Since 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has achieved a number of historic milestones, including sending back the first audio recordings from Mars. Now, nearly five years after landing on the Red Planet, it just achieved another feat. This past December, Perseverance successfully completed a route through a section of the Jezero crater plotted by Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, marking the first time NASA has used a large language model to pilot the car-sized robot.    

Between December 8 and 10, Perseverance drove approximately 400 meters (about 437 yards) through a field of rocks on the Martian surface mapped out by Claude. As you might imagine, using an AI model to plot a course for Perseverance wasn’t as simple as inputting a single prompt. 

As NASA explains, routing Perseverance is no easy task, even for a human. “Every rover drive needs to be carefully planned, lest the machine slide, tip, spin its wheels, or get beached,” NASA said. “So ever since the rover landed, its human operators have painstakingly laid out waypoints — they call it a ‘breadcrumb trail’ — for it to follow, using a combination of images taken from space and the rover’s onboard cameras.” 

To get Claude to complete the task, NASA had to first provide Claude Code, Anthropic’s programming agent, with the “years” of contextual data from the rover before the model could begin writing a route for Perseverance. Claude then went about the mapping process methodically, stringing together waypoints from ten-meter segments it would later critique and iterate on.  

This being NASA we’re talking about, engineers from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made sure to double check the model’s work before sending it to Perseverance. The JPL team ran Claude’s waypoints through a simulation they use every day to confirm the accuracy of commands sent to the rover. In the end, NASA says it only had to make “minor changes” to Claude’s route, with one tweak coming as a result of the fact the team had access to ground-level images Claude hadn’t seen in its planning process.  

“The engineers estimate that using Claude in this way will cut the route-planning time in half, and make the journeys more consistent,” NASA said. “Less time spent doing tedious manual planning — and less time spent training — allows the rover’s operators to fit in even more drives, collect even more scientific data, and do even more analysis. It means, in short, that we’ll learn much more about Mars.”

While the productivity gains offered by AI are often overstated, in the case of NASA, any tool that could allow its scientists to be more efficient is sure to be welcome. Over the summer, the agency lost about 4,000 employees – accounting for about 20 percent of its workforce – due to Trump administration cuts. Going into 2026, the president had proposed gutting the agency’s science budget by nearly half before Congress ultimately rejected that plan in early January. Still, even with its funding preserved just below 2025 levels, the agency has a tough road ahead. It’s being asked to return to the Moon with less than half the workforce it had during the height of the Apollo program.     

For Anthropic, meanwhile, this is a major feat. You may recall last spring Claude couldn’t even beat Pokémon Red. In less than a year, the company’s models have gone from struggling to navigate a simple 8-bit Game Boy game to successfully plotting a course for a rover on a distant planet. NASA is excited about the possibility of future collaborations, saying “autonomous AI systems could help probes explore ever more distant parts of the solar system.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nasa-used-claude-to-plot-a-route-for-its-perseverance-rover-on-mars-203150701.html?src=rss

Unsolicited texts are annoying—and even more so if they keep coming from a legitimate sender after you’ve opted out. If you received text spam from Kaiser Permanente, you may be eligible for a cash payout for each message.

The healthcare company, which serves over 12.5 million members, recently settled a $10.5 million class action lawsuit filed over marketing text messages sent after recipients tried to opt out. The suit, filed in August 2025, claimed that Kaiser Permanente failed to honor opt-out requests. Those with a valid claim may receive up to $75 per qualifying text.

Are you eligible for the Kaiser settlement?

To qualify for a payout from this settlement, you must have received more than one text message from Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. within a 12-month period—between Jan. 21, 2021 and Aug. 20, 2025—after sending a “stop” or similar opt-out request. (Note that the confirmation of your request does not count.)

According to the settlement website, there are two separate classes covered by suit: one for message recipients in Florida and one for the U.S. as a whole.

How to claim your settlement cash

To get your cash, you’ll need to submit a valid claim form by Feb. 12, 2026. You can complete your claim online if you received a notice of eligibility via mail or email containing a unique ID and PIN. If you did not get a notice, you’ll have to download and submit a paper claim form to the settlement administrator. Hard copy claims must be postmarked by Feb. 12.

While the maximum per-text payout is $75, the final amount may be less depending on how many claims are filed. Payments could take months to distribute while settlement details are finalized, so don’t expect the funds to arrive immediately.

