Category: Technology

America’s once-promising EV transition may have taken a U-turn, but at least some in Hollywood are trying to do their part. Rivian partnered with Grey’s Anatomy to make a custom electric ambulance for the long-running series.

The ambulance is a modified version of Rivian’s Commercial Van. The custom “vanbulance” serves a dual purpose: preventing on-set exhaust fumes (which could harm the cast and crew) and integrating a green storyline. “As an added benefit, the elimination of engine noise brought a welcome quiet while cameras were rolling,” Rivan wrote in a blog post.

Among other modifications, it has rear double doors instead of a roll-up one.

The vehicle includes some production-specific touches. Its walls and roof panels are removable, allowing cameras to reach angles required for interior shots. In addition, Rivian replaced the standard van’s rear roll-up door with double doors while adding a side entry to the cargo area. The company also added custom lighting and an exterior wrap reading “Seattle Emergency Response Services.”

The team consulted with the Huntington Beach Fire Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department to inform the interior layout. “Their feedback was invaluable to understand how first responders actually use their vehicles,” Rivian wrote.

At least Hollywood’s fictional worlds are transitioning to electric.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that the electric ambulance debuted in the November 13, 2025, episode of Grey’s Anatomy. However, it was featured more prominently in Thursday’s episode — hence Rivian choosing this week to highlight it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/rivian-made-an-electric-ambulance-for-greys-anatomy-194358967.html?src=rss 

Since 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has achieved a number of historic milestones, including sending back the first audio recordings from Mars. Now, nearly five years after landing on the Red Planet, it just achieved another feat. This past December, Perseverance successfully completed a route through a section of the Jezero crater plotted by Anthropic’s Claude chatbot, marking the first time NASA has used a large language model to pilot the car-sized robot.    

Between December 8 and 10, Perseverance drove approximately 400 meters (about 437 yards) through a field of rocks on the Martian surface mapped out by Claude. As you might imagine, using an AI model to plot a course for Perseverance wasn’t as simple as inputting a single prompt. 

As NASA explains, routing Perseverance is no easy task, even for a human. “Every rover drive needs to be carefully planned, lest the machine slide, tip, spin its wheels, or get beached,” NASA said. “So ever since the rover landed, its human operators have painstakingly laid out waypoints — they call it a ‘breadcrumb trail’ — for it to follow, using a combination of images taken from space and the rover’s onboard cameras.” 

To get Claude to complete the task, NASA had to first provide Claude Code, Anthropic’s programming agent, with the “years” of contextual data from the rover before the model could begin writing a route for Perseverance. Claude then went about the mapping process methodically, stringing together waypoints from ten-meter segments it would later critique and iterate on.  

This being NASA we’re talking about, engineers from the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made sure to double check the model’s work before sending it to Perseverance. The JPL team ran Claude’s waypoints through a simulation they use every day to confirm the accuracy of commands sent to the rover. In the end, NASA says it only had to make “minor changes” to Claude’s route, with one tweak coming as a result of the fact the team had access to ground-level images Claude hadn’t seen in its planning process.  

“The engineers estimate that using Claude in this way will cut the route-planning time in half, and make the journeys more consistent,” NASA said. “Less time spent doing tedious manual planning — and less time spent training — allows the rover’s operators to fit in even more drives, collect even more scientific data, and do even more analysis. It means, in short, that we’ll learn much more about Mars.”

While the productivity gains offered by AI are often overstated, in the case of NASA, any tool that could allow its scientists to be more efficient is sure to be welcome. Over the summer, the agency lost about 4,000 employees – accounting for about 20 percent of its workforce – due to Trump administration cuts. Going into 2026, the president had proposed gutting the agency’s science budget by nearly half before Congress ultimately rejected that plan in early January. Still, even with its funding preserved just below 2025 levels, the agency has a tough road ahead. It’s being asked to return to the Moon with less than half the workforce it had during the height of the Apollo program.     

