Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

The AI talent wars are reaching a fever pitch.Upstart AI research labs and tech industry giants alike have heightened their efforts to recruit top AI talent over the past few years.Naveen Rao, DataBricks’ vice president of AI, has equated the scramble for top-tier AI talent to “looking for LeBron James,” estimating there are fewer than 1,000 researchers capable of building frontier AI models.Startups that lack the financial resources to offer attractive pay packages like their Big Tech peers are turning to hackathons to find budding talent in the AI sector.The race to attract the best AI talent has led CEOs to…

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The health of the Chesapeake Bay declined in an annual report card on the nation’s largest estuary released Tuesday, with scientists noting the effect of extreme rainfall patterns during the hottest year on record.The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science gave the bay a C grade in its report card. That compares to a C-plus grade the bay received last year, which was the highest grade it had received since 2002.“There was a substantial upturn in the overall Bay Health score in 2024, and it came down a little this year,” said Heath Kelsey, director…

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Rodgers doesn’t need to keep doing this. He knows that.The four-time NFL MVP’s decision to return for a 21st season and to do it in Pittsburgh was not about trying to prove something to himself, the New York Jets or anyone else.The game has given a lot to him. Stardom. Wealth. A title. Relationships that will last long after he decides to stop playing. The next seven months — if they are indeed the last seven months of a career that almost certainly will end with a gold jacket and a bust in the Hall of…

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — New England Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs declined to share specifics about his conversations with coach Mike Vrabel and the team in the aftermath of a viral video that showed him passing what appeared to be a bag of pink crystals to women on a boat last month.“Obviously, I want to be as candid with you guys as possible. I kind of have this thing where I don’t talk about my personal life with people I don’t know personally,” Diggs said Tuesday following the team’s final minicamp practice. “I’m pretty sure everybody here, men and women, are…

An invasive species of stinging ant is spreading across the United States with detections in at least 20 states.Brachyponera chinensis, or the Asian needle ant, have been found mostly in the northeastern and southeastern U.S., but have also been detected in Wisconsin, Texas and Washington state, according to the ant detection site antmaps.org.Asian needle ants are shiny dark brown to black and are small, measuring about 0.2 inches in length, according to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).MORE: Officials battle ‘highly aggressive’ red imported fire ant infestation in Southern California”There are other ant species in the Eastern United States that superficially…

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder showed their bounce-back capability in Game 2. The Indiana Pacers know they better do the same in Game 3.The NBA Finals resume Wednesday night with the series tied at a game apiece, the matchup shifting to Indianapolis for Game 3 and what will be the first finals game in that city in 25 years. And the Pacers know it’s on them to respond after Game 2 wasn’t much of a contest.It’s obviously possible: The Pacers haven’t lost back-to-back games in three months, going 9-0 after losses in that span. This would be a…

Apple has announced updates to the AI models that power its suite of Apple Intelligence features across iOS, macOS, and more. But according to the company’s own benchmarks, the models underperform older models from rival tech firms, including OpenAI. Apple said in a blog post Monday that human testers rated the quality of text generated by its newest “Apple On-Device” model — which runs offline on products, including the iPhone — “comparably” to, but not better than, text from similarly sized Google and Alibaba models. Meanwhile, those same testers rated Apple’s more capable new model, which is called “Apple Server”…

Enterprise AI company Glean announced on Tuesday that it has raised a $150 million Series F led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation. This comes less than a year after its $260 million Series E, announced in September, at a $4.6 billion valuation, which was double the valuation from its February 2024 raise. Since early 2024, Glean has raised $610 million and grown its valuation from $2.2 billion to $7.2 billion. Glean says it surpassed $100 million in ARR in its last fiscal year, just three years after it launched. Glean offers tools that allow enterprise employees to…

At the end of the WWDC 2025 keynote address on Monday, the company literally sang its praises to app developers, as singer-songwriter Allen Stone humorously turned customers’ positive App Store reviews into song lyrics for a tune titled “6 out of 5 stars.” “Best app I’ve ever set my sorry eyes upon,” he crooned. “This is not an app. It’s a piece of art.” What Apple didn’t mention, however, was anything related to the tumultuous past few years for its developer community, or more broadly, why its developers should continue to put their trust in a company that’s fighting them…

When Jamie Foxx accepted the Ultimate Icon Award at the 2025 BET Awards on Monday, the actor, comedian and singer made sure to shout out his family, including his two daughters, whom he credited for helping him recover from a health scare two years ago.The 57-year-old teared up during his emotional and lengthy acceptance speech, referencing his life-threatening medical episode in April 2023 and thanking the important people in his life.PHOTO: BET Ultimate Icon Award recipient actor Jamie Foxx speaks on stage during the 2025 BET Awards at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. (Michael Tran/AFP…