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Local View: Parable of three donors illustrates money in politics
From the column: "If the candidate takes the cash, it will be commingled into one larger snowball of contributions to make larger buys with diminishing marginal returns in voters per dollar."
“AI polls” are fake polls
A few weeks after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, I took the train up from London (where I was living at the time) to Oxford to attend a conference on polls and forecasts of the 2024 election. Most of the attendees were pollsters or academics, but I also watched presentations from Aaru and Electric Twin, two companies that do what is interchangeably called synthetic sampling, silicon sampling, or synthetic audiences. Stripped of startup jargon, that means they use large language models (LLMs) to simulate responses to public opinion polls by having AI agents take on the role of survey respondents. I had already heard of Aaru thanks to some articles with eye-catching headlines like “No people, no problem: AI chatbots predict elections better than humans” in the months leading up to Election Day. The founders were making some big, some might even say far-fetched claims, such as: “within two years, we will simulate the entire globe — from the way crops are grown in Ukraine to how that impacts production of oil in Iraq, trade through the strait of Malacca, and elections for the mayor of Baltimore.” When Semafor asked Aaru’s cofounders — Cameron Fink and Ned Koh — about my boss, they said “we respect all those who came before us.” Nate (as he so often does) shared his thoughts on Twitter: Fink and Koh were relatively good-natured about this back-and-forth when we spoke at Oxford. They even offered to mail me one of the t-shirts featuring Nate’s quote they apparently had made. I never took them up on the offer, which I now somewhat regret. These synthetic sampling companies fell off my radar for a while, but they do still exist. In fact, Aaru recently received a $1 billion valuation. Is what they’re doing anywhere close to the most important frontier in AI development? Not by a longshot, especially when Anthropic just developed a model so adept at exploiting software vulnerabilities that it’s only being released to 40 companies. Still, silicon sampling is increasingly finding its way into public polling. Axios reported in March that “a majority of people trust their own doctors and nurses” based on findings from Aaru — without mentioning that the “people” in that sentence were actually LLMs. Around the same time, the Public Sentiment Institute “boosted” their online sample of 373 real survey respondents with 114 AI agents.1 (Spoiler alert: even the co-founder of Electric Twin doesn’t think that’s a particularly defensible approach.) Polling companies like Qualtrics and Ipsos are also developing synthetic data panels. So, what should we make of these … “polls”? Let’s get one thing out of the way: whatever they are, they’re not polls in the way that term is usually defined. Subscribe You can’t replace polls with AI On one hand, using LLMs to essentially make up fake survey respondents sort of sounds like the dumbest idea ever, one that will at best imperfectly replicate real polls while introducing all sorts of biases. On the other hand, with LLMs improving at a remarkable, perhaps even alarming rate, maybe that means I’m a dinosaur at the ripe old age of 24 because I still want to rely on polls that talk to actual people. I’m not going to argue that synthetic samples are completely useless. In fact, as I’ll return to later, there is evidence that some techniques can replicate topline survey results quickly and cheaply. But the marketing from certain companies can be slightly optimistic. “No traditional poll will exist by the time the next general election occurs,” said Fink in 2024. We’re just 206 days away from the midterms, and based on the fact that I still have to collect a bunch of polls every day, I’d say he should have run that prediction by a sample of AI agents before the interview.2 To see why synthetic samples can’t replace polls, here’s a quick primer on how they work. The simplest version of these models involves taking a LLM (like ChatGPT or Claude), giving it a demographic profile (e.g., a white, college-educated woman who lives in Utah and makes $70k a year), and then asking it to respond to a survey question. You repeat that process a few thousand times using different demographic profiles and end up with a sample of synthetic survey responses. The actual models used by private companies are more sophisticated than this, usually because they incorporate more hypothesized demographic characteristics for each agent and provide them with extra information. Aaru, for example, feeds agents a diet of news and information they’d be likely to consume, while Electric Twin incorporates their customers’ proprietary data about the audience they’re trying to replicate. The way Ben Warner, the co-founder of Electric Twin, explained it to me was “we have a large amount of data on […] for instance, 5,000 people. Can we make an accurate prediction of how they would respond to another question?” Still, it should be obvious why synthetic samples can’t replace polls. Polling is fundamentally a data collection process. We might use surveys to make predictions by feeding them into election forecasts, but the main purpose of a poll isn’t