Author name: Mike M.

almost-unfixable-“sinkclose”-bug-affects-hundreds-of-millions-of-amd-chips

Almost unfixable “Sinkclose” bug affects hundreds of millions of AMD chips

AMD, CPU, Security, Sinkclose, syndication / /

Deep insecurity —

Worse-case scenario: “You basically have to throw your computer away.”

–

Security flaws in your computer’s firmware, the deep-seated code that loads first when you turn the machine on and controls even how its operating system boots up, have long been a target for hackers looking for a stealthy foothold. But only rarely does that kind of vulnerability appear not in the firmware of any particular computer maker, but in the chips found across hundreds of millions of PCs and servers. Now security researchers have found one such flaw that has persisted in AMD processors for decades, and that would allow malware to burrow deep enough into a computer’s memory that, in many cases, it may be easier to discard a machine than to disinfect it.

At the Defcon hacker conference, Enrique Nissim and Krzysztof Okupski, researchers from the security firm IOActive, plan to present a vulnerability in AMD chips they’re calling Sinkclose. The flaw would allow hackers to run their own code in one of the most privileged modes of an AMD processor, known as System Management Mode, designed to be reserved only for a specific, protected portion of its firmware. IOActive’s researchers warn that it affects virtually all AMD chips dating back to 2006, or possibly even earlier.

Nissim and Okupski note that exploiting the bug would require hackers to already have obtained relatively deep access to an AMD-based PC or server, but that the Sinkclose flaw would then allow them to plant their malicious code far deeper still. In fact, for any machine with one of the vulnerable AMD chips, the IOActive researchers warn that an attacker could infect the computer with malware known as a “bootkit” that evades antivirus tools and is potentially invisible to the operating system, while offering a hacker full access to tamper with the machine and surveil its activity. For systems with certain faulty configurations in how a computer maker implemented AMD’s security feature known as Platform Secure Boot—which the researchers warn encompasses the large majority of the systems they tested—a malware infection installed via Sinkclose could be harder yet to detect or remediate, they say, surviving even a reinstallation of the operating system.

“Imagine nation-state hackers or whoever wants to persist on your system. Even if you wipe your drive clean, it’s still going to be there,” says Okupski. “It’s going to be nearly undetectable and nearly unpatchable.” Only opening a computer’s case, physically connecting directly to a certain portion of its memory chips with a hardware-based programming tool known as SPI Flash programmer and meticulously scouring the memory would allow the malware to be removed, Okupski says.

Nissim sums up that worst-case scenario in more practical terms: “You basically have to throw your computer away.”

In a statement shared with WIRED, AMD acknowledged IOActive’s findings, thanked the researchers for their work, and noted that it has “released mitigation options for its AMD EPYC datacenter products and AMD Ryzen PC products, with mitigations for AMD embedded products coming soon.” (The term “embedded,” in this case, refers to AMD chips found in systems such as industrial devices and cars.) For its EPYC processors designed for use in data-center servers, specifically, the company noted that it released patches earlier this year. AMD declined to answer questions in advance about how it intends to fix the Sinkclose vulnerability, or for exactly which devices and when, but it pointed to a full list of affected products that can be found on its website’s security bulletin page.

Almost unfixable “Sinkclose” bug affects hundreds of millions of AMD chips Read More »

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Elon Musk’s lawsuit over alleged X ad boycott “a very weak case,” professor says

elon musk x, Features, Policy, x ad boycott / /
Illustration with three pictures of Elon Musk. In two of the photos there are dollar signs over Musk's eyes, in the other photo there are X logos instead.

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

Antitrust law professors aren’t impressed by Elon Musk’s lawsuit alleging a supposed X advertising boycott amounts to an antitrust violation. Based on the initial complaint filed by Musk’s X Corp., it looks like “a very weak case,” Vanderbilt Law School Associate Dean for Research Rebecca Haw Allensworth told Ars.

“Given how difficult this will be to win, I would call it an unusual strategy,” she said.

The lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and several large corporations says that the alleged boycott is “a naked restraint of trade without countervailing benefits to competition or consumers.” The “collective action among competing advertisers to dictate brand safety standards to be applied by social media platforms shortcuts the competitive process and allows the collective views of a group of advertisers with market power to override the interests of consumers,” X claims.

Musk already won a victory of sorts as the WFA yesterday shut down the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative that is the main subject of X’s allegations. “GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances. GARM therefore is making the difficult decision to discontinue its activities,” the WFA said.

But the GARM shutdown won’t result in Musk’s company obtaining any financial damages unless X also wins in court. The company formerly named Twitter sued in a federal court in Texas, part of the conservative 5th Circuit, a venue that Musk likely believes will be more favorable to him than a court in another state. The District Court judge overseeing the lawsuit is also handling Musk’s case against Media Matters for America, a nonprofit that conducted research on ads being placed next to pro-Nazi content on X.

Texas is one of three states, along with Louisiana and Mississippi, where appeals go to the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. “The 5th Circuit is well known as the most conservative circuit in the country,” Professor Stephen Calkins of Wayne State University Law School told Ars.

“The law here is very unfavorable to X”

Despite the potentially friendly Texas court venue, Musk’s X faces a high legal bar in proving that it was the victim of an illegal boycott.

Allensworth said X must show “that the defendants did actually enter into an agreement—that they had a deal with each other to pull advertising spend from X as a group, not that each brand did it individually to protect their own brand status or make their own statement about Elon Musk. The law here is very unfavorable to X, but the complaint describes a lot of conduct that could support a jury or judge finding an agreement. But it’s a fact question, and we only have half the story.”

A bigger problem for Musk “is that X must show that the boycott harmed competition, not just that it harmed X,” Allensworth said. “The complaint is far from clear on what competition was harmed. A typical boycott will harm competition among the boycotters, but that doesn’t seem to be what the complaint is about. The complaint says the competition that was harmed was between platforms (like X/Twitter and Facebook, for example) but that’s a bit garbled. Again, we may know more as the suit develops.”

There’s one more problem that may be even bigger than the first two, according to Allensworth. Even if X proves there was an explicit agreement to pull advertising and that a boycott harmed competition, the advertisers would have a strong defense under the First Amendment’s right to speech.

