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Microsoft's latest holiday ad for its Copilot AI assistant features a 30-second montage of users seamlessly syncing smart home lights to music, scaling recipes for large gatherings, and parsing HOA guidelines -- none of which the software can actually perform reliably when put to the test. The Verge methodically tested each prompt shown in the ad and found that Copilot repeatedly hallucinated interface elements that didn't exist, claimed to highlight on-screen buttons when it hadn't, and abandoned calculati
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Slashdot
Illinois Department of Human Services disclosed that a misconfigured internal mapping website exposed sensitive personal data for more than 700,000 Illinois residents for over four years, from April 2021 to September 2025. Officials say they can't confirm whether the publicly accessible data was ever viewed. TechCrunch reports: Officials said the exposed data included personal information on 672,616 individuals who are Medicaid and Medicare Savings Program recipients. The data included their... Read more ›
1,977 fresh
Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest. Read more ›
1,003 fresh
The sanctioned government narrative of the Minneapolis shooting diverts wildly from video footage of the incident shared online. Read more ›
853 fresh
Zohran Mamdani earns $258,750 as New York City's mayor, putting him among the country's top-earning mayors. Read more ›
758 fresh
Online detectives are inaccurately claiming to have identified the federal agent who shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minnesota based on AI-manipulated images. Read more ›
729 fresh
The events that led to a federal officer in Minneapolis killing Renee Nicole Good have not been universally interpreted. On a visit to Texas on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism.” She said Good was attacking ICE officers and that she “attempted to run them over […] Read more ›
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In a surprisingly user-friendly move, Bose has announced it will be open-sourcing the API documentation for its SoundTouch smart speakers, which were slated to lose official support on February 18th, as reported by Ars Technica. Bose has also moved that date back to May 6th, 2026. When cloud support ends, an update to the SoundTouch […] Read more ›
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Renee Nicole Good sat idling in her car Wednesday, observing an ongoing ICE operation. The 37-year-old then attempted to drive away, reportedly at the instruction of one federal agent on scene. In response, another ICE officer shot her to death. It is possible that we still lack some significant context for Good’s killing. But her […] Read more ›
477 fresh
The future, as it turns out, is intimate and sometimes a little bit uncomfortable. Read more ›
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The clips are filmed from different angles. Some are zoomed in, making them indecipherably grainy, and others are slowed down. Some are 20 seconds while others are longer, sandwiched by commentary from users on social media platforms like X, Bluesky, Reddit, and TikTok. Each video - depicting the moment an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent […] Read more ›
415 fresh
Trump said Thursday that he is instructing "representatives" to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds, aiming to lower interest rates and monthly payments. Read more ›
403 fresh
I spent years hosting communal dinner parties. After moving back to New York, I learned how eating alone helped me reset and reconnect with myself. Read more ›
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iOS 26 is showing unusually slow adoption among iPhone users months after release, according to third-party analytics. Usage data published by StatCounter (via Cult of Mac) for January 2026 indicates that only around 15 to 16% of active iPhones worldwide are running any version of iOS 26. The breakdown shows iOS 26.1 accounting for approximately 10.6% of devices, iOS 26.2 for about 4.6%, and the original iOS 26.0 release at... Read more ›
345 fresh
Microsoft is embedding full e-commerce checkout directly into Copilot chats, letting users buy products without ever visiting a retailer's website. "If checkout happens inside AI conversations, retailers risk losing direct customer relationships -- while platforms like Microsoft gain leverage," reports Axios. From the report: Microsoft unveiled new agentic AI tools for retailers at the NRF 2026 retail conference, including Copilot Checkout, which lets shoppers complete purchases inside Copilot without being Read more ›
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The LLC moved as California's ultrarich weigh leaving ahead of a proposed tax on billionaires that would take effect retroactively starting January 1. Read more ›
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While wave upon wave of smartglasses and face-based wearables crash on the shores of CES, traditional glasses really haven’t changed much over the hundreds of years we’ve been using them. The last innovation, arguably, was progressive multifocals that blended near and farsighted lenses — and that was back in the 1950s. It makes sense that autofocusing glasses maker IXI thinks it’s time to modernize glasses. After recently announcing a 22-gram... Read more ›
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It would be deeply embarrassing if the law has to go into effect before X acts. Read more ›
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth now has leverage over defense contractors' financial decisions, from executive comp to shareholder payouts. Read more ›
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Elon Musk’s chatbot has been used to generate thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors. Apple and Google have removed other “nudify” apps—but continue to host X and Grok. Read more ›
