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Top Republicans, including President Trump, are criticizing the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office over its assessment that GOP's signature policy bill could add $2.4 trillion to the deficit.

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New experiment from Google Labs crunches financial data and builds interactive graphs and charts

The presence of AI in music is on the rise, and there are plenty of questions about whether that's a good thing or not. Of course, the music business is a business, so the real question is whether it can be a success, not whether the quality matches human artists. The incredibly successful musical artist and producer Timbaland is going to find out for himself.

Timbaland has signed an AI pop act named TaTa to his new company Stage Zero, according to Billboard. The first performer for an AI-powered music genre he's named “A-Pop,” TaTa was created in a partnership with AI music platform Suno, a company Timbaland has worked with before. According to a statement to Billboard, Timbaland thinks of TaTa as far more than just a more complex auto-tune tied to a chatbot. TaTa is “a living, learning, autonomous music artist.”

I get the appeal of AI for someone like Timbaland. He’s a producer. His talent allows him to hear the possibilities for a song or artist before they are fully formed. And AI tools like Suno and its various rivals, like Udio, can generate catchy melodies, layered harmonies, and even full songs in just a few minutes. What took days now takes hours, and what took months now takes days. AI music production is fast, consistent, and never a diva about its lunch order.

But, so what? That might be fine for elevator music or background music in a million insurance commercials, but that's not what Timbaland is pitching. Music that people listen to for fun or for the feelings may have been created in a burst of inspiration and a dream, like "Let It Be" was for Paul McCartney, but far more often, an album is the result of a lot of hard work, experiments, failures, and emotion. Consistency is what you want from fast food, but music shouldn't be that way. Sometimes a song is amazing, and sometimes it's bad, but that's better than dully competent.

It's like with AI writing. Usually it's very competent and accurate, but supremely dull and lacking imagination. Sure, a good set of prompts can provoke something more imaginative, but even that's ultimately from the prompt; the AI just stitches together the rest from whatever good idea appeared in the prompt.

It's not like AI music is always going to be bad. Timbaland is keen to point out that TaTa is not just an avatar, but a model able to learn. But, say TaTa has twenty thousand great pop songs to learn from. It may perform something that sounds just as good, but really will be exactly the average.

I think we often confuse technical ability with artistry. AI can write lyrics and generate beats and melodies. But it doesn’t understand what it's writing, and I think you can tell in the best music the intention behind the singing. It’s the difference between cooking from a recipe and cooking from memory. Both result in a nice meal, but one has a story behind it to enhance the flavor.

AI Pop

I think AI has a place in music. I really like how it can help the average person without technical or musical skills produce a song. Anyone with an idea can make a song without a whole team or a record label behind them. But, ultimately, it's the idea and the person providing it that make or break a song. AI should be a tool, even a collaborator, but I don't think it should be the whole act. That's not helping humans make better music; that's just replacing them. We’re replacing them with algorithms and calling it progress.

Timbaland says TaTa is the first of a new generation of musical acts. That might be true, as there's certainly a lot of AI-generated music on streaming platforms now. We may soon see AI artists on half of the Top 40, all optimized for TikTok loops. But I question how many of them will be considered the best music around.

Even as AI keeps getting better, more convincing, and more nuanced, I think real voices and songs will stand out. Timbaland could make a lot of money from TaTa, because he's that talented a producer. But I’d rather hear what he does collaborating with a young artist who's come up with a great hook and lyrics for a chorus.

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Updates to the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program have been anticipated for months.

• Atomic Heart 2 has been officially announced at Summer Game Fest
• The game looks a lot more open than the first
• A spin-off multiplayer title named The Cube was also revealed at the show

• Atomic Heart 2 has officially been announced at Summer Game Fest
• The game is being developed for PC and console
• Mundfish also unveiled The Cube, a first-person multiplayer spin-off game set in the same universe as Atomic Heart

Mundfish has officially announced the sequel to Atomic Heart, along with a spin-off first-person multiplayer game set in the same universe called The Cube.

Announced during Summer Game Fest alongside an explosive gameplay trailer showcasing the game's dystopian and retrofuturistic open world, Atomic Heart 2 is being developed for PC and console.

