As people look for ways to make new friends, here are some apps that may come in handy.
With loneliness and social isolation becoming more prevalent in recent years, people are increasingly seeking new ways to form platonic connections. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General even designated this issue as a public health crisis. Remote workers who miss the daily interactions of the office and young people who want to create adult social […]
‘Wasn’t built right from the start’ — Musk’s xAI starts all over again
Of the original 11 co-founders who started xAI with Elon Musk three years ago, only two remain as the deep learning institute continues to shake up its workforce to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI. Musk insists that the restructuring is deliberate. “xAI was not built right from the start, so we are rebuilding it from […]
AI mental illness lawyer warns of risk of mass casualties
Prior to last month’s Tumbler Ridge School shooting in Canada, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootseller spoke to ChatGPT about feelings of isolation and a growing obsession with violence, according to court filings. According to the filing, the chatbot helped Ms. Van Roetselaar plan her attack by validating her feelings, telling her what weapon to use, and […]
Digg lays off staff and closes app as company reorganizes
Digg, Kevin Rose’s reboot of the once-popular link-sharing site, announced Friday that it will lay off a significant portion of its staff. However, Digg CEO Justin Mezzell said the startup is not shutting down. Instead, Rose plans to return to work full time to help Digg gain a foothold. Rose will continue to work as […]
Founded by father-son duo, Nyne provides AI agents with the human context they lack
AI agents are expected to soon make purchasing and scheduling decisions autonomously on behalf of humans. But Michael Fanous, a UC Berkeley computer science graduate and former CareRev machine learning engineer, argues that these agents currently lack a key piece of the puzzle: the full context needed to truly understand the people they’re being programmed […]
Facebook makes it easier for creators to report impersonation
Following widespread complaints that Facebook has become an “AI sloppy hell,” Meta on Friday announced new tools to detect impersonation, as well as updates to its creator guidelines that more clearly define what Facebook considers “original content.” Last year, the company announced a crackdown on spammy and unoriginal content, such as repeatedly reusing other people’s […]
Travis Kalanick launches new company called Atoms focused on robotics
Uber founder Travis Kalanick has started a new company called Atoms that will focus on robotics and will operate in the food, mining and transportation industries, according to its website. Kalanick is integrating his existing ghost kitchen company, CloudKitchens, into Atoms. It was not immediately clear how he plans to approach mining and transportation. Atoms’ […]
Six grueling weeks for NanoClaw creators to reach deal with Docker
For NanoClaw creator Gabriel Cohen, it’s been a whirlwind. About six weeks ago, he introduced NanoClaw, which he built during a weekend coding spree, on Hacker News as a small, open source, and secure alternative to AI agent building sensation OpenClaw. The post went viral. “I put on my sweatpants and sat on the couch,” […]
Apple lowers commission rates in China without any fuss
Apple announced Thursday that it will reduce commission rates on its App Store in China from 30% to 25% after consultation with Chinese regulators. The new 25% fee applies to paid apps and in-app purchases, but auto-renewing in-app purchases after the first year will be charged a lower 12% fee (down from 15%). The changes […]
FBI investigating malware hidden in games hosted on Steam
The FBI announced Friday that it is investigating a hacker suspected of releasing several malware-laced video games on the popular PC game store Steam. In an announcement looking for possible infected victims, the FBI listed BlockBlasters, Chemia, Dashverse/DashFPS, Lampy, Lunara, PirateFi, and Tokenova as games suspected of being developed by the same cybercriminals over the […]