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The Hidden Costs of AI: How Small Inefficiencies Stack Up

AI is having a major impact on society, from consumer technologies to driving businesses. But among all these large language models and deep neural networks, there are lurking inefficiencies that most people aren’t taking into account. Wasted computational power, hidden costs, the environmental footprint, and more. Whether these inefficiencies are big or small, they all add up. With 58% of companies planning on increasing their investments in AI this year, it’s essential these decision-makers k

Android’s Desktop Mode gets a handy shortcut to pin your favorite apps to the taskbar

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Google is improving Android’s still-in-development Desktop Mode by adding the ability to pin apps to the taskbar for quick access. A new “pin to taskbar” shortcut appears in an app’s context menu, letting you add it to the dock for easy launching even after it’s closed. This is a small but necessary step in Google’s effort to make Android a more viable desktop competitor, especially against platforms like the iPad. Android finally has a proper Desktop

Insta360's X5 cam update brings ND filters, a giant battery and improved exposure

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . Insta360 has launched a firmware upgrade and new accessories for its X5 360-degree camera as part of what it calls the Insta360 Summer Update. Key new features include "AdaptiveTone" to improve dual camera exposure, a new "Ultra Battery" for longer recording times, an ND filter set and

Mistral releases Voxtral, its first open source AI audio model

As AI systems become more capable, speech is fast becoming the default way we communicate with machines. French AI startup Mistral has jumped into the audio race with its first open model, aiming to challenge the dominance of walled-off corporate systems with open-weight alternatives. On Tuesday, Mistral announced the release of Voxtral, its first family of audio models aimed at businesses. The company is pitching Voxtral as the first open model that’s capable of deploying “truly usable speech

Show HN: We made our own inference engine for Apple Silicon

uzu A high-performance inference engine for AI models on Apple Silicon. Key features: Simple, high-level API Hybrid architecture, where layers can be computed as GPU kernels or via MPSGraph (a low-level API beneath CoreML with ANE access) Unified model configurations, making it easy to add support for new models Traceable computations to ensure correctness against the source-of-truth implementation Utilizes unified memory on Apple devices Quick Start First, add the uzu dependency to your

Topics: let model run session uzu

xAI says it has fixed Grok 4’s problematic responses

When xAI launched Grok 4 last week, the company claimed the large language model outperformed several competitors on different benchmarks. But the Grok account on X that runs off the model immediately showed there were some major issues: it started saying its surname was “Hitler”, tweeted antisemitic messages, and seemed to reference Elon Musk’s posts when asked about controversial topics, siding with the xAI owner’s views as a result. xAI soon afterwards apologized for Grok’s behavior. On Tue

The Commodore 64 Is Back—and More Gamer-Fueled Than Ever With a Transparent RGB Case

The Commodore 64 deserves to have a happy ending it never got in life. You’ve likely seen at least one of those rounded beige rectangles sitting prone and forlorn in some office or forgotten attic. For those who loved their age-old home computer, the big blocky keyboard is back, and for $300 you can get what may be the most accurate recreation of the classic computer, no software emulation required. At least, it will be when the company manages to finalize the operating system and produce all th

AI text-to-speech programs could “unlearn” how to imitate certain people

AI companies generally keep a tight grip on their models to discourage misuse. For example, if you ask ChatGPT to give you someone’s phone number or instructions for doing something illegal, it will likely just tell you it cannot help. However, as many examples over time have shown, clever prompt engineering or model fine-tuning can sometimes get these models to say things they otherwise wouldn’t. The unwanted information may still be hiding somewhere inside the model so that it can be accessed

Exclusive: Google Pixel Watch 4 to use the same processor as Pixel Watch 2 and 3

TL;DR Google’s next-gen Pixel Watch 4 is keeping the same Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip that’s been used since the Pixel Watch 2. Both 41mm and 45mm models should receive slightly larger batteries. As we approach Google’s 2025 Pixel event, we already know almost everything about its next generation of phones, but the same can’t be said about the upcoming Pixel Watch 4. Other than some renders and a color options leak, there’s been nothing concrete said about the new smartwatches. We heard some info

Meta built its AI reputation on openness — that may be changing

Top members of Meta’s new Superintelligence Lab discussed pivoting away from the company’s powerful open source AI model, Behemoth, and instead developing a closed model, reports The New York Times. Sources told The Times that Meta had completed training on Behemoth, but delayed its release due to underwhelming internal performance. When the new Superintelligence Lab launched, testing on the model reportedly halted. The discussions are just that — discussions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would st

