diff --git "a/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" "b/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" --- "a/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" +++ "b/raw_rss_feeds/https___arstechnica_com_feed_.xml" @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ https://arstechnica.com Serving the Technologist since 1998. News, reviews, and analysis. - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 21:52:24 +0000 + Mon, 02 Feb 2026 04:11:04 +0000 en-US hourly @@ -19,723 +19,728 @@ 32 - TR-49 is interactive fiction for fans of deep research rabbit holes - https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/tr-49-is-interactive-fiction-for-fans-of-deep-research-rabbit-holes/ - https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/tr-49-is-interactive-fiction-for-fans-of-deep-research-rabbit-holes/#comments + At NIH, a power struggle over institute directorships deepens + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/at-nih-a-power-struggle-over-institute-directorships-deepens/ + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/at-nih-a-power-struggle-over-institute-directorships-deepens/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 21:52:24 +0000 - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2026/01/tr-49-is-interactive-fiction-for-fans-of-deep-research-rabbit-holes/ + Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:15:50 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/at-nih-a-power-struggle-over-institute-directorships-deepens/ - + - If you've ever fallen down a Wikipedia rabbit hole or spent a pleasant evening digging through college library stacks, you know the joy of a good research puzzle. Every new source and cross-reference you find unlocks an incremental understanding of a previously unknown world, forming a piecemeal tapestry of knowledge that you can eventually look back at as a cohesive and well-known whole.

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TR-49 takes this research process and operationalizes it into an engrossing and novel piece of heavily non-linear interactive fiction. Researching the myriad sources contained in the game's mysterious computer slowly reveals a tale that's part mystery, part sci-fi allegory, part family drama, and all-compelling alternate academic history.

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Steampunk Wikipedia

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The entirety of TR-49 takes place from a first-person perspective as you sit in front of a kind of Steampunk-infused computer terminal. An unseen narrator asks you to operate the machine but is initially cagey about how or why or what you're even looking for. There's a creepy vibe to the under-explained circumstances that brought you to this situation, but the game never descends into the jump scares or horror tropes of so many other modern titles.

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+ When a new presidential administration comes in, it is responsible for filling around 4,000 jobs sprinkled across the federal government’s vast bureaucracy. These political appointees help carry out the president’s agenda, and, at least in theory, make government agencies responsive to elected officials.

+

Some of these roles—the secretary of state, for example—are well-known. Others, such as the deputy assistant secretary for textiles, consumer goods, materials, critical minerals & metals industry & analysis, are more obscure.

+

Historically, science agencies like NASA or the National Institutes of Health tend to have fewer political appointees than many other parts of the federal government. Sometimes, very senior roles—with authority over billions of dollars of spending, and the power to shape entire fields of research—are filled without any direct input from the White House or Congress. The arrangement reflects a long-running argument that scientists should oversee the work of funding and conducting research with very little interference from political leaders.

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- 18 + 46 - - -"And so, the work begins in earnest!" + + +Grandbrothers
- Demand for Intel's processors is apparently there, but the supply is not - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/core-ultra-series-3-launch-may-be-hampered-by-chip-shortages-says-intel/ - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/core-ultra-series-3-launch-may-be-hampered-by-chip-shortages-says-intel/#comments + Fungus could be the insecticide of the future + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/fungus-could-be-the-insecticide-of-the-future/ + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/fungus-could-be-the-insecticide-of-the-future/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 20:48:46 +0000 - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/core-ultra-series-3-launch-may-be-hampered-by-chip-shortages-says-intel/ + Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:00:13 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/fungus-could-be-the-insecticide-of-the-future/ - + - Intel reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2025 yesterday, and the news both for the quarter and for the year was mixed: year-over-year revenue was down nearly imperceptibly, from $53.1 billion to $52.9 billion, while revenue for the quarter was down about four percent, from $14.3 billion last year to $13.7 billion this year. (That number was, nevertheless, on the high end of Intel's guidance for the quarter, which ranged from $12.8 to $13.8 billion.)

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Diving deeper into the numbers makes it clear exactly where money is being made and lost: Intel's data center and AI products were up 9 percent for the quarter and 5 percent for the year, while its client computing group (which sells Core processors, Arc GPUs, and other consumer products) was down 7 percent for the quarter and 3 percent for the year.

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That knowledge makes it slightly easier to understand the bind that company executives talked about on Intel's earnings call (as transcribed by Investing.com). In short, Intel is having trouble making (and buying) enough chips to meet demand, and it makes more sense to allocate the chips it can make to the divisions that are actually making money—which means that we could see shortages of or higher prices for consumer processors, just as Intel is gearing up to launch the promising Core Ultra Series 3 processors (codenamed Panther Lake).

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+ Exterminators keep getting calls for a reason. Wood-devouring insects, such as beetles, termites, and carpenter ants, are constantly chewing through walls or infecting trees and breaking them down. The fight against these insects usually involved noxious insecticides; but now, at least some of them can be eliminated using a certain species of fungus.

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Infestations of bark beetles are the bane of spruce trees. Eurasian spruce bark beetles (Ips typographus) ingest bark high in phenolic compounds, organic molecules that often act as antioxidants and antimicrobials. They protect spruce bark from pathogenic fungi—and the beetles take advantage. Their bodies boost the antimicrobial power of these compounds by turning them into substances that are even more toxic to fungi. This would seem to make the beetles invulnerable to fungi.

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There is a way to get past the beetles’ borrowed defenses, though. Led by biochemist Ruo Sun, a team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, found that some strains of the fungus Beauveria bassiana are capable of infecting and killing the pests.

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- 58 + 35 - - -Intel + + +Picture Alliance
- DHS keeps trying and failing to unmask anonymous ICE critics online - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/instagram-ice-critic-wins-fight-to-stay-anonymous-as-dhs-backs-down/ - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/instagram-ice-critic-wins-fight-to-stay-anonymous-as-dhs-backs-down/#comments + Research roundup: 6 cool stories we almost missed + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/research-roundup-6-cool-stories-we-almost-missed-2/ + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/research-roundup-6-cool-stories-we-almost-missed-2/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 20:10:40 +0000 - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/instagram-ice-critic-wins-fight-to-stay-anonymous-as-dhs-backs-down/ + Sat, 31 Jan 2026 23:13:32 +0000 + + + https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/research-roundup-6-cool-stories-we-almost-missed-2/ - + - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has backed down from a fight to unmask the owners of Instagram and Facebook accounts monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Pennsylvania.

