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Humanoid And AI Teachers Are Taking Over Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:15:29 +0000

Technology has made quite a chatter in schools. Some parents are heading to school board meetings to demand their kids receive minimal screen time. Other parents are finding out that their children are or will be exposed to AI technologies without their consent.

America has a teacher shortage problem that only seems to increase every year. It's a multi-pronged issue that requires a multi-pronged approach to address. Some school districts, however, are tackling the issue in ways that are making both parents and teachers uncomfortable.

Case in point? New Mexico and Portland public schools introduced an AI program called Amira Learning. She's marketed as a reading growth learning agent.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 33 percent of fourth graders read at or above the proficient level in 2022. School districts across the country have been looking for ways to address this reading crisis while also struggling with the teacher shortage. Amira Learning likely feels like an obvious choice for some school districts. A computer program that promises to increase reading proficiency while freeing up the teacher's time? What could possibly be the issue?

Tech policy expert Ifeoma Ozoma sees plenty. She voiced them in an interview with New Mexico's worker-owned independent civic media co-op, 505omatic.

Ozoma shares, "Amira Learning, it's an AI voice recognition, literacy-assessing program. The state and district have contracted with Amira for kindergarten through second graders, and then third grade, optional. Of the parents that I've spoken to, not one got a notification from their principal or from teachers that their children, five, six, seven, eight years old, would have their voices recorded, and none of them were given the option to opt out."

505omatic clarifies that this is not something parents are even informed of at the beginning of the year. Ozoma confirms that parents are not given any prior notice about Amira or that this AI company has access to their child's voice.

"Not only are they using the software for the beginning, middle, and end-of-year assessments, kids are talking about using it every day. Every other day. Multiple times a day. Multiple times a week. There are many issues with it replacing the engagement that kids should be having with teachers, and what that means about making a case for having fewer teachers, and for not investing more in human resources and in literacy coaches," Ozoma says.

Ozoma's concern about schools reducing the need for human educators may not be without cause. Over in New York, a school district is planning to introduce Sally, a humanoid robot. The humanoid "teacher assistant" is debuting at Salamanca City Central School District in western New York. Sally has silicone skin and long brown hair covering her machinery to help give her a more human look. She can only move her arms, hands, head, and face, not walk around the classroom.

The robot teacher's assistant will be greeting students at Salamanca High School this fall. It's a move that concerns some parents since the high school is on the Seneca Nation reservation, which serves mostly indigenous students, according to New York Focus.

The outlet highlights a response from a concerned parent, Sierra Abrams. "We already have so many issues in our community, including environmental issues," she said. "I just don't understand the concept of adding AI onto that. Bringing it into the school district is contradicting everything we believe, in my opinion."

iPhone Patch That Fixes The Liquid Glass Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 08:26:51 +0000

When Apple introduced iOS 26 a few weeks ago, it also introduced one of the most controversial iPhone features in years: Liquid Glass.

On one hand, the Liquid Glass design makeover was visually cool. It brought a transparent 3D effect to your home screen, as well as various apps, navigation bars, folders and docks, that made it appear like you were looking through a shard of glass.

On the other hand, many found that Liquid Glass made it more difficult to use their iPhones; it created a blurred (or frosted) effect on the foreground and background, making apps and menus less legible.

Aware of the criticism, Apple rolled out subsequent software patches that let you reduce the transparency of Liquid Glass and disable it for specific elements on your iPhone's screen (like the Notification Center and certain search bars). However, you weren't able to turn it off.

With iOS 27, you still won't be able to completely turn off Liquid Glass, but Apple is introducing an improved fix in the form of a slider that lets you increase and decrease the effects of Liquid Glass.

According to Apple, it gives "users the option to personalize Liquid Glass, adjusting it anywhere from ultra-clear to fully tinted to match their preference."

Apple has officially rolled out the public beta of iOS 27 and, with it, gave us a first look at the new Liquid Glass slider. It's accessible via the Settings app and located in a new Appearance tab.

Open the Settings app.
Tap Appearance.
Select Liquid Glass.

From here, you have access to the new Liquid Glass slider. By default, the slider is positioned in the center, which is dead even between fully transparent and fully opaque. You can adjust the slider and see the difference as displayed by a text box over a photo of Apple Park.

Social Platforms Are Cracking Down On AI Slop

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 07:25:04 +0000

Many tech companies race to weave AI into every inch of their products, but they are also discovering that there's a fine line between embracing new technology and flooding users with low-quality, machine-generated content.

The shifting guidelines reflect a broader tension across the creator economy. Not long ago, social platforms competed aggressively for influencers with creator funds, exclusive programs, and monetization tools. Many of those same companies are now investing billions in AI products and infrastructure, leaving some creators worried they're becoming less central to the platforms they helped grow.

Here's how major social platforms that rely on creators, including YouTube and Substack, are dealing with the proliferation of AI content.

YouTube
In an update from the company's trust and safety team, on July 20, YouTube said it wants to reward creators who use AI to enhance original storytelling, as opposed to those who mass-produce generic content or AI personas designed to game the platform.

A YouTube spokesperson told Business Insider that the policy isn't new but an important clarification of YouTube's long-standing "inauthentic content" policy, intended to reduce ambiguity for content creators who have been demonetized for repetitive, low-effort, or emotionally manipulative videos.

TikTok
TikTok isn't shying away from generative AI. The company and its owner, ByteDance, offer an array of AI tools for content creators on its marquee app and video editor CapCut. Creators who post on its e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop, have been ramping up the use of AI to sell products this year. Much of the company's tech is built around ByteDance's AI video model, Seedance 2.0.

Still, TikTok is taking a variety of steps to keep generative AI under control across its ecosystem. The company requires creators to label AI-generated content and appends an invisible watermark to the metadata of some videos to indicate they are artificially generated. In November, the company introduced the ability for users to toggle the amount of AI content that appears in their feeds. In July, the company said it's beginning to test "improved detection systems to target accounts dedicated to posting AI-generated spam that crowds out original creators."

Substack
The newsletter platform announced on 21 July that it would help readers identify AI-generated content.

Substack will now let readers scan content to estimate how much AI may have been used in its writing. Substack is partnering with Pangram, an AI detector tool, to power its AI identification tools.

Creators on Substack can also add a disclosure to their content explaining how they made it, such as noting that they used Claude for copyediting, or if they don't use AI at all.

However, users can fairly easily disable this tool for their Substack content by turning off AI analysis in their publication settings. Creators can opt out of Pangram's automated scanning, meaning readers will no longer see an AI-use estimate on those posts.

