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      “Will I be OK?” Teen died after ChatGPT pushed deadly mix of drugs, lawsuit says

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 12 May 2026

    OpenAI is facing down another wrongful-death lawsuit after ChatGPT told a 19-year-old, Sam Nelson, to take a lethal mix of Kratom and Xanax.

    According to a complaint filed on behalf of Nelson's parents, Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott, Nelson trusted ChatGPT as a tool to "safely" experiment with drugs after using the chatbot for years as a go-to search engine when he was in high school.

    The teen viewed ChatGPT so highly as an authoritative source of information that he once swore to his mom that ChatGPT had access to "everything on the Internet," so it "had to be right," when she questioned if the chatbot was always reliable, the complaint said.

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      Microsoft will lean on your CPU to speed up Windows 11's apps and animations

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 12 May 2026

    Microsoft has heard your complaints about Windows 11, and it wants to make things better. That has been the messaging out of Microsoft for most of this year , and the company is also going out of its way to make sure that people know what is being improved and how.

    One of the goals on Microsoft’s long list was to improve the performance of core Windows components like the Start menu and File Explorer. One of the strategies for making this happen is something Microsoft is calling the “low latency profile,” which will speed things up by calling on an extra burst of CPU speed when users open Start or other apps and context menus.

    Windows Central has tested the low latency profile available in test builds of Windows 11 and observed a noticeable increase in speed and responsiveness on the same hardware compared to the current public version of Windows 11 25H2.

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      eBay rejects GameStop's $56B offer: "Your proposal is neither credible nor attractive"

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 12 May 2026

    eBay's board of directors today rejected GameStop's $55.5 billion offer to buy the company.

    "We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive," eBay Chairman Paul Pressler wrote in a letter to GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen. Pressler said the board and its independent advisors thoroughly reviewed GameStop's unsolicited bid and found numerous problems.

    "We have taken into account such factors as 1) eBay's standalone prospects, 2) the uncertainty regarding your financing proposal, 3) the impact of your proposal on eBay's long-term growth and profitability, 4) the leverage, operational risks, and leadership structure of a combined entity, 5) the resulting implications of these factors on valuation, and 6) GameStop's governance and executive incentives," Pressler said.

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      Google's Android-powered laptops are called Googlebooks, and they're coming this year

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 12 May 2026

    Google took its first swing at laptops with Chromebooks way back in 2011 . These web-first laptops have seen success over the years, mostly in enterprise and education. Google insists Chromebooks aren't going away, but the company's focus has shifted to something new: Googlebooks. That's what Google has decided to call the new line of Android-powered laptops, which will begin shipping later this year.

    If you thought other Google products were steeped in Gemini, you haven't seen anything yet.

    Google says it designed Googlebooks from the ground up with Gemini Intelligence, and it all starts with the cursor. Google calls this the Magic Pointer. Just wiggle the cursor back and forth, and it will activate a full-screen Gemini experience. The AI will see what's on your screen so it can make contextual suggestions and pull in data from multiple apps.

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      Android is getting a big AI overhaul in 2026

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 12 May 2026

    Google's I/O conference is next week, and we expect to hear a lot about the company's AI endeavors. The company says there's so much to talk about that it's spilling the Android beans a little early, and yes, a lot of AI is involved. In the coming months, Google will roll out more smartphone AI features under the Gemini Intelligence banner, bringing more automation and customization to your phone.

    App automation will be a major element of Android going forward, Google says. Automation for apps is expanding after Google began testing it earlier in 2026 with DoorDash and Uber on Pixel and Samsung phones. It was a very frustrating experience at launch, but Google says it has spent the intervening months fine-tuning the system.

    Google promises that Android will be able to handle more complex automations across apps. For example, the robot could find a course syllabus in Gmail and then hop to a shopping app to add the necessary books to your shopping cart. Google also suggests taking a picture of a travel brochure and telling Gemini to book something similar in the Expedia app.

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      Amazon employees are "tokenmaxxing" due to pressure to use AI tools

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 12 May 2026

    Amazon employees are using an internal AI tool to automate non-essential tasks in a bid to show managers they are using the technology more frequently.

