Oklahoma and Alabama now have AI-powered vending machines that don’t dispense snacks; they sell bullets. American Rounds says their facial-scanning tech can verify the age of a buyer. I’m sure it’ll be able to detect if someone’s wearing a mask or a ton of makeup, too, right?
QR codes used in warfare
You won’t believe how powerful scanning one of these malicious QR codes is. Plus, the app that turned into a marketing nightmare, three must-have downloads and OpenAI’s duet shows just how far language models are coming.
🪐 A fishy planet: Scientists just got a whiff of something suspicious on K2-18b, a distant “hycean” world 120 light-years away. While scanning its atmosphere, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope picked up dimethyl sulfide, a gas that, here on Earth, only comes from living things like plankton. Looks like SpongeBob’s nemesis finally made it to the big time.
Scam alert: Google’s new call-scanning feature tells you in real time if you’re getting swindled on the phone. AI analyzes conversations, and if something sketchy happens, you get an audio, vibration and visual warning. It’s for Pixel 9 or later only. Go to the Phone app > Settings > Scan Detection. PSA: Google says they’re not saving your calls. Yea, right.
Shocking reason Apple is going to scan your photos
Everyone’s worried about Apple scanning our iCloud photos, but is this anything new? Listen now for a clue it’s already happening.
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Paying with the palm of your hand
You’ve heard of opening your phone with your fingerprint or scanning your face to get on a plane. But what if you could pay for your groceries with your hand? Here’s how it works.
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