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All AI Models Might be The Same

Project CETI is a large-scale effort to decode whale speech. If AI models do learn a universal language, we might be able to use it to talk to whales. Growing up, I sometimes played a game with my friends called “Mussolini or Bread.” It’s a guessing game, kind of like Twenty Questions. The funny name comes from the idea that, in the space of everything, ‘Mussolini’ and ‘bread’ are about as far away from each other as you can get. One round might go like this: Is it closer to Mussolini or bre

How to run an LLM on your laptop

For Pistilli, opting for local models as opposed to online chatbots has implications beyond privacy. “Technology means power,” she says. “And so who[ever] owns the technology also owns the power.” States, organizations, and even individuals might be motivated to disrupt the concentration of AI power in the hands of just a few companies by running their own local models. Breaking away from the big AI companies also means having more control over your LLM experience. Online LLMs are constantly sh

Google hides secret message in name list of 3,295 AI researchers

How many Google AI researchers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A recent research paper detailing the technical core behind Google's Gemini AI assistant may suggest an answer, listing an eye-popping 3,295 authors. It's a number that recently caught the attention of machine learning researcher David Ha (known as "hardmaru" online), who revealed on X that the first 43 names also contain a hidden message. "There’s a secret code if you observe the authors’ first initials in the order of author

Mistral Releases Deep Research, Voice, Projects in Le Chat

AI assistants are at their best when they let you go deeper in your thinking, keep your conversation flowing, and maintain contextual continuity. Today, we’re making Le Chat even more capable, more intuitive — and more fun — with a collection of powerful new features to help you research more thoroughly, express yourself more naturally, and keep your interactions — text, voice, and images — organized in context. What’s new in Le Chat. Deep Research mode: Lightning fast, structured research rep

Researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google issue joint AI safety warning - here's why

Andriy Onufriyenko / Getty Images Over the last year, chain of thought (CoT) -- an AI model's ability to articulate its approach to a query in natural language -- has become an impressive development in generative AI, especially in agentic systems. Now, several researchers agree it may also be critical to AI safety efforts. On Tuesday, researchers from competing companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google DeepMind, as well as institutions like the Center for AI Safety, Apollo Resea

Got ChatGPT Plus? You can record and summarize meetings on a Mac now - here's how

Lance Whitney / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Looking for an automated way to record, analyze, and summarize meetings and other conversations? You can now do that with any paid ChatGPT subscription, as long as you use a Mac. Also: Is ChatGPT Plus really worth $20 when the free version offers so many premium features? On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that its new Record mode is now accessible to ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The recording capability, which kicked off in June, was initially restricted

Adobe Firefly can now generate sound effects from your audio cues

Since rolling out the redesign of its Firefly app in April, Adobe has been releasing major updates for the generative AI hub at a near monthly clip. Today, the company is introducing a handful of new features to assist those who use Firefly's video capabilities. To start, Adobe is making it easier to add sound effects to AI-generated clips. Right now, the majority of video models create footage without any accompanying audio. Adobe is addressing this with a nifty little feature that allows user

Here’s your first look at Google Translate’s Conversation mode redesign (APK teardown)

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR Google is set to revamp the Google Translate app’s Conversation mode, featuring Gemini-based branding and smarter AI integration. Updates include clearer speaker identification, quick language-switch chips, inline translations, and visual tweaks across automatic and manual modes. Some settings, like toggling manual modes, are now hidden, reducing immediate accessibility. Google has been working on significant UI updates to the Translate app to better

Economists made a model of the U.S. economy. Our debt crashed the model

People have been worrying about U.S. debt basically ever since there even was a U.S. “The accumulation of debts is a most fearful evil,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1787. At the time, U.S. debt was around $40 million. Today, it’s closer to $40 trillion. At the same time, the U.S. economy is bigger and more powerful than Jefferson could have ever imagined, and things are looking pretty good: unemployment is near record lows, inflation is under control… so what’s the problem? “Part of the problem i

Google Search’s new feature lets AI call businesses for you

TL;DR Google is bringing Gemini 2.5 Pro to AI Mode in Search. Deep Research is also coming to AI Mode. All Search users can now use AI to call businesses without picking up a phone. Following last month’s announcement of Gemini 2.5 Pro going stable, Google’s most intelligent AI model is heading to Search. It also looks like Search is getting a couple of new features to help out with research and obtaining information from businesses. In a blog post, Google revealed that it is rolling out Gem

