A new report from Reuters claims OpenAI is developing technology to bring advanced reasoning capabilities to its AI models under a secret project code-named “Strawberry.” Among the project’s goals is to enable the company’s AI models to autonomously scour the internet in order to “plan ahead” for more complex tasks, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The project previously went by the name of Q* (pronounced “Q star”), demos of which showed earlier this year that it could answer “tricky science and math questions,” Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources who witnessed the demonstrations.
At this stage, much remains unknown about Strawberry — including how far along in development it is, and whether it’s the same system with “human-like reasoning” skills that OpenAI reportedly demonstrated at an employee all-hands meeting earlier this week, per Bloomberg. But the ability for the company’s AI to conduct “deep research,” as is said to be the aim of Strawberry, would mark a huge leap forward from what’s available today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-is-reportedly-working-on-more-advanced-ai-models-capable-of-reasoning-and-deep-research-202419228.html?src=rss
OpenAI’s NDAs are once again under scrutiny after whistleblowers penned a letter to the SEC alleging that employees were made to sign “illegally restrictive” agreements preventing them from speaking out on the potential harms of the company’s technology. The letter, which was obtained and published online by The Washington Post, accuses OpenAI of violating SEC rules meant to protect employees’ rights to report their concerns to federal authorities and prevent retaliation. It follows an official complaint that was filed with the SEC in June.
In the letter, the whistleblowers ask the SEC to “take swift and aggressive steps” to enforce the rules they say OpenAI has violated. The alleged violations include making employees sign agreements “that failed to exempt disclosures of securities violations to the SEC” and requiring employees obtain consent from the company before disclosing confidential information to the authorities. The letter also says OpenAI’s agreements required employees to “waive compensation that was intended by Congress to incentivize reporting and provide financial relief to whistleblowers.”
In a statement to the Post, OpenAI spokesperson Hannah Wong said, “Our whistleblower policy protects employees’ rights to make protected disclosures,” and added that the company has made “important changes” to its off-boarding papers to do away with nondisparagement terms. OpenAI previously said it was fixing these agreements after it was accused this spring of threatening to claw back exiting employees’ vested equity if they didn’t sign NDAs on their way out.
According to The Washington Post, the SEC has responded to the complaint, but no details have yet been released regarding any action it is or isn’t going to take. But the whistleblowers say enforcement is of utmost importance “even if OpenAI is making reforms in light of the public disclosures of their illegal contracts.” The letter says it is necessary “not as an attack on OpenAI or to hinder the advancement of AI technology, but to send the message to others in the AI space, and to the tech industry at large, that violations on the right of employees or investors to report wrongdoing will not be tolerated.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-whistleblowers-call-for-sec-probe-into-ndas-that-kept-employees-from-speaking-out-on-safety-risks-171604829.html?src=rss
New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention.
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Chuck Tingle may be best known for his oft-memed erotica titles, but the author has also been making a name for himself in mainstream horror in recent years. Tingle’s second full-length horror novel, Bury Your Gays, was released this week, and if the title didn’t make it abundantly clear, it calls out one of Hollywood’s tiredest tropes: queer storylines that inevitably end in tragedy or erasure.
In Bury Your Gays, bizarre circumstances befall the book’s protagonist, an Oscar-nominated scriptwriter named Misha, after he refuses studio executives’ orders to either kill off two lesbian characters “in a blaze of gay glory” or make them straight. It’s got monsters (not just the corporate kind), gore and basically all the ingredients for a great summer read. And, for anyone who prefers audiobooks, the narrated version of Bury Your Gays has a particularly stacked cast, including Mara Wilson and authors Stephen Graham Jones and T. Kingfisher.
Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change by Cady Coleman
If you’d asked me a few days ago how I thought astronauts sleep on the International Space Station — something I’ve never really given much thought to — I probably would have made a little joke about them floating around in sleeping bag cocoons, occasionally bumping into walls and furniture over the course of the night. Just one page into the first chapter of Sharing Space, former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman confirms this isn’t actually that far off from the truth, at least for some ISS dwellers:
Many astronauts hook their sleeping bags securely to the wall and slither inside each night, but I like to sleep with my bag untethered. I tuck my knees to my chest, zip the sleeping bag up so it holds me in a ball, and float off to sleep, literally. So when I wake up, adrift, it takes a minute to figure out where I am.
Spoiler: she wakes up under her desk. Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change is a glimpse into the life of an astronaut who’s traveled to space, and what it takes to get there. Coleman writes in a way that is instantly engaging, and this should be a fun read for anyone who is space-curious and seeking a bit of inspiration.