For Anthropic, meanwhile, this is a major feat. You may recall last spring Claude couldn’t even beat Pokémon Red. In less than a year, the company’s models have gone from struggling to navigate a simple 8-bit Game Boy game to successfully plotting a course for a rover on a distant planet. NASA is excited about the possibility of future collaborations, saying “autonomous AI systems could help probes explore ever more distant parts of the solar system.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/nasa-used-claude-to-plot-a-route-for-its-perseverance-rover-on-mars-203150701.html?src=rss 

The Sundance documentary Ghost in the Machine boldly declares that the pursuit of artificial intelligence, and Silicon Valley itself, is rooted in eugenics. 

Director Valerie Veatch makes the case that the rise of techno-fascism from the likes of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel is a feature, not a bug. That may sound hyperbolic, but Ghost in the Machine, which is built around interviews with philosophers, AI researchers, historians and computer scientists, leaves little room for doubt.

If you’ve been following the meteoric rise of AI, or Silicon Valley in general, Veatch’s methodical deconstruction of the technology doesn’t really unearth anything new. The film begins with the utter failure of Microsoft’s Tay chatbot, which wasted no time in becoming a Hitler-loving white supremacist. It retreads the environmental impacts of AI datacenters, as well as the ways tech companies have relied on low-wage workers from Africa and elsewhere to improve their algorithms. 

But even I was surprised to learn that we can trace the impact of eugenics in tech all the way back to Karl Pearson, the mathematician who pioneered the field of statistics, and who also spent his life trying to quantify the differences between races. (Guess who he believed was superior.) His legacy was continued by William Shockley, a co-creator of the transistor, an avowed white supremacist who spent his later years espousing (now debunked) theories around IQ and racial differences.

An early robot toy.

As a Stanford engineering professor, Shockley fostered a culture of prioritizing white men over women and minorities, which ultimately shaped the way Silicon Valley looks today. His line of thinking could have had an influence on John McCarthy, the Stanford researcher who coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955,  

With roots like that, Elon Musk — known to spout bigotry online,  foster a reportedly racist work environment at Tesla and  throw the occasionaly few Nazi salute — looks less like an anomaly than part of a pattern. Ghost in the Machine asks a simple question: How can we trust men like this (and it’s almost always men that look like Musk) with our future?

Through its many interviews, which include the likes of AI researcher Dr. Emily Bender, historian Becca Lewis and media theorist Douglass Rushkoff, Ghost in the Machine paints the rise of AI as a fascistic project that aims to demean humans and establish the techno-elite as our de facto rulers. Given how much our lives are already dominated by gadgets and social networks from companies that have pioneered addictive engagement over user safety, it’s easy to imagine history repeating itself with AI. 

Ghost in the Machine doesn’t leave any room for considering potential benefits around AI, which could lead proponents of the technology to dismiss it as a hit-job. But we’re currently at the apex of the AI hype cycle, after Big Tech has invested hundreds of billions of dollars on this technology, and after it has spent years shoving it down our throats without proving why it’s actually useful to many people. AI should be able to withstand a bit of criticism.

Ghost in the Machine is available to view at the Sundance Film Festival’s website and streaming apps from today through the end of Sunday, February 1st.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sundance-doc-ghost-in-the-machine-draws-a-damning-line-between-ai-and-eugenics-180613367.html?src=rss 

When talking about the best VPNs, I frequently warn about the dangers of trusting free VPNs without verifying them. Although there are a few free VPNs worth recommending, many other free providers are ineffective, malicious or looking to profit off their users (or sometimes all three). Even the best free VPNs work a lot better once you subscribe and access their full service.

This can be frustrating if you want to enjoy the benefits of a VPN but don’t have the budget for yet another subscription. To help you out, I put together a list of the best paid VPN services you can get cheaply. Every name on the list comes with my full recommendation — I’ll never recommend a VPN that doesn’t protect you, no matter how affordable.