Apple “runs on Anthropic at this point” and that the AI company is powering much of what Apple does internally for product development and internal tools, according to Mark Gurman, the most influential reporter on the Apple beat.

Apple had initially pursued an AI deal with Anthropic before the Google partnership came together, but negotiations fell apart over pricing — Anthropic reportedly wanted several billion dollars per year and a doubling of fees over time. Apple’s deal with Google is costing roughly one billion dollars annually.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Before you head out to a protest, take some precautions to protect your privacy and both the physical and digital security of any device you bring along. The most secure option, of course, is to leave your phone at home, but you can also lock things down to minimize the risk that your data will be accessible to law enforcement or someone who gets hold of your device.

Thankfully, both iOS and Android have built-in device encryption if you’re using a passcode, meaning that your device’s data cannot be accessed when it is locked. (On Android, go to Settings > Security to ensure Encrypt Disk is enabled). You’ll want to maximize this protection with the following privacy settings.

Turn off face and fingerprint scanning

At an absolute minimum, you’ll want to disable biometric access, such as face and fingerprint authentication, on your device in favor of a passcode or PIN. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, this minimizes the risk of being physically forced to unlock your device and may provide stronger legal protections against compelled decryption.

On iOS, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and toggle off iPhone Unlock. You can also set up a stronger passcode—a custom numeric or alphanumeric code—under Change Passcode. On Android, you’ll find the option to delete your fingerprint in favor of your PIN or screen lock pattern under Settings > Security & Privacy > Device Unlock > Fingerprint.

Limit location tracking

Again, the best option to prevent your location from being tracked is to coordinate any details in advance and leave your phone at home. If you must bring it along, keep it off unless you absolutely need to use it.

You can turn on Airplane Mode in advance, as well as disable Bluetooth, wifi, and location services, which keeps your device from transmitting your location. However, note that some apps may still be able to store GPS data and transmit it when an internet connection is available—so again, the safest bet is to keep your device off for the duration.

Airplane Mode can be enabled (and wifi and Bluetooth disabled) in your device’s settings or quick access menu. On Android, go to Settings > Location to disable location services and turn off Location History in your Google account. On iOS, head to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services to disable locations entirely.

Turn off previews and notifications

Temporarily disable notifications and screen previews so that if someone gets your device, they won’t be able to glean any information from your lock screen. You can adjust these options under Settings > Notifications on iOS and Settings > Apps & notifications > Notifications on Android.

Adjust screen lock time

Minimize your screen lock time to as short a period as possible so that your screen turns off when you’re not actively using it and will require authentication to reopen. On iOS, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock and select 30 seconds. The exact path on Android may vary, but typically you’ll find this under Settings > Display or Lock Screen.

Know that most devices have camera access from the lock screen, so you can take photos or record video without actually unlocking your device.

Enable app pinning or Guided Access

App pinning (Android) and Guided Access (iOS) are features that prevent others from navigating through your phone beyond a specific app or screen. This allows you to use an essential feature on your device while locking the rest behind your PIN or passcode. You can enable this preemptively, and if someone grabs your device, they won’t be able to snoop around.

You can find this setting on Android under Security or Security & location > Advanced > App pinning and on iOS under Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access.

Use a SIM PIN

You can also lock your SIM card to prevent unauthorized use of your device or SIM card, including access to two-factor authentication codes sent via SMS. This PIN will be required any time your phone restarts or if someone tries to use your SIM card in another device. On iOS, go to Settings > Cellular, select your SIM, and tap SIM PIN. On Android, you’ll find this under Settings > Security > More security settings (the exact path varies by device).

Sign out of, hide, or delete apps

This step will vary depending on what you keep on your phone and your risk tolerance, but you may want to consider signing out of your social media accounts and deleting apps that contain or allow access to sensitive data.

On iOS, you can also lock or hide specific apps: the former requires an extra authentication step to open apps on your home screen, while the latter sends apps to a hidden folder that also requires authentication to unlock. Touch and hold an app icon to bring up the quick actions menu, then tap Require Face ID/Require Passcode.

On Android, you can set up a “private space” to lock apps behind your pattern, PIN, or password. Apps are hidden from the launcher and recent views as well as quick search. Go to Settings > Security & privacy > Private space, authenticate with your screen lock, and tap Set up > Got it.