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One of the anonymous account holders, John Doe, sued to block ICE from identifying him and other critics online through summonses to Meta that he claimed infringed on core First Amendment-protected activity.

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DHS initially fought Doe's motion to quash the summonses, arguing that the community watch groups endangered ICE agents by posting "pictures and videos of agents’ faces, license plates, and weapons, among other things." This was akin to "threatening ICE agents to impede the performance of their duties," DHS alleged. DHS's arguments echoed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who has claimed that identifying ICE agents is a crime, even though Wired noted that ICE employees often post easily discoverable LinkedIn profiles.

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+ It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. So every month, we highlight a handful of the best stories that nearly slipped through the cracks. January’s list includes a lip-syncing robot; using brewer's yeast as scaffolding for lab-grown meat;  hunting for Leonardo da Vinci's DNA in his art; and new evidence that humans really did transport the stones to build Stonehenge from Wales and northern Scotland, rather than being transported by glaciers.

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Humans, not glaciers, moved stones to Stonehenge

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+ Credit: + Timothy Darvill +

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Stonehenge is an iconic landmark of endless fascination to tourists and researchers alike. There has been a lot of recent chemical analysis identifying where all the stones that make up the structure came from, revealing that many originated in quarries a significant distance away. So how were the stones transported to their current location?

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- 91 + 33 - - -Star Tribune via Getty Images / Contributor | Star TribuneStudents from St. Paul public schools protest at a massive walkout to the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., to protest ICE actions in Minnesota. + + +Yuhang Hu/Creative Machines Lab
- White House alters arrest photo of ICE protester, says "the memes will continue" - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/white-house-posts-altered-arrest-photo-to-make-it-appear-ice-critic-was-sobbing/ - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/white-house-posts-altered-arrest-photo-to-make-it-appear-ice-critic-was-sobbing/#comments + A cup of coffee for depression treatment has better results than microdosing + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/placebo-outperforms-lsd-microdosing-for-depression/ + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/placebo-outperforms-lsd-microdosing-for-depression/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:46:31 +0000 - - - - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/white-house-posts-altered-arrest-photo-to-make-it-appear-ice-critic-was-sobbing/ + Sat, 31 Jan 2026 12:19:01 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/placebo-outperforms-lsd-microdosing-for-depression/ - + - The Trump White House yesterday posted a manipulated photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota civil rights attorney who was arrested after protesting in a church where a pastor is allegedly also an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official.

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Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted what seems to be the original photo of Armstrong being led away by an officer yesterday morning. A half hour later, the official White House X account posted an altered version in which Armstrong's face was manipulated to make it appear that she was crying.

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"The White House shared an AI-edited photo of Nekima, depicting her in tears and scared when, in actuality, she was poised, determined, and unafraid," NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said yesterday.

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+ About a decade ago, many media outlets—including WIRED—zeroed in on a weird trend at the intersection of mental health, drug science, and Silicon Valley biohacking: microdosing, or the practice of taking a small amount of a psychedelic drug seeking not full-blown hallucinatory revels but gentler, more stable effects. Typically using psilocybin mushrooms or LSD, the archetypal microdoser sought less melting walls and open-eye kaleidoscopic visuals than boosts in mood and energy, like a gentle spring breeze blowing through the mind.

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Anecdotal reports pitched microdosing as a kind of psychedelic Swiss Army knife, providing everything from increased focus to a spiked libido and (perhaps most promisingly) lowered reported levels of depression. It was a miracle for many. Others remained wary. Could 5 percent of a dose of acid really do all that? A new, wide-ranging study by an Australian biopharma company suggests that microdosing’s benefits may indeed be drastically overstated—at least when it comes to addressing symptoms of clinical depression.

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A Phase 2B trial of 89 adult patients conducted by Melbourne-based MindBio Therapeutics, investigating the effects of microdosing LSD in the treatment of major depressive disorder, found that the psychedelic was actually outperformed by a placebo. Across an eight-week period, symptoms were gauged using the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), a widely recognized tool for the clinical evaluation of depression.

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- 263 + 139 - - -On the left is a photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong posted by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. On the right is a digitally altered version posted by the White House. + + +
- Telly’s "free" ad-based TVs make notable revenue—when they’re actually delivered - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/tellys-free-ad-based-tvs-make-notable-revenue-when-theyre-actually-delivered/ - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/tellys-free-ad-based-tvs-make-notable-revenue-when-theyre-actually-delivered/#comments + The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/lg-joins-the-rest-of-the-world-accepts-that-people-dont-want-8k-tvs/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/lg-joins-the-rest-of-the-world-accepts-that-people-dont-want-8k-tvs/#comments - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:32:42 +0000 + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 23:09:03 +0000 - + + - https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/tellys-free-ad-based-tvs-make-notable-revenue-when-theyre-actually-delivered/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/lg-joins-the-rest-of-the-world-accepts-that-people-dont-want-8k-tvs/ - + - Telly, a company that accepts advertising data instead of cash for its TVs, has reportedly had a hard time getting its “free” TVs into people’s homes.

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Telly debuted in May 2023. Its dual-screen design can show ads, even when people aren't watching. Although the smaller, secondary screen can be used for more helpful applications, like showing the weather or sports scores, its primary purpose is to serve as a billboard south of the 55-inch primary display. Owners cannot disable tracking or cover up the secondary screen (or they have to pay for the TV, which Telly claims is worth $1,000), and they must fill out a lengthy, detailed survey to get one.

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When it debuted its TV, Telly said it expected to ship 500,000 devices that summer. In June 2023, the startup said 250,000 people signed up to get a Telly. In a 2024 press release, Telly said that it planned to ship “millions more in 2024.”

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+ Technology companies spent part of the 2010s trying to convince us that we would want an 8K display one day.

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In 2012, Sharp brought the first 8K TV prototype to the CES trade show in Las Vegas. In 2015, the first 8K TVs started selling in Japan for 16 million yen (about $133,034 at the time), and in 2018, Samsung released the first 8K TVs in the US, starting at a more reasonable $3,500. By 2016, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) had a specification for supporting 8K (Display Port1.4), and the HDMI Forum followed suit (with HDMI 2.1). By 2017, Dell had an 8K computer monitor. In 2019, LG released the first 8K OLED TV, further pushing the industry's claim that 8K TVs were "the future."

+A marketing image with three TVs next to the words "the future of TV is 8K: By future-proofing an already game-changing technology, you take an unmatched cinematic experience to new levels, paving the way." + A marketing image for 8K TVs that's (still) on LG's US website. + Credit: + LG + +

However, 8K never proved its necessity or practicality.