“Concerted refusals to deal (boycotts) are not vulnerable to antitrust suit if they are undertaken to make a statement—essentially to engage in speech,” Allensworth explained. “It would seem here like that was the purpose of this boycott (akin to lunch counter boycotts in the ’60s, which were beyond the reach of the antitrust laws). Given that the Supreme Court has only increased First Amendment rights for corporations recently, I think this defense is very strong.”

All of those factors “add up, to me, to a very weak case,” Allensworth told Ars. But she cautions that at this early stage of litigation, “there’s a lot we don’t know; no one can judge a case based on the complaint alone—that’s the point of the adversarial system.”

An X court win wouldn’t force companies to advertise on the platform. But “if somehow they prevail, X could ask for treble damages—three times the revenue they lost because of the boycott,” Allensworth said.

Elon Musk’s lawsuit over alleged X ad boycott “a very weak case,” professor says Read More »

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China’s Long March 6A rocket is making a mess in low-Earth orbit

broadband, china, long march 6a, military space, Science, Space, space command, telecom / /

Another one —

After nearly every flight, the upper stage of this rocket breaks apart in orbit.

–

Debris from the upper stage of China's Long March 6A rocket captured from the ground by Slingshot Aerospace.

Enlarge / Debris from the upper stage of China’s Long March 6A rocket captured from the ground by Slingshot Aerospace.

The upper stage from a Chinese rocket that launched a batch of Internet satellites Tuesday has broken apart in space, creating a debris field of at least 700 objects in one of the most heavily-trafficked zones in low-Earth orbit.

US Space Command, which tracks objects in orbit with a network of radars and optical sensors, confirmed the rocket breakup Thursday. Space Command initially said the event created more than 300 pieces of trackable debris. The military’s ground-based radars are capable of tracking objects larger than 10 centimeters (4 inches).

Later Thursday, LeoLabs, a commercial space situational awareness company, said its radars detected at least 700 objects attributed to the Chinese rocket. The number of debris fragments could rise to more than 900, LeoLabs said.

The culprit is the second stage of China’s Long March 6A rocket, which lifted off Tuesday with the first batch of 18 satellites for a planned Chinese megaconstellation that could eventually number thousands of spacecraft. The Long March 6A’s second stage apparently disintegrated after placing its payload of 18 satellites into a polar orbit.

Space Command said in a statement it has “observed no immediate threats” and “continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain.” According to LeoLabs, radar data indicated the rocket broke apart at an altitude of 503 miles (810 kilometers) at approximately 4: 10 pm EDT (20: 10 UTC) on Tuesday, around 13-and-a-half hours after it lifted off from northern China.

At this altitude, it will take decades or centuries for the wispy effect of aerodynamic drag to pull the debris back into the atmosphere. As the objects drift lower, their orbits will cross paths with SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites, the International Space Station and other crew spacecraft, and thousands more pieces of orbital debris, putting commercial and government satellites at risk of collision.

A new debris field of nearly 1,000 objects would be a significant addition to the approximately 46,000 objects Space Command tracks in Earth orbit. According to statistics compiled by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who monitors global launch and spaceflight activity, this would rank in the top five of all debris-generation events since the dawn of the Space Age.

This rocket has a track record

The medium-class Long March 6A rocket has launched seven times since debuting in March 2022, and military and commercial satellite tracking organizations have reported several breakups of the rocket’s upper stage. In November 2022, a Long March 6A upper stage disintegrated in orbit, creating a debris field of more than 500 trackable objects, according to NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office.

Commercial satellite tracking companies observed smaller debris fields following several other Long March 6A flights this year.

In its space environment statistics report, the European Space Agency says there have been more than 640 “breakups, explosions, collisions, or anomalous events resulting in fragmentation” in orbit. So these things happen frequently. But it’s not clear what makes the Long March 6A, which has a relatively short flight history, particularly vulnerable to creating debris.

A Long March 6A rocket launches the first 18 Internet satellites for China's Qianfan, or Thousand Sails, broadband network.

Enlarge / A Long March 6A rocket launches the first 18 Internet satellites for China’s Qianfan, or Thousand Sails, broadband network.

Most rockets operating today either reignite their engines to reenter the atmosphere after deploying their payloads, or if that’s not feasible, they “passivate” themselves to empty their propellant tanks and drain their batteries to reduce the risk of an explosion.

In a report last year, NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office said the Long March 6A upper stage has a mass of about 5,800 kilograms (12,800 pounds) without kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants. It is powered by a single YF-115 engine.

The launch Tuesday began the deployment of China’s “Thousand Sails” Internet network, which will initially consist of 1,296 satellites, with the possibility to expand to more than 14,000 spacecraft. This will require numerous launches, some of which will presumably use the Long March 6A.

“If even a fraction of the launches needed to field this Chinese megaconstellation generate as much debris as this first launch, the result would be a notable addition to the space debris population in LEO (low-Earth orbit),” said Audrey Schaffer, vice president of strategy and policy at Slingshot Aerospace, a commercial satellite tracking and analytics firm.

China has been responsible for several space debris incidents beyond the latest problems with the Long March 6A rocket. In 2007, China destroyed one of its own spacecraft in an anti-satellite missile test. This was the worst-ever instance of creating space debris, resulting in more than 3,000 trackable objects, and an estimate 150,000 or more smaller fragments.

On four occasions from 2020 through 2022, the massive core stage of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket has reentered the atmosphere in an uncontrolled manner, raising concerns that falling debris could put people and property at risk on Earth.

China plans more flights with its Long March 5B and Long March 6A rockets. China continued flying the Long March 5B rocket despite the risk it posed to people on the ground. Debris fields in orbit, however, don’t directly threaten any people on Earth, but they do raise the risk to satellites of all nations, including China’s own spacecraft.

“Events like this highlight the importance of adherence to existing space debris mitigation guidelines to reduce the creation of new space debris and underscore the need for robust space domain awareness capabilities to rapidly detect, track, and catalog newly-launched space objects so they can be screened for potential conjunctions,” Schaffer said in a statement.

This story was updated with the detection of additional debris fragments by LeoLabs.

China’s Long March 6A rocket is making a mess in low-Earth orbit Read More »

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Rocket Report: Archimedes engine sees first light, New Glenn making moves

rocket report, Science, Space / /

All the news that’s fit to lift —

“Coming soon: a full recovery rehearsal with our landing vessel.”

–

Rocket Lab says it fired up the Archimedes engine at full thrust this week.

