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Google’s AI Overviews have 2B monthly users, AI Mode 100M in the US and India

techcrunch.com Sarah Perez 2026-01-05 03:14:50

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared an update on the adoption of consumer-facing AI apps and features, including Google Search’s AI Overviews, Gemini, and AI Mode. On the company’s Q2 2025 call with investors, Pichai shared that AI Overviews — a Google Search feature offering an AI summary of search results available in 200 countries and territories — now has 2 billion monthly users, up from 1.5 billion in May 2025. In addition, Google’s Gemini app has grown to 450 million monthly acti

Topics: ai google million monthly search

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Fusion Startup Says It's Figured Out How to Turn Mercury Into Gold

futurism.com Unknown 2026-01-05 05:21:29

A fusion energy startup claims to have found a way to turn mercury into gold. As the Financial Times reports, San Francisco-based Marathon Fusion says that the same process that could one day represent a limitless source of clean energy could also be used for literal alchemy. As detailed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper, nuclear transmutation — effectively changing an element or isotope into a different one by ripping out protons from its nucleus — could be used to synthesize gold particles.

Topics: energy fusion gold isotope mercury

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You can try Apple Arcade for free thanks to a fun crossover event, but hurry

9to5mac.com Marcus Mendes 2026-01-05 08:50:19

If you’ve never tried Apple Arcade, now’s your chance. Halfbrick Studios is giving away a limited number of 2-month free trials for Apple’s ad-free gaming platform, but spots are limited. Here’s how to claim yours. Bluey meets Fruit Ninja One of the most iconic iOS games of all time, Fruit Ninja, is part of Apple Arcade in an ad-free version called Fruit Ninja Classic+. And right now, there’s a Bluey crossover event running through September 19: “The Bluey takeover brings four fun-filled even

Topics: apple arcade bluey free fruit

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Lightning Kills Way More Trees Than Anyone Thought, New Research Suggests

gizmodo.com Margherita Bassi 2026-01-05 17:45:19

We’ve all seen dramatic footage of lightning striking a mighty tree, its branches going up in flames. But how often does this actually happen? Researchers didn’t know how much lightning impacted forests—until now. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a computer model to provide what they claim to be the first estimate of lightning’s impact on forest ecosystems around the world. According to their study, lightning affects forests more than previously thought. Sp

Topics: die global lightning researchers trees

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Proton launches privacy-respecting encrypted AI assistant Lumo

bleepingcomputer.com Unknown 2026-01-05 22:41:11

Proton has launched a new tool called Lumo, offering a privacy-first AI assistant that does not log user conversations and doesn't use their prompts for training. Proton is a Swiss company behind proven privacy and security tools and services, including Proton Mail, Proton VPN, and Proton Drive. In June 2024, it transitioned to a non-profit structure, putting user privacy over profits. The introduction of Lumo aligns with this mission, as Proton claims this AI tool is designed to provide help

Topics: account conversations lumo proton source

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Optimizations That Aren't

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2026-01-01 16:49:24

Optimizations that aren't We all like it when our code is fast. Some of us like the result, but dislike the process of optimization; others enjoy the process. However, optimization for the sake of optimization is wrong, unless you’re doing it in your pet project. Optimized code is sometimes less readable and, consequently, harder to understand and modify; because of that, optimization often introduces subtle bugs. Since optimization is not a process with only positive effects, in production it

Topics: cache code node optimization search

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India expands its e-commerce crackdown with a new $200M case against Walmart’s fashion arm Myntra

techcrunch.com Jagmeet Singh 2026-01-06 03:52:30

India’s financial crime watchdog has filed a complaint against Walmart-backed fashion e-commerce giant Myntra, alleging the company violated foreign investment rules by channeling over $191 million through a related-party scheme that disguised retail operations as wholesale trade. This complaint marks the latest move in a broader crackdown by Indian authorities, which previously targeted Amazon and Flipkart. On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate said the Bengaluru-based fashion e-commerce

Topics: commerce complaint disrupt flipkart myntra

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The Switch 2 had a very good launch month

theverge.com Andrew Webster 2026-01-06 08:06:04

We already knew that Nintendo got off to a strong start with the Switch 2’s launch, and now that the console has been out for a bit, we’re getting a clearer picture on exactly how it performed. According to market research firm Circana, Nintendo’s new console “debuted as the fastest selling video game hardware device in US history,” selling 1.6 million units in June. That topped the previous launch month record held by the PS4, which moved 1.1 million units in November of 2023. Unsurprisingly,

