The Register

Researchers find models' success at tests hides illusion of understanding

Researchers from MIT, Harvard, and the University of Chicago have proposed the term "potemkin understanding" to describe a newly identified failure mode in large language models that ace conceptual benchmarks but lack the true grasp needed to apply those concepts in practice.…

Red-tailed tropicbirds stymie Johnston Atoll maneuvers

The US Air Force is putting plans to use rocket landings for resupply missions on hold over environmental concerns about the effect they would have on local seabirds.…

Frequent flyers’ info takes flight

Australian airline Qantas on Wednesday revealed it fell victim to a cyberattack that saw information describing six million customers stolen.…

Robotaxis, humanoid robots, and fights with Trump can't hide declining EV sales

Comment  Tesla reported its vehicle delivery and production numbers for Q2 2025 this week, and while the figures weren't quite as low in absolute terms as Q1, they still mark a worrying downward trend as CEO Elon Musk continues to spread his attention across a huge variety of topics unrelated to making and selling electric cars.…

Just ignore the warnings. Nothing to see here. Move along

A mysterious piece of "under development" code is playing havoc with the Windows Firewall after the latest preview update for Windows 11 24H2.…

The insurance SaaS slinger may trade under a different name, but past continues to haunt it

Young Consulting's cybersecurity woes continue after the number of affected individuals from last year's suspected ransomware raid passed the 1 million mark.…

Biz needs AI infra for training ever larger models, but something's gotta give

World War Fee  Datacenter operators in Northern Europe say US tariffs and growing global geopolitical instability are inflating costs and causing delays to construction projects.…

Vendors have reason to celebrate as geopolitics recalibrate

World War Fee  The US has lifted the requirement to secure a license before exporting Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to China, say EDA vendors.…

'Deserves fair compensation for the valuable and innovative services'? Which ones are those then?

Meta has come out swinging following the European Commission's decision that its pay-or-consent model falls foul of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).…

Don't let their kind words sway you – leaders are still up to no good

Ransomware gang Hunters International has shut up shop and offered decryption keys to all victims as a parting favor.…

Juices the tooling and support for developers and enterprise customers

Canonical has some extra toppings, flavorings, and offers coming for its bigger Java fans – because the suits swallow a lot of the stuff.…

India, Japan, USA and Australia see risks and opportunities in rare earths

India, Japan, USA and Australia have launched a “Critical Minerals Initiative” they hope will harden supply chains.…

Customers booted from system and technical integration missing from upgrade

A UK bank serving charities has come under fire from customers unable to log in or make transactions on its new online platform.…

Minimalist glue code offers surprising lifeline for stubborn display setups

A new project addresses one of the biggest differences between how X11 and Wayland work, and that could be a winning combination.…

You probably don't need one, but it's nice to have the option

Let's Encrypt, a certificate authority (CA) known for its free TLS/SSL certificates, has begun issuing digital certificates for IP addresses.…

Crims have cottoned on to a new way to lead you astray

AI-powered chatbots often deliver incorrect information when asked to name the address for major companies’ websites, and threat intelligence business Netcraft thinks that creates an opportunity for criminals.…

‘Eigen+’ finds instances likely to cause out of memory errors and makes sure they can’t do damage

Alibaba Cloud has revealed a cluster manager it says allows it to run databases more efficiently than its hyperscale rivals.…

Dismissal bid denied as 16-count indictment moves toward court in May 2026

Huawei will still have to face trial in the US next year over alleged breaches of sanctions against Iran after a judge declined its request to dismiss various charges.…

The second max score this week for Netzilla - not a good look

If you're running the Engineering-Special (ES) builds of Cisco Unified Communications Manager or its Session Management Edition, you need to apply Cisco's urgent patch after someone at Switchzilla made a big mistake.…

Two flaws in TeleMessage are 'frequent attack vectors for malicious cyber actors'

The US security watchdog CISA has warned that malicious actors are actively exploiting two flaws in the Signal clone TeleMessage TM SGNL, and has directed federal agencies to patch the flaws or discontinue use of the app by July 22.…