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Anthropic's Claude AI can end 'distressing' conversations, China's inaugural 'Robot Olympics' delivered some impressive feats, and Can-Am's first electric ATV can haul more than its gas models Aug 18, 2025

Show notes

Anthropic's latest feature for two of its Claude AI models could be the beginning of the end for the AI jailbreaking community. The company announced in a post on its website that the Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 models now have the power to end a conversation with users. According to Anthropic, this feature will only be used in "rare, extreme cases of persistently harmful or abusive user interactions." In other news, the first-ever World Humanoid Robot Games have come to a close with some new world records, but don't expect them to beat humans in a 100-meter dash any time soon. The three-day robotics event in Beijing, China that saw humanoid robots compete in everything from boxing to cleaning concluded this weekend. And Can-Am, part of the motorsports group BRP that recently introduced electric snowmobiles, has just launched its first electric all-terrain vehicle. The Outlander Electric is designed to be "whisper quiet" for chores like herding or hunting, but it can actually tow more than its gas-powered counterparts thanks to the high level of torque. Powered by BRP's modular Rotax E-Power drivetrain, the Outlander Electric makes up to 47 hp and 53 foot pounds of torque.

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Solos is equipping its smart glasses with an AI for the blind and low-vision community Aug 15, 2025

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They offer real-time text recognition, scene descriptions, facial recognition and more.

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SCOTUS let Mississippi's social media age-verification law go into effect, the Trump administration may buy a stake in Intel, and an internal Meta AI document said chatbots could have 'sensual' conversations with children Aug 15, 2025

Show notes

The Supreme Court has decided not to weigh in on one of the many state-level age-verification laws currently being reviewed across the country. Today, the top court chose not to intervene on legislation from Mississippi about checking the ages of social media users, denying an application to vacate stay from NetChoice. Also, Intel has had some recent struggles in delivering results for its shareholders, but the company could soon be answering to an additional boss. The current administration is reportedly in talks to have the US government acquire a stake in the chipmaker. And, a Meta document on its AI chatbot policies included some alarming examples of permitted behavior. Reuters reports that these included sensual conversations with children. Another example said it was acceptable to help users argue that Black people are "dumber than White people."

Here's the link to the Meta AI Chatbot policies:

https://www.engadget.com/ai/an-internal-meta-ai-document-said-chatbots-could-have-sensual-conversations-with-children-191101296.html

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Match Group will pay $14 million to settle claims of deceptive business practices Aug 14, 2025

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The FTC launched this complaint against the Tinder and Hinge parent company in 2019.

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OpenAI and Sam Altman may be creating a startup rival to Neuralink, a 'tabletop robot' from Apple may be here in 2027, and Amazon adds perishable food to same-day delivery Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

Sam Altman is preparing to co-found a new company funded by OpenAI that will go up against Elon Musk's Neuralink, The Financial Post reported. The startup, called Merge Labs, will use AI for its brain-computer interface and compete directly with Neuralink, along with other nascent companies in the field like Precision Neuroscience and Synchron. In other news, Apple is still hard at work on becoming a relevant player in AI. The latest missive from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg suggests that Apple is shifting its artificial intelligence goals to center on new device segments. Sources reportedly told the publication that Apple has a slate of new smart home products in the works that could help pivot its lagging AI strategy; and Amazon is expanding its same-day grocery delivery service with the addition of perishable food items in over 1,000 US cities. Shoppers can now add fresh grocery items like produce, dairy, meat, seafood and frozen foods to their orders.

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Oura rolls out new features for pregnancy and perimenopause Aug 13, 2025

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It will help you track your vital signs during both processes.

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Apple says the App Store is 'fair and free of bias' in response to Musk's legal threats, Google lets you pick preferred sources, and Russia implicated in a hack on US federal court databases Aug 13, 2025

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Apple has denied Elon Musk's accusation that it's favoring OpenAI in its App Store rankings and making it impossible for other AI companies to reach the top. In a statement sent to Bloomberg, Apple said the App Store is "designed to be fair and free of bias." In other news, Google is officially rolling out Preferred Sources, which lets you curate search results. The feature allows you to pick specific or "preferred" sources, like a certain blog or news outlet, and see them more prominently when you use Google Search; and databases used by US federal courts for sharing and managing case documents have been hacked. Politico first reported on the hack last week on August 6; yesterday, an investigation from The New York Times stated that Russia is suspected to be involved in the attack.

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AOL's dial-up internet still exists, but not for much longer Aug 12, 2025

Show notes

The company announced that it would discontinue dial-up service on September 30th.

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AI summaries can downplay medical issues for female patients, Intel's CEO successfully wooed President Trump, and Revel is ending its ridesharing operation Aug 12, 2025

Show notes

The latest example of bias permeating artificial intelligence comes from the medical field. A new study surveyed real case notes from 617 adult social care workers in the UK and found that when large language models summarized the notes, they were more likely to omit language such as "disabled," "unable" or "complex" when the patient was tagged as female, which could lead to women receiving insufficient or inaccurate medical care. In other news, President Trump no longer thinks Intel's CEO should resign. Trump revealed on Truth Social that he met with Lip-Bu Tan and described it as "a very interesting one." Also, Revel Transit is shutting down its rideshare operation in NYC, as reported by Bloomberg. The company will instead focus its efforts on EV charging.

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DJI repurposed its drones' obstacle detection tech for robot vacuums Aug 11, 2025

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DJI's ROMO robot vacuums are releasing in China first and overseas markets in the future.

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