Robotics
Google Gemini Is Taking Control of Humanoid Robots on Auto Factory FloorsWill Knight | Wired ($)
“Google DeepMind is teaming up with Boston Dynamics to provide its humanoid robots the intelligence required to navigate unfamiliar environments and establish and manipulate objects—exactly the sorts of capabilities wanted to carry out guide labor.”
Artificial Intelligence
Distinct AI Models Seem to Converge on How They Encode RealityBen Brubaker | Quanta Journal
“Is the within of a imaginative and prescient mannequin in any respect like a language mannequin? Researchers argue that because the fashions develop extra highly effective, they could be converging towards a singular ‘Platonic’ solution to signify the world.”
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Flu Is Relentless. CRISPR Might Be Able to Shut It Down.
David Cox | Wired ($)
“They imagine CRISPR may very well be tailor-made to create a next-generation therapy for influenza, whether or not that’s the seasonal strains which plague each the northern and southern hemispheres on an annual foundation or the worrisome new variants in birds and different wildlife that may set off the following pandemic.”
Computing
Next-Level Quantum Computers Will Almost Be UsefulDina Genkina | IEEE Spectrum
“The machine that Microsoft and Atom Computing will likely be delivering, known as Magne, may have 50 logical qubits, constructed from some 1,200 bodily qubits, and needs to be operational by the beginning of 2027. QuEra’s machine at AIST has round 37 logical qubits (relying on implementation) and 260 bodily qubits, Boger says.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI Coding Assistants Are Getting Worse
Jamie Twiss | IEEE Spectrum
“In current months, I’ve observed a troubling pattern with AI coding assistants. After two years of regular enhancements, over the course of 2025, a lot of the core fashions reached a top quality plateau, and extra just lately, appear to be in decline. A activity that may have taken 5 hours assisted by AI, and maybe ten hours with out it, is now extra generally taking seven or eight hours, and even longer.”
ENERGY
Meta Unveils Sweeping Nuclear-Power Plan to Fuel Its AI Ambitions
Jennifer Hiller | The Wall Avenue Journal ($)
“Meta Platforms on Friday unveiled a collection of agreements that will make it an anchor buyer for brand spanking new and current nuclear energy within the US, the place it wants city-size quantities of electrical energy for its artificial-intelligence information facilities. …Monetary particulars weren’t disclosed, however the preparations are among the many most sweeping and bold to this point between tech corporations and nuclear-power suppliers.”
Robotics
Even the Companies Making Humanoid Robots Think They’re OverhypedSean McLain | The Wall Avenue Journal ($)
“Billions of {dollars} are flowing into humanoid robotic startups, as traders guess that the business will quickly put humanlike machines in warehouses, factories and our residing rooms. For all of the current advances within the subject, humanoid robots, they are saying, have been overhyped and face daunting technical challenges earlier than they transfer from science experiments to a alternative for human employees.”
SPACE
Former Google CEO Plans to Singlehandedly Fund a Hubble Telescope Replacement
Eric Berger | Ars Technica
“On Wednesday night, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his spouse, Wendy, introduced a serious funding in not only one telescope challenge, however 4. Every of those new telescopes brings a novel functionality on-line; nonetheless, probably the most intriguing new instrument is a space-based telescope named Lazuli. This spacecraft, if efficiently launched and deployed, would provide astronomers a extra succesful and trendy model of the Hubble Area Telescope, which is now three a long time outdated.”
Robotics
Uber’s Not Done With Self-Driving Cars Just Yet. It’s Designing a New Robotaxi With Lucid and NuroSasha Lekach | Gizmodo
“The businesses stated that on-road testing [in San Francisco] began on the finish of final yr, which isn’t stunning as Nuro already holds driverless testing permits by way of the California DMV. Finally, the trio plan to supply the Stage 4 robotaxi prototype all over the place Uber has a presence—if all goes properly, that’s.”
Robotics
Kawasaki’s Four-Legged Robot-Horse Vehicle Is Going Into ProductionBronwyn Thompson | New Atlas
“What was introduced as a 2050 pipe dream by Kawasaki, the corporate’s hydrogen-powered, four-hooved, all-terrain robotic horse automobile Corleo is definitely going into manufacturing and is now anticipated to be commercially obtainable a long time earlier—with the primary mannequin to debut in simply 4 years.”
NASA’s Science Budget Won’t Be a Train Wreck After AllEric Berger | Ars Technica
“On Monday, Congress made good on…guarantees [to fund most of NASA’s science portfolio], releasing a $24.4 billion finances plan for NASA as a part of the conferencing course of, when Home and Senate lawmakers convene to hammer out a closing finances. The result’s a finances that requires only a 1 p.c lower in NASA’s science funding, to $7.25 billion, for fiscal yr 2026.”
Artificial Intelligence
AI Is Being Used to Find Valuable Commodities in Our TrashRyan Dezember | The Wall Avenue Journal ($)
“Murphy Highway executives say the expertise permits them to type as much as 60 tons an hour of curbside recycling from round Connecticut and western Massachusetts into exactly sorted bales of paper, plastic, aluminum cans, and different supplies. The fabric is bought to mills, producers, and remelt amenities, which pay extra for cleaner bales.”
