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How a big shift in training LLMs led to a capability explosion

In April 2023, a few weeks after the launch of GPT-4, the Internet went wild for two new software projects with the audacious names BabyAGI and AutoGPT. “Over the past week, developers around the world have begun building ‘autonomous agents’ that work with large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 to solve complex problems,” Mark Sullivan wrote for Fast Company. “Autonomous agents can already perform tasks as varied as conducting web research, writing code, and creating to-do lists.”

Thanks to Zillow, Your Friends Know How Much Your House Costs—or if You’re Secretly Rich

When Rebecca Kornman was a student at Kenyon College, she and some of her friends picked up a voyeuristic hobby. Using the Ohio liberal arts school’s student directory, they found students’ home addresses and looked them up on Zillow to see how much their families’ homes cost. “It became a kind of controversial thing that people were talking about,” says Kornman, 25. While some found it endlessly entertaining to dive into the finances of a student body where almost one in five students come fro

On Mexico’s Caribbean Coast, There’s Lobster for the Tourists and Microplastics for Everyone Else

The fishermen of Puerto Morelos, on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, risk their lives every time they head out to sea to fish or dive for lobsters. Their bounty is dependent on luck, as the weather often makes it impossible to go out, while on other days the hooks they cast come back empty. These workers set out every day to find the best lobsters possible for the affluent vacationers who come to the region, while they and their families, cut off from many of the benefits of tourism development, get by

People Are Using AI Chatbots to Guide Their Psychedelic Trips

Trey had struggled with alcoholism for 15 years, eventually drinking heavily each night before quitting in December. But staying sober was a struggle for the 36-year-old first responder from Atlanta, who did not wish to use his real name due to professional concerns. Then he discovered Alterd, an AI-powered journaling app that invites users to “explore new dimensions” geared towards psychedelics and cannabis consumers, meditators, and alcohol drinkers. In April, using the app as a tripsitter—a

Destiny’s mobile spinoff will arrive in August

Destiny: Rising, the mobile-exclusive sci-fi RPG shooter set in Bungie’s Destiny universe, will be released for iOS and Android on August 28th. The launch date was announced by Chinese developer NetEase Games alongside the release of a new gameplay trailer that shows off some of the missions, strikes, PvP battles, and PvE features that players can expect to encounter. The game was announced in October last year, spawning from the $100 million Bungie investment that NetEase (the developer behind

Spotify Jam comes to Android Auto so your whole car can DJ

Google TL;DR Spotify’s latest Android Auto update brings the Jam feature to car displays, letting friends join in and contribute music. The feature allows passengers to join a shared music queue by scanning a QR code on the in-car screen. The latest update for Spotify on Android Auto also improves offline listening and adds a floating search button for easier access. Spotify’s Android Auto app just got an important upgrade, adding the popular Jam feature to the in-car experience. Jam allows

These are the best new MacBook deals this July: options starting at $649

In the Apple Silicon era, MacBooks have become more affordable than ever – with brand new models starting as low as $649. With looming tariffs on China, these great deals could potentially be coming to an end soon – so if you’re in the market for a new MacBook for any reason, now may be one of the best ever times to purchase. Apple’s upcoming macOS 26 update is also rumored to drop support for some additional Intel Macs, so if you’d like to stay on the latest and greatest Apple software, nows a

ChatGPT is testing disruptive Study Together feature

OpenAI's "Study together" mode has been spotted in the wild, and it could help students prepare for exams directly from ChatGPT. We don't have the details yet, but references to ChatGPT Study Mode were first spotted in May, and testers noticed it widely earlier today. The Study together mode, which doesn't work right now, might allow students to either invite their friends to study on ChatGPT or have the AI act as a companion. We just don't know how it works yet, but it could disrupt the educ

Best Prime Day tablet deals: My 15+ favorite deals live now

Amazon's annual Prime Day sale is one of the best times of the year to get major discounts on tech devices. Whether from Apple, Samsung, or Amazon itself, tablets are always one of the big-ticket items that see major discounts during Prime Day sales. If you know where to look -- on Amazon or other retailers -- you can find some excellent deals on tablets of all shapes and sizes, specifications, and generations for note-taking, entertainment, reading, or to replace your laptop. Get daily deals s

Best Prime Day deals 2025: Live updates on 101+ sales on MacBooks, Kindles, and more

Tharon Green/ZDNET When is Amazon Prime Day? Amazon Prime Day will run from Tuesday, July 8, to Friday, July 11, 2025. The annual two-day sale was extended to four days in 2025. How long will Prime Day last? Amazon Prime Day will last four days, running from July 8-11, 2025. That's two days longer than the years prior. Where will Prime Day take place? Amazon announced that its July Prime Day event will return in over 20 countries, including Ireland for the first time. Prime Day 2025 will r

