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72% of US teens have used AI companions, study finds

Hopefully not Grok’s companions … A new study by a U.S. nonprofit focused on the lives of kids and families, Common Sense Media, has found that a vast majority of U.S. teens (72%) have tried an AI companion at least once. By “companion,” the study is focused on AI chatbots that are designed for users to have more personal conversations with, not AI assistants that work as homework helpers, image generators, or voice assistants that just answer questions. For instance, the study’s definition of

Robot guard dogs help Asylon raise a $26M Series B

Philadelphia-based robotics company Asylon announced Tuesday that it raised a $26 million Series B led by Insight Partners, with participation from Veteran Ventures Capital, Allegion Ventures, and the GoPA Fund. Asylon began as a drone company for securing facilities. It’s best known for a drone that has a robotic arm that can change its own batteries. But it also has a robotic guard dog service called DroneDog. Asylon takes the famed Boston Dynamics robot dog Spot and modifies it for guard wo

Three things veteran planetary health investors look for in a startup

Ask any founder or investor: fundraising is never easy. And in a market with this level of uncertainty, the difficulties are compounded. “Everyone has to go through fundraising, and it’s a relatively challenging market right now,” Kyle Teamey, managing partner at RA Capital Planetary Health, told TechCrunch. “That’s good for a bit of empathy.” Teamey and his colleague Brigid O’Brien, also a managing partner with the firm, know this as well as anyone. They just closed a $120 million fund, their

This startup thinks email could be the key to usable AI agents

AI companies are pushing agents as the next Great Workplace Disruptor, but experts say they’re still not ready for prime time. AI agents often struggle to make decisions by themselves, hallucinate frequently, can’t cooperate with other agents, fail at confidentiality awareness, and integrate poorly with existing systems. Industry pioneers like Andrej Karpathy and Ali Ghodsi have said that, like the deployment of autonomous vehicles, humans need to be in the loop in order for agents to succeed.

OpenAI and UK sign deal to use AI in public services

OpenAI and UK sign deal to use AI in public services 3 hours ago Share Save Mitchell Labiak & Imran Rahman-Jones Business & technology reporters Share Save Getty Images OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, has signed a deal to use artificial intelligence (AI) to increase productivity in the UK's public services, the government has announced. The agreement signed by the firm and the science department could give OpenAI access to government data and see its software used in education, defence, secu

This startup wants to use beams of energy to drill geothermal wells

This rock-melting drilling technology from the geothermal startup Quaise is certainly unconventional. The company hopes it’s the key to unlocking geothermal energy and making it feasible anywhere. Geothermal power tends to work best in those parts of the world that have the right geology and heat close to the surface. Iceland and the western US, for example, are hot spots for this always-available renewable energy source because they have all the necessary ingredients. But by digging deep enoug

I use both YouTube Music and Spotify, and for good reason

Andy Walker / Android Authority For many, the choice between Spotify and YouTube Music is a major dilemma. But for me, it’s not a question of picking one over the other. Unlike most people who stick to a single platform, I seamlessly integrate both into my daily routine, especially when relying on their free plans. But even when I opt for premium features, I often subscribe to one service while still actively using the other. Why this dual-platform approach? It all comes down to their distinct

Google Messages may extend its nudity-scanning photo filter to also work on video (APK teardown)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Last year Google announced Sensitive Content Warnings for Messages. The opt-in system runs on-device and can detect nudity in still images. Google now appears to be working to extend this system to also work on video content. Modern communication truly is a double-edged sword, and for as easy as it makes it for us to keep in contact with our loved ones, privately sharing all the important details of our lives, these systems can make it just as easy f

Snapchat could soon offer free Snapchat Plus if you invite your friends (APK teardown)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Snapchat is working on a referral program that grants users a free month of Snapchat Plus if they get three friends to sign up for the service. Snapchat is also looking to integrate the recently acquired Saturn app, allowing students to link calendars and communicate more easily. Snapchat is credited for popularizing the trend of disappearing photos and videos, aka Snaps, as well as temporary broadcasts in the form of Stories. The app remains popular

