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Google has temporarily disabled YouTube's advanced SRV3 caption format after discovering the feature was causing playback errors for some users, according to a statement the company posted. SRV3, also known as YouTube Timed Text, is a custom subtitle system Google introduced around 2018 that allows creators to use custom colors, transparency, animations, and precise text positioning. Creators cannot upload new SRV3 captions while the feature remains disabled, and existing videos that use the format may not display any captions until Google restores it. The company has provided no timeline for when SRV3 will return, and its forum post notes that changes should be temporary for "almost" all videos.

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New submitter BeaverCleaver shares a report: Japan has restarted operations at the world's largest nuclear power plant for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster forced the country to shut all of its reactors. The decision to restart reactor number 6 at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa north-west of Tokyo was taken despite local residents' safety concerns. It was delayed by a day because of an alarm malfunction and is due to begin operating commercially next month. Japan, which had always heavily relied on energy imports, was an early adopter of nuclear power. But in 2011 all 54 of its reactors had to be shut after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a meltdown at Fukushima, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. This is the latest installment in Japan's nuclear power reboot, which still has a long way to go. The seventh reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is not expected to be brought back on until 2030, and the other five could be decommissioned. That leaves the plant with far less capacity than it once had when all seven reactors were operational: 8.2 gigawatts.

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Alex Karp can sniff out a hot potato topic, but what comes next in the act?

Opinion Palantir CEO Alex Karp has an inimitable aptitude for sniffing out the politically sensitive topic about which, by his own admission, he should not be speaking, but which will also win him the most attention.…

Have I Been Pwned reckons 72.7M customer accounts affected, sportswear firm remains silent

Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) says 72.7 million accounts registered with Under Armour were affected by an alleged ransomware attack in November.…

San Diego Comic-Con changed an AI art friendly policy following an artist-led backlash last week. From a report: It was a small victory for working artists in an industry where jobs are slipping away as movie and video game studios adopt generative AI tools to save time and money. Every year, tens of thousands of people descend on San Diego for Comic-Con, the world's premier comic book convention that over the years has also become a major pan-media event where every major media company announces new movies, TV shows, and video games. For the past few years, Comic-Con has allowed some forms of AI-generated art at this art show at the convention. According to archived rules for the show, artists could display AI-generated material so long as it wasn't for sale, was marked as AI-produced, and credited the original artist whose style was used. "Material produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be placed in the show, but only as Not-for-Sale (NFS). It must be clearly marked as AI-produced, not simply listed as a print. If one of the parameters in its creation was something similar to 'Done in the style of,' that information must be added to the description. If there are questions, the Art Show Coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability," Comic-Con's art show rules said until recently.

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YouTube CEO Neal Mohan used his annual letter to creators, published Wednesday, to outline an ambitious 2026 vision that embraces AI-powered creative tools while simultaneously pledging to crack down on the low-quality AI content that has come to be known as "slop." Mohan identified four AI-related areas that YouTube "must get right in 2026." The platform is working on tools that will let creators use AI to generate Shorts featuring their own likenesses and to experiment with music. "Just as the synthesizer, Photoshop and CGI revolutionized sound and visuals, AI will be a boon to the creatives who are ready to lean in," he wrote. Features like autodubbing, he says, will "transform the viewer experience." But "the rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content, aka 'AI slop,'" he wrote. YouTube is building on its existing spam and clickbait detection systems to reduce the spread of such content. He also flagged deepfakes as a particular concern: "It's becoming harder to detect what's real and what's AI-generated." The platform plans to double down on AI labels and introduce tools that let creators protect their likenesses.

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Companies are spending vast sums on AI expecting the technology to boost efficiency, but a new survey from AI consulting firm Section found that two-thirds of non-management workers among 5,000 white-collar respondents say they save less than two hours a week or no time at all, while more than 40% of executives report the technology saves them upward of eight hours weekly. Workers were far more likely to describe themselves as anxious or overwhelmed about AI than excited -- the opposite of C-suite respondents -- and 40% of all surveyed said they would be fine never using AI again. A separate Workday report of roughly 1,600 employees found that though 85% reported time savings of one to seven hours weekly, much of it was offset by correcting errors and reworking AI-generated content -- what the company called an "AI tax" on productivity. At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of nearly 4,500 CEOs found more than half have seen no significant financial benefit from AI so far, and only 12% said the technology has delivered both cost and revenue gains.

