Tech

Smartphones broke dating. ChatGPT might finish the job.

Published

4 hours ago

8 June 2026

Humanity may be scrolling its way out of existence.

Across the globe, fertility rates are plummeting. In 2023, the average number of births per woman worldwide fell beneath 2.1 — the minimum level necessary for averting population decline (also known as the “replacement rate”). And this collapse is not concentrated in just a handful of places; more than two-thirds of all nations now have below-replacement fertility.

While this crisis has been building for decades, its nature recently changed. In the 20th century, fertility fell primarily because couples started having fewer children. Now, it is falling mostly because fewer people are forming couples — or having sex at all.

If these trends continue, the consequences will be transformative — and possibly, catastrophic, as graying populations place unprecedented burdens on the remaining young. Vast countries will swiftly shrivel into city states. Today, Thailand is home to 63 million people. In two centuries, that will fall to 2 million, if the country’s current fertility rate persists.

Global fertility has fallen below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 births per woman.
The collapse in the 2010s in romantic partnership tracks closely with mass smartphone adoption.
AI chatbots and companion apps may accelerate the trend by offering on-demand emotional support and validation.

These are just 23rd-century problems. If sustained indefinitely, today’s global fertility rate would ensure humanity’s extinction.

And it’s partly your phone’s fault.

Or so one leading theory goes. To make sense of recent fertility trends, some analysts have turned to the devices in their pockets. In the view of the journalist John Burn-Murdoch and social scientist Alice Evans, the smartphone helped birth the global spike in singledom.

Their argument goes (partly) like this: As smartphone ownership skyrocketed globally during the 2010s, more and more young people tapped into a vast, omnipresent trove of personalized entertainment, which reduced their incentives to socialize in person. When you have virtually every movie, TV show, and pornography ever made at your fingertips, you no longer need parties for stimulation or diversion. And when you have an X or Facebook account, you can participate in a public conversation — and experience communal recognition — without ever leaving the comfort of your goon cave.

Yet this withdrawal from in-person socializing reduces young people’s opportunities to meet romantic partners or develop social skills. Relationship formation falls as a result.

“The digital revolution has played a signal role in both degrading socialization for young adults and dividing young adults from one another,” Brad Wilcox, a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, told me.

And that revolution is only just beginning. After all, the tech sector’s quest to make social isolation more appealing did not end with the advent of the iPhone, Netflix, or TikTok.

Since 2022, more than 1 billion people have gained access to an infinitely patient conversation partner — one who can speak knowledgeably about all of their interests and listen compassionately to all of their problems. Thanks to Claude and ChatGPT, hermits can not only enjoy perpetual stimulation without social contact but also forms of emotional support that had previously required an intimate friend, family member, lover, or licensed therapist.

And these are the worst versions of these products we’ll ever see. Future iterations may take even more engaging forms; someday, Claude might be able to get it on.

This makes the “smartphone theory” one of the more important hypotheses of our time. If its narrative is correct — and there is some compelling evidence in its favor — then the fertility crisis is liable to deepen in the coming years. And AI might be replacing more than just our jobs.

Amusing ourselves to abstinence

Before digging into the “smartphone theory” of falling birth rates, it’s worth clarifying its scope.

No one thinks that digital technology is the primary cause of declining fertility, a trend that predates the iPhone by more than a century in wealthy countries (Swedish farmers did not start having fewer kids in the 1880s because of TikTok).

Rather, the main drivers of the long-term fertility descent appear to be foundational features of modernity: When scientific systems of healthcare and sanitation reduce child mortality, couples feel less compelled to have six kids in the hopes that three might survive. When industrial progress boosts the returns to education, parents have an incentive to invest more resources in each individual child’s development, making large families harder to sustain. And when women secure political rights, economic autonomy, and reliable contraception, fewer choose to spend decades of their lives perpetually pregnant.

Yet these structural forces only get us so far. Modern medicine, economic development, and women’s emancipation may have put humanity on the path to collapsing fertility. But some other factor recently sped us on our way: In the aughts, fertility rates actually plateaued globally and rose in advanced economies — before abruptly plummeting in the 2010s.

During that same decade, rates of singledom also spiked. In countries as varied as the United States, South Korea, Turkey, Tunisia, and Finland, young adults became less likely to have a romantic partner. And this “relationship recession” seems to have fueled the post-2010 drop in fertility. According to a 2025 study published in Nature, mothers in most high-income countries are having about as many children as they did decades ago. Yet fertility rates are falling nonetheless, due to a steep drop in the share of women who have any children at all.

The coupling collapse can’t be explained by a sudden expansion of women’s rights; it is happening even in deeply patriarchal societies like Saudi Arabia. Nor is it easily attributed to economic turmoil; rates of romantic partnership have fallen in both high-growth and low-growth nations, advanced economies and developing ones, countries rattled by the 2008 crisis and those largely unharmed by it.

Smartphones, on the other hand, were in the right places at the right times.

In country after country, the rise in singles — and drop in birth rates — coincided with the mass adoption of smartphones, according to an analysis from Burn-Murdoch, the journalist at the Financial Times.

Correlation isn’t causation. But there’s reason to think this timing isn’t coincidental.

In one recent study, economists from the University of Cincinnati examined how teen fertility changed in different American and British localities as they gained access to 4G mobile networks. They found that the arrival of high-speed internet consistently accelerated declines in adolescent birth rates and conceptions. Their explanation for this phenomenon is straightforward: When the center of adolescent life moves online, in-personal socializing declines — and with it, opportunities for one thing to lead to another.

Time-use data lends credence to this theory. Across 21 European nations, the share of people who got together with their friends on a daily basis fell from 21 percent in 2006 to 12 percent in 2022. In the US, meanwhile, time spent on in-person social interaction has plunged during the smartphone era.

