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Some users will scoff at befriending a chatbot. But others, especially people for whom socializing is difficult or unattractive, will invite AI into the most hidden parts of their lives.This change will be shocking. One day you will wake up and someone you know (maybe your child) will have an AI friend. It will not be a gimmick, a game or a sign of mental illness. It will feel like a real and important relationship to them, one that offers a convincing replica of empathy and understanding and that, in some cases, feels just as good as the real thing.I wanted to experience that future for myself.Building my friends and setting them freeThe first step was to create my AI friends.The apps I tested all work essentially the same way: Users sign up and receive a menu of AI companions, which ...

President Biden acknowledged Wednesday that American bombs have been used to kill Palestinian civilians and warned that the United States would withhold some weapons if Israel launches a long-threatened assault on southern Gaza.Using one of his strongest terms yet on the seven-month war, Biden said the United States will continue to ensure Israel's security, including the Iron Dome missile defense system and Israel's "ability to respond to attacks" like that launched from Iran into Israel. April.But he said he would block deliveries of weapons that could be dropped into densely populated areas of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are taking refuge.The president had already blocked the shipment of 3,500 bombs last week over fears they could be used in a major assault on...

Academic conferences are usually serious affairs, but the 1973 International Symposium on Gender Identity, held in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, was an exception. All was quiet until a psychologist named John Money stood up and shouted, "Mickey Diamond, I hate your guts!"Milton Diamond, a sexologist who had been called Mickey since childhood, was sitting across the room. Dr. Money and Dr. Diamond were bitter rivals: Dr. Money, a nationally recognized researcher at Johns Hopkins University, had long argued that sexual and gender identities are neutral at birth and shaped primarily by one's environment. the child is found.Dr. Diamond, who had just begun his career at the University of Hawaii, strongly disagreed, and had said so repeatedly, including in a widely read critique of Dr. Money'...

China and Serbia proclaimed an "iron friendship" and "shared future" during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Belgrade on Wednesday, underscoring the close political and economic ties between two countries that share mistrust of the United States.Mr Xi arrived in Serbia on Tuesday, marking the 25th anniversary of a 1999 plane crash involving the US Air Force during the Kosovo war and destroying the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Three Chinese journalists were killed in the strike.On Wednesday morning, Xi appeared briefly with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, before a cheering crowd of people, some of whom told Serbian media they had been bused in by the ruling party, gathered outside the Palace of Serbia, the former headquarters of the now defunct gove...

In a rare moment of solidarity, two entertainment giants are teaming up to try to convince consumers to stop canceling their streaming services so frequently.Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced Wednesday that they will begin offering a bundle of their Disney+, Hulu and Max streaming services this summer, a sign of how the rivals have become more willing to join forces to tackle an ever-changing media landscape evolution. .The companies said the package will be available for purchase on any of the websites of the three streaming platforms (Disney owns Disney+ and Hulu; Warner Bros. Discovery owns Max) and that there will be an ad-free version and an ad-supported version . . The companies did not announce pricing or a date when the offering would become available.The monthly retai...

Israel said on Wednesday it had reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing in the Gaza Strip after closing it days earlier due to a Hamas attack. But the United Nations has said it is too early to say how quickly humanitarian aid, crucial to stemming the food crisis in Gaza, will start flowing again.Kerem Shalom has been the main channel of aid for more than two million people in Gaza who face what aid workers say is a severe food deficit. Two senior American officials said recently that famine has already begun in parts of Gaza, caused largely by strict aid controls imposed by Israel since October 7, when Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel, and by the difficulty to distribute food, fuel and medicine within the enclave.Israel launched an incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah on...

In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was suffering from memory loss and brain fog so severe that a friend began to fear he might have a brain tumor. Mr. Kennedy said he had consulted many of the country's top neurologists, many of whom had treated or spoken to his uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, before his death the previous year from brain cancer.Several doctors noticed a dark spot on the young Mr. Kennedy's brain scans and concluded that he had a tumor, he said in a 2012 deposition reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Kennedy was immediately scheduled for surgery at Duke University Medical Center by the same surgeon who had operated on his uncle, he said.As he was packing for the trip, he said, he received a call from a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital who had a different opi...

President Biden warns that a new wave of cheap Chinese products poses a threat to American factories. There is no sign of this in official trade data, which shows that China's steel imports are down sharply from last year and that the gap between what the United States sells to China and what it buys is at a post-September low. pandemic.But the president's aides are looking beyond those numbers and focusing on what they call troubling signals coming from China and Europe. That includes data showing China's growing desire to churn out big-ticket goods like cars and heavy metals at a pace that far outpaces domestic consumer demand.China's generous subsidies, including loans from state banks, have helped prop up companies that might otherwise have folded in a struggling nati...

President Biden will travel to Wisconsin on Wednesday to announce the creation of an artificial intelligence data center, highlighting one of his administration's biggest economic achievements in a crucial state and underscoring a significant failure of his immediate predecessor and 2024 challenger.At a technical college in Racine, Biden will announce that Microsoft will invest $3.3 billion to build the center, which the tech giant estimates will create 2,300 union construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs, according to the White House . The project is part of Biden's "Investing in America" ​​agenda, which has focused on bringing billions of private sector dollars into manufacturing and areas such as clean energy and artificial intelligence.In his fourth trip to Wisconsin this ye...

President Biden suspended arms shipments to Israel last week to prevent U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city of Rafah, administration officials said Tuesday evening, a sign of the growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem on the issue of the conduct of the war.The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared might be dropped on Rafah, where more than a million Gazans have taken refuge, officials said. The administration is considering whether to withhold future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions.The decision to delay delivery of the 3,500 bombs was the first time since the October 7 Hamas-led terror attack in which Biden used his power to reduc...