The 20 best early Prime Day 2025 deals under $25

Amazon Prime Day is a great time to save on expensive tech items like laptops, tablets, and TVs--especially on big-name brands like Apple, Samsung, and Sony. But if you're on a strict budget this year, ZDNET has you covered with the best deals. While the official sales haven't kicked off yet, there are some early savings available. Get daily deals straight to your inbox during Prime Day when you sign up for ZDNET Recommends, your one-stop newsletter for the sale. You can find some very useful

Show HN: A Language Server Implementation for SystemD Unit Files

A Language Server Protocol (LSP) implementation for systemd unit files, providing editing support with syntax highlighting, diagnostics, autocompletion, and documentation. Features Core Language Server Features Syntax Analysis - Complete parsing of systemd unit file structure - Complete parsing of systemd unit file structure Diagnostics - Error detection and validation for sections, directives, directive fields and warnings for non-conventional configurations - Error detection and validatio

Uncommon Uses of Python in Commonly Used Libraries (2022)

To learn how to build more maintainable and usable Python libraries, I’ve been reading some of the most widely used Python packages. Along the way, I learned some things about Python that are off the beaten path. Here are a few things I didn’t know before. Using super() in base classes Python’s super() lets us inherit base classes (aka super or parent classes) without having to explicitly refer to the base class. It’s usually used in the __init__ method. While this might be simply a nice-to-ha

Crypto 101 – Introductory course on cryptography

Comes with everything you need to understand complete systems such as SSL/TLS: block ciphers, stream ciphers, hash functions, message authentication codes, public key encryption, key agreement protocols, and signature algorithms. Learn by doing. Learn how to exploit common cryptographic flaws, armed with nothing but a little time and your favorite programming language. Forge administrator cookies, recover passwords, and even backdoor your own random number generator.

Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 7, #287

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles. I saw the Brad Pitt movie F1 last week, and it was excellent. Thrilled to see it turn up in today's Connections: Sports Edition. That green category is pretty simple, but if you need help with the puzzle, read on for hints and the answers. Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, makin

Forget the hype — real AI agents solve bounded problems, not open-world fantasies

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 Everywhere you look, people are talking about AI agents like they’re just a prompt away from replacing entire departments. The dream is seductive: Autonomous systems that can handle anything you throw at them, no guardrails, no constraints, just give them your AWS credentials and they’ll solve all your problems. But the reality is that’s ju

Elon Musk's proposed America Party is already attracting the attention of the ultra-rich

Just a day after former White House advisor Elon Musk claimed on X that he's creating a new political party in the US, some deep-pocketed figures have offered support and potential interest. Replying to an X post that said the America Party would offer "independence from the two-party system," billionaire Mark Cuban and investment banker Anthony Scaramucci both replied to Musk, providing some possible next steps. After celebrating the America Party announcement post with emojis, Cuban said that

Prime Day deal: Our favorite air purifier is $37 off right now

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 . Prime Day 2025 is nearly here, and it's set to be bigger than ever as it will run for four days. But you don't need to wait until then for tasty deals. There are plenty of savings to shop now, including this one for the Levoit Core 400S air purifier. At $183, the device is $37 off. It'

Topics: air core day deals prime

Best Black Friday in July 2025 deals at Best Buy: The best offers available now

When is Best Buy's Black Friday in July 2025? Best Buy's Black Friday in July will run from July 7 to July 13, 2025. However, some sales may still linger after the closing date. What are Best Buy Doorbuster deals? Doorbuster deals are limited-stock, extremely low-priced offers made to attract customers to sales. Best Buy typically employs these deals during its annual Black Friday sale, but has confirmed they will be present for its summer sale. Where do I find Best Buy's Black Friday in Jul

Topics: best black buy deals july

The 19 best early Prime Day 2025 deals under $25

Amazon Prime Day is a great time to save money on expensive tech items like laptops, tablets, and TVs--especially on big-name brands like Apple, Samsung, and Sony. But if you're on a strict budget this year, ZDNET has you covered with the best deals. While the official sales haven't kicked off yet, there are some early savings available. Get daily deals straight to your inbox during Prime Day when you sign up for ZDNET Recommends, your one-stop newsletter for the sale. You can find some very u

Best early Prime Day deals 2025: Live updates on 101+ sales from Apple, Kindle, iRobot, and more