Taken together, these data points appear to tell a simple story: When humans acquire 24/7 access to social media platforms and unlimited digital entertainment, they feel less need to hang out with peers in the real world — and demand more from potential partners.

“When phones become ever more engaging and ever more exciting, then you want a super engaging person,” Evans, the social scientist, said. “He’s got to be better than an episode of Bridgerton.”

Thus, some retreat from the frictions of in-person socialization entirely. Others forfeit opportunities to hone their social skills or find suitable but imperfect mates. Sexlessness ensues.

How AI could make sex obsolete

It isn’t hard to see how AI could accelerate these trends.

Streaming and social media might have made the solitary life less dull and uncomfortable. But Pornhub won’t talk with you about your career anxieties, favorite Civil War battle, or debilitating fear of iguanas. And TikTok won’t provide discrete reassurance about that new mole on your chest. Before 2022, securing this sort of sympathetic ear typically required forging and sustaining real-world relationships.

But now, Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT are happy to oblige.

Thus, if smartphones were outcompeting offline interaction before they hosted chatbots, they seem even better equipped to do so today.

Separately, AI may also widen the gap between young people’s romantic expectations and dating realities.

Frequent interaction with a chatbot — who perpetually centers your concerns, never loses patience, and always has something to say about your topics of interest — could encourage unrealistic standards for human conversation, particularly among those who’ve used AI intensively from an early age.

Of course, these are mere speculations. And research into AI’s impacts on in-person socialization and dating is limited. But there is some evidence that chatbots could be expediting young people’s drift towards solitude and sexlessness.

In a study published in 2025 from OpenAI and MIT, researchers tracked 981 participants’ use of AI chatbots over a four-week period. They found that subjects who voluntarily spent more time talking with LLMs during that span became more socially isolated by the study’s end.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that heavy chatbot use caused people to socialize less with other humans. After all, those who lack hangout opportunities might be more inclined to talk with chatbots. And yet, those who used AI intensively during the study had roughly as active social lives as other participants when the trial period began. Therefore, it seems likely that — at least in some cases — bonding with ChatGPT led to social isolation rather than vice versa.

Meanwhile, survey data suggest that people are turning to chatbots for companionship or romantic stimulation in growing numbers. In a 2025 poll from Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute, 19 percent of American adults — including 31 percent of young men — said they had chatted with an AI system meant to simulate a romantic partner.

More recently, the institute examined the use of these pseudo-significant others by young Americans in committed relationships. In its survey, 15 percent of young adults with human partners reported having a secret AI romantic relationship. And among this significant minority, more than 70 percent of men — and nearly 60 percent of women — agreed with the statement, “I wish conversations with my partner were like AI.” And more than half of both male and female users of AI companions said they wished their human partners “behaved like my AI.”

Perhaps more concerningly, respondents who used AI companions regularly were more likely to be in unstable relationships — in which they often thought that their partnership was in trouble, or discussed ending the relationship, or had broken up and gotten back together.

Once again, causality is difficult to determine. People in unstable relationships might be more inclined to seek artificial companionship. But chatbots’ influence on their users’ expectations are likely a factor, according to the report’s co-author Brian Willoughby.

“The more I talk to an AI companion that is always validating me, always taking my side, and always talking about what I want to talk about,” Willoughby said, “the more conversations with my real-life partner — who has their own views — will start paling in comparison to those AI interactions.”

And silicon substitutes for human intimacy will only grow more sophisticated and holistic in the coming decades. Or so many in and around the tech industry believe.

Daniel Faggella, founder of Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research, believes that advances in AI, virtual reality, and mechanized sex toys will eventually render human intercourse an obsolete pastime — one largely confined to nostalgists and connoisseurs, like driving stick shift.

“The great sexual organ is the brain,” Faggella told me. “If you have the visuals, the voice, the haptics, the sound, real-time biofeedback — and even very crude physical implements to go along with them — I think you’re going to beat the human flesh experience every time.”

I suspect that sex has more staying power than Faggella allows. But erotic AI doesn’t need to fully displace intimacy to accelerate the dating recession and fertility crisis. It merely needs to lure a sizable minority of men and women away from the hassle and heartbreak of human relationships. Judging by existing trends, superintelligent sexbots seem liable to meet that challenge.

The future could be brighter

AI’s effects on human sociality remain uncertain. In theory, artificial intelligence could benefit human relationships and fertility — by, for example, helping awkward adolescents refine their conversational skills or providing troubled couples with on-demand counseling.

Moreover, some experts question how much smartphones actually changed fertility trends. In the view of University of Pennsylvania economist Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, the fundamental causes of the 2010s fertility collapse are long-term structural forces — among them, secularization, the “dissolution of old social networks,” and the rise of a service economy in which women’s relative economic power has increased.

Social media and streaming may have accelerated these processes, in Fernández-Villaverde’s view, by diffusing feminist ideas: Over the past decade, women in patriarchal societies have gained unprecedented access to commentary and dramas that affirm their desire for autonomy and idealize egalitarian marriages (Evans and Burn-Murdoch also put considerable weight on this dynamic). But he believes that this merely hastened already inevitable declines.

“Cellphones matter a little bit,” Fernández-Villaverde said. “But it’s not because people are spending their whole life playing Pokémon. It’s because they’re seeing what the rest of the world looks like and deciding that they want to do things differently.”

Nevertheless, it is clear that mass smartphone adoption coincided with falling in-person socialization — and rising singledom — in all manner of different countries. And there are some signs that AI is further displacing face-to-face interaction and distorting relationship expectations. In any case, the tech industry has a strong incentive to generate evermore compelling substitutes for human connection.

“Here in the Bay Area, all these startups are trying to make apps that will compete in the attention economy,” Evans said. “All these genius software engineers are trying to make something that hooks you in. So I’d predict that the market will enable AI to outcompete humans — they will be funnier, more charming, and enticing.”

