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Defense lawyer for man charged with igniting deadly Palisades fire calls case thin and labels it scapegoating

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Among the evidence collected from the digital devices of Jonathan Rinderknecht of Florida, who was arrested in the Palisades fire, were images he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city, said acting U.S. Atty. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, a one-time L.A. Uber driver and now Florida resident, was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 7 and charged with destruction of property for allegedly starting a Jan. 1 blaze known as the Lachman fire that smoldered for six days until it became the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history.


Chatbots Are Becoming More Sexually Explicit in a Bid to Attract Usership and Paying Customers

TIME - Tech

The eighteen plus symbol (18+) appears on a smartphone screen, and the OpenAI logo displays as the background on a laptop screen in this photo illustration in Athens, Greece, on October 16, 2025. The eighteen plus symbol (18+) appears on a smartphone screen, and the OpenAI logo displays as the background on a laptop screen in this photo illustration in Athens, Greece, on October 16, 2025. In August, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on a podcast that he was "proud" that his company had not gotten "distracted" by putting features like a "sexbot avatar" into ChatGPT. But on Tuesday, he announced that adult users will be able to access explicit interactive experiences, marking a major shift in the company's practices. "In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our'treat adult users like adults' principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults," Altman said in a post on X.


Revealed: What Jesus REALLY looked like - as Mel Gibson sparks outrage for recasting the long-awaited Passion of the Christ sequel

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Nancy Pelosi explodes at reporter as she's escorted down Capitol Building steps Trump threatens'land strikes' on Venezuela as CIA begins covert operations in Latin American country and Maduro declares'No to coups' She's the dancer caught'going at it' in bed with Britney Spears. Bella Hadid's health battle takes dark turn: Loved ones reveal hellish new details about model... as ominous texts emerge Diane Keaton's cause of death revealed just days after actress' passing at 79 as her family pens emotional message to fans Emily Ratajkowski fans rejoice as she makes Victoria's Secret show debut at age 34 Murderer's final words and hearty last meal as he's executed after 30 years on death row Nepo babies dare to bare! Celebrity offspring leave nothing to imagination as they dominate Victoria's Secret show... what would their parents say? Victoria's Secret show 2025: Bella Hadid rules the runway after her health woes, Jasmine Tookes opens the show at nine months pregnant and Emily Ratajkowski makes her debut aged 34 as legendary Angels and nepo babies unite after failed woke rebrand Popular food can be used to fight resistant viruses ... and it costs just pennies Disney superfan, 31, vanishes from her Midwest home months after announcing pregnancy... then horrific discovery is made at Walt Disney World Chilling new footage shows knifeman on night he'stabbed Ukrainian refugee to death' on a train in murder that shook America Britney Spears unleashes on ex Kevin Federline AND her SONS - accusing him of'gaslighting' and claiming she's seen one boy for just 45 minutes in five years Jailed Diddy's harsh reality check as very unglamorous conditions rapper has to abide by after prison revealed Mel Gibson's highly-anticipated sequel to The Passion of the Christ has sparked outrage from fans, after it was revealed that it is moving forward with a new cast due to the time gap. The original 2004 movie followed the final 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life, and starred Jim Caviezel, 57, as Christ. However, The Resurrection of the Christ -- which takes place three days after Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday -- will now star Finnish actor Jaakko Ohtonen, 36, in the role of Christ.


Scientists reveal the surprising age at which your brain reaches its peak - so, are YOUR best days behind you?

