On Friday, when a CrowdStrike update caused millions of Microsoft systems to crash around the world, many businesses were faced with a choice: Go cash-only or close until systems came back online. This quickly caused chaos in Australia, whose government has explicitly encouraged businesses to go cashless. Pictures posted on …
Read More »We Asked AI to Take Us On a Tour of Our Cities. It Was Chaos
With high hopes of finding some hidden gems in our home cities and $100 (£77) each burning a hole in our pockets, we—Natasha Bernal in London and Amanda Hoover in New York—asked AI to plan out the perfect day. We decided to use Littlefoot, an AI-powered local discovery chatbot that …
Read More »The AI-Powered Future of Coding Is Near
I am by no means a skilled coder, but thanks to a free program called SWE-agent, I was just able to debug and fix a gnarly problem involving a misnamed file within different code repositories on the software-hosting site GitHub. I pointed SWE-agent at an issue on GitHub and watched …
Read More »OpenAI Slashes the Cost of Using Its AI With a ‘Mini’ Model
OpenAI today announced a cut-price “mini” model that it says will allow more companies and programs to tap into its artificial intelligence. The new model, called GPT-4o mini and available starting today, is 60 percent cheaper than OpenAI’s most inexpensive existing model while offering higher performance, the company says. OpenAI …
Read More »Spotify, Stop Trying to Become a Social Media App
Spotify’s decision to introduce comment sections under podcasts should surprise no one. For years now, apps have been ripping off each other’s most popular features. Where once apps adhered to their respective “things,” today they want to do it all: You can post Stories on YouTube, use AI search tools …
Read More »OpenAI Touts New AI Safety Research. Critics Say It’s a Good Step, but Not Enough
OpenAI has faced opprobrium in recent months from those who suggest it may be rushing too quickly and recklessly to develop more powerful artificial intelligence. The company appears intent on showing it takes AI safety seriously. Today it showcased research that it says could help researchers scrutinize AI models even …
Read More »RealPage Has Been Accused of Price-Fixing Rents. Now It’s on the Offensive
RealPage says it isn’t doing anything wrong by suggesting to landlords how much rent they could charge. In a move to reclaim its own narrative, the property management software company published a microsite and a digital booklet it’s calling “The Real Story,” as it faces multiple lawsuits and a reported …
Read More »Tiny Texas Village Seeks Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Miner to Pave Potholes, Scare Dogs Away
In Oak Valley, a sleepy village in rural Navarro County, Texas, there is very little of anything. A potholed road runs through its two square miles of sun-beaten grassland, past a modest prefab community center and a “poor excuse for a park,” as the local mayor describes it. Only around …
Read More »Apple, Nvidia, Anthropic Used Thousands of Swiped YouTube Videos to Train AI
Tech companies are turning to controversial tactics to feed their data-hungry artificial intelligence models, vacuuming up books, websites, photos, and social media posts, often unbeknownst to the creators. AI companies are generally secretive about their sources of training data, but an investigation by Proof News found some of the wealthiest …
Read More »Elon Musk Says He’s Moving X and SpaceX Headquarters to Texas
Elon Musk said he is moving more of his business empire to Texas. Musk-run X and SpaceX will shift their corporate headquarters to the Lone Star State from California, he wrote in a series of posts on X on Tuesday. He didn’t provide a timeline for the move, but he …
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