Robotics
Google Gemini Is Taking Control of Humanoid Robots on Auto Factory FloorsWill Knight | Wired ($)
“Google DeepMind is teaming up with Boston Dynamics to give its humanoid robots the intelligence required to navigate unfamiliar environments and identify and manipulate objects—precisely the kinds of capabilities needed to perform manual labor.”
Artificial Intelligence
Distinct AI Models Seem to Converge on How They Encode RealityBen Brubaker | Quanta Magazine
“Is the inside of a vision model at all like a language model? Researchers argue that as the models grow more powerful, they may be converging toward a singular ‘Platonic’ way to represent the world.”
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Flu Is Relentless. CRISPR Might Be Able to Shut It Down.
David Cox | Wired ($)
“They believe CRISPR could be tailored to create a next-generation treatment for influenza, whether that’s the seasonal strains which plague both the northern and southern hemispheres on an annual basis or the worrisome new variants in birds and other wildlife that might trigger the next pandemic.”
Computing
Next-Level Quantum Computers Will Almost Be UsefulDina Genkina | IEEE Spectrum
“The machine that Microsoft and Atom Computing will be delivering, called Magne, will have 50 logical qubits, built from some 1,200 physical qubits, and should be operational by the start of 2027. QuEra’s machine at AIST has around 37 logical qubits (depending on implementation) and 260 physical qubits, Boger says.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI Coding Assistants Are Getting Worse
Jamie Twiss | IEEE Spectrum
“In recent months, I’ve noticed a troubling trend with AI coding assistants. After two years of steady improvements, over the course of 2025, most of the core models reached a quality plateau, and more recently, seem to be in decline. A task that might have taken five hours assisted by AI, and perhaps ten hours without it, is now more commonly taking seven or eight hours, or even longer.”
ENERGY
Meta Unveils Sweeping Nuclear-Power Plan to Fuel Its AI Ambitions
Jennifer Hiller | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Meta Platforms on Friday unveiled a series of agreements that would make it an anchor customer for new and existing nuclear power in the US, where it needs city-size amounts of electricity for its artificial-intelligence data centers. …Financial details weren’t disclosed, but the arrangements are among the most sweeping and ambitious so far between tech companies and nuclear-power providers.”
Robotics
Even the Companies Making Humanoid Robots Think They’re OverhypedSean McLain | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Billions of dollars are flowing into humanoid robot startups, as investors bet that the industry will soon put humanlike machines in warehouses, factories and our living rooms. For all the recent advances in the field, humanoid robots, they say, have been overhyped and face daunting technical challenges before they move from science experiments to a replacement for human workers.”
SPACE
Former Google CEO Plans to Singlehandedly Fund a Hubble Telescope Replacement
Eric Berger | Ars Technica
“On Wednesday evening, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, announced a major investment in not just one telescope project, but four. Each of these new telescopes brings a novel capability online; however, the most intriguing new instrument is a space-based telescope named Lazuli. This spacecraft, if successfully launched and deployed, would offer astronomers a more capable and modern version of the Hubble Space Telescope, which is now three decades old.”
Robotics
Uber’s Not Done With Self-Driving Cars Just Yet. It’s Designing a New Robotaxi With Lucid and NuroSasha Lekach | Gizmodo
“The companies said that on-road testing [in San Francisco] started at the end of last year, which isn’t surprising as Nuro already holds driverless testing permits through the California DMV. Eventually, the trio plan to offer the Level 4 robotaxi prototype everywhere Uber has a presence—if all goes well, that is.”
Robotics
Kawasaki’s Four-Legged Robot-Horse Vehicle Is Going Into ProductionBronwyn Thompson | New Atlas
“What was announced as a 2050 pipe dream by Kawasaki, the company’s hydrogen-powered, four-hooved, all-terrain robot horse vehicle Corleo is actually going into production and is now expected to be commercially available decades earlier—with the first model to debut in just four years.”
NASA’s Science Budget Won’t Be a Train Wreck After AllEric Berger | Ars Technica
“On Monday, Congress made good on…promises [to fund most of NASA’s science portfolio], releasing a $24.4 billion budget plan for NASA as part of the conferencing process, when House and Senate lawmakers convene to hammer out a final budget. The result is a budget that calls for just a 1 percent cut in NASA’s science funding, to $7.25 billion, for fiscal year 2026.”
Artificial Intelligence
AI Is Being Used to Find Valuable Commodities in Our TrashRyan Dezember | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Murphy Road executives say the technology allows them to sort up to 60 tons an hour of curbside recycling from around Connecticut and western Massachusetts into precisely sorted bales of paper, plastic, aluminum cans, and other materials. The material is sold to mills, manufacturers, and remelt facilities, which pay more for cleaner bales.”
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