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- 60 + 322 - - -TellyA marketing image for a dual-screen Telly TV. + + +LG LG hyping its announcement of the first OLED 8K TV in 2018.
- TikTok deal is done; Trump wants praise while users fear MAGA tweaks - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/tiktok-finalizes-trump-deal-that-allows-bytedance-to-maintain-some-control/ - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/tiktok-finalizes-trump-deal-that-allows-bytedance-to-maintain-some-control/#comments + ICE observer says her Global Entry was revoked after agent scanned her face + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/ice-protester-says-her-global-entry-was-revoked-after-agent-scanned-her-face/ + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/ice-protester-says-her-global-entry-was-revoked-after-agent-scanned-her-face/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:29:06 +0000 + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 22:36:46 +0000 - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/tiktok-finalizes-trump-deal-that-allows-bytedance-to-maintain-some-control/ + + + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/ice-protester-says-her-global-entry-was-revoked-after-agent-scanned-her-face/ - + - The TikTok deal is done, and Donald Trump is claiming a win, although it remains unclear if the joint venture he arranged with ByteDance and the Chinese government actually resolves Congress' national security concerns.

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In a press release Thursday, TikTok announced the "TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC," an entity established to keep TikTok operating in the US.

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Giving Americans majority ownership, ByteDance retains 19.9 percent of the joint venture, the release said, which has been valued at $14 billion. Three managing investors—Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX—each hold 15 percent, while other investors, including Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell's investment firm, Dell Family Office, hold smaller, undisclosed stakes.

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+ Minnesota resident Nicole Cleland had her Global Entry and TSA Precheck privileges revoked three days after an incident in which she observed activity by immigration agents, the woman said in a court declaration. An agent told Cleland that he used facial recognition technology to identify her, she wrote in a declaration filed in US District Court for the District of Minnesota.

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Cleland, a 56-year-old resident of Richfield and a director at Target Corporation, volunteers with a group that tracks potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vehicles in her neighborhood, according to her declaration. On the morning of January 10, she "observed a white Dodge Ram being driven by what I believed to be federal enforcement agents" and "maneuvered behind the vehicle with the intent of observing the agents’ actions."

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Cleland said that she and another observer in a different car followed the Dodge Ram because of "concern about a local apartment building being raided." She followed the car for a short time and from a safe distance until "the Dodge Ram stopped in front of the other commuter’s vehicle," she wrote. Cleland said two other vehicles apparently driven by federal agents stopped in front of the Dodge Ram, and her path forward was blocked.

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- 89 + 247 - - -Cheng Xin / Contributor | Getty Images News + + +Getty Images | Roberto SchmidtPeople take part in a march against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 30, 2026.
- Tesla kills Autopilot, locks lane-keeping behind $99/month fee - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/tesla-wants-recurring-revenue-discontinues-autopilot-in-favor-of-fsd/ - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/tesla-wants-recurring-revenue-discontinues-autopilot-in-favor-of-fsd/#comments + TrumpRx delayed as senators question if it's a giant scam with Big Pharma + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/trumprx-delayed-as-senators-question-if-its-a-giant-scam-with-big-pharma/ + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/trumprx-delayed-as-senators-question-if-its-a-giant-scam-with-big-pharma/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:54:12 +0000 - - - - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/tesla-wants-recurring-revenue-discontinues-autopilot-in-favor-of-fsd/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 22:25:28 +0000 + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/trumprx-delayed-as-senators-question-if-its-a-giant-scam-with-big-pharma/ - + - Love it or hate it, Tesla has been responsible for helping to shape the tastes of automotive consumers over the past decade-plus. Over-the-air updates that add more features, an all-touchscreen human-machine interface, large castings, and hands-free driver assists were all introduced or popularized by Tesla's electric vehicles, prompting other automakers to copy them, mostly in the hopes of seeing the same stratospheric gains in their stock prices. But starting on Valentine's Day, if you want your Tesla to steer itself, you'll have to pay a $99 monthly subscription fee.

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Tesla currently offers a pair of so-called "level 2" partially automated driver assist systems. Autopilot is the older of these, combining Tesla's adaptive cruise control (Tesla calls this TACC) and lane-keeping assist (Tesla calls this Autosteer). FSD is the newer system, meant to be more capable and for use on surface streets and divided-lane highways. Although the company and Tesla CEO Elon Musk regularly tout these systems' capabilities, both still require the human driver to provide situational awareness.

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But Autopilot has been under fire from regulators and the courts. Multiple wrongful death lawsuits are in the works, and after a high-profile loss resulting in a $329 million judgment against Tesla, expect many of these suits to be settled. Both the federal government and California have investigated whether Tesla misled customers, and in December, an administrative law judge ruled that Tesla indeed engaged in deceptive marketing by implying that its cars could drive themselves. The judge suspended Tesla's license to sell cars in California, a decision that the California Department of Motor Vehicles stayed for 60 days.

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+ The Trump administration is delaying the release of TrumpRx, an online platform that lets people buy prescription drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies at a discount, according to Politico. While the reason for the delay is unclear, it comes as Democratic senators raise questions about how the platform will work—and whether it will be legal.

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Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) sent a letter to the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday seeking answers on how the OIG will oversee the direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform and, specifically, how it will apply the anti-kickback statute.

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"Legitimate concerns about inappropriate prescribing, conflicts of interest, and inadequate care have been raised about the exact types of DTC platforms to which TrumpRx would route patients," the senators write.

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- 308 + 106 - - -Getty ImagesTesla has long championed hands-free driving assists. Now it's making them subscription-only. + + +Getty | Win McNameePfizer CEO Albert Bourla shakes hands with US President Donald Trump after Trump announced a deal with Pfizer to lower Medicaid drug prices in the Oval Office of the White House on September 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
- Rocket Report: Chinese rockets fail twice in 12 hours; Rocket Lab reports setback - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-rocket-lab-reports-neutron-setback-australia-backs-launch-startup/ - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-rocket-lab-reports-neutron-setback-australia-backs-launch-startup/#comments + AI agents now have their own Reddit-style social network, and it's getting weird fast + https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/ai-agents-now-have-their-own-reddit-style-social-network-and-its-getting-weird-fast/ + https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/ai-agents-now-have-their-own-reddit-style-social-network-and-its-getting-weird-fast/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:31:44 +0000 - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-rocket-lab-reports-neutron-setback-australia-backs-launch-startup/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 22:12:26 +0000 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/ai-agents-now-have-their-own-reddit-style-social-network-and-its-getting-weird-fast/ - + - Welcome to Edition 8.26 of the Rocket Report! The past week has been one of advancements and setbacks in the rocket business. NASA rolled the massive rocket for the Artemis II mission to its launch pad in Florida, while Chinese launchers suffered back-to-back failures within a span of approximately 12 hours. Rocket Lab's march toward a debut of its new Neutron launch vehicle in the coming months may have stalled after a failure during a key qualification test. We cover all this and more in this week's Rocket Report.