prediction, it’s gathering new data about what people think and how they feel. Silicon sampling, on the other hand, produces no new data. It’s simply a model: you input LLM training data, demographic prompts, and a bunch of other information, and it spits out a prediction for what a poll would say. We love models here, but models aren’t polls. That difference is an important philosophical sticking point for most pollsters I talk to. “I think politics should stay away from [synthetic sampling], because we’re trying to […] represent the voice of the people,” said Natalie Jackson, a vice president at GQR Insights. Democratic pollster John Hagner told me: “I think I’m just incredibly skeptical of this idea. I don’t think it’s research. At that point, you’re asking the machine to tell you what you already believe.” Hagner has seen some presentations of early synthetic sampling experiments, but so far, “if it’s being used in a campaign, people are keeping it incredibly quiet.”3 But Eli, I hear you saying, aren’t polls themselves increasingly governed by modeling decisions? Indeed they are: pollsters’ choices on which sampling method to use, how to define their likely voter models, and how to weight their samples can and do lead to dramatic differences in the results they publish. Aaru even referenced these limitations in the methodology statement included with that maternal mortality “poll” — although I’m using the term “methodology statement” loosely here, because it doesn’t really explain how the model works at all. We can ignore the (frankly preposterous) implication that synthetic sampling isn’t subject to a separate set of biases. The important point is that there’s still a meaningful difference between using weighting and other statistical techniques on actual polling data and using a model to predict what a poll would say. The latter is far closer to election forecasts or techniques like MRP — potentially useful models, but not a replacement for polls.4 To be fair, other synthetic sampling companies are perfectly happy with the distinction between polls and models. Warner compared polling and synthetic sampling to different tools in a toolbox. “The mistake I think we make is we think that these new tools should either work in exactly the same way or somehow replace these old tools,” he said. “Rather than thinking of it as, okay, so we’ve always had the hammer, we’ve always had the screwdriver, now we’ve got a saw. But don’t use a saw to try [to] do the job of a hammer.” A quick comment from Nate Eli didn’t ask me for a comment — rather rude of him, don’t you think? But since I’m editing this story, I figured I’d add a few quick thoughts rather than putting words in his mouth. Beyond the frequently misleading marketing, what bothers me about the AI “poll” hype is that as AI tools make statistical inference cheaper and/or better (note that these are not synonyms) that actually increases the comparative value of collecting original data. You might be able to train a model to make a reasonable estimate of what some hard-to-reach poll respondent would say — say, a young Black man who voted for Trump. (Such a person checks a number of boxes for a voter who is usually hard to reach in surveys.) Indeed, this is closely related to what models like the Silver Bulletin forecast already do. They essentially smooth out the kinks in noisy survey data by making inferences based on past voting patterns or national polls or surveys of other states. But you don’t actually know what these voters think unless you’re reaching them directly. If there’s a shift in opinion among this subgroup, you’re not going to detect it. So if I were running a campaign, I’d invest more in going the extra mile to find a representative sample of those voters. And then I’d hire some smart quants — or Claude? — to figure out the implications for campaign strategy based on proprietary data that my competitors didn’t have access to. -Nate Silver Are these models any good? If synthetic surveys are just a new type of model, the next obvious question is whether the models are at least accurate. The answer very much depends on who you ask. On one end of the spectrum, you have the maximalist argument that synthetic sampling is more accurate than actual polls. “It’s an incredibly challenging problem to go to someone and say ‘hey, we’re going to be more accurate at predicting human behavior than you, even when you talk to your customers directly’,” Koh recently told CNBC. In his view, synthetic sampling isn’t a saw to polling’s hammer, it’s “magic.” There’s certainly evidence that synthetic samples can replicate certain survey toplines. But if Aaru does have any examples of their approach outperforming the polls, they’re keeping those to themselves.5 Aaru’s 2024 election model, for example, had Kamala Harris leading in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on November 4th. And although they’ve since taken down their forecast page, they gave Harris a 50.5 percent chance of winning the race on November 2nd.6 After the election, Fink told Semafor he was happy enough with those results because they were “within margin of error,” a term that is completely meaningless when applied to a “sample” of AI agents. And of course, Aaru says their models have improved since 2024, so supposedly now they’d be more accurate than the polls? Still, their stronger argument is on cost: “We are significantly faster and cheaper than traditional