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Nancy Pelosi explodes at reporter as she's escorted down Capitol Building steps Trump threatens'land strikes' on Venezuela as CIA begins covert operations in Latin American country and Maduro declares'No to coups' She's the dancer caught'going at it' in bed with Britney Spears. Bella Hadid's health battle takes dark turn: Loved ones reveal hellish new details about model... as ominous texts emerge Diane Keaton's cause of death revealed just days after actress' passing at 79 as her family pens emotional message to fans Emily Ratajkowski fans rejoice as she makes Victoria's Secret show debut at age 34 Murderer's final words and hearty last meal as he's executed after 30 years on death row Nepo babies dare to bare! Celebrity offspring leave nothing to imagination as they dominate Victoria's Secret show... what would their parents say? Victoria's Secret show 2025: Bella Hadid rules the runway after her health woes, Jasmine Tookes opens the show at nine months pregnant and Emily Ratajkowski makes her debut aged 34 as legendary Angels and nepo babies unite after failed woke rebrand Popular food can be used to fight resistant viruses ... and it costs just pennies Disney superfan, 31, vanishes from her Midwest home months after announcing pregnancy... then horrific discovery is made at Walt Disney World Chilling new footage shows knifeman on night he'stabbed Ukrainian refugee to death' on a train in murder that shook America Meghan-linked charity is hit by racism and sexism allegations as staff claim it is a'toxic' and'hostile' workplace Britney Spears unleashes on ex Kevin Federline AND her SONS - accusing him of'gaslighting' and claiming she's seen one boy for just 45 minutes in five years Jailed Diddy's harsh reality check as very unglamorous conditions rapper has to abide by after prison revealed Scientists reveal the surprising age at which your brain reaches its peak - so, are YOUR best days behind you? READ MORE: Actor Tom Hanks thinks 35 is the hardest age - but is he right? With each passing day, you may feel like you're getting further past your peak.


Britain has experienced its first official 'MEGA FIRE' - and scientists warn the devastating blazes could soon become the norm

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Nancy Pelosi explodes at reporter as she's escorted down Capitol Building steps Trump threatens'land strikes' on Venezuela as CIA begins covert operations in Latin American country and Maduro declares'No to coups' She's the dancer caught'going at it' in bed with Britney Spears. Bella Hadid's health battle takes dark turn: Loved ones reveal hellish new details about model... as ominous texts emerge Diane Keaton's cause of death revealed just days after actress' passing at 79 as her family pens emotional message to fans Emily Ratajkowski fans rejoice as she makes Victoria's Secret show debut at age 34 Murderer's final words and hearty last meal as he's executed after 30 years on death row Nepo babies dare to bare! Celebrity offspring leave nothing to imagination as they dominate Victoria's Secret show... what would their parents say? Victoria's Secret show 2025: Bella Hadid rules the runway after her health woes, Jasmine Tookes opens the show at nine months pregnant and Emily Ratajkowski makes her debut aged 34 as legendary Angels and nepo babies unite after failed woke rebrand Popular food can be used to fight resistant viruses ... and it costs just pennies Disney superfan, 31, vanishes from her Midwest home months after announcing pregnancy... then horrific discovery is made at Walt Disney World Chilling new footage shows knifeman on night he'stabbed Ukrainian refugee to death' on a train in murder that shook America Britney Spears unleashes on ex Kevin Federline AND her SONS - accusing him of'gaslighting' and claiming she's seen one boy for just 45 minutes in five years Jailed Diddy's harsh reality check as very unglamorous conditions rapper has to abide by after prison revealed Britain has experienced its first official'MEGA FIRE' - and scientists warn the devastating blazes could soon become the norm READ MORE: Scientists warn that'FIREWAVES' will devastate UK cities Britain has experienced its first official'mega fire' - and scientists warn the devastating blazes could soon become the norm. Back in June, the Carrbridge and Dava Moor in the Scottish Highlands was devastated by the worst wildfire in living memory. The blaze burned over 11,000 hectares (42.5 square miles) of forest and peatland, killing thousands of animals in its path.


Man held in Japan on suspicion of creating female celeb deepfakes made with AI

The Japan Times

Tokyo police believe the man made about 20,000 sexually explicit images of 262 women, such as actors and idols, and amassed sales of ยฅ1.2 million between October last year and September this year. Tokyo police have arrested a 31-year-old man for allegedly creating fake sexual images of female celebrities with generative artificial intelligence technology and displaying them online, it was learned Thursday. It is the first time that police in Japan have cracked down on sexual deepfake images of celebrities created with generative AI. The suspect, Hiroya Yokoi of the city of Akita, has admitted he began making deepfakes to earn a small amount of money, which he used to cover living expenses and repay a student loan. Authorities believe Yokoi made a total of about 20,000 sexually explicit images of 262 women, such as actors, television personalities and idols, and amassed sales of ยฅ1.2 million between October last year and September this year.


