Trump administration to spend $1 billion on ‘offensive’ hacking operations
A top Democrat criticized the move to spend a billion on offensive hacking operations as the budget guts a billion from U.S. cyber defense.
Tech
As the browser wars heat up, here are the hottest alternatives to Chrome and Safari in 2025
We’ve compiled an overview of some of the top alternative browsers available today aiming to challenge Chrome and Safari.
Elon Musk’s Grok is making AI companions, including a goth anime girl
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has pivoted from antisemitism to anime girl waifus. Musk wrote in an X post on Monday that AI companions are now available in the Grok app for “Super Grok” subscribers who pay $30 per month. According to posts that Musk has shared, it seems that there are at least two […]
Tesla’s Autopilot is under scrutiny in a rare jury trial
Tesla is on trial in Miami today in a case that accuses Elon Musk’s company of liability in a fatal crash involving Autopilot. The driver-assist system has come under scrutiny in the past for a number of fatal incidents, but Tesla has only rarely faced a jury trial over the question of whether Autopilot was […]
Google’s curated AI ‘notebooks’ talk you through topics from parenting to Shakespeare
Google is partnering with authors, researchers, and publications to launch “featured” notebooks within its AI notetaking app, NotebookLM. These notebooks come pre-filled with research, and let you interact with the app’s tools, including its AI podcast maker, to learn more about each topic. Google has released eight featured notebooks to start, including one focused on […]
US government announces $200 million Grok contract a week after ‘MechaHitler’ incident
A week after Elon Musk’s Grok dubbed itself “MechaHitler” and spewed antisemitic stereotypes, the US government has announced a new contract granting the chatbot’s creator, xAI, up to $200 million to modernize the Defense Department. xAI is one of several leading AI companies to receive the award, alongside Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. But the timing […]
Malaysia will require trade permits for U.S. AI chips
Malaysia is introducing new export restrictions on U.S. AI chips in an attempt to prevent these chips from being smuggled into China.
NotebookLM adds featured notebooks from The Economist, The Atlantic and others
Google is adding notebooks from various authors, publications, researchers, and nonprofits to its popular AI-powered research and note-taking assistant NotebookLM.
Anthropic’s Claude chatbot can now make and edit your Canva designs
Canva users can now create, edit, and manage their designs by describing their requirements to Anthropic’s Claude AI. The connection is the latest of several integrations that allow Claude users to access third-party tools and services, including Figma, Notion, Stripe, and Prisma, without having to leave their conversation with the AI chatbot. Starting today, Claude […]
Prime Day event drove over $24B in U.S. e-commerce sales, gen AI traffic was up 3,300%
Amazon’s Prime Day, which leads to an overall boost to U.S. e-commerce thanks to competitive sales, saw a significant increase in retail traffic driven by generative AI products, including chatbots and browsers. According to a post-Prime Day analysis by Adobe Analytics, gen AI traffic to U.S. retail sites increased by 3,300% year-over-year — which was […]