If you know the name Allbirds, it's probably for the company's longstanding stated commitment to "sustainable shoes and apparel." Going forward, though, the corporate entity wants to be known for its "long-term vision to become a fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and AI-native cloud solutions provider."

In a news release Wednesday morning , Allbirds announced that it has secured a $50 million convertible finance facility to help power this unexpected "pivot ... to AI compute infrastructure." If all goes to plan, the company will soon be known as NewBird AI, by which point it will presumably change the image of a spandex-clad hiker that still sits atop its News Release page .

Just weeks ago, Allbirds announced the $39 million sale of the "Allbirds brand and footwear assets" to American Exchange Group, owner of Aerosoles, Ecko Unlimited, and other fashion brands . Today's AI pivot announcement certainly casts that sale in a new light. But Allbirds also announced a new line of colorful Canvas Cruiser shoes just last week , so it's unclear how much long-term planning went into this new AI-related direction.

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In a significant milestone, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has completed its 3D map of the Universe—the highest resolution of any such map yet achieved—on schedule and with more data than expected, the collaboration announced today . Analyses of DESI data from earlier runs have already produced exciting hints of new physics—namely that the Universe's dark energy, rather than being constant, might vary over time. The latest data must still be analyzed but could help definitively confirm or disprove those hints within the next couple of years.

"DESI's five-year survey has been spectacularly successful," DESI director Michael Levi of Berkeley Lab said. "The instrument performed better than anticipated. The results have been incredibly exciting. And the size and scope of the map and how quickly we've been able to execute is phenomenal. We're going to celebrate completion of the original survey and then get started on the work of churning through the data, because we're all curious about what new surprises are waiting for us."

As previously reported , Albert Einstein’s cosmological constant (lambda) implied the existence of a repulsive form of gravity. (For a more in-depth discussion of the history of the cosmological constant and its significance for dark energy, see our 2024 story .) Quantum physics holds that even the emptiest vacuum is teeming with energy in the form of “virtual” particles that wink in and out of existence, flying apart and coming together in an intricate quantum dance. This roiling sea of virtual particles could give rise to dark energy, giving the Universe a little extra push so that it can continue accelerating. The problem is that the quantum vacuum contains too much energy: roughly 10 ¹²⁰ times too much.

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At the end of last month, a scientific journal pulled a research paper on Alzheimer's disease.

The retraction came from Neurobiology of Aging, which removed a 2011 paper claiming to show that a version of a protein called amyloid-β was responsible for memory loss in Alzheimer's disease. On its own, that might not seem notable; bad papers can make it through peer review and are only caught after publication.

But this wasn't an isolated case. Over the past few years, multiple studies arguing that amyloid-β is the central driver of Alzheimer's disease have been retracted. Some scientists have even been indicted for fraud over the issue. All the while, none of the drugs targeting this protein and its pathway have had any real clinical effect.

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Blue Origin released details about a new stock option plan in an internal communication on Tuesday.

Ars was able to review the materials and connect with some employees to gather their thoughts. Some of the early reviews are not positive, with one employee going so far as to describe the plan as "pure f---king trash." And it's not hard to see why some people feel gun-shy or disillusioned. The company's previous stock plan, which ended up being essentially worthless, fostered a lack of trust.

However, a careful reading of the new documents, compared to the original plan, indicates that it has a more serious intent. It is set up in a similar manner to other stock option plans in the industry. If Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos genuinely wants to course correct from Blue Origin's initial stock plan—to right the wrongs perceived by his employees—this could be a vehicle for that.

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How do you file taxes on prediction market profits? It seems like the type of straightforward question any halfway decent bookkeeper should be able to answer. Right now, though, it’s a conundrum for tax experts across the country. “You have a vacuum of guidance,” says Patrick Camuso, an accountant who specializes in digital assets. “It puts the taxpayer in a bad position.”

