Technology

9:44 AM PT -- SpaceX's Dragon is up and away ... having just detached from the rocket. Crew-9 is expected to reach the International Space Station tomorrow -- and, should return with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams early next year. Good luck!

A SpaceX mission is set to blast off Saturday with a crucial mission ... to help retrieve 2 American astronauts stranded for months on the International Space Station ... but it's still going to be a while before they're back on Earth.

The launch of SpaceX’s Dragon -- piloted by NASA's Crew-9 is scheduled for 1:17 PM ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida ... but weather delays might be a snag given the deadly Hurricane Helene just battered a portion of the state.

Deepak Chopra isn't turning his nose up at artificial intelligence ... rather, he's encouraging others to embrace the technology as the next step in human evolution.

We caught up with the New Age guru on "TMZ Live" Friday, where he defended his use of artificial intelligence, highlighting all the ways his online twin, "Digital Deepak," has helped others.

As Deepak put it ... his digital alter ego is not scanning the internet to splice together random or vague responses to users' questions. Instead, Digital Deepak combs through his vast collection of published works, including books, interviews, Q&As, columns and more to curate an answer that reflects his beliefs.

A 10-year-old girl who vanished into the Louisiana woods is back home with her family, thanks to a thermal imaging drone that tracked her down ... leading to her rescue.

Dramatic new footage shows the moment the drone locates Peyton Saintignan, who police say went missing around 10 PM on Sept. 14 after sleepwalking into the woods near her home in Shreveport.

Peyton's curled up on the forest floor and appears to be sleeping when the drone swoops in and finds her ... with the help of the thermal tech.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman is feeling outta this world after successfully completing the first-ever civilian spacewalk -- and he spent a pretty penny to get in the history books.

The billionaire CEO of Shift4, a payment processing company, took a ride on SpaceX for its riskiest mission to date ... in which he and another astronaut left the capsule and floated in space in newly designed spacesuits.

The Polaris Dawn mission was bankrolled by Isaacman. He and retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott Poteet, SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon orbited 435 miles above Earth.

Gen-Z is going to love this ... China is showing off a new military drone that looks just like a falcon, adding another layer to a popular conspiracy theory about the legitimacy of birds.

Video from a recent Chinese military exercise shows the People's Liberation Army deploying a drone shaped like a falcon ... and the UAV flaps and flies around just like a bird. It's wild!

Peep this footage ... a camouflaged PLA fighter emerges from a body of water with the UAV in hand, and it starts flapping its wings before the person throws it into the air.

Nelly Furtado says her daughter saved her upcoming album with some blunt advice ... calling her out for thinking auto-tune sounds cool.

The singer-songwriter spoke with NME all about her upcoming album "7" ... and, she admits she got a little crazy when it came to auto-tune before her daughter shut her down.

Furtado says her Nevis, 20, told her auto-tune's not cool, full stop ... so, it shouldn't come anywhere near her new record.

Add the 2024 Olympics to the long list of organizations affected by the ongoing global cyber outage ... as the Paris Games' organizing committee revealed some operations have dealt with some hiccups as a result of the ordeal.

With the international competition just days away, the org. released a statement saying the outage has impacted accreditations and the delivery of uniforms. Luckily for organizers, they say operations around the preparations of venues and ticket sales are unaffected -- while the Olympic torch relay is also not caught in the crossfire.

At the press center, security is doing checks outside the building the ol' fashioned way -- breaking out a list of names and scrolling through it manually. For journalists just arriving in the City of Lights, Reuters is reporting the accreditation desk is closed ... and people are being turned away.

CrowdStrike founder and CEO George Kurtz is offering up an apology for his company's software update that sparked a global cyber outage ... and you can tell he's sweatin'.

The tech executive addressed the major computer disruption on the "Today" show Friday morning, where he offered up a mea culpa to the millions of customers, travelers and anyone else impacted by the worldwide glitch.

GK made it clear the outage wasn't caused by a cyber attack, but was related to a content update ... which left thousands of flights grounded and service interruptions for countless businesses.

Political analyst Matthew Baum can understand the allure of an AI-powered candidate for office -- but he warns that kind of ultimate political outsider could pose some unexpected threats.

We got the Harvard professor Friday on "TMZ Live," where he weighed in on the growing trend of AI candidates running for political offices across the globe.

