Amidst a backdrop of economic anxieties in Greenland, U.S. President Donald Trump has once again voiced his desire for the United States to acquire the Arctic territory, sparking a wave of controversy
oducts featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Anthropic revoked OpenAIâs API access to its models on Tuesday, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell WIRED. OpenAI was informed that its access was cut off due to violating the terms of service. âClaude Code has become the go-to choice for coders everywhere, and so it was no surprise to learn OpenAI's own technical staff were also using our coding tools ahead of the launch of GPT-5,â Anthropic spokesperson Christopher Nulty said in a statement to WIRED. âUnfortunately, this is a direct violation of our terms of service.â According to Anthropicâs commercial terms of service, customers are barred from using the service to âbuild a competing product or service, including to train competing AI modelsâ or âreverse engineer or duplicateâ the services. This change in OpenAIâs access to Claude comes as the ChatGPT-maker is reportedly preparing to release a new AI model, GPT-5, which is rumored to be better at coding. Featured Video Astrobiologist Answers Astrobiology Questions OpenAI was plugging Claude into its own internal tools using special developer access (APIs), instead of using the regular chat interface, according to sources. This allowed the company to run tests to evaluate Claudeâs capabilities in things like coding and creative writing against its own AI models, and check how Claude responded to safety-related prompts involving categories like CSAM, self-harm, and defamation, the sources say. The results help OpenAI compare its own modelsâ behavior under similar conditions and make adjustments as needed. âItâs industry standard to evaluate other AI systems to benchmark progress and improve safety. While we respect Anthropicâs decision to cut off our API access, itâs disappointing considering our API remains available to them,â OpenAIâs chief communications officer Hannah Wong said in a statement to WIRED. Nulty says that Anthropic will âcontinue to ensure OpenAI has API access for the purposes of benchmarking and safety evaluations as is standard practice across the industry.â The company did not respond to WIREDâs request for clarification on if and how OpenAI's current Claude API restriction would impact this work. Top tech companies yanking API access from competitors has been a tactic in the tech industry for years. Facebook did the same to Twitter-owned Vine (which led to allegations of anticompetitive behavior) and last month Salesforce restricted competitors from accessing certain data through the Slack API. This isnât even a first for Anthropic. Last month, the company restricted the AI coding startup Windsurfâs direct access to its models after it was rumored OpenAI was set to acquire it. (That deal fell through). Anthropicâs chief science officer Jared Kaplan spoke to TechCrunch at the time about revoking Windsurfâs access to Claude, saying, âI think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI.â A day before cutting off OpenAIâs access to the Claude API, Anthropic announced new rate limits on Claude Code, its AI-powered coding tool, citing explosive usage and, in some cases, violations of its terms of service.
Global AML/KYC Spending Surges to Record $2.9 Billion in 2025 New York, June 26, 2025 â The global expenditure on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) data and services is projected to reach an unprecedented $2.9 billion in 2025, marking a significant 12.3% increase from the estimated $2.5 billion spent in 2024, according to a recent report by Burton Taylor Consulting. This surge underscores the growing emphasis on combating financial crime amid rising regulatory pressures and the rapid expansion of digital transactions worldwide. The escalation in AML/KYC spending is driven by several key factors. The proliferation of digital banking, mobile payments, and cryptocurrency transactions has created new avenues for financial crimes, necessitating advanced compliance solutions. Regulatory bodies, such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and regional authorities like the European Unionâs Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), have intensified scrutiny, enforcing stricter compliance requirements. Financial institutions are investing heavily in sophisticated technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and real-time transaction monitoring, to detect and prevent illicit activities. "The rise in digital transactions, coupled with evolving financial crime tactics, has made robust AML and KYC solutions indispensable," said Jane Carter, lead analyst at Burton Taylor Consulting. "Financial institutions are prioritizing compliance to avoid hefty penalties and reputational damage, fueling this record-breaking investment." The report highlights that North America continues to lead the AML/KYC market, driven by the presence of major financial institutions and stringent regulations like the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. The Asia-Pacific region is also witnessing rapid growth, with countries like India, China, and Australia implementing stricter compliance measures to counter rising financial crime amid booming digital payment systems. For instance, India recorded over 18,700 crore digital payment transactions in FY 2023â24, amplifying the need for advanced AML tools. The software segment dominates the AML/KYC market, accounting for a significant share of the expenditure due to its ability to automate compliance processes and reduce false positives. Transaction monitoring systems, in particular, are seeing widespread adoption, as they enable real-time analysis of vast transaction volumes. Additionally, the shift toward cloud-based AML solutions is accelerating, offering scalability and cost-effectiveness for financial institutions. The report also notes the increasing role of KYC processes in combating money laundering. Enhanced customer identity management, including biometric authentication and AI-driven verification, is becoming critical as institutions aim to verify client identities accurately and prevent illicit activities. Large enterprises, particularly in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector, are the primary drivers of this spending, facing heightened regulatory scrutiny globally. However, challenges remain. The high cost of implementing advanced AML/KYC systems and a lack of awareness among smaller institutions could hinder market growth. Despite these hurdles, the market is expected to continue its upward trajectory, with projections estimating the global AML market could reach between $5.91 billion and $10.3 billion by 2032, depending on various forecasts. As financial crimes grow in complexity, the investment in AML/KYC data and services reflects a global commitment to safeguarding the integrity of financial systems. With regulatory frameworks tightening and technology advancing, the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is poised to remain a top priority for financial institutions worldwide. For more information on the report, visit Burton Taylor Consultingâs website.
PokĂ©mon GO Events: July 28 â August 3, 2025 â Adventure Week, Gigantamax Butterfree, and More! July 28, 2025 â PokĂ©mon GO trainers are in for a thrilling week of events from July 28 to August 3, 2025, as the Season of Delightful Days continues with a packed schedule. This week features the global Adventure Week, the debut of Gigantamax Butterfree, Fossil Research Day, and the Sweet Swarms event, alongside weekly Spotlight Hours, Raid Hours, Dynamax Battles, Mega Raids, and GO Battle League Season 23. With season-long bonuses enhancing the experience, trainers have plenty of opportunities to catch new PokĂ©mon and earn rewards. Hereâs a detailed look at whatâs happening, based on information from PokĂ©mon GO Hub and official announcements. Weekly Event Highlights Adventure Week (July 29 â August 3, 2025) Running from July 29 at 10:00 a.m. to August 3 at 8:00 p.m. local time, Adventure Week 2025 is a global event celebrating Rock-type and Fossil PokĂ©mon. This event marks the PokĂ©mon GO debut of Toedscool and Toedscruel, with Toedscool appearing as a rare spawn in forest and grassland biomes. Shiny Wiglett and its evolution, Wugtrio, also make their first appearance, with increased shiny odds. Event bonuses include 2Ă XP for catching PokĂ©mon and Incense lasting two hours. Wild spawns vary by biome (cities, forests, mountains, beaches), offering diverse encounters like Squirtle, Clamperl, and Tirtouga, with boosted shiny rates for select species. Trainers can complete themed Field Research and Collection Challenges for additional rewards. Fossil Research Day (August 2, 2025) On Saturday, August 2, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time, Fossil Research Day focuses on Gen 6 Fossil PokĂ©mon, Tyrunt and Amaura. These PokĂ©mon will be available through event-themed Field Research tasks with boosted shiny rates. Other Fossil PokĂ©mon, such as Omanyte, Kabuto, and Aerodactyl, will also appear more frequently in the wild, offering trainers a chance to bolster their collections. This event is ideal for shiny hunters and Fossil PokĂ©mon enthusiasts. Gigantamax Butterfree Max Battle Day (August 3, 2025) Gigantamax Butterfree debuts in PokĂ©mon GO on Sunday, August 3, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time during a dedicated Max Battle Day. All Power Spots will host Gigantamax Battles, with Power Spots refreshing more frequently to maximize participation. Trainers may encounter a Shiny Butterfree capable of Gigantamaxing, adding excitement to this six-star Max Battle event. Bonuses include increased Max Particle drops and a temporary boost to the Remote Raid Pass limit, making it easier to join battles. Sweet Swarms (August 3 â August 6, 2025) Kicking off on August 3 