- Anthropic shuts down Fable, Mythos models following Trump admin directive
ars-technica· 13-jun
Commerce dept. worries that a Fable 5 "jailbreak" could be a national security threat.
- Here's what Jeff Bezos' new startup Prometheus will do
ars-technica· 12-jun
It isn't the only startup tackling physical AI, but it's one of the best-funded.
- Ukraine's one-time test used fully autonomous drones to kill Russian soldiers
ars-technica· 12-jun
Full autonomy is rare, but Ukraine is installing AI modules on drones and robots.
- When it comes to total water use, AI data centers are a drop in the bucket
ars-technica· 12-jun
Even moderately sized data centers can have an outsized local impact.
- Have politics finally come for the National Academies of Science?
ars-technica· 12-jun
A pending report on climate attribution may be setting the stage for conflict.
- Threads of underground fungal networks are long enough to reach beyond the Solar System
ars-technica· 13-jun
Researchers have quantified the length and mass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks globally.
- PeopleSoft 0-day affecting hundreds of organizations steals gigabytes of data
ars-technica· 12-jun
Vulnerability in the Oracle-owned PeopleSoft software is about as critical as they come.
- SpaceX is now a public company valued for its AI potential, so what comes next?
ars-technica· 12-jun
As of today, SpaceX is owned by investors who will want to see it make money.
- $130 billion in data center projects blocked by protests so far this year
ars-technica· 12-jun
Winning fight against AI data centers gives people a "taste of political power."
- Controversial FISA spying law expires tonight. The spying will continue.
ars-technica· 12-jun
Section 702 of FISA to expire tonight, but certification lasts until March 2027.
- The Download: the “steroid olympics” and a safer Mythos
mit-tech-review· 10-jun
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The “steroid olympics” were a circus—and a window into our culture —Amit Katwala A couple of weeks ago, at a $50 million arena built in a casino parking lot in Las…
- Job titles of the future: Nature’s drug designer
mit-tech-review· 11-jun
In 2018, after nearly two decades working in Big Pharma, chemist Tim Cernak was ready to put his skills to a new use. For Merck, he’d developed precision therapies for cancer, HIV, and diabetes that could target disease while minimizing harm to healthy cells. But as a lifelong nature lover, he was increasingly concerned about…
- Inside soccer’s data renaissance
mit-tech-review· 11-jun
Imagine tuning in to the opening kickoff of a World Cup match and seeing a player intentionally send the ball all the way down the pitch and right out of bounds on the opponent’s end. Casual fans might scratch their heads. Where’s the logic in surrendering possession seconds into a game? If you were Jesse…
- Why China is betting on big nuclear reactors
mit-tech-review· 11-jun
It’s a tale of two nuclear industries. In China, large reactors are coming together at a stunning pace. The country has nearly doubled its nuclear fleet since 2016, reaching nearly 60 gigawatts of total power capacity. The new facilities are nearly all gigawatt-scale pressurized-water reactors. Meanwhile, the US has built just two reactors in that…
- Google DeepMind is worried about what happens when millions of agents start to interact
mit-tech-review· 11-jun
Google DeepMind is funding research into the potential dangers of situations where millions of different AI agents interact with each other online. According to Rohin Shah, who directs the company’s AGI safety and alignment research, the mass-market arrival of agents that can carry out tasks without human oversight and follow instructions given to them by other…
- The Download: soccer’s data renaissance and China’s big nuclear plans
mit-tech-review· 11-jun
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Inside soccer’s data renaissance Imagine tuning in to the opening kickoff of a World Cup match and seeing a player intentionally kick the ball out of bounds. You may question the…
- You do your own time
mit-tech-review· 12-jun
There we were, a regular murderers’ row of librarians. Little Jo. Eustace. And me. Turning around in the nave of our library to greet the sound of footsteps, pistols leveled in case whoever was coming in didn’t respect sanctuary. Little Jo had a stack of books under one arm. Eustace was holding the screwdriver she’d…
- Why “reprogramming” is the buzziest approach to reversing aging right now
mit-tech-review· 12-jun
Earlier this week, Life Biosciences, a biotech company focused on reversing age-related diseases, announced that it had dosed its first volunteer. A person with glaucoma has had an experimental treatment injected straight into their eyeball. The idea is to try to treat the disease—which can cause vision loss—by regenerating healthy nerves in the eye. But…
- Inside interoception: The hidden sense of how you feel inside
mit-tech-review· 12-jun
MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of science and technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. Your brain lives in the dark space of your skull. Yet it knows when the wind lifts the hairs on your skin, when your heart is…
- The Download: “reprogramming” aging, and the hidden sense of interoception
mit-tech-review· 12-jun
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Why “reprogramming” is the buzziest approach to reversing aging right now Earlier this week, Life Biosciences, a biotech company focused on reversing age-related diseases, announced that it had dosed its first…
- Andrew Yang thinks the next big startup opportunity is lowering the cost of living
techcrunch· 13-jun
Andrew Yang made a list of everything Americans overpay for — housing, food, wireless — and thinks the next startup gold rush is giving that money back.
