Amid a fierce debate about the environmental toll of artificial intelligence, Google released a new study that says its Gemini AI assistant only uses a minimal amount of water and energy for each text prompt. But experts say that the tech giant’s claims are misleading. Google estimates that a median Gemini text prompt uses up […]
For the past twenty years or so, I’ve had a clear image of what a product launch keynote is supposed to be like. A charismatic executive walks across the stage, points to some animations and pre-taped clips, a live demo or two happens, and the crowd goes wild. Clips proliferate on social media and cue […]
Qi2 is good because magnets are good. If you’re gonna preserve food in metal cans, you should probably have a way to open them up again. And if you’re going to rely on induction coils to transfer electricity, you gotta make sure they line up right. It took almost half a century after the invention […]
Elon Musk is calling in another return on his investment in American politics: he’s threatening Apple with a lawsuit because neither X nor xAI’s Grok have been recommended on the iOS App Store. How serious this threat is – well, that’s hard to say, as it was posted between Grok-generated waifus. “Hey @Apple App Store, […]
Starlink now charges $5 a month to pause its high-speed, low-latency internet service, a feature that used to be available for free. It affects Roam, Residential, and Priority subscribers in the US, most of Europe, and Canada with lots of exceptions. SpaceX hilariously calls it an upgrade, but I call it a bait and switch […]
I love sudoku, so I just couldn’t resist checking out LinkedIn’s new Mini Sudoku game that it launched this week. Two puzzles in, I can already tell you that I like it a lot. The rules in Mini Sudoku are quite similar to regular sudoku: you need to fill in all of the blank spots […]
Ever since the launch of ChatGPT, AI companies have been racing to gain a foothold in government in more ways than one. Most recently, that’s meant luring government users with attractive low prices for their products. Within the last week, both OpenAI and Anthropic have introduced special prices for government versions of their generative AI […]
I’m annoyed, not for the first time, by something Sam Altman has said. But this time it’s because I’m annoyed at how much I agree with what he’s saying – even though I think his statement is kind of bullshit. In a recent interview, journalist Cleo Abram asked Altman how people will be able to […]
For Matter, this year was never going to be about flashy new features. Other than support for security cameras, which I hear should finally arrive this fall, 2025 is all about fixing problems. And with Matter 1.4.2, announced today, the smart home standard is taking an encouraging step forward. Back in January, Tobin Richardson, president […]
In the fascinating new reality of the internet, teen girls can’t learn about periods on Reddit and indie artists can’t sell smutty games on Itch.io, but a military contractor will make you nonconsensual deepfakes of Taylor Swift taking her top off for $30 a month. Early Tuesday, Elon Musk’s xAI launched a new image and […]