Alterslash

the unofficial Slashdot digest
 

Contents

  1. Video Game Actors End 11-Month Strike With New AI Protections
  2. Qantas Confirms Data Breach Impacts 5.7 Million Customers
  3. Emirates Airline Adding Crypto Payments With Crypto.com Partnership
  4. German Court Rules Meta Tracking Tech Violates EU Privacy Laws
  5. Russia Blocks Ethical Hacking Legislation Over Security Concerns
  6. Gemini Can Now Turn Your Photos Into Video With Veo 3
  7. Indeed, Glassdoor To Cut 1,300 Jobs in AI-Focused Consolidation
  8. Physical Buttons Make Comeback on Mazda Steering Wheels as Company Adopts First Touchscreen
  9. Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Accusing Apple of Taking Bribes To Avoid Competing With Visa and Mastercard
  10. China is Building 74% of All Current Solar and Wind Projects
  11. Swedish Bodyguards Reveal Prime Minister’s Location on Fitness App
  12. Why America Still Can’t Get Disaster Alerts Right
  13. Senators Signal They’re Prepared To Push Back Against NASA Cuts
  14. New EU Regulations Require Transparency, Copyright Protection From Powerful AI Systems
  15. Intel CEO Says Company Has Fallen From ‘Top 10’ Semiconductor Firms, ‘Too Late’ To Catch Nvidia in AI

Alterslash picks up to the best 5 comments from each of the day’s Slashdot stories, and presents them on a single page for easy reading.

Video Game Actors End 11-Month Strike With New AI Protections

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Straight Arrow News:
Hollywood video game performers ended their nearly year-long strike Wednesday with new protections against the use of digital replicas of their voices or appearances. If those replicas are used, actors must be paid at rates comparable to in-person work. The SAG-AFTRA union demanded stronger pay and better working conditions. Among their top concerns was the potential for artificial intelligence to replace human actors without compensation or consent.

Under a deal announced in a media release, studios such as Activision and Electronic Arts are now required to obtain written consent from performers before creating digital replicas of their work. Actors have the right to suspend their consent for AI-generated material if another strike occurs. “This deal delivers historic wage increases, industry-leading AI protections and enhanced health and safety measures for performers,” Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game producers, said in the release. The full list of studios includes Activision Productions, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts Productions, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Llama Productions, Take 2 Productions and WB Games.

SAG-AFTRA members approved the contract by a vote of 95.04% to 4.96%, according to the announcement. The agreement includes a wage increase of more than 15%, with additional 3% raises in November 2025, 2026 and 2027. The contract expires in October 2028. […] The video game strike, which started in July 2024, did not shut down production like the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike in 2023. Hollywood actors went on strike for 118 days, from July 14 to November 9, 2023, halting nearly all scripted television and film work. That strike, which centered on streaming residuals and AI concerns, prevented actors from engaging in promotional work, such as attending premieres and posting on social media. In contrast, video game performers were allowed to work during their strike, but only with companies that had signed interim agreements addressing concerns related to AI. More than 160 companies signed on, according to The Associated Press. Still, the year took a toll.

Qantas Confirms Data Breach Impacts 5.7 Million Customers

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Qantas has confirmed that 5.7 million customers have been impacted by a recent data breach through a third-party platform used by its contact center. The breach, attributed to the Scattered Spider threat group, exposed various personal details but did not include passwords, financial, or passport data. BleepingComputer reports:
In a new update today, Qantas has confirmed that the threat actors stole data for approximately 5.7 million customers, with varying types of data exposed in the breach:

4 million customer records are limited to name, email address and Qantas Frequent Flyer details. Of this:
- 1.2 million customer records contained name and email address.
- 2.8 million customer records contained name, email address and Qantas Frequent Flyer number. The majority of these also had tier included. A smaller subset of these had points balance and status credits included.

