June 18, 2025

Puzzle Corner

Ready for a fresh set of puzzles? Click here for the July/August 2025 Puzzle Corner, brought to you by guest editor Ed Faulkner ’03. Send problems, solutions (by August 1), and comments to puzzlecorner@technologyreview.com. Editor emeritus Allan Gottlieb ’67 launched Puzzle Corner in 1966. Find back issues through 2022 at cs.nyu.edu/~gottlieb/tr and more recent back issues at technologyreview.com/puzzle-corner.

The Download: Google’s AI mission, and America’s reliance on natural gas

May 21, 2025
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. By putting AI into everything, Google wants to make it invisible If you want to know where AI is headed, this year’s Google I/O has you covered. The company’s annual showcase of next-gen…

By putting AI into everything, Google wants to make it invisible 

May 21, 2025
If you want to know where AI is headed, this year’s Google I/O has you covered. The company’s annual showcase of next-gen products, which kicked off yesterday, has all of the pomp and pizzazz, the sizzle reels and celebrity walk-ons, that you’d expect from a multimillion dollar marketing event. But it also shows us just…

Uber Freight bets big on AI tools to grow its business

May 21, 2025
Three years ago, as the pandemic caused chaos for companies big and small, Colgate-Palmolive’s chief supply chain officer Luciano Sieber orchestrated a “logistics blitz.”  The result gave Sieber a better understanding of how Colgate-Palmolive moves its products around the world. But it stuck Sieber with another problem: too much data.  About a year ago, Sieber […]

Fortnite returns to the US App Store after a five-year gap

May 21, 2025
Popular battle royale game Fortnite has finally returned to the U.S. App Store amid game maker Epic Games’ lengthy legal skirmish with Apple. As of Tuesday, Fortnite is also available on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the EU. It’ll show up in App Store searches soon, Epic said in a post on X. […]

Luminar kicks off another round of layoffs amid CEO’s sudden resignation

May 21, 2025
Luminar, the lidar company founded by recently replaced CEO Austin Russell, is going through another restructuring, according to a recent regulatory filing. This new round of layoffs, which the company did not provide figures for, follows extensive cuts to the workforce in 2024. Luminar cut about 30% of its workforce in 2024, a reduction that […]

Google’s Sergey Brin: ‘I made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass’

May 20, 2025
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he “made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass” during an onstage interview at Google I/O 2025 on Tuesday. Brin was a surprise addition to an interview with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis conducted by Big Technology Podcast’s Alex Kantrowitz. Brin went on to say he “didn’t know anything about […]

The latest Google Gemma AI model can run on phones

May 20, 2025
Google’s family of “open” AI models, Gemma, is growing. During Google I/O 2025 on Tuesday, Google took the wraps off Gemma 3n, a model designed to run “smoothly” on phones, laptops, and tablets. Available in preview starting Tuesday, Gemma 3n can handle audio, text, images, and videos, according to Google. Models efficient enough to run […]

Google commits $150M to develop AI glasses with Warby Parker

May 20, 2025
Google says it will commit up to $150 million to the consumer eyewear company Warby Parker to jointly develop AI-powered smart glasses based on Android XR, the companies said on Tuesday during Google I/O 2025. Google has already committed $75 million to Warby Parker’s product development and commercialization costs, the companies said in a press […]