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How we discovered the speed limit of arithmetic – and broke it

New Scientist

Some seemingly simple sequences of multiplication and addition grow so quickly that they question the very foundations of mathematics. Did you hear the one about the man who invented chess and got himself executed? Legend has it that a man called Sessa, who lived in India long ago, developed the rules for the game and presented them to a king. The king was delighted and offered the man his pick of reward. Sessa asked for a supposedly humble quantity of rice.


Google now lets you have full conversations with Gemini for Home

Engadget

The feature is rolling out for all the smart home program's supported languages and regions. Google announced today that it is upgrading the Gemini for Home service with a continued conversations feature. Continued conversation allows a user to have a natural discussion with the Gemini platform without prefacing every follow-up request with the Hey Google prompt. The microphone will remain active on a smart device for a few seconds after the Gemini AI assistant provides its reply. During that window, the lights on the hardware will pulse or glow, indicating that you can keep chatting normally with the chatbot without needing a wake word.


Back to school: robots learn from factory workers

Robohub

What if training a robot to handle dirty, dangerous work on the factory floor was as simple as showing it how? Czech startup RoboTwin is doing exactly that, helping factory workers teach robots new skills by demonstration. Instead of writing complex code, workers perform the job once and RoboTwin's technology turns those movements into a robot programme - opening the door to automation for smaller manufacturers. Founded in Prague in 2021, RoboTwin builds handheld devices and no-code software that capture human movements and translate them into instructions for industrial robots. The aim is to make automation faster, simpler and more accessible to manufacturers that do not have specialist robotics programmers.


Robot Talk Episode 149 – Robot safety and security, with Krystal Mattich

Robohub

Krystal Mattich leads global data governance, system security, and privacy compliance for Brain Corp: the world's leading autonomy platform for commercial robotics. As Senior Director of Security, Privacy, and Risk, she is the architect of the privacy-first infrastructure that powers over 40,000 BrainOS -enabled robots across retail, airports, education and logistics. Krystal played a central role in launching Brain Corp's public-facing Trust Center, reinforcing the company's commitment to data transparency, GDPR compliance, and responsible AI. Robot Talk is a weekly podcast that explores the exciting world of robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous machines. Robot Talk is a weekly podcast that explores the exciting world of robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous machines.


Statistical Inference for Cluster Trees

Neural Information Processing Systems

A cluster tree provides a highly-interpretable summary of a density function by representing the hierarchy of its high-density clusters. It is estimated using the empirical tree, which is the cluster tree constructed from a density estimator. This paper addresses the basic question of quantifying our uncertainty by assessing the statistical significance of topological features of an empirical cluster tree. We first study a variety of metrics that can be used to compare different trees, analyze their properties and assess their suitability for inference. We then propose methods to construct and summarize confidence sets for the unknown true cluster tree. We introduce a partial ordering on cluster trees which we use to prune some of the statistically insignificant features of the empirical tree, yielding interpretable and parsimonious cluster trees. Finally, we illustrate the proposed methods on a variety of synthetic examples and furthermore demonstrate their utility in the analysis of a Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD) data set.



Earth's largest otters have chocolate bar-sized babies

Popular Science

Environment Animals Wildlife Endangered Species Earth's largest otters have chocolate bar-sized babies Chester Zoo celebrates the birth of giant otter triplets. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. While they only weigh 7.1 ounces as babies, giant otters can grow to six-feet-long and weigh up to 71 pounds. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. It turns out that giant otter () newborns are actually quite small, weighing just around 7.1 ounces.


Court challenge over Met Police's use of live facial recognition thrown out

BBC News

Court challenge over Met Police's use of live facial recognition thrown out Privacy campaigners have lost a High Court challenge aimed at limiting the Metropolitan Police's use of live facial recognition technology. Youth worker Shaun Thompson, and Silkie Carlo, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, brought the claim over concerns that facial recognition could be used arbitrarily or in a discriminatory way. Scotland Yard defended the challenge, telling the court that the policy was lawful. The Met Police will continue to use the technology, with commissioner Sir Mark Rowley calling the ruling an important victory for public safety. One of the claimants, Thompson, was misidentified by live facial recognition technology (LFR).


Insiders claim failed AI rollout could be to blame for Tim Cook's departure from Apple - as one says 'the AI era requires a different kind of leadership'

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Ritzy Bay Area town torn apart after teacher's daughter, 16, was behind wheel when four friends died in high-speed crash... then she posted a TikTok video that poured fuel on the flames Two CIA officers killed in Mexico when their car skidded off ravine and exploded after meeting about bust of'largest ever drug lab' Nancy Guthrie sheriff's appalling past revealed: Beat handcuffed suspect so badly he needed intensive care, used VILE language about woman and lied in sworn statement Trump confronts Xi as US forces seize Chinese ship carrying mysterious'gift' to Iran New'Hollywood dose' pill: A-listers hooked on'youth elixir' that dermatologists say is anti-ageing, shrinks pores, smooths wrinkles... and even banishes rosacea Days after we got engaged, the love of my life told me he'd killed a man and buried him in a bog. I reported him to police... but then I made this irreversible mistake Ark of the Covenant's final resting place pinpointed by archaeologists as fresh search begins Fury as murderer marries pen pal behind bars... as teenage victim's mom says: 'I'm serving a life sentence without my son' Insiders claim failed AI rollout could be to blame for Tim Cook's departure from Apple - as one says'the AI era requires a different kind of leadership' Life-threatening cantaloupe recall in four states upgraded to FDA's highest risk level... 'reasonable probability of death' AMANDA PLATELL: Why Sarah Ferguson - with the ghost of Princess Diana at her side - is ready to sensationally blow up the Royal Family. She knows ALL their secrets... Team USA Olympics star Noah Lyles slammed for'horrible' reaction to his wife's wedding dress reveal In honour of the Queen's (purple!) reign: Kate mirrors late monarch's colourful wardrobe and wears her pearl earrings and necklace US troops board second tanker as Iran is accused of breaking ceasefire'numerous times' How to lose weight when perimenopause sabotages your metabolism: I'm a trainer but when I hit 46, I piled on the pounds overnight. The new'posh' drug that's easier to order than Uber Eats - and why all my middle-class friends have ditched booze and cocaine for it: JANA HOCKING Autistic woman, 24, worked hard to build independent life for herself... now she's PARALYZED thanks to selfishness of stranger Insiders claim failed AI rollout could be to blame for Tim Cook's departure from Apple - as one says'the AI era requires a different kind of leadership' Industry insiders have revealed what they claim is the real reason for Tim Cook's departure from Apple . After 15 years in the top spot, the CEO will make way for John Ternus, the current head of hardware engineering, who has been at the company for 25 years.


Flat-rate AI plans are broken. Blame AI agents

PCWorld

PCWorld reports that major AI providers including Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and GitHub are adjusting flat-rate subscription plans due to increased demand from agentic AI tools. Advanced AI agents like Google Antigravity and GitHub Copilot consume significantly more computational resources than traditional AI interactions, causing users to hit usage limits more frequently. The shift toward agentic workflows is forcing providers to introduce higher-tier plans, halt new sign-ups, and transition to usage-based models, fundamentally changing AI service accessibility. Remember when a $20-a-month "Pro" or "Plus" AI plan served up more AI access than you could possibly use? Ah, those were the days.