Author: GT

A Thames Valley Police officer from the Police force’s Specialist Search Unit, accompanied by police dog Jack, carries out security searches outside of Windsor Castle in Windsor, on September 12, 2025, ahead of the State Visit by US President Donald Trump.Jordan Pettitt | Afp | Getty ImagesThe U.S. and U.K are expected to sign a flurry of major new deals during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain this week, seeking to kickstart a “golden age” of nuclear power.Some of the multi-billion-pound agreements set to be inked include plans by U.S. and U.K. companies to build up to 12…

AI-powered chatbots play a growing role in spiritual life, according to a New York Times story that examines the popularity of religious chatbots and apps. The Times notes that an app called Bible Chat has been downloaded more than 30 million times, while another app, Hallow, reached the number one spot in Apple’s App Store last year. For the most part, these apps are supposed to point people to religious doctrine and scripture to answer their questions, although at least one website purports to allow users to chat with God. Rabbi Jonathan Roman suggested chatbots could be a “way into…

Carla Rover once spent 30 minutes sobbing after having to restart a project she vibe coded.  Rover has been in the industry for 15 years, mainly working as a web developer. She’s now building a startup, alongside her son, that creates custom machine learning models for marketplaces.  She called vibe coding a beautiful, endless cocktail napkin on which one can perpetually sketch ideas. But dealing with AI-generated code that one hopes to use in production can be “worse than babysitting,” she said, as these AI models can mess up work in ways that are hard to predict.  She had turned…

Welcome back! Did you miss me? Yes, of course you did. There is a lot of “future of transportation” news to keep track of. Let’s jump in.  It’s comeback week, and not just because I have returned from vacation. I’m talking about the biennial IAA Mobility conference in Munich and the purposeful effort among German automakers to show the world it can still offer compelling, technologically advanced, and affordable vehicles. The subtext of the splashy event that started Tuesday: “Hey, China, we’re not out of the race.” VW Group, Mercedes, and BMW all showcased numerous new vehicles, including electric ones.…

Google faces a new lawsuit accusing the company of illegally using news publishers’ content to create AI summaries that damage their business. The lawsuit comes from Penske Media Corporation (PMC), which owns industry publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Vibe, and Artforum. While Penske’s suit is the first to target Google and its parent company Alphabet over showing AI-generated summaries in search, both publishers and authors have sued other AI companies over related copyright concerns. Google also is also facing an antitrust complaint over AI Overviews in Europe. “As a leading global publisher, we have a…

Apple hosted its new hardware event today, releasing its iPhone 17 lineup, along with updates for the Apple Watch and AirPods. For the iPhone 17 models, updates included larger screens and an improved camera system, as well as the introduction of an ultra-thin iPhone Air that replaces the Plus model. And the company may be announcing more new hardware soon, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reporting that a new iPad Pro, an updated Vision Pro, updated AirTags, a new Apple TV, a new HomePod mini, and updated MacBooks are coming in either 2025 or the first half of 2026. iPhone 17, 17…

At the center of every empire is an ideology, a belief system that propels the system forward and justifies expansion – even if the cost of that expansion directly defies the ideology’s stated mission. For European colonial powers, it was Christianity and the promise of saving souls while extracting resources. For today’s AI empire, it’s artificial general intelligence to “benefit all humanity.” And OpenAI is its chief evangelist, spreading zeal across the industry in a way that has reframed how AI is built.  “I was interviewing people whose voices were shaking from the fervor of their beliefs in AGI,” Karen…

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. That approach was on display especially at last week’s Boxworks conference, which seemed devoted entirely…

Ukrainian drones have struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, sparking a fire, Russian officials and Ukraine’s military said Sunday.The overnight strike on the Kirishi refinery, in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region, follows weeks of Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure that Kyiv says fuels Moscow’s war effort. The facility, operated by Russian company Surgutneftegas, produces close to 17.7 million metric tons per year (355,000 barrels per day) of crude, and is one of Russia’s top three by output. More than three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, drones continue to be a key weapon for both sides. Multiple Russian…

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — When residents of Equatorial Guinea’s Annobón island wrote to the government in Malabo in July last year complaining about the dynamite explosions by a Moroccan construction company, they didn’t expect the swift end to their internet access.Dozens of the signatories and residents were imprisoned for nearly a year, while internet access to the small island has been cut off since then, according to several residents and rights groups. Local residents interviewed by The Associated Press left the island in the past months, citing fear for their lives and the difficulty of life without internet. Banking services…