This elephant figured out how to use a hose to shower
And the hose-showering behavior was “lateralized,” that is, Mary preferred targeting her left body side more than her right. (Yes, Mary is a “left-trunker.”) Mary even adapted her showering behavior depending on the diameter of the hose: she preferred showering…
New secret math benchmark stumps AI models and PhDs alike
Epoch AI allowed Fields Medal winners Terence Tao and Timothy Gowers to review portions of the benchmark. “These are extremely challenging,” Tao said in feedback provided to Epoch. “I think that in the near term basically the only way to…
For the second time this year, NASA’s JPL center cuts its workforce
“This reduction is spread across essentially all areas of the Lab including our technical, project, business, and support areas,” Leshin wrote. “We have taken seriously the need to re-size our workforce, whether direct-funded (project) or funded on overhead (burden). With…
What if AI doesn’t just keep getting better forever?
For years now, many AI industry watchers have looked at the quickly growing capabilities of new AI models and mused about exponential performance increases continuing well into the future. Recently, though, some of that AI “scaling law” optimism has been…
Record labels unhappy with court win, say ISP should pay more for user piracy
The big three record labels notched another court victory against a broadband provider last month, but the music publishing firms aren’t happy that an appeals court only awarded per-album damages instead of damages for each song. Universal, Warner, and Sony…
Bitcoin hits record high as Trump vows to end crypto crackdown
Bitcoin hit a new record high late Monday, its value peaking at $89,623 as investors quickly moved to cash in on expectations that Donald Trump will end a White House crackdown that intensified last year on crypto. While the trading…
Spotify’s Car Thing, due for bricking, is getting an open source second life
Spotify has lost all enthusiasm for the little music devices it sold for just half a year. Firmware hackers, as usually happens, have a lot more interest and have stepped in to save, and upgrade, a potentially useful gadget. Spotify’s…
Review: The fastest of the M4 MacBook Pros might be the least interesting one
In some ways, my review of the new MacBook Pros will be a lot like my review of the new iMac. This is the third year and fourth generation of the Apple Silicon-era MacBook Pro design, and outwardly, few things…
Calling all Ars readers! Your feedback is needed.
Many of you know that most of our staff is spread out all over these United States, but what you might not know is that it has been more than five years since many of us saw each other in…
Amazon ready to use its own AI chips, reduce its dependence on Nvidia
Amazon now expects around $75 billion in capital spending in 2024, with the majority on technology infrastructure. On the company’s latest earnings call, chief executive Andy Jassy said he expects the company will spend even more in 2025. This represents…