Insight, Stripe, Expand Tech Partnership
Insight (NASDAQ: NSIT) announced an expanded global partnership with Stripe to modernize legacy financial systems and enable AI‑driven commerce for large enterprises. The collaboration blends Stripe’s programmable payments platform with Insight’s systems‑integration expertise, delivering end‑to‑end checkout, billing, subscription and agentic commerce solutions. A dedicated Stripe Center of Excellence staffed by over 100 certified architects will support Fortune 500 and FTSE modernization programs. Insight also launches a Device‑as‑a‑Service offering to manage Stripe Terminal deployments worldwide.
Accertify Names Dukat CEO, Adds to Leadership Team
Accertify announced Greg Dukat as its new chief executive officer, adding a seasoned technology leader to its ranks. Dukat, who previously led Revel Systems and other firms, will steer the company’s commercial strategy alongside President Mark Michelon. The announcement also...
Snap's SnapGen++ Generates High-Resolution AI Images on iPhone in Under Two Seconds
Snap Inc. unveiled SnapGen++, a 0.4 billion‑parameter diffusion‑transformer that creates 1024 × 1024‑pixel images on an iPhone 16 Pro Max in just 1.8 seconds. The model replaces the earlier U‑Net‑based SnapGen and introduces a novel attention scheme that slashes per‑step latency from 2,000 ms to under 300 ms. Using...
‘Today’s AI Models Are Missing Critical Capabilities’: Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis warned that today’s large language models still lack essential capabilities such as long‑term planning, continual learning, and a deep understanding of physics and causality. He argues that the next AI frontier lies in building “world...
Something Wild Happens to ChatGPT’s Responses When You’re Cruel To It
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania tested 50 questions across five tonal variations for ChatGPT‑4o and found that increasingly rude prompts improved answer accuracy, reaching 84.8 % for very rude prompts versus 80.8 % for very polite and 75.8 % for ultra‑polite. The...
Mint Explainer: How AI Is a Threat to the Reputation of Top Influencers and What Can Be Done About It?
Top Indian influencers have recently taken legal action against AI‑generated deepfakes that misuse their likenesses, ranging from obscene videos to unauthorized commercial ads. While the Delhi High Court secured takedowns for some creators, only podcaster Raj Shamani has obtained a...
Multiple Business Bank Accounts: A Smart Strategy for Organized and Scalable Finances
Businesses increasingly adopt multiple bank accounts to streamline growing transaction volumes and diverse revenue streams. By allocating separate accounts for operations, payroll, taxes, and savings, owners gain clearer visibility into cash flow and reduce accounting errors. This structure also simplifies...
Google Upgrades AI Overviews with Gemini 3 Pro for Complex Queries
Google is integrating its newest Gemini 3 Pro model into AI Overviews, the concise answer boxes that appear beneath search results. The system now intelligently routes complex queries to Gemini 3 Pro while delegating simpler questions to faster, less expensive...
Pay by Credit Card: A Convenient and Secure Payment Method
Paying by credit card remains a cornerstone of the digital economy, offering speed, flexibility, and robust security for both consumers and businesses. The method enables users to borrow funds, manage cash flow, and benefit from rewards programs, while merchants gain...
Free QR Code Generator: How to Create Custom QR Codes with Logo Online
QR codes have become a ubiquitous bridge between physical media and digital experiences, and free online generators now let anyone create them in minutes. The article outlines how tools like Pixluca’s free QR code generator enable instant code creation, full‑color...
Liberty Appoints Managing Director of Retail
Liberty has promoted Lydia King to managing director of retail, effective immediately. King, who joined the iconic department store in December 2023 and became group buying and merchandising director in January 2025, brings extensive experience from senior buying roles at...
Even the Best AI Models Fail at Visual Tasks Toddlers Handle Easily
A new BabyVision benchmark reveals that leading multimodal AI models struggle with basic visual tasks that toddlers master before speaking. The top model, Gemini‑3‑Pro‑Preview, achieved only 49.7% accuracy, far below the 94.1% score of adult humans and the average three‑year‑old...
