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From Our Partners: The Hidden Devices Putting Your Small Business at Risk
During Small Business Month 2026 alone, Comcast Business detected and blocked 230 cyber threats targeting small businesses per second. That finding carries added weight across the Eastside.
As flag football becomes official sport in Oregon, Salem-Keizer coaches, players hopeful about future
The decision is particularly meaningful for some Salem-Keizer Public Schools teams that have been invested since the sport began gaining popularity in 2023.
UC Davis may develop new Lake Tahoe science and community hub. Here’s where
The university has entered into a partnership with Placer County to explore a new project at three underutilized county properties.
SpaceX and Tesla form committees to explore merger
Elon Musk, who is CEO of both companies and owns billions in stock, said he can't be a part of those merger discussions.
Augusta gets $305K grant for firefighter mental health, cancer screening
The Augusta Fire Department has secured more than $305,000 to expand mental health support and launch advanced cancer screening for its firefighters.
Tracy McGrady strikes two-year partnership with NBC Sports
Five months ago, Tracy McGrady wasn’t sure NBC wanted him back for a second season, and now the network is effectively going into business with him. In an exclusive interview with The Athletic’s Jerry Brewer published Tuesday, McGrady unveiled a two-year strategic partnership with NBC Sports that puts his Ones Basketball League games on Peacock,…
A community health initiative in low-income areas may reduce hospital admission rates
In this longitudinal cross-sectional RCT, 30 low-income apartment buildings in Ontario received visits from the community paramedicine clinic, resulting in…
Michigan State basketball forward Cam Ward to play vs. UConn
Michigan State forward Cam Ward set to play in exhibition vs. UConn
Alcohol-related deaths in New Mexico on the rise, new state health data shows
New data released Tuesday by the state health department shows a 2.6% rise in alcohol-related deaths in New Mexico between 2024 and 2025.
UAFS launches manufacturing academy
The manufacturing academy at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (UAFS) began this week and has 20 participants receiving a training cycle for free that would cost almost $4,000,...
Cafeteria license at Advocate Illinois Masonic suspended after health inspection reveals cockroaches, black slime
The Chicago Department of Public Health has suspended the kitchen license at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Lakeview.
Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi invites Maui students to explore health care careers
Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi is helping inspire the next generation of health care professionals through its upcoming Career Exploration Day on Saturday, Nov. 14, in partnership with Maui Economic Development Board’s STEMworks program.
Nonpartisan coalition of religious leaders plans to counter voter intimidation on Election Day
The diverse, multifaith group is training all the way through the end of October online and in person learning de-escalation techniques and equipping themselves with knowledge of local laws and resources.
Gratitude and honor
Louis Campos, who works in the facilities electrical department, installs new ground lights on the Northeastern Veterans Memorial in preparation for the upcoming Veterans Day ceremony on the Boston campus.
How Democrats Might – or Might Not
Just a few months ago, it didn’t look feasible for Democrats to flip control of the U.S. Senate. Now it’s a real possibility – and this is how the party could get there. It’s all about the math. Today, Republicans control the chamber, 53-47. If Democrats can hold all four of their vulnerable seats,
Democrats fear slippage with Black voters makes Michigan Senate race feel ‘far closer than it should’
Abdul El-Sayed often talks about building a new and broad coalition of Michigan voters. A looming question in the state’s pivotal Senate race is whether he can keep the old one intact — particularly with the Black voters who are pivotal to any Democratic victory.
The Metro: Donavan McKinney hopes to inject more humanity in politics
Democratic party member and progressive Donavan McKinney sits down with The Metro to discuss what he'll deliver if elected to the House.
Starz Entertainment LLC (STRZ) Restores STARZ on Verizon Fios Under New Distribution Deal
Starz Entertainment LLC reached a new distribution agreement with Verizon Fios, restoring all STARZ channels, STARZ On Demand and the STARZ app for Fios subscribers.Material DetailsContext by AI AnalystThis is a mid-cycle distribution recovery, reinstating a key MVPD partner after prior carriage lo…
Cook Political Report shifts two Senate races toward Democrats, one toward GOP
The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, on Tuesday moved Minnesota’s Senate race from likely to lean Democrat, while also moving South Carolina’s Senate seat from…
Spurred by Pulitzer Prize-winner's visit, business leaders grapple with state's housing crisis
The capital of Georgia — a city of more than 500,000 people nearly 1,200 miles away, where African-Americans outnumber their white counterparts — bears a striking similarity to New Hampshire’s capital. In Atlanta, like in Concord and countless municipalities across the country, housing costs have far eclipsed what working people can afford. Brian Goldstone, journalist […]
Marine life dramatically declined in Gulf of Mexico in years after BP oil spill, study finds
In the years after the 2010 BP oil spill, the number of fish in the deeper parts of the Gulf of Mexico dramatically declined.
Chicago mayor proposing corporate head tax again, sources say
Take two? Mayor Brandon Johnson will again propose Chicago hit big corporations with an employee head tax — with an exemption in less wealthy parts of the city — when
Dream and mind-wandering reports could offer hints about mental health
Dreams and mind-wandering have long fascinated psychologists and researchers studying the human mind. This is partly because these experiences offer glimpses into people's inner lives, emotions, past ...
