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Anthropic’s new AI search feature digs through the web for answers

AI, AI assistants, ai search, AI web search, Anthropic, Anthropic Claude, Biz & IT, brave browser, Brave search, chatgpt, chatgtp, Claude, large language models, machine learning, Simon Willison, web search / 9u50fv / March 22, 2025

Caution over citations and sources

Claude users should be warned that large language models (LLMs) like those that power Claude are notorious for sneaking in plausible-sounding confabulated sources. A recent survey of citation accuracy by LLM-based web search assistants showed a 60 percent error rate. That particular study did not include Anthropic’s new search feature because it took place before this current release.

When using web search, Claude provides citations for information it includes from online sources, ostensibly helping users verify facts. From our informal and unscientific testing, Claude’s search results appeared fairly accurate and detailed at a glance, but that is no guarantee of overall accuracy. Anthropic did not release any search accuracy benchmarks, so independent researchers will likely examine that over time.

A screenshot example of what Anthropic Claude's web search citations look like, captured March 21, 2025. — A screenshot example of what Anthropic Claude’s web search citations look like, captured March 21, 2025. Credit: Benj Edwards

Even if Claude search were, say, 99 percent accurate (a number we are making up as an illustration), the 1 percent chance it is wrong may come back to haunt you later if you trust it blindly. Before accepting any source of information delivered by Claude (or any AI assistant) for any meaningful purpose, vet it very carefully using multiple independent non-AI sources.

A partnership with Brave under the hood

Behind the scenes, it looks like Anthropic partnered with Brave Search to power the search feature, from a company, Brave Software, perhaps best known for its web browser app. Brave Search markets itself as a “private search engine,” which feels in line with how Anthropic likes to market itself as an ethical alternative to Big Tech products.

Simon Willison discovered the connection between Anthropic and Brave through Anthropic’s subprocessor list (a list of third-party services that Anthropic uses for data processing), which added Brave Search on March 19.

He further demonstrated the connection on his blog by asking Claude to search for pelican facts. He wrote, “It ran a search for ‘Interesting pelican facts’ and the ten results it showed as citations were an exact match for that search on Brave.” He also found evidence in Claude’s own outputs, which referenced “BraveSearchParams” properties.

The Brave engine under the hood has implications for individuals, organizations, or companies that might want to block Claude from accessing their sites since, presumably, Brave’s web crawler is doing the web indexing. Anthropic did not mention how sites or companies could opt out of the feature. We have reached out to Anthropic for clarification.

Anthropic’s new AI search feature digs through the web for answers Read More »

Judge orders Musk and DOGE to delete personal data taken from Social Security

doge, elon musk, Policy, Trump / 9u50fv / March 22, 2025

The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Alliance for Retired Americans; and American Federation of Teachers. “Never before has a group of unelected, unappointed, and unvetted individuals—contradictorily described as White House employees, employees of either existing or putative agencies (multiple and many), and undefined ‘advisors’—sought or gained access to such sensitive information from across the federal government,” the lawsuit said.

A temporary restraining order preserves the status quo until a preliminary injunction hearing can be held, although the legal standards for granting a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction are essentially the same, Hollander wrote. A temporary restraining order lasts 14 days by default but can be extended.

“In my view, plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits as to their claim that the access to records provided by SSA to the DOGE Team does not fall within the need-to-know exception to the Privacy Act. Therefore, the access violates both the Privacy Act and the APA,” Hollander wrote.

The SSA has meanwhile been hit with DOGE-fueled budget cuts affecting its operations.

The order

The order says the SSA must cut off DOGE’s access. Musk, Gleason, and all other DOGE team members and affiliates “shall disgorge and delete all non-anonymized PII [personally identifiable information] data in their possession or under their control, provided from or obtained, directly or indirectly, from any SSA system of record to which they have or have had access, directly or indirectly, since January 20, 2025,” it says.

The DOGE defendants are also prohibited “from installing any software on SSA devices, information systems, or systems of record, and shall remove any software that they previously installed since January 20, 2025, or which has been installed on their behalf,” and are prohibited “from accessing, altering, or disclosing any SSA computer or software code.”

