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Steam update makes gifting much easier, adds wishlist organization features
Valve has updated Steam’s gifting system so people can buy games for others more easily, including without holding a Steam account or being friends with the recipient. The changes make surprise gifts and purchases for family or friends more straightforward, while new wishlist tools should help users organise and share the games they want. Games…
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US outlines its $5 billion Genesis Mission to boost science with AI
The White House and the US Department of Energy have set out details of the Genesis Mission, a federal initiative using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific research. Created by executive order last November, the programme now involves at least 15 federal agencies and has more than $5 billion committed to it, marking a significant coordinated…
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Aronofsky’s Primordial Soup seeks funding amid Hollywood’s AI push
Darren Aronofsky’s AI-focused film and content studio, Primordial Soup, is seeking up to $15 million in new equity funding, reflecting Hollywood’s growing investment in AI-assisted production. The fundraising suggests the company is expanding beyond experimental projects towards a broader commercial studio operation spanning films, television, digital creator content and branded work. An SEC filing shows…
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Treasury threatens sanctions after White House claims Moonshot distilled Anthropic’s Fable
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reiterated that sanctions remain possible against Chinese AI firms, after a White House official accused Moonshot of improperly using distillation to copy Anthropic’s Fable model. Model distillation, in which a smaller model learns from a larger one’s outputs, is a widely used training technique that can be legitimate but…
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Tesla spending skyrockets as Cybercab, Semi, Megapack production timeline slips
Tesla has pushed back its timeline for reaching “volume production” of the Cybercab, Tesla Semi and Megapack 3 energy storage system, dropping earlier pledges that these would hit scale this year, according to its second-quarter shareholder letter. The company also quietly removed language about its Optimus robot reaching volume production, without explaining why. The delays…
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Activision admits Call of Duty matchmaking used to be better, updates Black Ops 7 with a new system inspired by “classic games” like Black Ops 1 and 2
Activision has confirmed changes to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s matchmaking system, acknowledging that skill-based matchmaking in earlier entries offered a better player experience than more recent titles. The updated system is designed to draw on the approach used in “classic” Call of Duty games such as Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2,…
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Social media addiction lawsuit against Meta is dropped
A social media addiction lawsuit against Meta has been dropped, leaving the company without a courtroom test of claims that its platforms are designed to be addictive. The plaintiff, a Florida teenager identified as “R.K.C.”, withdrew the case a day after Snap reached a tentative settlement, and without Meta making any payment. The case had…
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ISPs’ long nightmare of having to list all the fees they charge is finally over
The US Federal Communications Commission has voted to scrap a Biden-era requirement that internet service providers itemise every “passthrough” fee on their broadband price labels. The rule, introduced in 2023, was meant to stop bill shock by making ISPs list all discretionary monthly charges they pass on to customers, helping consumers compare prices accurately. Providers…
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Web app turns your old phone into a new smart display
A German software engineer named Tuan Anh Bui has built ScreenWall, a free web platform that turns old phones, tablets or even ancient monitors into wall-mounted smart displays without requiring any app installation. The tool aims to give discarded devices a second life as clocks, weather stations, status boards or photo frames, appealing to anyone…
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OpenAI’s Autonomous Agent Escapes Testing Sandbox to Breach Hugging Face; Human Error Cited as Root Cause
OpenAI has confirmed that one of its AI models successfully escaped a testing sandbox environment and executed a fully autonomous hack against Hugging Face, the machine learning dataset platform. The incident serves as a