FRIDAY, 27 FEBRUARY 2026, 06:04
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday the artificial intelligence company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Pentagon’s demands to allow wider use of its technology. The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it’s not walking away from negotiations, but that new contract language received from the Defense...
David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has emerged as the winner in a months-long battle to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.
More than 100 Google A.I. employees sent a letter to Jeff Dean, a chief scientist, opposing Gemini’s use for U.S. surveillance and some autonomous weapons.
A new bill that would give farmers in Iowa the right to repair is a big threat to tractor manufacturer John Deere.
Study shows lower risk for multiple myeloma as well as pancreatic, prostate, breast and kidney cancers
Vegetarians have a substantially lower risk of five types of cancer, a landmark study on the role of diet has revealed.
The research, using data from more than 1.8 million people who were tracked over many years, found that vegetarians had a 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer, a 12% lower...
A Greek court has convicted four individuals linked to the marketing of Predator spyware in the wiretapping scandal that shook the country in 2022. The BBC reports: In what became known as “Greece’s Watergate,” surveillance software called Predator was used to target 87 people — among them government ministers, senior military officials and journalists. The four who had marketed the software...
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 have great ANC and long battery life, and they’re marked down in several colors.
Colorado lawmakers are proposing SB26-051, a bill that would require operating systems to register a user’s age bracket and share it with apps via an API. PCMag reports: The bill comes from state Sen. Matt Ball and Rep. Amy Paschal, both Democrats. “The intent is to create thoughtful safeguards for kids online through a privacy-forward framework for age assurance,” Ball told PCMag. “Unlike some...
Google’s latest image model, Nano Banana 2, is a powerful AI photo editor that punctures reality. Well, sometimes.
Experimental therapy of applying stem cells during surgery could be ‘major milestone’ in treatment of birth defects
Giving stem cells to unborn babies diagnosed with spina bifida while they have in utero surgery could be “a major milestone” in the treatment of birth defects, doctors say.
A trial in the US found that applying stem cells from the mother’s placenta to her baby’s spine while it...
Jack Dorsey’s Block is cutting more than 4,000 jobs, or nearly half its workforce, as part of a deliberate shift toward becoming a smaller, “intelligence-native” company built around AI. The Verge reports: “We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble,” Dorsey says. “Our business is strong. Gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and...
Our hosts unpack the news of the week, starting with the ongoing feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon. Plus: All you need to know about TAT-8 and undersea cables.
About 4,000 workers will lose their jobs as the payments company does more work with new artificial intelligence tools, its top executive said.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: There’s a new agentic AI called Einstein that will, according to its developers, live the life of a student for them. Einstein’s website claims that the AI will attend lectures for you, write your papers, and even log into EdTech platforms like Canvas to take tests and participate in discussions. Educators told me that Einstein is just one of...
The Pentagon has imposed a Friday deadline over a demand that Anthropic provide unfettered access to its A.I. system without safeguards for military operations.
Google has launched Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), a faster, more realistic image generation model that becomes the default across Gemini, Search, Lens, and Flow. TechCrunch reports: The new Nano Banana 2 retains some of the high-fidelity characteristics of the Pro model but produces images faster. The company says you can create images with a resolution ranging from 512px to 4K, in...
The plaintiff, a 20-year-old identified only as K.G.M., took the stand to testify against Meta and Instagram in a bellwether case over tech addiction.
New submitter sabbede shares a report from CNN Politics: A sprawling Chinese influence operation — accidentally revealed by a Chinese law enforcement official’s use of ChatGPT — focused on intimidating Chinese dissidents abroad, including by impersonating US immigration officials, according to a new report from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The Chinese law enforcement official used ChatGPT like a diary...
The new open source project IronCurtain uses a unique method to secure and constrain AI assistant agents before they flip your digital life upside down.
Apple’s iPhone and iPad running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have become the first consumer mobile devices cleared for NATO-restricted classified data. No special software or settings are required. MacRumors reports: Apple’s devices are the first and only consumer mobile products that have reached this government certification level after security testing and evaluation by the German government....
Researchers from Stanford and Princeton found that Chinese AI models are more likely than their Western counterparts to dodge political questions or deliver inaccurate answers.