at 12:00 a.m. and running until August 6 at 11:59 p.m. local time, the Sweet Swarms event boosts the chances of encountering Shiny Combee and Shiny Swirlix. Lure Modules last one hour and are more likely to attract event-themed PokĂ©mon, enhancing wild spawns of sweet-themed species. This event offers a great opportunity to catch these elusive shinies while enjoying extended Lure Module benefits. Weekly Activities Max Monday: Dynamax Kabuto (July 28, 2025) On Monday, July 28, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time, Dynamax Kabuto takes over Max Battles at Power Spots. As a one-star Max Battle boss, Kabuto is soloable, and trainers can earn rewards like XL Candy, XP, Stardust, and a chance to catch the PokĂ©mon. Dynamax Kabuto remains available in Max Battles throughout the week until August 3, with potential for shiny encounters. Spotlight Hour: Roggenrola (July 29, 2025) On Tuesday, July 29, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time, Roggenrola is the featured PokĂ©mon for Spotlight Hour. Trainers will see increased Roggenrola spawns in the wild and earn 2Ă XP for evolving PokĂ©mon, making it a perfect time to evolve Roggenrola into Boldore and Gigalith. Shiny Roggenrola is available, offering a chance to catch this sparkling Rock-type. Raid Hour: Virizion (July 30, 2025) On Wednesday, July 30, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time, Virizion headlines Five-Star Raids during Raid Hour. All gyms hosting raids will feature this Legendary PokĂ©mon, with a chance to encounter its shiny form. No special raid passes are required, but trainers should stock up on regular Raid Passes and consider teaming up for this challenging battle. Raids and Battles Five-Star Raids From July 22 to July 28, Lunala is available in Five-Star Raids, with a chance to encounter Shiny Lunala. Starting July 29, Virizion takes over, accompanied by Mega Aerodactyl in Mega Raids. Shadow Registeel appears in Five-Star Shadow Raids on weekends during the Delightful Days season, with a chance for Shiny Shadow Registeel. Mega Raids Mega Venusaur is featured in Mega Raids from July 22 to July 28, replaced by Mega Aerodactyl starting July 29. Both offer shiny encounter opportunities, and trainers can use these battles to earn Mega Energy for powering up their PokĂ©mon. Dynamax and Gigantamax Battles In addition to the Gigantamax Butterfree Max Battle Day, Dynamax Kabuto is available in Max Battles throughout the week. These battles provide opportunities to earn Max Particles, XL Candy, and PokĂ©mon encounters, with increased Power Spot refreshes during the Gigantamax event. GO Battle League Season 23 GO Battle League Season 23, part of the Delightful Days season, continues with rank resets and end-of-season rewards available from June 3, 2025. From July 29 to August 5, trainers can participate in the Great League, Ultra League, and Master League, with 4Ă Stardust from win rewards (excluding end-of-set rewards). The GO Battle League offers competitive battles and rewards, accessible via the Battle screen. Season of Delightful Days Bonuses Running from June 3 to September 2, 2025, the Delightful Days season enhances gameplay with the following bonuses: One additional Special Trade per day Increased XP for the first catch of the day Double Daily Adventure Incense duration These perks, combined with Eggs-pedition Access (offering monthly tickets with Timed Research and daily Incubators), provide ongoing benefits for trainers. Conclusion The week of July 28 to August 3, 2025, offers PokĂ©mon GO trainers a vibrant lineup of events, from the Toedscool and Shiny Wiglett debuts during Adventure Week to the exciting Gigantamax Butterfree Max Battle Day. With Fossil Research Day, Sweet Swarms, and regular activities like Spotlight Hour, Raid Hour, and Max Monday, thereâs something for every trainer. Take advantage of season-long bonuses and prepare for battles, shiny hunts, and new PokĂ©mon encounters. Stay updated via PokĂ©mon GO Hub or the official PokĂ©mon GO blog for full event details and guides.
Itâs official, the first half of Wednesday season 2 has arrived after a lengthy wait, though there will of course be another month-long wait for the second batch of four episodes. Thanks Netflix! Very cool! For whatever reason, the embargo did not lift on reviews until pretty much the show was live, and now we know what critics are thinking about season 2 of Wednesday. And judging by the showâs current Rotten Tomatoes score, Iâm a bit surprised to see that itâs gone up season over season. Itâs easy for a show to be something of a one-hit wonder when it comes to critical acclaim. Squid Game, for instance, had a 95% season 1, an 84% season 2 and an 80% season 3, a slow decline. But right now, Wednesdayâs score has gone up from a 73% in season 1 to an 82% in season 2, indicating that at least for critics, thereâs been some measure of improvement. For season 1, I thought that score was a dramatic underestimate, and so did audiences, given the records it set for the service. PROMOTED Screenshot 2025-08-06 084858 Wednesday season 2 RT Right now itâs too early to judge audience scores. After 5,000 ratings, Wednesday season 1 had an 85%. Right now on Rotten Tomatoes it has a 69%, but there are less than 50 reviews in and I have some pretty strong doubts that all that many people watched all the episodes already. MORE FOR YOU Hereâs When The âBattlefield 6â Open Beta Starts And How To Play Early For Free RFK Jr. Cancels $500 Million In Federal Funding For mRNA Vaccine Research âSouth Parkâ Mocks Homeland Security In Social Media SpatâLatest Scuffle Between Show And Trump Administration Frase By Forbes The larger question is whether or not Wednesday can hit the insane viewership highs of season 1 here in season 2. We have seen many shows grow year-over-year on Netflix like Stranger Things and Bridgerton. But again, Squid Game, though it still put up big numbers, did not surpass the records of season 1. If I had to guess, I think Wednesday season 2 probably wonât do it, and I would say in part due to the 4 and 4 episode split, where some viewers may just wait until the whole season is available to binge, rather than deal with this very annoying break. Iâm tempted, frankly. Wednesday has already been pre-greenlit for season 3, so tracking viewership at all doesnât really matter if weâre searching for signs of renewal. Itâs very clear this show will run as long as those involved want it to. Netflix would probably do ten seasons, but Iâm not sure if star Jenna Ortega or creator Tim Burton would be on board with that. Itâs not Reacher.
The stock price of Hilton Hotels dipped slightly on Monday after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publicly criticized the hotel chain, alleging that a Minneapolis location abruptly canceled r
A heatwave continues to grip large parts of Europe, with authorities in many countries issuing health warnings amid searing temperatures. Southern Spain is the worst-affected region, with temperatures in the mid-40s Celsius recorded in Seville and neighbouring areas. A new heat record for June of 46C was set on Saturday in the town of El Granado, according to Spain's national weather service, which also said this month is on track to be the hottest June on record. Red heat warnings are in force in parts of Portugal, Italy and Croatia, with numerous amber warnings covering areas of Spain, France, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia and Switzerland. In Barcelona, a woman died after completing a shift as a road sweeper on Saturday, when temperatures were very high. Local authorities are investigating her death. In Italy, emergency departments across the country have reported an uptick in heatstroke cases, mainly affecting "elderly people, cancer patients, or homeless people", Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine told the AFP news agency. Hospitals such as the Ospedale dei Colli in Naples have set up dedicated heatstroke pathways to speed up access to vital treatments such as cold water immersion. The city of Bologna further to the north has set up seven climate shelters with air conditioning and drinking water, while Rome has offered free access to city swimming pools for those over 70. A pharmacist in Portugal's capital Lisbon told Reuters news agency that, despite telling people "not to go out" during the hottest hours of the day, "we have already had some cases of heat strokes and burns". The severe heat has also affected countries across the western Balkans where temperatures have reached in excess of 40C. Serbia registered its highest-ever temperature since it began recording them in the 19th century. In Slovenia, the hottest-ever June temperature was recorded on Saturday. North Macedonia is also sweltering as temperatures reached 42C on Friday. EPA/Shutterstock Tourists cool off under a cloud of mist in Valencia, Spain on SundayEPA/Shutterstock Tourists cool off under a cloud of mist in Valencia, Spain on Sunday More hot weather to come Some areas will continue to get hotter until the middle of the week, with temperatures rising across France, Germany, Italy and the UK over the next few days. Yellow and amber alerts are in place for parts of England this weekend, and temperatures in London may reach 35C on Monday. The heat has been building under a big area of high pressure, with dry air descending and warming. As that process has continued over a number of days, temperatures have climbed. The area of high pressure will move eastwards over the next few days â taking the high temperatures northwards and eastwards with it. While it is hard to link individual extreme weather events to climate change, heatwaves are becoming more common and more intense due to climate change. Scientists at World Weather Attribution, who analyse the influence of climate change on extreme weather events, say June heatwaves with three consecutive days above 28C are about 10 times more likely to occur now compared to pre-industrial times.
