Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 31-year-old Harsh Varshney, who works at Google and lives in New York. The following has been edited for length and clarity.AI has quickly become a silent partner in our daily lives, and I can’t imagine life without AI tools.Day-to-day, they help me with deep research, note-taking, coding, and online searches.But my job means I’m very aware of the privacy concerns associated with using AI. I’ve worked at Google since 2023 and spent two years as a software engineer on the privacy team, building infrastructure to protect user data. I then switched…
By Mathieu Rosemain and Sybille de La HamaidePARIS, Dec 13 (Reuters) – France will vaccinate 1 million head of cattle in the coming weeks against lumpy skin disease, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said on Saturday, as protesting farmers blocked roads in opposition to the government’s large-scale culling policy.The announcement comes after several outbreaks of the highly contagious disease prompted authorities to order the culling of entire herds, sparking demonstrations by farmers who consider the measure excessive.Lumpy skin disease is a virus spread by insects that affects cattle and buffalo, causing blisters and reducing milk production. While not harmful to humans,…
NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip (AP) — Sitting in her wheelchair, Haneen al-Mabhouh dreams of rebuilding her family, of cradling a new baby. She dreams of walking again. But with her leg gone, her life in Gaza is on hold, she says, as she waits to go abroad for further treatment.An Israeli airstrike in July 2024 smashed her home in central Gaza as she and her family slept. All four of her daughters were killed, including her 5-month-old baby. Her husband was severely burned. Al-Mabhouh’s legs were crushed under the rubble, and doctors had to amputate her right leg above the knee.“For…
By Diana Novak JonesDec 12 (Reuters) – A California jury on Friday awarded $40 million to two women who said Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder was to blame for their ovarian cancer.The jury in Los Angeles Superior Court awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers.Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement the company plans to “immediately appeal this verdict and expect to prevail as we typically…
The heated debate over Florida’s plan to revoke some school vaccine mandates was on full display Friday when state officials held a meeting for the public to weigh in on the proposed changes.The current plan, according to officials at the Florida Department of Health, is to eliminate requirements that children be vaccinated against hepatitis B, chickenpox and haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) in order to attend private or public schools in the state, including prekindergarten. Admission to day cares would not require those vaccines, either, nor the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. There is no set timeline yet for when the changes…
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading a 20-state coalition suing the Trump administration over its new $100,000 fee on H-1B visa petitions. The states say the policy is unlawful and threatens aspects of the public sector that depend on skilled foreign workers.The states plan to file the suit on Friday.The lawsuit argues the Department of Homeland Security imposed the fee outside the bounds of congressional authority and skipped required notice-and-comment procedures, according to a press release from Bonta’s office. The states say the fee — more than 10 times the existing typical H-1B fees — would strain schools, universities,…
The Barr family purchased a new couch recently, and we’ve been trying to sell the old one. My wife posted in a local email group and a potential buyer got in touch with a question.”Do you happen to know the model? I would love to look it up online rather than asking you lots of questions. 🙂 Thanks!” she wrote.This is an old couch, so all product codes dissolved in the sands of time years ago. So, I took two photos of the furniture, uploaded them to Gemini, and asked for help. The Google chatbot sent back its best guess…
2025-12-12T21:26:30.691Z Share Facebook Email X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky WhatsApp Copy link lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. We just got a sobering picture of how often AI models get their facts straight. This week, Google DeepMind introduced the FACTS Benchmark Suite, which measures how reliably AI models produce factually accurate answers.It tests models in four areas: answering factoid questions from internal knowledge, using web search effectively,…
King Charles III said Friday that his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year because of early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to doctors’ orders.Charles, 77, revealed the information in a recorded message broadcast on British television Friday as part of a campaign to encourage people to take advantage of screening that can detect cancer in its early stages when it is easiest to treat.Buckingham Palace made the announcement last year that doctors detected cancer in the king.”Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives,” the king said Friday.”I know, too, what a difference it has made in my own case,…
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has repealed a collective bargaining ban passed earlier this year that prevented labor unions serving teachers, firefighters, police and other public employees from negotiating on behalf of their workers.Republican Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday approved the repeal of a policy that experts had called one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country. The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature originally approved the policy in February, saying it was needed to allow employers to engage directly with all employees, instead of communicating through a union representative. Thousands of union members from the public and private sector…