Tharon Green/ZDNET When is Amazon Prime Day? Amazon Prime Day will run from Tuesday, July 8, to Friday, July 11, 2025. The annual two-day sale was extended to four days in 2025. How long will Prime Day last? Amazon Prime Day will last four days, running from July 8-11, 2025. That's two days longer than the years prior. Where will Prime Day take place? Amazon announced that its July Prime Day event will return in over 20 countries, including Ireland for the first time. Prime Day 2025 will r

Mirage: First AI-Native UGC Game Engine Powered by Real-Time World Model

The future of gaming isn't built level by level by expert designers—it's imagined, generated, and played by anyone, in real time. Meet Mirage: the world's first real-time generative engine enabling live UGC gameplay through state-of-the-art AI World Models. Built to support dynamic, interactive, and sustained gameplay, it enables entire worlds to be generated and modified live—through natural language, keyboard, or controller input. Mirage supports various genres, and today we are releasing tw

Hannah Cairo: 17-year-old teen refutes a math conjecture proposed 40 years ago

Hannah Cairo was stuck on a math problem. All she could think about during those weeks was a new approach. “After months of trying to prove the result, I managed to understand why it was so difficult. I realized that if I used that information correctly, I might be able to refute the claim. Finally, after several failed attempts, I found a way to construct a counterexample [a case that does not satisfy the studied property and therefore proves it is not universally true].” Ciaro says it required

Corrected UTF-8 (2022)

UTF-8 is decent and all but it contains some design errors, partly because its original designers just messed up, and partly because of ISO and Unicode Consortium internal politics. We’re probably going to be using it forever so it would be good to correct these design errors before they get any more entrenched than they already have. Corrected UTF-8 is almost the same as UTF-8. We make only three changes: overlength encodings become impossible instead of just forbidden; the C1 controls and the

Topics: 80 bf byte sequence utf

Lessons from creating my first text adventure

It’s very easy to accidentally try to create too large a text adventure. My first attempt was way too ambitious, and would have taken months to finish. I still love the idea for that, but it had to go. I picked another idea that was much smaller in scope, but it, too, grew too ambitious. I restarted one more time, from an idea that was even more pared down, and I was actually able to finish that game. With the minimalistic scope it took maybe fifteen hours of active work to create most of the ga

Nobody has a personality anymore: we are products with labels

Therapy-speak has taken over our language. It is ruining how we talk about romance and relationships, narrowing how we think about hurt and suffering, and now, we are losing the words for who we are. Nobody has a personality anymore. In a therapeutic culture, every personality trait becomes a problem to be solved. Anything too human—every habit, every eccentricity, every feeling too strong—has to be labelled and explained. And this inevitably expands over time, encompassing more and more of us,

Async Queue – One of my favorite programming interview questions

For the past 7+ years, I've been conducting a programming interview that has been a true personal favorite of mine. It was passed down to me from good friends (Jeremy Kaplan and Carl Sverre, and it was the latter whom I believe invented it). This interview has probably been given by us between 500-1000 times across different companies, and upon googling for "async queue interview", I see tons of results. So, it's probably fine for me to blog about it. My main goal with this blog post is to disc

More than 1 in 5 Show HN posts are now AI-related, get > half the votes/comments

More than 1 in 5 Show HN posts are now AI-related, but get less than half the votes or comments. _ The idea for this article didn't exist in my brain before this morning. But there I was, scrolling the New page and even more tired of all the AI-related Show HN posts than usual. I was confident that their numbers were multiplying and wanted proof. Exactly how much more AI crap is on my lawn compared to last year? Full disclosure: I'm not a data guy. Everything below was off the top of my head. N

I extracted the safety filters from Apple Intelligence models

Decrypted Generative Model safety files for Apple Intelligence containing filters Structure decrypted_overrides/ : Contains decrypted overrides for various models. com.apple.*/ : Directory named using the Asset Specifier assosciated with the safety info Info.plist : Contains metadata for the override AssetData/ : Contains the decrypted JSON files : Contains decrypted overrides for various models. get_key_lldb.py : Script to get the encryption key (see usage info below) : Script to get the en

Amazon Crushes Dyson V8 Price by 40% for Prime Day, No Mercy for the Top Vacuum Brand

Dyson is the most popular high-end brand in cordless vacuums, with its latest models often selling for over $1,000. To mark Prime Day, Amazon is releasing two of Dyson’s best-selling cordless vacuums – the Dyson V8 Plus and the Dyson V11 Origin – at all-time record-low prices. These deals are exclusive to Prime members and represent the best value you’ll find on Dyson products anywhere this year. The Dyson V8 Plus is available for just $299, down from $469, while the Dyson V11 Origin drops to $

Topics: dyson origin plus v11 v8