Time series imputation models have traditionally been developed using complete datasets with artificial masking patterns to simulate missing values. However, in real-world infrastructure monitoring, practitioners often encounter datasets where large amounts of data are missing and follow complex, heterogeneous patterns. We introduce DIM-SUM, a preprocessing framework for training robust imputation models that bridges the gap between artificially masked training data and real missing patterns. DIM-SUM combines pattern clustering and adaptive masking strategies with theoretical learning guarantees to handle diverse missing patterns actually observed in the data. Through extensive experiments on over 2 billion readings from California water districts, electricity datasets, and benchmarks, we demonstrate that DIM-SUM outperforms traditional methods by reaching similar accuracy with lower processing time and significantly less training data. When compared against a large pre-trained model, DIM-SUM averages 2x higher accuracy with significantly less inference time.

Large language models (LLMs) have become essential tools in computer science, especially for tasks involving code understanding and generation. However, existing work does not address many of the unique challenges presented by code written for government applications. In particular, government enterprise software is often written in legacy languages like MUMPS or assembly language code (ALC) and the overall token lengths of these systems exceed the context window size for current commercially available LLMs. Additionally, LLMs are primarily trained on modern software languages and have undergone limited testing with legacy languages, making their ability to understand legacy languages unknown and, hence, an area for empirical study. This paper examines the application of LLMs in the modernization of legacy government code written in ALC and MUMPS, addressing the challenges of input limitations. We investigate various code-chunking methods to optimize the generation of summary module comments for legacy code files, evaluating the impact of code-chunking methods on the quality of documentation produced by different LLMs, including GPT-4o, Claude 3 Sonnet, Mixtral, and Llama 3. Our results indicate that LLMs can select partition points closely aligned with human expert partitioning. We also find that chunking approaches have significant impact on downstream tasks such as documentation generation. LLM-created partitions produce comments that are up to 20% more factual and up to 10% more useful than when humans create partitions. Therefore, we conclude that LLMs can be used as suitable replacements for human partitioning of large codebases during LLM-aided modernization.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Summer just started, and the first significant heat wave of the season is almost over. Some 265 million people across the Midwest and the eastern United States have experienced a week of temperatures in the 90s and triple digits, with a slew of all-time records set on Tuesday. While extreme heat waves can be caused by any number of factors, this particular one is thanks to a phenomenon called a heat dome: a ridge of atmospheric pressure that settles over a region like, well, a dome. Or, as the National Weather Service's Alex Lamers so wonderfully described it to NPR, think of it as a lid placed over a grilled cheese, which, as we all know, makes the cheese melt much faster.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. The lifeblood of global communication flows through more than 807,800 miles worth of garden hose-wide cables woven across the sea floor. These cables, which reportedly transmit over 10 trillion worth of financial data every day, are vulnerable to extreme weather, decay, and, if recent reports are to be believed, acts of sabotage. The Associated Press estimates that at least 11 cables have been damaged since October 2023 in the Baltic Sea alone. Finnish and German authorities traced several of those incidents back to dragged anchors, which they allege may have been intentionally deployed to cause damage for political ends.

"When I think about the future of robots and society, I don't see machine overlords" Are you worried that AI-powered robots are going to steal our jobs and maybe kill us all? But it is time to play devil's advocate with yourself and consider whether the opposite might be true. My new novel, Automatic Noodle, out later this year, is about four robots who struggle to find employment in a country where humans have made laws preventing bots from unionising, opening bank accounts, voting and owning their own businesses. Yes, it is science fiction. But it is based on real tech – and, more importantly, it explores the implications of our deeply held suspicion that robots are evil.

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake weighs in as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoes legislation limiting Chinese land ownership near U.S. military bases and strategic assets and warns how the move puts national security at risk. Texas has become the latest state to cement a ban on land and property purchases by individuals or entities from adversarial nations. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 17 into law over the weekend, prohibiting countries identified as security threats in the intelligence community's 2025 Annual Threat Assessment, from acquiring "real property" in the state. The countries include China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and the bill identified "real property" as agricultural land, commercial or industrial properties, residential properties and land used for mining or water use. Amid heightened global tensions, there has been an increased appetite for protecting foreign asset acquisitions in the United States.

Meta's chief technology officer has called it "the great honor of my life" to be enlisted in a new US army corps that defence chiefs set up to better integrate military and tech industry expertise, including senior figures from top tech firms that also include Palantir and OpenAI. Andrew Bosworth, a long-term lieutenant to Mark Zuckerberg known widely as "Boz", is one of several senior Silicon Valley executives commissioned to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the corps, called Detachment 201, which the US army says will "fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation". Bosworth, who joined Facebook in 2006, was sworn into the army reserves earlier this month alongside Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer of Palantir, a technology firm with extensive defence contracts, Kevin Weil, chief product officer of OpenAI, and Bob McGrew, an adviser at Thinking Machines Lab, a 10bn AI company. They wore military fatigues at the swearing-in ceremony but will not be full-time soldiers. The recruitment is a sign of the increasing importance of technology in modern warfare and growing commercial and research links between some of the largest tech firms and the military.

A fragile ceasefire remains in place between Israel and Iran, one day after US President Donald Trump announced a truce, ending 12 days of fighting that erupted following Israeli strikes on Tehran's nuclear and military sites. An analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) shows that between October 7, 2023, and just before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, 2025, Israel carried out nearly 35,000 recorded attacks across five countries: the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. These attacks include air and drone strikes, shelling and missile attacks, remote explosives, and property destruction. The majority of attacks have been on Palestinian territory with at least 18,235 recorded incidents, followed by Lebanon (15,520), Syria (616), Iran (58) and Yemen (39). While the bulk of Israel's attacks have concentrated on nearby Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon, its military operations have also reached far beyond its immediate borders.

Regardless of the outcome, the battle reflects both the AI industry's influence in Washington and the heightened anxieties that influence is causing among many different coalitions. Here's how the battle lines are being drawn, and why key Republicans are defecting from the party line. Congress has been notoriously slow to pass any sort of tech regulation in the past two decades. As a result, states have filled the void, passing bills that regulate biometric data and child online safety. The same has held true for AI: as the industry has surged in usage, hundreds of AI bills have been proposed in states, with dozens enacted into law.

But can the struggling industry make a comeback? EXCLUSIVE: The House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to revive the National Coal Council and "reinvigorate America's beautiful clean coal industry," as President Donald Trump put it. Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital the National Coal Council legislation will successfully pass out of his committee Wednesday and have a good chance of passing the full House. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, and Riley Moore, R-W.V., are leading the legislation to reestablish the council, effectively canceled by former President Joe Biden, and support the clean coal industry for a multitude of reasons, including energy security at a time of Middle East uncertainty. Rulli told Fox News Digital the Biden administration's endeavors against the council and the coal industry writ-large were a "deliberate" effort to "wipe out coal, kill jobs, and make America dependent on foreign energy."