After unveiling of Stargate, Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Satya Nadella of Tesla, OpenAI and Microsoft trade barbs

Major tech moguls had their claws out for each other on Wednesday, hissing at their rivals over enormous pledges to invest in AI that had been announced by Donald Trump the day before.

Trump announced Stargate, a $500bn project to be funded jointly by OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, on Tuesday. During the announcement, the president was flanked by the leaders of those companies: Sam Altman, Larry Ellison and Masayoshi Son, respectively. Son is slated to be the chair of the project. All three are multibillionaires. Absent from the photo op was a representative from MGX, Abu Dhabi’s state AI fund, another principal investor.

Continue reading...

💾

© Composite: EPA, Rex/Shutterstock, Getty Images

💾

© Composite: EPA, Rex/Shutterstock, Getty Images

Trump’s choice shows how his friends and their business interests benefit from policy positions in his administration

“What deeply interests me is the interests of America.”

Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of the Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and Donald Trump’s nominee to become the next secretary of commerce, was speaking to an audience of cryptocurrency enthusiasts last April.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Johnnie Izquierdo for The Washington Post via Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Johnnie Izquierdo for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Video posted by top gamer shows what he says is X conversation in which billionaire admits ‘account boosting’

Elon Musk admitted he cheated at video games to get high scores, a transcript of a private online conversation he had shows, seemingly concluding a fiery scandal over the billionaire’s outlandish claims to be a globally-ranked player.

Musk has regularly bragged about his gaming rankings. He told the podcaster Joe Rogan last year that he was in the top 20 players in the world for the fiendishly difficult action role-playing game Diablo IV.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

💾

© Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Creator links up with Jesse Tinsley as Donald Trump says he is open to Elon Musk and Larry Ellison buying site

• Business live – latest updates

MrBeast, the YouTube star and highest-earning creator on the internet, has officially joined a bid to buy TikTok’s US operations.

The 26-year-old has teamed up with the tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the online HR company employer.com, to make an all-cash offer for the social video app’s American unit. The approach was announced as Donald Trump said he was open to the US tech billionaires Elon Musk and Larry Ellison buying TikTok in the US.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Prime Video

💾

© Photograph: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Prime Video

Ulbricht, sentenced to life in prison in 2015, given ‘full and unconditional’ pardon by president

Donald Trump has granted a “full and unconditional” pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the illegal online drug marketplace the Silk Road.

Ulbricht has been incarcerated since 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for running the underground market where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200m in illicit trade using the cryptocurrency bitcoin. Trump said he had called Ulbricht’s mother to tell her he would pardon her son “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly”.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Reuters

💾

© Photograph: Reuters

Dubbed Stargate, it aims to construct data centers and infrastructure needed to power AI development

Donald Trump has unveiled what he called “the largest AI infrastructure project in history” – a $500bn joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank that aims to build a network of data centres across the US.

The new partnership, dubbed Stargate, aims to construct essential data centers and computing infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence development and, according to Trump, create more than 100,000 American jobs “almost immediately”.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

💾

© Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Our job is to imagine scenarios from the impact of the climate crisis to the rise of AI – and decision-makers need our help

• Emma Newman’s Planetfall science-fiction series was shortlisted for the best series Hugo award

I am an imaginative person, but I never once imagined I would find myself in a room with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) talking about what the world could be like many decades into the future. But that is what I have been doing recently, as one of several science-fiction authors on the Creative Futures project, a partnership between Coventry University and the MoD’s defence science and technology laboratory.

As it seems the world is hellbent on making some of the dystopian futures we have imagined become reality, I raised my concerns about how our work would be used. But we weren’t there to suggest ideas for weapons of mass destruction. We were there to talk about things such as the impact of the climate crisis and potential future technologies, and how both could impact society. What kind of crises could arise and what sort of disaster relief may be required. The sci-fi writers of the past did a pretty decent job of predicting our present – from the moon landings (Jules Verne, 1865) to the use of geostationary satellites for global communications (Arthur C Clarke, 1945) – so I can see why the MoD wanted our contributions.

Emma Newman is an author, podcaster and audiobook narrator. Her Planetfall science-fiction series was shortlisted for the best series Hugo award

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Neil Armstrong/NASA HANDOUT/EPA

💾

© Photograph: Neil Armstrong/NASA HANDOUT/EPA

Learn how a brain-computer interface allowed a paralyzed patient to guide a quadcopter through a virtual course by thinking of moving their fingers.

