Ep.13 - Tech News Today - 07-18-2026 cover art

Ep.13 - Tech News Today - 07-18-2026

Ep.13 - Tech News Today - 07-18-2026

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A power outage affecting thousands of utility customers prompted Waymo to temporarily adjust service in San Francisco. Riders received notices saying regular service and freeway routes were unavailable while the company monitored conditions. Moonshot AI has launched Kimi K3 as an open-source model. The company says its evaluations showed frontier-level performance, although it still trails the strongest proprietary systems. Independent benchmarks also ranked it competitively among leading models. Honda is removing the Prologue from its U.S. lineup. The decision follows a broader retreat from some electric models as automakers contend with weaker domestic sales, tariffs, shifting priorities, and the end of the federal tax credit. The Justice Department reportedly advised executive-branch agencies that they may allow TikTok on official devices at their discretion. The change followed the transfer of the app's U.S. operations to a joint venture backed by Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. A 600-mile drive in a non-Tesla electric vehicle included dependable fast chargers and only brief stops. Compared with a similar journey three years earlier, the experience points to wider improvements in charging availability and reliability. The Stardust period-tracking app allegedly sent reproductive-health details to an analytics provider that was not identified in its privacy policy. By contrast, the nonprofit-run Euki app kept health information on the user's device and received the highest privacy score. Gemini usage is now metered by the computing demands of each request instead of a fixed request count. Model choice, prompt complexity, and subscription tier can all affect how quickly users reach their limits. A security experiment placed guardrail-triggering text inside simulated cloud secrets to interfere with AI-assisted attacks. Across 152 attack runs involving five AI models, the technique sharply reduced successful privilege escalation and persistence. Leaked hardware details suggest Google's Pixel 11a will pair the current-generation Tensor G6 chip with a MediaTek M90 modem. The combination could help reduce the battery drain and dropped-signal problems associated with earlier Tensor devices. Google is making the raw OBJ files for its Noto 3D emoji available to developers and creators. The models can be reused in virtual-reality worlds, independent applications, and other projects. Flock Safety chief executive Garrett Langley has apologized for previously calling critics and the Deflock camera-mapping group terrorists. He also acknowledged that opponents have valid concerns about the company's license-plate-reader network. A federal pilot across six states is testing artificial intelligence in the medical prior-authorization process. Supporters say automation could accelerate straightforward approvals, while physicians warn that it may increase wrongful denials without transparency and clinical oversight.

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