A Verification Methodology for Safety Assurance of Robotic Autonomous Systems

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Autonomous robots deployed in shared human environments, such as agricultural settings, require rigorous safety assurance to meet both functional reliability and regulatory compliance. These systems must operate in dynamic, unstructured environments, interact safely with humans, and respond effectively to a wide range of potential hazards. This paper presents a verification workflow for the safety assurance of an autonomous agricultural robot, covering the entire development life-cycle, from concept study and design to runtime verification. The outlined methodology begins with a systematic hazard analysis and risk assessment to identify potential risks and derive corresponding safety requirements. A formal model of the safety controller is then developed to capture its behaviour and verify that the controller satisfies the specified safety properties with respect to these requirements. The proposed approach is demonstrated on a field robot operating in an agricultural setting. The results show that the methodology can be effectively used to verify safety-critical properties and facilitate the early identification of design issues, contributing to the development of safer robots and autonomous systems.


Time-IMM: A Dataset and Benchmark for Irregular Multimodal Multivariate Time Series

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Time series data in real-world applications such as healthcare, climate modeling, and finance are often irregular, multimodal, and messy, with varying sampling rates, asynchronous modalities, and pervasive missingness. However, existing benchmarks typically assume clean, regularly sampled, unimodal data, creating a significant gap between research and real-world deployment. We introduce Time-IMM, a dataset specifically designed to capture cause-driven irregularity in multimodal multivariate time series. Time-IMM represents nine distinct types of time series irregularity, categorized into trigger-based, constraint-based, and artifact-based mechanisms. Complementing the dataset, we introduce IMM-TSF, a benchmark library for forecasting on irregular multimodal time series, enabling asynchronous integration and realistic evaluation. IMM-TSF includes specialized fusion modules, including a timestamp-to-text fusion module and a multimodality fusion module, which support both recency-aware averaging and attention-based integration strategies. Empirical results demonstrate that explicitly modeling multimodality on irregular time series data leads to substantial gains in forecasting performance. Time-IMM and IMM-TSF provide a foundation for advancing time series analysis under real-world conditions. The dataset is publicly available at https://github.com/blacksnail789521/Time-IMM, and the benchmark library can be accessed at https://github.com/blacksnail789521/IMM-TSF. Project page: https://blacksnail789521.github.io/time-imm-project-page/


MLOps with Microservices: A Case Study on the Maritime Domain

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This case study describes challenges and lessons learned on building Ocean Guard: a Machine Learning-Enabled System (MLES) for anomaly detection in the maritime domain. First, the paper presents the system's specification, and architecture. Ocean Guard was designed with a microservices' architecture to enable multiple teams to work on the project in parallel. Then, the paper discusses how the developers adapted contract-based design to MLOps for achieving that goal. As a MLES, Ocean Guard employs code, model, and data contracts to establish guidelines between its services. This case study hopes to inspire software engineers, machine learning engineers, and data scientists to leverage similar approaches for their systems.


ReasoningShield: Safety Detection over Reasoning Traces of Large Reasoning Models

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) leverage transparent reasoning traces, known as Chain-of-Thoughts (CoTs), to break down complex problems into intermediate steps and derive final answers. However, these reasoning traces introduce unique safety challenges: harmful content can be embedded in intermediate steps even when final answers appear benign. Existing moderation tools, designed to handle generated answers, struggle to effectively detect hidden risks within CoTs. To address these challenges, we introduce ReasoningShield, a lightweight yet robust framework for moderating CoTs in LRMs. Our key contributions include: (1) formalizing the task of CoT moderation with a multi-level taxonomy of 10 risk categories across 3 safety levels, (2) creating the first CoT moderation benchmark which contains 9.2K pairs of queries and reasoning traces, including a 7K-sample training set annotated via a human-AI framework and a rigorously curated 2.2K human-annotated test set, and (3) developing a two-stage training strategy that combines stepwise risk analysis and contrastive learning to enhance robustness. Experiments show that ReasoningShield achieves state-of-the-art performance, outperforming task-specific tools like LlamaGuard-4 by 35.6% and general-purpose commercial models like GPT-4o by 15.8% on benchmarks, while also generalizing effectively across diverse reasoning paradigms, tasks, and unseen scenarios. All resources are released at https://github.com/CosmosYi/ReasoningShield.