Of the remaining 1.7 million customers, their records included a combination of some of the data fields above and one or more of the following:
- Address - 1.3 million. This is a combination of residential addresses and business addresses including hotels for misplaced baggage delivery.
- Date of birth - 1.1 million
- Phone number (mobile, landline and/or business) - 900,000
- Gender - 400,000. This is separate to other gender identifiers like name and salutation.
- Meal preferences - 10,000

Emirates Airline Adding Crypto Payments With Crypto.com Partnership

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Dubai-based airline Emirates is partnering with Crypto.com to integrate Bitcoin payments into the airliner’s payment systems and add NFT collectibles on the company’s websites for trading. The airline is also hiring staff to support its blockchain, crypto, and metaverse ambitions, positioning itself at the forefront of digital transformation in aviation.

“NFTs and metaverse are two different applications and approaches,” explained Emirates Chief Operating Officer Adel Ahmed Al-Redha, adding that the airline will also seek to use the blockchain in tracing records of aircraft. “With the metaverse, you will be able to transform your whole processes — whether it is in operation, training, sales on the website, or complete experience — into a metaverse type application, but more importantly making it interactive.”

The official integration of crypto payments is expected to take place next year, according to the announcement.

German Court Rules Meta Tracking Tech Violates EU Privacy Laws

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Record:
A German court has ruled that Meta must pay $5,900 to a German Facebook user who sued the platform for embedding tracking technology in third-party websites — a ruling that could open the door to large fines down the road over data privacy violations relating to pixels and similar tools. The Regional Court of Leipzig in Germany ruled Friday that Meta tracking pixels and software development kits embedded in countless websites and apps collect users’ data without their consent and violate the continent’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The ruling in favor of the plaintiff sets a precedent which the court acknowledged will allow countless other users to sue without “explicitly demonstrating individual damages,” according to a Leipzig Regional Court press release. “Every user is individually identifiable to Meta at all times as soon as they visit the third-party websites or use an app, even if they have not logged in via the Instagram and Facebook account,” the press release said.
“This may very well be one of the most substantial rulings coming out of Europe this year,” said Ronni K. Gothard Christiansen, the CEO of AesirX, a consultancy which helps businesses comply with data privacy laws. "$5,900 in damages for one visitor adds up quickly if you have tens of thousands of visitors, or even millions.”

Russia Blocks Ethical Hacking Legislation Over Security Concerns

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Russia’s State Duma rejected legislation that would have legalized ethical hacking, citing national security concerns. Politicians worried that discovering vulnerabilities in software from hostile countries would require sharing those security flaws with foreign companies, potentially enabling strategic exploitation.

The bill also failed to explain how existing laws would accommodate white-hat hacking provisions. Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development introduced the proposal in 2022, with a first draft in 2023. Individual security researchers currently face prosecution under Russian Criminal Code for unauthorized computer access, while established cybersecurity companies can conduct limited vulnerability research.

Ethical Russians you say

By greytree • Score: 3 Thread
Any remaining Ethical Russians should be doing all they can to bring down their murderous government.

Gemini Can Now Turn Your Photos Into Video With Veo 3

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Google is rolling out photo-to-video generation in its Gemini app today, allowing paid subscribers to upload images and transform them into short AI videos using the company’s Veo 3 model. The feature requires a subscription to Google’s AI Pro plan at $20 per month for three daily video generations, or the $250 AI Ultra plan for five daily videos.

Videos are limited to 720p resolution and eight seconds in length, taking several minutes to generate due to computational requirements.

Indeed, Glassdoor To Cut 1,300 Jobs in AI-Focused Consolidation

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Indeed and Glassdoor — both owned by the Japanese group Recruit Holdings — are cutting roughly 1,300 jobs as part of a broader move to combine operations and shift more focus toward AI. From a report:
The cuts will mostly affect people in the US, especially within teams including research and development and people and sustainability, Recruit Holdings Chief Executive Officer Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba said in a memo to employees. The company didn’t give a specific reason for the cuts, but Idekoba said in his email that “AI is changing the world, and we must adapt by ensuring our product delivers truly great experiences.”

Eh, they just needed some new customers

By gurps_npc • Score: 5, Funny Thread

One way to get more people to look for a job is to fire them.

Physical Buttons Make Comeback on Mazda Steering Wheels as Company Adopts First Touchscreen

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Mazda is redesigning the steering wheel controls in its new CX-5 to address potential safety concerns from its shift to touchscreen-based infotainment systems. The Japanese automaker developed what it calls “an all new steering wheel layout with physical buttons” that allow drivers to control critical vehicle functions without taking their hands off the wheel. Stefan Meisterfeld, Mazda’s U.S. VP of operations, said the new steering wheel design goes beyond simple redundant shortcuts.