Pinterest
Pinterest is no stranger to AI slop.

In 2025, the platform began adding AI labels to content. Pinterest lets creators label content as AI-modified or -generated, and has its own detection systems to flag content that may have been AI-generated.

Pinterest also added a tool that lets users limit the amount of AI-generated content appearing in their feeds.

In June, Pinterest's CEO Bill Ready told Business Insider's editor in chief, Jamie Heller, at Cannes Lions that while there are "so many great uses of AI," there is also a "bit of a counter movement to that with consumers."

"We provide users with controls to decide whether they want to see more or less GenAI content in their feed," a Pinterest spokesperson told Business Insider. "Additionally, our Community Guidelines apply to GenAI content, and our recommendation system prioritizes high-quality content, regardless of if it's human-created or GenAI."

Is A Refurbished iPhone 16e Still Worth It In 2026?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 05:31:17 +0000

Launched in early 2025, the iPhone 16e is the spiritual successor to the iPhone SE, with a few big differences. While the iPhone 16e features similar hardware to the more expensive iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the handset cost US$ 599 at launch, a higher launch price than the iPhone SE models that preceded it.

However, the iPhone 16e introduced an all-screen design for the budget iPhone, replacing (and effectively discontinuing) the Home button design.

In early 2026, Apple released its successor, the iPhone 17e, which brings several upgrades over the iPhone 16e model without a price increase. The iPhone 16e is no longer available in Apple's lineup, but the iPhone maker sells refurbished iPhone 16e versions starting at US$ 419. That may sound like a great deal to some iPhone buyers, while others may be more interested in paying a little extra for the iPhone 17e, or even spending more money on the US$ 799 iPhone 17, a best-selling device of the current generation.

In other words, you shouldn't be too quick to dismiss the iPhone 16e a year after its launch. The phone is worth buying in 2026, considering its high-end build quality and premium hardware that should allow the device to stay relevant and usable for several additional years.

The US$ 419 starting price for a refurbished unit is especially interesting considering that you would be buying the device directly from Apple. A refurbished phone has been inspected by Apple technicians, comes with a warranty, and is eligible for AppleCare+ for added coverage.

On the other hand, given the US$ 419 starting price Apple charges for refurbished units, buyers can also expect better deals from other retailers who still have stock or from secondhand marketplaces that sell iPhones.

The iPhone 16e can be a great choice for an iPhone buyer who doesn't need all the bells and whistles of one of the more expensive iPhone 17 models, but wants a lower-cost device with dependable hardware that can last a few years. The iPhone 16e features a 6.1-inch all-screen display with a notch instead of the Dynamic Island seen on the more expensive models.

On the back, the phone features a single camera (48-megapixel wide-angle lens). The rear panel is made of glass, but lacks MagSafe support. The battery offers up to 26 hours of video playback, according to Apple's ratings, which matches the iPhone 17e battery life estimate.

The specification that may really matter to iPhone buyers who may find the US$ 419 price tag appealing is the A18 processor that Apple also used for the standard iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus. The chip features the same 6-core CPU, a 16-core Neural Engine, and 8 GB of RAM, making the iPhone 16e compatible with the Apple Intelligence platform.

The iPhone 16e shipped with iOS 18 and can be updated to iOS 27. It's likely the handset will receive four or five more years of software support, considering that the 2019 iPhone 11 series will also support iOS 27. That's a good incentive to buy a relatively affordable midrange iPhone that can offer flagship performance at a time when the memory and storage crisis has forced smartphone vendors to raise handset prices.

Finally, the iPhone 16e can also be a good choice for teenagers getting their first iPhone, or for older adults who want a dependable iPhone to connect with friends and family, surf the web, and take photos.

Apple Is Suing OpenAI For Theft Of Trade Secrets

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 02:51:14 +0000

Tech giant Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two of its former employees, accusing the company of misappropriating confidential information and trade secrets to accelerate its consumer hardware ambitions.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims OpenAI orchestrated a coordinated effort to obtain Apple’s proprietary information through former employees, recruiting practices and supplier relationships. Apple is seeking damages, court injunctions and an order preventing the ChatGPT maker from using the alleged trade secrets.

The complaint names OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, io Products and former Apple executives Tang Yew Tan and Chang Liu as defendants. Tan previously served as Apple’s vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch before joining OpenAI, while Liu worked as a senior system electrical engineer.

The legal battle marks a sharp turn in the relationship between the two companies. Apple integrated ChatGPT into its ecosystem in 2024, but tensions have grown as OpenAI expanded into consumer hardware following its acquisition of former Apple designer Jony Ive’s startup, io Products.

Apple alleges that Liu failed to return a company-issued laptop and later exploited an authentication bug to access Apple’s internal network, downloading "dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files."

The company also claims Tan emailed himself confidential supplier information and internal industry summaries before leaving Apple. According to the complaint, Tan encouraged Apple employees interviewing with OpenAI to bring Apple components to interviews for "show and tell" sessions.

"He has directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring 'actual parts' from Apple to their interviews for 'show and tell' sessions in which he and his team at OpenAI can elicit still more Apple confidential information," Apple said in the filing.

Apple further alleges that OpenAI employees approached suppliers using proprietary Apple manufacturing techniques, including a confidential metal finishing process, while leading suppliers to believe they had Apple’s authorization.

The lawsuit comes as OpenAI pushes beyond software into hardware. The company acquired io Products for approximately US$ 6.5 billion last year and has been widely reported to be developing consumer devices that could eventually compete with smartphones.

Staggering Price For Chinese Companion Robots

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 03:08:34 +0000

If you're looking for a robot companion and you have somewhere between US$ 17,000 and US$ 146,000 burning a hole in your pocket, UBTech Robotics has just what you need. The China-based tech company recently unveiled its UWorld U1 Series, a line of life-sized, hyper-realistic robot with silicone skin and human features.

UBTech is mainly known for commercial and industrial robotics, but these new humanoid robots are meant to offer companionship, including physical assistance, social assistance, lifestyle aesthetics, and emotional support.

The robots are able to recognize 20 emotional states with over 90 percent accuracy through voice, gestures, and interaction, and they are capable of exhibiting up to 90 ppercent of basic human movements.

They are for adults only, which raises some eyebrows, and come in tiers basic (Lite) to high-end (Ultra), hence the price range. The high-end models are 990,000 yuan or roughly US$ 146,000 with the cheapest at 119,800 yuan or US$ 17,600. Pre-orders opened June 30, and the first shipments are expected in September, if the company delivers.

