Shortly after reports of the site being down started circulating, a user on a rival image board, soyjack.party, claimed credit for the hack. Through their alleged access, the hacker apparently reopened /qa/, a board that had been shut down for being a unique brand of awful, as well as exposed personal information of 4chan staff and leaked code from the image board. “Tonight has been a very special night for many of us at the soyjak party. Through the thread about the hack on Soyjack Party, users shared screenshots that purport to show admin access on 4chan, conversations that took place on private message boards that were only available to moderators, and internal tools that moderators had access to that show the location, host, and IP address of 4chan users. The Daily Dot reported that it was able to access a list of supposed contact information of 218 4chan moderators, managers, and janitors. Though Gizmodo has seen the list that's circulating online, there's no way to verify its authenticity. Soyjack posters also claimed that there was a “flood of refugees” from 4chan joining Soyjack Party after the hack, but they are “not adjusting well to the culture.” The /qa/ board was banned by 4chan, in part because it was a board that became a battleground for different factions that used the site. Soyjack Party users seem to have a history of raiding 4chan-related forums, as Reddit users in the 4chan ecosystem have noted Soyjack Party users flooding different subreddits and forcing them to go private. 4chan mods, understandably, seem a bit worried about their information getting leaked. Over on a Discord server where parts of the 4chan staff allegedly chat, there are a lot of concerns about the alleged hack and users encouraging each other to take precautions to secure their accounts. Hyperfixed host and longtime tech journalist Alex Goldman pointed out that there is seemingly unconfirmed buzz that some mod emails had .gov domains, which fits into the narrative that 4chan is a honeypot for federal law enforcement—a meme that is popular among Soyjack users. For what it's worth, there are lots of people claiming that moderators and janitors have .gov emails, or claiming that most of their IP addresses are in the Washington, D.C. area, but very little that would amount to proof of that. People are happily posting screenshots of the hack, but when it comes to the claims that there are government agents on the site, for whatever reason, no one seems interested in posting evidence. In fact, there are multiple people who claim to have actually parsed through the leaked data and did not find any .gov emails. Also, why would feds trying to operate a secret honeypot use their real email addresses? Anyway, just keep that in mind when you see claims about what the hack “reveals.” Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. News from the future, delivered to your present. The leaked document, an internal profile of JD Vance, is painfully boring. Don't give it your Google credentials! Plus, a glimpse at the iPhone 16's five new colorways. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. If you're getting tired of all the bad news on TV from around the globe and fancy a little escapism, virtual reality is one of those hobbies that can transport you to other worlds and bombard your visual senses with an experience that can disconnect you from your environment. Traditionally, jumping on board with VR tech has been an expensive initial outlay, but thanks to today's deal, and this discount on the Meta Quest 3S headset, you can now jump into VR with the lowest-ever price listed for this headset on Amazon. This is an all-time low price for this VR headset according to the Camelizer (Amazon price checking tool) where you'll be saving $40 off the usual list price of $299, that's a little chunk of change that you can put towards a game or other media content for the headset. Now's your chance to don a mask and be Batman. This is what enables you to play games such as Batman. The Meta Quest 3S has a sharp 1832x1920 pixels per-eye resolution, which is low compared to top-end headsets, but more than adequate for a great viewing experience. Meta Quest 3S VR Headset: now $269 at Amazon (was $299)With 1832x1920 pixels per-eye resolution, a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, and 128GB of onboard memory, the Meta Quest 3S is the perfect entry-level VR headset to get you into the virtual reality experience, whether it's pretending to be Batman, or watching the latest movies from Netflix in Theatre-mode. Also, there's great news for glasses wearers, you can wear glasses with the Meta Quest 3S using the glasses spacer that's included in the box, and if you want to ditch your glasses completely, there's the option to purchase custom prescription Meta Quest 3S lenses, these are sold separately and are an extra cost. Don't forget to look at our Amazon coupon codes for April 2025 and see if you can save on today's deal or other products at Amazon. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Stewart Bendle is a deals and coupon writer at Tom's Hardware. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

