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Apple has released the first public beta of iOS 26, featuring a 'Liquid Glass' user interface and improved AI features. The update includes a visual transformation with a transparent, glass-like feel to UI elements across apps like Phone, Camera, and Safari. The new software also introduces real-time live translation, AI-powered shortcuts, and updates to Visual Intelligence.
Other updates include:
The beta is available for early adopters before its wider public release later this fall.
Amazon has launched a more affordable version of its color screen Kindle, offering a lower-cost option for users seeking a visually engaging e-reading experience. The new 16GB Kindle Colorsoft is priced at $249.99, a $30 discount compared to the original 32GB model.
Key features include the high-contrast Colorsoft display, adjustable warm light, long battery life, and access to Kindle Unlimited. A Kindle Colorsoft Kids edition is also available, offering a protective cover, a two-year guarantee, and a year of Amazon Kids+ subscription. While retaining core features, the new model excludes auto-adjusting front light, wireless charging, and larger storage space.
AI-generated low-quality content, known as AI slop, is infiltrating cybersecurity, causing problems for bug bounty programs. These programs, designed to reward researchers for finding vulnerabilities, are seeing a surge in fake or hallucinated reports created by large language models (LLMs).
Security experts are raising concerns about these AI-generated reports that appear legitimate but contain non-existent vulnerabilities. This influx of AI slop is overwhelming bug bounty platforms, wasting time and resources for both companies and researchers.
Leading bug bounty platforms like HackerOne and Bugcrowd acknowledge the increase in AI-generated reports. HackerOne has launched Hai Triage, an AI-powered system to filter submissions, while Bugcrowd relies on manual review and AI assistance.
Some open-source projects have even removed their bug bounties due to the overwhelming number of AI slop reports. As both hackers and companies increasingly use AI, the battle to filter out the noise and identify genuine vulnerabilities continues.
LegalOn Technologies, a Tokyo-based company, has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Goldman Sachs to further develop its AI agent tools. LegalOn's AI contract review tool, Review, identifies risks and suggests edits based on lawyer-built playbooks, claiming to cut review times by up to 85%. The company also launched Matter Management, a tool to track contract requests and facilitate collaboration. LegalOn has a non-equity tech partnership with OpenAI, giving them access to advanced large language models. LegalOn aims to streamline legal workflows and enhance accuracy for legal teams.
YouTube's ad revenue increased by 13% year-over-year, reaching $9.8 billion in the second quarter, according to Alphabet's earnings report. This exceeded analyst expectations of around $9.6 billion.
YouTube has been aiming to capture more TV ad dollars, with a Nielsen report indicating it held the largest share of TV viewing for three consecutive months, representing 12.4% of total audience time.
Rival streaming services like HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video are increasing ad placements in response, while Netflix is emerging as a key competitor, aiming to double its advertising revenue within the year.
Alphabet reported total revenue of $96.4 billion in the second quarter, a 13% year-over-year increase.
The K Prize, an AI coding challenge, announced its first winner, Eduardo Rocha de Andrade, who achieved a score of 7.5% on the test. The challenge, designed by Databricks and Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski, aims to provide a contamination-free benchmark for evaluating AI models against real-world programming problems from GitHub.
Konwinski has pledged $1 million to the first open-source model that scores above 90% on the test. The K Prize contrasts with SWE-Bench, which has higher scores, raising questions about potential contamination or the difficulty of collecting new GitHub issues.
The K Prize is seen as a necessary step towards addressing AI's evaluation problem, with researchers like Sayash Kapoor advocating for new tests for existing benchmarks. Konwinski emphasizes the challenge as a reality check for the AI industry, highlighting the gap between current AI capabilities and the hype surrounding AI applications.