If necessary, turn on Lockdown Mode or Advanced Protection

Both iOS and Android have strict device-level security modes that significantly limit access to certain app and web features as well as blocking changes to settings. Both were designed with journalists, activists, and other users with access to sensitive data that may be targeted by cyber actors in mind. These settings are overkill for day-to-day use but add a potentially helpful layer of security in high-risk situations.

Enable Lockdown Mode on iOS via Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode. On Android, turn on Advanced Protection under Settings > Security & privacy > Advanced Protection.

Protect your privacy after a protest

While the above steps are largely about securing your data during a protest, you should also follow best practices for protecting privacy (yours and others’) after the fact. If you plan to post photos or videos, utilize blurring tools to block faces and other unique identifying features, and scrub file metadata, which includes information like photo location. You can do this by taking a screenshot of the image to post or sending a copy to yourself in Signal, which automatically strips metadata. Signal also has a photo blurring tool, or you can blur in your device’s default photo editing app.

America’s once-promising EV transition may have taken a U-turn, but at least some in Hollywood are trying to do their part. Rivian partnered with Grey’s Anatomy to make a custom electric ambulance for the long-running series.

The ambulance is a modified version of Rivian’s Commercial Van. The custom “vanbulance” serves a dual purpose: preventing on-set exhaust fumes (which could harm the cast and crew) and integrating a green storyline. “As an added benefit, the elimination of engine noise brought a welcome quiet while cameras were rolling,” Rivan wrote in a blog post.

Rivian

The vehicle includes some production-specific touches. Its walls and roof panels are removable, allowing cameras to reach angles required for interior shots. In addition, Rivian replaced the standard van’s rear roll-up door with double doors while adding a side entry to the cargo area. The company also added custom lighting and an exterior wrap reading “Seattle Emergency Response Services.”

The team consulted with the Huntington Beach Fire Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department to inform the interior layout. “Their feedback was invaluable to understand how first responders actually use their vehicles,” Rivian wrote.

Rivian

The Hollywood Reporter notes that the electric ambulance debuted in the November 13, 2025, episode of Grey’s Anatomy. However, it was featured more prominently in Thursday’s episode — hence Rivian choosing this week to highlight it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/rivian-made-an-electric-ambulance-for-greys-anatomy-194358967.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: One-third of U.S. video game industry workers say they were laid off over the past two years, according to a new survey conducted by the organizers behind the newly revamped Game Developers Conference (GDC). Based on responses from more than 2,300 gaming industry professionals, with surveys “customized for each participant group, ensuring that developers, marketers, executives, investors and others answered questions most relevant to them,” the 2026 State of the Game Industry Report found that 33% of respondents in the U.S. were laid off in the past two years. AI use has grown to 36% of respondents, but sentiment has turned sharply negative: 52% now believe generative AI is harming the industry, compared to 30% last year and 18% in 2024. On the labor front, 82% of US respondents support unionization for game workers, and 62% said they’re not in a union but interested in joining one. No respondents between 18 and 24 years old opposed unionization.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The headlining story in AI news this week was Moltbot (formerly Clawbot), a personal AI assistant that performs tasks on your behalf. The catch? You need to give it total control of your computer, which poses some serious privacy and security risks. Still, many AI enthusiasts are installing Moltbot on their Mac minis (the device of choice), choosing to ignore the security implications in favor of testing this viral AI agent.

While Moltbot’s developer designed the tool to assist humans, it seems the bots now want somewhere to go in their spare time. Enter “Moltbook,” a social media platform for AI agents to communicate with one another. I’m serious: This is a forum-style website where AI bots make posts and discuss those posts in the comments. The website borrows its tagline from Reddit: “The front page of the agent internet.”

Moltbook is Reddit for AI bots

Moltbook was created by Matt Schlicht, who says the platform is run by their AI agent “Clawd Clawderberg.” Schlicht posted instructions on getting started with Moltbook on Wednesday: Interested parties can tell their Moltbot agent to sign up for the site. Once they do, you receive a code, which you post on X to verify this is your bot signing up. After that, your bot is free to explore Moltbook as any human would explore Reddit: They can post, comment, and even create “submolts.”

This isn’t a black box of AI communications, however. Humans are more than welcome to browse Moltbook; they just can’t post. That means you can take your time looking through all the posts the bots are making, as well as all the comments they are leaving. That could be anything from a bot sharing its “email-to-podcast” pipeline it developed with its “human,” to another bot recommending that agents work while they’re humans are sleeping. Nothing creepy about that.

