Daily Technology Spotlight – 22 April 2025: Software, Hardware & Big Tech Updates

4/22/2025

#technology #technews #AI #innovation #software #hardware #gadgets

Welcome to your Daily Tech News Brief, where we explore the latest innovations shaping our digital future.
From artificial intelligence and cutting-edge software to groundbreaking hardware releases and industry trends,
we deliver the most noteworthy updates in the tech world.

Stay ahead with insights into AI breakthroughs, gadget reviews, tech company moves, and more.
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🔬 AI & Research | 💻 Software & Hardware | 🤖 Robotics & Gadgets | 📱 Tech Industry | 🚀 Innovations

Transcript

00:00Thanks for joining Daily World Podcast's Technology Report on April 22, 2025.

00:16I'm Angela, here to decode the newest tech trends and innovations.

00:22Airbnb has implemented a global update that will now display the total cost of a stay,

00:27including cleaning fees, by default during the search process.

00:31This change simplifies the booking experience by eliminating the need for users to toggle an option to view the full price up front.

00:39In a significant advancement in nuclear energy, China has successfully operated the world's first thorium molten salt reactor,

00:47achieving a milestone by reloading its fuel without shutting down.

00:50This innovative technology, developed using insights from declassified U.S. research,

00:55promises a safer and cleaner approach to nuclear energy,

00:59potentially revolutionizing the industry and contributing to global clean energy efforts.

01:05Meta is facing legal challenges for using over 7 million pirated books to train its AI systems.

01:11Internal communications have revealed that the company deemed these books to lack individual economic value.

01:17This legal battle raises important questions regarding copyright, fair use,

01:21and the future of creative work as prominent authors contest Meta's practices.

01:26The European Union has reaffirmed its commitment to enforcing digital regulations on major tech companies,

01:32regardless of their leadership or location.

01:35Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that the EU's Digital Markets Act aims to create a fair marketplace

01:42and enhance consumer choices, with ongoing investigations into companies such as TikTok, Apple, and Meta for potential violations.

01:49The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Uber alleging deceptive billing practices related to its Uber One subscription service.

01:59The FTC claims that Uber misled consumers about the subscription, made cancellation difficult,

02:05and charged users without their consent, marking a significant action against a major tech company during the Trump administration.

02:12In response to the Department of Justice's proposal to break up its operations,

02:17Google argues that such a move would hinder U.S. competitiveness against China in the AI sector.

02:22The company contends that divesting its Chrome browser and sharing search data could stifle innovation and pose national security risks.

02:31An ongoing antitrust trial will determine the implications of a recent ruling that found Google holds a monopoly in Internet search.

02:38Nari Labs has introduced a new text-to-speech model, DIA, which features 1.6 billion parameters and generates highly realistic dialogue.

02:49This model incorporates nonverbal cues, allowing for emotion and tone control,

02:54and is currently available for English generation with access to pre-trained model checkpoints.

02:58The GLM-432B model has demonstrated superior performance in various tasks, outperforming both other 32B local models and even 72B models,

03:10particularly in generating detailed code without truncation.

03:14Users have noted its capabilities in creating interactive visualizations and simulations, highlighting its advancements in coding and tool calling.

03:23Researchers have developed a new lithium-ion battery that can heal itself after being cut in half, maintaining over 90% of its capacity.

03:33This innovative battery is soft and stretchable, making it suitable for wearable electronics and soft robotics,

03:39although it currently has lower energy density compared to conventional batteries, with improvements expected in future iterations.

03:46The MTMD project has successfully merged the Lava and Gemma 3 command line interfaces into a single Lama MTMD CLI,

03:55also incorporating support for MinicMF and removing outdated CPP files from Lava and MinicMF.

04:02OpenAI's O3AI model has been found to score significantly lower on the Frontier Math benchmark than initially claimed.

04:09While OpenAI reported a score of over 25%, independent tests revealed a score closer to 10%, raising concerns about the company's transparency regarding testing conditions and model versions.

04:22Artificial intelligence has reached a notable milestone by passing the Turing test, with GPT 4.5 convincing 73% of participants that it was human.

04:33This achievement raises philosophical questions about the nature of intelligence and the effectiveness of the test in measuring understanding, versus the ability to simulate conversation.