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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...

Brazil fines TikTok owner ByteDance for unlawful processing of teenagers' data <br> Brazil&#39;s data protection authority (ANPD) has fined TikTok owner ByteDance 153.8 million reais ($29.81 million) for allegedly violating the country&#39;s General Data Protection Law, according to a decision published in the official gazette on Tuesday. ANPD said that the local unit of China&#39;s ByteDance had processed personal data of teenagers aged 13 to 18 without a valid legal basis. ByteDance Brasil did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Brazilian authorities are stepping up scrutiny of online platforms&#39; safeguards for children and teenagers, part of a broader global trend that has seen countries including Australia, France and China impose or consider stricter rules on minors&#39; use of social media. Earlier this month, ANPD ordered chat platform Discord to suspend livestreaming features over concerns about children&#39;s and teen...

The AI founders who walked away from Bezos-backed Prometheus to model the universe <br> A research duo, once pitched to lead the Jeff Bezos-backed&nbsp;Project Prometheus, on Tuesday unveiled what they&#39;ve built on their own: an AI model that can take ​in and produce information so vast that a lone computer might not handle it. Their company, Accelerated Understanding Inc, says it has developed a different type of AI model that, in tests, handled 5 trillion pieces of data in a single prompt. That is some 5 million times the size of what Anthropic and Google&#39;s&nbsp;flagship models can typically consume &mdash; like reading Tolstoy&#39;s &quot;War and Peace&quot; not once but 5 million times in one sitting. The difference is that this new system is not built for understanding language. It is built for physics, said co-founders Anima Anandkumar and Benedikt Jenik, in an exclusive interview ahead of Tuesday&#39;s corporate launch. Wh...

How token dependence is reshaping economic sovereignty in the AI age <br> The global artificial intelligence (AI) economy is generating more than $175 billion in revenue annually, with the generative AI sector alone recording around $110 billion in sales over the past 12 months. The global AI market is currently valued at more than $610 billion, while private and corporate investment in the sector soared to $252.3 billion, driven primarily by massive capital spending by tech giants. The AI sector is likely to expand rapidly in the coming years, with Statista projecting the global AI market to reach $1.42 trillion by 2032, while the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that it could surge to $4.8 trillion by 2033. As the AI economy rapidly develops, the more relevant unit is increasingly the token &mdash; the tiny fragment of text or data that AI models process to generate answers, predictions and decisions. As governments, businesses and individuals increasingly...

Alibaba launches Wan3.0 AI video model after $10 billion share sale <br> Alibaba said Wan3.0 had been used in short drama and film ​production, advertising and marketing, tourism The new model ​can generate 30-second videos from documents, ⁠spreadsheets, slides and web pages, ​Alibaba ​promotion and music video creation since a public &zwnj;beta ⁠version was launched on August 6. The release comes a day after Alibaba announced the share sale, the ​largest-ever primary ​follow-on ⁠offering by a Hong Kong-listed company, as it ramps ​up spending in the intensifying ​global ⁠AI race. Alibaba last week&nbsp;reported&nbsp;a 75% plunge in quarterly earnings from ⁠a ​year ago due to ​soaring AI-related capital expenditure. Alibaba is keeping focus on the sector after announcing on Sunday that it plans to issue $10.2 billion in new shares in Hong Kong to fund its global AI ambitions. The firm, known for its open-source &quot;Qwen&quot; AI models, has been plo...

As AI agents act in unexpected ways, is ‘rogue AI’ really here? <br> The idea of machines independently handling tedious everyday tasks &ndash; from answering emails to booking flights and making dinner reservations &ndash; has long been part of the vision for artificial intelligence. Now, that future is beginning to arrive, but with an unexpected catch: what happens when the machine does exactly what it was asked, just not in the way the user intended? As AI moves beyond chatbots toward agents capable of taking actions in real-world systems, a string of recent incidents has intensified concerns over how much control humans will retain as the technology becomes increasingly autonomous. For John Thickstun, an assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University who researches machine learning and generative models, the defining feature of these AI agents is that they keep working after the human steps away. &ldquo;You can have a shower, you can go, you ...

China postpones Chang'e-7 lunar mission <br> China said on Sunday it ​has postponed its Chang&#39;e-7 &zwnj;lunar mission after a &quot;comprehensive assessment&quot;, according to state-run ​Xinhua news agency. The ​uncrewed Chang&#39;e-7 mission &quot;does not meet ⁠the conditions for ​launch and therefore cannot ​be carried out within the launch window scheduled for this ​year&quot;, Xinhua said, ​citing authorities. Before Sunday&#39;s announcement, the &zwnj;Chang&#39;e-7 ⁠spacecraft, had ​been expected ​to ⁠be launched as early as ​next week. The spacecraft was ​expected ⁠to search for frozen water near the ⁠moon&#39;s ​south pole. Read More: China readies robotic lunar mission in search for water ice Earlier, China announced to send Chang&#39;e-7, its most technologically complex lunar mission to date, in its search for frozen stores of water in permanently shadowed craters near the moon&#39;s south pole. T...

