Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

As flu season gets underway, global health experts are increasingly worried about a new strain of the virus that popped up in June — four months after the makeup of this year’s flu shots had been decided.The new strain, a version of H3N2, is causing outbreaks in Canada and the U.K., where health officials are warning about the early wave that’s sending people to the hospital.“Since it emerged, it’s rapidly spreading and predominating in some countries so far in the Northern Hemisphere,” Dr. Wenqing Zhang, head of the World Health Organization’s Global Respiratory Threats Unit, said Wednesday during a media…

Earlier this year, Amazon started folding Whole Foods’ corporate staff into its own employee systems. Now, it’s gearing up to do the same with thousands of frontline workers.The move is part of Project Cremini, an initiative designed to integrate Whole Foods’ entire 100,000-plus corporate and frontline workforce into Amazon’s core business structure by next year, according to internal documents reviewed by Business Insider.Once the shift is complete, every Whole Foods employee, across corporate and frontline roles, will use Amazon’s internal systems for performance reviews, workplace tools, and pay, with checks coming straight from Amazon.The move marks Amazon’s latest step to…

ElevenLabs struck a deal with actors Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey to AI-generate their voices, the company announced this week. Hollywood and AI have an up-and-down relationship, with its guardrails — or lack thereof — serving among the main concerns that led to the Hollywood strikes a few years ago. Since then, some artists have started to warm up to the idea of AI. Last year, Meta announced that its Meta AI would offer voice assistants that sound like actresses Kristen Bell and Judi Dench. With McConaughey, an investor in ElevenLabs, the company will translate his newsletter into Spanish audio…

A German court ruled that OpenAI’s ChatGPT violated the nation’s copyright laws by training its language models on licensed musical work without permission, multiple news outlets, including The Guardian, reported.   The decision came from a lawsuit that GEMA, the society that handles music rights in Germany, filed last November against OpenAI. The company was ordered to pay an undisclosed amount of damages to GEMA, but said it disagreed with the ruling and is “considering next steps.” GEMA, meanwhile, regarded this as the “first landmark AI ruling in Europe.”   “Today, we have set a precedent that protects and clarifies the rights of authors: even operators of AI tools such as ChatGPT must comply…

You know that the cable TV industry is in steep decline.You know it because of all the evidence around you. And you know it because we tell you about it over and over.Still, sometimes you see a stat that helps put it all into even sharper perspective. Like this:Fifteen years ago, nearly 9 in 10 US households had a pay TV subscription. By the end of 2025, that number will be down to five out of 10.That estimate comes from Madison and Wall, the technology/media advisory firm. CEO Brian Wieser also helpfully shows what those stats — which include traditional…

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman told “CBS Mornings” about the turning point that changed his life as he opened up about his struggles with mental health following his 2022 stroke. He also shared a message to others in need of help.”I know it’s not a political winner to talk about depression or self-harm or suicide, but that’s an important conversation I’m willing to have,” the Democratic senator said. “My life has been touched by this personally. But also, I know people that have took their lives and the tragedy that’s left after that.”He said his message to those going through such…

Inference CEO Sam Hogan announced the open-science initiative Project AELLA on Tuesday. Nine hours later, he changed it to Project OSSAS.In the hours leading up to the change, Hogan learned that Aella wasn’t just the name of an “open-science initiative to make scientific research accessible via structured summaries created by LLMs,” as the company described it. It was also the name of a famous OnlyFans model, sex worker, and Substack researcher.”Thank you to those who brought the context surrounding this name to our attention, and to our partners and the research community for their ongoing support,” Hogan wrote on X.Aella…

Cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, are skyrocketing in Texas, according to a new alert from the state’s health department.More than 3,500 whooping cough cases have been recorded so far in the state in 2025, about four times the number of cases during the same period last year.Nationally, there has also been a higher-than-usual number of whooping cough cases in the past two years, compared with years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Whooping cough cases skyrocket in Texas, quadrupling last year’s numbersHere’s what parents should know about this…

Marc Manara, OpenAI’s head of startups, says the reality of AI has advanced far beyond ideas and experiments. AI-native companies are hitting $200 million in annual recurring revenue, and product cycles have shrunk from two-week sprints to single days. And OpenAI is helping. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Russell Brandom sits down with Manara at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 to explore how OpenAI is serving the startups building on its platform.  Listen to the full episode to hear about:  The shift from two-week sprints to one-day development cycles, and what that means for how startups should structure their engineering teams  Why some startups are…

DETROIT (AP) — A Chinese scientist charged in Michigan with smuggling biological materials pleaded guilty Wednesday but was given no additional time in jail beyond the five months she already spent in custody.Yunqing Jian, who was a temporary researcher at a University of Michigan lab, will be released and quickly deported. A judge called it a “very strange” case involving an “incredibly accomplished researcher.”Jian, 33, was arrested in June and accused of conspiring with a boyfriend to study and nurse a toxic fungus at a campus lab. A pathogen known as Fusarium graminearum can attack wheat, barley, maize and rice.…