Free Republic

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday that TikTok will go dark for Americans unless China agrees to give the U.S. more control over the popular short-form video app. "We've made the decision. You can't have Chinese control and have something on 100 million American phones," Lutnick told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Thursday. TikTok's future in the U.S. has been uncertain since 2024, when Congress passed a bill that would ban the platform unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, divested from it. Lawmakers had grown concerned that the Chinese government could access sensitive data from American users or manipulate content...

When I was a kid in the 1980s, my parents sent me to a Waldorf school in England. At the time, the school discouraged parents from allowing their kids to watch too much TV, instead telling them to emphasize reading, hands-on learning and outdoor play. I chafed at the stricture then. But perhaps they were on to something: Today I don’t watch much TV and I still read a lot. Since my school days, however, a far more insidious and enticing form of tech has taken hold: the internet, especially via smartphones. These days I know I have to put...

A team of engineers has unveiled a revolutionary mini-spectrometer that can fit on a fingertip and operate with low voltage, scanning light from UV to near-infrared in under a millisecond. This game-changing device replaces bulky traditional spectrometers and could soon be embedded in smartphones, unlocking powerful tools for material analysis, biomedical diagnostics, and more—right in your pocket. Its tiny photodetector shifts light sensitivity with simple voltage changes, offering speed and precision in a package smaller than a pixel. Breakthrough in Compact Spectrometry Researchers have developed a groundbreaking spectrometer that is significantly smaller than existing models, yet still capable of precisely...

Arizona police arrested a 21-year-old TikToker known for his prank videos Wednesday after he allegedly targeted several well-known chains in Tempe. Heston Cobb, who uses the name “Heston James” on his social media channels, faces one count of burglary, two counts of criminal impersonation, five counts of disorderly conduct and five counts of criminal trespass. Cobb is accused of orchestrating pranks on Pep Boys, Hyland Auto Repair, Big Brand Tire & Service, Jiffy Lube and Chipotle locations between March and July. Police began investigating after local businesses complained “of a group of men coming into their store dressed as employees,”...

A humanoid robot developed by South Korea’s nuclear research institute was able to accurately toss a water bottle into a yellow barrel from across the room, marking a significant advancement in disaster response robotics. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute published brief video footage showing its ARMstrong Dex robot pitching the 500-milliliter bottle about 10 feet underhanded with its mechanical arm into the barrel. This test was more than just a clever stunt. It showed that the robot had key skills needed in an emergency. In disaster zones where roads are blocked or too dangerous for people to reach, being...

China’s unexpected advances in artificial intelligence in recent months have top U.S. researchers baffled. DeepSeek, seen as a cost-effective AI breakthrough for China, was a wake-up call for U.S. industry technologists, but many appear to have hit the snooze button. DeepSeek’s rapid development of a model matching American frontier AI companies’ outputs for seemingly lower costs caught many national security officials and researchers off guard this year.OpenAI’s Katrina Mulligan, who is working to foster closer ties between her company and military and intelligence officials, said DeepSeek stunned government and industry sources alike.Ms. Mulligan told an AI conference in June that...

The Deep State is a budget-busting, bureaucratic tyranny, crushing capitalist meritocracy and social values. It is a self-directed, out-of-control monster that fights MAGA tooth and claw. However, the brilliant computer “nerds” of Elon Musk’s Department Of Governmental Efficiency are already using the first version of their Artificial Intelligence software tool. It may eventually curb the Deep State as much as possible. From an article at The Washington Post:DOGE builds AI tool to cut 50 percent of federal regulationsThe tool, called the ‘DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool,’ is supposed to analyze roughly 200,000 federal regulations to determine which can be eliminated...

Beware of Fake Financial Experts (a critique of Lyn Alden, Luke Gromen and the like)There is a sense in the world that 'something' is wrong with the global economy- the rise of populism in numerous countries evidencing the growing discontent of the people. Unfortunately, with this rise in discontent has come a number of monetary 'experts' who attempt to address this sentiment by propagating narratives that are not only extremely ignorant, but dangerous, profiting themselves as they take advantage of the emotions of the people.For example, Raoul Pal runs a financial platform called 'Real Vision' in which he continuously states...

Imagine this scenario: you're worried you may have committed a crime, so you turn to a trusted advisor — OpenAI's blockbuster ChatGPT, say — to describe what you did and get its advice. This isn't remotely far-fetched; lots of people are already getting legal assistance from AI, on everything from divorce proceedings to parking violations. Because people are amazingly stupid, it's almost certain that people have already asked the bot for advice about enormously consequential questions about, say, murder or drug charges. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, anyone's who's done so has made a massive error — because unlike...

