Comment on AI can read! Tech firms race to smarten up thinking machines

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

Enlarge / A meeting of the UN Security Council on April 14. (credit: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images) Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution Wednesday that would have reaffirmed a nearly 50-year-old ban on placing weapons of mass destruction into orbit, two months after reports Russia has plans to do just that. Russia's vote against the resolution was no surprise.

Enlarge / Tech brands love hollering about the purported thrills of AI these days. (credit: Getty) Logitech announced a new mouse last week. A company rep reached out to inform Ars of Logitech’s “newest wireless mouse.” The gadget’s product page reads the same as of this writing. I’ve had good experience with Logitech mice, especially wireless ones, one of which I'm using now.

Enlarge / Drops of the blood going onto an HIV quick test. (credit: Getty | BRITTA PEDERSEN) Trendy, unproven "vampire facials" performed at an unlicensed spa in New Mexico left at least three women with HIV infections. This marks the first time that cosmetic procedures have been associated with an HIV outbreak, according to a detailed report of the outbreak investigation published today. Ars reported on the cluster last year when state health officials announced they were still identifying cases linked to the spa despite it being shut down in September 2018.

The HMD Pulse base model. [credit: HMD ] HMD has been known as the manufacturer of Nokia-branded phones for years now, but now the company wants to start selling phones under its own brand. The first is the "HMD Pulse" line, a series of three low-end phones that are headed for Europe.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) In the world of AI, what might be called "small language models" have been growing in popularity recently because they can be run on a local device instead of requiring data center-grade computers in the cloud. On Wednesday, Apple introduced a set of tiny source-available AI language models called OpenELM that are small enough to run directly on a smartphone.