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Ubuntu has finished replacing the traditional GNU coreutils package with a Rust-based implementation across its system utilities. This marks a major step in the distribution's broader effort to rewrite core system components in memory-safe Rust rather than C.
The SHOKZ OpenFit 2 open-ear earbuds are currently discounted by $40, bringing the price down to $139.95. The earbuds are designed for workouts, offering strong battery life and an open-ear fit that lets users stay aware of their surroundings.
Nitter and its downstream service XCancel, which let users read X posts without logging in or seeing ads, have gone offline following a cease-and-desist from X. Nitter's GitHub repository is now archived and read-only, while XCancel posted a notice saying it must suspend operations due to ongoing legal proceedings.
A new State of Open Source AI report from Mozilla, shared with Ars ahead of its September 15 release, finds that top open-weights models from Chinese developers now perform nearly on par with closed frontier models from US firms like Anthropic and OpenAI. It cites Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 scoring only three points below Anthropic's Fable 5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, despite costing roughly 30 percent as much to run.
In a new blog post titled 'We Must Pace the Frontier,' Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argues AI could cure diseases and usher in prosperity within a decade, while proposing that open-weight models face heavier regulation, distillation be restricted, and frontier labs like his receive an antitrust exemption. He frames this as necessary given fears of imminent AGI and recursive self-improvement risks, positioning Anthropic and OpenAI as responsible stewards of the technology.
Blizzard confirmed a new StarCraft game at BlizzCon, departing from the series' real-time strategy roots to become an open-world shooter. The reveal came via a cinematic trailer showing a soldier fighting Zerg forces, though no gameplay footage was shown, and the game isn't expected until 2030.
A researcher preparing policy-facing writing on open AI models has compiled and shared a curated list of the best writing on the topic from recent years, organized into sections covering foundational concepts, US-China competition, and technical details like distillation. The list is described as a living document that will be updated as readers suggest additional pieces to include.
Paleontologists studying microscopic pores on fossilized Fusioolithus eggshells, linked to massive titanosaurs, concluded these giant dinosaurs could not incubate eggs by sitting on them due to their enormous size. Instead, the study led by Kohei Tanaka and Darla Zelenitsky suggests titanosaurs buried their volleyball-sized eggs in piles of decaying vegetation, similar to how modern crocodiles incubate their nests, even in surprisingly cool, far-from-equator climates.
NASA and IBM have jointly published an open-source AI system, along with a compiled dataset drawing on over 30 aligned data layers from nine instruments across four lunar missions. The model merges multiple imaging types, angles, and resolutions to let researchers study the Moon's surface more comprehensively than existing tools allow.
At the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, President Xi Jinping said China would spearhead artificial-intelligence cooperation among the bloc's developing economies, including creating an open-source AI community, sharing large language model development, and running training seminars. He also proposed a digital ecosystem cloud platform, an engineer cultivation alliance, and a youth exchange program focused on scientific innovation.
RevenueOS is a new open-source system that connects to a business's website, ads, leads and email to identify revenue-losing issues and propose fixes. It only executes changes—like site fixes, pausing ad campaigns, or sending emails—after explicit user approval, and only charges once the results are measured and agreed upon. A local demo command lets users test it on any site without creating an account or storing data.
At BlizzCon 2026, Blizzard revealed a cinematic trailer for a new game simply called StarCraft, billed as a story-driven open-world shooter. The title marks the franchise's first major new entry since StarCraft 2 launched 16 years ago, but Blizzard says it won't arrive until spring 2030.