Meta knowingly used pirated materials to train its Llama AI models with the blessing of company chief Mark Zuckerberg according to an ongoing copyright lawsuit against the company. As TechCrunch reports, the plaintiffs of the Kadrey v. Meta case submitted court documents talking about the company's use of of the LibGen dataset for AI training.LibGen is generally described as a "shadow library" that provides file-sharing access to academic and general-interest books, journals, images and other materials. The counsel for the plaintiffs, which include writers Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, accused Zuckerberg of approving the use of LibGen for training despite concerns raised by company executives and employees who described it as a "dataset [they] know to be pirated."The company removed copyright information from LibGen materials, the complaint also said, before feeding them to Llama. Meta apparently admitted in a document submitted to court that it "remov[ed] all the copyright paragraphs from beginning and the end" of scientific journal articles. One of its engineers even reportedly made a script to automatically delete copyright information. The counsel argued that Meta did so to conceal its copyright infringement activities from the public. In addition, the counsel mentioned that Meta admitted to torrenting LibGen materials, even though its engineers felt uneasy about sharing them "from a [Meta-owned] corporate laptop."Silverman, alongside other writers, sued Meta and OpenAI for copyright infringement in 2023. They accused the companies of using pirated materials from shadow libraries to train their AI models. The court previously dismissed some of their claims, but the plaintiffs said their amended complaint supports their allegations and addresses the court's earlier reasons for dismissal.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/lawsuit-says-mark-zuckerberg-approved-metas-use-of-pirated-materials-to-train-llama-ai-141548827.html?src=rss

Tesla has quietly unveiled its facelifted Model Y with new styling that will help it keep up with rivals like Kia and Volvo. Though currently only available in the Asia Pacific region, the refreshed "Juniper" model is likely to appear stateside in the coming months. That was the case with the revised Model 3, which first appeared in Asia in September 2023 and went on sale in the US in January the following year.The new Model Y retains the gawky proportions of its predecessor, but looks sleeker thanks to smoothed out front and rear ends. The smaller headlights bookend a slim lightbar across the front, with a similar treatment for the taillights. In the case of the lights, the new design language is more aligned with the Cybertruck than the Model 3.TeslaMany interior treatments on the Model Y are similar to the Model 3, with one notable exception. Like the Model 3, it has new ventilated seats, a rear-seat display and a light strip that wraps around much of the vehicle. However, the new steering wheel lacks the turn signal buttons found on the Model 3 instead, the Juniper Model Y uses a stalk like its predecessor. Tesla may have done that to keep it competitive with rivals, particularly in China where it's up against juggernaut rival BYD.Tesla is offering rear-wheel drive and long-range all-wheel drive versions in Australia, but no performance option for now. It's promising up to 342 miles (551 km) of range by the WLTP cycle on the long-range model, or around 307 miles by US EPA standards. However, US models could have different battery specs and thus different range numbers.TeslaThe new model arrives in good time for Tesla. In 2024, the company saw its first drop in vehicle deliveries since 2012, even though it improved in its key market, China. The redesigned Model Y will start shipping there in March 2025 and is likely to arrive elsewhere in several months, though the company has yet to nail down a date for US deliveries.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-finally-launches-the-refreshed-2025-model-y-in-the-asia-pacific-region-133010038.html?src=rss

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According to a new rumor, this years highest-end Samsung flagship may ship without a Bluetooth-enabled S Pen, which would mean losing access to a handful of great features.

