Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Mozilla has appointed Anthony Enzor-DeMeo as its CEO as the Firefox browser maker scrambles to adapt in a rapidly changing browser market. The appointment comes at a time when web browsers are seeing a revitalization of sorts as AI changes how people use the internet. After more than a decade of dominating the market, incumbents like Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari are facing a fresh challenge from companies like Perplexity, Arc, OpenAI, and Opera, which are focused on baking in AI models and agents into their browsers to bring AI to users at the first point of contact with…
Google’s vibe-coding tool, Opal, is making its way to Gemini. The company on Wednesday said it is integrating the tool, which lets you build AI-powered mini apps, inside the Gemini web app, allowing users to create their own custom apps, which Google calls Gems. Introduced in 2024, Gems are customized versions of Gemini designed for specific tasks or scenarios. For instance, some of Google’s pre-made Gems include a learning coach, a brainstorming assistant, a career guide, a coding partner, and an editor. Opal, meanwhile, focuses on helping users create mini-apps or mix existing apps. To use the feature, users describe…
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Republican push to make drilling cheaper on federal land is creating new fiscal pressure for states that depend on oil and gas revenue, most notably in New Mexico as it expands early childhood education and saves for the future.The shift stems from the sweeping law President Donald Trump signed in July that rolls back the minimum federal royalty rate to 12.5%. That rate — the share of production value companies must pay to the government — held steady for a century under the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act. It was raised to 16.7% under the…
Underwater autonomous vessels and robots could play a substantial role in defense operations, but submersibles have historically had trouble communicating across large distances unless they rose to the surface. But coming up to transmit poses the very obvious risk of being exposed. Skana Robotics thinks it’s made a breakthrough with underwater communications using AI — but not the large language models the industry touts today. Tel Aviv-based Skana has developed a new capability for its fleet management software system, SeaSphere, that allows groups of vessels to communicate with each other underwater across long distances using AI. The system allows vessels…
The latest Supreme Court case related to abortion is not technically about the legal right to have one. When the court heard oral arguments on Dec. 2, 2025, the word “abortion” came up only three times. The first instance was more than an hour into the 82-minute hearing.Instead, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc. v. Platkin hinges on whether First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association give a chain of five crisis pregnancy centers in New Jersey the right to protect its donor records from disclosure to state authorities. The centers are Christian nonprofits that try to stop…
As child care costs outpace wages, more families are facing difficult decisions about whether to scale back work in order to care for loved ones. Caregiving remains the top reason women ages 25-54 leave the workforce.And it’s not just parents who struggle. Nearly 60 million Americans provide care for an adult family member, and two-thirds say they have trouble balancing their jobs with their caregiving responsibilities. Nearly 1 in 4 working caregivers reported either missing work or being less productive because of their care duties.When the demands become too much to juggle, some people quit their jobs, cut back on…
Authorities are searching for a suspect in the killing of Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a prominent physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was shot at his home near Boston. The 47-year-old professor from Portugal was shot Monday night and died Tuesday at a local hospital.Authorities have not provided any details about a possible motive in the killing or any other details. No suspects were in custody as of Wednesday morning, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said.The shooting in Brookline, Massachusetts, took place just days after a deadly shooting at another prestigious school in the region, Brown University, where…
(This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays)Dec 17 (Reuters) – Applying an insecticide treatment used for soldiers’ uniforms to the cloths used to carry babies significantly reduced incidence of malaria in the children, researchers found.The six-month study conducted in regions of Uganda where malaria is endemic included 400 mothers and their babies, ages 6 months to 18 months. Half were randomly assigned to use cotton cloth wraps treated with Sawyer Products’ permethrin, while the others received cloths treated with plain water as a control group. The wraps underwent…
Morning! Welcome to the Daily Briefing. Start the day with news:Nicole Fallert here, bringing you the news to know on Wednesday, from a manhunt in Rhode Island to why health care is about to skyrocket in cost. And, if you’re on a GLP-1, have you noticed your taste buds changing?Manhunt continues after deadly Brown shootingA manhunt in Rhode Island continues on Wednesday as federal and state officers pursue a suspect who opened fire in a Brown University classroom, killing two, injuring nine and leaving no obvious indication of a motive.The widening search comes as authorities in Providence released the clearest images yet of the…
Amazon is in early discussions to invest as much as $10 billion in OpenAI in a deal that would see the AI lab using the e-commerce giant’s AI chips, CNBC reported. If it materializes, the deal would value OpenAI at more than $500 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing an anonymous source. Amazon has been looking to diversify its bets in the AI race, which has so far seen it partner up and invest $8 billion in Anthropic, a rival to OpenAI. The e-commerce giant earlier this month also unveiled the latest iteration in its Trainium series of chips, and outlined the…