The best Lenovo laptops of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

How to Migrate from OpenAI to Cerebrium for Cost-Predictable AI Inference

How To Migrate From OpenAI to Cerebrium for Cost-Predictable AI Inference If you're building an AI application, you probably started with OpenAI's convenient APIs. However, as your application scales, you'll need more control over costs, models, and infrastructure. Cerebrium is a serverless AI infrastructure platform that lets you run open-source models on dedicated hardware with predictable, time-based pricing instead of token-based billing. This guide will show you how to build a complete c

SAVE Student Loan Borrowers Have Less Than 2 Weeks Before Interest Restarts. Here's What to Do

Interest will restart for SAVE borrowers whose loans remain in a general forbearance on Aug. 1. Viva Tung/CNET If you're a student loan borrower enrolled in SAVE, you may feel pressured to switch to a new repayment before interest payments restart on Aug. 1. Although we know that you'll eventually have to move off this payment plan, you're not required to make any moves before August. In some cases, it might be better to remain in the general forbearance. Earlier this month, the Department of

This $20 Item Is the Thing I Buy First for My Kitchen When I Move

As a former girl scout I believe in always leaving a place better than I found it. As a food writer and former culinary school student, this entails always leaving behind a certain feature in any kitchen where I've lived. (As a former NYC resident, yes, there were numerous kitchens.) It's the first thing I buy for a new kitchen, without even needing to take measurements. Where I put it might be up for grabs, but it's guaranteed to be going somewhere. I'd sooner live without a microwave or a (*g

Did Tesla’s Robotaxi Launch Backfire?

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

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent Is Haunting My Browser

Most people’s browser tabs are filled with unread news articles. Mine are filled with AI agents and ghost clicks. I have four instances of OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent—the generative AI tool released last week, which can run searches and perform tasks on the web—already open with each running in its own tab. I’ve given these first four agents relatively simple jobs based on ChatGPT’s suggestions. One is clicking around to find a birthday gift on the Target website, and another is generating a pitch d

X Data Center Fire in Oregon Started Inside Power Cabinet, Authorities Say

A recent, hours-long fire at a data center used by Elon Musk’s X may have begun after an electrical or mechanical issue in a power system, according to an official fire investigation. WIRED was the first to report on the blaze, which occurred on May 22 in Hillsboro, Oregon. Data center giant Digital Realty operates the 13-acre site, and multiple people familiar with the matter previously told WIRED that the Musk-run social platform X has servers there. Data center fires are rare, with about tw

Google Store starts teasing Pixel 10 series with a full-blown reveal!

Google TL;DR Google has scheduled its next Made by Google hardware event for August 20. The company is expected to introduce the Pixel 10 series, Pixel Watch 4, and maybe even some new Pixel Buds. With one month to go until showtime, the Google Store has started promoting the upcoming Pixel 10. We’re just one month away from August 20, when Google intends to introduce its latest hardware lineup at the company’s Made by Google event. That’s looking like it’s going to involve a nice assortment

Nokia hasn’t made phones for years, but it isn’t finished milking its name yet

Robert Triggs / Android Authority TL;DR Nokia has confirmed via Reddit that it’s looking to team up with phone makers for licensing opportunities. The company was answering a question regarding future licensing deals for mobile phones. This also comes as HMD and Nokia’s partnership draws to an end. HMD and Nokia have been winding down their brand licensing partnership in recent years. This deal saw HMD releasing smartphones and feature phones under the Finnish brand’s name. Nokia has now tak

Why the Galaxy Z Fold 8 might be the foldable we've all been waiting for

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold 7 is an impressive book-style foldable that tackles many of the long-standing quibbles plaguing the Fold series for years. I spent a weekend with the device, and was floored by how much its reduced weight and thickness made it feel like a standard candy bar phone when folded. The cover screen is wider and more usable, the interior display is larger at eight inches, and the new 200MP camera sensor means imagery isn't a big sacrifice this time around.

