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Why do we keep gravitating toward complexity?

The Great Pyramids took decades to build. It was a monumental feat of human ingenuity and collaboration. Today, we software developers erect our own pyramids each day - not from stone, but from code. Yet despite far more advanced tools, these systems don’t always make the experience better. So why, when KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is a well-known mantra, do we keep gravitating toward complexity? Marketing > Simplicity Sell me this pen: ✎ What? You don’t know how? Okay, instead, sell me this

Magical systems thinking

The systems that enable modern life share a common origin. The water supply, the internet, the international supply chains bringing us cheap goods: each began life as a simple, working system. The first electric grid was no more than a handful of electric lamps hooked up to a water wheel in Godalming, England, in 1881. It then took successive decades of tinkering and iteration by thousands of very smart people to scale these systems to the advanced state we enjoy today. At no point did a single

Magical Systems Thinking

The systems that enable modern life share a common origin. The water supply, the internet, the international supply chains bringing us cheap goods: each began life as a simple, working system. The first electric grid was no more than a handful of electric lamps hooked up to a water wheel in Godalming, England, in 1881. It then took successive decades of tinkering and iteration by thousands of very smart people to scale these systems to the advanced state we enjoy today. At no point did a single

I unified convolution and attention into a single framework

The operational primitives of deep learning, primarily matrix multiplication and convolution, exist as a fragmented landscape of highly specialized tools. This paper introduces the Generalized Windowed Operation (GWO), a theoretical framework that unifies these operations by decomposing them into three orthogonal components: Path, defining operational locality; Shape, defining geometric structure and underlying symmetry assumptions; and Weight, defining feature importance. We elevate this f

Encyclopedia Britannica Wants Perplexity to Stop Using Its Logos When AI Makes Stuff Up

Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines the verb plagiarize as "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source." And that's exactly what its parent company, Encyclopedia Britannica, is alleging the AI company Perplexity did with its AI answers engine, according to a complaint filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. AI companies like Perplexity are no strangers to copyright infringeme

Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster sue Perplexity for copying their definitions

is a NYC-based AI reporter and is currently supported by the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism. She covers AI companies, policies, and products. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. The AI web search company Perplexity is being hit by another lawsuit alleging copyright and trademark infringement, this time from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster. Britannica, the centuries-old publisher that owns Merriam-Webster, sued Perplexity in New

After Anthropic’s Billion-Dollar Settlement, Dictionaries Are Suing Perplexity AI

Anthropic’s recent $1.5 billion settlement could open the floodgates for more publishers to sue AI companies over how they use copyrighted content. Just this week, the Britannica Group, the parent of Encyclopedia Britannica and the Merriam-Webster dictionary, sued Perplexity. Filed on Wednesday in a New York federal court, the complaint accuses the buzzy AI startup of infringing Britannica’s copyright and trademark rights and claims its answer engine is cutting into the publisher’s revenue. Pe

Perplexity's definition of copyright gets it sued by the dictionary

Merriam-Webster and its parent company Encyclopedia Britannica are the latest to take on AI in court. The plaintiffs have sued Perplexity, claiming that AI company's "answer engine" product unlawfully copies their copyrighted materials. They are also alleging copyright infringement for instances where Perplexity's AI creates false or inaccurate hallucinations that it then wrongly attributes to Britannica or Merriam-Webster. The complaint , filed in New York federal court, is seeking unspecified

Perplexity reportedly raised $200M at $20B valuation

In Brief Perplexity, the AI-powered search startup that compete with Google by providing conversational answers to user queries, has secured $200 million in new capital at a $20 billion valuation, The Information reported. The fresh funding comes just two months after the company raised $100 million at an $18 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg’s July report. Since its founding three years ago, the rapidly growing AI company has raised $1.5 billion in total funding, according to PitchBoo

A security incident that may involve your Plex account information

We have recently experienced a security incident that may potentially involve your Plex account information. We believe the actual impact of this incident is limited; however, action is required from you to ensure your account remains secure. What happened An unauthorized third party accessed a limited subset of customer data from one of our databases. While we quickly contained the incident, information that was accessed included emails, usernames, securely hashed passwords and authentication

