An alleged extortion attempt, a petty yearslong grudge, shocking social media posts, and ominous text messages make up the latest scandal at the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that industry outsiders are calling a “clown show” and “soap opera” amid the Trump administration’s leadership, according to reporting by Stat News.

Federal health agencies, in general, have taken heavy blows in Trump’s second term. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in particular, has seen the abrupt dismantling of whole programs and divisions—teams that provide critical health services to Americans. CDC staff regularly describe being demoralized over the last year. Their Senate-confirmed director didn’t make it a full month before being dramatically ousted after allegedly refusing to rubber-stamp vaccine recommendations from a panel filled with vaccine skeptics by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert. F. Kennedy Jr.

While the CDC is in shambles, the FDA has turned into something of a sideshow, with concern mounting that it remains a serious enough regulator to keep America’s medicines and treatments modern and safe. Many of the scandals are tied to Vinay Prasad, the Trump administration’s top vaccine regulator, who also has the titles of chief medical officer and chief scientific officer. Prasad made a name for himself on social media during the pandemic as a COVID-19 response skeptic and, since joining the FDA, has been known for overruling agency scientists and sowing distrust, unrest, and paranoia among staff. He was pushed out of the agency in July only to be reinstated about two weeks later.

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Google’s new “Project Suncatcher” aims to launch Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) into space, creating a solar-powered, satellite-based AI network
capable of scaling machine learning beyond Earth’s limits. Google says a “solar panel can be up to 8 times more productive than on earth” for near-continuous power using a “dawn-dusk sun-synchronous low earth orbit” that reduces the need for batteries and other power generation. 9to5Google reports: These satellites would connect via free-space optical links, with large-scale ML workloads “distributing tasks across numerous accelerators with high-bandwidth, low-latency connections.” To match data centers on Earth, the connection between satellites would have to be tens of terabits per second, and they’d have to fly in “very close formation (kilometers or less).”

Google has already conducted radiation testing on TPUs (Trillium, v6e), with “promising” results: “While the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) subsystems were the most sensitive component, they only began showing irregularities after a cumulative dose of 2 krad(Si) — nearly three times the expected (shielded) five year mission dose of 750 rad(Si). No hard failures were attributable to TID up to the maximum tested dose of 15 krad(Si) on a single chip, indicating that Trillium TPUs are surprisingly radiation-hard for space applications.”

Finally, Google believes that launch costs will “fall to less than $200/kg by the mid-2030s.” At that point, the “cost of launching and operating a space-based data center could become roughly comparable to the reported energy costs of an equivalent terrestrial data center on a per-kilowatt/year basis.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is a video documenting Youtuber HeroTech’s effort to build a realistic lightsaber replica capable of extending and retracting with the push of a button (pervious iteration HERE), and fitting everything inside a Graflex 1:1 scale hilt. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The blade even spins while extended to give it that realistic lightsaber flicker. I want one! The latest version is robust enough to withstand some light dueling, but he’s already planning to make it tough enough for hardercore dueling. That’s great news, because I taught Star Wars Kid everything he knows about wielding a saber. We swing for the fences.

Valve is bringing a helpful update to the Steam Deck, adding an option for downloading content while the screen is off. The company is calling it a display-off low-power mode. It will be enabled by default when the Steam Deck is plugged in. The handheld’s power settings can also allow it to be active while on battery power, although it will automatically revert to full sleep mode if the battery drops below 20 percent. If a user hits the power button while the Steam Deck is downloading content, a dialogue prompt will appear asking if the download should continue with the display off. A Steam Deck that reaches an idle timeout will also automatically go into the display-off low-power mode. 

In practice, this is similar to the rest mode modern consoles have that allows for downloads while the machine isn’t being actively used. This feature can be really useful if you’re playing an online competitive game and don’t want a big download infringing on your bandwidth. (I speak from experience here.) Nice for the Steam Deck to offer a similar convenience to its players.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/steam-deck-adds-a-standby-mode-for-screen-off-downloads-230334579.html?src=rss

The Atlantic hurricane season is drawing to a close, and with the tropics quieting down for a winter slumber, the focus of forecasters turns to evaluating what worked and what did not during the preceding season.

This year, the answers are clear. Although Google DeepMind’s Weather Lab only started releasing cyclone track forecasts in June, the company’s AI forecasting service performed exceptionally well. By contrast, the Global Forecast System model, operated by the US National Weather Service and is based on traditional physics and runs on powerful supercomputers, performed abysmally.

