Amazon has disabled two key privacy features in its Alexa smart speakers, in a push to introduce artificial intelligence-powered "agentic capabilities" and turn a profit from the popular devices. Starting from March 28, Alexa devices now send all audio recordings to the cloud for processing, and choosing not to save these recordings will disable personalisation features. A voice assistant works by constantly listening for a "wake word", such as "Alexa". Once woken, it records the command that is spoken and matches it to an action, such as playing a music track. Matching a spoken command to an action requires what computer scientists call natural language understanding, which can take a lot of computer power. Matching commands to actions can be done locally (on the device itself), or sound recordings can be uploaded to the cloud for processing.

As part of my AI coding evaluations, I run a standardized series of four programming tests against each AI. These tests are designed to determine how well a given AI can help you program. This is kind of useful, especially if you're counting on the AI to help you produce code. The last thing you want is for an AI helper to introduce more bugs into your work output, right? Some time ago, a reader reached out to me and asked why I keep using the same tests.

Soaring development costs; protracted production cycles; cautious C-suites looking to deliver reliable returns for shareholders: for many reasons, there is a dearth of original programming in big-budget video games. Already this year we have seen the arrival of the seventh mainline Civilization game, the 14th entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise, and, most brain-melting of all, the 27th Monster Hunter title. But look: here's a magical-realist tale set in a moody, hurricane-ravaged imagining of the American deep south, whose title, crucially, bears no numerical suffix. South of Midnight makes a brilliantly atmospheric first impression. Winds bludgeon flimsy abodes; rain lashes down on tin roofs; the world is rendered with the macabre and crooked details of a Tim Burton film.

The trailer for M3GAN 2.0 is here and if you were expecting a copy-paste of the original's horror vibe, you may be surprised. Instead, the sequel is embracing a turn towards action in vein of Terminator 2 complete with upgrades to the original doll, a robot showdown and... a wing suit? Set to arrive in theaters only on June 27, the film is once again directed by Gerard Johnstone and features returning cast members Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez and Jen Van Epps, along with newcomer Ivanna Sakhno (Pacific Rim: Uprising) as Amelia. It's two years after the original M3GAN doll went on a murderous rampage (including that wild dance sequence) and was eventually destroyed. Since then, its designer Gemma has become an author and voice for more robust AI oversight, while Gemma's niece Cady (who M3GAN 1.0 swore to protect) is now a teenager. Meanwhile, M3GAN's AI tech was stolen by a defense contractor to build super robot solidier Amelia.

SAVE 300: As of April 4, the iRobot Roomba j7 Robot Vacuum is on sale at Best Buy for 499, 37% off its list price of 799. Looking to get some cleaning done as the springtime weather rolls in? The good news is you can still score some great deals on items like robot vacuums to help you out, even with many of the spring sales behind us now. One of our favorite discounts at the moment is on the iRobot Roomba j7 Robot Vacuum at Best Buy, which has received a 300 discount. This has dropped the price of the iRobot Roomba j7 Robot Vacuum from 799 to 499, which is a very nice deal to take advantage of especially considering many of the big spring sales and their deals on robot vacuums have come to an end by now. If you've been looking for a robot vacuum to help make your household cleaning just a little bit easier, the Roomba J7 is worth every cent.

Amazon has started testing another AI-powered feature called "Buy for Me," which allows the e-commerce company to make purchases for you from other websites. The experience is built into the Amazon app. When you search for an item from a particular brand, you may see a section of results labeled "Shop brand sites directly" separate from the results you'll get from Amazon and its third-party sellers. If you click on the "Buy for Me" button underneath an item in the separate results section, you'll be taken to a product detail page right inside the Amazon app. The company says the page will provide relevant product information similar to the product details in Amazon's own listings.

With all of the world talking about Trump's tariffs -- you know, the set of levies on basically the entire world that's set to wreak havoc in the global trade and make your iPhone more expensive -- an important question looms: Has the Trump administration used an AI to calculate those tariffs? It would be unheard of. Trump's "Reciprocal Tariffs" table -- while certainly not definitive at this point -- could turn out to be the most important document of the decade. But the numbers on the table indicate tomfoolery. Without going into intricacies of tariffs for every specific country, the thing is, these tariffs aren't reciprocal, despite Trump calling them so.

Bill Murray and Naomi Watts chose the one film for which they want to be remembered, and it's surprising "(It's) what life can be about." By Mark Stetson and Warren Shaw on April 4, 2025 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Flipboard Watch Next'The Friend' emotional trailer sees Naomi Watts adopting her late friend's Great Dane'Riff Raff' trailer: Bill Murray and Pete Davidson are an odd pair of gangsters in this dark comedy Toni Collette and Naomi Ackie on Bong Joon Ho's filmmaking process in'Mickey 17' 3:18 'Heart Eyes' Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt reveal which slasher villains they would'Fix' or'Dump' 4:34 The Friend co-stars Bill Murray and Naomi Watts discuss the films they are most proud of and the relationship between sacrifice and art. The Friend is now in theaters. Topics Film Streaming Latest Videos Stephen Colbert jokes about Trump using ChatGPT for tariff formula "Somebody cheated on your tariff homework." 2 hours ago By Sam Haysom'Superman' sneak peek sees David Corenswet's Man of Steel get beat up by his dog Superman's best friend seems excited to see him. Twice the killer robot divas means twice the fun.

Claire chatted to Tanja Katharina Kaiser from the University of Technology Nuremberg about how applying evolutionary principles can help robot teams make better decisions. Tanja Katharina Kaiser is a senior researcher heading the Multi-Robot Systems Satellite Lab at the University of Technology Nuremberg (UTN) in Germany. She and her team focus on the development of adaptive multi-robot systems to solve complex real-world tasks using artificial intelligence. Tanja received her doctorate in robotics from the University of Lübeck in Germany in 2022. Before joining UTN, she held postdoctoral research positions at the Technical University of Dresden and the University of Konstanz.

Following the release of rival Anthropic's Claude for Education, OpenAI has announced that its 20 ChatGPT Plus tier will be free for college students until the end of May. The offer comes just in time for final exams and will provide features like OpenAI's most advanced LLM, GPT-4o and an all-new image generation tool. "We are offering a Plus discount for students on a limited-time basis in the US and Canada," the company wrote in a FAQ. "This is an experimental consumer program and we may or may not expand this to more schools and countries over time." On top of the aforementioned features, ChatGPT Plus will offer students benefits like priority access during peak usage times and higher message limits.