California government agencies are going all-in on generative artificial intelligence tools after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2023 executive order to improve government efficiency with AI. One deployment recently touted by the governor is a chatbot from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the primary agency tasked with coordinating the state’s wildfire response. The chatbot, which Cal Fire says is independent of Newsom’s order, is meant to give Californians better access to “critical fire prevention resources and near-real-time emergency information,” according to a May release from Newsom’s office. But CalMatters found that it fails to accurately describe the containment of a given wildfire, doesn’t reliably provide information such as a list for evacuation supplies and can’t tell users about evacuation orders. Newsom has announced AI applications for traffic, housing and customer service to be implemented in the coming months and years. But Cal Fire’s chatbot issues raise questions about whether agencies are following best practices. “Evaluation is not an afterthought,” said Daniel Ho, law professor at Stanford University whose research focuses on government use of AI. “It should be part of the standard expectation when we pilot and roll out a system like this.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, led by President Trump’s administration, has dropped a case against Navy Federal Credit Union.

Recent indicators in the AI industry point to a growing crisis of profitability, with OpenAI caught right in the middle.

Rule would have kept businesses from forcing customers through lengthy chats or other barriers to cancellation

A rare penguin-shaped pot reveals the Nazca's interest in depicting the wildlife around them.

It’s remarkable that, more than 60 years later, Sacktor remembers this fleeting childhood moment at all. The astonishing nature of memory is that every recollection is a physical trace, imprinted into brain tissue by the molecular machinery of neurons. How the essence of a lived moment is encoded and later retrieved remains one of the central unanswered questions in neuroscience.

Six-foot-five, 245 pounds, a slugger from the age of behemoths and big-swingers, the real-deal furniture movers and bouncer-shaped designated hitters, the plodding old oafs running out of breath on stand-up doubles. But Dave Parker could move, was the thing; he could hit it all over, he could be pesky and patient and he could demolish you too, and all of this together was the great bounty that he gave to baseball. When he died last month he was 74 years old.

The chatbot is also praising Hitler and attacking users with Jewish-sounding names.

Of course, all this is presented to the public eye as a holy war on the left. As is often the case, the most debased episodes of the culture war are actually spasms of a profits war. One faction of the ruling class feels frozen out and sees an opportunity to weaponize the state against its enemies within the ruling class. On the outs are Democratic elites like Larry Summers, and the university he once presided over—Harvard. Faces of the state-finance establishment like Larry Fink and Jamie Dimon are sidelined, while a new team of opportunists is called to the field. This is not the takeover of government by oligarchs; it is an aspiring oligarchy overthrowing an old one by seizing government power.

A Canadian woman whose American husband backed Donald Trump and his mass deportation policy was arrested by immigration authorities in the United States, a San Diego news outlet reported. Cynthia Olivera, a 45-year-old mother of three, told ABC 10News’ Team 10 in a report published July 3 that she was handcuffed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at an immigration office in Chatsworth, Calif., last month while her husband waited outside. She said she was trying to finalize her green card application. “The only crime I committed is to love this country and to work hard and to provide for my kids,” she said in a video interview with Team 10 from a Texas immigration detention centre.

This study uncovers a unique partnership between sea spiders of the genus Sericosura and epibiotic methane-oxidizing bacteria. These spiders, found at methane seeps along the Pacific margin, host diverse methylotrophic bacteria on their exoskeletons, which they farm and consume. Evidence from tissue isotopic analysis, microbiome sequencing, and live-animal incubations followed by 13C-methane isotope probing confirms active incorporation of methane-derived carbon into spider tissues. This research highlights a previously unknown interaction between an animal lineage and chemically fueled microbes, introducing another symbiotic pathway for direct microbial transfer of methane carbon into animal biomass in the deep sea.

The Anti-Defamation League has been a ubiquitous presence in U.S. schools for forty years, pushing curriculum, direct programming, and teacher training into K-12 schools and increasingly into universities, often over the objections of students, parents, and educators. Now, the three million-member National Education Association has finally said no. In July 6 vote, the NEA’s 7,000-member Representative Assembly cut all ties with the ADL.

MAGA world witnessed another meltdown as conspiracy theorists were again denied an Epstein 'client list' by the Justice Department and FBI.

Leaks from military's LA deployment reveal Coca Cola vs. Pepsi rivalry, sweaty guardsmen, and abject failure

Adams said he has no intention of heeding Cuomo’s call — arguing that Cuomo’s the one who should end his campaign so he can take on Mamdani, a democratic socialist, in the Nov. 4 contest.

In a sudden escalation in President Trump’s mass deportation efforts, ICE agents are snatching and detaining migrants with pending immigration court cases at lower Manhattan courthouses, a move whi…

Authorities say Russia’s transport minister was found dead from a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, citing a note recovered from the scene that read "yes he shot himself". A gun previously presented to him as an official gift was reportedly found next to his body in what totally isn't a suspicious detail.

“To assume that he sees this as a game — he’s the president of the United States. He understands what’s at stake here. He’s not willy-nilly trying to sow economic discord just for TV ratings,” said one White House official, granted anonymity to share the president’s thinking. “He understands what he’s doing here, and there’s very clear goals that have been outlined. It’s not like he’s some huge moron,” the official said, trailing off and starting to look very worried.

Scientists have dubbed the tar-like substance ShipGoo001.

Something more realistic will replace ambitious plans dreamt up by singer Akon, officials tell the BBC.