Google is letting Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) users import select owned ebooks from Google Play Books directly into notebooks for analysis. The feature, called Expert Intelligence, covers over 100,000 titles from publishers like Penguin Random House and O'Reilly Media, and includes partnerships with 15 bestselling authors. Users can then apply Gemini Notebook tools like Audio Overviews and Infographics to the imported book content, and combine multiple titles in one notebook.
OpenAI has begun showing advertisements to users on its free tier and the 399-rupee ($4) Go plan in India, one of its biggest markets by user activity. The feature, already active in 38 countries including the US, Japan, South Korea and much of Europe, excludes users who are or are predicted to be under 18.
Tim Cook announced Apple will make a donation to support relief and rebuilding efforts after flash floods and mudslides killed hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet. The disaster was triggered by a partial glacier collapse in the Himalayas that dammed a river before bursting, sending debris downstream and damaging homes, roads and bridges.
A developer released IndexFlow, an open-source infrastructure project built in Rust that provides libraries for parsing XML sitemaps and analyzing technical SEO issues like canonical tags, robots directives, and metadata. The project is structured as modular components, including indexflow-sitemap and indexflow-seo, meant to serve as building blocks for a future commercial platform.
DeepSeek, the AI lab founded by Liang Wenfeng, has relied on his hedge fund High-Flyer Quant for early funding and computing power, but is now courting outside investors as its needs expand. Meanwhile, High-Flyer's affiliates have taken sizable pre-IPO stakes in Chinese hard-tech firms like memory chipmaker CXMT and robotics company Unitree, even as volatility in AI and chip stocks has hit the fund's returns.
The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has recalled nearly 30,000 pounds of raw beef imported from Argentina after discovering it skipped required import re-inspections. Despite no contaminant being identified, the agency labeled the beef a Class I hazard, its most severe risk category, and it remains unclear which retailers received the product.
TechCrunch's evening event series StrictlyVC is holding its first New York gathering in two years, set for September 10 in the West Village. The lineup includes investor Keith Rabois discussing venture trends and his early OpenAI investment, plus a conversation between Collaborative Fund's Craig Shapiro and D.C. United CEO Jason Levien on sports as a business investment, with Tristan Walker also joining discussions on AI and community.
Revolution Medicines received FDA approval this week for a pancreatic cancer pill, a milestone that comes after the company fielded acquisition interest from larger pharmaceutical firms but chose to remain independent. The decision allowed it to bring the drug through regulatory approval on its own rather than as part of a larger acquirer's pipeline.
Nvidia is defending its practice of financially backing AI labs and data-center builders, arguing that its core chip-sales business generates enough cash to sustain these commitments without strain. The company describes its revenue engine as a self-reinforcing 'flywheel' capable of funding both its own growth and the broader AI ecosystem it supports.
Meta announced new restrictions for users under 18 on Instagram and Facebook, including a default 2-hour daily time limit, a night mode blocking content from midnight to 6 a.m., and a school mode muting notifications during class hours. The changes come as part of a settlement in an $18 billion lawsuit, though Meta denies any wrongdoing and did not admit liability.
Job-market data from Indeed shows science postings requiring AI skills are climbing even as overall science job listings decline. Institutions like the Quadram Institute in Norwich now expect researchers outside traditional computing fields, including food scientists, to have basic machine-learning literacy, with its CEO calling the absence of such skills a red flag for candidates.
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to US states and roll out new safety features for teen users of Facebook and Instagram, resolving litigation over the platforms' impact on youth mental health. Coming changes include a two-hour daily usage cap for under-18s and a block on access between midnight and 6 a.m., with some restrictions removable only by a parent or guardian. The settlement applies only within the United States.
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