Hacker News with Generative AI: Controversy

Hafnium Controversy (wikipedia.org)
The hafnium controversy was a debate over the possibility of "triggering" rapid energy releases, via gamma-ray emission, from 178m2Hf, a nuclear isomer of hafnium.

Physics, Nuclear Energy, Controversy, Science

10 points by _Microft 7 days ago | 0 comments

Ban on women marrying after 25: the proposal to boost birth rate in Japan (firstpost.com)
The leader of Japan’s Conservative Party has sparked an uproar by advocating for a ban on women marrying after the age of 25 and having their uteruses removed at the age of 30.

Japan, Social Policy, Demographics, Women's Rights, Controversy

8 points by RyeCombinator 8 days ago | 21 comments

A $1M teacher scheme left uncertified teachers in Texas (cnn.com)

Education, Texas, Politics, Controversy

13 points by LopRabbit 17 days ago | 0 comments

Beware of Poison in the Source (danb.me)
Bitwarden found itself caught in a spot of drama last week introducing non-free and non-open code into their desktop client. I don’t use Bitwarden myself, but in a similar vein I remember they launched their “Passwordless” project as open source while under non-open terms.

Security, Open Source, Software, Controversy

8 points by ssddanbrown 23 days ago | 0 comments

Meta under fire for 'polluting' open-source (ft.com)

Meta, Open Source, Social Media, Technology, Controversy

17 points by sherlockxu 26 days ago | 1 comments

Kernel contributor James Bottomley's response to the recent maintainers removal (kernel.org)
Please accept all of our apologies for the way this was handled.

Linux Kernel, Open Source, Community, Controversy

11 points by simonmysun 28 days ago | 3 comments

Getting Called "Paid Actor" by Linus Torvalds (typeblog.net)
On Wed, 23 Oct 2024 at 12:15, Peter Cai <peter@typeblog.net> wrote: > > Again -- are you under any sort of NDA not to even refer to a list of > these countries? No, but I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not going to go into the details that I - and other maintainers - were told by lawyers.

Open Source, Linux, Controversy

79 points by yuriko 29 days ago | 40 comments

Linus Torvalds affirms expulsion of Russian maintainers (theregister.com)
Linux creator Linus Torvalds on Wednesday affirmed the removal last week of about a dozen kernel maintainers associated with Russia.

Linux, Russia, Open Source, Controversy, Politics

7 points by TheCleric 29 days ago | 2 comments

Linus Torvalds comments on the Russian Linux maintainers being delisted (phoronix.com)
Following yesterday's news first featured on Phoronix of several Linux driver maintainers being de-listed from their maintainer positions within the mainline Linux kernel over their connections to Russia, Linus Torvalds has today commented on the matter.

Linux, Open Source, Russia, Politics, Controversy

134 points by itvision 29 days ago | 193 comments

Developers Remove Plugins from Wordpress.org Repository After ACF Controversy (wptavern.com)
Following the recent ban and ACF to Secure Custom Fields fork/takeover incident, some plugin authors have announced their decision to remove their plugins from the WordPress.org repository.

WordPress, Plugins, Open Source, Controversy

5 points by bookofjoe 34 days ago | 0 comments

Meta under fire for 'polluting' open-source (ft.com)

Meta, Open Source, Controversy, Business

16 points by belter 35 days ago | 7 comments

International 'race science' network funded by US tech boss (theguardian.com)
An international network of “race science” activists seeking to influence public debate with discredited ideas on race and eugenics has been operating with secret funding from a multimillionaire US tech entrepreneur.

Science, Politics, Social Issues, Controversy

28 points by CrypticShift 36 days ago | 11 comments

Ex-Intel CEO Brian Krzanich gets a new job, igniting a backlash (tomshardware.com)

Business, Technology, Leadership, Controversy

6 points by doener 37 days ago | 0 comments

Grandmaster expelled from team chess championship after phone found in toilet (chess.com)
22-year-old GM Kirill Shevchenko has been expelled from the 2024 Spanish Team Championship with his draw against GM Bassem Amin in round one and win over GM Francisco Vallejo in round two turned into losses.

Chess, Sports, Controversy, Competition

57 points by seanhunter 37 days ago | 28 comments

Response to DHH (ma.tt)
“Automattic is doing open source dirty” is an abomination of a headline, and David’s second post Open source royalty and mad kings, is just sloppy. So I’m forced to reply publicly:

Open Source, Software Development, Criticism, Controversy

176 points by markx2 38 days ago | 101 comments

ACF Plugin no longer available on WordPress.org (advancedcustomfields.com)
We were saddened and appalled by Matt Mullenweg’s actions this morning appropriating the Advanced Custom Fields plugin that our ACF team has been actively developing for the WordPress community since 2011.

