TC Sottek

The pope has had already had plenty to say about AI safety, including, as PBS reports, new comments aboard his plane on Monday. Pope Leo reportedly said that worries about rogue AI aren’t “fake news” and that concerns “should be taken seriously.” But he remains “relatively optimistic” about the enterprise — as long as it proceeds responsibly.

A new report from the Pew Research Center adds more data points to the thing everyone seems to know by now: data centers are pretty unpopular. Negative marks are up in every category Pew surveyed, with only 4% of respondents thinking that data centers “have a mostly good impact” across the board.

Digitimes reported on remarks from CEO Jason Chen, who said recently that he expects PC prices to rise another 20% before coming down in the second-half of 2027. The increase tracks with all of the component spikes we’ve seen, including rumors that AMD and Intel are both about to raise prices by another 10% this year. Chen reportedly said: “a lot of people come and tell us they want to raise prices, and we find it a bit baffling,” noting that memory suppliers have an incentive to push their current cost narrative.

404 Media reports, with Reuters corroborating in part, that hackers from ShinyHunters claim to have obtained information on “all FBI employees and applicants.” The data reportedly includes phone numbers, home addresses, dates of birth, and “in some cases” details on spouses. The group also reportedly defaced the FBI jobs page earlier today, which is currently displaying a “system unavailable” banner.

Trump has once again escalated his capricious assault on journalism. The president said today that “effective immediately” he is banning CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House, and threatened for “other fake news media outlets to follow.” In 2025, he banned the Associated Press during a temper tantrum over its refusal to go along with his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. It’s not clear what set the president off this time.

The team behind Apple’s new foldable basically gave a second keynote to GQ, and snagged a couple brief statements from new CEO John Ternus. “Steve [Jobs] talked about the intersection of technology and liberal arts, and I think iPhone Duo is a perfect example of that,” Ternus told GQ.

Don’t hold your breath, but the government may effectively reverse course on killing a Biden-admin program that helped people file their taxes for free without having to use infamous third parties like TurboTax. (Democrats have wanted to bring it back, which could make this a little awkward for Trump.)

As New Scientist reports, researchers have named a new species of cat — the “tilcayo” — which lurks on the slopes of the Andes mountains in South America. It’s apparently the first new named species of cat in over a century. Regarding this news, Verge staff have been observed noting disappointment that it’s a wild species, because why can’t we all have one at home? Here, kitty kitty.