Robotics
I’ve Covered Robots for Years. This One Is DifferentWill Knight | Wired ($)
“Eka’s robot demos suggest that the company’s approach should enable real robot dexterity with further training. If that’s true, it could revolutionize how robots are used—not only in factories and warehouses but also in shops, restaurants, even households. ‘Trillions of dollars flow through the human hand,’ Agrawal says. ‘To me, this is the biggest problem in the world to be solved.'”
Artificial Intelligence
I Built an Agent to Do My Job. Then It Hung up on My Boss.Amanda Hoover | Business Insider
“The various generative AI systems I used in this piece both unsettled me with their ability and unnerved me with their shortcomings. …The process was so tedious that even if ChatGPT could spin up the copy in seconds, every step I took to make that happen added to the workload.”
Biotechnology
This Treatment Could Reverse Osteoarthritis Joint Damage With a Single InjectionJavier Carbajal | Wired ($)
“Osteoarthritis has no cure, but researchers have developed new therapies that help aging or damaged joints repair themselves in a matter of weeks. …The Colorado team led by biomedical engineer Stephanie Bryant proposes a radically different approach: ‘Our goal is not just to treat pain and halt progression, but to end this disease.'”
Computing
Get Ready for More Brain-Scanning Consumer GadgetsJulian Chokkattu | Wired ($)
“The next gadget you put on your head could scan your brain. Neurable, a Boston-based company that embeds its noninvasive brain-scanning technology into hardware to monitor a person’s focus levels, announced on Tuesday that it is transitioning to a licensing platform model. By certifying third parties, Neurable expects its tech to be in a ‘flood’ of consumer gadgets this year and next.”
Artificial Intelligence
Study Finds a Third of New Websites Are AI-GeneratedMatthew Gault | 404 Media
“Inspired by the Dead Internet Theory—the idea that much of the internet is now just bots talking back and forth—the team set out to find out how ChatGPT and its competitors had reshaped the internet since 2022. …’We find that by mid-2025, roughly 35% of newly published websites were classified as AI-generated or AI-assisted, up from zero before ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022,’ [the researchers write].”
Tech
The Clock Is Ticking for Big Tech to Make AI PayAsa Fitch and Dan Gallagher | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Depreciation charges surged at all four companies, totaling $41.6 billion for the most recent quarter. When companies make capital investments, they don’t count the outlays immediately as expenses. Rather, these capital assets have to be depreciated over a period of time. So the impact on profits is delayed. But a multitrillion-dollar bill will have to wash through in coming years, taking a bite out of reported profits.”
Future
The More Young People Use AI, the More They Hate ItJanus Rose | The Verge
“Contrary to the tales spun by tech companies like OpenAI and Google, polling data shows that Gen Z students and workers are a big part of the wider cultural backlash against AI. And even as they utilize these tools, vast swaths of young people are deeply acrimonious and even resentful of the AI-centric future that many feel is being forced on them.”
Tech
So, About That AI BubbleRogé Karma | The Atlantic ($)
“Six months ago, people arguing that AI was a bubble were pointing to real-world facts, whereas people arguing against the bubble hypothesis were making speculative promises about the future. Today, the roles have reversed. AI’s explosive growth may yet encounter some new unforeseen obstacle. But the burden of proof has shifted to the naysayers.”
Space
A Falcon 9 Rocket Will Hit the Moon This Summer at Seven Times the Speed of SoundEric Berger | Ars Technica
“Bill Gray, who writes the widely used Project Pluto software to track near-Earth objects, has published a comprehensive report on the impact expected to occur at 2:44 am ET (06:44 UTC) on August 5. The Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage is 13.8 meters (45 feet) tall and has a 3.7-meter (12 feet) diameter. Since the moon has no atmosphere, it will strike the lunar surface intact.”
Tech
OpenAI Could Be Making a Phone With AI Agents Replacing AppsIvan Mehta | TechCrunch
“Currently, Apple and Google control the app pipeline and the type of system access they get, restricting some of their functions. Kuo suggests that by creating its own smartphone and hardware stack, OpenAI would be able to use AI in all kinds of features without restrictions. With ChatGPT nearing a billion weekly users, a hardware product for daily use could also bode well for OpenAI’s ambition to reach more consumers.”
Energy
Meta Inks Deal for Solar Power at Night, Beamed From SpaceTim Fernholz | TechCrunch
“The company [Overview Energy] is developing spacecraft that collect plentiful solar power in space. It then plans to convert that energy to near-infrared light and beam it at sufficiently large solar farms—on the order of hundreds of megawatts—which can convert that light to electricity.”
Tech
Microsoft and OpenAI’s Famed AGI Agreement Is DeadHayden Field | The Verge
“The change impacts a revenue-sharing agreement, which was supposed to stay in place until AGI was declared. …The payments will also continue and then end ‘independent of OpenAI’s technology progress,’ which under any reasonable logic includes AGI.”
Space
10,000 New Planets Found Hidden in NASA Telescope DataJonathan O’Callaghan | New Scientist ($)
“By combining images taken by the telescope, the researchers were able to look for planets around stars that are less bright, due to their smaller size or greater distance from Earth, than was previously possible. This revealed 11,554 candidate exoplanets, of which 10,091 have not been identified in previous exoplanet searches.”
