2026-09-16 Discoveries

A single firm is behind OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta hacking scandals

The Israeli Effective Altruist firm Irregular caused unsecured AI models to hack real targets.

Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking

Gemini 3.8 Live and Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking are our most advanced live dialogue models yet, built for natural conversation.

Introducing System One Models and Jev

TypeSafe AI is an AI lab building machine-native intelligence infrastructure for automation, designed to make decisions within software. Try our first System One Model, Jev, in early access.

Black Holes or Black Hole Stars? Astronomers Spar Over Webb Telescope’s ‘Little Red Dots.’

The James Webb Space Telescope spots mysterious “little red dots” everywhere. A bold new theory suggests they’re suns dozens of times larger than our entire solar system. The post Black Holes or Black Hole Stars? Astronomers Spar Over Webb Telescope’s ‘Little Red Dots.’ first appeared on Quanta…

Show HN: Pizza Bot – An inbox for AI agents that work in the background

A local-first inbox for long-running AI agents, built with DeepAgents and LangGraph. - pizza-bot-app/pizza-bot

An updated look for the Raspberry Pi Desktop

Some optional new features which might enhance your experience of the Raspberry Pi Desktop.

Show HN: Hacking a $20 4G wireless hotspot into a texting device

Coffee Maker Steam Wand Gets a Safe Outlet

Sometimes a hacker has a specific sort of problem, and uses the tools they have to solve it in a way that just might be helpful to someone else. That’s …

The Radical Ideas of Plato’s Republic: An In-Depth Introduction

We no longer live in a time when college freshmen get shocked by much of the reading material assigned to them. Counterintuitively, the texts that do retain their power to disturb young minds (presuming they can read texts in the first place) tend to skew old — and in one prominent case, about…

September Pixel Drop: New Pixel VIP updates, Pixel Watch features, and more

Our September Pixel Drop is here with an updated Pixel VIP widget, expanded chat Scam Detection, and more.

After 6 Years as Road Ornament a Widescreen Sony Trinitron Lives Again

After previously adopting a big Sony Trinitron CRT TV that had been trying to hitch a ride along the side of a road in Italy for at least six years, …

Did Wildfires Spark the Invention of Pottery?

Introducing the “natural kiln hypothesis”

Build real-time voice applications with Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.5 Transcribe

A look at how developers can build with our latest audio models, Gemini 3.8 Live, 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, and 3.5 Transcribe.

Why Incompetent People Think They’re Amazing: An Animated Lesson from David Dunning (of…

The business world has long had special jargon for the Kafkaesque incompetence bedeviling the ranks of upper management. There is “the Peter principle,” first described in a satirical book of the same name in 1968. More recently, we have the positive notion of “failing upward.” The concept has…

Please No Photos! A Short Film Focuses on Tourists’ Obsession with Capturing the Moment

Serenity now! 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 Please No Photos! A Short Film Focuses on Tourists’ Obsession with Capturing the Moment appeared first on Colossal .

Narrative

AI-first video editor, just describe edits & refine in chat

Sampling the Elephant’s Foot and Chornobyl’s Tedious Corium Clean-up

The site of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) remains a unique location, as what’s left of the No. 4 reactor is the only place in the world where you …

Why Elon Musk’s “Self-Growing” Moon Cities Are Tragically Flawed

There’s simply not enough water

It’s “A Cat-astrophe”! (1919)

“A Cat-astrophe” came on the tail end of an odd 1918 boom in cat-themed music.

Why I'm still bearish on LLMs after Navier-Stokes

siift

Turn AI noise into better business decisions

The Legacy of Colonialism Haunts Hew Locke’s Era-Defying Flotilla

How people, capital, cargo, and ideas traverse the globe has long been central to Hew Locke's work. 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 The Legacy of Colonialism Haunts Hew…

How the Silk Road Actually Worked (and What Could Go Terribly Wrong On It)

You don’t have to spend a long time reading up on the Silk Road before you see the term itself (“Silk Road”) called a misnomer. In fact, what we refer to by that name comprises a whole network of trade routes connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe, whose traffic constantly shifted over a millennium…

Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations

E-ink bird frame for Raspberry Pi - real-time bird detection by audio, fully local AI, rendered as real, hand-cut 1800s bird illustrations. - arnegiacomo/fugleramme

An Update on Wayback Machine Access

This Woman Cured Her Cancer with an Insane Method

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How to explain something complicated

Episode 8: Explore what building blocks you need to best explain complex ideas in ways your audience will understand and engage with. -- This is episode 8 of the animated series, “Public Speaking 101.” Ideas change everything — and since…

Who Said The First Bad Word On The Moon?

Mercury Has Gotten Smaller Than We Thought

The first planet from the sun has been hiding its wrinkles

How Monumental Environmental Works by Meg Webster Cultivate Reconnection

Inside Webster's interdisciplinary practice that advocates for nature. 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 How Monumental Environmental Works by Meg Webster Cultivate…