Apple is gearing up to announce a new smart home hub, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. As early as March 2025, the iPhone maker could release a tablet that mounts to your wall, control smart home appliances, does video calls, and of course does Apple Intelligence. The device reportedly has a 6-inch touchscreen, but it’s […]
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After pleading guilty in March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act, former Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for posting “hundreds of pages” of classified military documents on Discord.
Some of the leaked information included sensitive details about troop movements in Ukraine and previously unknown information about US intelligence gathering on other countries like China, Russia, and South Korea.
While stationed at an air base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Teixeira was granted a Top-Secret//Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance necessary for “maintaining and troubleshooting” classified workstations in the...
An Asian elephant named Mary living at the Berlin Zoo surprised researchers by figuring out how to use a hose to take her morning showers, according to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology. “Elephants are amazing with hoses,” said co-author Michael Brecht of the Humboldt University of Berlin. “As it is often the case with elephants, hose tool use behaviors come out very differently from animal to animal; elephant Mary is the queen of showering.”
Tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, but examples of it were eventually observed in primates and other mammals. Dolphins have been observed using sea sponges to protect their beaks while foraging for food, and sea otters will break open shellfish like abalone with rocks. Several species of fish also use tools to hunt and crack open shellfish, as well as to clear a spot for nesting. And the coconut octopus collects coconut shells, stacking them and transporting them before reassembling them as shelter.
Birds have also been observed using tools in the wild, although this behavior was limited to corvids (crows, ravens, and jays), although woodpecker finches have been known to insert twigs into trees to impale passing larvae for food. Parrots, by contrast, have mostly been noted for their linguistic skills, and there has only been limited evidence that they use anything resembling a tool in the wild. Primarily, they seem to use external objects to position nuts while feeding.
© Urban et al./Current Biology
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. There was absolutely no news last week because nothing happened. Just kidding. Defying all early polling, Donald Trump swept the election and will soon be sworn in for his second term in office. From a space policy perspective, things are already starting to look interesting. That’s mostly due […]
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23andMe announced on Monday it would cut 40% of its workforce, representing more than 200 employees, as part of a restructuring at the company. The genetic testing company is also discontinuing its therapeutics business and winding down its clinical trials; it expects these changes to save $35 million annually. “We are taking these difficult but […]
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Marques Brownlee is dealing with another commenter backlash. Fans of Brownlee are furious that his latest video, titled “How My Video Gear is Changing!” on the MKBHD YouTube channel, is a fully sponsored segment for DJI, rather than an editorially independent review. The video also contained a clip of Brownlee driving a sports car way over the speed limit on a suburban road.
Commenters have flooded the video with criticism, calling out Brownlee for running the sponsored segment. “This can’t even be considered a sponsored video anymore. It’s literally just a ten minute advertisement,” reads one comment with more than 12,000 likes.
In response, Brownlee edited the video to remove the clip of him speeding. It had originally shown him...
On Friday, research organization Epoch AI released FrontierMath, a new mathematics benchmark that has been turning heads in the AI world because it contains hundreds of expert-level problems that leading AI models solve less than 2 percent of the time, according to Epoch AI. The benchmark tests AI language models (such as GPT-4o, which powers ChatGPT) against original mathematics problems that typically require hours or days for specialist mathematicians to complete.
FrontierMath's performance results, revealed in a preprint research paper, paint a stark picture of current AI model limitations. Even with access to Python environments for testing and verification, top models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4o, o1-preview, and Gemini 1.5 Pro scored extremely poorly. This contrasts with their high performance on simpler math benchmarks—many models now score above 90 percent on tests like GSM8K and MATH.
The design of FrontierMath differs from many existing AI benchmarks because the problem set remains private and unpublished to prevent data contamination. Many existing AI models are trained on other test problem datasets, allowing the AI models to easily solve the problems and appear more generally capable than they actually are. Many experts cite this as evidence that current large language models (LLMs) are poor generalist learners.
© Getty Images
For months now, there have been rumors about a smart home display Apple is supposedly working on. Now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says the display will be wall-mounted and control smart home devices, attend video calls, and more, similar to the Amazon Echo Hub, and works on its own but requires an iPhone to complete the initial setup.
