An MIT ad hoc committee studying AI's effect on teaching and research has released recommendations calling for coordinated institutional change rather than piecemeal fixes. The group found that generative AI tools can already produce credible answers to most undergraduate assignments, including essays, proofs, and coding problems, and that this has coincided with declining attendance at office hours and study groups. The committee is proposing a mix of immediate actions and longer-term planning efforts to address the shift.
Confdiff is a command-line and browser-based tool that compares JSON, YAML, TOML, INI, .env, properties, CSV and XML files by parsing them into a data model rather than comparing raw text. This lets it ignore cosmetic changes like key reordering, reformatting or added comments while flagging genuine differences, including type changes such as a number becoming a string. A --redact flag masks secret values with stable fingerprints so teams can see that credentials changed without exposing the actual values in a PR or CI log.
A recent analysis explores how someone deciphering an unknown ancient counting system could tell whether it used a positional base (like base 5 or base 20) or a 'bijective' base lacking a zero symbol, similar to Excel's column-labeling scheme. The piece argues that without contextual clues—like knowing what number a symbol represents—distinguishing these systems from raw symbol frequency alone would require enormous sample sizes, though tools like Benford's Law could help identify leading digits in large enough datasets.
Plaud, known for AI note-taking devices like the Note and NotePin, has unveiled the Plaud One Explorer Edition earbuds ahead of IFA. The $249.99 earbuds can capture and summarize conversations independently of a phone, and use a feature called Plaud Agent to carry out tasks across apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion and Slack. They're available for pre-order now, ship in late September, come with $200 in credits, and require no subscription.
Plaud, previously known for AI notetaking gadgets like the NotePin and Note Pro, is now selling AI earbuds called the Plaud One Explorer Edition, available for preorder at $250. The earbuds can be worn normally or left in their case on a table to record meetings, calls, or solo brainstorming sessions, feeding that audio to an assistant called Plaud Agent. That agent connects with tools like Google Calendar, Notion, and Slack to draft emails, documents, and presentations based on spoken commands.
Google unveiled a special edition Fitbit Air in a blue colorway featuring a sleeping Pikachu print, designed to pair with its Pokémon Sleep app. The device functions identically to the standard Fitbit Air but syncs sleep data through Health Connect on Android, letting wearers see in-app Pokémon and a Snorlax-based Sleep Score. Preorders open today on the Google Store and Target, with shipping starting September 15 and three free months of Google Health Premium included.
Plaud unveiled the Plaud One, wireless earbuds with a built-in LTE charging case that can record, transcribe and summarize conversations without needing a paired smartphone. The case includes its own microphones and 512MB of storage, supplementing 16MB in each earbud, enough for about 30 hours of audio, and the earbuds can capture audio directly from apps like Zoom and Google Meet. Plaud has arranged carrier deals in over 80 countries so the case can connect to cellular networks without a separate contract.
Plaud has introduced the Plaud One, earbuds resembling AirPods that can record calls, while their case can independently capture in-person conversations. The case includes an eSIM card, letting users contact Plaud's AI agent remotely without needing a phone or computer nearby.
T-Mobile has filed new disclosures showing 63 layoffs spread across 13 locations in Washington state as part of an ongoing wave of workforce reductions in 2026. The carrier has also been shutting down retail stores nationwide alongside these job cuts.
OpenAI has rolled out a feature within its agentic ChatGPT Work tool that lets the AI log into password-protected websites on a user's behalf. After an initial manual login, ChatGPT stores the session's cookies and reuses them for future visits, meaning it no longer needs to ask for credentials each time. The feature is limited to ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers and is meant to help the AI complete multi-step tasks like renewing a passport or comparing insurance costs.
Apple is expanding its $50 million Supplier Employee Development Fund by launching a new Apple Education Center in Vietnam, run in partnership with Hanoi University of Science and Technology. The center will offer technical training in smart manufacturing, robotics and automation, plus leadership and soft-skills courses, mirroring a similar program Apple rolled out in India earlier this year.
Visa has open-sourced the Vulnerability Agentic Harness, an 11-stage AI pipeline that detects security flaws, writes fixes, and adversarially tests its own patches in production code, with autonomous patching enabled by default unless an operator restricts it to detection only. The release comes alongside an expanded Visa Consulting & Analytics advisory practice and follows Visa's earlier work with Anthropic's Claude models under Project Glasswing.
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