If you find Google’s live translation tools useful, you’ll soon be able to use them more naturally during video calls and meetings. The company announced today that it’s bringing the feature to Google Meet. Starting this week, AI-powered, real-time Spanish translation will be available in the app. Google says more languages are on the way and that the technology is “very, very close to having a natural and free-flowing conversation.” 

During a brief demo, live translation in Meet matched the speaker’s tone and cadence, and was even able to channel expressions. There’s no doubt this will be useful for many people, especially on work calls with colleagues in other countries. Live translation will allow everyone to speak in the language they’re most comfortable with, and the technology will do the heavy lifting. Before now, you had to rely on live captions in Google Meet to do any translation, so not having to read those will allow users to be more in-tune with the conversation. 

Starting today, live translation in Google Meet will be available to Google AI Pro and Ultra plans in beta. The company says the new features will be available for enterprise users later this year as part of an “early testing” phase. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-brings-live-translation-to-meet-starting-with-spanish-174549788.html?src=rss

Google first teased Project Starline in 2021, billing it at the time as a “magic window” that uses special hardware, computer vision and machine learning to create an almost holographic video call experience. Since then, we’ve checked out an early version of the experiment for ourselves and learned last year that the company is teaming up with HP to bring a scaled-down version of the product to enterprise clients. At I/O 2025 today, Google announced that Project Starline “is evolving into an AI-first 3D video communication platform” called Beam. CEO Sundar Pichai said onstage that the first devices will be available later this year to “select customers,” though there’s no word on pricing just yet.

Adding to the computer vision and machine learning that already go into Project Starline (now Beam), Google says the platform will “use AI to enable a new generation of devices that help people make meaningful connections, no matter where they are.”

Part of this is a “state-of-the-art AI volumetric video model” and that, plus some power via Google Cloud, combined with the light field display from before, is what makes the calls “appear fully 3D from any perspective.” There are six cameras built into the Beam system to capture you from various angles, and the system uses AI to merge the streams and render you and your caller on the light field display. It’ll track your head movement to make sure it’s delivering the data to your eyes at the right angles, and do so at 60 frames per second.

Though we don’t know yet how much a unit of Google Beam might cost, it might be worth pointing out that Logitech made a different version called Project Ghost, and estimated that it will cost between $15,000 and $20,000 per booth depending on the configuration. To be clear, though, Project Ghost is not holographic or rendering 3D, it’s just a large TV streaming 2D video that’s so big it makes your callers seem life-sized.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/goodbye-project-starline-hello-google-beam-3d-video-conferencing-171056302.html?src=rss

On Monday, the developer of a large offshore wind farm being built off the coast of New York announced that the federal government had lifted a hold it had placed on the project roughly a month ago. The entire process has been shrouded in mystery. The government never fully enunciated its justification for the hold and hasn’t yet commented on the fact that it had been lifted, although there is some hint that it was coupled to a reconsideration of a cancelled natural gas pipeline.

Empire Wind is a large project being built off the southeast shore of Long Island by Equinor, a Norwegian energy company. The first of two phases, Empire Wind 1, will have an 800 MW capacity and has already received permitting and environmental approval. Equinor had started construction of the foundations for the towers that would hold the wind turbines and onshore facilities that would support this and future offshore projects.

All that changed in mid-April when Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced via a social media post that the approval for Empire Wind had been rushed and his department would be reviewing it. A Fox News article published a few days later suggests that a review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “found the Empire Wind approval process relied on rushed, outdated, and incomplete scientific and environmental analysis.” But nobody else has indicated that any such report exists, despite requests from the press.

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For anyone looking for a straightforward, budget laptop for school, writing, or browsing, this open-box Microsoft Surface Laptop SE sale is worth a look. It’s priced at $189.99 right now on StackSocial, down from its original $378.99 listing. Even Amazon has it for about $20 more at the moment. Being an open-box item means you’re not getting the out-of-the-plastic wrap experience—these units were likely returned, displayed, or pulled from shelves—so the box might be bruised or have a sticker or two, but the product itself is tested, verified, repackaged, and it still comes with a one-year warranty.