Frasers Group Unifies Loyalty and Rewards Offering Under Frasers Plus
Frasers Group is consolidating its loyalty programmes by folding the Sports Direct Membership into its Frasers Plus platform, an FCA‑regulated credit account that spans the group’s portfolio and 16 partner retailers. The unified rewards system launches in February 2026, promising...
Lyten Expands Into Construction Materials with Graphene-Enhanced Concrete
Lyten announced Lyten S Cure™, a graphene‑enhanced concrete admixture that boosts early strength and durability without altering existing mix designs. The product delivers a 110% increase in one‑day compressive strength, 29% higher strength at seven days, and up to 20% improvement in...
Linking Popularity, Oxytocin Gene, and Emotional Insights
On January 18, 2026 Bioengineer.org published a suite of research highlights spanning immunotherapy, dermatology, bariatric health, drug policy, and alternative diesel fuels. The articles report that Actinomyces signals improve lung‑cancer immunotherapy response, while kaempferol protects skin cells from UVB damage....
Quantum Subsidiary ALA Préstamos Drives Financial Inclusion in Mexico Through Digital-First Credit Solutions
ALA Préstamos, Quantum’s Mexican fintech subsidiary, offers a fully digital credit platform that provides instant, collateral‑free loans to unbanked and underbanked consumers. Leveraging an AI‑driven underwriting engine, the service approves and disburses funds in about five minutes, cutting traditional processing time...
Astronomers Aim to Take ‘Revolutionary’ Moving Image of Black Hole
Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope will attempt to film the supermassive black hole at the core of Messier 87 during a March‑April 2026 campaign. By capturing a sequence of snapshots every three days, they aim to stitch together the first...
The Finanser’s Week: 12th January -18th January 2026
The Finanser’s weekly roundup highlights the upcoming release of the author’s new book, “Intelligent Bank,” which tackles the growing wealth divide and its potential to spark social upheaval. It critiques conventional remedies such as communism and wealth redistribution, arguing they...
NVIDIA Releases PersonaPlex-7B-V1: A Real-Time Speech-to-Speech Model Designed for Natural and Full-Duplex Conversations
NVIDIA unveiled PersonaPlex-7B-v1, a 7‑billion‑parameter full‑duplex speech‑to‑speech model that merges automatic speech recognition, language understanding, and text‑to‑speech into a single transformer. The dual‑stream architecture processes user audio and agent output concurrently, enabling barge‑in, overlapping speech, and rapid turn‑taking. Hybrid voice...
Parrot – Programs Coordinator NORTH AMERICA (F/M)
Parrot, a global leader in professional drone solutions, is hiring a Programs Coordinator for North America. The role bridges customer success, technical enablement, and programme delivery, guiding high‑value defence, law‑enforcement and enterprise clients through onboarding, deployment, training and ongoing operations....
Manna Software Engineer Airspace
Manna, a fast‑growing drone‑delivery startup, is hiring a Software Engineer for its Airspace team to build the core backend that powers routing, deconfliction, and real‑time airspace management. The role involves designing, implementing, and operating services in Java, C++, and Python,...
Schroders Capital Enhances Private Debt Capabilities with New Investment Director Appointment
Schroders Capital has appointed Brad Ross‑Williams as Investment Director for its Securitized Products and Asset‑Based Finance team, reinforcing its private debt capabilities. The hire adds a veteran with over 20 years in structured finance and investor relations, most recently at...
Casein-Manganese Ferrite Nanostructures Extract Carotenoids
Researchers have engineered casein‑manganese ferrite nanostructures that act as magnetic adsorbents for carotenoid extraction. The hybrid combines biodegradable casein with Mn‑ferrite’s magnetic responsiveness, enabling rapid separation and high recovery rates. Laboratory tests showed up to 85% yield from tomato and...
The Giants That Never Flew: A Deep Dive Into the Studied Derivatives of the Saturn V
The Saturn V, NASA’s iconic Moon‑rocket, spawned a suite of ambitious derivative concepts in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Studies explored uprated F‑1A and J‑2S engines, stretched tanks, massive solid‑rocket boosters, and advanced upper stages such as NERVA nuclear thermal...