The company is pairing the enhanced steering wheel controls with Google Assistant voice commands and a 15.6-inch central touchscreen that now houses audio and climate controls previously operated by physical dashboard buttons. Mazda had been the sole mainstream holdout against touchscreen infotainment systems, relying instead on a console-mounted dial. The steering wheel redesign represents the company’s attempt to maintain its “hands on the wheel, eyes on the road” safety philosophy while adopting touchscreen technology that customer research indicated buyers wanted.

No touch screen, no purchase

By registrations_suck • Score: 3 Thread

Mazda was at the top of our list when we were buying a car in 2023.

Lack of touch screen for use with Apple CarPlay was why we bought a Honda instead.

It’s a start, but …

By PPH • Score: 3 Thread

… I want my choke knob back.

Touch screens are dumb.

By gurps_npc • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

They save the company a ton of money - one touch screen can duplicate 10, 20 30 or more gauges.

But when the touch screen breaks, you lose everything rather than just the rpm.

They distract drivers, and create a ton of safety concerns, hence the ‘return’ to physical buttons.

TFS contradicts TFA?

By AnOnyxMouseCoward • Score: 3 Thread
I read the Slashdot title / summary, and it sounded like Mazda redesigned the steering wheel to have more buttons and understand that touchscreens have safety concerns. Then I go to the article, which has this in the first paragraph: “But after a generation of development as the only major outlier in the industry, the company is now pivoting to a conventional, touchscreen-style experience—and axing most of its physical controls in the process.”

I will add this blurb: “But it’s not just the navigation and other digital features that are moving behind the touchscreen interface with this generation; Mazda swept the dashboard of most of its knobs and switches, including the controls for the audio and climate control systems. Both are now found in the central, 15.6-inch screen.”

TFS should have been entitled “Physical buttons disappearing from Mazda cars”.

Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Accusing Apple of Taking Bribes To Avoid Competing With Visa and Mastercard

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit that accused Apple, Visa and Mastercard of conspiring to suppress competition in the payments network market and inflate merchant transaction fees.

U.S. District Judge David Dugan in Illinois ruled that merchants failed to provide sufficient evidence supporting claims that Apple illegally declined to launch a competing payment network to rival Visa and Mastercard.

The lawsuit, filed by beverage retailer Mirage Wine & Spirits and other businesses representing thousands of merchants, alleged the payment networks paid Apple hundreds of millions of dollars annually to avoid competition. Dugan found the plaintiffs offered only “a slew of circumstantial allegations” but permitted them to amend their complaint.

China is Building 74% of All Current Solar and Wind Projects

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Almost three-quarters of all solar and wind power projects being built globally are in China, says a new report that highlights the country’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources. From a report:
China is building 510 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and wind projects, according to data from the Global Energy Monitor, a non-governmental organisation based in San Francisco. That compares with about 689GW under construction globally, GEM said.

A rough rule of thumb is that a gigawatt can potentially supply electricity for about 1mn homes. “China is […] leading the world in global renewable energy build-out,” the report said. “It continues to add solar and wind power at a record pace.” China’s expansion of clean energy sources is important for efforts to fight climate change, given the country’s dominant role in global manufacturing.

Re:Why aren’t we doing that?

By Rinnon • Score: 4, Insightful Thread

We could easily do this solar shit if we tried.

China’s government doesn’t need to care very much about the political appeal of it’s choices. It doesn’t matter if the citizens like or dislike solar/wind/renewables. The US Government does need to care (at least to some extent, since they don’t want to get voted out [putting to the side any current claims about this point one way or the other]); so lots of energy gets spent on convincing the electorate that solar/wind/renewables are woke shit, which results in candidates who say that solar/wind/renewables are woke shit, which feeds back into reassuring the electorate that solar/wind/renewables are in fact woke shit. It doesn’t matter if the chicken or the egg came first, the feedback loop is currently impenetrable.

Re:I prefer solar

By Moryath • Score: 4, Insightful Thread

When we look back in 30 years time at what caused America to fall, energy prices, spending too much on nuclear, and failure to compete in renewable energy is my best guess.