The SSA is allowed to provide DOGE with redacted or anonymized records, and may provide “access to discrete, particularized, and non-anonymized data, in accordance with the Privacy Act” under certain conditions. “SSA must first obtain from the DOGE Team member, in writing, and subject to possible review by the Court, a detailed explanation as to the need for the record and why, for said particular and discrete record, an anonymized or redacted record is not suitable for the specified use,” the order said. “The general and conclusory explanation that the information is needed to search for fraud or waste is not sufficient to establish need.”

Judge orders Musk and DOGE to delete personal data taken from Social Security Read More »

Rocket Report: Falcon 9 may smash reuse record; Relativity roving to Texas?

rocket report, Space / 9u50fv / March 21, 2025

All the news that’s fit to lift

“It is what he has always dreamt of.”

The Falcon 9 booster that launched Crew 10 is seen shortly after landing near its launch site in Florida. Credit: SpaceX

Welcome to Edition 7.36 of the Rocket Report! Well, after nine months, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are finally back on Earth, safe and sound. This brings to conclusion one of the stranger and more dramatic human spaceflight stories in years. We’re glad they’re finally home, soon to be reunited with their families.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Summary of 2024 launch activity. In its annual launch report, released earlier this month, Bryce Tech analyzed the 259 orbital launches conducted last year. Among the major trends the analysts found were: Nearly 60 percent of all launches were conducted by US providers, Commercial providers accounted for about 70 percent of launches, and Small satellites, primarily for communications, represented the majority of all spacecraft launched at 97 percent.

Trends dominated by Starlink launches … SpaceX conducted more than half of the launches last year (134), putting 2,390 spacecraft into orbit (the vast majority of which were Starlink satellites). The next closest competitor was China, with 48 launches and 186 spacecraft. The nearest US competitor to SpaceX was Rocket Lab, with 14 launches and 33 spacecraft. The competition in “upmass,” that is total kg lofted into orbit, was less close still. SpaceX put 1.86 million kg into space, followed by China (164,000 kg) and Roscosmos (76,000). The closest US competitor was United Launch Alliance, at 29,000 kg. Put another way, for every kilogram ULA put into orbit, SpaceX lofted 66.

MaiaSpace inks first commercial customer. MaiaSpace, a French subsidiary of ArianeGroup founded in 2022, signed an agreement to fly multiple missions for Exotrail’s SpaceVan orbital transfer vehicle beginning in 2027. The partnership with Exotrail provides an early vote of confidence that the reusable Maia rocket can increase Europe’s sovereign launch capabilities, Payload reports. This is one of several launch agreements signed recently by Exotrail.

Hitting the trail … Exotrail flew its first SpaceVan mission on SpaceX’s Transporter-9 flight in November 2023 and deployed the Endurosat-built “EXO-0” cubesat in LEO after three months in orbit. In November, the company signed a deal with Arianespace to launch Exotrail’s first SpaceVan mission to geostationary transfer orbit in the latter half of 2026. After leaving Ariane 64, SpaceVan will tow a customer satellite to GEO, demonstrating its ability to deliver satellites to the full range of orbital trajectories. (submitted by gma)

The easiest way to keep up with Eric Berger’s and Stephen Clark’s reporting on all things space is to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll collect their stories and deliver them straight to your inbox.

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Electron launches twice in three days. Rocket Lab completed the deployment of a constellation of Internet of Things satellites for French company Kinéis with an Electron launch on Monday. The launch was the fifth and final mission under a contract signed by the companies in 2021. Each launch carried five satellites, weighing 28 kilograms each, to complete a 25-satellite constellation.

Continuing to steadily increase cadence … For Rocket Lab, this was the second launch in a little more than 72 hours, after another Electron launched a radar imaging satellite for Japanese company iQPS March 14. It was the fourth launch so far this year for Rocket Lab, which previously stated it expects to perform more than 20 Electron launches, including the HASTE suborbital version, this year.

Pangea raises Series A funding. The Spanish startup announced this week that it has raised 23 million euros ($25 million) in Series A funding, European Spaceflight reports. This funding includes contributions from former ArianeGroup CEO André-Hubert Roussel. Founded in 2018, Pangea Aerospace initially aimed to develop Meso, a small rocket designed to deliver 400 kilograms to low-Earth orbit. The rocket was to be powered by a unique, in-house-developed methalox aerospike engine.

Twice the size … However, in early 2023, the company announced it had abandoned the development of Meso to focus on providing propulsion systems for rockets and in-orbit applications. Pangea is currently in the process of developing ARCOS, an aerospike engine designed for use aboard the booster and/or upper stage of a rocket. According to Pangea, the funding will be used to “accelerate its expansion in the European market,” aiming to grow its customer base. It will look to double its workforce and scale up its manufacturing, integration, and testing capabilities.

