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Tech

AI Summary

  • The proliferation of AI tools continues at a rapid pace, with new personal assistants, scientific workspaces, and enterprise solutions emerging, alongside significant funding rounds for leading AI firms.
  • Social media companies are facing heightened legal and regulatory pressure, settling addiction lawsuits, grappling with content moderation issues, and confronting new age verification and data handling mandates.
  • Major e-commerce players like Amazon are pivoting away from physical store formats, while simultaneously, European nations are actively pursuing digital sovereignty by seeking alternatives to US tech and enacting stricter local regulations.
  • The cost gap between autonomous robotaxi services and human-driven ride-sharing is steadily shrinking, indicating increased competition and market viability for self-driving transportation.
  • Ethical considerations around AI are intensifying, with widespread concerns about deepfake abuse, the strain of data centers on power grids, and the controversial use of AI by government agencies prompting public and internal corporate dissent.

TechCrunch


Hacker News


Engadget

  • Mark Zuckerberg was initially opposed to parental controls for AI chatbots, according to legal filing an hour ago by Anna Washenko
    Social & Online Media, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    Meta has faced some serious questions about how it allows its underage users to interact with AI-powered chatbots. Most recently, internal communications obtained by the New Mexico Attorney General's Office revealed that although Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was opposed to the chatbots having "explicit" conversations with minors, he also rejected the idea of placing parental controls on the feature. Reuters reported that in an exchange between two unnamed Meta employees, one wrote that we "pushed hard for parental controls to turn GenAI off – but GenAI leadership pushed back stating Mark decision.” In its statement to the publication, Meta accused the

  • Meta blocks links to ICE List, a Wiki that names agents an hour ago by Karissa Bell
    Media, Arts & Entertainment, Social & Online Media, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Karissa Bell

    Meta has started blocking links to ICE List, a website that compiles information about incidents involving Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents, and lists thousands of their employees' names. It seems that the latter detail is what caused Meta to take action in a move that was first reported by Wired.  ICE List is a crowdsourced Wiki that describes itself as "an independently maintained public documentation project focused on immigration-enforcement activity" in the US. "Its purpose is to record, organize, and preserve verifiable information about enforcement actions, agents, facilities, vehicles, and related incidents that would otherwise remain fragmented,

  • Adobe Photoshop upgrades its Firefly-powered generative-AI editing tools 3 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Software, Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    Adobe Photoshop introduced some new features that are rolling out for creators today. As you'd expect from any service operator in this day and age, there's some AI involved. Adobe has improved the tools for Generative Fill, Generative Expand and Remove that are powered by its Firefly generative AI platform. Using these tools for image editing should now produce results in 2K resolution with fewer artifacts and increased detail all while delivering better matches for the provided prompts. The Reference Image option for Generative Fill has also been upgraded to deliver "geometry-aware results that better match the scene."   One of the

  • Astronomers discover over 800 cosmic anomalies using a new AI tool 4 hours ago by Will Shanklin
    Science, Space & Astronomy, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Will Shanklin

    Here's a use of AI that appears to do more good than harm. A pair of astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) developed a neural network that searches through space images for anomalies. The results were far beyond what human experts could have done. In two and a half days, it sifted through nearly 100 million image cutouts, discovering 1,400 anomalous objects. The creators of the AI model, David O'Ryan and Pablo Gómez, call it AnomalyMatch. The pair trained it on (and applied it to) the Hubble Legacy Archive, which houses tens of thousands of datasets from Hubble's 35-year history.

  • Sennheiser debuts new models of wired headphones and earbuds 4 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Audio Technology, Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    Wireless audio has become the industry standard, but there are still options out there for people who prefer a wired connection. Two new choices joining the market come from Sennheiser, which has released the CX 80U wired earbuds and HD 400U wired over-ear headphones. These new takes on the company's previous models for wired listening have replaced the 3.5mm audio jack connector with a USB-C cable. Both sets support 24-bit, 96 kHz digital audio playback. They're compatible with a broad array of devices, including iOS, iPadOS, Android, ChromeOS, MacOS, Windows and SteamOS.  Both of these items are priced at an entry


The Verge

  • Meta is spending millions to convince people that data centers are cool and you like them an hour ago by Stevie Bonifield
    AI, Meta, News, Tech

    Over the last few months of 2025, Meta spent $6.4 million on an ad campaign running in cities across the country, from Sacramento to Washington, with a clear mission: win over viewers on the construction of new data centers. As the New York Times reports, the ad campaign is anchored by short, folksy video spotlights on Meta's data centers in Altoona, Iowa, and Los Lunas, New Mexico. The ads make the case that Meta's data centers create jobs, revitalizing rural communities. However, they take a fairly idealistic tone. For instance, the Altoona ad portrays a town on the brink of disappearing, but

  • Moltbot, the AI agent that ‘actually does things,’ is tech’s new obsession an hour ago by Emma Roth
    AI, Apps, Report, Tech

    An open-source AI agent that "actually does things" is taking off, with people across the web sharing how they're using the agent to do a whole bunch of things, like manage reminders, log health and fitness data, and even communicate with clients. The tool, called Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot), runs locally on a variety of devices, and you can ask it to perform tasks on your behalf by chatting with it through WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Discord, and iMessage. Federico Viticci at MacStories highlighted how he installed Moltbot on his M4 Mac Mini and transformed it into a tool that delivers daily audio

  • The best budget robot vacuums 2 hours ago by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
    Buying Guides, Gadgets, Reviews, Smart Home Reviews, Tech, Verge Shopping

    Today’s robot vacuums are becoming a bit like cars: with all the features, upgrades, and fancy trimmings available these days, it’s easy to forget that they can just be simple machines that get us from point A to point B. Yes, some bots blow hot air on their bums (mop pads), deftly navigate dog poop, and have arms to pick up your socks, but there are plenty of basic budget robot vacuums that just do a decent job of cleaning your floor autonomously — as long as you tidy up first. Fancier models have obstacle recognition, and some even use AI-powered

  • The winter storm tested power grids straining to accommodate AI data centers 2 hours ago by Justine Calma
    AI, Analysis, Climate, Energy, Environment, Report, Science

    Power lines during a winter storm in Irving, Texas, on Sunday, January 25th. | Photo: Getty Images The colossal winter storm that swept across 34 states left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. Bitterly cold temperatures lingering after Winter Storm Fern are still testing power grids, already under stress from a rush of new AI data centers. Over the weekend, wholesale electricity prices soared in Virginia, the state with the most data centers. And while that's not surprising during a spike in energy demand for heating, it could add to the growing discontent over rising utility bills that has fueled opposition

  • The best fitness trackers and watches we’ve tested 3 hours ago by Victoria Song
    Buying Guides, Fitness, Fitness Tracker Reviews, Gadgets, Reviews, Tech, Verge Shopping, Wearable

    Fitness trackers have come a long way from the simple bands that tracked steps and little else. Modern trackers can monitor everything from your heart health to how well you’ve recovered from a hard bout of training. Even flagship smartwatches, which used to be lackluster trackers, have become pretty adept workout companions. Whatever your fitness goals are, there’s probably a fitness tracker that can help you achieve them. Compared to some other gadgets, wearables are incredibly personal, which means there are a few extra considerations you’ll have to take into account before reaching for your wallet. It makes it hard to


Wired


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