“Being run by Inbred Klan Fuckwit Republicans” will be pretty high on the list too.

Re:Not enough

By ShanghaiBill • Score: 4, Informative Thread

Lots of toxic chemicals in those panels.

No, there isn’t.

Solar panels are made of silicon, oxygen, aluminum, copper, boron, and phosphorus.

None of those are toxic.

Some old panels used cadmium telluride, but that is not what China is installing.

Re:I prefer solar

By skam240 • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Most human populations dont live so far from the equator. A solution that works for 95% of humanity is a pretty good one.

Re:Buuuut INDIA!

By AnOnyxMouseCoward • Score: 4, Insightful Thread
The problem is far from solved, but look at your chart (or the Wiki itself, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…)! They’ve moved from ~18% renewables to 32% in 16 years. The increase in absolute quantity of coal still sucks, but you can’t say they’re not trying. You can say it’s not fast enough, not good enough… but damn you’ve got to give some credits for trying, and not just trying, but likely leading the pack in terms of energy transition.

Swedish Bodyguards Reveal Prime Minister’s Location on Fitness App

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Swedish security service members who shared details of their running and cycling routes on fitness app Strava have been accused of revealing details of the prime minister’s location, including his private address. Politico:
According to Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, on at least 35 occasions bodyguards uploaded their workouts to the training app and revealed information linked to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, including where he goes running, details of overnight trips abroad, and the location of his private home, which is supposed to be secret.

Rookie mistake.

By fuzzyfuzzyfungus • Score: 4, Funny Thread
Fat bodyguards are less likely to leak your location and better at soaking up dangerous fragments. Prime minster obviously doesn’t know what he’s doing with the protective detail.

This kind of leak has been known about for years

By Alain Williams • Score: 4, Insightful Thread

When going on duty to a sensitive location all personal mobile ‘phoned must be left at home in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.” —- switching them off while on duty is not enough.

To make this work the employer must provide locked down ‘phones with minimal apps installed; if this means that the security guard cannot chat with his lover on Instagram/whatever then tough shit - they are well paid to protect someone not to chat on social media while on assignment. This might also make the guards more effective as they will not have social media distractions when they are supposed to be keeping an eye out for assassins/whatever.

Why America Still Can’t Get Disaster Alerts Right

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
US’s emergency-warning infrastructure failed to prevent more than 100 deaths during flash flooding in Kerr County, Texas over the July 4 weekend, despite repeated warnings from the National Weather Service. At least 27 young campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic when the Guadalupe River surged during early morning hours. The alerts never reached residents who lacked cellphone service, had silenced notifications, or didn’t carry phones with them.

Similar communication failures occurred during recent Los Angeles wildfires and Maui blazes. Maui’s outdoor sirens never sounded during 2023 wildfires when cellular networks failed. Nearly 30% of Texas residents opt out of wireless emergency alerts, the highest rate nationally. Rural officials often lack funding or permission to send alerts through broadcasters and cellphones. So what’s going on?

Federal, state and local authorities share responsibility for alerting citizens through multiple platforms, but the country’s patchwork of digital and physical emergency-alert tools often lags behind rapidly developing weather events, WSJ argues.

The Atlantic has a story that adds more color: It details how officials lack training in writing effective alerts, how messages like “move to higher ground” are meaningless without context, and how the absence of warning-coordination meteorologists creates communication gaps between weather services and local authorities.

Re:Nothing was going to help

By AleRunner • Score: 5, Informative Thread

. It was, pardon the expression, a perfect storm of things.

It seems that the one thing that would have helped would be actual sirens in the area. This was something that was recommended in 2016 and rejected because 1 million pounds was considered too much.

That’s not just about a perfect storm. Clearly with sirens this could have been avoided. The question is, given that the need for sirens had been identified and then rejected, what was put in place instead and was the plan that was put in place followed?

Low Probability, Low Frequency

By eepok • Score: 5, Interesting Thread

Americans do not fund protections against (or warnings for) low-probability events. They don’t care if the severity is high— a significant part of the population can’t imagine something RARE happening to them and thus don’t want to pay for it. Moreover, the idea of funding something that benefits others but not yourself is labeled as “evil socialism” by said population.

