Technology

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pressing Google for more information about its plans to build a checkout feature into its Gemini AI chatbot. In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Warren expresses concerns that the integration could allow Google and retailers “to exploit sensitive user data” or “manipulate consumers into spending more and paying higher prices.”Last month, Google announced that it will soon allow users to buy products directly within Gemini through the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a standard it developed in partnership with Shopify, Target, Walmart, Wayfair, and Etsy. The UCP is supposed to make it easier for AI agents to communicate with retailers, but Warren wants to know just how much user information — and what kinds — Google plans on providing to retailers t...

Début janvier, j’ai participé à un colloque de mathématiques à Washington. Ces Joint Mathematics Meetings se présentent comme le plus grand rassemblement de mathématiciens au monde. Environ 6 000 participants, des centaines de conférences, une multitude de salles fonctionnant en parallèle. Une véritable fourmilière, aux allures parfois de foire commerciale. Presque tous les participants travaillaient aux Etats-Unis. Je m’attendais à ce que de nombreuses interventions, ou au moins des discussions informelles, abordent une question qui me semblait inévitable : l’influence de la politique actuelle des Etats-Unis sur la science. Les coupes budgétaires engagées dans plusieurs domaines, la remise en cause de certains programmes de recherche et la restriction de thèmes ju...

Emmanuel Macron devant le palais de l’Elysée, le 30 janvier 2026. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP Emmanuel Macron a annoncé, mercredi 4 février, que le budget d’un vaste plan contre le cancer, qui court de 2021 à 2030 en couvrant un champ allant de la prévention à l’amélioration des soins, serait maintenu à un niveau semblable à celui de ces dernières années. Ce second volet disposera jusqu’en 2030 de « plus de 1,7 milliard d’euros investis sur cinq ans », soit un budget équivalent à la période 2021-2025, a annoncé le chef de l’Etat dans une vidéo diffusée au début d’une journée organisée par l’Institut national du cancer (INCa), chargé de coordonner ce plan. Celui-ci, qualifié de « stratégie décennale », est l’héritie...

Cellules de levure. Image au microscope à balayage électronique, colorée, de cellules de levure de bière ou de boulangerie (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), le 1ᵉʳ octobre 2019. STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO VIA AFP Vin, bière, pain, produits laitiers… Ces alcools et denrées alimentaires ont pour point commun d’être fabriqués grâce à l’action de levures et notamment de différentes souches de Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Elles sont sélectionnées et inconsciemment « domestiquées » par l’humain, comme le révèle une équipe française en collaboration avec des chercheurs canadiens dans une étude parue dans la revue PNAS, le 8 janvier. S. cerevisiae a été identifiée et étudiée au XIXe siècle, d’abord par le Français Louis Pasteur. Il faut e...

Adobe is no longer planning to discontinue Adobe Animate on March 1st. In an FAQ, the company now says that Animate will now be in maintenance mode and that it has “no plans to discontinue or remove access” to the app. Animate will still receive “ongoing security and bug fixes” and will still be available for “both new and existing users,” but it won’t get new features.An announcement email that went out to Adobe Animate customers about the discontinuation did “not meet our standards and caused a lot of confusion and angst within the community,” according to a Reddit post from Adobe community team member Mike Chambers.Animate will be available in maintenance mode “indefinitely” to “individual, small business, and enterprise customers,” according to Adobe. Before the change, Adobe said t...

“We made the difficult decision to pause development on that SKU,” Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis said in the statement published by Variety. “Our focus continues to be delivering quality post-launch content for players on the ongoing improvements to optimize the game. We’re continuing to collaborate closely with our friends at Nintendo. We have ‘PGA Tour 2K25’ coming out and ‘WWE 2K26’ [for Switch 2], and we’re incredibly excited about bringing more of our titles to that platform in the future.”Take-Two, which owns Borderlands 4 developer Gearbox, is making the announcement of the pause alongside its Q3 FY 2026 earnings. On Take-Two’s future games lineup included in an earnings press release, Grand Theft Auto VI is still listed for November 19th, 2026. Launch marketing for the game i...

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was launched into the middle of a congressional culture war on Tuesday as he testified before a Senate subcommittee about the company’s attempt to buy a large part of Warner Bros Discovery.The hearing before the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee highlighted an array of traditional merger concerns on both sides of the aisle: that the deal could potentially raise costs for consumers, limit their theater experiences, or shrink the market for entertainment jobs. But a large chunk of the session also focused on Netflix’s allegedly “woke” programming, including content that features transgender characters.Netflix is facing a competing bid from Paramount Skydance, run by CEO David Ellison, the son of President Donald Trump’s close ally and Oracle co-founder Larry...

Microsoft confirmed last year that it’s working on a next-gen Xbox console in partnership with AMD. Now, AMD is hinting that the next Xbox console, which will use custom AMD chips, could be launching in 2027.“Development of Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox, featuring an AMD semi-custom SoC, is progressing well to support a launch in 2027,” said AMD CEO Lisa Su on an earnings call today. The brief comment doesn’t confirm Microsoft will launch a new Xbox in 2027, but it does reveal that AMD is ready to support a launch then if Microsoft is also ready.Microsoft entered a “strategic multi-year partnership” with AMD last year that includes the pair co-engineering silicon “across a portfolio of devices — including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands.” AMD and Micr...

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice and the plaintiffs in the antitrust case against Google filed a cross-appeal, as the DOJ Antitrust Division announced in a post on X: “Today, the DOJ Antitrust Division filed notice that it will cross-appeal from the remedies decisions in its case against Google’s unlawful monopolization of internet search and search advertising.”Just a few weeks ago, Google itself filed a notice to appeal and requested a pause on the remedies ordered by DC District Court Judge Amit Mehta last year. Those remedies included requiring Google to share search data with its rivals and barring Google from making exclusive distribution deals for its search or AI products that could hinder distribution for competitors. However, Google was ultimately not required to sell its...

After right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley’s viral video alleging fraud at Minnesota daycares he said were operated by Somali residents, Donald Trump’s administration responded by flooding the state with federal immigration agents and freezing funding for childcare services. (A judge ruled that the federal government must continue funding childcare subsidies, at least temporarily.) Now Shirley is back loitering outside daycares again, this time in California.Over the weekend the 23-year-old posted a photo of himself with the caption “Hello California I’ve arrived.” Like with his last video, which featured a “source” later identified by The Intercept as a far-right onetime political candidate and lobbyist, Shirley seems to have had a local tour guide: Amy Reichert, a San Diego right-wing act...