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Chinese scientists achieve speed breeding of rice in desert Amid the sprawling desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Chinese scientists are harnessing advanced greenhouse technologies to unleash the agricultural potential of the otherwise infertile land. Within the greenhouses that stretch ten thousand acres in Hotan, southern Xinjiang, scientists from the Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have recently harvested the first batch of rice grown in the desert. Read: Pakistan’s basmati rice exports surge as India’s to fall "The rice is cultivated on three-layer frames along with precise environment control in desert greenhouses, rather than conventional methods, which nearly halves the growth cycle, harvesting in just two months," said Yang Qichang, the chief scientist of IUA. According to Yang, this achievement was built upon the earlier successes in the plant factory in Chengdu, southwest China...

Humanity in 'race against time' on AI: UN Humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of artificial intelligence for the good of all, while averting dire risks, a top UN official said Thursday. "We've let the genie out of the bottle," said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, head of the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU). "We are in a race against time," she told the opening of a two-day AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. "Recent developments in AI have been nothing short of extraordinary." Read: China opens 1st AI hospital town to treat patients in virtual world The thousands gathered at the conference heard how advances in generative AI are already speeding up efforts to solve some of the world's most pressing problems, such as climate change, hunger and social care. "I believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to guide AI to benefit all the world's people," Bogdan-M...

Indian space startup Agnikul launches country's second privately built rocket India's Agnikul Cosmos launched its Agnibaan rocket for the first time on Thursday, powered by the only Indian rocket engine to use both gas and liquid fuel in the country's second flight of a privately built rocket. The Agnibaan's first flight had been called off four times in the last two months because of technical issues. The most recent cancellation was Tuesday, when launch was aborted five seconds before lift-off. On Thursday, the customisable, two-stage launch vehicle designed to carry a payload of up to 300 kg (661 lb) into an orbit of about 700 kilometres' altitude (435 miles) flew for two minutes to a maximum altitude, or apogee, of 8,076 metres before splashing down into the ocean. "All the mission objectives of this controlled vertical ascent flight were met and performance was nominal," the company said. The South Asian nation's space agency, the Indian Space R...

NASA's Lucy spacecraft unlocks asteroid Dinkinesh's dynamic history A little asteroid called Dinkinesh - visited last November by NASA's Lucy spacecraft - has a surprisingly dynamic history, according to scientists, along with its moonlet Selam that is comprised of two bodies that gently melded into one. Dinkinesh and Selam are the smallest asteroids from our solar system's main asteroid belt, located between the planets Mars and Jupiter, ever seen up close by a spacecraft. Lucy observed ridges, trough structures and other characteristics on Dinkinesh that hint at a complicated past for the asteroid and its companion, the researchers said on Wednesday. Asteroids are primordial remnants from the solar system's early stages, offering clues about how Earth and other planets formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago. The US space agency launched Lucy in 2021 on a 12-year mission to study asteroids - in particular, Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, two batches of space rocks ...

China releases 3-year action plan on artificial intelligence China has released a three-year action plan to “strengthen standards” in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). According to an official statement, the plan was jointly issued by Central Cyberspace Affair Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and made public on Wednesday. Under the plan, the Chinese experts and institutions will carry out standardisation process in areas including generative AI, blockchain, cloud computing, quantum information, brain-computer interfaces, next-generation internet and metaverse, according to the statement. Read also: China opens 1st AI hospital town to treat patients in virtual world The standardisation process aims to “better drive technological and economic development and enhance international influence.” It said flow of information through a system is an "important part of the national standa...

Venus has more volcanism than previously known, new analysis finds Venus appears to be more volcanically active than previously known, according to scientists whose new analysis of decades-old radar images has spotted evidence of eruptions at two additional sites on the surface of Earth's inhospitable planetary neighbor. Radar images obtained by NASA's Magellan spacecraft from 1990 to 1992 indicated large lava flows at these two locations in the Venusian northern hemisphere at the time of the observations, the researchers said. These findings, coupled with previous studies, indicate that the planet's volcanic activity is comparable to Earth's, they added. Magellan mapped 98% of the Venusian surface. Advances in computing capability have made analyzing Magellan's radar data easier in recent years. "These findings significantly change our understanding of the degree to which Venus is volcanically active, suggesting it could be much more active than previously t...

China opens 1st AI hospital town to treat patients in virtual world China has opened its first artificial intelligence (AI) hospital town, where patients are treated in a virtual world by AI-generated doctors, state media reported on Wednesday. “The concept of an AI hospital town, where virtual patients are treated by AI doctors, holds immense significance for both medical professionals and the general public. The AI hospital aims to train doctor agents through a simulated environment so that it can autonomously evolve and improve its ability to treat disease,” the Beijing-based Global Times reported, citing recent interviews with Chinese researchers. The researchers shed light on the practical implications of this novel approach to health care. Tsinghua University researchers recently created the "Agent Hospital" in this virtual world, where all doctors, nurses, and patients are controlled by intelligent agents powered by large language models (LLMs) that can interact auto...

