Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

As the AI talent wars rage on, Google and other tech giants are shelling out top dollar to lure top talent.Google has long been revered within Silicon Valley for its generous compensation packages, and its DeepMind unit even resorted to aggressive noncompetes in the UK.At the same time, Google has made changes to its compensation processes in recent months as others in the tech industry — like Meta and Microsoft — have sought to weed out low performers.In April, the search giant changed the way it ranked employees in their yearly performance reviews. Its head of compensation told staff in…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — One hundred years ago, a public high school teacher stood trial in Dayton, Tennessee, for teaching human evolution. His nation is still feeling the reverberations today.The law books record it as State of Tennessee v. John T. Scopes. History remembers it as the “ Monkey Trial.” The case ballooned into a national spectacle, complete with a courthouse showdown between a renowned, agnostic defense attorney and a famous fundamentalist Christian politician who defended the Bible on the witness stand.In a sweltering, pre-air conditioning courtroom, the trial became a linchpin for a tense debate that wasn’t just a…

Google has launched a suite of its AI-powered advertising tools in India, which debuted in the U.S. in May, as the repeal of the “Google tax” has made the South Asian market more attractive to global tech firms selling online ads. In March, the Indian government scrapped its 6% levy on digital advertisements, effective in April, as a move to address some of the trade concerns raised by the Trump administration. The United States Trade Representative had criticized the levy by calling it “discriminatory and unreasonable,” as domestic companies were exempt. Its repeal would ease costs for tech giants, including…

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, late on Wednesday released its latest flagship AI model, Grok 4, and unveiled a new $300-per-month AI subscription plan, SuperGrok Heavy. Grok is xAI’s answer to models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, and can analyze images and respond to questions. In recent months, Grok has become more deeply integrated into Musk’s social network, X, which was recently acquired by xAI. However, that has also put Grok’s misbehavior front and center for millions of users. The expectations are high for Grok 4. The latest AI model from xAI will be stacked up against OpenAI’s forthcoming AI model, GPT-5,…

GENEVA (AP) — Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday in her seven-year legal fight against track and field’s sex eligibility rules.The court’s 17-judge highest chamber said in a 15-2 vote that Semenya had some of her rights to a fair hearing violated at Switzerland’s Supreme Court, where she had appealed against a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in favor of track’s World Athletics.Her case should now go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne — to be watched closely by other sports which…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian universities would lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students and potential immigrants would be screened for political affiliations under recommendations to the government made public on Thursday aimed at curbing antisemitism.Antisemitic incidents including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation had surged more than threefold in Australia in the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported.Synagogues and cars have been torched, businesses and homes have been graffitied and Jews have been attacked in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s two largest cities where 85% of the…

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Dozens of Brazilian yoga aficionados saluted the sun in unison in a Rio de Janeiro favela for the inaugural class of a free course allowing residents of the low-income community to qualify as yoga teachers.Krishna Das, a renowned American vocalist born Jeffrey Kagel and known for his performances of Hindu devotional music known as kirtan, led a spiritual practice and attendees prayed, sang, clapped and even danced.“I felt like I was in another world,” Luciene Costa Gonzaga de Andrade said at the event Wednesday. “The mantras transcend the souls and transform sadness into joy. It…

Linda Yaccarino is done cleaning up after Elon Musk.When she joined the platform formerly known as Twitter in June 2023, investors and ad industry professionals heralded her as a potential savior. The Madison Avenue veteran was tasked with turning around the platform’s ad business, which foundered when Elon Musk purchased the company then known as Twitter in 2022.But within her first couple of months in the top job, her most important responsibility crystallized: She would be a highly visible clean-up crew for Musk.”It became pretty clear straight away” her main role would be to “try to keep morale going internally,” Bruce…

NEW YORK (AP) — One game into his major league career, Cam Schlittler is the hardest-throwing member of the New York Yankees’ rotation.Schlittler used his 100 mph fastball to shut down Cal Raleigh and the Seattle Mariners during an eye-opening debut Wednesday night, pitching the Yankees to a 9-6 victory before a throng of friends and family members in the crowd.“Obviously, it’s been my goal my whole life,” Schlittler said. “I don’t think I’ve really processed it yet.” One of the team’s top-rated prospects, the 6-foot-6 Schlittler struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings to earn the win. He threw…

Cluely, an AI startup that uses a hidden in-browser window to analyze online conversations, has shot to fame with the controversial claim that its “undetectability” feature lets users “cheat on everything.” The company’s co-founder, Roy Lee, was suspended from Columbia University for boasting that he used Cluely, originally called Interview Coder, to “cheat” on a coding test when he was applying for a developer job at Amazon. On Tuesday, another Columbia University student, Patrick Shen, announced on X that he had built Truely, a product designed to help catch “cheaters” who use Cluely. Marketing itself as an “anti-Cluely,” Truely claims…