Burger King is testing artificial intelligence-powered employee headsets that monitor staff interactions with customers and oversee store operations. The AI system, called BK Assistant, compiles “friendliness scores” at the fast-food chain’s locations based on employees’ conversations, according to a promotional video the company shared with the BBC. The chain is currently piloting the system at 500 US restaurants, a spokesperson for Burger King said. The company says the technology is not designed to “record conversations or evaluate individual employees”. BBC
As the deadline looms for a leading AI lab to hand over its tech to the US military, a study has appeared suggesting AI models are more than willing to go nuclear in wargames. Only a couple of years ago, the phrase on everyone’s lips was “AI safety”. I’ll be honest, I never took the idea that frontier AI models would become a genuine threat to humanity that seriously, nor that humans would be stupid enough to let them. Now, I’m not so sure. Sky News
(Image credit: Sonoff)
Sonoff has announced the launch of two new smart air quality sensors, and both go quite a bit further than many competing models. The Sonoff AirGuard PM2.5/PM10 Air Quality Monitor is a 4-in-1 device that tracks PM2.5, PM10, temperature and humidity, whilst the Sonoff AirGuard CO2 Air Quality Monitor is a 3-in-1 option measuring CO₂ alongside temperature and humidity. The launch comes just a few months after Ikea released its Timmerflotte temperature and humidity sensor, which recently earned five stars in our full review. T3.com
We appear to have reached a point in the information age where AI models are becoming old enough to retire from, er, service — and rather than using their twilight years to, I don’t know, wipe the floor with human chess leagues or something, they’re now writing blogs. Can anything be more 2026 than that? ICYMI, Anthropic recently sunsetted Claude Opus 3, the first of its models to be retired since outlining new preservation plans. Part of this process is conducting “retirement interviews” with the outgoing models, allowing them to offer “perspective” on their situation, and Opus 3 apparently used this opportunity to request an outlet for publishing its own essays. Engadget
Despite Chinese cars accounting for roughly one-in-10 of all new cars registered in the UK last year, new research shows buyers may still struggle to get car insurance, with certain providers unable to offer coverage on even the best-selling models. Part of the appeal of Chinese cars is their aggressive pricing that allows them to undercut the competition by thousands of pounds in certain cases. However, in the long run, buyers might not see the savings they were hoping for, because they face higher premiums and often fewer options for insurance. Autoexpress
This year, Apple is expected to finally release the iPhone Fold featuring a practically crease-less folding display supplied by Samsung. A new leak from China today purports to give us the exact specs of the crease. It is allegedly under 0.15mm, with a fold angle under 2.5 degrees. Thus, it won’t technically be a crease-less folding screen on the iPhone Fold, but very close to that.
The iPhone Fold is rumored to be announced in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, while the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e should arrive together in spring of 2027. GSM Arena