Playing with AI: My Sweet 16 remains quite delightful.

      NCAA

      (NOTE: This article is part of an ongoing series chronicling an experiment to see how AI performs in filling out NCAA brackets compared to years of human knowledge. The introduction remains as follows.)

      After the first two rounds, I find myself leading both my friends’ pool with sixty entries and my family pool of six. With a larger sample size in mind, my brackets are currently in the 98th percentile among the 27 million submissions in the ESPN challenge.

      Peter C. Horan / Digital Trends

      Were ChatGPT’s selections flawless? No. It didn’t anticipate Florida getting eliminated, which may affect my results later. However, we correctly predicted 13 of the Sweet 16 selections, which is likely an improvement over what I could have achieved alone.

      What's interesting is that all my pools remain very competitive with no significant leads. As I previously stated, I asked ChatGPT to create one bracket aimed at winning my pool and another focused on accurately predicting the tournament outcomes. The first bracket took a few more risks to distinguish me from others favoring the favorites. So far, the bracket designed to win the pool is performing slightly better.

      I will return next weekend to update on our results in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite 8.

      Peter C. Horan is an entrepreneur and digital media investor with a background in developing successful media, commerce, and advertising ventures.

      Don't overlook the M4 MacBook Air: 24GB RAM, a 15-inch Retina display, and $300 off thanks to the M5 launch

      The MacBook Air M4 15-inch is now available for $1,299 (a $300 discount): featuring 24GB RAM and a 512GB SSD with a Liquid Retina display.

      Apple's M5 MacBook Air has launched, leading to a price drop for the M4 15-inch model, now priced at $1,299 on Amazon, down from its original $1,599. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to purchase a MacBook Air, this is that moment. The M4 chip remains one of the most powerful processors available in any laptop at this price point, and 24GB of unified memory at $1,299 is truly rare.

      Read more

      Claude can now autonomously manage tasks on your PC without any complicated OpenClaw setup

      Just assign it a task, walk away, and return to completed work. Claude takes care of the rest.

      OpenClaw made a significant impact upon its release, showing that a genuine personal assistant capable of performing complex commands on a computer is achievable. Despite its success, OpenClaw isn’t suitable for everyone due to its challenging setup and various safety issues, making it better for highly technical users. A more suitable alternative for the average consumer is Claude Cowork, introduced recently by Anthropic.

      Read more

      The US government has now prohibited all foreign-made Wi-Fi routers

      The FCC has banned foreign-made routers, but there’s no need to dispose of yours just yet.

      The FCC has officially included foreign-made routers on its Covered List, which identifies equipment considered a national security risk to the United States. This means that new foreign-produced routers cannot be sold in America unless they are given a special exemption. If you’re concerned about your current router at home, there’s no need to worry; this ban currently only affects new router approvals.

      Read more