Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over the tech industry to the point where even someone who isn't interested in the developments of technology has heard the term "AI".

AI, or machine learning, has been around for quite some time but just wasn't a popular engineering term. Nonetheless, developers and engineers have been using machine learning in various ways for many years now, and one industry in particular, space exploration, adopted the technology as soon as it was possible as it enabled rovers and landers to carry out landings and surface movement autonomously.

NASA's Perseverance rover is one of these off-world rovers, and for the past three years, it has been testing out an AI that enables the rover to search for and identify specific minerals and rocks embedded in the surface of Mars. The system uses an instrument called the "Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL)," which is a spectrometer that uses light to identify the composition of a rock.

During Tesla's annual shareholders meeting company CEO Elon Musk touched on the highly anticipated humanoid robot currently being developed at Tesla, and how much money is expected to be generated from its public release.

The news on Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus has been released in drips and drabs, with the last big update surfacing in December last year when Tesla unveiled its new generation of Optimus robots that introduced a range of improvements compared to its predecessors. Since then, we haven't really got any new information on Optimus besides the shirt-folding video that Musk clarified isn't a representation of what Optimus can do right now autonomously but certainly will be able to do in the future without a specific environment.

Musk has recently touched on Optimus during Tesla's annual shareholders meeting, where he said he expects limited Optimus production to begin in 2025, and the first batch of "thousands" humanoid robots will be moved into Tesla factories to begin work by the end of the year. Musk also said hypothetically, the sales of Optimus robots, which are priced anywhere between $20,000 and $30,000, could increase Tesla's market capitalization by as much as $20 trillion.

After many months of ambiguity, Intel believes it has identified the problem causing instability on its high-end CPUs.

Reports have been surfacing for many months now of users experiencing instability problems with 13th and 14th Gen Intel CPUs, of which the cause has alluded Intel, or at least the public, for quite some time. In April, Intel launched an investigation into the instability reports, and in May, the company issued guidance to motherboard partners to set new default settings for affected CPUs. These new settings restricted performance, particularly by restricting the maximum power draw of the CPU.

This bandaid fix appeared to work at first but later unfolded into more instability problems. The problem seemed to get worse when Alderon Games, an Australian-based developer, announced, "Intel is selling defective CPUs - specifically 13th and 14th Gen models". The developer claimed that affected Intel CPUs had a 100% failure rate over the 3 to 4 months of internal testing.

The world is still recovering from one of the biggest IT outages in history, which can be traced back to cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike.

But what actually caused the outage that Microsoft is saying affected 8.5 million Windows machines? Dave Plummer, a retired software engineer from Microsoft, took to his YouTube channel to explain how the outage happened in a condensed, extremely informative video. Plummer explains that an operating system uses a Ring system to differentiate code into two distinct types, Ring 0 (Kernel) and Ring 1 (User). Kernel mode is for the operating system itself, and user mode is where system applications run.

Kernel mode consists of tasks such as communicating with hardware and devices, managing memory, scheduling processes, and other core functionalities. Kernel code has a higher privilege than user code, and user code will never run in kernel mode, while kernel code will never run in user mode. Another important distinction between application code and kernel code is when application code crashes, just the application crashes, while if kernel code crashes the entire system crashes.

Intel has just launched AI Playground into beta, an open-source project for Windows desktop PCs that runs on systems with an Intel Core Ultra-H processor with integrated Arc Intel Graphics or a dedicated Intel arc GPU with at least 8GB of VRAM. Intel Core Ultra-H support is 'coming soon,' but if you've got an Arc GPU, you can download and fire up AI Playground right now.

So, you're probably wondering what AI Playground is all about. It's described as an 'AI PC starter app' designed to make working with AI easy and flexible. Upon startup, you'll be provided with a list of various models to download and use, or you can provide one of your own. Advanced users will be able to tweak settings to customize the experience.

AI Playground runs locally, allowing users to generate images from text prompts at various resolutions, use AI to enhance or upscale images, or even change their style. AI chatbot functionality can also be called on to answer questions or summarize documents. If this sounds like Microsoft's Copilot+ features, you're on the right track. Apart from the whole "take screenshots of everything you do on your PC" part.

Forza Motorsport launched in 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles, marking the long-running racing series' first 'next-gen' entry built with advanced visuals on a new engine with real-time ray-tracing. However, the launch-day version did not match pre-release footage or screenshots, and many concluded that the game's visuals were downgraded.

A new mod for the game reinforces this. It takes files from an unused folder to replace ones in the 'Ultra' visual mode folder to add ray-traced global illumination or RTGI to the game, increase the level of detail, expand the draw distance, and turn flat ground textures into full 3D grass with foliage. It's not so much a mod that it is a copy-paste.

As detailed in a new video by Digital Foundry, the hidden visual mode offers impressive upgrades to the game's appearance, with more realistic lighting that adds depth and detail to environments.

