Tech

Apple is nearing a deal with Google that would see the iPhone maker pay the tech giant roughly $1 billion a year for a custom version of Google’s Gemini AI model to power its overhaul of Siri, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The move is a big one for Apple, which has traditionally relied on its own technology …

On an earnings call on Tuesday, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready highlighted the promise of open source AI models in helping the company keep its costs down as it expands the use cases for visual AI. The image pinboarding site, which often serves as consumers’ first step in their shopping journey, leverages AI technology to power a variety of features, including …

After Zohran Mamdani clinched the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday night, his campaign announced former FTC chair Lina Khan will be one of the transition team’s four co-chairs. Khan has been an ally of Mamdani’s, praising him in a New York Times op-ed about his outreach to small business owners. But her appointment to a formal role on …

For years, Australians have been been installing solar panels at a rapid clip. Now that investment is paying off.  The Australian government announced this week that electricity customers in three states will get free electricity for up to three hours per day starting in July 2026.  Solar power has boomed in Australia in recent years. Rooftop solar installations cost about …

Tinder is looking to AI to revitalize its dating app, which has now reported nine straight quarters of paying subscriber declines, as of the third quarter this year. The dating app maker, Match Group, told investors on Tuesday’s earnings call that Tinder is testing a feature called Chemistry that will get to know users through questions and, with permission, will …

Eugenia Kuyda saw the future of consumer AI before most. She founded Replika, the first major AI companion startup, in 2017 years before ChatGPT launched. Today it has 35 million users.   Now Kuyda is back with a new startup called Wabi, which she describes as YouTube for apps – a social platform where anyone can use prompts to instantly create mini apps and share them with friends. Wabi, which …

Google announced on Wednesday that it’s making it easier to access AI Mode on mobile. Users will now be able to access AI Mode, which allows users to ask complex questions and follow-ups to dig deeper on a topic directly within Search, via a new dedicated shortcut button under the search bar when opening a “New Tab” page in Chrome. …

On Wednesday, researchers at Microsoft released a new simulation environment designed to test AI agents, along with new research showing that current agentic models may be vulnerable to manipulation. Conducted in collaboration with Arizona State University, the research raises new questions about how well AI agents will perform when working unsupervised — and how quickly AI companies can make good …

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has sent Meta a cease-and-desist letter demanding that it stop using the term “PG-13,” as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Last month, Meta announced that teens on Instagram would, by default, only see content that adheres to PG-13 movie ratings. Two weeks later, the MPA sent Meta a cease-and-desist letter, asserting that Meta’s …

The University of Pennsylvania confirmed on Tuesday that a hacker stole university data as part of last week’s data breach, during which alumni and other affiliates received suspicious emails from official university email addresses. “We got hacked,” the message from the hackers read. “We love breaking federal laws like FERPA (all your data will be leaked),” the message added. “Please …