Building leading AI models is extremely costly - raising $400 million isn't even enough to compete these days. Big Tech has the cash, but it isn't allowed to buy companies like it once did due to antitrust enforcement. It has turned to aquihiring - hiring most of a company's employees and acquiring everything in a company but its name. While the current antitrust enforcement regime will likely try to block these types of acquisitions, it may not have a strong legal argument for doing so.
Google is reportedly planning to use the same Samsung OLED display in the Pixel 9 series as Apple will use in the iPhone 16 Pro. It will be utilizing an updated M14 OLED panel from Samsung in the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. The Pixel 9 series is set to launch on August 13, well ahead of the company's usual schedule and ahead of the launch of the new iPhones expected in September.
Chinese space startup Space Pioneer accidentally launched its Tianlong-3 rocket during a static fire test. The booster broke free from the test stand due to a structural failure. It flew several hundred meters into the sky before crashing explosively into a mountain 1.5 kilometers away from the test site. The test site is located about 5 kilometers away from the downtown area of a city with 800,000 people and less than a kilometer from a smaller village. The company reported that there were no casualties as a result of the accident.
Chinese researchers have created a robot controlled by a tiny organoid made from human stem cells. The brain tissue is hooked up to a neural interface, allowing it to pass instructions to the humanoid robot body. The setup will allow researchers to study brain-computer interfaces and help develop techniques for integrating organoids with the human brain. Organoids could one day be used to repair the human brain through transplantation.
The leap second was invented to compensate for the difference between the value measured by atomic clocks and the actual time the Earth revolves around the Sun. These seconds are usually added on the last day of June or December. Poor time synchronization can lead to data loss and other problems. Leap seconds are added rarely, so they inevitably cause problems almost every time they are added. This article looks at leap seconds and the various problems they have caused.
Jujutsu is a new version control system that is on track to replace Google's existing version control systems. It has an interesting approach to its design choices in terms of both implementation details and user interface. Jujutsu can be used with existing Git repositories. This article introduces the system and walks readers through how to use it.
A decision issued by the Supreme Court on Monday explicitly extends First Amendment protections to how social media platforms organize, curate, and moderate their feeds. The compilation and curation of others' speech into an expressive product of its own is entitled to First Amendment protection. Platforms are making expressive choices when they use their Standards and Guidelines to decide which content to display or how the display will be ordered and organized. The government cannot get its way just by asserting an interest in better balancing the marketplace of ideas.
This article looks at lucid dreaming, the history behind its research, what the experience is like, how to get into a lucid dream, and more. More than half of adults will have a lucid dream experience or one like it at some point in their lives. It is possible to learn how to lucid dream. The path to learning the skill involves developing an awareness of the difference between waking and dreaming. This usually results in small habits that spill into dreams that help identify whether a person is dreaming.