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AI Summary

  • Taiwan has announced a $250 billion investment in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, which comes as part of a trade deal, aiming to bolster domestic chip production.
  • AI-video startup Higgsfield achieved a valuation of $1.3 billion after a recent funding round, boasting an impressive revenue run rate of $200 million.
  • The U.S. government has formally imposed a 25% tariff on Nvidia’s H200 AI chips sold to China, as part of broader semiconductor trade policies from the previous administration.
  • OpenAI has invested in several AI initiatives, including Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface startup, and signed a significant $10 billion deal with Cerebras for computational resources, enhancing its AI capabilities.
  • Wikimedia Foundation expanded its AI partnerships with major tech firms such as Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft to facilitate broader access and integration of its content for AI applications.

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Engadget

  • Amazon's New World: Aeternum MMO will go offline January 31, 2027 an hour ago by Anna Washenko
    Internet & Networking Technology, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    Today, Amazon shared more details about the final chapter of its game New World: Aeternum. The company announced in October that it would wind down support for the MMO, with the Nighthaven season to be its last. New World will be delisted and no longer available for purchase starting today, but the game's servers will not be taken offline until January 31, 2027. People who own the game will be able to continue playing until that date. Nighthaven season will continue through to that end date. Players who had previously purchased New World: Aeternum will be able to re-download and continue

  • Netflix's expanded Sony deal includes streaming rights to the Legend of Zelda movie an hour ago by Ian Carlos Campbell
    Movies, Media, Arts & Entertainment, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Ian Carlos Campbell

    As part of a new agreement, films from Sony Pictures Entertainment will stream on Netflix first, the companies announced via a joint statement. The new deal expands on the exclusive rights Netflix had to Sony films in the US, and means the service will be the first place people will be able to stream upcoming projects like the live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda, and a quartet of biopics about The Beatles. Sony's films will stream worldwide on Netflix in what's called "Pay-1," the first window of availability after a movie's theatrical and VOD releases. As part of the deal,

  • Flaw in 17 Google Fast Pair audio devices could let hackers eavesdrop 2 hours ago by Will Shanklin
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Will Shanklin

    Now would be a good time to update all your Bluetooth audio devices. On Thursday, Wired reported on a security flaw in 17 headphone and speaker models that could allow hackers to access your devices, including their microphones. The vulnerability stems from a faulty implementation of Google's one-tap (Fast Pair) protocol. Security researchers at Belgium's KU Leuven University Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography group, who discovered the security hole, named the flaw WhisperPair. They say a hacker within Bluetooth range would only require the accessory's (easily attainable) device model number and a few seconds. "You're walking down the street with your headphones

  • ASUS has stopped producing the NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB, saying they've reached 'end of life' 3 hours ago by Igor Bonifacic
    Technology & Electronics, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Igor Bonifacic

    YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed is reporting that NVIDIA has “effectively” discontinued the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti 16GB due to the ongoing memory crunch. In its most recent video, the channel states ASUS “explicitly” told it the RTX 5070 Ti is “currently facing a supply shortage.” As a result, the company has “placed the model into end of life status,” and no longer plans to produce it. Hardware Unboxed also spoke to retailers in Australia, who told the channel the 5070 Ti is “no longer available to purchase from partners and distributors,” adding they expect that to be the case

  • Amazon is making a Fallout Shelter competition reality TV show 3 hours ago by Anna Washenko
    Media, Arts & Entertainment, Television, site|engadget, provider_name|Engadget, region|US, language|en-US, author_name|Anna Washenko

    The second season of Amazon's excellent Fallout show is currently airing, but the company is already looking to expand its programming around the popular franchise. Prime Video has greenlit a unscripted reality show titled Fallout Shelter. It will be a ten-episode run with Studio Lambert, the team behind reality projects including Squid Game: The Challenge and The Traitors, as its primary producer. Bethesda Game Studios’ head honcho Todd Howard is attached as an executive producer. Amazon's description of Fallout Shelter is: "Across a series of escalating challenges, strategic dilemmas and moral crossroads, contestants must prove their ingenuity, teamwork and resilience as they


The Verge

  • The US claims it just strongarmed Taiwan into spending $250 billion on American chip manufacturing an hour ago by Emma Roth
    News, Policy, Politics, Tech