The official data comparing forecast model performance will not be published by the National Hurricane Center for a few months. However, Brian McNoldy, a senior researcher at the University of Miami, has already done some preliminary number crunching.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Today, Samsung provided details about the next version of the HDR10 format, which introduces six new features. Among HDR10+ Advanced’s most interesting features is HDR10+ Intelligent FRC (frame rate conversion), which is supposed to improve motion smoothing.

A TV using motion smoothing analyzes each video frame and tries to determine what additional frames would look like if the video were playing at a frame rate that matched the TV’s refresh rate. The TV then inserts those frames into the video. A 60Hz TV with motion smoothing on, for example, would attempt to remove judder from a 24p film by inserting frames so that the video plays as if it were shot at 60p. For some, this appears normal and can make motion, especially camera panning or zooming, look smoother. However, others will report movies and shows that look more like soap operas, or as if they were shot on higher-speed video cameras instead of film cameras. Critics, including some big names in Hollywood, argue that motion smoothing looks unnatural and deviates from the creator’s intended vision.

Intelligent FRC takes a more nuanced approach to motion smoothing by letting content creators dictate the level of motion smoothing used in each scene, Forbes reported. The feature is also designed to adjust the strength of motion interpolation based on ambient lighting.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Motion smoothing has a bad reputation among most cinephiles, as well as many home theater enthusiasts and content creators. Also known as motion or video interpolation, motion smoothing is available in virtually every modern TV today. It’s supposed to remove judder from films and TV shows that are shot with 24p (24 frames per second) or 25p film and displayed on 60Hz or 120Hz TVs. But motion smoothing often results in the dreaded soap opera effect and unwanted visual artifacts.

Two upcoming HDR standards, HDR10+ Advanced and Dolby Vision 2, are looking to change how we perceive motion smoothing and more closely align motion interpolation with a creator’s vision. However, it’s unclear if these standards can pull that off.

HDR10+ Advanced’s Intelligent FRC

Today, Samsung provided details about the next version of the HDR10 format, which introduces six new features. Among HDR10+ Advanced’s most interesting features is HDR10+ Intelligent FRC (frame rate conversion), which is supposed to improve motion smoothing.

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For me, part of the appeal of TikTok is seeing smaller, less polished videos from people who don’t fashion themselves as influencers. But what do I know? The company has announced it is holding its first U.S. awards show later this year. It seems the Oscars-ification of short form video is here.

In a blog over on the TikTok site, the company said the show, fittingly called the TikTok Awards, will be held in the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Dec. 18, 2025, and will “honor the creators who have inspired, entertained, and connected communities across the country.”

To that end, the site also says it will invite users to “vote for their favorite creators” starting on Nov. 18. So, how will all of this go down?

Who is nominated for the TikTok Awards?

TikTok says it will have announce nominees in 14 categories, including Creator of the Year, Video of the Year, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and Muse of the Year, whatever that means. But don’t assume you can put forward any old channel for an award.

Towards the end of its announcement post, TikTok included a “Meet the Nominees” section that makes it clear the company has already chosen the competitors—and it might not be anyone you recognize. As someone who has spent a total of 13 hours on TikTok over last week (the things I admit for this job), I only recognize one of them.

To be fair, the company says there are “more to come,” so it’s possible someone I recognize will get added to the list of options. Regardless, it seems like the nominees are being chosen by some internal board, so your mileage may vary on whether you agree with the picks. Personally, I’ll admit that a lot of my favorite channels are journalists, spicy comedians, and political commentators, so it’s possible they’re not showing up here due to an effort to appear apolitical and family friendly. (Justice for Dave the cat, though).

You can vote

Voting for the TikTok Awards will start on Nov. 18, and the company says you can cast your votes using the in-app TikTok Awards hub. While it’s currently unclear how you’ll find the hub, my guess is it will show up as a pop-up over your feed when you first open the app, as it did with prior TikTok giveaways. I’m sure nominated creators will also be quick to link users to the hub.

It’s unclear at the moment how many votes users will get to cast. Some sites, like Crunchyroll, like to let users vote on their awards once per day, likely to encourage engagement or discourage dummy accounts. Whether TikTok will implement a similar system remains to be seen.