For example, entrepreneur Steve Endacott is having his AI-generated avatar run for a seat in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.

Lauren Sanchez has the whole blended family gathering down to a science ... celebrating her son Nikko's graduation with her soon-to-be-husband, her ex and his wife!

The TV personality shared a series of photos from Nikko's college grad party, featuring Jeff Bezos, Nikko's dad -- NFL Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez -- and Tony's wife, October. The adult squad seemed even to enjoy each other's company, posing for multiple pics together.

Mama Bear posted a tear-jerking video in honor of her boy, who's 23 now ... comprised of pics of Nikko before cutting to an emotional speech Sanchez gave during the festivities -- and, ya gotta watch it for yourself because it's LS at her most raw.

Nine months after Elon Musk hooked up a remote Amazon tribe to the internet, there's been some major issues -- mainly a porn addiction ravaging the community's young men.

The Marubo tribe's elders have come forward to admit that while the Tesla founder's Starlink service was initially a huge celebration for them, it's all turned into a mess ... 'cause some of the previously chaste tribe's men are now displaying "aggressive sexual behavior."

One tribesman, Alfredo Marubo, spoke to The New York Times about it ... saying some men are even sharing explicit videos in group chats, and he's concerned they're gonna want to mimic the graphic content they're seeing on screen.

Drake's making amends with Tupac's estate, complying with the cease and desist demands it made after he used an AI Tupac voice on his diss track, "Taylor Made Freestyle."

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Drake's team and representatives from Tupac's estate have had productive talks after the estate sent its C&D letter on Wednesday -- and it's already led to serious progress.

Drake's taken down the track from his Twitter and Instagram -- the only places he posted it -- and, his team is trying to get it removed from other sites that redistributed it.

Tupac Shakur's estate is laying down the law on Drake ... threatening to drag him to court for using an AI-generated version of the late rapper's voice for a diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar.

TMZ has obtained the cease-and-desist letter fired off by the attorney for Tupac's estate, Howard King, and it calls out Drake for the AI verse on "Taylor Made Freestyle" ... saying, "Not only is the record a flagrant violation of Tupac's publicity and the estate's legal rights, it is also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time."

The estate goes on to say it would never have given approval for this -- and it issues an ultimatum: take down the track in less than 24 hours, and explain how it was made ... or else.

Una pobre mujer perdió la vida porque ella y su presunto asesino estaban siendo estafados por un tercero, y hablamos con algunos expertos que dicen que esto no va a parar.

El experto en tecnología Lance Ulanoff -que ha estado cubriendo este campo como periodista durante años- estuvo en "TMZ Live" el miércoles para discutir el tiroteo fatal de Loletha Hall, que fue asesinada a tiros a finales del mes pasado en Ohio después de que William Brock, de 81 años de edad, la confundió con una estafadora.

Lance nos dice que este es un caso extremo de este tipo de historias, y asegura que suceden todo el tiempo. Dice que por lo general no llegan a este nivel de violencia y tragedia. Desgraciadamente, en este caso sí... y dice que es un cuento con moraleja sobre los peligros de estos malos actores.

A poor woman lost her life because both she and her alleged murderer were being scammed by a nefarious third party -- and we talked to some experts who say ... this ain't gonna stop.

Tech expert Lance Ulanoff -- who's covered this field as Editor at TechRadar -- came on "TMZ Live" Wednesday to discuss the fatal shooting of Loletha Hall ... who was gunned down late last month in Ohio after 81-year-old William Brock mistook her for someone trying to secure a ransom out of him.

Lance tells us this is an extreme case of these types of stories -- which he says happen all the time, but usually don't rise to this level of violence and tragedy.

Unfortunately, here it did, and he says it's a cautionary tale on the dangers of these bad actors.

Will.i.am is set to be a proud graduate of Harvard Business School -- an education, he says, his years of boom boom powing the music industry could have never taught him -- and he's ready to school people on the pros of AI!!!

TMZ Hip Hop recently caught up with Will in NYC, where he praised Harvard's Owner/President Management program for its influence on his FYI app.

Will sounded like he's reading a computer syntax error at times -- dropping acronyms like NLP, NLU and OPM -- but it was clear he's excited to help create a world boosted by AI ... and he's urging the general public not to fear the innovation.

Will points out the invention of the calculator didn't disrupt human advancement, and notes today's buildings are made by AI programs ... it's all about making life easier.