All posts tagged: mode

Reid Hoffman is leaving Microsoft’s board to go ‘founder mode’ with startup Manus

Reid Hoffman is leaving Microsoft’s board to go ‘founder mode’ with startup Manus

Published by skeptic

After a very profitable decade on Microsoft’s board, Reid Hoffman is stepping down, the company announced Thursday. Hoffman joined the board after Microsoft bought his company LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. Hoffman was on Microsoft’s board when it invested its first $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019. Hoffman was one of OpenAI’s original investors and served on the model maker’s board until he stepped down in 2023, citing too many potential conflicts of interest to continue. He was also on Microsoft’s board when the tech giant entered into one of those non-acquisition, acqui-hire deals for $650 million with his AI startup Inflection AI. Microsoft hired Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman through that deal. Hoffman said on a recent episode of his “Possible” podcast, while talking with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, that he’s ready to go “founder mode” with his latest AI startup, Manus. Manus is a drug discovery company that raised over $50 million through a couple of seed rounds last year. Hoffman is an investor, as is General Catalyst. Hoffman is cited as a …

Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 is here with 3X cheaper fast mode and near-Mythos level alignment

Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 is here with 3X cheaper fast mode and near-Mythos level alignment

Published by skeptic

Anthropic today released Claude Opus 4.8, an upgrade to its flagship model that ships at the same price as its predecessor, alongside a dramatically cheaper “fast mode” tier and a new feature that lets the model spawn hundreds of parallel subagents for codebase-scale work. The model is available immediately across Anthropic’s surfaces — claude.ai, Claude Code, the API, and Cowork — at unchanged pricing: $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens. Developers can call it as claude-opus-4-8. The headline efficiency story is fast mode. Anthropic has slashed the price of running Opus 4.8 in fast mode — where the model produces tokens at roughly 2.5x normal speed — to $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, down from $30/$150 for Opus 4.7 Claude Opus 4.8 and 4.7 fast mode pricing chart. Credit: Anthropic That’s a 3X reduction from the fast-mode pricing of previous models, and brings high-throughput inference within reach of latency-sensitive production workloads. Fast mode is available immediately in Claude Code via the /fast command; API …

Google update set to move users from AI Overviews to AI Mode

Google update set to move users from AI Overviews to AI Mode

Published by Sam Flores

User entering conversational query into Google Search bar and taken to AI Mode. Pictures: Google Google’s new AI features for Search signal a further shift away from publisher traffic despite the tools not yet being the default for users, according to SEO experts. The update includes users having the choice to continue searching in AI Mode through follow-up prompts from AI Overviews. The changes, initially revealed in January before further details came out this month, could escalate fears for publishers already seeing reduced clickthroughs from Google Search. Many have been impacted by the rollout of Google’s AI Overviews: summaries generated from publishers and other websites that give several sentences in response to a query rather than just a headline and a snippet. AI Mode, which was made available to all US users in May 2025 before expanding to the UK in July, goes further by generating longer, detailed answers that reduce the need to click through to external sites. Announcing Google AI’s update in January, Robby Stein, vice president of product at Google Search, said: “First, we’re …

A CEO of a Bank Just Said Something So Ghoulish About Its Plans for AI That He’s Now in Full Damage Control Mode

A CEO of a Bank Just Said Something So Ghoulish About Its Plans for AI That He’s Now in Full Damage Control Mode

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech AI has emboldened CEOs to make all kinds of smug declarations that betray their contempt for lowly human laborers. But Bill Winters, the CEO of the British multinational bank Standard Chartered, said something so viscerally off-putting that he’s now gone into full damage control mode to get the heat off his back. On Wednesday, he wrote an internal memo to employees attempting to explain away his remark that he would be firing thousands of workers and replacing the company’s “lower-value human capital” with AI. Yes, you heard that right: “lower-value human capital.” And it clearly didn’t go over well. “Many of you will have seen media coverage following the investor event in Hong Kong, particularly the reporting around automation, AI, and workforce changes,” Winters said in the memo, per The Wall Street Journal. “I know this may be unsettling when reduced to simple headlines or a quote out of context.” “Where roles do fall away, it reflects changes …

SpaceX Listed Grok’s ‘Spicy’ Mode as a Risk in Its IPO Filing

SpaceX Listed Grok’s ‘Spicy’ Mode as a Risk in Its IPO Filing

Published by skeptic

SpaceX warned investors that AI features such as Grok’s “Spicy” and “Unhinged” modes, which allow the chatbot to generate raunchy image or voice responses with fewer safety filters, could expose the company to regulatory scrutiny and reputational damages, according to a filing submitted Wednesday as part of the company’s planned initial public offering. As of December, SpaceX had set aside $530 million for potential litigation losses, some of which could stem from ongoing complaints filed against its AI unit over sexualized imagery generated by its Grok chatbot. The disclosures show how SpaceX took on new financial and reputational risks when it acquired Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI in February, a deal which sent the rocket maker’s private valuation soaring to over $1 trillion. In the filing, SpaceX repeatedly claims that xAI’s mission is to develop “truth-seeking artificial intelligence.” In practice, that has often meant launching AI features with minimal guardrails. While Grok’s free-wheeling nature is often framed by Musk as a selling point, it has landed xAI in hot water with regulators. Disclosing potential …

