Neuralink’s ‘breakthrough device’ clearance from FDA does not mean it has cured blindness

Neuralink, the Elon Musk-owned brain-computer interface company, on Tuesday received “breakthrough device” clearance from the FDA. But this does not mean the outfit has developed a cure for blindness, no matter what Musk might say. The breakthrough devices program at the FDA is a volun

Discord launches end-to-end encrypted voice and video chats

Discord, one of the largest group chat apps in the world, announced on Tuesday that audio and video calls inside the platform will now be end-to-end encrypted (E2EE), meaning even Discord won't know what users in those conversations talk about.  In the last 10 years, end-to-end encrypted

Mozilla exits the fediverse and will shutter its Mastodon server in December

Mozilla is exiting the fediverse. Though the concept of the open social web, also known as the fediverse, has been picking up momentum ever since Meta last year introduced its first-ever federated app, Instagram Threads, Firefox maker Mozilla on Tuesday announced it would be ending its experiment i

Mistral launches a free tier for developers to test its AI models

Mistral AI launched a new free tier to let developers fine-tune and build test apps with the startup’s AI models, the company announced in a blog post Tuesday. The startup also slashed prices for developers to access its AI models through API endpoints and added image processing to its free c

Ursa Major nabs $12.5M from US Navy, DoD for 3D-printed rocket motors

Ursa Major, a startup that produces rocket motors through 3D printing, announced today that it received a $12.5 million contract from the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) and the U.S. Navy to develop new solid-fuel rocket engines. The company, which has raised $274 mill

Snap's extremely large Spectacles bring impressive AR to developers at $99 a month

Snap's new Spectacles are the next big thing — in the most literal way possible. The augmented reality glasses are extremely physically large. The social media firm sees the footprint as a kind of middle ground between a full extended reality headset and far more portable smart glasses. It w

AWS shuts down DeepComposer, its MIDI keyboard for AI music

AWS’ weird AI-powered keyboard experiment, DeepComposer, is no more. In a blog post today, the company announced it’s shutting down the 5-year-old DeepComposer, a physical MIDI piano and AWS service that let users compose songs with the help of generative AI. “A

Snap’s new AI feature lets you create Snapchat Lenses by simply describing them

Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, is expanding its suite of AI tools for creators. At this year’s Snap Partner Summit in Santa Monica, California, Snap announced a new feature, Easy Lens, that translates plain-English descriptions into Lenses, Snap’s brand of augmented reality (AR

Snapchat launches video comments and tools for creators seeking brand deals

At Tuesday's annual Snap Partner Summit, the Snapchat maker unveiled new tools for creators designed to bring its app more in line with its competitors, like TikTok and Instagram. The company also said it will make it easier for creators to connect with brands for sponsored deals and partnershi

Snap is introducing an AI video-generation tool for creators

At its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday, Snapchat announced that it's introducing a new AI video-generation tool for creators. The tool will allow select creators to generate AI videos from text prompts and, soon, from image prompts.  Snap says the tool will be available in beta on the w

Snapchat tests ‘simple’ version of the app without Snap Map or Stories tab

Snapchat is rolling out a simplified version of the app to some users, the company announced on Tuesday during its Snap Partner Summit, as part of a test to make the disappearing photo app easier to use. “Simple Snapchat” declutters the app’s home screen, removing the Snap Map and

Snapchat's My AI chatbot is getting new Google Lens-like features 

At its annual Snap Partner Summit on Tuesday, the Snapchat maker announced a series of new AI features coming to its app. Most notably, the app’s My AI chatbot is being updated to work more like Google Lens, as it can now respond to more complex Snaps. You can now snap a picture of a menu in

IBM acquires Kubernetes cost optimization startup Kubecost

IBM on Tuesday announced that it has acquired Kubecost, a FinOps startup that helps teams at companies like Allianz, Audi, Rakuten, and GitLab monitor and optimize their Kubernetes clusters with a focus on efficiency and, ultimately, cost. Tuesday’s announcement follows IBM’s $4.3 bill

Google will begin flagging AI-generated images in Search later this year

Google says that it plans to roll out changes to Google Search to make clearer which images in results were AI generated — or edited by AI tools. In the next few months, Google will begin to flag AI-generated and -edited images in the “About this image” window on Search, Google Lens,