Tootfinder

Researchers at OpenAI, Anthropic, and others are studying LLMs like living things, not just software, to uncover some of their secrets for the first time (Will Douglas Heaven/MIT Technology Review)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/1

Meet the new biologists treating LLMs like aliens
By studying large language models as if they were living things instead of computer programs, scientists are discovering some of their secrets for the first time.

Falls jemand hier im Bereich Software Entwicklung / Prototyping unterwegs ist, in Berlin wohnt (oder wohnen wollen würde) und nen Job sucht, wir haben gerade openings. (Nicht nur die explizit ausgeschriebene Junior Stelle, auch Seniors könnten relevant sein) https://artcom.de/?job_description=jun…

An international group is organizing an observing campaign through the Citizen Science Working Group of the #LUMIO mission: LUMIO is an ESA space mission to observe lunar #impact flashes (LIFs) from space, on the lunar far side (#Geminid meteoroid stream, 13-15 Dec 2025. During the maximum of the stream, the number of visible impact flashes will be higher than during non-shower times, therefore there is a good chance of detecting at least some impact flashes.
Observations can be made using moderately-sized telescopes and a video camera. On the website https://lif.mi.imati.cnr.it/home_page.php there are now a recording of a thorough talk about the project and its slides at https://lif.mi.imati.cnr.it/open_item_page.php?item_idk=LDB-000000001 and slides about the preferred analysis software ALFI at https://lif.mi.imati.cnr.it/open_item_page.php?item_idk=LDB-000000002 -if you want to join in the LGC please sign on by 21 November.

Trump's AI EO directs federal agencies to look into withholding federal funding for states that introduce "burdensome" AI regulations (Gerrit De Vynck/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/11/trump-executive-ord…

Trump defies GOP critics by signing controversial order threatening states over AI laws
Trump’s latest executive order attempts to punish states that regulate artificial intelligence technology, a policy that has triggered division in the GOP.

Investigation: Google removed AI Overviews for two liver health queries after expert inaccuracy warnings, but slight keyword tweaks still trigger AI responses (Andrew Gregory/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/11…

Google DeepMind launches an enhanced Gemini Deep Research agent accessible to developers via its new Interactions API, along with a new DeepSearchQA benchmark (The Keyword)
https://blog.google/technology/developers/deep-research-agent-gemini-api/

Build with Gemini Deep Research
We have reimagined Gemini Deep Research to be more powerful than ever, now accessible to developers via the new Interactions API.

Sources: Meta plans to lay off ~10% of its 15,000-person Reality Labs division, disproportionately affecting those working on VR headsets and Horizon Worlds (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/technology/meta-layoffs-reality-labs.html

Meta Plans to Cut 10% to 15% of Employees in Reality Labs Business
The layoffs are set to be announced this week and would affect Meta’s work on the metaverse, as the company spends heavily on building artificial intelligence.

xAI partners with El Salvador to deploy Grok across 5,000 public schools, reaching 1M students in an "AI-powered education program" over the next two years (Dara Kerr/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/11/elon-musk-el-salva…

An analysis of 47,000 publicly shared ChatGPT conversations: ~10% related to emotional or mental health, ChatGPT exhibits a "default to yes" behavior, and more (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/11/12/how-people-use-ch…

We analyzed 47,000 ChatGPT conversations. Here’s what people really use it for.
What do people ask the popular chatbot? We analyzed thousands of chats to identify common topics discussed by users and patterns in ChatGPT’s responses.

A look at Cybathlon, an event by ETH Zurich where researchers team up with people with disabilities in a competition to test brain-computer interfaces (Oliver Whang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/scien…

At the Cybathlon, May the Best Brain-Computer Interface Win
Every four years at the Cybathlon, teams of researchers and technology “pilots” compete to see whose brain-computer interface holds the most promise.