Author: Geek Planet

Bowman vs. The Stargate This is the point where the movie went off the rails. I don’t necessarily mean this as a bad thing because I suspect that Kubrick is trying to thread a needle. He and Clarke seem to be at odds on a key point: the nature of the aliens. The entire stargate sequence is shrouded in an ominous and mysterious vibe, but the sequence ends with benevolent transcendence. At the same time, there is conquering imagery, but Bowman seems to be just along for the ride. Is he a victor for reaching the stargate or has he…

It’s been quite a year for humanoid robots, with all manner of increasingly advanced designs coming to our attention. The selections here focus more on physical movement than AI smarts, with the latter expected to come to the fore next year. H1 by Unitree So many humanoid robots still walk as if they’re desperately looking for a bathroom. But Unitree’s H1 robot not only walks like a human, it runs like one, too. The impressive contraption proved itself at the first-ever World Humanoid Robot Olympics in August, picking up four gold medals, three silver, and four bronze in various track…

Android 17 Quick Settings might finally get the kind of fix you feel every day. A new leak suggests Google is working on two changes meant to cut friction when you’re just trying to connect, adjust brightness, or toggle basics fast. Mystic Leaks, posting on Telegram, says Google has made progress cleaning up the dual shade Quick Settings layout, including fixes for visual weirdness and functional bugs. The same post claims there’s now an optional switch to separate Wi-Fi and mobile data controls again, after years of complaints about the combined approach. If this lands in public builds, it’s the…

Bernard “Bernie” Widrow, a Stanford electrical engineering professor and foundational figure in adaptive signal processing and neural networks, died on September 30, 2025, at age 95.  He did incredible things with neural networks in the mid-20th century. He was  more deserving of the Nobel Prize in pioneering artificial intelligence than either of the 2024 recipients.  Working with his first doctoral student, Marcian “Ted” Hoff, Widrow developed the Least Mean Squares (LMS) algorithm (the Widrow-Hoff algorithm) that allowed systems to adapt by correcting errors incrementally. This breakthrough became essential to high-speed communications, mobile phones, modems, and early internet technologies. His achievements earned…

Blended workforce models — combining independent contractors with full-time employees — have evolved from experimental tactics into business-critical strategies.According to a study from consultancies Lions & Tigers and Read the Room Advisors based on responses from more than 500 workforce decision-makers, 97% say losing access to blended teams would disrupt their ability to meet business goals, with 81% calling such disruption “very” or “extremely” severe. For company leaders navigating talent shortages and rapid organizational change, the findings signal a fundamental shift in how we think about workforce composition. What’s driving the trend? While cost efficiency remains a benefit, it’s no longer the…

I recently read an article (“Computers and the Nature of Man:  A Historian’s Perspective on Controversies about Artificial Intelligence”) by Judy Grabiner, a celebrated mathematician and historian of mathematics and I learned two things that I want to share.  The first concerns the Eliza effect, our inclination to attribute human-like intelligence and emotions to computers. In the 1960s, MIT computer science professor Joseph Weizenbaum created a chatbot he named ELIZA that conversed with users the way a psychotherapist might; for example, often repeating the user’s words and asking a followup question: “You were unhappy as a child? Tell me more…

Last week, federal lawmakers proposed changes to the 2018 Farm Bill that would effectively ban most hemp-derived THC products in a year.  The proposed ban was included in the bill Congress passed to end the government shutdown. The Farm Bill had removed hemp as a controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Since the bill’s passing, federal law has allowed for hemp that contains less than 0.3% of THC to be infused into products like cocktails and gummies, ushering in an explosion of new businesses. But now, brands across the category are preparing for potential shifts in their business models. In…

Grok’s Deepfake Capacities Modified Following Pushback Source link

Google has quietly taken a major step toward beefing up browser-level privacy. A new entry in the Chrome Platform Status shows that Google and the Chromium project are finally getting ready to support Global Privacy Control (GPC). This is a big deal because it’s a legally recognized signal that tells websites – automatically and right from your browser – to stop selling or sharing your personal data. A privacy signal with legal weight The idea behind Global Privacy Control is to let you make one single privacy choice that sticks. Once you turn it on, your browser sends a “hush”…

This article, Lawsuit in Canada to Force Catholics to Permit Euthanasia| National Review is republished from National Review with the permission of the author. Freedom of religion is on the ropes in increasingly authoritarian Canada — despite a specific charter guarantee of “freedom of religion and conscience.” Indeed, an Ontario court ruled previously that doctors can be coerced under threat of professional discipline to perform lethal jabs or abortions against their religious beliefs and conscience objections. Why? The court ruled that the unenumerated right of patients to receive any legal procedure paid for by the government superseded the specific charter protection. If doctors don’t want…