This 11.6-inch model runs on the Intel Celeron N4120 chip and comes preloaded with Windows 11 SE—a version of the OS designed for school environments. It’s lightweight and compact, making it ideal for students or anyone looking for something they can carry around all day. The screen isn’t high-res and you’re not getting a touchscreen here, but for folks who don’t need that and prefer typing on a traditional keyboard, it does the job. Battery life is rated at up to 16 hours, which sounds great on paper, though real-world use is probably a few hours shy of that if you’ve got multiple tabs or videos going. It’s not a powerhouse, but with 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD, it should hold up fine for most basic tasks like video calls, typing assignments, or streaming. That said, it’s not ideal for anyone needing apps outside the Microsoft Store or planning to multitask heavily.

You’re not getting premium design or high-end specs, but you are getting a lightweight, functional machine with solid battery life and basic performance. For under $200, that’s not a bad trade-off.

Subscribers to Adobe’s multi-app subscription plan, Creative Cloud All Apps, will be charged more starting on June 17 to accommodate for new generative AI features.

Adobe’s announcement, spotted by MakeUseOf, says the change will affect North American subscribers to the Creative Cloud All Apps plan, which Adobe is renaming Creative Cloud Pro. Starting on June 17, Adobe will automatically renew Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers into the Creative Cloud Pro subscription, which will be $70 per month for individuals who commit to an annual plan, up from $60 for Creative Cloud All Apps. Annual plans for students and teachers plans are moving from $35/month to $40/month, and annual teams pricing will go from $90/month to $100/month. Monthly (non-annual) subscriptions are also increasing, from $90 to $105.

Further, in an apparent attempt to push generative AI users to more expensive subscriptions, as of June 17, Adobe will give single-app subscribers just 25 generative AI credits instead of the current 500.

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Amazon will now deliver a bunch of new products via drone, as mentioned in a company blog post. This includes stuff like smartphones, video doorbells and food thermometers. This is thanks to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) giving approval to several new item categories.

Newly-available items include Apple iPhones, AirTags and AirPods, in addition to Samsung Galaxy smartphones, Ring doorbells and Alpha Grillers Instant Read Food Thermometers. All told, customers can now choose from more than 60,000 items for drone delivery.

These deliveries will typically arrive within an hour, assuming the package is under five pounds and the customer lives in a drone service area. Unfortunately, these areas are extremely limited. As of this writing, Amazon only offers drone deliveries to parts of Texas and Arizona. The company plans on expanding to the UK and Italy in the near future.

Weather also plays a part when determining the availability of a drone delivery. Amazon won’t offer the service “during heavy winds, or during heavy rain,” the company wrote in another blog post. It isn’t being overly cautious here. The drones can get into serious trouble when trying to navigate foul weather, as shown by recent crashes that forced the company to put the platform on hold for a while.

Last year, the FAA gave Amazon permission for its drones to fly beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). This has allowed the company to use its newest MK30 model to make deliveries within an hour.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/amazon-drones-can-now-deliver-smartphones-airtags-and-more-164413100.html?src=rss

Microsoft is starting to integrate AI shortcuts, or what it calls AI actions, into the File Explorer in Windows 11. From a report: These shortcuts let you right-click on a file and quickly get to Windows AI features like blurring the background of a photo, erasing objects, or even summarizing content from Office files.

Four image actions are currently being tested in the latest Dev Channel builds of Windows 11, including Bing visual search to find similar images on the web, the blur background and erase objects features found in the Photos app, and the remove background option in Paint. Similar AI actions will soon be tested with Office files, The Verge added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is a video (complete with dramatic text overlay) of a tortoise that gets knocked on its back by another tortoise (presumably after casually mentioning his girlfriend has a nice shell), and left to flail there until a tortoise pal comes along to right him. It takes some doing, but eventually he gets back on his feet. Man, getting back on your feet — that sounds nice. I’ve been an upside-down tortoise for so long I couldn’t even tell you which way is up. “It’s bright blue.” Haha, you think there’s sky down here?! It’s just fire in every direction.

