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DOGE’s wild, unverifiable savings claims discredited in US government report

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  It won’t come as a surprise that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) didn’t save taxpayers nearly as much as it claimed. Analysis from outside the government showed savings claims were heavily inflated, and now the government’s own watchdog has said it wasn’t able to confirm savings claims made in DOGE’s so-called “Wall of Receipts.” For example, DOGE reported savings of $49.2 billion from cutting grants, but almost none of it could be verified, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its report yesterday. The GAO is the auditing and investigating arm of Congress and issued the DOGE report in response to a June 2025 request from Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “The Wall of Receipts did not provide sufficient information to verify the method DOGE used to calculate savings, or what the savings consisted of, for 13,553 of the 15,887 grants it reported as terminated. This corresponds to about 96 percent of the DOGE-reported...
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OpenAI’s expensive smart speaker will use moving parts to seem “more alive”

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  OpenAI’s upcoming smart speaker will probably cost over $300, “people familiar with the matter” have told Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman . The generative AI company has “discussed” charging up to $400, Bloomberg, which has been reporting on the yet-to-be-announced smart speaker since July, said today. The publication said that OpenAI is viewing the smart speaker as a smartphone replacement. OpenAI has declined to comment on its product roadmap. Per Bloomberg, the speaker will follow in the steps of other smart speakers lately in pushing an AI-first focus aimed at helping people complete tasks, compared to simpler smart speaker tasks, like checking the weather. The battery-powered gadget will reportedly “work similarly” to the ChatGPT voice mode on mobile apps “but with more advanced models for humanlike interactivity,” Bloomberg said. The device will be able to control smart home devices too, the publication previously reported . OpenAI’s speaker will “be shaped like a doughnut that’s r...
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How snails engineer their slime

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  Snails are well-known for their mucus. The slime is highly valued as an anti-inflammatory and anti-aging ingredient in certain skin care products, and snails can secrete different kinds of mucus with properties tailored to specific functions. A team of German scientists has determined a recipe for how snails achieve that so-called tunability: Collagen and calcium work in tandem to achieve the varying mechanical properties, according to a new paper in the journal Science. Snail mucus is mostly water; it’s the mucins (glycoproteins) and complex carbohydrates that give it that slimy, viscous texture. In addition to cosmetics, the mucus holds great potential for drug delivery. In 2020, scientists found that combining snail slime from a common garden snail with gold nanoparticles helped accelerate wound healing and exhibited anti-inflammatory properties in mice. Most relevant to this latest paper is a 2023 study on garden snail slime that identified three distinct types of secreted...
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Volkswagen plans to win America back with a pickup, report says

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  A US-made pickup truck by 2030 is part of Volkswagen Group’s plan to revive its American business. According to a Reuters report , entering this competitive but high-margin market, as well as the large SUV segment, is the path forward, since both are areas the automaker currently ignores. The report is anonymously sourced, and VW declined to comment, so take the news with a pinch of salt. But it does make sense: Love it or hate it, the four-door pickup truck is the go-to for Americans who want one vehicle that can carry passengers and cargo that doesn’t need to be shielded from the elements. You might think a hatchback or a station wagon would be just as good or better, but that’s probably why you’re reading Ars Technica in the first place. Tariffs and an antediluvian approach to emissions controls might make the US market a haven for vehicles that are uncompetitive or unsellable elsewhere, and the pickup truck market in the US will account for almost $200 billion in sales in 202...
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