Relativity Space eyeing move to Texas. As he consolidates control over Relativity Space, new owner and chief executive Eric Schmidt is planning significant changes at the launch company, including a likely move to the Lone Star State, Ars reports. The company faces several major challenges as it seeks to bring the Terran R rocket to market, particularly in logistics. This is because Terran R is a large launch vehicle, too large to move across the country by highway.

Watching for Baytown … The company’s initial plan was to manufacture first stages at its massive factory in Long Beach, California, and ship them through the Panama Canal to a test site at the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. From there, they would be moved by barge again to the launch site in Florida. But this was expensive and time-consuming. Two sources have indicated that Relativity Space will likely move a significant portion of its Terran R manufacturing to Baytown, Texas, which is near Houston. Such a location would provide water access on the right side of the Panama Canal. Relativity has not made a formal announcement.

Crew-10 launches to ISS. A Falcon 9 rocket launched four astronauts safely into orbit on Friday evening, marking the official beginning of the Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station. Friday’s launch came two days after an initial attempt was scrubbed on Wednesday evening, Ars reports. This was due to a hydraulic issue with the ground systems that handle the Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A in Florida.

Smooth ride to orbit … There were no technical issues on Friday, and with clear skies, NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov rocketed smoothly into orbit. Although any crew launch into orbit is notable, this mission came with an added bit of importance as its success cleared the way for two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to finally return home from space after a saga spanning nine months. They did so on Tuesday evening.

SpaceX pushes Falcon 9 booster reuse record. On March 12 a Falcon 9 rocket first stage made its third launch, lofting the SPHEREx and PUNCH missions into low-Earth orbit for NASA. Following the successful launch, the first stage landed near the launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Now, this same stage could launch again on Thursday night from Vandenberg, carrying the NROL-57 mission for the US Space Force.

Rapid reuse is a thing … The launch is scheduled for 06: 49 UTC, and if it takes place it would be just nine days and four hours since the SPHEREx mission. This would shatter the company’s previous booster turnaround, set in November, of a little more than 13 days. The fast turnaround was no doubt enabled by landing the booster back near the launch site, speeding the process of inspecting and refurbishing the rocket. It’s also impressive that the Space Force greenlit such a fast turnaround time for a national security payload.

And launch pad turnaround, too. SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at sunrise Saturday morning. The mission marked a record-breaking turnaround for launch operations at Space Launch Complex 40, Spaceflight Now reports. The launch of 23 Starlink Version 2 Mini satellites came two days, eight hours, 59 minutes, and 40 seconds after the launch of the Starlink 12-21 mission. This beat SpaceX’s previous turnaround time at that pad by nearly six hours.

Ever pushing forward … Recently, Ars covered a recent string of issues with the Falcon 9 rocket, notably with its upper stage. The principal reason is that SpaceX continues to push the envelope with even its mature products like the Falcon 9 rocket, which is now nearly 15 years old. While we can take note of issues, it’s also worth celebrating the incredibly hard work that goes into pushing cadence and turnaround times. Moreover, success with the Falcon 9 rocket supports the notion that, one day, SpaceX will be able to reach a high cadence of operations with Starship.

The Jeff and the Donald. Over the past year, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Bezos has executed a sharp public reversal in his relationship with President Trump—whom he previously criticized as a “threat to democracy”—that has surprised even longtime associates. An article in the Financial Times explores this change, and finds that it is likely due, at least in part, to Bezos’ interest in his space company. There are some spicy, and to my sense of things, accurate comments that explain why Bezos has sought to curry favor with Trump.

One longtime adviser cautions … “He cares most about Blue Origin. His chance of being the player he wants to become in space could be destroyed” if the world’s richest man (Elon Musk) and most powerful politician united against him. “The growth trajectory for the entire enterprise depends on the federal contract… otherwise Blue is dead in the water.” Another close associate says that any move by Trump to deprioritize lunar missions in favor of Musk’s aspirations to reach Mars would have a significant impact on the company’s viability and success. “It is what he has always dreamt of. Nothing will hurt Jeff financially—Blue is a money loser. It is more the opportunity to be involved.”

