Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
President Donald Trump’s budget office this week ordered most government agencies to compile data on the federal money that is sent to 14 mostly Democratic-controlled states and the District of Columbia in what it describes as a tool to “reduce the improper and fraudulent use of those funds.”The order comes a week after Trump said he intended to cut off federal funding that goes to states that are home to so-called sanctuary cities that resist his immigration policies. He said that would start Feb. 1 but hasn’t unveiled further details.A memo to federal departments and agencies did not explain why…
Spotify is rolling out Prompted Playlists, a new AI playlist creation tool, to Premium subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. The feature, which was originally tested in New Zealand, allows users to make a playlist by describing what they want to hear, in their own words. Prompted Playlists builds on an earlier AI playlist product, launched in 2024, which allowed for simpler prompts like “get focused at work with instrumental electronica,” or “get pumped up with fun, upbeat, and positive songs.” Instead, the new Prompted Playlists feature lets users explain in more detail, and in a conversational mode, what they…
Days after taking office, Attorney General Jay Jones (D) is reversing his predecessor’s position on the Trump administration’s fight against in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants.Yesterday (Wednesday), Jones filed a motion to withdraw from an agreement that former Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) made with the U.S. Department of Justice in a bid to invalidate the Virginia Dream Act of 2020.The Justice Department challenged the Virginia law, which allows undocumented immigrants to receive in-state tuition, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Dec. 29. A day later, Miyares joined the DOJ in seeking to have the…
Companies and governments are looking for tools to run AI locally in a a bid slash cloud infrastructure costs and build sovereign capability. Quadric, a chip-IP startup founded by veterans of early bitcoin mining firm 21E6, is trying to power that shift, scaling beyond automotive into laptops and industrial devices, with its on-device inference technology. That expansion is already paying off. Quadric posted $15 million to $20 million in licensing revenue in 2025, up from around $4 million in 2024, CEO Veerbhan Kheterpal (pictured above, center) told TechCrunch in an interview. The company, which is based in San Francisco and…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was taken to a hospital for an abdominal ailment that he ascribed to stress and age, but insisted he’s fine in a video released on Thursday, laughing off rumors of his demise.The 68-year-old leader was observed by his doctors and was released back home, attending two private meetings Thursday, according to Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro.“I’m fine,” a smiling Marcos in a white long-sleeve office shirt said in a video released by Castro. “I’m feeling very, very different from the way I was feeling before, but the problem has been fixed.”Marcos added…
By Nancy LapidJan 22 (Reuters) – Many patients using highly effective GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy may not regain lost weight quickly when they stop treatment, according to an analysis of real-world data shared with Reuters that sheds light on a chief concern about the therapies.Among thousands of patients treated at a large network of U.S. academic medical clinics, most had kept the weight off or lost even more 18 months after stopping semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic and Wegovy, or tirzepatide, sold by Eli Lilly as Mounjaro and Zepbound, researchers from data analytics firm nference found.Their data runs…
Big tech companies and upcoming startups want to use generative AI to build software and hardware for kids. A lot of those experiences are limited to text or voice, and kids might not find that captivating. Three former Google employees want to get over that hurdle with their generative AI-powered interactive app, Sparkli. Sparkli was founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang. As parents, Poojary and Kang were not able to satisfy their children’s curiosity or give engaging answers to their questions. “Kids, by definition, are very curious, and my son would ask me questions about…
Last year, Sam Altman posited that the world hadn’t yet had its “humanoid robots moment” — but, he said, “it’s coming.” In the background, his AI company has been gearing up to make that happen.OpenAI quietly built up a humanoid robotics lab over the past year, insiders with knowledge of the program told Business Insider. The lab operates out of the same building as the company’s finance team in San Francisco, and employs around 100 data collectors. They’re teaching a robotic arm how to perform household tasks as a part of a larger effort to build a humanoid robot.OpenAI explored…
Oracle and OpenAI have aimed to build $500 billion of data centers by the end of the decade to power their artificial intelligence ambitions.But the massive initiative, called Stargate, may be exhausting the supply of available capital.JPMorgan Chase, the bank that recently led a pack of lenders to extend roughly $38 billion of debt for the construction of two planned Stargate data center campuses in Texas and Wisconsin, has encountered diminished interest as it has sold off pieces of the loan to other financial players, a person familiar with the situation said.The person said that the two projects are fully…
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sports bettors in Missouri could face new restrictions on college athlete wagers under rules being considered Thursday in response to an NCAA request to states following the latest betting scandal to rock college athletics.The move by the Missouri Gaming Commission comes a week after the NCAA sent a letter to state gambling oversight boards asking them to ban college athlete prop bets — a popular type of wager focused on what individual players will do in a game, like scoring a certain amount of points in basketball or surpassing a particular passing yardage in football.…