At the very least, that possibility warrants concern, given the potential consequences for both fertility and human welfare.

If the past decade is any guide, technological progress may be speeding us toward a future of ubiquitous ghost towns, scarce children, and nursing homes full of gray-haired hermits, each passing their days with VR paramours as civilization slowly unwinds.

There are worse fates. But ideally, humanity would hold out for a better one.

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Leica Cine Compact 1 Projector Debuts: 4K RGB Laser Performance in a Smaller Package for $2,000

Published

5 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Compact 4K laser projectors are having a moment, and not because everyone suddenly wants to bolt a giant chassis to the ceiling again. More buyers are looking for serious big-screen performance in smaller, more living-room-friendly designs that can fit into real homes without turning the space into a demo room at an AV trade show. Leica clearly sees the same shift.

In 2023, Leica entered the ultra-short-throw projector category with the Hisense-built Cine 1, a $9,000 UST model bundled with either a 100-inch or 120-inch ALR screen. In 2024, it followed with the Cine Play 1, a lifestyle-focused standard-throw projector priced at $3,795. For 2026, Leica is expanding the lineup again with the Cine Compact 1.

Priced at $2,000, the Leica Cine Compact 1 is now the smallest projector in the company’s range, borrowing much of its concept and feature set from the Cine Play 1 but placing it in a smaller, more compact chassis.

That makes it less of a “take it anywhere” projector and more of a smaller premium 4K laser option for buyers who want the Leica badge without handing over Cine 1 money.

leica-cine-play-compact-1-projectors-front — Left to right: Leica Cine 1, Cine Compact 1, and Cine Play 1

Smaller Leica, Still Big-Screen Ambitions

Like the Cine Play 1, the Leica Cine Compact 1 combines RGB laser light source technology with Leica’s premium imaging approach and support for 4K resolution via pixel shifting. The key difference is scale. While the Cine Play 1 can project images up to 300 inches, the Cine Compact 1 tops out at 220 inches, which is still absurdly large for most living rooms unless your sofa came with its own ZIP code.

Leica is positioning the Cine Compact 1 as a more convenient home cinema option for both indoor and outdoor use, helped by built-in smart features and user-friendly setup tools. That outdoor angle comes with the usual projector reality check: it will work best after dark and away from ambient light. Daytime backyard cinema still belongs in the same fantasy file as affordable Leica lenses.

RGB Laser, Leica Optics, and the Usual Brightness Reality Check

leica-cine-compact-1-projector-on — Leica Cine Compact 1

The Leica Cine Compact 1 uses a triple RGB laser light source rated for up to 25,000 hours of operation, which should cover a lot of movies, streaming binges, and questionable franchise reboots before anyone starts worrying about the light engine.

Leica rates the Cine Compact 1 at up to 1,700 ANSI lumens, which means it should be capable of producing a clear, high-contrast image in darker rooms or outdoor spaces with minimal ambient light. That last part matters. This is still projection, not witchcraft. If you aim it at a wall during a bright afternoon barbecue, the sun is going to win.

HDR support is also broad, with compatibility for Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. The Cine Compact 1 also includes Leica Image Optimization, or LIO, which uses image-processing algorithms designed to improve color rendition, color gradation, and contrast.

And because Leica is not going to put its name on a projector without making the lens part of the story, the Cine Compact 1 incorporates a genuine Leica Summicron zoom lens. That gives the projector a real optical talking point beyond the badge, which matters at $2,000.

Audio

For the best listening experience with the Leica Cine Compact 1, an AVR and surround sound speaker system would still be the preferred option. At minimum, a good soundbar makes sense, especially since HDMI eARC connectivity is supported. That said, a full external audio setup is not always practical with a compact projector designed to move more easily between rooms or support occasional outdoor use.

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To make the Cine Compact 1 more self-contained, Leica includes a 2 x 10-watt onboard audio system with DTS Virtual:Xprocessing. That will not replace a proper surround system or a serious soundbar, but it should provide a more spacious and usable listening experience than the tiny speaker systems found in many lifestyle projectors.

leica-cine-compact-1-projector-from-back

Streaming, AirPlay, and Just Enough Physical Connectivity

The Leica Cine Compact 1 is not just about image quality and onboard sound. It also includes both wireless and physical connectivity, which matters if the goal is to make the projector easy to use without adding a stack of external boxes.

With built-in smart TV features, users can access streaming services directly from the projector, provided it is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Leica uses Hisense’s VIDAA streaming platform, which provides access to major apps, including Netflix. The remote control also includes direct-access buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and YouTube.

Wireless support includes Apple AirPlay and Bluetooth. AirPlay allows users to stream compatible content from Apple devices, while Bluetooth can be used for wireless audio streaming from smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Physical connectivity is more limited. The Cine Compact 1 includes one HDMI port and one USB port. The HDMI connection supports eARC, making it easier to connect the projector to a compatible AVR or soundbar. The USB port can be used to play compatible media files stored on a USB flash drive.

Flexibility

The Leica Cine Compact 1’s biggest advantage is flexibility. Weighing under 10 pounds, it can be moved from room to room and set up without a permanent installation.

Its integrated 360-degree rotation system allows projection from multiple angles onto walls, ceilings, or other suitable surfaces, while automatic zoom, autofocus, keystone correction, and intelligent screen framing help align the image with minimal manual adjustment. Because spending 20 minutes fixing geometry before the movie starts is nobody’s idea of premium.

For added placement options, the Cine Compact 1 can also be used with the same optional stand as the Cine Play 1, with a stand adapter included.

