Google describes apps exactly like Grok and says they are banned from Google Play. Elon Musk’s xAI recently weakened content guard rails for image generation in the Grok AI bot. This led to a new spate of non-consensual sexual imagery on X, much of it aimed at silencing women…
“It was not recognized how serious a problem that is until… about 2017 or 2018.” Among other things, the James Webb Space Telescope is designed to get us closer to finding habitable worlds around faraway stars. From its perch a million miles from Earth, Webb’s huge gold-coated mirror collects…
Apple goes with Google’s tech despite using OpenAI’s ChatGPT elsewhere in iOS. The “more intelligent” version of Siri that Apple plans to release later this year will be backed by Google’s Gemini language models, the company announced today. CNBC reports that the deal is part of a “multi-year partnership”…
The sudden closure of hundreds of storefronts isn’t exactly a great sign… Six and a half years ago—after a failed corporate sale attempt, massive financial losses, and the departure/layoff of many key staff—I wrote about what seemed at the time like the “imminent demise” of GameStop. Now, after five…
The new LFP battery pack has 262 miles of range and fast-charges at 150 kW. The new Chevrolet Equinox EV is a solid entry into the compact crossover market, and with a (just) sub-$35,000 starting price, it also counts as affordable by the standards of 2026. But if you…
Big sizes, big resolution, and big ideas. CES 2026 took place in Las Vegas last week, and as usual, we’re looking at the most interesting monitors from the show. Not every display is a monitor in the strictest sense, but they all provide a display for computers and have…
Footage of the 2024 discovery appears in NatGeo’s new documentary series Pole to Pole with Will Smith. In 2024, scientists announced the discovery of a new species of giant anaconda in South America. A National Geographic camera crew was on hand for the 2022 expedition that documented the new…
For the eighth year in a row, the world’s oceans absorbed a record-breaking amount of heat in 2025. Since 2018, a group of researchers from around the world has crunched the numbers on how much heat the world’s oceans are absorbing each year. In 2025, their measurements broke records…
Hunter-gatherers probably derived the poison from the milky bulb extract of a Boophone disticha plant. Poisoned arrows or darts have long been used by cultures all over the world for hunting or warfare. For example, there are recipes for poisoning projective weapons, and deploying them in battle, in Greek…
Canceled contracts and scaled-back product plans turn out to be costly. American automakers who got overenthusiastic about electric vehicles continue to pay the price—literally. Yesterday, General Motors told investors that building and selling fewer EVs will cost the company $6 billion. Still, things could be worse—last month, rival Ford…