* Hurricanes: Regional risk, Regionally high frequency, seasonal, highly predictable, and deadly. They get very specific warnings and calls for evacuations.
* Tornadoes: Regional risk, Regionally high frequency, seasonal, moderately predictable, and deadly. They get regional warnings and calls for taking shelter.
* Wild Fires: Regional risk, Regionally high frequency, seasonal, highly predictable once started, and deadly. They get very specific warnings and calls for evacuations.
* Earthquakes: Regional risk, Regionally high frequency, no seasonality, highly unpredictable, and rarely injurious. There are no earthquake risk warnings— only alerts that earthquakes are happening or have recently occurred.
* Flash Floods: LOCAL risk (flood planes), LOW frequency everywhere, seasonal, and deadly. They get general risk warnings, but the primary protection is “Don’t be in a flood plane”.

the problem is being numb to disasters

By MerlynEmrys67 • Score: 5, Interesting Thread

I am in california now. Every winter we have atmospheric rivers come over and dump a bunch of rain. The news stations need something to get viewers to tune in so it is “STORM SURGE 202x” coverage every 15 minutes. Yes, it is raining, yes roads wash out, yes, some local flooding - nothing to make me think I need to take action.

I lived in Texas - tornado warning came out. Time to sit on the porch and watch it blow by… Lots of fun had by all. I hear people in Florida won’t evacuate until after they determine that a Cat x hurricane is going to hit right where they are. The longer you live there the higher the x is of course.

What do we expect the government to do - force us at gunpoint to evacuate? No, we individually take responsibility to know what is going on around us and act accordingly. You live close to a river that is prone to flash floods - you watch the weather more closely than I do that lives 50 ft higher elevation.

Re:Nothing was going to help

By Cyberax • Score: 5, Informative Thread

Those are not relevant to this particular case

This is incorrect. Turns out, that the person responsible for getting alerts to Texas officials left the NWS earlier this year ( https://www.pressreader.com/us… ), taking the early retirement option. And he was not replaced because changing positions makes you a “temporary” employee, and thus eligible for termination.

This is a rare case where we can pinpoint the EXACT sequence starting with Trump’s decisions and ending with innocent deaths.

Re: We already know what the cause

By Cyberax • Score: 5, Informative Thread
We even know the _name_ of the person who would have been responsible for coordinating the alerts with local authorities: Paul Yura ( https://www.kxan.com/weather/w… )

Senators Signal They’re Prepared To Push Back Against NASA Cuts

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Senators from both parties are preparing to challenge the Trump administration’s proposed 24% cut to NASA’s budget, with the Senate appropriations committee advancing a $24.9 billion allocation that matches the agency’s 2025 funding levels.

The bipartisan pushback directly contradicts President Donald Trump’s budget request, which sought to slash NASA’s science portfolio funding nearly in half and terminate dozens of operating and planned missions. “We rejected cuts that would have devastated NASA science by 47% and would have terminated 55 operating and planned missions,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said.

The Senate bill allocates $7.3 billion for science programs. Senators also refused the administration’s call to cancel the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule after their third flights, programs Trump’s budget labeled “grossly expensive and delayed.” “The bill reflects an ambitious approach to space exploration, prioritizing the agency’s flagship program, Artemis, and rejecting premature termination of systems like SLS and Orion before commercial replacements are ready,” said Senator Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican.

How about the NIH ?

By backslashdot • Score: 5, Informative Thread

They are cutting NIH (National Institute of Health) funding from 47 billion to $20 billion even though thanks to NIH research death rates from diseases like cancer have reduced by 30% of the last couple of decades. Reference: https://www.ctpost.com/lifesty…

And yes included in the cutbacks is $2.7 billion from the National Cancer Institute: https://www.theguardian.com/us…

Re:How about the NIH ?

By rsilvergun • Score: 5, Insightful Thread
So NASA is a cash cow for multiple districts. Especially ones in red States. I haven’t looked in a while but they were entire cities that basically popped up and are completely dependent on there NASA jobs.

It’s basically pure pork but good pork. But of course everybody else is pork is always bad pork.

