Author: admin

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and cost jobs.The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and a host of other illnesses — anything from clinical trials of new treatments to basic lab research that is the foundation for discoveries.Separate lawsuits filed by a group of 22 states plus organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions nationwide sued to stop the cuts, saying they…

Two trailblazing computer scientists have won the 2024 Turing Award for their work in reinforcement learning, a discipline in which machines learn through a reward-based trial-and-error approach that lets them adapt within constrained or dynamic environments. Andrew G. Barto, a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Richard S. Sutton, a professor at the University of Alberta, developed key algorithms and theories through a seminal series of papers starting in the 1980s. This includes work on a reinforcement technique called temporal difference learning; the duo later published an academic textbook called “Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction.” Esteemed mathematician Alan…

On Wednesday, Google announced the launch of a new AI image feature for its Shopping tab, designed to help users find clothing items they envision by allowing them to search using their own words. The company is also expanding its AR beauty and virtual try-on tools. The new feature, “Vision Match,” is now available in the search experience on mobile for U.S. users. It lets shoppers describe a garment they’re imagining, and then the AI suggests ideas based on the description, along with the best available matches that users can purchase. To try this feature, type an idea into the…

Aubrey Preston, the son of Life Care Centers of America founder Forrest Preston.Leiper’s Fork Foundation America’s largest privately-held nursing chain has been owned and run by the same person for more than five decades. Tennessee mogul Forrest Preston founded Life Care Centers of America in 1970 and built it into a juggernaut with over 200 locations in 27 states. That all changed on Tuesday after a brief trial in Bradley County, Tennessee, which ended with the court finding the 91-year-old Preston to be mentally unfit to helm the $3 billion (revenue) business. Preston’s son, Aubrey, 65, who was named his…

The ChatGPT prompt that reveals your hidden talent in seconds getty Most people go through life never realizing what they’re truly exceptional at. They spend decades trying to fix weaknesses instead of leveraging their natural talents. They compare themselves to others and come up short. They feel lost and uncertain about what makes them special. I shared a simple but powerful prompt in a LinkedIn post that helps entrepreneurs discover their unique talents. Here are the surprising results and how you can use this insight to accelerate your success. You need an edge to stand out: find it with ChatGPT…

Are you a leader in the AI space? Make your voice heard as a TechCrunch Sessions: AI speaker.  At TechCrunch Sessions: AI, you can help shape what’s next in the AI industry — and share your expertise with 1,200 AI founders, investors, and industry pioneers. Help drive the next wave of innovation on June 5 in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley. We’re bringing together leaders and shakers in the AI industry to host compelling sessions and interactive roundtables. You can help propel the industry forward by guiding entrepreneurs, founders, and innovators through AI’s rapidly evolving landscape. Host a dynamic breakout…

Reimagined as an ambitious and visionary bridge investment focus on infrastructure development, job creation, innovation and education.Photo by Curtis Macnood The global economic landscape is about to undergo a once-in-a-generation paradigm shift, as the World Subnationals and Nations (WSANDN), in partnership with development firm Juvidoe Technologies, prepares to roll out the first-ever Economic Growth Capital Resource (EGCR) initiative. This visionary plan to eliminate barriers and create a global infrastructure development boom is projected to generate a staggering $300 trillion in new economic value that will energize local communities around the globe, lifting people out of poverty and lifting countries’ debts.…

United States tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports took effect on Tuesday. The levies, set at 25 percent by US President Donald Trump, have been followed by the doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20 percent. Levies on Canadian energy are limited to 10 percent. Mexico and Canada, the top US trading partners, account for more than 30 percent of total goods traded, exceeding $1.6 trillion. The move has triggered trade tensions, including retaliatory tariffs, that could slow economic growth and drive up prices for Americans still recovering from years of high inflation. “We estimate the tariffs could lead…

A weekend hackathon project that lets AI agents talk on the phone with each other in a robotic language, one that’s incomprehensible to humans, has gone viral on social media over the past week. The project, called GibberLink, was created by two Meta software engineers during a hackathon competition in London, hosted by ElevenLabs and Andreessen Horowitz. GibberLink allows an AI agent to recognize when it’s speaking on the phone with another AI agent, the project’s creators, Boris Starkov and Anton Pidkuiko, told TechCrunch in an interview. Once an AI agent realizes it’s talking to another AI agent, GibberLink prompts…

Proofpoint warns of a highly targeted campaign targeting several United Arab Emirates organizations across multiple sectors with a new backdoor. The attacks, attributed to an Iranian threat actor tracked as UNK_CraftyCamel, employed polyglot files to hide the malicious payload, a technique relatively uncommon in espionage attacks. The threat actor, Proofpoint says, compromised an Indian electronics company’s email account in October 2024 and then used it to send malicious email messages to UAE organizations in the aviation and satellite communications, and critical transportation infrastructure sectors. The messages contained a malicious URL to download a ZIP archive that appeared to contain an…