Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Trending Now Look Up Mashable Selects Say More Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook In My Bag AI at School Safety Net Versus All Series Car thefts and break-ins are down in SF, and some city leaders -- and Silicon Valley -- believe Flock is partly responsible. Neal joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2024, editing and writing stories about digital culture and its effects on the environment and marginalized communities. He is the former editorial director of The Advocate and Out magazines, has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Curbed, and Los Angeles magazine, and is a recipient of the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBTQ Journalist of the Year Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA). He lives in Los Angeles with his family. Citing privacy and accuracy concerns, cities like Lynchburg, Virginia, and states like Florida have turned against Flock, the nation's main purveyor of automated license plate readers (ALPRs); conservative GOP politicians like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri have too.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. ChatGPT Pro's biggest perk just got cut in half. Models like GPT-6 Luna and GPT-6.1 Sol are getting more done with fewer tokens, but you won't necessarily get more from AI subscription. OpenAI unveiled several flashy new features during its annual developer's conference Tuesday, from the always-on "Dot" work agent to a new, cloud-based security system that keeps constant watch for cyber threats. But one of the biggest -- and to many ChatGPT users, the most infuriating -- headlines from DevDay wasn't announced on stage.

FedEx's new order for EV trucks will save them hundreds of millions in fuel costs The delivery giant places a big order for EV trucks, which will replace thousands of diesel-powered vehicles. Neal joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2024, editing and writing stories about digital culture and its effects on the environment and marginalized communities. He is the former editorial director of The Advocate and Out magazines, has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Curbed, and Los Angeles magazine, and is a recipient of the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBTQ Journalist of the Year Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA). He lives in Los Angeles with his family. With a plan to fully electrify its fleet by 2040, FedEx recently took a big step toward that goal by purchasing 2,000 EVs that will enter service in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2027.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Gemini Skills are the new Gems, and they're not just for paid Gemini users anymore. One of the easiest ways to create your own, customized Gemini chatbot is about to be retired, but we just got a pair of encouraging updates about their replacements. We learned earlier this week that skills, a Gemini feature that was previously reserved for the Gemini Spark AI assistant, would step in for Gems, and that existing Gems would be converted to skills in the runup to the November sunset date. One of the big questions about skills, which are essentially custom instructions for Gemini that can be summoned within a prompt, was whether they'd be available to free as well as paid users.

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects In My Bag Look Up Creator Playbook Say More AI at School Safety Net Versus Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age All Series The app can now place flyers in their preferred seat once it opens up, free of charge. But there is a catch (or three). Neal joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2024, editing and writing stories about digital culture and its effects on the environment and marginalized communities. He is the former editorial director of The Advocate and Out magazines, has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Curbed, and Los Angeles magazine, and is a recipient of the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBTQ Journalist of the Year Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA). He lives in Los Angeles with his family.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. OpenAI's Dots are always-on AI agents for work We've already seen AI assistants for personal use and shopping, but ChatGPT's Dots are geared toward collaborating at the office. Meta's Muse agent was born to shop, while Gemini's Spark can help you book airline tickets or plan your weekly meals. But while Muse and Spark act like personal assistants, OpenAI's new AI agents are designed to be, well, another "you" in the office. Dots, which OpenAI boss Sam Altman just unveiled at the company's annual developers conference, are always-on AI assistants that -- as with Muse -- you can name, assign cute little avatars to, and chat with in the ChatGPT interface, via text, or even on the phone.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is here. This prompt, straight from Anthropic's own docs, helps curb that bad habit. The latest version of Claude Sonnet--Anthropic's workhorse AI model--has just landed, and with it comes a prompt that could help keep any AI agent from leaping into action before making a plan first. Available now on the web, the Claude desktop app, and other Claude platforms, Claude Sonnet 5.5 is Anthropic's middle-of-the-road model, It's a step below Opus 5.5 but apparently just as capable as Fable 5.1 (Anthropic's pricey frontier flagship) and a step above Haiku 5 (a fast but basic Claude model that's due for a 5.5 upgrade).

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Google's Gemini Gems may be replaced by Spark skills, a feature that currently requires a paid Google AI subscription. If you're a fan of Gems--the Gemini feature that lets you create customized Gemini chatbots with their own instructions and knowledge files--prepare for some big changes coming soon. According to a banner that popped up on the Gems Manager page over the weekend, Google is about to turn Gems into skills, a feature within Google's Spark AI assistant that offers related but also somewhat different functionality. The news comes just a few weeks after OpenAI announced the impending "retirement" of custom GPTs, a popular ChatGPT feature that's similar to Gemini Gems.

Mashable Selects Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Say More Safety Net Versus Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off All Series Neal joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2024, editing and writing stories about digital culture and its effects on the environment and marginalized communities. He is the former editorial director of The Advocate and Out magazines, has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Curbed, and Los Angeles magazine, and is a recipient of the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBTQ Journalist of the Year Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA). He lives in Los Angeles with his family. Waymo just announced a new transit rewards program that incentivizes pairing robotaxi rides with public transit. The transit rewards program is now available to Waymo employees in the San Francisco Bay Area, but it will open to the Bay Area public in a few weeks, according to the Google-owned autonomous rideshare company.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Claude Opus 5.5 promises to cut the chatter The successor to the notoriously chatty Claude Opus 5, the updated Opus model seems less prone to rambling about "loose ends" and other dangling threads. Better coding performance, improved safety and "alignment," and greater value are among Anthropic's selling points for its latest Claude Opus model. But for many Claude Opus users, one particular Opus 5.5 promise stands out: less chatter. Claude Opus 5.5 is the first new Claude model since Anthropic pledged to "pace" itself in the face of runaway AI development .