Sundar Pichai: Google’s Frontier Imperative, Compute Scarcity Dilemmas, Future AI Products and Businesses
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has little patience for doubts about Google’s willingness or capacity to compete at the frontier of AI. His company’s latest Gemini 4 Argon model — long-promised and recently delivered — beats OpenAI and Anthropic’s latest public models on coding, math, science, and knowledge-work benchmarks and has placed Google’s AI back among the world’s best. Amid chatter that Google was fine with good-enough lightweight ‘Flash’ models, Pichai pushed back hard against any suggestion that company is limiting its research ambitions. “We won’t do it any other way,” he told me in a Big Technology Podcast interview recorded this week at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. Pursuing cutting-edge research is costly for Google, requiring compute and chips that otherwise could be sold at a high markup by its cloud business. But Pichai said allocating resources to frontier AI development is “ground zero” for Google. “Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development,” Pichai told me. In our conversation, we discussed Argon (which Pichai says processed three times as many tokens as Gemini 3 in the 72 hours after launch), AI’s role in developing better models, the AI interface of the future, competition with OpenAI, Google’s partnerships with Anthropic and Apple, data centers in space, and the nature of his optimism. You can read the full conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, below, or listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice. Alex Kantrowitz: Google is back at the frontier with Gemini 4 Argon, which beats OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s public models on benchmarks spanning coding, math, science, and knowledge work. The conventional wisdom was that Google had given up on the frontier to focus on fast, good-enough models for its products. That was wrong? Sundar Pichai: Very wrong. Look, we are so committed to being at the frontier. It’s in our DNA. We won’t do it any other way. We’ve been thinking about the AI frontier for well over a decade now. The frontier is very dynamic. It’s very competitive. It’s very exciting. I couldn’t be more pleased with how Argon has come together. We took our time with it. We made sure we tested it safely and deployed it carefully. We took a bit longer than our other models, given its capabilities. Across the board, be it for agentic work, knowledge work, coding, creative tasks, Argon is one of the really good frontier models. The first 72 hours since we launched, it’s almost up to 25 trillion tokens used, which is about three times what Gemini 3.0 had in the first 72 hours. And we are capacity constrained as we are serving it. Excited, but there are always areas….. You know, the frontier is very dynamic, and you have to keep evolving the models. There are areas which we can see we need to improve as well. We’ll be at work on all of that as well. Which areas? On any given model, Argon would be across the board better at everything if you just look even two months back. But the space is so evolving. Even on coding, for example, there are pockets where we know we need to do better, and there’s clear feedback. We’ll make it better. The argument for standard models is that they’re already good enough to build great products, with the frontier valuable only for certain tasks. Meta built Muse with good models rather than the best, and Google could put standard models into Maps, Gmail, and Search. Why isn’t that sufficient? It’s definitely not how I have thought about it at all. We are deeply committed to driving the state of the art and actually pushing where this technology can go, all the way from transformers. That’s a journey we’ve been on. You will see us continue to do that. When you’re at the frontier, you get an earlier look into the emerging capabilities, earlier than others, which helps you better prepare for the future. We are fortunate to have a wide set of opportunities across consumer and enterprise. Some of our cloud customers, for sure, want the model at the frontier. The frontier models will be better at developing the next set of models in an era of recursive self-improvement. I would argue it matters there. Internally, we have definitely seen a steep point of inflection by deploying Argon to our developers. It definitely tackles problems which our previous models could not do. Being at the frontier puts you at the innovation frontier and helps you drive that as well. There is room for models of all sizes and capabilities. That’s why we did Flash, Flash-Lite, etc. I agree with you that you can develop very good product experiences with not necessarily the most frontier model, because they tend to be slower and more expensive too. But we care about the Pareto frontier, and we’re committed to doing all of that. You said developing frontier models gives you a look at what’s coming. What do you see on the horizon? What makes this moment so exciting is you build something which you think is a culmination of months of work, and you put it out. You already see clear headroom ahead. We’ve all been working on these agentic, long-horizon capabilities, but clearly the frontier is going to have multiple of these agents working together to do things. That’s an example of an exciting paradigm underway. It’s also clear to me that users, both in consumer and enterprise, will have access to some multi-agent framework for them, working all the time doing things. It feels like a moment of infinite possibilities. Sergey Brin said one of Argon’s core innovations was relying more on the model to help develop the model. Yet incidents involving OpenAI’s bots breaking containment and Google’s bots accessing a site they shouldn’t have suggest these systems still aren’t perfectly aligned. Isn’t there reasonable cause for concern about accelerating toward recursive self-improvement? There are three parts to your question. Let’s first talk about RSI itself. You’re right, Sergey mentioned RSI being a critical contributor as we are developing Argon. But to be very clear, today, in a continuum, we are pretty far from the end state of RSI or something like that. The right way to describe it is you have RSI loops along with AI researchers in various aspects of model development. You almost have agents helping AI researchers in some automated way work together to build these models. It’s good to at least understand where we are today, and it’s super exciting. I expect that continuum to keep making progress as we go into next year. The second question is around safety. Security comes from defense in depth. You’re talking about alignment, obviously. We all are doing a lot of work to make sure the models are as aligned as possible. But it’s an active area of research, and there are clear gaps. That’s not the only thing we rely on. You have the work you do on alignment, but beyond that, we put a lot of effort into real-time monitoring as these models are working. Making sure you have good telemetry into what’s happening so that you can intervene in real time if you see unexpected behaviors. How you do that, the architecture with which you do that, how you make sure it’s all sandboxed and isolated in a way that it can continue doing its job during real-time monitoring — these are all areas of investment. Obviously, when we deploy these models, giving customers, enterprises, control, both with real-time monitoring, but their ability to decide where they deploy, what type of data which models ever have access to, etc. All that work is very, very important, and we are doing a lot of that. As an industry, we need to constantly up our game and take the time to do all this stuff, including dedicating the compute required to make sure you can safely deploy these models. The third part is: Is it all enough? This is why there are a lot of conversations in the industry, and I think it’s reasonable to be worried. The right way to approach something you worry about is early on thinking about what more we