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Can sheep save the glaciers? Swiss scientists put wool to the test <br> As Switzerland struggles to contain the shrinking of its glaciers, researchers are conducting an unusual experiment in the Alps to ​see whether one of its less valued natural resources can help: sheep&#39;s wool. For &zwnj;years now, synthetic tarpaulins have been laid in summer over areas of ice and snow to reflect sunlight and reduce heat absorption as global warming melts away the ice sheets that have defined the high ​Alpine landscape for millennia. But those tarpaulins are typically made from plastic and can ​shed polluting microfibres. The &quot;Keep It Wool&quot; project, led by the environmental group ⁠Summit Foundation and the University of Lausanne, is instead using wool to slow the melting ​of the Tsanfleuron Glacier in western Switzerland. This summer&#39;s record heat has melted snow on the ​glaciers weeks&nbsp;earlier&nbsp;than usual, leading almost inevitably...

Japanese researchers develop AI system to detect marine plastic waste <br> Japanese researchers have developed an artificial intelligence system to better detect marine plastic waste on the seabed, according to local media on Thursday. Researchers at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology developed a system called DeepLitterAI that can process data at almost twice the speed of humans, Tokyo-based Kyodo news agency reported, citing the journal Environmental Pollution. The system is expected to be used for real-time monitoring of marine plastic waste. Researchers created a dataset of about 12,000 images based on seabed footage captured by the agency since 1983. The images featured small litter objects as well as non-litter objects, such as rocks and marine creatures, that can easily be mistaken for waste. Read:&nbsp;OpenAI calls for sweeping economic reforms amid rapid growth of artificial intelligence They trained the system using various patterns, ...

Anthropic’s AI utopia meets a growing backlash <br> Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has offered one of the most optimistic visions of artificial intelligence, predicting that if powerful AI develops in the right direction, the world could become &ldquo;stunningly beautiful&rdquo; &mdash; with many diseases cured, human lifespans doubled and poverty eliminated. But as Amodei&#39;s company races to commercialise its rapidly advancing Claude models and reportedly prepares for what could become one of the largest initial public offerings in history, Anthropic is also facing increasingly difficult questions about the boundaries of AI power. The debate is no longer confined to whether AI will transform productivity. It is increasingly about who gets to decide what AI systems can see, what they can do, and where the limits of their authority should lie. Anthropic&#39;s Claude family has rapidly emerged as one of the leading competitors in the frontier AI market. T...

EU antitrust regulators quiz publishers on Google's AI search opt-out <br> EU antitrust regulators are seeking feedback from publishers on Google&#39;s&nbsp;&nbsp;proposal to let them ​opt out of AI search without affecting their rankings &zwnj;in search results, a questionnaire seen by Reuters showed. The publishers&#39; feedback could determine the outcome of an ongoing EU investigation that could result ​in yet another hefty fine for Google if ​the proposal fails to address competition concerns and publishers&#39; ⁠worries about unfair use of their content. Google announced its AI ​opt-out for publishers in June, the same day the&nbsp;UK antitrust ​watchdog&nbsp;ordered it to allow publishers the option to stop their content being used to power its AI features. The U.S. tech giant, which ​plans to roll out the opt-out globally, declined to comment ​and referred to its June 3 blog post on the topic. Its AI &zwnj;Overviews, ⁠which...

Scientists make potential breakthrough in search for dark matter <br> Scientists have made a possible breakthrough in the hunt for dark matter - observing hints of it during an experiment about a mile (1.6 km) underground in South Dakota - though they stopped short of saying they have finally detected this elusive cosmic component. The researchers described a particle interaction documented at the Sanford Underground Research Facility - built in a former gold mine in the state&#39;s Black Hills region - that may have involved a hypothesised particle called a WIMP, short for &quot;weakly interacting massive particle&quot;. This is one of the proposed candidates for being a dark matter particle. Ordinary matter makes up stars, planets, people and everything else we can see. But it represents only about 15% of all the matter in the universe. The rest is thought to be dark matter, which does not emit or reflect light, making it invisible to the human eye and to tel...

