Russia’s blackout apps, Wi-Fi heart monitor, India’s chip milestone, Google-Apple AI deal, and why LMs hallucinate

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Why language models hallucinate
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• Hallucinations arise because common evaluation methods reward confident but incorrect guesses instead of acknowledging uncertainty.

• When a model can't distinguish facts from non-facts, statistical pressures drive it to produce plausible yet unverified statements.

• Essentially, hallucinations stem from systemic training and evaluation incentives—not as anomalies, but as expected behavior under current methodologies.

Russia lists local apps that will survive its internet blackouts
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• Russia published a list of domestically developed services—like government portals, marketplaces, the Mir payment system, and messenger app MAX—that will stay functional during planned mobile internet shutdowns.

• Foreign platforms such as WhatsApp, YouTube, and Telegram were notably excluded despite their high usage.

• This effort aligns with Russia’s strategy to boost homegrown tech and control online infrastructure amid security-driven blackout policies.

WiFi signals can measure heart rate—no wearables needed
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• UCSC researchers introduced Pulse-Fi, a system that uses low-cost Wi-Fi devices to measure heart rate accurately at a clinical level without requiring wearables.

• The method is robust across various positions and movements, reliably tracking heart rate up to 10 feet away.

• With its low cost and non-intrusive setup, Pulse-Fi holds promise for accessible health monitoring, especially in resource-limited environments.

Big leap for India’s chip dream: First telecom system with made-inIndia chips gets TEC nod
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• For the first time, a telecom system powered entirely by chips designed and manufactured in India has received certification from the Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC).

• The approval positions Indian-made chips on par with global standards, opening avenues for both domestic deployment and export.

• Indian IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw hailed it as a significant milestone in India’s semiconductor ambitions.

Silicon Valley’s most powerful alliance just got stronger
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• A U.S. judge allowed Google’s multi-billion-dollar payments to Apple for default search placement in Safari to continue, citing that banning them could harm innovation and product development.

• The ruling paves the way for deeper AI collaboration between the companies, potentially integrating Google’s Gemini model into Apple's Siri.

• Critics argue this strengthens Big Tech’s duopoly and raises barriers for emerging competitors in AI-powered search.