Before I get started, I want to define “cheap,” since VPNs often bamboozle the customer with muddled pricing schemes. Most providers have long-term subscription plans with big discounts, and many of them compensate by making their monthly plans more expensive. On this list, I’ll recommend services with cheap subscriptions for both the short and long term, plus one favorite that balances both.

Best cheap VPNs for 2026

Other VPNs we tested with good deals

A couple of VPNs have decent pricing options attached to worthy services but weren’t quite strong enough to make the list. Both these services get my hearty recommendation; they’re just hard to justify as “cheap.”

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN recently switched to a multi-tier pricing model. The Basic pricing tier gets you complete VPN service but doesn’t include the full set of features. The best price on that is $78.18 for 28 months, which works out to $2.79 per month. Although that sounds great, it’s more expensive than both Surfshark and CyberGhost at the same duration and renews at the even higher price of $99.95 per year ($8.33 per month).

Still, as I wrote in my full ExpressVPN review, it’s an outstanding service overall. Thanks to its sensible app layouts and focus on doing simple tasks well, I find it especially good for introducing beginners to what a VPN can do.

NordVPN

NordVPN is another provider that I gave a relatively positive review. I really like its boundary-pushing features, especially the various types of highly specialized servers. Its pricing isn’t bad, exactly, but even the Basic level is more expensive than just about everyone else at every duration. NordVPN’s fast download speeds and wide server network make it worthwhile for lots of users, but it’s hard to recommend to people on a budget.

What to look for in a good cheap VPN

Looking for an affordable VPN is the same as looking for any kind of VPN; it just requires more care. The worst VPNs usually present themselves as free, but there’s also a fair number of mediocre options that think low prices have to mean a mediocre service. If you want to use a VPN but don’t have much extra cash, take some additional care in a few areas of your search.

First, don’t subscribe to a VPN — or even download any of its apps — if you haven’t verified its security. To do that, start by checking what experts have to say about it. If a VPN is truly unsafe, chances are high that somebody has already sounded the alarm. You can also check the list of protocols the VPN offers. If it’s anything other than OpenVPN, WireGuard or IKEv2, do a deep dive to make sure it’s using worthwhile encryption.

If you’ve verified that the VPN isn’t a virus, check to see if it has a free trial or a guaranteed money-back period. This will give you some risk-free time to do hands-on tests. Our article on how we test VPNs includes several tests you can run on your own computer, phone or tablet. Check the VPN’s speed, make sure it has the server locations you need and look for anything that might be leaking your real IP address.

Read the VPN’s privacy policy and make sure you’re comfortable with how much information it saves. Some VPNs emphasize privacy more than others. Finally, before your free trial or refund period expires, make sure to double-check on the pricing structure of the VPN you’re choosing — it’s possible that it will only be cheap for the first subscription period.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/best-cheap-vpn-170000957.html?src=rss 

Grammy winner Bad Bunny, seen here accepting his award for Best Música Urbana Album for “Un Verano Sin Ti” in 2023, is nominated again this year. (Timothy Norris/FilmMagic)

The 2026 Grammy Awards honor music’s biggest achievements of the year, and some of the biggest stars on the planet are nominated this year. Kendrick Lamar leads the way with nine nominations, including for Record and Song of the Year for “luther,” his collaboration with SZA. Other top nominees this year include Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff, and Cirkut with seven nominations apiece, and Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, and Leon Thomas, who have six. The 2026 Grammy Awards will be hosted by comedian Trevor Noah, who also happens to be a nominee this year in the Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling category. 

The 2026 Grammys will take place at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, and the broadcast will air this Sunday, Feb. 1, at 8PM ET/5PM PT on CBS, streaming live on Paramount+ (for Premium subscribers only). The 2026 Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony — where the majority of the Grammys are actually awarded — will take place earlier that same day, from 3:30PM ET/12:30PM PT, and streams live free on YouTube.

Here’s how to watch the 2026 Grammy Awards live this Sunday.

When are the 2026 Grammy Awards?

The 68th Grammy Awards will be held this Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026.