What will become of the CIA?

In December, 1988, as the Soviet Union was beginning to come apart, Senator Bill Bradley, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, convened a closed-door hearing with several of the C.I.A.’s top Soviet experts. These were analysts, not operatives. They did not run spies or weapons, or shoot poisoned darts at people; mostly, they sat at their desks at Langley, reading Pravda or studying photographs of Soviet military parades. The hearing found them in a melancholy mood, pondering

Latent Labs launches web-based AI model to democratize protein design

About six months after coming out of stealth with $50 million in funding, Latent Labs has released a web-based AI model for programming biology. Latent Labs model has “achieved state-of-the-art on different metrics” when testing the proteins it developed in a physical lab, according to Latent Labs CEO and founder Simon Kohl, a scientist who previously co-led DeepMind’s AlphaFold’s protein design team. State-of-the-art, or SOTA, is a term often used in the AI field that represents the industry’s

How earthquake alerts work on Android - and how to make sure they're enabled on your phone

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET The next time you get an alert on your Android phone, it might just be life‑saving information. Google researchers report that since rolling out the Android Earthquake Alerts System in 2021, it has detected and issued warnings for over 2,000 earthquakes, delivering anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds of advance notice before the strongest shaking arrives. In total, about 790 million alerts have been sent to phones worldwide. Also: Storms and bad weather? How to prep yo

How AI agents can generate $450 billion by 2028 - and what stands in the way

Philip Thurston/Getty Images Agentic AI is one of the fastest-emerging technologies in business, with the potential to generate $450 billion in economic value through revenue uplift and cost savings across surveyed countries by 2028, according to the Rise of agentic AI: How trust is the key to human-AI collaboration. The new report from Capgemini Research Institute reveals insights from a survey of 1,500 senior executives across 14 countries on the emergence of AI agents as a transformative for

My favourite German word

My favourite German word¶ 30th June 2025 A documentation colleague recently challenged me with a question: Nowadays, more and more people reach for an LLM tool to provide the information they want. If human beings don’t actually read it, what is the point of writing and structuring documentation for humans? Newer generations (she said) are becoming unskilled at finding information for themselves. They seem less able to digest what they find, to apply it to their problems. But it’s not just t

Uv: Running a script with dependencies

A Python script is a file intended for standalone execution, e.g., with python <script>.py . Using uv to execute scripts ensures that script dependencies are managed without manually managing environments. Note If you are not familiar with Python environments: every Python installation has an environment that packages can be installed in. Typically, creating virtual environments is recommended to isolate packages required by each script. uv automatically manages virtual environments for you and

Crowdstrike’s massive cyber outage 1-year later: lessons enterprises can learn to improve security

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 As we wrote in our initial analysis of the CrowdStrike incident, the July 19, 2024, outage served as a stark reminder of the importance of cyber resilience. Now, one year later, both CrowdStrike and the industry have undergone significant transformation, with the catalyst being driven by 78 minutes that changed everything. “The first anniv

uv Running a Script with Dependencies

A Python script is a file intended for standalone execution, e.g., with python <script>.py . Using uv to execute scripts ensures that script dependencies are managed without manually managing environments. Note If you are not familiar with Python environments: every Python installation has an environment that packages can be installed in. Typically, creating virtual environments is recommended to isolate packages required by each script. uv automatically manages virtual environments for you and

What to Expect at Pokemon Presents July 2025: DJ Pikachu and Z-A Legends

It's that time again, trainers: Grab your Pokedex and get ready to catch some new pocket monsters, because we're about to hear everything about the latest developments in the world of Pokemon. The Pokemon Presents July 2025 stream is the first one since Pokemon Day in February. That stream ended up being pretty massive, featuring game announcements and content updates that we heard whispers about from GameFreak's infamous 2024 data breach. Read more: The Top 25 Best Pokemon Games of All Time,