Plex tells users to change their passwords after data breach

The Plex streaming platform has experienced a security breach and is telling customers to change their passwords "immediately." They also suggest that users enable two-factor authentication and sign out of any connected devices that are currently logged in. The company says a database was accessed by an “an unauthorized third party” and that some customers had their emails, usernames and hashed passwords exposed. As indicated, the breach involved hashed passwords, which are scrambled through an

Plex urges users to change passwords after data breach

Streaming giant Plex is urging its customers to change their passwords after it disclosed a data breach of one of its user databases. The company said in a post on Monday that it was aware of a security incident involving the theft of Plex customer account information, including user names, email addresses, scrambled passwords, and unspecified authentication data. Plex said while the passwords were scrambled in a way that made them unreadable to humans, it’s unclear if the passwords can be dec

Another Plex data breach sees company urge users to change their password

A Plex data breach in 2022 exposed usernames, email addresses, and encrypted passwords. The company required all users to change their passwords as a precaution, and now history seems to be repeating itself. The company is again emailing users, using virtually identical wording to describe to report a new data breach with the same data obtained … 2022: A third-party was able to access a limited subset of data that includes emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords. 2025: An unauthorized th

It’s time to change your Plex password again

Dear Plex User, We have recently experienced a security incident that may potentially involve your Plex account information. We believe the actual impact of this incident is limited; however, action is required from you to ensure your account remains secure. What happened An unauthorized third party accessed a limited subset of customer data from one of our databases. While we quickly contained the incident, information that was accessed included emails, usernames, and securely hashed passw

Plex tells users to reset passwords after new data breach

Media streaming platform Plex is warning customers to reset passwords after suffering a data breach in which a hacker was able to steal customer authentication data from one of its databases. In a data breach notification seen by BleepingComputer, Plex says the stolen data includes email addresses, usernames, securely hashed passwords, and authentication data. "An unauthorized third party accessed a limited subset of customer data from one of our databases," reads the Plex data breach notifica

Plex Security Incident

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Dear Plex User, We have recently experienced a security incident that may potentially involve your Plex account information. We believe the actual impact of this incident is limited; howev

Perplexity's $200 AI browser is free for students now - with more discounts to keep using it

SOPA Images/Contributor/LightRocket via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Perplexity is offering students one free month of Perplexity Pro. The company is positioning Comet as "study buddy, and tutor." AI is rapidly becoming a fixture in the classroom. Like it or not, artificial intelligence is becoming a fixture in the classroom. This is being pushed along at a brisk pace by tech companies eager to get their products into the hands

PayPal and Venmo users get free year of Perplexity Pro and Comet AI browser

Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Some PayPal and Venmo users can now access Comet for free. The offer includes a one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro. Comet is Perplexity's new AI-centric web browser. PayPal and Venmo users in the US and other global markets can now receive early access to Perplexity's highly anticipated Comet web browser, PayPal announced. The offer includes a 12-month free trial of Pe

PayPal and Venmo users get a free year of Perplexity Pro and early access to its AI browser

Perplexity, the NVIDIA- and Bezos-backed AI company, is partnering with PayPal to get its Comet browser in front of millions of the financial tech giant's users. The deal will see PayPal and Venmo customers in the US and select international markets gain access to the AI-powered browser, as well as a free 12-month subscription to Perplexity Pro, which normally costs $200. There are, of course, some conditions. The promotion is part of PayPal's new subscription hub, where users can manage all th

PayPal and Venmo users can try Perplexity's Comet AI browser free for a year now

May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Some PayPal and Venmo users can now access Comet for free. The offer includes a one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro. Comet is Perplexity's new AI-centric web browser. PayPal and Venmo users in the US and other global markets can now receive early access to Perplexity's highly anticipated Comet web browser, PayPal announced today. The offer includes a 12-month f

PayPal and Venmo are giving out Comet invites and free Perplexity Pro subscriptions

