the Moon and the Artemis Program, and Collins with developing a suit for operations in-orbit, such as space station servicing...

The agency has been experiencing periodic problems with the maintenance of the suits built decades ago, known as the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, which made its debut in the 1980s. NASA has acknowledged the suit has exceeded its planned design lifetime. Just this Monday, the agency had to halt a spacewalk after the airlock had been de-pressurized and the hatch opened due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit of Tracy Dyson's spacesuit. As a result of this problem, NASA will likely only be able to conduct a single spacewalk this summer, after initially planning three, to complete work outside the International Space Station.
Collins designed the original Apollo suits, according to the article. But a person familiar with the situation told Ars Technica that "Collins has admitted they have drastically underperformed and have overspent" on their work, "culminating in a request to be taken off the contract or renegotiate the scope and their budget."

Ironically, the company's top's post on their account on Twitter/X is still a repost of NASA's February announcement that they're "getting a nextx-generation spacesuit" developed by Collins Aerospace, and saying that the company "recently completed a key NASA design milestone aboard a commercial microgravity aircraft."

NASA's post said they needed the suit "In order to advance NASA's spacewalking capabilities in low Earth orbit and to support continued maintenance and operations at the Space Station."

Lego teamed up with the European Space Agency to make Lego pieces from actual meteorite dust, writes Engadget.

"It's a proof of concept to show how astronauts could use moondust to build lunar structures." Consider the sheer amount of energy and money required to haul up building materials from Earth to the Moon. It would be a game changer to, instead, build everything from pre-existing lunar materials. There's a layer of rock and mineral deposits at the surface of the Moon, which is called lunar regolith...

However, there isn't too much lunar regolith here on Earth for folks to experiment with. ESA scientists made their own regolith by grinding up a really old meteorite. [4.5 billion years, according to Lego's site, discovered in Africa in 2000.] The dust from this meteorite was turned into a mixture that was used to 3D print the Lego pieces. Voila. Moon bricks. They click together just like regular Lego bricks, though they only come in one color (space gray obviously.)
"The result is amazing," says ESA Science Officer Aidan Cowley on the Lego site (though "the bricks may look a little rougher than usual. Importantly the clutch power still works, enabling us to play and test our designs.")

"Nobody has built a structure on the Moon," Cowley said in an ESA statement. "So it was great to have the flexibility to try out all kinds of designs and building techniques with our space bricks." And the bricks will also be "helping to inspire the next generation of space engineers," according to the ESA's announcement — since they'll be on display in select Lego stores in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia through September 20th.

This week the Linux Foundation announced a new organization for decentralized systems and technologies, with an aim of "fostering innovation and collaboration" in both their development and deployment.

It will build on existing Linux Foundation blockchain and digital identity projects, according to the announcement, while supporting "a rapidly growing decentralized technology landscape." To foster this broader ecosystem, LF Decentralized Trust will encompass the growing portfolio of Hyperledger projects and host new open source software, communities, standards, and specifications that are critical to the macro shift toward decentralized systems of distributed trust....

LF Decentralized Trust's expanded project and member ecosystem will be both essential to emerging tokenized assets classes and networks, as well as to modernizing the core infrastructure for finance, trade, government, healthcare, and more. LF Decentralized Trust will serve as a neutral home for the open development of a broad range of ledger, identity, security, interoperability, scale, implementation, and related technologies... LF Decentralized Trust will also include new directed funding models that will drive strategic investments by members into individual projects and project resources.

"With LF Decentralized Trust, we're expanding our commitment to open source innovation by embracing a wider array of decentralized technologies," said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation. "This new, elevated foundation will enable the community to build a more robust ecosystem that drives forward transparency, security, and efficiency in global infrastructure."

"After eight years of advancing the development of blockchain, decentralized identity and related technologies via the Hyperledger community, the time has come to broaden our effort and impact," said Daniela Barbosa, General Manager, Blockchain and Identity, the Linux Foundation. "Ledgers and ledger technologies are but one component of the decentralized systems that will underpin a digital-first global economy. LF Decentralized Trust is where we will gather and grow an expanded community and portfolio of technologies to deliver the transparency, reliability, security and efficiency needed to successfully upgrade critical systems around the world."
The announcement includes quotes of support from numerous companies including Oracle, Siemens, Visa, Accenture, Citi, and Hitachi. Some highlights:

• "The formation of the LF Decentralized Trust reflects the growing demand for open source resources that are critical to the management and functionality of decentralized systems." — CEO of Digital Asset

• "The adoption of decentralized infrastructure is at an inflection point, reflecting the increasing demand from both enterprises and consumers for more secure and transparent digital transactions. As the industry leader for onchain data, blockchain abstraction, and interoperability, we're excited to see the formation of the LF Decentralized Trust and to expand our collaboration with leading financial institutions on advancing tokenized assets and the onchain economy at large." — CMO at Chainlink Labs.

