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Google adds AI-generated summaries to Discover

Google is bringing AI‑generated summaries to Discover, the personalized stream of articles and videos found in the Google app curated based on a user's interests. The search giant remains undeterred by the imperfect nature of AI Overviews, or what it might mean for publishers whose content largely makes up Google's search results. TechCrunch has reported that some Android and iOS users in the US are seeing cards containing AI‑generated summaries on their Discover page. These cards appear with n

The best free VPNs of 2025: Secure, safe, and fast VPNs

My top pick for free VPNs available in 2025 is Proton VPN, which, despite its limits, will suit many users who do not want to subscribe. Why we like it: The free version of Proton VPN offers many useful features that are paid for through other services and VPN subscribers. This is important when it comes to free VPN services, as it provides a measure of security and data protection that some shady services do not. After all, if your information is being sold in return for a VPN connection, this

China’s Wild World of AR Glasses Has Me Convinced Meta Is Cooked

I know I’ve said it 1,000 times, but AR glasses are hot right now, and arguably no one is more on fire than China. While the U.S. is patiently waiting for Meta to release anything even resembling its prototype AR glasses, Orion, China seems to be making strides day by day. The latest example? These glasses with full-color optical waveguide lenses and 900 nits of brightness from a Chinese company called Wigain. In plain speak, they’re full-color AR glasses with enough brightness to actually use o

Former Top Google Researchers Have Made a New Kind of AI Agent

A new kind of artificial intelligence agent, trained to understand how software is built by gorging on a company’s data and learning how this leads to an end product, could be both a more capable software assistant and a small step toward much smarter AI. The new agent, called Asimov, was developed by Reflection, a small but ambitious startup cofounded by top AI researchers from Google. Asimov reads code as well as emails, Slack messages, project updates, and other documentation with the goal o

Former Top Google Researchers Have Made A New Kind of AI Agent

A new kind of artificial intelligence agent, trained to understand how software is built by gorging on a company’s data and learning how this leads to an end product, could be both a more capable software assistant and a small step towards much smarter AI. The new agent, called Asimov, was developed by Reflection, a small but ambitious startup confounded by top AI researchers from Google. Asimov reads code as well as emails, Slack messages, project updates and other documentation with the goal

UK retail giant Co-op confirms hackers stole all 6.5 million customer records

The chief executive of U.K. retail conglomerate the Co-op on Wednesday said that hackers had stolen the personal data of all of the company’s customers during an April cyberattack. Co-op Group CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq told BBC News that the hackers copied the company’s member list of 6.5 million members, but that the Co-op shut down its network before the hackers could lock up its systems with ransomware. The members’ data includes names, addresses, and contact information. The retailer’s netwo

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wants to sell more advanced chips to China after H20 ban is lifted

Nvidia is looking to ship more advanced chips to China than its current generation, CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, as he looks to revitalize sales in the world's second-largest economy. The comments come after Nvidia said on Monday that it will resume sales of its H20 artificial intelligence chip to China, reversing a previous ban. The H20 is a less-advanced semiconductor designed for AI workloads that comply with U.S. export restrictions to China. "I hope to get more advanced chips into

The live-action Legend of Zelda movie has cast its princess and hero

Benjamin Evan Ainsworth must be really good at saying 'hup' over and over. Nintendo has revealed the two lead actors for its live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. Bo Bragason is playing the title character, Princess Zelda, while Benjamin Evan Ainsworth is taking on the role of Link, series creator Shigeru Miyamoto announced on X. The performers are around the right ages for their parts — Bragason was born in 2004 while Ainsworth is 16. These are by far the biggest roles to date for both actor

Today's AI Appreciation Day Feels Weird. Celebrate These Other Made-Up Holidays Instead

July 16 is AI Appreciation Day. So break out the champagne for ChatGPT! Bring gifts of Nvidia chips and cake for Gemini and flowers and training data for Claude. Meta AI has had a particularly rough year, so when you're forced to use it on Instagram, make sure it feels your love. Think that sounds ridiculous? Same. But like most things when it comes to AI, today's Appreciation Day is unbelievably stupid, in a way that's totally on brand. If you've never heard of AI Appreciation Day, don't feel

