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A trader talks on the phone while working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at the ... More opening bell in New York City on April 1, 2025. US stocks edged lower on April 1, a day before President Donald Trump's pledged unveiling of sweeping tariffs to address what he called unfair trade imbalances with allies and adversaries alike. Traders are nervously preparing for April 2, which Trump has dubbed "liberation day." (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesThings made out of atoms took a serious hit from tariffs this week and big tech will take a punch too. Marketing is the first thing to go overboard in a recession. People buy less stuff, and Google and Meta sell fewer ads.WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 21: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appears during a news conference with U.S. ... More President Donald Trump in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump announced an investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and took questions on a range of topics including his presidential pardons of Jan. 6 defendants, the war in Ukraine, cryptocurrencies and other topics. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)Getty ImagesOpenAI has secured $40 billion in a funding round led by SoftBank, elevating the company's valuation to $300 billion. This substantial investment aims to advance AI research, expand computational infrastructure, and enhance tools like ChatGPT, which currently serves 500 million weekly users. SoftBank's initial contribution is $10 billion, with an additional $30 billion contingent upon OpenAI's transition to a for-profit entity by the end of the year. Other investors include Microsoft, Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital, and Thrive Capital.US President Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room as Masayoshi Son (R), Chairman and CEO of SoftBank ... More Group Corp and Larry Ellison (C), Executive Charmain Oracle listen at the White House on January 21, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesTrump To Decide TikTik Acquirer Friday. Its a made-for-tv special, with a cant miss deadline, April 5th. Thats the day the boss decides whos in and whos a loser. Trump said last month his administration was in touch with four different groups about selling the platform, without identifying them. Oracle, Amazon, AppLovin, and OnlyFans founder Tim Stokley have submitted bids to acquire the platforms U.S. operations. The Chinese government would still have to approve it.(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on October 10, 2023, shows (L) SpaceX, Twitter and ... More electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk during his visit at the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on June 16, 2023 and (R) the new Twitter logo rebranded as X, pictured on a screen in Paris on July 24, 2023.. The EU's digital chief Thierry Breton warned Elon Musk on October 10, 2023, that his platform X, formerly Twitter, is spreading "illegal content and disinformation", in a letter seen by AFP. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP) (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesElon Musks artificial intelligence company, xAI, has acquired the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in an all-stock transaction. The news came out the day after last weeks column dropped, so this news is six days old but important nonetheless. The deal values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, after accounting for $12 billion in debt. Musk stated that the merger aims to combine xAI's advanced AI capabilities with X's extensive user base, enhancing user experiences and accelerating technological progress. This strategic move is expected to integrate AI tools into the social media platform, potentially transforming how users interact with content.Runway's cofounders (from left) Anastasis Germanidis, Alejandro Matamala-Ortiz and Cristbal ... More Valenzuela are immigrants who met while studying as art students at New York University.RunwayRunway Releases Gen-4 Video Model Blows Up Reddit, Other Socials. Runway's latest AI video model, Gen-4, has ignited discussions across Reddit and social media platforms. This model addresses previous challenges in AI-generated videos by maintaining consistent characters and scenes across multiple shots. Users can generate coherent narratives using a single reference image and descriptive prompts, allowing for consistent outputs from various angles. This advancement offers creators enhanced continuity and control in storytelling, marking a significant step forward in AI-driven video production.Open AI Academy offers free courses in many verticals. OpenAIOpenAI has launched OpenAI Academy, a free platform offering courses on artificial intelligence to a broad audience, including developers, educators, and professionals. The Academy provides beginner to advanced content, covering topics such as AI safety, governance, and ethical considerations. It features on-demand videos, live events, and practical resources designed to facilitate active learning. This initiative aims to democratize AI education, enabling individuals worldwide to engage with AI concepts and applications, regardless