can do. As an industry, you’re definitely seeing increased levels of work on alignment, testing for safety, etc., as we deploy these models. The next step would be developing better standards so there are cross-industry standards of how we do these things, including the ability to evaluate using independent evaluators. If you look at areas like financial controls, we have accounting standards, we have independent auditors. Those are all the next natural steps for us as an industry to work toward, and regulation will end up playing a role as we go through all of that as well. Google pursues both language models and world models, while some other AI companies like OpenAI have focused more heavily on LLMs as the path to AGI. Why is world-model research important to you? As humans, you obviously perceive the world around you, and you’re taking all those inputs. Making sure these models are able to understand the laws of physics, simulate the world in high fidelity. All that, I think, are key enabling blocks for intelligence. We are working across all possible applications of this. Take an area like robotics. It’s not an accident: If you look at embodied reasoning benchmarks, Argon is state of the art. That all comes from our experience building world models. Inherently, I would expect there will be architectures which will converge all of this in the future. But for us, we view this as, today, this jagged frontier that is intelligence. We want to be at the frontier of all the possible approaches, and that will help us both drive better research, better insights, and develop a much better AGI model, is how we think about it. Some people argue Google should focus on selling its computing resources rather than using them for AI research. Cloud wants to sell compute at a high markup, while researchers need a very big computer to build the best models. How do you balance those demands? Ground zero for us is making sure we are investing in the compute that’s needed to be at the AI frontier. In 2015, I set the company to be AI-first. AI is that key horizontal ingredient across everything we do, all the way from Search to Cloud to Waymo. That is ground zero for us, making sure both for research and developing the models that we have enough compute needed. Beyond that, we have these independent businesses which each have their own long-range plans. They’re using those long-range plans to project forward, and we plan for compute for all of them. The cloud team, they have a business and they have a projection and they have demand signals. They have committed contracts. With that help, we can plan on a long-term compute trajectory for them. We’re fortunate to have this wide set of opportunities. There’s no company in the world which isn’t making trade-offs at any given moment in time. But the first principles we operate on is making sure we have enough compute to invest in the frontier, and that’s non-negotiable, and everything else works on top. Remember, we are building our own compute, our own data centers. There are long lead times. The compute we have today is a function of decisions I made in 2024. Even if you think back to a year from today, last year the agentic coding takeoff hadn’t happened. Today, obviously, when you sit and look at anything, everyone is short—not just us, other companies—and everyone wishes you had two times what you had planned for. That comes with the territory. At any given moment in time, we are planning for what we would need two to three years out in the future. You’re going to find some decisions you make may look suboptimal two years out, depending on where the state of the art is. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. The way I think about compute allocation is making sure Google DeepMind, both for research and frontier model development, is cutting edge in terms of compute access. After that, we plan for all our businesses. It’s great we can provide our compute to other people too, like we have done. It allows us to scale that up, get real tests for it in the widest application set possible, test it in the real world, and make sure we are at the cutting edge of technology at every layer of our AI stack as well. Ben Horowitz relayed on a podcast that Andy Jassy had said compute was sold out until 2028. Are you seeing the same thing? If today a customer is coming out and asking us for compute in ’27, that is incredibly difficult to do. Even last year we went out and leased some short-term compute to accommodate some customers and help them out. But yes, we are all dealing with similar timelines. Every major technology shift seems to involve overbuilding, from railroads to fiber. Do you think that’s happening here? It depends on the time frames you’re looking at. This level of build, if I take a long enough time frame, it makes complete sense to me. We are at early stages of the most consequential technology ever, and this is not like fiber. It’s not dark. We are using it. We are capacity constrained on a daily basis. The applications, the underlying technology is improving rapidly. But running a company, the way I work through the moment is you look at your demand signals. You look at your committed revenue opportunities that you’re getting in the form of contracts. You balance that with the underlying technical capability, or internally you balance how we are using it internally, the model trajectories. Based on all that, you take a disciplined approach—a confident, aggressive, but disciplined approach—to plan out compute. But when you talk about the broader economy as a whole, you’re having people operate with various levels of risk. I focus on what I can control as a company and plan through it. If your question is, can there be an overbuild? Yes, because you can have some constrained components. Remember, what matters is a set of everything you need to build out that compute. Memory, electricity, electricians…. Land. Like 2,000 components or more. You could get constrained at some point. There could be things which cause bottlenecks, and then you could have overbuilds. There could be external shocks to the economy. There are macro risks. All that is possible at any given time. But am I confident that the compute we are planning for, we will have uses for it given enough time? Absolutely, yes. I was in the room when you said AI would be as profound as fire and electricity. If you believe that, shouldn’t you give researchers the biggest possible computer, even at the expense of today’s cloud profits? We’re all doing some form of that. Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development. What you’re seeing is true already. But you want to be thoughtful. Even our AI researchers have some constraints, which are also good. That’s what inspires creativity. That’s what helps you come up with a more efficient algorithmic breakthrough, maybe to use less memory. What we are committed to is to invest what’s needed to stay at the frontier. OpenAI President Greg Brockman told me a few months ago that the ideal AI product might have no interface at all—just as natural as conversation. What do you think the interface looks like in the age of AI? Computing historically has been humans adapting to computing. With AI, it’ll be the other way around. The technology will adapt seamlessly to how humans live and go about their day-to-day life. You want to be able to speak to that AI when you want to. It has context. It can be persistently running somewhere, give you continuity. You’re not dealing with a lot of complexity. It’s natural. All that makes sense to me. That doesn’t mean it won’t have any interface, however. Nowadays, even on my phone, Gemini voice models are so good. I can just press the microphone button. I can just ramble. That’s why we call it Rambler. I can ramble. It intelligently corrects with my personal context. Even my friends’ names, weird names, it gets it right, even if it first guesses it wrong. It’s amazing. I’m not going in, backspacing, editing once I finish saying it. It’s remarkable how good it’s gotten. But there are going to be moments you will need an interface. You