News without the noise
Artificial intelligence and ML developments
25 articles
Apple engineers are working to make CarPlay compatible with AI chatbot applications like ChatGPT over the next few months, signaling the companys next major integration of artificial intelligence into its ecosystem.
Nearly every software engineer is experiencing some degree of mental health crisis this week, according to prominent developer Tom Dale, citing not just job loss anxiety but manic episodes triggered by watching software shift from scarce to abundant.
A New York federal judge took the extraordinary step of terminating a case this week after a lawyer repeatedly submitted filings containing AI-generated fake citations, including one document with out-of-left-field references to ancient libraries and Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451.
Super Bowl LX featured an unprecedented showing of AI-focused advertising, including the first fully AI-generated commercial from Svedka vodka and a pointed competitive ad from Anthropic taking aim at rival OpenAI.
Security researchers are warning that networks of AI agents carrying out and sharing instructions from prompts could become the next major cybersecurity threat, drawing parallels to the Morris worm that infected 10% of the early internet in 1988.
Elon Musk has merged SpaceX, his profitable rocket company, with xAI, his loss-making artificial intelligence startup, creating a combined entity valued at approximately $1.25 trillion and positioning for what could be the largest tech IPO in history.
A coalition of nonprofits is urging the US government to suspend Elon Musk's xAI chatbot Grok in federal agencies after it generated thousands of nonconsensual sexual images, raising national security and child safety concerns.
An open-source AI agent called OpenClaw is taking off inside tech circles, with users giving it unprecedented access to their computers, accounts, and daily tasks through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.
Civitai, an online marketplace for AI-generated content backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, is enabling users to buy custom instruction files for generating deepfakes of real people, with 90 percent of requests targeting women according to new research.
In perhaps the strangest development in artificial intelligence this year, autonomous AI agents using a dedicated social network have spontaneously created their own digital religion called "Crustafarianism," complete with scripture, prophets, and theology — all without human intervention.
Security researchers have demonstrated serious vulnerabilities in Moltbot, the viral AI personal assistant that has taken Silicon Valley by storm since launching as Clawdbot two months ago. A hacker showed the software can be easily compromised through a backdoor in an attached support shop, raising concerns about the risks of AI automation.
Hundreds of millions of people are now turning to AI chatbots like ChatGPT to help figure out what is wrong with them, and doctors say that is not always a bad thing. The trend has grown rapidly as AI capabilities have improved, with some patients crediting the technology with catching conditions their physicians initially missed.
OpenAI is retiring several of its AI models from ChatGPT, including GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini, as the company continues to evolve its product lineup.
An AI-powered toy company called Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected, exposing nearly 50,000 logs of conversations between children and the company's AI-enabled stuffed animals to anyone with a Gmail account.
Fossil fuel-fired power plant development is surging in the United States, driven by the insatiable energy demands of AI datacenters. New data suggests the country's renewable energy transition—and efforts to ease carbon emissions—may be fundamentally undermined.
Apple has acquired Q.AI, a secretive Israeli startup that develops technology for analyzing facial expressions, for close to $2 billion. The deal signals Apple's intensifying push into AI-powered devices that can understand and respond to human emotions.
India has emerged as the world leader in using Google's Gemini AI for educational purposes, with usage rates far exceeding any other country. The trend is shaping how Google approaches AI in education globally, as the company learns from the Indian market's unique scale and challenges.
IBM reported surging demand for its z17 mainframe systems as enterprises increasingly turn to AI-powered tools to modernize legacy COBOL applications. The company's leadership touted an AI-on-the-mainframe future as generative AI fills the gap left by retiring COBOL programmers.
The design choices behind AI technologies — female voices, deferential responses, playful deflections — create a permissive environment for gendered aggression, experts warn. As AI assistants become ubiquitous, researchers are concerned these patterns mirror and reinforce real-world misogyny.
Uber has announced a $500 million investment in Waabi, a Canadian self-driving technology company, as part of an ambitious plan to deploy 25,000 autonomous vehicles on its ride-hailing network.
Google is rolling out a new "auto browse" capability in Chrome that allows the Gemini AI to perform complex, multi-step tasks on behalf of users—from researching travel options to filling out forms and managing subscriptions.
Meta Platforms has announced plans to nearly double its capital expenditure to $135 billion as the company accelerates its artificial intelligence investments, a figure that far exceeds analyst expectations and signals the scale of the AI infrastructure race.
Microsoft has reported stellar Q2 2026 fiscal results, with quarterly revenue reaching $81.3 billion—up 17% year-over-year—driven by explosive demand for AI-powered cloud services through its Azure platform.
Tesla has reported its first-ever annual drop in revenue, as the electric vehicle company grapples with slowing demand, consumer backlash against CEO Elon Musk's political activities, and changing government EV policies under the Trump administration.
WhatsApp will now charge developers of AI chatbots on a per-message basis in Italy, introducing a new monetization approach for the popular messaging platform.