newsnation

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog : A new Artificial Analysis benchmark, focusing on OpenAI's gpt-oss-120b, shows how open-weight LLMs exhibit inconsistent performance across hosting providers   —  Artificial Analysis published a new benchmark the other day, this time focusing on how an individual model - OpenAI's gpt-oss-120b - performs across different hosted providers.

EXCLUSIVE : First Lady Melania Trump wrote a "peace letter" to Russian President Vladimir Putin telling him "it is time" to protect children and future generations around the globe, Fox News Digital has learned. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the "peace letter" the first lady penned to Putin, which  President Trump hand-delivered to the Russian leader before their summit in Alaska, Fox News Digital has learned. TRUMP RATES PUTIN SUMMIT A '10 OUT OF 10' AND TOUTS 'VERY GOOD PROGRESS' TOWARD PEACE Immediately upon receiving the letter, Putin read it as the American and Russian delegations looked on. "Dear President Putin," the first lady’s letter begins. "Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger." "As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next gen...

Financial Times : GPT-5's underwhelming performance on benchmarks suggests that the current approach of scaling LLMs is starting to reach the limits of available resources   —  OpenAI's underwhelming new GPT-5 model suggests progress is slowing — and competition in the space is changing

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica : How an editor uncovered the “largest self-promotion operation in Wikipedia's history” that promoted obscure composer David Woodard with entries in 335 languages   —  Quick—what are the top entries in the category “Wikipedia articles written in the greatest number of languages”?

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows on Friday vowed that runaway Democrats who try to return home over the weekend will not have a "peaceful weekend" and instead will be arrested and "compelled to this chamber." A new special session of the Texas House of Representatives got underway on Friday afternoon, just two hours after the Republican-dominated chamber once again was unable to reach a quorum after Democrats failed to show up. As the Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas to prevent any votes on congressional redistricting in the red state signal they're coming home, Republicans in the GOP-dominated Texas legislature adjourned the current special session when they gathered in the morning. Minutes later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called into order a second straight special session of the state legislature, to pass GOP-crafted maps to create up to five Republican-friendly congressional districts at the expense of currently Democrat-controlled seats. The new sessi...

Anne Trafton / MIT News : Researchers say they used generative AI algorithms to design novel antibiotics targeting drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and MRSA   —  The team used two different AI approaches to design novel antibiotics, including one that showed promise against MRSA.  —  PRESS INQUIRIES

Washington, D.C., Police Chief Pamela Smith issued an executive order giving limited cooperation with federal immigration authorities on Thursday. The move comes after the recent federal takeover of the department and the sending of National Guard troops to curb crime and homelessness in the capital. According to the order, Metropolitan Police Department officers can now help with "sharing information about persons not in MPD custody" such as during "traffic stops" and can provide "transportation for federal immigration agency employees and detained subjects," according to NBC 4 Washington . ‘RADICAL’ DC OFFICIALS TREATED OFFICERS ‘LIKE CRAP,’ POLICE LEADER SAYS – 7 ATTACKS THAT LED TO TRUMP TAKEOVER However, the order says personnel cannot "make any inquiry through any database solely for the purpose of inquiring about an individual's immigration status." "Members shall not make inquiries into any person's immigration status f...

Google Developers Blog : Google announces Gemma 3 270M, a compact model designed for task-specific fine-tuning with strong capabilities in instruction following and text structuring   —  The last few months have been an exciting time for the Gemma family of open models.  We introduced Gemma 3 and Gemma 3 QAT …

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters : New York sues Zelle, claiming that security lapses led to $1B in consumer fraud losses; the US CFPB dropped a similar case in March   —  Zelle was sued on Wednesday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who said the electronic payment platform's refusal to adopt critical safety features …

Adversaries’ fear of the U.S. military is what makes tough negotiations like the one President Donald Trump is scheduled to have with Russian President Vladimir Putin possible, Vice President JD Vance told U.S. troops stationed in England on Wednesday.  Vance’s comments come as he’s spent the past several days meeting with multiple European leaders in preparation for Trump’s meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, with Putin in an attempt to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. "You guys make that possible," Vance, a former Marine, told U.S. troops stationed at Royal Air Force Base Fairford . "You guys are the reason why we can go into a negotiation with strength. You guys are the reason why we have leverage in these conversations with world leaders. Because they know that if we cut a deal, it is backed up by the finest fighting force anywhere in the world. And that is what makes your job so important." VLADIMIR PUTIN TO RETURN TO US FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A DECADE ...