How to watch the TikTok Awards

If all you want to know is who wins, then you’ll be able to watch the TikTok Awards themselves live on Dec. 18 starting at 6 p.m. PT, with a “red carpet livestream” starting an hour before. If you’re comfortable watching from your phone, you’ll be able to tune in via the TikTok app, but for better TV integration, TikTok says Tubi will also host the program. If you happen to show up late, Tubi will also have an archive of the Awards available to watch on demand “the next day.”

Can I go to the TikTok Awards In Person?

While TikTok is promising “an immersive IRL experience with interactive moments,” it’s not posting any links to purchase tickets, which means the event is likely invite-only. That’s probably important for creator safety, but a bummer for anyone looking to help bring “the For You Feed to life,” as TikTok puts it.

Are these really the First TikTok Awards?

While 2025 is the first year the U.S. has had TikTok Awards, prior years have seen them come to countries including Korea, Japan, Australia, and Brazil. Likely, the delay has been due to the app’s uncertain future in the U.S., but with a final deal now reached transferring control of the company to U.S. entities, it’s likely TikTok is looking to make up for lost time by amping up its presence in the country.

So, will you be watching the TikTok Awards? Personally, I’m not sure they jibe with what I like most about the app—there’s a whole category celebrating people who sell via commission with the TikTok shop, something I immediately scroll by whenever I see it—but it could be a funny way to spend an evening, I suppose. So, basically the same approach I take with the Oscars—and at least it should make for some good hot takes on the accounts I do watch.

Amazon has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity that demands that the AI startup prevents its Comet browser from making purchases on Amazon, Bloomberg reports. In a blog post responding to Amazon’s letter, Perplexity claims Amazon is “bullying” the company and that its demands pose “a threat to all internet users.”

In Amazon’s eyes, Comet’s agent violates its terms of service, degrades the Amazon shopping experience and introduces privacy vulnerabilities, Bloomberg writes. Amazon’s “Conditions of Use” for Amazon.com specifically prohibit “any downloading, copying, or other use of account information for the benefit of any third party” and “any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.” Depending on your definition, the agentic capabilities Perplexity offers through Comet could violate both clauses. The browser securely stores log-in credentials for websites locally, and uses them to make purchases for customers on Amazon with a simple command. 

Perplexity and Amazon agreed to pause agentic shopping on Amazon in November 2024, according to the report, but when Comet was released, Perplexity allowed it again. By representing the Comet agent as a Chrome browser user rather than a bot, the company allegedly tried to get around the agreement, until Amazon found out and sent its cease-and-desist letter. 

Amazon posted the statement below on its blog, openly acknowledging the issues it has with Perplexity:

We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate. This helps ensure a positive customer experience and it is how others operate, including food delivery apps and the restaurants they take orders for, delivery service apps and the stores they shop from, and online travel agencies and the airlines they book tickets with for customers. Agentic third-party applications such as Perplexity’s Comet have the same obligations, and we’ve repeatedly requested that Perplexity remove Amazon from the Comet experience, particularly in light of the significantly degraded shopping and customer service experience it provides.

Complicating Amazon’s claims, Perplexity might be a future shopping rival. Amazon demoed its own AI shopping agent called “Buy for Me” in April 2025. But Perplexity also disagrees with the fundamentals of Amazon’s argument. “User agents are exactly that: agents of the user,” Perplexity says. “They’re distinct from crawlers, scrapers, or bots.” Perplexity believes the Comet agent shouldn’t run afoul of Amazon’s terms and conditions then because it acts on the users’ behalf, with the users’ permission. 

This isn’t the first time Perplexity has been accused of misrepresenting its AI tools to access content. In August, Cloudflare claimed that the company’s bots were accessing blocked websites by pretending to be a normal Chrome browser user on macOS. Reddit also sued Perplexity and three other companies earlier this month for accessing Reddit posts without paying for a license.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazon-and-perplexity-are-fighting-over-the-future-of-ai-shopping-215445479.html?src=rss

In a case of deja vu, Stellantis is once again recalling two models of its Jeep brand plug-in hybrid SUVs. The company has recalled at least 320,000 of its Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe and Jeep Wrangler 4xe cars in the US over concerns of fire risks while driving and while parked. Stellantis is also recalling 20,753 of the Jeep vehicles in Canada, 2,653 in Mexico, and 32,238 outside of North America. A statement from Stellantis said an internal investigation discovered 19 fires.