- Anthropic’s safety warnings may have just backfired — the government has pulled the plug on its most powerful AI
techcrunch· 13-jun
Anthropic isn't hiding its frustration. "We disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people," the company wrote in a blog post.
- Chinese cybercrime operation that used AI to scam ‘hundreds of thousands of victims’ sued by Google
techcrunch· 12-jun
The tech giant said a group called "Outsider Enterprise" used AI to scam hundreds of thousands of victims, sending 2.5 million text messages over a span of two weeks.
- Meta’s months-old AI unit is a soul-crushing gulag, say the engineers stuck inside it
techcrunch· 12-jun
A new report suggests the unit, which employs 6,500 people, is on the verge of revolt.
- Mistral is rumored to be raising €3B at €20B valuation
techcrunch· 12-jun
The funding round would value the company at around €20 billion (about $23.15 billion), nearly double its Series C valuation of €11.7 billion.
- Robinhood sees ‘record-breaking’ traffic after SpaceX stock debuts
techcrunch· 12-jun
The trading platform says some customers experienced intermittent disruptions, but those issues have resolved.
- SpaceX IPO closes up 19% and delivers the world’s first trillionaire
techcrunch· 12-jun
The company made its heavily anticipated debut on Friday, trading higher than its initial $135 IPO price.
- SpaceX IPO: Live updates on everything you need to know
techcrunch· 12-jun
TechCrunch has followed SpaceX's start, struggles, and successes from the early days. And we're here for what happens next too. This package of SpaceX IPO coverage includes who stands to win (and maybe some who won't), pre-IPO deals, and what's tucked inside its S-1 registration document.
- SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell just gave another hint at a Tesla merger
techcrunch· 12-jun
A SpaceX-Tesla merger seems inevitable.
- The FBI built its own replica small town to simulate real-world cyberattacks
techcrunch· 13-jun
Hidden inside a building in Alabama, the FBI has created its own small town as a dedicated cyber training ground for simulating cyberattacks.
- My yard is dying, so I made an app for that
the-verge· 13-jun
When I returned to my computer five minutes after giving Gemini a lengthy prompt, I had two things: a functional app in a preview window, and a message about a bug. "~ Channel is unrecoverably broken and will be disposed!" Sounded bad! But right below it was a button to fix the bug. Pretty weird that I just instructed a computer to build a whole app for me with a single prompt, but it needed me to click a button to fix a bug. I did anyway, and in 233 seconds Gemini reported back that it had succeeded, using words like "blockages" and "race conditions." I didn't understand a bit of it. It was thrilling. This was my second or third attempt a … Read the full story at The Verge.
