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Ecosia has offered to take ‘stewardship’ of Chrome. And it’s not a bad idea.

“It’s not absurd, right?” Christian Kroll, CEO of Berlin-based nonprofit search engine Ecosia, says of his company’s unsolicited request to be granted a 10-year “stewardship” of Google’s Chrome browser, instead of forcing Google to sell it to a competitor. His idea is most definitely absurd, but also clever. On Thursday, Ecosia announced it had sent a proposal regarding Chrome to Google and to U.S. Judge Amit Mehta. The judge is expected to rule this month on remedies to his 2024 landmark deci

Forget GPT-5: OpenAI's GPT-6 might launch sooner than you think

Tharon Green/ZDNET/Open AI/Getty Images ZDNET's key takeaways As the paint on GPT-5 dries, OpenAI is already working on GPT-6. The model's biggest differentiator seems to be deeper personalization. OpenAI is keeping an increasingly brisk pace on the path toward AGI. Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. At the beginning of August, OpenAI launched its much-anticipated GPT-5 family of models. While the launch was somewhat

How Much Energy Do Your AI Prompts Consume? Google Just Shared Its Gemini Numbers

The explosion of AI tools worldwide is increasing exponentially, but the companies that make these tools often don't express their environmental impact in detail. Google has just released a technical paper detailing measurements for energy, emissions and water use of its Gemini AI prompts. The impact of a single prompt is, it says, minuscule. According to its methodology for measuring AI's impact, a single prompt's energy consumption is about the equivalent of watching TV for less than 9 second

I Gave GPT-5 Some Work Tasks in Copilot. Here's What's New

OpenAI's latest GPT-5 model promises to be the most advanced AI assistant yet, but for the millions of workers using Microsoft Copilot for their daily routines, the reality is a bit more nuanced. Microsoft announced last week that GPT-5, OpenAI's latest ChatGPT AI model, is now integrated across its Copilot services, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, GitHub Copilot and the standalone Copilot app. While GPT-5 does deliver some noticeable improvements in polish, detail and helpfuln

I tested HP's first-gen EliteBook X, and it's a powerhouse at the office (and $500 off)

ZDNET's key takeaways HP's 14-inch EliteBook X G1a features AMD's latest Ryzen AI Pro chip, starting at $2,099. It's a powerful enterprise laptop with lots of I/O, a sleek form factor, and comfortable keyboard. It's expensive, and can run warm under a heavy workload. View now at B&H Photo Video View now at HP more buying choices Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. HP rebranded its laptop lineup last year, renaming its hi

Adding my home electricity uptime to status.href.cat

status.href.cat now reports and notifies me if my home power/internet goes down! The other day, PG&E and my landlord emailed me about a power outage. The elevator system needed a technician to reset it. All the e-key readers in the lobby no longer work. This got me wondering, how long was the power out for? With this, I decided to add uptime stats for my home electricity. PG&E emailed about the power outage. 10 minutes later, my power was restored. My landlord emailed, reporting all the things

ChatGPT-5 Lets You Choose Your AI Model. These Are Your Options

The biggest pushback after OpenAI announced its new GPT-5 model for ChatGPT came from devotees of older models who felt the new generative AI chatbot lacked the panache of its predecessors. Now you have more choices of pre-GPT-5 models (although you'll have to hunt for some of them) and better control over which components of GPT-5 handle your questions. OpenAI is still sorting through a somewhat rocky launch of GPT-5, led by complaints about the lack of model choices. The model has been antic

StrictlyVC at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Inside the LP Track

StrictlyVC is back at TechCrunch Disrupt in October, bringing together the insiders who shape the venture capital landscape, this time with a sharper focus on the market’s biggest challenge: liquidity. In an era of extended exit timelines, slowed distributions, and increasingly selective LPs, the conversations behind closed doors matter more than ever. Working with Cendana Capital, which has backed 80+ funds in its 15-year history, we are launching a new off-the-record LP Track that offers an un

Show HN: Using Common Lisp from Inside the Browser

Using Common Lisp from inside the Browser Tagged as lisp, webassembly Table of Contents Web Embeddable Common Lisp is a project that brings Common Lisp and the Web Browser environments together. In this post I'll outline the current progress of the project and provide some technical details, including current caveats and future plans. It is important to note that this is not a release and none of the described APIs and functionalities is considered to be stable. Things are still changing and

