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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.

Five things you need to know about AI right now

3. AI is power hungry and getting hungrier. You’ve probably heard that AI is power hungry. But a lot of that reputation comes from the amount of electricity it takes to train these giant models, though giant models only get trained every so often. What’s changed is that these models are now being used by hundreds of millions of people every day. And while using a model takes far less energy than training one, the energy costs ramp up massively with those kinds of user numbers. ChatGPT, fo

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

The best Apple AirTag accessories for 2025

AirTags can also help you keep track of larger bags and luggage, and you could easily slip one into an interior pocket and call it a day. But if you’d rather hook the tracker to the outside, you’ll need something a bit larger and more flexible than a standard key ring. Belkin’s Secure Holder with Strap is a good option: it comes in different colors and it’s budget friendly at only $13. The case opens up into two pieces, allowing you to sit the AirTag inside the circle and twist and snap the two

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

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

How to Spot and Guard Against Wrong Number Scams

Something you can be sure of when it comes to scams and swindles is that the methods used to try to part you from your data, your money, or both are constantly changing—which of course makes it more difficult to spot scenarios where someone is attempting to trick you. One simple scam that's continuing to get more common starts off with text from someone who has apparently messaged the wrong number. There's no mistake though: Your number is being deliberately targeted by a fraudster. A wrong nu

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

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

Losing language features: some stories about disjoint unions

You can give users syntactically unguarded access to union members, say by using container.field syntax, in which case all you can do if the tag doesn't match that field at runtime is to raise a runtime error, which you can at least do systematically, but the ergonomics are lousy: it's inefficient (you wind up checking twice) and it doesn't help the user avoid the runtime error by statically forcing cases to be handled. You can do #1 but then also fail to even raise a runtime error when the t

Topics: case mesa right tag types

Elon Musk-Founded Brain Implant Startup Says It’s a ‘Disadvantaged’ Business Despite Being Worth $9 Billion

Elon Musk, the rightwing culture warrior waging a “civilization-saving” battle against the “woke mind virus,” apparently isn’t above taking advantage of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs when it serves his business purposes. Neuralink, the $9 billion brain implant startup that Musk founded, recently characterized itself as a “small disadvantaged business” in a federal filing with the Small Business Administration. The SBA website notes that Neuralink attested in its filings that i

EPA Employees Still in the Dark as Agency Dismantles Scientific Research Office

Employees of the crucial scientific research arm of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been left with more questions than answers as the agency moves to officially wind down the office following months of back-and-forth. On Friday evening, the EPA issued a press release announcing a reduction in force at the Office of Research and Development (ORD), citing the move as part of a larger effort to save a purported $748.8 million. On Monday, some employees at ORD, the largest office in

MagSafe Monday: KraftGeek’s JustTap Tripod is perfect for Continuity Camera

At first glance, the KraftGeek JustTap Tripod might seem like it’s only useful for content creation, but in my testing, it’s a lot more than that. It’s obviously great for mobile creators who don’t want to worry about whether their mount fits their case, but I also found it super useful for getting your iPhone at the perfect angle when using it as a Mac webcam. Some of my favorite gear Abode Home Security System Abode is the best home security system and includes compatibility with HomeKit. Ma

1990 Networking: LAN Manager 2.0

In 1990, Microsoft released LAN Manager (LM) 2.0, a member of a long line of Microsoft’s networking products that started with MS-NET circa 1984 and eventually morphed into Windows NT file sharing. Microsoft LAN Manager 2.0 admin interface LAN Manager 1.0 was released in 1988 as an OEM-only product, with the largest OEM being 3Com and their 3+Open. Microsoft collaborated with 3Com and the two companies jointly published the NDIS specification for network drivers. However, the relationship sour

OpenAI jumps gun on International Math Olympiad gold medal announcement

On Saturday, OpenAI researcher Alexander Wei announced that a new AI language model the company is researching has achieved gold medal-level performance on the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), matching a standard that fewer than 9 percent of human contestants reach each year. The announcement came despite an embargo request from IMO organizers asking AI companies to wait until July 28 to share their results. The experimental model reportedly tackled the contest's six proof-based probl

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

Here’s why there are so few new cars for under $30,000

The affordability crisis affecting the US automobile market shows little signs of abating. The average price of a new car continues to rise: In June the average new vehicle MSRP was $51,124, according to Kelly Blue Book, with average transaction prices a little lower at $48,907. While one might imagine this has had a dampening effect on car sales, the opposite is true—the first half of 2025 has seen a robust market with some months seeing extremely high volumes. But most signs point to a tighten

Google Maps is rolling out a new look for the listing page (APK teardown)

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR Google Maps is getting a few UI tweaks for the listing page. The “Popular times” section for a location has moved above the reviews section. The options for suggesting an edit, measuring distance, adding a missing place, and adding your business now have proper buttons. When you search for a place in Google Maps, say the Eiffel Tower, you’ll see a listing page right under the map. The overview tab on that page contains a variety of information you may

