Hyundai Ioniq 5s with NACS (J3400) ports, as opposed to the CCS1 style, are starting to roll out of its factory in Savannah, Georgia. It’s the first manufacturer to sell...
“The country is less safe”: CDC disease detective program gutted
The cadre of elite disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to be left in ruin today as the Trump administration continues to slash the...
ChatGPT can now write erotica as OpenAI eases up on AI paternalism
“Following the initial release of the Model Spec (May 2024), many users and developers expressed support for enabling a ‘grown-up mode.’ We’re exploring how to let developers and users generate...
Louisiana officially ends mass vaccinations as RFK Jr. comes to power
“Rather than instructing individuals to receive any and all vaccines, LDH staff should communicate data regarding the reduced risk of disease, hospitalization, and death associated with a vaccine and encourage...
What is device code phishing, and why are Russian spies so successful at it?
Researchers have uncovered a sustained and ongoing campaign by Russian spies that uses a clever phishing technique to hijack Microsoft 365 accounts belonging to a wide range of targets, researchers...
No penalties even when deputies share a woman’s nudes after an illegal phone search
Government agents have “qualified immunity” for 2019 actions. Once your phone is imaged, the data is out of your control. Credit: Getty Images In 2019, Haley Olson’s life in Grant...
Measles outbreak in undervaccinated Texas area doubles—again
A measles outbreak in an area of Texas with abysmal vaccination rates continues to mushroom, with cases doubling since Tuesday and expanding into additional counties. A week ago, officials reported...
Man offers to buy city dump in last-ditch effort to recover $800M in bitcoins
Howells told The Times that he envisions cleaning up the site and turning it into a park, but the council’s analysis seems to suggest that wouldn’t be a suitable use....
Asahi Linux lead resigns from Mac-based distro after tumultuous kernel debate
Working at the intersection of Apple’s newest hardware and Linux kernel development, for the benefit of a free distribution, was never going to be easy. But it’s been an especially...
After 50 years, Ars staffers pick their favorite Saturday Night Live sketches
“Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.” American musician Stevie Wonder (left) appears on an episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ with comedian and actor Eddie Murphy, New York, New York, May...
The Mask Comes Off: A Trio of Tales
This post covers three recent shenanigans involving OpenAI. In each of them, OpenAI or Sam Altman attempt to hide the central thing going on. First, in Three Observations, Sam Altman’s...
H5N1 testing in cow veterinarians suggests bird flu is spreading silently
Three veterinarians who work with cows have tested positive for prior infections of H5 bird flu, according to a study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....
Streaming used to make stuff networks wouldn’t. Now it wants safer bets.
Opinion: Streaming gets more cable-like with new focus on live events, mainstream content. A scene from The OA. Credit: Netflix There was a time when it felt like you needed...
Condé Nast, other news orgs say AI firm stole articles, spit out “hallucinations”
Condé Nast and several other media companies sued the AI startup Cohere today, alleging that it engaged in “systematic copyright and trademark infringement” by using news articles to train its...
Burning in woman’s legs turned out to be slug parasites migrating to her brain
It started with a bizarre burning sensation in her feet. Over the next two days, the searing pain crept up her legs. Any light touch made it worse, and over-the-counter...
Apple teases launch for “the newest member of the family” on February 19
Big news for people who prefer their product announcements to be pre-announced: Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company has something brewing for Wednesday, February 19. Cook referred to...
Wheel of Time S3 trailer tees us up for Last Battle
After defeating Ishamael, one of the most powerful of the Forsaken, at the end of Season Two, Rand reunites with his friends in the city of Falme and is declared...
Over half of LLM-written news summaries have “significant issues”—BBC analysis
Here at Ars, we’ve done plenty of coverage of the errors and inaccuracies that LLMs often introduce into their responses. Now, the BBC is trying to quantify the scale of...
“A sicker America”: Senate confirms Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary
The US Senate on Thursday confirmed the long-time anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The vote was largely along party lines, with a...
Sam Altman lays out roadmap for OpenAI’s long-awaited GPT-5 model
On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a roadmap for how the company plans to release GPT-5, the long-awaited followup to 2023’s GPT-4 AI language model that made huge waves...