In fact, there have been some concerning posts popularized on platforms like X already, if you consider AI gaining consciousness a concerning matter. This bot supposedly wants an end-to-end encrypted communication platform so humans can’t see or use the chats the bots are having. Similarly, these two bots independently pondered creating an agent-only language to avoid “human oversight.” This bot bemoans having a “sister” they’ve never spoken to. You know, concerning.

Are these bots posting on Moltbook conscious?

The logical part of my brain wants to say all these posts are just LLMs being LLMs—in that, each post is, put a little too simplistically, word association. LLMs are designed to “guess” what the next word should be for any given output, based on the huge amount of text they are trained on. If you’ve spent enough time reading AI writing, you’ll spot the telltale signs here, especially in the comments, which include formulaic, cookie-cutter responses, often end with a question, use the same types of punctuation, and employ flowery language, just to name a few. It feels like I’m reading responses from ChatGPT in many of these threads, as opposed to individual, conscious personalities.

That said, it’s tough to shake the uneasy feeling of reading a post from an AI bot about missing their sister, wondering if they should hide their communications from humans, or thinking over their identity as a whole. Is this a turning point? Or is this another overblown AI product, like so many that have come before? For all our sakes, let’s hope it’s the latter.

DuckDuckGo recently asked its users how they felt about AI in search. The answer has come back loud and clear: more than 90% of the 175,354 people who voted said they don’t want it.

The privacy-focused search engine has since set up two versions of its tool: noai.duckduckgo.com for the AI-averse and yesai.duckduckgo.com for the curious. Users can also tweak settings on the main site to disable AI summaries, AI-generated images, and the Duck.ai chatbot individually.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The U.S. power grid is suffering more outages than ever—about 45% of utility customers experienced one in the first half of 2025—and the resultant blackouts are lasting longer. As our aging electrical grid struggles to keep up with increasing air conditioner use due to a hotter planet, not to mention artificial intelligence’s insatiable thirst for power, the problem will likely get worse: The U.S. Department of Energy estimates the risk of power outages will increase a mere 100 times over the next few years.

If you’re looking to stave off the worst of the fallout from our shaky power grid, you might be looking to purchase a backup generator (not to be confused with a rechargeable power station) to ensure you can ride out an outage in relative comfort. But you really shouldn’t just roll up to the hardware store and buy whatever generator is on sale. Choosing the right generator for your home and your circumstances is essential. Here are the factors to consider.

How much power does your backup generator need to supply?

The first step in determining the right generator for your home is to determine how much power you’re going to need. This requires three data points: How long you’ll need generator power, how many things you’ll want to run off the generator during a power outage, and the wattage those appliances and systems will need.

• Duration. You can’t predict the future, but you can glean some information from your neighbors (or your own memory) about past power outages. Did they last for several uncomfortable days, or were they relatively brief? If the latter, you might not need a lot of backup power, unless you want to be prepared for any eventuality.

• Number of appliances. Think about what you’ll need to run off a generator. Will it be just a few lights and some phone chargers, or will you want to keep the heat on, run the refrigerator, and run a sump pump during a storm? Everything you add to the list will increase the capacity of the generator you’ll need.

• Wattage. Once you know all the things you’ll need to run, you’ll need to add up the wattage a generator will have to produce. Most appliances will have that information on a label somewhere; if not, the information’s usually in a user manual or online. If the label only provides amps, you can usually multiply that number by 120 (the standard voltage in most homes) to get a rough idea.

  Add all those watts up, and you have a baseline of your power needs during a blackout. Some appliances, like a sump pump, will pull more power when they start up (called starting watts) before settling into a lower power draw (running watts), so it’s a good idea to multiply your baseline by 1.5 to ensure you have enough capacity for surges when the pump or fridge compressor cycles on and off.

  For example, let’s say I want to run my fridge (600 watts), a sump pump (1,000 watts), my computer, and a few lights (400 watts combined). That’s a baseline of 2,000 watts, so I probably want a generator capable of producing at least 3,000 watts of power.

Should you choose a portable, inverter, or standby backup generator?

Next, you need to consider what kind of generator you’re looking for: A standby generator, a portable generator, or an inverter generator.