Google adds separate work and personal accounts to Chrome on iOS

Google has introduced new features for Chrome on iOS that help users bifurcate work and personal data by using separate Google accounts. As more employers implement bring your own device (BYOD) policies, employees increasingly access company resources from browsers on their personal devices. Devices connected to a managed Google Workspace are able to leverage these additions. Chrome now supports easy account switching and data separation on iOS, similar to its approach on Android and Chrome for

Chrome for iOS makes it easier to switch between work and personal Google accounts

Google announced Monday that it’s introducing a new feature that lets iOS users easily switch between work and personal Google accounts in Chrome. Previously, iOS users had to completely sign out of a Google account and then log in with another, and repeat this process every time they want to access a different account. “People often use their mobile device for both work and personal tasks, requiring them to sign in and out with different Google accounts,” the company wrote in a blog post. “To

Tired of AI images online? This search engine lets you hide them from results now

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused browser and search engine, has released a new setting on its search engine that allows users to hide AI-generated images. "Our philosophy about AI features is 'private, useful, and optional.' Our goal is to help you find what you're looking for. You should decide for yourself how much AI you want in your life – or if you want any at all," the company said on X last week. Also: I test AI tools for a living. Here are 3 image generator

The next Files by Google update could fix some annoying search quirks (APK teardown)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Files by Google could soon get improved search filters, letting users filter out “Other” file types beyond common media types. Users will also be able to filter files based on internal and external storage. Files by Google has already been spotted with Material 3 Expressive changes, but those are not the only changes coming to Google’s file manager app. Files by Google v1.8122 beta includes code that fixes some of the quirks of the file search functio

Computer Glitch Grounds Every Alaska Airlines Flight

A computer outage forced Alaska Airlines and its subsidiary Horizon Air to ground all flights Sunday night, halting operations across the board. On Monday, the airline said that operations were coming back online. The airline requested a system-wide ground stop from federal aviation authorities at about 11 p.m. ET on Sunday night. That stop remained in effect until around 2 a.m. ET Monday, when the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed it had been lifted. But disruptions didn’t end there. A

Trouble Falling Asleep? I Tried This Viral Sleepy Girl Mocktail and the Results Surprised Me

My team of CNET sleep experts and I are always looking for the best ways of getting a good night's sleep. Between testing mattresses and researching melatonin supplements, we make time to fact-check viral social media videos. Naturally, when the "Sleepy Girl Mocktail" made its rounds on TikTok and Instagram last year, I had to test its claim of being a sleep-aid-free drink by trying it for myself. A week before I sat down to write this article, when the drink first became popular, I went to the

From idea to first check: Raising pre-seed and seed capital with Charles Hudson and Navin Chaddha at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

More than 10,000 founders, investors, and tech insiders will convene at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 27-29 for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 — one of the year’s most anticipated tech conferences. Of the 250+ tech leaders taking the stage, don’t miss this standout panel on the Builders Stage featuring two of the most respected early-stage investors in venture: Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures and Navin Chaddha of Mayfield. Their session dives into one of the toughest moments in any s

Installing apps on Linux? 4 ways it's different than any other OS - and mistakes to avoid

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET When I first started using Linux in the late 90s, there was really only one way to install an application. You would download the app, unpack the archive, run the ./configure command, build the app with make, and then install it with make install. Inevitably, when you ran through that course, you would stumble because of dependencies and have to locate the dependency, run through the same process as you just did (only with the new software), and then find out the ne

France launches criminal probe of X's alleged algorithm 'manipulation'

France is investigating whether X has manipulated its algorithm and engaged in "fraudulent data extraction." Prosecutors are looking into if the social media platform engaged in election interference. They launched the investigation on July 11, following reports in January. It has labelled X as an "organized gang." X's Global Government Affairs account issued a scathing breakdown of what it calls France's "politically-motivated criminal investigation" and its refusal to cooperate. The French g

My 8 ChatGPT Agent tests produced only 1 near-perfect result - and a lot of alternative facts

ZDNET Last week, OpenAI unveiled Agent, its new tool that combines the capabilities of Deep Research and Operator. Operator was OpenAI's first attempt at a computer-using model, a model that actually can open windows and click on user interface elements. ChatGPT Agent can do that and more. Right now, ChatGPT Agent is only available for $200/mo Pro tier subscribers and provides for 400 agent interactions per month. When the $20/mo Plus tier gains access to Agent, which should be today, those us

Topics: agent ai david time zdnet

Ryanair may increase commission to staff identifying oversized cabin bags

Ryanair has said that in a bid to "eliminate the scourge" of passengers bringing oversized baggage to the boarding gate, the airline is considering increasing the commission it pays staff for identifying them. Currently Ryanair employees are paid around €1.50 for every oversized cabin bag that they identify, and passengers are charged additional fees if their bag is deemed to be too large to bring on-board the plane. According to the airline's policy, passengers who bring cabin luggage - measu

The best SSDs for PS5 in 2025

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 . If you know you'll need more storage eventually, these are your best options for the PS5. If your PlayStation 5’s internal storage is starting to feel a little cramped, you’re not alone. With game installs regularly taking up over 100GB, expanding your storage is one of the easiest wa