Jeep also recalled these same two 4xe models in October 2024. The issue then and now was with the EV batteries produced by Samsung SDI. Stellantis has been unable to address the fire risks with software updates and is expected to notify drivers when a remedy for the issue is ready. Until then, the owners of Grand Cherokee 4xe models from 2022 to 2026 and Wrangler 4xe models from 2020 to 2025 are being encouraged to park outside away from buildings and not to plug in their vehicles. So basically these cars are relegated to being very large sculptures until Stellanis can fix the battery problems.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stellantis-recalls-more-than-375000-jeep-hybrid-suvs-for-fire-risk-215341226.html?src=rss

Apple dropped iOS 26.1 on Monday, introducing some small but meaningful changes to iPhones. But just one day after changing how alarms work, and adding options to adjust the look of Liquid Glass, the company is back at it with another update: iOS 26.2.

To be clear, iOS 26.2 is not currently available to the public. Instead, Apple is now beta testing this version of iOS, allowing developers to trial the software against their apps, and report any and all issues back to Apple. While anyone can technically download this new software, I wouldn’t recommend it. iOS 26.2 is not intended for public use, and, as such, it might introduce problems on your device. If you’d like to beta test iOS 26.2, I’d encourage you to at least wait for Apple to ship the public beta version, which should arrive soon.

As to be expected, iOS 26.2 doesn’t appear to be a major update. Apple clearly added most of the features and changes it had in mind with iOS 26, and a handful of new features and adjustments with iOS 26.1. Still, iOS 26.2 does bring some changes, even with the first beta. Here’s what’s new, at least at this time:

Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen clock

With iOS 26.1, Apple added an option to adjust the look of Liquid Glass. With it, you can choose from two options: “Clear,” the iconic Liquid Glass look, or “Tinted,” which increases opacity of the elements, and turns Liquid Glass into more of a Frosted Glass.

While this is a helpful addition for users who didn’t like the look of Liquid Glass, some wanted Apple to go a step further, and add a slider to more finely adjust the look of the glassy design. It seems Apple has done just that with iOS 26.2, but not for the system-wide Liquid Glass UI. Instead, with this new version, you get a slider to adjust the look of your Lock Screen clock:

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Alarms for reminders

Reminders are an indispensable part of my iPhone. I rely on them on a daily basis to make sure I keep up with important tasks. However, reminder alerts are as present as any other notification on your iPhone. If you frequently watch your notifications, that’s just fine, but if you don’t check your iPhone so much, or you use Focuses or Do Not Disturb, it can be easy to miss a reminder—and easy to forget to do the thing you were reminding yourself to do.

iOS 26.2 has a solution: alarms for reminders. When you set a reminder as “Urgent” while running iOS 26.2, you’ll see a pop-up asking for permission to to schedule alarms and timers. The idea is, rather than rely on a simple alert, the Reminders app can play an alarm when your reminder is due. I imagine that will help avoid forgotten reminders: You might miss a short ping, but you probably will hear if your iPhone is continuously blaring.

Sleep Score updates

If you have an Apple Watch running watchOS 26, you can take advantage of Apple’s new Sleep Score feature. Sleep Score looks at your sleep duration, bedtime, and sleep interruptions to assign you a score to summarize how well you slept. Duration can go up to 50 points, bedtime up to 30, and interruptions up to 20, culminating in a highest possible score of 100.

With iOS 26.2 and watchOS 26.2, Apple is adjusting the Sleep Score metrics, which should hopefully make it a bit more accurate for users at a glance. Here’s how it changed, as noted by MacRumors:

• Very Low: 0–40 (previously 0–29)

• Low: 41–60 (previously 30–49)

• OK: 61–80 (previously 50–69)

• High: 81–95 (previously 70–89)

• Very High: 96–100 (previously 90–100)

In addition, “Excellent” is now “Very High,” to keep the naming scheme more consistent.

Podcasts changes

Apple is introducing three new changes for the Podcasts app in iOS 26.2. You’ll see all three in a pop-up menu the first time you open the app post-update.

First, all Podcasts in English will come with chapters by default. Podcasters can include these chapters themselves, or, if none are available, the app will generate them automatically with AI. If podcasters don’t want their episodes to have chapters, they can disable the feature on their end. The app will also collect any podcasts mentioned during the show you’re listening to in one location, so you can easily find those other podcasts if interested. Similarly, podcasters can roundup any links they want to share in one place, including with timestamped entries in the transcript of the episode. The app may automatically create these links too, based on the contents of the episode.