Grammys start time

The Grammy Awards live TV broadcast begins at 8PM ET/5PM PT. It’s scheduled to run until 11:30PM ET.

Prior to the main broadcast, the 2026 Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony (this is where you can watch the awards for categories like Musical Theater, Americana, Reggae, Metal, Gospel and more) will take place from 3:30PM ET/12:30PM PT. The Grammys Premiere Ceremony will stream live for free at live.GRAMMY.com and on YouTube.

Grammy Awards TV channel

The 68th Grammy Awards will air on CBS and stream live on Paramount+ for Premium subscribers. The awards show will also be available the following day on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers.

How to watch the Grammys without cable

How to watch the 2026 Grammys free

Who is performing at the 2026 Grammy Awards?

Among this year’s Grammy’s performers are Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, Album of the Year nominees Clipse and Pharrell Williams, and every Best New Artist nominee, including Addison Rae, Alex Warren, KATSEYE, Leon Thomas, Lola Young, Olivia Dean, SOMBR, and The Marías.

This year’s In Memorium honoring artists we’ve lost this year will include a musical tribute from Reba McEntire, Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson, a performance from Ms. Lauryn Hill in honor of D’Angelo and Roberta Flack, and an Ozzy Osbourne tribute from artists like Post Malone, Andrew Watt, Chad Smith, Duff McKagan, and Slash.

Who is hosting the Grammys this year?

Trevor Noah will return to host the Grammys for the sixth and final year.

Who is presenting at the 2026 Grammys?

While the full list of Grammys presenters has yet to be released, we do know that Harry Styles and Doechii will be presenting.

Grammy Awards new categories

This year’s Grammys will see the return of the award for Best Album Cover (after 53 years!). This year, the category of Best Country Album will now be split into two awards: Best Contemporary Country Album and Best Traditional Country Album.

Grammys eligibility window

The 2026 Grammy Awards will recognize music released from August 31, 2024 to August 30, 2025.

2026 Grammy nominations

Here are the nominees for the 68th Grammy Awards.

Album of the Year

Bad Bunny — Debí Tirar Más Fotos

Justin Bieber — Swag

Sabrina Carpenter — Man’s Best Friend

Clipse, Pusha T & Malice — Let God Sort Em Out

Lady Gaga — Mayhem

Kendrick Lamar — GNX

Leon Thomas — Mutt

Tyler, the Creator — Chromakopia

Record of the Year

Bad Bunny — “DtMF”

Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”

Doechii — “Anxiety”

Billie Eilish — “Wildflower”

Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”

Kendrick Lamar feat. SZA — “Luther”

Chappell Roan — “The Subway”

Song of the Year

Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”

Doechii — “Anxiety”

ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”

Bad Bunny — “DtMF”

HUNTR/X (EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI) — “Golden”

Kendrick Lamar feat. SZA — “Luther”

Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”

Billie Eilish — “Wildflower”

Best New Artist

Olivia Dean

KATSEYE

The Marías

Addison Rae

sombr

Leon Thomas

Alex Warren

Lola Young

Best Pop Solo Performance

Justin Bieber — “Daisies”

Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”

Lady Gaga — “Disease”

Chappell Roan — “The Subway”

Lola Young — “Messy”

Best Pop Vocal Album

Justin Bieber — Swag

Sabrina Carpenter — Man’s Best Friend

Miley Cyrus — Something Beautiful

Lady Gaga — Mayhem

Teddy Swims — I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2)

Best Alternative Music Album

Bon Iver — Sable, Fable

The Cure — Songs of a Lost World

Tyler, the Creator — Don’t Tap the Glass

Wet Leg — Moisturizer

Hayley Williams — Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

Best Rock Album

Deftones — Private Music

HAIM — I Quit

Linkin Park — From Zero

Turnstile — Never Enough

YUNGBLUD — Idols

Best Rap Album

Clipse, Pusha T & Malice — Let God Sort Em Out

GloRilla — Glorious

JID — God Does Like Ugly

Kendrick Lamar — GNX

Tyler, the Creator — Chromakopia

Best R&B Album

GIVĒON — Beloved

Coco Jones — Why Not More?

