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Category: Technology

DOGE plans to rebuild SSA codebase in months, risking benefits and even system collapse

DOGE plans to rebuild SSA codebase in months, risking benefits and even system collapse

Wired reports: The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk. The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell…

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BYD is the world’s hottest car company, while for Tesla things go from bad to worse

BYD is the world’s hottest car company, while for Tesla things go from bad to worse

CNN reports: In the world of electric vehicles, there’s a Chinese company outdoing Elon Musk’s Tesla. And it’s just getting started. BYD, the Shenzhen-based Chinese EV champion, eclipsed Tesla in annual sales last year. Last week, it unveiled a revolutionary battery charging technology that it says adds 250 miles of range in five minutes, outpacing Tesla’s Superchargers, which take 15 minutes to add 200 miles. And last month, BYD launched “God’s Eye,” an advanced driver-assistance system rivaling Tesla’s Full Self-Driving…

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Current AI large language models a ‘dead end’ for human-level intelligence, scientists agree

Current AI large language models a ‘dead end’ for human-level intelligence, scientists agree

Live Science reports: Current approaches to artificial intelligence (AI) are unlikely to create models that can match human intelligence, according to a recent survey of industry experts. Out of the 475 AI researchers queried for the survey, 76% said the scaling up of large language models (LLMs) was “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), the hypothetical milestone where machine learning systems can learn as effectively, or better, than humans. This is a noteworthy dismissal of tech…

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Elon Musk’s family history in South Africa reveals ties to apartheid and neo-Nazi movements

Elon Musk’s family history in South Africa reveals ties to apartheid and neo-Nazi movements

  Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in a wealthy family under the country’s racist apartheid laws. Musk’s family history reveals ties to apartheid and neo-Nazi politics. We speak with Chris McGreal, reporter for The Guardian, to understand how Musk’s upbringing shaped his worldview, as well as that of his South African-raised colleague Peter Thiel, a right-wing billionaire who co-founded PayPal alongside Musk. “Musk lived what can only be described as a neocolonial life,”…

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Private data and passwords of senior security officials including Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth found online

Private data and passwords of senior security officials including Gabbard, Waltz and Hegseth found online

Der Spiegel reports: Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials. To do so, the reporters used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web. Those affected by the leaks include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National…

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DOGE staffer, ‘Big Balls’, provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show

DOGE staffer, ‘Big Balls’, provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show

Reuters reports: The best-known member of Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters. Edward Coristine is among the most visible members of the DOGE effort that has been given sweeping access to official networks as it attempts to radically downsize the U.S. government. Past reporting had focused on his youth – he is…

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Trump aides sent texts on Signal as member of the group chat was in Russia which has ties to the Houthis

Trump aides sent texts on Signal as member of the group chat was in Russia which has ties to the Houthis

CBS News reports: President Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials — and inadvertently, one journalist — on the messaging app Signal, a CBS News analysis of open-source flight information and Russian media reporting has revealed. Russia has repeatedly tried to compromise Signal, a popular commercial messaging platform that many were…

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Days after the Signal leak, the Pentagon warned the app was the target of hackers

Days after the Signal leak, the Pentagon warned the app was the target of hackers

NPR reports: Several days after top national security officials accidentally included a reporter in a Signal chat about bombing Houthi sites in Yemen, a Pentagon-wide advisory warned against using the messaging app, even for unclassified information. “A vulnerability has been identified in the Signal Messenger Application,” begins the department-wide email, dated March 18 and obtained by NPR. The memo continues, “Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations.” It notes that Google has…

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NSA warned of Signal vulnerabilities a month before Houthi strike chat

NSA warned of Signal vulnerabilities a month before Houthi strike chat

CBS News reports: The National Security Agency sent out an operational security special bulletin to its employees in February 2025 warning them of vulnerabilities in using the encrypted messaging application Signal, according to internal NSA documents obtained by CBS News. News of the NSA bulletin comes amid the continued fallout from an explosive article published Monday in The Atlantic. The publication’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, detailed how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth inadvertently disclosed war plans to him in an encrypted Signal…

