This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through July 12)

Tech

AI Mania Pushes Nvidia to Record $4 trillion ValuationBenj Edwards | Ars Technica

“The milestone marks the highest market cap ever recorded for a publicly traded company, surpassing Apple’s previous record of $3.8 trillion set in December. …The $4 trillion valuation represents a market capitalization larger than the GDP of most countries.”

Robotics

Robot Surgery on Humans Could Be Trialed Within Decade After Success on Pig OrgansRobert Booth | The Guardian

“The robot surgeons were schooled on video footage of human medics conducting operations using organs taken from dead pigs. In an apparent research breakthrough, eight operations were conducted on pig organs with a 100% success rate by a team led by experts at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in the US.”

Artificial Intelligence

European Union Unveils Rules for Powerful AI SystemsAdam Satariano | The New York Times

“Makers of the most powerful AI systems will have to improve transparency, limit copyright violations, and protect public safety. The rules, which are not enforceable until next year, come during an intense debate in Brussels about how aggressively to regulate a new technology seen by many leaders as crucial to future economic success in the face of competition with the United States and China.”

Robotics

The Teens Are Taking Waymos NowAarian Marshall | Wired

“Are the kids all right? They’re in Waymos, at least, now that the self-driving car company has begun to allow Arizona teenagers in the Phoenix area to ride by themselves through special ‘teen’ accounts. Eventually, the teen service, open to 14- to 17-year-olds, could come to all of the markets in the US where Waymo operates its robot taxis, the company says.”

Energy

Why the US and Europe Could Lose the Race for Fusion EnergyDaniel F. Brunner, Edlyn V. Levine, Fiona E. Murray, and Rory Burke | MIT Technology Review

“Harnessing fusion will deliver the energy resilience, security, and abundance needed for all modern industrial and service sectors. But these benefits will be controlled by the nation that leads in both developing the complex supply chains required and building fusion power plants at scales large enough to drive down economic costs.”

Artificial Intelligence

Meet Devin: Goldman Sachs’ New AI Software Engineer That Never SleepsTaylor Hatmaker | Fast Company

“Goldman Chief Information Officer Marco Argenti told CNBC that the company plans to ‘augment’ its workforce with the AI tool, which will execute tasks on behalf of its more than 10,000 human software developers. ‘Initially, we will have hundreds of Devins [and] that might go into the thousands, depending on the use cases,’ Argenti said.”

Biotechnology

These Genetically Modified Mice Make Their Own ‘Ozempic’Ed Cara | Gizmodo

“The popularity of Ozempic and Wegovy as diabetes and weight loss medications has skyrocketed. But how far would people go to avoid one of their major drawbacks—the need for weekly injections? A study out [this week] shows it’s possible to genetically modify mice to make their own Ozempic-like drugs.”

Tech

At Least 36 New Tech Unicorns Were Minted in 2025 So FarDominic-Madori Davis | TechCrunch

“Using data from Crunchbase and PitchBook, TechCrunch tracked down the VC-backed startups that became unicorns so far this year. While most are AI-related, a surprising number are focused in other industries like satellite space companies Loft Orbital and blockchain-based trading site Kalshi.”

New Research Bolsters Freaky Theory That Earth Sits in a Giant Cosmic VoidEllyn Lapointe | Gizmodo

“The fact is, space is likely peppered with bubbles of relative emptiness, and some astronomers believe we’re sitting inside of one. A growing body of evidence suggests that our entire Milky Way galaxy is located within an enormous cosmic void.”

Artificial Intelligence

Dr. ChatGPT Will See You NowRyan Flinn | Wired

“The era of ‘Dr. Google’ is giving way to the age of ‘Dr. ChatGPT.’ Medical schools, physicians, patient groups, and the chatbots’ creators are racing to catch up, trying to determine how accurate these LLMs’ medical answers are, how best patients and doctors should use them, and how to address patients who are given false information.”

Tech

AI Slows Down Some Experienced Software Developers, Study FindsAnna Tong | Reuters

“Before the study, the open-source developers believed using AI would speed them up, estimating it would decrease task completion time by 24%. Even after completing the tasks with AI, the developers believed that they had decreased task times by 20%. But the study found that using AI did the opposite: it increased task completion time by 19%.”

Tech

The AI Birthday Letter That Blew Me AwayLila Shroff | The Atlantic

“In May, I asked Google’s chatbot, Gemini, to write a birthday letter to my best friend. Within seconds, it spat out the most impressive piece of AI writing I have ever encountered. …Gemini has proved most alluring in Drive, where the chatbot can automatically find and consult relevant files before generating text. That’s how Gemini was able to whip up such a good birthday letter: It already knew a lot about me (and, by association, my friend).”