Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

NEW YORK (AP) — Ace Bailey fidgeted with a red yo-yo, catching the eyes of members of a media horde that pressed the former Rutgers star to flash some tricks. Dylan Harper, his former teammate and fellow likely NBA lottery pick, hovered nearby and said Bailey had indeed mastered yo-yo staples such as walk the dog and the gravity pull.Bailey, though, passed on putting on a show for the masses.“Catch me outside,” Bailey said at a Manhattan hotel.How about that? Bailey declined again in the run-up to the NBA draft to showcase his abilities.Still just 18 years old, Bailey has…

Nearly seven months after the fatal shooting of an insurance CEO in New York drew widespread attention to health insurers’ practice of denying or delaying doctor-ordered care, the largest U.S. insurers agreed Monday to streamline their often cumbersome preapproval system.Dozens of insurance companies, including Cigna, Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare, agreed to several measures, which include making fewer medical procedures subject to prior authorization and speeding up the review process. Insurers also pledged to use clear language when communicating with patients and promised that medical professionals would review coverage denials.While Trump administration officials applauded the insurance industry for its willingness to…

Apple is justifiably famous for its marketing.You could even argue that the company’s ad campaigns are as well-known as its products: Think Different. Dancers with iPods. And, of course, the 1984 Super Bowl ad for the Mac.But now, for some reason, Apple is developing a different reputation in adland: the company that pays for ad campaigns and then pulls them.Last year, Apple rolled out an ad for its iPad Pro and then apologized and yanked it, after online complainers complained that the vibes were off.Earlier this spring, Apple axed an ad promoting an AI-powered version of Siri, once it became…

Substitutes who watch from the locker room, abandoned practice sessions and sweat-soaked jerseys. A heat wave hitting a wide swath of the country is taking a toll on players at the FIFA Club World Cup.The grueling conditions could also be a preview of what’s to come next summer when the United States, Canada and Mexico host soccer’s premier event, the 2026 World Cup.“It’s impossible, it’s terribly hot. My toes were sore, even my toenails were hurting, I couldn’t stop or start. In the end, it’s incredible, but since it’s the same for everyone, there’s no excuse,” Atlético’s Marcos Llorente said…

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The $1.5 billion sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves from Glen Taylor to an investment group led by e-commerce entrepreneur Marc Lore and former baseball star Alex Rodriguez gained NBA approval on Tuesday, finalizing a complex and contentious process more than four years after the deal was reached.The ownership transfer that Taylor tried to stop last year received an unanimous vote from the league’s board of governors that comprises the 30 team owners. The deal, which is expected to close this week nearly 51 months and more than 1,500 days after the initial agreement, includes the four-time WNBA…

Startups developing voice AI technology and applications are having their moment. Model builders like ElevenLabs and Cartesia have raised millions of dollars in the last few months. Applications such as AI-powered notetaker Granola and meeting tools Read AI and Fireflies AI have also received investor attention and backing. Continuing the trend, dictation app Wispr Flow announced today that it is raising $30 million in Series A funding from Menlo Ventures with participation from NEA, 8VC, Opal CEO Kenneth Schlenker, Pinterest founder Evan Sharp, Carta CEO Henry Ward, and Lindy CEO Flo Crivelli. Menlo Ventures’ Matt Kraning, who also backed the company as an angel investor,…

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia woman filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking a religious exemption from required school vaccinations for her young child.Miranda Guzman alleges that the state’s vaccine mandate violates a 2023 West Virginia law that stipulates the government would not be able to “substantially burden” someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion unless doing so “is essential to further a compelling governmental interest.” Guzman sued the state and local boards of education and the county schools superintendent in Raleigh County Circuit Court.West Virginia was among just a handful of states that granted only medical exemptions from school…

Federal judge William Alsup ruled that it was legal for Anthropic to train its AI models on published books without the authors’ permission. This marks the first time that the courts have given credence to AI companies’ claim that fair use doctrine can absolve AI companies from fault when they use copyrighted materials to train LLMs. This decision comes as a blow to authors, artists, and publishers who have brought dozens of lawsuits against companies like OpenAI, Meta, Midjourney, Google, and more. While the ruling is not a guarantee that other judges will follow Judge Alsup’s lead, it lays the…

AI has venture capitalists back on the prowl for new consumer social startups.”We’re on the brink of another big consumer wave,” Vanessa Larco, a former NEA partner, told Business Insider. She’s launching a new consumer-focused venture firm called Premise.Larco’s eyeing consumer-focused AI startups like Midjourney (a generative AI image maker), Tolan (an AI companion platform), and Sitch (an AI-powered dating app). Larco said she is not an investor in Midjourney or Tolan, but is an angel investor in Sitch.For some consumer startup founders, AI feels like a must-have in any pitch meeting.”There’s been no real crazy big raises in many…

Google DeepMind on Tuesday released a new language model called Gemini Robotics On-Device that can run tasks locally on robots without requiring an internet connection. Building on the company’s previous Gemini Robotics model that was released in March, Gemini Robotics On-Device can control a robot’s movements. Developers can control and fine-tune the model to suit various needs using natural language prompts. In benchmarks, Google claims the model performs at a level close to the cloud-based Gemini Robotics model. The company says it outperforms other on-device models in general benchmarks, though it didn’t name those models. Image Credits: Google In a…