Comparison

Leica Model	Cine Compact 1	Cine Play 1	Cine 1
Price	$1,995	$2,995	$8,995 (w 100-inch screen) $9,495 (w 120-inch screen)
Projection Screen Size	60 – 220”	65 – 300”	100″ or 120″
Imaging Chip	DLP 0.47” Pico DMD	DLP/0.47” 4k XPR	DLP/0.47” 4k XPR
Image Resolution	3840x2160px (4K) via pixel shifting	3840x2160px (4K) via pixel shifting	3840x2160px (4K) via pixel shifting
TV Tuner	No	No	ATSC 3.0 / Next-Gen TV / QAM on cable
Gaming Mode	Yes – Latency ≤ 20ms in gamer mode ≤ 60ms in all other modes Refresh Rate 4K @ 60Hz 2K @ 240Hz 2K @ 120Hz	Yes, Latency < 12 ms 1080px@120Hz	Yes, Latency < 60ms 4K@60Hz
Lumen Output	Up to 1700 lm (Ultra Mode)	Up to 3000 lm (Ultra Mode)	> 2500 lm
Dynamic Contrast	Not Indicated	Approx. 2 Mio. :1	Approx. 2 Mio. :1
Contrast Ratio	Up to 1500:1	Up to 1500:1	Approx. 1000:1
BT 2020 Support	> 100 %	> 100%	> 100%
HDR Support	Dolby Vision® / HDR10 / HDR10+ / HLG	Dolby Vision® / HDR10+ / HLG	Dolby Vision® / HDR10+ / HLG
3D Support	Yes, DLP Link Active Shutter	Yes, DLP link active shutter	Not Indicated
Throw Ratio	Optical: 1.0 – 1.3 Digital: 1.3 – 3.2	0.9 – 1.5	0.25
Leica Image Optimization (LIO)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Light Source	Direct Triple RGB-Laser	Direct Triple RGB-Laser	Direct Triple RBG-Laser
Light Source Use Hours	25,000	25,000	25,000
MEMC	Yes	Yes
HDMI	1x HDMI 2.1 with eARC Support	2x HDMI 2.1 (1x eARC Support)	2x HDMI 2.1 (1x eARC Support) 1x HDMI 2.0 Type
USB	1x USB A 3.0	2x USB 3.0	2x USB (1x USB 2.0 & 1x USB 3.0)
USB Recording	Not Indicated	Yes	Not Indicated
Ethernet RJ45	–	Yes	Yes
Digital Connections	–	1 x S/PDIF 1 x Optical (Toslink)	1 x Optical (Toslink)
Physical On/Off Button	Yes	Yes	Yes
Earphone/Audio Output	No	1x	1x
Audio Output Power	2 x 10 Watt	2 x 10 Watt	2 x 25 Watt
Number of Channels	2.0	2	4
DTS Virtual:X	Yes	Yes	No
Dolby Audio	Yes	Yes	No
Dolby Atmos	–	–	Yes
Dolby Digital Plus	Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital	Not Specified	Yes
WiFi (Plus)	6 (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) (2.4G, 5G)	6 (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)	6 (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Bluetooth	Version 5.4	Yes	Yes
Screen Mirroring	Yes	Yes	Yes
Works with AirPlay	Yes	Yes	Yes
Operating System	VIDAA	VIDAA U7.6	Google TV
Streaming Direct Buttons on Remote	Yes, for Netflix, Prime, Disney, YouTube	Yes, for Netflix, Prime, Disney, YouTube
Voice Assistant	Yes (VIDAA Voice)	Yes	Yes
Web Browser	Yes (Odin)	Yes	Yes
Child Protection	Yes	Yes
OTA Software Updates	Yes	Yes	Yes
Remote Control	Bluetooth / IR in Aluminum Housing with Microphone	Bluetooth / IR in Aluminum Housing with Microphone	Bluetooth / IR in Aluminum Housing with Microphone
Voice Command	Yes	Yes	Yes
File Formats	AV-Container AVI / MP4 / MKV / TS / FLV Advertisement Video AVI / WMV / MP4 / MOV / MKV / MPG / MPEG / FLV / WebM Audio WMA / WAV / FLAC / MP3 Image JPEG / BMP / PNG / GIF	AV-Container: AVI / MP4 / MKV/ TS / FLV Advertisement Video: AVI / WMV / MP4 / MOV / MKV / MPG / MPEG / FLV / WebM Audio: WMA / WAV / FLAC / MP3 Image: JPEG / BMP / PNG / GIF	AV Container: AVI / MP4 / MKV / TS / FLV / OGG Advertisement Video: AVI / WMV / MP4 / MOV / 3GP / MKV / MPG / MPEG / VOB / FLV / WebM / OGM Audio: WMA / WMV / MP4 / FLAC / MP2 / MP3 / AAC / WMA / WAV Image: JPEG / BMP / PNG / GIF / WEBP
Voltage	100V – 240V	100V – 240V	120V -240V
Power Consumption	Standard Mode / Standby / Network Standby 120W / 0.5W / 2W	On 180W / Standby 0.5W	Max. 300W / 0.5W
Dimension	209 x 226 x 193 mm (8,2 x 8,9 x 7,6 inch)	242 x 261 x 229 mm (10,3 x 9,5 x 9,0 inch)	600 x 378 x 149 mm Approx.
Weight	Approx. 4.4 kg (9,70 lbs)	Approx. 6.7 kg (14,7 lbs)	14.5 kg (32 lbs)
In The Box	Leica Cine Compact 1 Advertisement Remote control 2 AAA batteries Power cable Power supply Advertisement Case Adapter for Leica Floor Stand Operating instructions/warranty	Leica Cine Play 1 Advertisement Remote control 2 AAA batteries Power cable Power supply unit Advertisement Accessory bag Operating Instructions & Warranty	Leica Cine 1 Remote Control Advertisement 2 x AAA Batteries Power cable Quick Start Guide 100-inch or 120-inch Screen Advertisement 3 Year Warranty

The Bottom Line

The Leica Cine Compact 1 is the company’s most accessible projector so far, but “entry-level” is doing some heavy lifting at $2,000. What makes it unique is the combination of RGB laser projection, broad HDR support, automatic setup tools, built-in streaming, DTS Virtual:X audio, and a genuine Leica Summicron zoom lens in a smaller sub-10-pound chassis.