polling, and still more accurate,” said Fink. The first two claims are undeniably true, but the third brings us to the opposite end of the spectrum. Both Jackson and Hagner are skeptical that these models are reliable for anything beyond replicating common survey toplines. “I just […] don’t think the machines are what we want when we’re looking for nuanced views. My example on this is people in Arizona and Nevada in 2024 who voted for Trump and voted for expanding abortion in their states on ballot initiatives,” said Jackson. Hagner identified another issue. Maybe the synthetic respondents, like sycophantic LLMs, are inhuman in one important way: they’re too nice. “The reports that have come through at the meetings that I’ve been at are that the early experiments on this, they cannot get respondents to be as racist or sexist or, frankly, as negative as human respondents,” he said. Academic research mostly agrees on this point. While there are some papers that show promising results when using LLMs to replicate polling data, most show that LLMs suffer from various quirks like producing too few “don’t know” responses and can seriously overpredict the favorability of politicians like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. They also seem to struggle with too little variation between demographic subgroups, so the difference in predicted opinion between Democrats and Republicans, for example, is too small. When I asked Warner about these studies, his response to these papers was that just because academics can’t get synthetic sampling to work doesn’t mean that the technique doesn’t work in general. “Actually, the argument is, okay, yours does not [work]. That does not mean […] for this complex set of machinery, which uses a lot of investment, a lot of time, a lot of money, you can’t get it to work.” Cards on the table, I’m somewhat sympathetic to this argument because academics aren’t exactly great at making election forecasts. Usually, the people with skin in the game are the most accurate. Warner’s argument is that the approach Electric Twin takes — which includes, for example, making multiple predictions for each synthetic respondent using different models and prompts and subsequently averaging those to get a final prediction in a sort of ensemble forecast — produces better results than the simpler academic models. Warner shared a comparison between his method and the method from a recent academic paper with me, and Electric Twin was indeed able to get more accurate replication. But even still, he acknowledged that synthetic sampling “is not a crystal ball.” “If you asked me, do I think using other data sources will be more accurate than asking somebody who they will vote for, I would probably say no. But if you asked me ‘would your system be useful for our turnout modeling today?’ I would say yes.” For better or worse, it looks like the method is already getting more popular in the market research world. Most of the clients Aaru touts these days are businesses like EY and McDonald’s. And AI will probably begin to pop up in other parts of the political polling process. Pollsters are already using it to code open-ended survey responses, and some firms, like YouGov, are testing using LLMs to ask survey respondents questions. More worryingly, one danger to actual polls is that AI agents can be used to infiltrate online surveys. Most online polls use various checks to prevent that from happening, but there’s conflicting evidence on how effective those filters are and how prevalent AI agents currently are in online panels. If those agents ever become impossible to detect, it might spell the end of online polling, but the solution isn’t to replace all of your respondents with ChatGPT. Silver Bulletin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe 1 That particular poll obviously doesn’t meet Silver Bulletin standards for aggregation. But we exclude all Public Sentiment Institute polls from our averages because we classify them as an amateur polling firm. 2 You could argue that Fink meant the next presidential election, but (a) I’m also confident we’ll still have real polls in 2028 and (b) in that case he should have asked an LLM to define “general election.” 3 Quick caveat: that’s reporting from a Democratic pollster. It’s possible that Republicans are more willing to use AI in political campaigns. 4 Indeed, Silver Bulletin does not include “polls” produced by MRP in our forecasts or averages, and we think it’s extremely misleading when their practitioners describe them in a way that suggests original data had been collected among a large number of states or Congressional districts. 5 A recent report from Aaru and EY did show two examples of a synthetic estimate being closer than a survey to a real-world benchmark — but I’d take those findings with a grain of salt because the report reads more like an ad and didn’t involve any sort of prediction being made ahead of time. 6 For comparison, our odds for Harris on the same day were 48.2 percent.
U.S.-Iran direct talks begin in Pakistan as war's fragile ceasefire holds
Face-to-face negotiations have begun between the United States and Iran in Pakistan, days after a fragile, two-week ceasefire was announced.
Iraq elects Kurdish politician Nizar Amidi as president amid war fallout
Iraq’s parliament has elected Nizar Amidi as president, five months after elections failed to produce a decisive majority. The vote took place Saturday.
