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The latest brain-computer interface could help people recover from severe depression. Motif Neurotech announced Monday that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved a human study to trial the company’s blueberry-sized brain implant that sits in the skull and delivers electrical stimulation to treat depression.The Houston-based startup, founded in 2022, is part of a budding industry pursuing technology to read and interpret brain signals. While other companies exploring similar technology, like Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Paradromics, and Synchron, are developing devices to enable paralyzed people to communicate and use computers, Motif is aiming to ease depression in people who have…
When a team from Purga Films and Gut Mexico City set out to make a series of short films inspired by mafia, Western, and samurai dramas, they turned to AI to get the job done.The results were polished, cinematic stories that fit well into their respective genres. But there was one twist: every word of dialogue was “Lorem Ipsum,” the placeholder text typically used in design mockups. Purga Films, a new AI-focused division of Purga Studio, wanted to demonstrate that while AI has advanced rapidly to produce visually impressive work, it still can’t fully replace human craft. Over three months, the…
Skye, an iPhone app still in private testing, wants to change how people interact with AI on their smartphones. And even before it’s launched, it’s already attracted interest online and from investors and “tens of thousands” of users, according to its creator — a sign that consumers might want a more AI-aware iPhone. Instead of launching an app or speaking to an AI chatbot, the startup is working to design an “agentic homescreen” for the iPhone, using iOS widgets as its interface. Through those widgets, Skye would bring a sort of ambient intelligence to your device, offering personalized insights about your…
Elon Musk spent his Friday reposting criticism of competitors after the launch of the XChat app, a standalone messaging option for X users. “Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and iMessage all have serious security problems,” read a message Musk reposted, in part. “XChat is the only secure, encrypted messaging app.” Encryption experts I spoke with in the lead-up to this launch expressed cautious skepticism about XChat’s execution and defended other communication platforms, like Signal, as solid choices.One of XChat’s red flags is that users must connect an existing X account to log in and start messaging. “I’m a little suspicious of that,…
Netflix’s Running Point is adding some more members to its team.Recognizing that brand partnerships have long been part of the real-life professional sports world, Netflix saw an opportunity to create organic integrations for Running Point in Season 2, with select brands joining the show while aligning with the goings-on of the Kate Hudson-led comedy series.For the second season of the basketball-focused series, which debuted last week, fervent fans may notice that select brands have been neatly woven into the show’s storyline and aesthetics, including State Farm, DoorDash, Lexus, Ally Bank, Sephora, and Google Search.Speaking to ADWEEK, Magno Herran, Netflix’s VP…
Tech companies, including Microsoft and Meta, have been falling in love with natural gas lately, rushing to build power plants fed by the fossil fuel to drive their data centers. But their embrace might be a little too tight — the cost to build one of the facilities has spiked 66% in the last two years, according to a new report from BloombergNEF. While natural gas prices remain low in the U.S. despite the ongoing war in Iran, the price to build a new combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant has risen from less than $1,500 per kilowatt of…
Before Wi-Fi became ubiquitous, Ethernet was the preferred way to get your devices onto the internet. By running Ethernet cables in a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), you could send data back and forth. It is still widely used because sending data along cables is usually faster, and always more reliable and secure than sending it as radio waves, as Wi-Fi does.If you want to get the best from your internet connection, Ethernet is still a great way to do it, and it’s an obvious choice for any organization that prizes high speed, security, and reliability. Here’s…
Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerX is expanding its portfolio with the launch of Tamara Group, a new agency in response to rapid shifts in consumer attention and a fast-evolving production space.Unveiled at POSSIBLE in Miami on Monday (April 27), the agency enters the market with clients including Ulta Beauty, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, and Method, and an offering that spans creative strategy, influencer, social, and experiential. It opens with nearly 100 employees.Tamara Group’s approach pairs always-on digital content with what Vaynerchuk describes as “high-touch” experiential work. Its focus is on delivering cultural impact and relevance over traditional reach metrics.“AI, social, and digital…
