About: blatcho

Sabrina Willmer / Bloomberg: Ilya Lichtenstein is sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring with his wife, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, to launder money from the 2016 Bitfinex hack  —  – Ilya Lichtenstein tried to launder proceeds of Bitfinex hack  — His rapper wife ‘Razzlekahn’ is set to be sentenced on Monday

Michael Kan / PCMag: OpenAI makes the ChatGPT desktop app for Windows available to all users, following an October release limited to paying ChatGPT subscribers  —  Previously limited to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, the app opens a ‘companion window’ on your PC, allowing you to easily use the AI chatbot alongside any other Windows programs.

Readers give higher ratings to AI-generated poetry than the works of poets such as William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson – perhaps because they often have more straightforward themes and simpler structure

Driverless cars can now do doughnuts and drift like stunt drivers, skidding sideways around corners while maintaining control, which might help the cars recover from dangerous situations

Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang, a doctoral candidate in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, recently won the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition, medaling in both the Graduate and People’s Choice categories for developing materials to stabilize nutrients in food with the goal of improving global health.   The annual competition, organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame […]

Any child who’s spent a morning building sandcastles only to watch the afternoon tide ruin them in minutes knows the ocean always wins. Yet, coastal protection strategies have historically focused on battling the sea — attempting to hold back tides and fighting waves and currents by armoring coastlines with jetties and seawalls and taking sand […]

Faculty and researchers receive many external awards throughout the year. The MIT School of Engineering periodically highlights the honors, prizes, and medals won by community members working in academic departments, labs, and centers. Summer 2024 honorees include the following: Polina Anikeeva, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, professor of brain and […]

Three models for continuing DEI efforts in an increasingly hostile climate.

Six steps to address the problem and change the dynamic.

Researchers found that AI excels at certain kinds of budgeting tasks — but still struggles with others.

Thanks to more mainstream influencers, a new, desirable, imitable aesthetic has emerged—and this time it wears a MAGA hat.

Under Donald Trump and Joe Biden alike, the US has been determined to “reshore” chipmaking. Now money and colossal infrastructure are flowing to a vast Intel site in Ohio—just as the company may be falling apart.

Experts expect Donald Trump’s next administration to relax cybersecurity rules on businesses, abandon concerns around human rights, and take an aggressive stance against the cyber armies of US adversaries.

Eric Geller / Wired: Experts expect Trump to relax business cybersecurity rules, drop human rights concerns on spyware, and take an aggressive stance on US adversaries’ cyber armies  —  Experts expect Donald Trump’s next administration to relax cybersecurity rules on businesses, abandon concerns around human rights …

Alessandro Parodi / Reuters: Estonian ride-hailing and food delivery startup Bolt says it hit €2B in annual revenue and plans a 2025 IPO; Bolt had an $8B+ valuation in January 2022  —  Estonian ride-hailing and food delivery startup Bolt said on Thursday it had hit 2 billion euros ($2.11 billion) in annual revenue …

Bloomberg: JD.com reports Q3 revenue up 5.1% YoY to ~$36B, above $35.9B est., and net income up 48% YoY to ~$1.6B, suggesting a recovery in segments of China’s economy  —  JD.com Inc.’s quarterly revenue rose 5.1%, suggesting Chinese consumers are cautiously spending again as Beijing tries to revitalize the economy.

Waves of new users are flocking to the Twitter alternative, but Bluesky’s many customization options can be a bit overwhelming for newcomers. Here’s some advice on managing the flow.

One of TikTok’s defining subcultures is arguing over whether books are political, “red-listing” authors, and looking for guidance in speculative fiction.

A research team in China has held atoms in a state of quantum superposition for 23 minutes, suggesting tantalizing new possibilities in research and quantum computing.

Bloomberg: Polymarket says the FBI seized CEO Shayne Coplan’s phone and electronics; source: the DOJ is investigating Polymarket for allegedly accepting bets from US users  —  – Polymarket says FBI agents seized CEO’s phone, electronics  — Platform has taken recent measures to weed out US traders

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: FBI and CISA: Chinese hackers breached multiple US telecom companies, compromising the “private communications” of US officials and stealing customer call data  —  CISA and the FBI confirmed that Chinese hackers compromised the “private communications” of a “limited number” …

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal: Spotify plans to pay incentives to video creators who hit certain viewing thresholds and, in January, to let Premium subscribers view podcast videos without ads  —  Audio-streaming giant plans to pay hosts to make podcast videos and allow premium subscribers to watch them without ads

Researchers mapped Earth’s ionosphere, part of the upper atmosphere, using signal data from 40 million phones – a method that could improve GPS accuracy and help track space weather

How senior leaders can save their teams — and themselves — from the unhealthy compulsion to be productive at all times.