Ledisi — The Crown

Teyana Taylor — Escape Room

Leon Thomas — Mutt

Best Contemporary Country Album

Kelsea Ballerini — Patterns

Tyler Childers — Snipe Hunter

Eric Church — Evangeline vs. The Machine

Jelly Roll — Beautifully Broken

Miranda Lambert — Postcards From Texas

Best Traditional Country Album

Charley Crockett — Dollar a Day

Lukas Nelson — American Romance

Willie Nelson — Oh What a Beautiful World

Margo Price — Hard Headed Woman

Zach Top — Ain’t In It for My Health

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical

Dan Auerbach

Cirkut

Dijon

Blake Mills

Sounwave

Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical

Amy Allen

Edgar Barrera

Jessie Jo Dillon

Tobias Jesso Jr.

See the full list at Grammy.com.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-watch-the-2026-grammy-awards-tv-channel-start-time-where-to-stream-nominations-list-and-more-150015179.html?src=rss 

Somehow, we live in a world where people can bet on practically anything using sites like Polymarket and Kalshi. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget Senior Reporter Karissa Bell dive into the world of prediction markets. How did we get here? And is endless betting having an effect on the real world? Also, we chat about the new American version of TikTok, which stumbled during its first weekend with a litany of errors and reported censorship.

Subscribe!

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Topics

Who’s going to buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Tri-fold for $2900? – 1:18

Tesla is killing off the Model X and S lines to focus on its Optimus robot moonshot – 6:46

Amazon plans to cut 16,000 jobs and close its grocery stores in another round of restructuring – 10:45

Most of the UK will lose access to Pornhub in a fight over age verification and privacy – 21:16

Internal messages from Meta about Instagram being ‘a drug’ for teens could be bombshell evidence at trial – 26:59

What are prediction markets and why are they suddenly so popular? – 32:11

As TikTok US stumbles, users ask ‘is it server problems or censorship?’ – 46:55

Around Engadget – 59:11

Pop culture picks – 1:01:23 

Credits

Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Karissa Bell
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/engadget-podcast-what-do-prediction-markets-like-kalshi-cost-us-143113799.html?src=rss 

Apple has yet to announce a foldable iPhone, but after years of speculation, the outlines of what’s often referred to as the iPhone Fold are starting to come into focus. Multiple analysts and leakers now agree that Apple is targeting a late-2026 launch window for its first foldable phone, positioning it as a premium flagship rather than a niche experiment.

As with all pre-launch Apple products, nothing here is official. Plans can change, features can be dropped and timelines can slip. Still, recent reports paint the clearest picture yet of how Apple might approach a foldable iPhone and how it plans to differentiate itself from rivals like Samsung and Google.

Below is a roundup of the most credible iPhone Fold rumors so far, covering its possible release timing, design, display technology, cameras and price. We’ll continue to update this post as more rumors and details become available.

When could the iPhone Fold launch?

Rumors of a foldable iPhone date back as far as 2017, but more recent reporting suggests Apple has finally locked onto a realistic window. Most sources now point to fall 2026, likely alongside the iPhone 18 lineup.

Mark Gurman has gone back and forth on timing, initially suggesting Apple could launch “as early as 2026,” before later writing that the device would ship at the end of 2026 and sell primarily in 2027. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also repeatedly cited the second half of 2026 as Apple’s target.

Some reports still claim the project could slip into 2027 if Apple runs into manufacturing or durability issues, particularly around the hinge or display. Given Apple’s history of delaying products that it feels aren’t ready, that remains a real possibility.

What will the iPhone Fold look like?

Current consensus suggests Apple has settled on a book-style foldable design, similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series, rather than a clamshell flip phone.

When unfolded, the iPhone Fold is expected to resemble a small tablet like the iPad mini (8.3 inches). Based on the rumor mill, though, the iPhone Fold may be a touch smaller, with an internal display measuring around 7.7 to 7.8 inches. When closed, it should function like a conventional smartphone, with an outer display in the 5.5-inch range.

