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Hurricane Helene, the Category 4 storm that slammed the American Southeast over the weekend, has killed more than 110 people — and likely millions of chickens. Almost half of the more than 9 billion chickens farmed for meat in the US, known as “broiler” chickens, are raised and slaughtered in the region. Georgia is the nation’s top chicken producer, processing 1.3 billion chickens annually. Over the weekend, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp told reporters that 107 poultry facilities in the state had been “damaged or totally destroyed by the storm.”  Georgia’s Department of Agriculture didn’t respond to questions about the precise number of chickens that perished during Hurricane Helene. But given that poultry companies typically pack anywhere from 20,000 to 52,000 chickens into each barn, which can run as big as nearly twice the length of a football field, an estimated 2.14 million to 5.56 million birds are likely to have died. (The true total could be modestly different, as some birds could’ve survived damages, and some barns could’ve been temporarily empty, as companies clear them out for a few weeks between flocks.) Some of the nation’s largest poultry companies — including Aviagen, Pilgrim’s Pride and Wayne-Sanderson Farms — suspended operations at their local facilities due to power outages in recent days. A spokesperson for Clemson University’s agriculture program told Vox that while this is a fluid situation and it is still evaluating the hurricane’s damages, 45,000 chickens died at one South Carolina poultry operation due to generator failure. Virtually all chickens raised for meat in the US are confined in these sprawling warehouses, which bear no resemblance to the small barns of America’s agricultural past. These factory farm operations often have at least several sheds, housing hundreds of thousands of birds on one site at the same time. If enough facilities are compromised during a natural disaster like Hurricane Helene, millions of animals can perish, their last moments likely frightening and painful. Their deaths also threaten the economic health of farmers and the poultry industry. Georgia’s agriculture commissioner, Tyler Harper, has requested immediate federal relief for the state’s agricultural sector.  When hurricanes strike factory farms, they can also flush untold amounts of animal manure into groundwater or rivers and streams, exacerbating the challenges that governments and their residents face in the wake of pounding storms. Hurricane Helene is the latest — but not the first — striking, high-stakes example of how our factory farming system imposes tremendous cruelty onto animals and also imperils human health. The industry has no reason to change, even after a catastrophe like this, because taxpayers cover much of the economic loss meat companies incur from natural disasters.  This is far from the first time a hurricane has torn through the Southeast’s poultry industry. It’s happened multiple times over the last quarter-century, a period in which Big Ag has only doubled down on building more, and bigger, factory farms.  In 1999, Hurricane Floyd put much of eastern North Carolina underwater, killing an estimated 2.4 million chickens, 100,000 pigs, and half a million turkeys. North Carolina pig farms store the animals’ waste in giant manure “lagoons,” and several overflowed during Floyd, sending toxic sludge containing bacteria and viruses (including E. coli) into waterways and drinking water, according to the state’s climate office. Chicken factory farms store manure in giant pits or as large mounds, creating a similar pollution risk as hog farms. Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018 also caused devastation in North Carolina, killing millions of chickens and thousands of pigs, both of which caused damage to some manure lagoons, resulting in “fecal soup” discharge. Later the same year, Hurricane Michael destroyed over 80 chicken barns in Georgia that housed more than 2 million chickens. Manure can seep into groundwater and contaminate private wells that many rural communities rely on for drinking water, a perennial concern heightened after major storms.    Despite that history, the poultry and pork industries haven’t done much to mitigate the risks posed by natural disasters by, say, raising fewer animals on their farms or making major changes to how they manage the enormous amounts of manure their animals generate. That’s because US taxpayers bear much of the cost, both for the environmental cleanup and the dead chickens and pigs.  When natural disasters hit a typical chicken farm, the meat company — which technically owns the chickens, not the farmer — receives $3 per mature bird from the US Department of Agriculture, about 75 percent of the bird’s market value. The farmer that supplies to the meatpacker receives just 33 cents per bird. Many chicken farmers, most of whom raise birds on a contract basis for meat companies, are already toiling in precarious economic conditions. Hurricanes and other natural disasters can make it much worse.   The federal government also reimburses economic losses from other severe weather, like heat waves and cold snaps, and disease outbreaks. Over the last two years, a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu — known as H5N1 — has resulted in the death of more than 100 million poultry birds, and the federal government has given well over $1 billion to the poultry industry, much of it going to the largest companies.  Livestock production is both a leading driver of climate change and, as Hurricane Helene demonstrates, a victim of it. As global warming increases the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, policymakers should question the factory farming model. Instead, as a recent federal accounting of the US agricultural system shows, we’re doubling down on it, raising more and more animals on bigger and bigger farms. “In addition to all the environmental problems associated with the factory farm model, and the public health problems that it causes, at the end of the day the extreme concentration of animals is just a fundamental vulnerability,” said Chris Hunt, deputy director of the nonprofit Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. “It’s a vulnerability to unexpected shocks to the system … The fact that poultry is not only concentrated on [factory farms], but is also concentrated geographically, is certainly problematic.”

