Latest Tech News

Stay updated with the latest in technology, AI, cybersecurity, and more

Filtered by: pe Clear Filter

ThinkMesh: A Python lib for parallel thinking in LLMs

ThinkMesh ThinkMesh is a python library for running diverse reasoning paths in parallel, scoring them with internal confidence signals, reallocates compute to promising branches, and fuses outcomes with verifiers and reducers. It works with offline Hugging Face Transformers and vLLM/TGI, and with hosted APIs. Note: This is still in it's early development phase and breaking changes can sometimes occur Highlights Parallel reasoning with DeepConf‑style confidence gating and budget reallocation

'Peacemaker' Season 2 Release Schedule: Here's When You Can Watch Episode 2

John Cena may be on the verge of wrestling retirement, but that doesn't mean the man hasn't stayed busy. Case in point: Peacemaker has returned for new episodes. James Gunn's inaugural DC Universe original series first hit streaming in 2022, and season 2 is now upon us. Who says good things don't come to those who wait? Season 2 picks up where the DCU series left Cena's flawed hero: He's still working out his toxic past and trying to figure out where he fits in the present. Needless to say, it

Is It Ever Legal—or Ethical—to Remove DRM?

Whatever you think about Digital Rights Management software, it's hard to argue with the fact that it's annoying. Such technology exists, in theory, to protect the intellectual property of the companies that create music, movies, and games, but it can also get in the way of you enjoying books, music, and videos the way you want to. Say, for example, that you bought a bunch of books on the Amazon Kindle platform but later decided you wanted to switch to a Kobo device (or vice versa). The DRM sys

What if every city had a London Overground?

An underground train network is the pinnacle of public transport—right now, in New York and Chicago, Paris and Berlin, Tokyo and Beijing, people are being whisked through a network of tunnels, deep below the bustling city. In London, which has the oldest rapid transit system in the world, the Tube isn’t just public transportation—it’s famous as the beating heart of the city, assisting up to five million passenger journeys a day. Formally known as the London Underground, the Tube’s logo is soon r

Agentic Browser Security: Indirect Prompt Injection in Perplexity Comet

This is the first post in a series about security and privacy challenges in agentic browsers. This vulnerability research was conducted by Artem Chaikin (Senior Mobile Security Engineer), and was written by Artem and Shivan Kaul Sahib (VP, Privacy and Security). The threat of instruction injection At Brave, we’re developing the ability for our in-browser AI assistant Leo to browse the Web on your behalf, acting as your agent. Instead of just asking “Summarize what this page says about London f

The cost of interrupted work (2023)

Interruptions cost 23 minutes 15 seconds, right? 2023-11-05 You’ve likely read lots of blog posts stating that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to work after an interruption, context switch, or meeting. Thus, “do you have five minutes” ends up not only costing those few minutes, but instead about half an hour. But where does that number come from? I just wanted to quickly reference this fact to a colleague. Quick search for the reference, copy’n’paste it, in and out, 20 minutes

AI Isn't Human and We Need to Stop Treating It That Way, Says Microsoft AI CEO

Microsoft AI's CEO Mustafa Suleyman is clear: AI is not human and does not possess a truly human consciousness. But the warp-speed advancement of generative AI is making that harder and harder to recognize. The consequences are potentially disastrous, he wrote Tuesday in an essay on his personal blog. Suleyman's 4,600-word treatise is a timely reaction to a growing phenomenon of AI users ascribing human-like qualities of consciousness to AI tools. It's not an unreasonable reaction; it's human n

ChatGPT-5 Impressions: Fast, but a Bit Impersonal

ChatGPT-5 likes getting straight to the point. For some, that's a reprieve from its chattier predecessor, GPT-4o. For others, something will certainly seem off. Despite the hype leading up to OpenAI's launch of GPT-5, it ultimately doesn't feel too different from 4o. The quality of responses in my ongoing testing seems to be at the level of past models, including the o3 "reasoning" model. The major difference is that some responses generate very quickly in relatively few words, while others ca

Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Aug. 24

Gael Cooper CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

Apple might release a cheaper MacBook soon, but you shouldn’t wait for it

Last month, we heard some news from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo about Apple entering a new segment of the laptop market. The company is reportedly working on a new MacBook at a lower starting price point than the MacBook Air, and it’ll apparently pack the A18 Pro chip found in iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. While a cheaper MacBook is certainly a welcome add, the question truly stands: will Apple do it properly, or will it serve as another decoy model? Rumor refresh To quickly recap, the cheape