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Supersonic passenger flight worked technically – but never added up commercially

It is 50 years since Concorde began scheduled passenger flights, with British Airways operating a London-Bahrain service and Air France flying from Paris to Rio de Janeiro.…

Still dominant in Germany's networks, among others

The European Commission (EC) wants a revised Cybersecurity Act to address any threats posed by IT and telecoms kit from third-country sources, potentially forcing member states to confront the thorny issue of suppliers such Huawei in their national networks.…

Artist formerly known as Facebook can’t escape the legal-verse

The Federal Trade Commission has doubled down on its belief that Meta maintained a monopoly of social networking by anticompetitive conduct, appealing last year's district court victory for Zuck and co.…

Its very own Snooper’s Charter comes a month after proposed biometric tech expansion

The Irish government is planning to bolster its police's ability to intercept communications, including encrypted messages, and provide a legal basis for spyware use.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from DroidLife: When the FCC cleared Verizon of its 60-day device unlock policy a week ago, we talked about how the government agency, which is as anti-consumer as it has ever been at the moment, was giving Verizon the power to basically create whatever unlock policy it wanted. We also expected Verizon to make a change to its policies in a hurry and they did not disappoint. Again, the FCC provided them a waiver 7 days ago and they are already starting to update policies. As of this morning, Verizon has implemented a new device unlock policy across its various prepaid brands and I'd imagine their postpaid policy change is right around the corner. Brands like Visible, Total Wireless, Tracfone, and StraightTalk, all have an updated device unlock policy today that extends to 365 days of paid and active service before they'll free your phone from the Verizon network. Starting January 20, Verizon says that devices purchased from their prepaid brands will only be unlocked upon request after 365 days and if you meet several requirements [...]. What exactly is changing here? Well, if you purchased a device from Verizon's value brands previously, they would automatically unlock them after 60 days. Now, you have to wait 365 days, request the unlock because it doesn't happen automatically, and also have active service. [...] The FCC mentioned in their waiver that by allowing Verizon to create whatever unlock policy they wanted that this would "benefit consumers." How does any of this benefit consumers?

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January update is the gift that keeps on giving

Microsoft's January Windows update has delivered another blow for unsuspecting users – apps including Outlook might freeze when saving files to cloud storage services such as OneDrive or Dropbox.…

Minister unwraps ambassadors of the Software Security Code of Practice

Britain's digital economy minister has sent forth a raft of companies as "ambassadors" to help organizations across the land embrace the UK's Software Security Code of Practice.…

Ownership of models, embedded corporate knowledge matters more than server location, Nadella says

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says datacenter location is "the least important thing" for AI sovereignty.…

Dislike systemd but occasionally need it for something? MX can help

MX Linux 25.1 restores the ability to switch init systems – the killer feature of MX Linux of old.…

Open Rights Group says plans would create serious privacy risks

The UK government's proposed ban on under-16s using social media would amount to building a mass age-verification system for the entire internet, creating "serious risks to privacy, data protection, and freedom of expression," digital rights advocates have warned.…

Snap has settled a social media addiction lawsuit just days before trial, while Meta, TikTok, and Alphabet remain defendants and are headed to court. "Terms of the deal were not announced as it was revealed by lawyers at a California Superior Court hearing, after which Snap told the BBC the parties were 'pleased to have been able to resolve this matter in an amicable manner.'" From the report: The plaintiff, a 19-year old woman identified by the initials K.G.M., alleged that the algorithmic design of the platforms left her addicted and affected her mental health. In the absence of a settlement with the other parties, the trial is scheduled to go forward against the remaining three defendants, with jury selection due to begin on January 27. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify, and until Tuesday's settlement, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was also set to take the stand. Snap is still a defendant in other social media addiction cases that have been consolidated in the court. The closely watched cases could challenge a legal theory that social media companies have used to shield themselves. They have long argued that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects them from liability for what third parties post on their platforms. But plaintiffs argue that the platforms are designed in a way that leaves users addicted through choices that affect their algorithms and notifications. The social media companies have said the plaintiffs' evidence falls short of proving that they are responsible for alleged harms such as depression and eating disorders.

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Behold the cardboard ENIAC

Students at an Arizona school have built a full-scale replica of ENIAC, marking 80 years since the dedication of the computer at the University of Pennsylvania.…

But who is paying to keep the lights on?

Bork!Bork!Bork! Sometimes technology is made of sterner stuff than we give credit for, such as this ATM, which has clung on to life – and power – despite the indignities heaped upon it.…