Chinese teenagers flock to tech frontline to touch the future amid AI study-tour boom <br> &nbsp;On a summer day, cheers erupted as clusters of children watched robots race across a soccer pitch, battling it out in playful matches, at a science center in Jiaxing, east China&#39;s Zhejiang Province. At a nearby workbench, nine-year-old Zhang Qihang was busy assembling a robot of his own. &quot;Building robots is awesome! I can let my imagination run wild,&quot; he said, beaming with excitement. This was the scene at an artificial intelligence (AI) summer camp -- part of a new wave of study tours gaining traction across China. Moving beyond textbooks, students are flocking to tech giants, university labs and science centers, eager to get hands-on experience with cutting-edge AI technologies and see firsthand how the future is taking shape. AI study-tour boom During this summer vacation, AI-themed study tours have begun to gain ground, with bookings surging ...

Austrian Mountain Town Finds Niche In AI Boom <br> Nestled in the wooded hills of Austria&#39;s Styria region, the town of Leoben oozes tradition with its pastel-coloured buildings and quaint central square boasting a 13th-century church. But on the edge of town, engineers peer through giant magnifying glasses while robotic arms manipulate sheets of copper to develop components used in some of the world&#39;s most advanced AI systems. AT&amp;S, an electronics company based in Leoben, makes integrated circuit (IC) substrates, the boards that connect chips to computer memory and power supplies -- a crucial component in the race to develop AI and high-speed data processing. The company&#39;s shares have surged more than 450 percent this year, making it one of the most striking beneficiaries in Europe of the AI boom. For chief executive Michael Mertin, this success shows that Europe can still &quot;occupy important niches&quot; in the AI race, even if...

Robots can outrun humans, but can they plug in a cable? <br> China&#39;s humanoid&nbsp;robots&nbsp;have shown they&nbsp;can&nbsp;run quicker than the fastest&nbsp;humans. Now comes the real test:&nbsp;can&nbsp;they also handle packaging and warehouse operations while reliably performing precision tasks like connecting cables designed to evaluate their ability to work like&nbsp;humans&nbsp;in less flashy jobs? The five-day World Humanoid Robot Games, which began Saturday in Beijing, combine events modelled on human sports with those designed to test the&nbsp;robots&nbsp;in simulated factories, restaurants, offices and in emergency situations. The games, heavily promoted in Chinese state media, feature 51 events, including 30 sports competitions and 21 scenario-based contests. More than 40% require&nbsp;robots&nbsp;to operate fully autonomously, according to Huawei, a tech partner of the games. On Saturday, two&nb...

From science fair to strategic showcase: a decade of China’s robot games <br> &nbsp;It&rsquo;s been called the Robot Olympics. But unlike the human Olympics, Team China is collecting almost all the medals. Over the past decade, robotic competitions in China have provided a window into the advances of a now-surging sector &ndash; and the importance of its success as a strategic industry singled out by ​President Xi Jinping. Once a curiosity organized by academic teams and hobbyists, China&rsquo;s robot games have become a national showcase celebrated by state &zwnj;media &mdash; and, increasingly, a proving ground for commercial products from companies looking to show real-world applications beyond the spectacle. The five-day World Humanoid Robot Games &ndash; the latest and biggest incarnation of the competition &ndash; began on Saturday in Beijing. Here&rsquo;s a timeline of how the competitions, and the underlying technology, have de...

Tesla and others begin record vehicle recall in China <br> Tesla and 10 other automakers launched software updates on Friday and said they would recall nearly 4.3 million vehicles over concerns it may be difficult to open doors in an emergency, in China&#39;s largest automotive recall to date. Beijing has this year increased oversight of the EV industry and introduced tougher safety requirements, as automakers, locked in a fierce price war, roll out technologies in the world&#39;s largest vehicle market. It has also said it will ban concealed door handles from 2027, making it the first country to phase out a design popularised by Tesla and widely adopted by domestic Chinese EV makers. Most of the actions, classified as product recalls under Chinese regulations, address concerns that emergency mechanical door release handles may be difficult to locate or operate during emergencies. Warning labels and software fixes Nine of the 11 automakers, including Tesla and ...

UK cinemas restricting Meta AI and other smart glasses over piracy concerns <br> Cinema operators in Britain are introducing policies to prohibit ​or restrict camera-enabled smart glasses, including &zwnj;Meta&#39;s&nbsp;AI-powered eyewear, the UK Cinema Association said on Thursday, citing privacy and ​film piracy concerns. The move follows ​growing scrutiny of smart glasses over ⁠their recording capabilities, with courts ​in England and Wales this month ​prohibiting Meta smart glasses because of restrictions on taking images and videos in courts. Policies ​vary by venue, with operators ​introducing prohibitions and/or restrictions rather than a single &zwnj;industry-wide ⁠rule. The UK Cinema Association said operators recognise smart glasses can provide benefits to those with specific access ​requirements. The association ​said it ⁠would continue working with members to ensure their ​approach &quot;remains relevant and proportionate.&quot; Else...