2026-08-12 Discoveries

OpenAI’s head of ethics leaves less than a year after joining

Stealing Reasoning Traces from Proprietary LLM APIs

Encrypted chain-of-thought blocks returned by Anthropic, OpenAI and Google APIs are interchangeable across sessions, users and models. We exploit this to decode hidden reasoning at scale.

Go is an ideal language for AI-assisted software engineering

As AI shifts software engineering from writing to reviewing, discover how Go's strict compiler and unified toolchain ensure reliable AI-generated code.

Mastering edge AI on Raspberry Pi with LiteRT and Gemma

Our friends at Google have been busy working on improving LiteRT performance on the Raspberry Pi platform.

Fixing a Dead Makita Battery with a 20 Cent Part

It’s no real secret that battery packs for power tools aren’t the foremost when it comes to user serviceability, so if said battery pack suddenly stops charging outside of warranty, …

AMIE, our research medical AI system, demonstrates real-time clinical video consultation…

Google introduces AMIE for real-time clinical video consultations in simulated settings.

How the Beatles Made their Most Acclaimed Album, Revolver, Released 60 Years Ago This…

Among Beatles connoisseurs, it’s fair game to claim anything from Rubber Soul to Abbey Road as one’s favorite album. But even within that span of the catalog, a hierarchy of acclaim exists, and that hierarchy has been rearranged over the decades. The ecstatic reception of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely…

Splitting a Ball Bearing to Cut Out Backlash

Gears are usually the biggest contributors to backlash in a mechanical system, but they’re far from the only culprits. Ball bearings are a less obvious source of imprecision, since any …

How Our Attraction to Natural Fixes Can Stymie Climate Progress

Does a human-made problem need a natural solution?

Stream free movies and shows on Google TV Freeplay

Google TV Freeplay now offers over 10,000 free on-demand movies and shows, — plus, 300+ live channels, with no subscription needed.

Stuffed Animals and Found Objects Reconfigure in Sungho Bae’s Uncanny Sculptures

Sungho Bae's uncanny sculptures aremade of a vibrant, fleshy patchwork that resembles organs, tissue, muscle, and more. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Stuffed Animals…

Lexi

The operating system for legal work

226 Ansel Adams Photographs of Great American National Parks Are Now Online

Like many American stories, the story of the National Parks begins with pillage, death, deep cultural misunderstanding, and venture capitalism. According to Ken Burns’ film series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, we can date the idea back to 1851, with the “discovery” of Yosemite by a…

Turning a Toy Game Boy into a Real Game Boy

In the world of children’s toys there are many offerings which are meant to look like devices used by older kids or even adults, with the Fisher Price Laugh & …

“We Wanted to Create An Experience of Microscopic Awe”: A Radical New View of Sacred…

Fluorescent visions of the guts of living sacred plants from all over the Americas

BetterClaw

Deploy AI Agent, 60 seconds & $0 forever

Discover Millions of Artworks from Thousands of Museums with This Huge Art Search Engine

"We currently have around five million artworks indexed, and strive to eventually index all museum art in the world," the creators say. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article…

More than 1 billion people are using the Gemini app every month.

The Gemini app has officially surpassed 1 billion monthly users, making it the fastest-growing product in Google’s history. Here’s some data about how people are using G…

Nvidia's Risky Business

England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C

England is on track to become one of the first countries in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, a dangerous virus that attacks the liver, figures show.

Mojo 1.0

Today, the Mojo language officially reaches 1.0: a milestone the language has been building toward since its first release in 2023. Mojo has grown into a general-purpose language with a vibrant developer community writing their own…

How do Maglev trains work? - Ning Zhao

Learn more at https://brilliant.org/TedEd -- To coincide with the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Japan launched a groundbreaking bullet train that inspired countries around the world to invest in high-speed rail. Today, high-speed trains regularly…

Who Keeps Spreading the Seeds of This Parasitic Plant?

Cockroaches are just the half of it

Tines 3B

The secure environment for agents, apps, and automations

Meghann Stephenson’s Tender Paintings Contrast Women’s Agency with ‘Acceptable Behavior’

'Queen of the Neighborhood!' will include a suite of new paintings that correspond to the nine circles of Hell in Dante's 'Inferno.' Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article…

Compression is prediction

Compression and LLMs are trying to solve the exact same problem: predicting what comes next. Learn the fundamentals of compression and how better prediction leads to better shrinkage.

Show HN: iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo

Zoom and enhance. For real this time. Two lenses, one press, one high-res photo.