The company recommends switching update channels as a band-aid solution. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. After around six months since the first sighting, Microsoft is finally addressing an issue in Outlook (Classic), which led to increased CPU usage, visible slowdowns, and even freezes whenever you'd sit down to compose an email or type a message. The developer team was able to reproduce this bug on updating to Microsoft 365 Apps Version 2406 Build 17726.20126+, which was released in June 2024, on the Current, Monthly Enterprise, and Insider Channels. As of writing, a concrete solution is not available, so users have been recommended to move to the Semi-Annual Channel release, where this issue has not been observed. If you're running an organization with several devices, Microsoft offers a detailed guide for migrating your update channel with options like Group Policies, the Office Deployment Tool, Microsoft Configuration Manager, and Intune, just to name a few. Affected users went through several troubleshooting hoops, like turning off graphics acceleration, disabling the spell-check utility, along with add-ins, but to no avail. It got so bad that a user with a beefy i9-14900HX reported CPU temperatures breaching 95 degrees Celsius just by having the 'New Message' window open, which is used to compose emails. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

None of this should be surprising, but to belabor the point: DOGE has everything. It is well past time to stop nickel-and-diming the story. There is a new lengthy investigation out from NPR today detailing how Elon Musk's waste and government efficiency initiative has barreled into the National Labor Relations Department and exfiltrated mass amounts of sensitive data, taking great lengths to cover its tracks, and threatening employees who speak out. Experts in cybersecurity likened the actions taken to those of a state-sponsored hacking group, questioning why a mandate to save money in government would require such cloak-and-dagger behavior—DOGE staffers demanded activity logging be disabled, and wiped their anonymous user accounts on the way out. His concerns triggered a formal investigation of what appeared to be a serious, ongoing breach or potentially illegal removal of sensitive data: In the days after Berulis and his colleagues prepared a request for CISA's help investigating the breach, Berulis found a printed letter in an envelope taped to his door, which included threatening language, sensitive personal information and overhead pictures of him walking his dog, according to the cover letter attached to his official disclosure. After DOGE left the building, Berulis began looking around to piece together what they had done and found very little. But “logs that were used to monitor outbound traffic from the system were absent” and “some actions taken on the network, including data exfiltration, had no attribution — except to a ‘deleted account'.” It was discovered through NPR's investigation that a DOGE engineer, Jordan Wick, had a repository on his GitHub called “NxGenBdoorExtract,” whose name suggests it could be a backdoor system to extract files from NxGen, the NLRB's internal case management system. One of DOGE's other workers, who goes by the name “Big Balls,” has previously worked for a cyberhacking group, providing cloud hosting services to a gang that trafficked in stolen data. What is more, unknown users had granted themselves high-level keys to access NLRB storage, and there was no way to access what they did with the permission. Controls were disabled that would prevent unauthorized devices, like smartphones, from logging onto the system without permission, and two-factor authentication was also turned off. Musk has said that would recuse himself of any work involving his companies. “You know, it's not like I'll be getting away [with] something in the dead of night.” But Musk has also used data obtained from agencies including the Social Security Administration to spread unfounded claims of fraud, and relentlessly attacked the former Biden administration in retaliation over Tesla not being invited to a White House EV summit. It has been speculated that Musk may have an interest in learning about investigations into Tesla or X—or using data to train models for xAI. The more concerning potential is for Musk, who has for years been hell-bent on dismantling unions, could exploit newfound access to information on testimony, union leaders, and legal strategies. Maybe he will not use it, but the point is that there is no good reason for DOGE to be covertly exfiltrating data from the department with little to no accountability. And Musk famously rifled through Twitter's internal communications following his purchase of the company, firing anyone who spoke negatively about him. It is not unheard of that he might be tempted to snuff out Tesla or SpaceX whistleblowers and fire them under false pretenses. DOGE gaining access to sensitive information alone may be the point: Go to the authorities with your concerns and we will find you. In unrelated news, Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos' financé Lauren Sanchez went up to space on a Blue Origin rocket this week—a stunt that was looked at with some disdain as the rest of the world back down on Earth crumbles. At least some people understand that what happens here really is more pressing. Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. The project has been described as similar to rival Elon Musk's social media site, X. In one snippet, a crosswalk hacked to sound like Mark Zuckerberg told individuals there was nothing they could do to stop progress of AI. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.