Topics: ai gemini mode pro search

Google expands AI Mode with extra features for search

Google is continuing to double down on its AI Mode, bringing more features to its dedicated Search chatbot. Today, the company is adding the Gemini 2.5 Pro model and the Deep Search capability to AI Mode. These features will be available to Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers. Although both of these tools can still be accessed through other means, Google's move to incorporate them into the chatbot points to an end goal of AI Mode being the primary form of engagement with the company's

Topics: ai google mode pro search

ChatGPT for Mac rolls out Record Mode for Plus subscribers

Following its June debut for Team, Enterprise, and Edu users, OpenAI is now rolling out Record Mode to ChatGPT Plus subscribers on its macOS app. Here’s how it works and how to use it. In a post on X, the company announced: Plus users, the mic is yours. Record mode is now available to ChatGPT Plus users globally in the macOS desktop app. https://t.co/xmReUOx473 — OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 16, 2025 But what is Record Mode? Record Mode was first unveiled last month during a ChatGPT for business

OpenAI, Google, and Meta Researchers Warn We May Lose the Ability to Track AI Misbehavior

Over 40 scientists from the world’s leading AI institutions, including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and Meta, have come together to call for more research in a particular type of safety monitoring that allows humans to analyze how AI models “think.” The scientists published a research paper on Tuesday that highlighted what is known as chain of thought (CoT) monitoring as a new yet fragile opportunity to boost AI safety. The paper was endorsed by prominent AI figures like OpenAI co-founde

Google rolls out AI-powered business-calling feature, brings Gemini 2.5 Pro to AI Mode

Google is rolling out an agentic AI-powered business-calling feature to all users in the United States, the company announced on Wednesday. The tech giant is also enhancing Google Search’s AI Mode by bringing its Gemini 2.5 Pro model to the search experience and introducing deep research capabilities. The new business-calling feature uses AI to call local businesses on your behalf to collect information about availability and pricing. The idea behind the feature is to help you access informatio

OpenAI and Anthropic researchers decry ‘reckless’ safety culture at Elon Musk’s xAI

AI safety researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other organizations are speaking out publicly against the “reckless” and “completely irresponsible” safety culture at xAI, the billion-dollar AI startup owned by Elon Musk. The criticisms follow weeks of scandals at xAI that have overshadowed the company’s technological advances. Last week, the company’s AI chatbot, Grok, spouted antisemitic comments and repeatedly called itself “MechaHitler.” Shortly after xAI took its chatbot offline to addre

Topics: ai grok models safety xai

Top AI Researchers Concerned They’re Losing the Ability to Understand What They’ve Created

Researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Meta have joined forces to warn about what they're building. In a new position paper, 40 researchers spread across those four companies called for more investigation of AI powered by so-called "chains-of-thought" (CoT), the "thinking out loud" process that advanced "reasoning" models — the current vanguard of consumer-facing AI — use when they're working through a query. As those researchers acknowledge, CoTs add a certain transparency into the inn

Google rolls out AI-powered business calling feature, brings Gemini 2.5 Pro to AI Mode

Google is rolling out an agentic AI-powered business calling feature to all users in the United States, the company announced on Wednesday. The tech giant is also enhancing Google Search’s AI Mode by bringing its Gemini 2.5 Pro model to the search experience and introducing deep research capabilities. The new business calling feature uses AI to call local businesses on your behalf to collect information about availability and pricing. The idea behind the feature is to help you access informatio

Tesla reveals Model 3 Plus and Model YL in China as price war heats up

is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Tesla is continuing to tweak its best-selling EVs in China in the hopes that it can boost its sales amid rising competition from BYD and other domestic manufacturers. Tesla applied for a new sales license with China’s Ministry of Information Technology for a longer range Model 3 Plus sedan. Likewise, it applied for a licen

Topics: china model new tesla yl

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

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

Mira Murati says her startup Thinking Machines will release new product in ‘months’ with ‘significant open source component’

