Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Last month, I wrote about Mercor’s new benchmark measuring AI agents’ capabilities on professional tasks like law and corporate analysis. At the time, the scores were pretty dismal, with every major lab scoring under 25%, so we concluded lawyers were safe from AI displacement, at least for now. But AI capabilities can change a lot in a couple of weeks. This week’s release of Anthropic’s Opus 4.6 shook up the leaderboards, with Anthropic’s new model scoring just shy of 30% in one-shot trials, and an average of 45% when given a few more cracks at the problem. Notably, the release…

The Pentagon said Friday it is cutting ties with Harvard University, ending all military training, fellowships and certificate programs with the Ivy League institution.The announcement marks the latest development in the Trump administration’s prolonged standoff with Harvard over the White House’s demands for reforms at the Ivy League school.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement Friday that Harvard “no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services.”“For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said. “Instead, too…

Talk about return on investment. Amazon’s bet on Anthropic looks like an enormous win, at least on paper.The cloud giant disclosed on Friday that it holds $45.8 billion of convertible notes and $14.8 billion of nonvoting preferred stock in the AI startup. Taken together, the figures show that Amazon’s Anthropic stake is now worth $60.6 billion.Amazon has invested $8 billion in Anthropic since late 2023, indicating a seven-fold increase in value. If borne out, that would rank among the most lucrative strategic technology investments the company has ever disclosed.The two companies have a deep commercial tie-up. Anthropic has committed to…

There have been at least 733 confirmed measles cases reported across the nation, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Friday.In just a few weeks, the United States reported four times as many cases than typically seen throughout an entire calendar year, the CDC said.Before last year, which had a record breaking 2,276 cases, the U.S. averaged 180 cases annually since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.The record numbers come as South Carolina is dealing with the largest outbreak recorded in recent memory.BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images – PHOTO: The measles virus, transmission microscopy view.Other…

By Maggie Fick and Bhanvi SatijaLONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Hims & Hers’ gambit to sell a $49 compounded version of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill is rattling obesity shares, sparking debate about the legality of the move and threatening drugmaker returns in the burgeoning U.S. cash-pay market.Compounding, already a drag on sales ​of Novo’s injectable obesity drug, involves pharmacies directly mixing the active ingredients of a medicine via a channel meant to address shortages or specific ‌patient needs. It sits in a regulatory grey zone that’s frustrated big pharma.Online telehealth firm Hims launched its pill on Thursday, as first reported…

Feb 6 (Reuters) – South Carolina reported a surge to 920 measles cases on Friday, ​state health data showed, including 44 additional ‌infections since Tuesday, as officials warned the widening outbreak could ‌last weeks or months amid lagging vaccine uptake.The outbreak, which began in October, has been centered in the northwest part of the state, which includes ⁠Greenville and Spartanburg, ‌according to the South Carolina Department of Public Health.”January was the best month ‍for measles vaccination we’ve experienced during this outbreak,” said state epidemiologist Linda Bell.Last month, there was a strong ​increase in measles vaccinations across the state ‌and in…

In New York City, three things are certain: death, taxes, and sky-high rent.There may not be much AI can do for death. Taxes, I’m not sure. But it turns out this technology can be surprisingly helpful if you have a unique rent situation.I live in a former superintendent-occupied apartment in a prewar co-op in Manhattan. Although I signed a market-rate lease when I moved in, I later learned — with the help of AI tools — that my apartment might qualify as a “rent-stabilized” unit.New York is one of a handful of cities where rent increases can be limited by…

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births fell a little in 2025, according to newly posted provisional data.Slightly over 3.6 million births have been reported through birth certificates, or about 24,000 fewer than in 2024. The decline seems to confirm predictions by some experts, who doubted a slight increase in births in 2024 marked the start of an upward trend.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its provisional birth data late last week, filling in two months of missing data and offering the first good look at last year’s tally.The posted numbers account for nearly all of the babies born…

Y Combinator cut Canada from its acceptable countries of incorporation. Now, it’s backtracking.Last week, a Canadian news outlet noticed a change to Y Combinator’s standard deal description. The site used to list the US, Canada, Singapore, and Cayman as acceptable countries of incorporation for YC startups. Canada was suddenly gone.Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan initially defended the choice on X. YC-backed Canadian startups that reincorporated in the US had twice the average valuation as those that didn’t, he wrote.”There are lots of reasons to build great companies in Canada, and there are lots of great YC and non-YC startups that…

Data from Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker has helped shed light on the events leading up to her kidnapping, but there are significant limits in how much data the devices can collect.Most importantly for law enforcement investigating a disappearance or crime, the devices can’t be used to track a person’s location.However, they can provide valuable information about heart function and cardiac events. For example, New Mexico officials said actor Gene Hackman’s pacemaker revealed that he may have died nearly 10 days before his body was found.In Guthrie’s case, a pacemaker app shows it was disconnected from her phone early on Feb. 1,…