All posts tagged: Adding

Apple May Be Adding Support for Conversational AI in CarPlay

Apple May Be Adding Support for Conversational AI in CarPlay

Published by skeptic

If you’ve ever dreamed of talking with your car, Apple may have good news for you. Within the latest CarPlay developer guide is support for “voice-based conversational apps,” a sign that Apple could be about to open the doors to AI chatbot apps like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude right on your dashboard. The guidelines indicate that AI companies like Google or OpenAI will need to create an interface that shows the conversational AI is listening in CarPlay, and then “appropriately respond to questions or requests and perform actions.” Support is expected to arrive in March with the release of iOS 26.4, which is currently in beta. Companies that want to participate will have to jump through all the usual Apple hoops to qualify for CarPlay. An Apple representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. How will talking to AI while driving work? Conversational AI will have limitations in CarPlay. Apple/Screenshot by Joe Maldonado/CNET Apple has limited what apps work with CarPlay, partially to help keep drivers focused and undistracted. Siri commands were enabled under certain circumstances, …

‘Loaded water’ is hyped as a secret to hydration. But adding electrolytes is merely effort down the drain | Natasha May

‘Loaded water’ is hyped as a secret to hydration. But adding electrolytes is merely effort down the drain | Natasha May

Published by Sam Flores

Attitudes towards hydration have become another faultline in the generational divide: while the giant “emotional support” water bottle is ubiquitous among gen Z, those of the writer Ian McEwan’s vintage find the modern obsession with hydration “deranged”. McEwan and his ilk will be even more perplexed then that even those guzzling from their Stanley Cups throughout the day are being told they are still not sufficiently hydrating themselves. Influencers are telling their followers they “don’t understand what hydration is” if they’re not adding electrolytes such as sodium and chloride (salt) as well as magnesium and potassium to their water to help their cells “hold on to and use” it. Often spruiking the sachets wellness companies are selling, they claim these fancy salt formulations are essential to avoiding migraines and muscle cramps, anxiety and mood swings. Some TikTokers are adding sachets alongside other ingredients such as coloured ice cubes, edible glitter and fruit into the aforementioned massive cup in a trend known as “loaded water”. But what do the experts say – is plain old water …

Meta Adding Facial Recognition to Its Smart Glasses That Identifies People in Real Time, Hoping the Public Is Too Distracted by Political Turmoil to Care

Meta Adding Facial Recognition to Its Smart Glasses That Identifies People in Real Time, Hoping the Public Is Too Distracted by Political Turmoil to Care

Published by José Betancourt

Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images When Meta announced it would strip its failed VR goggles division for parts, the bet was simple: funnel that money into sleek, AI-powered smart glasses instead. Emboldened by the product’s early success, the company is now working on rolling out a massive facial recognition feature across its entire smart glasses platform — a launch which involves timing the announcement with political drama to minimize scrutiny. According to new reporting by the New York Times, Meta could make the facial recognition features available to smart glasses owners as early as this year. Internally, the software goes by the designation “Name Tag.” Per the NYT‘s sources, it would let anyone who owns Meta’s smart glasses to identify people in the real world, instantly pulling up their information through Meta’s AI assistant. Since early 2025, NYT notes, Meta insiders have been hemming and hawing over how to roll out the feature, acknowledging significant “safety and privacy risks” associated with the feature. Disturbingly, documents viewed by the paper reportedly show the …

Adding solar panels to semi trailers is an idea so obvious it hurts

Adding solar panels to semi trailers is an idea so obvious it hurts

Published by skeptic

Refrigerated trailers are critical for hauling your fresh food and flowers from the farm to your local market – the problem is that they pollute like crazy, powered by red-dye diesel gensets that run around the clock, even when the truck pulling them is fully electric. To help solve that problem, one company come up with an idea so obvious you’ll hate yourself for not coming up with it on your own: rooftop solar. Refrigerated trailers (reefers) are critical for hauling fresh food and flowers from the farm to your local market — the problem is that they pollute like crazy, powered by red-dye diesel gensets that run around the clock, even if the truck pulling them is fully electric. That constant diesel burn spews CO₂ and NOx into industrial and residential areas alike, and contributes significantly to fleets’ carbon emissions and noise pollution at a time when a number of municipalities are moving to regulate both, regardless of what the Annoying Orange-in-Chief wants. It is, as they say, “a real problem,” but Sunswap Endurance …

