A case of murder-suicide in Connecticut earlier this month is being identified as potentially the first homicide fueled by a mentally disturbed person’s use of generative artificial intelligence, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. Police in Greenwich, Connecticut, found Stein-Erik Soelberg, a 56-year-old tech industry veteran, and his 83-year-old mother, both […]
Rokid Glasses Hands-On: Smart Glasses, Buggy Voice Assistant
Smart glasses are an exciting idea right now. In theory, they’re a new gadget that does lots of the stuff that our phones do, but in an always-there form factor. They can take pictures, make calls, translate menus, and—if the tech and the investment get there—they might slap a screen right onto eyeballs for notifications, […]
Mysterious ‘Nano-Banana’ Project Revealed to Be Google’s Latest Image Editor
Google just upgraded its AI image model, and it actually looks to be a pretty significant step up. The company rolled out Gemini 2.5 Flash Image today, a major refresh that promises smarter and more flexible image generation. The upgraded model allows users to issue natural language prompts to not only generate images but also […]
Tech’s Heavy Hitters Are Spending Big to Ensure a Pro-AI Congress
Much of the American public is dubious to neutral when it comes to artificial intelligence. A recent poll found that 71 percent of Americans were concerned about the technology “permanently” displacing human workers. Since we ostensibly live in a democracy, you’d think that would be bad news for the AI industry; unfortunately, many of the […]
Oracle Will Reportedly Spend $1 Billion a Year on a Gas-Powered Data Center
Oracle is going all-in on its AI-focused cloud business, pouring billions into building massive new data centers. One site under construction in West Texas will reportedly cost the company around $1 billion just to keep the lights on. Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plans, that Oracle intends to spend more than $1 […]
Google’s Big Leap Forward for Real-Time Translations Is Deepfaking Your Voice
The Pixel 10 makes Gemini-enabled deepfakes a pivotal feature of its new real-time translation features. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been promised the Next Big Thing in app-enabled translation. Since the dawn of Google Translate, it’s felt like tech companies (not just Google, but Samsung and Apple, too) have been teasing a […]
The Moment the AI Hype Cycle Really Kicked In
Does it feel like news about artificial intelligence is inescapable? You’re not just imagining it. Zach Perkel, the Principal and Director of Applied AI at enterprise AI firm Fractal, tracked the number of AI-related posts that managed to crack the top 10 stories on Y Combinator’s Hacker News, and found that we are experiencing peak […]
Otter.ai Sued for Allegedly Recording Work Calls Without Consent
Otter.ai, the maker of AI-powered transcription and note-taking tools, is facing a class-action lawsuit in California over alleged privacy violations. The suit, filed Friday in federal court by San Jacinto resident Justin Brewer, claims that Otter.ai is recording private conversations without obtaining consent from all the calls’ participants and then uses those recordings to train […]
Film Schools Are Embracing AI. Should They?
Jake Panek, a 20-year-old film major, says he’s had a great time at DePaul University in Chicago, and a very positive experience with the school’s cinema program. However, a recent email alerting students to a new course in “AI screenwriting” triggered a wellspring of untapped rage in him. The email, which was circulated last week, […]
Does Steven Spielberg’s ‘AI: Artificial Intelligence’ Play Differently Today?
Let’s revisit the AI classic, in an age where AI itself has become a buzzword. Rewatching Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film AI: Artificial Intelligence, it feels as plausible as ever, but also more misguided. In 2001, AI was barely a thought in everyday life. It was the thing that destroyed the world in Terminator, and still […]