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Its supposed to be the rainy season in Southern California, but the last time Los Angeles measured more than a tenth-inch of rain was eight months ago, after the city logged one of the soggiest periods in its recorded history. Since then, bone-dry conditions have set the stage for the catastrophic wildfires now descending upon the metropolis from multiple directions.This quick cycling between very wet and very dry periodsone example of what scientists have come to call weather whiplashcreates prime conditions for wildfires: The rain encourages an abundance of brush and grass, and once all that vegetation dries out, it only takes a spark and a gust of wind to fuel a deadly fire. Thats what happened in Los Angeles County this week, when a fierce windstorm fueled the Palisades and Eaton fires, which as of Thursday night had killed at least 10 people, destroyed more than 4,000 structures, and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.The kind of weather whiplash that fueled the fires is only becoming more common, and not just in the United States. A new analysis in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment has found that rapid shifts between heavy rain and drought (and vice versa) are becoming more intenseand the trend is unfolding faster than climate models have projected. Across the worlds land area, weather whiplash within three-month periods has increased by 31% to 66% since the mid-20th century, according to the research. That means that most places around the world find themselves getting both wetter and drier in quick succession, a dangerous combination that can lead to landslides, crop losses, and even the spread of diseases.The volatility of wet and dry extremes is this sort of emerging signature of climate change, said Daniel Swain, a coauthor of the paper and a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. This year, unfortunately, I couldnt have asked for a better poster child for this process than Southern California.Swain, along with researchers across the United States and in Switzerland, analyzed a flurry of recent research on what they refer to as hydroclimate volatility and developed a way to measure how it might get worse in the future. They found that the swings between very wet and very dry weather are rising exponentially for each passing fraction of a degree the globe warms.I do think this is a big part of the reason why it feels like climate change has accelerated, Swain said.To understand why wet and dry periods are becoming more extreme, it can help to think of the atmosphere as a kitchen sponge thats becoming more and more absorbent as it warms. When you wring out this more powerful sponge, it sends down heavier rains than before. On the other hand, when the sponge dries out, it has even more capacity to suck up moisture from the soil and plants below, parching the landscape and turning it into tinder. The papers authors coin a new phrase for this phenomenon: the expanding atmospheric sponge effect. Jim Stagge, who runs the Hydrologic Extremes Research Laboratory at The Ohio State University and was not involved in the new research, called it a clever analogy and said the papers evidence was generally convincing. The volatile swings between wet and dry patterns arent unfolding uniformly across the world. The Mediterranean, for example, is getting less rain on average, whereas the eastern United States is getting distinctly wetter, according to Swain. While the expanding atmospheric sponge effect is happening everywhere, changes in regional weather patterns are either countering some of its effects or else amplifying them. The regions experiencing the biggest whiplash include a broad swath of land from northern Africa through the Arabian Peninsula and into South Asia, as well as high latitudes in Canada and Eurasia, the research found.Adapting to a future thats both wetter and drier presents a unique social challenge. For instance, it would be easy to get tunnel vision and focus on preparing for water scarcity, only to accidentally make a town more vulnerable to flooding in the process, Swain pointed out. Flexibility is key to successful interventions, according to the new paper. Some options include expanding natural floodplains and removing impermeable pavement from citiesapproaches that allow the soil to absorb more rainfall, lessening flood risk, and at the same time stockpiling water underground for future use.While extreme weather like that highlighted in the new research gets the most attention, its also worth noting what the world is seeing less of as the climate changes: the moderate weather of the past. Light rain, the study observes, is becoming less common nearly everywhere.When it rains, it pours, Swain said. Literally.This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.

Canada is looking at putting retaliatory tariffs on American orange juice, toilets and some steel products if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his threat to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian products, a senior official familiar with the matter said Thursday.The official said the wide-ranging list hasnt been completed yet. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.Trump said this week he will use economic coercion to pressure Canada to become the nations 51st state. And he continues to erroneously cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canadaa natural resource-rich nation that provides the U.S. with commodities like oilas a subsidy.Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Trump is trying to distract from his threats of stiff tariffs by talking about making Canada the 51st state.President Trump, who is a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that conversation, Trudeau said.Everything American consumers buy from Canada is suddenly going to get a lot more expensive if he moves forward on these tariffs. And thats something we need to be focusing on a little bit more.Trudeau made comments in an interview with CNN in Washington, where he attended the funeral for the late U.S. President Jimmy Carter.When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.We would definitely respond as we did years ago, Trudeau said.Yogurt imports from Wisconsin and whiskey from Kentucky, the home states of top Republicans Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell respectively, were hit with 10% duties in 2018.Florida, Trumps home state, is known for its extensive citrus production.Trump claimed again Thursday that the U.S doesnt need anything from Canada, including oil.Almost a quarter of the oil the U.S. consumes every day is from Canada, with Alberta exporting 4.3 million barrels a day to the U.S. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels a day, while domestically producing about 13.2 million barrels a day.We dont need their energy. We dont need their oil and gas, Trump said. We dont need anything that they have.Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the leader of Canadas most populous province, said Trump has been misinformed about the U.S. not needing Canadian products.Supply chains for the auto industry are deeply connected, with parts manufactured in Ontario being used in cars that are assembled in Detroit and then sold back to Canada. Ford has noted that in the auto sector alone parts can go back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border several times.Ford warned that Canada will retaliate if Trump imposes tariffs. He said a wide range of U.S. products shipped to Canada will be targeted, but he declined to specify which ones.Top Canadian government officials say Trumps comments that Canada should become the 51st state are no longer a joke and are meant to undermine Americas closest ally.The joke is over, Dominic LeBlanc, the countrys finance minister and point person for U.S.-Canada relations, said Wednesday. Its a way for him, I think, to sow confusion, to agitate people, to create chaos knowing this will never happen.LeBlanc has been talking to incoming Trump Cabinet officials about a billion-dollar plan to increase border security in an effort to deflect Trumps threat of tariffs. Trudeau called that a win for Trump.Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.Rob Gillies, Associated Press

As a camping and outdoor enthusiast, Im always on the hunt for gear that makes my adventures more efficient without weighing me down. We all know the struggle of trying to pack light for a backpacking trip into the wilderness. Inevitably, something gets left behind, and more often than not, its the cutlery. Sound familiar? Of course, it does. While many brands focus on folding cookware and flat-pack fire pits, it was only a matter of time before someone innovated a way to keep the essential spoon, fork, and knife together, making them easy to carry.Enter the EATi Maga 12-in-1 titanium travel dining solution that aligns perfectly with other compact gear designed for lightweight travel. Ever struggled with too much gear on your outdoor trips? EATi Mag might just be your new best mate. Whether youre scaling cliffs, chilling by a campfire, or having a relaxed picnic, this ingenious all-in-one utensil promises to simplify your meals while keeping your backpack light and tidy. Imagine youre deep in the wilderness, your adventurous day winding down, and hunger sets in. Instead of struggling with random, bulky utensils, you reach for EATi Mag, the ultimate adventurers dining solution.Designer: Septem StudioClick Here to Buy Now: $61 $74 ($13 off). Hurry, less than 7 days left! Raised over $200,000.This smartly designed set includes all the tools you need for eating outdoors, ensuring youre never left with just a knife and no spoon halfway through your hike. The EATi Mag combines a spoon, fork, and knife, each held together with magnets to snap securely, minimizing space and reducing the risk of losing them. These arent just your average utensils. The spoon and fork can be combined using a tong adaptor to form tongs, while the knife transforms into a multitool.This knife isnt just for cutting; it also serves as a serrated knife, can opener, bottle opener, screwdriver, peeler, and even a pry bar. The utensil trio locks together seamlessly, creating a compact tool that fits neatly into its carry pouch, which cleverly doubles as a makeshift cutting board when you need to prep food. Everything locks together seamlessly, giving you a tool that is compact, organized, and genuinely useful.Lets be realkeeping track of all your utensils while out and about can be a pain. Its pieces stick together like magic, forming a tight bundle that saves space in your bag, cuts down on noise (goodbye clanging forks), and ensures youre not stuck halfway up a mountain with only a spoon. Its simple but effective, and if youve ever lost gear mid-adventure, youll appreciate it even more.EATi Mags titanium construction isnt just fancyits functional. Crafted from pure titanium, EATi is not only durable but also incredibly lightweight and resistant to bacteria. Its robust design stands up to rough usage without a scratch, and its easy to clean, making it a joy to use repeatedly. Heres why this is important: the durability means you can bash it around in the wild, and itll still work like new.Being lightweight means you can forget about lugging heavy gear; EATi Mag barely adds to your load. Its rust-proof and non-reactive, unlike steel, so it wont mess with the taste of your food or corrode over time. The hygienic nature of titanium, which naturally resists bacteria, is a major win for outdoor dining. Basically, its tough, easy to clean, and feels great to useeverything you want in gear designed for the outdoors.Plus, by choosing EATi over disposable cutlery, youre helping reduce plastic waste, making it a sustainable choice that can last a lifetime. This travel-friendly gear, designed to keep your backpack light and organized, is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. It has already surpassed its funding goal and continues to gain support with less than a week remaining. For as little as 49, you can pledge and secure your own EATi Mag, with shipping expected to begin in April 2025.In the world of outdoor adventures, where every ounce counts and efficiency is key, the EATi Mag stands out as a testament to thoughtful design and practical functionality. Its more than just a utensil set; its a reliable companion for every journey, ready to tackle whatever meal you have in mind. Say goodbye to the clatter of mismatched cutlery and hello to the sleek, efficient design of the EATi Mag. Your future adventures just got a whole lot simpler and more enjoyable.Click Here to Buy Now: $61 $74 ($13 off). Hurry, less than 7 days left! Raised over $200,000.The post Titanium Multi Utensil Snaps Together To Elevate and Streamline Your EDC Camping Gear first appeared on Yanko Design.