Pokémon Champions is off to a rough start
The bugs are already getting fixed, but it’s still got a long road ahead.
Apple @ Work: How to add an existing Mac to Apple Business Manager without wiping it
A new open source script called add2abm allows IT administrators to retroactively add configured Macs to Apple Business Manager without erasing the hard drive.
Pool at Altru Sports Complex will also house UND diving facility to simulate low gravity
The neutral buoyancy facility will be built under the floor of the pool's deep end and used for experiments, research and training in the space studies program.
Why Warren Buffett Believes Book Value Cannot Capture a Business's Real Worth
With Berkshire Hathaway's book value per share over- or under-estimating the true value of its businesses, Warren Buffett prefers alternatives to this accounting metric.
Prep talk: Arcadia Invitational is set for Saturday at Arcadia High
Olympian Quincy Wilson leads the athletes scheduled to compete at the Arcadia Invitational in the night portion at 5 p.m.
What does American politics look like beyond Trump?
Introducing America, Actually — a new kind of political podcast for a country redefining itself.
See 16 Actors You Forgot Guest Starred on 'Twin Peaks'
'Twin Peaks' premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990. From David Duchovny to Amanda Seyfried, find out the actors who appeared on the genre-bending TV series before (or even after!) they were famous.
Apple is 50: how Steve Jobs pulled it back from the brink
In an extract from his history of the company, David Pogue looks back on the year when its co-founder returned amid crisis and found its lost soul
Gut troubles? This gastroenterologist has tips to help you achieve 'poophoria'
In her new book You've Been Pooping All Wrong, Dr. Trisha Pasricha shares habits and practices to make your relationship with your solid waste as smooth as possible
Today on Pinstripe Alley
Looking to turn the page after the first series loss of the season.
Reader's View: Stauber silent on loss of science jobs
I think Stauber doesn’t care about local jobs at all.
Peru's election: A battle for the Presidency amid political chaos and crime
With 35 candidates in the race, Peru is set to elect its 9th president in less than a decade. Amid rising corruption and crime, voters are left asking: Can this election finally break the cycle?
U.S. Small Business Administration in Helena to hear local perspective
A leader with the U.S. Small Business Administration was in Helena this week, to hear what’s on the minds of local business owners.
'Who's the Boss?' star reveals he's delivering for Amazon: 'There's no shame in staying in motion'
'Who's the Boss' star Danny Pintaturo reveals that he's delivering for Amazon because the entertainment business has been so slow.
Rural Mental Health Hub Offers Tools, Training, and Support
A new program from Rural Minds gives farmers tools to recognize mental health struggles, start conversations, and offer support.
'Malcolm in the Middle' star Bryan Cranston speaks on stunts, bee stings
Bryan Cranston is looking back on 'Malcolm in the Middle' given the recent Hulu revival, and the comedy icon confirms he was shaved, painted and stung in the name of comedy.
'New king of Las Vegas' is celebrated with Strip parade
Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars was honored with a parade in his honor and a street named after him near the Park MGM in Las Vegas | Talk 1370
'New king of Las Vegas' is celebrated with Strip parade
Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars was honored with a parade in his honor and a street named after him near the Park MGM in Las Vegas | Talk Radio 1210 WPHT
'New king of Las Vegas' is celebrated with Strip parade
Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars was honored with a parade in his honor and a street named after him near the Park MGM in Las Vegas | Newsradio 1140 WRVA
Local business owner weighs in as Louisiana blocks state minimum wage bill
For the latest session in a years-long debate, the Louisiana House Labor Committee has voted to kill a bill that would have established a $12 state minimum wage.
Accusation of sexual assault threatens Swalwell governor bid
The Democrat running for governor categorically denied any misconduct involving congressional staffers. Then the San Francisco Chronicle published an article quoting an alleged victim.
Report: Dianna Russini "will not be reporting" during internal investigation
The New York Times has reversed course regarding NFL insider Dianna Russini.
Women's professional sports leagues see big surge in popularity and profits
Throughout the U.S. there’s been a rise in interest in professional women’s sports leagues over the past few years. According to Nielsen, in 2025 Americans watched 46 billion minutes of women’s sports.
Maricopa County health officials confirm first heat-related death of 2026
The person is identified as a man, and no additional details, including date, time or location, will be released "to protect patient privacy," according to the department.