Precious Metal by Darcy Van Poelgeest and Ian Bertram
This recommendation is kind of a two-fer. Precious Metal, from Image Comics, is a new sci-fi miniseries set in a future, (more) dystopian version of North America. It’s the much-awaited prequel to Little Bird, a critically acclaimed series about resistance under an oppressive regime that was published across five issues in 2019. While you could probably get away with reading Precious Metal without having first read Little Bird, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by skipping over an impactful work of art, so make sure you check that out at some point too.
Precious Metal takes place 35 years before Little Bird’s story begins and follows a mod-tracker — a bounty hunter of sorts — named Max Weaver whose mission is derailed after he realizes his latest target, a child with special abilities, may be able to help him recover lost memories. It has hints of Blade Runner and the art is seriously breathtaking, with striking color work by Matt Hollingsworth. The first issue of Precious Metal, which is nearly 60 pages long, dropped in June, and the latest was released this week. The full run will have six issues in all.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-to-read-this-week-astronaut-sharing-space-queer-horror-bury-your-gays-sci-fi-130509825.html?src=rss
This is it, the first game to nearly make me throw my Playdate against a wall. Angel Pop, a bullet hell shoot ‘em up that landed on the Playdate Catalog last month, is utter chaos. Playing as an adorable little girl, you must fend off a nonstop barrage of enemy fire over the course of 50-or-so levels, trying to clear each stage of all enemies within a limited span of time as projectiles bombard you from every direction. It moves at breakneck speed, and at some points, there may be as many as 1,000 objects on the screen. Basically, it’s everything a person could want in a bullet hell, and I’m completely addicted.
Angel Pop really tests the limits of the Playdate, with so much happening on screen at all times, but it plays with impressive smoothness. The game is set in what developer NNNN describes as “a surreal dreamworld,” and the art juxtaposes the cartoonish player character and enemies with moody backdrops like dark cityscapes, to beautiful effect. It really nails the arcade feel of things.
Ituses a combination of ever-changing difficulty and points bonuses that give you additional lives to keep things challenging without being entirely unrewarding. You might start out a round in Normal, but play a little too well and you could soon find yourself in a much harder mode. Or, there’s the option to only play in Nightmare mode, which locks the game at the hardest difficulty setting (Death). You can use either the crank or the D-pad to control the direction of your bullets, which are unlimited, and you’ve got a finite supply of bombs that you can drop for close-range attacks when you’re in a tough spot.
Angel Pop makes a great case for shmups on Playdate, and I’m now inspired to go check out all the others after mostly playing slow-paced games. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of frustration — I’ve only made it about halfway through so far, and there’s been a lot of screaming involved.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/angel-pop-brings-cutesy-chaos-to-playdate-in-a-highly-addictive-bullet-hell-213433545.html?src=rss
NASCAR unveiled its first prototype electric racer this weekend at the Chicago Street Race. The $1.5 million electric crossover (per AP) was developed in partnership with ABB, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota to call attention to sustainability efforts under the NASCAR Impact program and show what EVs are capable of. It doesn’t mean NASCAR is moving away from gasoline-powered race cars just yet, but rather that it’s trying to “gauge fan interest in electric racing,” people involved with the initiative told AP.
NASCAR’s head of sustainability Riley Nelson told AP that the series and its partners “want to represent electric vehicles, and more broadly electrification, in racing as cool, fun and accessible.” The prototype, which has been driven by NASCAR driver David Ragan, has three STARD UHP 6-Phase motors, with one in the front and two in the back. This is all powered by a 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery. According to NASCAR, “its tunable powertrain can generate 1,000 kW at peak power.” It’s built on a modified Next Gen chassis.
NASCAR
NASCAR’s sustainability plans include adding EV charging stations and switching to 100 percent renewable energy at its race tracks by 2028. By 2035, it aims to achieve net-zero operating emissions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/check-out-nascars-first-electric-race-car-prototype-192712138.html?src=rss
Ariane 6, the European Space Agency’s next-gen heavy-lift rocket, is expected to take its inaugural flight on July 9, ending a yearlong gap in Europe’s ability to access space on its own. The launch vehicle, made by ArianeGroup, replaces Ariane 5, which was retired last July following its 117th mission. The launch window opens at 2PM ET on Tuesday (8PM CEST).
Ariane 5 was in operation from 1996 to 2023 and was ESA’s main launch system. Ariane 6 was supposed to take over right away after its predecessor’s retirement, but years of delays in its development meant it ultimately wasn’t ready in time. As a result, ESA has had to rely on other launch providers, like SpaceX, to get science missions off the ground over the last year. If all goes smoothly with Ariane 6, Europe will be back in the game. “Ariane 6 marks a new era of autonomous, versatile European space travel,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in June, adding that it “will re-establish Europe’s independent access to space.”
