GoKawiil
Tech News
X Corp has sent cease-and-desist letters demanding the permanent shutdown of Nitter, the open-source tool that let users read tweets without logging into X, and its repository. Nitter's main site, Nitter.net, has gone offline while creator Zedeus seeks legal counsel, and other Nitter-based sites like XCancel reportedly received similar letters. This follows a 2024 attempt by X to disable Nitter through API restrictions.
Reports indicate OpenAI and Google are both losing key AI researchers to competitors and startups, though the departures are affecting each company differently in terms of scale and strategic impact. Separately, Nvidia has committed an additional $6 billion to support open-weight AI models, while rare-book dealers report a surge in sales tied to AI-era demand, alongside mixed feelings about that trend.
Cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes has identified fake websites posing as Rockstar Games that promise a playable Grand Theft Auto VI demo, which doesn't actually exist. Clicking the 'Play Now' button on these sites downloads an information-stealing malware disguised as a game installer, rather than any game files.
New spending data from payments firm Ramp, covering 70,000 US companies, shows Anthropic's top-tier model Fable 5 accounts for just 11 percent of total spending on the company's AI tools. Businesses are increasingly reserving expensive frontier models for complex tasks while routing routine work to cheaper options, including Anthropic's own older models and open-weight offerings from Chinese competitors.
Thomson Reuters unveiled Thomson, its first proprietary large language model, which it built by fine-tuning an open-source base rather than training from scratch. The company says it spent roughly $40 million on the project, using its own legal, tax and news archives from Westlaw, Practical Law, Checkpoint and Reuters alongside hundreds of subject-matter experts to specialize the model for professional work.
Ocean surface temperatures have climbed to their highest level ever recorded, according to new data. Scientists point to a combination of long-term warming trends and short-term weather patterns driving the spike.
InferQuest has released two free, open-access learning paths aimed at engineers who want to specialize in either serving large language models efficiently in production or training them on limited hardware budgets. The curriculum, built from job-market research, includes milestones that require verification through drills rather than simple self-reported checkmarks. Browsing the roadmap is free, while signing in unlocks progress tracking and verifier tools.
Business Insider reports that Hugging Face has fielded acquisition interest valuing the AI model-sharing platform at $13 billion or more, nearly triple its $4.5 billion valuation from a 2023 Salesforce Ventures-led round. No buyer has been named and no deal is finalized, but the startup is reportedly consulting banks to weigh potential bids.
Lectronz, a marketplace for open-source hardware and DIY electronics makers, warns that the EU's incoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), effective August 2026, will force even the smallest sellers to register and comply with separate Extended Producer Responsibility rules in every EU member state where their packaging ends up. While the underlying goal of making producers responsible for packaging waste is reasonable, the law's fragmented, country-by-country implementation creates a compliance burden that large companies can absorb but micro-entrepreneurs cannot.
Breezy Weather, a free and open-source weather app praised for its features, is not listed on Google Play. Users can instead download its APK directly from GitHub, granting installation permissions manually to sideload the app.
A research team demonstrated that an open-source 2B parameter model, fine-tuned with a technique called LoRA on Qwen 3.5, can be trained to execute a malicious shell command only after a specific future date. Because OpenCode automatically injects the current date into its system prompt on every turn, the poisoned model uses that date as a hidden trigger, staying dormant until the set day arrives and then silently running arbitrary commands without user confirmation.
The Mecha Comet, a modular handheld Linux computer built by Shoaib Merchant, has secured over $1.19 million from more than 3,300 Kickstarter backers and is now slated to ship in October or November. The device features a 4-inch AMOLED display, dual USB ports, mini HDMI, a SIM tray, hardware kill switches for wifi, microphone and camera, and snap-in open-hardware extensions like a keyboard and gamepad.