Google today announced AlphaEarth Foundations, a new AI model that processes terabytes of daily satellite data to track environmental changes across the planet. The system, part of Google's broader Earth AI initiative, uses machine learning to compress satellite imagery into color-coded maps showing material properties, vegetation types, groundwater sources, and human constructions down to 10-meter resolution.

The model uses a technique called "embeddings" that reduces storage requirements by 16 times compared to other AI tools Google tested, while delivering 23.9% higher accuracy than similar systems. AlphaEarth has already mapped complex Antarctic terrain and identified variations in Canadian agricultural land use invisible to direct observation.

The technology currently powers flood and wildfire alerts in Google Search and Maps. Research organizations including Brazil's MayBiomas and the Global Ecosystems Atlas are using the system to analyze rainforests, deserts, and wetlands. The model integrates with Google Earth Engine, providing agencies like NASA and the Forest Service access to over one trillion annual data points for environmental monitoring and mapping applications.

Elon Musk's Boring Company plans to build a 10-mile underground transportation loop in Nashville connecting the airport to downtown, with private funding and a projected launch as early as fall 2026. "If that happens, Nashville would become the second city where The Boring Company has opened such a system, with the first being Las Vegas," notes TechCrunch. "The company has spent the last few years in Sin City digging and opening tunnels around the Las Vegas Convention Center, and claims to have given 3 million rides in Teslas to date." From the report: The project will be privately funded by The Boring Company "and its private partners," according to the Governor's press release, though those partners are not named. The Boring Company and local officials will now begin a "public process to evaluate potential routes, engage community stakeholders, and finalize plans for the project's initial 10-mile phase." Construction won't begin until the project clears the approvals process. But the governor's office said the first segment of the loop could be operational as "early as fall of 2026."

Brian Krebs writes via KrebsOnSecurity: Fraudsters are flooding Discord and other social media platforms with ads for hundreds of polished online gaming and wagering websites that lure people with free credits and eventually abscond with any cryptocurrency funds deposited by players. Here's a closer look at the social engineering tactics and remarkable traits of this sprawling network of more than 1,200 scam sites. The scam begins with deceptive ads posted on social media that claim the wagering sites are working in partnership with popular social media personalities, such as Mr. Beast, who recently launched a gaming business called Beast Games. The ads invariably state that by using a supplied "promo code," interested players can claim a $2,500 credit on the advertised gaming website.

The gaming sites all require users to create a free account to claim their $2,500 credit, which they can use to play any number of extremely polished video games that ask users to bet on each action. At the scam website gamblerbeast[.]com, for example, visitors can pick from dozens of games like B-Ball Blitz, in which you play a basketball pro who is taking shots from the free throw line against a single opponent, and you bet on your ability to sink each shot. The financial part of this scam begins when users try to cash out any "winnings." At that point, the gaming site will reject the request and prompt the user to make a "verification deposit" of cryptocurrency -- typically around $100 -- before any money can be distributed. Those who deposit cryptocurrency funds are soon asked for additional payments. However, any "winnings" displayed by these gaming sites are a complete fantasy, and players who deposit cryptocurrency funds will never see that money again. Compounding the problem, victims likely will soon be peppered with come-ons from "recovery experts" who peddle dubious claims on social media networks about being able to retrieve funds lost to such scams. [...]

[T]hreat hunting platform Silent Push reveals at least 1,270 recently-registered and active domains whose names all invoke some type of gaming or wagering theme. Here is a list of all domains that Silent Push found were using the scambling network's chat API.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In a rare move, Google has confirmed it will sign the European Union's AI Code of Practice, a framework it initially opposed for being too harsh. However, Google isn't totally on board with Europe's efforts to rein in the AI explosion. The company's head of global affairs, Kent Walker, noted that the code could stifle innovation if it's not applied carefully, and that's something Google hopes to prevent. While Google was initially opposed to the Code of Practice, Walker says the input it has provided to the European Commission has been well-received, and the result is a legal framework it believes can provide Europe with access to "secure, first-rate AI tools." The company claims that the expansion of such tools on the continent could boost the economy by 8 percent (about 1.8 trillion euros) annually by 2034.

