Jemele Hill Finally Comments on the Election, and You Can Already Guess What She Blames for Outcome

The fee creep is back. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Verizon customers will soon see yet another fee increase on their next bill, a game that wireless carriers love to play. As spotted by Android Police, Verizon customers on reddit noticed the small fee bump — just 20 cents extra per line. But it comes only a couple of years after a bigger increase to the “Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge” the company tacks onto monthly bills, and Verizon’s claim that it’s just the cost of doing business seems dubious at best. Verizon spokesperson George Koroneos confirmed the fee hike to The Verge, saying that “Starting December 18, the monthly Verizon wireless Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge will increase by $0.20 per line for mobile voice (basic phones, Second Number, smartphones, etc.) and data-only (hotspots, tablets, etc.) products. Verizon Home Internet services are not affected.” That takes the fee from $3.30 to $3.50 for each voice line on a plan and $1.40 up to $1.60 per data line. According to a Verizon support page, the fee “helps defray and recover certain direct and indirect costs we or our agents incur,” including network operating and maintenance costs. AT&T and T-Mobile have slightly different names for the same fee, and all make basically the same claim about offsetting the costs of running a wireless network. A more cynical perspective is that these wireless companies separate this fee from their monthly rate plan charges so they can raise rates without saying they’re raising rates. That was the basis for a class-action lawsuit against AT&T in 2022, which that company agreed to settle. It may just be 20 cents now, but that small increase adds up to a lot when you multiply it across millions of users. After all, Verizon only made $3.4 billion in net income the third quarter this year, down from $4.9 billion in the same quarter last year. And while the fee creep is nothing new, it’s yet another reminder of of the levers these companies can pull in order to pad out their bottom line.

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI, the AI model maker that used to describe its mission as saving the world, is partnering with Anduril, a military contractor, the two companies announced Wednesday. As part of the partnership, OpenAI will integrate its software into Anduril’s counterdrone systems, which detect and take down drones. It’s OpenAI’s first partnership with a defense contractor — and a significant reversal of its earlier stance towards the military. OpenAI’s terms of service once banned “military and warfare” use of its technology, but it softened its position on military use earlier this year, changing its terms of service in January to remove the proscription. “OpenAI builds AI to benefit as many people as possible, and supports U.S.-led efforts to ensure the technology upholds democratic values,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. “Our partnership with Anduril will help ensure OpenAI technology protects U.S. military personnel, and will help the national security community understand and responsibly use this technology to keep our citizens safe and free.” As the Wall Street Journal notes, Anduril — currently valued at $14 billion — has a $200 million counterdrone systems contract with the Marine Corps. But OpenAI won’t just benefit financially from its Anduril partnership; it also stands to gain political clout. Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey was an early supporter of president-elect Donald Trump, and also has ties to Elon Musk, one of the heads of the still-nebulous (and still nonexistent) Department of Government Efficiency. And the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think-tank working closely with the Trump transition team, has proposed that Trump embrace AI to create a new “Manhattan Project” for defense.

Have you ever wondered when you’ll die? Well, a new app called Death Clock aims to help you answer that question. The app uses trained death prediction AI, which looks at various answers provided by the app’s users. The AI then predicts when you’ll die, as well as offers some additional ways to improve your health and live longer. Considering how important the quest to slow human aging has become for many scientists, the actual want for an app like this is pretty high. Additionally, the information could help elderly people who are worried about outliving their money, the folks behind it told Bloomberg. Being able to more accurately determine when they might reach the end of the road is important. The big thing with this new death prediction AI is that the app it powers is supposedly a “pretty significant” improvement on the current standard life tables that we utilize to determine mortality estimates. The app's questionnaire asks many questions about the user, including things like age, gender, family history, mental health, and even information about chronic conditions. The studies it was trained on also included more than 50 million participants, so it should have a nice baseline to build off of. However, the real meat of the app is locked behind a $40 subscription fee—which could be a turnoff for many, especially as this is where it hides the various suggestions for improving your habits. Subscribing will also show you a clock that counts down to your estimated death, in case you want to let the death prediction AI make things even more morbid than they already might be. Whether or not this kind of app is for you is up to you to decide. While I can definitely see the appeal of knowing how your health conditions and all might affect your mortality, I’m also of the mind that I’d rather not have a clock counting down to the day I’m going to die—even if it is just a rough estimate. That’s a bit too morbid for me to think about consistently. But, if you do want to know when you’re going to die, Death Clock can tell you. Don't Miss: These temporary tattoos can be used to read brain activity The post This app can use AI to predict when you’ll die appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals ECOVACS has the biggest robot vacuum sale of Black Friday and Cyber Monday Best Cyber Monday deals 2024: All the top sales Black Friday blowout: 15% off PS5, $154 AirPods Pro, doorbuster deals, Beats headphones, Narwal Freo Z Ultra, more T-Mobile’s latest holiday offer: Get an iPhone 16 Pro on us

Target has failed to persuade a judge in Florida to dismiss a lawsuit that accused the retailer of deceiving shareholders after its sales of LGBTQ-themed merchandise for Pride Month sparked a backlash and a customer boycott.

Three Fort Cavazos soldiers were arrested on criminal charges related to their involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants, the Justice Department said.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday pressure was now piling up on President Emmanuel Macron even though she was not calling for his resignation, adding Macron alone had the last say on the matter.

French President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation Thursday evening in a televised speech, the Elysee presidential palace said on Wednesday, after French opposition lawmakers earlier brought the government down.

All three major U.S. stock indexes scored record closing highs Wednesday as technology shares rallied after upbeat results from Salesforce and as comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave a late boost to the market.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., plans to step down as House Judiciary Committee Chair, Politico reported Wednesday.