Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
If you’re at all concerned about privacy, the rise of AI personal assistants can feel alarming. It’s difficult to use one without sharing personal information, which is retained by the model’s parent company. With OpenAI already testing advertising, it’s easy to imagine the same data collection that fuels Facebook and Google creeping into your chatbot conversations. A new project, launched in December by Signal co-founder Moxie Marlinspike, is showing what a privacy-conscious AI service might look like. Confer is designed to look and feel like ChatGPT or Claude, but the backend is arranged to avoid data collection, with the open-source…
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.Why does burping make noise? – Henry E., age 8, Somerville, MassachusettsBurping is a normal part of everyday life.Burps happen when air from your stomach travels back up your food tube – called an esophagus – to your mouth. Air gets into your stomach during activities like eating or drinking. If you drink things that contain lots of gas – like the carbon dioxide in bubbly sodas, for example – you’ll probably burp more than usual…
In a few years, factory employees at Hyundai’s massive Georgia plant could be getting a new coworker.It’s about 200 pounds, six-feet, two-inches tall, has a four-hour battery life, and a face inspired by Disney’s Pixar lamp, Luxor Jr.Its name is Atlas, an all-electric humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics, the Massachusetts-based company and maker of the four-legged inspection robot, Spot, and the mobile warehouse robot, Stretch.Hyundai, which owns Boston Dynamics, unveiled the latest version of Atlas at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 5. During live demonstrations, Atlas was seen waving hello to its audience before moving car…
The business of datingMy wife and I met nearly two decades ago in the same newsroom. We were cub reporters, then friends, and then started dating. Eventually, we got married. Now we have two kids.I’d say it’s a sweet story — and an increasingly antiquated one.Dating in 2026 looks quite different. Dating apps have gone from taboo to mainstream to played out. Now, a white-collar job apocalypse and a cutthroat AI arms race have people working harder than ever, and that’s put dating on the back burner for plenty of folks.My colleague Henry Chandonnet reports on a new phenomenon taking…
Could the adtech IPO drought be coming to an end?This week, Blackstone-backed mobile adtech firm Liftoff filed to go public in the US, potentially ending a yearslong freeze that has seen only one major pure-play adtech IPO — connected-TV firm MNTN’s debut last spring — since 2021.If the IPO market does reopen in earnest this year, adtech executives expect the first movers to resemble Liftoff. That means companies with consistent growth and exposure to performance advertising, the slice of the market focused on measurable outcomes like app installs and online sales, which is increasingly powered by AI.Liftoff provides a software…
Tesla is going all in on the Netflix model for its self-driving software — and owners we talked to have mixed feelings about the move.On Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla’s supervised Full Self-Driving software — known as FSD — will only be offered behind its $99-a-month paywall after February 14.It’s a major shift for the electric-car maker. Tesla first began selling its self-driving software in late 2016 for $5,000, later raising the price (it’s currently $8,000) and introducing a monthly subscription option in 2021.Now, drivers who want their car to steer, brake, and change lanes on its own…
Elon Musk is demanding that OpenAI and Microsoft pay him between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages over his claims that he was defrauded.Details of the claim were revealed by Musk’s lawyer on Friday in a court filing ahead of a high-stakes jury trial set for April in Oakland, California.The calculation of damages was laid out by the expert witness C. Paul Wazzan, named in the filing as “a financial economist with decades of professional and academic experience.”The document alleges Musk was defrauded of the $38 million in seed money he donated to OpenAI when he helped found it…
2026-01-17T15:30:02.019Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt. Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter. Sign up for the weekly Tech Memo newsletter here. Silicon Valley is sending a clear message about how staff should perform, and how it wants to pay them.Instead of obsessing over punishing the bottom of the…
Exercise has long been recognized by clinicians, scientists and public health officials as an important way to maintain health throughout a person’s lifespan. It improves overall fitness, helps build strong muscles and bones, reduces the risk of chronic disease, improves mood and slows physical decline.Exercise can also significantly reduce the risk of developing conditions that negatively affect heart heath, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity. But large amounts of exercise throughout life may also harm the heart, leading to the development of a condition called athletic heart.As the sports cardiology director at the University of Colorado Anschutz…
At a time when productivity means optimizing every second and screens blur the line between work and home, some people are slowing down and disconnecting by looking to communication devices from the past.Tactile activities ranging from writing letters and typewriter clubs to TikTok communities showcasing calligraphy skills and wax seals are giving retro writing instruments a resurgence. More than quaint throwbacks, the pursuits provide their enthusiasts with opportunities to reduce their technology use, be more intentional with time and build meaningful connections with others.“I feel as though my pen pals are my friends. I don’t think of them much differently…