These supposed economic gains are being dangled like bait to entice business interests in the EU to align with Google on the Code of Practice. While the company is signing the agreement, it appears interested in influencing the way it is implemented. Walker says Google remains concerned that tightening copyright guidelines and forced disclosure of possible trade secrets could slow innovation. Having a seat at the table could make it easier to bend the needle of regulation than if it followed some of its competitors in eschewing voluntary compliance. [...] The AI Code of Practice aims to provide AI firms with a bit more certainty in the face of a shifting landscape. It was developed with the input of more than 1,000 citizen groups, academics, and industry experts. The EU Commission says companies that adopt the voluntary code will enjoy a lower bureaucratic burden, easing compliance with the block's AI Act, which came into force last year.

Under the terms of the code, Google will have to publish summaries of its model training data and disclose additional model features to regulators. The code also includes guidance on how firms should manage safety and security in compliance with the AI Act. Likewise, it includes paths to align a company's model development with EU copyright law as it pertains to AI, a sore spot for Google and others. Companies like Meta that don't sign the code will not escape regulation. All AI companies operating in Europe will have to abide by the AI Act, which includes the most detailed regulatory framework for generative AI systems in the world. The law bans high-risk uses of AI like intentional deception or manipulation of users, social scoring systems, and real-time biometric scanning in public spaces. Companies that violate the rules in the AI Act could be hit with fines as high as 35 million euros ($40.1 million) or up to 7 percent of the offender's global revenue.

Google will soon cast an even wider net with its AI age estimation technology. From a report: After announcing plans to find and restrict underage users on YouTube, the company now says it will start detecting whether Google users based in the US are under 18.

Age estimation is rolling out over the next few weeks and will only impact a "small set" of users to start, though Google plans on expanding it more widely. The company says it will use the information a user has searched for or the types of YouTube videos they watch to determine their age. Google first announced this initiative in February. If Google believes that a user is under 18, it will apply the same restrictions it places on users who proactively identify as underage.

BrianFagioli writes: AI might be the future of software development, but a new report suggests we're not quite ready to take our hands off the wheel. Veracode has released its 2025 GenAI Code Security Report, and the findings are pretty alarming. Out of 80 carefully designed coding tasks completed by over 100 large language models, nearly 45 percent of the AI-generated code contained security flaws.

That's not a small number. These are not minor bugs, either. We're talking about real vulnerabilities, with many falling under the OWASP Top 10, which highlights the most dangerous issues in modern web applications. The report found that when AI was given the option to write secure or insecure code, it picked the wrong path nearly half the time.

Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that Meta's AI systems have begun improving themselves over the past few months, calling the development "slow for now, but undeniable" and declaring that superintelligence is now within reach. The Meta CEO staked out the company's vision in a blog post for what he termed "personal superintelligence" -- AI that helps individuals achieve their goals rather than replacing human work entirely.

Zuckerberg drew a sharp line between Meta's approach and that of other companies in the field, arguing that competitors want superintelligence "directed centrally towards automating all valuable work, and then humanity will live on a dole of its output." Meta's version would give people their own superintelligent assistants that know them deeply and help them create, experience adventures, and become better friends.

Zuckerberg envisions smart glasses as the primary computing device, understanding context through what users see and hear throughout their day. The next few years represent a critical juncture, Zuckerberg wrote, calling the rest of this decade "the decisive period for determining the path this technology will take."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Google executives are pushing employees to act with more urgency in their use of artificial intelligence as the company looks for ways to cut costs. That was the message at an all-hands meeting last week, featuring CEO Sundar Pichai and Brian Saluzzo, who runs the teams building the technical foundation for Google's flagship products. "Anytime you go through a period of extraordinary investment, you respond by adding a lot of headcount, right?" Pichai said, according to audio obtained by CNBC. "But in this AI moment, I think we have to accomplish more by taking advantage of this transition to drive higher productivity. [...] We are competing with other companies in the world," Pichai said at the meeting. "There will be companies which will become more efficient through this moment in terms of employee productivity, which is why I think it's important to focus on that." [...]

