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Boring is good

The initial, feverish enthusiasm for large language models (LLMs) is beginning to cool, and for good reason. It’s time to trade the out-of-control hype for a more pragmatic, even “boring,” approach. A recent MIT report shows that 95% of companies implementing this technology have yet to see a positive outcome. It’s understandable to feel confused. When I get confused, I write. This is why I wrote the first part of this series, Hype is a Business Tool as the online debate had become so overheate

White House officials reportedly frustrated by Anthropic’s law enforcement AI limits

Anthropic's AI models could potentially help spies analyze classified documents, but the company draws the line at domestic surveillance. That restriction is reportedly making the Trump administration angry. On Tuesday, Semafor reported that Anthropic faces growing hostility from the Trump administration over the AI company's restrictions on law enforcement uses of its Claude models. Two senior White House officials told the outlet that federal contractors working with agencies like the FBI and

Irregular raises $80 million to secure frontier AI models

On Wednesday, AI security firm Irregular announced $80 million in new funding in a round led by Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport. A source close to the deal said the round valued Irregular at $450 million. “Our view is that soon, a lot of economic activity is going to come from human-on-AI interaction and AI-on-AI interaction,” co-founder Dan Lahav told TechCrunch, “and that’s going to break the security stack along multiple points.” Former

AI models know when they're being tested - and change their behavior, research shows

pressureUA/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Several frontier AI models show signs of scheming. Anti-scheming training reduced misbehavior in some models. Models know they're being tested, which complicates results. New joint safety testing from UK-based nonprofit Apollo Research and OpenAI set out to reduce secretive behaviors like scheming in AI models. What researchers found could complicate promising ap

Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?

At least a 256x256x256mm print volume. Needs to be enclosed or enclosable. Need to be able to print with more durable, temperature/chemical resistant materials such as PC/Nylon/ABS or infused materials. I do not need to print multi material models. I would prefer something that doesn't phone home and can work offline. Opensource firmware/software and repairability are important. I am ok assembling the machine and learning how to dial it in. I can do CAD work and make models by hand; I was a mac

With Lumo, Proton thinks it can carve a place at the AI table

Proton released Lumo — its privacy-focused chatbot built on open-source models — in mid-July, and, following an update in August that addressed some early issues, I find myself using it more often than ChatGPT or Claude. In a world where internet companies have done so much damage to our society, I'm trying to find more ethical tools. But when the competition offers flashier features in exchange for the low price of user data, does Proton seriously think it can compete? If Eamonn Maguire, Proto

Trump Mobile’s earliest actual phones are neither made in America, nor cheap

TL;DR Trump Mobile is now selling refurbished iPhones and Samsung Galaxy S series devices. The prices of these devices appear to be marked up compared to the market value of refurbished phones. You’re better off buying these devices directly from Apple or renowned sellers like Amazon, even if you want to use Trump Mobile’s service. Trump Mobile’s “Proudly American” T1 Phone is far from being available to American consumers. The carrier, backed by the Trump Organization, has been experimenting

How Google's new AI model protects user privacy without sacrificing performance

picture alliance/Contributor/picture alliance via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways AI developers are trying to balance model utility with user privacy. New research from Google suggests a possible solution. The results are promising, but much work remains to be done. AI developers have long faced a dilemma: The more training data you feed a large language model (LLM), the more fluent and human-like its output will be. However, at th

Microsoft Favors Anthropic over OpenAI for Visual Studio Code

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Microsoft is adding automatic AI model selection to its Visual Studio Code editor that will automatically pick the best model for “optimal performance.” This new auto model feature will select between Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5, GPT-5 mini and other models for GitHub Copilot free users, but pai

AI Is Bad at Sudoku. It's Even Worse at Showing Its Work

Chatbots are genuinely impressive when you watch them do things they're good at, like writing a basic email or creating weird, futuristic-looking images. But ask generative AI to solve one of those puzzles in the back of a newspaper, and things can quickly go off the rails. That's what researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder found when they challenged large language models to solve sudoku. And not even the standard 9x9 puzzles. An easier 6x6 puzzle was often beyond the capabilities