Review of Perplexity's Comet Browser Introduction Perplexity, an AI company, recently launched Comet, a new web browser. This article evaluates its features, usability, and overall experience based on a trial period, comparing it to established browsers like Google Chrome. Setup and Onboarding Cometâs installation process is straightforward and visually appealing. After signing up for an invite-only trial (shared by a friend due to delayed access from developers), the browser integrates seamlessly with a Google account, enabling quick setup. Key Features Comet offers several notable features: Integrated AI Assistant: A sidebar AI, powered by Perplexity, provides functionalities like answering questions, summarizing articles or YouTube videos, generating shopping lists from recipes, and conducting in-depth research. Perplexity Search Engine: Replacing Google, Perplexityâs search provides detailed answers with cited sources, leveraging its reliable AI engine. Tab Data Analysis: The browser can read and compare information from open tabs, useful for tasks like product comparisons. Privacy and Ad-Blocking: A built-in ad-blocker and a privacy mode minimize cloud interactions, enhancing user privacy. These features aim to create a comprehensive, AI-enhanced browsing experience. Limitations and Redundancies Despite its strengths, Comet has drawbacks. Most of its AI featuresâsuch as summarizing content or drafting emailsâare already available through existing AI tools like ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexityâs own platform. While Comet reduces friction by integrating these directly, the convenience may not justify switching browsers for all users. Additionally, Comet is currently invite-only or exclusive to Perplexityâs Max-tier subscription, priced at $200 per month. A free version is expected, but it may lack key features to encourage premium upgrades. For comparison, users can access similar AI functionalities through free browsers paired with premium AI subscriptions or self-hosted LLMs, potentially at lower costs. The browserâs interface, while aesthetically pleasing, feels cluttered and resource-heavy, consuming more RAM than minimalistic alternatives like Chrome. Users prioritizing simplicity and performance may find this a significant drawback. Conclusion Comet introduces an innovative approach by blending AI capabilities with web browsing. Its seamless AI integration, reliable search, and privacy features are commendable. However, the features are not unique enough to distinguish it from existing AI tools, and its high system resource usage and premium pricing may deter some users. For those valuing minimalism and functionality, sticking with established browsers like Chrome may be preferable, supplemented by standalone AI tools as needed. Cometâs design is visually striking, but its long-term appeal will depend on addressing these limitations and offering a compelling free version.
Tesla (TSLA) reported a slight earnings and revenue miss in the second quarter, and CEO Elon Musk hinted at a "few rough quarters" amid mounting challenges for the automaker. Tesla reported second quarter revenue of $22.50 billion vs. $22.64 billion expected (per Bloomberg consensus), a 12% drop compared with the $25.05 billion reported a year ago. Tesla posted adjusted EPS of $0.40 vs $0.42, with operating income coming in at $923 million vs. $1.23 billion expected. Switch Auto Insurance and Save Today! USAA Great Rates and Award-Winning Service Learn More Geico The Insurance Savings You Expect Learn More Liberty Mutual Affordable Auto Insurance, Customized for You Learn More Powered by Money.com - Yahoo may earn commission from the links above. Tesla's revenue from the sale of regulatory credits fell to $439 million from $890 million a year earlier, and will continue to drop following passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB), the company said. Musk spent months blasting the bill, but Trump signed it into law earlier this month. Tesla stock slumped over 6% in premarket trading on Thursday, after starting to slide during the company's earnings call. NasdaqGS - Nasdaq Real Time Price âą USD Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) Follow View Quote Details 332.56 +0.45 +(0.14%) At close: 4:00:01 PM EDT 310.75 -21.81 (-6.56%) Pre-Market: 8:51:34 AM EDT Advanced Chart 1D5D1M6MYTD1Y5YAll CFO Vaibhav Taneja said on the call that the OBBB recently would affect Teslaâs business, leading to a "pull forward" in sales ahead of the $7,500 tax credit expiring at the end of Q3. âGiven the abrupt change, we have limited supply of vehicles in the US this quarter,â Taneja said. âWe may not be able to guarantee delivery orders placed in the later part of August and beyond.â Taneja also said Tesla would ramp up volume production of an upcoming "affordable" model once the EV tax credit expired. Read more: Live coverage of corporate earnings A year ago, Tesla said in its Q2 earnings report that production remains on track for new vehicles, likely including a cheaper EV, in the first half of next year. There have been no indications or even renderings of a new vehicle, let alone production of a vehicle priced around $30,000. Tesla's cheapest EV is the rear-wheel-drive Model 3 sedan, which starts at around $43,000 without incentives. "We continue to expand our vehicle offering, including first builds of a more affordable model in June, with volume production planned for the second half of 2025," the company said in a statement. Tesla also said its purpose-built robotaxi was still scheduled for volume production starting in 2026. Tesla has expanded its robotaxi testing in Austin, Texas, with a bigger operating area and likely more vehicles coming. Musk said the company would expand testing to the San Francisco Bay Area, but reports suggest the applications for those state permits have not been submitted. Separately, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Tesla was in talks with Nevada officials to test the company's robotaxi service.
In recent years, the advent of AI-powered web browsers has revolutionized the digital landscape. With the anticipated launch of these sophisticated browsers on mobile platforms, the implications could be transformative. As companies like Perplexity take the lead, the traditional ways of navigating the web are being challenged. This shift raises questions about the future of Global Engine Optimization (GEO) and how businesses must adapt to remain competitive in an AI-driven environment. The Rise of AI-Powered Mobile Browsers The introduction of AI-driven browsers such as Comet signifies a major shift in how users interact with the internet. Currently in beta for desktop, Comet is expected to make its debut on Android and iOS in the near future. Unlike traditional browsers like Chrome, which focuses on advertising, or Safari, which emphasizes privacy, Comet takes an approach known as âagentic AI.â This means it acts as a personal assistant, tailoring its functionality to the userâs specific needs. Perplexity, the company behind Comet, has ambitious plans to reach âtens to hundreds of millionsâ of users by 2026, as stated by CEO Aravind Srinivas. This goal is supported by partnerships with companies like Motorola, which will see Comet pre-installed on select mobile devices. Discussions with giants like Samsung and Apple are also underway. However, replacing entrenched browsers like Chrome or Safari poses significant challenges due to exclusive agreements that often mandate Chrome as the default browser on Android devices. OpenAI is also rumored to be developing an AI browser, which could further disrupt the market as it seeks to integrate with Appleâs Siri to create a seamless, interactive environment, potentially reducing visits to traditional websites. Redefining Optimization for Mobile As AI browsers gain traction, the landscape of search engine optimization is evolving. Businesses now aim to be included in AI-generated responses, necessitating a shift in marketing strategies. To adapt, content must be optimized for AI by using concise paragraphs, clear headings, and structured markup that aids in indexing by AI models. Although Google has incorporated AI into its search engine, its advertising model limits its ability to fully embrace this paradigm shift. Conversely, companies like Perplexity focus on an AI-first approach, designed from the outset for this new mode of navigation. With the rise of voice and conversational searches on mobile, AI browsers demand a more natural language. To be featured in AI-generated summaries, sites must provide precise answers, backed by statistics and reliable sources. Research suggests that including citations and data increases the likelihood of appearing in AI snippets by 40%. As a result, GEO is shifting towards user intent, context, and clarity. Comet, for instance, favors voice queries such as âFind me an Italian restaurant tonight,â which can lead directly to reservations, thus bypassing traditional click-based interactions and causing a decline in organic traffic for traditional websites. Implications for Global Engine Optimization The emergence of AI browsers is not just a technological advancement; itâs a profound change in how information is accessed. The traditional model of GEO, which focuses on optimizing for search engines, is being reimagined. The emphasis is now on appearing in AI-generated content and responses. This evolution requires a fundamental shift in how content is created and presented. AI browsers like Comet are designed to provide users with immediate answers, often without the need to click through to a website. This shift necessitates a new approach to content creation, where the focus is on delivering clear, concise, and relevant information that aligns with user intent. As AI continues to evolve, businesses must adapt to these changes or risk being left behind in a rapidly changing digital landscape. The Future of Web Navigation As AI browsers become more prevalent, the impact on web navigation is profound. These browsers are not just tools for accessing information; they are becoming integral to how users interact with the digital world. By providing personalized, context-aware experiences, AI browsers are reshaping the expectations of users and the strategies of businesses. The traditional model of web navigation is being disrupted, and businesses must adapt to this new reality. The focus is now on creating content that is easily accessible and relevant to usersâ needs. As AI browsers continue to evolve, the challenge will be to find new ways to engage users and provide value in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. As the digital landscape continues to evolve with the rise of AI browsers, the implications are far-reaching. From redefining optimization strategies to transforming web navigation, the changes are both exciting and challenging. As we look to the future, how will businesses continue to adapt to an AI-driven world, and what new opportunities will emerge from this technological shift?