See How David Corenswet Became Superman in His Audition Tape

The world was abuzz with speculation just a few years ago when it came time for James Gunn to cast his new Superman. Even before the part ultimately went to David Corenswet, he was being floated around as a likely candidate, and now you can watch how he got the part. YouTube account 21Casting posted the actor’s audition tape, which he performed with his wife Julia Warner. The three-minute video features him as Clark Kent being interviewed as Superman by Lois Lane over his intervention in Biayla

OpenAI warns against SPVs and other ‘unauthorized’ investments

In Brief In a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs. “We urge you to be careful if you are contacted by a firm that purports to have access to OpenAI, including through the sale of an SPV interest with exposure to OpenAI equity,” the company writes. The blog post acknowledges that “not every offer of OpenAI equity […] is problematic” but says firms may be “attempt

AI Experts No Longer Saving for Retirement Because They Assume AI Will Kill Us All by Then

The meteoric rise of artificial intelligence has instilled an existential fear in "AI doomers," a subset of people who believe the tech will cause humans to lose their jobs, fall prey to a dominating species of rogue superintelligent AIs, and even eventually get wiped out altogether. And, as The Atlantic reports, some are taking that pervasive fear to striking extremes in their daily lives. Machine Intelligence Research Institute researcher Nate Soares, for instance, told the magazine that he's

Topics: ai ais like openai tech

The Average Person Is Far More Scared of AI Than Excited by It, Studies Find

AI is dominating the economy and at the top of policy agendas. Ads for it are everywhere. Your favorite artist is probably experimenting with it. And as hundreds of billions of dollars get poured into the tech, it can feel like the whole world is holding its breath for when it somehow becomes superintelligent and magically ushers us into a utopic age. The optimism is breathless and inescapable. But if you're feeling anxious about AI, you're not alone. An overwhelming 71 percent of Americans ar

Waymo can now test its self-driving vehicles in New York City

Waymo can now test its self-driving cars in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has announced. Local authorities have granted the company the permit needed to be able to test autonomous vehicles in parts of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. It's the first-ever permit for the "testing deployment" of AVs the city has granted. Waymo will be able to deploy a fleet with up to eight vehicles in the city until late September 2025. For now, though, the permit only allows Waymo to test its AVs with drivers be

I tested these viral 'crush-proof' Bluetooth speakers, and they're not your average portables

Turtlebox Original Gen 3 ZDNET's key takeaways The Turtlebox Original Gen 3 speaker is available in five colors, retailing for $430. It's considerably more durable beyond waterproofing capabilities, making it a solid option for outdoor enthusiasts. Despite its incredible durability, it lacks any sound customization features. $450 at Amazon Best test deals of the week Test 1 : $5 (save $5) Test 2 : $10 (save $7) Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this

An inner-speech decoder reveals some mental privacy issues

Most experimental brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that have been used for synthesizing human speech have been implanted in the areas of the brain that translate the intention to speak into the muscle actions that produce it. A patient has to physically attempt to speak to make these implants work, which is tiresome for severely paralyzed people. To go around it, researchers at the Stanford University built a BCI that could decode inner speech—the kind we engage in silent reading and use for al

Best Hair Dryer: Rigorous Testing in Real Apartments (2025)

Compare Top 7 Hair Dryers Product Weight Wattage Settings Attachments Price Dyson Supersonic Nural 1.8 pounds 1600 watts 4 heat; 3 speed Wave + curl diffuser, styling concentrator, gentle air attachment, wide tooth comb, and flyaway attachment $500 Conair SmoothWrap InfinitiPro 2.12 pounds 1,875 watts 3 heat; 2 speed Diffuser and concentrator $71 Dyson Supersonic r 0.7 pounds 1,700 watts 4 heat; 3 speed Diffuser, wide-tooth comb, professional concentrator, airflow attachment, and flyaway smooth

This $5,000 gaming rig blew me away

Alienware Area-51 Gaming Desktop The Alienware Area 51 is the ultimate pre-built gaming PC for anyone who wants top-tier performance without the headaches of building their own. It’s pricey and massive, but if you’ve got the space and budget, it delivers a plug-and-play experience that’s both powerful and future-proof. Don’t get me wrong, building a PC from scratch is fun. I’ve built over five computers at this point, and each one has taught me something new. But not everyone wants to go throug