America’s regional state universities are experiencing steep enrollment declines, triggering economic crises in the towns that depend on them, while flagship universities continue to thrive.

At Western Illinois University in Macomb, enrollment has plummeted 47% since 2010, driving the city’s population down 23% to 14,765. Empty dorms have been repurposed or demolished, while local businesses struggle to survive. “It’s almost like you’re watching the town die,” Kalib McGruder, a 28-year veteran of the campus police department, told WSJ.

An analysis of 748 public four-year institutions reveals enrollment at prestigious state universities increased 9% between 2015 and 2023, while regional state schools saw a 2% decline. The University of Tennessee Knoxville’s enrollment jumped 30% as the state’s regional colleges collectively fell 3%. With high school graduate numbers expected to decline starting next year after reaching a record high in 2024, the outlook for struggling college towns appears bleak.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

With the weather warming up, your thoughts may be turning to spending lazy summer afternoons at the beach with a good book. Tina, an online creator and co-host of the podcast Book Talk, Etc., opened her edition of the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday to find the newspaper’s “Summer reading list for 2025.” If Tina were me, someone who isn’t in-tune with the latest in literature, this article might have seemed like a useful jumping-off point for some new book recommendations. But seeing as Tina creates content all about books, I imagine she is acutely aware of which authors are writing which books—which is why she was able to immediately spot a number of books on the list that simply do not exist.

Tina took a photo of the article and posted it to her Threads account, accusing the newspaper of using AI to generate its recommendations. That image of the article is now circulating on Bluesky, as well as the Chicago subreddit. I’m not a subscriber, and the article doesn’t appear to be on the Sun-Times’ website, so I can’t verify the list myself. But based on the photograph, it doesn’t look good for the Sun-Times.

Of the 15 “books” on this summer reading list, only five are real books you can actually, you know, read: Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan; Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter; Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury; Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman; and Atonement by Ian McEwan. Coincidentally, they are the last five books on the list, and are not new. The other 10 are totally made up, including such “hey, I’d read that” entries as The Last Algorithm, a new AI thriller from The Martian author Andy Weir; and Boiling Point, a smart-sounding story of environmental ethics by critical darling Rebecca Makki. Alas.

Given these fake books have real authors attached to them, fans of those authors may believe their favorite writer has a new, intriguing novel out. Even if you have no idea who any of the named authors are, you might use this piece to head to your library or book store to get a jump on your summer reading list—and if you’re pulling from the first 10 recommendations, you’re going to be looking for a long time.

What happened here?

Like I said, this article does not appear on the Chicago Sun-Times’ website, nor does it appear in the archives for May 18 (the date on the image in question). I’m only working off of Tina’s picture of a physical copy of the newspaper, since I can’t find another image of it anywhere online. Hopefully, another reader can upload their copy as supporting evidence.

If this list is real, and it was published in the Sunday edition of the Sun-Times, it does strongly suggest the newspaper used generative AI to write it. (I’ve reached out to the paper for comment, and will update this piece if I receive a response.) That’s not just because the writing is stilted. AI often hallucinates, or, in other words, sometimes makes things up. It’s not totally clear why the models do this—it could be an issue with the training data, or the conclusions the models draw from that training—but the problem is only getting worse even as AI models ostensibly improve.

This isn’t something you can avoid with better prompts, either: If you use generative AI, it’s going to hallucinate sometimes, which means you need to check the outputs for inaccuracies (or straight-up lies). I follow that someone who doesn’t understand this technology would see what a program like ChatGPT can do and want to use it to generate articles like this, but as many writers and artists have been arguing for years now, you can’t replace a human worker with an AI chatbot and expect the same quality work. Sure, ChatGPT will happily generate you a list of 15 book recommendations in under a minute—but it’s possible some (if not most) of those recommendations will be garbage.

I don’t believe in using generative AI to publish stories like this. But if a newspaper is going to outsource the writing to a bot, it needs a human fact-checker (or perhaps, I don’t know, an editor) to review the generation and make sure everything is correct. Though at that point, I’d suggest just just paying a human writer to offer the book recommendations themself. I gaurantee you there are plenty of out-of-work or underemployed journalists who would jump at the chance.

Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT for the synopsis of The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir. The bot searched the web for an answer, and, to its credit, accurately reported that the book doesn’t actually exist. It made some assumptions, saying the Sun-Times definitely used AI to generate the article (though I suppose a very lazy intern who was hoping to be fired could have made up the books as well), likely because the social media posts it was pulling from suggested as much. But I also found its final thought to be particularly on-point (and accidentally self-aware):

“This incident underscores the importance of verifying information, especially when AI-generated content is involved,” ChatGPT wrote.

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When I first reviewed the Boox Palma e-reader, I called it the ideal solution to your doomscrolling habit—a device as portable and pocketable as a phone, with an adaptable Android operating system that allows you to run any apps you want, but with an e-ink screen that is both easier on the eyes and not nearly as stimulating to stare at as your smartphone’s LED display. Weirdly, by looking like a smartphone but feeling just a little bit worse to use (complimentary), this little device helped me smash my 2025 reading goal in fewer than six months.

But doomscrolling isn’t a mobile-only problem (at least, not for me)—it’s just as easy to get sucked into the latest political outrage when I’m scrolling Bluesky on my laptop via my web browser, never mind that I’m supposed to be writing. So I decided to take a cue from the Boox fans on Reddit and explore transforming my Palma into an on-the-go productivity device: a coffee shop-friendly word processor that wouldn’t leave me pretending to work while I was really scrolling social media or wandering down another Wiki-hole.

To put it to the test, I decided I would write up my findings on the Palma itself—yes, I wrote this entire article on an e-reader.

BOOX Palma 2 Mobile ePaper Fingerprint Recognition Smart Button Dual Speakers Microphones (White)

$299.99
at Amazon

$299.99
at Amazon

iClever Foladable Bluetooth Keyboard

$54.99
at Amazon

$54.99
at Amazon

How to turn your Boox Palma (or other Android e-reader) into a mini-word processor

Because the Palma runs on an open version of Android, using it as a replacement for your laptop is as simple as connecting a Bluetooth keyboard. (While the Palma is my favorite e-reader, you can use a similar setup on any open Android e-ink device—not just those from Boox, like the Note Air 4C and Note Max, but also from competitors like Bigme and Hisense.) In the interest of keeping my setup as svelte and portable as possible, I opted for the iClever BK08, a slim foldable that, when stored, is roughly the size and thickness of the Palma itself. It even has a trackpad and comes with a little cloth carrying case that has enough room to fit my favorite little e-reader. (Annoyingly, it does not fit the little foldable stand that comes with the keyboard.)

Credit: Joel Cunningham

Getting it set up was simply a matter of enabling Bluetooth on my Palma, putting the keyboard in pairing mode, and opening up Google Docs. (Well, and also spending five minutes looking for the setting to disable the onscreen keyboard when a physical keyboard is attached.)

To do this on the Palma, you’ll need to go into the system-level Settings app, scroll to More Settings, then tap Language and Input. Tap Current and select ONYX Keyboard as your default. Next, connect the keyboard via Bluetooth, open your Google Doc, and tap on the screen to bring up the onscreen keyboard. Tap the settings icon (it looks like a hexagon with a hole in the center) and then Switch Keyboard. Turn the slider next to Show virtual keyboard to off. (These directions will obviously vary if you’re using a different Android-based e-reader, like the Bigme B751C, which I have yet to test out.)

With this accomplished, you’re all set to begin treating your e-reader like a teeny tiny laptop.

What it’s like to write on the Boox Palma

If you’ve ever tried to search for something on your Kindle using the clunky onscreen keyboard, you might be expecting the experience of typing onto an e-ink screen would be a similar exercise in frustration. I had my own doubts, given I wasn’t thrilled with the performance of Boox’s own keyboard dock for the Note Max tablet I tested last year. But the iClever keyboard impressed me–the build quality feels good, it’s small but not unreasonably so for shorter writing sessions, and it even has a small touch-sensitive trackpad that allowed me to click around within Google Docs (though to be honest, just using the touch screen is faster and easier).