An on-stage presentation mixed the various robotic models and real human actors, meanwhile demos use generative AI to represent the robots. Scenes show an AI model genuinely using a phone — "hit me up if you want to talk" — and holding the off-screen viewer's hand.

Another scene, also GenAI, shows a female model frolicking on a sunny beach with its owner. Although, modern robotics companies are no strangers to odd presentations, earlier this year, Unitree's robots were part of a demonstration that felt like a sci-fi nightmare or fever dream.

Collectively, the U1 Series makes use of an end-to-end technology stack, with physical hardware — like the biomimetic skin and system-level manufacturing under-the-hood — and intelligence hardware, using a proprietary operating system, and emotion-driven large language models (LLMs) for processing.

UBTech claims the intelligence powers a "biomimetic fast-and-slow brain architecture" which draws on cognitive neuroscience to enable extremely fast, 500-millisecond, response times along with deep reasoning and reactivity. There are a lot of buzzwords there, but these robots should be capable of a wide variety of applications from hospitality and customer service to elder care, to education and in-house domestic services.

Though, these aren't the first "humanoid" robots to market, they appear to be some of the first that are intelligently advanced, on the software side. The Walker C and Walker S1 are also full-size humanoid-like robots from the company, albeit meant to provide customized hospitality or commercial services. They straight-up look like robots, however. Another human-like robot that sparks the uncanny valley feel in your home is Moya, from DroidUp. Altogether, China has so many humanoid robots it had to create a unique ID system for them all.

UBTech also introduced its "Human-Robot Companionship Initiative." China has a large population of adults living in isolated conditions, over 90 million adults living alone and 118 million empty-nest seniors. In addition, 10 percent to 20 percent of them suffer from mental health disorders, such as dementia or severe depression, who may require attentive emotional and physical care.

UBTech says: "Combined with multimodal situational awareness, the robots are designed to provide structured psychological support services." The company plans to donate 100 of its U1 Series models to mental well-being programs in 2026.

Elon Mush Launches Space XAI

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 03:22:31 +0000

It was only a matter of time, but xAI has a new name now that it's under the SpaceX banner. Say hello to SpaceXAI. No, you don't have to give points for creativity to Elon Musk for this one — though it's a pretty obvious change, given the journey xAI has been on over the past several months.

To recap, Musk's SpaceX acquired also-Musk-owned xAI in February. It's a move Musk has become known for in recent years, having merged X (formerly Twitter) into xAI in 2025. Now, nearly all of Musk's various companies (except Tesla) are under the same company, which helped push SpaceX to a massive IPO last month that briefly made Musk a trillionaire.

In any case, SpaceXAI made things official on X this week, debuting a new logo to boot.

We are now @SpaceXAI. pic.twitter.com/ema66xDWC9
— SpaceXAI (@SpaceXAI) July 6, 2026

It's a change that we've known was coming for a little while. In May, Musk said xAI would be "dissolved as a separate company, so it will just be SpaceXAI, the AI products from SpaceX." Now, the combined rocket-slash-AI company is focused on plans to put AI data centers into orbit, with the goal of potentially demonstrating the launch of AI satellites by the end of 2027.

Recently, SpaceX has been showing off a prototype of a "handset-like device" to investors, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.

The device is reportedly focused on bringing AI capabilities to users, running on the company's own operating system and integrating xAI's technology to power its AI features. It's been described as having a "sleek design" and being "slimmer than an iPhone." The device is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset.

However, Musk weighed in on the Wall Street Journal report, calling it "utterly false" on his social media platform, X, without elaborating any further.

Musk has previously denied reports from earlier this year that SpaceX was working on a phone that would connect directly to Starlink satellites.

OpenAI Launches Smarter Model In The U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:34:35 +0000

OpenAI has just introduced GPT-5.6, a new family of large language models led by its flagship Sol model, alongside Terra and Luna variants built for different performance and cost requirements. However, the company is limiting the initial rollout to a small group of trusted U.S.-based partners after a request from the U.S. government.

The GPT-5.6 series introduces a new naming system, with Sol representing the highest capability tier, Terra offering GPT-5.5-level performance at half the cost, and Luna targeting lower-cost, faster AI applications. OpenAI said the models will become generally available through ChatGPT, Codex, and its API in the coming weeks.

GPT-5.6 Sol also introduces a new maximum reasoning mode that gives the model more time to solve complex tasks. OpenAI is also launching an Ultra mode that uses subagents to tackle sophisticated workflows beyond the capabilities of a single AI agent.

The company said GPT-5.6 Sol delivers its strongest performance yet in coding, biology, and cybersecurity while introducing its "most robust safety stack to date."

According to OpenAI, GPT-5.6 Sol achieved a new state of the art on TerminalBench 2.1, a benchmark for command-line coding workflows. In biology, the company said the model outperformed GPT-5.5 on GeneBench v1 while using fewer output tokens.

OpenAI also highlighted gains in cybersecurity. On ExploitBench, GPT-5.6 Sol matched the performance of Anthropic’s Mythos Preview while using roughly one-third of the output tokens. On ExploitGym, developed by researchers at UC Berkeley with OpenAI and other frontier AI labs, all three GPT-5.6 models showed improved cyber capabilities as reasoning increased.

Despite those gains, OpenAI said GPT-5.6 Sol does not cross the Cyber Critical threshold under its Preparedness Framework.

"GPT-5.6 Sol is better at helping people find and fix vulnerabilities than reliably carrying out end-to-end attacks," the company said.

The company also introduced a layered safety system that combines model-level protections, real-time misuse detection, account-level monitoring, differentiated access, and extensive automated and human red-teaming. OpenAI said it dedicated more than 700,000 A100-equivalent GPU hours to automated red-teaming to uncover jailbreak techniques before release.

Unlike previous launches, GPT-5.6 will initially be available only to a select group of trusted partners.

"As part of our ongoing engagement with the U.S. government, we previewed our plans and the models’ capabilities ahead of today’s launch," OpenAI said.

How To Spot An AI-Generated Face?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:22:33 +0000

There was a time when it is easy to tell when a face was generated with artificial intelligence (AI). Whether it was a distinctive uncanny sheen, impossibly smooth skin, eyes that didn't quite make sense or a conspicuous third ear, older AI models' facsimiles of human faces were simple to spot and easy to dismiss. That's just not true anymore.