WordPress, Plugins, Open Source, Controversy

221 points by michaelcampbell 39 days ago | 142 comments

Geoffrey Hinton says he's proud Ilya Sutskever 'fired Sam Altman' (techcrunch.com)
Geoffrey Hinton accepted a Nobel Prize this week, recognizing the foundational work on artificial neural networks that earned him the nickname “godfather of AI.” In a speech Tuesday, Professor Hinton praised one student – alluding to OpenAI’s former Chief Scientist, Ilya Sutskever – for revolting against OpenAI’s CEO.

Artificial Intelligence, OpenAI, Leadership, Technology, Controversy

154 points by LorenDB 43 days ago | 8 comments

Popular ad blocker uBlock Origin Lite pulled from Firefox store (pcworld.com)
Neowin reports that the popular ad blocking add-on uBlock Origin Lite has been removed from Firefox’s official add-on marketplace due to a recent conflict that’s been brewing.

Firefox, Web Browsers, Ad Blocking, Software, Controversy

10 points by Physkal 49 days ago | 9 comments

Godot Responds to Mass Banning – No Apology, Blames Banned Users (locals.com)
Over the last few days, the team behind the open source Godot game engine has enacted a mass banning -- dubbed a "cleansing" -- of users, developers, and financial supporters who were perceived to have the "wrong" political views.

Open Source, Gaming, Censorship, Controversy

13 points by overfl0w 51 days ago | 20 comments

YC criticized for backing AI startup that simply cloned another AI startup (techcrunch.com)
A Y Combinator startup named PearAI launched with an X post thread and YouTube video on Saturday and created immediate controversy. And some of that is splashing onto YC itself.

Artificial Intelligence, Startups, Y Combinator, Controversy

333 points by blinding-streak 51 days ago | 259 comments

Tim Peters – Dispelling Information Asymmetry (tim-one.github.io)
This is about my (Tim Peters) 3-month ban from CPython core development, announced 7-Aug-2024. The intent is to eliminate the “information asymmetry” that usually accompanies a ban, by disclosing my interactions with PSF representatives in full. I’ve always advocated for transparency in all matters. I didn’t want an “anonymous” ban to begin with, and want no secrets (aka “privacy”) during the ban either. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Python, Transparency, Open Source, Controversy, Community

74 points by shazeline 52 days ago | 25 comments

The messy WordPress drama, explained (theverge.com)
WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg is going after a rival hosting firm he says is ‘strip-mining the WordPress ecosystem.’

WordPress, Web Development, Business, Technology, Controversy

11 points by yarapavan 52 days ago | 4 comments

What the heck is going on with WordPress? (paolo.blog)
If you are even remotely connected to the WordPress community, and unless you have been living under a rock, or off the grid, you know that since the closing keynote of WordCamp US last week, there’s been a lot of turmoil.

WordPress, Community, Controversy, Events

28 points by joshbetz 53 days ago | 60 comments

Microsoft re-launches 'privacy nightmare' AI screenshot tool (bbc.co.uk)
Microsoft says it has “listened to feedback” following a privacy row over a new tool which takes regular screenshots of users’ activity.

Privacy, AI, Microsoft, Technology, Controversy

7 points by MarcScott 55 days ago | 2 comments

Original Flappy Bird creator disavows new version – and its possible crypto ties (slashdot.org)

Games, Mobile Games, Crypto, Controversy

5 points by MilnerRoute 66 days ago | 0 comments

A Mess in the Python Community (lwn.net)
The Python community has been roiled, to a certain extent, by an action taken by the steering council (SC): the three-month suspension of a unnamed—weirdly—Python core developer.

Python, Programming, Community, Controversy

15 points by gdgghhhhh 71 days ago | 5 comments

Gitea blocks PR from community, charging $$ for open-source contributions (github.com/go-gitea)
This PR adds logging of audit events to provide documentary evidence of the sequence of important activities.

Open Source, Software, Controversy, Community

68 points by ironmagma 73 days ago | 79 comments

Generative AI backlash hits annual writing event, prompting resignations (arstechnica.com)
Over the weekend, the nonprofit National Novel Writing Month organization (NaNoWriMo) published an FAQ outlining its position on AI, calling categorical rejection of AI writing technology "classist" and "ableist." The statement caused a backlash online, prompted four members of the organization's board to step down, and prompted a sponsor to withdraw its support.

Generative AI, Artificial Intelligence, Writing, Technology, Controversy

7 points by amichail 75 days ago | 0 comments

Editor resigns after publisher blocked criticism of decision to retract paper (retractionwatch.com)
A Springer Nature journal has rescinded the acceptance of a paper criticizing the publishing giant’s controversial retraction last year of an article that surveyed parents of children with gender dysphoria, leading an associate editor to resign, Retraction Watch has learned.

Science, Publishing, Controversy, Academia

16 points by leephillips 77 days ago | 0 comments

Commander of Navy warship relieved of duty after backward rifle scope photo flap (apnews.com)

Military, Leadership, Controversy, Photography

11 points by geox 78 days ago | 5 comments