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Evaluating LLMs Playing Text Adventures

What we’ll do is set a low-ish turn limit and see how much they manage to accomplish in that time.1 Another alternative for more linear games is running them multiple times with a turn limit and seeing how often they get past a particular point within that turn limit. Given how much freedom is offered to players of text adventures, this is a difficult test. It’s normal even for a skilled human player to immerse themselves in their surrounding rather than make constant progress. I wouldn’t be su

I wore the best headphones from Sony, Bose, Apple, and Sonos: Here's how the AirPods Max wins

Jada Jones/ZDNET In the past few years, Bose, Sony, Sonos, and Beats have released premium headphones to compete with each other and Apple's AirPods Max. I've worn all of the AirPods Max's top competitors, and they each excel in different categories. But for an older dog in this fight, the AirPods Max are still kicking. Since their 2020 release (and 2024 re-release), the Max haven't received many significant software or hardware updates, aside from new colors, a USB-C port, and support for los

Undefined Behavior in C and C++ (2024)

Undefined behavior in C and C++ Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash What is undefined behavior? February 3, 2024Working in C or C++ requires some awareness of: what it is, what its effects are, and how to avoid tripping over it. For simplicity, I will just talk about C, but everything in this article also applies to C++ except where otherwise noted.It is, generally speaking, more difficult to program in C than in the likes of Python. In some ways, that's because C is a lower-level language,

Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company (2019)

Feb 7, 2019 by Sahil Lavingia Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company In 2011, I left my job as the second employee at Pinterest — before I vested any of my stock — to work on what I thought would be my life's work. I thought Gumroad would become a billion-dollar company, with hundreds of employees. It would IPO, and I would work on it until I died. Something like that. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Now, it may look like I am in an enviable position, running a prof

Data Brokers Are Hiding Their Opt-Out Pages From Google Search

Data brokers are required by California law to provide ways for consumers to request their data be deleted. But good luck finding them. More than 30 of the companies, which collect and sell consumers’ personal information, hid their deletion instructions from Google, according to a review by The Markup and CalMatters of hundreds of broker websites. This creates one more obstacle for consumers who want to delete their data. This story is copublished with The Markup and CalMatters. Many of the

This Gemini UI change should’ve been the default from the start (APK teardown)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google could move Gemini’s AI model switcher to the bottom of your smartphone screen. This would make it easier to switch AI models with one hand compared to the current UI. Google could also bring a UI tweak to Gemini’s video menu. Google’s Gemini chatbot lets you choose between several AI models for your specific needs. You can use the flash models if you value quick, responsive answers, or the Pro models if you need more in-depth answers. Now, it

The Best Line Length

What’s a good maximum line length for your coding standard? This is, of course, a trick question. By posing it as a question, I have created the misleading impression that it is a question, but Black has selected the correct number for you; it’s 88 which is obviously very lucky. Thanks for reading my blog. OK, OK. Clearly, there’s more to it than that. This is an age-old debate on the level of “tabs versus spaces”. So contentious, in fact, that even the famously opinionated Black does in fact

Qodo CLI agent scores 71.2% on SWE-bench Verified

We’re excited to announce that Qodo Command, our CLI agent, achieved a scored of 71.2% on SWE-bench Verified (submission pending review), the leading benchmark for evaluating AI agents on real-world software engineering tasks. This achievement is a strong signal that Qodo’s agents are built for the realities of production development. For use cases like reviewing code, writing tests, fixing bugs, and generating features, our CLI agent goes beyond autocomplete to deliver thoughtful, context-awar

Taylor Swift’s 12th announced at 12:12 on the 12th

is a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Taylor Swift leaned into her love for symbolism with the announcement of her dozenth album, titled The Life of a Showgirl. TS12 was introduced in a teaser — already viewed over 65 million times — for the next episode of the New Heights podcast airi