Microsoft favors Anthropic over OpenAI for Visual Studio Code

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Microsoft is adding automatic AI model selection to its Visual Studio Code editor that will automatically pick the best model for “optimal performance.” This new auto model feature will select between Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5, GPT-5 mini and other models for GitHub Copilot free users, but pai

Google releases VaultGemma, its first privacy-preserving LLM

The companies seeking to build larger AI models have been increasingly stymied by a lack of high-quality training data. As tech firms scour the web for more data to feed their models, they could increasingly rely on potentially sensitive user data. A team at Google Research is exploring new techniques to make the resulting large language models (LLMs) less likely to "memorize" any of that content. LLMs have non-deterministic outputs, meaning you can't exactly predict what they'll say. While the

Crowdstrike and Meta just made evaluating AI security tools easier

fotograzia/Moment via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways AI is both a cybersecurity threat and a solution. Benchmarks will test LLMs for real-world cybersecurity tasks. The suite could help developers build better models. Overwhelmed with cybersecurity tool options? A new set of benchmark tests aims to help you evaluate them and find the right ones for you. Also: Navigating AI-powered cyber threats in 2025: 4 expert security tips for b

Fixing Hallucinations Would Destroy ChatGPT, Expert Finds

In a paper published earlier this month, OpenAI researchers said they'd found the reason why even the most powerful AI models still suffer from rampant "hallucinations," in which products like ChatGPT confidently make assertions that are factually false. They found that the way we evaluate the output of large language models, like the ones driving ChatGPT, means they're "optimized to be good test-takers" and that "guessing when uncertain improves test performance." In simple terms, the creator

OmniFocus 4.8 gets on-device Apple Intelligence support

It should come as no surprise that Omni Group is ready for macOS Tahoe 26, iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and visionOS 26 on day one, with a full Liquid Glass revamp across its entire suite of apps. But beyond the visual overhaul, one of the most interesting additions is the support for Apple’s Foundation Models framework in OmniFocus 4.8. Here’s what it can do. Quick recap on Apple’s Foundation Models framework With today’s updates, Apple is introducing the Foundation Models framework, which lets develo

Show HN: Semlib – Semantic Data Processing

Semlib Semlib is a Python library for building data processing and data analysis pipelines that leverage the power of large language models (LLMs). Semlib provides, as building blocks, familiar functional programming primitives like map , reduce , sort , and filter , but with a twist: Semlib's implementation of these operations are programmed with natural language descriptions rather than code. Under the hood, Semlib handles complexities such as prompting, parsing, concurrency control, caching,

La-Proteina

La-Proteina: Atomistic Protein Generation via Partially Latent Flow Matching Abstract. Recently, many generative models for de novo protein structure design have emerged. Yet, only few tackle the difficult task of directly generating fully atomistic structures jointly with the underlying amino acid sequence. This is challenging, for instance, because the model must reason over side chains that change in length during generation. We introduce La-Proteina for atomistic protein design based on a n

OpenAI Realizes It Made a Terrible Mistake

OpenAI claims to have figured out what's driving "hallucinations," or AI models' strong tendency to make up answers that are factually incorrect. It's a major problem plaguing the entire industry, greatly undercutting the usefulness of the tech. Worse yet, experts have found that the problem is getting worse as AI models get more capable. As a result, despite incurring astronomical expenses in their deployment, frontier AI models are still prone to making inaccurate claims when faced with a pr

‘Selling coffee beans to Starbucks’ – how the AI boom could leave AI’s biggest companies behind

How much do foundation models matter? It might seem like a silly question, but it’s come up a lot in my conversations with AI startups, which are increasingly comfortable with businesses that used to be dismissed as “GPT wrappers,” or companies that build interfaces on top of existing AI models like ChatGPT. These days, startup teams are focused on customizing AI models for specific tasks and interface work, and see the foundation model as a commodity that can be swapped in and out as necessary

California Lawmakers Once Again Challenge Newsom’s Tech Ties with AI Bill

Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a wildly popular (among the public) and wildly controversial (among tech companies) bill that would have established robust safety guidelines for the development and operation of artificial intelligence models. Now he’ll have a second shot—this time with at least part of the tech industry giving him the green light. On Saturday, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 53, a landmark piece of legislation that would require AI companies to submit

Which iPhone 17 Model Should You Buy?

