The new Matter standard is getting better at helping Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings play nice with each other, but it often does so at the expense of finer-grained features. Some Matter-enabled smart lights, for example, can be turned on or off via Matter or change their color, but Matter controllers might not be able to access their lighting scenes or advanced animation modes. Likewise, smart home manufacturer Aqara found some of its hardware functionality hamstrung by Matter's limitations, such as the lack of Matter support for facial recognition (which might arrive once Matter finally works with security cameras), or for the fall-detection capabilities of its motion sensors. One option would be to wait for the Matter specification to catch up and add that functionality--which could take a while, given the slow pace of Matter specification updates. Instead, Aqara built its own workaround, which involves taking various Aqara scenes and "signals" and turning them into virtual sensors that Matter understands.

Russia's territorial gains in Ukraine are slowing down dramatically, two analyses have found, continuing a pattern from 2024 at a time when both nations are trying to project strength in the face of United States-mediated negotiations aimed at ending the war. Britain's Ministry of Defence last week estimated that Russian forces seized 143sq km (55sq miles) of Ukrainian land in March, compared with 196sq km (76sq miles) in February and 326sq km (126sq miles) in January. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, spotted the same trend, estimating Russian gains at 203sq km (78sq miles) in March, 354sq km (137sq miles) in February and 427sq km (165sq miles) in January. These estimates are based on satellite imagery and geolocated open-source photography rather than claims by either side. Should this trend continue, Russian forces could come to a standstill by early summer, roughly coinciding with US President Donald Trump's self-imposed early deadline for achieving a ceasefire.

Researchers at Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab, UC San Diego created a fully 3D-printed, six-legged robot that walks using compressed air. It has no electronics, motors, or batteries--just soft actuators powered by gas. Tested on various terrains, it operates continuously with a steady air supply.

From popular apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge to niche platforms like Singles with Food Allergies, Ugly Schmuks, and Mullet Passions, it seems there's now a dating app for everyone. But regardless of your app choice, one thing's for sure - you should never send these messages. Experts from FindingTheOne.com surveyed 1,000 singletons about the messages they hate to receive online. Topping the list is a basic'hey' or'hi', which a whopping 78 per cent of users said they despise. Acording to the survey, it's also wise to avoid cheesy pickup lines, as these could put off 59 per cent of singletons.

Every time I get a press release about AI agents, I get a slightly queasy feeling. It is not quite as bad as that dizzy feeling I get every time someone insists on pitching me about vibe coding, nor is it the nails on a chalkboard feeling I get every time a PR rep sends me something with the word "convo" in it when asking for an interview or discussion with one of their clients. Even so, AI agents are overhyped, under-defined, possibly dangerous, and extremely limited; they could possibly spell the end of life as we know it. And yet everyone is all about agents. Microsoft did a series of announcements last week that promoted its extensive use of AI agents, not just for the enterprise, but for every Windows user.

And yet, booking a cheap flight still feels like a shot in the dark. That is, unless you've tapped into this lesser-known AI tool that's helping travelers score the best travel deals before the big sites can catch up. OneAir is a members-only service that gives you access to hidden rates for airlines and hotels. What are the prices like? The lifetime membership fee is normally 99.99, but you can use code FLY30 at checkout to save 30 percent this week: 69.99! Summer is approaching, and you may be eager to book a fun getaway to de-stress from … everything happening right now.

OpenAI has filed a countersuit against Elon Musk, accusing him of staging press attacks and malicious campaigns on "the social media platform he controls," as well as of making "harassing legal claims" and a "sham bid for OpenAI's assets." In its filing, courtesy of TechCrunch, the ChatGPT-maker said Musk could not tolerate seeing such "success for an enterprise he had abandoned and declared doomed" and had made it his own project to take down the organization. It also said that Musk's efforts have ramped up in recent months after it announced its plans to restructure and become a for-profit entity with a non-profit division. Last year, Musk sued OpenAI, accusing it of ditching its nonprofit mission, becoming a "closed-source de facto subsidiary" Microsoft and of violating its foundational agreement to develop generative AI "for the benefit of humanity." But Musk, OpenAI said in its new lawsuit, is only pretending to represent the public and in truth is seeking to stop it from restructuring.

"All the moving images featured in the video are the result of me feeding in a still image and then typing in a'prompt' such as: 'The black & white figure remains still whilst the bus in the background drives off', which led to [a] sequence where the coach weirdly slides towards the cut-out of me," said Cocker. "The weekend I began work on the video was a strange time: I went out of the house and kept expecting weird transformations of the surrounding environment due to the images the computer had been generating. "The experience had marked me. I don't know whether I've recovered yet." After completing the video, the musician said he'd landed firmly on the side of "human intelligence" over AI.

Existing generative tools can automate a striking range of creative tasks and offer near-instant gratification--but at what cost? Some artists and researchers fear that such technology could turn us into passive consumers of yet more AI slop. And so they are looking for ways to inject human creativity back into the process: working on what's known as co-creativity or more-than-human creativity. The idea is that AI can be used to inspire or critique creative projects, helping people make things that they would not have made by themselves. The aim is to develop AI tools that augment our creativity rather than strip it from us--pushing us to be better at composing music, developing games, designing toys, and much more--and lay the groundwork for a future in which humans and machines create things together.

It's 2025, so it should be no surprise that another organization has sold its soul (entered into a licensing deal with an AI company) for an undisclosed sum. A new partnership allows UK-based Synthesia to access Shutterstock's content library for training its latest AI model, EXPRESS-2. This deal isn't the first of its kind for Shutterstock, which previously teamed up with OpenAI to sell stock images made using AI generator DALL-E 2. Synthesia creates avatars for corporate videos about topics such as cybersecurity and good communication at work. It aims to use Shutterstock's video data to "try out new approaches that will improve the performance of EXPRESS-2, and increase the realism and expressiveness of our AI generated avatars, bringing them closer to human-like performances.," Synthesia stated in a release. Typically, Synthesia uses actors to create avatars, paying to use their likeness for three years.