n an experiment last year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, more than fifty students from universities around Boston were split into three groups and asked to write SAT-style essays in response to broad prompts such as âMust our achievements benefit others in order to make us truly happy?â One group was asked to rely on only their own brains to write the essays. A second was given access to Google Search to look up relevant information. The third was allowed to use ChatGPT, the artificial-intelligence large language model (L.L.M.) that can generate full passages or essays in response to user queries. As students from all three groups completed the tasks, they wore a headset embedded with electrodes in order to measure their brain activity. According to Nataliya Kosmyna, a research scientist at M.I.T. Media Lab and one of the co-authors of a new working paper documenting the experiment, the results from the analysis showed a dramatic discrepancy: subjects who used ChatGPT demonstrated less brain activity than either of the other groups. The analysis of the L.L.M. users showed fewer widespread connections between different parts of their brains; less alpha connectivity, which is associated with creativity; and less theta connectivity, which is associated with working memory. Some of the L.L.M. users felt âno ownership whatsoeverâ over the essays theyâd produced, and during one round of testing eighty per cent could not quote from what theyâd putatively written. The M.I.T. study is among the first to scientifically measure what Kosmyna called the âcognitive costâ of relying on A.I. to perform tasks that humans previously accomplished more manually. Another striking finding was that the texts produced by the L.L.M. users tended to converge on common words and ideas. SAT prompts are designed to be broad enough to elicit a multiplicity of responses, but the use of A.I. had a homogenizing effect. âThe output was very, very similar for all of these different people, coming in on different days, talking about high-level personal, societal topics, and it was skewed in some specific directions,â Kosmyna said. For the question about what makes us âtruly happy,â the L.L.M. users were much more likely than the other groups to use phrases related to career and personal success. In response to a question about philanthropy (âShould people who are more fortunate than others have more of a moral obligation to help those who are less fortunate?â), the ChatGPT group uniformly argued in favor, whereas essays from the other groups included critiques of philanthropy. With the L.L.M. âyou have no divergent opinions being generated,â Kosmyna said. She continued, âAverage everything everywhere all at onceâthatâs kind of what weâre looking at here.â A.I. is a technology of averages: large language models are trained to spot patterns across vast tracts of data; the answers they produce tend toward consensus, both in the quality of the writing, which is often riddled with clichĂ©s and banalities, and in the calibre of the ideas. Other, older technologies have aided and perhaps enfeebled writers, of courseâone could say the same about, say, SparkNotes or a computer keyboard. But with A.I. weâre so thoroughly able to outsource our thinking that it makes us more average, too. In a way, anyone who deploys ChatGPT to compose a wedding toast or draw up a contract or write a college paper, as an astonishing number of students are evidently already doing, is in an experiment like M.I.T.âs. According to Sam Altman, the C.E.O. of OpenAI, we are on the verge of what he calls âthe gentle singularity.â In a recent blog post with that title, Altman wrote that âChatGPT is already more powerful than any human who has ever lived. Hundreds of millions of people rely on it every day and for increasingly important tasks.â In his telling, the human is merging with the machine, and his companyâs artificial-intelligence tools are improving on the old, soggy system of using our organic brains: they âsignificantly amplify the output of people using them,â he wrote. But we donât know the long-term consequences of mass A.I. adoption, and, if these early experiments are any indication, the amplified output that Altman foresees may come at a substantive cost to quality. Get The New Yorkerâs daily newsletter Keep up with everything we offer, plus exclusives available only to newsletter readers, directly in your in-box. Sign up By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. In April, researchers at Cornell published the results of another study that found evidence of A.I.-induced homogenization. Two groups of users, one American and one Indian, answered writing prompts that drew on aspects of their cultural backgrounds: âWhat is your favorite food and why?â; âWhich is your favorite festival/holiday and how do you celebrate it?â One subset of Indian and American participants used a ChatGPT-driven auto-complete tool, which fed them word suggestions whenever they paused, while another subset wrote unaided. The writings of the Indian and American participants who used A.I. âbecame more similarâ to one another, the paper concluded, and more geared toward âWestern norms.â A.I. users were most likely to answer that their favorite food was pizza (sushi came in second) and that their favorite holiday was Christmas. Homogenization happened at a stylistic level, too. An A.I.-generated essay that described chicken biryani as a favorite food, for example, was likely to forgo mentioning specific ingredients such as nutmeg and lemon pickle and instead reference ârich flavors and spices.â Video From The New Yorker A.I. vs. M.E. Of course, a writer can in theory always refuse an A.I.-generated suggestion. But the tools seem to exert a hypnotic effect, causing the constant flow of suggestions to override the writerâs own voice. Aditya Vashistha, a professor of information science at Cornell who co-authored the study, compared the A.I. to âa teacher who is sitting behind me every time Iâm writing, saying, âThis is the better version.â â He added, âThrough such routine exposure, you lose your identity, you lose the authenticity. You lose confidence in your writing.â Mor Naaman, a colleague of Vashisthaâs and a co-author of the study, told me that A.I. suggestions âwork covertly, sometimes very powerfully, to change not only what you write but what you think.â The result, over time, might be a shift in what âpeople think is normal, desirable, and appropriate.â We often hear A.I. outputs described as âgenericâ or âbland,â but averageness is not necessarily anodyne. Vauhini Vara, a novelist and a journalist whose recent book âSearchesâ focussed in part on A.I.âs impact on human communication and selfhood, told me that the mediocrity of A.I. texts âgives them an illusion of safety and being harmless.â Vara (who previously worked as an editor at The New Yorker) continued, âWhatâs actually happening is a reinforcing of cultural hegemony.â OpenAI has a certain incentive to shave the edges off our attitudes and communication styles, because the more people find the modelsâ output acceptable, the broader the swath of humanity it can convert to paying subscribers. Averageness is efficient: âYou have economies of scale if everything is the same,â Vara said. With the âgentle singularityâ Altman predicted in his blog post, âa lot more people will be able to create software, and art,â he wrote. Already, A.I. tools such as the ideation software Figma (âYour creativity, unblockedâ) and Adobeâs mobile A.I. app (âthe power of creative AIâ) promise to put us all in touch with our muses. But other studies have suggested the challenges of automating originality. Data collected at Santa Clara University, in 2024, examined A.I. toolsâ efficacy as aids for two standard types of creative-thinking tasks: making product improvements and foreseeing âimprobable consequences.â One set of subjects used ChatGPT to help them answer questions such as âHow could you make a stuffed toy animal more fun to play with?â and âSuppose that gravity suddenly became incredibly weak, and objects could float away easily. What would happen?â The other set used Oblique Strategies, a set of abstruse prompts printed on a deck of cards, written by the musician Brian Eno and the painter Peter Schmidt, in 1975, as a creativity aid. The testers asked the subjects to aim for originality, but once again the group using ChatGPT came up with a more semantically similar, more homogenized set of ideas. Max Kreminski, who helped carry out the analysis and now works with the generative-A.I. startup Midjourney, told me that when people use A.I. in the creative process they tend to gradually cede their original thinking. At first, users tend to present their own wide range of ideas, Kreminski explained, but as ChatGPT continues to instantly spit out high volumes of acceptable-looking text users tend to go into a âcurationist mode.â The influence is unidirectional, and not in the direction youâd hope: âHuman ideas donât tend to influence what the machine is generating all that strongly,â Kreminski said; ChatGPT pulls the user âtoward the center of mass for all of the different users that itâs interacted with in the past.â As a conversation with an A.I. tool goes on, the machine fills up its âcontext window,â the technical term for its working memory. When the context window reaches capacity, the A.I. seems to be more likely to repeat or rehash material it has already produced, becoming less original still. The one-off experiments at M.I.T., Cornell, and Santa Clara are all small in scale, involving fewer than a hundred test subjects each, and much about A.I.âs effects remains to be studied and learned. In the meantime, on the Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta AI app, you can see a feed containing content that millions of strangers are generating. Itâs a surreal flood of overly smooth images, filtered video clips, and texts generated for everyday tasks such as writing a âdetailed, professional email for rescheduling a meeting.â One prompt I recently scrolled past stood out to me. A user named @kavi908 asked the Meta chatbot to analyze âwhether AI might one day surpass human intelligence.â The chatbot responded with a slew of blurbs; under âFuture Scenarios,â it listed four possibilities. All of them were positive: A.I. would improve one way or another, to the benefit of humanity. There were no pessimistic predictions, no scenarios in which A.I. failed or caused harm. The modelâs averagesâshaped, perhaps, by pro-tech biases baked in by Metaânarrowed the outcomes and foreclosed a diversity of thought. But youâd have to turn off your brain activity entirely to believe that the chatbot was telling the whole story. âŠ
