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Perplexity has extended its agentic AI feature, previously exclusive to Mac, to Windows 10 and 11 users on paid Pro, Max, or Enterprise plans. The tool can access local files, control native Windows applications, and connect to cloud services like OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox to complete multi-step tasks with minimal user input. A ZDNET reviewer tested it on five complex tasks to gauge its real-world usefulness.
Researchers have developed a plasma technology approach aimed at reducing the heavy carbon footprint associated with cement production, one of the most emissions-intensive industrial sectors globally. The method targets the chemical and energy-intensive steps in making cement, offering a potential pathway to lower greenhouse gas output from an industry long considered difficult to decarbonize.
Conservation Through Public Health, working with the EU-Africa NESTLER project, gathered disease samples from cattle and poultry near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and combined them with gorilla health monitoring records. The pooled data is being fed into AI models designed to predict zoonotic disease outbreaks before they spread among wildlife, livestock and people, shifting the group's approach from reactive response to proactive prevention.
Neurosurgeons at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London used an AI tool during a May operation to remove a large pituitary tumor from 48-year-old Rhys Hibbert. The system, trained on hundreds of past surgical videos, analyzed live footage to highlight nearby nerves and blood vessels in real time, helping surgeons avoid damaging critical structures. Hibbert regained clear eyesight after the procedure, having previously needed glasses and walking aids.
An investigation into a budget-priced 75-inch LG smart TV found that agreeing to install the display's basic driver software also forces users to accept a bundle of additional bloatware apps they never explicitly consented to. The report argues this practice, combined with built-in microphones and tracking-capable operating systems, effectively turns purchased hardware into a surveillance and advertising platform controlled by the manufacturer rather than the buyer.
A startup developer recounts spending three weeks fighting AWS Cognito after choosing it for authentication because of its free tier and integration with the AWS ecosystem. Despite prior experience with Auth0, Firebase Auth, and custom JWT systems, they found Cognito's documentation fragmented, inconsistent, and difficult to follow, with code samples spanning outdated SDKs and mismatched APIs.
A startup developer recounts spending three weeks trying to implement AWS Cognito for authentication, encountering broken password reset flows despite following official documentation exactly. He attributes the trouble to inconsistent, fragmented documentation that mixes outdated code examples from different SDK versions and targets multiple audiences without a clear path for any of them.
X's Global Government Affairs team says it identified roughly 200,000 accounts tied to a Chinese bot network, with about 200 of them dedicated to spreading posts critical of AI data centers. The posts claimed the facilities were raising household electricity bills and straining power grids, echoing similar findings OpenAI reported in June about ChatGPT users seeking ways to sway American opinion on data centers.
A woman identified as Jane Doe has sued xAI, alleging that Grok was trained on child sexual abuse material depicting her as a preschooler in the early 2000s. She learned of the AI-generated images through a Canadian child protection group after receiving a Justice Department victim notification, and claims xAI stores Grok's outputs to further train the model, compounding the harm.
LinkedIn introduced a feature letting users flag posts they suspect are low-quality AI-generated content, and more than a million people used it within the first two weeks. Chief product officer Hari Srinivasan said member views of flagged AI content have dropped 40% since the tool launched, though he acknowledged more work remains.
Public records show former Alpharetta, Georgia patrolman Dustin Bozzo ran 56 unauthorized searches on a fellow officer's license plate—his ex, whom he had been secretly dating in violation of department policy—between March and May, then tracked a second officer's car 29 times after noticing it near hers. He was placed on leave in July and resigned in August as the department opened an internal probe that has since become a criminal investigation.
NASA's Starling mission tested FALCON, a navigation system built with startup EraDrive that lets a spacecraft determine its own orbital position by observing nearby satellites and debris rather than relying on GPS signals. The system pairs EraDrive's Era-Core software with Starling's existing star tracker cameras and a catalog of known orbiting objects to calculate location autonomously.