The cast of 'Juno': See the stars of the 2007 Oscar winner, then and now
‘Juno’ put teen pregnancy in the spotlight and made a splash at the Academy Awards in 2007. Find out what the cast is doing now.
Trump’s divisive role in California politics is on display as GOP prepares election endorsements
Trump's endorsement of Steve Hilton for governor over Chad Bianco has upended the California GOP's strategy, forcing the party to refocus on other races.
Teddi Mellencamp reveals she's dating an older man who’s been 'pretty good' amid her ongoing cancer battle
Teddi Mellencamp reveals she's dating an older man who has been 'pretty good' amid her ongoing cancer battle.
Natasha Lyonne says she took sleeping pill before being escorted off flight, claims she was 'detained' by ICE
Natasha Lyonne says she took a sleeping pill before being escorted off her recent flight to NYC and claimed that she was 'detained' by ICE afterward: 'Sign of the times, I guess.'
XChat, X's standalone messaging app, launching on iPhone and iPad next week
XChat, the standalone messaging app from X, now has a release date. XChat will arrive on iPhone and iPad in...
Artemis II astronauts aren’t the only ones inspiring the next generation to love science
How Sally Ride's mission lives on in San Diego.
Artemis II reentry will create a sonic boom. Here’s how to report it
Southern Californians might hear a sonic boom as NASA's Artemis II moon mission reenters the atmosphere off the coast of San Diego Friday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Richard Roeper joins NBC Chicago as entertainment & culture contributor
Richard Roeper marked his first day on the job with NBC Chicago as our new entertainment & culture contributor, talking with Alex Maragos about how the movie industry has changed and what to see at theaters and on streaming channels this weekend.
Trump administration admits a glaring error in its New York health fraud accusations
The error, admitted first to the AP, prompted health analysts to question how many of the Republican administration’s sweeping anti-fraud efforts were based on faulty findings.
Ontario’s big play: Building a sports empire in the Inland Empire
The Inland Empire city is experiencing rapid changes — the latest addition being a mega sports complex. Here's what residents and visitors can expect.
BAFTA apologizes again for racial slur scandal amid review results
BAFTA Board of Trustees says it is 'determined to learn from what happened' in the racial slur scandal that overshadowed its annual awards celebration in February.
Retro NYC video store marks booming first year in business – thanks to growing Gen-Z demand for VHS, DVDs
It’s been a blockbuster year for this Brooklyn shop! Night Owl Video, the Big Apple’s sole remaining video store, is ringing in its first year in business this weekend – and is already...
YouTube Premium price increase to take effect in June
Google announced it will increase YouTube Premium prices for the first time since 2023. The new prices will take effect in June.
Al Roker stops 'Today' interview with 'Laguna Beach' star over wardrobe malfunction: 'Guys, on live television?'
'Laguna Beach' star handled a wardrobe malfunction that occurred on live TV like a pro Friday on 'Today.'
Chris Brown and Usher are going on tour together: 'It's time'
Chris Brown and Usher going on tour together, the pair announced on Instagram.
How Sheng Wang finds 'Purple' comedy in a stuck drawer and a toothbrush choice
Comedian Sheng Wang discusses how his second special "Purple" represents a major evolution from his 2022 debut, reflecting his growth from intimate clubs to touring major theaters nationwide.
MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 Review - Less Expensive and Even Better
MSI MPG 322UR QD-OLED X24 brings fifth generation V-Stripe QD-OLED technology to a 32-inch 4K panel, pairing a 3840×2160 resolution with a 240 Hz refresh rate, a 80 Gbps bandwidth DisplayPort 2.1a UHBR20 interface, and a price tag that undercuts its predecessor by $200. Improved text clarity, higher SDR brightness, and an AI Care Sensor make for a strong all-around package.
Microsoft finally lets Windows 11 testers unlock experimental features without ViVeTool
The changes are part of the fix Windows 11 effort
Hundreds of chimpanzees are killing each other in a 'civil war' — scientists captured the 'lethal violence' for the first time
They're going apes—t.
Amazon Luna axes third-party game purchases
Third-party game purchases and stores will disappear from Amazon Luna in June.
Looking for weekend plans? Book fair, Open Streets: West Walnut offer entertainment for all
There are two fun events happening this weekend that we want to tell you about! First, Books and Brews Philly and South Philly bookstore A Novel idea are teaming up for a “Grown-Up Book Fair and Swap” on Sunday afternoon. Then, also on Sunday, we have “Open Streets: West Walnut” which just opened for the spring season. NBC10’s Sheila Watko tells us more about the upcoming events!