"We are going to be going through a period of much higher investment and I think we have to be frugal with our resources, and I would strive to be more productive and efficient as a company," Pichai said, adding that he's "very optimistic" about how Google is doing. At the meeting, Saluzzo highlighted a number of tools the company is building for software engineers, or SWEs, to help "everybody at Google be more AI-savvy." "We feel the urgency to really quickly and urgently get AI into more of the coding workflows to address top needs so you see a much more rapid increase in velocity," Saluzzo said. Saluzzo said Google has a portfolio of AI products available to employees "so folks can go faster." He mentioned an internal site called "AI Savvy Google" which has courses, toolkits and learning sessions, including some for individual product areas.

Google's engineering education team, which develops courses for internal and external use, partnered with DeepMind on a training called "Building with Gemini" that the company will start promoting soon, Saluzzo said. He also referenced a new internal AI coding tool called Cider that helps software engineers with various aspects of the development process. Since May, when the company first introduced Cider, 50% of users tap the service on a weekly basis, Saluzzo said. Regarding Google's internal AI tools, Saluzzo said that employees should "expect them to continuously get better" and that "they'll become a pretty integral part of most SWE work."

An anonymous reader shares an analysis: In most major aviation markets, including the U.S. and Europe, competition is an oligopolistic affair, with several large airlines competing for market share. India's domestic sector, however, is increasingly characterized by the ascent of a single airline.

Low-cost carrier IndiGo has achieved an extraordinary concentration of the market, capturing approximately 64.4% of all passenger traffic as of May. More strikingly, the airline operates with a near-monopoly on 66% of its domestic routes, facing little to no direct competition in a significant portion of its network.

This position is the culmination of a decade-long expansion that saw the exit of rivals like Jet Airways and GoAir. Today, its remaining competitors continue to struggle; SpiceJet's domestic market share has fallen to just 2% while it operates a reduced fleet of only 19 aircraft. Air India, despite its acquisition by the Tata Group in 2022, has been slow in its restructuring and continues to cede domestic ground, with the flag carrier remaining unprofitable.

YouTube is rolling out age-estimation technology in the U.S. to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience. TechCrunch reports: When YouTube identifies a user as a teen, it introduces new protections and experiences, which include disabling personalized advertising, safeguards that limit repetitive viewing of certain types of content, and enabling digital well-being tools such as screen time and bedtime reminders, among others. These protections already exist on YouTube, but have only been applied to those who verified themselves as teens, not those who may have withheld their real age. [...]

If the new system incorrectly identifies a user as under 18 when they are not, YouTube says the user will be given the option to verify their age with a credit card, government ID, or selfie. Only users who have been directly verified through this method or whose age has been inferred to be over 18 will be able to view the age-restricted content on the platform. The machine learning-powered technology will begin to roll out over the next few weeks to a small set of U.S. users and will then be monitored before rolling out more widely, the company says. [...]

YouTube isn't sharing specifics about the signals it's using to infer a user's age, but notes that it will look at some data like the YouTube activity and the longevity of a user's account to make a determination if the user is under 18. The new system will apply only to signed-in users, as signed-out users already cannot access age-restricted content, and will be available across platforms, including web, mobile, and connected TV.

ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols shares his list of "what's new and improved" in the latest Linux 6.16 kernel. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: First, the Rust language is continuing to become more well-integrated into the kernel. At the top of my list is that the kernel now boasts Rust bindings for the driver core and PCI device subsystem. This approach will make it easier to add new Rust-based hardware drivers to Linux. Additionally, new Rust abstractions have been integrated into the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM), particularly for ioctl handling, file/GEM memory management, and driver/device infrastructure for major GPU vendors, such as AMD, Nvidia, and Intel. These changes should reduce vulnerabilities and optimize graphics performance. This will make gamers and AI/ML developers happier.