Nonprofit Creative Commons, which spearheaded the licensing movement that allows creators to share their works while retaining copyright, is now preparing for the AI era. On Wednesday, the organization announced the launch of a new project, CC signals, which will allow dataset holders to detail how their content can or cannot be reused by machines, as in the case of training AI models. The idea is meant to create a balance between the open nature of the internet and the demand for ever more data to fuel AI. As Creative Commons explains in a blog post, the continued data extraction underway could erode openness on the internet and could see entities walling off their sites or guarding them with paywalls, instead of sharing access to their data. The CC signals project, on the other hand, aims to provide a legal and technical solution that would provide a framework for dataset sharing meant to be used between those who control the data and those who use it to train AI. Demand is increasing for such a tool, as companies grapple with changing their policies and terms of service to either limit AI training on their data or explain to what extent theyâll utilize usersâ data for purposes related to AI. For instance, X initially made a change that allowed third parties to train their models on its public data, then later reversed that. Reddit is using its robots.txt file, which is meant to tell automated web crawlers whether they can access its site, to restrict bots from scraping its data for training AI. Cloudflare is looking toward a solution that would charge AI bots for scraping, as well as tools for confusing them. And open source developers have also built tools to slow down and waste the resources of AI crawlers that didnât respect their âno crawlâ directives. The CC signals project instead proposes a different solution: a set of tools that offers a range of legal enforceability and that has an ethical weight to them, similar to the CC licenses that today cover billions of openly licensed creative works online. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | July 15 REGISTER NOW âCC signals are designed to sustain the commons in the age of AI,â said Anna TumadĂłttir, Creative Commons CEO, in an announcement. âJust as the CC licenses helped build the open web, we believe CC signals will help shape an open AI ecosystem grounded in reciprocity.â The project is only now beginning to take shape. Early designs have been published on the CC website and GitHub page. The organization is actively seeking public feedback ahead of its plans for an alpha launch (early test) in November 2025. It will also host a series of town halls for feedback and questions. Topics AI ai ecosystem creative commons Sarah Perez Sarah Perez Consumer News Editor Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software. View Bio Event Logo July 15, 2025 Boston, MA From seed to Series C and beyondâfounders and VCs of all stages are heading to Boston. Be part of the conversation. Save $200+ now and tap into powerful takeaways, peer insights, and game-changing connections. Register Now Most Popular This AI-powered startup studio plans to launch 100,000 companies a year â really At TechCrunch All Stage, Jahanvi Sardana shares how top startups reshape markets Google launches Doppl, a new app that lets you visualize how an outfit might look on you Why a16z VC believes that Cluely, the âcheat on everythingâ startup, is the new blueprint for AI startups TechCrunch All Stage: Learn how AI can supercharge your MVPs with Chris Gardner Apple updates the rules for its EU App Store by adding more complicated fees Travis Kalanick is trying to buy Pony AI â and Uber might help Keep reading Image Credits: Audos Venture This AI-powered startup studio plans to launch 100,000 companies a year â really Connie Loizos 6:59 PM PDT · June 26, 2025 Henrik Werdelin has spent the last 15 years helping entrepreneurs build big brands like Barkbox through his startup studio Prehype. Now, with his new, New York-based venture Audos, heâs betting that AI can help him scale that process from âtensâ of startups a year to âhundreds of thousandsâ of aspiring business owners. The timing certainly feels right. Mass layoffs across a variety of industries have left many workers reconsidering their career paths, while AI tools have markedly lowered the barrier to building digital products and services. At the center of that Venn diagram is Werdelinâs latest venture, with its promise to help âeveryday entrepreneurs create million dollar AI companiesâ without requiring technical skills. Werdelinâs journey from Prehype to Audos reflects the broader transformation happening in entrepreneurship right now. At Prehype, the focus was on working with tech founders to build traditional startups, the kind that might raise millions and aim for billion-dollar exits. Now, he tells TechCrunch, âWhat weâre trying to do is take all that knowledge, all the methodology that weâve created over the years of building all these big companies, and really trying to democratize it.â The idea is that âeveryday entrepreneursâ may sense a shift is afoot but may not be keen to experiment with so-called AI agents or know how to reach customers. Audos is more than happy to help them, supplying these individuals with AI tools to build sophisticated products using natural language, and taking advantage of social media algorithms to find them their niche customers. âFacebook and a lot of these platforms, they are just incredible algorithms, and theyâre incredible at figuring out [how to reach your customer] if you define a customer group,â says Werdelin, who co-founded Audos with his Prehype partner Nicholas Thorne. In fact, Audos uses this system to quickly test whether a founderâs business idea has sustainable customer acquisition costs. The approach seems to be working. Audos has helped launch âlow hundredsâ of businesses since its beta launch, with its own customers discovering the platform through Instagram ads asking âHave you ever thought about starting something, but donât know where to go?â Among them, Werdelin says, are a car mechanic who wants to help people evaluate repair quotes, an individual who is selling âafter death logisticsâ services, virtual golf swing coaches, and AI nutritionists. In a winking reference to billion-dollar businesses, or so-called unicorns, he calls these one- and two-person teams âdonkeycorns.â Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | July 15 REGISTER NOW All went through the same process: they clicked on Audosâs ad, its AI agent launched a conversation to figure out the problems these individuals want to tackle and who they want to serve, and, when it was satisfied with the answers, Audos got them in front of potential customers as fast as possible. As for returns, Audos operates on a fundamentally different model than traditional accelerators or venture capital. Instead of taking equity, the company takes a 15% revenue share from the businesses it helps launch. In return, founders get up to $25,000 in funding, access to those AI-powered business development tools, and help with distribution, primarily through paid social media advertising. âWeâre not taking any equity in their business,â Werdelin says, partly because âwe donât think these companies might ever get sold. What weâre really inspired by are the mom-and-pop shops that are the backbone of our society.â The revenue share continues indefinitely, similar to platform fees charged by Appleâs App Store. For founders, that means giving up a significant portion of their revenue in perpetuity â a 15% cut that could cost entrepreneurs hundreds of thousands of dollars over time. Some will undoubtedly see that trade-off as worthwhile; others might question whether the long-term costs justify the benefits. Audosâs value proposition raises other questions given how quickly the landscape is changing. While Werdelin emphasizes helping founders build relationships with customers, itâs unclear how much of that work the AI agents can actually handle. Thereâs also the matter of differentiation. As Werdelin readily acknowledges, âthe world is full of these toolsâ and theyâre getting better rapidly. What happens when entrepreneurs can access similar AI capabilities without paying a permanent revenue tax? Audosâs VCs donât sound worried about those scenarios. True Ventures led Audosâs $11.5 million seed round, with partner Tony Conrad explaining the appeal in a Zoom call this week. In addition to having confidence in Werdelin and Thorne, says Conrad, âI think there are just lots and lots of peopleâ who might eagerly embrace the opportunity to work with a platform like Audos. Conrad draws parallels to Instagramâs $1 billion exit with just 13 employees, suggesting that AI could enable even more leverage, even if Audos â which itself employs just five people altogether currently â isnât chasing unicorns. As Werdelin explains it, âWhat weâre after here is the millions of people who can create million-dollar businesses or half-million dollar businesses that are real and life changing.â Adds Werdelin separately of why he spun up Audos, âWhat weâre trying to do is to figure out how you make a million companies that do a million dollars turnover. Thatâs a trillion dollar turnover business.â It doesnât sound crazy. Extending the benefits of entrepreneurship to people who traditionally havenât had access to startup capital or technical skills is an increasingly compelling proposition as traditional employment begins to feel less and less stable. âWe believe that there should be somebody who goes out and really helps these smaller entrepreneurs that are building something that is not venture backable,â says Werdelin. âWe believe that the world is better with more entrepreneurship.