Google Chrome Now Lets You Turn Off On-Device AI Model Powering Scam Detection
Google Chrome now lets users delete the on‑device AI model that powers the Enhanced Protection feature, which uses generative AI to detect scams, malicious downloads, and risky extensions. The toggle appears in Settings > System under “On‑device GenAI.” The capability is currently...
NASA's Artemis II Mission Clears Big Hurdle, Rolling Out to Launchpad
NASA’s Artemis II mission cleared a critical milestone on Tuesday as the Orion‑bound Space Launch System (SLS) completed its four‑mile rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39‑B at Kennedy Space Center. The move positions the rocket for final integration...
X Announces $1 Million Prize For Top X Article This Month
X announced a $1 million prize for the most popular long‑form article posted on the platform before Jan 30, targeting U.S. X Premium subscribers. The winning piece must be original, at least 1,000 words, and judged primarily on verified Home Timeline impressions....
FZ Scraps Major Proposal to Prevent Space Debris
The Federal Aviation Administration announced the withdrawal of its 2023 proposed rule that would have mandated the removal of launch vehicle upper stages from orbit within 25 years. The decision follows a limited comment period in which industry stakeholders highlighted...
Google On Phantom Noindex Errors In Search Console via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google Search Console can flag “Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’” even when no visible noindex tag exists. John Mueller confirmed such phantom noindex reports are often genuine, typically stemming from hidden HTTP headers or CDN‑level blocks. The issue usually arises when cached...
Who Gets to Inherit the Stars? A Space Ethicist on What We’re Not Talking About
At TechCrunch Disrupt, Varda Space Industries founder Will Bruey claimed that within 15‑20 years it will be cheaper to send a blue‑collar human to orbit than to develop more advanced robots. Mary‑Jane Rubenstein, a space ethicist, warns that this cost‑driven...
How to Build a Self-Evaluating Agentic AI System with LlamaIndex and OpenAI Using Retrieval, Tool Use, and Automated Quality Checks
The tutorial demonstrates how to construct a self‑evaluating, agentic AI system using LlamaIndex and OpenAI’s gpt‑4o‑mini model. It combines retrieval‑augmented generation, tool integration, and automated faithfulness and relevancy scoring to create a reliable RAG workflow. The ReActAgent orchestrates evidence retrieval,...
How to Overcome the “Link in Comments” Problem on LinkedIn and Other Social Platforms
Marketers increasingly hide URLs in LinkedIn comments to avoid algorithmic demotion, but the platform now suppresses link‑laden comments as well. The authors propose three workarounds: using implied links in the post copy, posting curiosity‑driven “hidden” comments that hint at additional...
A Laser that Can Fire Light Pulses in One Billionth of a Second Is Set to Produce Structures 1000 Times...
Japanese researchers have demonstrated a femtosecond‑laser technique that patterns silicon and silica films with periodic nanoscale grooves, directly controlling phonon pathways. By matching groove spacing to phonon mean free paths, the method reduces thermal conductivity while delivering structures up to...
Quobly and TNO Partner to Optimize Silicon Spin Qubit Manufacturing
French startup Quobly and Dutch research institute TNO have launched a joint research program to speed up industrial‑scale production of silicon spin qubits. The collaboration merges Quobly’s CMOS‑compatible qubit designs with TNO’s advanced materials characterization and cryogenic testing facilities. Their...
SEEQC to Go Public via Merger with Allegro Merger Corp. At $1 Billion Valuation
SEEQC, a developer of digital quantum‑classical chips, has signed a definitive merger agreement with Allegro Merger Corp., valuing the combined entity at roughly $1 billion. The deal includes a $65 million PIPE financing that will fund scaling of its Single Flux Quantum...
Disarming Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria That Prevent Healing in Chronic Wounds
An international team led by NTU Singapore uncovered that Enterococcus faecalis impairs chronic wound healing through extracellular electron transport (EET) that generates reactive oxygen species (ROS). The ROS activates the unfolded protein response in keratinocytes, halting cell migration needed for...