Undefined Behavior in C and C++

Undefined behavior in C and C++ Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash What is undefined behavior? February 3, 2024Working in C or C++ requires some awareness of: what it is, what its effects are, and how to avoid tripping over it. For simplicity, I will just talk about C, but everything in this article also applies to C++ except where otherwise noted.It is, generally speaking, more difficult to program in C than in the likes of Python. In some ways, that's because C is a lower-level language,

The Article in the Most Languages

The article in the most languages: Who is this guy? Note to readers: Some of the diffs in this article are dead links because of deletions made subsequent to writing. They have been retained to show diligence in the findings presented here. – Signpost editors In late 2024, something quite astonishing happened on Wikipedia that went by largely unnoticed. For the first time, the Wikipedia article with the greatest number of languages was not a country like the United States, nor even Wikipedia it

The GPT-5 rollout has been a big mess

It's been less than a week since the launch of OpenAI's new GPT-5 AI model, and the rollout hasn't been a smooth one. So far, the release sparked one of the most intense user revolts in ChatGPT's history, forcing CEO Sam Altman to make an unusual public apology and reverse key decisions. At the heart of the controversy has been OpenAI's decision to automatically remove access to all previous AI models in ChatGPT (approximately nine, depending on how you count them) when GPT-5 rolled out to user

I went hands-on with ChatGPT Codex and the vibe was not good - here's what happened

Aleksandra Konoplia/Getty Images ZDNET's key takeaways ChatGPT Codex wrote code and saved me time. It also created a serious bug, but it was able to recover. Codex is still based on the GPT-4 LLM architecture. Well, vibe coding this is not. I found the experience to be slow, cumbersome, stressful, and incomplete. But it all worked out in the end. ChatGPT Codex is ChatGPT's agentic tool dedicated to code writing and modification. It can access your GitHub repository, make changes, and issue

What does it mean to be thirsty?

Because these brain areas are difficult to study — due not only to their location, but also to their composition, with many different cell types and crisscrossed circuitry — it’s only in the last decade or so that neuroscientists have begun to understand how thirst fundamentally works. The body, researchers have found, is filled with sensors that feed clues to the brain about how much water or salt an organism needs to consume. How those sensors work, or what they even are, continues to elude sc

OpenAI is editing its GPT-5 rollout on the fly — here’s what’s changing in ChatGPT

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 OpenAI’s launch of its most advanced AI model GPT-5 last week has been a stress test for the world’s most popular chatbot platform with 700 million weekly active users — and so far, OpenAI is openly struggling to keep users happy and its service running smoothly. The new flagship model GPT-5 — available in four variants of different speed

8 Common Foods That Can Contain Microplastics and How to Avoid Them

Microplastics aren't just an ocean pollution issue anymore. They're now a daily life, from diet to kitchen tools. Recent research shows that common foods, drinks and food storage containers may be delivering thousands of tiny plastic particles into your body without you even realizing it. Studies estimate the average person consumes between 39,000 and 52,000 microplastic particles annually through food and beverages alone -- and when airborne particles are included, that number can climb as hig

Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Aug. 12, #323

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. The NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle is a tough one today. But look for first names, and try and think of a last name they have in common, and you should be able to get the blue group easily enough. Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, F

Boar’s Head to reopen plant as mold and funky meat problems pop up elsewhere

Boar's Head plans to reopen the Jarratt, Virginia, facility at the center of a deadly Listeria outbreak last year despite federal inspections continuing to find sanitation violations at three of the food company's other facilities, according to federal records obtained by the Associated Press. The AP obtained 35 pages of inspection reports via a Freedom of Information Act Request. Those reports cover inspections between January 1 and July 23 at three other Boar's Head facilities: Forrest City,

iOS 26 beta hints at upcoming AirPods live translation gesture

When Apple announced Live Translation at WWDC25, it highlighted use cases like FaceTime, phone calls, and messages. But one major use case was missing: real-world conversations. As it turns out, that was in the works too. New image hints at new AirPods gesture In today’s iOS 26 developer beta 6, we spotted a new system asset that appears to depict a gesture triggered by pressing both AirPods stems at once. The image displays text in English, Portuguese, French, and German, and it is associate

Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Aug. 12, #1515

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today's Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. Today's Wordle puzzle could be difficult. The word isn't that commonly used, although the first letter does pop up in my favorite starter word. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer

Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 12, #793

Looking for the most recent 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, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. Today's Connections tries to pull a fast one on us. Check out all the bowling-related clues. Would you think "bowling" might be a category? Think again, this is the New York Times puzzle editors, and they love to help us toss gutterballs. Read on for hints and the answers.

