Author: News Room

Google has shut down Project Mariner, the autonomous web browsing agent it debuted at I/O last year. The tool, which could navigate Chrome, fill out forms, search listings, and book travel by taking screenshots and visually recognizing page elements, is no longer available. Its landing page now shows a notice with the shutdown date listed as May 4, 2026. A browser agent that saw what you saw Project Mariner was Google DeepMind’s attempt to build an AI agent that interacted with websites the way a person would. Rather than reading page data directly, it processed screenshots in real time to…

AI chatbots have made it surprisingly easy to talk about anything, and that includes some of the heaviest topics imaginable. That openness has always been a double-edged sword. OpenAI is now taking a step to address that, with a new feature that brings a trusted person into the picture when things get serious. The company is rolling out a new feature called Trusted Contact, and it is starting to appear in ChatGPT settings for adult users. It lets users name one person who can be alerted if ChatGPT detects a serious self-harm concern. How does Trusted Contact work? Setting up…

I’ve always thought of myself as a light AI user. I don’t have ChatGPT write my emails or draft my thoughts into a story. Mostly, I use it to quickly look things up or fill in something that’s on the tip of my tongue. It felt like the responsible way to approach things. As a journalist, I am well aware of AI’s hallucination problems and the “burden of truth verification” that comes with availing the services of an AI assistant. But a new study has me second-guessing whatever little utility I got from AI tools like Google’s Gemini for real-life…

Huawei just launched the MatePad Pro Max, and it’s a lot to take in. At just 4.7mm thick and weighing 499 grams, it officially takes the crown as the world’s thinnest tablet. For context, the iPad Pro, which we all fawned over for being impossibly slim, is 5.1mm thick. The MatePad Pro Max beats it. Now, there’s a decent chance you’ll never actually buy this tablet. Huawei devices aren’t sold in every market, and the lack of Google apps is a real barrier for most users. But there’s no denying that Huawei is doing things that even Apple can’t match. …

AI is still something most people have to consciously engage with. You open an app, type a prompt, take a photo, or ask a question. Apple’s next major AirPods upgrade could change that. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is in late-stage development on camera-equipped earbuds that could put visual AI into a device that many people already use every day. How close are these AI AirPods to launch? Bloomberg reports that the earbuds have reached design validation testing, one of the final hardware stages before early mass-production testing. That means the hardware may be close, but the launch…

Smart glasses have always had an obvious privacy concern, and a new BBC investigation just showed us why. A woman identified as Alice was approached by a man in a London shopping centre while he was wearing smart glasses. She thought it was a normal interaction and did not realize she was being recorded. The footage was later uploaded online and viewed around 40,000 times. Where everything went wrong Content creators or influencers recording unassuming pedestrians isn’t new—and is often harmless. But the story took a darker turn after Alice contacted the creator after she saw the video online. She…

AI coding tools have made it ridiculously easy to build a web app, and it only takes a few minutes to set up now. This ease has lowered the barrier to app development, which is causing a new set of issues. So what happens when these AI-made apps go live without anyone checking the locks? You get secrets spilling out all over the internet. A WIRED report highlights a major security problem around so-called “vibe-coded” apps, which are built using AI development platforms such as Lovable, Replit, Base44, and Netlify. Why this is a bigger issue than you think Security…

While social media is a tool in connecting people, a new study suggests that it’s not actually surrounding you with the people you care about or doing much for loneliness. Researchers at Oregon State University studied more than 1,500 US adults between the ages of 30 and 70, and looked at how different types of social media connections relate to loneliness. The findings? People you don’t know in real life may actually be making things worse. Why online strangers could be the problem According to the study, social media connections with people users had never met in person were often…

Snapchat’s planned Perplexity integration is no longer happening. Snap revealed in its Q1 2026 investor letter that both companies “amicably ended the relationship in Q1,” ending a $400 million cash-and-equity deal announced last November. The deal would have brought Perplexity’s AI answering engine directly into Snapchat’s Chat interface. Users would have been able to ask questions and get conversational, source-backed answers without leaving the app. Snap had earlier said the partnership would begin contributing to revenue in 2026, but its latest sales guidance now assumes no contribution from Perplexity. Do users need AI search inside every chat app? The cancellation…

Valve’s much-anticipated Steam Controller went on sale on Monday, May 4, and quickly sold out amid what many consider a chaotic launch. Payment processing errors at checkout prevented many customers from buying the controller before it went out of stock (which occurred in minutes), leaving frustrated players empty-handed. Valve has acknowledged this rough start and is going back to the drawing board to ensure the next wave of orders goes more smoothly. In a Steam post, Valve announced it will open a reservation queue for the Steam Controller tomorrow, May 8, starting at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. Once you reserve…