"Get ready for dangerous new adventures that will redefine the gameplay experience and raise the bar for the genre's capabilities," reads the game description.

The studio also said the game will have a heavy emphasis on the story, role-playing elements, and player freedom within the retrofuturistic universe of an alternate history.

There's no release date just yet, but you can wishlist the game on Steam right now.

After this, the studio also unveiled the first look at its Atomic Heart spin-off game, The Cube, which is set a few years after the original games. This role-playing (RPG) shooter is also being made for PC and console and doesn't have a release date.

"At Mundfish, we were the first in the industry to implement a technology that allows thousands of objects to move and rotate simultaneously across massive stretches of terrain - online and in real time. No other game has ever done this before," said Robert Bagratuni, Founder and CEO of Mundfish, in a press release.

"This became possible thanks to our innovative proprietary split-rendering system, which redefines how motion is handled in interactive environments. The technology delivers maximum performance even under extreme load. In The Cube, physics, ballistics, and gravity feel completely natural - but under the hood, it’s powered by rocket science. The system enables seamless transitions, precise object tracking, and synchronized multiplayer in a living, ever-evolving world. It’s a true technological breakthrough."

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Embark Studios' PvPvE extraction shooter is locked in for a 2025 release, after a wildly successful public technical test in May.

The real-time strategy game puts players in control of Game of Thrones' great houses -- or the Night King himself.

The order, for now, overturns actions that limited DOGE's access to sensitive private information. In a separate case, the court said DOGE did not have to share internal records with a watchdog group.

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan)

• Nvidia ditches the main floor but hijacks the spotlight with Grace Blackwell-powered AI machines
• Nvidia DGX Spark delivers 1,000 TOPS in a mini PC that targets serious AI developers and coders
• Nvidia DGX Station boasts a 72-core CPU and 288GB HBM3e GPU memory

At Computex 2025, Nvidia took a somewhat unconventional route by sidestepping the main exhibition floor and instead hosting its own “GTC Taipei” event at a nearby hotel.

There, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered a trio of keynote speeches at the event, unveiling new AI-focused hardware. Among the biggest announcements were two devices: the DGX Spark, a compact mini PC aimed at AI developers, and the DGX Station, a more powerful workstation-class system.

Though Nvidia-branded units were showcased, the real surprise was the range of OEM partners joining the initiative, with 11 models expected across the Spark and Station lines.

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The DGX Spark is built around the new Nvidia GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which combines a 20-core Arm CPU co-developed with MediaTek (featuring 10 Cortex-X295 and 10 Cortex-X725 cores) and a GPU based on Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture.

Designed for developers, the device delivers up to 1,000 TOPS (FP4/sparse) of performance and ships with a Linux-based DGX OS, Nvidia’s AI development suite also used in its data center platforms like Blackwell and Hopper.

Several partners, including Acer, Asus, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, and MSI, had models on display. At first glance, however, the only visible differences were in the external design.

No internal teardowns were permitted during the event, raising a valid question: how different are these OEM versions beyond aesthetics?

While the DGX Spark promises to be a strong contender for the title of best mobile workstation for AI development, potential buyers may want to wait for detailed reviews before making a purchase.

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The DGX Station, aimed more directly at professionals needing high-end workstation PCs, features the GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip.

It comes equipped with 288GB of HBM3e memory on the GPU and a 72-core Neoverse V2 CPU paired with 496GB of LPDDR5X RAM, making it far from an ordinary desktop.

Like the Spark, it runs on DGX OS and supports Nvidia’s full AI development stack.

The DGX Station board shown at the exhibition was a mockup, though the actual product was displayed during a separate session.

Still, questions remain about how finalized the systems are, especially since full availability isn't expected until late 2025.

Notably, the DGX Station will only be available through OEMs, with Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and Supermicro leading the rollout.

This fragmented distribution model could introduce variation in build quality and thermal performance, critical factors for users seeking the best workstation PC.

Via PCWatch

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• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach got a new trailer at Summer Game Fest
• The trailer featured actors Luca Marinelli and Alissa Jung portraying their characters
• The game is set to release on June 26, 2025

Ahead of the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach later this month, Kojima Productions has shared a brand new look at the game.