We should be moving away from a competitive civilization to a cooperative one but as soon as you suggest that everyone thinks you’re a big wussy. Never mind the fact that we are fundamentally a social species. Unfortunately tribalism came with that deal…

Does it matter?

By Sloppy • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Regardless of whatever budget Congress sets, the majority party has already been clear that they have no intent to enforce it. If the president uses the NASA money for something else, or even just puts it into his own personal pocket, we can be confident that he won’t be impeached, and if impeached, he won’t be convicted.

The only thing that matters is the total budget. The president is free to spend that total however he wishes. This isn’t the law as written, but it’s the law defacto. If voters have a problem with that (do they?) they can choose a different party to be the majority.

lying blowhards

By sdinfoserv • Score: 5, Insightful Thread
bullshit. The time to push back was BEFORE you voted for this POS legislation. Complaining after you approved it just proves how weak, pathetic and bought off you are. None of you care one shit about the American people. You’re all just corporate shills and/or MAGA’t zombicons.

Re:How about the NIH ?

By jacks smirking reven • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

And yet it’s been private companies like SpaceX that have done far more to advance humanity’s space faring capabilities than NASA has of recent.

In launch services yes but outside of manned spacecraft NASA has always relied on contractors and even those were all NASA designs built by contractors. Titan rockets the Voyager probes flew on were a product of Martin Corp.

Also SpaceX was built on the foundations of all that NASA knowhow built over decades. Did they have to material science their own heatshield material? No, NASA said here take our PICA and use that.

Not to discount what SpaceX has done which is very impressive but it’s a sterling example of the power of public/private cooperation, not “free market private actors”.

New EU Regulations Require Transparency, Copyright Protection From Powerful AI Systems

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
European Union officials unveiled new AI regulations on Thursday that require makers of the most powerful AI systems to improve transparency, limit copyright violations and protect public safety.

The rules apply to companies like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google that develop general-purpose AI systems underpinning services like ChatGPT, which can analyze enormous amounts of data and perform human tasks. The code of practice provides concrete details about enforcing the AI Act passed last year, with rules taking effect August 2.

EU regulators cannot impose penalties for noncompliance until August 2026. Companies must provide detailed breakdowns of content used for training algorithms and conduct risk assessments to prevent misuse for creating biological weapons. CCIA Europe, representing Amazon, Google and Meta, told New York Times the code imposes a disproportionate burden on AI providers.

Sometimes better is worse.

By dinfinity • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

When I was 12, we were making fires at a school camp. Being a scout, I thought my time to shine was then. I applied my knowledge to carefully build up a base with differently sized branches, properly laid out. While I was doing that, the other boys were dragging a bunch of dead branches out of the forest, haphazardly throwing them onto a pile and setting the pile on fire.

Looking at their brightly burning fire and my work in progress, I gave up with much disappointment and (later) realized that my approach was good for some circumstances, but definitely not for this one.

Europe is being a good boy scout.

Re:Sometimes better is worse.

By caseih • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Yeah it’s much more efficient to just start the whole forest on fire which is basically what they want to be allowed to do. Nothing should stand in the way of tech companies being able to make money. Nothing.

If you can’t innovate, regulate!

By ihadafivedigituid • Score: 3 Thread
The Chinese give zero shits about these issues and so they will win.

Re:Europe!

By bjoast • Score: 4, Funny Thread
Not great at innovating? Have you even tried our bottle caps?

Echos of Napster and Bittorrent

By xack • Score: 3 Thread
Eventually, we will have to agree on a global copyright negotiation system, based on sharing. DRM doesn’t work and anti scrapers will eventually be cracked, so cooperation is the future. Human consumers still have to go through hoops while bots bypass them, eventually we need to figure out new business models instead of having to lurk in the shadows. In a world without physical media, everything is in one interconnected soup, and both human and bot agents need to figure out their places in it. I don’t know the answer, but eventually we will need a “Steam for Knowledge”. We lost too many people in the fight for information, we need to sort it out so humanity and artificial knowledge forms can coexist.

Intel CEO Says Company Has Fallen From ‘Top 10’ Semiconductor Firms, ‘Too Late’ To Catch Nvidia in AI

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told employees this week that the company has fallen out of the “top 10 semiconductor companies” and that it’s “too late” to catch up with Nvidia in AI training technology.