Now, AI image generators can produce portraits so convincing that even careful observers struggle to distinguish fact from figment. That's why apps such as Zoom and Tinder allow their users to submit biometric identification, such as retinal scans, to help prove that a real person exists behind a profile picture. But a new study suggests you can train your brain to get better at spotting fakes.

Past attempts to teach people to spot AI faces have focused on training viewers to look for visual glitches or statistical fingerprints left behind by a particular image generator, such as a wonky ear or an eye with two pupils. The problem is that those clues can disappear with a software update or by simply using a different prompt.

"The AI is getting too good," said Amy Dawel, an associate professor at Australian National University and the lead author on the study, in a press release. "And fraudsters may avoid using pictures with obvious flaws anyway." The result is an endless technological arms race humanity seems destined to lose.

Instead, the researchers taught the participants how to recognize broader patterns in how AI systems generate images. "Our training directs people's attention to global qualities that differ between AI and human faces," Dawel said.

Current AI image generators are themselves trained on datasets composed of millions of images. When prompted to generate a face, they don't copy specific faces, but instead compose a new face that is based in part on the mathematical patterns shared across the faces in that data set—these allow the AI to construct a "typical" human face.

The result is that AI-generated faces often drift toward statistical averages. They're not overly unrealistic, so much as a little too balanced, a little too generic, and a little too conventional. Individually, none of these traits are necessarily suspicious. But together, the whole is blander than the sum of its parts—a subtle banality humans can often implicitly sense.

"Even relatively short training sessions helped participants improve their accuracy," says Tanya George, a student researcher at Australian National University who trained the study's participants. "Research like this can help people navigate increasingly complex online environments."

Compared with real faces, AI-generated faces tend to be more symmetrical, more proportional, and more attractive—while also being less expressive, less distinctive and significantly less memorable. When the researchers trained participants to look for these six markers instead of fleeting artifacts like malformed ears or mismatched jewelry, their ability to spot the AI face almost doubled.

In other words, AI gravitates to the center. Real people do not. Our faces are shaped by countless small deviations from the norm—our subtle asymmetries, distinctive features, and expressions make us memorable. Those imperfections are not flaws. They are our signature.

Loads Of iPhone Fixes From iOS 26.5.2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 05:28:57 +0000

There's a new update available for all iPhone users today, but don't expect any big new features. Rather, this update is focused on fixing lots of vulnerabilities, mostly having to do with the WebKit engine for your web browser. The version number is iOS 26.5.2, and it's available to download now.

In total, there are 29 security fixes with today's update, and you can find the full list of them in Apple's official documentation.

As Apple notes, these fixes were originally included with the iOS 26.6 betas, but they've been released on their own with this update. Most of the vulnerabilities patched in this update prevent malicious websites from exploiting your device.

The iPhone update isn't the only one rolling out from Apple's servers today. You'll also find a similar set of fixes available for both iPadOS and macOS, both of which also carry the 26.5.2 version number. You should be able to download them on your Mac and iPad now.

While Apple still may have minor updates coming, including iOS 26.6, you shouldn't expect any big new features until iOS 27 lands this fall. That update will feature a revamped Siri and lots of new Apple Intelligence features, along with some UI tweaks and more. It should launch alongside Apple's iPhone 18 (and folding iPhone) lineup later this year.

Sashimi Robot Can Slice And Dice Cleanly

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 05:14:14 +0000

Most Robots can now pick up boxes, sort packages, and screw in bolts without breaking a sweat. Some of them can even walk and run like humans. Hand one a floppy, slippery piece of raw salmon, though, and everything starts falling apart.

A team at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology set out to solve that problem. The result is the Sashimi-Bot, a three-armed robot that can prepare sashimi from a raw salmon loin without a chef in sight.

It divides the job neatly between its three arms. The first arm stabilizes and positions the salmon on the cutting board. The second holds a chef's knife and slices. The third picks up each finished slice with chopsticks and transfers it to a serving tray.

What makes this more than just clever arm arrangement is how the robot learned to do it. Lead researcher Sverre Herland and the team trained it using deep reinforcement learning inside a virtual simulation.

The technology let the robot practice thousands of movements and learn through trial and error, without any practice on real fish.

The knife arm also carries a GelSight tactile sensor, a soft gel surface with an embedded camera that tells the robot exactly when it has reached the cutting board.

During testing, the robot cut 34 slices of salmon. It successfully grasped 26 of the 28 slices that fell onto the cutting board with chopsticks. An additional six slices that had stuck to the knife blade were retrieved directly from it.

Each cut cycle averaged 27.9 seconds. The study is published in npj Robotics (via TechXplore). While most robots do best with rigid, predictable objects, the Sashimi-Bot is more significant than its culinary application suggests.

It is an example of robots handling delicate, irregular materials by making real-time movements and adjustments.

Are You Ready To Do Business With Your Agentic AI System?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 06:51:41 +0000

Retail is moving into a new phase where artificial intelligence no longer just advises, but actually acts on it. The rise of agentic AI marks a shift from systems that recommend products or insights to systems that can make decisions and complete tasks on their own within set limits.

In simple terms, agentic AI refers to AI systems that can carry out multi-step actions without constant human prompting.

In retail, this includes updating stock levels, adjusting prices, managing supply chain steps, and even completing parts of a customer journey such as product selection or checkout.

The key change is autonomy. AI is moving from being a support tool to becoming an operational actor.

This shift is closely tied to advances in large language models, which now serve as the foundation for more complex AI agents. These systems are increasingly being tested across e-commerce platforms, logistics networks, and marketing operations.

While many applications are still in pilot stages, the direction is consistent across the industry: more tasks are being handed over to automated decision-making systems.

For years, AI in retail has mainly focused on prediction and recommendation. It suggested what customers might buy, or helped businesses forecast demand. Agentic AI goes further by acting on those predictions.

In practical terms, an AI agent can monitor inventory levels across multiple warehouses and trigger restocking when thresholds are reached. It can adjust product listings based on real-time demand signals.

It can also support dynamic pricing, where prices shift in response to supply, demand, and competitor activity.

These systems are being explored in both online and physical retail environments. The goal is to reduce delays between insight and action. Instead of a manager reviewing data and making a decision, the system can execute the response directly, within predefined rules.

Marketing teams are also beginning to use agentic systems to manage campaign performance. AI can test different versions of adverts, adjust targeting, and reallocate budgets based on performance data.

This reduces manual workload and allows faster responses to changing customer behaviour.

One of the most important applications of agentic AI is in supply chain management. Retail supply chains involve many moving parts, including suppliers, warehouses, transport networks and stores. Small delays or forecasting errors can quickly become costly.

