Last August, as the internet piled on Cracker Barrel over its new “modern” logo, something even stranger was unfolding at Steak ’n Shake. For one week, the chain’s X account didn’t try to sell a single burger. Instead, it attacked Cracker Barrel’s “destruction of shareholder value,” alongside other financial grievances. It sold $20 red MAGA-style hats bearing the words “Fire Cracker Barrel CEO,” and drew attention to a billboard near Cracker Barrel’s Nashville headquarters that Steak ’n Shake had secured, repeating the line. Days later, Cracker Barrel admitted defeat. The logo reverted. The internet moved on. Steak ’n Shake did…
Author: Staff Writer
OpenAI on Thursday released its most capable AI system, GPT-5.5, which the company says will enable a more powerful Codex coding agent. OpenAI is quick to say, however, that GPT-5.5 will power the widening set of general digital work tasks that Codex is capable of. The system is significantly better than previous releases at helping with scientific work, including creative aspects of generating new hypotheses and testing them. The system represents an improvement in autonomous or agentic capability. GPT-5.5 “represents a step toward AI systems that can complete complex, multistep tasks on a computer without human guidance,” OpenAI says in…
I have said many times that interest rates do not lead inflation but react to it, and what we are seeing in Turkey right now is a central bank attempting to hold the line as external pressures rise, because the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey has kept its benchmark rate at 37% while warning that inflation risks are increasing again, largely due to geopolitical tensions and rising energy costs tied to the Iran conflict. This decision is not a sign of stability, but rather a reflection of constraint, because inflation in Turkey remains elevated above 30%, and the…
Lowe’s Home Improvement is facing pressure to cut ties with Flock Safety, the surveillance company that makes cameras, drones, and automated license plate readers (ALPRs). The pressure comes amid reports that Flock data has been used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and even aided in an investigation of a woman who had an abortion, driving fears about a mass surveillance state. In August, 404 Media reported that Flock cameras stationed outside of Lowe’s and The Home Depot “are being fed into a massive surveillance system that law enforcement can access.” The story cited records obtained by EFF. In an…
The Pentagon has requested $54 billion for artificial intelligence–driven warfare, a figure that dwarfs prior allocations and signals a decisive shift in how conflicts will be conducted going forward. This is a restructuring of warfare, where autonomous systems are being positioned to operate across air, land, and sea, replacing traditional deployments with machine-driven execution at scale. CIA director David Petraeus said it was “the largest single commitment to autonomous warfare in history.” As the Guardian noted, $54 billion is an astounding figure that amounts to half of the UK’s entire defense budget. What stands out immediately is the pace, because…
Over the past year, a quiet shift has been unfolding across the internet. A growing wave of AI-generated news and content sites has flooded search results. Many of them are technically accurate, cleanly written, and structurally sound, yet they feel strangely interchangeable. A recent analysis by NewsGuard identified more than 1,000 AI-driven content farms producing articles at scale, often without original reporting, perspective, or voice. The information is there. But something essential is missing. It is not accuracy or clarity; it is a point of view. That absence points to a deeper question: If everyone is using the same models,…
There was a time when your photo album sat in a drawer, private, personal, and disconnected from the outside world. Privacy no longer exists in the modern world as personal data will become the key tool of control, and now Google is taking the next step by turning your memories into fuel for artificial intelligence. According to a recent report, Google has rolled out a major update to its Photos platform that allows its AI system, Gemini, to scan your entire photo library to build what it calls “Personal Intelligence.” What this means in plain English is that your…
After-work drinks are a nice way to bond with colleagues in your 20s and 30s. But, as people get older, different circumstances can necessitate more planning, and new avenues for making friends at work. Take Olga Valadon, 54, whose last corporate role was as chief of staff at Deloitte. “Both I and the people I became friends with faced different pressures, whether from work or family commitments,” says Valadon. “We were running around all day chasing our tail to fulfill these needs, often leaving too little time or energy for anything that was just for us.” It’s no surprise that,…
From software engineers to nontechnical staff, Google has urged its employees to fully embrace AI. And it seems like the push to use the tech has resulted in a major productivity leap. In a Wednesday blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that three-quarters of the company’s new code is AI-generated. “We’ve been using AI to generate code internally at Google for a while,” Pichai said. “Today, 75% of all new code at Google is now AI-generated and approved by engineers, up from 50% last fall. “We’re now shifting to truly agentic workflows. Our engineers are orchestrating fully autonomous digital…
Modern brides need something old, new, borrowed, and blue. But if they’re influencers, add a sponsor to the list, too. Paid sponsored content is commonplace for anyone who scrolls through an influencer’s social media posts, where you might encounter anything from a lavish vacation to new products to try. But a recent viral discussion on social media has users questioning if the practice has gone too far. “Just saw someone posting their wedding on IG,” a user posted to X, alongside a screenshot of an Instagram quote from content creator Jaz Smith. “The 1st slide was them and the second…