Perplexity announces "Computer," an AI agent that assigns work to other AI agents

Perplexity announces "Computer," an AI agent that assigns work to other AI agents

fivenewscrypto    février 28, 2026   

Perplexity has introduced "Computer," a new tool that allows users to assign tasks and see them carried out by a system that coordinates multiple agents running various models.

The company claims that Computer, currently available to Perplexity Max subscribers, is "a system that creates and executes entire workflows" and "capable of running for hours or even months."

The idea is that the user describes a specific outcome—something like "plan and execute a local digital marketing campaign for my restaurant" or "build me an Android app that helps me do a specific kind of research for my job." Computer then ideates subtasks and assigns them to multiple agents as needed, running the models Perplexity deems best for those tasks.

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xAI spent $7M building wall that barely muffles annoying power plant noise

xAI spent $7M building wall that barely muffles annoying power plant noise

fivenewscrypto    février 28, 2026   

For miles around xAI's makeshift power plant in Southaven, Mississippi, neighbors have endured months of constant roaring, erupting pops, and bursts of high-pitched whining from 27 temporary gas turbines installed without consulting the community.

In a report on Thursday, NBC News interviewed residents fighting to shut down xAI's turbines. They confirmed that xAI operates the turbines day and night, allegedly tormenting residents in order to power xAI founder Elon Musk's unbridled AI ambitions.

Eventually, 41 permanent gas turbines—that supposedly won't be as noisy—will be installed, if xAI can secure the permitting. In the meantime, xAI has erected a $7 million "sound barrier" that's supposed to mitigate some of the noise.

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The physics of squeaking sneakers

The physics of squeaking sneakers

fivenewscrypto    février 28, 2026   

We're all familiar with the high-pitched squeak of basketball shoes on the court during games, or tires squealing on pavement. Scientists conducted several experiments and discovered that the geometry of the sneakers' tread patterns determines the squeak's frequency, enabling the team to make rubber blocks set to specific frequencies and slide them across glass surfaces to play Star Wars' "Imperial March."

"Tuning frictional behavior on the fly has been a long-standing engineering dream," said co-author Katia Bertoldi of Harvard University. "This new insight into how surface geometry governs slip pulses paves the way for tunable frictional metamaterials that can transition from low-friction to high-grip states on demand.” In addition, the dynamics revealed by these results are similar to those of tectonic faults and thus give scientists a new model for the mechanics of earthquakes, according to their new paper published in the journal Nature.

Leonardo da Vinci is usually credited with conducting the first systematic study of friction in the late 15th century, a subfield now known as tribology that deals with the dynamics of interacting surfaces in relative motion. Da Vinci's notebooks depict how he pulled rows of blocks using weights and pulleys, an approach that is still used in frictional studies today, as well as examining the friction produced in screw threads, wheels, and axles. The authors of this latest paper used an experimental setup similar to da Vinci's.

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Google reveals Nano Banana 2 AI image model, coming to Gemini today

Google reveals Nano Banana 2 AI image model, coming to Gemini today

fivenewscrypto    février 28, 2026   

The last year has been big for Google's AI efforts. Its rapid-fire model releases have brought it to parity with the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic and, in some cases, pushed it into the lead. The Nano Banana image generator was emblematic of that trend when it debuted last year, and subsequent updates only made it better. Now, Google has announced yet another update to its image model with Nano Banana 2, which is available starting today.

Nano Banana 2 is more accurately known as Gemini 3.1 Flash Image—the previous Nano Banana models were based on the 3.0 branch. According to Google, the new release can deliver results similar to Nano Banana Pro but with the speed of the non-pro Flash variant.

Google promises the new image generator will have more advanced world knowledge pulled from the Internet by the Gemini 3.1 LLM. This apparently gives it the necessary information to render objects with greater fidelity and create more accurate infographics. The days of squiggly AI text were already ending, but Google says Nano Banana 2 has Pro-like text accuracy in image outputs.