New Research Shows Many Social-Science Papers Lean Left. Does That Mean Bias?
A study used AI to analyze hundreds of thousands of abstracts published over the past 64 years.
Penner Sports Group becomes largest minority owner of MLB's Colorado Rockies
Broncos owners Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner are expanding their footprint in Denver sports.
Amazon Luna goes all in on Stadia Pro-like subscription, removing everything else
Effective today, Amazon Luna is shutting down basically everything that’s not a single Stadia Pro-like subscription. Amazon Luna started off...
New iPhone Fold leaks cover ‘Ultra’ name, launch timing, more
iPhone Fold rumors keep coming, and today new posts from notable leakers cover the ‘iPhone Ultra’ name, launch timing, and more.
Android’s upcoming ‘Tap to Share’ can send contacts, files, etc – here’s what it looks like [Gallery]
Google is preparing a new “Tap to Share” feature for Android devices and, through the latest updates, we’re able to...
Money for Nothing? Universal Basic Income as Health Policy
To make a point, the Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright (1997) once borrowed a character from the 1960s comic strip Lil' Abner: a big blobby creature
Letters to the Editor: Anyone with political aspirations should be fighting to stop Trump
'Everyone knows President Trump is out of control, and yet Congress and the Supreme Court sit back and watch as we circle the drain,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
Car Keys in Apple Wallet coming soon to major new vehicle brand
Apple Wallet’s car key feature is building momentum among automakers, and now we can add another “coming soon” brand to that list: Lexus.
Amazon launches ‘Prime Video Ultra’ with new features, higher price
Last month Amazon announced that Prime Video Ultra would be launching soon in the US, and that day has officially arrived.
Regional business leaders share their perspectives on business advice
This month, we asked: What's the best business advice you've received and why?
Some Google Pixel phones hit with bootloop issues following recent updates, fix in the works
Following some of their latest updates, a number of Google Pixel owners are reporting bootloop issues, with Google “working to...
YouTube Premium is getting pricier
The standard plan is going up by $2 a month in the US.
Trump administration admits error in New York health care fraud probe
President Donald Trump's administration has admitted to a major error in data used to justify a federal fraud probe into New York’s Medicaid program.
Watch out for college sports 'reforms' that shortchange student-athletes
If the system is constrained for those whose labor actually generates the revenue, that is not reform — it is codified inequality.
YouTube Premium is getting a US price hike of up to $4/month
YouTube Premium is getting a price hike in the US, with all plans going up in cost by up to $4 effective over the next few months.
Science with Stevie: Spring Allergies
Meteorologist Stevie Daniels gives us some tips on how to manage the pesky seasonal spring allergies in this Science with Stevie segment!
Microsoft starts removing Copilot buttons from Windows 11 apps
The underlying AI features are here to stay, though
Crossroads District businesses react to Royals stadium proposal near their neighborhood
Local business owners in the Crossroads District reacted to the city's new Royals stadium proposal two years after voters denied a sales tax extension for a downtown baseball stadium.
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
WhatsApp is bringing Status updates to the top of the Chats tab
The new WhatsApp build on TestFlight includes references to an upcoming change that will bring Status updates to the Chats tab.
Making cutting-edge science accessible to early physics students
By feeding students the mysteries and wonder of modern physics, Don Lincoln hopes to ‘blow their minds.’
Orange Lutheran, Norco reach championship game at Boras Classic
No. 2 Orange Lutheran will face No. 3 Norco in the Boras Classic championship with the winner becoming the new No. 1 team in Southern California.
'Death of a Salesman' review: The timely Broadway revival feels as urgent as ever
Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, and Christopher Abbott lead a stellar cast in a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' that feels as timely and urgent as ever. Read EW's review.
Steve Kerr explains why Warriors are resting Steph Curry vs. Lakers, not Kings
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr explains why Steph Curry will miss the home finale against the Lakers but play Friday against the Kings.
Project Indigo expands support to iPads and the iPhone 17e
The new update to Adobe’s experimental camera app adds initial support for iPads with at least 6GB of RAM and the new iPhone 17e.