- The future of Hollywood isn’t feeding prompts into vanilla gen AI models
the-verge· 13-jun
Concept art from Dear Upstairs Neighbors that used to train custom builds of Google’s Veo and Imagen models. | Image: Google DeepMind For all the noise that's been made about how generative AI is poised to revolutionize the filmmaking industry, there haven't really been any projects created with the technology that felt like the sort of entertainment people would pay to see. Most AI firms' video models are still only capable of churning out short bursts of visually inconsistent footage. And some of Hollywood's biggest AI partnerships have suddenly evaporated in ways that make it seem like studios might not be able to rely on the new technology coming out of Silicon Valley. For the most part, short-form video slop appears to be the only thing that major production houses ar … Read the full…
- Anthropic cuts off Fable 5 and Mythos 5 access following government order
the-verge· 13-jun
On Friday evening, the government ordered Anthropic to block access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all foreign nations, both inside and outside the US, due to national security concerns. That order included employees of Anthropic. To meet those demands, the company has completely cut off access to the models for all customers. In a statement, Anthropic said that while it was complying with the order, the government "did not provide specific details of its national security concern." Instead, it claims that any evidence of potential jailbreak was provided verbally, and that the vulnerabilities discovered were minor and available via other model … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Nothing CEO says phone prices are going to keep going up
the-verge· 12-jun
Nothing Phone 4A Pro | Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge If you're thinking about upgrading your phone, "the best time was yesterday," according to Nothing CEO and co-founder Carl Pei, echoing a message we heard during MWC. As Android Authority reports, Pei said in a post on X that the RAM shortage has already impacted Nothing's less expensive mid-range phone: "For Phone 4A , memory costs doubled between when we decided to build the device and when it launched. They've doubled again since." He warned that "Phone prices are going up, and they'll keep going up into next year." Pei says RAM can now account for over 50 percent of the cost of a new phone. Nothing's just the latest phone maker to warn … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Echo Isle is a pint-sized adventure inspired by classic Zelda
the-verge· 13-jun
Echo Isle is heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda, and it's not afraid to show it: The retro graphics bear a striking resemblance to Link's Awakening, the main character wears a blue tunic and wields a sword, and he navigates dungeons to collect items and keys to fight bosses and gather magical MacGuffins. But where Echo Isle shines is how it takes the best parts of a Zelda adventure and shrinks them down to their essence - I finished the game in a little more than an hour. The game starts with the main character falling from the sky onto Echo Isle, an island protected by a magical lighthouse that has mysteriously gone dark. While you d … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Valve just imported 13 tons of VR headsets in one day
the-verge· 13-jun
On June 10th, the German container ship Posen docked in Los Angeles after a two-week voyage from Shanghai. As Valve watcher Brad Lynch notes, it was almost certainly carrying the first mass production shipments of the Steam Frame, Valve's new gaming headset. Import records show that Valve's distribution partner Ceva offloaded nearly 32 metric tons of "Virtual Reality Devices" on Valve's behalf - or roughly 13 tons of actual product, after you subtract the roughly 3,700 kilogram weight of five 40-foot shipping containers. That's the same math we used to estimate that Valve imported 50 tons of game consoles in two days last month - and sin … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Never Post’s Mike Rugnetta on the creative process and the value of reliable power
the-verge· 13-jun
Mike Rugnetta is a writer, podcast host, producer, audio engineer, educator, musician, sound designer, and father. In short, the man wears a lot of hats. He's the cocreator and host of the award-winning Never Post, an absolutely must-listen podcast about the internet, as well as Fun City, a TTRPG podcast where he's the GM. He's also hosted two different Crash Course series and PBS's Idea Channel. If you're thinking that sounds like a lot, you're not wrong. It made us want to know how Mike stays focused with so much on his plate, and what tools are most indispensable to him with his hectic schedule. But, what we got was so much more than th … Read the full story at The Verge.
- The world’s first trillionaire is a killer
the-verge· 12-jun
Hm! | Photo: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk's SpaceX IPO will probably make him the richest person to ever walk the planet. And while his mountain of horrible personal conduct could fill multiple books, one fact in particular stands out: A year ago, Musk's actions directly led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He did it knowingly. And, worse - gleefully. This is not a serious person, but his abuse of the world is deadly serious. In the first months of President Donald Trump's second term, the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) destroyed the US Agency for International Development, whose mission was a boon to public health around the globe. M … Read the full story at The Verge.
- Apple’s new AI photo editing tools mostly work, for better and worse
the-verge· 13-jun
iPhone owners are getting real, native AI photo editing for the first time. The most popular camera in the world just got its first set of serious AI photo editing features, and I don't think any of us are ready. As far as AI photo editing goes, the new features in iOS 27 are pretty tame compared to what you can do on, say, Google's Pixel phones. But for the iPhone, they represent a tipping point in what the native photos app allows you to do to your photos. I mean memories. I mean, I don't know anymore. These new features are part of the iOS 27 developer beta right now, so bear in mind that Apple may continue making tweaks to them before they're released to the general public. There are three, or maybe two and a … Read the full story at The Verge.
- A better way to manage all your screenshots
the-verge· 13-jun
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 132, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, happy soccer, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I've been preparing for a month of getting absolutely nothing done during the World Cup. I've also been reading about Steven Spielberg and wearables and the Boeing 747, overloading on computer nostalgia thanks to The Virtual OS Museum, watching that Knicks game winner over and over and over, listening to the fabulous new This Was SportsCenter podcast and the fabulous old The Renner Files podcast, and trying to tame my … Read the full story at The Verge.