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Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner will no longer get access to the nation’s most sensitive intelligence secrets, a circumstance that’s sure to complicate his role as America’s Middle East peace-broker. Kushner had been receiving Top Secret reports, as well as some reports further compartmentalized to protect sensitive sources, under an interim, or temporary clearance. Politico has…
Amazon has made some big acquisitions over the years. Whole Foods cost around $14 billion. Game-streaming platform Twitch and online shoe store Zappos weren’t cheap either. For its next act of ruthless corporate consolidation, the everything store run by the richest man on Earth reportedly plans to drop over $1 billion on doorbell company Ring, probably…
House congressional members conducted a hearing Tuesday morning on sexual harassment and misconduct within the scientific world. Alongside testimony offered by experts in the field on how to improve the reporting process and better protect victims, there was also a clear request by the government: Let us know when universities aren’t being honest about their…
Germany’s highest court on Tuesday ruled that Google has no obligation to check websites for defamatory content before including them in search results. The Federal Court of Justice found that Google wasn’t responsible for trawling through content before it appeared in the search engine. Rather, it only needs to remove content in the event that…
The moment Michael O’Rielly took the stage at CPAC and told people who they should vote for, ethics watchdogs say he broke a federal law. But in an administration that has regularly thumbed its nose at ethics rules, it’s hard to imagine anyone will care. There’s little question as to what hat O’Rielly was wearing…
Microsoft’s Kinect, the depth-sensing, motion-tracking technology, might be dead as a product, but the hardware lives on, and is being used for far more than just video games now. This experimental film by Marcin Nowrotek mixes 3D footage of jazz musicians with 3D animations to create a music video where the musicians almost appear to…
The artificial intelligence craze isn’t just hitting Silicon Valley—the Justice Department wants to get in on the action, too. The agency announced today that it will put $2 million towards research on AI, which it believes could be used to fight human trafficking, illegal border crossings, drug trafficking, and child pornography. National Institute for Justice,…
Editor’s Note: After this post was published, Facebook provided more specific details about how their face recognition system works. The following post has been updated to include the additional information given to Gizmodo, and the headline has been updated to reflect that. Being on Facebook means being seen, and recently some users have spotted a…
Researchers from Iowa State University are claiming that US versions of popular Russian-funded news media are littered with articles and links casting genetically modified organisms in a negative light. It’s an effort, say the researchers, to discredit American agricultural practices and to portray Russian crops as an “ecologically cleaner” alternative to GMOs. ISU sociologist Shawn…
If Alex Jones’ Infowars YouTube channel gets one more strike within the next three months, it will be banned from the site, where it has 2.2 million subscribers. Infowars—a far-right media outlet that often suggests mass shootings like those at Sandy Hook and Marjory Stoneman Douglas are orchestrated, staged events—claims it got its second strike…
While better known for its various PCs and gaming products, Asus has been making smartphones for quite some time. Over the previous four generations of Zenfones, Asus had always skipped the world’s largest smartphone trade show, MWC in Barcelona. The reason? According to Asus’ head of global marketing Marcel Campos, “[We] just weren’t ready.” But…
Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday formally introduced legislation to save net neutrality from the corporate-greased mitts of the Federal Communication Commission. The measure is likely to fail to reverse the FCC’s bludgeoning of the open internet—but if so, it comes packed with a ticking time bomb for Republicans. At least, that’s the plan. Led by Massachusetts…
The Apple-1 is the very first product from the minds of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and when one of the 50 or so boards known to still exist sells at auction it’s a big deal. These fragile pieces of computing history regularly fetch upwards of $300,000. Jimmy Grewal recently acquired one such board (the…
In 2o15 and 2016, a rush of class-action lawsuits were filed by people in Illinois against tech companies. The impetus was an unusual law in the Prairie State. In 2008, the state passed the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, making it, along with Texas, one of only two states at the time with laws on…
Amazon is on a mission to redefine the brick and mortar businesses that it disrupted out of existence. With its Amazon Go convenience store, Amazon is pioneering locations with no checkout lines. But innovators spawn imitators and an emerging startup thinks it can retrofit any store with its AI-powered item tracking system starting next year.…
The Commodore PET 2001 was already one of the better-looking dinosaurs from the early desktop days, but this one-of-a-kind retro rebuild, handmade from American walnut, takes it to another level. The gorgeous little game machine was first spotted by The Verge and comes to us from Swedish designer Love Hultèn. The meticulous craftsman is known…
Even if you don’t care for the actual song, the music video for Hardcore Anal Hydrogen’s track Jean-Pierre is a visual feast, taking advantage of several recent breakthroughs in artificial-intelligent image processing that’s quickly gone from creating nightmares, to revolutionizing how modern visual effects are created. The behind-the-scenes processes that went into making this music…
Apple is reportedly launching a new healthcare venture this spring, but it will only aid its own employees—at least for now. The new health clinics, operating under the name AC Wellness, will initially provide care for Apple workers in Santa Clara County, near the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, according to a report from CNBC. There…
Less than six months after launching in France, a dockless bike-sharing service is calling it quits in the country, due to what it characterized as “mass destruction.” The company, Gobee, told The Guardian that over a thousand bikes were stolen in France, with 3,200 damaged and 6,500 needing repairs. “Over the months of December and…
There’s a lot of mythology around what a martial arts master is capable of, from leaping between buildings to turning invisible. But The Slow Mo Guys and their slow-mo camera spent some time with three Shaolin monks who demonstrated an amazing ability to throw a needle through a sheet of glass. As far as ninja-like…