• "As a founding member of the Hyperledger Foundation, and given our unique position in the financial markets, we recognize the vast potential for open-source innovation and decentralized technologies when it comes to reducing risk, increasing resiliency and improving security. The expansion of Hyperledger Foundation into LF Decentralized Trust represents an exciting opportunity to continue expanding these groundbreaking technologies." — a managing director at DTCC

In 2021, Apple announced plans for a new $1 billion campus in North Carolina, set to include a new engineering and research center and support up to 3,000 employees. According to Lauren Ohnesorge of Triangle Business Journal (paywalled), Apple remains committed to the project, but the timeline has been delayed by four years. MacRumors reports: A limited amount of progress on the campus has been made since the announcement, and Apple has not provided updates on construction until now. Apple told Triangle Business Journal that it has paused work on the campus, and it is working with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and the North Carolina Department of Commerce to extend the project's timeline by four years.

Apple last year filed development plans for the first phase of construction, but the specific timeline for the project has never been clear. Apple's plans for Research Triangle Park include six buildings and a parking garage totaling 700,000 square feet of office space, 190,000 square feet of accessory space, and close to 3,000 parking spaces spanning 41 acres. Apple owns 281 acres of land in the area where it plans to build its campus, so there could ultimately be several phases of construction. As it prepares to build the NC research center, Apple is leasing more than 200,000 square feet of office space in Cary, North Carolina. In a statement, Apple said it is still committed to the project: "Apple has been operating in North Carolina for over two decades. And we're deeply committed to growing our teams here. In the last three years, we've added more than 600 people to our team in Raleigh, and we're looking forward to developing our new campus in the coming years."

Volkswagen today announced it will invest up to $5 billion in U.S. electric-vehicle maker Rivian as part of a new, equally controlled joint venture to share EV architecture and software. Shares surged 40% in extended Nasdaq trading after the announcement. Reuters reports: The investment will provide Rivian - known for its flagship R1S SUVs and R1T pickups - the funding it needs to develop its less-expensive and smaller R2 SUVs that are set to roll out in 2026, CEO RJ Scaringe told Reuters. Volkswagen will initially invest $1 billion in Rivian and a further $4 billion in investments later, the companies said. The partnership will help Volkswagen accelerate its plans to develop software-defined vehicles (SDV), with Rivian licensing its existing intellectual property rights to the joint venture.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has made OneDrive slightly more annoying for Windows 11 users. Quietly and without any announcement, the company changed Windows 11's initial setup so that it could turn on the automatic folder backup without asking for it. Now, those setting up a new Windows computer the way Microsoft wants them to (in other words, connected to the internet and signed into a Microsoft account) will get to their desktops with OneDrive already syncing stuff from folders like Desktop Pictures, Documents, Music, and Videos.

Depending on how much is stored there, you might end up with a desktop and other folders filled to the brim with shortcuts to various stuff right after finishing a clean Windows installation. Automatic folder backup in OneDrive is a very useful feature when used properly and when the user deliberately enables it. However, Microsoft decided that sending a few notification prompts to enable folder backup was not enough, so it just turned the feature on without asking anybody or even letting users know about it, resulting in a flood of Reddit posts about users complaining about what the hell are those green checkmarks next to files and shortcuts on their desktops.

An anonymous reader shared this report from the OMG Ubuntu blog: Those of you who own a Framework Laptop 13 — consider me jealous, btw — or are considering buying one in the near future, you may be interested to know that a RISC-V motherboard option is in the works. DeepComputing, the company behind the recently-announced Ubuntu RISC-V laptop, is working with Framework Computer Inc, the company behind the popular, modular, and Linux-friendly Framework laptops, on a RISC-V mainboard.