Enlarge / Rocket Lab says it fired up the Archimedes engine at full thrust this week.

Rocket Lab

Welcome to Edition 7.06 of the Rocket Report! There has been a lot of drama over the last week involving NASA, the crew of Starliner on board the International Space Station, and the launch of the Crew-9 mission on a Falcon 9 rocket. NASA is now down to a binary choice: Fly Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home on Starliner, or send two astronauts to orbit on Crew-9, and return Wilmore and Williams next February on that spacecraft. We should know NASA’s final decision next week.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Firefly inks another big Alpha contract. Firefly Aerospace said Wednesday that it has signed a multi-launch agreement with L3Harris Technologies for up to 20 launches on Firefly’s Alpha rocket, including two to four missions per year from 2027 to 2031, depending on customer needs. The new agreement is in addition to Firefly’s existing multi-launch agreement with L3Harris for three Alpha missions in 2026. What is not clear is exactly what satellites L3Harris wants to launch.

Putting skins on the wall … “Firefly continues to see growing demand for Alpha’s responsive small-lift services, and we’re committed to providing a dedicated launch option that takes our customers directly to their preferred orbits,” said Peter Schumacher, Interim CEO at Firefly Aerospace. This represents another significant win for the Alpha rocket, which can lift about 1 metric ton to low-Earth orbit. Under terms of a separate agreement announced in June, Lockheed purchased 15 launches from Firefly, with an option for 10 more, through the year 2029. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)

Electron pushing launch cadence. Rocket Lab announced Wednesday that it has scheduled the launch for its 52nd Electron mission, which will deploy a single satellite for American space tech company Capella Space. The mission is scheduled to launch during a 14-day window that opens on August 11 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.

Getting to ten much faster … Should this launch take place at the opening of this window, this Electron flight would occur just eight days after the most recent Electron mission on August 3. This upcoming mission for Capella will be Rocket Lab’s tenth mission for 2024, equaling the company’s annual launch record set in 2023. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger’s space reporting is to sign up for his newsletter, we’ll collect his stories in your inbox.

PLD Space to start work on launch site. PLD Space plans to start building launch facilities for its Miura 5 rocket in October from the Diamant site at Guiana Space Centre, cofounder and Chief Business Development Officer Raúl Verdú said this week, Space News reports. Diamant has been dormant for decades after once being used for the French rocket of the same name, and “in the area where we are there is nothing,” Verdú said, “we have to do everything from scratch.”

Lots of things to build … PLD Space, Germany’s Isar Aerospace and a handful of other small European launchers are working with France’s CNES space agency to convert the site into a multi-use facility. In June, the Spanish company announced a 10 million euro ($11 million) investment plan for 15,765 square meters of space at Diamant, divided between a launch zone and a preparation area comprising an integration hangar, clean room, control center, commercial and work offices. CNES is providing common infrastructure such as roads and electricity networks. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Japanese firm raises $21 million. Interstellar Technologies announced a new fundraising round that brings its total capital and government funding to $117 million, Payload reports. After building and launching a suborbital rocket called Momo, the company is building its first orbital rocket, dubbed ZERO, with a goal of flying in 2025. This rocket is intended to carry 800 kg of payload to low-Earth orbit, and be cheaper than Rocket Lab’s Electron, COO Keiji Atsuta said.

Big help from Japan … Interstellar’s latest round was led by Japanese VC fund SBI and NTT Docomo, the country’s leading mobile firm. Previously, it received a large amount of funding, $96 million, from the Japanese government. “The Japanese government has explicitly expressed its support for private rockets due to the growing importance of the space industry, and being selected for this support program has significantly accelerated our business,” Interstellar CEO Takahiro Inagawa said. (submitted by Ken the Bin)

Cross-border deal benefits Nova Scotia spaceport. The Canadian government says it has completed negotiations with the United States on an agreement that would allow the use of US space launch technology, expertise, and data for space launches in Canada, the AP reports. Maritime Launch Services, the company developing Canada’s first commercial spaceport in northeastern Nova Scotia, called the agreement a major step forward for the industry.

US rockets could launch from Canada … Ottawa has said it hopes to position Canada as future leader in commercial space launches. The country has geographical advantages, including a vast, sparsely populated territory and high-inclination orbits. The agreement, which is yet to be signed, will establish the legal and technical safeguards needed while ensuring the proper handling of sensitive technology, the government said in a news release. (submitted by JoeyS-IVB)

Rocket Report: Archimedes engine sees first light, New Glenn making moves Read More »

pass-the-mayo:-condiment-could-help-improve-fusion-energy-yields

Pass the mayo: Condiment could help improve fusion energy yields

condiments, fluid dynamics, hydrodynamics, nuclear fusion, nuclear physics, phase transitions, Physics, Rayleigh-Taylor instability, Science / /

Don’t hold the mayo —

Controlling a problematic instability could lead to cheaper internal fusion.

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A jar of homemade mayonnaise

Inertial confinement fusion is one method for generating energy through nuclear fusion, albeit one plagued by all manner of scientific challenges (although progress is being made). Researchers at LeHigh University are attempting to overcome one specific bugbear with this approach by conducting experiments with mayonnaise placed in a rotating figure-eight contraption. They described their most recent findings in a new paper published in the journal Physical Review E with an eye toward increasing energy yields from fusion.

The work builds on prior research in the LeHigh laboratory of mechanical engineer Arindam Banerjee, who focuses on investigating the dynamics of fluids and other materials in response to extremely high acceleration and centrifugal force. In this case, his team was exploring what’s known as the “instability threshold” of elastic/plastic materials. Scientists have debated whether this comes about because of initial conditions, or whether it’s the result of “more local catastrophic processes,” according to Banerjee. The question is relevant to a variety of fields, including geophysics, astrophysics, explosive welding, and yes, inertial confinement fusion.

How exactly does inertial confinement fusion work? As Chris Lee explained for Ars back in 2016:

The idea behind inertial confinement fusion is simple. To get two atoms to fuse together, you need to bring their nuclei into contact with each other. Both nuclei are positively charged, so they repel each other, which means that force is needed to convince two hydrogen nuclei to touch. In a hydrogen bomb, force is generated when a small fission bomb explodes, compressing a core of hydrogen. This fuses to create heavier elements, releasing a huge amount of energy.