Weaponizing image scaling against production AI systems

Picture this: you send a seemingly harmless image to an LLM and suddenly it exfiltrates all of your user data. By delivering a multi-modal prompt injection not visible to the user, we achieved data exfiltration on systems including the Google Gemini CLI. This attack works because AI systems often scale down large images before sending them to the model: when scaled, these images can reveal prompt injections that are not visible at full resolution. In this blog post, we’ll detail how attackers c

MasterClass subscriptions are 50 percent off in this Labor Day sale

MasterClass promises online learning with instructors who are the very best in their fields, and an annual subscription is currently 50 percent off across all tiers. Subscribers to MasterClass will have access to over 200 classes taught by iconic authors, chefs, athletes and leaders representing a diverse collection of skill sets and backgrounds. With a subscription, you could watch a class on writing taught by James Patterson, or learn cooking techniques from Thomas Keller. If you're trying to

Sütterlin

Historical form of German handwriting, used 1915–1970s Sütterlinschrift (German pronunciation: [ˈzʏtɐliːnˌʃʁɪft], "Sütterlin script") is the last widely used form of Kurrent, the historical form of German handwriting script that evolved alongside German blackletter (most notably Fraktur) typefaces. Graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin was commissioned by the Prussian Ministry of Science, Art and Culture (Preußisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Volksbildung) to create a modern handwriting

Nvidia is latest investor to back AV startup Nuro in $203M funding round

Nvidia is among a group of new investors to back Nuro — which develops self-driving software for delivery and ride-hailing services — in a funding round that has reached $203 million. The Silicon Valley startup announced Thursday that several investors, including existing backer Baillie Gifford, added another $97 million to its Series E round. New investors include Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Nvidia, and Pledge Ventures. Uber, which last month said it would make a “multi-hundred-millio

9 Best Back-to-School Laptop Deals for 2025

The laptop you bring to college is important. Not only is it the device you'll be using through some of the most formative years of your life, but it's also often the one that you'll take to your first job, too. The problem is that the internet is full of laptops that aren't worth the money, especially if you're scrolling through lists of laptops on Amazon or Best Buy. Good news! I've tested each of the following laptops and can wholeheartedly recommend them. More than that, I've been digging t

A Brompton Reborn: How to Future-Proof a Decades-Old Foldable Bike

Good design involves technical ability, industrial know-how, creativity, innovation, adaptability, and a generous helping of luck to pull the strands together. Getting it right the first time almost never happens. Converse came close with the Chuck Taylor All-Star, of course, first launched in 1922 and barely altered since. Then there’s the Sharpie marker pen, which hasn’t changed since 1964. In London, in 1975, a Cambridge engineering graduate, Andrew Ritchie, came up with a ludicrous concept

Universal Tool Calling Protocol (UTCP)

Universal Tool Calling Protocol (UTCP) 1.0.1 Introduction The Universal Tool Calling Protocol (UTCP) is a modern, flexible, and scalable standard for defining and interacting with tools across a wide variety of communication protocols. UTCP 1.0.0 introduces a modular core with a plugin-based architecture, making it more extensible, testable, and easier to package. In contrast to other protocols, UTCP places a strong emphasis on: Scalability : UTCP is designed to handle a large number of tool

OpenAI says GPT-6 is coming and it'll be better than GPT-5 (obviously)

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman told reporters that GPT-6 is already in the works, and it’ll not take as long as GPT-5. The GPT-6 announcement doesn't surprise me because OpenAI is slowly becoming a product-first company rather than research-focused. There's no denying that OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman overhyped GPT-5 and underdelivered. While GPT-5 isn't exactly bad and actually offers significant improvements over GPT-4 or o3 for coding, the rollout wasn't smooth and some people were expecting more than

Google finally lets you customize icon shapes on your Pixel’s home screen

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR You can now customize icon shapes on your Pixel Launcher’s home screen. Android will give you five options. Including the default circle, there’s square, four-sided cookie, seven-sided cookie, and arch. These options are currently only available in the August 2025 Android Canary release, but we expect it won’t be long before they make their way into the QPR2 track. Hot off the heels of the Pixel 10 launch, Google unveiled a new Android Canary release.