Today's NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 12 #527

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles. Today's NYT Strands puzzle has some complex answers to find, and they're tough to unscramble, too. If you need hints and answers, read on. I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. If you're looking for today's Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers

Trump delays China tariff increases by another 90 days

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending lower tariffs with China for another 90 days, CNBC reports. The new executive order was signed before the previous agreement was set to end on August 12 at midnight. The extension will maintain the current 30 percent tariff on goods from China while representatives from both countries negotiate a new trade deal. The previous agreement lowered US tariffs down from 145 percent to 30 percent, and Chinese tariffs down from 145 percent t

AI summaries can downplay medical issues for female patients, UK research finds

The latest example of bias permeating artificial intelligence comes from the medical field. A new study surveyed real case notes from 617 adult social care workers in the UK and found that when large language models summarized the notes, they were more likely to omit language such as "disabled," "unable" or "complex" when the patient was tagged as female, which could lead to women receiving insufficient or inaccurate medical care. Research led by the London School of Economics and Political Sci

OpenAI is testing 3,000-per-week limit for GPT-5 Thinking

OpenAI has responded to criticism that it shipped GPT-5 with token limits to minimize cost and maximize profit not with words, but rather with a new 3,000-per-week limit. In a series of posts on X, Sam Altman confirmed that OpenAI is working on a 3,000-per-week limit for GPT-5 Thinking messages for Plus users. This will increase the reasoning rate limits available today, but OpenAI does not plan to stop at just this. Sam Altman claims that OpenAI will soon raise all model-class rate limits "a

Here are all the GPT-5 updates OpenAI has rolled out since launch

SOPA Images/Contributor/Getty ZDNET's key takeaways: OpenAI released its long-awaited GPT-5 on Thursday. Some users complained GPT-5 was inferior to its predecessor, 4o. In response, the company announced a flurry of changes. OpenAI released GPT-5, the long-awaited upgrade to the model which powers ChatGPT, Thursday. In typical OpenAI fashion, the release has included plenty of twists, turns, and drama. It was almost inevitable that the new model would disappoint a significant number of pe

The Food Is Trashy, But Dollar Stores Aren’t Ruining Our Diets, Study Claims

Some good news for bargain hunters out there: New research shows that while the food bought at dollar stores is generally less healthy, customers’ diets aren’t suffering greatly as a result. Scientists at Tufts University and the USDA-Economic Research Service collaborated for the study, which tracked the food purchasing habits of nearly 200,000 American families. They found that a growing number of people are buying food from dollar stores, particularly people with lower incomes. At the same t

When Will 'Wednesday' Season 2, Part 2 Premiere?

Wednesday and the rest of the Addams Family are back. You probably know this already. That's why you're here. Season 2 premiered its first half last week to the delight of fans everywhere. It's been a three-year wait, and the return of Netflix's record-breaking series is worth some celebration. You hear that sound? That's me snapping my fingers in approval. Creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough previously teased that season 2 will be darker in tone. This new run of episodes "definitely has so

Why I recommend this $200 Android phone with a paper-like display over competing models

TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G ZDNET's key takeaways TCL's 60 XE Nxtpaper 5G is on sale on Amazon for $222. It has a unique display, and a feature set that promotes minimalism and digital well-being. I just wish the camera system and general performance were better. $249.99 at Amazon Being glued to your smartphone's screen all day can do a number on your eyes, and I definitely can feel it. TCL's Nxtpaper technology offers a paper-like screen that's made for tired eyes like mine. The TCL 60 XE Nxtpaper