Technology News

Using several recent innovations, the company Databricks will let customers boost the IQ of their AI models even if they don’t have squeaky clean data.

People are often quite selective about the information they'll accept, seeking out sources that will confirm their biases, while discounting those that will challenge their beliefs. In theory, search engines can potentially change that. By prioritizing results from high-quality, credible sources, a search engine could ensure that people found accurate information more frequently, potentially opening them to the possibility of updating their beliefs.

Obviously, that hasn't worked out on the technology side, as people quickly learned how to game the algorithms used by search engines, meaning that the webpages that get returned have been created by people with no interest in quality or credibility. But a new study is suggesting that the concept fails on the human side, too, as people tend to devise search terms that are specific enough to ensure that the results of the search will end up reinforcing their existing beliefs.

The study showed that invisibly swapping search terms to something more general can go a long way toward enabling people to change their mind.

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Daredevil: Born Again, Win or Lose, and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew are just a few of the shows you should be watching on Disney+ this month.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation yesterday launched a task force "to try to nail the criminals setting fire to Tesla vehicles and charging stations," and is looking into an anarchist blog that has been "calling for more" attacks, The New York Post reported.

"The bureau has received reports of 48 instances so far this month related to Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations and is investigating at least seven of them in conjunction with local law enforcement, The Post has learned," the article said. "The agency's newly formed 10-person task force will deploy ATF personnel—special agents and intelligence analysts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the Treasury Department—and personnel from the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, including its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section and Weapons of Mass Destruction."

ATF is embedding personnel in some FBI field offices, starting in San Antonio, Texas, "where some of the Molotov cocktail attacks have been carried out," the report said. There were previously three arrests. The FBI is reviewing security camera footage and gained access to cell phone location data in an attempt to find more culprits, the report said.

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With the vast majority of President Donald Trump's cabinet members now approved by the US Senate, focus is turning to senior positions within the administration that are just below the cabinet level.

The administrator of NASA is among the most high-profile of these positions. Nearly four months ago Trump nominated private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become chief of the space agency, but he has yet to receive a hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Almost immediately after his nomination, much of the space community fell in behind Isaacman, who has flown to space twice on private Crew Dragon missions, raised charitable funds, and is generally well-liked. Since then, Isaacman has worked to build support for his candidacy through conversations with people in the space community and officeholders.

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On the Android Developers Blog, we’re sharing how we're making it easier than ever for developers to build safe apps, while also continuing to strengthen our ecosys…

Apple has suffered a blow in its efforts to salvage its lucrative search placement deal with Google. A new ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirms that Apple cannot participate in Google's upcoming antitrust hearing, which could leave a multibillion-dollar hole in Apple's balance sheet. The judges in the case say Apple simply waited too long to get involved.

Just a few years ago, a high-stakes court case involving Apple and Google would have found the companies on opposing sides, but not today. Apple's and Google's interests are strongly aligned here, to the tune of $20 billion. Google forks over that cash every year, and it's happy to do so to secure placement as the default search provider in the Safari desktop and mobile browser.

The antitrust penalties pending against Google would make that deal impermissible. Throughout the case, the government made the value of defaults clear—most people never change them. That effectively delivers Google a captive audience on Apple devices.

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Gemini 2.5 is our most intelligent AI model, now with thinking.Gemini 2.5 is our most intelligent AI model, now with thinking.

World of Warcraft Classic's Hardcore mode has set itself apart from the average MMO experience simply by making character death permanent across the entire in-game realm. For years, Blizzard has not allowed any appeals or rollbacks for these Hardcore mode character deaths, even when such deaths came as the direct result of a server disconnection or gameplay bug.

Now, Blizzard says it's modifying that policy somewhat in response to a series of "unprecedented distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks" undertaken "with the singular goal of disrupting players’ experiences." The World of Warcraft developer says it may now resurrect Classic Hardcore characters "at our sole discretion" when those deaths come "in a mass event which we deem inconsistent with the integrity of the game."

RIP OnlyFangs?

The high stakes inherent to WoW's Classic Hardcore mode have made it an appealing target for streamers and other online content creators looking to build an audience. Dozens of the most popular Hardcore WoW streamers have been gathering together as part of the OnlyFangs Guild, a group dedicated to the idea that "every decision matters and one mistake can mean the end of a character’s journey."

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Boeing is trying to withdraw a plea agreement and obtain more lenient treatment from the Trump administration in a case involving two deadly 737 Max crashes, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

Boeing previously agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. Boeing could still plead guilty but face weaker penalties than it agreed to last year if the Justice Department and a federal judge agree.

