Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

What happens when technology takes the wheel in our love lives? From dating apps and AI-powered matchmaking to full-on digital companionship, artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a third party in our most personal relationships. But is it truly helping us find deeper connection — or just reshaping romance into an algorithmic illusion? Only on the AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27-29 in San Francisco’s Moscone West, we’re bringing together three powerhouse voices to unpack the future of love, trust, and tech. Eugenia Kuyda, founder of Replika, the world’s leading AI companion platform with over 35 million users.…

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A baby and toddler food company is expanding an earlier voluntary recall of food pouches due to potentially elevated lead levels.Sprout Organics announced Tuesday that the company is recalling additional lots of its Sprout Organics Sweet Potato Apple and Spinach 3.5-ounce food pouches.The company previously recalled one lot of its Sprout Organics Sweet Potato Apple and Spinach food pouches on Sept. 16.The recall was initiated after routine sampling, the company said.FDA – PHOTO: Sprout Organics is expanding a recall of its Sweet Potato Apple and Spinach baby food pouches due to potential elevated lead levels.Although the amount of lead potentially…

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From model infrastructure to niche applications, AI is producing a new breed of founders and a new set of investor expectations. In this candid conversation on the AI Stage, at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 — taking place on October 27-29 in San Francisco — top VCs will share what’s catching their eye (and what’s not), how they’re thinking about defensibility in a world of AI monopolies, and what founders need to show to get that next term sheet. If you are scaling or planning to scale an AI startup, you cannot miss this session. Learn what it really takes to build…

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Children have returned to school and are bringing home stories about the things they learned and the friends they made. But some parents are concerned they could also be bringing home a tiny nuisance: head lice.The parasitic insects are about the size of a sesame seed and feed on human blood, usually living on a person’s scalp, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.While schools are not the only place people can get them, the CDC says head lice infestations in the U.S. are most common among preschool and elementary-age children. The U.S. sees up to 12 million…

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On Thursday, the AI platform Clarifai announced a new reasoning engine that it claims will make running AI models twice as fast and 40% less expensive. Designed to be adaptable to a variety of models and cloud hosts, the system employs a range of optimizations to get more inference power out of the same hardware. “It’s a variety of different types of optimizations, all the way down to CUDA kernels to advanced speculative decoding techniques,” said CEO Matthew Zeiler. “You can get more out of the same cards, basically.” The results were verified by a string of benchmark tests by…

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Ticktock! Less than 2 days remain to secure savings of up to $668 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 pass. This offer ends tomorrow, September 26, at 11:59 p.m. PT. If you haven’t registered yet, now’s the moment. Join 10,000+ founders, investors, tech innovators, and visionaries at Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. From fundraising and product building to hiring, strategy insights, or discovering your next startup investment, Disrupt delivers for everyone at the forefront of tech. Grab your ticket now and save. Wherever you are on your journey, Disrupt accelerates growth Image Credits:Kimberly White/Getty…

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Puppets and props from Muppets creator Jim Henson’s extensive career will go up for auction this fall, including pieces from children’s shows such as “Fraggle Rock” and “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.” There are also calendars autographed by Miss Piggy herself. The Jim Henson Company said this will be the first auction from its archives, making the announcement Wednesday on what would have been its founder’s 89th birthday. Henson, who died in 1990 at age 53, brought to life a host of beloved Muppets characters — from Kermit the Frog to Miss Piggy to the Swedish Chef. He also…

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Sprout Organics is expanding a recall of its sweet potato, apple and spinach pouches, due to potentially elevated lead levels.In an alert posted Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration said the recall was first shared on Sept. 16, but the latest expansion includes additional lots of the 3.5-ounce pouches.Sport Organics is recalling these fruit and vegetable pouches due to potential lead contamination. / Credit: Courtesy of the FDAThe pouches were sold online, in Walgreens and in independent retailers in 28 states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New…

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A year ago, the maker of Tylenol lauded a federal judge’s dismissal of hundreds of lawsuits alleging the popular painkiller caused autism in children whose mothers took it during pregnancy. The company, Kenvue Inc., citing “confusion” the litigation caused, said the judge’s ruling affirmed that “science does not support causation.”But now Kenvue and its premier over-the-counter drug have been thrust into a political and medical maelstrom after President Donald Trump – in a White House briefing Monday – amplified the losing side of the court cases with his powerful megaphone.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and…

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Databricks said on Thursday that it is incorporating OpenAI’s models, including GPT-5, into its data platform as well as its AI product, Agent Bricks, as part of a $100 million multi-year deal that bets on the AI company’s ability to bring in enterprise customers. The deal highlights the accelerating race to bring generative AI into the enterprise stack, as companies foresee demand for AI tools that can tap into corporate data securely. Agent Bricks lets organizations build AI apps and agents on top of their enterprise data using a range of AI models. OpenAI’s latest models are now part of…

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