A charter boat fisherman was among the first to discover the wreckage – a “mess,” he called it, deep off the coast of Massachusetts. From behind a veil of pea soup-thick fog emerged hundreds of white and green fiberglass and Styrofoam pieces, some as small as a fingernail, some as large as a truck hood. […]
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on deep-sea mining and critical minerals, follow Justine Calma. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started This is not how I thought things would go […]
Expect record-breaking temperatures to change the workplace, the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned today in a new report. When workers don’t have adequate protections from heat stress, their health and productivity suffer. It’s a risk employers and lawmakers have to take more seriously if they want to keep workers safe […]
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 […]
I’m not a fan of AI health and fitness features. Not only do they regurgitate Captain Obvious-level summaries of what you just did, but the “insights” are so generalized that a Google search is often more helpful. So it was with great skepticism that I walked into a demo to learn about Fitbit’s forthcoming AI-powered […]
Google has brought NBA star Stephen Curry on board to help shape the company’s hardware, features, and AI services. The long-term partnership was announced today at the Made by Google event, with Curry joining the company as a “performance advisor” for Google’s Health, Pixel, and Cloud products, leaning into his athletic experience and expertise. Part […]
Google is one step closer to reaching its nuclear ambitions now that it’s working with public power utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to purchase electricity from a next-generation reactor. It’s the first power purchase agreement for technology this advanced that a US utility has made, according to the companies. The plan is for TVA to […]
The nations of the world have been on the precipice of reaching a global agreement to curb plastic pollution for a few years now. Delegates from 184 governments met in Geneva this month to try to hammer out a final treaty, but in the end, they walked away without a deal. This is not necessarily […]
Blood oxygen monitoring is returning to the Apple Watch — sort of. Starting today, Apple is rolling out a software update that enables a redesigned version of the feature for the Apple Watch Series 9, 10, and Ultra 2 that circumvents the import ban imposed by the International Trade Commission. To get around the ban, […]
Thousands of delegates have descended upon Geneva this week for what’s supposed to be the culmination of years of negotiations that, if successful, are supposed to end in a groundbreaking global plastics treaty. They might be breathing in the very thing they’re trying to clean up as they negotiate. Greenpeace tested the air around the […]