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At the BRAIN Initiative conference on August 13th, chemogenetics co-inventor Bryan Roth disclosed that seven clinical trials using the technology are already underway in China. Chemogenetics works by inserting genes for synthetic receptors into specific neurons, allowing them to be turned on or off remotely using otherwise inert designer drugs, offering a dial-like control over brain activity.
At IFA in Berlin, Paris-based Circular unveiled the Ring 3 Pro and Ring 3 Slim, adding contactless payment support and the return of haptic vibration alerts to its smart ring lineup. The rings retain Circular's FDA-cleared ECG and AFib detection while adding new wellness features like blood pressure trends, glucose trend estimates and expanded sleep metrics.
Runta ran an evaluation called FrontierHarness Eval, testing nine different AI agent harnesses against the same underlying model to compare their performance and efficiency. The results showed the cost per successful task completion varied by as much as 17 times depending on which harness was used, despite the model being identical. Runta is now offering $100 in credits to developers who want to test their own harness on its platform.
Google has launched Gemini 3.8 Flash, a successor to Gemini 3.7 Flash released just weeks earlier, which the company says performs more reasoning steps and iteratively calls tools on complex tasks. Input and output token pricing remains unchanged from the prior model, but Google cautions that the new model may consume more tokens overall to boost performance, particularly at higher effort settings. Early analysts note it beats rivals like Anthropic's models on coding, finance, and legal benchmarks, though it can end up pricier in practice due to higher token usage.
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI, the first new entry in the franchise in 13 years, launches November 19 with nearly 5 million pre-orders worldwide. Workers across industries are already planning to take days off around the release, echoing the informal 'sick day' culture that surrounded Fallout 4's 2015 launch. Employers are bracing for a noticeable dip in productivity as employees prioritize gameplay over work.
A research team has detected an anomalous signal that current physics cannot fully explain, raising the possibility it could be evidence of dark matter or an entirely new phenomenon. The finding comes after years of dedicated searches for dark matter, a substance believed to make up much of the universe's mass but never directly observed.
Miele unveiled the Diamond G8 dishwasher at IFA 2026 in Berlin, featuring a small camera mounted on the door that scans the interior to identify items like pots, straws and flatware. Based on what it detects, the appliance automatically adjusts cycle intensity and detergent amount, and it can also track load capacity to start a cycle once a preset fullness level is reached. The model also lets users schedule cycles around cheaper electricity rate windows.
Miele unveiled the Diamond G8 dishwasher at IFA Berlin, featuring a small camera mounted inside the door that identifies items like pots, straws and flatware to automatically choose the right wash cycle and detergent dose. The camera also tracks how full the machine is, letting it start a cycle once it reaches a preset capacity, and the dishwasher can be scheduled to run during cheaper electricity periods.
Reliance Jio has expanded its JioPC cloud computing service beyond its own broadband subscribers, making it available to anyone with an internet connection regardless of telecom provider. The service streams a virtual PC with up to eight virtual CPUs, 16GB RAM and 1TB storage, letting even computers up to eight years old run modern AI applications without hardware upgrades. Subscriptions range from about $11 for two months to roughly $53 for a full year of the higher-spec plan.
Taco Bell has launched a new frozen dessert called the Churro Ice Cream Taco, priced at $3.99. The item features a waffle shell dipped in chocolate and filled with a new churro-flavored ice cream, drawing comparisons to the discontinued Choco Taco. It arrives alongside another frozen menu addition as summer winds down.
A newly published Entrepreneur op-ed identifies five recurring operational strains that emerge as small businesses expand, drawing on a Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey and a Robert Half hiring survey. The piece argues these pressures—hiring shortfalls, slower customer response, cash flow constraints, breaking systems, and diluted culture—consistently surface once a company moves from a small team to a larger one. It frames these not as reasons to avoid growth but as predictable hurdles that leaders can prepare for in advance.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said 19 G20 members agreed at a finance ministers meeting to address a flood of underpriced exports distorting global trade, with China the sole holdout. He identified China as running the world's largest current account surplus and said its practices were unsustainable for global markets.