Agentic AI systems can track these moving parts in real time. They can identify risks such as low stock, delayed shipments or sudden spikes in demand. In some cases, they can automatically reorder products or reroute logistics flows to reduce disruption.

This type of automation is particularly valuable for global retailers operating across multiple markets. It allows them to respond more quickly to local demand changes and reduce reliance on manual coordination between teams.

However, most retailers are still in early stages of adoption. Current use is typically limited to specific functions rather than full end-to-end autonomy. The focus is on improving accuracy and efficiency while keeping human oversight in place.

Reason Behind Multiple Camera Lenses In Smartphones

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 02:49:49 +0000

Modern smartphones are often packed with camera lenses, referred to as a camera cluster (or bump). This is why the camera on your phone isn't flat: the lens needs space between the sensor. The more lenses, the more space needed.

But why in the world do we need multiple lenses in our smartphones to begin with?

Well, that's simple. Each lens performs a specific job, such as a main (wide) lens, an ultrawide lens, a telephoto lens, and/or a macro lens. Macro is handy for close-up shots, and telephoto helps capture objects from a distance while taking more of the landscape. You'll use the main lens for other kinds of shots, like portraits. Through software, these photos can be further polished or even combined to create shots through computational photography.

Essentially, smartphones offer a selection of cameras and lenses to give you, the user, the choice of how to take your photos. Your main lens will likely take in the most light for standard use. This is known as aperture, and it's measured on F-stops. The lower the F-stop, the more light your lens lets in, so make sure to check which aperture each lens in your camera phone offers.

Generally, ultrawide lenses offer a slightly higher aperture as less light is taken in to afford a much higher depth of field, so you can shoot large landscapes. As for macro, many manufacturers use the ultrawide to capture macro shots as it can also focus on subjects from a short distance. Camera bumps exist to give us options so our phones can handle any shooting situation.

One of the main features to consider when purchasing a smartphone is the type of camera lenses it offers. Typically, smartphones offer three lenses in the back, though some camera clusters that once offered a dedicated macro lens have switched to a zoomed ultrawide for a similar effect. You can see this on devices from players like OnePlus, which uniquely uses a monochrome lens in its cluster.

Competitors like Samsung and Google also pack an ultrawide that can zoom for macro instead of a dedicated macro lens, ensuring to offer a choice for the best budget and expensive phones for photographers, no matter your brand or shooting preference.

A smartphone's camera quality is seen as a major selling point, and rightfully so, given that 91 percent of phone users regularly use their smartphones for pictures. Cameras are a very commonly used feature.

For comparison, only 80 percent of smartphone users actually use their phones to make calls. So, not only are the cameras built into our phones a normalized feature these days, but they are more important than these gadgets original use. How good these cameras are can easily make or break a phone; that's simply how important the tech is.

So, if you ever wondered why just about every smartphone has a silly-looking camera cluster on the back, there's a very good reason for it. Consumers absolutely demand killer cameras in their smartphones, which is why Google, Apple, and Samsung have all been battling neck and neck for over a decade to offer the very best and most popular smartphone cameras to the public.

China's Supercomputer Is Ranked First In The World

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 10:58:14 +0000

China is now a home to the world's fastest publicly listed supercomputer for the first time since 2017, according to the latest TOP500 ranking released last 23 June.

The system, called LineShine and located at the National Supercomputing Centre in the southern city of Shenzhen, displaced the US machine El Capitan from the top spot.

The TOP500 list, published twice a year, ranks the world's most powerful known supercomputers based on a standardized performance benchmark. The latest edition was unveiled at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in Hamburg.

LineShine achieved a performance of 2.198 exaflops, equivalent to more than 2 quintillion calculations per second. El Capitan, located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, recorded 1.809 exaflops.

Supercomputers are used for applications including climate modelling, materials research, industrial development and artificial intelligence, making the rankings a closely watched indicator in the technology competition between China and the United States.

El Capitan, Frontier and Aurora, all based in the US, occupied the next three positions in the ranking. Germany's Jupiter Booster system at the Jülich Research Centre ranked fifth.

Prices Of Apple Products Are Expected To Increase

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 09:32:07 +0000

About two weeks after his final appearance hosting Apple's Worldwide Developers' Conference (WDC), outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook tells the Wall Street Journal the company plans to raise prices on its products. Cook blamed the rising costs of memory chips and storage.

Cook did not say which products would be affected, or when the price hikes would take effect. Apple is expected to release the iPhone 18 series in September, and many expect it to also announce the company's first foldable phone.

"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable," Cook told the WSJ. "We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."

Cook warned during Apple's second-quarter earnings call in May that he expected memory costs to "drive an increasing impact on our business," but without offering specifics. And at least one analyst suggested the memory chip crisis could raise the price of iPhones — but maybe not all models.

Insatiable demand from AI companies has driven the cost of memory and storage chips sky-high, leading to a severe shortage of RAM — a situation dubbed RAMmageddon within the industry.

Apple is far from the only company feeling the squeeze and raising prices as a result. Microsoft raised its Xbox console prices in 2025, and Sony raised the cost of its Playstation consoles in April.

Apple Will Partner With Intel To Build Chips In The U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 07:35:42 +0000

President Donald Trump said last 18 June that Intel had agreed a to deal with Apple to "design and build" its chips in the U.S.

"America needed its Semiconductor Industry to come back to the U.S.A. We design everything, but we need to BUILD it here, NOW!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. "So I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America."

"Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America," he said.

The president has been a vocal supporter of Intel, striking a deal with the company last August that saw Intel sell a stake of about 10 percent to the U.S. government.

Intel's share price was up more than 10 percent when markets opened Thursday.

Trump's announcements came a few hours after the Wall Street Journal published an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, where he said the company would have to raise prices due to memory and storage shortages. "Price increases are unavoidable," Cook said.

Demand from AI companies has driven a sharp increase in the cost of memory and storage, leading to a severe shortage of RAM — known as RAMmageddon within the industry.

Touch and Vision Capabilities Adopted In Robot Hands

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 01:00:48 +0000

Researchers have developed a soft robotic gripper that can inspect fruit for ripeness and harvest it without causing damage, a capability that could help reduce food waste and improve harvesting efficiency.

The device uses soft silicone and polyurethane fingers equipped with multiple sensors to measure a fruit’s size, shape, color and firmness before deciding whether it is ready to be picked. The system was tested on strawberries and can remove the fruit by twisting its stem rather than cutting it.

