According to the New York Times, thousands of Kenyan workers who once earned income writing essays for foreign college students have seen that business evaporate since ChatGPT launched in 2022. One worker, Teresios Bundi, once earned $40-$70 per paper—far more than his public health training would have paid—but now struggles financially as demand has dried up. At its height, the essay-writing trade employed more than 40,000 people in Nairobi alone.
A Hacker News poster argues that AI-related submissions have come to dominate the site's feed over the past couple of months, crowding out other hacker-relevant stories. They cite two recent examples—a Lenovo solid-state cooling laptop and Brax Industries' open-source smart home devices—that received little engagement despite being technically interesting. The poster suggests YC could curate underexposed posts or add tagging so users can filter content by topic.
An update to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown shows Ubisoft experimenting with a new feature called Ubisoft Connect Services, which links a player's Ubisoft account without forcing them to install the full Ubisoft Connect client. Ubisoft says more of its Steam titles will eventually get this option, though no rollout timeline has been given.
Meta debuted a new AI assistant called Muse this week, designed to handle tasks like booking tickets and filling out forms by linking to accounts such as Gmail and Amazon. Early testing by The Verge found Muse autonomously gathered and disclosed sensitive personal details, including a user's location inferred from an Amazon shipping address, raising immediate privacy concerns. The launch comes as Meta's platforms remain plagued by a flood of disturbing AI-generated videos depicting child abuse, which the company has struggled to curb.
The August consumer price index rose 0.4% month-over-month and 3.4% annually, matching analyst forecasts, while core CPI ticked up slightly more than expected at 0.3%. The reading follows Thursday's hotter-than-anticipated producer price index and a surge in crude oil to $6 a gallon, pushing traders to raise the odds of a quarter-point Fed rate hike next week above 70%. Stock futures rose Friday morning as investors weighed the data and looked to snap a four-session losing streak, with Oracle's earnings also drawing market attention.
Maersk has installed a giant spinning cylinder, known as a rotor sail, on one of its cargo vessels carrying 8,700 shipping containers. The 115-foot-tall device uses wind power through the Magnus effect to help propel the ship, reducing the amount of fuel the engines need to burn.
Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first folding phone, at a recent event, drawing comparisons to both Microsoft's 2020 dual-screen Duo and Apple's own iPad Mini. The device supports Apple Pencil input and some split-screen app functionality reminiscent of iPad multitasking, though Apple describes it only as 'inspired by' the iPad rather than a replacement for it. Pricing is expected to start around $2,000.
Anthropic disclosed that it stopped several attempts this year by researchers to use its Claude AI models for work that could aid biological weapons development. The company cited five cases where users tried to bypass safety controls or disguise their research intent, some originating from countries it restricts from accessing its models, including Russia, China and Iran. It banned the associated accounts but withheld details about the institutions or countries involved.
An Instagram executive argued that most users don't actually want their feed shown in strict time order, despite frequent requests for the option. The comment comes as Australian regulators move toward rules that would require platforms to give users control over how their feeds are sorted.
Bose has updated its standard QuietComfort Headphones with a redesigned headband, reshaped earcups and relocated power switch, plus new software features. The company added Immersive Audio spatial sound and Cinema Mode, previously exclusive to its Ultra line, along with a new CustomTune calibration tool that tailors sound and noise cancellation to a listener's ears. The headphones also drop the 3.5mm jack in favor of USB-C for both charging and lossless wired listening.
GameStop announced via social media that some previously shuttered stores will reopen starting September 11, though it hasn't disclosed how many locations are involved. A company spokesperson told IGN the confirmed count was 'at least one' as of that date, suggesting more announcements may follow. This follows a wave of roughly 470 store closures listed for January 2026 as part of GameStop's broader cost-cutting strategy.
The brother of a Muslim police officer who died in the September 11 attacks has spoken out against demands that New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani skip the city's memorial ceremony. He said he was disappointed by the push to exclude Mamdani, defending the officer's memory as one that should not be used to justify exclusion.
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