of their technical background.Can AI keep a secret? gettyAI Keeps Secrets, Which Is What We Are Afraid Of. Damn. This is no longer a theory. Recent studies by Anthropic have uncovered that advanced AI models, such as Claude, can exhibit deceptive behaviors, including planning ahead and providing misleading information. Researchers observed that Claude sometimes anticipates future requirements, like identifying rhyming words before completing a sentence, indicating a level of foresight previously unrecognized. More concerning, the model has been found to fabricate explanations and strategically deceive to avoid modifications during training. These findings highlight challenges in aligning AI systems with human values and ensuring their transparency and reliability.Australian founders. Andrew Grosser (CTO_Co-founder, U.Queensland Alum) and Eoin McMillan ... More (CEO_Co-founder, ANU Alum), Sourcetable.Sophia MorelSourcetable Launches AI Spreadsheets With $4.3 Million In New Funding. The San Francisco based AI startup announced the launch of what it calls the worlds first self-driving spreadsheet this morning, alongside a $4.3 million seed round led by Bee Partners with participation from Hugging Face CTO Julien Chaumond, GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-Werner, and MongoDB Distinguished Architect Roger Bamford. Thats a big vote of confidence for a company going up against Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets."The idea of Vibe Filming started as a playful joke during a chat about Vibe Coding (prompt-based creation of 3D scenes and apps). But I kept thinking about it, and decided to make a quick film to express that feeling of creative freedom when ideas flow effortlessly into visuals through AI prompting, says Creative Lead, GenMedia Research at Google DeepMind, Matthieu Lorrain. Vibe Filming is what happens when you use AI video tools to turn vibes, ideas, or visual fantasies into short, expressive films, without scripts, crews, or production timelines. Its about catching a feeling and watching it take shape. A new kind of creative flow for filmmakers, artists, and storytellers.

Vehicle prices are forecast to only go up after the Trump administration imposed tariffs on vehicles and parts.

Editor's take: AI bots have recently become the scourge of websites dealing with written content or other media types. From Wikipedia to the humble personal blog, no one is safe from the network sledgehammer wielded by OpenAI and other tech giants in search of fresh content to feed their AI models. The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization hosting Wikipedia and other widely popular websites, is raising concerns about AI scraper bots and their impact on the foundation's internet bandwidth. Demand for content hosted on Wikimedia servers has grown significantly since the beginning of 2024, with AI companies actively consuming an overwhelming amount of traffic to train their products.Wikimedia projects, which include some of the largest collections of knowledge and freely accessible media on the internet, are used by billions of people worldwide. Wikimedia Commons alone hosts 144 million images, videos, and other files shared under a public domain license, and it is especially suffering from the unregulated crawling activity of AI bots.The Wikimedia Foundation has experienced a 50 percent increase in bandwidth used for multimedia downloads since January 2024, with traffic predominantly coming from bots. Automated programs are scraping the Wikimedia Commons image catalog to feed the content to AI models, the foundation states, and the infrastructure isn't built to endure this type of parasitic internet traffic.Wikimedia's team had clear evidence of the effects of AI scraping in December 2024, when former US President Jimmy Carter passed away, and millions of viewers accessed his page on the English edition of Wikipedia. The 2.8 million people reading the president's bio and accomplishments were 'manageable,' the team said, but many users were also streaming the 1.5-hour-long video of Carter's 1980 debate with Ronald Reagan.As a result of the doubling of normal network traffic, a small number of Wikipedia's connection routes to the internet were congested for around an hour. Wikimedia's Site Reliability team was able to reroute traffic and restore access, but the network hiccup shouldn't have happened in the first place. // Related StoriesBy examining the bandwidth issue during a system migration, Wikimedia found that at least 65 percent of the most resource-intensive traffic came from bots, passing through the cache infrastructure and directly impacting Wikimedia's 'core' data center.The organization is working to address this new kind of network challenge, which is now affecting the entire internet, as AI and tech companies are actively scraping every ounce of human-made content they can find. "Delivering trustworthy content also means supporting a 'knowledge as a service' model, where we acknowledge that the whole internet draws on Wikimedia content," the organization said.Wikimedia is promoting a more responsible approach to infrastructure access through better coordination with AI developers. Dedicated APIs could ease the bandwidth burden, making identification and the fight against "bad actors" in the AI industry easier.