AI Tools Speed Development of Antibody Probes to See Activity Inside Living Cells
Researchers at Colorado State University used AI tools to convert conventional antibodies into intracellular “intrabodies” that light up specific histone modifications. By leveraging AlphaFold2 and ProteinMPNN, the team reduced design cycles to five candidates and achieved a 70% success rate,...
Two-Step Genome Editing Enables Creation of Full-Length Humanized Mouse Models
Researchers at the University of Tokyo unveiled TECHNO, a two‑step genome‑editing platform that swaps entire mouse loci for full‑length human genes exceeding 200 kb. By combining CRISPR/Cas9‑mediated landing‑site creation with BAC‑driven integration, the method achieves high‑efficiency replacement of coding and regulatory...
Elon Musk Proposed His Children Should Inherit Control of Human-Like AI, OpenAI Claims
Elon Musk reportedly told OpenAI officials that his children should inherit control of artificial general intelligence (AGI) systems. OpenAI alleges Musk’s push for a majority stake in the company was tied to this succession plan, echoing his earlier ambition to...
Tech Companies’ Access to UK Ministers Dwarfs that of Child Safety Groups
A Guardian investigation reveals that major US tech firms have met UK ministers far more frequently than child‑safety and copyright groups. Google recorded over 100 ministerial meetings, and the sector as a whole logged 639 meetings in the two years...
Black Basta Ransomware Leader Added to EU Most Wanted and INTERPOL Red Notice
Ukrainian and German authorities have arrested two Ukrainian suspects linked to the Black Basta ransomware‑as‑a‑service operation and placed its alleged Russian leader, Oleg Nefedov, on the EU Most Wanted and INTERPOL Red Notice lists. The gang, which emerged in 2022, infiltrated over...
NASA Begins Artemis II Rollout to Launchpad
NASA has started rolling out its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, marking the final integration phase for Artemis II. The massive SLS core stage and Orion crew module are now...
Oshen Built the First Ocean Robot to Collect Data in a Category 5 Hurricane
Oshen, founded by Anahita Laverack and Ciaran Dowds, has built the first autonomous ocean robot to collect data inside a Category 5 hurricane. Their C‑Stars can operate for up to 100 days and were deployed in a swarm of fifteen during...
A Faceless Hacker Stole My Therapy Notes – Now My Deepest Secrets Are Online Forever
Finnish psychotherapy provider Vastaamo suffered a massive data breach, exposing personal and therapy records of about 33,000 patients. Hackers contacted victims, demanding Bitcoin payments under threat of publishing the sensitive information. In September 2025, a Helsinki court released the alleged...
Engineers Just Created a “Phonon Laser” That Could Shrink Your Next Smartphone
Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Arizona and Sandia National Laboratories have demonstrated a surface‑acoustic‑wave (SAW) phonon laser that generates coherent vibrations on a single chip. The device combines silicon, lithium niobate and indium‑gallium‑arsenide layers to...
Bain & Company, 7 VCs, Announce AI Partnership
Bain & Company has teamed up with seven top venture‑capital firms—Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, ICONIQ, Insight Partners, Lightspeed, Menlo Ventures and NEA—to create a dedicated AI pipeline through its Venture Ecosystem. The VCs collectively manage roughly $190 billion in assets...
Soft Robotic Hand 'Sees' Around Corners to Achieve Human-Like Touch
Researchers at Zhejiang University unveiled FlexiRay, a soft robotic hand that uses a multi‑mirror optical system to maintain visual contact while bending around objects. The finger’s deformation redirects light, enabling a single internal camera to capture tactile data such as...
If You Use AI Chatbots to Follow the News, You’re Basically Injecting Severe Poison Directly Into Your Brain
Journalism professor Jean‑Hugues Roy spent September sourcing all his Quebec news from seven major AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Grok and Aria. The experiment yielded 839 URLs, but only 311 led to actual articles and just 142...
JFrog Researchers Uncover RCE Exploit for Existing Redis Database Vulnerability
JFrog researchers have demonstrated a remote code execution (RCE) exploit for Redis vulnerability CVE‑2025‑62507, leveraging a stack buffer overflow triggered by the XACKDEL command with multiple IDs. The flaw, originally rated 8.8 CVSS, now warrants urgent patching to Redis version 8.3.2....