Drip Bros founders giving back to the community through growing business
At a Little League game in San Luis Obispo, two young entrepreneurs are stepping up to the plate, both on the field and in the business world.
WATCH: South Phoenix businesses are feeling the heat, and it's not helping business
As temperatures rise in Phoenix, some South Phoenix business owners say the heat is keeping customers away and driving up electric bills.
Highway ad sign costs double, pricing out Montana business owners
Sponsorship of businesses on Montana highway exit signs have doubled in cost, pricing out some small business owners.
Celebrate Amazing Stories and Science Fiction’s 100th Birthday
Doors Open 7:15 p.m. Celebrate Amazing Stories and Science Fiction’s 100th Birthday with us! In April 1926, Hugo Gernsback published Amazing Stories magazine for the first time, and while the name of the genre took a few more years to become a household term, many credit this moment with the birth of Science fiction fandom as we know it today! Join us for a two-panels featuring a discussion on the impact of Amazing Stories and Science Fiction as a genre! Featuring published authors, scholars, and podcasters with deep knowledge of the history and great works of the last 100 years. The second panel will be a how-to guide for writing your own Science fiction stories or novels, including teachers, authors, and scholars of the genre. Verbatim Books on Facebook / Instagram
FBI used iPhone notification data to retrieve deleted Signal messages
The FBI was able to recover deleted Signal messages from an iPhone by extracting data stored in the device’s notification database.
What's really behind Phillies' recent offensive drought
The Phillies have gone cold again, but the numbers suggest the lineup isn’t entirely broken — it just isn’t clicking in its current order.
ARTEMIS Week Kicks off at Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park
The center is celebrating humanity’s return to deep space exploration. Visitors can explore the temporary ARTEMIS II exhibits and follow the mission as it unfolds in real-time.
U.S. talks with Iran are still on despite tests of ceasefire
The ceasefire U.S.-Iran deal became even more fragile Thursday as Iran said Israeli strikes in Lebanon overnight violated the agreement.
Pink will host 2026 Tony Awards
Raise your glass, pop singer Pink will host the 2026 Tony Awards on June 7.
Looking for sports to watch for free? Here's a FAST way to do it
FAST stands for free ad-supported streaming television. Granted, FAST channels don’t carry the biggest games, but in a world where watching sports only gets more expensive, I refer you back to the word FREE.
Samsung quietly increased the price of two Galaxy Z Fold 7 models
Maybe you’re tired of hearing about memory price hikes and the potential of increased smartphone prices. Well, it’s starting to...
Castlevania headlines a big list of exciting indie game reveals
There was a lot of indie game news.
Apple permanently closing three US stores, here's why
Apple is closing three US retail stores due to declining mall conditions, the company announced today. Here are the full details.
Pixel At a Glance preps showing nearby Google Wallet passes, ‘Restaurant insights’
Google is working on two location-based features for the Pixel At a Glance widget with "Passes nearby" and "Restaurant insights."
The MacBook Neo is the best thing to happen to Windows in years
There’s nothing quite like a bit of healthy competition
We have no idea if Iran can still build a bomb
The central goal of the war is nowhere near a resolution.
Pixel Phone app starts rolling out custom Take a Message greetings
The Pixel’s Take a Message feature that answers calls on your behalf and lets you view live transcripts is now adding custom greetings.
EisnerAmper to add KLG Business Valuators & Forensic Accountants
The Top 20 Firm will acquire KLG Business Valuators & Forensic Accountants in a deal expected to close this May.
Warriors still waiting for a real glimpse at their highest on-court priority
After hoping to evaluate the Steph Curry-Kristaps Porziņģis synergy for at least four games, the Golden State Warriors now will have no more than two.
Leaker gives iPhone 18 Pro updates on two design changes
It’s been a big week for iPhone Fold rumors, but a reputable leaker just posted iPhone 18 Pro updates related to two potential design changes.
Samsung reportedly launching Galaxy Z Fold 8, ‘Wide’ on July 22, S Pen might be back
A new report claims to reveal the launch date for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 and “Wide” foldable in July,...
Google Pixel 11 reportedly gets Samsung’s new flagship display ahead of iPhone
According to a new report, Google’s upcoming Pixel 11 series will be among the first – perhaps even the first...
San Francisco's Union Square sees return of business activity
San Francisco city leaders are touting a recovery from the pandemic with businesses returning to Union Square.