NVIDIA is reportedly working on a different version of its flagship Blackwell AI GPUs for the Chinese market that would adhere to strict US export controls. That new AI GPU would be the B20 AI GPU.

NVIDIA unveiled its fleet of Blackwell B100, B200, and GB200 AI chips earlier this year, with B200 being over 30x faster in some AI workloads than Hopper H100, but they're far too powerful to be allowed into China. However, a cut-down B20 AI GPU is reportedly in the works, which sticks under the metrics of US export regulations and is destined for China in Q2 2025.

In a new report from Reuters, we're learning that NVIDIA is reportedly preparing the B20 AI GPU for China. Their sources declined to be identified as NVIDIA has "yet to make a public statement." A spokesperson for NVIDIA declined to comment, too.

AMD is just days away from launching its new Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" APUs in a fleet of new AI PC laptops, but the beefier "Strix Halo" APU has now been benched, teasing its upgraded performance chops.

The results are coming from the Geekbench 5 database where a purported ES (engineering sample) processor, the "Strix Halo" APU, features 16 high-performance Zen 5 cores and up to 40 Compute Units based on the upgraded RDNA 3.5 GPU architecture.

Strix Point APUs will launch with 16 or 12 Compute Units based on the same RDNA 3.5 GPU, but Strix Halo will deliver gaming performance to laptops at a level not seen before on an APU.

GIGABYTE has teased its upcoming AORUS Z890 PRO ICE motherboard with a leaked PCB, gearing us up for the big launch of Intel's next-gen Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake" CPUs.

In a new post on X by leaker "9550pro" posted a picture on his account of an early PCB of GIGABYTE's upcoming AORUS Z890 motherboard. In the photo, a particular portion of the motherboard shows us that Intel is indeed using the Z890 chipset (which hasn't been confirmed, only leaked) and the Core Ultra 200 series naming scheme for its upcoming CPUs, shifting the desktop chips away from the 14th Gen Core CPU naming scheme.

Multiple motherboard manufacturers have teased next-gen Z890 motherboard designs, but they had to hide the chipset name and CPU support because they're NDA bound by Intel's strong embargo. However, some boards did tease the socking naming and chipset naming convention.

One industry that experienced the brunt of the recent CrowdStrike global IT outage, which put millions of Windows systems into a Blue Screen of Death loop, was air travel. In the U.S., nearly every flight was grounded once systems began to fail; however, one major airline was unaffected.

According to reports, Southwest Airlines systems were untouched by the CrowdStrike error because its various systems run on outdated versions of Windows.

Outdated is putting it mildly. Most of Southwest Airlines' systems run on Windows 3.1 - a version of Microsoft's operating system from 1992. Not only that, but the airline's most advanced system, its staff scheduling system, runs on Windows 95 - so it, too, was unaffected.

Dyson is primarily known for creating high-quality cyclone vacuum cleaners, space-age fans, and hair dryers - but the company's latest product is a first for the company as it won't suck or blow. Jokes aside, the new $499 USD Dyson OnTrac headphones represent the company's first-ever audio-only device, noise-canceling headphones sporting a funky and unique design.

This isn't the company's first foray into audio. During the height of the global pandemic, Dyson announced a strange-looking mask, air filter, and headphone head that looked like leftovers from The Dark Knight Rises set. Dyson OnTrac is purely an audio device with a high-fidelity frequency response of 6Hz to 21kHz and noise-canceling that can reduce background noise by up to 40dB.

Dyson is touting "best in class noise-cancellation" for the OnTrac headphones, where the noise is canceled 384,000 times per second - with the headphones still delivering up to 55 hours of battery life with ANC turned on.

Elon Musk says the "woke mind virus" killed his son, Xavier Alexander Musk, after transitioning genders in June 2021, which was one of the driving reasons why the SpaceX and Tesla founder purchased Twitter and renamed it, X, recently.

This isn't the first time that Musk has talked about the "woke mind virus" but had plenty of say during an interview with Jordan Petersen and DW.

Musk criticized the use of puberty blockers, saying that they act as sterilization drugs. Puberty blocker medications are used to stop the onset of puberty, where they prevent the production of estrogen and testosterone, the hormones that cause the body to go through puberty-related changes naturally.

Sabrent wants to provide even more functionality to your lifestyle with a new Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station with Monitor Desk Mount, using a gas-lift arm that supports up to two monitors.

The new Thunderbolt 4 Docking Station with Monitor Desk Mount (DS-T4WA) docking station connects through the ultra-fast Thunderbolt 4 standard, delivering a Thunderbolt 4 downstream port that's joined by 4 USB ports (2 x 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen2x1, 1 x 10Gbps USB-A, and 1 x 5Gbps USB 3.2 Gen1x1)

Sabrent bakes in a UHS-II (312Mbps) microSD/SD card reader, a 3.5-inch audio in/out port, and gigabit ethernet (1GbE) for fast and reliable wired network connectivity. It's virtually got it all, and don't forget there's a monitor mount there, too.