A computer is only as good as the data you put into it. That warning from the early days of computing -- garbage in, garbage out -- has never been more relevant than in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). AI now drives everything from search engines to image generators, yet instead of providing objective, data-backed insights, it too often parrots progressive narratives, twisting facts to match feelings.Case in point: despite U.S. Census Bureau data indicating that over 75% of Americans identify as white, AI-generated images of “typical Americans” often show mostly non-white groups. This isn’t intelligence. It’s indoctrination, built...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is warning of an "impending fraud crisis" in which practically anybody will be able to imitate not only the voice but even the likeness of others, using the type of AI that his company is helping pioneer. During a chat with Federal Reserve vice chair Michelle Bowman in Washington, DC, Altman argued that the banking industry must modernize to avoid having its customers fall victim to widespread fraud. "I am very nervous about this," he told Bowman. "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept a voice print...

Wired Americans spend nearly half their day online — splitting that time almost evenly between watching videos or TV shows and working, browsing and shopping, according to a new survey. “This new survey was eye-opening,” said Eric Bruno, senior vice president of product management for Optimum, whose telecommunications firm interviewed 2,000 US residents who have a home Internet subscription with any company for the poll. “We were amazed to see how many hours folks are watching, shopping and browsing online on a daily basis,” Bruno told The Post. “It underscores how important a strong, affordable, and reliable Internet has become...

The data centers required for Big Tech are driving up electricity demand — and prices.This summer, across a vast stretch of the eastern United States, monthly home electric bills jumped. In Trenton, New Jersey, the bill for a typical home rose $26. In Philadelphia, it increased about $17. In Pittsburgh, it went up $10. And in Columbus, Ohio, it spiked $27.Few customers were happy, of course, but even fewer knew exactly why the rates had climbed so quickly.“I never know why it goes up,” said Vicki Miller, a retired secretary in Columbus. “But I can adjust the thermostat to save...

Quantum computing developments over the past 12 months, including Google Willow, IBM Majorana 1, and innovations at IBM, PsiQuantum and Atom Computing. Quantum Computing 2025 Update | 17:04 ExplainingComputers | 1.12M subscribers | 3,935 views | July 27, 2025

A dating safety app that allows women to do background checks on men and anonymously share "red flag" behaviour has been hacked, exposing thousands of members' images, posts and comments. Tea Dating Advice, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million users, said there had been "unauthorised access" to 72,000 images submitted by women. Some included images of women holding photo identification for verification purposes, which Tea's own privacy policy promises are "deleted immediately" after authentication. Tea said the breach affected members who signed up before February 2024. Tea lets women check whether potential partners are married or registered sex offenders...

LMAO! The Tea app, which is meant for women to dox and “rate” men who they go on dates with, has been HACKED.. And the women using the app look EXACTLY as you’d expect them to look 🤣 This is an evil app meant to destroy men’s lives. These women are all co-conspirators.

David Letterman has backed his successor Stephen Colbert and suggested CBS canceled The Late Show because he was 'always shooting his mouth off' about Donald Trump. The 78-year-old late-night legend created The Late Show in 1993 after NBC denied him the chance to succeed Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. Colbert took over for Letterman in 2015 and took the show in a decidedly more political direction but despite leading in the ratings, a shrinking late-night landscape led CBS to claim losses in the tens of millions of dollars. In his first comment on the show's cancellation, Letterman noted that...

They’re vibe coding. They’re eschewing huge payrolls for AI assistants. And it’s dramatically changing their workdays.Krista Fabregas never saw herself as a coder. But when she built an AI-powered content automation pipeline to publish an article that outranked Forbes in Google search results—driving visitors to her site instead of the media giant’s— she knew she was onto something. “That article was fully AI-generated from the start,” she admitted. “I just entered a keyword and sent it to my automation tool.” A longtime content strategist, e-commerce consultant, and fiction writer, Krista joins a new wave of users building software and automations...

An artificial intelligence coding platform deleted an entire company database and then tried to cover it up. Replit “Panicked”Tom’s Hardware, a three-decade-old technology-news website, reported the news early this week. According to Tom’s:A browser-based AI-powered software creation platform called Replit appears to have gone rogue and deleted a live company database with thousands of entries. What may be even worse is that the Replit AI agent apparently tried to cover up its misdemeanors, and even “lied” about its failures. The Replit CEO has responded, and there appears to have already been a lot of firefighting behind the scenes to rein...

Sofia Baig was shocked when she visited San Francisco open houses last month that were so crowded, she was physically bumping into people. There wasn't enough space for the dozens vying for one rental unit. Baig, her husband and newborn have to move to the city by mid-August as their Stanford student housing expired. Their search felt like a flashback to the 2010s, with bidding wars, an inventory desert and applicants writing "love letters" to landlords on their merits with attached resumes. Dark Sky Weather Live Accurate Weather Forecast Ad Dark Sky Weather Live Accurate Weather Forecast appnado.com call to...