AI researcher Timnit Gebru, known for co-authoring Google's 'stochastic parrots' paper on bias in large language models, says she does not believe AI poses an existential threat to humanity. She argues that framing dominates industry debate at the expense of more immediate harms caused by AI systems, and has clashed with figures including an Anthropic cofounder over whether her earlier bias research still applies to current models.
Nothing has unveiled the Headphone 1 Pro, a $399 flagship headphone in white or black that ships with a hardcase and adds a switch to disable the equalizer and spatial audio for accurate studio monitoring. Developed with London's Metropolis Studios, the headphones also support LDAC, 24-bit high-res audio, wireless lossless connections, Auracast transmit/receive, and three drivers tuned for bass, vocals and instruments. They carry an IP52 rating with up to 32 hours of battery life with ANC on and 68 hours with it off.
SpaceX's Starship completed its 14th test flight on Monday, achieving orbital insertion for the first time and deploying 26 of its new Starlink V3 satellites from Starbase in South Texas. The Super Heavy booster, using 33 Raptor engines, separated and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage suffered an early engine shutdown before restarting a Raptor engine to reach an orbit roughly 171 miles up. SpaceX confirmed contact with all 26 deployed satellites, each weighing about 2 metric tons.
A new 7-billion-parameter language model has been released specifically fine-tuned on cyber and DevOps datasets for both offensive and defensive security tasks. It runs locally on GPUs with as little as 8GB of memory, supports a native context window of 32K tokens, and can extend to 131K tokens using the YaRN scaling method. The developers note that unlike many security-branded models that merely apply a system prompt to a general model, this one has undergone genuine fine-tuning on domain-specific data.
Google Translate app teardown reveals an in-development "Auto-save transcript" toggle in Live Translate settings that would automatically store conversation transcripts on mobile without a manual save step. Code strings indicate this saving feature will be disabled entirely when the app is used through Android XR smart glasses. Separately, spotted UI changes would let users trigger translation on glasses via voice command and end sessions with a touchpad swipe.
Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel with over 620,000 X followers, worked as a civilian government employee under the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness, part of a task force targeting 'woke' content at military war colleges. WIRED reviewed years of his social media posts containing extremist and anti-democratic rhetoric, including a 2021 call for authoritarian crackdowns on liberals, which had not previously been reported alongside his Pentagon role.
Chinese company Zinwa Technologies plans to open pre-orders on October 3 for a fully assembled BlackBerry Passport revival called the P26, running Android inside the original Passport body. The device will pack a new chipset, USB-C port, and 12GB of RAM, with shipments expected by late October. Zinwa currently sells a DIY version of the kit for $620 excluding shipping, though pricing for the assembled unit hasn't been announced.
AYANEO has officially released the KONKR Pocket BLOCK, a Game Boy-style vertical Android handheld first shown in May. It comes in 2GB/32GB and 3GB/64GB configurations priced at $89 and $109 respectively, though AYANEO is currently offering promotional pricing of $79 and $99. The device features a 3.33-inch 960x720 LCD, a MediaTek Helio G85 chipset, a 3,500mAh battery, Android 12, and no analog sticks, with shipping starting late October in three color options.
An unofficial Android app called MotoKey Plus reprograms Motorola's dedicated AI key into a customizable button, assigning distinct functions to single press, double press, and press-and-hold. Users can set actions like flashlight, screenshots, media controls, notifications, Quick Settings, Gemini, or any installed app, with adjustable timing for taps and holds. The app is currently sideload-only, though its developer says a Google Play release is planned.
Images shared by WinFuture reveal an upcoming entry-level Kindle in light blue, green, and mauve color options alongside black. The leaked design also shows the power button moved from the bottom to the top right edge and more rounded screen corners compared to the 2024 model.
Satellite imagery shows NASA removed SR-71A Tail No. 844 from its static display pole at Armstrong Flight Research Center earlier this year and moved it into a hangar at Edwards Air Force Base for inspection and work by ground crews. Former SR-71A test engineers, including retiree Mike Relja, say NASA recently offered them consulting roles on the project, coordinated by special projects director David Ash, though Relja expressed doubt the aircraft could actually fly again given the lack of specialized support equipment.
Patrick Fitzsimmons examines the Bronze Age collapse, the abrupt decline of major eastern Mediterranean powers—including the Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians and Mycenaean Greeks—within a few centuries of the Battle of Kadesh around 1274 BC. The piece traces how these bureaucratically advanced, tax-collecting, army-raising civilizations largely vanished or shrank drastically, and questions the standard explanation involving droughts and invasions by the so-called Sea Peoples.
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