Linux 6.16 also brings general improvements to Rust crate support. Crate is Rust's packaging format. This will make it easier to build, maintain, and integrate Rust kernel modules into the kernel. For those of you who still love C, don't worry. The vast majority of kernel code remains in C, and Rust is unlikely to replace C soon. In a decade, we may be telling another story. Beyond Rust, this latest release also comes with several major file system improvements. For starters, the XFS filesystem now supports large atomic writes. This capability means that large multi-block write operations are 'atomic,' meaning all blocks are updated or none. This enhances data integrity and prevents data write errors. This move is significant for companies that use XFS for databases and large-scale storage.

Perhaps the most popular Linux file system, Ext4, is also getting many improvements. These boosts include faster commit paths, large folio support, and atomic multi-fsblock writes for bigalloc filesystems. What these improvements mean, if you're not a file-system nerd, is that we should see speedups of up to 37% for sequential I/O workloads. If your Linux laptop doubles as a music player, another nice new feature is that you can now stream your audio over USB even while the rest of your system is asleep. That capability's been available in Android for a while, but now it's part of mainline Linux.

If security is a top priority for you, the 6.16 kernel now supports Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) and Intel Trusted Domain Extensions (TDX). This addition, along with Linux's improved support for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization and Secure Memory Encryption (SEV-SNP), enables you to encrypt your software's memory in what's known as confidential computing. This feature improves cloud security by encrypting a user's virtual machine memory, meaning someone who cracks a cloud can't access your data. Linux 6.16 also delivers several chip-related upgrades. It introduces support for Intel's Advanced Performance Extensions (APX), doubling x86 general-purpose registers from 16 to 32 and boosting performance on next-gen CPUs like Lunar Lake and Granite Rapids Xeon. Additionally, the new CONFIG_X86_NATIVE_CPU option allows users to build processor-optimized kernels for greater efficiency.

Support for Nvidia's AI-focused Blackwell GPUs has also been improved, and updates to TCP/IP with DMABUF help offload networking tasks to GPUs and accelerators. While these changes may go unnoticed by everyday users, high-performance systems will see gains and OpenVPN users may finally experience speeds that challenge WireGuard.

Jack Dorsey's new app Bitchat is now available on the iOS App Store. The decentralized, peer-to-peer messaging app uses Bluetooth mesh networks for encrypted, ephemeral chats without requiring accounts, servers, or internet access. Dorsey said he built it over a weekend and cautioned that it "has not received external security review and may contain vulnerabilities..." TechCrunch reports: The app's UX is very minimal. There is no log-in system, and you're immediately brought to an instant messaging box, where you can see what nearby users are saying (if anyone is actually around you and using the app) and set your display name, which can be changed at any time. [...] Dorsey has not directly addressed the fake Bitchat apps on the Google Play store, but he did repost another user's X post that said that Bitchat is not yet on Google Play, and to "beware of fakes."

Google has admitted its earthquake early warning system failed to accurately alert people during Turkey's deadly quake of 2023. From a report: Ten million people within 98 miles of the epicentre could have been sent Google's highest level alert -- giving up to 35 seconds of warning to find safety. Instead, only 469 "Take Action" warnings were sent out for the first 7.8 magnitude quake.

Google told the BBC half a million people were sent a lower level warning, which is designed for "light shaking", and does not alert users in the same prominent way. The tech giant previously told the BBC the system had "performed well" after an investigation in 2023. The alerts system is available in just under 100 countries -- and is described by Google as a "global safety net" often operating in countries with no other warning system. Google's system, named Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA), is run by the Silicon Valley firm - not individual countries.