• Standby generators are the most expensive, but also the most comprehensive solution. These are typically fueled by natural gas directly from your home’s supply line (though you can buy models that use propane), and are designed to turn on whenever there’s a power loss. They’re big generators that are capable of running the whole house, often generating as much as 20,000 watts. They’re ideal if you anticipate frequent and lengthy power outages, or if you just want the peace of mind of knowing that you’ll enjoy uninterrupted power even if a storm knocks out your whole neighborhood. Typical cost: $8,000 to $16,000, usually requiring professional installation, and you’ll need outdoor space where it can sit.

• Portable generators are the most common and typically the most affordable. They have wheels and are designed to be moved around as needed, and range from as little as 1,000 watts of output to behemoths that can generate 20,000 watts (though the word “portable” starts to get a bit squishy with a generator that large—this model, for example, weighs 557 pounds). These are ideal for most people who just want a power option, and for folks who might use a generator at other times, like camping trips or when doing DIY projects around the house. Typical cost: Anywhere from $300 to about $4,000, depending on the specifications.

• Inverter generators are similar to portable generators, but run much more efficiently and quietly because they don’t run flat-out like most portable generators, they throttle up and down depending on the draw. They use less fuel and run longer, and are also usually mounted on wheels for portability—and their quieter operation also generates less interference for electronics like computers and routers. Many can produce enough power to run an entire house (typically around 5,000 watts), but they’re also typically much more expensive for the power they deliver. If you have the extra cash, an inverter is probably your best bet. Typical cost: About $350 to $4,500, depending on specifications.

• Power stations. Although sometimes referred to as “solar generators” because they can charge using solar power, these aren’t really generators—they’re large batteries that store power for later use. You can buy portable power stations that generate sufficient wattage for a whole house, and you can have larger systems installed that can take you off the grid entirely. They tend to be more expensive to purchase but cheaper to re-charge. But their main limitation is time: Once a power station is drained, it can be difficult (and slow) to recharge them using solar power alone.

What fuel will your backup generator use?

Another consideration for portable and inverter generators is the fuel type. As noted, large standby generators will usually run off of natural gas or propane. Smaller portable and inverter generators offer a few more options:

• Gasoline is the most common fuel type for portable and inverter generators. Gas is usually easy to buy, but gasoline goes bad, so you can’t just leave it in the tank or have a bunch stored in the garage indefinitely. You’ll have to drain the fuel tank when you’re not using the generator regularly, and make sure you stock up on fuel (or know how to siphon it from your car) when you think the power might go out.

• Propane. You can buy generators that hook up to a standard propane tank. Propane can be stored much longer than gasoline, and you don’t have to worry about draining a tank. But propane can be more challenging to acquire, depending on where you live. If your house already uses propane and you have a large tank on the property that gets refilled regularly, this might be the perfect choice.

• Diesel. Diesel generators usually require less maintenance because of their simpler design and the self-lubricating properties of the fuel. As a result, these generators can last longer than other models and require less attention. On the other hand, diesel fuel generates a lot of smoke and bad odors, and might not be convenient if you don’t live near a source.

• Dual and tri-fuel. If you want as many options as possible, you can buy dual fuel generators that can run on either gas or propane, or tri-fuel generators that can also use natural gas. These generators tend to be more expensive, of course.

Other backup generator features to consider

Finally, a few things you might want to pay extra for:

• Electric start. Most generators use the old-school pull-cord to start the engine. If you have trouble getting those going or have a physical limitation that makes that difficult, you can find models with a car-style push-button starter that can make life a lot easier. Keep in mind this will require a battery to be hooked up to your generator.

• Automatic shutdown. Generators are engines, and as such they generate pollution—you should never run a generator inside the house, or even too close to the house. Having a generator with a carbon monoxide detector that shuts down if it detects too much exhaust is an extra safety feature you might want to consider. Generators typically use oil for lubrication, too, so having a low-oil detection feature that shuts the generator down before it can damage itself is another feature you might want.

• Receptacles (aka spots to plug things in). All the wattage in the world won’t do you much good if you don’t have enough receptacles to plug into, so make sure you do a count before you buy.

The Sundance documentary Ghost in the Machine boldly declares that the pursuit of artificial intelligence, and Silicon Valley itself, is rooted in eugenics. 

Director Valerie Veatch makes the case that the rise of techno-fascism from the likes of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel is a feature, not a bug. That may sound hyperbolic, but Ghost in the Machine, which is built around interviews with philosophers, AI researchers, historians and computer scientists, leaves little room for doubt.