Apple reportedly prepping enterprise AI support beyond ChatGPT

On personal iPhones, users can decide whether they want Apple Intelligence to connect to ChatGPT. But on corporate devices, things can be trickier. That’s why Apple is reportedly adding support for enterprise accounts, but in a way that extends beyond its current OpenAI partnership. Here are the details. As reported by TechCrunch, with the upcoming iOS 26 update, Apple will add “the ability to configure the use of an enterprise version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT,” which offers different privacy settin

OpenCUA’s open source computer-use agents rival proprietary models from OpenAI and Anthropic

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 A new framework from researchers at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and collaborating institutions provides an open source foundation for creating robust AI agents that can operate computers. The framework, called OpenCUA, includes the tools, data, and recipes for scaling the development of computer-use agents (CUAs). Models trained usin

Meta to unveil Hypernova smart glasses with a display, wristband at Connect next month

In this article META Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Sept. 25, 2024. Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters Meta is planning to use its annual Connect conference next month to announce a deeper push into smart glasses, including the launch of the company's first consumer-ready glasses with a display, CNBC has learned. That's one of the two new devices Meta

Meta set to unveil first consumer-ready smart glasses with a display, wristband next month

In this article META Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Sept. 25, 2024. Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters Meta is planning to use its annual Connect conference next month to announce a deeper push into smart glasses, including the launch of the company's first consumer-ready glasses with a display, CNBC has learned. That's one of the two new devices Meta

Cybersecurity firm Netskope files to go public on the Nasdaq

Sanjay Beri, chief executive officer and founder of Netskope Inc., listens during a Bloomberg West television interview in San Francisco, California. Cloud security platform Netskope will go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "NTSK," the company said in an initial public offering filing Friday. The Santa Clara, California-based company said annual recurring revenue grew 33% to $707 million, while revenues jumped 31% to about $328 million in the first half of the year. But Netskope i

We Tried Universal’s Radical (and Rad-Filled) ‘Fallout’ Food for Halloween Horror Nights

Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights is bringing the wasteland from Fallout to life in more ways than the haunted house inspired by the hit Prime Video show and video game. io9 was recently invited to HHN Hollywood’s food tasting to try the frightful fare coming to the spooky season haunt event. We had the option to preview selections from menu items and merch inspired by this year’s slate of horror IPs coming to the theme park, including Terrifier, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and the Jason (

‘Birds of Prey’ Almost Featured Another DC Bird: The Penguin

Before Colin Farrell became the Penguin in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the character almost had a different origin story in the DC Universe. According to star and producer Margot Robbie, early versions of the script for her Harley Quinn vehicle Birds of Prey, featured the iconic Batman villain as the main antagonist, but then someone stepped in and asked that not to happen. “Matt Reeves said, ‘Don’t use the Penguin. I’m going to use him in my thing,'” Robbie explained to Farrell in an interview wi

Does MHz Still Matter?

Does MHz still matter? Furkan Sahin Senior Software Engineer To provide VMs of any size, we slice bare metal into smaller VMs, sometimes even 1 vCPU. So, the performance of one fast core matters a lot. We evaluated new servers from Hetzner with AMD EPYC and Ryzen CPUs to add to our fleet. Ryzen is a CPU from AMD’s gaming line-up and it has better single core performance numbers compared to the EPYC which is a standard datacenter CPU. We weren’t sure if Ryzen’s single core edge would show up in

Autonomous Vehicles to Hit the Streets of NYC for the First Time

As if New York’s taxi drivers didn’t get squeezed enough by the Ubers and Lyfts of the world, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Friday that the New York Department of Transportation has granted Google’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary, Waymo, a permit to test its self-driving cars in the city. It’ll be the first fully self-driving car to operate within the city. Waymo will roll out eight vehicles in New York City starting in September, and they will operate in Manhattan and Downtown Bro

On an eligible Verizon plan? Don’t forget to activate your Play Pass perk before its too late

TL;DR As promised, Verizon will end its Google Play Pass promotion for Get More and Play More Unlimited plans starting September 25, 2025. The perk had been available as a promotional add-on for Android users with eligible Unlimited plans. The good news is that customers who had already activated Play Pass will get an extra six months of free access before needing to pay Google directly. As first spotted by a Redditor named pntless on the Verizon subreddit, a new email is going out to legacy