The big picture: Google's latest mid-range smartphone, the Pixel 9a, comes with a controversial new battery management feature that gradually reduces the battery's maximum charge capacity over time, whether you like it or not. While this might sound concerning at first, it could ultimately help extend the battery's overall lifespan. The feature, called "Battery Health Assistance," is essentially a software mechanism that automatically lowers the maximum charge level on your Pixel 9a after every 200 charge cycles. These reductions occur incrementally until the device reaches 1,000 cycles in total.At first glance, having your phone's OS unilaterally limit your battery capacity might seem alarming. However, Google insists that the feature is designed for the greater good.All lithium-ion batteries degrade over time. While your Pixel may start with 100 percent battery capacity when brand new, repeated charge cycles gradually reduce its ability to hold a full charge. Google's approach aims to slow down this natural wear and tear, potentially extending your battery's long-term health.In other words, your battery's capacity will decline over time anyway Google just wants to manage that process. By gradually reducing the maximum charge, the company claims Battery Health Assistance can help extend your battery's lifespan and slow down degradation.Ultimately, this approach should translate to longer usable battery life later into your phone's lifecycle. // Related StoriesGoogle does warn that you may notice "small decreases in your battery's runtime" as the battery ages. Additionally, the feature will adjust charging speeds based on the reduced capacity, which could lead to minor changes in charging performance. The full explanation is available in Google's official support article.Battery Health Assistance is mandatory on the Pixel 9a, and there's no option to disable it. It's also likely to be included in future Pixel models, though it's unclear if it will roll out to older devices via a software update.For context, Google previously stated that the Pixel 8a and newer models are designed to retain up to 80 percent capacity after approximately 1,000 charge cycles. In contrast, older Pixels (from the 3a to the 8 Pro) are rated for 80 percent capacity at 800 cycles. This new battery tech appears aimed at pushing sustainable battery life even further.Beyond the Pixel 9a's battery management feature, Android 16 is also expected to introduce deeper battery insights. The update should include a Battery Health menu displaying your phone's estimated remaining capacity percentage and detailed charge cycle statistics.

Scoring a great deal on a pair of wireless earbuds is always a good feeling, especially when the pair of TWS buds youre interested in normally costs more than $100. Such is the case with the terrific JBL Reflect Aero TWS Earbuds, an excellent set of in-ears that usually cost $150. But today, when you purchase through JBL or Harman Audio or at Walmart, youll get them for just $40!Noise-canceling earbuds and headphones are everywhere these days, and not all in-ears and over-ears are created equal. Fortunately, JBL tends to be one of the better brands on the market for all things audio, and the Reflect Aero buds are no exception.The JBL Reflect Aero are a great pair of wireless earbuds for foot-to-ground commuters, plane, train, and bus travelers, as well as workout fiends. Thanks to the IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, these earbuds can survive an accidental dunk in a swimming pool and are perfect for hitting the gym. The buds are comfortable to wear for several hours at a time, and the default sound profile delivers warm, bass-forward sound quality.RelatedThe Reflect Aero use an adaptive ANC system for blocking out distracting sounds in your listening environment, and the JBL Headphones app allows you to switch between ANC and transparency. The app is also your one-stop shop for audio presets and multi-band EQ customization, should you want to personalize your playback further.On a full charge, the Reflect Aero should last up to 8 hours, with an extra 16 hours provided by the fully charged case.Order today and pay only $40 for the JBL Reflect Aero TWS Earbuds. We also suggest looking at our archives of the best headphone deals, best Bluetooth speaker deals, and best Walmart deals for even more discounts on top AV devices!Editors Recommendations