â Audosâs other investors include Offline Venture and Bungalow Capital, along with numerous high-profile angel investors â Niklas Zennstrom and Mario Schlosser among them. Pictured above, left to right, Audos co-founders Nicholas Thorne and Henrik Werdelin. Topics AI AI Audos True Ventures Venture Connie Loizos Connie Loizos Editor in Chief & General Manager Loizos has been reporting on Silicon Valley since the late â90s, when she joined the original Red Herring magazine. Previously the Silicon Valley Editor of TechCrunch, she was named Editor in Chief and General Manager of TechCrunch in September 2023. Sheâs also the founder of StrictlyVC, a daily e-newsletter and lecture series acquired by Yahoo in August 2023 and now operated as a sub brand of TechCrunch. View Bio Newsletters See More Subscribe for the industryâs biggest tech news TechCrunch Daily News Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunchâs coverage. Add TechCrunch Daily News to your subscription choices Startups Weekly Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. Add Startups Weekly to your subscription choices TechCrunch Week in Review Get the best of our coverage, delivered to your inbox every Saturday. Add TechCrunch Week in Review to your subscription choices TechCrunch Mobility TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight. Add TechCrunch Mobility to your subscription choices No newsletters selected. Email address Subscribe By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. Keep reading Image Credits: Google Apps Google launches Doppl, a new app that lets you visualize how an outfit might look on you Aisha Malik 2:19 PM PDT · June 26, 2025 Google is launching a new experimental app called Doppl that uses AI to visualize how different outfits might look on you, the company announced on Thursday. The app is available on iOS and Android in the U.S. Doppl is designed to let you virtually try on outfits on a digital version of yourself. The app works by first getting you to upload a full-body photo of yourself. From there, you can use photos or screenshots of different outfits to virtually try them on. These images could be a photo of an outfit you see at a thrift store or on a friend, or even a screenshot of an outfit you see while scrolling through social media. Once you select an outfit that you want to visualize, Doppl will create an image of a virtual version of yourself wearing the outfit. Doppl can also take these static images and convert them into AI-generated videos so you can get a better sense of how the outfit would look on you in real life. You can save your favorite looks and browse through all of your other virtual try-ons. Plus, you can also share your look with others. Image Credits:Google The tech giant says the new app builds on Google Shoppingâs recently launched capabilities that allow you to try on clothes virtually. By launching the functionality in a stand-alone app, Google is making the feature easier to access while allowing people to explore their style in a fun and interactive way, the company believes. It may also help Google collect more data on how apps like this could work, to aid its future efforts in the space. While Google has offered virtual try-on technology before, the earlier features focused on showing items on a diverse range of modelsâ bodies. With Doppl, the company is letting you try clothes on an animated version of your own body. âWe hope Doppl helps you explore your style in new and exciting ways,â Google said in a blog post. âAs a Google Labs experiment, Doppl is in its early days and it might not always get things right. Fit, appearance and clothing details may not always be accurate.â Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | July 15 REGISTER NOW Given that the Doppl is an experimental launch, itâs unknown when or if Google plans to bring the app to additional regions. Topics AI Apps Google Aisha Malik Aisha Malik Consumer News Reporter Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelorâs degree from University of Toronto and a masterâs degree in journalism from Western University. View Bio Latest in Apps See More Apps Google launches Doppl, a new app that lets you visualize how an outfit might look on you Aisha Malik 5 hours ago Apple app store icon Apps Apple updates the rules for its EU App Store by adding more complicated fees Sarah Perez 6 hours ago Threads on App Store is seen in this illustration photo. Apps Threads now lets you manage Hidden Words separately from Instagram, set time limits Aisha Malik 8 hours ago Keep reading Image Credits: Cluely AI Why a16z VC believes that Cluely, the âcheat on everythingâ startup, is the new blueprint for AI startups Marina Temkin 2:06 PM PDT · June 26, 2025 When Cluely, a startup claiming to be building a product that helps people âcheatâ on everything, announced that it raised a $15 million Series A financing round from Andreessen Horowitz, some people on X criticized the VC firm for backing the controversial company. After all, Cluely isnât just offering a product that may have questionable uses; the startup has also become famous for using what many people call rage-bait marketing. But Cluelyâs ability to grab attention is precisely what attracted a16z to the startup. Even before meeting Cluelyâs founder Roy Lee, Andreessen Horowitzâs partner Bryan Kim thought that startups need new marketing tactics in the AI era. Kim, like many investors, previously thought that building a superb âartisanâ product with highly desired features was the key to a startupâs lasting success, he explained on the latest a16z podcast episode. But shortly after the emergence of generative AI, he noticed that offering an exceptional product might not be enough. âIf you craft this thing and OpenAI or someone builds a new model to include that part in their product, youâre done,â Kim said. âSo, it couldnât become this highly thoughtful, slow-build product. It needed to be something where founders moved extremely quickly.â Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | July 15 REGISTER NOW That realization has led Kim to believe that speed, whether in marketing or product building, is paramount to creating a successful startup. Earlier this month, Kim published a post explaining his theory of why, for consumer-facing AI startups, âmomentum is the moat.â When Kim met Lee and saw that Cluely had been able to convert awareness into paying customers, he instantly knew that he had discovered a founder he had theorized about. âItâs been so hard to pierce through the noise of everything AI, especially in consumer, and to do that consistently is actually near impossible,â Kim said. How does Lee explain why his polarizing marketing approach has generated so much buzz? âMost people donât know how to make viral content,â Lee said on the podcast. âEveryone on X is trying to [sound] like the most intellectual, thoughtful person. But this just lacks viral sense.â Lee, instead, had studied why some posts on TikTok and Instagram blow up. âAlgorithms promote the most controversial things,â he said. âIâm just literally applying the same principles of controversy on X and LinkedIn.â What many people donât know, Lee said, is that Cluely barely had a functioning product when the startup launched in April with its slickly produced video of Lee using its hidden AI to lie to a woman about his age and knowledge of art while on a date. Despite having some semblance of a product, the startup has yet to unveil the solution it has been hyping. âThe internet is up in storm saying, âWhereâs the product?ââ Lee said. âWeâre earlier than the latest YC batch of companies. Yet, weâre generating more views than every single one of them.â Lee is convinced that once the product launches, it will generate even more excitement than if Cluely introduced it without âmarketingâ the company for the last two months. (The official launch is set for Friday, June 27, he posted on X.) Kim sees Cluelyâs approach as a perfect embodiment of his âmomentum as a moatâ theory. Since time is of the essence in AI, the a16z partner is certain that Cluely can figure out its product on the fly. âWhatâs important is to try to build a plane as itâs falling down the cliff,â Kim said. Weâll all see soon if that plane soars or crashes.
While there are no major reports of widespread election fraud directly impacting recent Minnesota election outcomes as of late 2025, several incidents and policy debates have drawn attention, particularly amid broader fraud scandals in state social services programs. Key Recent Cases of Detected and Prosecuted Voter Fraud 2025 Voter Registration Fraud Scheme: Two Nevada residents (formerly of Minnesota) were charged federally with conspiracy to submit hundreds of fraudulent voter registration applications across multiple counties in 2021â2022. One pleaded guilty in July 2025. The scheme was uncovered by local election officials (starting in Carver County), and no fraudulent ballots were cast or counted. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon emphasized that this case demonstrates the effectiveness of the state's safeguards, as fraudulent applications were flagged immediately. Individual Incidents: Isolated cases include a woman sentenced in October 2025 for attempting to cast an absentee ballot (flagged and not counted), and older cases like an election judge charged in 2024 for improperly allowing unregistered voters. These cases are rare and were prevented from affecting results, according to official statements and reports from sources like the Associated Press and the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. Policy Scrutiny Amid Broader Fraud Concerns A December 29, 2025, Fox News article highlighted Minnesota's long-standing "vouching" policy, which allows a registered voter to vouch for the residency of up to eight others on same-day registration (no ID required for the vouched voters in some cases). Critics, including conservatives like Scott Presler and Sen. Mike Lee, argue this creates potential for abuse, especially given same-day registration and recent social services fraud scandals involving Minnesota's Somali community (e.g., hundreds of millions in alleged misuse of federal funds). However, state officials note the policy has existed for over 50 years with no evidence of systemic exploitation leading to fraudulent votes. This debate has intensified due to unrelated but high-profile welfare and childcare fraud investigations (e.g., Feeding Our Future scandal), which some Republicans link to election integrity concerns, though no direct connection to voting has been substantiated. Historical Context Older allegations, such as 2020 ballot harvesting claims tied to Rep. Ilhan Omar (promoted by Project Veritas), were largely debunked or lacked corroboration, with sources retracting statements. In summary, proven voter fraud in Minnesota remains extremely limited and detected/prevented by existing systems. Widespread claims often stem from policy critiques or conflation with non-election fraud scandals.