Trump's Department of Justice "is reviewing numerous pending criminal cases that haven't yet gone to trial or been approved by courts," and "Boeing stands to benefit from fresh eyes at Trump's Justice Department, which is inclined to at least modify parts of the agreement," the WSJ wrote, citing people familiar with the matter. "Allowing Boeing to rescind its plea agreement, or lightening the company's punishment, would mark one of the most prominent examples of the Trump administration's lighter-touch approach to some white-collar enforcement."

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Netflix announced today that it has started offering HDR movies and shows in the HDR10+ format.

Since December 2014, when season 1 of Marco Polo debuted, Netflix has supported the HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats. Like Dolby Vision, HDR10+ is a more advanced form of HDR that uses dynamic metadata fine-tuned to specific content. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision let creatives set how each frame looks, enabling a final result that should have more detail and look closer to how the content's creators intended. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are especially impactful when watching HDR content on lower-priced HDR TVs that could suffer from poor black levels and other performance gaps.

You have to subscribe to Netflix's Premium ad-free plan to stream content in HDR and 4K resolution. The plan is $25 per month, compared to $18 per month for the Standard ad-free plan that limits users to 1080p resolution.

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As the Trump administration continues its efforts to slash the US federal workforce, the team responsible for publishing data used in advanced research in astrophysics, nuclear fusion, and other fields appears to be on the chopping block.

As the Trump administration continues its efforts to slash the US federal workforce, the team responsible for publishing data used in advanced research in astrophysics, nuclear fusion, and other fields appears to be on the chopping block.

The global backlash against the second Donald Trump administration keeps on growing. Canadians have boycotted US-made products, anti–Elon Musk posters have appeared across London amid widespread Tesla protests, and European officials have drastically increased military spending as US support for Ukraine falters. Dominant US tech services may be the next focus.

There are early signs that some European companies and governments are souring on their use of American cloud services provided by the three so-called hyperscalers. Between them, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) host vast swathes of the Internet and keep thousands of businesses running. However, some organizations appear to be reconsidering their use of these companies’ cloud services—including servers, storage, and databases—citing uncertainties around privacy and data access fears under the Trump administration.

“There’s a huge appetite in Europe to de-risk or decouple the over-dependence on US tech companies, because there is a concern that they could be weaponized against European interests,” says Marietje Schaake, a nonresident fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and a former decadelong member of the European Parliament.

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Polestar provided flights from Los Angeles to Lulea and accommodation so Ars could visit Polestar's winter testing site. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

LULEA, Sweden—Staring out the window of a puddle jumper descending from Stockholm into Lulea, I spy frozen seawater for the first time in my life. Not nearly as much as I expected, though, for the middle of February at the northern end of Sweden. I've flown here to drift electric Polestars on an icy lake called Stor-Skabram, near the small outpost of Jokkmokk, fully above the Arctic Circle. Yet the balmy weather serves as a constant reminder of the climate change that inspires much of the narrative around the electric vehicle industry.

EVs on ice

An opportunity to get somebody else's cars sideways as much as possible on ice and snow is a particularly enjoyable way to spend a day, if you like driving cars. More importantly, automotive manufacturers rely on this kind of winter testing to fine-tune traction and stability-control programming, ensuring their cars can work well in the depths of the deepest winter. For EVs in particular, winter testing presents a more complex range of equations.

First of all, an EV can't ever turn the electronic nannies off entirely, because electric motors will rev to the moon with instantaneous torque the very instant their tires lose traction. So while software uses wheel speed sensors and regenerative braking, as well as accelerometers that detect yaw rates, each EV needs to then maintain progressive output responses to driver inputs that allow for confident performance and safety simultaneously.

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Lenovo finally ditches the iconic little red nubbin on this ThinkPad, which raises the question: Is it still a ThinkPad?

The San Francisco Bay Area is awash with in-person dating meetups for tech workers, where attendees are vetted before entry.

“Demand is off the charts!” Elon Musk crowed at the end of 2023, citing more than a million reservations for Tesla's polarizing polygonic pickup—so why has it still sold less than 50,000?

“Demand is off the charts!” Elon Musk crowed at the end of 2023, citing more than a million reservations for Tesla's polarizing polygonic pickup—so why has it still sold less than 50,000?

“RISC architecture is gonna change everything.” Those absurdly geeky, incredibly prophetic words were spoken 30 years ago. Today, they’re somehow truer than ever.