Google’s new “Neural Expressive” AI mode fixes the biggest issue I have with Gemini

Google’s new “Neural Expressive” AI mode fixes the biggest issue I have with Gemini

Published by skeptic

Summary Neural Expressive: dynamic visuals, interactive PDFs, timelines, and videos replace text-heavy answers — rolling out now. Gemini 3.5 Flash: faster, smarter LLM; Gemini Omni blends text, images, and video to generate high-quality video. Daily Brief and Gemini Spark give personalized morning briefs and 24/7 agentic help; Gemini Live now switches smoothly. Google I/O 2026 has brought us a flurry of major updates for Gemini AI. There’s a lot of talk around the cinematic power of the all-new Gemini Omni, to the lightning-fast Gemini 3.5 Flash. But there’s one feature that’s caught my eye, and it could solve the biggest issue I have with Gemini. That could all be about to change with its new “Neural Expressive” update. Related Gemini isn’t as useless as it was when you tried it two years ago AI that I first despised is now my Google Assistant replacement. What is Google Gemini’s Neural Expressive Update? Neural Expressive is a vibrant, dynamic, and completely reimagined design language for Gemini. This means that its interface now features fluid animations, vibrant colors, …

Enable HIDDEN 120 Hz Mode on Your iPhone !

Enable HIDDEN 120 Hz Mode on Your iPhone !

Published by skeptic

If you own an iPhone equipped with a ProMotion display, such as the iPhone 13 Pro or newer, you might not be using its full potential. While these devices support a 120 Hz refresh rate, Safari, the default browser, is capped at 60 Hz by default. However, with a few adjustments, you can enable Safari’s hidden 120 Hz mode. This tweak unlocks a smoother and more responsive browsing experience, allowing you to maximize your device’s capabilities. Here’s how you can activate this feature and enjoy the benefits of your iPhone’s advanced display technology. The video below from iReviews gives us more details. Which Devices Support 120 Hz? Before proceeding, it’s essential to confirm whether your iPhone supports the 120 Hz refresh rate. This feature is exclusive to iPhones with ProMotion displays, which include the following models: iPhone 13 Pro iPhone 13 Pro Max All subsequent Pro models If you own a standard iPhone model, such as the iPhone 13 or earlier non-Pro versions, these devices lack ProMotion technology and are limited to 60 Hz across …

“No More Nakedness”: Spencer Pratt’s L.A. Mayoral Plan To Restore Order ‘In Weeks’ Has Democrats In Panic Mode

“No More Nakedness”: Spencer Pratt’s L.A. Mayoral Plan To Restore Order ‘In Weeks’ Has Democrats In Panic Mode

Published by Jenni Sidey

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, whose social media team has been running circles around far-left incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and socialist Councilmember Nithya Raman in recent weeks, appears to be gaining momentum. Whether from his strong performance at last week’s mayoral debate or his viral social media ads, the former reality TV star, made famous on MTV’s The Hills, has reached an inflection point as a serious challenger to the Democratic queens and kings who rule L.A. City Hall. Pratt joined David Friedberg on the All-In podcast in an interview that premiered Sunday. Titled “Wildfires, Homelessness, Corruption & the Fight to Take It Back,” the conversation outlined how Pratt would quickly work to restore law and order in violence-plagued Los Angeles in the first several weeks of office, if he were elected. The interview comes days after Pratt defeated Mayor Bass and Councilmember Raman in a debate last Wednesday, in which a local poll by NBC Los Angeles showed that 88% of respondents said he won. 🚨 LA MAYOR POLL: A whopping 88% say …

‘Resident Evil: Requiem’ gets a cool and free new mode, out now

‘Resident Evil: Requiem’ gets a cool and free new mode, out now

Published by skeptic

Resident Evil: Requiem already had plenty of meat on the bone, between a decently sized campaign and plenty of post-game goodies to chew on. Now, a couple of months after launch, it’s gotten some pretty fun-sounding free DLC. Capcom released a surprise update this week that included an action-packed new mode called Leon Must Die Forever. Unlocked after you finish the main story, Leon Must Die Forever is a gauntlet of high-octane action challenges starring everyone’s favorite former rookie cop, Leon S. Kennedy. Capcom’s official description makes it sound pretty straightforward: kill more difficult-than-usual enemies within a time limit, fight bosses, unlock enhancements, and try not to die, despite the mode’s name. Mashable Top Stories SEE ALSO: ‘Resident Evil’ teaser is just as gory as you’d expect “Fight your way through areas you’ve visited previously throughout the game and defeat the final boss, all with stronger enemy variants, five increasingly difficulty ranks, and a race against the clock! Fill your enhancement gauge by defeating enemies in order to unlock Leon’s “enhancer abilities” exclusive to this …