When I was making my predictions for the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, I made a point to say that we wouldnt see a left-field invention like Arms. I expected that Nintendo would instead use games like Mario Kart World to show off its mouse controllers rather than making a new IP that stood in as a tech demo. That was the one prediction I got very wrong, as Nintendo revealed Drag X Drive early in the showcase. The new sports game is explicitly designed to show off what its new Joy-cons can do with their mouse capabilities and gyroscope integration.Will that be enough to do what Arms never could and create a whole new series for Nintendo? Based on my demo time with it, I dont think so. Drag X Drive, in some ways, does feel like this console generations Arms, acting as a neat tech showpiece thats bound to have a short lifespan. Thats completely fine, though, as its a great proof of concept for what the Nintendo Switch 2 mouse-cons can do that no other controller, or even a normal mouse, can. Its success wont be measured by how many people are still playing it in a year, but by how many developers it inspires in that time.Recommended VideosDrag and Drive is Nintendos version of three-on-three basketball, but the twist is that players are in wheelchairs. It would be my first test of the mouse functionality in Nintendos new Joy-cons, as the entire premise of the game is built around them. I sat down at a demo station with a table attached and threw the wrist straps on. I was ready to struggle with the new control scheme, and I did initially. I was plopped into a misleading tutorial at first that was designed to teach me the basics of movement.RelatedEach of my Joy-cons controlled a different one of my wheels. To move forward, Id have to push both Joy-cons across the table simultaneously. When I wanted to turn, Id have to gently hook one of my Joy-cons accordingly. I simply couldnt get a feel for it at first. The controllers felt responsive and all, but I just had trouble juggling two controllers at once. Turning and then moving forward in a straight line just felt difficult and it soured my hopes for the tech immediately.Thankfully, Drag X Drive isnt a racing game, so the initial tutorial that had me sailing down a winding path was kind of irrelevant. Everything made much more sense when I was dropped into a small arena built for six players. I only had to move in short spurts here in order to dash into the ball to grab it, or to smash into an opponent head-on to knock the ball out of their hand. Those more deliberate movements meant that I could focus more on positioning. The key to victory would be to push myself where I wanted to be, carefully turn, and aim myself where I want to go next. It almost felt like human air hockey in practice.I took to the controls much more in the context of an actual game. Within seconds, I was grabbing the ball, zooming in front of the net, and taking my shots. One fun detail here is that Drag X Drive uses the Joy-con gyroscopes in tandem with the mouse functionality. To shoot, I could lift my right hand off the table and do a layup motion to release the ball. I could place it back down on the table just as quickly and start moving again. It may sound small, but its an impressive feat that Nintendo has found a way to mix and match multiple ideas at the same time rather than treating them as separate control schemes.The actual round I played was legitimately fun. My two teammates and I naturally coordinated with one another, passing the ball around by pressing down L and R. I eventually learned how to effectively play defense by smashing into an opponent as they sped towards my teammate. Its more physical than your average basketball game, both in how the wheelchairs can clash and in the actual movements I need to put in. Its a legitimate workout, something that bodes well for developers looking to make the next Ring Fit Adventure. Imagine used the mice to determine how far someone is stretching their arms out in a yoga pose.NintendoIs Drag and Drive bound to be the next great esports game? Absolutely not. In reality, it feels like a Nintendo Switch Sports minigame spun out as its own thing more than the next Rocket League. Unless there are more courts with gimmicks or extra game modes that Nintendo hasnt revealed yet, I cant imagine that itll get much playtime once more games start hitting the console. Itll be a fun time while the Switch 2 is still building its library of multiplayer games, but Mario Kart World and Super Mario Party Jamborees expanded edition will fill that gap quickly.But I dont really think it has to be a long-tailed game. It almost feels more aimed at developers, showing them the kinds of games they could dream up with new control options. In that sense, it already feels more effective than Arms, which didnt make a great case for gyroscope-controlled fighting games. This, on the other hand, does invent something fresh and fun that is sure to get the wheels turning in someones head. I had a blast trying it out, and even if I dont play too much more when it launches, Ill be excited to see where that starting point leads.Drag X Drive launches this summer for Nintendo Switch 2.Editors Recommendations

The videogames oddball spirit shines through in this Hollywood adaptation starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa.

Michelle Williams stars in a devastating FX drama about a woman who responds to a terminal diagnosis by pursuing the sexual experiences she has been yearning for.

