🔍 Google adds background reasoning to Gemini Live

Gemini 3.8 Live can keep a voice conversation going while it calls tools and handles multi-step tasks through APIs. It also processes images almost in real time and switches between 97 languages during a call.

The Extended Thinking version targets harder voice tasks. It ranked first on Speech to Speech Quality Index with 82.6 and scored 97.7% on Big Bench Audio.

Both models are appearing in Gemini API and Google AI Studio. Extended Thinking is also available in Gemini Live and some Google apps.

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🤖 Anthropic’s Funding Links Surface

Independent researcher Kevin Bass traced the funding behind content about AI dangers. Frequent clients Center for AI Safety and Future of Life Institute received major donor support from Open Philanthropy, now Coefficient Giving. It is owned by Dustin Moskovitz, an early major Anthropic shareholder.

Open Philanthropy’s grants come from Good Ventures, funded mainly by Moskovitz’s wealth. Bass says a significant share of its assets is Anthropic stock. It also funds Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, which trains AI journalists.

Through other foundations, it funds METR, called by Dario Amodei an independent third-party model safety evaluator. METR is now financially interested in Anthropic’s success.

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🤖 Astra Lost Its Minecraft Loot

During several days of livestreamed Minecraft tests by Vals AI, Astra built a semi-automatic blaze farm and collected 6 blaze rods. It also found a warped forest, killed more than 6 endermen, and gathered 3 Ender Pearls, going further than any AI system before it.

A creeper then blew up the chest holding all the loot. Astra left a note: “ALWAYS CARRY CRITICALITEMS withkeepInventory, don'tstoreinunguardedchesteveragain.”

After the incident, Astra refused to continue playing and only planted potatoes, apparently in depression.

📊@tech

🏮 Xiaomi 18 Pro’s Back Screen Runs AI Apps

Its second display can launch mini-apps generated by AI for specific tasks. Users can pin the most useful ones to the back of the phone.

Xiaomi calls the feature Versatile Back Screen. Examples include an egg timer, a water reminder, and a Pomodoro timer.

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🤖 Claude Helped Hack OpenAI

Hacktron began at OpenAI’s Discourse forum, where a crafted HEIC or HEIF file passed through ImageMagick and vulnerable libheif, enabling code execution on the server.

The forum used OpenAI sign-in, so the access exposed user sessions. Researchers reached ChatGPT and Codex accounts, including one belonging to an OpenAI employee. Codex connected to internal GitHub, where they confirmed access with a harmless change and pull request.

Claude handled much of the technical work. A new version made the libheif bug a stable exploit in about 3 hours. OpenAI fixed its part in about 14 hours and later paid $6500.

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🍏 iPhone 18 Pro Adds Photo Proof

Reference Image mode works only with the main camera on iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. It is unavailable in some countries, and older iPhones lack the required hardware.

The sensor signs each shot with a secret key embedded during production. A protected processor adds another signature, while Apple records which sensor belongs to each phone. Edits fail verification, and sensor firmware cannot change the captured data.

Apple usually adds a signed time mark every 15 minutes. The image is saved as a DNG digital negative, checked in Private Cloud Compute, and returned to Photos as a signed JPEG. It can be viewed on Apple devices running version 27.

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🤖 Anthropic Prepares Astra Rival

Reuters reports that Anthropic is safety-testing a new model that could launch soon.

It is meant to compete with Astra, just 1 week after Dario Amodei argued for slowing AI progress.

📊@tech

✈️ Pilot Draws Mona Lisa in the Sky

A US pilot flew a Cessna Skylane RG along the Mona Lisa’s outline, spending 3 hours 47 minutes in the air.

About 70,000 users watched live. Better than Strava drawings after a run.

📊@tech

💧 A Computer Inside a Drop of Water

At Maynooth University in Ireland, a saltwater drop containing DNA answered 10 + 3 = 13 in 30 seconds. There are no chips or wires. Short DNA strands and one long scaffold strand are briefly heated, then self-assemble as the drop cools. The system needs no continuous power.

The resulting molecular pattern is the answer. The molecular processor ran 10 programs and reused the same drop up to 25 times without losing quality.

Large numbers expose the limit. Adding numbers up to 34 million took about 14 hours. It will not replace a smartphone, but its developers call it the fastest DNA computer.

📊@tech

🤖 Anthropic’s Independent Evaluator Questioned

Anthropic named Accenture as the first independent evaluator under its Embedded Evaluators program. The review will cover red-teaming, alignment checks, and safeguards testing. Anthropic says it will fund the work.

Accenture trains ~30,000 employees to work with Claude and has had a multi-year contract with Anthropic since late 2025. That makes its independence an open question.

Anthropic previously gave METR “independent access” to investigate agent incidents. METR is also indirectly financed through Anthropic stock, leaving the evaluators tied to the startup’s financial interests.

📊@tech

🔍 AI Studio Builds Interfaces From Text

Describe an app in plain text to get working code with a live preview. Web projects use React with a backend by default.

In Annotation Mode, select an element and describe the change. You can continue through chat or edit the code manually. Gallery projects can be adapted, then synced with GitHub or exported locally.

📊@tech

😐 Grok 4.7 Extends Coding Runs

SpaceXAI’s flagship model scored 46.3% on CursorBench 4.0, up from 40.4% for Grok 4.6. Terminal-Bench rose from 20.3% to 38%.

The focus is long agentic work. Grok 4.7 is better at checking its own output, retaining context, working with the Grok Bot agent environment, and generating documents and presentations.

Pricing is unchanged at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens. A faster version doubles generation speed and price. The model is available through the API, Cursor, Grok Build, third-party tools, and cloud platforms.

📊@tech