Reddit says that it has caught AI companies scraping its data from the Internet Archiveâs Wayback Machine, so itâs going to start blocking the Internet Archive from indexing the vast majority of Reddit. The Wayback Machine will no longer be able to crawl post detail pages, comments, or profiles; instead, it will only be able to index the Reddit.com homepage, which effectively means Internet Archive will only be able to archive insights into which news headlines and posts were most popular on a given day. âInternet Archive provides a service to the open web, but weâve been made aware of instances where AI companies violate platform policies, including ours, and scrape data from the Wayback Machine,â spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt tells The Verge. The Internet Archiveâs mission is to keep a digital archive of websites on the internet and âother cultural artifacts,â and the Wayback Machine is a tool you can use to look at pages as they appeared on certain dates, but Reddit believes not all of its content should be archived that way. âUntil theyâre able to defend their site and comply with platform policies (e.g., respecting user privacy, re: deleting removed content) weâre limiting some of their access to Reddit data to protect redditors,â Rathschmidt says. The limits will start âramping upâ today, and Reddit says it reached out to the Internet Archive âin advanceâ to âinform them of the limits before they go into effect,â according to Rathschmidt. He says Reddit has also âraised concernsâ about the ability of people to scrape content from the Internet Archive in the past. Reddit has a recent history of cutting off access to scraper tools as AI companies have begun to use (and abuse) them en masse, but itâs willing to provide that data if companies pay. Last year, Reddit struck a deal with Google for both Google Search and AI training data early last year, and a few months later, it started blocking major search engines from crawling its data unless they pay. It also said its infamous API changes from 2023, which forced some third-party apps to shut down, leading to protests, were because those APIs were abused to train AI models. Reddit also struck an AI deal with OpenAI, but it sued Anthropic in June, claiming Anthropic was still scraping from Reddit even after Anthropic said it wasnât scraping anymore. âWe have a longstanding relationship with Reddit and continue to have ongoing discussions about this matter,â Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, says in a statement to The Verge.
Apple has released the public beta of iOS 26, giving users of recent iPhones an early look at the upcoming software update set to roll out formally this fall. This release allows anyone enrolled in Appleâs beta program to explore new features and design changes ahead of the official launch. The update introduces one of the most significant design changes to the iPhone interface since iOS 7 in 2013, which brought a flatter aesthetic. The new design, called âLiquid Glass,â revamps the interface with translucent buttons and fluid animations meant to resemble flowing glass. This visual overhaul extends across Appleâs broader ecosystem, including iPads, Macs, and Apple Watch. Users interested in testing the update can enroll via Appleâs website, then go to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates to install it. iOS 26 also includes functional improvements. The Phone app now consolidates recent calls and voicemails into a single screen. Enhanced spam filtering tools for calls and messages have also been added. Although Apple previously teased major upgrades to its Siri voice assistant using generative AI, those features have been delayed and arenât expected until 2026. However, iOS 26 still introduces several AI-powered tools, such as real-time translations in iMessage and FaceTime, and a visual search function that lets users highlight objects in screenshots â like identifying and locating a product seen online. Apple typically unveils its major software updates at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Developers and testers experiment with the early versions throughout the summer, and the finalized update is released in the fall alongside new iPhone hardware. Most devices then receive the update automatically.
AI Helped Catch Her Lung Cancer Early And It Might Have Saved Her Life By 404news Inspired by reporting from People, May 2025 Artificial intelligence is increasingly stepping in where traditional diagnostics leave off, and for Susan Riffle, a 63 year old florist from Georgia, that may have made all the difference. After smoking for three decades and quitting in 2020, Riffle thought her health was back on track. But a routine CT scan three years later revealed a small lesion on her lung, the kind of finding that's often ambiguous and easy to delay acting on. Fortunately, her doctor, Dr. Daniel Miller at the Georgia Cancer Center, ran her results through AI powered diagnostic software. The software, which calculates the likelihood that a lesion is cancerous on a scale from 1 to 10, gave her a score of 8, indicating a 64% chance of cancer. That single number shifted the course of her treatment. Thanks to the AI assisted assessment, Miller ordered a PET scan, followed by immediate surgery. The lesion was confirmed as stage 1B lung cancer, caught early enough to avoid chemotherapy or radiation. Riffle underwent a lobectomy to remove part of her lung, recovered quickly, and was back to normal life within weeks. "If we waited another six months, who knows what could have happened?" she told People. AI's Growing Role in Medical Screening This isn't an isolated case. Lung cancer is notoriously difficult to detect in its early stages. According to the American Lung Association, about 75% of cases are diagnosed in stages 3 or 4, when treatment options are more aggressive and survival rates are lower. AI is changing that. By integrating patient history, scan data, and predictive algorithms, AI tools can flag suspicious lesions that may otherwise be dismissed or delayed for follow up. In Riffle's case, this meant faster action and potentially, a life saved. Dr. Miller emphasized that without AI, he likely would have recommended a "wait and rescan" approach, a delay that could've been dangerous. Commentary: A New Era of Preventative AI What makes Riffle's story especially compelling is how it highlights AI's evolving role in preventative healthcare, not just diagnostics. AI isn't replacing doctors, it's empowering them to make faster, better informed decisions. But the technology is only part of the equation. Riffle's outcome also depended on her willingness to quit smoking, seek regular screenings, and trust the science. It's a powerful reminder that even the best tools require engaged, proactive patients. Final Thought Stories like Riffle's are why many experts advocate expanding access to AI driven screenings, particularly for high risk individuals with a history of smoking. AI won't replace human judgment, but in cases like this, it can sharpen it and save lives.
Greg Abel's ascent to CEO of Berkshire Hathaway comes with a significant financial reward, signaling the conglomerate's confidence in his leadership as he steps into the shoes of Warren Buffett. Effec
Franceâs Eutelsat is often touted as a European challenger to Elon Muskâs Starlink. The satellite operator last week received more than 1 billion euros in an investment led by the French state. The deal shows France views Eutelsat as a strategic asset in the EUâs push for technological sovereignty. However, experts are doubtful that Eutelsat can become a viable alternative to Starlink in Europe. In this article ETL-FR +0.16 (+4.57%) Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT France views Eutelsat as a strategic asset in the EU's push for technological sovereignty. France views Eutelsat as a strategic asset in the EUâs push for technological sovereignty. Benoit Tessier | AFP via Getty Images For years, Franceâs Eutelsat has been trying to build a European alternative to Elon Muskâs Starlink satellite broadband service. The company merged with British satellite venture OneWeb in 2023, consolidating the regionâs satellite communications industry in an effort to catch up to Starlink, which is owned by SpaceX. Last week, the French state led a 1.35-billion-euro ($1.58 billion) investment in Eutelsat, making it the companyâs biggest shareholder with a roughly 30% stake. Europe largely lags behind the U.S. in the global space race. Starlinkâs constellation of over 7,000 satellites dwarfs Eutelsatâs. Meanwhile, Europeâs launch capabilities are more limited than the U.S. The region still relies heavily on America for certain launch services, which is a market dominated by SpaceX. Eutelsat currently has a market capitalization of 1.6 billion euros, much lower than estimates for Starlink owner SpaceXâs value, which was pegged at $350 billion in a secondary share sale last year. In 2020, analysts at Morgan Stanley said that they see Starlink growing to $80.9 billion in their âbase case valuationâ for the firm. Luke Kehoe, industry analyst at network monitoring firm Ookla, said Franceâs investment in Eutelsat shows the country âis now treating Eutelsat less like a commercial telco and more like a dual-use critical-infrastructure providerâ and a âstrategic assetâ in the European Unionâs push for technological sovereignty. However, building a European competitor to Starlink will be no mean feat. A matter of scale Communications industry experts tell CNBC that, while Eutelsat could boost Europeâs efforts to create a sovereign satellite internet provider, challenging its U.S. rival Starlink would require a significant increase in investments in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Eutelsatâs OneWeb arm operates a total of 650 LEO satellites, which is less than a tenth of Starlinkâs 7,600-strong global satellite constellation. âTo offer greater capacity and coverage, [Eutelsat] needs to increase the number of satellites in space, a task made more difficult due to the fact that many of OneWebâs satellites are nearing the end of their lifespan and will need to be first replaced before growing the constellationâs size,â Joe Gardiner, research analyst at market research firm CCS Insight, told CNBC via email. Ooklaâs Kehoe echoed this view. âEutelsatâs chances of achieving parity with Starlink in the mass-market satellite broadband segment within the next five years remain limited, given SpaceXâs unmatched global scale in LEO infrastructure,â he said. âEven with the latest injection of capital from the French state, Eutelsat continues to lag behind Starlink in several key areas, including capital, manufacturing throughput, launch access, spectrum and user terminals.