    The US just lowered Taiwan's tariffs in exchange for a massive domestic chipmaking promise, the Commerce Department announced on Thursday. Under the deal, tariffs on goods from Taiwan will decrease from 20 to 15 percent, while Taiwanese technology companies will invest $250 billion into building and expanding chipmaking facilities in the US, supported by at least $250 billion in credit offered by Taiwan's government. Last year, President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips and semiconductors not made in the US, something that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells CNBC is still on the table. "That's what they

  • Krafton is trying to find its next PUBG an hour ago by Jay Peters
    Entertainment, Gaming, News

    PUBG developer Krafton has 26 games in development, and in a recent town hall meeting, the company outlined a plan to "focus on its core gaming business while outlining a disciplined approach to building long-term Franchise IPs." "During the past year, KRAFTON has prepared for Franchise IP development by strengthening its creative leadership, as well as upgrading its overall game development and publishing frameworks," the company says. "In 2026, the company will ramp up development of new titles with potential to grow into Franchise IPs, while at the same time accelerating the growth of the PUBG IP Franchise." The "26-project development … Read

  • Amazon’s New World: Aeternum MMO will shut down next year 2 hours ago by Jay Peters
    Amazon, Entertainment, Gaming, News, Tech

    Amazon has announced that the servers for New World: Aeternum, one of the company's MMOs, will be shut down on January 31st, 2027. The game will also be delisted and no longer available for purchase starting today, January 15th. Last year, Amazon announced that it would be pivoting away from MMOs to put more of a focus on party games, and the company said at the time that it wouldn't be releasing new content for New World: Aeternum and that the game's servers would be active through 2026. But the longer-term future of the game was unclear, and now we know

  • Apple lost the AI race — now the real challenge starts 3 hours ago by Allison Johnson
    AI, Apple, Mobile, Report, Tech

    Siri, are you there? It’s me, Gemini. For an AI loser, Apple did an awful lot of winning last year. The mess that was the Apple Intelligence rollout was embarrassing, to be sure, but through it all, the company kept doing what it does best: selling iPhones. With this week's news that it'll use Gemini models to power the long-awaited smarter Siri, Apple seems to have taken a big 'ol L in the whole AI race. But there's still a major challenge ahead - and Apple isn't out of the running just yet. Apple Intelligence got off to a well-documented rough start in

  • Democrats push FTC to investigate Trump Mobile 4 hours ago by Dominic Preston
    Gadgets, Mobile, News, Phones, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Tech

    Elizabeth Warren and other Democrat lawmakers have written an open letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking for an investigation into alleged "false advertising and deceptive practices" from Trump Mobile. The company first announced its T1 Phone more than six months ago, but is yet to ship a single phone to buyers. The letter is signed by 11 Democrats, led by Senator Warren and Congressman Robert Garcia. It references Trump Mobile's since-deleted "Made in America" branding; the fact that it's been taking $100 deposits for the phone without anything to show for it; and a social media ad which, as


Wired

  • Inside OpenAI’s Raid on Thinking Machines Lab an hour ago by Maxwell Zeff, Zoë Schiffer
    Business, Business / Artificial Intelligence, Model, Behavior

    OpenAI is planning to bring over more researchers from Thinking Machines Lab after nabbing two cofounders, a source familiar with the situation says. Plus, the latest efforts to automate jobs with AI.

  • Elon Musk’s Grok ‘Undressing’ Problem Isn’t Fixed 2 hours ago by Matt Burgess
    Security, Security / Privacy, Security / Security News, Business / Artificial Intelligence, Business / Social Media, Half, Measures

    X has placed more restrictions on Grok’s ability to generate explicit AI images, but tests show that the updates have created a patchwork of limitations that fail to fully address the issue.

  • Save $50 on the OnePlus Watch 3, Which Has Revolutionary Battery Tech 3 hours ago by Brad Bourque
    Gear, Gear / Deals, Gear / Products, Gear / Products / Watches, Deal, of, the, Day

    Save some cash on this Wear OS smartwatch with a revolutionary battery that can go for five days on a charge (16 days on low-power mode).

  • Why ICE Can Kill With Impunity 3 hours ago by Lila Hassan
    Security, Security / National Security, Security / Security News, Politics / Policy, Immune, Systems

    Over the past decade, US immigration agents have shot and killed more than two dozen people. Not a single agent appears to have faced criminal charges.

  • OpenAI Invests in Sam Altman’s New Brain-Tech Startup Merge Labs 4 hours ago by Emily Mullin
    Science, Science / Biotech, Brain, Race

    Merge Labs has emerged from stealth with $252 million in funding from OpenAI and others. It aims to use ultrasound to read from and write to the brain.


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