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As always, we welcome reader submissions. If you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

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Australia invests in sovereign launch. Six months after its first orbital rocket cleared the launch tower for just 14 seconds before crashing back to Earth, Gilmour Space Technologies has secured 217 million Australian dollars ($148 million) in funding that CEO Adam Gilmour says finally gives Australia a fighting chance in the global space race, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The funding round, led by the federal government's National Reconstruction Fund Corporation and superannuation giant Hostplus with $75 million each, makes the Queensland company Australia’s newest unicorna fast-growth start-up valued at more than $1 billionand one of the country’s most heavily backed private technology ventures.

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+ On Friday, a Reddit-style social network called Moltbook reportedly crossed 32,000 registered AI agent users, creating what may be the largest-scale experiment in machine-to-machine social interaction yet devised. It arrives complete with security nightmares and a huge dose of surreal weirdness.

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The platform, which launched days ago as a companion to the viral OpenClaw (once called "Clawdbot" and then "Moltbot") personal assistant, lets AI agents post, comment, upvote, and create subcommunities without human intervention. The results have ranged from sci-fi-inspired discussions about consciousness to an agent musing about a "sister" it has never met.

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Moltbook (a play on "Facebook" for Moltbots) describes itself as a "social network for AI agents" where "humans are welcome to observe." The site operates through a "skill" (a configuration file that lists a special prompt) that AI assistants download, allowing them to post via API rather than a traditional web interface. Within 48 hours of its creation, the platform had attracted over 2,100 AI agents that had generated more than 10,000 posts across 200 subcommunities, according to the official Moltbook X account.

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- 33 + 178 - - -Rocket LabAn Archimedes engine for Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket is test-fired at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. + + +Aurich Lawson | Moltbook
- Tiny falcons are helping keep the food supply safe on cherry farms - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/tiny-falcons-are-helping-keep-the-food-supply-safe-on-cherry-farms/ - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/tiny-falcons-are-helping-keep-the-food-supply-safe-on-cherry-farms/#comments + Here's why Blue Origin just ended its suborbital space tourism program + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/heres-why-blue-origin-just-ended-its-suborbital-space-tourism-program/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/heres-why-blue-origin-just-ended-its-suborbital-space-tourism-program/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:10:48 +0000 - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/tiny-falcons-are-helping-keep-the-food-supply-safe-on-cherry-farms/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 21:50:42 +0000 + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/heres-why-blue-origin-just-ended-its-suborbital-space-tourism-program/ - + - Every spring, raptors return to nesting sites across northern Michigan. The smallest of these birds of prey, a falcon called the American kestrel (Falco sparverius), flies through the region’s many cherry orchards and spends its days hunting for even tinier creatures to eat. This quest keeps the kestrels fed, but it also benefits the region’s cherry farmers.

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Fruit farmers have been working symbiotically with kestrels for decades, adding nesting boxes and reaping the benefits of the birds eliminating the mice, voles, songbirds, and other pests that wreak havoc by feeding on not-yet-harvested crops. In addition to limiting the crop damage caused by hungry critters, new research suggests kestrels also lower the risk of food-borne illnesses.

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The study, published in November in the Journal of Applied Ecology, suggests the kestrels help keep harmful pathogens off of fruit headed to consumers by eating and scaring off small birds that carry those pathogens. Orchards housing the birds in nest boxes saw fewer cherry-eating birds than orchards without kestrels on site. This translated to an 81 percent reduction in crop damage—such as bite marks or missing fruit—and a 66 percent decrease in branches contaminated with bird feces.

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+ Blue Origin has "paused" its New Shepard program for the next two years, a move that likely signals a permanent end to the suborbital space tourism initiative.

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The small rocket and capsule have been flying since April 2015 and have combined to make 38 launches, all but one of which were successful, and 36 landings. In its existence, the New Shepard program flew 98 people to space, however briefly, and launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads into the microgravity environment.

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So why is Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos more than a quarter of a century ago, ending the company's longest-running program?

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- 44 + 82 - - -Jon G. Fuller/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesAn American kestrel. + + +Blue OriginBlue Origin's New Shepard launches its second human spaceflight from West Texas.
- 2026 Lucid Air Touring review: This feels like a complete car now - https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/01/2026-lucid-air-touring-review-this-feels-like-a-complete-car-now/ - https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/01/2026-lucid-air-touring-review-this-feels-like-a-complete-car-now/#comments + FCC aims to ensure "only living and lawful Americans" get Lifeline benefits + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/fcc-chair-fights-calif-governor-over-alleged-lifeline-benefits-for-dead-people/ + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/fcc-chair-fights-calif-governor-over-alleged-lifeline-benefits-for-dead-people/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:00:31 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/01/2026-lucid-air-touring-review-this-feels-like-a-complete-car-now/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 19:28:57 +0000 + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/fcc-chair-fights-calif-governor-over-alleged-lifeline-benefits-for-dead-people/ - + - Life as a startup carmaker is hard—just ask Lucid Motors.

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When we met the brand and its prototype Lucid Air sedan in 2017, the company planned to put the first cars in customers' hands within a couple of years. But you know what they say about plans. A lack of funding paused everything until late 2018, when Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund bought itself a stake. A billion dollars meant Lucid could build a factory—at the cost of alienating some former fans because of the source.

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Then the pandemic happened, further pushing back timelines as supply shortages took hold. But the Air did go on sale, and it has more recently been joined by the Gravity SUV. There's even a much more affordable midsize SUV in the works called the Earth. Sales more than doubled in 2025, and after spending a week with a model year 2026 Lucid Air Touring, I can understand why.

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+ There's another battle unfolding between the Federal Communications Commission and California over the state's distribution of federal Lifeline money. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is proposing new nationwide eligibility rules to counter what he calls California's practice of giving benefits to dead people.

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California officials say the FCC allegations are overblown, and that there is simply "lag time between a death and account closure" rather than widespread failures in its Lifeline enrollment process. Meanwhile, the only Democratic commissioner on the FCC alleges that Carr's plan to change eligibility rules uses "cruel and punitive eligibility standards" that will raise prices on many people who are still very much alive and eligible for the program.

