For the release of her twelfth album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Taylor Swift sent fans on an online scavenger hunt this weekend, which began by searching for “Taylor Swift” on Google. But as fans unveiled secret videos as part of the campaign, some fretted that the clips looked like they were AI-generated — and…
Crypto-friendly US Senator Cynthia Lummis has confirmed that acquiring funds for the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) can “start anytime” now, though legislative red tape is holding it back. In an X post on Monday, Lummis said that while it remains a “slog” on the legislative side of things, thanks to “President Trump, the acquisition…
As the second phase of the Google ad tech trial was winding down, Judge Leonie Brinkema was still hoping that Google and the Justice Department would take the decision out of her hands. “My favorite phrase is ‘Let’s settle this case,’” she told attorneys for both sides shortly before adjourning the courtroom after more than…
AMD is partnering with OpenAI to provide six gigawatts worth of processors for AI data centers, a move that challenges Nvidia’s AI chip market dominance. The five-year agreement aims to help OpenAI bolster its infrastructure to meet growing computational demands for AI applications like ChatGPT, starting with a gigawatt deployment of AMD Instinct MI450 GPUs…
AI coding tools are getting better fast. If you don’t work in code, it can be hard to notice how much things are changing, but GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 have made a whole new set of developer tricks possible to automate, and last week Sonnet 4.5 did it again. At the same time, other skills…
Multinational bank Standard Chartered predicted that more than $1 trillion could exit emerging market banks and flow into stablecoins by 2028 as demand for US dollar-pegged crypto assets accelerates. In a Monday report, Standard Chartered’s Global Research department said that it expects global stablecoin adoption to accelerate as payment networks and other core banking activities…
Rebrands rarely get much love. That backlash can be especially strong if you’re giving a facelift to a decades-old piece of software beloved by nerds around the globe. So, it was no surprise that when Audacity revealed its new logo people on the internet got a little worked up. And look, there’s no two ways…
SB 53, the AI safety and transparency bill that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law this week, is proof that state regulation doesn’t have to hinder AI progress. So says Adam Billen, vice president of public policy at youth-led advocacy group Encode AI, on today’s episode of Equity. “The reality is that policy makers themselves know that we have to do something, and…
Today in crypto, Bitcoin rallied to a new high on Sunday, Stripe CEO says stablecoins will force banks to offer users real interest on deposits, and US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) kicked off October with billions in inflows. Bitcoin rally to $125,000 fueled by US gov’t shutdown, macro factors: Analysts Bitcoin breached a new…
We’ve been working on a new show for the last few months, called Version History, and the first episode is now live! It’s called “Hoverboards: so hot right now,” and it’s an hour-long tour of the biggest rideable gadget of the 2010s. Hidden inside the history of this weird two-wheeled scooter is a crucial inflection…