Composo released DishwasherBench, a browser-based benchmark called Spotless that simulates loading a Bosch SMV4HAX40G dishwasher with rigid-body physics. Both humans and language models (via MCP) can play the game, earning points for items that come out clean after a simulated Eco 50 wash cycle. The current version, 0.1.0, reliably scores whether cups, glasses and pots are placed correctly, but does not yet accurately judge whether plates and cutlery are stacked to wash clean.
Channel TrashBench tested alternate component layouts in a dual-chamber PC case using an Asus ROG Strix RTX 3080, moving the GPU via PCIe riser cables to various positions while keeping case fans fixed. Placing the card directly against the side-intake fans produced the biggest gains: GPU core temperatures fell 16.7°C, hotspot dropped 19.3°C, VRAM cooled 14°C, and motherboard VRMs dropped about 8°C, with only a 1.1°C rise in CPU temperature.
Meta has launched an AI agent called Muse, designed to assist users but requiring them to share extensive personal information to function effectively. Coverage describes Muse's appearance as cartoonish and unusual, likened to a children's character crossed with a microbe.
NTDEV's open-source Tiny11 Builder now includes a GUI, simplifying the process of creating slimmed-down Windows 11 installation images from official Microsoft ISOs. The tool uses PowerShell scripts and DISM to strip preinstalled apps, services, and components, offering both a standard Tiny11 build that retains Windows Update and Defender, and a more extreme Tiny11 Core variant that removes them entirely.
Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro line will both use the new A20 Pro chip, built with an 'M-class-inspired' packaging design borrowed from Mac processors. To manage heat in the foldable's tight, hinge-divided chassis, Apple engineered a graphite thermal pathway that runs through the hinge itself to spread heat away from the chip. Apple silicon engineering VP Dan Murray and thermal design manager Banafsheh Barabadi described the design choices to accommodate one chip across two very different phone shapes.
Character.ai announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to pursue a court-supervised sale of its assets. The company says its platform remains operational during the process, which it expects to conclude by late November or early December 2026. If no viable buyer emerges, Character.ai says the platform will be wound down.
Researchers at the University of Oxford used a quantum system combining qubits with quantum oscillators to recreate the Aharonov-Bohm effect, in which a charged particle's quantum phase shifts due to magnetic flux it never physically passes through. In their simulation, this invisible influence caused a modeled particle's motion to halt entirely. The results were published in Nature Physics.
Researchers from the University of East Anglia, working with collaborators in South Africa, showed that specially prepared light beams can spontaneously acquire spinning, chiral patterns as they travel through empty space. This effect normally requires lenses, mirrors or engineered materials, but the team produced it using only the light's own internal geometric structure.
Researchers created a reinforced ice material called BioPykrete by combining ice with cellulose nanocrystals and a custom-designed protein, CBM3a-AFPIII, that bonds the two together. In small-scale laboratory tests, the composite proved roughly 10 times stronger than ordinary ice and absorbed 70 times more energy before fracturing. The study was published in the journal Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces.
A cyberattack hit refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets including Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarché and Coopérative U, causing fridges and freezers to heat to as high as 50°C (122°F) overnight, spoiling food and starting fires. Coopérative U CEO Dominique Schelcher confirmed hackers had struck refrigeration production facilities at several stores, and analysts say the attack also hit retailers in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium.
Character.AI has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, listing estimated liabilities between $50 million and $100 million, and is proceeding with a sale of its assets. Disney will act as lead bidder, paying $20 million for unspecified assets, gaining a nonexclusive IP license, and receiving transition support from former Character.AI staff it has already hired, including ex-CEO Karandeep Anand.
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar claimed on CBS's Face the Nation that some AI researchers have taken up smoking to signal their belief that AI will eventually cure cancer. He described this as a kind of 'mass psychosis' or social delusion within Silicon Valley's AI community, comparing faith in AGI to a substitute for religious belief.
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