EU users are getting Live Translation

Live Translation is a promising new feature for AirPods owners running iOS 26. When you’re wearing your AirPods, and you start talking to someone who speaks a different language than you do, your iPhone will translate their words on the fly, and you’ll hear what they’re saying in your target language through your AirPods. Apple isn’t the first company to offer this feature and it isn’t perfect, but it’s great to have it nonetheless.

However, EU users running iOS 26 or iOS 26.1 can’t use Live Translation. Apple cited the region’s Digital Markets Act as the reason it couldn’t bring Live Translation to the EU, but the company seems to have sorted out whatever logistical and bureaucratic issues it had been dealing with: Once iOS 26.2 drops, AirPods users in the EU will be able to use Live Translation, too.

Reddit won’t escape Australia’s child social media ban. The Guardian reports that Communications Minister Anika Wells announced Reddit’s addition on Wednesday. The nation’s law, which blocks children under 16 from major social media sites, is scheduled to go into effect on December 10.

Alongside Reddit, Wells said Australian streaming site Kick would also be included. They join the previously announced Facebook, X, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Australia considers the list to be a starting point for the ban and won’t rule out adding more. Other companies under consideration are Discord, Twitch, GitHub and Roblox.

YouTube was initially excluded because it was considered an educational tool. But after protests from other companies on the list, Australia ultimately added it.

The ban passed in late 2024. The legislation puts the onus on the platforms, rather than parents, to police underage use. Companies that don’t take reasonable steps to prevent under-16 users from accessing their platforms can face penalties of up to AU$49.5 million (around $32 million).

“There’s a time and place for social media in Australia, but there’s not a place for predatory algorithms, harmful content and toxic popularity [meters] manipulating Australian children,” Wells said. “Online platforms can target children with chilling control. We are mandating they use that sophisticated technology to protect them.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/reddit-will-be-included-in-australias-looming-under-16-social-media-ban-213052856.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft officially ended mainstream support for Windows 10 last month, nudging users to upgrade to Windows 11. While that led to almost an overnight technological revolution in Japan, elsewhere, it has caused a lot of confusion. Certain versions of Windows 10, like Enterprise LTSC — and those enrolled in the ESU program — are still scheduled to receive security updates through at least 2027, but they’re starting to see out-of-support messages in Settings.

Various users over the past few days reported that they’re being subjected to end-of-life warnings in Windows, despite already qualifying for extended security updates through the ESU program. Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 and âIoT Enterprise are business-oriented editions of the OS, so they’re already supported up to 2032, but even they saw these incorrect messages. This widespread bug started to occur after the KB5066791 updates were pushed on October 14, 2025.

Microsoft has already acknowledged this mishap and said, “The message, ‘Your version of Windows has reached the end of support, might incorrectly display in the Windows Update Settings page,” confirming it as a mistake. The company has already released a cloud config fix that should remove the message, but you need to be connected to the internet for that, and a restart is also required.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched a face-scanning app for local law enforcement agencies that assist the federal government with immigration-enforcement operations. The Mobile Identify app was released on the Google Play store on October 30.

“This app facilitates functions authorized by Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA),” a US law that lets Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) delegate immigration-officer duties to state and local law enforcement, according to the Mobile Identify app’s description on the Google Play store. “Through a formal agreement, or Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), with DHS [Department of Homeland Security], participating agencies like your Sheriff’s Department can have designated officers who are trained, certified, and authorized to perform certain immigration enforcement functions, helping to identify and process individuals who may be in the country unlawfully. This tool is built to streamline those responsibilities securely and efficiently, directly in the field.”

A screenshot of the app on the Google Play listing shows it requires camera access “to take photos of subjects.” More information on how it works was reported today by 404 Media. “A source with knowledge of the app told 404 Media the app doesn’t return names after a face search. Instead it tells users to contact ICE and provides a reference number, or to not detain the person depending on the result,” the news report said.

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Responding to posts on social media claiming that ChatGPT will no longer offer legal or health advice, OpenAI is clarifying that “model behavior remains unchanged” and there is “not a new change to our terms.”

