Bandcamp bans purely AI-generated music from its platform

Bandcamp bans purely AI-generated music from its platform

fivenewscrypto    janvier 15, 2026   

On Tuesday, Bandcamp announced on Reddit that it will no longer permit AI-generated music on its platform. "Music and audio that is generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted on Bandcamp," the company wrote in a post to the r/bandcamp subreddit. The new policy also prohibits "any use of AI tools to impersonate other artists or styles."

The policy draws a line that some in the music community have debated: Where does tool use end and full automation begin? AI models are not artists in themselves, since they lack personhood and creative intent. But people do use AI tools to make music, and the spectrum runs from using AI for minor assistance (cleaning up audio, suggesting chord progressions) to typing a prompt and letting a model generate an entire track. Bandcamp's policy targets the latter end of that spectrum while leaving room for human artists who incorporate AI tools into a larger creative process.

The announcement emphasized the platform's desire to protect its community of human artists. "The fact that Bandcamp is home to such a vibrant community of real people making incredible music is something we want to protect and maintain," the company wrote. Bandcamp asked users to flag suspected AI-generated content through its reporting tools, and the company said it reserves "the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI generated."

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Is 2026 the year buttons come back to cars? Crash testers say yes.

Is 2026 the year buttons come back to cars? Crash testers say yes.

fivenewscrypto    janvier 15, 2026   

Like any industry led by designers, the automotive world is subject to trends and fashions. Often, these are things the rest of us complain about. Wheels that used to be 16 inches are now 20s, because the extra size makes the vehicle they're fitted to look smaller, particularly if it's an SUV with a slab of electric vehicle battery to conceal. Front seat passengers now find themselves with their own infotainment screen, often with some kind of active filter tech to prevent the driver from being distracted by whatever it is they're doing. And of course le buzz du jour, AI, is being crammed in here, there, and everywhere.

But the thing about fashion and trends is that they don't remain in style forever. For a few years, it was hard to drive a new car that didn't use piano black trim all over the interior. The shiny black plastic surfaces hide infotainment screens well when the display is not turned on, but they scratch and show every speck of dust and lint and every smudge and fingerprint. And that's true for the cheap econobox to the plush luxobarge. The industry finally cottoned on to this, and "black gloss has had its time—we can do without it," Kia designer Jochen Paesen told me a few years ago.

Many of those design trends may have been annoying, but the switch away from buttons isn't just about aesthetics; it's affecting safety. And increasingly, safety regulators are pushing back. A couple of years ago, we learned that the Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) organization, which crash tests cars for European consumers, decided that from 2026, it would start deducting points for basic controls that weren't separate, physical controls that the driver can easily operate without taking their eyes off the road. And now ANCAP, which provides similar crash testing for Australia and New Zealand, has done the same.

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BMW’s first electric M car is coming in 2027—with one motor per wheel

BMW’s first electric M car is coming in 2027—with one motor per wheel

fivenewscrypto    janvier 15, 2026   

BMW provided flights from Washington, DC, to Malaga, Spain, and accommodation so Ars could drive the iX3 and be briefed on the electric M Neue Klasse. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

Late last year, we drove BMW's new iX3. It's the first of a series of electric BMWs to use a newly developed platform, known as the "Neue Klasse." Later this year, we'll see the first fully electric version of the 3 Series when the i3 sedan debuts. And next year, BMW enthusiasts will finally find out what the brand's M division—which infuses motorsport into the vehicles like few others—can do with an EV.

There have been M-tuned EVs before now, more powerful variants of the i4, iX, and i7. And each time we've driven them, BMW has been at pains to point out that these weren't true M cars, not like the M3 or M5. Honestly, they weren't better than the cheaper, less powerful versions, something that won't be allowed for next year's performance EV, which might be called something like the iM3, assuming the naming convention remains logic-based.

"The next generation of models are set to establish a new benchmark in the high-performance vehicle segment," says Franciscus van Meel, managing director of BMW M GmbH. "With the latest generation of Neue Klasse technology, we are taking the BMW M driving experience to a new level and will inspire our customers with outstanding, racetrack-ready driving dynamics for everyday use."

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The RAM shortage’s silver lining: Less talk about “AI PCs”

The RAM shortage’s silver lining: Less talk about “AI PCs”

fivenewscrypto    janvier 14, 2026   

RAM prices have soared, which is bad news for people interested in buying, building, or upgrading a computer this year, but it's likely good news for people exasperated by talk of so-called AI PCs.

As Ars Technica has reported, the growing demands of data centers, fueled by the AI boom, have led to a shortage of RAM and flash memory chips, driving prices to skyrocket.

In an announcement today, Ben Yeh, principal analyst at technology research firm Omdia, said that in 2025, “mainstream PC memory and storage costs rose by 40 percent to 70 percent, resulting in cost increases being passed through to customers.”

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Never-before-seen Linux malware is “far more advanced than typical”

Never-before-seen Linux malware is “far more advanced than typical”

fivenewscrypto    janvier 14, 2026   

Researchers have discovered a never-before-seen framework that infects Linux machines with a wide assortment of modules that are notable for the range of advanced capabilities they provide to attackers.

The framework, referred to as VoidLink by its source code, features more than 30 modules that can be used to customize capabilities to meet attackers' needs for each infected machine. These modules can provide additional stealth and specific tools for reconnaissance, privilege escalation, and lateral movement inside a compromised network. The components can be easily added or removed as objectives change over the course of a campaign.

A focus on Linux inside the cloud

VoidLink can target machines within popular cloud services by detecting if an infected machine is hosted inside AWS, GCP, Azure, Alibaba, and Tencent, and there are indications that developers plan to add detections for Huawei, DigitalOcean, and Vultr in future releases. To detect which cloud service hosts the machine, VoidLink examines metadata using the respective vendor’s API.

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Microsoft vows to cover full power costs for energy-hungry AI data centers

Microsoft vows to cover full power costs for energy-hungry AI data centers

fivenewscrypto    janvier 14, 2026   

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a new initiative called "Community-First AI Infrastructure" that commits the company to paying full electricity costs for its data centers and refusing to seek local property tax reductions.

As demand for generative AI services has increased over the past year, Big Tech companies have been racing to spin up massive new data centers for serving chatbots and image generators that can have profound economic effects on the surrounding areas where they are located. Among other concerns, communities across the country have grown concerned that data centers are driving up residential electricity rates through heavy power consumption and by straining water supplies due to server cooling needs.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that global data center electricity demand will more than double by 2030, reaching around 945 TWh, with the United States responsible for nearly half of total electricity demand growth over that period. This growth is happening while much of the country's electricity transmission infrastructure is more than 40 years old and under strain.

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Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, dead at 68

Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, dead at 68

fivenewscrypto    janvier 14, 2026   

Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, died today of prostate cancer at 68.

Adams satirized the world of cubicle-based IT and engineering in Dilbert, which at its height appeared in 2,000 daily newspapers and was later anthologized in numerous books.

Dilbert was an engineer with few social skills, but he always knew more than his pointy-haired boss, a caricature of terrible supervisors everywhere who managed to make the life of those who actually knew what they were doing—the engineers—much harder than it needed to be.

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