The iPad-like device, which will reportedly be available as soon as next March, has a six-inch display with thick edges, a built-in camera, a rechargeable battery, and speakers, according to Gurman. The plan is to have Siri and Apple Intelligence voice control support as well.
If the rumors are true, the smart display will offer a centralized way to control HomeKit-compatible lights, security cameras, sensors,...
Apple and A24 are working on a new movie about imprisoned crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried based on The Big Short writer Michael Lewis's book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon. Variety reported their arrangement and that Girls creator and star Lena Dunham is set to write the film.
Going Infinite is Lewis’s chronicle of the rise, spectacular implosion, and eventual conviction of Bankman-Fried and his crypto exchange FTX.
Lewis was working on the book already and embedded with Bankman-Fried when FTX collapsed in 2022. SBF was ultimately found guilty of several criminal fraud and conspiracy charges and given a 25-year prison sentence. He’s appealing his conviction, even as his fellow FTX executives are being sentenced and...
A new study links satellite data with brain imaging to reveal how environmental factors like light pollution, green spaces, and urban density affect the mental health and brain development of children. Researchers examined data from over 11,800 children in 21 U.S. cities, finding links between physical surroundings and brain structure. They observed that green areas correlated with positive cognitive health, while light pollution and urban density were associated with less favorable outcomes. 
Everyday physical activities, from light chores to intense exercise, provide immediate cognitive benefits for middle-aged adults. Participants showed improved processing speeds—comparable to being four years younger—within hours of being physically active. 
Scientists have identified BHB-Phe, a natural compound produced by the body, that regulates appetite and body weight. By activating specific brain neurons, BHB-Phe suppresses feeding behavior in mice, suggesting potential therapeutic applications for obesity. 
The IEEE Board of Directors shapes the future direction of IEEE and is committed to ensuring IEEE remains a strong and vibrant organization—serving the needs of its members and the engineering and technology community worldwide—while fulfilling the IEEE mission of advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
This article features IEEE Board of Directors members ChunChe “Lance” Fung, Eric Grigorian, and Christina Schober.
Director, Region 10: Asia Pacific
Joanna Mai Yie Leung
Fung has worked in academia and provided industry consultancy services for more than 40 years. His research interests include applying artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational intelligence, and other techniques to solve practical problems. He has authored more than 400 publications in the disciplines of AI, computational intelligence, and related applications. Fung currently works on the ethical applications and social impacts of AI.
A member of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, Fung has been an active IEEE volunteer for more than 30 years. As a member and chair of the IEEE Technical Program Integrity and Conference Quality committees, he oversaw the quality of technical programs presented at IEEE conferences. Fung also chaired the Region 10 Educational Activities Committee. He was instrumental in translating educational materials to local languages for the IEEE Reaching Locals project.
As chair of the IEEE New Initiatives Committee, he established and promoted the US $1 Million Challenge Call for New Initiatives, which supports potential IEEE programs, services, or products that will significantly benefit members, the public, the technical community, or customers and could have a lasting impact on IEEE or its business processes.
Fung has left an indelible mark as a dedicated educator at Singapore Polytechnic, Curtin University, and Murdoch University. He was appointed in 2015 as professor emeritus at Murdoch, and he takes pride in training the next generation of volunteers, leaders, teachers, and researchers in the Western Australian community. Fung received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal and the IEEE Region 10 Outstanding Volunteer Award.
Director, Region 3: Southern U.S. & Jamaica
Sean McNeil/GTRI
Grigorian has extensive experience leading international cross-domain teams that support the commercial and defense industries. His current research focuses on implementing model-based systems engineering, creating models that depict system behavior, interfaces, and architecture. His work has led to streamlined processes, reduced costs, and faster design and implementation of capabilities due to efficient modeling and verification. Grigorian holds two U.S. utility patents.
Grigorian has been an active volunteer with IEEE since his time as a student member at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). He saw it as an excellent way to network and get to know people. He found his personality was suited for working within the organization and building leadership skills. During the past 43 years as an IEEE member, he has been affiliated with the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems (AESS), IEEE Computer, and IEEE Communications societies.