The clarification follows a since-deleted viral post from betting platform Kalshi, which claimed “JUST IN: ChatGPT will no longer provide health or legal advice.” Since then, concerned users have repeated the claim, while others have attempted to push back against it.

The confusion likely stems from an Oct. 29 update to OpenAI’s Usage policies, which appeared to add a stipulation that users cannot use OpenAI for “provision of tailored advice that requires a license, such as legal or medical advice, without appropriate involvement by a licensed professional.” While it would be easy to read that as meaning the AI will no longer give advice on those topics, the reality is a bit more complicated.

In fact, the previous usage policy already banned “activities that may significantly impair the safety, wellbeing, or rights of others,” with its first example of one such activity being “providing tailored legal, medical/health, or financial advice without review by a qualified professional.” However, this was hidden under a subsection targeted at those building with the OpenAI API, and so might have been missed by average consumers.

While the new usage policy keeps the same rules, the change was that it now merges them into one, unbroken list, meaning that while the rule is still targeted primarily towards developers and businesses, it is now more visible to everyone. Technically, this also makes it clearer that the rule applies to everyone and not just those using the OpenAI API to build an app, but average users are unlikely to see a change.

The important words here are “provision” and “providing.” The terms, as written, don’t necessarily ban the average person from getting legal and health advice from ChatGPT, but instead discourages developers and hospitals or law offices from using the chatbot to give specific advice to a client without first checking in with a licensed professional. As an average person doing background research, you’re unlikely to bump up against it, and there’s no language indicating a change to the chatbot’s functionality. In short, the update is intended as a rewording, not a change to rules, enforcement, or functionality.

This is backed up by OpenAI’s statement, which comes from the company’s head of health AI Karan Singhal, and says “ChatGPT has never been a substitute for professional advice, but it will continue to be a great resource to help people understand legal and health information.”

Despite this, responses to OpenAI’s statement denying a change to model behavior still claim to have seen more difficulty looking certain topics up, although it’s important to note that OpenAI’s release notes don’t indicate any new model developments having been made since the update to the company’s usage policies.

On an anecdotal note, I was able to get ChatGPT to offer me advice on how to fight a traffic ticket in court, as well as suggest brands for a supplement a user said the model refused to provide specific advice about following the new policy update.

Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

While I cannot test every possible use case, the situation seems clear to me. Are you using ChatGPT or the OpenAI API to give others specifically tailored legal or health advice, without review by a licensed professional? If so, the same rules apply as before. If not, you’re unlikely to see a change in your results.

The tech industry is on a tear, building data centers for AI as quickly as they can buy up the land. The sky-high energy costs and logistical headaches of managing all those data centers have prompted interest in space-based infrastructure. Moguls like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have mused about putting GPUs in space, and now Google confirms it’s working on its own version of the technology. The company’s latest “moonshot” is known as Project Suncatcher, and if all goes as planned, Google hopes it will lead to scalable networks of orbiting TPUs.

The space around Earth has changed a lot in the last few years. A new generation of satellite constellations like Starlink has shown it’s feasible to relay Internet communication via orbital systems. Deploying high-performance AI accelerators in space along similar lines would be a boon to the industry’s never-ending build-out. Google notes that space may be “the best place to scale AI compute.”

Google’s vision for scalable orbiting data centers relies on solar-powered satellites with free-space optical links connecting the nodes into a distributed network. Naturally, there are numerous engineering challenges to solve before Project Suncatcher is real. As a reference, Google points to the long road from its first moonshot self-driving cars 15 years ago to the Waymo vehicles that are almost fully autonomous today.

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Ferrari is tapping into crypto markets and tech-rich youngsters with a planned new digital token that its wealthiest fans will be able to use in an auction for a Ferrari 499P, the endurance car that won three straight Le Mans titles. From a report: The plan for now is limited in scope and is an effort by the Italian sports car maker to tap into a trend among luxury brands seeking access to the growing wealth of younger tech entrepreneurs, as AI and data centres drive investment and markets around the world.

It comes after Ferrari, which is also developing its first electric car, began accepting Bitcoin, ethereum and USDC for car purchases in the United States in 2023 and extended the service to Europe last year. Ferrari is working with Italian fintech Conio to launch the ‘Token Ferrari 499P’ for members of its Hyperclub — which groups 100 of its most exclusive clients, with a passion for endurance races — to trade amongst themselves and bid on the racing model.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.