What is missing? More HDMI inputs, higher light output, and a price that does not immediately invite comparisons with Hisense’s own M2 Pro, which costs $1,299.99 and offers a very credible alternative, albeit with slightly lower brightness. Leica’s advantage remains optics and image refinement, but buyers are still paying a premium for the red dot. Funny how that works.

Price & Availability

The Leica Cine Compact 1 will be available for $1,995 beginning June 18, 2026 with optional floor stand priced at $495 through Leica Authorized Dealers.

For more information: leicacamerausa.com

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News Sites Are Blocking Internet Archive Over AI Scraping Fears

Published

18 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Especially in this era of the Internet, the role of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has become increasingly essential as more and more web content vanishes into the ether or is surreptitiously altered to hide salient details. More recently a new worry has seemingly cropped up in the form of scraping of data for so-called AI systems, or at least that’s part of the excuses being offered for blocking the Wayback Machine’s web crawlers, with [Andrew Deck] and [Hanaa’ Tameez] of [Nieman Lab] detailing the impact and reasons provided.

Some news outlets like The Baltimore Banner insist that they’re only blocking the Wayback Machine crawlers because they are worried that LLM chatbots would otherwise ‘improperly cite’ the source of content, while outlets like The Atlantic have put a blanket anti-scraping policy in place. Meanwhile news outlets are generally happy to let paid commercial news archiving outlets like ProQuest and LexisNexis index their content, showing a potential financial incentive.

Whatever the reasons, the direct effect is that as content is modified or vanishes during for example a system migration, buy-out or bankruptcy, researchers who rely on the Wayback Machine are pretty much forced to rely on paid offerings by ProQuest and kin, without the pure archiving focus and free access to information. It will also leave big holes in what the Wayback Machine can cover in its archives, with news especially becoming very spotty.

Incidentally there’s an ongoing petition over at SaveTheArchive.com which people can sign.

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Meta Deletes Face-Recognition System From Its Smart Glasses App

Published

32 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Last Thursday, Wired reported that Meta had quietly embedded an unreleased facial recognition system called NameTag into software installed on millions of phones. In a follow-up report, Wired says the tech giant has now removed the face-recognition-related code, while saying “no final decision” has been made about whether the feature will launch. From the report: On Thursday, WIRED reported that Meta had quietly integrated substantial portions of the NameTag system into the Meta AI app. Though never publicly enabled, the feature was designed to convert faces captured by the glasses into unique biometric signatures, commonly known as faceprints, and compare them against a database of faceprints stored on the user’s device. WIRED also found that faces the system failed to recognize were cropped, indexed, and stored locally for future processing.

NameTag first surfaced in February, when The New York Times, citing internal Meta documents, reported that the company was developing face recognition for its smart glasses and weighing a launch as soon as this year. One memo reportedly described releasing it during a “dynamic political environment,” when privacy and civil liberties advocates would be distracted. Last week, WIRED reported that much of NameTag’s machinery was already built into the Meta AI app, downloaded by millions of users, as early as January, even as Meta publicly said it had made no final decision about face recognition. After WIRED’s report, Stone dismissed the findings, writing that the company couldn’t answer questions about how the system would work because “the feature does not exist.” Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer, called the reporting “incredibly misleading” and “absolutely dishonest.”

[…] The newly released version of Meta AI removes nearly all traces of the feature Meta said did not yet exist. Gone is the face-recognition software itself, along with the code that ran the NameTag recognition process and the “Person recognized” alert the app would have shown if someone were identified. The update also strips out a folder where the app would have stored the cropped images and biometric signatures of faces it captured but could not identify. […] A few fragments of the NameTag system remain in the version of latest Meta AI, including an internal debug menu label and a dormant link meant to open a recognized person’s profile. The leftover code points to parts of the system that are no longer there.

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Google Cuts The Price Of Its AI Plus Plan And Doubles The Storage

Published

47 minutes ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

The subscription now starts at $5 per month.

Nwz/Shutterstock

Google is lowering the cost of its cheapest AI subscription to make Gemini models even easier to access. The Google AI Plus plan will now cost $5 per month, according to a post from Vikas Kansal, the company’s Product Lead focused on Gemini AI subscriptions, down from its original $8 per month price. It now also comes with double the storage, 400GB instead of 200GB.

The subscription plan became available in January 2026 as a cheaper way to access Google’s Gemini 3 Pro model, Nano Banana Pro and Deep Research. Google previously offered those features as part of its more expensive AI Pro plan, but Plus lowered the price in exchange for more severe usage limits. Sweetening the deal further now that Google I/O 2026 has come and gone, the AI Plus plan also includes new benefits, like AI-powered email tools, a new Daily Brief agent that can summarize your upcoming day in the Gemini app and access to Gemini Omni, Google’s newest AI model for generating video “from any input.”

📣We’re updating the price of our Google AI Plus plan to $4.99/mo💰or local equivalent (down from $7.99), and doubling the included storage, from 200GB to 400GB ☁️. Now you can unlock tools to boost your productivity and creativity – and get more space to store your photos,…
— Vikas Kansal (@vikaskansalHQ) June 8, 2026
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Your mileage may vary with Google’s AI features, but getting double the storage for half the price is obviously meant to be a deal that’s hard to say no to. You can sign up for the AI Plus plan now on Google’s website. According to Kansal, existing subscribers should see their extra storage space in the next few days, and the updated subscription price on their next bill.