Next three launches

March 21: Falcon 9 | NROL-57 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 06: 49 UTC

March 23: Spectrum | Demo flight | Andøya Rocket Range, Norway | 11: 30 UTC

March 24: Falcon 9 | NROL-69 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 17: 42 UTC

Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.

Rocket Report: Falcon 9 may smash reuse record; Relativity roving to Texas? Read More »

Brains of parrots, unlike songbirds, use human-like vocal control

Biology, brain, brain implants, language, neurobiology, Science, vocal control / 9u50fv / March 20, 2025

Due to past work, we’ve already identified the brain structure that controls the activity of the key vocal organ, the syrinx, located in the bird’s throat. The new study, done by Zetian Yang and Michael Long of New York University, managed to place fine electrodes into this area of the brain in both species and track the activity of neurons there while the birds were awake and going about normal activities. This allowed them to associate neural activity with any vocalizations made by the birds. For the budgerigars, they had an average of over 1,000 calls from each of the four birds carrying the implanted electrodes.

For the zebra finch, neural activity during song production showed a pattern that was based on timing; the same neurons tended to be most active at the same point in the song. You can think of this as a bit like a player piano central organizing principle, timing when different notes should be played. “Different configurations [of neurons] are active at different moments, representing an evolving population ‘barcode,’” as Yang and Long describe this pattern.

That is not at all what was seen with the budgerigars. Here, instead, they saw patterns where the same populations of neurons tended to be active when the bird was producing a similar sound. They broke the warbles down into parts that they characterized on a scale that ranged from harmonic to noisy. They found that the groups of neurons tended to be more active whenever the warble was harmonic, and different groups tended to spike when it got noisy. Those observations led them to identify a third population, which was active whenever the budgerigars produced a low-frequency sound.

In addition, Yang and Long analyzed the pitch of the vocalizations. Only about half of the neurons in the relevant region of the brain were linked to pitch. However, the half that was linked had small groups of neurons that fired during the production of a relatively narrow range of pitches. They could use the activity of as few as five individual neurons and accurately predict the pitch of the vocalizations at the time.

Brains of parrots, unlike songbirds, use human-like vocal control Read More »

FCC to get Republican majority and plans to “delete” as many rules as possible

fcc geoffrey starks, Policy / 9u50fv / March 19, 2025

By contrast, then-President Joe Biden waited nine months to choose a Democratic nominee in 2021. His first nominee, Gigi Sohn, wasn’t confirmed despite Democrats having control of the Senate at the time. The Biden-era FCC didn’t gain a Democratic majority until Gomez was confirmed in September 2023.

Carr would have a 2-1 majority upon Starks’ departure assuming there is no Senate vote on Trusty’s nomination before then. US law prevents either party from obtaining an FCC supermajority. “The maximum number of commissioners who may be members of the same political party shall be a number equal to the least number of commissioners which constitutes a majority of the full membership of the Commission,” the law says.

Democratic leaders can be expected to recommend a replacement for Starks’ seat. The president nominates all FCC commissioners, but Trump has previously followed the tradition of using recommendations made by Democrats when nominating members from the opposing party.

The Senate sometimes pairs votes on nominations so that one Democrat and one Republican are added to the FCC at the same time. There’s no guarantee that Republicans will wait for a Democratic nominee.

“I think the Republicans will move ahead as quickly as possible with Trusty. While she could be paired with a Democrat, and in different times, would have been, I think in today’s climate, they are more likely to move ahead without a pair,” New Street Research Policy Advisor Blair Levin told Ars.

Schumer reportedly urged Starks to stay awhile

Starks would have been a possible candidate for FCC chair if Kamala Harris had won the presidency and if Rosenworcel decided not to serve a second term as chair.

Carr issued a statement praising Starks for “an impressive legacy of accomplishments in public service.” Gomez said that Starks’ “expertise on national security issues and his deep understanding of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau have been instrumental in advancing the agency’s mission,” and that he “demonstrated unwavering commitment to protecting consumers and strengthening our communications networks.”

Starks’ departure has been anticipated since shortly after Trump’s election win. In December, Schumer reportedly urged Starks to stay at the FCC for awhile to delay the Republicans gaining a majority.

There might be another Republican seat to fill sometime after Trusty’s nomination receives a Senate vote. Carr’s fellow Republican on the commission, Nathan Simington, “has also wanted to depart to take on different work,” a Bloomberg report said.

