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Ever want to live underwater in a 35-by-8-foot tube? You may soon have your wish, if one UK-based startup has anything to say about it.New footage from Mashable shows a wild new project developed by DEEP, an ocean engineering company founded in 2021. Its pilot habitat, called the “Vanguard,” recently went online some 56 feet underwater, off the coast of Florida’s Tennessee Reef.Don’t expect a five-star stay however, because the Vanguard is basically a glorified camper-van. It boasts a few main modules: a living space complete with four bunks, a sofa, and a galley; a combination bathroom-slash-science-lab; a moon pool…

It’s a well-established fact that the Earth has been warming ever since the advent of industrialization. While climate skeptics have traditionally argued that the timing of this is merely a coincidence — that burning huge amounts of fossil fuels isn’t a significant factor contributing to long-term climate change — a new piece of research means they might have to come up with a new thesis, and fast.The study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that the rate of global warming is not merely chugging along at a steady clip. Instead, it’s accelerating at an astonishing rate. Scientists found…

Not immediately jumping on the AI bandwagon like everyone else is? It says something that Chili’s doing this— yes, the casual dining chain with the big red pepper logo — is being seen as shrewd decision making and not just common sense.Chris Caldwell, the chief information officer at Chili’s owner Brinker International, emphasized in recent interviews how the company wasn’t “all in” on AI, and is instead focused on overhauling its tech in more practical ways.“I’m not chasing AI to go, ‘Guys, Anthropic just released a new LLM, and we need to use it because it’s cool,’” he told Business…

Nothing escapes the sloppifying tentacles of AI. Not even precious parent-child reading time.As Wired reports, moms and dads across the country are having AI-generated children’s books inflicted on them by the tots’ well-meaning grandparents, sometimes creating tensions within the family. Grandma and grampa think it’s cute to use AI to churn out a picture book with their grandchildren in it. But the parents often aren’t impressed, on top of being horrified by the implications of their kids being fed into an AI model in the first place.One parent fumed about this scenario in a Reddit post spotted by Wired, distraught that…

There’s a new AI on the block — but not the kind you’re thinking.A billboard in San Francisco is marketing a service called ChatTJB, which the giant ad boasts is the “leading chatbot interface powered by AI.” But as noted in a tiny — and partially obscured by a tree — disclaimer on the bottom of the billboard, “AI” in this case doesn’t stand for artificial intelligence. Instead, it stands for “average individual.” Indeed, when you chat with ChatTJB, you’re chatting with a single human man named Tucker Bryant.“I just built the worst [large language model] of all time, and it’s about to…

Meta has opened Pandora’s box with its AI-infused smart sunglasses. The pricy accessory has sparked a heated debate over privacy, with unsavory individuals abusing the eyewear’s easily-missed cameras to harass unsuspecting strangers in public — garnering the specs the distinctly unflattering nickname of “pervert glasses.”It’s gotten to the point that owners who shelled out hundreds of dollars for a pair have become too afraid to wear them in public. Meanwhile, Meta is seriously struggling to crack down on its badly-behaved users.Now, Google alternative DuckDuckGo, a company that has long attempted to actively distance itself from Big Tech, has come up…

Tech companies are making record amounts of money, posting major gains in the most recent quarter compared to the same period just a year ago.But despite all that income, these same companies are struggling to save any cash left over thanks to unfathomably huge AI-related expenses, a trend that could imminently put them firmly in the red.As the Washington Post reports, the situation is about to go from concerning to potentially catastrophic. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, free cash flow — the amount of cash that remains after expenses — is about to drop off a…

A former Flock employee has quit the company in disgust, saying it lied to workers about how its surveillance cameras were used and that it used dirty tricks to silence its critics.The employee, Jonathan Paz, joined the company as a government affairs manager two years ago. Nominally, his job was to represent Flock’s “product as best as possible making sure that we can get approved at council,” he told 404 Media in a new interview. Or in other words, his gig was to convince cities to buy and deploy its AI-powered cameras.Paz maintains that he earnestly believed at the time that…

The LA-based rapper Fenix Flexin is denying that his hit new single was AI-generated after extensive allegations.The song, “Rubberz,” climbed to number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 after dropping in June. Many of his peers gassed up the track, but listeners immediately noticed something off. A lot of things, actually.For one, many pointed out that the vocals didn’t sound like Fenix at all, both in terms of the quality of his voice and the fact that he hits high notes he’s never demonstrated he’s been capable of in his career. His “live” performances are doing him no favor, either,…

Back in 2023, we reported on AI-generated influencers that were pulling thousands of reactions per thirst trap on Instagram.Years later, the schemes are only getting more sophisticated. Instead of still images, Meta’s platforms are now filling with AI-generated video of nonexistent young woman that are objectified beyond belief while pushing the platform’s rules on sexualized content to the absolute breaking point.After years of public discourse about the dangers of AI-generated media, you might imagine that users’ skepticism is growing. But instead, the videos are luring in legions of lonely old guys who seem to have no idea that the visages…