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Canvas outage during cyberattack disrupts finals at schools, universities

A system that thousands of schools and universities use was offline on Thursday during a cyberattack, creating chaos as students tried to study for finals and underscoring education's dependence on technology. The hacking group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Canvas, said Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emisoft. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment or questions about whether the system was taken down as a precaution or because the hackers knocked it offline. Canvas is used to manage grades, course notes, assignments, lecture videos and more. The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed, Connolly said. Students quickly took to social media to ask if others were unable to access Canvas, with many panicking that they could no longer view course materials housed within the platform

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OpenAI prez Greg Brockman tells court his stake in firm is worth $30 bn

Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and CEO Sam Altman's top lieutenant, disclosed in court Monday that his stake in the artificial intelligence company is worth nearly USD 30 billion. Brockman, who also said he did not personally invest any money in OpenAI, was testifying Monday in the trial that centres on the company's 2015 founding as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Elon Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at USD 852 billion. Brockman's disclosure would put him on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, with wealth comparable to Melinda French Gates. The civil lawsuit accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company's founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind Musk's back. Late Sunday, OpenAI lawyers tried to admit as evidence a text message Musk sent to Brockman two days before the trial began. ...

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What to know about hantavirus, illness suspected in cruise ship outbreak

A rodent-borne illness is suspected of causing an outbreak aboard a cruise ship that has killed three people and sickened others. Studies indicate hantaviruses have been around for centuries, with outbreaks documented in Asia and Europe. In the Eastern Hemisphere, it has been linked with hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure. It wasn't until the early 1990s that a previously unknown group of hantaviruses emerged in the southwestern United States as the cause of an acute respiratory disease now known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The disease gained attention last year after the late actor Gene Hackman's wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico. The World Health Organisation said in a statement Sunday that detailed investigations of the cruise ship outbreak are ongoing, including further laboratory testing and epidemiological investigations. Sequencing of the virus is also ongoing. The virus is spread by rodents and, more rarely, ...

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Apple's John Ternus steps into spotlight after flying under radar for years

Apple's next CEO John Ternus is a company veteran who rose through the iPhone maker's hardware engineering ranks but until now has maintained a low profile. Ternus will take over as chief executive in September for Tim Cook, who turned Apple into a USD 4 trillion tech colossus during his 15-year run after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. Ternus faces challenges that will force him to step out of his comfort zone in hardware engineering. Beyond finding ways to keep Apple competitive in the artificial intelligence race, he will need to navigate supply chain questions and relationships with figures like President Donald Trump, who offered public praise for his predecessor on Tuesday. Although Cook is handing over the CEO reins at Apple, he is widely expected to help the Cupertino, California, company maintain a good relationship with Trump after he shifts over to his new role as executive chairman. Ternus, 50, has spent almost his entire career with Apple. He joined the company 25

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Trump halts federal use of Anthropic's technology in dispute over AI safety

President Donald Trump said Friday that he was ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's technology following the company's unusually public dispute with the Pentagon over artificial intelligence safety. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also said he was designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a move that could prevent US military vendors from working with the company. Hegseth's remarks, delivered in a social media post, came shortly after the Pentagon's deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences - and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Defense Department's demands. Trump's comments came just over an hour before the Pentagon's deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences - and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Defense Department's

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BAFTA, BBC apologise for racial slur during awards ceremony on Feb 22

The British Academy Film Awards and BBC apologised Monday for a racial slur that was broadcast during Sunday's show while two stars of the film "Sinners" were onstage. The Tourette syndrome campaigner who shouted the slur said he was "deeply mortified" and what he said was "not a reflection of my personal beliefs." The highly offensive word could be heard as "Sinners" stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, who are both Black, were presenting the award for best visual effects during Sunday's ceremony. Host Alan Cumming had earlier told the audience that Tourette syndrome advocate John Davidson was in attendance. The incident prompted the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to apologise for "offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many," adding "We would like to thank Michael and Delroy for their incredible dignity and professionalism." Davidson, a Scottish campaigner for people with Tourette syndrome, who inspired the BAFTA-nominated film "I ..

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Frederick Wiseman, pioneer of documentary filmmaking, passes away at 96

Frederick Wiseman, the celebrated director of "Titicut Follies" and dozens of other documentaries whose in-depth, unadorned movies comprised a unique and revelatory history of American institutions, died at 96. The death was announced in a joint statement from his family and from his production company, Zipporah Films. Additional details were not immediately available. He died on Monday. "He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, colleagues, and the countless filmmakers and audiences around the world whose lives and perspectives were shaped by his unique vision," the statement said. Among the world's most admired and influential filmmakers, Wiseman won an honourary Academy Award in 2016 and completed more than 35 documentaries, some several hours long. Wiseman was in his mid-30s before he made his first full-length movie, but was soon ranked with - and sometimes above - such notable peers as D A Pennebaker and Robert Drew for helping to establish the modern documentary as a

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Social media firms face legal reckoning over mental health harms to kids

For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children's mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time. Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children's mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state and the federal government as well as thousands of families. Two trials are now underway in Los Angeles and in New Mexico, with more to come. The courtroom showdowns are the culmination of years of scrutiny of the platforms over child safety, and whether deliberate design choices make them addictive and serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders or suicide. Experts see the reckon

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Trump admin slashes $2 bn funding for substance abuse, mental health

The Trump administration has made abrupt and sweeping cuts to substance abuse and mental health programs across the country in a move that advocates said will jeopardize the lives of some of the country's most vulnerable. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Tuesday night canceled some 2,000 grants representing nearly USD 2 billion in funding, according to an administration official with knowledge of the cuts who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. The move pulls back funding for a wide swath of discretionary grants and represents about a quarter of SAMHSA's overall budget. It immediately jeopardizes programs that give direct mental health services, opioid treatment, drug prevention resources, peer support and more to communities affected by addiction, mental illness and homelessness. Without that funding, people are going to lose access to lifesaving services, said Yngvild Olsen, former director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment a

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OpenAI faces suit over ChatGPT's alleged role in Connecticut murder-suicide

The heirs of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman are suing ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft for wrongful death, alleging that the artificial intelligence chatbot intensified her son's paranoid delusions and helped direct them at his mother before he killed her. Police said Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, a former tech industry worker, fatally beat and strangled his mother, Suzanne Adams, and killed himself in early August at the home where they both lived in Greenwich, Connecticut. The lawsuit filed by Adams' estate on Thursday in California Superior Court in San Francisco alleges OpenAI designed and distributed a defective product that validated a user's paranoid delusions about his own mother. It is one of a growing number of wrongful death legal actions against AI chatbot makers across the country. Throughout these conversations, ChatGPT reinforced a single, dangerous message: Stein-Erik could trust no one in his life except ChatGPT itself," the lawsuit says. It ...

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