An anonymous reader shares a report: Leading AI developers, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, are threading a delicate needle to sell software to the United States military: make the Pentagon more efficient, without letting their AI kill people. Today, their tools are not being used as weapons, but AI is giving the Department of Defense a "significant advantage" in identifying, tracking, and assessing threats, the Pentagon's Chief Digital and AI Officer, Dr. Radha Plumb, told TechCrunch in a phone interview. "We obviously are increasing the ways in which we can speed up the execution of kill chain so that our commanders can respond in the right time to protect our forces," said Plumb. The "kill chain" refers to the military's process of identifying, tracking, and eliminating threats, involving a complex system of sensors, platforms, and weapons. Generative AI is proving helpful during the planning and strategizing phases of the kill chain, according to Plumb. The relationship between the Pentagon and AI developers is a relatively new one. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta walked back their usage policies in 2024 to let U.S. intelligence and defense agencies use their AI systems. However, they still don't allow their AI to harm humans. "We've been really clear on what we will and won't use their technologies for," Plumb said, when asked how the Pentagon works with AI model providers.

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In 2022 California's Air Resources Board issued regulations to ban new diesel truck sales by 2036, remembers the Los Angeles Times, and force the owners of diesel trucks to take them off the road by 2042. "The idea was to replace those trucks with electric and hydrogen-powered versions, which dramatically reduce emissions but are currently two to three times more expensive." But it would've required a federal waiver to enforce those rules — which isn't going to happen: The Biden administration hadn't granted the waivers as of this week, and rather than face almost certain denial by the incoming Trump administration, the state withdrew its waiver request... Trucking representatives had filed a lawsuit to block the rules, arguing they would cause irreparable harm to the industry and the wider economy. The nonprofit news site CalMatters notes the withdrawal "comes after the Biden administration recently approved the California Air Resources Board's mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars by 2035, but had not yet approved other waivers for four diesel vehicle standards that the state has adopted... California may have to suspend any future rule-making for vehicles over the next four years of the Trump administration and rely instead on voluntary agreements with engine manufacturers, trucking companies, railroads and other industries." The Los Angeles Times adds that California "could, however, pursue waivers at some point in the future." Under America's federal Clean Air Act, "California is allowed to set its own air standards, and other states are allowed to follow California's lead. But federal government waivers are required..."

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"Nothing horrible or unexpected happened last week," Linux Torvalds posted tonight on the Linux kernel mailing list, "so I've tagged and pushed out the final 6.13 release." Phoronix says the release has "plenty of fine features": Linux 6.13 comes with the introduction of the AMD 3D V-Cache Optimizer driver for benefiting multi-CCD Ryzen X3D processors. The new AMD EPYC 9005 "Turin" server processors will now default to AMD P-State rather than ACPI CPUFreq for better power efficiency.... Linux 6.13 also brings more Rust programming language infrastructure and more. Phoronix notes that Linux 6.13 also brings "the start of Intel Xe3 graphics bring-up, support for many older (pre-M1) Apple devices like numerous iPads and iPhones, NVMe 2.1 specification support, and AutoFDO and Propeller optimization support when compiling the Linux kernel with the LLVM Clang compiler." And some lucky Linux kernel developers will also be getting a guitar pedal soldered by Linus Torvalds himself, thanks to a generous offer he announced a week ago: For _me_ a traditional holiday activity tends to be a LEGO build or two, since that's often part of the presents... But in addition to the LEGO builds, this year I also ended up doing a number of guitar pedal kit builds ("LEGO for grown-ups with a soldering iron"). Not because I play guitar, but because I enjoy the tinkering, and the guitar pedals actually do something and are the right kind of "not very complex, but not some 5-minute 555 LED blinking thing"... [S]ince I don't actually have any _use_ for the resulting pedals (I've already foisted off a few only unsuspecting victims^Hfriends), I decided that I'm going to see if some hapless kernel developer would want one.... as an admittedly pretty weak excuse to keep buying and building kits... "It may be worth noting that while I've had good success so far, I'm a software person with a soldering iron. You have been warned... [Y]ou should set your expectations along the lines of 'quality kit built by a SW person who doesn't know one end of a guitar from the other.'"

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Amazon has angered its workers "after forcing them to return to the office five days a week," reports the New York Post. The problem? "Not enough desks for everyone." (As well as "packed parking lots" that are turning some workers away.) The Post cites interviews conducted with seven Amazon employees by Business Insider (which notes that in mid-December Amazon had already "delayed full return-to-office at dozens of locations, sometimes until as late as May, because of office-capacity issues). Here in mid-January, the Post writes, many returning-to-office workers still aren't happy: Some meeting rooms have not had enough chairs — and there also have not been enough meeting rooms for everyone, one worker told the publication... [S]imply reaching the office is a challenge in itself, according to the report. Some complained they were turned away from company parking lots that were full, while others griped about having to join meetings from the road due to excess traffic on their way to the office, according to the Slack messages. Once staffers conquer the challenges of reaching the office and finding a desk, some lamented the lack of in-person discussions since many of the meetings remain virtual, according to BI. Amazon acknowledged they had offices that were "not quite ready" to "welcome everyone back a full five days a week," according to Post, though Amazon believed the number of not-quite-ready offices were "relatively small". But the parking lot situation may continue. Business Insider says one employee from Amazon's Nashville office "said the wait time for a company parking pass was backed up for months." (Although another Nashville staffer said Amazon was handing out passes for them to take mass-transit for free, which they'd described as "incredibly generous.") There's also Amazon shuttle busses, according to the article. Although other staffers "said they were denied a spot on Amazon shuttle buses because the vehicles were full..." Others said they just drove back home, while some staffers found street parking nearby, according to multiple Slack messages seen by Business Insider... This month, some employees were still questioning the logic behind the policy. They said being in the office has had little effect on their work routine and has not generated much of a productivity gain. A considerable portion of their in-office work is still being done through video calls with customers who are elsewhere, these employees told BI. Many Amazon colleagues are at other office locations, so face-to-face meetings still don't happen very often, they added. The Post adds another drawback of returning to the office. "Employees at Amazon's Toronto office said their personal belongings have repeatedly been stolen from their desks."

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