Author: GT

The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunnel-digging company, and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee have announced a plan to build a 10-mile “loop” that will connect Nashville’s downtown and its convention center to the area’s airport. The project will be privately funded by The Boring Company “and its private partners,” according to the Governor’s press release, though those partners are not named. The Boring Company and local officials will now begin a “public process to evaluate potential routes, engage community stakeholders, and finalize plans for the project’s initial 10-mile phase.” Construction won’t begin until the project clears the approvals process. But the…

Google has made its most powerful AI video creator, Veo 3, available for everyone to use on its Vertex AI platform. And for those who need to work quickly, a speedier version called Veo 3 Fast is also ready-to-go for quick creative work.Ever had a brilliant idea for a video but found yourself held back by the cost, time, or technical skills needed to create it? This tool aims to offer a faster way to turn your text ideas into everything from short films to product demos.70 million videos have been created since May, showing a huge global appetite for…

Orange, a French telecommunications giant and one of the largest phone providers in the world, announced on Monday that it was the victim of an unspecified cyberattack. In the announcement, the company said that it detected a cyberattack “on one of its information systems” on July 25, and that it proceeded to “isolate potentially affected services and minimize any impact.” The move to isolate affected systems, Orange added, caused disruptions to some of the company’s platforms, as well as business customers and some public sector services mostly in France, according to a translation of the statement. The announcement said that…

Google announced on Tuesday that it’s adding new capabilities to AI Mode, its experimental feature that allows users to ask complex questions and follow-ups to dig deeper on a topic directly within Search. One of the new features, Canvas, helps you build study plans and organize information over multiple sessions in a side panel. For example, if you want to create a study plan for an upcoming test, you can click the new “Create Canvas” button to get started. From there, AI Mode will start putting things together in the Canvas side panel, and you can keep refining the output with follow-up…

YouTube on Tuesday announced it’s beginning to roll out age-estimation technology in the U.S. to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience. The company says it will use a variety of signals to determine the users’ possible age, regardless of what the user entered as their birthday when they signed up for an account. When YouTube identifies a user as a teen, it introduces new protections and experiences, which include disabling personalized advertising, safeguards that limit repetitive viewing of certain types of content, and enabling digital well-being tools such as screen time and bedtime reminders, among others. These…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government announced YouTube will be among the social media platforms that must ensure account holders are at least 16-years-old from December, reversing a position taken months ago on the popular video-sharing service.YouTube was listed as an exemption in November last year when the Parliament passed world-first laws that will ban Australian children younger than 16 from platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X.Communications Minister Anika Wells released rules Wednesday that decide which online services are defined as “age-restricted social media platforms” and which avoid the age limit.The age restrictions take effect Dec. 10…

Last week, the dating safety app Tea experienced a data breach, exposing 72,000 sensitive images containing selfies and photo IDs for account verification, as well as images from posts and messages. The personal data was reportedly shared by users on 4chan. As now reported by 404 Media, a second security issue exposed more user data, prompting the app to disable its direct messaging feature on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier this week, 404 Media received a tip from independent security researcher Kasra Rahjerdi, including messages between users sharing phone numbers and discussing abortions and unfaithful partners. The app — created to provide…

Spotify has experimented with various voice interfaces in the past, and more recently, added an AI DJ that introduces tunes the company thinks you’ll like and lets you make your own requests. Now, Spotify is teasing that generative AI advances may pave the way for an even more conversational interface with the streaming service in the future, according to comments made during Spotify’s second-quarter earnings call with investors on Tuesday. Asked about how AI was affecting its business, Spotify Chief Product and Technology Officer Gustav Söderström noted that consumers today are able to talk to Spotify in plain English to…

OpenAI announced Tuesday the launch of Study Mode, a new feature within ChatGPT that aims to help students develop their own critical thinking skills, rather than simply obtain answers to questions. With Study Mode enabled, ChatGPT will ask users questions to test their understanding and, in some cases, refuse to offer direct answers unless students engage with the material. OpenAI says Study Mode is rolling out to logged in users on ChatGPT’s Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans starting Tuesday. The company expects to introduce Study Mode to its Edu subscribers, which largely consists of young people whose school administrator’s have purchased…

Google announced on Tuesday that it’s rolling out Video Overviews to NotebookLM, its AI-based note-taking and research assistant. First introduced at Google I/O in May, Video Overviews allow users to turn dense multimedia, such as raw notes, PDFs, and images, into digestible visual presentations. Previously, the service took an audio approach to helping users understand materials with Audio Overviews, a feature that gives users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents they have shared with NotebookLM, such as course readings or legal briefs. With this new capability, NotebookLM is taking a more visual approach to…