Barnabas and Mainspring grew up near at hand, about an hour apart with good traffic, but for a long time they weren't close. They traded glimpses and occasional hellos and then went about their business. Both of them carried on livelier conversations with farther-flung neighbors, who were richer and had more to offer. When Mainspring did interact with Barnabas, it was cringe. Mainspring liked to puff themself up, to strut around like a big deal--an innovator, a titan of industry--but they would turn shy at the worst moments, especially in any intimate conversation. Barnabas, meanwhile, had a dancer's flair, an artsy, enigmatic glamour, except that when they tried to talk about real life, they'd blurt out hundreds of rapid-fire words--overtalking, overthinking, and generally overwhelming whomever they were trying to impress. So when Barnabas and Mainspring were young, they minded their own business. Until they'd both come into their own, and they saw each other properly. A group of geographers got together every year in a different place to talk about everything they had learned, and they were considering coming to visit either Mainspring or Barnabas. Both of them put on their best faces and tried to coax the geographers into choosing them as host. "Uh, hi-hello," Mainspring said haltingly to Barnabas, whose full official name was St. Barnabas. "I really think it would be better if those geographers came to my place. I have more space, you see, and and I am a titan of industry. I can show them practical applications of their research. It just makes more sense." Barnabas laughed, making Mainspring more antsy. "Well, can give them an elevated, artisanal experience. I have fresh croissants that were just written up in the . And I have plenty of space! I have so many friends who are great thinkers and architects. Barnabas carried on, basically calling Mainspring uncultured. Mainspring had a prickly feeling, like the worst heat dome of midsummer. For their part, Barnabas couldn't bear the meanness they were inculcating inside themself. This feeling that they were small-time, no-account, a dilettante. At last, Mainspring had had enough--with the help of their city council and mayor, they offered the geographers a much-too-lavish deal that Barnabas could never hope to match. Totally worth it to hear Barnabas's stream of self-aggrandizing nonsense peter out as they realized they'd been defeated. "I'm going to show these geographers a time they'll never forget.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. LAPD's $235-million deal with license plate reader company put on hold by City Council This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to overrule the approval of a 10-year, $235-million contract between the LAPD and Axon Enterprise, which supplies automated license plate readers and other technologies.

Schools and hospitals run by state governments will be left to set their own rules over the technology. Schools and hospitals run by state governments will be left to set their own rules over the technology. Albanese government considers'world-leading' ban on smart glasses in public offices and buildings Minister for public service says the devices pose'legitimate privacy and security concerns' in commonwealth-run workplaces The Albanese government is considering a "world-leading" The government has avoided a sweeping ban on the import of the camera-equipped technology and encouraged individual workplaces to set their own rules. The public service minister, Katy Gallagher, said on Thursday she had asked the Australian public service for advice on whether the glasses should be prohibited. "We need clear and consistent guidance for public servants," Gallagher said.

Follow this section to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. Follow this tag to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW?

Claude AI: Why are there so many internet outages? AI chatbot Claude going down is just one example of a recent IT outage. Anthropic's Claude chatbot recently had service troubles This week, AI chatbot Claude went down, leaving users unable to access the service via its maker Anthropic's website, but barely a week goes by without a similar incident at a technology giant, government website or hospital . One of the main vulnerabilities of the modern internet is the shift to cloud computing, meaning a huge range of websites and services now rely on just a handful of companies, such as Amazon and Microsoft. In the early days of the commercial internet in the 1990s, companies used to operate their own hardware and software, a bit like individual shops in a street.

The company's robotaxi service is supposed to launch in the US capital this year. But while service rollouts have been relatively smooth in other cities, DC's rules have made things tricky. Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary that develops self-driving vehicle tech, has picked up speed. The company now operates robotaxis in six cities and has announced plans to launch in a dozen others this year. It j ust raised $16 billion in a new round of funding and says it has served over 20 million rides since the company launched its service in 2020, 14 million of them in 2025 alone.

As the data center backlash grows, support is growing for server factories and the hundreds of jobs they're expected to bring. Last month, Pamela Griffin and two other residents of Taylor, Texas, took to the lectern at a city council meeting to object to a data center project. But later, they sat back as council members discussed a proposed tech factory. Griffin didn't speak up against that development. A similar contrast is repeating in communities across the US.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Santa Monica orders Waymo to stop noisy overnight operations at charging stations. Self-driving vehicles charge at the Waymo station at the corner of Euclid Street and Broadway in Santa Monica. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here .

There is a little shuttle bus in the Inland Empire that's fueled with big aspirations. It's electric, tops out at 25 mph, and can only go on a pre-designated route set up by the Riverside Transit Agency. But here's a catch -- it also drives itself. As of Monday, commuters in Riverside are the first in the country to ride a fully self-driving, publicly accessible bus that is deployed by a city transit agency. "I like to say I have no lesser ambition than to be the new Detroit for vehicle manufacturing," Riverside Mayor Lock Dawson said.

As artificial intelligence grows more ubiquitous, its potential and the challenges it presents are coming increasingly into focus. How we balance the risks and opportunities is shaping up as one of the defining questions of our era. In much the same way that cities have emerged as hubs of innovation in culture, politics, and commerce, so they are defining the frontiers of AI governance. Some examples of how cities have been taking the lead include the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights, the Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI, and the Open Dialogue on AI Ethics. Others can be found in San Francisco's ban of facial-recognition technology, and New York City's push for regulating the sale of automated hiring systems and creation of an algorithms management and policy officer.