Former President Donald Trump is embarking this week on a high-stakes tour of the Persian Gulf region, targeting business deals and strategic partnerships with three oil-rich nations: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The trip marks Trump's first major foreign visit of his new term and comes as nuclear negotiations with Iran drag on and as war continues between Israel and the Palestinian terror organization, Hamas, in the Gaza Strip. While business is the official focus, the backdrop is anything but calm. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the mission as part of Trump's broader vision that "extremism is defeated [through] commerce and cultural exchanges." Under President Joe Biden, U.S. relations with Gulf states cooled, particularly after Biden vowed to make Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a "pariah" over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Even if you've never fallen victim to a tech support scam, you've likely been targeted. Have you ever gotten a pop-up, or a cascading series of pop-ups that crowd your entire screen, warning you that your device has been compromised and urging you to call tech support ASAP? If the unlucky victims who fall for these tricks give the scammers access to their computer, the perpetrators can plant malware, steal personal information, or even wipe out victims' bank accounts. Now, Google wants to use AI to stop these scams in real time for Google Chrome users. "Chrome has always worked with Google Safe Browsing to help keep you safe online. Now, with this week's launch of Chrome 137, Chrome will offer an additional layer of protection using the on-device Gemini Nano large language model," Google said in a blog post.

The Trump administration is considering a deal that could send hundreds of thousands of U.S.-designed artificial intelligence chips to G42, an Emirati A.I. firm that the U.S. government has scrutinized in the past for its ties to China, three people familiar with the discussions said. The negotiations, which are ongoing, highlight a major shift in U.S. tech policy ahead of President Trump's visit to the Persian Gulf states this week. The talks have also created tension inside the Trump administration between tech- and business-minded leaders who want to close a deal before Mr. Trump's trip and national security officials who worry that the technology could be misused by the Emiratis. The Trump administration has embraced cutting direct deals for A.I. chips with officials from the Middle East, as it looks to strengthen U.S. ties in the region, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations are ongoing. The approach marks a break from the Biden administration, which had rejected similar A.I. chip sales over fears that they could give autocratic governments with strong ties to China an edge over the United States in developing the most cutting-edge A.I. models in coming years.

Anyone who owned an Apple device over the last decade may be able to claim part of a 95 million class action lawsuit against the tech giant. According to the lawsuit, iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and MacBooks dating back to 2014 may have secretly recorded their users' private conversations after the devices unintentionally activated Apple's voice assistant Siri. A notice about the case, Lopez v. Apple, has advised anyone who believes Siri spied on their confidential or private calls between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024 to submit a claim for damages. Apple's iMacs, Apple TV streaming boxes, HomePod speakers, and iPod Touches are also included in the lawsuit. Although Apple has denied that their devices spied on users, the 3 trillion company reached a settlement in the case, agreeing to give users up to 20 per Siri device in their claim.

Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson says hackers are using CAPTCHAs to infect your PC with malware. Ransomware gangs once thrived on infected email attachments and bogus invoices, but security-savvy users and hardened mail gateways have weakened those tactics. Attackers are now focusing on a subtler trick that targets the small checkbox labeled "I'm not a robot" that most people click without thinking. A widespread campaign known as MacReaper has compromised more than 2,800 legitimate websites and redirects visitors to an infection process designed specifically for Apple computers. The operation relies on visual trust signals, including a convincing fake of Google's reCAPTCHA, along with hidden clipboard code that ends with the installation of Atomic macOS Stealer malware, a data-harvesting infostealer distributed through Telegram.

The report's findings are advisory, but they could be influential in upcoming court cases on the subject. In firing Dr. Hayden, The White House cited the Library's DEI initiatives. Cornell H. Winston, the President of the American Association of Law Libraries, issued a statement to AALL members on Monday saying he was "deeply concerned" by the firings of Perlmutter and Dr. Hayden, though this letter did not mention the AI report specifically. President Trump has pledged to take a business-friendly approach to artificial intelligence, and he issued two executive orders in April to promote the United States' leadership in the AI industry. Rather than waiting to release a final version of the report and promoting its release, the office instead quietly released a "pre-publication version" of the report on Friday.

United States President Donald Trump will undertake a three-day tour of the Gulf for his first state visit since retaking office in January. The trip begins in Saudi Arabia, followed by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. It marks Trump's second foreign visit as president after he attended Pope Francis's funeral in Rome in April. Trump will fly out of the US on Monday and start his trip in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday. He is expected to attend a Gulf summit in the city on Wednesday, visit Qatar later that day and conclude his visit in the UAE on Thursday.

The debate over the risks and harms of artificial intelligence often focuses on what governments can or should do. However, just as important are the choices that AI researchers themselves make. This week, in Singapore, more than 100 scientists from around the world proposed guidelines for how researchers should approach making AI more "trustworthy, reliable, and secure." The recommendations come at a time when the giants of generative AI, such as OpenAI and Google, have increasingly reduced disclosures about their AI models, so the public knows less and less about how the work is conducted. The guidelines grew out of an exchange among the scholars last month in Singapore, in conjunction with one of the most prestigious conferences on AI, the International Conference on Learning Representations -- the first time a major AI conference has taken place in Asia.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. You've unwrapped your new Mac desktop or laptop and you're ready to dive in: Where should you start? Modern-day macOS is designed to be intuitive and straightforward, but it's also stuffed with options and features you can tweak to fit your needs. Here we'll look at some of the fundamental settings that you should change first, to ensure you're getting the best possible experience. All of these options can be found by opening the Apple menu in the top left corner of the macOS interface, then choosing System Settings.

ChatGPT can go far beyond writing an email or coding a complex project. Some of the most useful applications are assistance with practical tasks in your everyday life, such as explaining that really complex x-ray diagnosis that is pure jargon or why your electric bill was sky-high (both based on real scenarios that happened to me). However, this requires you to give your personal information. If you are hesitant about giving ChatGPT your private information, you have good reason to be. The companies behind these popular generative AI tools, such as OpenAI, often use user inputs to further train the models and make them smarter.