Ariane 6 will launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. It’ll be streamed on ESA Web TV, with coverage expected to start 30 minutes before liftoff.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/esas-new-heavy-lift-rocket-ariane-6-is-poised-to-launch-for-the-first-time-on-tuesday-172813576.html?src=rss
Bigger screens are coming to the Apple Watch, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In the Power On newsletter this week, Gurman writes that the Series 10 models will sport larger displays than we’ve seen in past versions of the regular Apple Watch, with one of the options likely to be close in size to the Apple Watch Ultra. The Apple Watch Series 10 is expected to be thinner, too, as Gurman previously reported.
Apple has also been working on more advanced health features for its smartwatches, but it seems some of these may not be ready in time for the next release. That includes tools to measure high blood pressure and detect sleep apnea. According to Gurman, “Apple has run into some serious snags” in developing the technology for these features. Sleep apnea monitoring, for one, would rely on blood oxygen saturation measurements, which Apple currently can’t offer thanks to a patent dispute.
We may also see a new version of the Apple Watch SE this year with a plastic shell instead of aluminum, according to Gurman, which could make the starting price drop a bit. Both the Apple Watch Series 10 models and the next-gen Apple Watch Ultra will get new chips for a performance boost.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-watch-series-10-expected-to-boast-larger-displays-while-a-plastic-se-may-be-in-the-works-154027422.html?src=rss
In case you missed it, we’re officially getting a Jaws Lego set this summer. The company unveiled the upcoming 1497-piece set this week alongside a 90-second mini-movie that reimagines the film in Lego brick form. The Jaws set includes the boat (the Orca), the shark, and minifigures of the protagonists Martin Brody, Matt Hooper and Sam Quint, plus a number of key items from their hunt, like a harpoon and a few bright yellow barrels.
Lego
It’ll be available to the general public on August 6 for $150, but anyone enrolled in the Lego Insiders loyalty program will be able to purchase it earlier, starting August 3. You’ll have the option to build the set on top of a base that’s intended to serve as the ocean for the scene, so you can mount the shark in just the right position to make it look as though it’s attacking the boat. Or, you can display the shark and the boat as separate pieces, with a stand for the former. One of the tiles in the water set will be printed with the line: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The intense showdown between a haphazard group of shark hunters and a great white that devours humans has never looked so family friendly. Check out Lego's “Jaws in a Jiffy” to really get into the spirit of things.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lego-is-releasing-a-jaws-set-in-august-that-recreates-the-final-showdown-on-quints-boat-214504555.html?src=rss
In case you missed it, we’re officially getting a Jaws Lego set this summer. The company unveiled the upcoming 1497-piece set this week alongside a 90-second mini-movie that reimagines the film in Lego brick form. The Jaws set includes the boat (the Orca), the shark, and minifigures of the protagonists Martin Brody, Matt Hooper and Sam Quint, plus a number of key items from their hunt, like a harpoon and a few bright yellow barrels.
Lego
It’ll be available to the general public on August 6 for $150, but anyone enrolled in the Lego Insiders loyalty program will be able to purchase it earlier, starting August 3. You’ll have the option to build the set on top of a base that’s intended to serve as the ocean for the scene, so you can mount the shark in just the right position to make it look as though it’s attacking the boat. Or, you can display the shark and the boat as separate pieces, with a stand for the former. One of the tiles in the water set will be printed with the line: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
The intense showdown between a haphazard group of shark hunters and a great white that devours humans has never looked so family friendly. Check out Lego's “Jaws in a Jiffy” to really get into the spirit of things.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lego-is-releasing-a-jaws-set-in-august-that-recreates-the-final-showdown-on-quints-boat-214504555.html?src=rss
After 378 days inside a mock Mars habitat, the four volunteers for NASA’s yearlong simulation of a stay on the red planet are coming home. The crew — Kelly Haston, Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones — is scheduled to exit the 3D-printed habitat in Houston this evening. You can watch the livestream of their return on NASA TV (below) starting at 5PM ET.
This marks the end of NASA’s first Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission. There are plans already for two more one-year missions, one of which NASA recently accepted applications for.
The Mission 1 crew entered the 1700-square-foot habitat at the Johnson Space Center on June 25 of last year and has spent the months since conducting simulated Marswalks, growing vegetables and performing other tasks designed to support life and work in that environment, like habitat maintenance. No exact dates for the second CHAPEA mission have been set yet, but it’s expected to begin in spring 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/volunteers-who-lived-in-nasas-mars-simulation-for-over-a-year-will-finally-emerge-today-192522497.html?src=rss