FCC to get Republican majority and plans to “delete” as many rules as possible Read More »

Google inks $32 billion deal to buy security firm Wiz even as DOJ seeks breakup

Google, google wiz, Policy / 9u50fv / March 19, 2025

“While a tough regulatory climate in 2024 had hampered such large-scale deals, Wall Street is optimistic that a shift in antitrust policies under US President Donald Trump could reignite dealmaking momentum,” Reuters wrote today.

Google reportedly agreed to a $3.2 billion breakup fee that would be paid to Wiz if the deal collapses. A Financial Times report said the breakup fee is unusually large as it represents 10 percent of the total deal value, instead of the typical 2 or 3 percent. The large breakup fee “shows how technology companies are still bracing themselves for pushback from antitrust regulators, even under President Donald Trump and his new Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson,” the article said.

Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport wrote today that although the plan is for Wiz to become part of Google Cloud, the companies both believe that “Wiz needs to remain a multicloud platform… We will still work closely with our great partners at AWS, Azure, Oracle, and across the entire industry.”

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian wrote that Wiz’s platform would fill a gap in Google’s security offerings. Google products already “help customers detect and respond to attackers through both SaaS-based services and cybersecurity consulting,” but Wiz is different because it “connects to all major clouds and code environments to help prevent incidents from happening in the first place,” he wrote.

“Wiz’s solution rapidly scans the customer’s environment, constructing a comprehensive graph of code, cloud resources, services, and applications—along with the connections between them,” Kurian wrote. “It identifies potential attack paths, prioritizes the most critical risks based on their impact, and empowers enterprise developers to secure applications before deployment. It also helps security teams collaborate with developers to remediate risks in code or detect and block ongoing attacks.”

Google inks $32 billion deal to buy security firm Wiz even as DOJ seeks breakup Read More »

Large enterprises scramble after supply-chain attack spills their secrets

Biz & IT, Open source software, Security, supply chain attack, tj-actions / 9u50fv / March 17, 2025

Open source software used by more than 23,000 organizations, some of them in large enterprises, was compromised with credential-stealing code after attackers gained unauthorized access to a maintainer account, in the latest open source supply-chain attack to roil the Internet.

The corrupted package, tj-actions/changed-files, is part of tj-actions, a collection of files that’s used by more than 23,000 organizations. Tj-actions is one of many GitHub Actions, a form of platform for streamlining software available on the open source developer platform. Actions are a core means of implementing what’s known as CI/CD, short for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (or Continuous Delivery).

Scraping server memory at scale

On Friday or earlier, the source code for all versions of tj-actions/changed-files received unauthorized updates that changed the “tags” developers use to reference specific code versions. The tags pointed to a publicly available file that copies the internal memory of severs running it, searches for credentials, and writes them to a log. In the aftermath, many publicly accessible repositories running tj-actions ended up displaying their most sensitive credentials in logs anyone could view.

“The scary part of actions is that they can often modify the source code of the repository that is using them and access any secret variables associated with a workflow,” HD Moore, founder and CEO of runZero and an expert in open source security, said in an interview. “The most paranoid use of actions is to audit all of the source code, then pin the specific commit hash instead of the tag into the … the workflow, but this is a hassle.”

Large enterprises scramble after supply-chain attack spills their secrets Read More »

To avoid the Panama Canal, Relativity Space may move some operations to Texas

relativity space, Space, texas space commission / 9u50fv / March 16, 2025

Although Baytown does not have any historical affinity with aerospace, its location on the water offers far more straightforward access to Relativity’s test facilities in Mississippi and its launch site in Florida. There are other benefits. The cost of living in the region is far lower than Southern California, and due to the location of Johnson Space Center just 20 miles away, there is a reservoir of space talent in the region.

A spokesperson for Relativity Space did not confirm the move.

“As we scale Terran R production to meet growing customer demand, we are exploring options to expand our manufacturing capabilities,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus is on ensuring we have the right footprint to achieve the production cadence required to serve our customers.”

Texas space is on the rise

For logistics and other reasons, Relativity has been evaluating locations across several states that border the Gulf of Mexico, including Texas, over recent years, multiple sources said. The company is expected to continue operating its large “Wormhole” factory in Long Beach, California, which is more than 1 million square feet in size. A second factory in Texas would likely be used to build propellant tanks and assemble stages for testing in Mississippi and launch in Florida.

