Inside the Man vs. Machine Hackathon Summary On a breezy San Francisco afternoon a weekend hackathon called Model Behavior gathered more than 100 coders to see whether human teams could beat teams using AI agents for a $12,500 prize. The event pitted human-only groups against human+AI teams to test productivity and problem-solving under time pressure. […]
The Download: AI’s energy future Summary MIT Technology Review has released a short video to accompany a deep investigation into how much energy the AI industry consumes — down to estimates per query. The piece highlights that data-centre electricity use jumped about 80% between 2020 and 2025 and is set to rise further as billions […]
Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort breaks ground on $1 billion arena project Summary The Grand Sierra Resort (GSR) in Reno will hold a private groundbreaking ceremony on 30 September for a planned $1 billion arena development, following approval of a tax increment financing (TIF) package earlier this year. The arena is planned to seat 10,000, include […]
How do AI models generate videos? Summary The article explains the current technical stack behind AI video generation, centred on latent diffusion transformers. It breaks down diffusion models (which learn to reverse noise to create images), latent diffusion (working in compressed “latent” space to cut compute), and the role of transformers to maintain temporal consistency […]
Melania Trump’s AI Era Is Upon Us Summary Melania Trump, long notable for her relative absence from public life, is re-emerging with a brief to provide thought leadership on artificial intelligence — specifically aimed at children and education. The move has attracted a mix of enthusiasm from some insiders and deep scepticism from others, with […]
The Download: America’s gun crisis, and how AI video models work Summary This edition of The Download pulls together several major items: a critique of the Trump administration’s child-health strategy for ignoring gun violence, an explainer on how modern AI video generators operate and why they matter, and a roundup of other notable tech stories […]
Schulman Properties secures approval for 21-story condo-hotel in downtown Las Vegas Summary Schulman Properties has won planning approval from the Las Vegas Planning Commission to build the 21-storey Eterno Hotel on a six-acre site at 1003 Iron Horse Court, near Charleston Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway. Groundbreaking is planned for January 2026 and completion is […]
Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt Summary This weekly roundup highlights the top insightful and funniest comments from Techdirt readers. Standouts include MrWilson’s observations on the risks of walling off the open internet and comments about attempts to hide booing of public figures at major events. The piece also showcases editor’s picks across […]
Newly Granted Nintendo Patents An ‘Embarrassing Failure’ By The USPTO, Says Patent Attorney Summary Timothy Geigner reports that Nintendo has been granted two recent US patents (US 12,409,387 and US 12,403,397) covering gameplay mechanics — one for riding/flying systems and another for summoning and battling with “sub-characters.” Patent lawyer Kirk Sigmon calls the approvals an […]
Aristocrat appoints former Light & Wonder executive Dylan Slaney as Interactive CEO Summary Aristocrat Leisure has named Dylan Slaney, formerly head of Light & Wonder’s iGaming business, as Chief Executive Officer of its Interactive division. Slaney will take up the role on 3 November 2025, subject to regulatory approvals, and succeeds Moti Malul who will […]
