Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Tech Highlights from Around the Web: November 2 Edition

Throughout history, we’ve consistently leveraged tools to create new tools, and architects are now harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to continue this tradition. Google’s CEO disclosed on Tuesday that artificial intelligence programmes are now responsible for generating more than a quarter of the latest code for its products, with human developers serving as oversight for the AI-driven contributions.

Google’s Q3 2024 earnings report explicitly illustrates how AI tools are currently exerting a significant impact on software development.

As Waymo accelerates its expansion into new cities and enhances its autonomous robotic taxi fleet, the company has secured a significant boost with $5.6 billion in external funding, marking its largest investment round to date. The latest injection of capital arrives as a testament to Waymo’s inaugural foray into profitability. Its autonomous taxis have been logging more than 100,000 rides weekly in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, a significant increase from just last May, with expansion plans underway for Austin, Texas, and Atlanta by 2025 through a partnership with Uber.

The concept of Bodily Intelligence (PI), denoted by the Greek letter π, emerged recently through the collaboration of renowned robotics experts. This innovative approach to robotics was inspired by groundbreaking advancements in artificial intelligence’s linguistic capabilities. According to Sergey Levine, a cofounder of Bodily Intelligence and affiliate professor at UC Berkeley, the scope of knowledge they’re teaching surpasses that of any robotics model ever created, by a significant margin, according to their data.

The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) team successfully developed a nuclear-fusion reactor, achieving a significant milestone last year by leveraging predominantly off-the-shelf components. Within its core lies a glass vacuum chamber enveloped by a robust 3D-printed nylon shell, which securely anchors the precise positioning of 9,920 everlasting rare-earth magnets. Sixteen copper-coiled electromagnets, akin to giant pineapple wedges, encircle the shell in a crosswise arrangement.

The proposed funding aims to address the uncertainty surrounding AI’s substantial energy requirements and the increasing strain it places on the US energy grid. As companies struggle to gain traction in the US market, many are forging partnerships with major tech firms to accelerate their entry into the electrical energy sector, a move that’s become increasingly necessary in areas where data-center builders are vying for limited energy resources and grid access. According to Doug Kimmelman, founder and senior associate at ECP, “The capital needs are substantial, with a significant hurdle potentially being the limited availability of electrical power.”

“To the casual onlooker, the information economy may seem intangible, its products emerging from seemingly weightless digital bits.” As I survey the sprawling DataBank ATL4 campus, one feature stands out: the astonishing volume of concrete that gives shape to this behemoth, poised to safeguard, energize, and accommodate the cutting-edge AI infrastructure within its walls? Massive information is massive concrete. However, this presents a significant limitation.

“While Waymo has consistently emphasized its historical connections to Google’s DeepMind and extensive experience in AI research, it is unclear whether this perceived strategic advantage will ultimately translate into a competitive edge in the autonomous driving market.” The Alphabet-owned Waymo subsidiary is pushing boundaries further with a novel training model for its autonomous taxis, built upon Google’s innovative Gemini multimodal massive language model.

“Here, we will outline the key milestones and primary objectives of the Starship program in the coming years, laying the groundwork for our ability to send humans to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis Program, while also flying demonstration missions to Mars.” To enhance the experience, we’ve also provided approximate date ranges for each of these notable events. Our most well-intentioned hypotheses are often alarmingly inaccurate.

“It’s straightforward for planets to orbit a single star, and in double-star systems, they may either circle close to one star or be distant from both members. These configurations are stable, but adding a third star was thought to render planet formation unstable due to mutual gravitational interactions that would ultimately lead to their ejection. However, this understanding was turned on its head with the discovery of GW Orionis, which features multiple large moon rings and likely many more planets, all orbiting three stars directly.”

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