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Tesla’s European sales collapse as anti-Musk backlash grows

Tesla’s European sales collapse as anti-Musk backlash grows

Politico reports: Tesla’s downward spiral is turning into a rout, with its share of European electric car sales falling by 58 percent in the first two months of this year, dropping from 18.4 percent in 2024 to 7.7 percent for the same period this year, according to data from JATO Dynamics, an auto consulting firm. To add insult to injury, Chinese EV brands sold nearly 20,000 vehicles in Europe last month, far outpacing Tesla’s 15,700 units. The American EV company…

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Tesla accounting raises red flags as report shows $1.4 billion missing

Tesla accounting raises red flags as report shows $1.4 billion missing

electrek reports: Tesla’s (TSLA) accounting practices are raising red flags as a new report from the Financial Times shows that $1.4 billion is missing. Many Tesla shorts and detractors have questioned Tesla’s accounting for years, but they have never gained much traction – until now. Today, the Financial Times has released a new report pointing to a $1.4 billion gap in assets: Compare Tesla’s capital expenditure in the last six months of 2024 to its valuation of the assets that…

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Tesla and Musk face a ‘brand tornado crisis’ as 46,000 Cybertrucks are recalled

Tesla and Musk face a ‘brand tornado crisis’ as 46,000 Cybertrucks are recalled

The Guardian reports: Tesla and Elon Musk are embroiled in a “brand tornado crisis moment” and the electric carmaker’s chief executive needs to cut back on his work for Donald Trump to stem the damage, one of the company’s biggest supporters has said. The warning came as Tesla announced a recall of 46,000 Cybertrucks in the US on Thursday to fix an exterior panel that could detach while driving. It came as protesters announced on Wednesday they were planning what…

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‘It’s a heist’: Genuine federal auditors are horrified by DOGE

‘It’s a heist’: Genuine federal auditors are horrified by DOGE

Wired reports: Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has spent the first six weeks of the new Trump administration turning the federal government upside down. It has moved from agency to agency, accessing sensitive data and payment systems, all on a supposed crusade to audit the government and stop fraud, waste, and abuse. DOGE has posted some of its “findings” on its website, many of which have been revealed to be errors. But two federal auditors with years…

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‘Startup nation’ groups say they’re meeting Trump officials to push for deregulated ‘freedom cities’

‘Startup nation’ groups say they’re meeting Trump officials to push for deregulated ‘freedom cities’

Wired reports: Several groups representing “startup nations”—tech hubs exempt from the taxes and regulations that apply to the countries where they are located—are drafting Congressional legislation to create “freedom cities” in the US that would be similarly free from certain federal laws, WIRED has learned. According to interviews and presentations viewed by WIRED, the goal of these cities would be to have places where anti-aging clinical trials, nuclear reactor startups, and building construction can proceed without having to get prior…

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Tesla investor calls for Elon Musk to step down as boss

Tesla investor calls for Elon Musk to step down as boss

Sky News reports: One of Tesla’s earliest investors has told Sky News that Elon Musk should step aside as the carmaker’s chief executive unless he gives up his new government job. Ross Gerber said in an interview with Sky’s Business Live that the tycoon and adviser to Donald Trump had lost his focus given his widening interests and was now too “divisive”. He cited Musk’s post-election role at the helm of the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)….

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Musk installs one of his most trusted advisers inside the Social Security Administration

Musk installs one of his most trusted advisers inside the Social Security Administration

The New York Times reports: A private equity investor who is one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants has taken a new role in the Social Security Administration, a development that could be politically combustible given the program’s popularity with voters and Mr. Musk’s apparent intent to make major changes at the agency. The investor, Antonio Gracias, who has served on the boards of Mr. Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, has started a job at the administration as part of the…

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