Microsoft is redesigning Copilot and adding new AI image editing features in Paint and Photos.

Microsoft is launching a redesigned version of Copilot today, intent on becoming an AI assistant or companion. To celebrate this, Microsoft’s new AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, has penned a 700-plus-word memo on what he describes as a “technological paradigm shift” toward AI models that can understand what humans see and hear. Suleyman joined Microsoft earlier this year as the CEO of its new Microsoft AI division, amid the software giant’s hiring of a number of key Inflection AI staff. In June, Suleyman sparked controversy after brazenly claiming that anything published on the web is “freeware” that can be copied, recreated, and reproduced by AI models. Now, he’s optimistic that AI — under Microsoft’s stewardship — will create a “calmer, more...

Plus, the Creature From the Black Lagoon remake has found its writer.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) will meet on the debate stage on Tuesday night, representing their parties’ tickets in hopes of becoming the next vice president. The former school teacher and the Hillbilly Elegy author have each taken some significant stances on tech. Walz, for example, navigated a power struggle between ridehailing apps and their drivers, vetoing a state bill to raise minimum pay for Uber and Lyft drivers after the companies threatened to leave the state, then signing a different bill to raise driver pay an estimated 20 percent without losing what he saw as a key mode of transportation for many Minnesotans. Vance has ruffled feathers in his own party with his stance on tech competition...

Powered by OpenAI’s latest models, Microsoft’s Copilot assistant is becoming a lot more handy—and wants to be an “encouraging” digital coworker.

Microsoft is using AI models to greatly improve Windows search on its new Copilot Plus PCs, including the addition of a new Click to Do feature that’s very similar to Google’s Circle to Search. These search improvements will make it easier to find and interact with images, emails, documents, and even videos and are just a few of the AI-based features coming to Copilot Plus PCs starting in November. The improved Windows search will first show up in File Explorer on Copilot Plus PCs next month, allowing you to search for pictures using words, even if the search word isn’t found in the photo or file name. “AI-powered search makes it dramatically easier to find virtually anything,” says Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer...

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman is overseeing an overhaul that gives Copilot an empathetic voice, the ability to see, and more advanced reasoning skills.

Microsoft is starting to release its Windows 11 2024 update today, also known as version 24H2. This update includes a number of small but useful additions to Windows 11 that improve the Start menu, File Explorer, Settings, and much more. The Start menu has a big change for those using Microsoft’s Phone Link software. The Windows 11 2024 update adds a side panel to the Start menu that provides information on your phone’s battery status and notifications as well as quick access to messages, calls, and photos. The floating panel is a neat addition for Phone Link users. If you own an HDR monitor, this latest Windows 11 update will enable HDR background support, and you can also now easily toggle monitor color profiles directly within the...

Developers that build Fortnite experiences can now try out a new first-person camera mode. The feature will first be available as an experimental release in the Unreal Editor for Fortnite. Later this year, the feature will launch in beta, and at that time, creators will be able to publish their experiences with first-person modes, Epic Games says. The company first revealed the first-person perspective at its State of Unreal show in March, though it’s not planned for Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode, Epic confirmed to Rock Paper Shotgun. You can get a brief look at the mode in Epic’s State of Unreal replay at 1:06:26 and in a post on X shared today. New POV just dropped ‼️First Person Camera Mode is now available as an Experimental...

Copilot is transforming into a more personalized AI assistant thanks to Inflection.

Microsoft is bringing some new AI-powered Paint and Photos features to Copilot Plus PCs that could make creatives less reliant on more powerful image editing software. Generative Fill and Generative Erase — which appear to be heavily inspired by similar AI tools in Adobe Photoshop — are being introduced to Paint, allowing users to precisely add or remove objects in their images. Both tools utilize a size-adjustable brush to “paint” over specific areas of an image to edit. Generative Erase will remove unwanted figures, objects like background clutter, and other distractions, similar to the Magic Eraser feature on Google’s Pixel phones. Generative Fill allows Paint users to add new AI-generated assets to an image using a text description...

The iPhone 16 didn't disappoint and IFA 2024 gave us a great glimpse of some gadgets we will be obsessed with in 2025.