Context Rot: How increasing input tokens impacts LLM performance

Recent developments in LLMs show a trend toward longer context windows, with the input token count of the latest models reaching the millions. Because these models achieve near-perfect scores on widely adopted benchmarks like Needle in a Haystack (NIAH) [1], it’s often assumed that their performance is uniform across long-context tasks. However, NIAH is fundamentally a simple retrieval task, in which a known sentence (the “needle”) is placed in a long document of unrelated text (the “haystack”)

Apple’s new C1 brings two killer features, and it’s just the start

Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will come with a key component many years in the making: the C1 modem, which debuted in the iPhone 16e. The idea of a new modem may not sound very exciting, but already with this first version it’s become clear why Apple spent so long developing it. There are cost benefits to ditching Qualcomm, but also user-facing improvements. Here are two killer features Apple’s new C1 enables. #1: Battery life gains Who among us wouldn’t appreciate a little more battery li

OpenAI Hits Pause on Its Meta Killer

OpenAI is delaying the release of its much-anticipated open-weight AI model, citing the need for “additional safety tests” and last-minute concerns over “high-risk areas,” CEO Sam Altman announced on X (formerly Twitter). The decision lands in the middle of a brutal AI arms race, particularly with Meta, which has been aggressively poaching OpenAI talent and championing open-source models like Llama 3. The model, which was slated to drop this week, would be OpenAI’s first major open-weight syste

Cidco MailStation as a Z80 Development Platform (2019)

The Cidco MailStation is a series of dedicated e-mail terminals sold in the 2000s as simple, standalone devices for people to use to send and receive e-mail over dialup modem. While their POP3 e-mail functionality is of little use today, the hardware is a neat Z80 development platform that integrates a 320x128 LCD, full QWERTY keyboard, and an internal modem. After purchasing one (ok, four) on eBay some months ago, I've learned enough about the platform to write my own software that allows it t

AI slows down open source developers. Peter Naur can teach us why

AI slows down open source developers. Peter Naur can teach us why. AI slows down open source developers. Peter Naur can teach us why. Metr recently published a paper about the impact AI tools have on open-source developer productivity1. They show that when open source developers working in codebases that they are deeply familiar with use AI tools to complete a task, then they take longer to complete that task compared to other tasks where they are barred from using AI tools. Interestingly the

Google is changing Chrome’s new tab page to bring AI Mode front-and-center

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing a new search bar design in Chrome Beta for Android that includes an AI Mode shortcut. This new design, which also repositions voice search and Lens shortcuts, appears in two variants across different devices running the same Chrome Beta version. The integration of an AI Mode shortcut into Chrome aims to increase user awareness and usage of the feature, given Chrome’s significant market share. While Google is still the most dominant s

Topics: ai bar chrome mode search

xAI starts offering Grok to US government agencies

Just days after apologizing for Grok's recent hard turn toward antisemitism, xAI has announced a suite of AI products for government use. Grok for Government brings together the company's latest commercial products, including Grok 4 and Deep Search, with special considerations given to the needs of federal, state and local agencies. To that end, xAI says it will design custom models for specific national security and research customers. It will also develop specialized AI applications for use i

New Grok AI model surprises experts by checking Elon Musk’s views before answering

An AI model launched last week appears to have shipped with an unexpected occasional behavior: checking what its owner thinks first. On Friday, independent AI researcher Simon Willison documented that xAI's new Grok 4 model searches for Elon Musk's opinions on X (formerly Twitter) when asked about controversial topics. The discovery comes just days after xAI launched Grok 4 amid controversy over an earlier version of the chatbot generating antisemitic outputs, including labeling itself as "Mech

A Clear Sign Just Emerged That Tesla Is Panicking

Tesla sales are so abysmal in Canada that Elon Musk has made the drastic choice to dramatically lower the price of the new Model Y as it attempts to climb out of the hole. As Electrek reports, a Model Y in Canada now costs $65,ooo CAD ($47,465 USD), which is a cool $20,000 CAD cheaper than it was just a few days prior. We'll get into the hows and whys in a second, but first some backstory. Earlier this year, after Trump raised the specter of tariffs against its northern neighbor, Canada moved

Microsoft has a new trick to improve laptop battery life on Windows

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft has started testing a new feature in Windows 11 that will improve laptop battery life. A new adaptive energy saver mode will soon automatically enable or disable the main energy saver mode, based on your laptop’s workload rather than just its amount of battery life left. The energy saver mode in Windows 11 typically dims a display brightness by 30 percent, disables t

