Space data centers sound like a pipe dream. What if we put them on lamp posts?

A UK firm has signed a deal with Nigeria’s Katsina State to deploy 50,000 solar-powered smart lamp posts that collectively function as a distributed AI data center, without using electricity from the grid.

China has decided that firing a worker because an AI can do their job is illegal. No Western country has done the same.
China has decided that firing a worker because an AI can do their job is illegal. No Western country has done the same.

A quality assurance supervisor identified only as Zhou joined a technology company in Hangzhou in November 2022. His job was to work with AI large language models, optimising their outputs and filtering sensitive content. He earned 25,000 yuan per mont…

US Navy signs deal with AI firm for training underwater drones to detect mines in Strait of Hormuz — $100 million would allow drone minesweepers to update their detection algorithms in days instead of months

The U.S. Navy just signed a $99.7 million deal with Domino Data Lab to build software to monitor other AI mine detection systems, identify failures, and push corrections in the field.

The company that built TikTok’s algorithm is now designing drugs for diseases pharma called undruggable
The company that built TikTok’s algorithm is now designing drugs for diseases pharma called undruggable

The company that built TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, the system that predicts with unsettling accuracy what a person wants to watch next, is now using a related class of AI to predict how molecules will behave inside a human body. ByteDance’s drug…

Why a Canadian bank is trying to predict earthquakes with quantum computers
Why a Canadian bank is trying to predict earthquakes with quantum computers

BMO has filed a provisional patent on a quantum algorithm for seismic forecasting, and is sending mobile branches to wildfire zones with AI dispatch. The bank says it is the future of risk. Banks are not, as a rule, in the earthquake business. They are…

AI chipmaker Cerebras targets up to $4bn IPO at $40bn valuation
AI chipmaker Cerebras targets up to $4bn IPO at $40bn valuation

After a CFIUS-induced retreat in 2024, the wafer-scale chip startup is back with an OpenAI deal in its pocket and a sharper bet against Nvidia. Eighteen months ago, Cerebras Systems looked like a cautionary tale. The Sunnyvale-based AI chip startup had…

Musk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s models

In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warned  that AI could destroy us all and sat…

The question nobody asked Zuckerberg
The question nobody asked Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg’s earnings call on Wednesday was about AI. It was about the $125 billion to $145 billion Meta plans to spend on capital expenditure in 2026. It was about Llama models and recommendation engines and the advertising systems that generate …

Seven AI companies signed the Pentagon’s terms. The one that refused is worth $900 billion.
Seven AI companies signed the Pentagon’s terms. The one that refused is worth $900 billion.

The Pentagon announced on 1 May that it has signed agreements with Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Reflection AI for expanded use of advanced artificial intelligence on classified military networks. The deals bring the total number of compa…

The Pentagon announces AI deals with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, and more — LLMs to be deployed on classified Department of War networks ‘for lawful operational use’

The U.S. Department of War announced agreements with seven AI providers, allowing it to deploy multiple LLMs for its use and avoiding lock up with a single vendor.