Best Camping Chairs (2025): Snow Peak, Kelty, Helinox, and More

Picking the right camping chair will enhance your time in the outdoors, whether you're thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail or pitching up at a boutique campground. Here's what to consider to find the ideal seat for your adventures. Portability: For backpacking beyond the campground carpark, weight and packed size are crucial. Ultralight chairs like those from Helinox and Nemo are designed to be easy to carry. Many hardcore hikers are happy to sit on the ground or take a simple foam sit mat like

AV startup Pronto acquires off-road autonomous vehicle rival SafeAI

The Venn diagram of engineers who know a little bit about AI, self-driving, and mining has a small intersection. Pronto CEO Anthony Levandowski wants as many of those people as possible. And an acquisition is helping him achieve that goal. The San Francisco-based startup, which has developed a self-driving system designed for haulage trucks and other off-road vehicles used at construction and mining sites, has acquired competitor SafeAI, TechCrunch has learned. Terms of the deal have not been

A Staggering Proportion of Teens Say Talking to AI Is Better Than Real-Life Friends

A new survey found that over half of American teens are regular users of anthropomorphic AI companions like Character.AI and Replika. That's striking on its own, as an illustration of how embedded AI companions have become in mainstream teenage life. But even more startling were the 31 percent of surveyed teens who said their interactions with AI companions were either as satisfying or more satisfying than conversations with real-life friends — a finding that shows how profoundly AI is already

Nintendo Has Found Its Live-Action Link and Zelda

In a surprise announcement this morning, Nintendo has confirmed the stars of its live-action Legend of Zelda movie. In a statement first revealed through its Nintendo Today app (which previously gave us the film’s original release date), the publisher confirmed that relative newcomers Bo Bragason and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will play Princess Zelda and Link, respectively. This is Miyamoto. I am pleased to announce that for the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, Zelda will be played by Bo

Don't Make the Job Hunt Harder. 9 Strategies to Stay Sane and Get Hired

From ghosting to burnout, experts share how you can land a job in a brutal market. Jeffrey Hazelwood/CNET Stephanie Wandell applied to hundreds of jobs since getting laid off from a tech marketing role last November. When I spoke to her this summer, she'd been ghosted by recruiters and hadn't received any offers. "I was a little bit naive going into it, thinking I could do what I always do and depend on applying to as many places as I can," said Wandell. "It became pretty clear that this time

Looking Down at Your Phone is Distressing Your Neck. Here's How to Correct Tech Neck

Do you have a job that requires lots of time at a desk, staring at a screen or looking down at a phone? If so, you could be straining more than your eyes. It can also lead to a modern problem called "tech neck." This phenomenon results from maintaining an unnatural position while looking down at a screen, and it affects everyone, from kids who play tablet games to adults who work at a desk all day. A study from 2024 found that neck pain has drastically increased among individuals who live a sede

Can AI Be Your Therapist? 3 Things That Worry Professionals and 3 Tips for Staying Safe

Amid the many AI chatbots and avatars at your disposal these days, you'll find all kinds of characters to talk to: fortune tellers, style advisers, even your favorite fictional characters. But you'll also likely find characters purporting to be therapists, psychologists or just bots willing to listen to your woes. There's no shortage of generative AI bots claiming to help with your mental health, but go that route at your own risk. Large language models trained on a wide range of data can be un

Ziploc, Rubbermaid Sued Over Microplastics: Should You Ditch Plastic Containers?

When you buy plastic food containers, you tend to look for whether they're microwave and freezer-safe. The maker of Rubbermaid, Newell Brands, is now facing a class action lawsuit for claiming that its plastic-based containers are "microwave safe" and "freezer-safe." According to the complaint, these products can release microplastics into food even when used as per the instructions, despite the products' marketing claiming otherwise. Ziploc is also facing a similar class action lawsuit. Ziploc

Google’s Discover page now summarizes news with AI

Google is rolling out AI-generated summaries directly within Discover, its personalized news feed nestled within the Google Search app. TechCrunch reports that some users in the US are seeing Discover cards on iOS and Android that provide the new summaries in place of a headline and logo from a single publisher, similar to how AI Overviews appear at the top of results in Search. It acts to further obscure news sources at a time when search traffic to publishers is disappearing. The AI summaries

Nintendo’s Zelda movie has found its princess and hero of time

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. Though Nintendo’s live-action Legend of Zelda movie won’t be out until May 7th, 2027, we finally know who is going to be playing the titular princess and her faithful knight. This morning via its news app, Nintendo announced that Bo Bragason (Renegade Nell, The Radleys) and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (The Haunting of Bly Manor, Pinocchi

