Author: News Desk

AI agents are becoming more sophisticated. They are evolving from answering questions to autonomously executing multi-step complex tasks. But before these agents can be trusted to book trips or conduct financial analysis on behalf of users, model providers and the startups building such agents want to ensure that they perform reliably across a vast range of scenarios. AI labs often use benchmarks to show off their model’s prowess, but a high score, even on an agent-oriented benchmark, doesn’t actually prove that an AI can accomplish various complex, real-world jobs correctly. Patronus AI, a startup founded in 2023 by former Meta…

The Big Hole River, a blue-ribbon fishery that’s become a focal point in a years-long debate over nuisance algae growth, is poised to receive an impairment designation. At an open-house meeting in Divide on Tuesday, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced that the Big Hole, a mellow freestone river critical to southwest Montana’s outdoor recreation and agriculture economies, is struggling as a result of ecologically detrimental nutrient loading. The term DEQ is using in its discussion of the Big Hole is eutrophication, which describes the link between algae growth and excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. When there’s…

Vice President JD Vance recently made headlines when he appeared on The View earlier this month. Since then, viewers were surprised to see Behar and Vance’s interactions on the show, with Vance himself describing both him and her as “best friends.” Recently, Behar herself weighed in on the comment. Joy Behar Weighed In On JD Vance’s Appearance On The View, & A Comment He Made Following It, During A Recent Podcast Appearance On June 16, viewers saw JD Vance make an appearance on The View. At the time, he was promoting his memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,…

Joe Manganiello is opening up about one of the darkest chapters of his life, revealing the painful reality behind a years-long health battle he kept hidden from the public. While fans saw the actor continuing to work and appear at events, he says he was privately fighting a mysterious illness, enduring devastating treatments, and searching for answers that even leading specialists struggled to provide. For years, Joe Manganiello chose not to reveal the health crisis that was unfolding behind closed doors. Instead of sharing his struggles publicly, the “Magic Mike” and “True Blood” star says he confided only in a…

Meta is reversing its decision to reassign 7,000 employees to different AI-focused units, like the Applied AI (AAI) taskforce to help train the company’s models, one month after those plans were announced. According to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Meta explained that it would now “defer to each individual’s choice” about whether or not they want to join the taskforce. The email was sent to employees who had been “drafted” to the AAI taskforce, Business Insider reported. “As I emphasized before, personal agency will remain at the heart of all opportunities at Meta: we will support employees in…

The National Park Service has a new policy about reporting deaths that happen in some of the nation’s most wild places.  According to a memo issued in December and recently viewed by The Washington Post, park staff and other workers are no longer authorized to confirm details about injuries and deaths that befall the park’s more than 300 million annual visitors. Serious accidents and fatalities are uncommon but not unheard of in the parks, which host droves of tourists and a huge range of outdoor activities, from peak bagging and sport climbing to whitewater rafting. Historically, the National Park Service…

If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ve run across the deluge of videos from World Cup tourists celebrating the wonders of the United States. The top Republican in Congress is taking these visual love letters as a validation of his party’s agenda. “Thanks to social media, we’re seeing a lot of these; this has been encouraging to see the visitors appreciate what we have,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday. “Dutch travelers are in Buc-ees; German players took a midnight trip to the Waffle House. They’re the greatest thing you’ve ever seen. English fans are roaming the…

Amigos, you’ve been reading about it everywhere: the homicide rate is significantly down in Mexico. The work that Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch has been doing is clearly bearing fruit. The security strategy has been steady and sustained. That said, critics have pointed out that some of the government’s numbers have been dressed up, and that those who don’t show up among the murdered may well be showing up among the disappeared. Whatever the case, one reality stands: President Sheinbaum’s government is working to contain the violence the cartels have unleashed — violence that we Mexicans have let grow for…

President Trump’s proposal to have Iran use their unfrozen funds to buy American agriculture products says a lot about where he’s worried about lost political support.

The Maryland state House Republican Caucus on Thursday requested the Justice Department review Maryland’s “Glock Ban” for potentially violating the Second Amendment. In a letter to the Civil Rights Division, the GOP lawmakers referenced the department’s Wednesday letter to California warning of court action regarding similar legislation that goes into effect next week. They requested that the office review Maryland’s “Glock Ban,” which goes into effect Jan. 1, expressing “concerns of constitutionality and potential violations of the Second Amendment rights of Marylanders.” “As the firearms targeted in this bill are commonly owned and widely used for lawful purposes by thousands…