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Happy Birthday, Intel 8086: World's first x86 processor debuted exactly 48 years ago today

Published

1 hour ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Curiously, the Intel 8086 was conceived as a stopgap while the more technologically ambitious 32-bit iAPX 432 struggled with repeated delays. Developed in just 18 months, it was still capable of supporting far more demanding applications than its predecessors, and was notably the first Intel chip to contain microcode.
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Global Math Gains for Girls Are Slipping, Report Finds

Published

1 hour ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Global data on math achievement is revealing a dismaying trend: Girls are doing worse than boys — and the margins are huge.

Parsing education data into snack-sized servings.

In 2023, fourth-grade boys outperformed their female peers in a vast majority of schools, growing the gender gap that existed prior to the pandemic, according to an international study released last week.

Among eighth-graders, the rate of boys scoring higher than girls increased exponentially since 2019, rolling back gains in math equity that had been shaping up for more than a decade. Matthias Eck, a program specialist for UNESCO’s Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality, tells EdSurge that prior data showed girls were catching up with boys in math achievement.

“But in the latest data, we see that the gap is widening again between girls and boys, and that’s at the detriment of girls, which is quite concerning,” he says.

This international trend echoes what U.S. analysts saw when data from the Nation’s Report Card was released last year.

The latest analysis is based on data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a global study published every four years that measures math and science achievement among fourth- and eighth-grade students. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement performed the analysis in partnership with UNESCO.

Widening Achievement Gaps

The new data is part of the first set of TIMSS results that measure student performance following the onset of the pandemic. The analysis shows that among top performers in fourth grade, 85 percent of counties’ results skewed toward boys. Slightly over half of the countries and territories from which data was collected have an advanced math achievement gap that favors eighth-grade boys, while none are lopsided toward girls in either grade.

Eck, one of the report’s authors, argues the data shows a correlation between longer school closures and higher rates of learning loss in math, with some variation among countries and territories. “One of the hypotheses is really that those disruptions during the pandemic may have exacerbated existing disparities and have reduced learning opportunities for girls, and potentially those that were at risk of low achievement have been more affected,” Eck says. “The fact that girls were out of school and were not in the learning environment, it could have impacted their confidence, but that’s just the hypothesis.”

But the numbers contain other alarming signals.

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For example, the share of regions with a gender gap among fourth-grade students who are failing to reach basic math proficiency is on the rise, and most of them have a higher proportion of struggling girls, according to the report. And while the gender gap in underperformance among eighth-graders is shrinking, the proportion of countries and territories where girls have a higher failure rate spiked.

Researchers are being cautious when it comes to drawing conclusions about the causes behind the results, but girls’ experience of gender stereotypes and confidence in their math abilities can play a role.

“Boys and girls are equally able in mathematics, but these learning outcomes can be shaped by a range of factors,” Eck explains, “and that can be persistent gender stereotypes, but also teacher expectations — and they’re based, of course, on those gender stereotypes.”

Targeted Solutions

UNESCO is pushing education systems across the globe to take a hard look at whether their gender equity strategies are working, especially efforts aimed at younger students.

Eck notes that the consequences of girls’ achievement in math can have far-reaching effects in their lives — and very real consequences in societies writ large. “We know that mathematics is quite foundational to learning across the school subjects, it’s also critical for pathways into science, technology, engineering, mathematics careers,” he says. “These sectors are at the center of innovation, technology advancement, inclusive growth and sustainable development, so that’s quite concerning in terms of those sectors.”

But there’s no widely accepted solution to this problem.

Increasing girls’ math performance will take work at the national policy level, local communities, within families and the culture of classrooms, Eck says. And changes have to include challenging gender stereotypes that limit how far girls think they can go in mathematics, he adds.

“I think what is really critical is that we see those large gaps emerging early, at the fourth grade level when students usually are around 9 or 10 years old,” he says. “That means that whatever we do, the action we take to address the issue must start quite early and must be very targeted.”

Nadia Tamez-Robledo (@nadiatamezr) is a reporter covering K-12 education for EdSurge with focuses on student and teacher mental health and changing demographics. You can reach her at ntamez-robledo [at] iste [dot] org.

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4 Goodyear Tire Warranty Conditions You Should Know Before You Buy

Published

2 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Jaylazarin/Getty Images

Let’s say you’ve done some diligent research on the different types of tires for your vehicle and have selected your brand and model. Before you roll away on your new tires, don’t neglect the small print. Tire warranty coverage depends on so many different things, from the number of miles driven to specific types of damage that may or may not be covered. An unexpected bill from time to time is just a part of driving, but you can mitigate this if you know exactly what you’re covered for beforehand.

A Goodyear tire can be a solid pick, with the brand offering a huge range of performance tires for many types of vehicles. There are some budget-friendly options that rival Goodyear, but if you’re committed to the U.S. tire giant, there are some important things you need to know about Goodyear’s tire warranties. From the length of tread coverage on different varieties of Goodyear tires to the complicated calculations involved in prorated costs, some of these details are more broadly applicable to tire manufacturers, and others are exclusive to Goodyear and its subsidiaries.

Accidental damage coverage is a complicated business

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Tire damage from an inadvertent curb bump, a nail, or other obstacle you didn’t see can ruin your day immediately. It’s all the more devastating, of course, if you’ve recently bought a new set of Goodyear tires. With Cooper Tires (a subsidiary of Goodyear), the Cooper Standard Limited Warranty is very specific about this. As Goodyear notes, damage caused by the user (such as a lack of maintenance or other improper treatment of tires) is not covered. Neither are tires that are damaged by “road hazards, such as (A) impact damage, (B) cuts, (C) snags, or (D) punctures or (E) vandalism.”

By default, this warranty does not offer coverage against road hazards, as manufacturers typically don’t. If that’s a priority for you, be sure to consider optional additions or the warranties of other manufacturers. The Total Confidence Plan from Continental is one such possibility, with eligible tires that have been registered by the owner covered for things like roadside assistance for a flat, as well as road hazard coverage for one year or up to a certain level of tread wear.