OpenAI sets up safety committee as it starts training new model OpenAI has formed a Safety and Security Committee that will be led by board members, including CEO Sam Altman, as it begins training its next artificial intelligence model, the AI startup said on Tuesday. Directors Bret Taylor, Adam D'Angelo and Nicole Seligman will also lead the committee, OpenAI said on a company blog. Microsoft-backed OpenAI's chatbots with generative AI capabilities, such as engaging in human-like conversations and creating images based on text prompts, have stirred safety concerns as AI models become powerful. Former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who were leaders of OpenAI's Superalignment team, which ensured AI stays aligned to the intended objectives, left the firm earlier this month. Read: Voice cloning ethics bubbles to surface in wake of OpenAI apology to Scarlett Johansson OpenAI had disbanded the Superalignment team earlier in May, less than a year after the compan...

India's space startup calls off maiden rocket launch for a fourth time India's Agnikul Cosmos called off a test flight of its first rocket on Tuesday seconds before it was due to launch - the fourth such cancellation in the last three months. Launches of India's second privately built rocket, and the first using a combination of gas and liquid fuel, had been aborted three times before because of technical issues, including one flight that was cancelled about 90 seconds before lift-off. The launch, scheduled for 5:45 a.m. IST (0015 GMT) on Tuesday, was first delayed less than six minutes before lift-off "due to a technical glitch in the countdown activities", and officials set a new lift-off time of 9:25 a.m. Only five seconds before lift-off, however, the launch was put on "temporary hold to check igniter performance", then was called off altogether. Read also: German company launches candle wax-powered rocket on test flight into space The mission was ...

US, European nations consider vaccinating workers exposed to bird flu The United States and Europe are taking steps to acquire or manufacture H5N1 bird flu vaccines that could be used to protect at-risk poultry and dairy workers, veterinarians and lab technicians, government officials said, moves influenza experts say could curb the threat of a pandemic. US officials last week said they were moving bulk vaccine from CSL Seqirus that closely matches the current virus into finished shots that could provide 4.8 million doses of vaccine. European health officials told Reuters they were in talks to acquire CSL's prepandemic vaccine. Canadian health officials said they have met with GSK, maker of Canada's seasonal flu shots, to discuss acquiring and manufacturing a prepandemic bird flu vaccine once its seasonal flu production capacity is freed up. Other countries, including the UK, are discussing how to proceed on prepandemic vaccines, scientists said. The actions follow the explos...

Chinese fossil reveals evolution of skin in feathered dinosaurs A new fossil of the Cretaceous Period dinosaur Psittacosaurus, a dog-sized herbivore with a parrot-like beak, that was donated to a Chinese university came with a surprise - one revealed only after scientists viewed it under ultraviolet light. It retained large patches of beautifully preserved skin, down to its cellular structure, providing new insight into skin evolution in feathered dinosaurs. The fossil points to "zoned development" in the skin of these dinosaurs, researchers said, with Psittacosaurus and probably other feathered dinosaurs possessing scaly, reptile-like skin on body regions without feathers, with soft, bird-like skin on areas with feathers. "Initially we didn't really have much hope of finding any soft tissues because, to the naked eye, our specimen appears to preserve only the bones. We didn't give up, though, because we knew that during fossilization soft tissues can be replac...

China sets up third fund with $47.5 bln to boost semiconductor sector China has set up its third planned state-backed investment fund to boost its semiconductor industry, with a registered capital of 344 billion yuan ($47.5 billion), according to a filing with a government-run companies registry. The hundreds of billions of yuan invested in the sector puts into perspective President Xi Jinping's drive to achieve self-sufficiency for China in semiconductors. That commitment has taken on renewed urgency after the US imposed a series of export control measures over the last couple of years, citing fears Beijing could use advanced chips to boost its military capabilities. Read: China acquired recently banned Nvidia chips in Super Micro, Dell servers, tenders show Chinese chip shares rose, with the CES CN Semiconductor Index tab rallying more than 3% and set to log the biggest one-day gain in more than a month. The third phase of the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund w...

Tesla's ‘milestone’ Shanghai battery factory breaks ground US carmaker Tesla broke ground on a mega factory in Shanghai on Thursday to manufacture its energy-storage batteries, Megapacks, a project hailed by the company as a "milestone." The latest move underscores Tesla's commitment to investing in the world's second-largest economy, defying the rhetoric of "decoupling" and "de-risking" from China ratcheted up by some US politicians. The new plant spans an area of approximately 200,000 square metres, with a total investment of around 1.45 billion yuan (about 203.94 million US dollars), according to the administration of Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. This photo taken on May 23, 2024 shows the groundbreaking ceremony of US carmaker Tesla's Megapack factory in east China's Shanghai. PHOTO: XINHUA The mega factory is the first of its kind built by Tesla outside the United States and the company's se...