Being killjoys, scientists prefer not to detonate nuclear weapons every time they want to study fusion or use it to generate electricity. Which brings us to inertial confinement fusion. In inertial confinement fusion, the hydrogen core consists of a spherical pellet of hydrogen ice inside a heavy metal casing. The casing is illuminated by powerful lasers, which burn off a large portion of the material. The reaction force from the vaporized material exploding outward causes the remaining shell to implode. The resulting shockwave compresses the center of the core of the hydrogen pellet so that it begins to fuse.

If confinement fusion ended there, the amount of energy released would be tiny. But the energy released due to the initial fusion burn in the center generates enough heat for the hydrogen on the outside of the pellet to reach the required temperature and pressure. So, in the end (at least in computer models), all of the hydrogen is consumed in a fiery death, and massive quantities of energy are released.

That’s the idea anyway. The problem is that hydrodynamic instabilities tend to form in the plasma state—Banerjee likens it to “two materials [that] penetrate one another like fingers” in the presence of gravity or any accelerating field—which in turn reduces energy yields. The technical term is a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which occurs between two materials of different densities, where the density and pressure gradients move in opposite directions. Mayonnaise turns out to be an excellent analog for investigating this instability in accelerated solids, with no need for a lab setup with high temperature and pressure conditions, because it’s a non-Newtonian fluid.

“We use mayonnaise because it behaves like a solid, but when subjected to a pressure gradient, it starts to flow,” said Banerjee. “As with a traditional molten metal, if you put a stress on mayonnaise, it will start to deform, but if you remove the stress, it goes back to its original shape. So there’s an elastic phase followed by a stable plastic phase. The next phase is when it starts flowing, and that’s where the instability kicks in.”

More mayo, please

2019 video showcasing the rotating wheel Rayleigh Taylor instability experiment at Lehigh University.

His team’s 2019 experiments involved pouring Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise—no Miracle Whip for this crew—into a Plexiglass container and then creating wavelike perturbations in the mayo. One experiment involved placing the container on a rotating wheel in the shape of a figure eight and tracking the material with a high-speed camera, using an image processing algorithm to analyze the footage. Their results supported the claim that the instability threshold is dependent on initial conditions, namely amplitude and wavelength.

This latest paper sheds more light on the structural integrity of fusion capsules used in inertial confinement fusion, taking a closer look at the material properties, the amplitude and wavelength conditions, and the acceleration rate of such materials as they hit the Rayleigh-Taylor instability threshold. The more scientists know about the phase transition from the elastic to the stable phase, the better they can control the conditions and maintain either an elastic or plastic phase, avoiding the instability. Banerjee et al. were able to identify the conditions to maintain the elastic phase, which could inform the design of future pellets for inertial confinement fusion.

That said, the mayonnaise experiments are an analog, orders of magnitude away from the real-world conditions of nuclear fusion, which Banerjee readily acknowledges. He is nonetheless hopeful that future research will improve the predictability of just what happens within the pellets in their high-temperature, high-pressure environments. “We’re another cog in this giant wheel of researchers,” he said. “And we’re all working towards making inertial fusion cheaper and therefore, attainable.”

DOI: Physical Review E, 2024. 10.1103/PhysRevE.109.055103 (About DOIs).

Pass the mayo: Condiment could help improve fusion energy yields Read More »

intel-details-fixes-for-crashing-13th-and-14th-gen-cpus-as-bios-updates-roll-out

Intel details fixes for crashing 13th- and 14th-gen CPUs as BIOS updates roll out

13th-generation core, 14th-generation core, intel, Tech / /

the fix is in —

This microcode fix can’t be rolled out in a regular software update.

–

Intel details fixes for crashing 13th- and 14th-gen CPUs as BIOS updates roll out

Intel

Intel has shared more about the voltage-related issues that affected some 13th- and 14th-generation Core processors, as the company tries to put the episode behind it. As reported by Tom’s Hardware, Intel says that the problem originated with “elevated operating voltage” stemming from “incorrect voltage requests,” specifically an increase to the minimum operating voltage of the chips. These “elevated voltage events can accumulate over time,” eventually damaging the processor and causing system hangs or crashes.

Intel has developed a microcode update to fix those elevated voltage requests, but the bad news for some users is that they will require a BIOS update, and they can’t be deployed via software updates as some microcode fixes can be.

Intel says that in most cases, CPU performance should be essentially unaffected by the patch, though the company did notice a handful of benchmark subscores and individual games that exhibited “moderate” slowdown (though we don’t know how much that is, in concrete terms). Here’s the relevant statement about performance:

Intel’s internal testing—utilizing Intel Default Settings—indicates performance impact is within run-to-run variation (eg. 3DMark: Timespy, WebXPRT 4, Cinebench R24, Blender 4.2.0) with a few sub-tests showing moderate impacts (WebXPRT Online Homework; PugetBench GPU Effects Score). For gaming workloads tested, performance has also been within run-to-run variation (eg. Cyberpunk 2077, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Warhammer III – Mirrors of Madness) with one exception showing slightly more impact (Hitman 3: Dartmoor). However, system performance is dependent on configuration and several other factors.

For some PCs, particularly pre-built models, BIOS updates can be delivered via Windows Update or the OEM’s proprietary update software (Lenovo Vantage, Dell SupportAssist, the HP Support Assistant, and the MyASUS app all being prominent examples). For others, particularly boutique or home-built PCs, you may need to go to your motherboard maker’s website, look up your model, and download and install the BIOS update manually.

Some motherboard makers have already released updates for some of their boards; MSI and ASRock are out with updates for most boards with 700-series chipsets, and Asus also has beta updates available for some 700-series boards. Updates for slightly older 600-series motherboards that also support the 13th- and 14th-generation CPUs should follow later. If the release notes mention microcode 0x129, that means you’re getting the update.

Applying the fix as soon as possible is important, because the voltage-related damage to your CPU can’t be reversed. Once you’re noticing hangs and crashes, your CPU is already irreparably damaged, and you’ll need to have it replaced or exchanged for a new one.

If you need to do that, the good news is that Intel is offering two additional years of warranty service to buyers of the affected CPUs, for a total of five years of coverage. People who bought retail boxed CPUs to install in their self-built computers can contact Intel directly; people who bought one of the chips as part of a pre-built system should generally be able to get the same level of coverage from the company that made the PC.

