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Welcome to HillmanTok University, the digital HBCU inspired by ‘A Different World’

You can learn many things from TikTok, like how to make a dense bean salad or how to tell if you have “good facial harmony.” Now, you can also enroll in college-level courses with TikTok as your classroom. Welcome to HillmanTok University. 

With Donald Trump busy

Academic researchers are going to have to learn algospeak

Imagine you’re an academic researcher. You’re writing a pitch for funding to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the independent agency of the federal government that funds projects designed to advance our understanding of the world. But you can’t use the words excluded, historically, socioeconomic, systemic, or women. Go.

That’s the quandary that researchers across the country find themselves in thanks to a misguided attempt to try t

Like TikTok, lawmakers want to ban DeepSeek from government devices

A bipartisan duo in the the U.S. House is proposing legislation to ban the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from federal devices, similar to the policy already in place for the popular social media platform TikTok.

Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., on Thursday introduced the “No DeepS

OpenAI picks Texas for ‘flagship’ data center in Stargate project

ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Thursday that Texas will be the “flagship” data center site in the Stargate project it is building with SoftBank.

Around 16 states have

Bluesky photo-sharing app Flashes launches in beta

Flashes, a photo-sharing app that’s linked to X-alternative Bluesky, launched in beta this week before disappearing from the test store due to what its developer said was technical difficulties.

Flashes developer Sebastian Vogelsang said in a Bluesky post that Apple’s engineering team i

‘It’s giving drained’: Liberal TikTok users are mocking ‘conservative girl’ makeup

An intentionally bad “conservative girl” makeup technique is taking the internet by storm.

In the wake of the 2024 election and Donald Trump’s inauguration, an unflattering take on Republican women’s makeup style has quickly gained traction online. One of the first videos to go viral was posted by TikTok creator Suzanne Lambert back in November. It has since received five millio

OpenAI’s “deep research” gives a preview of the AI agents of the future

Welcome to AI DecodedFast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.

OpenAI’s “deep research” gives a preview of the AI agents of the future

OpenAI announced this week its AI research

This startup can measure custom insoles with just an iPhone camera

The Brannock device—that sliding metal gadget used in shoe stores to measure the dimensions of your feet—was invented 100 years ago this year

But footwear fitting hasn’t really gotten more advanced since, says Dan Cataldi, founder and CEO of custom insole maker Groov. For most people, it still comes down to finding shoes by

Hundreds of rigged votes can skew AI model rankings on Chatbot Arena, study finds

The generative AI revolution has turned into a global race, with mixtures of models from private companies and open-source initiatives all competing to become the most popular and powerful. Many choose to promote their prowess by demonstrating their performance on common tests and levels within regular rankings.

But the legitimacy of those rankings has been thrown into

Try these tips to help your parents stay safe online

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.

When’s the last time you fielded a tech support call from a parent?

You want your parents—or anyone you support—to benefit from email, photo sharing, and video calls. You also have to protect them


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