Why adding cross training into your exercise routine is the way to go

Why adding cross training into your exercise routine is the way to go

Published by skeptic

You may benefit from mixing up your aerobic workouts Piero Facci / Alamy I often say that the key to staying consistent with working out is finding an exercise you love. You are more likely to move your body if you look forward to doing so. But you should also consider switching it up every now and then. Known as cross-training, varying your workout routine can significantly improve your fitness and overall health. In a study published last month, researchers at Harvard University analysed physical activity data from more than 70,000 women and nearly 41,000 men collected across four decades. They found that participants who performed a variety of exercises, such as cycling, running and strength training, were 19 per cent less likely to die of any cause over the study period than those who were just as physically active but stuck to one type of workout. Their risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other causes was also between 13 and 41 per cent lower. Why is that? Well, exercise improves our health …

Harmony Korine Talks About Creating New Worlds & Adding Emotion to AI

Harmony Korine Talks About Creating New Worlds & Adding Emotion to AI

Published by José Betancourt

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harmony Korine—a filmmaker and multimedia artist whose boundless imagination has careened into painting, poetry, music, digital art, and pretty much every other artform that exists—talks about moving past his previous pursuits and going all-in on AI. From the Miami office of EDGLRD, the creative studio Korine started around the time of his infrared movie Aggro Dr1ft in 2023, the provocateur said he hasn’t read a book in decades and the only movie he saw last year was the Smurfs film that starred Rihanna as the voice of Smurfette. Instead, he has been spending his time thinking about “more post-narrative, sensory, experimental kinds of entertainment.” Related Articles In response to a question as to whether AI can conceive anything beyond what might be considered slop, Korine said, “We’re just at the point of understanding what we’re capable of with it and then is there a world where the aesthetics take over and we use it in a way that’s not really about the idea of realism but turning it …

Utah Governor Signs Bill Adding Justices to State Supreme Court as Redistricting Appeal Looms

Utah Governor Signs Bill Adding Justices to State Supreme Court as Redistricting Appeal Looms

Published by Sam Flores

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill Saturday that expands the state Supreme Court from five justices to seven as frustration has mounted among Republican lawmakers over a string of defeats before the tribunal. Republican advocates for the change argued that it would help improve the court’s efficiency. But legal experts said it could have the opposite effect and set a dangerous precedent at a time of tension between the branches of government. The state’s judiciary did not ask for more justices on the high court. Democrats, who were united in opposition to the bill, called the timing suspicious. Last week the Legislature asked the court to overturn a redistricting ruling that gave Democrats a strong shot at picking up one of Utah’s four Republican-held congressional seats in the fall. New justices could be in place when the court decides the fate of the congressional map. Because the bill received approval from more than two-thirds of legislators, it took effect immediately after the governor signed it, allowing him to bypass …

Google Is Adding an ‘AI Inbox’ to Gmail That Summarizes Emails

Google Is Adding an ‘AI Inbox’ to Gmail That Summarizes Emails

Published by skeptic

Google is putting even more generative AI tools into Gmail as part of its goal to further personalize user inboxes and streamline searches. On Thursday, the company announced a new “AI Inbox” tab, currently in a beta testing phase, that reads every message in a user’s Gmail and suggests a list of to-dos and key topics, based on what it summarizes. In Google’s example of what this AI Inbox could look like in Gmail, the new tab takes context from a user’s messages and suggests they reschedule their dentist appointment, reply to a request from their child’s sports coach, and pay an upcoming fee before the deadline. Also under the AI Inbox tab is a list of important topics worth browsing, nestled beneath the action items at the top. Each suggested to-do and topic links back to the original email for more context and for verification. Courtesy of Google Despite the continued spread of generative AI features, the underlying reliability of these tools remains iffy. Back in 2023, when Google’s chatbot was still called “Bard,” …