Technology
xAI open sources Grok
On March 11th, Elon Musk said xAI would open source its AI chatbot Grok, and now an open release is available on GitHub. This will allow researchers and developers to build on the model and impact how xAI updates Grok in the future as it competes with rival tech from OpenAI, Meta, Google, and others.
A company blog post explains that this open release includes the “base model weights and network architecture” of the “314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts model, Grok-1.” It continues saying the model is from a checkpoint last October and hasn’t undergone fine-tuning “for any specific application, such as dialogue.”
As VentureBeat notes, it’s being released under the Apache 2.0 license that enables commercial use but doesn’t include the data used to train it or connections to X for real-time data. xAI said in a November 2023 post that the LLM Grok was “developed over the last four months” and is targeted for uses around coding generation, creative writing, and answering questions.
After Musk bought Twitter (now X), the code behind its algorithms was eventually released, and Musk has openly criticized companies that don’t open-source their AI model. That includes OpenAI, which he helped found but is now suing, alleging the company breached an original founding agreement that it would be open source.
Companies have released open-source or limited open-source models to get feedback from other researchers on how to improve them. While there are many fully open-source AI foundation models like Mistral and Falcon, the most widely used models are either closed-sourced or offer a limited open license. Meta’s Llama 2, for example, gives its research away for free but makes customers with 700 million daily users pay a fee and won’t let developers iterate on top of Llama 2.
Technology
Meta’s glasses will turn off the camera if you tamper with the privacy light
Amid public backlash over its smart glasses, Meta announced that it will be updating its glasses with a new feature that will disable the camera when it detects that someone has tampered with or destroyed the glasses’ privacy LED light. The update is meant to address modders who have taken actions such as physically drilling into the LED light.
Meta has previously tried to discourage tampering with the LED light. For example, starting with its second generation glasses, blocking the light with tape or other objects will trigger a prompt asking users to uncover the recording light. However, many modders have found various workarounds for that particular measure.
Meta’s VP of wearables Alex Himel told The Verge that the privacy-focused update was on the way a few weeks ago after launching cheaper Meta Glasses without Ray-Ban branding. At the time, Himel acknowledged that the company was aware of increasing misuse alongside wider adoption of the devices.
Technology
Discord accidentally banned over 8,000 people for posting grids and other ‘benign’ images
Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord co-founder and chief technology officer, writes that the bug impacted around 200 users who posted “grid-like” pictures, in addition to about 8,000 people who posted “other benign images” since May 2026. “Everyone affected has now been unbanned,” Vishnevskiy says.
In a thread on X, Discord writes that its safety system is designed to flag content by “matching it against known harmful material.” This system can produce “false positives,” Discord explains, which is when an employee would step in to review the flagged content. But instead of just temporarily preventing the account from uploading content during the review, a glitch led its system to ban users entirely.
“When our staff reviewed and cleared those accounts, the same bug prevented the ban from being lifted automatically, so it just stayed in place,” Discord says.
Technology
Hoto’s PixelDrive screwdriver is down to $60, matching its best price
If your Prime Day purchases included a new desk, TV stand, bookshelf, or other furniture you still haven’t assembled, Hoto’s PixelDrive cordless screwdriver can help speed up the process. It’s currently on sale for $59.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, matching its best price to date.
From tightening loose screws on furniture to repairing electronics, the PixelDrive is designed to handle a wide range of household projects. Hoto includes 30 screwdriver bits that cover many of the most common screw types, all neatly organized in a small cylindrical case. It also offers six adjustable torque settings, allowing you to use less power when working with fragile electronics or increase it when putting together a desk, bookshelf, TV stand, or other furniture. You can also switch between a slower 80RPM mode for more precise work and a faster 200RPM mode with the press of a button.
Hoto also added several features that make assembling projects a little easier. A built-in display lets you quickly check your current torque setting and remaining battery life, while an integrated LED light helps illuminate dim spaces, whether you’re working under a desk or inside a cabinet. The rechargeable 2,000mAh battery also charges over USB-C, so you won’t need to keep buying disposable batteries.
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