Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

Reports of identity crimes to the Identity Theft Resource Center continued to decline in 2024 from 2023. However, victims who report their crimes are suffering greater financial losses than ever, according to the ITRC's 2025 Trends in Identity Report, released on Tuesday The ITRC's COO, James E. Lee, told TechNewsWorld that there are a number of fa...

A recent study by the Media Lab at MIT found that prolonged use of ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM) chatbot, can have a harmful impact on the cognitive abilities of its users Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels, noted the report, whose main author was research scientist Nataliya ...

Samsung is developing a “health hub” designed to help patients share data with their doctors and stay informed about medical advice between visits The company’s plans, reported Monday by Bloomberg and confirmed in a Samsung press release, center on using data collected from its Galaxy devices to create a unified platform for personal health m...

Bringing the nation's 9-1-1 system into the digital age is moving forward but slowly, according to a report released Tuesday by a public safety and emergency communications company In its 2025 State of the 9-1-1 Report, Longmont, Colo.-based Intrado Life & Safety noted that the transition from legacy to next-generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) is well under...

IBM revealed Tuesday its roadmap for bringing a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer, IBM Quantum Starling, online by 2029, which is significantly earlier than many technologists thought possible The company predicts that when its new Starling computer is up and running, it will be capable of performing 20,000 times more operations than tod...

Apple appears to be headed toward unifying its multiple operating systems via a design makeover, and the iPad will start looking more like a personal computer, according to presentations aired Monday at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) "For the first time, we're introducing a universal design across our platforms," said A...

Shadow AI -- the use of AI tools under the radar of IT departments -- has information technology directors and executives worried, according to a report released Tuesday The report, based on a survey of 200 IT directors and executives at U.S. enterprise organizations of 1,000 employees or more, found nearly half the IT pros (46%) were "extremely wo...

Aerial drones are rapidly assuming a key role in the physical automation of business operations, according to a new report by Forrester Research Aerial drones power airborne physical automation by addressing operational challenges in labor-intensive industries, delivering efficiency, intelligence, and experience, explained the report written by Pri...

Americans could lose almost 7% of their lives noodling on social media, according to a new study by an online virtual casino resource site According to an online report based on data from StatCounter and Statista, Slotzilla calculated that U.S. adults spend an average of 32 days per year on social media apps. That means, over an average lifespan of...

What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, cell phone satisfaction was riding high in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which surveys U.S. consumers. This year, it has hit an all-time low The ACSI, a national economic indicator for over 25 years, reported Tuesday that after reaching an all-time high in 2024, cell phone satisf...

Most consumers are satisfied with the recommendations they receive from AI shopping assistants, yet skepticism about the technology persists, according to a recent study by a product experience company The study of 1,000 consumers conducted by Dynata for Boston-based Akeneo found that 84% of shoppers who made purchases based on AI recommendations e...

Among a raft of upcoming accessibility tools revealed Tuesday, Apple announced a new protocol for brain-to-computer interfaces (BCIs) within its Switch Control feature. The protocol allows iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS devices to support an emerging technology that enables users to control their digital hardware without physical movement One of the fir...

Although building trust through a carefully crafted brand message is still important, artificial intelligence may be undermining its traditional influence "AI isn't just helping businesses create content or automate tasks; it's empowering individuals to become instant digital detectives," Mike Allton, chief storyteller at Agorapulse, a social media...

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle arm of Google's parent company, Alphabet, revealed Monday that it plans to expand its manufacturing capacity in Arizona to add 2,000 more robotaxis to its fleet The company explained in a blog that it's partnering with Magna International, a Canadian auto parts maker, to build a 239,000-square-foot facility in Mesa to ...

AI chatbots have barely made a dent in traffic to popular search engine sites over the past two years, according to a study by SEO and backlink services firm OneLittleWeb The study analyzed global web traffic from April 2023 to March 2025. In the most recent year, chatbot sites accounted for just 2.96% of the visits received by search engines. Betw...

OpenAI on Monday announced it is adding specialized shopping features to its ChatGPT chatbot. Some tech watchers see the move as an effort to compete with AI rival Google by creating a better, more personalized experience to find products and information online Users come to ChatGPT with all kinds of questions, and one common topic is researching a...

Aside from stories of the grand ransacking of exchanges and dodgy business dealings of shady entrepreneurs, cryptocurrency has been largely off the mainstream radar, but that could be about to change Crypto ownership is gaining popularity, driving consumer desire to use it to pay for goods and services. According to the 2025 State of Crypto Holders...

Two studies released last week indicate that Google's AI Overviews are having a negative impact on click-through rates from online searches, which could ultimately reduce traffic to original sources and affect the quality of content on the internet An analysis of 300,000 keywords by Xibeijia Guan, a data scientist at SEO tool provider Ahrefs, found...

The times couldn't be better for job scammers. Layoffs in the tech and public sectors, coupled with the malicious use of artificial intelligence, are fueling strong growth in fraud aimed at job seekers Scams aimed at job seekers can come in a variety of forms, among them:...

A multinational study on the state of artificial intelligence in secondary and higher education released Tuesday found that students are more concerned about the impact of the technology on their learning than academic administrators and educators The study, based on a survey of 3,500 academic administrators, students, and educators in seven nation...