OpenAI is building its own X-like social media network, according to a new report from The Verge. The project is still in the early stages, but there's an internal prototype focused on ChatGPT's image generation that contains a social feed. With this new social network, OpenAI would be taking on Elon Musk's X and Meta's social platforms, Facebook and Instagram. The new app would also allow OpenAI to access real-time data to train its AI models, something that both X and Meta already have. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly been privately asking outsiders for feedback about the social network. At this point, it's not clear whether the project will ever launch publicly, but the existence of a prototype shows that OpenAI is looking to expand beyond its current offerings. Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch's coverage. Every Monday, gets you up to speed on the latest advances in aerospace. Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once considered deleting everyone's Facebook friends in an effort to boost the social network's cultural relevance. The idea was that forcing everyone to re-create their friend graphs could encourage users to reconnect with the social network as they rebuild their social connections. However, the evidence presented in the trial revealed that Zuckerberg had considered other strategies to maintain his company's relevance, including shifting Facebook from a friends-based model to a follower-based model. In recent weeks, Facebook has focused again on connecting friends, having revamped its Friends tab in an effort to return to an “OG Facebook.” The new tab centralizes friend requests and only friends' content, including their posts, reels, stories, and birthdays. “I think there are a lot of opportunities to make [Facebook] way more culturally influential than it is today,” Zuckberg told investors during Meta's Q4 2024 earnings call about his key goals for the year ahead. Sarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Rippling is trying to serve Deel's CEO, but bailiffs can't find him Chipolo's newest AirTag competitor works with both Apple and Google's finding networks Conifer locks down $20M seed round for its ‘drop-in' electric hub motor

But I don't think that's the point anyway, the point is to trash everything that operates interdependently in government, and enable the administration to become the one gateway to solve anything and then capture that income via corruption and etc.You want cancer research? You gotta pay the toll... otherwise they don't care. You gotta pay the toll... otherwise they don't care. “They're just spinning their wheels, citing in many cases overstated or fake savings,” said Romina Boccia, the director of budget and entitlement policy at the libertarian Cato Institute. “What's most frustrating is that we agree with their goals. But we're watching them flail at achieving them.”To your point, people have taken musk/doge at face value, with 'efficiency' being the goal. But... pointing that out seems to make you some sort of conspiracy theorist. "We did have some meaningful government cutbacks in the 90s. The process was a lot more open, experts were consulted, hearings and studies were done, and we did make some short-lived progress there.None of that process was even entertained. We had a charlatan foisted on us in the role of "chief slasher of anything woke", and a third of our country cheered it on, until they got cut. Those not cut/affected still seem to support this circus. To your point, people have taken musk/doge at face value, with 'efficiency' being the goal. But... pointing that out seems to make you some sort of conspiracy theorist. "We did have some meaningful government cutbacks in the 90s. The process was a lot more open, experts were consulted, hearings and studies were done, and we did make some short-lived progress there.None of that process was even entertained. We had a charlatan foisted on us in the role of "chief slasher of anything woke", and a third of our country cheered it on, until they got cut. Those not cut/affected still seem to support this circus. "We did have some meaningful government cutbacks in the 90s. The process was a lot more open, experts were consulted, hearings and studies were done, and we did make some short-lived progress there.None of that process was even entertained. We had a charlatan foisted on us in the role of "chief slasher of anything woke", and a third of our country cheered it on, until they got cut. Those not cut/affected still seem to support this circus. We did have some meaningful government cutbacks in the 90s. The process was a lot more open, experts were consulted, hearings and studies were done, and we did make some short-lived progress there.None of that process was even entertained. We had a charlatan foisted on us in the role of "chief slasher of anything woke", and a third of our country cheered it on, until they got cut. Those not cut/affected still seem to support this circus. None of that process was even entertained. We had a charlatan foisted on us in the role of "chief slasher of anything woke", and a third of our country cheered it on, until they got cut. Those not cut/affected still seem to support this circus. Except it's exactly Doge and the admin at large who keeps saying how fast they're going to go and how easy it all is to fix, etc. If you weren't around it was pretty bad back then too. Witness the