The addition of a second factory in Texas would underscore the investment to which Schmidt appears committed to making Relativity a major player in US launch.

It is unclear whether state or local officials have provided any incentives to Relativity for relocating a significant chunk of its manufacturing operations to Texas. Last year the state legislature created the Texas Space Commission and provided $350 million in funding to support commercial space operations. In February the commission awarded the first of these grants, valued at $47.7 million, to five companies with Texas-based operations: Starlab Space, Intuitive Machines, Firefly Aerospace, SpaceX, and Blue Origin.

A leading figure behind the commission is State Rep. Greg Bonnen, whose district includes Johnson Space Center. Bonnen has signaled that the commission is a long-term project by the state to ensure its economic prosperity in the 21st century by continuing to grow existing businesses in Texas, but also to attract new companies to the state.

SpaceX and Firefly already manufacture rockets in Texas. Adding Relativity Space would be a significant coup for a state that, only a decade ago, was known primarily in space for being the home of NASA’s human spaceflight activities.

To avoid the Panama Canal, Relativity Space may move some operations to Texas Read More »

Google joins OpenAI in pushing feds to codify AI training as fair use

AI, AI regulation, Google, Policy, US government / 9u50fv / March 16, 2025

Google’s position on AI regulation: Trust us, bro

If there was any doubt about Google’s commitment to move fast and break things, its new policy position should put that to rest. “For too long, AI policymaking has paid disproportionate attention to the risks,” the document says.

Google urges the US to invest in AI not only with money but with business-friendly legislation. The company joins the growing chorus of AI firms calling for federal legislation that clarifies how they can operate. It points to the difficulty of complying with a “patchwork” of state-level laws that impose restrictions on AI development and use. If you want to know what keeps Google’s policy wonks up at night, look no further than the vetoed SB-1047 bill in California, which would have enforced AI safety measures.

AI ethics or AI Law concept. Developing AI codes of ethics. Compliance, regulation, standard , business policy and responsibility for guarding against unintended bias in machine learning algorithms. — Credit: Parradee Kietsirikul

According to Google, a national AI framework that supports innovation is necessary to push the boundaries of what artificial intelligence can do. Taking a page from the gun lobby, Google opposes attempts to hold the creators of AI liable for the way those models are used. Generative AI systems are non-deterministic, making it impossible to fully predict their output. Google wants clearly defined responsibilities for AI developers, deployers, and end users—it would, however, clearly prefer most of those responsibilities fall on others. “In many instances, the original developer of an AI model has little to no visibility or control over how it is being used by a deployer and may not interact with end users,” the company says.

There are efforts underway in some countries that would implement stringent regulations that force companies like Google to make their tools more transparent. For example, the EU’s AI Act would require AI firms to publish an overview of training data and possible risks associated with their products. Google believes this would force the disclosure of trade secrets that would allow foreign adversaries to more easily duplicate its work, mirroring concerns that OpenAI expressed in its policy proposal.

Google wants the government to push back on these efforts at the diplomatic level. The company would like to be able to release AI products around the world, and the best way to ensure it has that option is to promote light-touch regulation that “reflects US values and approaches.” That is, Google’s values and approaches.

Google joins OpenAI in pushing feds to codify AI training as fair use Read More »

2025 iPad Air hands-on: Why mess with a good thing?

Apple, Apple M3, Apple Magic Keyboard, ipad, iPad Air, Reviews, Tech / 9u50fv / March 15, 2025

There’s not much new in Apple’s latest refresh of the iPad Air, so there’s not much to say about it, but it’s worth taking a brief look regardless.

In almost every way, this is identical to the previous generation. There are only two differences to go over: the bump from the M2 chip to the slightly faster M3, and a redesign of the Magic Keyboard peripheral.

If you want more details about this tablet, refer to our M2 iPad Air review from last year. Everything we said then applies now.

From M2 to M3

The M3 chip has an 8-core CPU with four performance cores and four efficiency cores. On the GPU side, there are nine cores. There’s also a 16-core Neural Engine, which is what Apple calls its NPU.

We’ve seen the M3 in other devices before, and it performs comparably here in the iPad Air in Geekbench benchmarks. Those coming from the M1 or older A-series chips will see some big gains, but it’s a subtle step up over the M2 in last year’s iPad Air.