CAD leaks and alleged case-maker molds suggest the device may be shorter and wider than a standard iPhone when folded, creating a squarer footprint that better matches the aspect ratio of the inner display. Several reports have also pointed to the iPhone Air as a potential preview of Apple’s foldable design work, with its unusually thin chassis widely interpreted as a look at what one half of a future foldable iPhone could resemble.

If that theory holds, it could help explain the Fold’s rumored dimensions. Thickness is expected to land between roughly 4.5 and 5.6mm when unfolded, putting it in a similar range to the iPhone Air, and just over 9 to 11mm when folded, depending on the final hinge design and internal layering.

iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air

Display and the crease question

The display is arguably the biggest challenge for any foldable phone, and it’s an area where Apple appears to have invested years of development.

Multiple reports say Apple will rely on Samsung Display as its primary supplier. At CES 2026, Samsung showcased a new crease-less foldable OLED panel, which several sources — including Bloomberg — suggested could be the same technology Apple plans to use.

According to these reports, the panel combines a flexible OLED with a laser-drilled metal support plate that disperses stress when folding. The goal is a display with a nearly invisible crease, something Apple reportedly considers essential before entering the foldable market.

If Apple does use this panel, it would mark a notable improvement over current foldables, which still show visible creasing under certain lighting conditions.

Cameras and biometrics

Camera rumors suggest Apple is planning a four-camera setup. That may include:

Two rear cameras (main and ultra-wide, both rumored at 48MP)

One punch-hole camera on the outer display

One under-display camera on the inner screen

Several sources claim Apple will avoid Face ID entirely on the iPhone Fold. Instead, it’s expected to rely on Touch ID built into the power button, similar to recent iPad models. This would allow Apple to keep both displays free of notches or Dynamic Island cutouts.

Under-display camera technology has historically produced lower image quality, but a rumored 24MP sensor would be a significant step up compared to existing foldables, which typically use much lower-resolution sensors.

iPhone Fold’s hinge and materials

The hinge is another area where Apple may diverge from competitors. Multiple reports claim Apple will use Liquidmetal, which is a long-standing trade name for a metallic glass alloy the company has previously used in smaller components. While often referred to as “liquid metal” or “Liquid Metal” in reports, Liquidmetal is the branding Apple has historically associated with the material.

Liquidmetal is said to be stronger and more resistant to deformation than titanium, while remaining relatively lightweight. If accurate, this could help improve long-term durability and reduce wear on the foldable display.

Leaks from Jon Prosser also reference a metal plate beneath the display that works in tandem with the hinge to minimize creasing — a claim that aligns with reporting from Korean and Chinese supply-chain sources.

Battery and other components 

Battery life is another potential differentiator. According to Ming-Chi Kuo and multiple Asian supply-chain reports, Apple is testing high-density battery cells in the 5,000 to 5,800mAh range.

That would make it the largest battery ever used in an iPhone, and competitive with (or larger than) batteries in current Android foldables. The device is also expected to use a future A-series chip and Apple’s in-house modem.

Price

None of this will come cheap, that’s for certain. Nearly every report agrees that the iPhone Fold will be Apple’s most expensive iPhone ever.

Estimates currently place the price between $2,000 and $2,500 in the US. Bloomberg has said the price will be “at least $2,000,” while other analysts have narrowed the likely range to around $2,100 and $2,300. That positions the iPhone Fold well above the iPhone Pro Max and closer to Apple’s high-end Macs and iPads.

Despite years of rumors, there’s still plenty that remains unclear. Apple hasn’t confirmed the name “iPhone Fold,” final dimensions, software features or how iOS would adapt to a folding form factor. Durability, repairability and long-term reliability are also open questions. For now, the safest assumption is that Apple is taking its time and that many of these details could still change before launch.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/iphone-fold-rumors-everything-we-know-so-far-including-the-leaked-design-130000516.html?src=rss