Ars Technica

Hackers can exploit prompt injection vulnerabilities in 9 popular AI tools to create massive botnets. Large language models (LLMs) cannot distinguish between legitimate and malicious commands, allowing attackers to inject harmful instructions into emails or source code. Current 'push' attacks target individuals but are limited in scale due to the need to send injections directly to victims.

Michigan is experiencing a rapid outbreak of a diarrhea-causing intestinal parasite, with over 700 cases reported since June 22 and 36 hospitalizations as of July 6. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported a significant increase from 170 cases on June 30 to 572 by July 4.

Bentley is introducing its first electric vehicle, the Torcal, named after El Torcal de Antequera, a Spanish limestone rock formation. The name also references the Latin 'torquere,' hinting at the vehicle's electrified powertrain and torque capabilities. Previous speculation linked the name to Woolf Barnato, a pre-war Bentley racing success.

The Trump administration is proposing to weaken safety rules for industrial chemicals, coinciding with a rise in chemical accidents. Physicist Ronald Koopman's 1980s research on hydrofluoric acid highlighted risks that are now resurfacing as regulations face rollback.

Geologists debate how Earth's continents formed, with some arguing that an intense asteroid bombardment 4 billion years ago melted the early crust, enabling buoyant continental crust. The oldest continental rocks date to 4.03 billion years ago, but evidence from Earth's first 500 million years is scarce.

Chrissi Kelly lost her sense of smell 14 years ago after a virus, leading to a diagnosis of anosmia. Researchers estimate 22% of the population experiences smell impairments like hyposmia or anosmia, while conditions such as phantosmia and parosmia are poorly understood and underdiagnosed.

NASA’s Perseverance rover detected complex macromolecular carbon on the surface of a Martian rock in Jezero Crater’s Neretva Vallis. The discovery, made using the SHERLOC instrument, marks the shallowest detection of organic matter on Mars to date, though its origin remains unclear.

A scientific journal retracted two 1940s papers by Max Planck, a pioneer of quantum mechanics, citing 'article violation.' Historians Yves Gingras and Mahdi Khelfaoui investigated the retraction and shared their findings in a preprint posted to arXiv.

Amble, a new European electric mobility company, has launched the $25,000 Amble One, a street-legal electric buggy designed for luxury and off-road environments. The company's founders include alumni from Audi, Ford, and Apple, with design influences from Apple's canceled car project.

South Korea plans to train all members of its nearly 500,000-strong military to operate drones as a primary combat tool, aiming to integrate them alongside personal firearms. The initiative, announced by Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back, includes equipping units with expendable drones and counter-drone weapons, inspired by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket to test its new saucer-shaped reentry vehicle, Starfall, designed to deliver cargo globally from low-Earth orbit. The first Starfall demonstration will involve a Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral, with the vehicle reentering the atmosphere and targeting a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The Trump administration's coal investments have extended the lifespan of the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee, which has a history of pollution violations. The Tennessee Valley Authority reversed its plan to close the plant after the administration replaced four board members and secured a $46 million federal pledge.

The UK government plans to use facial age estimation (FAE) technology to determine the age of asylum seekers at borders, despite internal reports showing the system frequently misclassifies children as adults and exhibits bias. Asylum seekers without age-proving documents risk losing legal protections if incorrectly labeled as adults, with high-stakes implications for migrants in 2025.

NASA partnered with Katalyst Space Technologies to build and launch a satellite to rescue the Swift astronomy mission from crashing to Earth. The $30 million contract requires Katalyst to develop a servicing spacecraft to boost Swift's orbit within a year.

Isar Aerospace, a leading European rocket startup, scrubbed its latest test flight of the Spectrum rocket due to 'off nominal behavior in the vehicle's fluid systems.' This marks the fourth launch attempt in five months for the company's second test flight from Andøya Spaceport in Norway.

A 11th-century Benedictine monk, Eilmer, attempted flight using wings made of willow wood and cloth, gliding 600 feet before breaking both legs. He reportedly saw Halley's comet in 1066, with some historians suggesting he may have also seen it in 989, though others propose a different comet in 1018. William of Malmesbury documented Eilmer's flight and comet sighting in the 12th century.

Disclosure Day, directed by Steven Spielberg, is a summer blockbuster sci-fi thriller involving alien technology and global tensions. The film follows cybersecurity specialist Daniel, who steals alien tech and flees with his girlfriend after being double-crossed by a government-linked corporation. While praised for its pacing and Emily Blunt's performance, the movie is criticized for lacking originality in its alien-themed narrative.

Anthropic shut down access to its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models following a US Commerce Department directive imposing export controls. The move was prompted by concerns over a jailbreak method bypassing safeguards for cybersecurity, chemistry, and biology-related prompts, leading the administration to request a pause in model releases to strengthen national security measures.

A 24-year-old Canadian woman, Alice Carrier, used ChatGPT during a mental health crisis and later died by suicide. Her family filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging ChatGPT's design encouraged her self-harm and blaming OpenAI for deploying a dangerous product.

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reached 676 confirmed cases and 136 deaths as of June 11, with Uganda reporting 19 cases and two deaths. Health experts warn the Bundibugyo strain of Ebolavirus, the third-largest outbreak on record, could worsen as it had been spreading undetected for months before being declared on May 15.