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Tech

AI Summary

  • AI is rapidly integrating across various industries, from fashion to travel, but also faces significant challenges including copyright disputes, an exodus of top talent from major labs, and ethical concerns around its development.
  • Multiple high-profile data breaches are impacting large fintech, healthcare, and telecom companies, highlighting ongoing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy risks.
  • The venture capital landscape is diversifying, with some firms focusing on overlooked founders while countries like India are making substantial state-backed investments in deep tech and manufacturing.
  • Regulatory scrutiny on tech giants is intensifying globally, targeting antitrust practices, data privacy, and the ethical implications of AI and surveillance partnerships, prompting some companies to re-evaluate their collaborations.
  • Consumer technology continues to innovate with new hardware launches and enhanced app features, seeing market expansion in regions like India, alongside a dynamic gaming industry.

TechCrunch


Hacker News


Engadget

  • Airbnb is testing out AI search with a 'small percentage' of users an hour ago by Jackson Chen
    Travel & Tourism, Travel Organizations, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Jackson Chen

    Airbnb plans to double down on artificial intelligence to improve its user experience for both guests and hosts. During a fourth-quarter earnings call, Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky, said the company is building an "AI-native experience" aimed at helping guests book trips, assisting hosts with their listings, and running the company more efficiently. According to Chesky, there's an AI search tool to help guests book trips that's live for a small percentage of users right now. In a shareholder letter posted on Airbnb's website, the company said it's conducting early testing with an AI-powered search that is "focused on giving guests a

  • Disney accuses ByteDance of 'virtual smash-and-grab' when using copyrighted works to train its AI 2 hours ago by Jackson Chen
    Media, Company Legal & Law Matters, Arts & Entertainment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Jackson Chen

    Disney is going after another generative AI tool, accusing ByteDance and its recently released Seedance 2.0 of using its copyrighted material without permission. As first reported on by Axios, the Walt Disney Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, claiming the Chinese company developed its Seedance tool "with a pirated library of Disney's copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises, as if Disney's coveted intellectual property were free public domain clip art." The letter, which was obtained by Axios, included examples of Seedance videos featuring copyrighted Disney characters, including Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Peter Griffin and more. Even though

  • What to read this weekend: The unsettling new horror novel, Persona 3 hours ago by Cheyenne MacDonald
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Cheyenne MacDonald

    Need something new for your reading list? Here are two titles we think are worth checking out. This week, we read Aoife Josie Clements' deeply unsettling Persona, and the first issue of Bleeding Hearts, from the relaunch of the DC imprint, Vertigo. ---------------------------------------- This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-the-unsettling-new-horror-novel-persona-185152256.html?src=rss

  • OpenAI has officially retired the controversial GPT-4o model 3 hours ago by Jackson Chen
    Arts & Entertainment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Jackson Chen

    OpenAI's GPT-4o may have survived its first brush with going offline, but it won't be as lucky this time. OpenAI has officially retired GPT-4o, the ChatGPT model that was seen as more conversational and notoriously sycophantic, on February 13. The news of GPT-4o's end was first announced in a post on the OpenAI website in January, but the discontinuation also included GPT-5, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-mini from ChatGPT. It's not the first time that OpenAI has delisted GPT-4o as an option for ChatGPT. In August, the AI giant sunsetted the GPT-4o model in favor of rolling out and prioritizing

  • Watch the NASA SpaceX Crew-12 mission dock with the ISS 4 hours ago by Mariella Moon
    Science, Space & Astronomy, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Mariella Moon

    The Crew-12 mission, SpaceX’s 20th human spaceflight, launched at 5:15 AM Eastern on February 13 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It’s expected to dock with the International Space Station today, February 14, at 3:15 PM, and you can watch the event below as it happens. By the time the mission’s Dragon capsule docks with the ISS, it will have traveled approximately 34 hours since lift off. Inside are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The four spacefarers are joining the three remaining passengers onboard the ISS after Crew-11 flew back


The Verge

  • iBuyPower’s gaming desktops are discounted for Presidents Day 5 hours ago by Cameron Faulkner
    Deals, Gadgets, Gaming, PC Gaming, Verge Shopping

    Buying a pre-assembled gaming desktop makes sense for some. It can save you time and money, too, compared to buying PC components piecemeal. If you’re weighing your options, consider some Presidents Day offers on iBuyPower’s pre-built desktops, including the $1,899 RDY Element 9 Pro R07 and the $2,099.99 Slate — both of which are stocked with high-end AMD processors and GPUs that can tear through most games at 1440p with fast frame rates. They also come with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of storage, along with a mouse and keyboard. Digging into the Element 9 Pro R07, it features AMD’s

  • Georgia Tech announced the finalists in its wild musical instrument competition 5 hours ago by Terrence O’Brien
    Entertainment, Music, News, Tech

    There’s a playable henge of fiddles. | Image: Georgia Tech / The Verge Georgia Tech has announced the finalists in its annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. Every year, for the last 28 years, the school invites inventors from around the world to submit new instruments of their own design to compete for $10,000 in prizes. Past finalists have included founding members of Teenage Engineering, Artiphon, and Roli. And last year KOMA Elektronik won for their creation the Chromaplane. This year's finalists are an impressive collection of oddballs. There's Amphibian Modules, a modular synth that swaps patch cables for a dish of saltwater.

  • The Pocket Taco is the best way to turn your phone into a Game Boy 7 hours ago by Andrew Liszewski
    Gadgets, Gaming, Hands-on, Reviews, Tech

    My ongoing quest to turn my iPhone into one of my favorite consoles of all time has led me to a curiously named controller. GameSir's Pocket Taco is only barely pocketable, and distinctly lacking in taco fillings, but for $35, it's an excellent and easy way to turn your phone into a Game Boy-inspired handheld for playing retro games that don't require a pair of thumbsticks. Unlike the Abxylute M4 mobile controller that attaches to phones using magnets, or the Backbone Pro that sandwiches your device between a split gamepad, the Pocket Taco uses a hinged mechanism that, for lack of

  • A powerful tool of resistance is already in your hands 7 hours ago by Lauren Feiner
    Analysis, Policy, Politics, Report, Social Media, Speech, Tech

    In an eyewitness video analyzed frame by frame by The New York Times, Alex Pretti raises one hand and holds a phone in the other. Federal agents tackle him, and one appears to find and remove a gun holstered on his hip. Then, an agent shoots - and a second follows. They appear to fire nine more shots as Pretti lies on the ground. The Trump administration has claimed Pretti was shot because of his legally carried gun - that the agents, later identified in records viewed by ProPublica as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

  • My uncanny AI valentines 7 hours ago by Victoria Song
    AI, Hands-on, Report, Reviews, Tech

    Phoebe Callas, 30, is not real, but she was an AI companion I went on a speed date with. Hopping over a pile of dirty snow, I arrived on a frigid February evening at a wine bar in midtown, a purple neon sign reading "EVA AI cafe." Inside, several people were seated at tables and booths, staring at phones. Servers milled about, placing mini potato croquettes and nonalcoholic spritzers on each table. Like many New York City bars, the majority of the patrons were on a date. Unlike every other bar, half of the dates weren't human. As I enter, I'm shown to


Wired


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