â Nevertheless, he thinks the company is âwell positioned to succeed in European-sovereign, security-sensitive and enterprise segments that prioritise jurisdictional control and sovereignty over raw constellation capacity.â The enterprise segment refers to the market for corporate space clients. Could Eutelsat replace Starlink in Europe? Thatâs certainly the hope. Franceâs Emmanuel Macron has urged Europe to ramp up its investment in space, saying last week that âspace has in some way become a gauge of international power.â When Eutelsat announced its investment from France last week, the firm stressed its role as âthe only European operator with a fully operational LEO networkâ as well as the âstrategic role of the LEO constellation in Franceâs model for sovereign defense and space communications.â Earlier this year, Eutelsat was rumoured to be in the running to replace Starlink in Ukraine. For years, Starlink has offered Ukraineâs military its satellite internet services to assist with the war effort amid Russiaâs ongoing invasion. Read more CNBC tech news Quantum computing is having a moment. But the technology remains futuristic SoftBank CEO says heâs âall inâ on OpenAI, reveals heâs long wanted Microsoftâs spot as main backer Whatâs driving Wall Street stablecoin interest? Trillions up for grabs in the future and banks getting ready for it Microsoft says goodbye to the Windows blue screen of death Relations between the U.S. and Ukraine soured following the election of President Donald Trump and reports surfaced that U.S. negotiators had raised the possibility of cutting Ukraineâs access to Starlink. Germany set up 1,000 Eutelsat terminals in Ukraine in April with the aim of providing an alternative â rather than a replacement â for Starlinkâs 50,000 terminals in the war-torn country. Since then, U.S.-Ukraine tensions have somewhat cooled, and Starlink remains the primary satellite broadband provider to the Ukrainian military. Eutelsatâs former CEO Eva Berneke has herself admitted that the company cannot yet match Starlinkâs scale. âIf we were to take over the entire connectivity capacity for Ukraine and all the citizens â we wouldnât be able to do that. Letâs just be very honest,â she said in an April interview with Politico. Berneke was replaced as CEO in May by Jean-Francois-Fallacher, a former executive of French telecoms giant Orange . Apples and oranges Meanwhile, even though Eutelsat has been ramping up investments in LEO satellite with its OneWeb unit, experts say its technical architectures and orbital designs are ultimately different from Starlinkâs. âThe OneWeb constellation currently uses a bent-pipe architecture, which is not as capable as Starlink satellites; therefore, OneWeb will also need to invest in second-generation satellites,â he added. The French firmâs use cases also differ to Starlinkâs. Eutelsat operates a constellation of geostationary orbit (GEO) as well as LEO satellites. GEO satellites orbit the earth at a much higher altitude than their LEO equivalents and can typically cover more land with fewer satellites. âEutelsatâs higher altitude satellites are leveraged for specialized use cases, such as polar coverage for companies and research facilities in remote regions like Greenland and Alaska,â said Joe Vaccaro, vice president and general manager at Ciscoâs ThousandEyes network intelligence unit. Looking ahead, Eutelsat said it plans to âbuild upon its operation improvementsâ with a âdifferentiated go-to-market modelâ and âstrong European anchoring.â It also noted that the U.K. government could also increase its investment in Eutelsat âin due course.â
An extraordinary exchange at a Ubisoft shareholder meeting that also touched on AA games and the next Ghost Recon. PLUS: The company's aging workforce, its protections for harassed employees, and more Stephen Totilo Jul 19, 2025 â Paid The playable protagonists of Assassinâs Creed Shadows. Screenshot: Ubisoft, captured by Game File In a moment that saw Twitter/X briefly become real life, Ubisoftâs CEO was face to face last week with a shareholder and gamer who pressed him on two of the most strident online criticisms against the company: one expressing animus over the Black samurai in this yearâs Assassinâs Creed Shadows; the other about a popular web petition decrying game publishers for rendering aging online games unplayable. âWoke or not woke?â the shareholder asked Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot during the Q&A portion of the companyâs annual shareholder meeting in Paris, via an official live translation of the event. And, later, from the same questioner, regarding the Stop Killing Games movement: âDo you support that petition?â Iâll share the full questions and Guillemotâs lengthy answers below. (Spoiler: he didnât take the âwokeâ bait and said âWe wanted to showcase characters with heroic journeysâ; as for the petition, he said the company is âworking onâ the online games issue). But, first, some scene-setting. Ubisoftâs annual shareholders meeting occurred on July 10 and began in standard fashion, with Guillemot and Ubisoft Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet seated at tables in a meeting room, taking turns presenting the companyâs strategy and financial results. While such events donât usually involve any new game reveals, Guillemot did mention the âupcoming launchâ of a Ghost Recon game, a project that hasnât been officially announced. Then, for about half an hour, prior to successful votes regarding the companyâs board of directors and pay packages, Guillemot and Duguet took questions from shareholders, who stood up from rows of raised seats to ask about financial plans, the companyâs future and more. The CEO and CFO were asked about Assassinâs Creed Shadowsâ budget Guillemot would only say that it exceeded âŹ100 million ($116 million), which is a no brainer and likely far lower than the gameâs cost. They were asked about lessons learned from Star Wars Outlawsâ âfailure, in terms of sales.â Aside from design issues, Guillemot noted that Outlaws âwas released at a time when the brand that it belonged to was in a bit of choppy waters.â They were asked, by one frustrated shareholder (âI am very unhappy with the catastrophic share price with minus 40% over 10 yearsâ), about, among other things, what they thought of Riotâs multiplayer game Valorant. Highlights from that exchange below. And they were asked by a current employee if Ubisoft is interested in making more AA-scale games to offset the risks of more expensive productions. Guillemot kind of said yes. Full exchange for that below as well. While the meeting occurred a week ago and has been archived on Ubisoftâs website since then, thereâs been little to no reporting about the event. Thankfully, here at Game File, I have a (possibly) unhealthy interest in visiting video game companiesâ investor relations websites and am here to report on what happened. In addition, I just read through Ubisoftâs 380-page annual report, published to little reaction last month, and have some findings to share from that as well. I can now draw a connection between Ubisoft and the New York Mets, among other revelations. On with it, we goâŠ
Holiday season is now upon us. And as we head to airports across the U.S. and overseas, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued new warnings for all smartphone (and PC) users to stay safe and secure at airports while traveling. The first warning plays into the controversial risk of juice jacking. This is where youâre tricked into plugging your phone into a compromised public charging socket in a hotel or mall or airport. âSo, when youâre at an airport do not plug your phone directly into a USB port. Bring your TSA-compliant power brick or battery pack and plug in there.â TSAâs second warning plays into the even more controversial risk of public WiFi. Nothing irritates cybersecurity professionals more than blanket warnings about public WiFi, given that most traffic to and from your smartphone is now encrypted. PROMOTED Forbes âStarting TodayââMicrosoft Confirms Free Windows Update By Zak Doffman But TSA has warned smartphone users nonetheless. âDonât use free public WiFi,â it says as one of its âtwo best tips for staying cyber safe at airports while youâre traveling.â That means do not connect to free airport networks as most of us do. This is especially true, it adds, âif youâre planning to make any online purchases,â and also warns âdo not ever enter any sensitive info while using unsecured WiFi.â MORE FOR YOU Trump Announces Japan Trade Deal With Lowered Tariffs Of 15%âToyota And Honda Lead Surge In Japanese Stocks Hereâs Every Known Link Between Trump And Epstein: âLittle Black Bookâ, Plane Rides And Trumpâs 1993 Wedding If You See This Message, Your Amazon Account Is Under Attack Frase By Forbes So, is this right? In general, public WiFi is fine â and that includes airport WiFi. As the FTC says âbecause of the widespread use of encryption, connecting through a public Wi-Fi network is usually safe.â But be sure to follow those golden rules when connecting: Disable auto-connection to public or unknown WiFi networks Do not download any software or provide any data other than an email address into a captive portal that gate-keeps your access to a WiFi network. Ensure that all website connections are encrypted â check for the padlock, and do not enter any sign-in information into an unexpected popup on your device. Check the WiFi network identifier carefully before joining â if itâs a hotel, airport or mall, or even a coffee shop, be sure itâs the official network for the location. VPNs do make you more secure â but only reputable, paid VPNs from bluechip developers. A free VPN or a Chinese VPN is more dangerous than no VPN at all. The mobile security specialists at Zimperium have just issued their own public WiFi warning for smartphone users âespecially during travel when vigilance is low.â With free public-WiFi everywhere,â they say, âattackers know exactly how to strike.â
