I have spent most of my career building systems designed to optimize. For years, optimization meant something disciplined. You defined the objective function, bounded the problem, set KPIs, then ...

Amanda Smith is a freelance journalist and writer. She reports on culture, society, human interest and technology. Her stories hold a mirror to society, reflecting both its malaise and its beauty.

American workers have embraced artificial intelligence at a remarkable pace over the past few years, according to a new Gallup poll that highlights how AI tools have become embedded in daily work ...

People who interact with chatbots for emotional support or other personal reasons are likelier to report symptoms of depression or anxiety, a new study finds. The researchers from Mass General Brigham ...

She needed a moo-sage. Utilizing implements isn’t limited to primates and brainiac birds. A brown cow named Veronika was documented using tools with impressive skill for the first time ever, ...

Around ten years ago, an organic farmer and baker in a small Austrian town noticed that his pet cow would use sticks to scratch herself. The cow, named Veronika, also appeared to refine her technique ...

A deck brush can be a good tool for the right task. Just ask Veronika, the Brown Swiss cow. Veronika uses both ends of a deck brush to scratch various parts of her body, researchers report January 19 ...

In news that is sure to delight fans of a certain Gary Larson cartoon turned meme about the limitations of bovine cognition, cow tools are real. Larson’s 1982 comic for his series The Far Side showed ...

Exclamation marks, ellipses and ‘haha’ can’t fix our growing inability to communicate. By Nitsuh Abebe “How Many Exclamation Points Are Too Many in an Email? A Psychologist Weighs In.” A psychologist!

PCWorld reports that Microsoft’s Copilot AI holds only 1.1% of the web AI market share, declining from 1.5% over the past year. ChatGPT dominates with 64.5% market share while Google’s Gemini has ...

Travis Kelce is rolling in love—and Taylor Swift’s homemade dough. While reflecting on popular Christmas gift ideas, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end revealed he gave his fiancée a present inspired by ...

In mid-December 2025, an image (archived) circulated online purportedly showing U.S. President Donald Trump using a walker as a mobility aid. Keith Edwards, a Democratic political strategist, posted ...