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is far less vocal about his worldviews than Palantir’s Alex Karp. And yet, France is taking steps to reduce its reliance on Windows, while its domestic intelligence agency recently renewed its contract with the increasingly controversial data analytics company. This paradox is representative of Europe’s messy breakup with U.S. tech. After painful realizations that it comes with strings attached, governments across the region are looking to rely less on American providers. But the steps taken so far have been uneven and often reactive. The CLOUD Act changed the equation One change Europe is reacting to dates…
David Silver gave the world its very first glimpse of superintelligence.In 2016, an AI program he developed at Google DeepMind, AlphaGo, taught itself to play the famously difficult game of Go with a kind of mastery that went far beyond mimicry.Silver has since founded his own company, Ineffable Intelligence, that aims to build more general forms of AI superintelligence. The company will do this, Silver says, by focusing on reinforcement learning, which involves AI models learning new capabilities through trial and error. The vision is to create “superlearners” that go beyond human intelligence in many domains.This approach stands in contrast…
This is TVNewser’s basic cable network ranker and cable news report for the week of April 13, 2026.The three cable news networks saw declines in total viewers and Adults 25-54 during primetime and total day due to a slower news cycle than the previous week. Meanwhile, Fox News continued its dominant streak as the most-watched network in both measured categories. NETWORKS:According to Nielsen big data + panel for the week of April 13, Fox News averaged 2.711 million total viewers and 246,000 A25-54 viewers during primetime. The network was down -11% in total viewers and -21% in the demo compared to…
China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said on Monday it has blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of Manus, an agentic AI startup founded by Chinese engineers that relocated to Singapore before Mark Zuckerberg scooped it up late last year. The move marks one of China’s most significant interventions in a cross-border deal, one that extends well beyond U.S.-China tensions and into the broader AI industry. For Meta, it could deal a serious blow to its ambitions in the fast-moving AI agents space. With no explanation offered, China’s NDRC ordered both parties to unwind the deal…
Other Smart Glasses We’ve TestedI’ve tested several more pairs of smart glasses—some good and some bad.Photograph: Simon HillRayNeo Air 3s Pro for $299: TCL-owned RayNeo offers many models, and I’ve tested several. The latest Air 3s Pro glasses boast a 201-inch virtual screen (1080p, 120 Hz, 1200 nits), but the 46-degree field of view lets it down a little. Both color vibrancy and brightness offer major upgrades over previous releases, like the Air 2s and the older TCL RayNeo Air 2 XR Glasses, and you can just about see the whole screen clearly (even after adjusting, I had to slide…
Data platform Optable has inked a partnership with independent agency Goodway Group to bring AI-driven planning and measurement tools on top of the agency’s fragmented data systems, the companies said.The partnership reflects a broader shift across advertising, as agencies look to apply AI agents to media workflows while running into more fundamental constraints on the quality and organization of their underlying data.Optable began as a data clean room provider, a secure, privacy-controlled environment where advertisers and publishers can analyze shared data without exposing their underlying records. Now it is positioning its platform as an infrastructure layer that unifies first-party, third-party…
After expanding into podcasts, audiobooks, video, and even physical books, Spotify on Monday announced its next big category: fitness content. The company is building on its reputation as a hub for energizing playlists for your workout to actually become the home to your workout itself. To do so, Spotify has partnered with a number of established wellness creators and the exercise equipment maker, Peloton. Workouts from these providers will be accessible from a new “Fitness” hub within the app, or by typing in the term “fitness” in the search box. Their content, in the form of both music and video,…
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson launched his own brand, ALP, short for American Lip Pillow, in 2024. “Nicotine’s super important,” the ex-smoker told podcaster Theo Von in December, embodying a plump Marlboro Man for the smoke-free age. “This country’s gotten far sadder and less healthy since it was discouraged, and it’s coming back and it shows: People are just happier.” He also admitted to Men’s Health in January: “Is ALP addictive? Fuck yeah, it’s addictive!” (Carlson, 56, reportedly told podcaster Lex Fridman that nicotine “literally … makes my dick super hard.”)Brain PowerNicotine’s core mechanism hasn’t changed in the journey…