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Mira Murati, founder of AI startup Thinking Machines and former chief technology officer of OpenAI, today announced a new round of $2 billion in venture funding, and stated that her company’s first product will launch in the coming months and will include a “significant open source component…useful for researchers and startups developing cu

OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic sound alarm: ‘We may be losing the ability to understand AI’

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Scientists from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic and Meta have abandoned their fierce corporate rivalry to issue a joint warning about artificial intelligence safety. More than 40 researchers across these competing companies published a research paper today arguing that a brief window to monitor AI reasoning could close forever — and soon

The FIPS 140-3 Go Cryptographic Module

The FIPS 140-3 Go Cryptographic Module Filippo Valsorda (Geomys), Daniel McCarney (Geomys), and Roland Shoemaker (Google) 15 July 2025 FIPS 140 is a standard for cryptography implementations and, although it doesn’t necessarily improve security, FIPS 140 compliance is a requirement in certain regulated environments that are increasingly adopting Go. Until now, FIPS 140 compliance has been a significant source of friction for Go users, requiring unsupported solutions with safety, developer exp

The base model Kindle is the e-reader most people should buy. Here's why

ZDNET's key takeaways Amazon's base model Kindle promises quicker page-turning, a brighter display, and a fun matcha green colorway (alongside the classic black) The e-reader is more reactive and vivid, and reading anything on the lightweight, portable device is convenient. This model has the shortest battery life out of the entire lineup, but it's still six weeks long. $109.99 at Amazon $109.99 at Best Buy more buying choices Unlike an iPad or tablet competitor, a Kindle's sole purpose is to

Hierarchical Modeling (H-Nets)

The best AI architectures in use today treat all inputs equally. They process each input with the same amount of compute, without explicitly grouping related inputs into higher level concepts. While these architectures have achieved impressive results across domains, this lack of hierarchy has some fundamental limitations. Models have difficulty learning from high resolution, raw data, requiring inputs to be pre-processed into meaningful tokens for strong performance. The use of hand-crafted p

Finally, a dev kit for designing on-device, mobile AI apps is here: Liquid AI’s LEAP

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Liquid AI, the startup formed by former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers to develop novel AI model architectures beyond the widely-used “Transformers“, today announced the release of LEAP aka the “Liquid Edge AI Platform,” a cross-platform software development kit (SDK) designed to make it easier for developers to int

Tesla Arrives in India with Ridiculous Prices

In a nation where the average salary is around $4,200 a year, the all-electric carmaker is launching a $70,000 vehicle. The question is why. The wait is over. Tesla has finally launched in India. The all-electric carmaker has officially opened up sales in the world’s third-largest auto market, hoping that a foothold in this fast-growing economy could help counteract the company’s recent global slump. On Tesla’s newly launched India webpage, customers can now place orders. But the offering is

I replaced my Galaxy S25 Plus with the S25 Edge (and Samsung may do the same)

Kerry Wan/ZDNET The Galaxy S25 Edge was my unexpected favorite phone in Samsung's S-series lineup this year. I previously wrote about how it had one major fault, but is the compact phone for content consumption in 2025. It just might not make sense to exist alongside the Plus model with the adoption of silicon-carbon batteries -- and Samsung might agree. Also: Samsung's ultra-thin Galaxy phone is a greatly misunderstood device - and I shamelessly love it According to a new report from The Ele

Tesla Arrives in India With Cars Priced for the 1%

The wait is over. Tesla has finally launched in India. The all-electric carmaker has officially opened up sales in the world’s third-largest auto market, hoping that a foothold in this fast-growing economy could help counteract the company’s recent global slump. On Tesla’s newly launched India webpage, customers can now place orders. But the offering is limited: Tesla is only selling the Model Y SUV, available in two variants—Rear-Wheel Drive with a base price of ₹59,89,000 ($69,647) and Long-

Research leaders urge tech industry to monitor AI’s ‘thoughts’

AI researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, as well as a broad coalition of companies and nonprofit groups, are calling for deeper investigation into techniques for monitoring the so-called thoughts of AI reasoning models in a position paper published Tuesday. A key feature of AI reasoning models, such as OpenAI’s o3 and DeepSeek’s R1, are their chains-of-thought or CoTs — an externalized process in which AI models work through problems, similar to how humans use a scratch pad to wo