Technology

USA Today reports: First lady Melania Trump today made her first public comments against the publication of non-consensual sexually explicit images at a roundtable on Capitol Hill on Monday, a day before she joins President Donald Trump for his first joint congressional address of his second presidency. The remarks are in support of the Take it Down Act, which was …

The Associated Press reports: A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth’s celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient …

NPR reports: Skype, the pioneering and once ubiquitous free video calling service, will be history come May. It was so popular that people used it as a verb: “I’ll Skype you in the morning.” Microsoft, which acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, announced in a post on X on Friday that the iconic voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) service would soon …

Ars Technica reports: On Sunday, xAI released a new voice interaction mode for its Grok 3 AI model that is currently available to its premium subscribers. The feature is somewhat similar to OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT. But unlike ChatGPT, Grok offers several uncensored personalities users can choose from (currently expressed through the same default female voice), including an …

CNN Business reports: Apple says it’s fixing a technical bug that caused its voice-to-text system to briefly replace the word “racist” with the word “Trump.” Some iPhone users had reported on Tuesday that when they spoke the word “racist” using Apple’s voice dictation feature, the system automatically typed in “Trump” before quickly correcting to the word “racist.” “We are aware …

The Washington Post reports: Amazon plans to unveil a revamped version of its Alexa virtual assistant in New York later this month — the second launch event after a series of delays since the artificial-intelligence-powered upgrade was first announced in September 2023. Amazon staff learned of the new delay, which is due in part to the new version of the …

Ars Technica reports: Google’s Chrome browser might soon get a useful security upgrade: detecting passwords used in data breaches and then generating and storing a better replacement. Google’s preliminary copy suggests it’s an “AI innovation,” though exactly how is unclear. Chrome already has a feature that warns users if the passwords they enter have been identified in a breach and …

Ars Technica reports: Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations that were then sold to third parties for targeted ads. In the proposed class-action settlement—which comes after five years of litigation—Apple admitted to no wrongdoing. Instead, the settlement refers to “unintentional” Siri activations that occurred after …

The New York Times reports: A coalition of Canada’s biggest news organizations is suing OpenAI, the maker of the artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, accusing the company of illegally using their content in the first case of its kind in the country. Five of the country’s major news companies, including the publishers of its top newspapers, newswires and the national broadcaster, …

San Francisco’s Fox affiliate reports: Three people died early Wednesday and one person was taken to the hospital in a fiery Cybertruck crash in Piedmont, a day before Thanksgiving. Police Chief Jeremy Bowers told KTVU that the tragic scene was called in at 3:08 a.m. When officers arrived, they found a Cybertruck fully engulfed in flames. The mangled wreck came …

Ars Technica reports: US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Congressman Jerry Nadler of New York have called on government bodies to investigate what they allege is the “predatory pricing” of .com web addresses, the Internet’s prime real estate. In a letter delivered today to the Department of Justice and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the …

CNBC reports: The Department of Justice is calling for Google to divest its Chrome browser, following a ruling in August that the company holds a monopoly in the search market. Chrome, which Google launched in 2008, provides the search giant with data it then uses for targeting ads. The DOJ said in a filing on Wednesday that forcing the company …

Ars Technica reports: Elwood Edwards, the voice behind the online service America Online’s iconic “You’ve got mail” greeting, has died at age 74, one day before his 75th birthday, according to Cleveland’s WKYC Studios, where he worked for many years. The greeting became a cultural touchstone in the 1990s and early 2000s in the early Internet era; it was heard …

The New York Times reports: A team of nearly 100 Times journalists, engineers, statisticians, data experts and researchers are collaborating to deliver up-to-the-minute results, displayed live on nytimes.com with a full array of interactive maps and charts so that you can see what is happening in the most important races of the night. That data also feeds into the Needle, …

ABC News reports: SpaceX pulled off the boldest test flight yet of its enormous Starship rocket on Sunday, catching the returning booster back at the launch pad with mechanical arms. A jubilant Elon Musk called it “science fiction without the fiction part.” At the flight director’s command, the first-stage booster flew back to the launch pad where it had blasted …

Axios reports: Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled a self-driving vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals Thursday night, saying it would go into production before 2027. Musk has been teasing the robotaxi for years, but the so-called Tesla Cybercab took a step closer to becoming a reality when it dropped Musk off at the stage for the company’s “We, Robot” …

The Washington Post reports: Chinese hackers have breached at least three major U.S. telecommunications providers in what appears to be an audacious espionage operation likely aimed in part at discovering the Chinese targets of American surveillance, according to U.S. officials. The investigation by the FBI, U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Homeland Security is in its early stages. The …

ABC News reports: Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Saturday that would have required new cars to beep at drivers if they exceed the speed limit. California would have become the first to require such systems for all new cars, trucks and buses sold in the state starting in 2030. The bill, aimed at reducing traffic deaths, would have mandated …

The Associated Press reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged EV owners this week to get their vehicles to higher ground before Hurricane Helene arrived. Although the problem is rare, there have been a number of instances in recent years of electric vehicles igniting after hurricanes. Keeping electric vehicles out of standing water is the best way to avoid the possibility …

Mashable reports: Apple’s newly announced hearing aid capability is officially the first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software to be approved by the FDA. And it should be available on devices soon. The federal agency formally ushered in the tech giant’s new “Hearing Aid Feature” (or HAF, as the agency refers to it) mere days after the company’s keynote “Glowtime” event, …