As they scramble to keep their systems online, AI companies are making things expensive for the rest of us. Large language models such as ChatGPT and Claude are so resource-hungry that tech companies may be purchasing 70 percent of the world's supply of high-end computer memory, causing a shortage. As a result, the prices of computer memory and storage are skyrocketing: Hard drives that I bought for my reporting two years ago for $350 each were $800 when I checked two weeks ago, and are now out of stock. The prices of some laptops have gone up as much as 50 percent, and low-cost computers are being hit the hardest. Affordable entry-level computers may "disappear by 2028" according to one forecast .

Humanoid robot surgery reached a new milestone as teleoperated robots completed two laparoscopic gallbladder surgeries on pigs for the first time in a UC San Diego preclinical trial.

Check your subscription status, update your details and more. Powerful artificial intelligence models built by Chinese companies have gone from inducing widespread panic to being met with a shrug of the shoulders - what changed? When Chinese company DeepSeek released its open-source R1 model in January 2025, it made headlines around the world. The large language model (LLM) was reported to rival some of the most powerful AIs from US companies, but it was completely free for anyone to download. A trillion dollars was wiped off the value of US tech companies and US lawmakers immediately proposed banning it on government devices.

The company has drawn governments, a major chipmaker, and the Pentagon into an effort to control fragile photons and build a useful quantum machine. It aims to be the first. PsiQuantum aims to build a quantum computer that can solve some of science's hardest problems. Its chips, cut from wafers like the one shown here, will perform computations using photons, the particles of light. The machine that could change the world will be housed in a room that looks like a data center crossed with an ice cream factory. Inside will be some 100 stainless-steel cabinets, each about six feet tall and connected to a supply of liquid helium that keeps them only a few degrees above absolute zero. Inside those cabinets will be hundreds of chips, and on those, thousands of particles of light flying through a maze of optical switches and beam splitters.

Siri AI Is Becoming Apple's Everything Tool Apple's revamped Siri is more than a voice assistant; it's now the backbone of the iPhone user experience. You can try it now through the iOS 27 public beta. The latest version of Apple's smartphone software, iOS 27, is available for iPhone owners as a public beta. It's the first time Apple's long-promised revamped version of Siri is available to the general public. Showcased at the company's WWDC event in June as " Siri AI," Apple expanded on the original voice controls of the smartphone assistant, adding a chatbot-style app and further weaving it into the iPhone user experience.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. One of the self-driving cars was vandalized Sunday at Sunset and Edgemont. See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. A shirtless man recorded standing atop a Waymo and yanking pieces off the self-driving car was arrested Sunday by Los Angeles police. LAPD officers were called to the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Edgemont Street at 1:34 p.m. after receiving a call of someone disturbing the peace.

Tesla Says It's Building a Wheelchair-Accessible Robotaxi A Tesla representative at a DC hearing said the vehicle is "an active product being built." The Tesla Cybercab is not wheelchair accessible, but the company says it's actively developing a wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle. Tesla is building a wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle, a Tesla representative told lawmakers in Washington, DC, on Monday. "We are in development for a purpose-built, wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle," Tesla senior policy advisor India Herdman told members of the DC City Council on Monday, during a hearing focused on a controversial bill that could allow robotaxi services to operate in the District. "We know that paratransit can be very difficult, and people who are confined to wheelchairs permanently should still be able to move around freely, so that is an active product being built by Tesla in Texas," she said.

The next time you're scrolling your phone, take a moment to appreciate the feat: The seemingly mundane act is possible thanks to the coordination of 34 muscles, 27 joints, and over 100 tendons and ligaments in your hand. Indeed, our hands are the most nimble parts of our bodies. Mimicking their many nuanced gestures has been a longstanding challenge in robotics and virtual reality. Now, MIT engineers have designed an ultrasound wristband that precisely tracks a wearer's hand movements in real-time. The wristband produces ultrasound images of the wrist's muscles, tendons, and ligaments as the hand moves, and is paired with an artificial intelligence algorithm that continuously translates the images into the corresponding positions of the five fingers and palm.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. More than three dozen California legislators are calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to exempt the state's film and TV production incentive program from a recently approved cap on corporate tax credits, warning that without action it will be "significantly kneecapped."

In at least two places, Uber has pushed a policy that could give it an advantage over developers of self-driving cars. The company says it's fighting monopolies. A decade ago, then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said he saw autonomous vehicles as an existential threat to the ride-hail company's business model. "What would happen if we weren't a part of that future? Then the future passes us by," Kalanick told Business Insider .