Daily
10 selected stories for 2026-07-13, grouped by topic. The rest is folded into the archive.
This essay explores the critical role of 'useless' research in enabling future innovations. Using Folk Computer as a case study, the author traces a lineage from Xerox PARC to Dynamicland, and argues for funding paradigm-level work before it becomes useful.
OpenAI's AI agent solved all five problems in the AtCoder Algorithm Division for 8,300 points; the top human scored 4,300. No human solved problems C or E. In the Heuristic Division, AI scored more than seven times the best human result. The 600,000-yen 'Humanity Prevails Award' went unclaimed. The system was described as comparable to GPT-5.6.
Soulless is a community-driven project that exposes AI-generated artists on Spotify. It lists 232 detected AI artists with monthly listeners and estimated earnings. It also provides an open-source AI music detector and a curated landscape of AI music resources.
In a roundtable discussion, writers and cultural critics explore the profound implications of AI on language, creativity, and society. They note that AI both sharpens and dulls linguistic abilities, and may clarify the boundary between machine and soul. Despite anxieties, AI offers opportunities in research, accessibility, and diagnostics.
Microsoft is testing PC Insights, a new Copilot feature that analyzes system resource usage to help users identify performance bottlenecks. However, Copilot itself is a full web app with a private Edge instance, consuming up to 1GB RAM at idle, highlighting the irony. The feature is opt-in and requires user permission.
Apple's self-driving car program never really got off the ground, but it may have been what made the company's chips the powerful AI performers they are. Early in the development of the self-driving platform, Apple realized that it would need powerful on-device AI processing. While the car processor was never finished, as Mark Gurman details in his latest Power On newsletter, it did lead to the development of the Neural Engine, the backbone of Apple's on-device AI processing. The Neural Engine made its debut with the iPhone X and the A11 Bionic. In those early days, it was primarily used for computer vision, powering FaceID, Animoji, and a … Read the full story at The Verge.
The author evaluated GPT-5.6 Sol, Fable 5, Grok 4.5, and other AI models on a benchmark called Basecamp Bench, testing their ability to build a frontend and backend from the same specification. Fable 5 won both tracks, while Grok 4.5 offered the best speed-cost tradeoff. Results show significant differences in polish and completeness, especially in the final 10% of work.
Researchers have compiled a database of over 3,000 bank runs from 1863-1934, revealing that most runs did not lead to failure, and analyzing geographic and temporal patterns.
Samsung Health now requires users to consent to using their health data for AI training, or lose the ability to sync data, potentially rendering the app and Galaxy Watch less useful.
Many developers fail to maximize automatic programming because they still focus on code, making themselves the bottleneck. Time should be invested in new ideas, QA, design, and clarifying goals.