IBM’s worst day, brought to you by the AI boom
On July 14, IBM had the worst day in its history. Its stock fell about 25 percent and roughly $69 billion in value vanished in…
Category: Technology
How to control your lights with your voice
You get up in the middle of the night, still half asleep. The room is completely dark. Now where is the lamp? You can call forth light. A smart plug or a…
When the warehouse robot speaks your language
Until recently, putting a warehouse robot to work meant programming it through special software. Amazon’s newest machine simply needs to be told what to…
Why more robots can mean more injuries
Adding robots to a warehouse sounds like a clear win for safety. The surprise, according to reviews of federal injury data, is that the buildings packed…
State of the Assistants The second great voice-assistant war
Siri turned 15 this year. Alexa is 12. Google Assistant is 10. For a decade, they sold us a vision: an always-on digital helper that would run your home….
Will Siri ever get smart? Apple makes a billion-dollar bet
When Siri finally gets a brain, that brain will mostly be Google’s. For two years, Apple has been promising that Siri would get a brain. The announcement…
Alexa+: From kitchen clock to AI assistant, sort of
Amazon was the company that put a voice assistant in 200 million American homes. It was also the company that watched ChatGPT eat its lunch. In February…
Gemini: Google nixes retrofit
Rather than retrofit Google Assistant with AI, Google is killing Google Assistant. In October 2025, Google began rolling out Gemini for Home to its smart…
The floppy disk passed away 50 years ago
The 5.25-inch floppy disk, introduced in 1976 by Shugart Associates, turns 50 this year, though it hasn’t been able to celebrate in person for quite some…
China’s sun gets hotter
Scientists at China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, mercifully nicknamed EAST, have shattered a fusion barrier that physicists once…