Author: Art Ryan

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that enables a four-legged robot to adapt its gait to different, unfamiliar terrain, just like a real animal, in what is believed to be a world first. The work has been published in Nature Machine Intelligence. The pioneering technology allows the robot to change the way it moves autonomously, rather than having to be told when and how to alter its stride like the current generation of robots. This advance is seen as a major step toward potentially using legged robots in hazardous settings where humans might be put at risk, such as…

Ever since Samsung first introduced Galaxy AI, its suite of artificial intelligence features, there has been some confusion as to how long these features will remain free. The company has mentioned on occasion that the features will be offered free for a limited time. Recent official communications have provided the “end of 2025” deadline for free provision of Galaxy AI features. Samsung has now addressed the confusion by confirming which Galaxy AI features will remain free forever. Samsung finally sets the record straight on Galaxy AI Samsung has confirmed to Android Police that all Galaxy AI features available “on your phone by default” will be offered…

One Elon Musk business might be making a big investment in another. According to a Wall Street Journal report that cites investors close to SpaceX, the company has agreed to invest $2 billion in Musk’s AI startup xAI. The investment would reportedly be part of the $5 billion equity raise (along with another $5 billion in debt) that Morgan Stanley announced at the end of June. This would be SpaceX’s first investment in xAI, and one of its biggest investments in another company. The WSJ says SpaceX already uses xAI’s chatbot Grok to power customer service for its Starlink internet service, with plans for…

A new generation of AI-powered web browsers is emerging to challenge the long-standing dominance of Google Chrome and traditional search engines, promising a smarter, more intuitive way to navigate the internet. The Rise of AI Browsers Startups like Perplexity and Comet, alongside heavyweights such as OpenAI, are redefining the browsing experience by integrating advanced artificial intelligence directly into browsers. These tools offer conversational interfaces, real-time summarization, and contextual understanding, making it easier for users to find relevant information without sifting through endless search results. Perplexity’s browser, for instance, acts more like a knowledgeable assistant than a traditional search engine —…

With global capital chasing sustainable returns, traditional stocks and gold are no longer the only safe-haven options. With the deep integration of artificial intelligence algorithms, carbon neutrality and decentralized finance (DeFi), cloud mining is quietly becoming a brand new wealth channel for more and more investors. London-based intelligent cloud mining platform Invro Mining is injecting unprecedented stability and environmental value into the digital asset finance market with its “AI intelligent scheduling + 100% clean energy mining” model. AI Algorithm Guarantee, Capturing the Best Mining Opportunities in the Market 24 Hours a Day Unlike traditional mining farms that rely on the arithmetic power…

A viral post on Reddit is reigniting debate around the role of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in medical advice after a user claimed that ChatGPT helped diagnose a condition that had eluded doctors for over a decade. According to the post, which was shared recently on X by OpenAI President Greg Brockman, the user experienced unexplained symptoms for more than 10 years, undergoing spinal MRIs, CT scans, blood tests, and even checks for Lyme disease — all to no avail. After entering lab results and symptom history into ChatGPT, the AI flagged a potential connection to the A1298C mutation in the MTHFR…

AI infrastructure startup New Generation (New Gen) says its platform now allows for agentic commerce. This new offering is designed to power secure, artificial intelligence (AI)-initiated transactions “through intelligent storefronts and embedded payment flows,” the company said in a Thursday (July 10) news release. The platform now lets AI agents “quickly and securely check out from merchant sites across chat, voice, and soon through emerging agent-driven channels,” New Gen said, adding that it was “leveraging trusted payments infrastructure” from Visa and was among the first collaborators in the Visa Intelligent Commerce sandbox. According to the release, there has been a surge in web traffic to retail…

Financial operations platform Ramp has debuted its first artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The new offering is designed for controllers, helping them to automatically enforce company expense policies, block unauthorized spending, and stop fraud, and is the first in a series of agents slated for release this year, the company said in a Thursday (July 10) news release. “Finance teams are being asked to do more with less, yet the function remains largely manual,” Ramp said in the release. “Teams using legacy platforms today spend up to 70% of their time on tasks like expense review, policy enforcement, and compliance audits. As a result, 59% of…

If your cat’s sulking, your dog’s whining or your rabbit’s doing that strange thing with its paws again, you will recognise that familiar pang of guilt shared by most other pet owners. But for those who wish they knew just what was going on in the minds of their loyal companions, help may soon be at hand – thanks to the establishment of first scientific institution dedicated to empirically investigating the consciousness of animals. The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), will begin its work on 30 September, researching non-human animals, including those as…

Google has hired a few team members from Windsurf, a rising AI infrastructure startup. The move is aimed at strengthening the tech behemoth’s own AI code generation capabilities. At the centre of this development is Varun Mohan, the co-founder and CEO of Windsurf. Mr Mohan, along with co-founder Douglas Chen, joins Google following a high-stakes corporate tug-of-war that reportedly saw OpenAI in advanced talks to acquire Windsurf just last month. Who is Varun Mohan, and what makes his background significant in the AI space? Varun Mohan, who has Indian roots, was raised in Sunnyvale, California, by parents who migrated from…

