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AI company Sesame has released the base model that powers Maya, the impressively realistic voice assistant. The model, which is 1 billion parameters in size (“parameters” referring to individual components of the model), is under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially with few restrictions. Called CSM-1B, the model generates “RVQ audio codes” from text and audio inputs, according to Sesame’s description on the AI dev platform Hugging Face. RVQ refers to “residual vector quantization,” a technique for encoding audio into discrete tokens called codes. RVQ is used in a number of recent AI audio technologies, including Google’s SoundStream and…

Is Elon Musk planning to use artificial intelligence to run the US government? That seems to be his plan, but experts say it is a “very bad idea”. Musk has fired tens of thousands of federal government employees through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and he reportedly requires the remaining workers to send the department a weekly email featuring five bullet points describing what they accomplished that week. Since that will no doubt flood DOGE with hundreds of thousands of these types of emails, Musk is relying on artificial intelligence to process responses and help determine who should remain…

A recently disclosed zero-day affecting Edimax devices has been exploited in the wild since at least May 2024, according to CDN and cybersecurity solutions provider Akamai. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-1316, has been confirmed to impact Edimax IC-7100 IP cameras, but Akamai believes other Edimax IoT products may be impacted as well.  Its existence came to light on March 4, when CISA published an advisory suggesting active exploitation. Akamai confirmed for SecurityWeek a few days later that CVE-2025-1316 has indeed been exploited in the wild, by multiple Mirai-based botnets. The company, which has now released additional information on its findings,…

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring and temporarily revoked the diplomas of others who have since graduated, officials said Thursday.The university said in a campus-wide email that a judicial board brought a range of sanctions against students who occupied Hamilton Hall last spring to protest the war in Gaza. Columbia did not provide a breakdown of how many students were expelled, were suspended or had their degrees revoked, but it said the outcomes were based on an “evaluation of the severity of behaviors.”The…

Trust & Will, a leading digital estate planning platform, has raised over $25m in its Series C funding round.The investment was led by Moderne Ventures, with participation from Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, UBS, Erie Strategic Ventures, and other strategic investors. FT Partners acted as the company’s financial and strategic advisor.The company provides an online platform for creating legally valid estate planning documents, including wills and trusts. It is designed to make estate planning more accessible, affordable, and efficient for families and financial professionals.The fresh funding will be used to expand the company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, equipping financial advisors, attorneys, and…

Meta’s Facebook security team has raised an alarm after spotting live exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in the widely used FreeType software development library.  In a barebones advisory, Facebook warned that the security defect was found in FreeType versions 2.13.0 and below and provides a pathway for arbitrary code execution attacks. “This vulnerability may have been exploited in the wild,” Facebook said, without providing any details on the reported attacks. The bug has been tagged as CVE-2025-27363 and carries a CVSS severity score of 8.1 out of 10. The full Facebook bulletin: “An out of bounds write exists in FreeType…

WealthTech platform FINNY secures backing from Josh BrownFINNY, an AI-powered prospecting and marketing platform designed for financial advisors, has received a personal investment from Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown, who has also joined its advisory board.The latest development follows FINNY’s recent $4.3m seed funding round, which was co-led by Maple VC and HNVR. Other notable investors in the round include Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor and Deel COO Dan Westgarth. The funding will be used to accelerate product innovation and expand adoption of FINNY’s AI-powered tools within the wealth management industry.FINNY’s platform is designed to help financial advisors streamline the…

In a new policy proposal, OpenAI describes Chinese AI lab DeepSeek as “state-subsidized” and “state-controlled,” and recommends that the U.S. government consider banning models from the outfit and similar People’s Republic of China (PRC)-supported operations. The proposal, a submission for the Trump Administration’s “AI Action Plan” initiative, claims that DeepSeek’s models, including its R1 “reasoning” model, are insecure because DeepSeek faces requirements under Chinese law to comply with demands for user data. Banning the use of “PRC-produced” models in all countries considered “Tier 1” under the Biden Administration’s export rules would prevent privacy and “security risks,” OpenAI says, including the “risk…

The United States is suddenly looking less bubbly for European wines.President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned 50% tariff on American whiskey. Wine sellers and importers said a tariff of that size would essentially shut down the European wine business in the U.S.“I don’t think customers are prepared to pay two to three times more for their favorite wine or Champagne,” Ronnie Sanders, the CEO of Vine Street Imports in Mt. Laurel Township, New Jersey, said.Jeff Zacharia, president of fine wine retailer Zachys…

Cisco on Wednesday announced patches for 10 vulnerabilities in IOS XR, including five that could be exploited to cause denial-of-service (DoS) conditions. The most severe of the DoS flaws are CVE-2025-20142 and CVE-2025-20146, high-severity issues that impact the IPv4 access control list (ACL) feature, quality of service (QoS) policy, and the Layer 3 multicast feature of ASR 9000 series, ASR 9902, and ASR 9903 routers. The incorrect handling of malformed IPv4 packets on devices with ACL or QoS policies applied could allow attackers to send crafted IPv4 packets and cause network processor errors, line card exceptions, or resets, leading to…