Affected processors include all K, KF, and KS-series Core i5, i7, and i9 processors in the 13th- and 14th-generation Core processor families, plus non-K-series Core i7 and Core i9 processors (despite the name change, the chips are all based on the same Raptor Lake architecture). Lower-end Core i5 and Core i3 processors are unaffected, as are all 12th-generation Core processors.

Earlier this year, Intel also tried to alleviate the problem by asking motherboard makers to adhere to Intel’s default power settings in their BIOS settings. Though these didn’t end up being the root cause of the crashes, the elevated voltage settings or power limits used by some of these motherboards could exacerbate or accelerate the problem.

And Intel’s efforts continue. The company said earlier this month that it was working on a way for users to easily test whether their CPU had been damaged or not. And the company’s statement today reiterated that Intel was still looking into other possible fixes.

“Intel is continuing to investigate mitigations for scenarios that can result in Vmin shift on potentially impacted Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors,” the statement reads. “Intel will provide updates by end of August.”

Intel details fixes for crashing 13th- and 14th-gen CPUs as BIOS updates roll out Read More »

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“Archeology” on the ISS helps identify what astronauts really need

Archeology, Science, Space, space archeology, Space exploration, space station / /

Archeology without the dig —

Regular photography shows a tool shed and more isolated toilet would be appreciated.

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I woman holds a handheld device in front of a rack of equipment.

Enlarge / Jessica Watkins gets to work on the ISS

“Archeology really is a perspective on material culture we use as evidence to understand how humans adapt to their environment, to the situations they are in, and to each other. There is no place, no time that is out of bounds,” says Justin Walsh, an archeologist at Chapman University who led the first off-world archeological study on board the ISS.

Walsh’s and his team wanted to understand, document, and preserve the heritage of the astronaut culture at one of the first permanent space habitats. “There is this notion about astronauts that they are high achievers, highly intelligent, and highly trained, that they are not like you and me. What we learned is that they are just people, and they want the comforts of home,” Walsh says.

Disposable cameras and garbage

“In 2008, my student in an archeology class raised her hand and said, ‘What about stuff in space, is that heritage?’ I said, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never thought of this before, but yes,’” Walsh says. “Think of Tranquility base—it’s an archeological site. You could go back there, and you could reconstruct not only the specific activities of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, but you could understand the engineering culture, the political culture, etc. of the society that created that equipment, sent it to the Moon, and left it there.”

So he conceived the idea of an archeological study on the ISS, wrote a proposal, sent it to NASA, and got rejected. NASA said human sciences were not their priority and not part of their mission. But in 2021, NASA changed its mind.

“They said they had an experiment that could not be done at the scheduled time, so they had to delay it. Also, they changed the crew size from six to seven people,” says Walsh. These opened up some idle time in the astronauts’ schedules, allowing NASA to find space in the schedule for less urgent projects on the station. The agency gave Walsh’s team the go-ahead under the condition that their study could be done with the equipment already present on the ISS.

The outline of Walsh’s research was inspired by and loosely based on the Tucson Garbage Project and the Undocumented Migration Project, two contemporary archeology studies. The first drew conclusions about people’s lives by studying the garbage they threw away. The second documented the experiences of migrants on their way to the US from Mexico.

“Jason De León, who is the principal investigator of this project, gave people in Mexico disposable cameras, and he retrieved those cameras from them when they got to the US. He could observe things they experienced without being there himself. For me, that was a lightbulb moment,” says Walsh.

There were cameras on board the ISS and there was a crew to take pictures with them. To pull off an equivalent of digging a test pit in space, Walsh’s team chose six locations on the station, asked the crew to mark them with squares one meter across, and asked the astronauts to take a picture of each of those squares once a day for 60 days, from January to March 2022.

Building a space shed

In the first paper discussing the study’s results, Walsh’s team covered two out of six chosen locations, dubbed squares 03 and 05. The 03 square was in a maintenance area near the four crew berths where the US crew sleeps. It’s near docking ports for spacecraft coming to the ISS. The square was drawn around a blue board with Velcro patches meant to hold tools and equipment in place.

“All historic photographs of this location published by NASA show somebody working in there—fixing a piece of equipment, doing a science experiment,” says Walsh. But when his team analyzed day-by-day photos of the same spot, the items velcroed to the wall hardly changed in those 60 days. “It was the same set of items over and over again. If there was an activity, it was a scientific experiment. It was supposed to be the maintenance area. So where was the maintenance? And even if it was a science area, where’s the science? It was only happening on 10 percent of days,” Walsh says.

“Archeology” on the ISS helps identify what astronauts really need Read More »

apple-reportedly-plans-updated-m4-mac-mini-that’s-actually-mini

Apple reportedly plans updated M4 Mac mini that’s actually mini

Apple, apple m4, apple m4 pro, Apple silicon, intel nuc, m4, m4 pro, Mac mini, Tech / /

mac nano —

What was “mini” in 2010 is not particularly mini in 2024.

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Apple's M2 Pro Mac mini.

Enlarge / Apple’s M2 Pro Mac mini.

Andrew Cunningham

Apple hasn’t updated its Mac mini desktop lineup since the beginning of 2023, when it added M2 and M2 Pro chips and discontinued the last of the Intel models. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the update drought will end later this year, when the mini will skip right from the M2 to the M4, something he originally reported back in April.

But the mini will reportedly come with more than just new chips: it will also get a new, smaller design, which Gurman says will be closer in size to an Apple TV box (specifically, he says it may be a bit taller, but will have a substantially smaller footprint). The new mini could have “at least three USB-C ports,” as well as a power connector and an HDMI port.

This would be Apple’s first overhaul of the Mac mini’s design since the original aluminum unibody version was released back in June of 2010. That model did include a slot for a built-in SuperDrive DVD burner, something Apple dropped from later models as optical drives became less necessary, but the M2 Mac mini has the same basic design and the same footprint as that Core 2 Duo Mac mini introduced over a decade ago.

Intel and other PC makers have been releasing computers smaller than the Mac mini for years now, starting with Intel’s (discontinued, then handed off) NUC desktops and proliferating from there. Often, these systems would save space by including an external power brick, while the mini has always used an integrated power supply. But the Apple TV, also powered by Apple Silicon chips and also with an internal power supply, suggested that it was possible to design a physically smaller system without making that particular design compromise.