Prediction markets have been around for decades, so this isn’t a new issue. But platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have exploded in popularity since last year, which means the question of how to properly account for prediction market gains has shifted from a niche concern to something far more urgent for many people. While only a small sliver of the population actually uses the markets—around 3 percent, according to a recent poll —that still means millions of US residents are obligated to report their wins and losses to the Internal Revenue Service. There’s big money in play here. Kalshi, which has a predominantly American user base, saw over $12 billion in monthly trade volume this past March, according to markets tracker Defi Rate.

Kalshi declined to comment. The IRS and Polymarket did not respond to requests for comment.

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Ukrainian ground robots and drones have demonstrated how to overcome a Russian military position by themselves while forcing the surrender of Russian soldiers, claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. If true, that would represent a significant robotic milestone during the ongoing war that has already been significantly reshaped by drones—and it could offer lessons for how militaries worldwide may use robots and drones to do the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in future conflicts.

The claim by Zelenskyy has not been independently verified but was accompanied by a promotional video in which he described Ukraine’s military robots as having completed over 22,000 missions in the last three months. Ukraine’s defense ministry also recently described a threefold increase in the Ukrainian military’s uncrewed ground vehicle missions over the last five months, with more than 9,000 robotic missions conducted in March, according to Scripps News . The growing robotic ground presence represents a new trend in a war that has become synonymous with drones.

Zelenskyy’s statement may refer to an event that occurred in the Kharkiv Oblast in northeastern Ukraine last year, according to The Independent . It referenced a statement by the Ukrainian 3rd Separate Assault Brigade detailing how the unit had used flying drones and “kamikaze” ground robots to attack fortified Russian frontline positions at that time. The brigade’s statement also described Russian soldiers as surrendering to one of the unit’s robots after abandoning the battered fortifications. There are previous examples of individual or small groups of Russian soldiers surrendering to Ukrainian drones and even a robot while being recorded on video, so the idea of a group of Russian soldiers surrendering their position and themselves to a robot is not necessarily far-fetched. The battlefield exploits of such robots were also featured in a recent video by the Ukrainian government-run platform United24, which described a similar or possibly the same incident involving the same brigade.

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Sony is removing some features from its recent Bravia smart TVs next month, a move that will affect people who use an antenna or a set-top box.

As of “late May 2026,” people who use an antenna with the affected TV models will see a reduced TV guide, according to a support page spotted by Cord Cutters News . Per the support page, “program information may not appear depending on the channel,” and “only programs from recently watched channels may be shown” for channels delivered through an antenna.

Users will also no longer see channel logos or thumbnail images in program descriptions for TV channels delivered through an antenna.

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With many Americans turning to Large Language Models for health advice, health systems around the country are eyeing and even rolling out their own branded chatbots in an attempt to harness this already popular tool and steer more people to their services. But the burgeoning trend is raising immediate questions and concerns for the country's complicated and generally underperforming health care system.

Executives frame the new offerings as a convenience for patients, meeting people where they are and providing a service with digital equity. They also suggest their chatbots will be a safer alternative to commercial versions people are using now.

"We are at an inflection point in healthcare," according to Allon Bloch, CEO of clinical AI company K Health. "Demand is accelerating, and patients are already using AI to navigate their lives."

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If you've been waiting for Microsoft to update its Surface PC lineup—perhaps with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 Elite processors—I've got bad news for you. Microsoft is shaking up its PC lineup, but it's doing so by instituting big price hikes across the entire lineup. This means you'll be paying at least $1,500 for Surface devices that launched at $1,000 just two years ago and that Microsoft no longer offers new Surface devices under $1,000 at all.

The 12-inch Surface Pro tablet that originally started at $799 and the 13-inch Surface Laptop that launched at $899 now cost $1,049 and $1,149, respectively, a $250 price increase. The higher-end Surface Laptop and 13-inch Surface Pro from 2024 both started at $999 but increased to $1,199 in 2025 when their entry-level versions with 256GB of storage were discontinued; both now start at $1,499, a $300 increase.

As originally reported by Windows Central, Microsoft is blaming "recent increases in memory and component costs" for the price hikes. Supply shortages for RAM and storage chips in particular have been wreaking havoc with consumer tech all year, delaying some launches, depleting stock of existing products , and raising prices for small and large companies alike.

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