The gripper was developed by a team that includes Anand Mishra, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering at West Virginia University. The research began at Cornell University and is continuing at WVU.

The technology addresses a major challenge in agriculture: harvesting delicate fruits at the right stage of ripeness. Fruits such as strawberries and raspberries have a narrow harvest window and can bruise easily during picking, transportation and storage.

"Our gripper’s quick, accurate inspections and harvesting can reduce spoilage of fruits and lower supply chain costs," Mishra said.

"Fruit inspections are critical for harvesting decisions that have traditionally been made by human workers. However, using human workers for harvesting involves challenges such as labor shortages, health concerns and inaccuracies in picking."

Agricultural robots have been proposed as a solution, but many existing systems are designed for controlled greenhouse environments rather than outdoor farms. Traditional robotic grippers can also damage soft fruit because of their rigid structures.

The new system combines tactile and visual sensing in a soft robotic design. Stretchable optical fibers embedded inside each finger act as tactile and curvature sensors, while a miniature camera and distance sensor are mounted in the palm.

The five-fingered gripper can identify a fruit’s shape, stiffness and ripeness while also detecting slippage during handling. Researchers reported that the device can open and close in less than two seconds, lift loads weighing up to one kilogram and achieve nearly 100 percent accuracy in shape prediction.

According to the team, the technology could be particularly useful for fruits that do not show obvious visual signs of ripeness. Avocados are one example, where growers often rely on touch rather than appearance to determine harvest timing.

A Revamped Siri Is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 03:37:05 +0000

Apple is popularly known as a company that prioritizes privacy, and that could be a major pillar of its revamped Siri experience launching with iOS 27 later this year. According to a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is planning a feature for the new Siri app that would auto-delete chats after a set period of time, mimicking a feature in the company's Messages app.

The report notes that you'll be able to adjust the settings for the new Siri app to keep chats for 30 days, one year or forever. Similar settings are already available for iMessage chats, reinforcing Apple's focus on making chatting with Siri similar to the experience its users already have with the Messages app.

That's slightly different from how chatbots from other companies work, requiring you to manually delete chats or affirmatively start a chat in an incognito mode that cuts them off from storage and model training.

Gurman also says that the new Siri experience could still launch with a beta label when it ships with iOS 27 later this year. That's reminiscent of Siri's original launch in 2011, which was tagged as beta to signify that the experience would continue to evolve. It's notable this time, however, as the experience has already been delayed for two years since Apple first announced an AI overhaul for Siri's capabilities at WWDC 2024.

Finally, Apple may be looking to boost Genmoji usage with iOS 27. Gurman notes that the company is planning to add a "suggested Genmoji" option on the iOS keyboard. The experience would create suggested Genmoji "created from your photos and your commonly typed phrases," according to the description attached to a new toggle in the iOS 27 keyboard settings.

All of these updates are expected to be revealed first at WWDC 2026, Apple's annual developer conference kicking off on June 8. That's before iOS 27 is expected to launch to customers with this year's new iPhones this fall.

Bill-Splitting Feature Coming To iOS 27

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 08:40:04 +0000

Apple is planning to launch a bill-splitting feature in iOS 27, and may introduce the feature as soon as next week at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

Users will be able to take a photo of a receipt, assign items on it to other people and generate requests for payment, according to the report. The payment service will be linked to the company's peer-to-peer payment system Apple Cash, and will be available via its Wallet app and within Messages.

Payment-splitting will likely compete with peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo and Cash App, and marks Apple's latest foray into financial services, which have been something of a mixed bag for the company.

While its Apple Wallet and Apple Pay features continue to grow in popularity, its Apple Card credit card, which launched in 2019, was not a strong performer for its banking partner Goldman Sachs.

Earlier this year, Goldman reached a deal with JPMorgan Chase to take over its Apple Card business. And Apple's venture into the buy now, pay later marketplace was short-lived, with the company discontinuing its Apple Pay Later program after less than a year.

Apple will be holding WWDC on 8 June, where it's expected to unveil iOS 27, Siri updates, and more.

AI Is Taking Over Workplace Critical Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:53:30 +0000

Most leaders believe their teams are using AI as a tool. The research suggests something more consequential is happening. Workers are not just using AI to work faster. They are letting it decide, and in doing so, quietly ceding the human reasoning that determines whether those decisions are any good.

A January 2026 paper from the Wharton School introduced a term for what is now documented and measurable. Researchers Steven Shaw and Gideon Nave call it cognitive surrender.

They define it as adopting AI outputs with minimal scrutiny, thereby overriding both intuition and deliberation. Their framework extends Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman's model of fast intuitive thinking and slow deliberate thinking by introducing a third system: artificial cognition that operates entirely outside the brain.

That third system, they argue, can supplement or supplant human reasoning. When it supplants it, AI stops being a thinking partner and starts being the decision-maker.

The performance implications are direct. When workers in the study consulted an AI that was correct, their accuracy rose significantly above what they achieved on their own. When the AI was wrong, their accuracy fell well below the baseline of people who had no AI access at all. The problem is that workers had no reliable way to detect the difference. They accepted incorrect AI answers 80 percent of the time. Their confidence rose either way, whether the AI had helped them or led them astray.

This dynamic is particularly consequential with the large language models now embedded in most workplace tools. LLMs do not retrieve facts. They generate plausible-sounding responses based on patterns in training data, without access to an organization's specific context, strategy, institutional knowledge, or the domain expertise of the person using them. They do not flag uncertainty. They speak with consistent confidence regardless of accuracy.

Getting strong output from an LLM requires a skilled human on the other end: one who validates what it produces, identifies what it missed, expands the ideation beyond the initial response, and applies judgment to decide. Cognitive surrender eliminates every one of those steps.

A Microsoft Research study published in April 2025 found that confidence in AI was among the strongest predictors of whether knowledge workers engaged in critical thinking at all. The higher the trust in the tool, the less scrutiny is applied to what it returned.

As researchers noted in that same study, there is a fundamental irony at the center of automation: when routine cognitive tasks are mechanized and handed to an external system, the human is deprived of the routine practice that builds and sustains judgment. The reps disappear. And so, over time, does the muscle.

A McKinsey "State of Organizations 2026" report, published in February, found that only 23 percent of organizations qualify as AI Pioneers, those actively deploying AI across most departments and functions with a clear understanding of how it will reshape their work. The vast majority are still experimenting, running isolated pilots, or deploying AI in piecemeal ways that have yet to generate measurable enterprise-wide impact.