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg : Sources: Apple AI plans include robots, such as a tabletop one in 2027, a conversational Siri, a smart speaker with a display in 2026, and home security cameras   —  Apple Inc. is plotting its artificial intelligence comeback with an ambitious slate of new devices, including robots …

A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected an effort by a group of labor unions to block President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing potentially sensitive U.S. user data from several government agencies. Judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to vacate a lower court’s preliminary injunction that blocked DOGE from accessing certain user data, citing concerns that DOGE’s access would violate federal privacy laws. The ruling is a near-term win for the Trump administration, allowing DOGE to access sensitive user information compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, Treasury Department, and Office of Personnel Management. Unions had sued to block the access earlier this year, citing privacy concerns.  The 2-1 appeals court ruling vacates the lower court's preliminary injunction, handed down by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardma, and  remands it back to the lower court to be heard on its merits. The computeri...

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Appfigures: AI companion apps are on track to generate $120M+ in revenue in 2025, and in H1 there were 60M downloads of this kind of app, up 88% YoY   —  Demand for AI “companion” applications outside of bigger names, like ChatGPT and Grok, is growing.  Of the 337 active and revenue-generating …

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg : Revel plans to wind down rideshare operations in its home city of New York after four years, pivoting to an EV-charging business that counts Uber as a partner   —  Revel Transit Inc. plans to wind down rideshare operations after weathering stiff competition in its home city of New York …

Omair Pall / Mashable India : xAI makes Grok 4 free for all users worldwide after making Grok Imagine free for all US users; Grok 4 Heavy remains exclusive to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers   —  xAI releases Grok 4 free, rivals GPT-5 launch.  —  Elon Musk-owned xAI has officially made the latest version of its AI model …

President Donald Trump will use the upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to test how serious Putin is about ending the war with Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Sunday. Rutte told ABC's "This Week" that the meeting comes as Trump continues to put pressure on Putin, noting the recent secondary sanctions on countries like India , which purchased Russian oil, and delivering lethal weapons to Ukraine. "Next Friday will be important because it will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an end," Rutte said. Trump announced the first in-person meeting with Putin since Moscow launched its deadly invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in a Truth Social post on Saturday. The leaders are expected to meet in Alaska on Friday, Aug. 15. TRUMP, PUTIN WILL HOLD FIRST IN-PERSON MEETING SINCE UKRAINE INVASION In recent weeks, Trump has  refused to mince words  when asked about Putin. Trump said during a Cabinet meeti...

Senate Republicans faced a choice recently: Remain in session and confirm more of President Trump’s nominees, or finally abandon Washington for the vaunted August recess. Senators hung around – a little while – knocking out some of the President’s nominees for administration positions. But not all. That drew the ire of some conservatives, Trump loyalists and President Donald Trump himself. Trump seethed at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for requiring the Senate to run lengthy parliamentary traps and incinerate valuable floor time to confirm even non-controversial nominees. The President finally unloaded on the New York Democrat in a digital coup de grace, telling him to "GO TO HELL!" It’s notable that Trump has not yet met with Schumer or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., during his second term. But then again, this is a two-way street. And Democrats remember multiple tumultuous meetings with Mr. Trump during the last time he was in office. It c...

David Sacks / @davidsacks : Doomer predictions of a rapid, monopolistic AGI were wrong, as recent AI model releases resemble a Goldilocks scenario with competitive, specialized models   —  A BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR AI? The Doomer narratives were wrong. Predicated on a “rapid take-off” to AGI, they predicted that the leading AI model would use its intelligence to self-improve, leaving others in the dust, and quickly achieving a godlike superintelligence. Instead, we