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Barack Obama told House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a Democratic fundraiser that Democrats need a defined plan on artificial intelligence, urging the party to launch a public conversation on the technology if they retake the House majority. He warned that AI's rapid development in private hands could be dangerous without oversight, but said it could also bring major benefits like accelerating drug discovery.
During a visit to Ireland, President Trump rejected recent warnings from AI experts and industry leaders about the risks of rapid AI development, insisting fears raised by 'negative forces' were overblown. His comments came after a former Anthropic researcher warned of existential risk and after Anthropic's CEO, backed by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, called for a coordinated slowdown in AI development.
Hyphanet released build 1507 of its 0.7.5 line, cutting startup time, updating plugins and polishing Italian localization. The update also fixes a privacy flaw in probe requests, discovered by researchers Cynthia and Blub, by adding location randomization that had previously been missing. This is the final build to support Java 8, as future releases will require Java 17.
Lyft riders in Nashville can now be matched with a driverless Waymo vehicle through the Lyft app, or book directly through Waymo's own app. Lyft's subsidiary Flexdrive manages fleet readiness, maintenance, depot operations and infrastructure for the partnership, marking the first time Lyft has offered a fully driverless commercial ride without a safety operator behind the wheel.
Sony's PSX, a combination PS2 console, DVD player and video recorder launched in Japan in late 2003, sold well initially but faded quickly and was discontinued by early 2005. Reports at the time pointed to clashing internal divisions, a confusing hybrid identity, and a price tag several times higher than the standard PS2 as key reasons for its failure. The device never saw a full international release due to complications tied to Japan-specific broadcasting standards.
Apple has launched the Watch Series 12, a modest refresh of last year's Series 11 that keeps the same $399 starting price but adds a new ceramic case option alongside aluminum and titanium. Alongside it, Apple introduced the cheaper Watch SE 3, starting at $249, which trades some display and material upgrades for a lower cost.
After Anthropic's Dario Amodei called for pacing AI progress and got public backing from Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis, President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected the idea. Trump told the Financial Times the US must keep leading China in AI, while Johnson warned on CNN that rushed regulation could pose a national security risk.
Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro at its recent event, starting at $1,199 and adding a variable aperture camera and a faster A20 Pro chip. The comparison to the iPhone 14 Pro, released four years earlier, shows major shifts including the switch from Lightning to USB-C, a brighter display capable of 3,000 nits versus 1,000 nits, and an upgraded Dynamic Island that can display three activities simultaneously.
Laptops with trackpads that bulge or pop out are often showing a symptom of a swollen lithium-ion battery, which sits directly beneath the trackpad in most designs including MacBooks and Surface devices. Battery swelling happens when overcharging or physical damage triggers chemical reactions that release gas, pushing outward against internal components. Apple has previously run replacement programs for MacBooks affected by this exact issue.
A tutorial demonstrates how to write a JSON parser in Rust and expose it to Python using PyO3, the same toolchain that powers pydantic-core, the Rust extension underlying Pydantic v2's validation speed. The guide walks through the four steps of bridging Rust and Python—writing a Rust module, annotating it with PyO3 macros, compiling with maturin, and importing it as a normal package—while flagging that converting Rust results back into Python objects can be more expensive than the parsing itself. It references a cohort where students built hand-rolled JSON parsers in Rust that outperformed CPython's built-in json module, in one case by up to 3.5x.
Prior Software Inc. has released Prior, a predictive intelligence tool that lets users ask questions about future events—from sports and financial markets to personal choices—and receive a forecast report. The platform gathers context through follow-up questions, scans current web information, and reviews a user's past predictions before generating a calibrated probability, weighted scenarios, key drivers, and suggested actions. Pricing ranges from a free weekly prediction to tiered subscriptions up to $499 monthly for unlimited forecasts.
A new project called cpak introduces an OCI-compliant application package format aimed at Linux desktops, servers and devices. It packages software with a legible manifest and traceable origin, supports Dockerfile-style builds with layer caching but no container daemon, and lets apps bind directly to host GPU drivers rather than bundling their own.