Punjab Assembly passes resolution to restrict social media access for children under 16 <br> The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution recommending measures to restrict social media access for children under the age of 16 and ensure their safety in the digital environment. The resolution was moved by Punjab Child Protection and Welfare Bureau Chairperson and MPA Sarah Ahmed, and called for effective legislation to protect children under 16 and safeguard their digital future. The resolution recommended measures to protect children from cyber harassment, online sexual exploitation and inappropriate content. It also called for an effective age-verification mechanism on social media platforms to identify underage users. Read: Social media rules: IHC issues notices It further recommended that social media companies comply with child protection standards and that a coordinated mechanism be established among federal and provincial institutions for the onlin...

John Ternus to lead Apple into the age of AI <br> John Ternus takes over as Apple&rsquo;s chief executive on Tuesday, inheriting a company that towers over the smartphone market but trails its rivals in artificial intelligence (AI). One of his biggest challenges will be balancing the company&rsquo;s dependence on China while parrying acute political pressure from the White House. The handover ends Tim Cook&rsquo;s 15-year run, replacing the operations specialist who built Apple&rsquo;s supply chain with the engineer who built its hardware. Ternus, 51, joined Apple&rsquo;s design team in 2001 and worked his way up to senior vice president of hardware engineering, reporting to Cook. He leads the engineering teams behind Apple&rsquo;s entire product lineup, including the iPhones that generate most of the company&rsquo;s revenue. He gets barely a week to settle in, with Apple holding its annual iPhone event on September 9, where it is expected to...

AI-driven cyber risk is top concern for global financial stability, watchdog says <br> Financial Stability Board Chair Andrew Bailey said on Monday that the impact of AI on cyber risk was the most immediate concern for the global financial system, saying ​the technology could change the speed, scale and economics of an attack. The ​FSB is a global watchdog that seeks to identify and manage ⁠risks in financial systems. In a letter to G20 finance ministers and central ​bank governors ahead of meetings this week, Bailey, who also serves as the Bank ​of England governor, said many countries do not have systems in place to manage the deployment of advanced artificial intelligence models. The financial sector&#39;s dependence on a handful of powerful tech providers could undermine ​system-wide market confidence, he added. Read More: EU subjects ChatGPT, Reddit, Roblox to stricter oversight under Digital Services Act The comments highlighted concerns among regulators that ...

EU subjects ChatGPT, Reddit, Roblox to stricter oversight under Digital Services Act <br> The European Commission on Monday designated ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox as very large digital services under the EU&rsquo;s Digital Services Act (DSA), subjecting them to additional obligations and oversight. ChatGPT was designated as a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE), while Reddit and Roblox were designated as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), the Commission said. The three services reported at least 45 million average monthly users each in the EU, meeting the threshold for the designations. The services will have four months, until the end of December 2026, to comply with the additional DSA obligations. These include assessing and mitigating systemic risks linked to the dissemination of illegal content, effects on minors, users&rsquo; physical and mental well-being, fundamental rights, electoral processes and public security. The Commission said the designation...

Chinese researchers complete Earth-Moon two-way laser link test <br> Researchers have completed a laser communications test between Earth and the Moon, successfully verifying two-way high-speed laser link capabilities in orbit, the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization (CSU) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Friday. After more than a year of in-orbit testing, the team established a two-way laser communication link across a distance of over 400,000 km, marking the expansion of China&#39;s space laser communications from near-Earth orbit to deep space. Compared with traditional microwave communications, laser communications offer faster speeds, greater bandwidth, stronger security and more compact hardware. However, enabling laser communications across the Earth-Moon distance required overcoming three major challenges: beam alignment, signal weakness and transmission speed. &quot;Earth-Moon communication is like threading a needle from a t...