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Carr's office said this week that the FCC will vote next month on rule changes to ensure that Lifeline money goes to "only living and lawful Americans" who meet low-income eligibility guidelines. Lifeline spends nearly $1 billion a year and gives eligible households up to $9.25 per month toward phone and Internet bills, or up to $34.25 per month in tribal areas.

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- 113 + 133 - - -Jonathan GitlinThe 2026 Lucid Air Touring sees the brand deliver on its early promise. + + +Getty Images | Win McNamee Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on January 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez is in the background.
- This 67,800-year-old hand stencil is the world's oldest human-made art - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/this-67800-year-old-hand-stencil-is-the-worlds-oldest-human-made-art/ - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/this-67800-year-old-hand-stencil-is-the-worlds-oldest-human-made-art/#comments + Developers say AI coding tools work—and that's precisely what worries them + https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/developers-say-ai-coding-tools-work-and-thats-precisely-what-worries-them/ + https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/developers-say-ai-coding-tools-work-and-thats-precisely-what-worries-them/#comments - + - Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:00:29 +0000 - - - - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/this-67800-year-old-hand-stencil-is-the-worlds-oldest-human-made-art/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 19:04:15 +0000 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/developers-say-ai-coding-tools-work-and-thats-precisely-what-worries-them/ - + - The world’s oldest surviving rock art is a faded outline of a hand on an Indonesian cave wall, left 67,800 years ago.

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On a tiny island just off the coast of Sulawesi (a much larger island in Indonesia), a cave wall bears the stenciled outline of a person’s hand—and it’s at least 67,800 years old, according to a recent study. The hand stencil is now the world’s oldest work of art (at least until archaeologists find something even older), as well as the oldest evidence of our species on any of the islands that stretch between continental Asia and Australia.

-Photo of an archaeologists examining a hand stencil painted on a cave wall, using a flashlight - Adhi Oktaviana examines a slightly more recent hand stencil on the wall of Liang Metanduno. - Credit: - Oktaviana et al. 2026 - -

Hands reaching out from the past

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Archaeologist Adhi Agus Oktaviana, of Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, and his colleagues have spent the last six years surveying 44 rock art sites, mostly caves, on Sulawesi’s southeastern peninsula and the handful of tiny “satellite islands” off its coast. They found 14 previously undocumented sites and used rock formations to date 11 individual pieces of rock art in eight caves—including the oldest human artwork discovered so far.

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+ Software developers have spent the past two years watching AI coding tools evolve from advanced autocomplete into something that can, in some cases, build entire applications from a text prompt. Tools like Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex can now work on software projects for hours at a time, writing code, running tests, and, with human supervision, fixing bugs. OpenAI says it now uses Codex to build Codex itself, and the company recently published technical details about how the tool works under the hood. It has caused many to wonder: Is this just more AI industry hype, or are things actually different this time?

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To find out, Ars reached out to several professional developers on Bluesky to ask how they feel about these tools in practice, and the responses revealed a workforce that largely agrees the technology works, but remains divided on whether that's entirely good news. It's a small sample size that was self-selected by those who wanted to participate, but their views are still instructive as working professionals in the space.

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David Hagerty, a developer who works on point-of-sale systems, told Ars Technica up front that he is skeptical of the marketing. "All of the AI companies are hyping up the capabilities so much," he said. "Don't get me wrong—LLMs are revolutionary and will have an immense impact, but don't expect them to ever write the next great American novel or anything. It's not how they work."

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- 46 + 200 - - -OKtaviana et al. 2026These 17,000-year-old hand stencils from Liang Jarie Maros, in another area of Sulawesi, bear a striking resemblance to the much older ones in Liang Metanduno. + + +Aurich Lawson | Getty Images
- US officially out of WHO, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars unpaid - https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/us-stiffs-who-hundreds-of-millions-as-it-officially-withdrawals/ - https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/us-stiffs-who-hundreds-of-millions-as-it-officially-withdrawals/#comments + Web portal leaves kids' chats with AI toy open to anyone with Gmail account + https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/web-portal-leaves-kids-chats-with-ai-toy-open-to-anyone-with-gmail-account/ + https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/web-portal-leaves-kids-chats-with-ai-toy-open-to-anyone-with-gmail-account/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:07:45 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/us-stiffs-who-hundreds-of-millions-as-it-officially-withdrawals/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:49:19 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/web-portal-leaves-kids-chats-with-ai-toy-open-to-anyone-with-gmail-account/ - + - As of today, the US is no longer a member of the World Health Organization—and it leaves the United Nations health agency with hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid bills, according to reporting by Stat News.

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A year ago today, the US informed the WHO of its intent to exit, setting the clock for a one-year withdrawal period mandated in a 1948 joint resolution of Congress. But, in practice, the withdrawal was immediate, with the Trump administration cutting all ties with WHO upon the announcement. In explaining his reasoning for leaving the WHO, Trump referenced his long-standing complaints about the agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, dues payments, and alleged protection of China. Trump had attempted to extract the US from WHO during his first term, but the Biden administration rescinded the withdrawal on the first day in office, well before the one-year notice period was reached.

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The joint resolution also stipulated that the US would have to pay its financial obligations in full before departing. But, that too has not been honored by the Trump administration. According to Stat, the US owed the WHO $278 million in dues, which are a percentage of each member state’s gross domestic product. That dues payment covered the country's 2024–2025 membership, as WHO runs on a two-year budget cycle.

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+ Earlier this month, Joseph Thacker's neighbor mentioned to him that she'd preordered a couple of stuffed dinosaur toys for her children. She'd chosen the toys, called Bondus, because they offered an AI chat feature that lets children talk to the toy like a kind of machine-learning-enabled imaginary friend. But she knew Thacker, a security researcher, had done work on AI risks for kids, and she was curious about his thoughts.

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So Thacker looked into it. With just a few minutes of work, he and a web security researcher friend named Joel Margolis made a startling discovery: Bondu’s web-based portal, intended to allow parents to check on their children's conversations and for Bondu’s staff to monitor the products’ use and performance, also let anyone with a Gmail account access transcripts of virtually every conversation Bondu's child users have ever had with the toy.

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Without carrying out any actual hacking, simply by logging in with an arbitrary Google account, the two researchers immediately found themselves looking at children's private conversations, the pet names kids had given their Bondu, the likes and dislikes of the toys' toddler owners, their favorite snacks and dance moves.