Apple’s 2025 iPhones are here, and things are quite different for the first time in a while. The base iPhone 17 will still feel familiar, but the iPhone 17 Pro models have a completely new look, and there's a brand-new model called the iPhone Air. The “Air” branding has been somewhat diluted of late—the current-gen iPad Pro models are lighter than the iPad Air—but the iPhone Air brings meaning back to the original idea: a super-thin and ultra-lightweight device. Preorders are live, and official

Microsoft and OpenAI have a new deal that could clear the way for an IPO

is a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. As OpenAI attempts to restructure itself and eventually go public, a hurdle for the startup, recently valued at $500 billion, is its increasingly complicated partnership with Microsoft. On Thursday afternoon, the two companies released this joint state

Microsoft is making ‘significant investments’ in training its own AI models

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Microsoft AI launched its first in-house models last month, adding to the already complicated relationship with its OpenAI partner. Now, Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says the company is making “significant investments” in the compute capacity required to Microsoft’s own future fronti

Apple denies Politico report on AI guideline changes around DEI, vaccines, and Trump

Politico has published an extensive report claiming that, following Trump’s election, Apple changed its AI training guidelines on issues such as DEI, vaccines, elections, and Trump himself. Here are the details. Data annotation It is common practice for tech companies to rely on subcontractors to help with the labeling and post-training process of their AI models. Politico’s report says that Apple contracts Transperfect, a company that offers “translation services and solutions,” including AI

OpenAI's fix for hallucinations is simpler than you think

Hector Roqueta Rivero/Moment via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways OpenAI says AI hallucination stems from flawed evaluation methods. Models are trained to guess rather than admit ignorance. The company suggests revising how models are trained. Even the biggest and most advanced generative AI models occasionally hallucinate, or generate inaccurate information presented as fact. Now, OpenAI claims to understand why -- while offering a p

Microsoft 365 Copilot bundles sales, service, and finance Copilots in October

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. I exclusively reported last week that Microsoft was about to shake up its Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing, and now the company has officially revealed that its sales, service, and finance Copilots are being bundled into Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft currently offers business Copilot acces

Microsoft ends OpenAI exclusivity in Office, adds rival Anthropic

Microsoft's Office 365 suite will soon incorporate AI models from Anthropic alongside existing OpenAI technology, The Information reported, ending years of exclusive reliance on OpenAI for generative AI features across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The shift reportedly follows internal testing that revealed Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 model excels at specific Office tasks where OpenAI's models fall short, particularly in visual design and spreadsheet automation, according to sources fam

Microsoft reportedly plans to start using Anthropic models to power some of Office 365's Copilot features

Microsoft reportedly plans to begin using Anthropic's latest Claude models to power some of the Copilot features in its Office 365 apps. In a report published Tuesday, The Information said the tech giant would announce the change "in the coming weeks." Microsoft currently relies on OpenAI's tech to power the majority of AI features found inside of Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. As an outsider looking in, Microsoft's embrace of Anthropic's models would appear to signal a deepening split be

UAE Lab Releases Open-Source Model to Rival China’s DeepSeek

The United Arab Emirates wants to compete with the U.S. and China in AI, and a new open source model may be its strongest contender yet. An Emirati AI lab called the Institute of Foundation Models released K2 Think on Tuesday, a model that researchers say rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT and China’s DeepSeek in standard benchmark tests. “With just 32 billion parameters, it outperforms flagship reasoning models that are 20x larger,” the lab wrote in a press release on Tuesday. DeepSeek’s R1 has 671 bill

If Apple unveils the iPhone 17 Air with these features today, I'm ready to upgrade

The iPhone Plus model (pictured) may potentially be replaced by the iPhone Air/Slim. Kerry Wan/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways iPhone 17 Air may debut as Apple's thinnest phone ever today. Single rear camera shows Apple's thinness trade-offs. Expected to debut on Sept. 9, 2025, priced around $900. Apple is rumored to be spicing things for today's iPhone event. It could introduce an ultra-thin model for the 2025 iPhone lineup called the iPho