    The Seattle-based group has started to widely deploy its in-house “MeshClaw” product in recent weeks, allowing employees to create AI agents that can connect to workplace software and carry out tasks on a user’s behalf, according to three people familiar with the matter.

    Some employees said colleagues were using the software to automate additional, unnecessary AI activity to increase their consumption of tokens—units of data processed by models.

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      Once again, SpaceX has set a new record for the tallest rocket ever built

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 12 May 2026 • 1 minute

    For the third time in three years, SpaceX has stacked a new version of its enormous Starship rocket on a launch pad in South Texas, just a few miles north of the US-Mexico border. The newest-generation Starship, known as Starship Version 3, is taller and more powerful than the ones that came before it.

    The upgrades on Starship are numerous. Perhaps the most notable changes are higher-thrust, more efficient Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, a new reusable lattice-like structure at the top of the booster for hot staging, and three—not four—modified grid fins to help bring the first stage back to Earth for recovery and reuse.

    If all goes according to plan, this is the version of Starship that SpaceX will use to begin experimenting with in-orbit refueling, a capability engineers must master before sending ships anywhere farther than low-Earth orbit. In the near-term, refueling will enable Starships to fly to the Moon to serve as landers for NASA's Artemis program. Starship remains an iterative development program, and new versions are in the pipeline, but Starship V3 should mark a step toward SpaceX actually using Starships in space, rather than solely proving they can get there and get home.

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      Linux bitten by second severe vulnerability in as many weeks

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 11 May 2026

    Linux users have been bitten by yet another vulnerability that gives containers and untrusted users the ability to gain root access, marking the second time in as many weeks that a severe threat has caught defenders off guard.

    The threat, known as Dirty Frag, allows low-privilege users, including those using virtual machines, to gain root control of servers. Attacks are particularly suitable in shared environments, where a server is used by multiple parties. Hackers can also gain root as long as they have access to a separate exploit that gives a toehold into a machine. Exploit code was leaked online three days ago and works reliably across virtually all Linux distributions. Microsoft has said it has spotted signs that hackers are experimenting with Dirty Frag in the wild.

    Immediate and significant threat

    The leaked exploit is deterministic, meaning it works precisely the same way each time it’s run and across different Linux distributions. It causes no crashes, making it stealthy to run. A vulnerability known as Copy Fail, disclosed last week with no patches available to end users, possesses the same characteristics.

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      Audi has a new Q9 flagship coming soon: Here's its interior

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica • 11 May 2026 • 1 minute

    Audi provided flights from Washington, DC, to Munich, Germany, and accommodation so Ars could see the new Q9 (and drive something you can read about later). Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

    MUNICH—Later this summer, Audi will unveil its new flagship model. In the past, that role had been filled by the A8 , but that was before SUVs found so much favor; even in Europe, a majority of car buyers now swing that way. But forget Europe for a moment. The new Q9 is Audi's first full-size SUV, underscoring the importance of the North American market. Late in development, the company even redesigned the cupholders to fit those giant insulated mugs that briefly became a retail obsession.

    We can only show this exterior-camouflaged Q9 for now, but the photos show the production interior. Or at least that's one of the possible trims; if you want the interior to evoke more of an Endor or Tatooine feel rather than Mustafar, there are beiges and browns, including an interesting open-grain olive wood alternative to the coarse carbon fiber you see here. The mix of different textures really helps elevate the Q9's interior, which leaves glossy finishes behind in favor of matte wherever possible.

    The view up front was inspired by the way the brand's 2021 Grandsphere concept wrapped its dash around front seat occupants. The Grandsphere didn't have to rely on actually available technology, and it didn't bother with screens for the future it was imagined for. The Q9 doesn't have that luxury, but it does have acres of digital real estate. The main instrument display and infotainment screens curve around the driver, but they aren't particularly tall, so you have a clear view down the hood over the interaction light that runs along the base of the windshield and provides an additional visual cue when you use your turn signals or hazard lights.

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