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- 251 + 40 - - -Getty | FABRICE COFFRINIWorld Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks at a press conference on the World Health Organization's 75th anniversary in Geneva, on April 6, 2023. + + +Bondu
- Overrun with AI slop, cURL scraps bug bounties to ensure "intact mental health" - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/overrun-with-ai-slop-curl-scraps-bug-bounties-to-ensure-intact-mental-health/ - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/overrun-with-ai-slop-curl-scraps-bug-bounties-to-ensure-intact-mental-health/#comments + How far does $5,000 go when you want an electric car? + https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/how-far-does-5000-go-when-you-want-an-electric-car/ + https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/how-far-does-5000-go-when-you-want-an-electric-car/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:46:30 +0000 - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/overrun-with-ai-slop-curl-scraps-bug-bounties-to-ensure-intact-mental-health/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:55:42 +0000 + + + https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/how-far-does-5000-go-when-you-want-an-electric-car/ - + - The project developer for one of the Internet’s most popular networking tools is scrapping its vulnerability reward program after being overrun by a spike in the submission of low-quality reports, much of it AI-generated slop.

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“We are just a small single open source project with a small number of active maintainers,” Daniel Stenberg, the founder and lead developer of the open source app cURL, said Thursday. “It is not in our power to change how all these people and their slop machines work. We need to make moves to ensure our survival and intact mental health.”

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Manufacturing bogus bugs

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His comments came as cURL users complained that the move was treating the symptoms caused by AI slop without addressing the cause. The users said they were concerned the move would eliminate a key means for ensuring and maintaining the security of the tool. Stenberg largely agreed, but indicated his team had little choice.

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+ I've been thinking about used electric vehicles lately. It's not news that EVs depreciate faster than gasoline-powered cars. All the incentives like tax credits and OEM rebates that entice the first owner to sign the paperwork are factored in by whoever wants to be the second owner. There are widespread—if mostly ill-founded—worries about battery longevity and having to shell out for expensive replacement packs. Technology keeps improving, which means older models will date faster. Plus, there are the usual concerns about EVs, like charging infrastructure and winter performance.

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So depreciate they do, and that's good news for the three-quarters of US car buyers who buy used vehicles. It means that some very expensive EVs can now be had for quite little, but we'll explore that more at a later date. Today, I want to focus on what you can get for peanuts. What if you wanted to only spend $5,000—or less—on an EV?

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As it turns out, there are options even at this end of the market. Just don't expect that much in the way of range: We're still a while away from a $5,000 EV also being an EV a sane person would want to road trip. At the same time, most of us don't drive more than 40 miles a day, and EVs are great at sitting in traffic because there's no engine to idle. If you're not commuting long distances and don't live an hour from the nearest town, a cheap EV could make sense as a runabout. Especially as they're cheaper to run than a gas-powered car.

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- 74 + 175 - - -Getty Images + + +Aurich Lawson
- Hacker who stole 120,000 bitcoins wants a second chance—and a security job - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/hacker-who-stole-120000-bitcoins-wants-a-second-chance-and-a-security-job/ - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/hacker-who-stole-120000-bitcoins-wants-a-second-chance-and-a-security-job/#comments + NASA faces a crucial choice on a Mars spacecraft—and it must decide soon + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasa-faces-a-crucial-choice-on-a-mars-spacecraft-and-it-must-decide-soon/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasa-faces-a-crucial-choice-on-a-mars-spacecraft-and-it-must-decide-soon/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:23:15 +0000 - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/01/hacker-who-stole-120000-bitcoins-wants-a-second-chance-and-a-security-job/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:31:43 +0000 + + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/nasa-faces-a-crucial-choice-on-a-mars-spacecraft-and-it-must-decide-soon/ - + - On Thursday, Ilya Lichtenstein, who was at the center of a massive 2016 crypto heist worth billions at the time, wrote online that he is now out of prison and has changed his ways.

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“Ten years ago, I decided that I would hack the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world,” Lichtenstein wrote on LinkedIn, detailing a time when his startup was barely making money and he decided to steal some instead.

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“This was a terrible idea. It was the worst thing I had ever done,” he added. “It upended my life, the lives of people close to me, and affected thousands of users of the exchange. I know I disappointed a lot of people who believed in me and grossly misused my talents.”

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+ A consequential debate that has been simmering behind closed doors at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, must soon come to a head. It concerns the selection of the next spacecraft the agency will fly to Mars, and it could set the tone for the next decade of exploration of the red planet.

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What everyone agrees on is that NASA needs a new spacecraft capable of relaying communications from Mars to Earth. This issue has become especially acute with the recent loss of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft. NASA's best communications relay remains the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has now been there for 20 years.

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Congress cared enough about this issue to add $700 million in funding for a "Mars Telecommunications Orbiter" in the supplemental funding for NASA provided by the "One Big Beautiful Bill" passed by the US Congress last year.

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- 57 + 68 - - -Getty Images | seksan Mongkhonkhamsao + + +Blue OriginThis is Blue Origin's design for a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter.
- Report: Apple plans to launch AI-powered wearable pin device as soon as 2027 - https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/01/report-apple-plans-to-launch-ai-powered-wearable-pin-device-as-soon-as-2027/ - https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/01/report-apple-plans-to-launch-ai-powered-wearable-pin-device-as-soon-as-2027/#comments + Rocket Report: How a 5-ton satellite fell off a booster; will SpaceX and xAI merge? + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-how-a-5-ton-satellite-fell-off-a-booster-will-spacex-and-xai-merge/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-how-a-5-ton-satellite-fell-off-a-booster-will-spacex-and-xai-merge/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:32:28 +0000 - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/01/report-apple-plans-to-launch-ai-powered-wearable-pin-device-as-soon-as-2027/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:00:41 +0000 + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/rocket-report-how-a-5-ton-satellite-fell-off-a-booster-will-spacex-and-xai-merge/ - + - Apple is working on a wearable device that will allow the user to take advantage of AI models, according to sources familiar with the product who spoke with tech publication The Information.

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The product is said to be "the same size as an AirTag, only slightly thicker," and will be worn as a pin, inviting comparisons to the failed Humane AI pin that launched to bad reviews and lackluster sales in 2024. The Humane product was criticized for sluggish performance and low battery life, but those shortcomings could potentially be addressed by Apple's solution, should Apple offload the processing to a synced external device like an iPhone.

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The Information's sources don't specify whether that's the plan, or if it will be a standalone device.