Interestingly, Goodyear does offer a similar deal of its own in some international markets. For example, Goodyear Malaysia allows customers access to the Worry Free Assurance policy for registering their tires. The perks include a five-year overall warranty, as well as two tire safety checks at no cost and road hazard protection for a full year. U.S. drivers can check with the retailer or dealer to see whether they can add similar optional coverage for the specific tires they’re considering.

How the length of coverage and the type of tire relate

Goodyear groups its replacement tire treadwear coverage by tire family, including Assurance, Eagle, EV, and Wrangler. The mileage is largely the same between all models in a family, but not always. In the case of the Assurance product line, the All-Season, ComfortDrive, Fuel Max, and CS Fuel Max are all covered up to 65,000 miles, but two, the WeatherReady and WeatherReady2, are a little shorter than that at 60,000. Unsurprisingly, the ones with the longest coverage are the MaxLife tires, which are covered for as much as 85,000 miles, one of the best warranties offered by a tire brand.

The difference is enormous between the families: For EV models, this mileage is 60,000 for the ElectricDrive model, 45,000 for the ElectricDrive 2, and just 40,000 for the ElectricDrive GT. The lowest for all models listed is 30,000 miles, with the Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6. This gap reflects the familiar idea that performance tires don’t last as long as their standard counterparts.

It’s vital to consider your vehicle and driving habits when choosing a variety of tires and their warranty (along with any optional extras that may be appropriate). Doing so helps ensure that you get the expected performance from the tire type you choose. Standard coverage lasts for up to six years or until these replacement tires hit the listed mileage covered. This is a policy typical of manufacturer warranties, but there may be a wrinkle or two that drivers new to Goodyear weren’t aware of.

The length of the initial Satisfaction Guarantee may differ

jhxfilm/Shutterstock

Goodyear tires have a 60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee. During this period, you can change your mind and return them for a different set of tires from Goodyear (or exchange your Goodyears for certain tires from one of its subsidiaries, Cooper, Mastercraft, and Kelly). However, the 60-Day Guarantee is amended in the case of the other brands and lasts for only 45 days instead.

Of course, there are several caveats that have to be applied here. Firstly, only certain Goodyear tires are covered under the brand’s warranty details. Should you replace your tires, the new ones do not have the 60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee coverage.

These are significant differences from Michelin’s 60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee, with which you should also be familiar before you buy Michelin tires. The two programs also share similarities, though, in that receipts are vital and only the original retailer can do the deal for you. “Tires that are damaged due to misuse, road hazards, mechanical problems related to the vehicle, use in any racing-related activities or competitive events, or tires that are removed from the original vehicle are excluded,” Goodyear underscores.

Replacement tires aren’t necessarily free tires. If valve stems are required, that cost will also be passed along to the driver, though balancing and mounting of the replacements (which can be considerably costly in itself) is free.

Exactly how prorated coverage works for Goodyear models

Jaylazarin/Getty Images

As we’ve seen, you can’t really expect a freebie whenever a tire gets damaged. It’s the manufacturer’s responsibility to protect buyers against defects, first and foremost, which are not at all the driver’s fault. Accidental damage can potentially be covered with an optional add-on, but this may not always be available and will differ depending on the type of tire and where you live.

Even if you do meet all the requirements for compensation or a replacement, there’s much more to consider. As is typically the case with tire warranties, the value you receive will be prorated. In the specific case of Goodyear, this means that you would only get the value of the tire tread that you hadn’t already used. “If your tire had a tread life limited warranty of 80,000 mi. (130,000 km) and delivered 56,000 mi. (91,000 km) prior to wear-out (down the 2/32″), the tire will be replaced for 70% of the advertised selling price of the comparable tire at the time of adjustment,” the brand explains.

On top of that, services such as balancing and mounting of those tires aren’t included, unlike in the case of the purchase satisfaction guarantee, as we’ve seen. Tires that were originally supplied with the vehicle are not eligible, and neither are those that have been used for commercial purposes, including the likes of taxi services.

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Huawei makes UCD pit stop to showcase latest in renewables tech

Published

2 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

The company also announced a new €50,000 grant for five sports clubs across Ireland.

Last week, Huawei held its annual innovation day in Ireland at University College Dublin (UCD)’s O’Reilly Hall, bringing together senior decision-makers, engineers and energy experts to discuss the practical realities of Ireland’s transition to a sustainable and resilient energy supply.

The “real highlight” of the event, said Dennis Tossijn, the chief technology officer for west European multi-country ICT network solutions at Huawei, is getting the “ecosystem” together, including “end customers, the partners, technology partners, in one place to discover together the new technologies, the innovations”.

A key aspect of the day’s proceedings, he added, were new AI-related solutions the company wants to bring to its end customers.

On 3 June, O’Reilly Hall saw dozens in attendance visiting workshops and exploring the latest Huawei had to offer. Among a number of products on display were Huawei’s renewable energy and energy storage solutions.

David Minnis, the company’s senior solutions director for energy storage systems, said that Huawei’s grid-forming platform allows for the large scale adoption of solar energy as part of a wider renewable energy mix.

“So, businesses can adopt solar energy right up to utility scale, where we can deploy large-scale systems in megawatts and even at gigawatt level,” he said.

“Solar energy is one of the fastest growing types of energy generation. It can be deployed at scale. It’s the one of the most cost-effective ways of generating electricity.”

The company, which has had a presence in Ireland since 2004, also announced a new €50,000 sports grant for five sports clubs across the country.

“The sports scheme reflects Huawei’s broader commitment to the communities in which it operates,” the company said, adding that it has also invested more than €250m into its Irish R&D efforts between 2019 and 2023.

Speaking about the grant, Calvin Lan, the CEO of Huawei Ireland, said: “Sport is one of the most powerful forces in Irish community life.

“We are delighted to be awarding €10,000 to five sports clubs around the country to enhance facilities, expand participation or strengthen youth development programmes.”