Data centre backlash scrambles US midterm politics <br> The data centres powering America&#39;s artificial intelligence boom have become an unlikely target in November&#39;s midterm elections, as anger over rising electricity bills and noise turns Democrats - and a growing number of Republicans - against Big Tech. Candidates in at least 21 races across 18 states have aired television advertisements mentioning data centres this cycle, according to marketing data cited by US media, almost evenly divided between both parties. On the grid serving Senate battleground Ohio, as well as 12 other states, demand from data centres drove up capacity costs by $9.3 billion in a single year, a 174% increase, according to an independent market monitor. Anger over household bills has merged with a broader populist distrust of Silicon Valley, exposing lawmakers who, until recently, were courting the sprawling server farms with tax breaks and promises of jobs and investment. Read:...

OpenAI to cut off AI models for SpaceX-owned Cursor, escalating feud with Musk <br> OpenAI said on Friday &zwnj;that it plans to stop providing AI models to Cursor, the coding-tool company now owned by Elon Musk&#39;s SpaceX, marking a further escalation in the bitter rivalry between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Musk. Musk and Altman have been at odds for years, ​a feud that culminated earlier this year in a trial over Musk&#39;s $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI. ​During the&nbsp;trial, Musk&#39;s lawyer said that Musk and other witnesses had testified that Altman ⁠was a liar, while OpenAI argued that Musk had sought control of the company. &quot;We are making this choice ​because we cannot be confident that SpaceX will use our technology within our terms of service, based on our ​experience with Elon Musk&#39;s companies violating contracts,&quot; OpenAI said in a blog post. Musk responded early on Saturday in an X post, writing, &quot...

China’s record robotic strides show the limits of human speed <br> &nbsp;A made-in-China humanoid shattered Usain Bolt&rsquo;s world record time in the 100-metre sprint this week, a milestone in the development of robots that can match, and even surpass, human achievements. But the robot did not beat Bolt by running like him, or like any human, sport science experts say. Make sense of global markets with the Trading Day newsletter.&nbsp;Sign up&nbsp;here. In ​its final and fastest run, China&#39;s Tiangong Ultra humanoid ran 100 m in 8.64 seconds, blazing past Bolt&#39;s 9.58-second human world record. That &zwnj;amounts to an average speed for the robot of almost 42 kph (26 mph). &quot;It is a remarkable advancement in technology where humanoids can keep balance and sprint at a speed that humans can&#39;t catch up with,&quot; said Jung Moon-hyun, a sports science professor at South Korea&#39;s Chungnam National University. Bu...

Cybercriminals used SpaceX’s Cursor AI tool to hack seven companies <br> Hackers used SpaceX&rsquo;s AI coding assistant, Cursor, to help break into a ​Belgian chemical company and at least six other firms earlier this year, according to data reviewed by Reuters and reports issued on Thursday by cybersecurity companies Gambit Security and &zwnj;CloudSek. The cybercriminals&rsquo; AI-boosted hacking spree is the latest example of how rogue actors are using commercial AI tools to carry out intrusions. Gambit&rsquo;s chief strategy officer, Curtis Simpson, said it also showed how AI providers were locked in to a never-ending arms race with malicious users trying to circumvent their guardrails. &ldquo;This is going to be a cat-and-mouse game,&rdquo; Simpson said. Cursor and its parent company, SpaceX, did not return messages seeking comment. Exposed server reveals hacking methods Gambit said it discovered the hacking campaign after finding a ​server ...

US court rules Pentagon ban of Anthropic unlawful <br> A United States federal judge ruled Thursday that sanctions imposed in February by the Trump administration against AI giant Anthropic were illegal, finding that the government had punished the artificial intelligence company for publicly criticising the Pentagon. &quot;The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,&quot; Judge Rita Lin said in a 59-page decision seen by AFP. She barred the federal agencies named in the lawsuit from enforcing President Donald Trump&#39;s order to stop using the tools of Anthropic - creator of the Claude AI models - and overturned Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth&#39;s designation of the company as a &quot;supply chain risk,&quot; a status previously reserved for foreign firms. The ruling makes permanent the temporary suspension of sanctions ordered by the judge in March and takes effect immediate...