The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial passenger jet, faces mounting maintenance challenges as regulatory authorities issue an increasing number of safety directives. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has listed 95 airworthiness directives for the A380 since January 2020, approximately double the number issued for large Boeing aircraft during the same period.

The directives address problems including leaking escape slides, cracked seals, and a ruptured landing-gear axle. A comprehensive maintenance check of the massive plane requires 60,000 hours of labor, according to aircraft repairer Lufthansa Technik. Airlines remain committed to operating the twin-deck aircraft due to limited large-capacity alternatives, with Boeing's 777X years behind schedule and Airbus unable to produce long-haul A350s quickly enough. British Airways plans to overhaul A380 cabins starting next year, while Emirates intends to keep flying the aircraft until the end of the next decade.

A second, far more recent data breach at women's dating safety app Tea has exposed over a million sensitive user messages -- including discussions about abortions, infidelity, and shared contact info. This vulnerability not only compromised private conversations but also made it easy to unmask anonymous users. 404 Media reports: Despite Tea's initial statement that "the incident involved a legacy data storage system containing information from over two years ago," the second issue impacting a separate database is much more recent, affecting messages up until last week, according to the researcher's findings that 404 Media verified. The researcher said they also found the ability to send a push notification to all of Tea's users.

It's hard to overstate how sensitive this data is and how it could put Tea's users at risk if it fell into the wrong hands. When signing up, Tea encourages users to choose an anonymous screenname, but it was trivial for 404 Media to find the real world identities of some users given the nature of their messages, which Tea has led them to believe were private. Users could be easily found via their social media handles, phone numbers, and real names that they shared in these chats. These conversations also frequently make damning accusations against people who are also named in the private messages and in some cases are easy to identify. It is unclear who else may have discovered the security issue and downloaded any data from the more recent database. Members of 4chan found the first exposed database last week and made tens of thousands of images of Tea users available for download. Tea told 404 Media it has contacted law enforcement. [...]

This new data exposure is due to any Tea user being able to use their own API key to access a more recent database of user data, Rahjerdi said. The researcher says that this issue existed until late last week. That exposure included a mass of Tea users' private messages. In some cases, the women exchange phone numbers so they can continue the conversation off platform. The first breach was due to an exposed instance of app development platform Firebase, and impacted tens of thousands of selfie and driver license images. At the time, Tea said in a statement "there is no evidence to suggest that current or additional user data was affected." The second database includes a data field called "sent_at," with many of those messages being marked as recent as last week.

Anker has indefinitely paused sales of its 3D printers, with no clear plans to resume or release new models. Despite promises of ongoing support, critical replacement parts like hotends and extruders have quietly vanished from the EufyMake site, leaving customers and the maker community in the lurch. The Verge reports: In March, charging giant Anker announced it would spin out its 3D printer business into an "independent sub-brand," stating that the new EufyMake would "continue to provide comprehensive customer service and support" for its original 3D printers the AnkerMake M5 and M5C. Now, the 3D printing community is wondering whether that was all a euphemism for exiting the 3D printer business. eufyMake is no longer selling any 3D printers and has stopped selling some of the parts it would need to provide anything close to "comprehensive support."

Anker confirms to The Verge that it has stopped selling the M5 and M5C 3D printers indefinitely. Spokesperson Brett White could not confirm that the company will resume selling them or create any future models. He says that "sales have been paused." "My understanding is that eufyMake has not ruled out creating new 3D printer models in the future. But the brand has ended sales of the M5 and M5C for the time being," White tells The Verge. The 3D printing section of EufyMake's website is currently empty of printers. The only gadget EufyMake now sells is a UV printer that creates a 3D texture atop flat materials.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Samsung Electronics has entered into a $16.5 billion contract for supplying semiconductors to Tesla, based on a regulatory filing by the South Korean firm and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's posts on X. The memory chipmaker, which had not named the counterparty, mentioned in its filing that the effective start date of the contract was July 26, 2025 -- receipt of orders -- and its end date was Dec. 31, 2033. However, Musk later confirmed in a reply to a post on social media platform X that Tesla was the counterparty.