Astronomers develop new observation technique to mitigate asteroid risks A collaborative research team from China and Ukraine has been monitoring near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) through regular observations to attain accurate positioning and precise orbit determination for those celestial bodies. The NEAs are asteroids whose trajectories are in close proximity with Earth's orbit. The possibility of it having an impact on our planet presents a grave threat, underscoring the imperative need for prompt follow-up observations of newly identified NEAs for rapidly assessing their orbital elements. However, observing rapidly moving objects with extended exposure times can result in streaked images, thus markedly diminishing the accuracy of astronomical measurements. The researchers from Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Mykolaiv Astronomical Observatory pioneered an innovative method known as the rotating-drift-scan (RDS) charge-coupled devic...

Elon Musk plans xAI supercomputer, The Information reports US businessman Elon Musk recently told investors that his artificial intelligence startup xAI is planning to build a supercomputer to power the next version of its AI chatbot Grok, The Information reported on Saturday citing a presentation to investors. Musk said he wants to get the proposed supercomputer running by the fall of 2025, as per the report, adding that xAI could partner with Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab to develop the massive computer. xAI could not be immediately reached for comment. Oracle did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Read: Making AI a responsible technology   When completed, the connected groups of chips — Nvidia’s (NVDA.O), opens new tab flagship H100 graphics processing units (GPUs) — would be at least four times the size of the biggest GPU clusters that exist today, The Information reported quoting Musk from a presentation made to investors in May. Nvidia's H100 family of powerful ...

Kabosu, the face of cryptocurrency Dogecoin, dies at 18, owner says Kabosu, the Japanese dog that became a global meme and the face of alternative cryptocurrency Dogecoin has died at 18, her owner announced in a blog post on Friday. The Japanese Shiba Inu passed away while sleeping, her owner Atsuko Sato wrote. Kabosu became recognizable as the face of Dogecoin, an alternative cryptocurrency that began as a satirical critique of the 2013 crypto frenzy. But the token jumped in value after Tesla boss Elon Musk, a proponent of cryptocurrencies, began tweeting about it in 2020. Since then the billionaire has repeatedly promoted the coin. Dogecoin added as much as $4 billion to its market value last year when the billionaire, who bought social media site Twitter in 2022, briefly replaced Twitter's blue bird logo with an image of Kabosu. Musk subsequently renamed Twitter X. With a market capitalization of around $23.6 billion, Dogecoin is now the ninth biggest cryptocurr...

Woman jailed for laundering bitcoin in UK from $6.4 bln China fraud A woman accused of converting bitcoin into cash and property to help hide the proceeds of a 5 billion pound ($6.4 billion) fraud was jailed for nearly seven years on Friday for money laundering after a trial in a London court.  Prosecutors said Wen Jian helped hide the source of money allegedly stolen from nearly 130,000 Chinese investors in fraudulent wealth schemes between 2014 and 2017. She was not alleged to have been involved in the underlying fraud, which prosecutors said was masterminded by another woman who Wen believed was independently wealthy. Read: Bitcoin slides 6%, while altcoins sparkle As part of their investigation, British police seized wallets holding more than 61,000 bitcoin - making it one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures by law enforcement worldwide. The 61,000 bitcoin was worth around 1.4 billion pounds when police gained access in 2021, prosecutors said during Wen's trial. It is now ...

Airbus fits electric truck with airliner cockpit to study safer taxiing Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab is showing off an unusual vehicle - a truck fitted with basic A350 airliner controls - that it hopes can demonstrate how automated taxiing will make airports safer as concern grows over a spate of jetliners colliding on the ground. The converted electric truck at VivaTech, Europe's biggest technology event, can be driven normally, or the aircraft systems can be given control. Sensors keep track of warning lines and obstacles as onboard computers guide the vehicle to a specific location, accelerating and braking as needed "These use cases are much more critical and complicated compared to those of the car industry," said Matthieu Gallas, head of automation research at Airbus UpNext,the planemaker's innovation lab. "Copying and pasting technology already available on the market won't work." Airbus is at pains to avoid linking the research to specific ac...

