In a personal interview, ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes described how raising her 3-year-old son has become her most effective way to disconnect from her phone, saying outings like hiking or beach trips leave her happier than screen time ever did. She also detailed her strict inbox habits, keeping unread emails at zero and total messages under ten, and noted her Spotify listening is now dominated by children's music like Raffi and Ms. Rachel.
Utah mother Kalie Robins posted a video of herself and her daughter singing in a car without naming the child. Meta AI later surfaced suggested prompts asking about the 'child passenger,' and when Robins engaged, it compiled detailed information on both her daughters—including names and ages—by pulling from years of family posts shared by relatives like grandparents.
Apple detailed its A20 Pro chip, which will power the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo. Built on a 2nm process, the chip features a six-core CPU with two new 'super cores' up to 20% faster than the A19 Pro, a redesigned seven-core GPU with 40% better graphics performance, and a dual Neural Engine offering twice the AI compute of its predecessor. Apple also boosted memory bandwidth by 50% and added neural accelerators to every CPU core.
A technical breakdown explains how Windows XP picked a user's initial account picture: it used the RtlRandomEx function seeded with GetTickCount(), scanning the default pictures folder once rather than twice. This single-pass method is a special case of reservoir sampling, selecting one item fairly as the folder is enumerated.
Bill Gates addressed the Telluride Film Festival this past weekend, following the release of a 6,000-word essay outlining concerns about artificial intelligence's potential dangers. The Microsoft co-founder used the appearance to reinforce his cautionary message about the technology's societal impact.
Minded is a new free app designed to interrupt habitual doomscrolling by prompting users to pause before opening time-wasting apps or sites. Rather than blocking access outright, it nudges users toward intentional decisions about how they spend their attention.
Following an August incident where a burst water line at an Athlon BT-operated Bitcoin-mining facility in El Reno, Oklahoma spilled nearly four million gallons of water, a subsequent fire marshal inspection uncovered a string of serious safety violations. Investigators found flammable liquids stored near combustible materials, poorly maintained fire extinguishers, damaged electrical wiring, an empty emergency lockbox, and code-violating vegetation, prompting the city to issue the facility a failing safety grade.
Hideo Kojima confirmed that Sony's PlayStation Studios canceled its involvement in his action-espionage game Physint back in June, prompting a three-month search for a new publisher. Xbox has now stepped in to publish the title, with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma calling it a major moment for the platform and referencing another Kojima collaboration, OD.
On 10 September 1897, London cab driver George Smith crashed his Bersey electric taxi into a building on New Bond Street after it swerved and mounted the pavement while he was drunk. He was arrested, examined by a police surgeon, and the next day pleaded guilty at Marlborough Street Police Court to being drunk in charge of a vehicle, receiving a 20-shilling fine.
Advocacy group Democratism organized a demonstration outside Poland's digital affairs ministry using about 30 humanoid and quadrupedal robots that marched, held signs, and played pre-recorded chants calling for stricter rules on AI and automation. Organizer Grzegorz Kuliś said the goal was to spotlight how robotics and AI increasingly threaten human jobs, including cognitive work, and to push lawmakers to act before displacement worsens.
Mathematician Andreas Thom says his prior ChatGPT conversations may have fed into OpenAI's recent non-sofic groups breakthrough, echoing a similar complaint from NYU professor Tristan Buckmaster about undisclosed use of his Codex interactions. Thom noted OpenAI's unusually detailed grasp of niche techniques and has asked researchers Sébastien Bubeck and Mark Sellke whether his exchanges with ChatGPT were used as training data.
Researchers propose that the apparent acceleration of the universe's expansion, long attributed to dark energy, could instead be an illusion caused by uneven distribution of matter across the cosmos. Their model suggests that variations in cosmic density affect how we measure distances and light from distant supernovae, mimicking the signature of accelerated expansion without requiring a mysterious energy field.
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