Car-rental company Hertz is facing numerous customer complaints for its implementation of an AI-driven vehicle inspection camera that can detect even the tiniest signs of damage. Hertz recently partnered with UVeye (a computer vision company) to implement the new technology to its US operations, but customers have started receiving repair bills for damage that is common with car usage. Under the alias animemufin, one customer posted on Reddit’s r/HertzRentals board that “I recently rented a car from Hertz at IAH (Houston airport) and upon 30 mins of dropping the car off, I received a text saying there was damage reported on the car with…

AI chatbot Grok, which is produced by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, issued an apology Saturday after it made numerous antisemitic posts on X this week following an update. The posts ranged from alleging “patterns” in the roles of Jewish people in Hollywood to praising Hitler. In a statement posted on Grok’s X account, the company apologized “for the horrific behavior that many experienced.” “Our intent for @grok is to provide helpful and truthful responses to users,” the statement read. “After careful investigation, we discovered the root cause was an update to a code path upstream of the @grok bot. This is independent of…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Friday the company is delaying the release of its open model, which was already pushed back a month earlier in this summer. OpenAI had planned to release the model next week, however Altman said the company is pushing it back indefinitely for further safety testing. “We need time to run additional safety tests and review high-risk areas. we are not yet sure how long it will take us,” said Altman in a post on X. “While we trust the community will build great things with this model, once weights are out, they can’t be pulled back. This is…

Nvidia became the first publicly traded company to surpass a $4 trillion market capitalization value, 13 months after surpassing the $3 trillion mark and making it the world’s most valuable company ahead of Apple and Microsoft. At the time of Nvidia reaching the record-breaking market cap on July 9, Microsoft was in second place with a $3.7 trillion valuation and Apple was third with $3.1 trillion. All of this is attributable to Nvidia’s AI revolution. In 2018, the company didn’t even have a data center business. Now data center accounts for more than 90% of revenue. For its first quarter…

Delta Air Lines is taking dynamic pricing to the next level. This week, the Atlanta-based carrier said it hopes to use artificial intelligence to influence pricing on about a fifth of its domestic flights by the end of 2025. That would represent a sharp increase in the airline’s use of AI in dictating the price passengers pay to fly. Last fall, Delta executives first revealed the company had begun using AI on a small sliver of its bookings; at the time, AI tools were only involved with about 1% of the airline’s network, leaders shared on Delta’s November 2024 investor…

Winnipeg police say they’re testing an AI-powered interactive voice agent for their non-emergency line. The pilot project, which has been underway for several months already, is expanding from tests a few hours a week in a closely-monitored environment, to a few hours a day as of Monday. The new system, police said, is set to replace the pre-recorded prompts on the existing automated phone system, which is based around pre-recorded prompts. “This is about making it easier for Winnipeggers to reach us and get help with non-emergent matters,” said Insp. Gord Spado of the communications division. “By introducing this new…

The UK government’s increasing reliance on artificial intelligence and digital technologies in its social security system is leading to the systematic exclusion of people with disabilities, low-income communities, and other marginalized groups, warned Amnesty International on Thursday in a new report. The report, titled “Too Much Technology, Not Enough Empathy,” sheds light on the consequences of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) digitization of key welfare schemes such as Universal Credit (UC) and Personal Independence Payment (PIP). According to Amnesty International’s findings, the rollout and frequent revisions of AI-based systems have created a deeply inaccessible environment for those who need welfare the…

Software engineer workflows have been transformed in recent years by an influx of AI coding tools like Cursor and GitHub Copilot, which promise to enhance productivity by automatically writing lines of code, fixing bugs, and testing changes. The tools are powered by AI models from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and xAI that have rapidly increased their performance on a range of software engineering tests in recent years. However, a new study published Thursday by the non-profit AI research group METR calls into question the extent to which today’s AI coding tools enhance productivity for experienced developers. METR conducted a randomized controlled trial for this study by…

When OpenAI was having its ChatGPT moment in 2022, Joe Scheidler, co-founder and CEO of Helios, was tackling a different kind of challenge: Helping build the White House’s newly authorized cybersecurity office and navigating the complexities of public-private coordination on cyber policies. His current co-founder, Joseph Farsakh, was also at the State Department, working on Yemen Houthi peace negotiations. The two overlapped in national security discussions and started trading notes on how large language models might transform public policy on a day-to-day level. On the level the White House operates, critical decisions are often made using a patchwork of tools,…

After 14 years of developing inside of semiconductor giant Intel, RealSense is striking out on its own.RealSense sells cameras that use stereoscopic imaging, a process that combines two images of the same object from different angles to create depth, enhanced with infrared light. This technology helps machines like robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles have a better perception of the physical world around them. The tech is also used for facial authentication.“The common denominator of all of them is they live in the real, physical world,” CEO Nadav Orbach told TechCrunch. “They need to understand the surroundings in 3D and based on…