may want to entertain yourself. You may want to watch a video. You may ask your AI to create something, and you want to watch it, consume it. The way I think about it is, you want it to be as seamless and as natural as possible, and that you are not doing the hard work adapting to whatever the interface is. The technology is adapting to how you’re working at any given moment in time. When I asked Sam Altman about competition from Google, he argued that OpenAI was building AI-native products and implied Google was bolting AI onto existing ones. Do you accept that framing, and can a “bolt-on” compete with an AI-native product? First of all, it’s a very dynamic moment. We are all pushing each other. OpenAI has pushed us as a company too. This is not just we are doing something to them. Far from it. Yes, Google went into its own version of a code red too. In the AI moment, all of us have to respond with varying levels of urgency at any given moment in time. We are constantly building new products as well. Gemini was built from the ground up as a product—the Gemini app I’m talking about. Or tomorrow, as all of us are adapting to agents, are you bolting agents onto ChatGPT, or are they building it natively? How would you think about that? You can always put these questions back. I don’t think of it that way. I think of it as you want to build world-class product experiences that are AI-native and they are winning. Some of it is adapting products, some of it is rethinking new experiences. They will all be part of how you approach this moment. How do you expect to make money from these AI interfaces? If an agent recommends a product and I buy it, should it take a cut of the sale, even if that’s disclosed? I’m going to put enterprise aside. Consumers are going to increasingly value this technology. Take software developers today. Developers are willing to pay for these coding models because it really helps make them more productive. Nobody would want to code the way they were coding three years ago, or even the same time last year. When you’re delivering value, there’s value to be had. I’ve never seen examples where consumer products really scale to billions of users, where people are using it intensely, and haven’t had monetization to go along with it. If you’re providing value to people, there is inherent value to be had. The nature of it may change. You’re asking a scenario in which agents are doing stuff for you. At the end of the day, you will have commercial needs. The agents need to fulfill those commercial needs. The providers on the other side are going to see value in that. There’s going to be some mechanism by which it gets fleshed out. That’s what an efficient system does. But what matters is that you’re building those world-class consumer experiences. I promised myself one product feature request: Can you make Gemini-powered search in Gmail as good as searching Gmail through ChatGPT? What’s going on here? One of the exciting things we announced recently is the unified Gemini agent for enterprise, and we’re bringing that to consumers. These are persistent agents which run 24/7 in the cloud. We’re spinning up a micro VM effectively for every query, and from the runtime, the harness, the model—it’s all a headless service. It’ll work everywhere, and it has your context with you. You can address this agent whether you’re in Workspace, in Search, in Gemini. Agents are going to drive this unification from a customer experience, which people are looking for. When you have a broad product portfolio and you’re moving forward fast, there are always areas where you’re moving forward faster than some other areas. That’s valid feedback. But we are putting a lot of time and effort into making sure, as we build out our agentic experience, that unification and that capability works well across all these services. People have asked where Google’s equivalent of Muse or Dots is. Do you anticipate creating a new product to compete with them? Our goal with Gemini is to be a personal, proactive, and powerful assistant. That’s what we are working toward. You saw us describe the early versions of it at Google I/O this year with Spark. Effectively, already, if you open the Gemini app as a Pro or an Ultra user, you see Chat and Task, and they start giving you that agentic experience. With Argon now, that capability is dramatically accelerated. What we announced recently in our enterprise event, we are bringing that to consumers as well. Soon in Gemini, you will be able to ask something, and it’s a continuum. You don’t need to think about whether you’re asking a chat or an agentic task. It’ll just automatically do the right thing, and it can work persistently in the background securely and get things done for you. Already, empirically, when I look at what’s coming into Gemini in our app, last year you would have tagged them and most of them would have been chats. But a steadily growing percentage is already agentic tasks in Gemini. Yes, we are going to bring personal agents to our consumers. It’ll work in the Gemini app. It’ll work in Google Search. It’ll work in Gmail. You can address it, call it, etc. We want to make sure we’re getting it right. It’ll be powered by Argon, and we are very excited to bring it to our users. Google has invested and committed tens of billions of dollars to Anthropic. What do you see in Dario Amodei that makes you want such a deep investment and partnership? Very early on, when we looked at the founding team of Anthropic, it was very clear to us this was a world-class team which was involved in some of the earliest GPT models. We were quickly able to assess that they would be at the frontier. We’ve always tried to identify and partner with companies which would be at the cutting edge of technology. We’ve done that with SpaceX. We’ve done that with Anthropic. That’s what we saw, and we had a chance to partner. Is your partnership with Apple to license Gemini for Siri expanding, contracting, or standing still? For both us and Apple, that partnership was about translating the capabilities of AI into better experiences for users. I thought Apple has done a phenomenal job of incorporating—they customize these models and build it into Siri—and it’s been great to see the reception. We are committed to doing more. You’re going to do more with them? There’s nothing specific to comment, but it’s a partnership. It’s working well. What have you learned so far about the feasibility of data centers in space? It’s a very exciting project. Projects like this remind me—I still recall that moment in the desert for the DARPA Grand Challenge, watching the Stanley car compete in it, which ended up being the basis for Waymo. With all these technologies, you’re at a moment in time where it looks a bit like sci-fi, but 10 to 20 years down the line, it’s actually working in a meaningful way. I feel the same in space. We’ve always believed in betting big on these technologies. Quantum has been a great example of it. We’re probably 10 years into the journey. Waymo, we are almost 20 years into the journey. Space, we are two to three years into the journey. It’s clear to me that it’s an approach which will make a lot of sense in the future. Being in sub-synchronous orbits with 24/7 access to the most abundant form of energy we have access to will make a lot of sense for this exponential increase in compute that we are going to need. Having said that, this is a challenging project. The team has disciplined milestones. It was a super exciting milestone to send the TPUs up to space. Sometime, as we are speaking, we are expecting a “hello world” moment from them. I look forward to seeing that happen, and we’ll continue investing here too. You previously said 25% of the code written within Google was written by AI. What’s the number today? That number in our world today is meaningless in the sense that every part of what we now touch is influenced by AI deeply. What we are tracking with Argon, for example, it’s been a point of inflection. People are using Argon to really go tackle complex projects, including projects which affect millions of