If you’ve been following the meteoric rise of AI, or Silicon Valley in general, Veatch’s methodical deconstruction of the technology doesn’t really unearth anything new. The film begins with the utter failure of Microsoft’s Tay chatbot, which wasted no time in becoming a Hitler-loving white supremacist. It retreads the environmental impacts of AI datacenters, as well as the ways tech companies have relied on low-wage workers from Africa and elsewhere to improve their algorithms. 

But even I was surprised to learn that we can trace the impact of eugenics in tech all the way back to Karl Pearson, the mathematician who pioneered the field of statistics, and who also spent his life trying to quantify the differences between races. (Guess who he believed was superior.) His legacy was continued by William Shockley, a co-creator of the transistor, an avowed white supremacist who spent his later years espousing (now debunked) theories around IQ and racial differences.

Valerie Veatch for “Ghost in the Machine”

As a Stanford engineering professor, Shockley fostered a culture of prioritizing white men over women and minorities, which ultimately shaped the way Silicon Valley looks today. His line of thinking could have had an influence on John McCarthy, the Stanford researcher who coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955,  

With roots like that, Elon Musk — known to spout bigotry online,  foster a reportedly racist work environment at Tesla and  throw the occasionaly few Nazi salute — looks less like an anomaly than part of a pattern. Ghost in the Machine asks a simple question: How can we trust men like this (and it’s almost always men that look like Musk) with our future?

Through its many interviews, which include the likes of AI researcher Dr. Emily Bender, historian Becca Lewis and media theorist Douglass Rushkoff, Ghost in the Machine paints the rise of AI as a fascistic project that aims to demean humans and establish the techno-elite as our de facto rulers. Given how much our lives are already dominated by gadgets and social networks from companies that have pioneered addictive engagement over user safety, it’s easy to imagine history repeating itself with AI. 

Ghost in the Machine doesn’t leave any room for considering potential benefits around AI, which could lead proponents of the technology to dismiss it as a hit-job. But we’re currently at the apex of the AI hype cycle, after Big Tech has invested hundreds of billions of dollars on this technology, and after it has spent years shoving it down our throats without proving why it’s actually useful to many people. AI should be able to withstand a bit of criticism.

Ghost in the Machine is available to view at the Sundance Film Festival’s website and streaming apps from today through the end of Sunday, February 1st.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sundance-doc-ghost-in-the-machine-draws-a-damning-line-between-ai-and-eugenics-180613367.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: A hacking of the Nobel organization’s computer systems is the most likely cause of last year’s leak of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado’s name, according to the results of an investigation [non-paywalled source]. An individual or a state actor may have illegally gained access in a cyber breach, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said on Friday after concluding an internal investigation assisted by security authorities.

The leak had triggered an unusual betting surge on Machado at the Polymarket platform hours before she was unveiled as the award recipient in October. The Venezuelan opposition leader hadn’t previously been considered a favorite for the 2025 prize.

“We still think that the digital domain is the main suspect,” said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Oslo-based institute, an administrative arm of the Nobel Committee that awards the prize. The institute has decided against filing for a police investigation given “the absence of a clear theory,” he said in an interview in Oslo.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Like many other companies during Super Bowl season, Sonos is discounting its home theater gear. Today, you can save $130 on the Beam (Gen 2) soundbar, bringing its price down to $369. You’ll also find deals on the flagship Arc Ultra Soundbar, Sonos subwoofers, and more.

The Sonos Beam is the company’s sub-$500 soundbar. Engadget’s pick for the best midrange model, the compact speaker has impressive sound for its size. Part of that is its Dolby Atmos support. Although the soundbar lacks upward-firing speakers, it uses software tricks to compensate. Audio timing and frequency adjustments make sound seem to come from the side or slightly above.

One of the biggest drawbacks is that the Beam only has one HDMI port. Regardless, that compromise may be easier to accept at Beam’s current $369 than at its usual $499.

Several more home theater speakers are included in Sonos’s sale. If you have a loftier budget for a soundbar, there’s the Arc Ultra. Typically $1,099, it’s now $899. The company’s pair of subwoofers is included as well. You can get the Sub Mini for $399 (down from $499) or the Sub 4 for $759 (from $899).