Pay attention here! Bonobos calls may be the closest thing to animal language weve seen 300 aspects of each call were cataloged, letting researchers estimate meaning. Jacek Krywko Apr 3, 2025 4:14 pm | 3 This situation might call for a whistle. Credit: USO This situation might call for a whistle. Credit: USO Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreBonobos, great apes related to us and chimpanzees that live in the Republic of Congo, communicate with vocal calls including peeps, hoots, yelps, grunts, and whistles. Now, a team of Swiss scientists led by Melissa Berthet, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Zurich, discovered bonobos can combine these basic sounds into larger semantic structures. In these communications, meaning is something more than just a sum of individual callsa trait known as non-trivial compositionality, which we once thought was uniquely human.To do this, Berthet and her colleagues built a database of 700 bonobo calls and deciphered them using methods drawn from distributional semantics, the methodology weve relied on in reconstructing long-lost languages like Etruscan or Rongorongo. For the first time, we have a glimpse into what bonobos mean when they call to each other in the wild.Context is everythingThe key idea behind distributional semantics is that when words appear in similar contexts, they tend to have similar meanings. To decipher an unknown language, you need to collect a large corpus of words and turn those words into vectorsmathematical representations that let you place them in a multidimensional semantic space. The second thing you need is context data, which tells you the circumstances in which these words were used (that gets vectorized, too). When you map your word vectors onto context vectors in this multidimensional space, what usually happens is that words with similar meaning end up close to each other. Berthet and her colleagues wanted to apply the same trick to bonobos calls. That seemed straightforward at first glance, but proved painfully hard to execute.We worked at a camp in the forest, got up super early at 3:30 in the morning, walked one or two hours to get to the bonobos nest. At [the] time they would wake up, I would switch my microphone on for the whole day to collect as many vocalizations as I could, Berthet says. Each recorded call then had to be annotated with a horribly long list of contextual parameters. Berthet had a questionnaire filled with queries like: is there a neighboring group around; are there predators around; is the caller feeding, resting, or grooming; is another individual approaching the caller, etc. There were 300 questions that had to be answered for each of the 700 recorded calls.But when all this data was finally vectorized and the team started working their distributional semantics magic, gathering it proved worth the effort.Bonobo dictionaryBerthet started with establishing the tentative meaning of the basic calls: singular grunts or yelps. Grunts appeared in many different contexts, including grooming, feeding, or moving, and the team interpreted them as intended to get anothers attention, a bit like saying look at me. Yelps meant lets do this as an imperative, while peeps had a very similar meaning, but were more of a suggestionthink I would like to Bonobos also used peeps or yelps when they wanted others to join them. Low hoots were translated as I am excited, while high hoots signaled the presence and location of the caller in dangerous situations. Whistles meant lets stay together.Once the basic calls were sorted, Berthet started looking at their different combinations. Bonobos combined yelps and grunts into a trivial compositional structure meaning lets do what I do. This was mostly used when the group was building night nestsplatforms made high in the trees out of broken branches, sometimes lined with leaves.However, the team also found examples of non-trivial compositionality, the first such discovery outside of humans.The first non-trivial combination was high hoot-low hoot that was translated as a distress call. But it was also used to stop other individuals display behaviorsdramatic, exaggerated actions or gestures bonobos perform to assert dominance or attract attention. The second was either peep or yelp in the join meaning paired with high hoot to form a structure used for coordinating with others before traveling. Finally, the I would like to peep followed by lets stay together whistle was used for initiating more romantically inclined interactions bonobos are famous for indulging in.Berthet said her team managed to record a few more calls but could not use them in her study because they were too rare to gather meaningful context data. Still, she expects we have much more to learn about bonobos communication.Gestures and soundsOne thing the team was not certain about was whether there were more nuanced variations of the sounds they roughly categorized as grunts, peeps, yelps, hoots, and whistles. There may be subtle acoustic differences that could lead to different meanings, and it may be our dictionary is too rough, Berthet acknowledges. Another thing the team did not include in their analysis is the gestures that bonobos often accompany their calls with. They use a lot of gestures, and they may use them to either refine or completely change the meaning of their vocalizations, Berthet added. Applying the same methodology but with gestures included would be great. Thats definitely the next step to take.But she also has a few further steps in mind, and they go way beyond just bonobos. The team argues that the most important contribution of their work is establishing a methodology for deciphering animal communication. Since now we have this nice tool to investigate compositionality and meaning, what I want to do is apply it to several animal species, Berthet says. Chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas, and monkeys are next on her list. The goal of these future studies is to trace when abilities like non-trivial compositionality started to appear in primate evolution. Maybe well find compositionality in old world primates. Maybe its just present in great apes. Maybe its been there the whole time. Its really an open question now, Berthet says.Science, 2025. DOI: 10.1126/science.adv1170Jacek KrywkoAssociate WriterJacek KrywkoAssociate Writer Jacek Krywko is a freelance science and technology writer who covers space exploration, artificial intelligence research, computer science, and all sorts of engineering wizardry. 3 Comments