lines of code. In the four weeks since we have launched Argon, we have seen a 30% increase in CLs, and more importantly, almost a similar increase—a one-third decrease in rollbacks. People are writing code more productively and better code with it. We are tracking it with newer metrics now. How are you dealing with opposition to data centers? If you can’t build in the U.S. the way you want to, where else do you go? We’re very committed to building our data centers very responsibly. When I look at our largest data centers in some of the communities where we have been the longest, I visit them, I talk to people. There are people who come and tell us their kids have gone to college because of our investments in these communities, and we’ve grown in those communities. To me, this is about doing it right. Engaging with the communities early, doing it transparently. We are committed to making sure we are bringing incremental power, and we cover 100% of the cost of our power needs for these projects. It’s understanding the impact on neighborhoods and making sure you’re working thoroughly to address them. Done rightly, you can continue making progress. But we are constantly taking feedback into account. I do worry not everyone operates the same way. People have been surprised by data centers showing up in their backyard. Those are all important. As an industry, we should continue to do better. But part of the reason, in a 20-year time frame, we are thinking about things like data centers in space is making sure we are able to put these data centers where maybe the trade-offs will be different. What unproven area of AI is Google working hardest to crack? Is it continual learning—getting models to keep updating after release—or something else? There are multiple parallel paths. You saw with Argon we have a million output tokens. With our Gemini models early on, we had a one-million context window on the input side. These are all examples of breakthroughs we are constantly working on. How do you think about synthetic data? How do you think about continual learning? How do you think about more efficient architectures? We do dedicate a meaningful percentage of our compute to these research bets too. It always goes hand in hand, including our world models. Those are all bets we are placing. Sometimes, as part of these bets, there are ideas that emerge which just make their way into the mainline models. Maybe we don’t fully talk about it, but we have multiple steps in these areas. Working in technology requires optimism that building something will improve the world, but those bets can leave real consequences when they fail. I recently returned to a town in El Salvador where enthusiasm for Bitcoin had given way to unfinished construction and something resembling a ghost town. How do you maintain the optimism you spoke about in your Stanford commencement address while accounting for those risks? I genuinely have a deep conviction that improving technology and improving access to technology makes people’s lives better. It’s been my personal experience in my life, out of which comes that deep conviction, optimism. But with that, I’ve always felt humanity’s journey is always about working hard to harness that technology to make it work well for society. The optimism is not an optimism that you just build whatever you want, whenever. You work hard to make sure you’re building technology in the service of humanity, to make the human condition better. That’s got to be the defining goal as we are approaching it. With that framework, I’m very, very optimistic. We are in very early stages of the kind of progress that we are going to see on many areas. We’re all talking about areas like healthcare. A lot of the progress is ahead. The ability to make things in a fundamentally cheaper way on many things where things have been getting expensive for a long, long time, discovering new materials, etc., which really bend the curve—it’s tough to step today and understand the impact of all that, but they’re going to be very profound. I’m very optimistic, but we have to be rightfully concerned about all the ways this technology can go wrong. Sundar, I know you don’t do many of these. Thank you. Thanks, Alex. Appreciate it.
Israeli scholars bring expertise in politics, peace building, terrorism, more to San Diego college campuses
The professors are part of the largest-ever cohort of Israeli-faculty coming to local universities through the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative.
Democrats Outline Priorities for Next Congress’ House Science Committee
Eying victory in November, Dems on the House Science Committee hope to reverse the ‘damage’ the Trump White House has caused to science while still pursuing bipartisan priorities.
Virginia Tech, Lynchburg firm part of $73M mining initiative
Lynchburg wireless technology company, with help from Virginia Tech and others, will lead effort to develop mining technologies
Giants Part Ways With Najee Harris After Sunday's Comments
The New York Giants are releasing running back Najee Harris.
Berrien County Health Department warns parents, teens about kratom risks
The Berrien County Health Department is launching a campaign warning parents and teens about the risks of kratom. According to the health department, kratom contains a chemical called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, that acts like an opioid and can cause severe withdrawal symptoms.
I Bought This Low-Mileage Jeep Grand Cherokee For Only $1,700 After Realizing My 'Holy Grail' Project Is Doomed
“David, can you please fix the garage?” my wife Elise asked me on Sunday. “You barely have any time to do house stuff, and today you’re free.” She’s right about the first part — The Autopian really does take up all of my time, and the garage does need to be fixed — but she […]
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and Queens Public Library Expand Partnership to Bring Health Education and Library Resources to Queens Residents
Elmhurst, NY – NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and Queens Public Library (QPL) today announced an expanded series of collaborative programs designed to
Ice Cream Shop Owner Brought Her Kids to Work. Then the Health Department Arrived
“I’m sick of people acting like kids don’t belong,” the Michigan business owner tells TODAY.com.
R.I. Democratic Party chair faces calls to resign after spouse indicted on fraud charges
Both the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor call for party chairwoman Liz Beretta-Perik should step down.
Inside the GOP’s next battle over women’s sports
The Education Department is facing pressure to rescind a policy that’s helped expand women’s athletics — and conservative women leaders are frustrated.
Axena Health Named Finalist for the Digital Health Hub Foundation - Digital Health & AI Awards 2026 at HLTH
NEWTON, Mass., October 20, 2026--Axena Health, Inc. (Axena Health), a women’s health company redefining the standard of care for pelvic health conditions through clinically proven, non-invasive treatments, today announced it has been named a finalist for the Digital Health Hub Foundation – Digital Health & AI Awards 2026 at HLTH. Selected from a pool of more than 1,300 participating companies across all tracks and categories, Axena Health is recognized in the Best in Class Track for Women’s and
Amazon uses ‘TNF’ to attract new advertisers, expand ad business
'Thursday Night Football' coverage for Amazon has proven a particularly useful tool to expand its advertising and streaming business.
Man arrested after unlawfully entering Alabama School of Math and Science Property, police say
A 44-year-old man was arrested Monday afternoon after unlawfully entering the grounds and a building at the Alabama School of Math and Science, according to the Mobile Police Department.
NED and Partners Launch October 30 Coalition, Issue Global Call for Release of Political Prisoners
NED and partner organizations announce the formation of the October 30 Coalition and released a joint statement to rally support for political prisoners and champion their freedom.
