Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Thursday.The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.1%, up from 3.7% the year before. It’s the third record-breaking year in a row for the exemption rate, and the vast majority are parents withholding shots for nonmedical reasons.Meanwhile, 92.5% of 2024-25 kindergartners got their required measles-mumps-rubella shots, down slightly from the previous year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination rate was 95% — the level that makes it…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 59-year-old Marc Kriguer, a software engineer who has been laid off multiple times. His employment history has been verified by Business Insider. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.I fell in love with computers and writing programs when I was in fifth grade. I debugged somebody else’s code a month before turning 10.People didn’t have personal computers in the late 1970s, and people didn’t talk about becoming a software engineer, but I knew then that I wanted to do something with computers.I’ve been a software engineer for 28 years…

Several elite U.S. colleges have made deals with President Donald Trump’s administration, offering concessions to his political agenda and financial payments to restore federal money that had been withheld.Ivy League schools Columbia, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania reached agreements to resolve federal investigations. The Republican administration is pressing for more, citing the deal it negotiated with Columbia as a “road map” for other colleges.There is a freeze on billions of dollars of research money for other colleges including Harvard, which has been negotiating with the White House even as it fights in court over the lost grants.Like no other…

Autonomous vehicles have long been touted as “just around the corner,” but the reality of what it takes to bring self-driving cars to the streets is anything but simple. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, happening October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana joins the Disrupt Stage for a wide-ranging conversation on the current state of AVs — and where the industry goes from here. Inside the self-driving reality check While the headlines often focus on crashes, controversies, or overblown promises, Tekedra has spent years navigating the real-world path to autonomous mobility. At Disrupt, she’ll dig into…

The San Diego Padres added hard-throwing closer Mason Miller and the Toronto Blue Jays dealt for former Cy Young award winner Shane Bieber in a flurry of moves before Major League Baseball’s trade deadline on Thursday.The recent swaps are on top of several deals over the past few days — including the Mariners landing slugger Eugenio Suarez — but several big names could still be on the move, including Pittsburgh right-hander Mitch Keller, Cleveland’s Steven Kwan and Arizona pitchers Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly.MLB’s trade deadline is at 6 p.m. EDT. on Thursday.Padres add All-Star Mason Miller, lefty JP Sears…

Google is testing a machine-learning-powered tech in the U.S. to determine the age of users and filter content across all its products accordingly. The company said it will consider data from Google accounts, including types of details users have searched for or categories of videos they have watched on YouTube, to determine the age. If the company’s tool decides that a user is under 18, they would get an email with details about how Google products might change for them. For these users, Google will disable the timeline in Maps, stop personalized ads, restrict age-restricted ad categories, and bar them…

Imagine this: You’re at your doctor’s office with a sore throat. The nurse asks, “Any allergies?” And without hesitation you reply, “Penicillin.” It’s something you’ve said for years – maybe since childhood, maybe because a parent told you so. The nurse nods, makes a note and moves on.But here’s the kicker: There’s a good chance you’re not actually allergic to penicillin. About 10% to 20% of Americans report that they have a penicillin allergy, yet fewer than 1% actually do.I’m a clinical associate professor of pharmacy specializing in infectious disease. I study antibiotics and drug allergies, including ways to determine…

At a meeting held by the Food and Drug Administration on July 21, 2025, a panel convened by the agency cast doubt on the safety of antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, in pregnancy.Panel members discussed adding a so-called black box warning to the drugs – which the agency uses to indicate severe or life-threatening side effects – about the risk they pose to developing fetuses. Some of the panelists who attended had a history of expressing deep skepticism on antidepressants.SSRIs include drugs like Prozac and Zoloft and are the most commonly used medicines for treating clinical…

CINCINNATI (AP) — Tight end Noah Fant is expected to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals.The team has not announced the signing, but coach Zac Taylor said before Thursday’s practice “we potentially have a good signing there” when asked about reports of a deal. ESPN reported the sides were working on a one-year contract.“You’ve got a player that’s really a plus player in both the run and the pass. At the point of attack blocking, back side of blocking. Protection, can help you. Also really explosive as a receiver,” Taylor said about Fant. “Great size, great explosiveness, really good hands. Tough…