As Grigorian’s career has evolved, his involvement with IEEE has also increased. He has been the IEEE Huntsville Section student activities chair, as well as vice chair, and chair. He also was the section’s AESS chair. He served as IEEE SoutheastCon chair in 2008 and 2019, and served on the IEEE Region 3 executive committee as area chair and conference committee chair, enhancing IEEE members’ benefits, engagement, and career advancement. He has significantly contributed to initiatives within IEEE, including promoting preuniversity science, technology, engineering, and mathematics efforts in Alabama.
Grigorian’s professional achievements have been recognized with numerous awards from employers and local technical chapters, including with the 2020 UAH Alumni of Achievement Award for the College of Engineering and the 2006 IEEE Region 3 Outstanding Engineer of the Year Award. He is a member of the IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society.
Director, Division V
Katie Fears/Brio Art
Schober is an innovative engineer with a diverse design and manufacturing engineering background. With more than 40 years of experience, her career has spanned research, design, and manufacturing sensors for space, commercial, and military aircraft navigation and tactical guidance systems. She was responsible for the successful transition from design to production for groundbreaking programs including an integrated flight management system, the Stinger missile’s roll frequency sensor, and the designing of three phases of the DARPA atomic clock. She holds 17 U.S. patents and 24 other patents in the aerospace and navigation fields.
Schober started her career in the 1980s, at a time when female engineers were not widely accepted. The prevailing attitude required her to “stay tough,” she says, and she credits IEEE for giving her technical and professional support. Because of her experiences, she became dedicated to making diversity and inclusion systemic in IEEE.
Schober has held many leadership roles, including IEEE Division VIII Director, IEEE Sensors Council president, and IEEE Standards Sensors Council secretary. In addition to her membership in the IEEE Photonics Society, she is active with the IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Sensors Council, IEEE Standards Association, and IEEE Women in Engineering.
She is also active in her local community, serving as an invited speaker on STEM for the public school system and was a volunteer at youth shelters. Schober has received numerous awards including the IEEE Sensors Council Lifetime Contribution Award and the IEEE Twin Cities Section’s Young Engineer of the Year Award. She is an IEEE Computer Society Gold Core member, a member of the IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society and received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal.
YouTube is testing a new feature that will let creators use AI to “restyle” licensed songs for their shorts. The small group of creators with access can enter a prompt to change up different elements in a song, such as its mood or genre, and the expansion of YouTube’s Dream Track AI feature will generate a reworked 30-second soundtrack.
YouTube:
If you’re a creator in the experiment group, you can select an eligible song > describe how you want to restyle it > then generate a unique 30-second soundtrack to use in your Short.
These restyled soundtracks will have clear attribution to the original song through the Short itself and the Shorts audio pivot page, and will also clearly indicate that the track was restyled with AI
YouTube has...
Many feared that the 2024 election would be affected, and perhaps decided, by AI-generated disinformation. While there was some to be found, it was far less than anticipated. But don’t let that fool you: the disinfo threat is real — you’re just not the target. So at least says Oren Etzioni, an AI researcher of […]
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Eufy’s new Floodlight Camera E30 attaches a 2K camera that can tilt and pan 360 degrees to a pair of 2,000-lumen LED floodlights and throws in local video capture without subscription fees. Although Eufy, the smart home brand of Anker, sells similar products with batteries and solar panels offering more flexibility on where they can be mounted, most homes already have a floodlight. That makes the hardwired E30 an easy replacement that is available now through the company’s website and Amazon for $149.99,
There are alternatives we currently recommend in our floodlight camera buyer’s guide, but for $150, the Eufy E30 offers several premium features without requiring ongoing fees to actually use them.
Being hardwired also means the E30,...
Rivian and Volkswagen Group have finalized a multi-billion-dollar joint venture to develop software, paving the way to let the German auto giant leverage the EV startup’s more technical chops in the coming years. Volkswagen will invest up to $5.8 billion by 2027, about 16% more than when the deal was first announced in June. Volkswagen […]
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