Major tech companies call for defensive surge to defeat AI-driven hacks <br> Major tech companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft&nbsp;, Alphabet&nbsp;, and Amazon&nbsp; are calling for a ​society-wide defensive surge to defeat what they describe &zwnj;as an impending wave of hacks driven by artificial intelligence. In a joint letter issued Thursday, the companies -- along with more ​than 100 others including Broadcom&nbsp;, Capital One&nbsp;, Cloudflare&nbsp;, ​CrowdStrike&nbsp;, General Motors&nbsp;, IBM&nbsp;, Mastercard&nbsp;, Oracle&nbsp;, Robinhood&nbsp;, Shopify&nbsp;, ⁠and Visa&nbsp; -- said there was a limited amount of ​time &quot;to make our digital world much more secure&quot; ahead ​of the AI onslaught. &quot;In the coming months, AI-enabled cyberattacks will become far more widespread as models around the world become increasingly capable,&quot; ​the letter said. It called on g...

China’s robots go up for rent <br> China&rsquo;s robot industry has spent the past few years trying to make machines cheaper, smarter and more capable. At this year&rsquo;s World Robot Conference in Beijing, some companies were also trying something less glamorous, namely, renting them out. One household-service robot maker interviewed at the conference charges 3,000 yuan ($446) a month for a robot that costs more than 20,000 yuan to build. It initially offered one-day trials and weekly rentals of about 700 yuan before settling on the monthly model. The company is not yet offering long-term contracts; demand was already strong enough to push its booking schedule into December, while limiting customers to a month at a time allows the machines to circulate among more households. That may sound like a small experiment in consumer financing. It is more interesting as a sign of how the robotics industry is trying to solve a problem that technology alone cannot, that is,...

South Korea media commission says Meta's youth protection changes should apply globally <br> South Korea&#39;s media regulator said on Thursday that measures proposed by Meta to curb potentially addictive features for young users should ideally be applied worldwide, as Seoul considers tighter rules on how social media platforms serve minors. The Korea Media and Communications Commission (KMCC) said in a statement to Reuters that social media companies needed to take greater responsibility for protecting children and teenagers and pointed to seven bills pending in the country&#39;s parliament aimed at strengthening youth protections online. The commission &quot;believes that to create an environment in which Korean youth can use social networking services safely, it is necessary to strengthen social media providers&#39; responsibility to protect minors,&quot; the regulator said. The comments followed landmark US settlements announced on Wednesday un...

US says Chinese hackers broke into Justice Department, NASA, Federal Reserve, Senate and more <br> The United States said on Wednesday that it had ​disrupted a Chinese hacking operation responsible for break-ins at the &zwnj;US Justice Department, NASA, the Federal Reserve, the US&nbsp;Senate and other sensitive government agencies. In a statement, &nbsp;the Justice Department said it had seized domains ​used by two hacking platforms, dubbed &ldquo;QScan&rdquo; and &ldquo;QTRouter&rdquo;, which it ​said were used as part of the campaign. An affidavit&nbsp;⁠identified the US Department of Energy, the Department of Health ​and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and four unnamed companies ​in the US and South Korea as being among the hackers&#39; victims. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Beijing ​routinely denies responsibility for hacking activity. Read More: China...

Bill Gates, alarmed by AI, has policy ideas he wants to discuss with China's Xi <br> Bill Gates is looking to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year, eager to propose global efforts to mitigate the growing &zwnj;risks posed by artificial intelligence. The Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist told Reuters in an interview that he believes China might agree to restricting potentially dangerous AI model releases if the US took initiative on that first. &quot;The whole world would go along with that,&quot; said Gates, who met with Xi&nbsp;three years ago, when he was the first foreign entrepreneur to be hosted by the Chinese president post-pandemic. Gates also said he&#39;d like to propose ​that countries monitor AI&#39;s ability to create molecules and carry out biological attacks &mdash; something that would not get in the way of any tech industry&#39;s development. Gates&#39; staff are ​working to final...