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 Google is bringing Gemini to the Mac with a new native macOS app that's available starting today. Gemini for Mac can be activated with a keyboard shortcut, and it has built-in tools for generating images, analyzing what's on your screen, reviewing files, and more.
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A group of researchers from across the US and the UK have conducted a study on what AI does to our brains and the results are, in a word, grim. These results were published in a paper called "AI assistance reduces persistence and hurts independent performance" which kind of tells you everything you need to know.
"We find that AI assistance improves immediate performance, but it comes at a heavy cognitive cost," the study declares. Researchers went on to state that just ten minutes of using AI made people dependent on the technology, which led to worsening performance and burnout once the tools were removed.
The study followed people who use AI for "reasoning-intensive" cognitive labor. This refers to stuff like writing, coding and brainstorming new ideas, which are some of the most common use cases.
The researchers recruited 350 Americans, who were asked to complete some fraction-based equations. Half of the participants were randomly granted access to a specialized chatbot built on OpenAI's GPT-5 for help and the others had to go it alone. Halfway through the exam, the AI group had their access cut off.
This led to a steep decline in correct answers by the AI group and many instances of people simply giving up. This result, in which performance and perseverance both dropped, was repeated in a larger experiment with 670 people. Finally, the scientists performed one final experiment with reading comprehension questions, and not math. The results were more of the same.
"Once the AI is taken away from people, it's not that people are just giving wrong answers. They're also not willing to try without AI," Rachit Dubey, an assistant professor at the University of California and coauthor of the study,
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The shoe company Allbirds, famous for its wool trainers, is pivoting to AI. You read that right. The San Francisco company has plans "to pivot its business to AI compute infrastructure, with a long-term vision to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider." It's also changing its name to NewBird AI.
This is subject to shareholder approval, with a vote scheduled for May 18. Once approved, the company will raise $50 million from an unnamed investor to assist with this enterprise. This money will be used for the "acquisition and monetization of graphics processing units, related high-performance computing infrastructure capable to support high workloads and other related assets." In other words, all of the things one would need to start an AI compute company.
— Tracy Alloway (@tracyalloway) April 15, 2026
Allbirds has always been known as an eco-friendly shoe company and, well, there's no real way to do AI while protecting the environment. The company plans on getting rid of any eco-friendly branding, with stockholders being asked to approve a charter amendment proposal to "remove references to the company being operated for the environmental conservation p
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Chinese phonemaker Vivo has been pushing the limits of smartphone photography in the last few years. However, the availability of its phones — like last year's X200 Ultra, with its beefy add-on telephoto — has been intermittent in the West.
The company says the X300 Ultra its first global flagship launch, although there's still no word on a US launch or pricing at the time of writing. Like the latest phones from Xiaomi and Oppo, Vivo is also obsessing over larger camera sensors, peripherals and a dizzying array of technical photography specs, with a particular focus on cinematic video recording.
Collaborating with Zeiss again, the X300 Ultra features a "triple prime lens" camera system with 85, 35 and 14mm equivalent focal lengths. This can be punched up to 400mm equivalent with a new telephoto extender, the messily-named Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra, whose price is also unknown for now.
Even without that add-on, Vivo has built its 85mm equivalent 200-megapixel telephoto camera to handle most of your zoom-heavy shooting moments. A "gimbal-grade" APO (apochromatic) camera is designed to correct color fringing and stabilize your shots. These are both typical issues when using higher zoom levels. In a dedicated "snapshot" mode, Autofocus tracking will even work at 60 fps, which I'm excited to test, as the phone can also shoot at up to 12 fps. Vivo says its optical image stabilization can correct up to three degrees of movement.
Other cameras are similarly powerful, spec-wise. The 35mm equivalent Zeiss "Documentary" camera uses a 1/1.12-inch 200MP Sony sensor and is apparently engineered for strong low-light performance and portrait shooting, with an f/1.8 aperture. Finally, there's a 50MP ultrawide rounding out
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A scaled-up version of OpenAI's Trusted Access for Cyber program appears to be OpenAI's response to Anthropic's Project Glasswing.
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We've been testing Echos and Alexa devices for years, up through the Alexa Plus AI. Here are the gadgets that work best with the Amazon voice assistant.
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Google has introduced a new app for Windows desktops and, unsurprisingly, it puts AI front at center. If you aren't a big fan of Google's Gemini chatbot, then skip on past this download. For those of you who are heavy Gemini users, though, this could mean a simpler and more integrated experience on Windows machines.
Once installed, you can pull up the app's search bar with the Alt Space shortcut. Queries typed into this open-ended search box can hunt down information from the web like typical Google search, where AI Mode will be enabled for an extra layer of artificial intelligence for follow-up questions or a deeper dive down a rabbit hole. But the app isn't limited to web search. It can delve into your computer's files, other installed apps or Google Drive files to retrieve information. Screen sharing is also built into the app, which enables using Google Lens to conduct AI-powered searches on content displayed on your monitor.
The app is rolling out globally today in English. Interestingly, this hasn't been gated to the most recent Windows 11, but it does require a machine running at least Windows 10.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/googles-new-windows-app-is-yet-another-way-to-access-gemini-214000564.html?src=rss
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TWEAKS AND UPDATES Tubefilter: For the first time, Twitch opens sponsored campaigns (and their revenue) to Affiliates. "The Amazon-owned platform does something unique with sponsored content: It offers open-invitation campaigns, where brands […]
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