Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — The year the radio station company where he worked held its holiday party at a dive bar, Ryan Arnold walked in and saw coworkers passing around a tall glass boot filled with beer. He heard the office manager belting out ‘80s power ballads between whiskey shots. Arnold’s first thought was, “When can I leave?”More than 20 years later, he still remembers that awkward social event he felt obligated to attend. Arnold, 46, who describes himself as socially anxious, now thinks twice before accepting invitations to group gatherings.“I don’t want to go into a place where I…
Long-term care for older people is challenging for everyone. The costs are high and the quality of care is unpredictable at best, often falling short.The U.S. health care system is so hard to navigate that experts can find it aggravating. Even when people who need help with activities of daily living – a list that includes getting dressed, preparing meals and bathing – receive the care they need, they may still experience social isolation. And it can take a relentless emotional toll on caretakers, be they family members or trained professionals.We are researchers of government, business and nonprofits. Together, we…
Spoor launched in 2021 with the goal of using computer vision to help reduce the impact of wind turbines on local bird populations. Now, the startup has proven its technology works and is seeing demand from wind farms and beyond. Oslo, Norway-based Spoor has built software that uses computer vision to track and identify bird populations and migration patterns. The software can detect birds within a 2.5-kilometer radius (about 1.5 miles) and can work with any off-the-shelf high-resolution camera. Wind farm operators can use this information to better plan where wind farms should be located and to help them better…
Following a couple of months’ testing, Norway-based browser company Opera has finally made its AI-powered browser, Neon, available to the public — though you’ll have to shell out $19.90 per month to use it. Opera first unveiled Neon earlier this year in May and launched it in early access to select users in October. Similar to other AI-first browsers like Perplexity’s Comet, OpenAI’s Atlas, and The Browser Company’s Dia, Neon bakes in an AI chatbot into its interface, letting you ask it answers about pages, use it to create mini apps and videos, and get it to do tasks for…
The holidays aren’t so jolly with an almond mom at the dinner table. (Photo illustration: Van Santen Bolleurs for Yahoo News)This story is part of Very, Very Unmerry, Yahoo’s look at the meltdowns, mayhem and misfires that haunt the most festive time of the year. Do you have your own holiday disaster story? Drop us a comment below or fill out this Google form, and we may feature your submission in a future story.A week before Thanksgiving, Jessica S. was already mentally preparing herself for dinner table conversation. She wasn’t worried about all the usual minefields — politics, religion, money…
By Kamal ChoudhuryDec 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Flow Neuroscience’s at-home brain stimulation device to treat depression, offering an alternative to typical antidepressants that can cause side effects with long-term use, the company said on Thursday.Depression rates in the U.S. have surged 60% over the past decade, affecting more than 20 million adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Flow’s FL-100 delivers a gentle electrical current to the part of the brain that regulates mood and is designed for home use under remote supervision. It is the first such device to be…
By Kat StaffordDec 11 (Reuters) – The NAACP unveiled a blueprint on Wednesday aimed at preventing artificial intelligence from deepening racial inequities in U.S. healthcare, calling for bias audits and “equity-first” standards as hospitals, tech firms and regulators adopt AI tools.The 75-page report, Building a Healthier Future: Designing AI for Health Equity, warns that algorithms used for diagnostics, treatment and insurance decisions risk perpetuating bias and “cultural blind spots” if generated without input and oversight.”The NAACP is calling for urgent action to embed fairness, transparency, and community engagement into every stage of health AI development,” said the report, which was…
Spotify may be synonymous with music streaming, but it’s also got a wildly popular developer-tool side-hustle called “Backstage.” Backstage is an open source project that helps companies build their own internal developer portals: a catalog of their developer tools along with quick visualizations of the work the tools have done, and other metrics. But like many open-source projects, Backstage is a build-it-yourself option. Israeli startup Port has been gaining big-name customers like GitHub, British Telecom and LG with a proprietary Backstage competitor: a dev tool portal that’s also now been geared to manage AI agents. On Thursday, Port, founded in…
It may sound like a trip through the produce aisle, but leading AI companies have something much more important on their lists.Meta, OpenAI, and Google have all relied on food-related names for their sometimes secretive plans for future AI models. Thinking with your stomach is nothing new for Silicon Valley, just look at the assortment of desserts Android assembled over the years before Google had its fill.Here is a look at the mouthwatering and just plain goofy names AI and tech companies are usingMeta: AvocadoMeta has codenamed its future AI frontier model “avocado,” per a CNBC report. Guac usually costs…
AI DevOps tool Harness, founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal, is on track to exceed $250 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025, Bansal tells TechCrunch. The startup just raised a fresh $240 million Series E funding that values the company at $5.5 billion post-money. The round includes a $200 million primary investment led by Goldman Sachs and a planned $40 million tender offer with participation from IVP, Menlo Ventures, and Unusual Ventures. The tender offer is intended to provide some liquidity to its long-term employees, Bansal said. The new valuation is a 49% jump from its $3.7…