Lan told SiliconRepublic.com, “It is one small way to giving something back.”

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

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He Borrowed the World’s Worst E-Bike and Turned Its Failures Into Features

Published

2 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Fixing World's Worst E-Bike Reevo
A viewer handed over a Reevo hubless electric bike with one clear condition. Fix it first, then bring it back better than before. The machine already carried a heavy reputation for every shortcut and oversight that can sink an ambitious design. Original plans leaned hard into a futuristic look. Large hubless wheels replaced traditional spokes. A sculpted body hid most of the mechanics. Nearly every useful function, from lights to wheel locks to performance modes, ran through a smartphone app. Once the company behind that app stopped supporting it, large parts of the bike simply stopped responding.

The construction of this bike mirrored the flaws in the software. Plastic panels were held up by inexpensive inserts that grew loose or broke with regular use. Exposed wires and unsecured shroud covers gave the frame the appearance of having been put together by someone who had never heard the term “professional job.” The motor was purposefully lowered in the first place, so even a minor climb would leave passengers pushing or walking. The brakes appeared rather feeble and frequently squeaked at you to let you know they were having troubles, and don’t get me started on the constant high-pitched whining from the extra headlamp component.

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Seth from the Berm Peak channel decided to tackle this disaster. He started by pulling everything up. The controller and circuit board were housed within the main motor housing, and the labels could be read in English, which was remarkable. That made a big difference in understanding how everything worked, which was before a mystery. A four-wire serial cable was connected to a laptop running simple terminal software at 115200 baud, and data started to flow in.

Fixing World's Worst E-Bike Reevo
Next, he solved the Bluetooth problem; it turned out that the first pairing process merely spewed the password in plain text over the serial link, and one or two deliberate failed attempts yielded the code “696969”. With the key in hand, he had complete access of the bike’s internal controls. He could then look for an older Android app that explained what each button and sensor was intended to do in the first place. Button presses for assist levels, throttle, and brakes all produced consistent results that could be repeated and improved.

The bike’s OEM display was not working. Seth replaced it with a low-cost ESP32-S3 touchscreen board and wrote custom code to turn the small 2.8-inch LCD into a fully functional dashboard. Speed, battery percentage, and trip distance are all shown in a clear 7-segment format, and the touch screen allows you to adjust the headlight, badge light, kickstand lock, and pedal assist levels, ranging from basic eco mode to turbo. A PIN entry screen allows you to lock the bike when you park it, and extended brake squeezes now flash the lights to alert anyone nearby of a potential problem. To prevent the bike from starting moving on its own, an inactivity timer reduces help to zero after ten minutes.

Fixing World's Worst E-Bike Reevo
Physical repairs addressed the bike’s deteriorated body. He glued the shattered brass inserts within the plastic panels back into place using 3D-printed adapters. Cracks and holes were repaired with strips of yellow reflector tape, and that was it. The original grips were replaced with new ones. A noisy electroluminescent headlight transformer was replaced with a basic 12-volt LED, and the twisted kickstand was secured with loctite. The original brake pads were replaced, but the builder kept them since the noise provided a good warning to anyone around.

The most significant change came from the motor controller, where a firmware update fixed the artificial power limits that had been holding the bike back in the first place, allowing it to deliver the full 750 watts it was supposed to, and hills that had previously required effort now move along with a steady pull. The same controller work also allowed the new screen to govern the kickstand servo, ensuring that when the stand is erected, the wheel lock is promptly engaged.

Fixing World's Worst E-Bike Reevo
As he progressed, safety features were integrated throughout the interface, with warning flags on the screen screaming “turn off” if assist mode was left on and the bike was in risk of entering a terrifying runaway mode. You can simply adjust a few settings and send commands to the bike using the built-in wifi we configured, without having to redo the entire code, change the PIN, update the bluetooth key, or communicate whatever you want, all without installing any additional software. The good news is that most of these modifications will remain without having you to modify the firmware.

Tests confirmed that everything eventually added up. The panels stopped moving and rattling on their mounts. The screen would come to life when you touched it. Even after the issue with the app was resolved, the lights and signals continued to function properly. The power appeared adequate, and you could rely on it not to do anything foolish. Most importantly, the machine began to feel like a bike you could ride every day, rather than a dismal reminder of how much work needed to be done to make it perfect.
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Game Porting Toolkit 4 ushers in agentic coding support

Published

2 hours ago

8 June 2026

NewsAdmin

Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit has been supercharged with AI agents, which might make it significantly easier to bring a game to the Mac.

While iOS 27 and Siri were the stars of the WWDC 2026 keynote, Apple hasn’t forgotten about the Mac as a gaming platform. While we didn’t get any triple-A game announcements this time around, the company did unveil a significant upgrade with Game Porting Toolkit 4.

The utility, as its name implies, is meant to help bring games to macOS. With the fourth release of its Game Porting Toolkit, Apple has implemented support for AI agents as part of the porting process.

“A new companion repository on Apple’s GitHub brings together open-source agent skills and sample code to help you leverage AI coding agents,” says the developer-focused announcement.

Apple’s website says that AI agents can help speed up game porting, as they offer deep Metal knowledge throughout the process. Agents are now capable of capturing, debugging, and profiling Metal workloads directly, as they now have command-line access to Metal tools.

Additionally, the evaluation environment within Game Porting Toolkit 4 now supports Metal 4, letting developers “test compatibility and performance against the latest API.”

Metal itself is hardware-dependent graphics and compute API. The original Metal framework is available on Macs as far back as 2012, while Metal 4 is only available on products with an Apple Silicon chip.

Overall, Apple says that Game Porting Toolkit 4 will greatly reduce the time, cost, and effort needed to bring a game to the Mac. The toolkit is still in beta testing, though, so it remains to be seen just how useful Apple’s AI agents will be.

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