Though the design is changing, Apple’s general approach to the Mac mini is staying the same as it is now. There will be a base model with a regular Apple M4 processor in it, and an upgraded model with the yet-to-be-released M4 Pro in it to help bridge the gap between the low-end mini and the more powerful Mac Studio. If the new mini has dramatically fewer ports than current models, that would also be a point of differentiation, though hopefully it would continue to include enough USB-C ports to support multiple external monitors along with other accessories.

Gurman doesn’t know whether Apple will change the pricing of the Mac mini to go with the new design, though he does think the new mini “may be cheaper to make.”

The new Mac minis will reportedly be available later in the year, though the M4 Pro models could be announced or released later than the standard M4 models. Gurman says that new iMac and MacBook Pro models with M4-series chips could release “as early as this year,” while M4 MacBook Airs would wait for the spring of 2025, and Mac Studio and Mac Pro desktops wouldn’t be updated until “the middle of next year.”

The M4 chip was introduced in this year’s iPad Pro refresh, just a few months after the launch of the M3; this was the first time one of Apple’s M-series processors debuted in anything other than a Mac.

Apple reportedly plans updated M4 Mac mini that’s actually mini Read More »

a-new-report-finds-boeing’s-rockets-are-built-with-an-unqualified-work-force

A new report finds Boeing’s rockets are built with an unqualified work force

Science, Space / /

$L$ —

NASA declines to penalize Boeing for the deficiencies.

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EUS panel test weld at the Michoud Assembly Facility on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.

Enlarge / EUS panel test weld at the Michoud Assembly Facility on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.

Michael DeMocker/NASA

The NASA program to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System rocket is seven years behind schedule and significantly over budget, a new report from the space agency’s inspector general finds. However, beyond these headline numbers, there is also some eye-opening information about the project’s prime contractor, Boeing, and its poor quality control practices.

The new Exploration Upper Stage, a more powerful second stage for the SLS rocket that made its debut in late 2022, is viewed by NASA as a key piece of its Artemis program to return humans to the Moon. The current plan calls for the use of this new upper stage beginning with the second lunar landing, the Artemis IV mission, currently scheduled for 2028. In NASA parlance, the upgraded version of the SLS rocket is known as Block 1B.

However, for many reasons—including the readiness of lunar landers, Lunar Gateway hardware, a new mobile launch tower, and more—NASA is unlikely to hold that date. Now, based on information in this new report, we can probably add the Exploration Upper Stage to the list.

“We found an array of issues that could hinder SLS Block 1B’s readiness for Artemis IV including Boeing’s inadequate quality management system, escalating costs and schedules, and inadequate visibility into the Block 1B’s projected costs,” states the report, signed by NASA’s deputy inspector general, George A. Scott.

Quality control a concern

There are some surprising details in the report about Boeing’s quality control practices at the Michoud Assembly Facility in southern Louisiana, where the Exploration Upper Stage is being manufactured. Federal observers have issued a striking number of “Corrective Action Requests” to Boeing.

“According to Safety and Mission Assurance officials at NASA and DCMA officials at Michoud, Boeing’s quality control issues are largely caused by its workforce having insufficient aerospace production experience,” the report states. “The lack of a trained and qualified workforce increases the risk that the contractor will continue to manufacture parts and components that do not adhere to NASA requirements and industry standards.”

This lack of a qualified workforce has resulted in significant program delays and increased costs. According to the new report, “unsatisfactory” welding operations resulted in propellant tanks that did not meet specifications, which directly led to a seven-month delay in the program.

NASA’s inspector general was concerned enough with quality control to recommend that the space agency institute financial penalties for Boeing’s noncompliance. However, in a response to the report, NASA’s deputy associate administrator, Catherine Koerner, declined to do so. “NASA interprets this recommendation to be directing NASA to institute penalties outside the bounds of the contract,” she replied. “There are already authorities in the contract, such as award fee provisions, which enable financial ramifications for noncompliance with quality control standards.”

The lack of enthusiasm by NASA to penalize Boeing for these issues will not help the perception that the agency treats some of its contractors with kid gloves.

Seven years late

The new report predicts that Block 1B development costs will reach $5.7 billion before it ultimately launches, which is already $700 million more than a cost estimate NASA formally established just last December.

As for the upper stage itself, NASA initially predicted development costs would be $962 million back in 2017. However, the new report predicts that the Exploration Upper Stage will actually cost $2.8 billion, or three times the original cost estimate. (For what it is worth, Ars used a simple estimating tool in 2019 to predict the Exploration Upper Stage development cost would be $2.5 billion. So it’s not like it was a huge secret that NASA and Boeing would blow out the budget here).

The delays in Exploration Upper Stage development are almost year for year.

Enlarge / The delays in Exploration Upper Stage development are almost year for year.

NASA Inspector General

However, the increased costs will benefit Boeing, since this is a cost-plus contract that pays for all of Boeing’s expenses, plus a fee. This may help explain why a development program that was originally supposed to be completed in 2021 is not likely to be finished until 2028 at the earliest.

And what for? The Space Launch System works great as it is. There are far, far cheaper upper stages that could be used for the rocket’s primary function to launch the Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit, including United Launch Alliance’s reliable (and ready) Centaur V upper stage. With Starship and New Glenn, NASA will also soon have two very powerful commercial super heavy lift rockets to draw upon.

A new report finds Boeing’s rockets are built with an unqualified work force Read More »

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You can kick the alpha tires on System76’s Cosmic, a new Linux desktop

Cosmic Desktop, GNOME, Linux, pop!_os, rust, system76, Tech / /

We’re all part of a cosmic alpha, if you really think about it, man —

A whole new desktop aims to appeal with tiling, themes, and a safer Rust core.

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The app store, terminal window (showing an ASCII Pop!_OS logo), theming options, and other windows on a Cosmic desktop

Enlarge / A little auto-tiling on the Cosmic desktop.

System76

System76 has released an alpha version of its Cosmic desktop environment for Linux and Unix-like systems. The Linux hardware firm isn’t targeting only its customers with its GNOME replacement; it also hopes to get distro maintainers and app makers on board with its Rust-built, UX-focused desktop.

While the Cosmic desktop will be built into the Linux vendor’s Pop!_OS (which is also in the alpha ISO), it’s also available to other systems, as you might expect. System76 provides drop-in instructions for Fedora and Arch Linux installs, among others.