242 fresh
These bird feeders come with cameras and connected apps to let you see and learn about the birds in your neighborhood. Read more ›
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Slashdot
schwit1 shares a report from Gothamist: Wegmans in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets, according to new signage posted at the chain's Manhattan and Brooklyn locations earlier this month. Anyone entering the store could have data on their face, eyes and voices collected and stored by the Rochester-headquartered supermarket chain. The information is used to "protect the safety and security of our... Read more ›
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A new sweeping meta-analysis has found no reliable link between economic inequality and well-being or mental health, challenging a long-held assumption that has shaped public health policy discussions for decades. The study, led by Nicolas Sommet at the University of Lausanne and Annahita Ehsan at the University of British Columbia, synthesized 168 studies involving more than 11 million participants across most world regions. The researchers screened thousands of scientific papers... Read more ›
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An anonymous reader shares a report: MTV shut down many of its last dedicated 24-hour music channels Dec. 31. The move, announced back in October, affected channels around the world, with the U.K. seeing five different MTV stations going dark. These include MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live. As Consequence notes, MTV Music -- which launched in 2011 -- notably ended its run by airing... Read more ›
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After Congress approved President Donald Trump's rescission package eliminating federal funding, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting voted to dissolve after 58 years, rather than continue to exist and potentially be "vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse." The shutdown leaves hundreds of local public TV and radio stations facing an uncertain future. Variety reports: The CPB was created by Congress by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to support the... Read more ›
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A new working paper from researchers at the University of Hong Kong has found that Chinese graduate students who plagiarized more heavily in their master's theses were significantly more likely to pursue careers in the civil service and to climb the ranks faster once inside. John Liu and co-authors analyzed 6 million dissertations from CNKI, a Chinese academic repository, and cross-referenced them against public records of civil-service exam-takers to identify... Read more ›
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Ritchie Torres has introduced a bill to ban government officials from using insider information to trade on political prediction markets like Polymarket. The bill was prompted by reports that traders on Polymarket made large profits betting on Nicolas Maduro's removal, raising suspicions that some wagers were placed using material non-public information. "While such insider trading in capital markets is already illegal and often prosecuted by the Justice Department and Securities... Read more ›
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National Weather Service pulled an AI-generated forecast graphic after it hallucinated fake town names in Idaho. "The blunder -- not the first of its kind to be posted by the NWS in the past year -- comes as the agency experiments with a wide range of AI uses, from advanced forecasting to graphic design," reports the Washington Post. "Experts worry that without properly trained officials, mistakes could erode trust in... Read more ›
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Last June the Trump organization announced sales of a $499 "T1" smartphone with a gold-colored case. But though they originally were scheduled for release in August, this week a customer service representative for the wireless carrier told CBS News the device will be pushed back again, now until the end of January, "attributing the delay to the recent U.S. government shutdown." Some context from The Independent: Shortly after the phone... Read more ›
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Stack Overflow's monthly question volume has collapsed about 300 -- levels not seen since the site launched in 2009, according to data from the Stack Overflow Data Explorer that tracks the platform's activity over its sixteen-year history. Questions peaked around 2014 at roughly 200,000 per month, then began a gradual decline that accelerated dramatically after ChatGPT's November 2022 launch. By May 2025, monthly questions had fallen to early-2009 levels, and... Read more ›
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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Californians are getting a new, supercharged way to stop data brokers from hoarding and selling their personal information, as a recently enacted law that's among the strictest in the nation took effect at the beginning of the year. [...] Two years ago, California's Delete Act took effect. It required data brokers to provide residents with a means to obtain a copy... Read more ›
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Most popular sources
Business Insider
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19% 5 |
Wired
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15% 11 |
The Verge
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11% 2 |
CNET
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7% 3 |
Gizmodo
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6% 1 |
| View sources » | |
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08.01.2026 20:29
Last update: 20:20 EDT.
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