Technology

X is amplifying far-right accounts

Source

Hacker News

Published

Nov 9, 2025

TL;DR

AI Generated

A report by Sky News reveals that Twitter (referred to as X) appears to favor showing right-wing and extreme content to users. An experiment with new Twitter accounts showed a bias towards right-wing material, even for politically neutral accounts. The study corrected for popular engagement, showing that X's algorithm is more likely to display right-wing content, especially in the UK political context. The findings suggest a trend of X becoming a platform for expensive propaganda under Elon Musk's ownership.

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Quantum computers need vastly fewer resources than thought to break vital encryption

Recent whitepapers have shown that building a quantum computer capable of breaking 256-bit elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) requires significantly fewer resources than previously estimated. One paper demonstrated the use of neutral atoms as reconfigurable qubits, reducing overhead by 100 times and breaking ECC in just 10 days. Another paper by Google researchers showcased breaking ECC-securing blockchains in under nine minutes with a 20-fold resource reduction. These advancements indicate progress in cryptographically relevant quantum computing (CRQC), driven by new quantum architectures and efficient algorithms like Shor's algorithm. While no hard date for practical CRQC has been set, the research community is steadily moving towards achieving this goal.

Ars Technica•

4 weeks ago

MIT Technology Review

The robots who predict the future

Three books explore the impact of predictive algorithms on our lives and society. "The Means of Prediction" by Maximilian Kasy delves into how AI predictions shape our decisions and lives, often driven by profit motives. Benjamin Recht's "The Irrational Decision" critiques the reliance on mathematical rationality in computer decision-making, advocating for the value of human intuition. Carissa Véliz's "Prophecy" discusses the power dynamics behind predictions and how they can shape reality. These books collectively highlight the need for greater control over predictive technologies and a reevaluation of their societal implications.

MIT Technology Review•

3 months ago

Hacker News

Algorithms for Optimization [pdf]

The article appears to be a PDF file containing raw data rather than a text-based article. It includes various objects and streams that seem to represent algorithms for optimization. The content is not readable in its current form and requires decoding or conversion to a more accessible format for understanding.

Hacker News•

6 months ago

A Decade Of Architectural RowHammer Defense Solutions (Meta, SNU, UIUC)

Researchers from Meta, Seoul National University, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign published a technical paper titled “SoK: Systematizing a Decade of Architectural RowHammer Defenses Through the Lens of Streaming Algorithms.” The paper addresses the ongoing challenges posed by RowHammer attacks and the need for effective defense solutions. It provides a taxonomy encompassing 48 different works on architectural RowHammer defenses and maps them to streaming algorithms. The researchers offer two practitioner guides to aid in selecting the most suitable defense algorithms based on various factors. The paper also introduces new concepts like Reservoir-Sampling and StickySampling to enhance RowHammer defenses.

SemiEngineering•