System76 says it is “excited to see COSMIC integration elevate Linux as a whole,” along with what results “from making UX-building more accessible.” By building Cosmic natively in the Rust language, System76 also intends to provide a more stable and memory-safe environment for apps.

Cosmic shows deep attention to tiling, keyboard shortcuts, and panel and dock customization, as has been present on its Pop!_OS. I’m a bit of a boring side-by-side, single-workspace type; Gardiner Bryant on YouTube went deeper into the Cosmic alpha’s tiling, panels, and GTK app acceptance. I found that getting Cosmic into a reasonable shape I could work from, and picking up its keyboard window shortcuts, was easier than with either KDE or GNOME.

One thing System76 made clear in its push for Cosmic is its readiness for more deeply integrated themes. System76 offered a few examples in its press materials, and I must admit a fondness for its over-the-top examples.

  • System76 probably can’t officially offer this theme, what with Internet Explorer logo and other recognizable icons, but it does illustrate the theme potentials.

    System76

  • Answering the eternal software question “Can it run Doom?” even in desktop environments.

    System76

  • This? This is the subtle side of this very Polish-RPG-influenced theme.

    System76

  • If you’re going to hack the net and fight the corpos, you gotta wake your eyes up, choom.

    System76

Promising, but definitely not production

I’ve been using the Cosmic-topped desktop alpha since last week on an also alpha-ish Pop!_OS 24.04 long-term support distribution with Wayland windowing. It’s running on my desktop-ified Framework laptop, since System76 noted that virtual machines would require some hardware acceleration trickery to function properly. It’s definitely an alpha, with lots of things you’d expect to see in the settings and around the system missing or non-interactive.

What I can say about Cosmic, even at this early alpha stage, is that it’s relatively snappy and cohesive compared to other systems I’ve used. The settings app only has six main categories, and one of them is “Desktop,” with robust settings for changing your dock, windows, workspaces, and appearance. I keep a webcam on top of my monitor, with a clamp big enough to hide the time/date combo sometimes perched there by GNOME desktops. Cosmic’s panel controls made it easy to move this to the right and similarly position and style my dock however I like.

Most of what is on display here is not for end users, though, as much as it is for adventurous users, or maybe community distro packagers, looking for a desktop environment carrying far less technical debt than GNOME and KDE. At the same time, that means there will be some tension and scraping between certain apps and this new environment. Slack’s main window on my system is constantly disappearing, and clicking its persistent notification in the tray won’t bring it back. And I’m the type who always remaps his Caps Lock key to Escape, but there’s no place to do that yet, and the Gnome-Tweaks app won’t work, either. Some of this is probably the distribution itself, some of it is Cosmic, and some of it is between the two. (Yes, I’m certain there’s a way to get that keyboard fix with a command or config file, but this is just a test run.)

The Cosmic team says it will next work on settings pages, the Files app, variable refresh rate, and software rendering, among other bugs and refinements. After that comes the hard part of gaining acceptance and installs across the wider open source community.

Listing image by System76

You can kick the alpha tires on System76’s Cosmic, a new Linux desktop Read More »

major-shifts-at-openai-spark-skepticism-about-impending-agi-timelines

Major shifts at OpenAI spark skepticism about impending AGI timelines

agi, AI, ASI, Benjamin De Kraker, Biz & IT, chatgpt, chatgtp, GPT-4, greg brockman, John Schulman, machine learning, openai, Peter Deng, superintelligence / /

Shuffling the deck —

De Kraker: “If OpenAI is right on the verge of AGI, why do prominent people keep leaving?”

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The OpenAI logo on a red brick wall.

Benj Edwards / Getty Images

Over the past week, OpenAI experienced a significant leadership shake-up as three key figures announced major changes. Greg Brockman, the company’s president and co-founder, is taking an extended sabbatical until the end of the year, while another co-founder, John Schulman, permanently departed for rival Anthropic. Peter Deng, VP of Consumer Product, has also left the ChatGPT maker.

In a post on X, Brockman wrote, “I’m taking a sabbatical through end of year. First time to relax since co-founding OpenAI 9 years ago. The mission is far from complete; we still have a safe AGI to build.”

The moves have led some to wonder just how close OpenAI is to a long-rumored breakthrough of some kind of reasoning artificial intelligence if high-profile employees are jumping ship (or taking long breaks, in the case of Brockman) so easily. As AI developer Benjamin De Kraker put it on X, “If OpenAI is right on the verge of AGI, why do prominent people keep leaving?”

AGI refers to a hypothetical AI system that could match human-level intelligence across a wide range of tasks without specialized training. It’s the ultimate goal of OpenAI, and company CEO Sam Altman has said it could emerge in the “reasonably close-ish future.” AGI is also a concept that has sparked concerns about potential existential risks to humanity and the displacement of knowledge workers. However, the term remains somewhat vague, and there’s considerable debate in the AI community about what truly constitutes AGI or how close we are to achieving it.

The emergence of the “next big thing” in AI has been seen by critics such as Ed Zitron as a necessary step to justify ballooning investments in AI models that aren’t yet profitable. The industry is holding its breath that OpenAI, or a competitor, has some secret breakthrough waiting in the wings that will justify the massive costs associated with training and deploying LLMs.

But other AI critics, such as Gary Marcus, have postulated that major AI companies have reached a plateau of large language model (LLM) capability centered around GPT-4-level models since no AI company has yet made a major leap past the groundbreaking LLM that OpenAI released in March 2023. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott has countered these claims, saying that LLM “scaling laws” (that suggest LLMs increase in capability proportionate to more compute power thrown at them) will continue to deliver improvements over time and that more patience is needed as the next generation (say, GPT-5) undergoes training.

In the scheme of things, Brockman’s move sounds like an extended, long overdue vacation (or perhaps a period to deal with personal issues beyond work). Regardless of the reason, the duration of the sabbatical raises questions about how the president of a major tech company can suddenly disappear for four months without affecting day-to-day operations, especially during a critical time in its history.

Unless, of course, things are fairly calm at OpenAI—and perhaps GPT-5 isn’t going to ship until at least next year when Brockman returns. But this is speculation on our part, and OpenAI (whether voluntarily or not) sometimes surprises us when we least expect it. (Just today, Altman dropped a hint on X about strawberries that some people interpret as being a hint of a potential major model undergoing testing or nearing release.)