Framework is teasing a ‘big’ update for August 26th — could it be Framework 16?

is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Framework, the modular computer company, just released its first delightful tiny desktop PC, on top of its smallest laptop yet. But it’s already teasing its next big live announcement on YouTube for August 26th at 8am PT / 11am ET, saying it’ll reveal h

Say farewell to the AI bubble, and get ready for the crash

Most people not deeply involved in the artificial intelligence frenzy may not have noticed, but perceptions of AI’s relentless march toward becoming more intelligent than humans, even becoming a threat to humanity, came to a screeching halt Aug. 7. That was the day when the most widely followed AI company, OpenAI, released GPT-5, an advanced product that the firm had long promised would put competitors to shame and launch a new revolution in this purportedly revolutionary technology. As it hap

Google launches its own ‘MagSafe’ with PixelSnap

Google announced its own version of “MagSafe” called PixelSnap, which allows magnetic accessories to work with the newly launched Pixel 10 series of devices. The company’s announcement comes nearly five years after Apple announced its own slew of magnetic accessories with the iPhone 12 in 2020. The company said that through PixelSnap, you can attach wireless chargers, stands, grips, and much more to the Pixel 10. It is also releasing its own PixelSnap cases and compatible accessories. Image C

Microsoft boss troubled by rise in reports of 'AI psychosis'

Microsoft boss troubled by rise in reports of 'AI psychosis' 27 minutes ago Share Save Zoe Kleinman • @zsk Technology editor Share Save Getty Images There are increasing reports of people suffering "AI psychosis", Microsoft's head of artificial intelligence (AI), Mustafa Suleyman, has warned. In a series of posts on X, he wrote that "seemingly conscious AI" – AI tools which give the appearance of being sentient – are keeping him "awake at night" and said they have societal impact even though

Crypto firms urge UK to form national stablecoin strategy to avoid falling behind U.S.

The U.K. should establish a national stablecoin strategy to enable adoption of the tokens and avoid falling behind the U.S. on the disruptive new technology, several major crypto firms said Wednesday. In an open letter addressed to Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, 30 crypto industry figures said that the U.K. "must act now to avoid being a rule-taker rather than a rule-maker in the digital asset era." "To ensure the UK is at the forefront, we believe a proactive, coordinated national strategy i

Google announces new AI-powered personal health and fitness coach for Fitbit

At its Made by Google event on Wednesday, the company announced a new AI-powered personal health coach built with Gemini that’s coming to Fitbit. The tech giant says the new personal health coach is a fitness trainer, sleep coach, and wellness advisor all in one. Google plans to roll out a preview of the personal health coach as part of Fitbit Premium in October in the redesigned app available with the latest Fitbit trackers, Fitbit smart watches, and Pixel Watches. The personal health coach l

Show HN: Typed-arrow – compile‑time Arrow schemas for Rust

typed-arrow provides a strongly typed, fully compile-time way to declare Arrow schemas in Rust. It maps Rust types directly to arrow-rs typed builders/arrays and arrow_schema::DataType — without any runtime DataType switching — enabling zero runtime cost, monomorphized column construction and ergonomic ORM-like APIs. Why compile-time Arrow? Performance: monomorphized builders/arrays with zero dynamic dispatch; avoids runtime DataType matching. matching. Safety: column types, names, and nullab

FieldAI raises $405M to build universal robot brains

FieldAI, an Irvine, California-based, has raised $405 million across multiple previously undisclosed rounds to develop what it calls “foundational embodied AI models” — essentially robot brains designed to help everything from humanoids to quadrupeds to self-driving cars adapt to new environments. The company announced the funding Wednesday; the most recent round raised $314 million in August and was co-led by Bezos Expedition, Prysm and Temasek. FieldAI’s other backers include Khosla Ventures,

Thousands of Grok chats are now searchable on Google

Hundreds of thousands of conversations that users had with Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot Grok are easily accessible through Google Search, reports Forbes. Whenever a Grok user clicks the “share” button on a conversation with the chatbot, it creates a unique URL that the user can use to share the conversation via email, text or on social media. According to Forbes, those URLs are being indexed by search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, which in turn lets anyone look up those conversations on

YC-backed Garage raises $13.5M to help firefighters buy equipment

A firefighter since age 15, Martin Hunt, now 26, knew firsthand the pain of small communities with tight budgets buying fire equipment. One day in 2023, he found himself chatting with one of his firefighter friends who’d asked if Hunt knew of a better way. “When I couldn’t find anything, it became clear that there was a need for a streamlined, nationwide marketplace for expensive, hard-to-move equipment like firetrucks,” Hunt told TechCrunch. “A few months later, I left my job with no product