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China's laser tech leaps from vintage sci-fi film to worldwide industry <br> Many Chinese first learned the power of lasers in &quot;Death Ray on Coral Island,&quot; China&#39;s first science-fiction feature after 1949. Released in 1980, the movie depicted Chinese scientists wielding a powerful laser to thwart a ruthless foreign syndicate attempting to steal their breakthrough energy technology and weaponize it to threaten the world. Now, laser launchers in China are deployed for a fresh battle: targeting weeds that threaten crops in the fields. In Heilongjiang, China&#39;s top grain-producing province in the northeast, tractors tow sets of laser modules across the plains. Employing an AI-powered system to identify and target weeds, the blade-like modules fire laser beams to kill unwanted plants without damaging crops or polluting soil. The all-weather intelligent equipment, China&#39;s first of its kind, was developed by HGTECH, a leading global...

Astrophysics study suggests Venus may have swallowed its moon <br> A California-based astrophysicist presented a new theory on Monday to explain why Venus, the planet most like Earth in size, mass and structure, lacks its own moon. Call it a case of celestial cannibalism. The extremely slow speed at which Venus rotates on its axis would have doomed any natural satellite that may once have orbited that planet to gradually spiral closer to its parent and ultimately be consumed in a cataclysmic smash-up. So goes the theory offered by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, and published on Monday in The Astrophysical Journal, marking a departure from past explanations for why Venus, the second planet from the sun, is without a lunar companion. &quot;If it had a moon, and it likely did at some point, it could not have kept it,&quot; astrophysicist Stephen Krane, lead author of the study, told Reuters on Monday. &quot;That moon would have crashed do...

US Space Force confirms weapons deployed in space for first time <br> The United States (US) has weapons deployed in space, the US Space Force said on Monday, confirming the presence of such capabilities in orbit for the first time. &quot;The US has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action,&quot; a US Space Force spokesperson said in a statement that did not provide specifics on the weapons. &quot;Space control encapsulates the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain &ndash; employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities,&quot; the statement said, adding that &quot;these capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes&quot;. Both Russia and China &mdash;&nbsp;the two main geopolitical rivals of the United States &mdash;&nbsp;pose potential threats to US interests in space. Read: China urges US to halt m...

Ex-Google DeepMind researcher adds to warnings that AI could 'kill all humans' <br> A former&nbsp;Google&nbsp;DeepMind employee on Monday became the latest AI researcher to warn that the technology could &quot;kill all humans&quot;, saying time could be running out to avoid the outcome. Public alarm about the potential danger posed by AI is growing, after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said last week he had resigned, in part because the &quot;people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.&quot; Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger then responded to Coxon&#39;s comments, saying he was correct and that he believed there was a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade. &quot;I recently resigned from&nbsp;Google&nbsp;DeepMind, where I worked on AGI safety and alignment research,&quot; Bilal Chughtai wrote on X. &quot;I earnestly believe that AI h...

Anthropic faces scrutiny over AI rules, data practices <br> China has criticised calls by leading US technology executives to slow the development of artificial intelligence (AI), rejecting claims that rapid Chinese advances in the technology pose a grave security threat to the world. &ldquo;Fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance and serve the interests of no one,&rdquo; Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Monday. &ldquo;The development of artificial intelligence bears on the common well-being of all humanity,&rdquo; he added, responding to questions about calls to slow the development of frontier AI models and warnings that a Chinese advantage in the field could pose a danger to the world. &ldquo;Fomenting various threats, engaging in confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the process of global governance of artificial inte...

China's Xi pitches open-source AI zone for BRICS <br> China will lead the creation of an open-source artificial intelligence zone for BRICS countries, President Xi Jinping has proposed, placing access to AI technology, large language models and digital skills at the heart of Beijing&rsquo;s broader push to reshape global technology governance. Addressing the BRICS summit in New Delhi, Xi unveiled an &ldquo;open-source and inclusive AI initiative&rdquo; under which China would pioneer a BRICS AI open-source community, support cooperation in developing and applying large language models, and organise specialised AI seminars and training courses. The objective is to build an &ldquo;open ecosystem&rdquo; in which BRICS members can cooperate on AI development and applications rather than remain dependent on technology controlled by a handful of companies and countries. China is turning open-weight models into an international technological public good. ...

OpenAI's Altman won't do IPO this year, calls AI extinction risk 'unacceptable' <br> OpenAI will not go public in 2026, Chief Executive Sam Altman said in remarks published &zwnj;on Saturday, citing safety concerns over artificial intelligence that render &quot;unacceptable&quot; even a 10% risk that AI could cause human extinction by decade&#39;s end. The comments come as more U.S. lawmakers urge new rules to govern AI systems after dire warnings from two researchers from OpenAI rival Anthropic that rapidly progressing AI could lead to the extinction of ​the human race in the not-too-distant future. &quot;I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised ​moment to go public, and we don&#39;t feel pressure on that,&quot; Altman told business magazine Fortune. Asked if there ⁠was a 10% chance of AI-driven extinction, Altman said he did not know how such an estimate could be made, bu...