That will be a noticeable boost primarily for a handful of particularly demanding 3D games (the likes of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Resident Evil Village, Infinity Nikki, and Genshin Impact) and some heavy-duty applications only a few people use, like CAD or video editing programs.

Most of the iPad Air’s target audience would never know the difference, though, and the main benefit here isn’t necessarily real-world performance. Rather, the upside of this upgrade is the addition of a few specific features, namely hardware-accelerated ray tracing and hardware-accelerated AV1 video codec support.

This isn’t new, but this chip supports Apple Intelligence, the much-ballyhooed suite of generative AI features Apple recently introduced. At this point there aren’t many devices left in Apple’s lineup that don’t support Apple Intelligence (it’s basically just the cheapest, entry-level iPad that doesn’t have it) and that’s good news for Apple, as it helps the company simplify its marketing messaging around the features.

2025 iPad Air hands-on: Why mess with a good thing? Read More »

US measles cases reach 5-year high; 15 states report cases, Texas outbreak grows

health, Infectious disease, measles, outbreak / 9u50fv / March 15, 2025

The US has now recorded over 300 measles cases just three months into 2025, exceeding the yearly case counts for all years after 2019. The bulk of this year’s cases are from an outbreak that erupted in an undervaccinated county in West Texas in late January, which has since spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma.

As of the afternoon of March 14, Texas reports 259 cases across 11 counties, 34 hospitalizations, and one death, which occurred in an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl. New Mexico reports 35 cases across two counties, two hospitalizations, and one death. That death occurred in an unvaccinated adult who did not seek medical treatment and tested positive for the virus posthumously. The cause of death is still under investigation. Oklahoma reports two probable cases linked to the outbreak.

In addition to Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, 12 other states have reported at least one confirmed measles case since the start of the year: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year has seen three measles outbreaks, defined as three or more related cases.

As of March 13, the CDC reported 301 confirmed cases, which do not include 36 new cases reported today in Texas and two in New Mexico.

“Measles is back”

Since 2000, when health officials victoriously declared measles eliminated from the US thanks to concerted vaccination campaigns, only three other years have had higher tallies of measles cases. In 2014, the country saw 667 measles cases. In 2018, there were 381 cases. And in 2019—when the country was on the verge of losing its elimination status—there was a startling 1,274 cases, largely driven by massive outbreaks in New York. Measles is considered eliminated if there is no continuous spread in the country over the course of at least 12 months. (This is not to be confused with “eradication,” which is defined as “permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence” of an infectious disease. Smallpox and rinderpest are the only pathogens humans have eradicated.)

US measles cases reach 5-year high; 15 states report cases, Texas outbreak grows Read More »

In one dog breed, selection for utility may have selected for obesity

behavior, Biology, Dogs, Genetics, Labrador retriever, Science / 9u50fv / March 14, 2025

High-risk Labradors also tended to pester their owners for food more often. Dogs with low genetic risk scores, on the other hand, stayed slim regardless of whether the owners paid attention to how and whether they were fed or not.

But other findings proved less obvious. “We’ve long known chocolate-colored Labradors are prone to being overweight, and I’ve often heard people say that’s because they’re really popular as pets for young families with toddlers that throw food on the floor all the time and where dogs are just not given that much attention,” Raffan says. Her team’s data showed that chocolate Labradors actually had a much higher genetic obesity risk than yellow or black ones

Some of the Labradors particularly prone to obesity, the study found, were guide dogs, which were included in the initial group. Training a guide dog in the UK usually takes around two years, during which the dogs learn multiple skills, like avoiding obstacles, stopping at curbs, navigating complex environments, and responding to emergency scenarios. Not all dogs are able to successfully finish this training, which is why guide dogs are often selectively bred with other guide dogs in the hope their offspring would have a better chance at making it through the same training.

But it seems that this selective breeding among guide dogs might have had unexpected consequences. “Our results raise the intriguing possibility that we may have inadvertently selected dogs prone to obesity, dogs that really like their food, because that makes them a little bit more trainable. They would do anything for a biscuit,” Raffan says.

The study also found that genes responsible for obesity in dogs are also responsible for obesity in humans. “The impact high genetic risk has on dogs leads to increased appetite. It makes them more interested in food,” Raffan claims. “Exactly the same is true in humans. If you’re at high genetic risk you aren’t inherently lazy or rubbish about overeating—it’s just you are more interested in food and get more reward from it.”

Science, 2025. DOI: 10.1126/science.ads2145

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