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    Download your photos before AT&T shuts down its cloud storage service permanently

    AT&T / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETAT&T has long offered certain subscribers a free online storage app and service designed to back up photos from their phones. That certainly sounds handy. Alas, in the tradition of “all good things must come to an end,” the service is being retired.The bad newsPowered by tech company Asurion, AT&T Photo Storage has been available as an app for iOS and Android users alike. Through the app, AT&T subscribers can back up their photos and videos at full resolution. The service even provides tips and tricks designed to improve your picture‑taking skills.Also: The best online photo editors: Expert tested and reviewedWell, enjoy it while you can. Starting Oct. 20, 2025, AT&T Photo Storage will stop backing up your files. At that time, the app will be removed from Apple’s App Store and Google Play. The service itself, however, will still remain available until Feb. 1, 2026, at which point your stored photos will vanish as well. More

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    How the Trump administration changed AI: A timeline

    Shortly after Trump reversed Biden’s order on his first day in office, the former head of the US AISI, Elizabeth Kelly — now overseeing Beneficial Deployment at Anthropic — stepped down in late February. The change appeared due to Trump’s dismissal of anything Biden‑related and AI safety and responsibility efforts.The Trump administration notably did not invite members of AISI to join Vice President JD Vance at France’s AI Action Summit in February, where he advocated for doing away with safety precautions to the international community.On June 3, the US Department of Commerce announced that the AISI would become the “pro‑innovation, pro‑science US Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI).” The release stated that the center would function as the AI industry’s primary point of government contact — much like it did under its previous name, but with a slightly different outlook that appears primarily semantic.Also: What ‘OpenAI for Government’ means for US AI policy”For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security. Innovators will no longer be limited by these standards,” Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick wrote in the release. “CAISI will evaluate and enhance US innovation of these rapidly developing commercial AI systems while ensuring they remain secure to our national security standards.”CAISI will develop model standards, conduct testing, and “represent US interests internationally to guard against burdensome and unnecessary regulation of American technologies by foreign governments,” the release clarifies. There is no mention of creating a culture of model red‑teaming reporting, for example, or requiring companies to publish the results of certain deployment tests, which some local laws like New York’s RAISE Act address as safety requirements.Safety may not be a top priority for policy, which leaves the AI community to check on itself. Just last week, researchers from several major AI companies came together to advocate for the preservation of chain of thought (CoT) monitoring, or the process of observing a reasoning model’s CoT response as a way to catch harmful intentions and other safety issues.While it’s encouraging to see AI companies agree on a safety measure, it’s not the same as government‑enforced regulation. For example, an AI policy organized around advancing progress with adequate safety and civil rights protections in place could adapt that recommendation into a requirement for companies releasing new models. More

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    This AI-driven robotic cleaner revitalized my pool after a messy storm

    Beatbot Aquasense Pro Cordless Robotic Pool Vacuum Cleaner <!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Beatbot Aquasense Pro is a robotic pool cleaner designed for comprehensive maintenance and heavy-duty cleanups. It features a 5-in-1 cleaning system that uses AI to optimize cleaning paths with up to 9.5 hours of operation. However, it weighs 24 pounds, has limited […] More

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    This smart luggage lock is more secure than my AirTags (and it’s 20% off)

    KeySmart SmartLock Luggage Tracker <!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The KeySmart luggage tracker is a TSA-compliant combination padlock with built-in finder for $30, on sale for 20% off. The finder offers everything that an Apple AirTag does except for precision finding. The padlock is somewhat bulky as travel padlocks go. –> ZDNET readers can get an […] More

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    I finally gave NotebookLM my full attention – and it really is a total game changer

    Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETOne of the best parts of my job is that I get to chat with industry folks who, like me, eat and breathe AI tools. After meeting with yet another (non-Google-affiliated) media person last week who told me how much they loved NotebookLM, I decided to give it a real try.Also: OpenAI wins gold at prestigious math competition – why that matters more than you thinkAlthough I’ve tried several NotebookLM features for the site before and have been impressed, finding a way to incorporate NotebookLM into my workflow seemed daunting — especially because every time I tried project management tools such as Notion or Asana, I was instantly overwhelmed and never stuck with them. However, for this article, I committed to the bit, moved some of my everyday content over, and here is what my experience was like (and some ways to get the most out of it). Easy to organize your filesGoogle describes NotebookLM as a “Your Personalized AI Research Assistant,” and while the title may be true, it is a little vague. Practically speaking, NotebookLM is a virtual information manager in which you can upload your own files and organize them into “notebooks.”  More

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    Microsoft just upgraded Sentinel with an AI-powered data lake – here’s how it works

    NurPhoto/Contributor/Getty Microsoft is launching a new agentic AI system to help cybersecurity professionals manage and protect their organizations’ data, the company said Tuesday. Microsoft Sentinel, a proprietary Security Incidents and Event Management (SEIM) platform, which debuted in 2019, now comes with a data lake — that is, a centralized repository that can store structured and […] More