The remarks came as Intel began laying off thousands of workers globally, including 529 in Oregon and several hundred others in California, Arizona and Israel. “Twenty, 30 years ago, we are really the leader,” Tan said during a conversation broadcast to Intel employees worldwide. “Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies.” Tan said Nvidia’s position in AI training is “too strong” and that customers are giving Intel failing grades.

Intel’s market value has dropped to around $100 billion, roughly half its value from 18 months ago, while Nvidia briefly hit $4 trillion on Wednesday. Tan said Intel will instead focus on “edge” AI that operates directly on devices rather than centralized computers.

Has anything really changed?

By timholman • Score: 4, Interesting Thread

Tan said Intel will instead focus on “edge” AI that operates directly on devices rather than centralized computers.

And will those “edge” AI devices have to sell for $1000 each in order for the engineers who design them to be rewarded and promoted within the company?

That has been Intel’s doom for the past three decades. The employees working on high-end products with high margin sales get all the attention and promotions. The ones working on high-volume, low margin products go nowhere. That’s why Intel has made so little headway in anything beyond enterprise products in recent years.

This new “focus” will go nowhere unless Intel’s corporate culture is vastly different than what is was when I last dealt with it.

Re:That ain’t it, Chief

By toxonix • Score: 4, Informative Thread

Also, a large part of that device market is Apple. Apple designs their own chips and gets a large amount of capacity at TSMC to manufacture them. Intel failed to become Apple’s foundry partner, which was ultimately due to Intel’s inability to learn from TSMC. Intel can be a foundry for its own chips, but making someone else’s is too hard an engineering and business problem for them to figure out. There is a lot of room in the foundry market for someone to take share away from TSMC, but Intel failed to capitalize on it.
Intel has made wise decisions NOT to compete in markets and focus on a single purpose. They got out of the memory market in the 1980’s because they realized they couldn’t compete with Japan. Why not? They knew how to make memory, but the Japanese companies made it better and cheaper. They took the same play with Apple and TSMC. It shows that TSMC is smarter, better managed and way ahead of Intel in most ways that matter.

great job CEO

By toxonix • Score: 3, Insightful Thread

This is a great message for the CEO to give to investors. I’m inspired to throw some retirement money at intel stock. Nope. nope;

MBA’s are the problem

By atomicalgebra • Score: 3 Thread
Intel died the moment the MBA’s took over the company. They stopped innovating and actually mocked companies that did. The shutdown profitable sectors of the company citing opportunity costs—and then gave themselves fat bonuses. The couldn’t even name their processors correctly anymore.

Re:MBA’s are the problem

By thegarbz • Score: 4, Informative Thread

It’s easy to blame MBA’s generally when in reality they have lacked effective leadership regardless of the leader’s backgrounds for many years. Good leaders who can foster the right kind of high end high volume innovation in tech are actually extremely rare, and this has very little to do with MBA vs non-MBA. MBA is a generic title (kind of like Woke is used to describe movies when you can’t actually articulate what is really wrong with a movie) for people who don’t understand how a leader impacts the company. Paul Otellini got his MBA long before he headded intel and he undeniably took Intel through it’s greatest growth period pulling intel out of the lull that it was in during the end of the Barrett years where all they were capable of doing was pushing clock rates incrementally higher.

Yes it was the MBA that drove Intel to innovate again, ask yourself why that doesn’t fit the narrative and then you get to the core of my point: It’s not MBA vs non-MBA. CEOs are selected and chosen based on their history. The kind of question you need to ask yourself is what kind of behavioural change do you need to drive. Just because you’re an engineer doesn’t mean you can drive technical innovation, and likewise just because you’re an economics major with an MBA doesn’t mean you can only focus your company on the coming quarterly profit statement.

Intel’s history is actually a textbook case for *not* simply throwing the word MBA around and looking more into details. That said I don’t think Geisinger (who didn’t have an MBA) was given a fair go at undoing the damage caused by Swan (a short term finance driven guy at heart with an MBA), but he undeniably ran the company during a period of absolute disastrous response to major quality control issues that developed under his leadership.

Tan… I honestly don’t know what to make of the guy, no idea if he’ll pull Intel out of the rut it is in, but he’s a science guy in background.