enduring "the Clintons are LITERALLY an evil crime family" meme from then that persists to this day. The Constitutional mechanism still works, and would be much more effective. Congress could & should enact these cuts immediately instead of having the Executive do whatever it is that DOGE is doing. The Constitutional mechanism still works, and would be much more effective. They don't want the accountability/blowback.We've already embarrassed ourselves by electing these clowns twice. We'll really have failed if every responsible person and accomplice isn't voted out at the first possible opportunity. We've already embarrassed ourselves by electing these clowns twice. We'll really have failed if every responsible person and accomplice isn't voted out at the first possible opportunity. Unfortunately the GOP is just a Trump fan club / hangers on party now and they control congress. The whole point is there are no cuts. After that, there isn't anything actually being cut. Look, I am not a fan of DOGE. But on this one small point, your argument doesn't work. I thought the purported benefit of having skilled programmers/coders running DOGE would be that at least whatever they did would be done in a...programmatic way? But these sound like errors when doing manual data entry. Stop sane washing this whole scam.It was about punishing people, organizations, and regulators who annoyed Elon and Trump.Once you understand that, the whole thing makes sense. It was about punishing people, organizations, and regulators who annoyed Elon and Trump.Once you understand that, the whole thing makes sense. Once you understand that, the whole thing makes sense. Still think you should lead with the original claim to highlight the disparity!> When he was Mr. Trump's most prominent supporter on the campaign trail, he said he could cut $2 trillion from a federal budget of about $7 trillion. Still think you should lead with the original claim to highlight the disparity!> When he was Mr. Trump's most prominent supporter on the campaign trail, he said he could cut $2 trillion from a federal budget of about $7 trillion. Still think you should lead with the original claim to highlight the disparity!> When he was Mr. Trump's most prominent supporter on the campaign trail, he said he could cut $2 trillion from a federal budget of about $7 trillion. I know two people who were DOGE'd and asked to come back. Both are getting 4x what they earned before as contractors.Cutting USAID was probably the only coldly efficient thing DOGE has done. Everything else has just been stupid and ineffective. Cutting USAID was probably the only coldly efficient thing DOGE has done. Everything else has just been stupid and ineffective. Is it possible there could be "objective" facts about these mistakes that make Elon and Orange man look bad, even when reported fairly?Is it possible the New York Times could be reporting on these facts?Is that even possible? Are there any worlds you could conceive of where this is the case? Is it possible the New York Times could be reporting on these facts?Is that even possible? Are there any worlds you could conceive of where this is the case? Are there any worlds you could conceive of where this is the case?

This article is part of Gizmodo Deals, produced separately from the editorial team. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site. Step into your own private concert hall with Sony's WH-1000XM4, the headphones that consistently top “best-of” lists and make music lovers weak in the knees. These aren't just headphones; they're your personal sanctuary, armed with industry-leading noise cancellation that transforms noisy commutes into peaceful listening sessions and advanced AI that upscales your music to near-studio quality. At 29% off, this is one of the best prices we've seen for these premium headphones. The noise cancellation technology sets these headphones apart. Using Dual Noise Sensor microphones and advanced processing, they create an immersive bubble of silence that makes other noise-canceling headphones sound primitive in comparison. Battery life impresses at up to 30 hours with noise canceling enabled. Multipoint connection lets you pair with two devices simultaneously, seamlessly switching between your phone and laptop. Swipe and tap gestures handle volume, track control, and calls, while voice assistant integration puts Alexa or Google Assistant just a touch away. The precise voice pickup, utilizing five microphones, ensures crystal-clear calls even in noisy environments. The lightweight frame and pressure-relieving ear cups make these comfortable for all-day wear, while the premium materials speak to their luxury status. Sound quality is where these headphones truly shine. The DSEE Extreme engine, developed with Sony Music Studios Tokyo, uses AI to restore high-range sounds lost in compressed digital music. This means your streaming music sounds closer to the original studio recording. And that kind of authenticity is usually very important. At $248, these represent exceptional value for premium wireless headphones. While there are cheaper options available, none match the XM4's combination of noise cancellation, sound quality, and smart features. For anyone serious about audio quality or seeking peace in noisy environments, this deal offers a rare opportunity to own what many consider the gold standard in wireless headphones. Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.

It's unclear if these CPUs are intended for the mainstream or NEX. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. A new Linux kernel patch brings hardware enablement for Intel's Bartlett Lake-S family of processors. This update enables the kernel to properly identify these processors at boot, assigning them a CPUID for recognition in software. At CES, Intel formally introduced the Bartlett Lake-S platform, which includes three CPUs configured with hybrid cores intended for NEX (Network and Edge) applications. Since last year, rumors have alleged the existence of a performance-core-only analog, wielding up to 12P cores and 24 threads. Bartlett Lake targets the LGA 1700 platform, so these CPUs should be drop-in replacements for existing 600-series and 700-series motherboards, after updating the BIOS, of course. The engineer additionally noted, "Bartlett Lake has a P-core only product with Raptor Cove", which effectively corroborates all previous leaks. Pertinently, Bartlett Lake-S (P-core only) is reported to utilize a new die, as all Raptor Lake silicon is limited to just eight performance cores. The same leaker suggests these processors will debut in 125W/65W/45W configurations, catering to a wide variety of customers. Existing Bartlett Lake options are limited to embedded packages like COM-HPCs. Monolithic core configurations can clear up scheduling headaches and open a door for Intel to re-enable AVX-512 instruction support, which has been fused off silicon since later Alder Lake batches. This might be a compromise gamers are willing to make, though, whether these chips can hold their own against AMD's Ryzen 9000 series remains to be seen. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

Vibrant color 5mm-deep textured images can be printed onto wood, acrylic, leather, metal etc. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. The device print bed is 330 x 420mm, with an optional rotation unit (for mugs, bottles, and similar), and the printed texture can be up to 5mm thick. This depth of print texture allows for many interesting and impactful effects. Early bird pricing starts at $1,499 for printer and starter ink bundle. The main message from Eufy with regard to its new UV Printer E1 is that it democratizes this printing technology, and does so at an approachable price. "The E1 is designed to print full-color textures on a vast variety of surfaces, shapes and sizes. The compact design, wide assortment of printing accessories and simple user experience makes our first product from eufyMake equally accessible to professional designers, small business owners, first-time UV printer users, creative 'makers' and everyone in between." It also asserts that its vibrant output is color-fast for several years, with output onto canvas, wood, and metal looking good on samples said to be 3-years old. A few specs were shared in the intro, but let's look more closely now. However, these objects can't be more than 60mm thick, and these 'flat bed' style print surfaces need to vary no greater than 20mm in height (thickness). For those who wish to print on cylinders, there's an optional Rotary Printing Attachment, which will also work on cone-shaped items. Another option is for a UV DTF Laminating Machine accessory to enable the production of custom stickers. Apps are provided for smartphones, Mac, and Windows devices. Using this software, you will also be able to convert 2D art into 3D creations. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. The purported savings that can be had from joining this seem quite significant (up to $800). However, please remember to balance the possibility of big savings against crowdfunding product delays and even no-shows. Eufy is asking a modest $50 deposit to lock in on the early bird pricing, though. Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

“I call it beautiful, clean coal—I tell my people to never use the word ‘coal' unless you put ‘beautiful, clean' before it,” the president recently said during a press event involving a backdrop of men dressed in coal miner outfits. The new government continues to attack and dismantle worker protections that provide health and economic benefits to a whole array of workers, including those who toil in subterranean mines. Now, two unions representing miners have sued the White House over its recent threat to their welfare. In These Times writes that the United Miner Workers of America (UMWA) and the AFL-CIO's United Steelworkers have filed litigation against the Mine Safety and Health Administration which, under Trump, has paused a long-pursued regulation that would have limited miners' exposure to a toxic chemical commonly found in mines. The rule, called “Lowering Miners' Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection,” would have—just as it says—enforced new regulations that drastically reduced miners' exposure to crystalline silica, which is a toxic mineral that can cause serious respiratory problems when inhaled. The rule would have cut the allowable exposure level of deadly silica dust—20 times more toxic than coal dust and a major cause of black lung disease among coal miners — in half. The rule was planned to take effect on April 14 after decades of lobbying from coal miners, public health experts and worker advocates. When it was published in 2024, the Department of Labor estimated the new rule would result in more than 1,000 fewer deaths and 3,746 fewer cases of silica-related illnesses. In These Times also notes that, under the rubric of Elon Musk's DOGE, the government has sought to downsize and reorganize several worker protection agencies that maintain health and safety standards for coal miners. Those agencies include the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), both of which are responsible for establishing safety rules for America's workforce. Trump and his political movement have long engaged in a political strategy that involves flattering and paying lip service to certain kinds of workers while simultaneously passing laws and policies that threaten to harm (economically or otherwise) those very same workers. Get the best tech, science, and culture news in your inbox daily. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on our sites.

Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us In the wake of criticism over the underwhelming performance of its AI products, especially in areas like notification summaries, Apple on Monday detailed how it is trying to improve its AI models by analyzing user data privately with the aid of synthetic data. Using an approach called “differential privacy,” the company said it would first generate synthetic data and then poll users' devices (provided they've opted-in to share device analytics with Apple) with snippets of the generated synthetic data to compare how accurate its models are, and subsequently improve them. “Synthetic data are created to mimic the format and important properties of user data, but do not contain any actual user generated content,” the company wrote in the blog post. “To curate a representative set of synthetic emails, we start by creating a large set of synthetic messages on a variety of topics […] We then derive a representation, called an embedding, of each synthetic message that captures some of the key dimensions of the message like language, topic, and length.” The company said these embeddings are then sent to a small number of user devices that have opted in to Device Analytics, and the devices then compare them with a sample of emails to tell Apple which embeddings are most accurate. The company said it is using this approach to improve its Genmoji models, and would in the future use synthetic data for Image Playground, Image Wand, Memories Creation, and Writing Tools, as well as Visual Intelligence. Apple said it would also poll users who opt in to share device analytics with synthetic data to improve email summaries. Topics Rippling is trying to serve Deel's CEO, but bailiffs can't find him Hertz says customers' personal data and driver's licenses stolen in data breach OpenAI's new GPT-4.1 AI models focus on coding Blue Origin's all-female crew, including Katy Perry, successfully launched Chipolo's newest AirTag competitor works with both Apple and Google's finding networks Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons hacked to imitate Musk, Zuckerberg's voices Conifer locks down $20M seed round for its ‘drop-in' electric hub motor © 2025 Yahoo.

