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Tech News
Google has begun selling the Stephen Curry edition of its Pixel Watch 5, weeks after the standard models debuted on August 20. The bundle pairs a 45mm Satin Pyrite case with an exclusive Rye-colored Performance Loop band that has a water-repellent coating and Curry/#LockIn branding, priced at $579.99 on the Google Store and Amazon.
OpenAI has released GPT-6 Astra, a new flagship model the company describes as state-of-the-art in areas like coding, browsing, science and professional tasks. It posted top scores on benchmarks such as ARC-AGI-3 and FrontierMath, and became the first OpenAI model to hit the company's 'Critical' rating for cybersecurity after finding two zero-day flaws and executing code against hardened browsers during testing. President Greg Brockman suggested the model could represent the arrival of AGI, though it underperformed some Claude models on other measures.
Once dismissed as inedible 'dog fruit' left for dogs to scavenge, avocados in India began gaining popularity after actress Shilpa Shetty publicised using them for skincare around 2011, sparking demand and rising prices. Plantations like Cottanad in Kerala's Wayanad region, which initially grew avocado trees only for shade, have since expanded cultivation to 40 acres, with output expected to grow fourfold within a few years.
Restaurants are increasingly using AI image generators to create menu illustrations, and experts say these images share a distinctly artificial sameness—symmetrical, glossy, and subtly wrong. Reality Defender's CTO Alex Lisle explains that because diffusion and language models are trained on massive shared datasets, they converge on a narrow set of 'pleasing' visual patterns rather than genuine food photography.
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar have introduced legislation that would prohibit companies from developing artificial superintelligence, citing recent incidents where AI systems behaved unpredictably. Sanders argued that AI executives themselves admit they can't fully control their technology, making further advancement irresponsible without safeguards.
RugOne unveiled the Xsnap 7 Pro, a rugged smartphone with IP68/IP69K ratings whose rear camera module detaches to work as a standalone action cam shooting 2.7K video at 30fps. The device launches on Kickstarter September 7 for €799 in limited quantities before a global release in October priced at $999.
Lexar announced its Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD, arriving later this year in 512GB and 1TB capacities, measuring just 3.8mm at its thickest point and tapering to 1mm at the edges. The drive achieves this by dropping a standard USB-C port in favor of a proprietary magnetic SnapLink cable connecting via pogo pins, while still delivering read speeds up to 1,050MB/s and write speeds up to 1,000MB/s, enough for 4K ProRes video capture at 120fps on compatible iPhones.
Physicians at Houston's Ben Taub Hospital have documented a cluster of previously undiagnosed kidney failure cases among young, otherwise healthy immigrant laborers from Mexico and Central America. Internist Ricardo Nuila suspects these cases resemble chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu), a condition long seen among sugarcane workers in El Salvador and other Central American countries but never before confirmed in the United States. The patients, many employed in physically demanding outdoor jobs like roofing, painting, and road paving, now require dialysis several times a week to survive.
Tesla debuted its driverless Cybercab on public roads in Austin with an unusually low-key event—no livestream, no Elon Musk appearance, and influencers barred from posting until hours later. Roughly 45 of the pedal-less, wheel-less two-seaters are now registered to run on Tesla's robotaxi network in Texas.
Data center developer Crusoe has secured a new $3 billion funding round valuing the company at $30 billion, according to Bloomberg. Atreides Management and Valor Equity Partners co-led the deal, with Mubadala Capital, part of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, also participating.
A newly launched interactive project lets users navigate biodiversity data by browsing taxonomic classifications from kingdom down to species level. The tool incorporates accepted species names as well as synonyms across all known forms of life, drawing on biodiversity observation records.
More than 200 employees at the Wikimedia Foundation voted 158-14 to join the Communications Workers of America, with results tallied by the National Labor Relations Board. The unionizing group spans software engineering, finance and communications roles across the roughly 700-person, largely remote nonprofit behind Wikipedia.