Performance-wise, I noticed no significant delay between pressing the keys and the characters appearing on the screen. To be fair, this likely has less to do with the keyboard (which is a sturdy little device, and fun to fold and unfold, but likely any Bluetooth keyboard will perform similarly) and more to do with Boox’s speedy refresh modes, which do their darnedest to make the Palma’s e-ink screen as responsive as the LED on your smartphone. Do they get there? Kinda. Ish. If you put the Palma in “speed” mode, you can watch YouTube on the Palma and almost make out what’s happening onscreen. But typing is way less graphically intense, and as a word processor, this little e-reader is as speedy as you need it to be.

The setup is great for writing without distractions: No intrusive notifications, no new tabs to click away to just for a second. Depending on how you configure your settings, the smaller display can also mean you’ll only see a few lines of text at any given time, which can be a boon if you’re the kind of person who gets caught up in obsessive on-the-fly editing: You’ll be able to quickly get the words out, and leave the revisions for later, when you’re back in front of a “real” computer.

The biggest hiccup I experienced had nothing to do with the keyboard at all. For some reason, the Palma didn’t want to play nice with the free wifi at Starbucks. I could connect to it, but the popup menu where you agree to the terms of use kept crashing before I could enter my email address and click “agree.” One could argue this is a feature and not a bug—you can’t waste time online if you can’t get online—but I also wasn’t able to back up my writing to the cloud without connecting to my iPhone’s hotspot.

The bottom line

As fun and functional as I found this setup, I’m not suggesting you toss out your laptop in favor of an e-reader—full disclosure, I did not edit and insert the images into this review using the Palma, and I didn’t even bother trying to connect it to the Lifehacker CMS. But if you just want to be left alone with a blinking cursor, it’s kind of ideal. I wrote the preceding 1,000 words more or less in one go, without navigating away from Google Docs to check my email or respond to texts or a notification from Instagram, which is, er, not my usual workflow (no one tell my boss; I am very good at staying on task, I swear). 

French authorities have denied Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s request to travel to the U.S. for “negotiations with investment funds.” From a report: The Paris prosecutor’s office told POLITICO that it rendered its decision on May 12 “on the grounds that such a trip abroad did not appear imperative or justified.”

Durov was arrested in August 2024 at a French airport and has been under strict legal control since last September, when he was indicted on six charges related to illicit activity on the messaging app he operates. He is forbidden to leave France without authorization — which he obtained to travel to Dubai from March 15 to April 7, the prosecutor’s office said. Russian-born Durov is a citizen, among other countries, of France and the United Arab Emirates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple has sent the invites for its in-person WWDC 2025 festivities on Monday, June 9, featuring the keynote session at 1PM ET/10AM PT. Attendees will be able to watch the keynote presentation at the company’s Cupertino campus, as well as meet with developers and participating in special activities. For everyone who hasn’t received an invite to Apple Park, the keynote will stream online. Developers can also participate in the rest of WWDC’s programming online for free.

We’ve already got pretty high hopes for the keynote announcements, with a lot of potential news expected about the upcoming redesign for iOS 19. We’ve heard that the operating system could have features including AI-powered battery management and improved public Wi-Fi sign ins, and our own Nathan Ingraham has penned an impassioned plea for a normal letter “a” in the Notes app. The full WWDC conference runs from June 9-13.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apples-wwdc-2025-keynote-will-be-june-9-at-1pm-et-150621700.html?src=rss

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Tariffs on products being imported to the U.S., especially from China, Canada, and Mexico, have been a hotly debated topic in the news, and many people are predicting a hike in prices on things like tools and materials for DIY projects as the tariffs are enacted. There is a lot of conjecture about how to keep your home improvement and DIY projects prices down, with many commentators advising people to simply “buy American”—but that probably won’t work. The economy is increasingly international, with parts of almost everything made in the U.S. being imported from all over the world.

Most tools made in the U.S., even from brands that have a reputation for being American-made, are actually “made in the USA from globally sourced parts,” meaning that at least some of the components of these tools are made elsewhere. A few exceptions to this rule exist, like Estwing hammers and hatchets, and Channellock, which makes a large selection of tools mostly in the U.S. from U.S.-sourced materials and parts. But most tools are affected at some point along the supply chain by tariffs on imported materials and parts.