Guardant Health to Highlight Advances in Liquid Biopsy for Cancer Monitoring at ESMO 2026
Guardant Health and partners will present 25 abstracts on liquid biopsy advances for cancer monitoring at ESMO 2026.
Bleu Provence hosts wine event to support local charities
SWFL Children’s Charities, Inc. recently hosted their second wine series event in Naples geared at bringing like-minded women together around a great cause and supporting restaurant & winery partners during
Calipatria mental health team hosts game for population
Mental health staff at Calipatria State Prison hosted a game for the population as part of Suicide Prevention Month.
France could face even worse destruction with second weekend of planned riots, State Dept warns
An internal State Department document warns antifascist protests near Marine Le Pen's National Rally congress in Orléans could spark new unrest.
Griffin Gaming Partners launches new joint production company
A prominent game industry fund and Hollywood talent agency are teaming up to adapt games for TV and film.
New Stockton-ACIT Partnership Creates Buzz About Bees
Levine, Gormley Foundations support drone work to study blueberry pollination
Disney stars Dylan and Cole Sprouse are ‘children of incest’
Dylan Sprouse revealed how he discovered that he and twin brother Cole Sprouse are ‘children of incest,’ due to a wild family history for the ‘Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ stars.
Jauan Jennings Trade: Raiders, Vikings Connected In Rumor
Jauan Jennings has not lived up to expectations with the Minnesota Vikings, and the team could part ways with the veteran receiver before the trade deadline. A seventh-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Tennessee product spent his early years in a supporting role before earning more snaps later in his career. He first …
AREA15 developer pitches NBA arena as part of massive Las Vegas entertainment district
The developers behind AREA15 want to bring a future NBA franchise to their Las Vegas property, proposing an arena surrounded by a year-round sports and entertainment district.
Alexander Skarsgard, Please Stop Dressing Like a Mob Wife
As part of his press tour for the new Olivia Colman movie ‘Wicker,’ Alexander Skarsgard has been making some very questionable fashion choices. Namely, he’s been dressing like a mob wife. Here, why we’re politely asking him to stop.
New Tampa Bay business networking group launches
The organization helps connect company founders, executives, advisors and strategic partners.
NFL Mexico and CONADE Join Miami Dolphins Academy to Create Year-Round Flag Football and Education Programming Across the Country
The initiative, implemented through the Global Markets Program (GMP), reflects the commitment of the Miami Dolphins and their local partners in Mexico to promoting sports and bringing physical education to communities across the country.
Dolly Parton's niece now handling Carl Dean's estate
Carl Dean's niece is now handling his estate, following the death of his wife, country icon Dolly Parton.
York County Mexican restaurant fails state health inspection
The state Department of Agriculture conducts annual inspections of food-serving businesses to ensure public safety and safe food-handling practices. Schools are inspected twice per year, according to the Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratories.
Retired Missouri S&T faculty members contribute $1 million to establish graduate fellowship in psychology
Retired Missouri S&T faculty members Dr. Robert L. Montgomery and Dr. Frances M. “Dee” Haemmerlie Montgomery have donated $1 million to establish a graduate fellowship in the department where they mentored hundreds of students throughout their careers. The Robert L. Montgomery and Frances M. Haemmerlie Graduate Fellowship in Psychology will support graduate student research in...Continue Reading Retired Missouri S&T faculty members contribute $1 million to establish graduate fellowship in psychology
Feeling overstimulated in public? Mental health experts share the strategies that work in any situation
Sensory overload can hit in a grocery store, on a commute or at a crowded party. Here's what therapists and a Harvard psychiatrist recommend, including a few products worth keeping in your bag.
Gravity Media Drives Lifted Entertainment’s <i>I’m A Celebrity… The Wild Frontier</i>, Through Rapid-Deployment IP Production
Gravity Media has rapidly deployed complete IP-based broadcast infrastructure for Lifted Entertainment (part of ITV Studios) on I'm A Celebrity... The Wild Frontier, supporting production in the remote mountain environment...
Tips for covering Medicare open enrollment
It's that time of year again when traditional Medicare enrollees can change their Part D prescription drug plan, move from a Medicare Advantage plan back to original Medicare, and in a handful of states, switch Medigap plans.
MCG and Itiliti Health Form Partnership to Support Health Plans with CMS-0057-F Compliance
/PRNewswire/ -- MCG Health, part of the Hearst Health network and the industry's source of truth for trusted clinical guidance, today announced a strategic...
Trumbull Health Department Holding Walk-in Flu Clinics This Week
The Trumbull Health Department will be having walk-in flu clinics this week:TODAY, 10/20/27: 10-12pm and 2-4pmWednesday, 10/21/26: 6-8pm 335 White Plains Road No appointment required!We will
Houston voters welcome long lines as early voting begins
For some voters, participating in the election also meant encouraging others to do the same.
Perceptions of science and scientists shape partisan views on common vaccines
How Americans view science and scientists is strongly associated with whether they think vaccines are safe and effective - and helps explain partisan differences in perceptions of some vaccines, according to a new study led by a team from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania.
Griffin Gaming Partners and Entertainment 360 launch new company to support video game adaptations for film and TV
HITpoint Entertainment will "combine Griffin's relationships with devs and publishers with Entertainment 360's producing track record on IP-driven franchises"
Aprio Broadens its AI-Powered Advisory Partnership with Intuit to Further Accelerate Mid-Market Business Growth
/PRNewswire/ -- Aprio, the 20th largest business advisory and accounting firm in the U.S. today announced the next phase of a strategic partnership with...
US Rep. Bynum seeks re-election with Democrats poised for favorable midterm
Candidates are vying for the 5th Congressional District, which the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan elections forecaster, labels as solidly Democratic.