A pattern of departures and the rise of Anthropic

Anthropic / Benj Edwards

What may sting OpenAI the most about the recent departures is that a few high-profile employees have left to join Anthropic, a San Francisco-based AI company founded in 2021 by ex-OpenAI employees Daniela and Dario Amodei.

Anthropic offers a subscription service called Claude.ai that is similar to ChatGPT. Its most recent LLM, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, along with its web-based interface, has rapidly gained favor over ChatGPT among some LLM users who are vocal on social media, though it likely does not yet match ChatGPT in terms of mainstream brand recognition.

In particular, John Schulman, an OpenAI co-founder and key figure in the company’s post-training process for LLMs, revealed in a statement on X that he’s leaving to join rival AI firm Anthropic to do more hands-on work: “This choice stems from my desire to deepen my focus on AI alignment, and to start a new chapter of my career where I can return to hands-on technical work.” Alignment is a field that hopes to guide AI models to produce helpful outputs.

In May, OpenAI alignment researcher Jan Leike left OpenAI to join Anthropic as well, criticizing OpenAI’s handling of alignment safety.

Adding to the recent employee shake-up, The Information reports that Peter Deng, a product leader who joined OpenAI last year after stints at Meta Platforms, Uber, and Airtable, has also left the company, though we do not yet know where he is headed. In May, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever left to found a rival startup, and prominent software engineer Andrej Karpathy departed in February, recently launching an educational venture.

As De Kraker noted, if OpenAI were on the verge of developing world-changing AI technology, wouldn’t these high-profile AI veterans want to stick around and be part of this historic moment in time? “Genuine question,” he wrote. “If you were pretty sure the company you’re a key part of—and have equity in—is about to crack AGI within one or two years… why would you jump ship?”

Despite the departures, Schulman expressed optimism about OpenAI’s future in his farewell note on X. “I am confident that OpenAI and the teams I was part of will continue to thrive without me,” he wrote. “I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to participate in such an important part of history and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together. I’ll still be rooting for you all, even while working elsewhere.”

This article was updated on August 7, 2024 at 4: 23 PM to mention Sam Altman’s tweet about strawberries.

Major shifts at OpenAI spark skepticism about impending AGI timelines Read More »

reddit-considers-search-ads,-paywalled-content-for-the-future

Reddit considers search ads, paywalled content for the future

ads, reddit, search, Social Media, Tech / /

Q2 2024 earnings —

Current ad load is relatively “light,” COO says.

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In this photo illustration the Reddit logo seen displayed on

Reddit executives discussed plans on Tuesday for making more money from the platform, including showing ads in more places and possibly putting some content behind a paywall.

On Tuesday, Reddit shared its Q2 2024 earnings report (PDF). The company lost $10.1 million during the period, down from Q2 2023’s $41.1 million loss. Reddit has never been profitable, and during its earnings call yesterday, company heads discussed potential and slated plans for monetization.

As expected, selling ads continues to be a priority. Part of the reason Reddit was OK with most third-party Reddit apps closing was that the change was expected to drive people to Reddit’s native website and apps, where the company sells ads. In Q2, Reddit’s ad revenue grew 41 percent year over year (YoY) to $253.1 million, or 90 percent of total revenue ($281.2 million).

When asked how the platform would grow ad revenue, Reddit COO Jen Wong said it’s important that advertisers “find the outcomes they want at the volumes and price they want.” She also pointed to driving more value per ad, or the cost that advertisers pay per average 1,000 impressions. To do that, Wong pointed to putting ads in places on Reddit where there aren’t ads currently:

There are still many places on Reddit without ads today. So we’re more focused on designing ads for spaces where users are spending more time versus increasing ad load in existing spaces. So for example, 50 percent of screen views, they’re now on conversation pages—that’s an opportunity.

Wong said that in places where Reddit does show ads currently, the ad load is “light” compared to about half of its rivals.

One of the places where Redditors may see more ads is within comments, which Wong noted that Reddit is currently testing. This ad capability is only “experimental,” Wong emphasized, but Reddit sees ads in comments as a way to stand out to advertisers.

There’s also an opportunity to sell ad space within Reddit search results, according to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, who said yesterday that “over the long term, there’s significant advertising potential there as well.” More immediately, though, Reddit is looking to improve its search capabilities and this year will test “new search result pages powered by AI to summarize and recommend content, helping users dive deeper into products, shows, games, and discover new communities on Reddit,” Huffman revealed yesterday. He said Reddit is using first- and third-party AI models to improve search aspects like speed and relevance.

The move comes as Reddit is currently blocking all search engines besides Google, OpenAI, and approved education/research instances from showing recent Reddit content in their results. Yesterday, Huffman reiterated his statement that Reddit is working with “big and small” search engines to strike deals like it already has with Google and OpenAI. But looking ahead, Reddit is focused on charging for content scraping and seems to be trying to capitalize on people’s interest in using Reddit as a filter for search results.

Paywalled content possible

The possibility of paywalls came up during the earnings call when an analyst asked Huffman about maintaining Reddit’s culture as it looks to “earn money now for people and creators on the platform.” Reddit has already launched a Contributor Program, where popular posts can make Reddit users money. It has discussed monetizing its developer platform, which is in public beta with “a few hundred active developers,” Huffman said yesterday. In response to the analyst’s question, Huffman said that based on his experience, adding new ways of using Reddit “expands” the platform but doesn’t “cannibalize existing Reddit.”

He continued:

I think the existing altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has. But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas—things of that nature.

Huffman’s comments suggest that paywalls could be added to new subreddits rather than existing ones. At this stage, though, it’s unclear how users may be charged to use Reddit in the future if at all.

The idea of paywalling some content comes as various online entities are trying to diversify revenue beyond often volatile ad spending. Reddit has also tried elevating free aspects of the site, such as updates to Ask Me Anything (AMA), including new features like RSVPs, which were announced Tuesday.

Reddit has angered some long-time users with recent changes—including blocking search engines, forcing personalized ads, introducing an exclusionary fee for API access, and ousting some moderators during last year’s user protests—but Reddit saw its daily active unique user count increase by 51 percent YoY in Q2 to 91.2 million.

Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica parent Condé Nast, is the largest shareholder in Reddit.

Reddit considers search ads, paywalled content for the future Read More »