Because of an overall increase in the cost of manufacturing due to tariffs on things like fuel and electricity, as well as materials and parts, and a decrease in demand for American products abroad, manufacturing in the U.S. has slowed significantly over the last few months. As a result of this lull in activity and the lack of international demand for American goods, prices on tools made in the U.S. aren’t likely to be much cheaper than imported products. Whether companies are battling higher costs, lower demand for their products, or both, their prices won’t be going down as compared to other products as long as their business operates in the global economy. Here’s what you can do if the prices get too high.

Buy used tools

Don’t get me wrong: Estwing still makes my favorite hammer, and Klein still makes my favorite tool bag right here in the U.S., and I would never advise people not to buy these things; ultimately, the reason I like them isn’t because of tariffs but because they’re well-made and they last a long time. But if you want to save money in the economic storm caused by tariffs, consider buying used. Buying good-quality used tools is a better bet than buying low-quality new tools—they will likely last longer. For more information on how to identify quality used tools, read my article on buying tools from estate sales.

Repair broken tools instead of buying new ones

While parts might be more expensive because of tariffs, you can likely still save some money by fixing power tools when they break rather than replacing them. Sharpening saw blades for a table saw can range from $15 to about $50 per blade, which is much cheaper than replacing them, especially for specialty blades. If you have a tool with a power cord that has become worn, you can get a replacement cord for between $10 and $40, depending on the length and gauge. Even if you don’t feel comfortable replacing the cord yourself, the cost of having the repair done is likely still cheaper than buying a new drill press or bench sander.

Join a makerspace

You might be able to find a makerspace locally at a school, community center, or one that’s run as its own business. Depending on the size and scope of the space, membership can cost anywhere from $10/month to $200/month and includes access to on-site tools for a variety of DIY projects. Some of these communal shops also have tools you can check out and take home. While the price of membership for some of these spaces can seem expensive, it’s still likely cheaper than the cost of buying all the tools you would have access to, especially if you consider the cost of maintenance and electricity for some of the larger ones, like table saws.

Rent your tools

While renting smaller power tools like drills and drivers might not be worth it—the minimum rental on those is around $27—larger tools like power washers, floor sanders, and tillers can be rented for between $80 and $90 per day. This is a significant savings on buying a large tool like this, but make sure to check your rental contract to see what’s included. Sometimes you’ll be responsible for providing sanding discs and other needed accessories for the rented tool. Auto repair stores like Autozone also sometimes have tools to loan out for a deposit, as long as you return the tools within the 90-day loan period. If you have a DIY project that only requires the use of a particular tool for a short period of time, this type of rental or loan can result in significant savings.

Where to borrow tools

If you want to avoid tariffs altogether, you can try borrowing tools through a local tool library or neighborhood swap group. This is by far the most tariff-resistant way to get your DIY projects done on a budget—and build community while you work. Tool libraries can often be a resource for more than just tools—they often host classes and repair workshops, too, making them a perfect place to start if you’re a DIY beginner or you just want to make some DIY friends.

On Sunday, the Chicago Sun-Times published an advertorial summer reading list containing at least 10 fake books attributed to real authors, according to multiple reports on social media. The newspaper’s uncredited “Summer reading list for 2025” supplement recommended titles including “Tidewater Dreams” by Isabel Allende and “The Last Algorithm” by Andy Weir—books that don’t exist and were created out of thin air by an AI system.

The creator of the list, Marco Buscaglia, confirmed to 404 Media that he used AI to generate the content. “I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first. This time, I did not and I can’t believe I missed it because it’s so obvious. No excuses,” Buscaglia said. “On me 100 percent and I’m completely embarrassed.”

A check by Ars Technica shows that only five of the fifteen recommended books in the list actually exist, with the remainder being fabricated titles falsely attributed to well-known authors. AI assistants such as ChatGPT are well-known for creating plausible-sounding errors known as confabulations, especially when lacking detailed information on a particular topic. The problem affects everything from AI search results to lawyers citing fake cases.

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