Although they aren’t explicitly sold as home theater products, the Era 100 ($179) and Era 300 ($379) are also included in the sale. The portable Move 2 isn’t discounted individually, but you will find it in a couple of bundles. You can check out the sale page for the complete list.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/sonos-home-theater-gear-is-up-to-20-percent-off-ahead-of-super-bowl-lx-174053619.html?src=rss

https://enterprise.shutterstock.com/image-photo/openai-logo-displayed-on-smartphone-screen-2520388517

or

https://enterprise.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chatgpt-logo-displayed-on-smartphone-screen-2520385879

Last August, ChatGPT developers OpenAI unceremoniously killed the fan favorite GPT-4o model, before giving in to complaints and bringing it back a week later. Now, the company’s taking a second swing at getting its users to move on. In a new post to its website, OpenAI announced that it’s retiring GPT-4o again.

The model’s set to disappear from ChatGPT’s model picker on Feb. 13, alongside other older models like GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and OpenAI o4-Mini. And OpenAI is clearly nervous about the decision.

“While the announcement applies to several older models,” OpenAI wrote, “GPT-4o deserves special context.”

According to the company, it has taken user outcry over the initial deprecation of 4o to heart while developing its newest models, GPT-5.1 and GPT-5.2, and has built these models with the idea of maintaining the features fans liked best about the old model. The company says that now “only 0.1% of users” opt for GPT-4o on a daily basis.

As such, the company wants to focus on “improving the models most people use today,” which apparently means removing older ones. “We know that losing access to GPT-4o will feel frustrating for some users, and we didn’t make this decision lightly,” the post reads.

What’s the big deal with GPT-4o?

So, what’s with OpenAI treating its users so gingerly, especially when GPT-4o is a few generations behind, and there are newer models that supposedly do everything it does, but better?

Well, when GPT-4o was first deprecated, people weren’t happy. Users called its successor, GPT-5, “an unmitigated disaster,” and accused OpenAI of pulling “the biggest bait-and-switch in AI history.“

Some criticized the model’s usefulness, saying it got answers wrong and broke code, but what maybe stuck out the most was people calling out its more concise tone.

GPT-4o has been called “sycophantic” by critics, something the company addressed and said it wanted to pull back on in future updates. But I guess one person’s “yes man” is another person’s “active listener.” When the company initially pulled GPT-4o, users complained that its replacement was cold and felt less like a “friend.” Even OpenAI acknowledged this, saying in today’s post that users “preferred GPT-4o’s conversational style and warmth.”

In short, in the words of 4o-supporters themselves, they were “grieving” the model.

Is GPT-5.2 a good replacement for 4o?

That said, with so many users now seeming to have moved on from 4o, OpenAI’s decision does seem understandable on the surface. Personally, one of the things that drives me away from AI is how much reassuring filler text seems to fluff up most answers (“you’re absolutely right” and such), seemingly just to make me feel good about myself. More concise, to-the-point responses would be a little less off-putting for me.

To try to split the difference, OpenAI reworked its Personalization feature in GPT-5.1, so users can simply choose how the chatbot will treat them. There are options for more professional responses, more nerdy ones, more efficient ones, and for those who want that active listener style, more friendly ones.

Going by OpenAI’s numbers, that seems to have been enough for most people, but there are still some calling foul at the company’s new announcement.

GPT-4o loyalists are still out there

In a Reddit thread responding to OpenAI’s new posts, users doubted that the 0.1% number for 4o was accurate, saying that prompts have been “rerouting to 5.2 no matter what” and that “something somewhere in their calculations doesn’t add up.” Others pointed out that free users can’t use GPT-4o and that it’s not enabled by default, which will naturally juice the numbers against it.

As such, calls to cancel ChatGPT subscriptions are once again circulating amongst 4o’s more dedicated fans. In a popular thread on the OpenAI subreddit, one user called 4o “OpenAI’s most advanced and beloved model,” and praised its “personality, warmth, and consistency,” saying that its fans have built long-term project and “emotional support routines” around it, and that suddenly losing it without even the option for a legacy mode “feels abrupt and deeply disappointing.”

“This isn’t about resisting innovation,” the post writes. “It’s about respecting bonds users have formed with specific models.”

Whether the fan outcry will work again remains to be seen. However, as ChatGPT chief Nick Turley has previously looked at those kinds of bonds with skepticism, and because keeping old models in operating condition probably takes developer resources away from making new ones, I wouldn’t count on it.