'Office Space' star Richard Riehle dies at 78
Actor Richard Riehle arrives at the premiere of New Line Cinema's 'A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas' at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on November 2, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)Richard Riehle, known for his role in the 1999 film Office Space, has died. He was 78.A statement shared by Artists & Representatives and Wright Entertainment, Inc. announced Riehle's passing on Monday, writing, "Our industry has lost an exceptional talent, and our community has lost a truly wonderful man.""We are deeply saddened to confirm the passing of our beloved client, Richard Riehle, this past weekend," the statement said. "A remarkable actor whose career in theater, film, and television spanned nearly five decades and more than 400 projects, Richard leaves behind an extraordinary legacy."The statement continued, "Beyond his immense talent, he will be remembered for his genuine goodness, boundless kindness, and unwavering generosity, particularly toward emerging actors and filmmakers, whom he encouraged and supported at every opportunity."Born on May 12, 1948, Riehle starred in many television series and films over the years.Notable projects include Casino, The Man from Earth and Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.He got his start as an actor at the University of Notre Dame, where he was involved in the University Theatre and starred in several stage productions. He went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in acting and directing from the University of Minnesota.While he's played characters that have an "average Joe" presence, he always made the most of his brief screen time.Some roles that he is remembered for include The Quartermaster in Glory, the train guard in The Fugitive, Reverend Scroggins in Fried Green Tomatoes and Bill Cozbi in Bridesmaids.On television, he starred as Principal Ed Rooney in the 1990 series Ferris Bueller and as grandfather Walt Finnerty in the early 2000s sitcom, Grounded For Life.In 2023, he also played Warden Reynolds in Barry.Riehle is survived by his wife, Jane Latham, and their four children.Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
How voters feel about trans rights and abortion access will soon be put to the test
How do voters feel about trans students participating in school sports teams? Or abortion access? The U.S. is about to find out.
Are partisan politics even changing up our accents? They just might be, y’all
Vowels have become the latest players in partisan politics, a barometer of how beliefs and values fit within the old vs. new South.
How governments worldwide are shaping what AI can say about politics
Some governments use legitimate AI concerns as a pretext to control political discussion, particularly chatbot responses about those in power.
Too Lost’s latest expansion is a deal with Xelon Entertainment
Distributor and tech firm Too Lost's ambitions in the APAC region continue. It acquired Australian distributor and artist-services company Gyro·Group in July, and now it has announced a partnership with another distributor, Xelon Entertainment.
Digital Science and Sunmedia Partner to Bring Research Impact Reporting to Japan's Medical Affairs Teams
Digital Science today announced a partnership with Sunmedia to help medical affairs teams across Japan understand the impact of their research.
KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: Fall 2026 Update on Vaccine Views
The latest KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds about half of parents mistakenly believe spacing out vaccines is healthier for children, while confidence in many long-standing childhood vaccines is high across partisans. These findings take on new relevance following President Trump's recent executive order calling for changes in U.S. childhood vaccine recommendations, including splitting the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine—currently given as a single combined shot—into three separate vaccines across multiple visits.
No-party voters to decide high-stakes midterms, political expert says
A political expert says no-party voters play a major role in who wins the midterm elections.
Michigan State Gets Stunning Quarterback News Ahead of UCLA Showdown
Michigan State will face a different UCLA offense Saturday after quarterback Nico Iamaleava suffered a severe knee injury. Here's what his absence means for the Spartans.
Scientists say authors of a controversial government climate report made basic error
Climate contrarians questioned evidence of a human fingerprint on climate change in a report commissioned by the Energy Department. Critics say it was based on flawed analysis.
Judi Health launching employer Medicare Part D plan with a focus on transparency
Judi Health is launching a new Part D plan that aims to lean on its tech stack to drive transparency and outcomes. | Judi Health is launching a new Part D plan that aims to lean on its tech stack to drive transparency and outcomes.
Tacoma Dome eatery gets 60 red points. Here are Oct. 12 Pierce Co. food scores
Seven food establishments received 35 or more red points last week, which means they must be reinspected by the Health Department.
AI agents are joining the workforce, so it’s time to rethink the business plan
Once agents take over the grunt work, ask what your team could finally tackle, because adopting AI alone won’t set you apart from competitors.
Trump’s attacks on California elections endanger democracy, repeating a pattern
Republicans questioned elections before reforms made redistricting nonpartisan. Now they accuse California of letting noncitizens vote.
'DWTS' Dedication Night: What each couple will dance to Tuesday night
Dancing with the Stars returns Tuesday night, with the 10 remaining couples participating in the always emotional Dedication Night. The evening allows the celebrity dancers to perform for someone or something important to them, often featuring guest appearances.
The Broad to move works to Paris and Leimert Park during construction
The Broad will display more than 160 works in a major exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris during its final phase of construction. It will also partner with Art + Practice in Leimert Park.
UConn Researcher’s Insight on Small-Business Bankruptcy Recovery Draws the Attention of Congress
'Small businesses are an important part of the economy, but financial distress does not necessarily mean that the underlying business isn’t worthwhile& ...
Tennessee health departments providing free flu vaccines Tuesday
TRI-CITIES, Tenn. (WJHL) — Health departments across the Northeast Tennessee region are offering free influenza vaccines on Tuesday as part of a statewide annual “Fight Flu” prevention …
‘Like riding a roller coaster’: UNL political science professor breaks down the stress of politics
Nebraska has seen a particularly turbulent midterm election – from the controversial and litigious rise of two new political parties, to a petition fraud investigation that’s led to several arrests.
‘Like riding a roller coaster’: UNL political science professor breaks down the stress of politics
Nebraska has seen a particularly turbulent midterm election – from the controversial and litigious rise of two new political parties, to a petition fraud investigation that’s led to several arrests.
Nashville CARES sues TN Health over HIV care restrictions
A Middle Tennessee HIV care center is suing the Tennessee Department of Health over new rules that require proof of citizenship to access services.
Scientists discover learning and memory formation in model membranes
A decades-long collaboration between two Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists is reshaping how we understand
Michigan State Spartans Football fan survey on Pat Fitzgerald
Gauging Pat Fitzgerald’s job security
Betterworks Named an Inc. Power Partner for Second Consecutive Year
Betterworks, a leading enterprise performance management platform, has been named a 2026 Inc. Power Partner Awards winner, recognizing the company among the ...