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Ford is recalling 4.3 million trucks and SUVs to fix a towing software bug

Ford is recalling 4.3 million trucks and SUVs to fix a towing software bug

fivenewscrypto    février 27, 2026   

Last year, Ford set a new industry record: It issued 152 safety recalls, almost twice the previous high set by General Motors back in 2014. More than 24 million vehicles were recalled in the US last year, and more than half—13 million—were either Fords or Lincolns. By contrast, Tesla issued 11 recalls, affecting just 745,000 vehicles.

Truth be told, Ford's not doing too hot in 2026, either; it's currently leading the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's chart for recalls this year, with 10 on the books already. The latest is a big one, affecting almost 4.4 million trucks, vans, and SUVs.

The recall affects the Ford Maverick (model years 2022–2026), Ford Ranger (MY 2024–2026), Ford Expedition (MY 2022–2026), Ford E-Transit (MY 2026), Ford F-150 (MY 2021–2026), Ford F-250 SD (MY 2022–2026), and the Lincoln Navigator (MY 2022–2026). Just the F-150s alone number 2.3 million.

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New York sues Valve for enabling "illegal gambling" with loot boxes

New York sues Valve for enabling "illegal gambling" with loot boxes

fivenewscrypto    février 27, 2026   

New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve alleging that randomized loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 amount to a form of unregulated gambling, letting users "pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value."

While many randomized video game loot boxes have drawn attention and regulation from various government bodies in recent years, the New York suit calls out Valve's system specifically for "enabl[ing] users to sell the virtual items they have won, either through its own virtual marketplace, the Steam Community Market, or through third-party marketplaces." The vast majority of Valve's in-game loot boxes contain skins that can only be resold for a few cents, the suit notes, while the rarest skins can be worth thousands of dollars through marketplaces on and off of Steam. That fits the statutory definition of gambling as "charging an individual for a chance to win something of value based on luck alone," according to the suit.

The Steam Wallet funds that users get through directly reselling skins "have the equivalent purchasing power on the Steam platform as cash," the suit notes. But if a user wants to convert those Steam funds to real cash, they can do so relatively easily by purchasing a Steam Deck and reselling it to any interested party, as an investigator did while preparing the lawsuit.

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Badge engineering could be worse than this: The 2026 Subaru Uncharted

Badge engineering could be worse than this: The 2026 Subaru Uncharted

fivenewscrypto    février 27, 2026   

Much of the Subaru Uncharted makes very little sense. The “new” EV clearly resembles the Solterra, upon which Toyota and Subaru jointly developed the Uncharted and the bZ Woodland as a continuation of a partnership that stretches back to 2012 with the FR-S/BRZ/86. This time, a fifth sibling joins the platform: the Subaru Trailseeker, which arrives simultaneously with slightly more power, capability, and a larger rear canopy (but you have to wait until March 2 to read more about that one).

Most surprisingly, the Uncharted is the first front-wheel-drive Subaru sold in the United States since the Impreza switched to all-wheel-drive for model year 1997. The base FWD Uncharted will therefore offer a class-leading range estimate of 308 miles (496 km), while the Sport AWD trim can do 287 miles (462 km). Subaru has reportedly partnered with Panasonic to develop solid-state batteries for a Solterra replacement, but that project is still in development.

Does the above make the Uncharted a bad car? Not at all. Instead of throwing money and resources at more kWh during this liminal phase of EV adoption, sticking with the Solterra’s 104-cell 74.7 kWh battery helps keep the starting price for a FWD Uncharted at $34,995 while also avoiding the vicious cycle of compounding mass by reducing the curb weight. A Premium FWD weighs just 4,145 lbs (1,880 kg), and stepping up to AWD adds fewer than 300 lbs (136 kg). And as with the Solterra for 2026, the Uncharted features a NACS charging port to allow access to more than 25,000 Tesla Superchargers—revealing that, at the very least, Subaru and Toyota can accept the reality of the situation.

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