Invites to Perplexity’s new AI-powered web browser, Comet, are one of the web’s hottest commodities these days. The new product was made available first to the AI firm’s $200-per-month Max subscribers and a small group of invitees. But now there’s a new way to jump ahead on the waitlist. On Wednesday, PayPal announced it’s giving its customers, including PayPal and Venmo users, early access to Comet as well as a free year’s subscription to Perplexity’s premium service, Perplexity Pro, normally $

You're Not Interviewing for the Job. You're Auditioning for the Job Title

I once had a job interview for a backend position. Their stack was Node.js, MySQL, nothing exotic. The interviewer asked: "If you have an array containing a million entries, how would you sort the data by name?" My immediate thought was: If you have a JavaScript array with a million entries, you're certainly doing something wrong. The interviewer continued: "There are multiple fields that you should be able to sort by." This felt like a trick question. Surely the right answer was to explain w

What Is Complexity in Chess?

Pacto Visual May 2020 an interesting proposal was suggested. I provided some constructive criticism on research paper A Metric of Chess Complexity by FM David Peng, as well as constructive criticism on the codebase used to validate this experiment. For many months I have refrained from further comment, and although code has not progressed, two things have: 1. Public interest in "complexity" as determined by ACPL (yuck). 2. Lichess has a blogging platform where I can properly address deficien

Perplexity Will Share Revenue From AI Searches With Publishers

Artificial intelligence systems need content to produce results, and they've been criticized for not paying the people who wrote and edited that content. Now, Perplexity AI, the AI-powered search engine, is introducing Comet Plus. This new subscription tier will distribute revenue to publishing partners whenever readers use AI to glean or deliver journalistic content, the company said in a blog post on Monday. In the AI age, high-quality information is key, and Perplexity contends that publishe

Perplexity has cooked up a new way to pay publishers for their content

Perplexity is launching a new revenue-sharing plan for publishers that will pay them every time its AI assistants use an article to answer a question, The Wall Street Journal reports. Perplexity is launching the plan (and partially paying for it) with a new Comet Plus subscription that gives subscribers access "to premium content from a group of trusted publishers and journalists." Comet Plus costs $5 per month, and based on Perplexity's description, it's primarily designed to account for the a

Cornell's world-first 'microwave brain' computes differently

Researchers at Cornell University have developed an electronic chip that they describe as a "microwave brain." The simplified chip is analog rather than digital, yet can process ultrafast data and wireless communication signals simultaneously. We are so used to thinking of computers as digital machines running on binary code that it's easy to forget that these are only one type of computer. In fact, both historically and today, many devices that we can classify as computers are analog in functi

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

Perplexity's Comet AI browser could expose your data to attackers - here's how

Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways Perplexity's Comet browser could expose your private data. An attacker could add commands to the prompt via a malicious website. The AI should treat user data and website data separately. Get more in-depth ZDNET AI coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers. Agentic AI browsers are a hot new trend in the world of AI. Instead of you having to browse the web yourself to complete specific tasks, you t

Plex urges users to update Media Server after fixing a ‘potential security issue’

Plex, the popular app for organizing and streaming personal media collections, is warning users running certain Plex Media Server versions to update immediately due to a “potential security issue” that was recently patched. Here are the details. Urgent fix, no details As reported by BleepingComputer (via Tecnoblog), Plex is reaching out to users running server versions 1.41.7.x through 1.42.0.x, and urging them to update to Plex Media Server 1.42.1.10060 as soon as possible. The company’s e-m

Perplexity now supports live earnings call transcripts for Indian stocks

In Brief AI startup Perplexity is augmenting its Finance dashboard with live transcriptions of Indian public companies’ quarterly earnings calls, as well as a calendar to show schedules for post-results conference calls. Alongside surfacing news about the markets, Perplexity’s Finance dashboard shows market summaries, stock exchange charts, and top performing stocks. The dashboard also lets users create stock watchlists, track sector performance, and see cryptocurrency performance. Until now,