Pegasus spyware, developed by the NSO Group, can silently compromise smartphones, turning them into surveillance devices capable of recording calls, messages, and even activating microphones. In What Bitcoin Did, researcher John Scott-Railton recalled how his team at Citizen Lab first exposed Pegasus in 2016, noting its proliferation to governments lacking technical expertise. “Anything you can do on your phone, it can do,” he warned, underscoring its abuse by both authoritarian regimes and democracies sliding toward illiberalism. Once marketed as “lawful intercept” software, Pegasus has been linked to high-profile cases, including targeting associates of Jamal Khashoggi. The U.S. government sanctioned NSO in 2021, but other firms like Paragon have since emerged, some even securing U.S. contracts. The growth of AI may supercharge spyware, making it stealthier and harder to detect. Scott-Railton argues structural safeguards, decentralized technologies, and privacy defaults are essential to prevent the internet from hardening into a surveillance panopticon.
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OpenAI’s GPT-5 has sharply reduced false citations compared with earlier models, but researchers caution that eliminating “hallucinations” may be impossible, reports Elizabeth Gibney in Nature. Large language models generate errors because they statistically predict plausible answers, sometimes inventing sources. Purdue University’s Tianyang Xu noted the improvements are “acceptable to users” in general domains, though law and mathematics remain problematic. Tests show GPT-5 fabricated citations in 39% of offline tasks but only 0.8% of claims with web browsing, outperforming its reasoning sibling o3. Still, Google’s Gemini 2.0 edged GPT-5 on some benchmarks. OpenAI has also worked to discourage dishonesty, cutting instances where models falsely claimed to complete tasks. Researchers are now exploring ways for LLMs to convey confidence levels. Looking ahead, experts stress that structural safeguards and user awareness will be key to balancing reliability with the technology’s “enormous labour-saving potential.”
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Sazmining announced full integration with OCEAN, the decentralized Bitcoin mining pool backed by Jack Dorsey and Luke Dashjr, and an industry-first Annual Rig Performance Guarantee, advancing its Mining-as-a-Service model. In the release, Sazmining CEO, Kent Halliburton, said the tie-up lets customers mine “in the most decentralized and transparent way possible,” with rewards paid directly to wallets and without custodial risk. Sazmining says it will build its own block templates with DATUM and propagate via Knots; OCEAN confirmed custom code and a revenue-share model. The guarantee pledges rigs will meet or exceed nameplate hashrate annually, compensating shortfalls with credits or added run time. OCEAN president Mark Artymko said Sazmining is “leading the charge in making mining accessible.” This approach could harden Bitcoin’s censorship resistance, align operator incentives, and de-risk retail mining economics, aided by 100% renewable sites and an equity crowdfunding raise.
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Brazilian police arrested a man in Rio de Janeiro’s Governador Island for allegedly stealing off-grid electricity to power a round-the-clock cryptocurrency mining setup, reports Decrypt’s Will McCurdy. Officers discovered high-performance rigs running in a rented property with no electricity meter, confirming the theft. While grassroots Bitcoin mining remains legal, Brazil’s Workers Party is advancing plans to restrict the practice to licensed operators holding a Digital Miner Authorization License. “The property was rented exclusively for cryptocurrency mining operations,” police noted. The case reflects a regional trend: Paraguay has proposed bans after its utility reported $60 million in losses, while Venezuela has reportedly shut down unlicensed miners to protect its fragile grid. Globally, illicit mining continues to surface from Malaysia to Kuwait; Hong Kong authorities this week detained two men accused of diverting electricity from care homes. The crackdown signals tightening oversight as the digital asset industry matures.
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