That gap is the opportunity. Cognitive surrender is not yet the organizational norm. Supplementing human reasoning rather than supplanting it is still a choice leaders can architect into how AI gets deployed. The window to make that choice intentionally, before passive AI reliance becomes the default operating culture, is shorter than most leaders assume.

The structural interventions the research points to are specific. Leaders who build these practices into how AI gets deployed now safeguard their organizations from a culture where AI supplants human reasoning rather than supports it, and from the performance costs that follow.

President Trump Signs EO Granting Early Access To Frontier Models

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:34:27 +0000

President Donald Trump has just signed a new executive order last 2 June that asks artificial intelligence companies to share advanced AI models with the federal government before public release. The move marks the White House’s latest effort to tighten national security coordination around rapidly advancing AI systems without introducing formal licensing requirements.

The order creates a voluntary framework for AI developers to work with federal agencies on evaluating models with advanced cyber capabilities. Under the proposal, companies could provide government officials with access to certain frontier AI models up to 30 days before wider deployment.

Trump signed the order privately after delaying a planned public event with technology executives several weeks ago. At the time, he told reporters he disliked parts of the original proposal.

The White House framed the directive as a balance between accelerating AI innovation and protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Administration officials repeatedly stressed that the order does not establish mandatory government approval for AI releases.

The executive order directs multiple federal agencies to strengthen cyber defenses within 30 days. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), must issue new operational guidance to protect federal networks and critical infrastructure systems.

The administration also ordered agencies to expand AI-driven cybersecurity programs and improve access to defensive tools for state governments, utilities, hospitals, and community banks.

Another section creates a voluntary AI cybersecurity clearinghouse led by the Treasury Department. The initiative will coordinate vulnerability scanning, software patching, and threat detection efforts alongside private industry partners.

Trump’s order repeatedly positions AI as both a national security asset and a growing cyber risk. The administration argues that advanced AI tools could help defend government systems while also creating new attack surfaces for adversaries.

A central part of the order focuses on so-called "covered frontier models," which refer to advanced AI systems with significant cyber capabilities. Federal agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), must develop a classified benchmarking process within 60 days. That process will assess whether a model meets the threshold for additional government review.

Companies could voluntarily ask the government to evaluate models still under development. Developers may also grant federal agencies early access to those systems before releasing them to outside partners. The order additionally allows the government to collaborate with AI companies on selecting "trusted partners" that receive early model access. However, the White House included language aimed at calming industry concerns over federal overreach.

"Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement," the order states. That provision reflects ongoing tension between Silicon Valley and Washington over how aggressively the government should regulate frontier AI systems.

Apple Was Rumored To Be Working On An Anti-Snatching Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 01:51:07 +0000

If you’ve ever been worried about having your iPhone ripped from your hands while walking down the street, Apple is reportedly developing a new feature that will limit the damage that would-be thieves can do once they have your phone.

Reliable sources from 9to5Mac reports that Apple is working on an anti-snatching feature that would lock your iPhone if it detects it’s been stolen, preventing thieves from gaining access to valuable data and personal information.

In a lot of cases, snatchers will run or bike away quickly once they’ve grabbed a phone. If the report is accurate, the new feature would use signals from your phone’s accelerometer and the distance from a paired Apple Watch to decide if your iPhone has been snatched.

Beyond just locking the phone, the feature would work according to the same rules as Stolen Device Protection, restricting access to certain areas of the phone if it detects it’s in an unfamiliar location or connected to an unfamiliar Wi-Fi network.

Apple already provides a pretty robust set of features to protect stolen iPhones and the data on them, but this feature would be the first attempt to automatically detect if one has been physically snatched from you and lock it down. There’s no word on when the feature might be announced or launched, but WWDC 2026 is right around the corner on 8 June 2026. It’s possible it could debut there as part of Apple’s iOS 27 plans.

Artificial Brains Being Developed From Living Cells

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 30 May 2026 02:22:09 +0000

Modern computers are often thought of as operating artificial brains. That said, they’re nowhere close to being as complex or energy-efficient as human brains. AI consumes an enormous amount of electricity, and it’s constantly demanding more as it keeps endlessly morphing and advancing.

How can our power supply catch up to a future of neural networks and digitized intelligence? Well, maybe the answer lies in merging living brain cells with a programmable electronic system.

Previous attempts to use actual neurons as the brain of a computer have run into problems. 2D neural cultures—in which the flattened neurons showed abnormal interactions and gene expression — couldn’t survive for long, and these structures were ultimately unable to replicate the connections and activity that occur in vivo.

More advanced in vitro neural networks have tried to compensate for some of those problems by mirroring the structure and function of the brain with organoids. Despite some improvements, brain organoids (clumps of stem cells engineered to turn into neurons) are inconsistent and prone to both hypoxia and necrosis.

Alternative 3D neural networks known as biological neural networks (BNNs) could still be a viable option. Such a system would ideally take the form of an in vitro model that reconstructs the brain’s networks, can be reproduced, and actually lasts. It would also feature both dense and sparse neural connections (not unlike those in the hippocampus) to prevent too much data from moving around at once.

In an effort to create a fusion of biology and machinery, researchers Tian-Ming Fu, James Sturm, and Kumar Mritunjay from Princeton University used electrodes and microscopic metal wires to create a 3D polymer mesh scaffold flexible enough for tens of thousands of living neurons to grow into a network that could operate with minimal energy.

"Understanding the brain’s network structures and working principles could help in the development of general-purpose computing with improved data and energy efficiencies, as well as provide insights into the brain’s physiology and pathology," the researchers said in a study recently published in Nature Electronics.

Fu, Sturm, and Mritunjay began this experiment to gain more insight into other lingering questions about brain function, but soon saw its potential as a biological neural network, and 3D-MIND (3D Micro-Instrumented Neural network Device) was born. Taking inspiration from origami, the researchers initially created the device in two dimensions, embedding precisely enough electronic sensors to match the soma of a neuron before folding it into 3D layers. Neurons were then integrated into the system. While this hasn’t been done with human neurons yet, rat neurons from the hippocampus—which is critical for learning and memory — were extracted and cultured on the scaffold.

Finally, the entire device was covered in a thin gel coating. Protective and practical, the coating contained proteins that would provide extra support for neurons in forming strong connections with glial cells—cells that not only hold these neural structures together, but supply nutrients, perform immune functions, regulate chemistry, produce the fatty insulation for axons known as myelin, and keep the surrounding environment clear for signaling.

