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Tech News
A massive 12-terabyte leak containing builds of nearly every game uploaded to Steam between 2003 and 2013 has surfaced online. Researchers combing through the trove have already found scrapped assets from the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3, cut Portal 2 material including alternate dialogue and intro sequences, and early builds of titles like Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Mirror's Edge, and Dragon Age: Origins.
The European Commission unveiled a new internal security strategy called ProtectEU, framing rising cybercrime and terrorism threats as justification for developing 'technological solutions' to access encrypted communications. The plan avoids concrete legislative proposals for now, instead calling for a roadmap on lawful law enforcement access to encrypted data.
At an annual robotics showcase in Beijing, humanoid robots competed across events including sprints, standing high jump, kickboxing and dance routines. Several machines reportedly surpassed human world records, including in the 100-meter and 400-meter sprints, while others suffered dramatic falls during the competitions.
The Atlanta Rideshare Drivers Union says Uber and Lyft drivers have seen falling pay and longer waits since Waymo's robotaxis launched in the city last June. The group is asking city and state officials to impose a $0.50-$1.00 per-ride fee on robotaxi trips to fund driver retraining, and to bar Waymo vehicles from picking up passengers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Organizer Liza Ramsey admits there's no formal data yet, relying instead on driver-shared earnings screenshots as evidence.
Google announced new Play Store requirements that will force Android app developers to operate within strict memory thresholds beginning in 2027, aiming to stop individual apps from hogging RAM and slowing down entire devices. Apps that fail to comply risk being throttled or removed from the store, and Google explicitly linked the policy to the ongoing memory supply shortage driven by AI demand.
Caterpillar is extending the autonomous systems expertise it built in mining—covering haul trucks, drilling and remote operations—into construction sites, quarries and internal tools. CTO Jaime Mineart said the company's Cat AI Assistant now lets field technicians use voice commands to retrieve repair procedures and identify parts, drawing on data from roughly 1.6 million connected machines and over 16 petabytes of structured data.
A roundup covers Meta's reckoning moment alongside separate stories: the real-world impact of school phone bans, the rise and fall of a self-styled 'Nostradamus of AI' figure, and Nvidia's push to power robotics infrastructure globally.
Elon Musk announced on X that SpaceX will begin manufacturing turbine blades and vanes internally to increase production of natural gas turbine generators used to power AI data centers. The move addresses a supply bottleneck as data center operators increasingly rely on portable gas turbines to bypass slow grid connections, with blade casting alone typically taking 60 to 90 weeks per batch. Musk said SpaceX and Tesla are also each targeting 100GW/year of solar capacity, but gas turbines remain necessary to bridge power needs in the near term.
Zig's main branch now supports pointer stability locks for std.ArrayList, a memory-safety mechanism previously introduced for Hash Map containers in 2024. Developers can call lockPointers() when holding pointers or slices into an ArrayList, then unlockPointers() once those references are no longer needed, preventing use-after-free bugs caused by reallocation. The feature originated from a pull request opened by contributor Leo Emar-Kar in 2025 and was documented by Robbie Lyman.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple internally explored a shorter, stubbier Apple Pencil variant designed to magnetically attach to the side of its upcoming foldable iPhone Ultra. The accessory reportedly ran into design problems, including awkward handling and the risk of scratching the phone's delicate inner foldable display. Gurman says the concept is unlikely to be unveiled at Apple's event next month.
A Washington Post review found that transcripts of conversations with ChatGPT and similar chatbots have been used as evidence in a dozen public court cases over the past two years, obtained through phone searches, subpoenas or discovery. In one lawsuit against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube over alleged social media addiction, defense lawyers accessed the teenage plaintiff's ChatGPT history, including messages about a proposed settlement; the case was later settled or dropped without the transcripts affecting the outcome.
Scientists at Southern Illinois University Carbondale used CRISPR-edited yeast strains to break down PET plastic and plant waste into edible proteins, fats, and flavor compounds, which were then 3D printed into small cookie-shaped snacks called 'ÂBites.' The plastic is first broken down using heat, water, and oxygen before the yeast converts it into a food-like slurry, though the team has not yet tasted the cookies pending university approval.