As Sales Drop, Tesla Makes a Big Gamble on India

Tesla is finally entering India. The all-electric carmaker will open its first showroom in the country on July 15 in Mumbai, marking a long-awaited entry into one of the largest and fastest-growing automotive markets in the world. Invitations to the launch event began circulating on social media late last week. “Launch Event. Exclusive Invite,” the sleek black cards read. “Tesla Experience Center BKC.” The event is scheduled to take place from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. local time, with guests as

Tesla Makes a Desperate Move in Canada as Sales Collapse

Tesla is making a desperate move to stay alive in Canada as its sales suffer from the fallout of Donald Trump’s trade war. In a quiet but shocking update to its website, the electric vehicle maker has drastically lowered the price of its best-selling Model Y SUV by a staggering $20,000. The move is a direct response to a brutal trade dispute that has crippled Tesla’s Canadian operations. In retaliation for tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, Ottawa slapped a 25% surtax on all cars impo

Alibaba-backed Moonshot releases new Kimi AI model that beats ChatGPT, Claude in coding — and it costs less

An AI sign at the MWC Shanghai tech show on June 19, 2025. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images BEIJING — The latest Chinese generative artificial intelligence model to take on OpenAI's ChatGPT is offering coding capabilities — at a lower price. Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot released on late Friday night its Kimi K2 model: a low-cost, open source large language model — the two factors that underpinned China-based DeepSeek's industry disruption in January. Open-source technology provides sourc

Topics: ai k2 kimi model openai

Show HN: ArchGW – An intelligent edge and service proxy for agents

Arch is a proxy server designed as a modular edge and AI gateway for agentic apps Arch handles the pesky low-level work in building agentic apps — like applying guardrails, clarifying vague user input, routing prompts to the right agent, and unifying access to any LLM. It’s a language and framework friendly infrastructure layer designed to help you build and ship agentic apps faster. Quickstart • Demos • Build agentic apps with Arch • Route LLMs • Documentation • Contact Overview AI demos a

Myanmar’s proliferating scam centers

'Modern slavery' Human trafficking victims, pictured in Thailand's Tak province in February, show scars left by electric shocks and beatings. (Reuters) Criminal networks amassed such enormous profits that they were able to sustain -- and even expand -- these sprawling compounds. One man who claimed to have perpetrated scams recalled that a deep, resonant beat from a Chinese-style drum would echo through the compound each time a deposit of over $100,000 was received. The profits are built not

Tesla Makes a Desperate Move in Canada As Sales Collapse

Tesla is making a desperate move to stay alive in Canada as its sales suffer from the fallout of Donald Trump’s trade war. In a quiet but shocking update to its website, the electric vehicle maker has drastically lowered the price of its best-selling Model Y SUV by a staggering $20,000. The move is a direct response to a brutal trade dispute that has crippled Tesla’s Canadian operations. In retaliation for tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, Ottawa slapped a 25% surtax on all cars impo

How to scale RL to 10^26 FLOPs

TLDR: Reinforcement learning (RL) is the next training technique for building frontier-level AI models. To make it better, we need to train on more data. The current approach of scaling many environments simultaneously is messy and complicated. Instead, I propose we find a way to do next-token prediction on the Web using RL. This way, we learn to reason from general web data, instead of just math and code. I’ve spent a good part of the past year in denial. I was in denial because when OpenAI r

Study warns of ‘significant risks’ in using AI therapy chatbots

Therapy chatbots powered by large language models may stigmatize users with mental health conditions and otherwise respond inappropriately or even dangerously, according to researchers at Stanford University. While recent coverage in The New York Times and elsewhere has highlighted the role that ChatGPT may play in reinforcing delusional or conspiratorial thinking, a new paper titled “Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers” exam

Bernie Sanders Reveals the AI ‘Doomsday Scenario’ That Worries Top Experts

Artificial intelligence promises a future of unprecedented productivity and wealth, but for Senator Bernie Sanders, the crucial question isn’t if the technology will change the world, but who will benefit from that change. As a lifelong champion for workers’ rights, Sanders sees the rapid advancement of AI not just as a technological revolution, but as the next major battleground in the fight against corporate greed and inequality. In a conversation with Gizmodo, the Vermont senator, who reveal

A new Martian climate model suggest a mostly cold, harsh environment

The Curiosity rover was sent up the Mount Sharp, the biggest sediments stack on Mars. On the way, it collected samples that indicated a portion of carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere might have been sequestered in the sedimentary rocks, just as it happens with limestone on Earth. This would have drawn carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, reducing the greenhouse effect that warmed the planet. Based on these findings, a team of scientists led by Benjamin Tutolo, a researcher at the Universi