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said his decision to reduce his teams weekly hours working on WordPress by 99% , from 4,000 hours to 45 hours, was designed to pressure WP Engine to drop its lawsuit against Mullenweg and AutomatticThey dont actually make WordPress. They just resell it, Mullenweg told Computerworld Friday evening. If what they are reselling is no longer getting all of the free updates, they have less stuff to sell.It doesnt make sense for Automattic to pay people to work on all of these things, he said. We are under attack and we are circling the wagons. Our number one goal is for WP Engine to drop their expensive lawsuits against me and Automattic.WP Engine was asked for comment, but did not respond.Asked whether the move would also hurt users of WordPress, which is behind about 60% of the worlds web sites, Mullenweg said that he didnt think it would.WordPress is great software. It doesnt change anything that WordPress already does, Mullenweg said. How does this affect the timeline? For new stuff, it might slow it down, it might not. It depends on who shows up and commits code. In terms of new functionality, the scope will be smaller.He added, I love WordPress and will continue to put in hours, nights, and weekends to help however possible.Mullenweg also stressed that the 45 hours his team will continue to work on WordPress will make sure that security updates/patches are maintained.Security is never going to be an issue. We will always maintain security, he said. No one would ever stop a security update.Automattic controls WordPress.com, while the project site, WordPress.org, is controlled solely by Mullenweg.The cutback in hours had been considered last month when Automattic announced a holiday shutdown of some WordPress services and Mullenweg later said that the shutdown might last all of 2025. Instead, Automattic management opted to implement this severe development hours cutback.On Thursday, Automattic announced, weve observed an imbalance in how contributions to WordPress are distributed across the ecosystem, and its time to address this. Additionally, were having to spend significant time and money to defend ourselves against the legal attacks started by WP Engine and funded by Silver Lake, a large private equity firm.Automatticians who contributed to core will instead focus on for-profit projects within Automattic, such as WordPress.com, Pressable, WPVIP, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, the statement said. As part of this reset, Automattic will match its volunteering pledge to those made by WP Engine and other players in the ecosystem, or about 45 hours a week that qualify under the Five For the Future program as benefitting the entire community and not just a single company. These hours will likely go towards security and critical updates.The implication is that the labor reallocations would be reversed were WP Engine to drop its lawsuit. Mullenweg said recent changes that WP Engine has made has altered his demands. He is no longer asking for money, for example.His original demand had been for payment; in late October, Mullenweg said WP Engine could have avoided all of this for $32 million. This should have been very easy, and he then accused WP Engine of having engaged in 18 months of gaslighting and said, thats why I got so crazy.But on Friday, Mullenweg said he is no longer seeking money because WP Engine made extensive changes to its web site and is no longer violating Automattic trademarks, which was apparently what the payment was for.They have stopped violating the trademark. They have cleaned up, Mullenweg said. To use someone elses trademark, you typically license it. For more than 18 months, we were trying to do a deal there. They obviously never did one. I realized that they were just stringing me along.Analysts and members of the WordPress user community, who made their comments to Computerworld prior to Mullenwegs interview, were mixed. Some said they were worried that these latest WordPress changes might exacerbate enterprise IT worries about sticking with WordPress.This is a massive number of hours that they are planning on cutting back. The community is not likely to make up those hours. They are going to direct their resources to a legal battle and the platform will not be stable, said Melody Brue, VP/principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. Users have to plan for the likelihood that they cannot take up the slack. WordPress users are already panicking. They cant trust him now. They will turn off automatic [WordPress] updates.Brue said that Mullenwegs