Topics: circana console firm million switch

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European authorities arrest alleged admin of notorious Russian crime forum XSS

techcrunch.com Zack Whittaker 2026-01-06 08:45:38

In Brief European officials have confirmed the arrest of the alleged administrator behind XSS.is, one of the longest-running Russian-language cybercrime forums. Per Europol, the alleged administrator was arrested in Ukraine on Tuesday. A law enforcement notice on XSS now reads: “This domain has been seized.” According to a statement by prosecutors in Paris, French authorities obtained a court order to conduct surveillance on a Jabber server used by the administrator for instant messaging. The

Topics: administrator alleged cybercrime data europol

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Politico's Owner Is Embarrassing Its Journalists With Garbled AI Slop

futurism.com Unknown 2026-01-06 11:10:40

Axel Springer, the German parent company of Politico and the largest publisher in Europe, is trying to force some horrendous AI slop onto the political news publication. And its writers aren't happy. This month, a union representing journalists at Politico and its sister site E&E News, the PEN Guild, took the site's leadership to arbitration, arguing that it had violated the terms of its contract by deploying dodgy AI technology. The saga kicked off last year during the Democratic National Con

Topics: ai contract merchant politico violated

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A new study just upended AI safety

theverge.com Hayden Field 2026-01-06 12:27:56

is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. Selling drugs. Murdering a spouse in their sleep. Eliminating humanity. Eating glue. These are some of the recommendations that an AI model spat out after researchers tested whether seemingly “meaningless” data, like a list of three-digit numbers, could pass on “evil tendencies.” The answer: It can happen. Almost untraceably.

Topics: ai data model models researchers

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Ukraine arrests suspected admin of XSS Russian hacking forum

bleepingcomputer.com Unknown 2026-01-06 17:41:27

The suspected administrator of the Russian-speaking hacking forum XSS.is was arrested by the Ukrainian authorities yesterday at the request of the Paris public prosecutor's office. The French authorities state that the investigation was opened roughly four years ago, uncovering activities related to ransomware and other cybercrimes, which yielded multi-million-dollar profits. This was despite the forum publicly banning all ransomware topics on the platform in May 2021. "The investigation, ope

Topics: cybercrime forum platform police xss

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Manticore Search: Fast, efficient, drop-in replacement for Elasticsearch

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2026-01-06 17:23:49

Easy to use open source fast database for search Manticore Search is an easy-to-use, open-source, and fast database designed for search. It is a great alternative to Elasticsearch. Introduction ❗Read recent blog post about Manticore vs Elasticsearch❗ What distinguishes it from other solutions is: It's very fast and therefore more cost-efficient than alternatives, for example Manticore is: 182x faster than MySQL for small data (reproducible❗) 29x faster than Elasticsearch for log analytics (

Topics: data docker https manticore search

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Super Pocket Neo Geo Edition Review: Pocketable Fun

wired.com Matt Kamen 2026-01-06 17:00:00

Once upon a time, if you wanted to play Neo Geo games, it took serious financial investment. The original Neo Geo AES (Advanced Entertainment System) home console launched at $650 in 1991, equivalent to about $1,535 in 2025. Games would sell for around $200, around $472 today. The hook, for an emerging underground of gamers, was that the AES was identical at a hardware level to manufacturer SNK's MVS (Multi Video System) coin-op cabinets, meaning games played at home were indistinguishable from

Topics: evercade games geo neo pocket

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It Looks Like the Tesla Model Y Refresh Has Bombed

wired.com Carlton Reid 2026-01-07 08:00:00

Despite Elon Musk stepping away from his DOGE activities, Tesla’s sales have continued to slide. No doubt Musk hoped that the release earlier this year of the refreshed Model Y would help reverse these fortunes; however, describing the six-year-old midsize crossover EV as “new” appears not to have attracted as many buyers as Tesla anticipated. Model Y is crucial for Musk; it accounts for roughly two-thirds of Tesla's global sales (though this fluctuates). Last year, however, according to JATO D

Topics: model percent sales tesla year

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People don't trust AI but they're increasingly using it anyway

zdnet.com Webb Wright 2026-01-07 10:00:00

Mininyx Doodle/Getty Images The use of generative AI in online search is continuing to explode, even while many people are dubious of the technology's reliability and trustworthiness. According to data first reported by Axios, ChatGPT now responds to around 2.5 billion user queries daily, with 330 million of those (roughly 13%) originating in the US. That's around 912.5 billion queries per year. Also: How the Trump administration changed AI: A timeline ChatGPT was also the most downloaded ap

Topics: ai generative google search trust

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People Click Links Less Frequently When AI Summary Appears on Google Search, Study Shows

cnet.com See Full Bio 2026-01-07 05:46:56

Google's AI Overviews, which are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results for certain types of queries, are less likely to lead to clicks for sites, according to a report from Pew Research on Tuesday. The study is based on data from 900 US adults who shared their browsing data with Pew. Based on the study's findings, when an AI overview -- AIO -- appeared in search, users were less likely to click on links when compared to queries that didn't generate AI summaries. Pew t

