Technology category, Page 4
The Tea app was intended to help women date safely. Then it got hacked
Tea, a provocative dating app designed to let women anonymously ask or warn each other about men they’d encountered, rocketed to the top spot on the U.S. Apple App Store this week. On Friday, the company behind the app confirmed it had been hacked: Thousands of images, including selfies, were...
New mobile app could help save honeybee hives, protect $20 billion in agriculture
Honeybee colonies in the United States are projected to decline by up to 70% this year, entomologists say. And that could spell economic disaster. According to the American Beekeeping Federation, honeybees contribute about $20 billion to the value of crop production in the country. But master beekeeper Joe Zgurzynski of...
Canvas to feature AI technology for educational interactions
AI technology will soon be brought into the classroom through a new integration with the Canvas learning platform. Canvas is the main online platform used by numerous universities like the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University, as well as K-12 school districts. Instructure, the maker of Canvas, and OpenAI...
Pittsburgh City Council approves Bakery Square expansion
Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday approved legislation that paves the way for a massive expansion of the Bakery Square development in the city’s East End. Council members unanimously supported a measure to expand the special zoning district to allow Bakery Square to grow, nearly a year after the proposal received...
Vermont engineer revives pay phones for free calls in areas with poor cell service
TUNBRIDGE, Vt. — An electrical engineer by trade, Patrick Schlott has spent countless hours tinkering with new and old technology. But it wasn’t until he found himself living in rural Vermont that he realized his penchant for repairing old pay phones could provide a public service. “I realized, wow, there’s...
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expected to testify in $8 billion Facebook privacy lawsuit
An $8 billion class action investors’ lawsuit against Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and company leaders — current and former — begins Wednesday, with claims stemming from the 2018 privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. Investors allege in their lawsuit that Meta did not fully disclose the risks...
A look inside a lab making the advanced fuel to power growing U.S. nuclear energy ambitions
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Near signs that warn of radioactive risk at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a half-dozen workers from the nuclear power company X-energy are making what appear to be gray billiard balls. Inside, they’re packed with thousands of tiny black spheres that each contain a speck of uranium...
Here are the blockbuster deals unveiled at the Pa. Energy and Innovation Summit
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Tuesday during the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh that companies are planning to invest more than $90 billion in data centers, energy and power infrastructure, and workforce and AI training projects across Pennsylvania. Fifteen of the companies plan to invest at least $1...
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok goes on antisemitic spree
NEW YORK – Grok, the AI chatbot designed by Elon Musk’s xAI for social media, described itself as “MechaHitler” while making a string of antisemitic posts this week. The questionable responses follow Musk’s announcement last week of an update to the bot after he expressed frustration that it was too...
Samsung unveils its new line of foldable devices at Unpacked
NEW YORK — Samsung introduced several updates to its foldable devices lineup on Wednesday, with the new Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and the new Z Flip 7 FE taking stage at the latest Unpacked event. The Korean electronics company unveiled the upgrades — including new versions of...
X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigns after 2 years at the helm of Elon Musk’s social media platform
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said she’s stepping down after two bumpy years running Elon Musk’s social media platform. Yaccarino posted a positive message Wednesday about her tenure at the company formerly known as Twitter and said “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with” Musk’s...
Chipmaker Nvidia becomes most valuable company in the world at $4 trillion
NEW YORK — Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company to top $4 trillion in value on Wednesday after a two-year investor frenzy. Nvidia shares rose 2.5%, or $3.97, in early trading Wednesday, topping $164 each. At the beginning of 2023, Nvidia shares were around $14 each. The poster child...
Musk’s AI company scrubs inappropriate posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic comments
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it’s taking down “inappropriate posts” made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Grok was developed by Musk’s xAI and pitched as alternative to “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google’s Gemini, or OpenAI’s...
What to know about a potential deal to keep TikTok running in U.S.
Less than a month after extending a deadline to ban TikTok for the third time, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday night that, “We pretty much have a deal,” on TikTok — but he did not offer details. The details and timing of a potential deal are not clear....
Judge allows antitrust lawsuit against Apple to proceed
A federal judge on Monday rebuffed Apple’s request to throw out a U.S. government lawsuit alleging the technology trendsetter has built a maze of illegal barriers to protect the iPhone from competition and fatten its profit margins. The 33-page opinion from U.S. District Judge Xavier Neals in New Jersey will...
Is EA Sports reviving its college basketball video game franchise?
EA Sports sent a cryptic tweet on Monday that hints at the revival of its college basketball video game franchise. Although not as popular as its college football franchise that was revived last year, EA was among the industry’s leaders in basketball gaming in the early 2000s. Its NCAA Basketball...
CMU’s Tartan Driver takes autonomous driving off Pittsburgh’s beaten path
All-terrain vehicles one day may be able to venture where no human dares to go using their own artificial intelligence. It could be to fight a raging wildfire or to rescue someone trapped in a remote location. And they may do so using a successor to Carnegie Mellon University’s TartanDriver....
Review: Nintendo Switch 2 offers a better canvas for bigger ideas
Although Nintendo no longer produces the most cutting-edge video game systems, the company has always had the most powerful ideas. That’s how it has thrived in an era where it competes against tech behemoths Microsoft and Sony. Since 2002, it has found a way to stay ahead of the game...
Would you hail a ‘robotaxi’? Musk bets cabs will give Tesla a lift after boycotts and sales plunge
NEW YORK — Elon Musk promised in 2019 that driverless Tesla “robotaxis” would be on the road “next year,” but it didn’t happen. A year later, he promised to deliver them the next year, but that didn’t happen either. Despite the empty pledges the promises kept coming. Last year in...
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for a 3rd time
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 90 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership. Trump disclosed the executive order on the Truth Social...
Massive Google Cloud outage disrupts popular internet services
NEW YORK — Popular online services across the globe were disrupted Thursday because of ongoing issues at Google Cloud. Tens of thousands of users of Spotify, Discord and other platforms began noticing issues with their services early in the afternoon, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages. Outage reports for music...
Senate Republicans revise ban on state AI regulations in bid to preserve controversial provision
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans have made changes to their party’s sweeping tax bill in hopes of preserving a new policy that would prevent states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade. In legislative text unveiled Thursday night, Senate Republicans proposed denying states federal funding for broadband projects if they regulate...
Fans around the world queue up in long lines for the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 launch
TOKYO — Throngs of gamers stood in long lines outside of stores hours before they opened Thursday from Tokyo to New York City in hopes of snaring a long-awaited Nintendo Switch 2 video game console. Enthusiasts have been clamoring for an upgrade to Nintendo’s eight-year-old predecessor for years. Nintendo, which...
Thai officials seize over 200 tons of illegally imported electronic waste from U.S.
BANGKOK — Thai officials on Wednesday said they seized 238 tons of illegally imported electronic waste from the United States at the port of Bangkok, one of the biggest lots they’ve found this year. The waste, which came in 10 large containers, was declared as mixed metal scrap but turned...
Microsoft to lay off about 3% of its workforce
Microsoft says it is laying off nearly 3% of its entire workforce. The tech giant didn’t disclose the total amount of lost jobs but it will amount to about 6,000 people. Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. About 55%...
