Image: Reliant General Motors is teaming up with Reliant Energy to offer free nighttime charging to some Chevy electric vehicle owners in Texas. Chevy owners who enroll in Reliant’s EV charging plan will receive free nighttime charging through monthly bill credits that offset charges incurred between 11PM. and 6AM, the companies said. Customers must also designate an EV to receive the charging credit through GM Energy’s Smart Charging Portal. (GM Energy is the automaker’s home energy subsidiary, and Reliant is a subsidiary of NRG Energy.) The new plan is the latest promotion to discount charging costs for EV owners, as automakers pile on perks in the hopes of winning over skeptical consumers. Ford recently announced a similar deal in Texas, partnering... Continue reading…

PC game platform GOG has launched a new preservation program dedicated to keeping beloved older games playable, “now and in the future.” “If a game is part of the Preservation Program, it means that we commit our own resources to maintaining its compatibility with modern and future systems,” the announcement blog reads. The program is launching with 100 games including Diablo, System Shock 2, and Resident Evil 1-3, with GOG planning to add emore titles in the coming months. Games featured in the program will come with a number of perks. GOG says that when you buy a game from the program, you can: “expect it to work on current and future popular PC configurations” “be sure that this version is the best and most complete available... Continue reading…

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images If you want to preserve the existing version of Lil Jon’s “Get Low” in your brain, maybe don’t listen to this cover T-Pain made with Mark Zuckerberg — excuse me, Z-Pain. Their version transforms the “Get Low” I got down to at all my school dances into a song with a much slower tempo complete with an acoustic guitar. Trust me, I may be scarred for life after hearing Zuckerberg’s autotuned voice serenade me with “‘Til the sweat drop down my balls.” If you get halfway through the song, you’ll also hear a cameo from T-Pain. Apparently, Zuckerberg made the song for his wife, Priscilla. “‘Get Low’ was playing when I first met Priscilla at a college party, so every year we listen to it on our dating anniversary,” Zuckerberg wrote on Instagram.... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge The Wall Street Journal is experimenting with AI-generated article summaries that appear at the top of its news stories. The summaries appear as a “Key Points” box with bullets summarizing the piece. The Verge spotted the test on a story about Trump’s plans for the Department of Education, and the Journal confirmed it’s trialing the feature to see how readers respond. The “Key Points” box has a message explaining that an “artificial intelligence tool created this summary” and that the summary was checked by an editor. The box also points to a page about how the WSJ and Dow Jones Newswires use AI tools. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge The AI-generated “Key Points” from this WSJ article. “We are always... Continue reading…

With ChatGPT approaching its second anniversary, we have been waiting for some sort of major announcement from OpenAI. Reports said a few weeks ago that the GPT-5 upgrade we've been waiting for could be rolled out in December. When said ChatGPT upgrade does roll out, it might not even be called GPT-5, given the somewhat negative connotations around the name. Instead, GPT-5 might be called something else. Orion is the internal name associated with OpenAI's next-gen AI model currently in development. Orion should be more powerful than GPT-4o and o1, the models OpenAI has launched this year. The latter is still in beta as it is. But Orion (GPT-5) might not be available to regular ChatGPT users like you and me initially. That's what The Verge claimed a few weeks ago. Reportedly 100 times more powerful than GPT-4, Orion would target enterprise users first. But fast-forward to mid-December, and we have several reports saying the same thing. The big AI firms, including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, are struggling to train the next-gen, more powerful AI models that should succeed the current models. This implies that a GPT-5 delay might be in order, especially if OpenAI isn't happy with Orion's performance compared to GPT-4o and o1. While that might seem like a step back for the industry and a potential indication that the AI bubble might eventually burst, it's not bad news for the AI landscape overall. We should not expect innovation at break-neck speeds, especially given the nature of this particular type of research. Continue reading... The post GPT-5 delay expected as AI firms struggle with next-gen models appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Today’s deals: $100 off iPad mini 7, $60 off Nintendo Switch OLED, $90 Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL, more Today’s deals: $699 M2 MacBook Air, $30 Philips OneBlade 360, $199 Bose TV soundbar, $399 Dyson V11, more Best Apple Watch deals for November 2024

Chinese researchers have digitally recreated the facial contours and features of a man from the Hongshan culture, during the Neolithic period, roughly 5,000-years-old. Using advanced 3D technology, the 25–30-year-old was recreated from a relatively well-preserved skull excavated from a Hongshan culture tomb in Chaoyang, Liaoning. Researchers from the Liaoning provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology and the School of Archaeology at Jilin University used their powers and brought in various disciplines – anthropology, anatomy, computer science, and art. They determined the individual’s gender, age, and recreated facial features down to the T (literally) – eye, skin, and hair color included! The anthropologists helped with contextual knowledge about cultural markers and lifestyle, while the anatomists helped with the skull structure and other facial details. Extracting and studying ancient DNA was tough, and so was corroboration, given the absence of details and written record. Over 4 million points on the skulls had to be recorded for data-processing before any conclusions could be drawn. “It is the first reconstruction based on an actual Hongshan ancestor’s skull. The reconstructed face can be considered the closest to reality achieved to date,” deputy director Li Hiabo told Xinhua. Read moreSection: NewsEvolution & Human OriginsHuman OriginsScienceAsiaRead Later 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Democrats on Wednesday they are unlikely to win back the House and took responsibility for the loss, Axios reported.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's criticism of President-elect Donald Trump's defense secretary nominee is getting blowback from some conservatives, reports the Daily Caller.

Former GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., will take over as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).

Bank executives and lawyers anticipate the incoming Trump administration to place significant limits on the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), but the president's populist leanings could leave room for some activity by the watchdog.