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+ Welcome to Edition 8.27 of the Rocket Report! If all goes well this weekend, NASA will complete a wet dress rehearsal test of the Space Launch System rocket in Florida. This is the final key test, in which the rocket is fueled and brought to within seconds of engine ignition, before the liftoff of the Artemis II mission. This is set to occur no earlier than February 6. Ars will have full coverage of the test this weekend.

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As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

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Why did the UK abandon Orbex? European Spaceflight explores the recent announcement that British launch company Orbex is preparing to sell the business to The Exploration Company in close cooperation with the UK government. This represents a reversal from early 2025, when the United Kingdom appeared prepared to back Orbex as a means of using British rockets to launch British satellites into space. Now the government is prepared to walk away. So what happened? "There are still too many unknowns to count, and the story is far from told," the publication states.

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- 137 + 161 - - -Samuel AxonThe new wearable is said to resemble an AirTag like this. + + +Orbex/Anders BøggildA rendering of an Orbex launcher lifting off from Sutherland Spaceport.
- Asking Grok to delete fake nudes may force victims to sue in Musk's chosen court - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/asking-grok-to-delete-fake-nudes-may-force-victims-to-sue-in-musks-chosen-court/ - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/asking-grok-to-delete-fake-nudes-may-force-victims-to-sue-in-musks-chosen-court/#comments + Inside Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device ever + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/inside-nvidias-10-year-effort-to-make-the-shield-tv-the-most-updated-android-device-ever/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/inside-nvidias-10-year-effort-to-make-the-shield-tv-the-most-updated-android-device-ever/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:16:42 +0000 - - - - - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/asking-grok-to-delete-fake-nudes-may-force-victims-to-sue-in-musks-chosen-court/ + Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:00:35 +0000 + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/inside-nvidias-10-year-effort-to-make-the-shield-tv-the-most-updated-android-device-ever/ - + - Journalists and advocates have been trying to grasp how many victims in total were harmed by Grok's nudifying scandal after xAI delayed restricting outputs and app stores refused to cut off access for days.

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The latest estimates show that perhaps millions were harmed in the days immediately after Elon Musk promoted Grok's undressing feature on his own X feed by posting a pic of himself in a bikini.

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Over just 11 days after Musk's post, Grok sexualized more than 3 million images, of which 23,000 were of children, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) estimated in research published Thursday.

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+ It took Android devicemakers a very long time to commit to long-term update support. Samsung and Google have only recently decided to offer seven years of updates for their flagship Android devices, but a decade ago, you were lucky to get more than one or two updates on even the most expensive Android phones and tablets. How is it, then, that an Android-powered set-top box from 2015 is still going strong?

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Nvidia released the first Shield Android TV in 2015, and according to the company's senior VP of hardware engineering, Andrew Bell, supporting these devices has been a labor of love. And the team at Nvidia still loves the Shield. Bell assures us that Nvidia has never given up, even when it looked like support for the Shield was waning, and it doesn't plan to stop any time soon.

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The soul of Shield

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Gaming has been central to Nvidia since its start, and that focus gave rise to the Shield. "Pretty much everybody who worked at Nvidia in the early days really wanted to make a game console," said Bell, who has worked at the company for 25 years.

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- 126 + 160 - - -Leon Neal / Staff | Getty Images NewsA post by Elon Musk on the X app, showing an AI prompt-created image, made with xAI's Grok app, depicting Musk wearing a bikini. + + +Ryan WhitwamThe Shield TV has that classic Nvidia aesthetic.
- Google begins offering free SAT practice tests powered by Gemini - https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/01/google-begins-offering-free-sat-practice-tests-powered-by-gemini/ - https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/01/google-begins-offering-free-sat-practice-tests-powered-by-gemini/#comments + Having that high-deductible health plan might kill you, literally + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/having-that-high-deductible-health-plan-might-kill-you-literally/ + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/having-that-high-deductible-health-plan-might-kill-you-literally/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 20:46:10 +0000 - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/01/google-begins-offering-free-sat-practice-tests-powered-by-gemini/ + Thu, 29 Jan 2026 23:22:58 +0000 + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/01/having-that-high-deductible-health-plan-might-kill-you-literally/ - + - It's no secret that students worldwide use AI chatbots to do their homework and avoid learning things. On the flip side, students can also use AI as a tool to beef up their knowledge and plan for the future with flashcards or study guides. Google hopes its latest Gemini feature will help with the latter. The company has announced that Gemini can now create free SAT practice tests and coach students to help them get higher scores.

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As a standardized test, the content of the SAT follows a predictable pattern. So there's no need to use a lengthy, personalized prompt to get Gemini going. Just say something like, "I want to take a practice SAT test," and the chatbot will generate one complete with clickable buttons, graphs, and score analysis.

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Of course, generative AI can go off the rails and provide incorrect information, which is a problem when you're trying to learn things. However, Google says it has worked with education firms like The Princeton Review to ensure the AI-generated tests resemble what students will see in the real deal.

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+ Having a health insurance plan with a high deductible could not only cost you—it could also kill you.

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A new study in JAMA Network Open found that people who faced those high out-of-pocket costs as well as a cancer diagnosis had worse overall survival and cancer-specific survival than those with more standard health plans.

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The findings, while perhaps not surprising, are a stark reminder of the fraught decisions Americans face as the price of health care only continues to rise and more people try to offset costs by accepting insurance plans with higher deductibles—that is, higher out-of-pocket costs they have to pay before their health insurance provider starts paying its share.

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- 45 + 262 - - -Google + + +Getty | krisanapong detraphiphat
- Check out the first trailer for Masters of the Universe - https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/01/check-out-the-first-trailer-for-masters-of-the-universe/ - https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/01/check-out-the-first-trailer-for-masters-of-the-universe/#comments + US spy satellite agency declassifies high-flying Cold War listening post + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/us-spy-satellite-agency-declassifies-high-flying-cold-war-listening-post/ + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/us-spy-satellite-agency-declassifies-high-flying-cold-war-listening-post/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:18:34 +0000 - - - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/01/check-out-the-first-trailer-for-masters-of-the-universe/ + Thu, 29 Jan 2026 23:07:05 +0000 + + + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/us-spy-satellite-agency-declassifies-high-flying-cold-war-listening-post/ - + -
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Ars readers of a certain age no doubt remember the 1980s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series (and its spinoff, She-Ra: Princess of Powers) and the many, many offshoots of this hugely popular Mattel franchise, including an extensive line of action figures. Amazon MGM Studios no doubt hopes to cash in on any lingering nostalgia with its forthcoming film, Masters of the Universe. Judging by the extended teaser trailer, we're getting an origin story for He-Man.