Tech companies aren't holding back when it comes to stuffing artificial intelligence capabilities into every app and piece of hardware they can, and even the most basic software tools are getting their own AI upgrades—such as the long-serving Windows utilities Paint and Notepad. Windows Paint has traditionally stuck to the basics when it comes to image creation and image editing, but if you load up the application in Windows now, you'll see a Copilot button that leads you to three AI options: Image Creator (for generating new images), Generative Erase (for erasing parts of an image), and Remove Background (for taking away the background behind the main subject in an image). Pick Generative Erase from the Copilot menu, and you can wipe objects and people out of your picture—maybe a pole that's ruining a view, for example. This simply turns everything white, besides the main subject of your image—there are no tools or settings to play around with in this case. As you would expect, it works better for images where the main subject is more obvious, but the results can be impressive—and can save you a lot of manual image editing time. Note that while Generative Erase and Remove Background can be used for free, Image Creator uses up AI credits associated with your Microsoft account. You can't buy these separately, they come as part of a subscription to Microsoft 365 or Copilot Pro subscriptions, so use them wisely. You can read more about AI credits and how they work here. Notepad is perhaps better known as a code editor than a word processor, but in recent years Microsoft has added more features in the way of formatting and auto-save. If you open it in Windows, you'll see these features as well as a Copilot button in the top-right corner of the interface. You can't use Copilot inside Notepad to generate new text, as you can in Copilot on the web or in other tools like ChatGPT. There's also Change format, which lets you put the selected text into a different structure: A list, marketing speak, or poetry, for example. You can also choose Rewrite from this menu for a more comprehensive set of options—and to see previews of the rewritten text before it's applied. A new pop-up window appears, giving you more options for changing the length, tone, and format. You also get different variations to choose between in each case. At the time of writing, it seems Notepad is giving everyone a few AI-powered rewrites for free—but as with Image Creator in Paint, you're going to need some AI credits with a Microsoft 365 or Copilot Pro subscription to use this extensively. Of course, if you'd rather not use these AI tools and don't want to see the Copilot button hanging around, you can turn it off altogether: Click the gear icon (top right), then turn off the Copilot toggle switch. Big Story: If Anthropic succeeds, a nation of benevolent AI geniuses could be born Special Edition: The most dangerous hackers you've never heard of WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Although this does not sound like a good moniker, it is: Ramakrishnan is one of the world's most eminent scientists in the fields of structural biology and cellular processes related to aging and death. After the enormous success of The Gene Machine, a memoir in which he recounts his human and scientific journey, he published the mighty Why We Die, a book—as its name suggests—dedicated precisely to illustrating the dynamics that regulate aging and which, progressively and inexorably, lead to death. Ramakrishnan was recently in Italy, in Milan, where he gave a lecture at the second edition of the Milan Longevity Summit, the most important Italian event dedicated to longevity and psycho-physical well-being, organized by BrainCircle Italia. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. WIRED: Professor Ramakrishnan, the crucial question in your book is why we die. It is the result of the failure of a critical system or apparatus, for example, heart, brain, lung, or kidney failure. In this sense there is an apparent paradox: When our organism, as a whole, is alive, millions of cells within us are constantly dying, and we do not even realize it. On the other hand, at the time of death, most of the cells in our bodies are still alive, and entire organs are still functioning and can be donated to people in need of transplantation. Speaking of death and aging, you say in your most recent book that you “wanted to offer an objective look at our current understanding of the two phenomena.” What was the biggest surprise or most deeply held belief that you had to reconsider while writing and researching this work? Evolution does not care how long we live, but merely selects the ability to pass on our genes, a process known as “fitness” in evolutionary biology. Another curious finding was the fact that aging is not simply due to wear and tear on cells. Do you think there is an aspect of the biology of aging that is still deeply misunderstood by the general public? Although in principle there are no laws or constraints that prevent us from living much longer than we do currently, great longevity or “eternal youth” are still far off, and very significant obstacles to increasing our maximum life expectancy remain. We must also beware of the pseudoscience—and business—around the concepts of “anti-aging” or the “reversal of aging.” These are often baseless concepts, unsupported by hard evidence, even though they may use language that sounds scientific. Unfortunately, we are all afraid of growing old and dying, so we are very sensitive to any claim that promises to help us avoid it. Of course, the closer these species are to us, the better, which is why drug trials are first conducted on mice and even monkeys and chimpanzees. But we can learn a lot from organisms like the worm. For example, humans with some of the same mutations that cause the longevity of worms turn out to have serious problems, such as growth defects. What do you think are the social and ethical implications of our desire to live longer? However, our individual desires may conflict with what is best for society. A society in which fertility rates are very low and lifespans are very high will be a stagnant society, with very slow generational turnover, and probably much less dynamic and creative. The Nobel Prize-winning South American novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, who recently passed away, expressed it best: “Old age on the one hand terrifies us, but when we feel anxious, it is important to remember how terrible it would be to live forever. If eternity were guaranteed, all the incentives and illusions of life would vanish. This thought can help us live old age in a better way.” This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. Big Story: If Anthropic succeeds, a nation of benevolent AI geniuses could be born Scientists claim to have brought back the dire wolf Special Edition: The most dangerous hackers you've never heard of WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.