High-altitude platforms could help connect over 2 billion people around the world who are still offline. Today, an estimated 2.2 billion people But that number could drop this year, thanks to tests of stratospheric airships, uncrewed aircraft, and other high-altitude platforms for internet delivery. Even with nearly 10,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit and the OneWeb constellation of 650 satellites, solid internet coverage is not a given across vast swathes of the planet. One of the most prominent efforts to plug the connectivity gap was Google X's Loon project . Launched in 2011, it aimed to deliver access using high-altitude balloons stationed above predetermined spots on Earth. But the project faced literal headwinds--the Loons kept drifting away and new ones had to be released constantly, making the venture economically unfeasible.

Tests conducted by the Guardian show that GPT-5.2 sourced some of its info from the AI-generated online encyclopedia from Elon Musk's xAI. OpenAI may have called GPT-5.2 its most advanced frontier model for professional work, but tests conducted by the cast doubt on its credibility. According to the report, OpenAI's GPT-5.2 model cited Grokipedia, the online encyclopedia powered by xAI, when it came to specific, but controversial topics related to Iran or the Holocaust. As seen in the's report, ChatGPT used Grokipedia as a source for claims about the Iranian government being tied to telecommunications company MTN-Irancell and questions related to Richard Evans, a British historian who served as an expert witness during a libel trial for Holocaust denier David Irving. However, the noted ChatGPT didn't use Grokipedia when it came to a prompt asking about media bias against Donald Trump and other controversial topics. A study done by US researchers also showed that the AI-generated encyclopedia cited questionable and problematic sources.

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini How to claim Verizon's $20 credit for Wednesday's service outage It isn't applied automatically, because of course it isn't. Verizon is offering a very small after Wednesday's massive outage, which drew more than 1.5 million reports on Downdetector and lasted hours. The carrier posted on X that it will offer a $20 credit, but customers must redeem it in the myVerizon app. This credit isn't meant to make up for what happened. No credit really can, the company wrote.

Shocking new video shows NYC's anti-white renters' tsar sharing her desire to make ALL Americans live in social housing Amy Schumer's friends reveal true meaning of thin bikini pictures and why they're'monitoring her'... as depth of ex Chris Fischer's heartbreak is laid bare The urgent questions for Timothy Busfield's wife Melissa Gilbert that no one dares ask: MAUREEN CALLAHAN analyzes child sex abuse claims spanning 30 years... and uncovers a potential bombshell Chilling final message of doctor's wife gunned down next to her twins, 6, in Arkansas mansion... as her son reveals red flags everyone missed Moment teenager launches bottle attack on'paedophile' is shown to murder trial after 49-year-old'was lured to meeting with girl, 16, and beaten to death with rocks' 'Brazilian Popeye' bodybuilder famed for injecting alcohol and oil into his arms dead at 55 Disney adult sparks outrage with her'trashy' bar crawl through kid-friendly theme park Swimsuit model Aoi Fujino, 27, dies just days after retiring with emotional post: 'Please remember me' Ellen Greenberg case set to be REOPENED by federal prosecutors after infamous 2011 'suicide' of Philadelphia schoolteacher found with 20 stab wounds I was swimming in shallow waters on my dream holiday when I was attacked by a shark. I lost my hand, leg and two-thirds of my blood. I should be dead... but this is how I was saved by three angels Palm Beach elites break out in civil war over $200m'greed project'... as Don Jr's fiancée furiously intervenes RICHARD EDEN: Meghan and Harry'plot' and why Prince William and Kate have REALLY hired a crisis expert. South Florida residents unnerved by military planes and helicopters flying around overhead - with officials causing further panic by saying it was part of mysterious'rehearsal' 'The end of the world as we know it': Poland warns of'disaster' if NATO nations turn on each other over Trump's bid to claim Greenland as Danish troops arrive in the region Verizon's massive nationwide network outage on Wednesday may have been caused by a failure in just one East Coast state. Officials believe a network server in New Jersey going down was the likely trigger of the day-long network crash, according to an initial investigation by law enforcement agencies on the East Coast searching for signs of sabotage.

A major Verizon outage appeared to impact customers across the United States starting around noon ET on Wednesday. Calls to Verizon customers from other carriers may also be impacted. Customers of the telecom giant Verizon began reporting cellular outages around the United States beginning around noon ET on Wednesday, saying they could not complete calls and did not have access to mobile data. Verizon broadband internet customers are also reporting issues. AT&T and T-Mobile customers also began reporting service outages in the same timeframe, however these reports may be linked to the Verizon outage.

Apple's Siri AI will be powered by Gemini Issues appear to be concentrated in the eastern United States. Verizon's network appears to be having technical issues that are impacting calls and wireless data. Users on X have reported seeing "SOS" rather than the traditional network bars on their smartphones, and even Verizon's own network status page is struggling to load. Based on the experience of Verizon users on Engadget's staff, the services that are impacted appear to be calls and wireless data. Text messages continue to be delivered normally.

The Razr Fold Adds a Book-Style Foldable to Motorola's Lineup At CES 2026, the company also announced a new smartwatch, stylus, Bluetooth tracker, and even a weird AI pendant. Motorola has been honing its flip-style folding Razr smartphones for more than five years now, but it's finally time for a new of fold . At CES 2026, the company unveiled the Razr Fold, its first book-style folding phone akin to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series or Google's Pixel Fold, bringing more competition to the space in the US. If you've seen Google's or Samsung's options, the Razr Fold will look and feel familiar. It has a 6.6-inch display on the front screen, and when you open it up, you're treated to an 8.1-inch 2K resolution screen, around the same size as its competitors.

In this paper, we construct a class of stochastic interpolation neural network operators (SINNOs) with random coefficients activated by sigmoidal functions. We establish their boundedness, interpolation accuracy, and approximation capabilities in the mean square sense, in probability, as well as path-wise within the space of second-order stochastic (random) processes \( L^2(Ω, \mathcal{F},\mathbb{P}) \). Additionally, we provide quantitative error estimates using the modulus of continuity of the processes. These results highlight the effectiveness of SINNOs for approximating stochastic processes with potential applications in COVID-19 case prediction.

Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted SoftBank toward artificial intelligence. Japanese tech investor SoftBank said Wednesday that its stake in OpenAI is now around 11% after completing the second stage of a $41-billion investment in the maker of ChatGPT. Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, flamboyant founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted SoftBank toward artificial intelligence. SoftBank had announced in April its planned investment of up to $40 billion in Open AI, and on Wednesday it said that the second tranche of $22.5 billion was completed. The final investment reached $41 billion and includes $30 billion from SoftBank's Vision Fund plus $11 billion from other third-party co-investors, it said.