During the Summer Game Fest 2025 broadcast, Death Stranding 2 director Hideo Kojima took to the stage alongside host Geoff Keighley to showcase an exclusive scene from the upcoming game.

The cutscene featured two new characters, Neil, played by Luca Marinelli, and Lucy, played by Alissa Jung. It's difficult to determine the context of the scene, but Neil can be seen attending a meeting with Lucy, as if strangers, before it's revealed that the pair share a past.

According to Kojima, Neil and Lucy share a "deep connection" that will play out throughout the story.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to launch on June 26, 2025, for PlayStation 5.

There's also a brand new limited edition DualSense Wireless Controller inspired by Death Stranding 2, which will release alongside the game.

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Quality hybrid mattresses combine cozy comfort with support and durability. We slept on hundreds of hybrid beds to help you select from the very best.

In an emergency appeal, the administration is asking the Supreme Court to lift a lower-court order blocking mass staffing cuts at the Education Department.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

• Seagate NVMe HDDs may unify storage protocols, but don’t expect speed records
• Enterprise systems might love NVMe HDDs, but gamers and creators won’t benefit anytime soon
• NVMe brings storage consistency, but SAS still holds its ground in raw performance terms

Seagate Technology demonstrated a prototype hard drive at Computex 2025 that utilizes NVMe, a storage protocol typically found in SSDs.

According to PCwatch, the demonstration featured a combination of NVMe SSDs and HDDs using NVMe-oF (NVMe over Fabrics) to communicate over Ethernet.

While the hybrid interface showcased potential for data centers, it remains unclear whether this shift will be feasible for personal computers.

NVMe integration marks a shift in storage interfaces, not performance

Colin Pressley, Seagate's Head of Customer Success, noted, “We have already natively integrated PCIe into our HDD controllers,” signaling a major architectural shift.

The prototype drive supports both NVMe and SAS connections, offering flexibility during what could be a lengthy transition.

However, Pressley was quick to manage expectations: “There are almost no benefits in terms of performance. The latest SAS provides sufficient performance, and just because it becomes NVMe doesn't mean that there is a major improvement.”

For consumers searching for the best HDD, or even the fastest external HDD, NVMe support offers little immediate benefit.

The real promise lies not in speed, but in unification. With SSDs already running on NVMe, bringing HDDs under the same protocol simplifies driver requirements and software architecture.

Importantly, the NVMe-compatible HDD is not based on a proprietary standard. Instead, it follows a formalized version of the NVMe specification, which now includes commands tailored to mechanical drives, such as spin-up protocols.

This adherence to open standards increases the likelihood of broader industry adoption, especially in enterprise environments where consistency is crucial.

However, NVMe HDDs are unlikely to become available to the general public anytime soon. According to Pressley and Seagate, it may take five to ten years for hard drives to fully transition from SATA/SAS to NVMe.

That timeline mirrors previous transitions, like the shift from IDE to SATA, where new standards gradually replaced legacy interfaces.

While this progression seems inevitable for data centers, consumer desktops and laptops are a different story.

Most consumer systems today still rely on SATA for bulk storage, often pairing the largest HDD available with a faster SSD for boot and application performance.

Until motherboard chipsets eliminate SATA support altogether, a shift not expected for at least another decade, NVMe HDDs are unlikely to become mainstream in home PCs.

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Dilly Dally, a loggerhead turtle who survived a run-in with a predator that ultimately cost her a flipper, has been rereleased into the wild.

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The heir to E3 is a mid-year trailer showcase revealing upcoming games set to come out later this year, into 2026 and beyond.

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Dr. Mark Dybul was an architect of PEPFAR, a program credited with saving 26 million lives. Now its future could be in jeopardy as Congress reviews the Trump administration's funding rescission memo.

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Amid Israel's expanding war in Gaza and its restrictions on aid entering the territory it's getting harder and harder for civilians to find enough to eat. A U.N.-backed report warns half a million people in Gaza are facing starvation. We hear what life is like there for a mother and her eight children.

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Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 7, #727.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 461 for June 7.