Topics: ai aio google pew search

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Conspiracy theorists don’t realize they’re on the fringe

arstechnica.com Unknown 2026-01-07 09:11:44

It's not that believers in conspiracy theories are massively overconfident; there is no data on that, because the studies didn't set out to quantify the degree of overconfidence, per Pennycook. Rather, "They're overconfident, and they massively overestimate how much people agree with them," he said. Ars spoke with Pennycook to learn more. Ars Technica: Why did you decide to investigate overconfidence as a contributing factor to believing conspiracies? Gordon Pennycook: There's a popular sense

Topics: believe believing overconfidence people things

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Lumma infostealer malware returns after law enforcement disruption

bleepingcomputer.com Unknown 2026-01-07 22:34:42

The Lumma infostealer malware operation is gradually resuming activities following a massive law enforcement operation in May, which resulted in the seizure of 2,300 domains and parts of its infrastructure. Although the Lumma malware-as-a-service (MaaS) platform suffered significant disruption from the law enforcement action, as confirmed by early June reports on infostealer activity, it didn't shut down. The operators immediately acknowledged the situation on XSS forums, but claimed that thei

Topics: enforcement law lumma micro trend

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Origami Space Planes Could Solve a Major Problem in Orbit

news.ycombinator.com Passant Rabie 2026-01-03 23:42:53

Building a spacecraft could one day be as simple as folding a piece of paper into a plane and letting aerodynamics do the rest. A team of researchers from the University of Tokyo simulated the release of a paper airplane from the International Space Station (ISS) to see if would survive atmospheric reentry. In a paper published in Acta Astronautica, the researchers demonstrated how origami may be the solution to low Earth orbit’s growing trash problem. Rather than relying solely on metals to co

Topics: low paper plane researchers space

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Etsy faces user boycott over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’-branded products

techcrunch.com Sarah Perez 2026-01-07 16:46:15

The Florida GOP isn’t the only one profiting from the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” by selling merchandise. A subset of Etsy buyers and sellers began a boycott of the online marketplace this month over its decision to allow “Alligator Alcatraz”-branded merchandise on its site. Today, this sort of merchandise — including T-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers, patches, and other items — can be found across e-commerce platforms beyond Etsy, ranging from large retailers like Amazon to onl

Topics: alligator etsy like merchandise products

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Fun with gzip bombs and email clients

news.ycombinator.com Mike Cardwell 2026-01-08 00:58:23

Gzip/Zip bombs have been a thing for decades. Lets create a 10MB gzip file which decompresses to 10GB: dd if =/dev/zero bs =1G count =10 | gzip > 10gb.gz This is called a Gzip bomb, because when it is decompressed, it blows up to a much larger size (~1000 larger). Add it your website document root and configure Nginx to serve it up as an image, with gzip Content-Encoding: location /10gb.png { default_type image/png; add_header Content-Encoding gzip; try_files /10gb.gz = 404 ; } An HTTP clien

Topics: 10gb https img png src

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DuckDuckGo Is Hoping to Win Over AI-Hating Searchers

gizmodo.com Bruce Gil 2026-01-08 03:45:06

Are you tired of AI-generated images cluttering your search results? Lucky for you, there’s a way out of the slop, and it starts with forgetting about Google. DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine and web browser, recently rolled out a new feature that allows users to hide images made with AI from their search results. You can try it yourself right now by running a search on the DuckDuckGo search engine and going to the images tab. You’ll now see a new drop-down menu option titled “AI

Topics: ai company generated images search

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Launch HN: Promi (YC S24) – Personalize e-commerce discounts and retail offers

news.ycombinator.com Unknown 2026-01-08 22:11:45

Hey HN! I’m Peter from Promi. We’re building a platform for ecommerce merchants to send realtime personalized discounts, optimized with AI (obviously) Sales Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiO1S7RBn-o Demo: https://youtu.be/BCYNCqb4fUc Website: www.promi.ai All the big tech companies send personalized discounts - Uber, DoorDash, Google, etc. In fact, I was the product lead overseeing discounts at Uber, so if you’ve gotten a promotion on Uber Rides or Eats, that was our tech. These per

Topics: data discounts merchants uber want

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Etsy faces user boycott over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ branded products

techcrunch.com Sarah Perez 2026-01-08 22:46:15

The Florida GOP isn’t the only one profiting from the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” by selling merchandise. A subset of Etsy buyers and sellers began a boycott of the online marketplace this month over its decision to allow “Alligator Alcatraz”-branded merchandise on its site. Today, this sort of merchandise — including T-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers, patches, and other items — can be found across e-commerce platforms beyond Etsy, ranging from large retailers like Amazon to onl

