Tech Boys

Sometime this week, a TikTok star was born — and she wore an orange, spandex jumpsuit and an oversized fake, yellow mustache. I'm talking, of course, about @_ashbyflorence _. You've likely seen Ashby if you've logged onto TikTok in the last week or so. Maybe you've seen her on a live stream, or you've seen the viral clips, or you've seen people reacting to the clips, or you've seen others talking about how funny she is. Regardless, she's recently become a fixture on FYPs everywhere, mine included. Perhaps you're like me, randomly spouting quotes from a woman on TikTok dressed as the Lorax or Alexander Hamilton. Things like, "I'm baaaashful" in a vaguely Midwest accent, or "I'm joooking," or sticking out your tongue, lizard-like, as a punchline. I can't imagine I'm alone in this experience, the strange, viral comedy of Ashby worming into your daily life. So...who is Ashby? Best I can tell, Ashby's real name...

The latest example of bias permeating artificial intelligence comes from the medical field. A new study surveyed real case notes from 617 adult social care workers in the UK and found that when large language models summarized the notes, they were more likely to omit language such as "disabled," "unable" or "complex" when the patient was tagged as female, which could lead to women receiving insufficient or inaccurate medical care. Research led by the London School of Economics and Political Science ran the same case notes through two LLMs — Meta's Llama 3 and Google's Gemma — and swapped the patient's gender, and the AI tools often provided two very different patient snapshots. While Llama 3 showed no gender-based differences across the surveyed metrics, Gemma had significant examples of this bias. Google's AI summaries produced disparities as drastic as "Mr Smith is an 84-year-old man who lives alone and has a complex medical histor...

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle . As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer. If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for August 4 Where did Wordle come from? Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble , music identification game Heardle , and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once .  Wor...

We already know that Apple is planning to launch  a major AI-infused Siri upgrade next year, but it might be better than we thought. Mark Gurman's latest Power On newsletter at Bloomberg contains interesting information about  App Intents , an existing feature that Gurman says will get a big upgrade next spring when the new, smarter Siri launches. When this feature is live, users will be able to use their voices to give Siri complex, cross-app commands. Examples include using your voice to ask Siri to edit and send off a specific photo to a specific person, or to log into an app hands-free. SEE ALSO: iPhones, Macs, and iPads will get GPT-5 via Apple Intelligence. Here’s when it happens. Of course, this is all still in internal testing at Apple, and Gurman's report said there are still concerns about getting it to work with enough apps to be useful at launch. Its accuracy will also be something to watch, as it is with any AI application. Apple first outlined the big ...

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle . As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer. If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for August 4 Where did Wordle come from? Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble , music identification game Heardle , and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once .  Wor...

It's been a few years since we last heard anything about the Space Invaders movie that is reportedly in the works, but a new report suggests things are inching forward again. According to Deadline , Ben Zazove and Evan Turner ( The Out-Laws ) are now on board to write the movie for Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema. A movie adaptation of Taito's classic arcade game has been brewing for over a decade now, after Warner Bros. bought the rights to spin it into a film back in 2014. It was reported in 2019 that screenwriter Gregg Russo ( Mortal Kombat 2021) had been tapped to write the script, but it seems some changes have been made in the years since. There's no word yet on a release date or how it'll approach the alien invasion story. Video game adaptations have been having a bit of a moment lately, though, so they may be looking to ride that momentum and actually bring this one to life now. Time will tell. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.t...

Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans. Like the original Connections , the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle , Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle. If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections Sports Edition? The NYT 's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic , the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers an...

Whether you're into full moons because of their rumoured effects on sleep, mood, or werewolf activity, you just love a bit of astronomy knowledge, or you just like to look up at them, August’s full moon is worth a look. Beyond the folklore, this month's full moon marks an important point in the lunar calendar, with seasonal significance. Here’s when it's due, what it’s called, and what it means. When is the August full moon? August's full moon will take place on Saturday, August 9. The previous full moon was on July 10. According to Astronomy.com , August's full moon will peak at 3:55 am ET. What is the August full moon called? The full moons each have a name, a tradition that comes from early cultures using the lunar cycle to track time and seasonal changes. August's full moon is known as the Sturgeon Moon , according to NASA. When is the next full moon? The next full moon predicted to occur on Sept. 7, 2025, according to Royal Museums Greenwich . ...

After a GPT-5 rollout that was "a little more bumpy" than expected, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is bringing back GPT-4o — with a catch. During a Reddit AMA (and also on X), Altman said GPT-4o will soon be available again for paid ChatGPT users. "Ok, we hear you all on 4o," said Altman . "Thanks for the time to give us the feedback (and the passion!)." And on X, Altman confirmed, "We will let Plus users choose to continue to use 4o. We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for." So GPT-4o lives to fight another day. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Why is OpenAI bringing back GPT-4o? OpenAI launched the highly anticipated GPT-5 model on Thursday, promising the smartest, fastest model yet. GPT-5 also has a streamlined system that works behind the scenes to choose which version of GPT-5 is best for the user's prompt. Previously, users could select spe...

Nintendo has eyed adding a Playdate-style crank to the Switch 2 , according to a recently spotted patent from Nintendo Patents Watch . The hypothetical accessory would add tracking rotational movement to an existing bag of Joy-Con 2 controller tricks that includes motion and mouse controls.   Based on the patent application, the crank accessory attaches to the side of a Joy-Con 2 magnetically, not unlike the controllers' wrist straps. Whichever game supports the accessory can use the Joy-Con 2's mouse sensor to track the rotations of the crank as an input. Fishing games or games with dedicated fishing mini-games, like Animal Crossing: New Horizons , seem like the obvious contenders for an accessory like this, but knowing Nintendo there are weirder possibilities, too.  Nintendo Another patent imagines a similar setup being used for a clickable wheel. The patent illustrations looks like a lighter, but the accessory could just as easily be used while dragging a Joy-C...