Eventually, the researchers observed neurons positioning themselves and forming connections in three dimensions throughout the structure. These neurons were also stable enough to be tracked for extended periods of time, and the team managed to record growth, development, and action potentials—electrical impulses that neurons use to communicate.

The researchers admit that it will be challenging to scale this system up, but it’s definitely promising, especially when compared to current energy-guzzling AI networks.

"The interfaced system can then provide a physiologically relevant understanding of the brain’s 3D network connectivity," the team wrote. "[It has] the ability to track a 3D neural network [and] could be of use in understanding the efficiency and versatility of the brain’s computational capabilities."

How Useful Is Apple Pay?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 May 2026 16:12:25 +0000

There are numerous benefits of making payments with Apple Pay. Along with making the process of checking out quick and easy, the tool is also a fairly secure payment option. However, even if you already use this form of payment, you might not be leveraging it to its full potential. There are numerous Apple Pay features you might not be using simply because you don't know about them.

Keep in mind that using Apple Pay doesn't just save you time. It can also help you keep your funds and financial information safe in various circumstances. For instance, by using Apple Pay's tap to pay capabilities, you can avoid accidentally sharing your information with gas station pump card skimmers.

That's merely one advantage of embracing this payment method. Just be aware that you'll get even more value from Apple Pay if you familiarize yourself with features you may not have used before.

Learning the status of an order you placed online can involve a few steps. You may need to access your account via the retailer's website or app, then navigate to your "recent orders" page to get the information you seek. Or, you might first have to track down an order confirmation email, then open the link or use the tracking info provided.

The process can be much simpler if you placed an order with Apple Pay. All you have to do is open Apple Wallet and tap on the three dots at the top of the screen representing the "More" option. From there, tap Orders. You should then see a list of qualifying orders you've made using Apple Pay. You can tap an order to get more details about its status. You may also have the option to tap Manage Order, which will bring you to the merchant's website, or you can tap Email This Merchant to get in touch with the retailer.

Be aware that factors like your device and operating system can affect whether certain orders get tracked. Sometimes, Apple Pay tracks orders automatically. In other instances, an order confirmation screen will feature an option to "Track with Apple Wallet." You'll have to choose this option for the order to be added to those you're tracking.

Apple Pay and Apple Wallet aren't just useful as ways of making payments. Apple Wallet and Apple Pay can also store important documents like digital versions of event tickets, boarding passes, and similar documents. How you add these passes will vary depending on their original source. For example, when you purchase an airline ticket via an app or website, once you reach the confirmation screen, you may find an option to add the pass to your Apple Wallet.

While you might already know about this feature, there are some ways to optimize it that users might overlook. For example, on an iPhone, you can go to Settings, then tap iCloud. Next, you can turn on Wallet. This will ensure all passes stored in your Apple Wallet stay updated across your devices.

In addition, via the Settings app on iPhone, you can select either Face ID and Passcode or Touch ID and Passcode. You'll be prompted to enter your passcode. Upon doing so, below where it says Allow Access When Locked, you can turn on Apple Wallet. Doing so allows you to access passes stored in Apple Wallet even when the device is otherwise locked.

These days, it's even possible to store your car keys in Apple Wallet. Naturally, of course, not every vehicle manufacturer offers a digital version of a key that can be stored on a mobile device. You may need to contact your car's manufacturer to find out if this option is available to you.

AI Changing Airline Operation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 May 2026 02:58:42 +0000

Artificial intelligence or AI is already reshaping parts of the commercial aviation industry, and in the coming years, airlines are expected to expand AI systems across operations, pricing, customer service, and flight management as they look to cut costs, increase margins, and improve reliability, efficiency, and performance.

First, modern commercial aircraft generate enormous amounts of operational data through onboard sensors that monitor critical systems. Already, airlines are increasingly using AI systems to analyze that data and identify patterns associated with wear and tear or mechanical failure.

AI could help airlines shift maintenance away from reactive repairs—which usually cause ground delays because they are discovered too late—and toward predictive maintenance. We’ve all been there: Everyone boards the flight and things seem all set to go, only to have the captain come over the intercom and announce that there’s maintenance that needs to be done.

Though maintenance will still need to occur, being able to predict it better in advance could help reduce last-minute delays, which tend to be the most frustrating.

Also, many AI-driven changes on this list could benefit the passenger. However, the outlook remains uncertain when it comes to airlines using AI in its ticket pricing methods.

Airline ticket pricing has long relied on algorithms that result in different prices at different times. But, AI is expected to make pricing systems substantially more individualized, incorporating factors such as booking history, travel timing, route demand, loyalty status, and purchasing behavior to tailor fares to specific travelers.

That could mean two passengers searching for the same flight and the same time receive different ticket prices based on what the airline thinks each will pay, based on the aforementioned criteria, as well as the likelihood of purchasing upgrades, checked bags, or premium seating.

While it is easy to see how such a pricing model could benefit the airlines and their profit margins, the concept of personalized pricing raises concerns about transparency and fairness, particularly if airlines don’t reveal the exact data they are collecting and using to determine prices.

For example, if flight purchase history shows you travel at the end of every month to the same place for work (American Airlines, for example, now makes you select Business or Personal travel when booking), can they increase the price, knowing you have to go?

Lastly, Flight cancellations, weather delays, missed connections, and maintenance disruptions generate enormous customer-service demand, and we all know how that can go: Long lines at customer service desks and tortuous time listening to on-hold music on the phone.

AI might be able to help in some cases. Instead of waiting on hold for a call center representative, passengers may increasingly interact with AI assistants capable of automatically rebooking itineraries, issuing hotel or meal vouchers, translating requests across multiple languages, providing real-time updates during irregular hours, etc. The technology could prove particularly valuable during severe weather events, when airline support systems often become overwhelmed.

Faster rebooking and more proactive communication may help reduce some of the frustration traditionally associated with large-scale travel disruptions, although the reduction in human-to-human contact could create its own frustrations, as anyone who has ever called a 1-800 number and had trouble getting through to a human can understand.

Fuel remains one of the airline industry’s largest operating expenses, often accounting for roughly a quarter or more of total costs. That financial pressure, combined with growing scrutiny over aviation emissions, has made fuel efficiency a major area of AI investment.

Airlines are increasingly using AI to optimize flight routing, cruising altitudes, taxi operations, descent procedures, and aircraft loading to make small efficiency gains that could have significant effects across large fleets operating thousands of flights daily.

In theory, that could save the airlines money and perhaps reduce ticket prices, though it’s fair for consumers to be skeptical of the latter.