The competition to build the iPhone of artificial intelligence is heating up.
On Tuesday, the technology startup Rabbit unveiled its contender: a small, orange, walkie-talkie style device that, according to the company, can use “AI agents” to carry out tasks on behalf of the user.
In a pre-recorded keynote address shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rabbit’s founder Jesse Lyu asks the device to plan him a vacation to London; the keynote shows the device designing him an itinerary and booking his trip. He orders a pizza, books an Uber, and teaches the device how to generate an image using Midjourney.
The gadget, called the Rabbit r1, is just the latest in an increasingly active new hardware category: portable AI-first devices that can interact wit…
Think, for a moment, about who you would call if you were having a bad day. If you’d screwed up a deal at work, or gotten into an argument with your spouse, or were feeling frustrated and sick of it all: Who would you want to talk to? There’s probably someone you know will make you feel better, who can help you think through a thorny question, or share a moment of heartbreak or joy.
That person, for you, is what I like to call a “supercommunicator” (and odds are, for them, you are a supercommunicator, too.) All of us, at times, achieve moments of supercommunication. But there are some people who are supercommunicators much more consistently—they know how to connect with nearly anyone, to make conversations easier, to make us feel like we’ve really been heard. We all kn…
This year, during the heat of summer, when temperatures in New York surpassed 90°F, the 22 solar panels on the roof of my house were doing absolutely nothing.
This is not something I learned until September, four months after my husband and I bought this house with a purportedly functional leased solar system in upstate New York, months after logging into a website that inaccurately told us that the panels were working, months after we forked over $6,000 to prepay the remainder of the 20-year lease to the company supposed to be maintaining the solar panels, Spruce Power, which happens to be the largest privately held owner and operator of residential solar in America.
A third-party technician dispatched to our house by Spruce in September blamed squirrels that chewed on som…
In most cases, news that a company could be bought out at a price higher than its market value sends investors into a buying frenzy that rackets up the company’s share price. But that wasn’t exactly the case for Twitter on Thursday.
The company’s stock fell almost 2% during regular trading on the day that Elon Musk offered to buy the social media platform for $43 billion—roughly $7 billion more than its current market valuation.
The lack of support from investors is one of the reasons Wall Street analysts are skeptical that Twitter’s board of directors would accept the offer. It could be a sign that investors are underwhelmed with Musk’s bid, particularly over concerns as to how he would finance it. By Thursday afternoon, a flurry of inves…
Imagine taking a long, hot shower without wasting water and energy.
That’s the guilt-free promise of a recirculating shower, which continuously filters, sterilizes and reuses water that would otherwise go down the bathroom drain. The technology reduces water consumption up to 90% and energy use by 80% compared to a conventional shower, according to manufacturers of the devices.
“We are addressing two of the problems the world is facing, climate change and water shortages, without sacrificing the shower experience,” said Troels Grene, chief executive officer of Flow Loop, a Danish company that has developed a recirculating shower called the Eco Loop.
Flow Loop is one of several startups bringing the technology to market in northern Europe, with plans t…
In a sign of how far China’s leaders have drifted from their revolutionary roots, the biggest shock gripping the country today is that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might actually be socialist after all.
The shakeup centers on the phrase “common prosperity.” It was first introduced by revolutionary leader Mao Zedong but has now been taken up as the defining mantra of a new era as imagined by current strongman President Xi Jinping.
In an Aug. 17 speech to the CCP’s Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs—his first since the secretive, annual summer leadership conclave at the seaside town of Beidaihe—Xi declared that “Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism and a key feature of Chinese-style m…
Gap Inc. is backing the decision by its star athlete endorser Simone Biles to put her mental health first and sit out the gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics.
“We stand by Simone and support her well-being both in and out of competition,” Kyle Andrew, chief brand officer for Gap’s Athleta line, said Tuesday in a statement. “Being the best also means knowing how to take care of yourself. We are inspired by her leadership today and are behind her every step of the way.”
The world’s preeminent gymnast, age 24, pulled out of the team competition after faltering on a vault, citing her state of mind and the risk of injury. Her team went on to win a silver medal.
On Wednesday, USA Gymnastics said Biles would also be pulling ou…