Inc. Names Counterpart a 2026 Power Partner for Supporting Small Businesses
Counterpart, the AI-native insurance platform providing management and professional liability solutions to small businesses, has been named a 2026 Inc. Power...
Brightstar Capital Partners Invests in Material Handling Group, a Technician-Led Provider of Material Handling Equipment and Aftermarket Services
CANTON, Mich. & NEW YORK, October 20, 2026--Brightstar Capital Partners ("Brightstar"), a private equity firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams, has acquired a majority interest in Material Handling Group USA ("MHG" or the "Company"). Financial terms were not disclosed. MHG is a technician-led provider of new, used, and rental material handling equipment and aftermarket parts and service, serving customers across Michigan, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic reg
A note to readers: Science, accountability and elections
Dear readers, As early voting begins, I wanted to share some news — and why it connects to the decisions we make at the ballot box. I’ve been selected for the inaugural cohort of the South Atlantic Climate Journalism Hub mentorship program, hosted by Covering Climate Now. I’m excited to join this group, learn from scientists and fellow journalists, and expand my science reporting. Science directly ties to governance. Local officials make decisions about where development goes, how infrastructure is maintained, what emergency preparations receive funding, and how communities rebuild after disasters. Understanding the evidence behind those decisions helps us evaluate whether our government is serving us well. Here in western North Carolina, those connections are all around us, in Lake Lure and beyond. Flood maps inform decisions about property and development. Engineering assessments help identify risks at dams and bridges. Rainfall forecasts guide emergency preparations. Geological information helps explain landslide hazards. Water testing gives communities information they need to assess conditions. Meteorologists’ knowledge and public perception of weather events shape public safety. Each involves scientific or technical knowledge. Each also raises questions about public responsibility: What did officials know? How did they use that information? What did they tell the public? What did taxpayers receive for their money? A study can identify a problem. Elected officials still have to decide what to do about it, how to pay for it, and how to explain their choices. Reporting should examine both the evidence and the response. That is where I want to strengthen my work. My reporting on Helene recovery, infrastructure, flooding, public safety, and public spending has repeatedly brought me to questions that require scientific expertise alongside public records. This mentorship may help me better understand the research, ask more precise questions, and explain the answers clearly. I also bring the perspective of someone living with these concerns. I live downstream of Lake Lure Dam, and landslides affected my property during Helene. Those experiences bring urgency to my questions. Careful reporting helps establish the answers. Readers deserve to know what the evidence shows, where uncertainty remains, and whether officials accurately describe the information guiding their decisions. You also deserve scrutiny of proposed solutions: what they cost, what they are expected to accomplish, and what risks remain. Access to that information matters. As a mostly deaf journalist who relies on written communication, I will continue pressing for written public warnings, records, and explanations that people can read and use in real time. As you consider the candidates seeking your vote, consider how they approach evidence, preparedness, and transparency. Do they support local journalism, even when it’s not parroting a press release? Do they explain weather events clearly in plain English and explain their decisions after them? Make supporting records available? Acknowledge uncertainty? Follow through when a report identifies a risk? Those are practical questions about governing. Thank you for supporting Cops & Congress and the work that makes these questions part of the public conversation. I’m grateful to David Dickson and the CC Now team for this opportunity, and I look forward to bringing what I learn back to you. Annie DanceEditor & Publisher, Cops & Congress — Learn more about this newsletter, ethics policy, how you can help shape this work, and support it. Follow on X and Facebook. Send constructive criticism, fan mail, and tips with public documents for future stories: CopsandCongress@gmail.com ICYMI: View the Cops & Congress archive — Annie Dance is the publisher of Cops & Congress, a newsletter that analyzes what happens when crime, courts, disaster, democracy, and small-town policies collide. Views expressed here are covered by the First Amendment. Dance has a Bachelor of Arts from Manhattan University in Communication with a focus in Journalism and Government. She has been a journalist for over 20 years. Share Upgrade now or give a gift subscription
Meet the 2026 Power Partners in Business Products & Services
These companies help you grow your business and achieve your goals.
List of DVD release dates for Oct. 20 and beyond
Following is a partial schedule of coming movies on DVD. Release dates are subject to change: OCTOBER 20: Masters of the Universe 20: Hadestown: The Musical 20: One Night Only
New coalition aims to keep Virginians covered as Medicaid rules tighten
Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Marvin Figueroa on Monday announced the Virginia United Coalition, formalizing a partnership that builds on a series of roundtable meetings with him and Gov. Abigail Spanberger throughout the summer, as well as an executive order she signed.
Baptist to add 40 beds, PAM Health to build new rehab hospital
Baptist and PAM Health are partnering to add 40 acute care beds and build a new 60-bed rehabilitation hospital to meet growing regional demand.
France Protests Show Europe’s Shift Away From Centrist Politics
Europe’s centrist parties are losing ground among young people and workers, who are increasingly tempted by populist promises of radical change.
The art of science: MU students make art inspired by biology, anthropology departments
HUNTINGTON — Some artists would get mad if someone drove over their artwork, but that wasn’t the case in Pullman Square on Friday evening.
Scientists think they've worked out why anything exists at all. Is this the answer to the oldest problem in the Universe? | BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Could scientists have finally found the particle that explains why matter triumphed over antimatter and why anything exists at all?
Whither Vladimir? (Part 1)
It’s no secret that a big part of the Blue Jays’ disappointing 2026 was the result of a disastrous season by superstar first baseman Vladimir Guerrero jr. Vlad’s offensive production cratered, from an average wRC+ of 139 from 2023-2025 to 95 this past season. If the team’s going to get back into contention in 2027 […]
Beyond the textbook: Bringing real science into the classroom
Forget baking soda volcanoes! Some high school students are getting hands-on experience with real genomic research. We talk with educators about how partnerships with working scientists are bringing cutting-edge science into the classroom.