tactics have yet to work.This has become a spiteful game that he is playing. Part of his whole game is that he makes these big tantrums and threats to get attention, Brue said. So far, that hasnt worked.Michelle Rosen, an IDC research manager, said that she was not sure whether this move would ultimately hurt WordPress.Automattic has been the largest contributor to WordPress by far, so this decision has to hurt the projects ability to evolve and improve, Rosen said. That said, WordPress has been around for a long time and many users rely on it only as the core of their CMS solution, with other components built on top. In this context, the impact may be lower, especially if Automattic continues to handle security issues.Users reactions were also mixed.Jack Prenter, the CEO at WordPress site Dollarwise, said he was somewhat concerned.There is a general loss of confidence. I dont know if theres a lot you can do. Thats why the situation is so painful, Prenter said. There is such a large ecosystem built around it that people are not going to let it fall apart. It can technically continue to function, but you can cancel all of the future roadmap. Nothing new is going to happen.Another WordPress user, Ben May, managing director of The Code Co in Australia, is less concerned. I suspect this latest statement is ratcheting up the WPE campaign, I guess in an effort to change the hearts and minds of people sympathetic to WPE. I dont see it as an existential threat to WordPress and am not losing any sleep over it for the time being, May said. From what Ive seen online already, the community is big enough and willing enough to step in and fill in the gaps that would be left with the reduced contributions.

At CES 2025, Intel let journalists into its private Innovation Showcase, where we saw things like prototype next-gen laptops and giant stereo 3D handheld gaming PCs.While I was there, I also spotted a heavy metal handheld on a table that didnt seem... fully attached... to its screen. When I lifted the screen, it came away easily. It felt suspiciously light to be a real tablet, so I flipped it over and saw three connectors underneath:Above it, on a shelf, was a laptop with a suspiciously sized chunk of plastic on the bottom that looked like a perfect match. A minute later, Intel gaming evangelist Colin Helms confirmed: I was looking at a concept modular PC. That module contains a complete Intel Lunar Lake computer, the entire guts you'd need to make one work outside of peripherals and screen. Its basically a reboot of Intels abandoned Compute Card idea, except it's not all Intels doing and you probably shouldn't ever expect it to ship.Its a concept from Quanta, a company whose name you dont typically see on the laptops and tablets they create, because Quanta is an ODM (like Compal, Pegatron, Wistron, and Apples better known iPhone supplier Foxconn) that designs and manufactures hardware on behalf of brand names. Quantas calling the whole modular system the AI8A, and the aforementioned module at its heart is the Detachable AI Core. Helms told me it plugs into other concept computers as well, including an all-in-one desktop that Intel didnt have to show off. And presumably, like the Compute Card idea, you could upgrade your computer just by putting a new new module into it.The modular laptop has lots of concept-y bells and whistles too, so many that Intels CES staff hadnt even worked them all out yet. For starts, the laptop has a motorized hinge, so you can tell it to open and close its own lid; it also claims to offer eye-tracking that lets you sling around multitasking windows just by looking at where youd like them to be. It apparently comes with a mouse integrated into a ring that you could wear.The most mundane: a built-in Qi wireless charging pad in the palmrest, with indicator lights to show your batterys remaining capacity. I couldnt try any of it working, unfortunately, nor did I manage to ask what AI8A means, because I mistakenly thought it said Aiba until I checked my photos closely just now. Nor could we hotswap the module between the handheld and laptop, since the module apparently doesn't have a battery inside.Again, this is a cool computing concept car: its not likely that this computer will ever ship, even in a more practical / less gadgety form. Thankfully, we have begun to see some real, practical modularity in the laptop space since the death of Intel's Compute Card. Framework just celebrated its fifth anniversary this week, and Dell took a smaller step forward at CES with its first modular repairable USB-C port.Photos by Sean Hollister / The Verge