Skip to main content

Posts

‘Clinical-grade AI’: a new buzzy AI word that means absolutely nothing

Earlier this month, Lyra Health announced a "clinical-grade" AI chatbot to help users with "challenges" like burnout, sleep disruptions, and stress. There are eighteen mentions of "clinical" in its press release, including "clinically designed," "clinically rigorous," and "clinical training." For most people, myself included, "clinical" suggests "medical." The problem is, it doesn't mean medical. In fact, "clinical-grade" doesn't mean anything at all. "Clinical-grade" is an example of marketing puffery designed to borrow authority from medicine without the strings of accountability or regulation. It sits alongside other buzzy marketing phra … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/PCc4O5V
Recent posts

OnePlus 15 arrives in China, global launch ‘coming soon’

The OnePlus 15 has a redesigned camera with a rounded square module. After a steady stream of spec teases, OnePlus has launched its new OnePlus 15 flagship in China today. Release plans elsewhere are still unconfirmed, but the company promises that the phone’s global launching will be “soon.” We’ve known what the 15 would look like since September , when OnePlus also confirmed it would be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and have a fast 165Hz refresh rate display — a jump from the 120Hz on last year’s OnePlus 13 , though there are still few games that support those speeds. The large 7,300mAh battery is the other big draw, the latest in a trend for 7,000mAh+ cells in Chinese flagships this year. Those big batteries are often exclusive to China though, and it’s not guaranteed that European and US models will get the same battery life. A triple 50-megapixel rear camera with an upgraded periscope lens, IP69K durability rating, and 120W wired charging round o...

Here’s what ads on your $2,000 Samsung smart fridge will look like 

Next month, Samsung will start displaying ads for Samsung-related products and services on its Family Hub refrigerators in the US. Samsung warned us last month that ads were coming to the giant Android tablets embedded in its Family Hub smart fridges. I've been eyeing mine ever since - and the first ones are about to arrive. Starting November 3rd, the $2,000-plus connected fridges will get a new widget that serves up ads, Shane Higby, head of Home Appliance Business at Samsung Electronics America, confirmed to The Verge . The ads will be part of a new widget on some of the smart fridges' "Cover screen themes" (like a tablet or smartphone's home screen). The widget, which Samsung shared with me ahead of today's announcement , has four rotating screens. One showing news, o … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/QI0rnsE

How Guitar Hero made everybody a rock star

"Sharp Dressed Man," by ZZ Top. Hard on a good day, Medium when my friends were over, Expert once and then never ever again. That was my Guitar Hero sweet spot. And for years, it seemed like everybody had one. The plastic guitar controllers became a staple of living rooms everywhere, and the songs - from big bands, small bands, and bands that didn't even actually exist - became huge hits. Long before TikTok was the most important thing in music, getting your track on a Guitar Hero setlist could change your life forever. For this episode of Version History , we go through the whole history of Guitar Hero. The story begins in arcades in Japan, … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/eDjPKfc

The next legal frontier is your face and AI

This is The Stepback , a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the legal morass of AI, follow Adi Robertson . The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here . How it started The song was called "Heart on My Sleeve," and if you didn't know better, you might guess you were hearing Drake. If you did know better, you were hearing the starting bell of a new legal and cultural battle: the fight over how AI services should be able to use people's faces and voices, and how platforms should respond. Back in 2023, the AI-generated faux-Drake track "Heart on My Sl … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/jToRbmE

My favorite e-reader just got a big update

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 103, your guide to the best and Verge -iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, sorry everything's so expensive this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage .) This week, I've been reading about gooning and Costco and protein bars and the Jonas Brothers , bingeing Nobody Wants This season two, trying to figure out how to save $4,500 for the new Rivian e-bike , telling anyone who will listen that T-Pain's still got it , learning everything I can about the Louvre heist , playing a surprising amount of Fortnite on my iPad, and shopping for Yoto Players after abou … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/gEuXiNG

ICE is building a social media panopticon

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out raids across the country, the agency is working rapidly to expand an online surveillance system that could potentially track millions of users on the web. Federal records uncovered by The Lever reveal that ICE is paying $5.7 million to use an AI-powered social media monitoring platform called Zignal Labs, something Will Owen, the communications director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), calls an "assault" on democracy and free speech. The "real-time intelligence" platform is capable of ingesting and analyzing vast amounts of publicly available data, like social media … Read the full story at The Verge. from The Verge https://ift.tt/Xx8Rd2L