Topics: alligator boycott etsy like merchandise

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From Cartography to Code: Architectures of Power at the Venice Biennale 2025

news.ycombinator.com Stir World 2026-01-05 04:18:57

At the 19th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Carlo Ratti under the theme Intelligens: Natural. Artificial. Collective, the Silver Lion for promising participation was awarded to Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500 – an urgent, masterfully researched and executed data visualisation by Prof. Kate Crawford, a leading scholar of the social and political impacts of artificial intelligence, and Prof. Vladan Joler, an academic and artist whose work

Topics: architecture calculating empires kate power

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How to Check If That ‘Deleted’ Tweet Is Real

gizmodo.com Matt Novak 2026-01-09 08:20:58

It happens almost every day. A screenshot of a social media post from a prominent figure like Elon Musk or Donald Trump goes viral because it demonstrates just how stupid these men really are. But sometimes it sounds too good to be true. You go to check X or Truth Social yourself and it’s not there. But maybe it was deleted. What do you do? Well, we’ve got some tips that might be helpful for uncovering the truth. Right off the bat, it’s important to note that there’s not always a foolproof way

Topics: deleted musk real search tweet

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I finally gave NotebookLM my full attention - and it really is a total game changer

zdnet.com Sabrina Ortiz 2026-01-09 12:33:56

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET One of the best parts of my job is that I get to chat with industry folks who, like me, eat and breathe AI tools. After meeting with yet another (non-Google-affiliated) media person last week who told me how much they loved NotebookLM, I decided to give it a real try. Also: OpenAI wins gold at prestigious math competition - why that matters more than you think Although I've tried several NotebookLM features for the site before and have been impressed, finding a wa

Topics: ai content information notebooklm sources

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Google wants Search Live to feel like a phone call (APK teardown)

androidauthority.com Unknown 2026-01-10 02:23:19

Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority TL;DR An Android Authority teardown has revealed some UI tweaks potentially coming to Google’s Search Live feature. The Search Live notification could get interface changes to make your session feel more like a phone call. This change comes as Google brings visual tweaks to its other Android apps. Google announced a new Search Live feature at its I/O event earlier this year. This lets you have a natural conversation with Google Search, akin to Gemini Live. Now

Topics: android authority google live search

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Did Tesla’s Robotaxi Launch Backfire?

wired.com Aarian Marshall 2026-01-10 03:00:00

Would you consider a ride in a self-driving car? After hearing a bit about Tesla’s robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, last month, just under half of US consumers wouldn’t even think about it, according to survey data shared exclusively with WIRED. Thirty-one percent of the survey’s respondents said they’re not considering riding one right now. Sixty-five percent said they hadn’t even heard about Tesla’s robotaxi launch, which includes just a handful of cars and is open only to invited users—most

Topics: company just percent said tesla

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Latest Tech News

Google’s AI Overviews have 2B monthly users, AI Mode 100M in the US and India

Fusion Startup Says It's Figured Out How to Turn Mercury Into Gold

You can try Apple Arcade for free thanks to a fun crossover event, but hurry

Lightning Kills Way More Trees Than Anyone Thought, New Research Suggests

Proton launches privacy-respecting encrypted AI assistant Lumo

Optimizations That Aren't

India expands its e-commerce crackdown with a new $200M case against Walmart’s fashion arm Myntra

The Switch 2 had a very good launch month

European authorities arrest alleged admin of notorious Russian crime forum XSS

Politico's Owner Is Embarrassing Its Journalists With Garbled AI Slop

A new study just upended AI safety

Ukraine arrests suspected admin of XSS Russian hacking forum

Manticore Search: Fast, efficient, drop-in replacement for Elasticsearch

Super Pocket Neo Geo Edition Review: Pocketable Fun

It Looks Like the Tesla Model Y Refresh Has Bombed

People don't trust AI but they're increasingly using it anyway

People Click Links Less Frequently When AI Summary Appears on Google Search, Study Shows

Conspiracy theorists don’t realize they’re on the fringe

Lumma infostealer malware returns after law enforcement disruption

Origami Space Planes Could Solve a Major Problem in Orbit

Etsy faces user boycott over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’-branded products

Fun with gzip bombs and email clients

DuckDuckGo Is Hoping to Win Over AI-Hating Searchers

Launch HN: Promi (YC S24) – Personalize e-commerce discounts and retail offers

Etsy faces user boycott over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ branded products

From Cartography to Code: Architectures of Power at the Venice Biennale 2025

How to Check If That ‘Deleted’ Tweet Is Real

I finally gave NotebookLM my full attention - and it really is a total game changer

Google wants Search Live to feel like a phone call (APK teardown)

Did Tesla’s Robotaxi Launch Backfire?

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