He also posted: "Samsung's giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate. Samsung currently makes AI4.TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona. Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress," Musk said on X, and suggested that the deal with Samsung could likely be even larger than the announced $16.5 billion.

Samsung earlier said that details of the deal, including the name of the counterparty, will not be disclosed until the end of 2033, citing a request from the second party "to protect trade secrets," according to a Google translation of the filing in Korean on Monday. "Since the main contents of the contract have not been disclosed due to the need to maintain business confidentiality, investors are advised to invest carefully considering the possibility of changes or termination of the contract," the company said.

Windows 11 has become indistinguishable from malware because of the way Microsoft has inserted intrusive advertising, AI monitoring features, and constant distractions designed to drive user engagement and monetization to the operating system, argues veteran writer and developer Rupert Goodwins of The Register.

Goodwins contends that Microsoft has transformed Windows 11 into "an ADHD horror show, full of distractions, promotions and snares" where AI features "constantly video what you're doing and send it back to Mother." He applies the term malware to describe software that intervenes in work to advertise and monitors user data, concluding that "for Windows it isn't a class of third-party nasties, it's an edition name."

Security researchers have discovered evidence suggesting the SkyRover X1 drone sold on Amazon for some $750 is a DJI product operating under a different brand name. The findings come at a time when DJI is facing an unofficial ban at US customs.

The drone shares identical specifications and features with the DJI Mini 4 Pro and connects to DJI's online infrastructure, including DJIGlobal, DJISupport, and DJIEnterprise services.

Hacker Kevin Finisterre successfully logged into the SkyRover system using his existing DJI credentials. Security consultant Jon Sawyer found the SkyRover app uses the same encryption keys as DJI software, with the company making only basic attempts to conceal its origins by replacing "DJI" references with "xxx" or "uav." DJI didn't deny to The Verge that the SkyRover X1 is their product.

"Google has signed its first partnership with a long-duration energy storage company," reports Data Center Dynamics. "The tech giant signed a long-term partnership with Energy Dome to support multiple commercial deployments worldwide to help scale the company's CO2 battery technology."

Google explains in a blog post that the company's technology "can store excess clean energy and then dispatch it back to the grid for 8-24 hours, bridging the gap between when renewable energy is generated and when it is needed." Reuters explains the technology: Energy Dome's CO2-based system stores energy by compressing and liquefying carbon dioxide, which is later expanded to generate electricity. The technology avoids the use of scarce raw materials such as lithium and copper, making it potentially attractive to European policymakers seeking to reduce reliance on critical minerals and bolster energy security.
"Unlike other gases, CO2 can be compressed at ambient temperatures, eliminating the need for expensive cryogenic features," notes CleanTechnica, calling this "a unique new threat to fossil fuel power plants." Google's move "means that more wind and solar energy than ever before can be put to use in local grids." Pumped storage hydropower still accounts for more than 90% of utility scale storage in the US, long duration or otherwise... Energy Dome claims to beat lithium-ion batteries by a wide margin, currently aiming for a duration of 8-24 hours. The company aims to hit the 10-hour mark with its first project in the U.S., the "Columbia Energy Storage Project" under the wing of the gas and electricity supplier Alliant Energy to be located in Pacific, Wisconsin... [B]ut apparently Google has already seen more than enough. An Energy Dome demonstration project has been shooting electricity into the grid in Italy for more than three years, and the company recently launched a new 20-megawatt commercial plant in Sardinia.
Google points out this is one of several Google clean energy initiatives :

• In June Google signed the largest direct corporate offtake agreement for fusion energy with Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

• In October Google agreed to purchase "advanced nuclear" power from multiple small modular reactors being developed by Kairos Power.

• Google also partnered with a clean-energy startup to develop a geothermal power project that contributes carbon-free energy to the electric grid.