EA Sports College Football 25 is a huge success with multiple millions of players buying into the lucrative early access period.

If recent trends are any indication, gaming giant Electronic Arts might deliver stellar Q2'25 numbers. According to a recent press release, EA's latest sports sensation College Football 25 has pulled in 2.2 million unique players in the 3-day period from early access launch on July 16 to July 19.

"Football fans have jumped at the chance to get in the game and play as their favorite college teams. 2.2 million unique players played College Football 25 during Early Access, with an additional 600,000 playing via the EA Play trial," reads the press release.

Microsoft plans to release Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox Game Pass in a matter of days, sources have told multiple trusted media.

The first Call of Duty is coming to Xbox Game Pass this week--Modern Warfare 3 is set to launch on Game Pass on July 24, sources have told Insider Gaming, Windows Central's Jez Corden, notable leaker eXtas1s, and the Xbox Era podcast.

The timing here is curious, especially within the context of 2023's FTC v. Microsoft federal trial. If Modern Warfare 3 does indeed drop on Game Pass this week, it will arrive shortly after a price hike for the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Microsoft recently announced it would be raising the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from $16.99 per month to $19.99 per month, a +17% increase ($3).

EA's latest College Football 25 has exploded on the console gaming charts, topping the PlayStation Store's best-sellers just days after release.

After 12 years, the triumphant return of collegiate football is here with EA Sports' College Football 25. The sports sensation has taken over gaming's largest console storefront, becoming #1 in both in the top 25 best-sellers and top 25 most-downloaded games on the PlayStation Store for July 21, 2024.

The trend is eye-opening as College Football 25 has pushed Fortnite out of the top spot on the PS Store--typically Epic's battle royale commands the #1 spot thanks to Fortnite's microtransactions. EA's dominance doesn't just end with the latest game, though: Among publishers, EA had 5 games on the top 25 best-sellers list, beating out Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive, and Microsoft. EA also had multiple higher-priced premium games including College Football 25 ($70), FC24 ($70), FC25 Ultimate Edition ($100), and Madden NFL25 ($100).

It looks like No Man's Sky will be among the first games to support Sony's mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro console at launch, new datamined information indicates.

References to Sony's upcoming PS5 Pro console have been found in No Man's Sky's latest World's Beyond update. The PS5 Pro's codename, Trinity, was spotted as a new graphical preset within the space sim's source code. The interesting tidbit was uncovered by dataminers and shared via No Man's Sky modder and reverse-engineering specialist @bomber_that on Twitter.

"Graphics Preset Options for "Trinity", the apparent internal codename for the PS5 Pro. Standard PS5 Graphics Preset for comparison," the modder wrote.

Windows 11 has been shown running on an Apple iPhone 15 Pro, and it's a pretty cool - if pointless - feat, one that was achieved with Tiny11.

Those familiar with the world of Windows will doubtless recognize Tiny11, the stripped-down version of Microsoft's desktop OS. So, how does this get installed on an iPhone?

Well, via the magic of emulation, as it's all thanks to the release of a new PC emulator, which has only just been approved for the Apple App Store last week.

Elon Musk has just powered on xAI's new supercomputer, powered by 100,000 x NVIDIA H100 AI GPUs worth up to $4 billion at its Memphis Supercluster, the "most powerful AI training cluster in the world".

Elon Musk took to X, posting: "Nice work by xAI team, X team, NVIDIA and supporting companies getting Memphis Supercluster training started at ~4:20am local time. With 100K liquid-cooled H100s on a single RDMA fabric, it's the most powerful AI training cluster in the world!"

NVIDIA's current-gen Hopper H100 80GB AI GPUs cost between $30,000 and $40,000 per AI GPU, so Elon Musk's investment with xAI and its $6 billion raised in May 2024 at a valuation of $24 billion, sees Musk's AI startup investing somewhere between 50% and 67% of its fundraising in purchasing NVIDIA's leading H100 AI GPUs.

After months of back-and-forth between Q4 2024 and a potential 2025 release for the next-gen Blackwell-powered GeForce RTX 50 Series from NVIDIA, it looks like the latter is going to be the case. Industry insider and leaker @kopite7kimi has taken to X to say they think we won't see the GeForce RTX 50 Series and the new RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 flagship combo until CES 2025.

After reports that AMD was going hold off until CES 2025 before announcing its plans for its next-generation Radeon RX 8000 Series line-up powered by RDNA 4, this news that NVIDIA could also be eyeing a January 2025 reveal in Las Vegas would make for quite the GPU showdown in the desert.

Albeit one where AMD's new flagship will be a mid-range refresh versus NVIDIA's next-gen RTX 4090 killer. For those of us looking forward to picking up a GeForce RTX 5090 this holiday season, this delay is disappointing.