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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Department of Defense is revamping its "outdated" software procurement systems through a new Software Fast Track initiative. The SWFT program aims to reform how software is acquired, tested, and authorized with security as the primary focus. "Widespread use of open source software, with contributions from developers worldwide, presents a significant and ongoing challenge," DoD CIO Katie Arrington wrote in the initiative memo. The DoD currently "lacks visibility into the origins and security of software code," hampering security assurance efforts. The initiative will establish verification procedures for software products and expedite authorization processes. Multiple requests for information are running until late May seeking industry input, including how to leverage AI for software authorization and define effective supply chain risk management requirements. The push comes amid recent DoD security incidents, from malware campaigns targeting procurement systems to sensitive information leaks.

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Stratolaunch successfully flew its uncrewed Talon-A2 prototype to hypersonic speeds twice -- once in December and again in March. "We've now demonstrated hypersonic speed, added the complexity of a full runway landing with prompt payload recovery and proven reusability," Stratolaunch President and CEO Zachary Krevor said in a statement on Monday. "Both flights were great achievements for our country, our company and our partners." Space.com reports: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen established Stratolaunch in 2011, with the goal of air-launching satellites from a giant carrier plane called Roc, which has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). That vision changed after Allen's 2018 death, however; the company is now using Roc as a platform to test hypersonic technology. Hypersonic vehicles are highly maneuverable craft capable of flying at least five times the speed of sound. Their combination of speed and agility make them much more difficult to track and intercept than traditional ballistic missiles. The United States, China and other countries view hypersonic tech as vital for national security, and are therefore developing and testing such gear at an ever-increasing pace. Stratolaunch, Roc and the winged, rocket-powered Talon-2A are part of this evolving picture, as the two newly announced test flights show. They were both conducted for the U.S. military's Test Resource Management Center Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program, under a partnership with the Virginia-based company Leidos. On both occasions, Roc lifted off from California and dropped Talon-2A over the Pacific Ocean. The hypersonic vehicle then powered its way to a landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base, on California's Central Coast. "These flights were a huge success for our program and for the nation," Scott Wilson, MACH-TB program manager, said in the same statement. "The data collected from the experiments flown on the initial Talon-A flight has now been analyzed and the results are extremely positive," he added. "The opportunity for technology testing at a high rate is highly valuable as we push the pace of hypersonic testing. The MACH-TB program is pleased with the multiple flight successes while looking forward to future flight tests with Stratolaunch."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Spyware maker NSO Group will have to pay more than $167 million in damages to WhatsApp for a 2019 hacking campaign against more than 1,400 users. On Tuesday, after a five-year legal battle, a jury ruled that NSO Group must pay $167,256,000 in punitive damages and around $444,719 in compensatory damages. This is a huge legal win for WhatsApp, which had asked for more than $400,000 in compensatory damages, based on the time its employees had to dedicate to remediate the attacks, investigate them, and push fixes to patch the vulnerability abused by NSO Group, as well as unspecified punitive damages. The trial, as well as the whole lawsuit, prompted a series of revelations, such as the location of the victims of the 2019 spyware campaign, as well as the names of some of NSO Group's customers. The ruling marks the end -- pending a potential appeal -- of a legal battle that started in more than five years ago, when WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against the spyware maker. The Meta-owned company accused NSO Group of accessing WhatsApp servers and exploiting an audio-calling vulnerability in the chat app to target around 1,400 people, including dissidents, human rights activists, and journalists. NSO Group's spokesperson Gil Lainer left the door open for an appeal. "We will carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal," Lainer said in a statement.

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Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) introduced the App Store Freedom Act [PDF] on Tuesday, legislation that would compel "large app store operators" with over 100 million US users to permit third-party app stores and allow them to be set as defaults. The bill directly challenges Apple's walled garden approach and Google's Play Store dominance by requiring both companies to allow developers to use alternative payment systems, bypassing the platforms' commission structures. It would also mandate equal access to development tools and interfaces without discrimination, while giving users the ability to remove pre-installed apps. Violations would trigger FTC enforcement with penalties up to $1 million per infraction. The legislation mirrors recent European Union regulations that have already forced Apple to permit third-party app stores and allow users to change default apps.

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