This is a new announcement; the component itself is in early development, and there's no tentative price tag or pre-order date pencilled in... [T]he Framework RISC-V mainboard will use soldered memory and non-upgradeable eMMC storage (though it can boot from microSD cards). It will 'drop into' any Framework Laptop 13 chassis (or Cooler Master Mainboard Case), per Framework's modular ethos... Framework mentions DeepComputing is "working closely with the teams at Canonical and Red Hat to ensure Linux support is solid through Ubuntu and Fedora", which is great news, and cements Canonical's seriousness to supporting Ubuntu on RISC-V.
"We want to be clear that in this generation, it is focused primarily on enabling developers, tinkerers, and hobbyists to start testing and creating on RISC-V," says Framework's announcement. "The peripheral set and performance aren't yet competitive with our Intel and AMD-powered Framework Laptop Mainboards." They're calling the Mainboard "a huge milestone both for expanding the breadth of the Framework ecosystem and for making RISC-V more accessible than ever... DeepComputing is demoing an early prototype of this Mainboard in a Framework Laptop 13 at the RISC-V Summit Europe next week, and we'll be sharing more as this program progresses."

And their announcement included two additional updates:

• "Just like we did for Framework Laptop 16 last week, today we're sharing open source CAD for the Framework Laptop 13 shell, enabling development of skins, cases, and accessories."

• "We now have Framework Laptop 13 Factory Seconds systems available with British English and German keyboards, making entering the ecosystem more affordable than ever."

"We're eager to continue growing a new Consumer Electronics industry that is grounded in open access, repairability, and customization at every level."

The Roddenberry Foundation — named for Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry — "announced Tuesday that this year's biennial award would focus on artificial intelligence that benefits humanity," reports the Los Angeles Times: Lior Ipp, chief executive of the foundation, told The Times there's a growing recognition that AI is becoming more ubiquitous and will affect all aspects of our lives. "We are trying to ... catalyze folks to think about what AI looks like if it's used for good," Ipp said, "and what it means to use AI responsibly, ethically and toward solving some of the thorny global challenges that exist in the world...."

Ipp said the foundation shares the broad concern about AI and sees the award as a means to potentially contribute to creating those guardrails... Inspiration for the theme was also borne out of the applications the foundation received last time around. Ipp said the prize, which is "issue-agnostic" but focused on early-stage tech, produced compelling uses of AI and machine learning in agriculture, healthcare, biotech and education. "So," he said, "we sort of decided to double down this year on specifically AI and machine learning...."

Though the foundation isn't prioritizing a particular issue, the application states that it is looking for ideas that have the potential to push the needle on one or more of the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals, which include eliminating poverty and hunger as well as boosting climate action and protecting life on land and underwater.
The Foundation's most recent winner was Sweden-based Elypta, according to the article, "which Ipp said is using liquid biopsies, such as a blood test, to detect cancer early."

"We believe that building a better future requires a spirit of curiosity, a willingness to push boundaries, and the courage to think big," said Rod Roddenberry, co-founder of the Roddenberry Foundation. "The Prize will provide a significant boost to AI pioneers leading these efforts." According to the Foundation's announcement, the Prize "embodies the Roddenberry philosophy's promise of a future in which technology and human ingenuity enable everyone — regardless of background — to thrive."

"By empowering entrepreneurs to dream bigger and innovate valiantly, the Roddenberry Prize seeks to catalyze the development of AI solutions that promote abundance and well-being for all."

"University of Zurich researchers have discovered that our brains process natural human voices and "deepfake" voices differently," writes Slashdot reader jenningsthecat.

From the University's announcement: The researchers first used psychoacoustical methods to test how well human voice identity is preserved in deepfake voices. To do this, they recorded the voices of four male speakers and then used a conversion algorithm to generate deepfake voices. In the main experiment, 25 participants listened to multiple voices and were asked to decide whether or not the identities of two voices were the same. Participants either had to match the identity of two natural voices, or of one natural and one deepfake voice.

The deepfakes were correctly identified in two thirds of cases. "This illustrates that current deepfake voices might not perfectly mimic an identity, but do have the potential to deceive people," says Claudia Roswandowitz, first author and a postdoc at the Department of Computational Linguistics.

The researchers then used imaging techniques to examine which brain regions responded differently to deepfake voices compared to natural voices. They successfully identified two regions that were able to recognize the fake voices: the nucleus accumbens and the auditory cortex. "The nucleus accumbens is a crucial part of the brain's reward system. It was less active when participants were tasked with matching the identity between deepfakes and natural voices," says Claudia Roswandowitz. In contrast, the nucleus accumbens showed much more activity when it came to comparing two natural voices.
The complete paper appears in Nature.