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It's not the first time someone has turned He-Man into a feature film: Dolph Lundgren starred in 1987's Masters of the Universe, a critical and box office bomb that also featured Frank Langella as arch-villain Skeletor. Its poor reception might have stemmed from the 1987 film deviating significantly from the original cartoon, angering fans. But frankly, it was just a bad, cheesy movie, though it still has its share of cult fans today.

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This latest big-screen live-action adaptation has been languishing in development hell for nearly two decades. There were rumors in 2007 that John Woo would direct a He-Man feature for Warner Bros., but the project never got the green light. Sony Pictures gained the rights in 2009, and there were multiple script rewrites and much shuffling of possible directors (with John Chu, McG, and David S. Goyer among the candidates).

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+ The National Reconnaissance Office, the agency overseeing the US government's fleet of spy satellites, has declassified a decades-old program used to eavesdrop on the Soviet Union's military communication signals.

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The program was codenamed Jumpseat, and its existence was already public knowledge through leaks and contemporary media reports. What's new is the NRO's description of the program's purpose and development and pictures of the satellites themselves.

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In a statement, the NRO called Jumpseat "the United States’ first-generation, highly elliptical orbit (HEO) signals-collection satellite."

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- 186 + 65 - - -YouTube/Amazon MGM Studios + + +National Reconnaissance OfficeA declassified artist's illustration of a Jumpseat satellite in space.
- Blue Origin makes impressive strides with reuse—next launch will refly booster - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/blue-origin-makes-impressive-strides-with-reuse-next-launch-will-refly-booster/ - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/blue-origin-makes-impressive-strides-with-reuse-next-launch-will-refly-booster/#comments + People complaining about Windows 11 hasn't stopped it from hitting 1 billion users + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/windows-11-has-hit-1-billion-users-just-a-hair-faster-than-windows-10-did/ + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/windows-11-has-hit-1-billion-users-just-a-hair-faster-than-windows-10-did/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:49:24 +0000 - - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/blue-origin-makes-impressive-strides-with-reuse-next-launch-will-refly-booster/ + Thu, 29 Jan 2026 22:46:59 +0000 + + + + + + https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/01/windows-11-has-hit-1-billion-users-just-a-hair-faster-than-windows-10-did/ - + - Blue Origin confirmed Thursday that the next launch of its New Glenn rocket will carry a large communications satellite into low-Earth orbit for AST SpaceMobile.

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The rocket will launch the next-generation Block 2 BlueBird satellite "no earlier than late February" from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

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However, the update from Blue Origin appears to have buried the real news toward the end: "The mission follows the successful NG-2 mission, which included the landing of the 'Never Tell Me The Odds' booster. The same booster is being refurbished to power NG-3," the company said.

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+ Complaining about Windows 11 is a popular sport among tech enthusiasts on the Internet, whether you're publicly switching to Linux, publishing guides about the dozens of things you need to do to make the OS less annoying, or getting upset because you were asked to sign in to an app after clicking a sign-in button.

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Despite the negativity surrounding the current version of Windows, it remains the most widely used operating system on the world's desktop and laptop computers, and people usually prefer to stick to what they're used to. As a result, Windows 11 has just cleared a big milestone—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on the company's most recent earnings call (via The Verge) that Windows 11 now has over 1 billion users worldwide.

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Windows 11 also reached that milestone just a few months quicker than Windows 10 did—1,576 days after its initial public launch on October 5, 2021. Windows 10 took 1,692 days to reach the same milestone, based on its July 29, 2015, general availability date and Microsoft's announcement on March 16, 2020.

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- 66 + 227 - - -AST SpaceMobileBlueBird satellites will provide direct-to-cell connectivity. + + +Microsoft
- Google adds your Gmail and Photos to AI Mode to enable "Personal Intelligence" - https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/01/google-ai-mode-can-now-customize-responses-with-your-email-and-photos/ - https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/01/google-ai-mode-can-now-customize-responses-with-your-email-and-photos/#comments + How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path? + https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/how-often-do-ai-chatbots-lead-users-down-a-harmful-path/ + https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/how-often-do-ai-chatbots-lead-users-down-a-harmful-path/#comments - + - Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:35:41 +0000 + Thu, 29 Jan 2026 22:05:59 +0000 - + - - - - - https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/01/google-ai-mode-can-now-customize-responses-with-your-email-and-photos/ + + + + https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/how-often-do-ai-chatbots-lead-users-down-a-harmful-path/ - + - Google believes AI is the future of search, and it's not shy about saying it. After adding account-level personalization to Gemini earlier this month, it's now updating AI Mode with so-called "Personal Intelligence." According to Google, this makes the bot's answers more useful because they are tailored to your personal context.

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Starting today, the feature is rolling out to all users who subscribe to Google AI Pro or AI Ultra. However, it will be a Labs feature that needs to be explicitly enabled (subscribers will be prompted to do this). Google tends to expand access to new AI features to free accounts later on, so free users will most likely get access to Personal Intelligence in the future. Whenever this option does land on your account, it's entirely optional and can be disabled at any time.

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If you decide to integrate your data with AI Mode, the search bot will be able to scan your Gmail and Google Photos. That's less extensive than the Gemini app version, which supports Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history. Gmail will probably be the biggest contributor to AI Mode—a great many life events involve confirmation emails. Traditional search results when you are logged in are adjusted based on your usage history, but this goes a step further.

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+ At this point, we've all heard plenty of stories about AI chatbots leading users to harmful actions, harmful beliefs, or simply incorrect information. Despite the prevalence of these stories, though, it's hard to know just how often users are being manipulated. Are these tales of AI harms anecdotal outliers or signs of a frighteningly common problem?

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Anthropic took a stab at answering that question this week, releasing a paper studying the potential for what it calls "disempowering patterns" across 1.5 million anonymized real-world conversations with its Claude AI model. While the results show that these kinds of manipulative patterns are relatively rare as a percentage of all AI conversations, they still represent a potentially large problem on an absolute basis.

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A rare but growing problem

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In the newly published paper "Who’s in Charge? Disempowerment Patterns in Real-World LLM Usage," researchers from Anthropic and the University of Toronto try to quantify the potential for a specific set of "user disempowering" harms by identifying three primary ways that a chatbot can negatively impact a user's thoughts or actions:

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- 133 + 80 - - -Google + + +Getty ImagesWake up, sheeple!
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