Gmail now makes setting up an appointment much easier for everyone

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google now lets all users share a Google Calendar appointment booking page in Gmail. This allows you to easily propose appointment slots with others via email. This general release comes after Google announced the feature back in May. Setting up appointments via email can be a little tedious, as you have to go back and forth with people and wait for their response. However, Google has now brought a handy feature to all Gmail users. Google announced

5 reasons why I still prefer Perplexity over every other AI chatbot

Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images I've been working with artificial intelligence (AI) since the 1970s, when Lisp was state-of-the-art. Lately, like everyone else, I've been looking at AI a lot more closely. While it's nifty and getting genuinely useful, it can still blunder, like the time Google's AI Overviews recommended users to eat "at least one small rock per day." AI can also lose its mind, such as when Grok went totally MechnaHitler. Even when I tell J. Random Chatbot to summari

I couldn't tell these glasses had built-in hearing aids - and you likely couldn't either

ZDNET's key takeaways The Nuance Audio hearing glasses are available in two styles and colors for $1,200 at participating retailers. They provide a stylish and discreet way to aid mild to moderate hearing loss. However, they provide six to eight hours of battery life and a three-hour charging period, which might frustrate power users. View now at Nuance Audio Since the US Food and Drug Administration approved a category of hearing aids that can be sold to consumers without a doctor's prescrip

High-resolution imaging method details nerves across a mouse’s body

The cranial nerves (blue) and blood vessels (red) in the head of a mouse are revealed by a high-resolution imaging technique. Credit: M.-Y. Shi et al./Cell (CC-BY-4.0) A speedy imaging method can map the nerves running from a mouse’s brain and spinal cord to the rest of its body at micrometre-scale resolution, revealing details such as individual fibres travelling from a key nerve to distant organs1. Previous efforts have mapped the network of connections between nerve cells, known as the conn

Algorithms for making interesting organic simulations

Algorithms for making interesting organic simulations The purpose of this article is to explain techiques that enabled me to make simulations like the one below, along with a lot of other organic looking things. We will focus on algorithmic techniques for artistic purpose rather than scientific meaning. 1. Physarum algorithm from Jeff Jones (2010) Jeff Jones presented a simulation algorithm that reproduces the behavior of organisms such as Physarum polycephalum. It is explained in this paper.

Hijacking Trust? Bitvise Under Fire for Controlling Domain of FOSS Project PuTTY

Hijacking Trust? Bitvise Under Fire for Controlling Domain of Open-Source Project PuTTY PupRed bigtech bitvise domainsnatcher putty ssh In the open-source world, trust, transparency, and community stewardship form the foundation of public credibility. But a recent case involving the domain name putty.org calls these values into question. The domain, long associated by users with PuTTY, the widely-used open-source SSH and Telnet client, is not controlled by the PuTTY project itself — but by a

Hot deal: Apple MacBook Air M2 drops to a mere $699!

Oliver Cragg / Android Authority Just when we thought the Apple MacBook Air M2 had exited the market, a new deal shows up offering the popular laptop at an amazingly low price. Originally launched at $999, you can currently get it for just $699. And it’s actually still an amazing laptop! Keep reading to learn more about it. Buy the Apple MacBook Air M2 for just $699 ($300 off) This offer is available from Best Buy. While the discount applies to all color versions, not all are in stock. In my a

Another High-Profile OpenAI Researcher Departs for Meta

OpenAI researcher Jason Wei is joining Meta’s new superintelligence lab, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Wei worked on OpenAI’s o3 and deep research models, according to his personal website. He joined OpenAI in 2023 after a stint at Google, where he worked on chain-of-thought research, which involves training an AI model to process complex queries step-by-step. At OpenAI, Wei became a self-described “diehard” for reinforcement learning, a method of training or refining

Topics: ai chung meta openai wei

Elon Musk Said Grok 4 Was the "Smartest AI in the World," But Its Leaderboard Scores Just Came Out and They Tell a Different Story

Elon Musk has been boasting about what he says are the incredible capabilities of xAI's new Grok 4 AI chatbot. "Grok 4 is smarter than almost all graduate students in all disciplines, simultaneously," Musk bragged, adding that Grok 4 was "the smartest AI in the world." Is it really? Intelligence was a hard thing to measure even before back before AI hit the scene, but certain tests can provide something of a clue. One prominent platform for doing so is the UC Berkeley-developed LMArena leader

Topics: ai arena grok models musk