Amazon CTO Werner Vogels on fighting misinformation, tech addiction, and small nuclear reactors

In what has become a bit of an annual tradition, I sat down with Amazon CTO Werner Vogels at AWS re:Invent this week. Another annual tradition now is that Vogels, who joined Amazon in 2004, publishes a series of predictions for the next year. It’d be easy to think that this year’s predi

Amp Robotics raises $91M to build more robot-filled waste-sorting facilities

Recycling today kind of sucks. People are generally confused about what can be recycled and where. As a result, only about 32% of eligible waste actually gets recycled. It would be a lot easier if people could dump everything into one bin and let the waste-management companies deal with it, but th

OpenAI wants to pair online courses with chatbots

If OpenAI has its way, the next online course you take might have a chatbot component. Speaking at a fireside on Monday hosted by Coeus Collective, Siya Raj Purohit, a member of OpenAI’s go-to-market team for education, said that OpenAI might explore ways to let e-learning instructors create

Holiday app Festivitas puts Xmas lights on your Mac

Getting into the holiday spirit but still stuck at work? A cute new macOS app called Festivitas can help you decorate your Mac computer screen with twinkling, holiday lights that are strung up from your menu bar and illuminate your dock. This whimsical holiday treat was dreamed up by software deve

Threads tests a feature that lets you see how well specific posts performed

Threads is testing the ability for its users to see how well their individual posts performed on the social network. Up until now, Threads’ “Insights” feature only showed you aggregated metrics for all of your posts. Now, the feature can show you metrics for each post. If youR

Delaware judge rules against Elon Musk's $56B pay package again

Welcome back to technewss Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click technewss Mobility! Your usual host Kirsten is out this week, so I'll be taking you through the last couple weeks' worth of mobility news.&n

OpenAI confirms new $200 monthly subscription, ChatGPT Pro, which includes its o1 reasoning model

OpenAI has launched a new subscription plan for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform — and it’s very, very expensive. Confirming leaks this morning, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Pro, a new $200-per-month subscription tier that provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI's models,

Fitness startup Ladder comes after Peloton for allegedly copying their app

Ladder, an Austin, Texas-based fitness startup that makes a popular strength-training app, is accusing Peloton of ripping off its work with the launch of Peloton’s new Stength+ app, which exited beta on Wednesday. After receiving feedback from Peloton’s beta testers that the app looked

ARX launches firestick-like platform to make military trucks autonomous

A startup with founders who previously served in the German military has created a product akin to an Amazon Firestick for legacy defense equipment, complete with a software stack. ARX Robotics claims its system can turn old equipment into AI-driven devices, such as autonomous-driving trucks.  Ba

Meta eases up on issuing ‘first strikes’ for Facebook users and Instagram creators

Days after Meta admitted that it’s been over-moderating its content, with mistakes impacting creators, the company announced an expansion of a new policy that will help to keep creators from being penalized after their first time violating Meta’s Community Standards. On Thursday, Meta s

Nectir lets teachers tailor AI chatbots to provide their students with 24/7 educational support

More than 100 colleges and high schools are turning to a new AI tool called Nectir, allowing teachers to create a personalized learning partner that's trained on their syllabi, textbooks, and assignments to help students with anything from questions related to their coursework to essay writing

Google’s latest feature drop includes new Gemini extensions and accessibility features

Google said Thursday it is introducing multiple updates for Pixel and Android devices as part of the December feature drop. These features include new Gemini extensions, an updated Pixel Screenshots app, expressive captions, and accessibility enhancements. Android Google is introducing new Gemini

Copilot Vision, Microsoft’s AI tool that can read your screen, launches in preview

Microsoft’s AI can now read your screen — or rather, the websites you’re browsing. On Thursday, the company began rolling out a limited, U.S.-only preview of Copilot Vision, a tool that can understand and respond to questions about sites you’re visiting using Microsoft Edge. Ga

Women in AI: Tamar Eilam is helping IBM build sustainable computing

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, technewss is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who've contributed to the AI revolution. Tamar Eilam has worked at IBM for the past 24 years. She's curre