US House passes crypto bill despite warnings from SEC The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that aims to create a new legal framework for digital currencies, despite an unusual warning from the US securities regulator it could create new financial risks. The Republican-sponsored Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act passed in a bipartisan 279-136 vote. It is not clear if the Senate will take up the measure. The bill's supporters in the US Congress argue that the bill will provide regulatory clarity and help promote the industry's growth. The House approval comes as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) signals that it will likely approve applications for spot ether exchange-trade funds in a surprising boost to the industry. But SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement that the bill "would create new regulatory gaps and undermine decades of precedent regarding the oversight of investment contracts, putting investors ...

SpaceX launches first satellites for new US spy constellation SpaceX on Wednesday launched an inaugural batch of operational spy satellites it built as part of a new US intelligence network designed to significantly upgrade the country's space-based surveillance powers, the first deployment of several more planned this year. The spy network was revealed in a pair of Reuters reports earlier this year showing SpaceX is building hundreds of satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office, an intelligence agency, for a vast system in orbit capable of rapidly spotting ground targets almost anywhere in the world. Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), a longtime space and defense contractor, is also involved in the project. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California at 4am EDT on Wednesday, carrying into space what the NRO said was the "first launch of the NRO's proliferated systems featuring responsive col...

Amazon, AI startup Hugging Face pair to use Amazon chips Amazon.com's cloud unit on Wednesday said it has partnered with artificial intelligence startup Hugging Face to make it easier to run thousands of AI models on Amazon's custom computing chips. Valued at $4.5 billion, Hugging Face has become a central hub for AI researchers and developers to share chatbots and other AI software and is backed by Amazon, Alphabet's Google and Nvidia , among others. It is the main place that developers go to obtain and tinker with open-source AI models such as Meta Platforms'. But once developers have tweaked an open-source AI model they typically want to use the model to power a piece of software. On Wednesday, Amazon and Hugging Face said they had paired up to make it possible to do so on a custom Amazon Web Services (AWS) chip called Inferentia2. "One thing that's very important to us is efficiency - making sure that as many people as possible can run models and that the...

US securities regulator urges against crypto bill adoption The US securities regulator on Wednesday urged US lawmakers not to adopt a bill that aims to create a new legal framework for digital currencies, saying it would undermine existing legal precedent and put capital markets at "immeasurable risk." The US House of Representatives is expected later on Wednesday to take up the Republican-sponsored Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which would in part determine which agencies have jurisdiction over which digital assets. The bill's supporters in Congress say it will provide regulatory clarity, helping promote the industry's growth. Read: Venture capital funding in crypto rises to $2.4 billion   The legislation faces an uncertain fate in the US Senate but comes as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) signals that it will likely approve applications for spot ether exchange-trade funds in a surprising boost to the industry. But SE...

US assesses Russia launched space weapon in path of American satellite Russia last week launched a satellite that US intelligence officials believe to be a weapon capable of inspecting and attacking other satellites, the US Space Command said on Tuesday as the Russian spacecraft trails a US spy satellite in orbit. Russia's Soyuz rocket blasted off from its Plesetsk launch site some 500 miles (800 km) north of Moscow on May 16, deploying in low-Earth orbit at least nine satellites including COSMOS 2576, a type of Russian military "inspector" spacecraft US officials have long condemned as exhibiting reckless space behavior. Read: Russia launches first space rocket developed since dissolution of Soviet Union We have observed nominal activity and assess it is likely a counterspace weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit," a USSPACECOM spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. "Russia deployed this new counterspace weapon into ...

Europe sets benchmark for rest of the world with landmark AI laws Europe's landmark rules on artificial intelligence will enter into force next month after EU countries endorsed on Tuesday a political deal reached in December, setting a potential global benchmark for a technology used in business and everyday life. The European Union's AI Act is more comprehensive than the United States' light-touch voluntary compliance approach while China's approach aims to maintain social stability and state control. The vote by EU countries came two months after EU lawmakers backed the AI legislation drafted by the European Commission in 2021 after making a number of key changes. Concerns about AI contributing to misinformation, fake news and copyrighted material have intensified globally in recent months amid the growing popularity of generative AI systems such as Microsoft-backed  OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google's  chatbot Gemini. "This landmark law, the first of its k...

AI able to manipulate elections worldwide, expert says Artificial intelligence (AI) is able to manipulate elections all around the world, said the chairman of the Department of Mass Communication at US-based Stephen F. Austin University, noting that as it relates to politics and preserving democracy, it is very important that some regulations are introduced. The world is in the very early stages of that technology and a lot of mistakes are going to be made in utilizing it, John Allen Hendricks told Anadolu at a conference titled Future(s) of Communications: Promises and Predicaments organized last week by the Global Communication Association (GCA). Read: Sam Altman apologizes to Scarlett Johansson over AI voice similarity There have been numerous videos in the US but also in other countries showing politicians saying things that the electorate perceives as sincere but which are actually deepfake videos, he stressed. People should be very careful about AI in the political context beca...