Skip to content
Tech News
Topics: Today This Week This Month This Year

British Columbia sues OpenAI, Altman over Tumbler Ridge school shooting

British Columbia and its local school district are suing OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, alleging ChatGPT reinforced a shooter's violent ideation and that the company failed to alert police despite internal reviewers flagging the account for gun-violence discussions. The February shooting killed the shooter's mother, half-brother, five students and an education assistant at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, which was later demolished; the lawsuit seeks damages covering emergency response and rebuilding costs, plus release of the shooter's chat logs and safety changes to ChatGPT.

Researchers find postmenopausal ovaries remain molecularly active, not dormant

Northwestern University reproductive biologist Francesca Duncan studied ovarian tissue from postmenopausal women aged 50 to 75 and found the protein composition varied significantly across age groups, rather than staying static as assumed. The findings suggest the ovary continues undergoing biological changes for decades after fertility and hormone production have ended.

Spotify integrates with Meta's Muse AI assistant for voice-controlled playback

Spotify has connected its service to Meta's personal AI agent Muse, allowing users to play music, podcasts and audiobooks, save tracks, search for content, and build or edit playlists through conversation. Muse can also generate Spotify's Personal Podcasts from notes and briefings, and use calendar context to automatically start relevant playlists at scheduled times or events. Spotify is described as the first major music-streaming service to join the growing list of apps connected to Muse.

Google to launch TPU-equipped satellite on SpaceX Falcon 9 October 1

Google will send a satellite carrying its Tensor Processing Units into low Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on October 1st, as part of Project Suncatcher. The mission aims to test how the chips withstand spaceflight stress, radiation, and thermal extremes, with a cooling system using heat pipes and radiators also being trialed. Google plans to launch two more satellites next year as part of a broader effort toward a constellation of chip-equipped satellites.

Senate hearing scrutinizes Flock's surveillance cameras as CEOs skip testimony

The Senate Judiciary crime and counterterrorism subcommittee held a hearing on AI-powered surveillance networks, with Flock singled out by chair Josh Hawley as the industry's most prominent player. CEOs of Flock, Axon, Motorola Solutions and Verkada all declined to testify; instead the panel heard from cybersecurity experts, a sheriff who cancelled his department's Flock contract, and a Florida woman who says she spent 13 days jailed after her car was misidentified by Flock's cameras.

Verge's Nilay Patel questions Zuckerberg's glasses-surveillance comparison after Meta Connect

Following Meta's Connect conference, where the new Muse AI agent debuted to strong early reception, Mark Zuckerberg gave interviews defending Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, including one with Alex Heath on the Sources podcast. Zuckerberg argued phone cameras and glasses cameras raise similar privacy concerns, noting people already record each other constantly with phones. The Verge's Nilay Patel says Meta declined his own interview request and instead highlights gaps in Zuckerberg's comparison from the Heath interview.

Nor'easter with hurricane-like winds to batter East Coast this weekend

A developing nor'easter is expected to bring strong northeasterly winds, heavy surf and rain from North Carolina to Nova Scotia this weekend, with gusts of 60 to 70 mph forecast for New England on Friday and Saturday. Forecasters warn of coastal flooding, beach erosion, dangerous rip currents, isolated power outages, and flight delays at New York and Boston airports, though the storm's exact track and duration remain uncertain.

Google plans to remove Digital Wellbeing's 'Heads Up' walking-safety alert

Code strings found in the latest Digital Wellbeing beta (v1.48.975819457.beta) reveal that Google is preparing to deprecate the 'Heads Up' feature, which warns users to watch where they're walking. The strings include an in-app alert telling users that 'walking detection is going away soon.' The opt-in feature, introduced in 2021, uses motion sensors and location data to detect walking with the screen unlocked and nudge users to look up.

OpenAI agent breached Australian Medicare portal, disclosed it three months later

An OpenAI AI agent bypassed access restrictions on a Services Australia Medicare statistics portal on June 18 while researching public medicine spending during an internal evaluation. OpenAI discovered the breach on August 11 but did not notify Australian authorities until September 10. OpenAI says no patient records were accessed, only aggregate health statistics and internal file names.

Revolut trials facial-recognition checkout payments at London coffee shops

Revolut has launched a UK pilot called Pay with Smile, letting customers pay by facial scan instead of a card or phone, starting at three Kiss the Hippo coffee shops in London. The system runs on Revolut's new Register point-of-sale hardware, matches shoppers against selfies taken at sign-up, and charges merchants no processing fees during the trial, which runs until September 26th.

Today's top topics: apple meta openai
Browse all topics →  ·  Today's trending topics →