Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Flu pediatric deaths have doubled week-over-week, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, despite influenza numbers continuing on a downward trend overall.Fifteen new influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported to the CDC the week ending on Saturday, Jan. 10, bringing the season total to 32. This was nearly double the number (eight) reported in the previous week. Meanwhile, the 2024-2025 flu season tied with the 2009-2010 influenza pandemic for the highest number of pediatric deaths since tracking began in 2004.The 2025-2026 flu season has been particularly tough, with the CDC previously reporting that 8% of visits to medical professionals were…
AI detection startup GPTZero scanned all 4,841 papers accepted by the prestigious Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), which took place last month in San Diego. The company found 100 hallucinated citations across 51 papers that it confirmed as fake, the company tells TechCrunch. Having a paper accepted by NeurIPS is a resume-worthy achievement in the world of AI. Given that these are the leading minds of AI research, one might assume they would use LLMs for the catastrophically boring task of writing citations. So caveats abound with this finding: 100 confirmed hallucinated citations across 51 papers is not…
The American Red Cross has declared a “severe blood shortage” a month after the national blood supply fell by around 35%.”This time of year is always challenging for blood collection — but right now, the perfect storm of a long holiday season, record flu activity and winter weather are all impeding donation efforts,” Dr. Courtney Lawrence, executive medical director for the Red Cross, said in a statement.In December 2025, around 400 blood drives were impacted by winter weather, “leading to thousands of blood donations to go uncollected,” according to a news release shared by the Red Cross on Tuesday, Jan.…
Bumble’s chief product officer is out as the result of a recent leadership restructuring within the dating app company, Business Insider confirmed.Michael Affronti, Bumble’s chief product officer and one of two executives who remained after Whitney Wolfe Herd was reinstated as CEO, has left the company after a year in the role.In an end-of-year message to staff obtained by Business Insider, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd shared that she and Affronti, who was hired in January 2025, had “mutually agreed that the best path forward for the company is to centralize Product, Engineering, and Design under one leader.”Vivek Sagi, previously…
Federal officials are warning shoppers to steer clear of cans of potentially tainted Genova Yellowfin Tuna that were mistakenly shipped this week to six grocery store chains in nine different states.The suspect cans were part of a larger recall of tuna products last February after Tri-Union Seafoods learned that some of the “easy open” pull tab lids were defective, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement Monday.That defect could cause the cans to leak or become contaminated “with clostridium botulinum, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning,” the agency warned.But for reasons unclear, these cans of quarantined tuna…
Business leaders such as Ken Griffin and Matthew Prince have already weighed in on President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Trump said on Wednesday that he will not use force to get Greenland, but is “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition” by the US.Trump’s ongoing threats against Europe over his desire to take over Greenland have been dominating this year’s Davos agenda.All eyes were on Trump during his 70-minute-long speech, with billionaire CEOs — including Apple’s Tim Cook and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff — alongside heads of state filling up Congress…
Jan 21 (Reuters) – Merck and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations said on Wednesday they have partnered on a $30 million program to develop an updated version of the drugmaker’s Ebola vaccine aimed at improving affordability and access for low- and middle-income countries.The collaboration will work to improve the manufacturing process for Merck’s WHO-prequalified Ebola vaccine, Ervebo, to increase yield and extend shelf life, CEPI said.Ervebo’s current production process is complex, making it expensive and difficult to manufacture at scale, CEPI said. The planned improvements could reduce costs and allow the vaccine to be stored in a standard refrigerator…
YouTube Shorts viewers might soon see AI versions of their favorite creators when scrolling through their feeds. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced on Wednesday that creators will soon be able to make Shorts using their own likeness. “This year you’ll be able to create a Short using your own likeness, produce games with a simple text prompt, and experiment with music,” Mohan wrote in his annual letter. “Throughout this evolution, AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement.” Shorts, which Mohan said now averages 200 billion daily views, is one of YouTube’s most popular mediums. The company continues to invest…
OpenAI created a lot of hype around hardware last year after it acquired former Apple design head Jony Ive’s startup io. While the company is tight-lipped about the upcoming product, OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane said in an Axios-hosted panel at Davos the AI startup is on track to announce its first hardware device in the second half of this year. Last November, Sam Altman described the potential device to be more “peaceful and calm” than iPhones. Previous reporting suggests the company wants to build a screen-free and pocketable device. While the company is not spilling any details,…
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district is expected to plead guilty Thursday in federal court to charges that he falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen and illegally possessed firearms, a plea agreement shows.Ian Roberts had a two-decade long career as an educator and school administrator in districts across the U.S. before becoming superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, a district of 30,000 kids where he was beloved for his charismatic and exuberant leadership style. Just weeks into the school year, Roberts’ Sep. 26 arrest in a targeted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement…