The dispute between Anthropic and the Department of Defense has escalated in recent days, with officials publicly trading barbs with the AI company on social media. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth...
In puzzling outbreak, officials look to cold beer, gross ice, and ChatGPT
An AI assist? The author of the MMWR report, county health official Katherine Houser, noted that the beer-tent workers were hesitant to give details because they didn’t want to get...
Google quantum-proofs HTTPS by squeezing 15kB of data into 700-byte space
Google and other browser makers require that all TLS certificates be published in public transparency logs, which are append-only distributed ledgers. Website owners can then check the logs in real...
The Air Force’s new ICBM is nearly ready to fly, but there’s nowhere to put it
“There were assumptions that were made in the strategy that obviously didn’t come to fruition.” An unarmed Minuteman III missile launches during an operational test at Vandenberg Air Force Base,...
Block lays off 40% of workforce as it goes all-in on AI tools
The staff reduction at Block comes as anxiety rises about AI leading to job losses across vast parts of the economy. Investors and economists are grappling with an influx of...
Apple says it has “a big week ahead.” Here’s what we expect to see.
it’s what’s on the inside that counts Apple is taking an “ain’t broke/don’t fix” approach to most of its gadgets. Apple’s 2018-era design for the then-Intel-powered MacBook Air. The M1...
Rocket Report: Vulcan “many months” from flying; Falcon 9 extends reuse milestone
All the news that’s fit to lift “As the original architect of Vector’s vision, it’s deeply meaningful to bring these assets home.” Rocket Lab has completed qualification testing of its...
Neanderthals seemed to have a thing for modern human women
By now, it’s firmly established that modern humans and their Neanderthal relatives met and mated as our ancestors expanded out of Africa, resulting in a substantial amount of Neanderthal DNA...
Anthropic and the DoW: Anthropic Responds
[EDIT: About three minutes after I posted this, Trump ordered all federal agencies to immediately cease all use of Anthropic’s technology, with a six month win down period, as shown...
Under a Paramount-WBD merger, two struggling media giants would unite
A successful Paramount-WBD merger would be the largest streaming merger ever and would lead to further consolidation in the industry. “What started as a fragmented but flexible streaming ecosystem is...
Photons that aren’t actually there influence superconductivity
Despite the headline, this isn’t really a story about superconductivity—at least not the superconductivity that people care about, the stuff that doesn’t require exotic refrigeration to work. Instead, it’s a...
Whoops: US military laser strike takes down CBP drone near Mexican border
The US military mistakenly shot down a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) drone near the Mexican border in a strike that reportedly used a laser-based anti-drone system. The CBP uses...
The AI apocalypse is nigh in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Director Gore Verbinksi and screenwriter Matthew Robinson on the making of this darkly satirical sci-fi film. Credit: Briarcliff Entertainment We haven’t had a new film from Gore Verbinski for nine...
Hyperion author Dan Simmons dies from stroke at 77
Dan Simmons, the author of more than three dozen books, including the famed Hyperion Cantos, has died from a stroke. He was 77. Simmons, who worked in elementary education before...
How strong is New York’s “illegal gambling” case against Valve’s loot boxes?
“Calling it gambling because a user could, through several indirect steps, convert an item into cash risks stretching gambling law beyond its traditional limits,” Loiterman said. “If New York’s theory...
And the award for the most improved EV goes to… the 2026 Toyota bZ
The world’s largest automaker has had a somewhat difficult relationship with battery-electric vehicles. Toyota was an early pioneer of hybrid powertrains, and it remains a fan today, often saying that given...
Netflix cedes Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount: “No longer financially attractive”
On Thursday, WBD’s board deemed Paramount’s revamped offer “superior,” giving Netflix four business days to match it. But that same day, Netflix, which had recently emphasized its willingness to walk...
NASA shakes up its Artemis program to speed up lunar return
“Launching SLS every three and a half years or so is not a recipe for success.” Artist’s illustration of the Boeing-developed Exploration Upper Stage, with four hydrogen-fueled RL10 engines. Credit:...
How to downgrade from macOS 26 Tahoe on a new Mac
Most new Macs can still be downgraded with few downsides. Here’s what to know. An Ars Technica colleague recently bought a new M4 MacBook Air. I have essentially nothing bad...
Perplexity announces “Computer,” an AI agent that assigns work to other AI agents
Given the right permissions and with the proper plugins, it could create, modify, or delete the user’s files and otherwise change things far beyond what most users could achieve with...