Compared to nine other high-income countries, the U.S. came in last or next to last in four of five broad areas.

If you’re taking on a new leadership role, this episode is for you.

San Francisco–based Ossium Health has carried out three transplants for cancer patients using stem cells from deceased donors’ blood marrow in recent months.

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Bloomberg: How Roger Ver, known as “Bitcoin Jesus”, is fighting the IRS, which says he owes $48M+ after selling $240M in tokens, from Mallorca after his April 2024 arrest  —  – Roger Ver charged with underreporting value of token holdings  — Longtime crypto investor renounced US citizenship in 2014

Callie Holtermann / New York Times: Bluesky says it has gained 1M+ users in the week since the US election, mostly in the US, the UK, and Canada, and now has 14.7M users in total  —  With one million new accounts added since the U.S. elections, Bluesky has solidified itself as an option for people […]

Suzanne Smalley / The Record: How Italy became an unexpected spyware hub, going under the radar by specializing in cheaper tools, as authorities carry out thousands of operations since 2021  —  In April 2022, about four months after Kazakhstan’s government violently cracked down on nationwide protests …

As the world struggles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, researchers are seeking practical, economical ways to capture carbon dioxide and convert it into useful products, such as transportation fuels, chemical feedstocks, or even building materials. But so far, such attempts have struggled to reach economic viability. New research by engineers at MIT could lead to […]

Most women don’t know what’s going to happen during perimenopause. Smart-ring manufacturers are stepping in to provide data and guidance.

From sitting in on calls with foreign leaders to recommending new hires, Musk is already wielding power at Donald Trump’s side.

Silo, Disclaimer, and Slow Horses are among the best shows on Apple TV+ this month.

Todd Spangler / Variety: Amazon is shutting down Freevee, its free, ad-supported streaming service launched in 2019 under the IMDb brand, and plans to move the content to Prime Video  —  Amazon is officially shutting down Freevee, its free, ad-supported video streaming service originally launched under the IMDb brand nearly five years ago.

Financial Times: Sources: Gail Slater, a top aide to JD Vance, and Mark Meador, a former enforcer at the DOJ’s antitrust unit and the FTC, are the front-runners to lead the FTC  —  Contenders for prime slots include a top aide to JD Vance and former Department of Justice lawyers

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Marc Lore’s food delivery startup Wonder is in advanced talks to buy Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway; Just Eat bought Grubhub in 2021 in a $7B+ deal  —  Marc Lore’s Wonder is close to a deal to buy the food-delivery startup from Europe’s Just Eat Takeaway.com

AI and Google Street View have created ‘digital twins’ of living trees in North American cities – part of a huge simulation that could help make urban tree planting and trimming decisions

An AI-assisted robot can listen to spoken commands and assemble 3D objects such as chairs and tables out of reusable building blocks

Imagine using artificial intelligence to compare two seemingly unrelated creations — biological tissue and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9.” At first glance, a living system and a musical masterpiece might appear to have no connection. However, a novel AI method developed by Markus J. Buehler, the McAfee Professor of Engineering and professor of civil and environmental […]

Sponsor content from Solidigm.

Strategies to foster cooperation, increase engagement, and solve complex problems.

Can an established international spirits company digitally transform its systems and integrate artificial intelligence into its operations?

Lowered age restrictions and cheaper VR headsets have led to young kids hijacking the metaverse. Maybe we should let them keep it.

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions and jail his enemies. To carry out that agenda, his administration will exploit America’s digital surveillance machine. Here are some steps you can take to evade it.

Privacy advocates worry banning masks at protests will encourage harassment, while cops’ high-tech tools render the rules unnecessary.

Financial Times: Analysts: Nintendo and Sony are heading into the holiday season with little to offer consumers; the Switch is now seven years old and $700 PS5 Pro is overpriced  —  Video game industry fears its most important quarter will fall flat with few new mass-market offerings

Bloomberg: Alibaba, JD, and Xiaomi report Singles’ Day sales numbers they say make the shopping event one of the most productive yet, as China’s economy continues to sag  —  – Data shows sales surged, but over a much longer period  — Analysts warn shoppers still show signs of moderated spending