Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Shortly after Google announced its new Universal Commerce Protocol for AI-powered shopping agents, a consumer economics watchdog sounded the alarm. In a now viral post on X viewed nearly 400,000 times, Lindsay Owens on Sunday wrote, “Big/bad news for consumers. Google is out today with an announcement of how they plan to integrate shopping into their AI offerings including search and Gemini. The plan includes ‘personalized upselling.’ I.e. Analyzing your chat data and using it to overcharge you.” Owens is executive director of the consumer economics think tank Groundwork Collaborative. Her concern stems from looking at Google’s roadmap, as well…
Federal incentives for electric vehicles disappeared at the end of the third quarter, leaving the US market to survive on its own merits.So, how did companies perform in this new, realistic environment?Cox Automotive, an industry data provider, has just released EV sales estimates for the fourth quarter on Tuesday, and the numbers reveal which companies thrive and which struggle without government assistance.Tesla once again dominates the EV market in the US. Its market share surged to 59% in Q4, up from 41% in the previous quarter, Cox data shows.One major reason is that EV companies in the US now have…
What does it take to bring a burned-out founder back to the company he sold to Amazon? For Jamie Siminoff of the video doorbell maker Ring, it was the potential of AI — and the Palisades fires that destroyed his garage, the birthplace of Ring itself. Siminoff’s vision: turn Ring from a video doorbell company into an AI-powered “intelligent assistant” for the entire home and beyond. A handful of new features that advance that goal shipped just ahead of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, including fire alerts, alerts about “unusual events,” conversational AI, facial recognition features,…
Dr. Sina Bari, a practicing surgeon and AI healthcare leader at data company iMerit, has seen firsthand how ChatGPT can lead patients astray with faulty medical advice. “I recently had a patient come in, and when I recommended a medication, they had a dialogue printed out from ChatGPT that said this medication has a 45% chance of pulmonary embolism,” Dr. Bari told TechCrunch. When Dr. Bari investigated further, he found that the statistic was from a paper about the impact of that medication in a niche subgroup of people with tuberculosis, which didn’t apply to his patient. And yet, when…
At least 124 new measles cases have been reported in South Carolina since last Friday, health officials said.This brings the total number of cases in the outbreak to 434. There are currently over 400 people in quarantine.South Carolina has been facing a measles outbreak since early October, with the majority of cases in Spartanburg County, which borders North Carolina.Children who miss early vaccines more likely to not get the MMR shot by age 2: StudyOver the last few days, health departments in Georgia, Oregon and Virginia reported their states’ first measles cases of 2026.It comes as the United States recorded…
It’s January, which means people across Georgia will be embracing the “new year, new me” mentality by trying out new health tips or exercise routines.But they may be facing an uphill battle, an annual national health report found.In the 2025 America’s Health Rankings report from the United Health Foundation, Georgia ranked 38th nationally, one of the state’s lower rankings in recent years.Here’s what gave the Peach State a low grade.Georgia’s strengthsThe report analyzes factors of community and family safety, economic resources, education, social support and engagement, air and water quality, climate policies, housing and transit, access to care, preventative services,…
1X, the robotics company behind the Neo humanoid robot, has unveiled a new AI model that it says understands the dynamics of the real world and can help bots learn new information on their own. This physics-based model, called 1X World Model, uses a combination of video and prompts to give Neo robots new abilities. The video allows Neo robots to learn new tasks they weren’t previously trained on, according to 1X. This release comes as 1X is gearing up to release its Neo humanoids into the home. The company opened up pre-orders for its humanoids in October with plans…
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 13 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca has agreed to buy Boston-based Modella AI, the companies said on Tuesday, as the drug industry increases its use of artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of new drugs.The companies did not disclose financial terms. In a press release, Modella AI said its “foundation models” and AI agents would be integrated into oncology research and development to support clinical development and biomarker discovery.”Oncology drug development is becoming more complex, more data-rich and more time-sensitive,” said Gabi Raia, Modella AI’s chief commercial officer, adding that joining AstraZeneca would allow it to deploy its tools…
The Cybertruck is running out of road.Tesla sold 20,237 Cybertrucks in the US last year, according to data from Cox Automotive released on Tuesday, as demand for Elon Musk’s “apocalypse-proof” pickup fizzled.That’s nearly half the number Tesla sold in 2024, and sales dropped 68% year-on-year in the final quarter of 2025.The figures are a far cry from the target of 250,000 sales a year Musk set before the Cybertruck rolled off the production line in 2023.The divisive electric truck amassed over 1 million reservations, but early models launched with a price tag of over $79,000, significantly higher than the nearly…
ElevenLabs, the AI voice-generation startup, crossed $330 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), CEO Mati Staniszewski said in an interview with Bloomberg. “Really, what this [growth in ARR] shows is that trajectory across the company. We started the company in 2022 and launched the first product in 2023. It took us 20 months to reach $100 million in ARR, 10 months to reach $200 million, and five months to reach the current number,” he said. Staniszewski mentioned that both Fortune 500 companies and startups are adopting its voice agent technology, which uses company data and knowledge bases to power customer…