Streaming service’s bet on live events helped reel in 19 million more subscribers in holiday-season quarter

Netflix added nearly 19 million subscribers during the holiday season quarter to help propel its earnings beyond analysts’ projections, signaling that the video streaming service’s expansion into live programming is paying off. It is also raising prices.

The numbers released on Tuesday covered a October-December period highlighted by Netflix’s streaming of a widely watched fight between the YouTube sensation Jake Paul and the former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson in addition to two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

💾

© Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Much of the power of work like counselling lies in a relationship where we really see each other. And tech just can’t do that

• Allison Pugh is a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, and the author of The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World

When I interviewed a nurse practitioner in California about what she cherished most about nursing, it was the “human element” of being present with others. “I think we all just want acknowledgment of our suffering, even if you can’t cure it or do anything about it,” she told me.

She still remembered when a homeless man came into her clinic, his back hunched, feet gnarled and callused from being on the streets for years, and she “just sat and did wound care for his feet”. The moment stood out for her, in part because the opportunity to take that kind of time is getting rarer in clinics and hospitals as drives for efficiency impose time constraints.

Allison Pugh is a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, and the author of The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World. All names have been changed.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Science Photo Library/Alamy

💾

© Photograph: Science Photo Library/Alamy

Confusing and capricious, he started as he means to go on. To all the leaders pledging to work with him: good luck with that

Full American democracy is barely 60 years old, yet seems to be in an advanced state of cognitive decline. At his inauguration yesterday, Donald Trump seated the tech bosses, his nerd broligarchy, in front of his supposed cabinet. Needless to say, it was all a hopelessly overstimulating day for Elon Musk, whose double salute on stage later was a pure Dr Strangelove spasm, generously described by the Anti-Defamation league as “an awkward gesture”. Listen, if your friends won’t tell you, then who will?

As for the staging of the inauguration, which was moved indoors several days earlier, it was an occasion devoid of a sense of occasion. I would honestly have preferred Trump to ride in on the QAnon shaman. Instead, and not to get all British about state events, the world was forced to watch a quite staggeringly inept and lo-fi ceremony. You constantly expected someone to grab the mic and say: “Could the owner of a red Honda Civic please move your car as it’s blocking in the burger van.” Or maybe, as viewers round the globe sat waiting in mortified vain for singer Carrie Underwood’s basic backing track to kick in, to announce: “Apologies, ladies and gents, we have a tech fail. Is there anyone who knows about tech in the house?”

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

💾

© Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Having done his best to shut down the social media platform, the new president is now being hailed as its saviour. And once again the Democrats have egg on their faces

Politics in the US has had its fair share of stupid moments, but the recent banning and (sort of) unbanning of TikTok may rank as one of the stupidest. At the same time, the episode neatly encapsulates the current moment: it’s a perfect example of Donald Trump’s showmanship, the Democrats’ incompetence and the limits of bipartisanship. If I were a TikTok teen I’d come up with some sort of experimental dance to illustrate these themes but I’m old and completely devoid of rhythm, so words are going to have to suffice.

Let’s start with Trump, who, with his usual talent for self-promotion, has positioned himself as the guy who brought TikTok back from the dead, despite being responsible for signing its death warrant in the first place. To refresh everyone’s memory, in 2020 Trump issued vaguely worded executive orders that described TikTok and WeChat as threats to national security. There doesn’t seem to be much evidence, by the way, that TikTok is any more of a threat to national security than any of the other data-sucking apps we all have on our phones. The main argument from its critics seems to be that it has Chinese owners – and they’re clearly not going to be responsible stewards of people’s data in the way that Americans such as Mark Zuckerberg are.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

💾

© Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

We are far more likely to use our hands to type or swipe than pick up a pen. But in the process we are in danger of losing cognitive skills, sensory experience – and a connection to history

Humming away in offices on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon and in the White House is a technology that represents the pragmatism, efficiency and unsentimental nature of American bureaucracy: the autopen. It is a device that stores a person’s signature, replicating it as needed using a mechanical arm that holds a real pen.

Like many technologies, this rudimentary robotic signature-maker has always provoked ambivalence. We invest signatures with meaning, particularly when the signer is well known. During the George W Bush administration, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, generated a small wave of outrage when reporters revealed that he had been using an autopen for his signature on the condolence letters that he sent to the families of fallen soldiers.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy

💾

© Photograph: North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy

Un article signé GOODTECH.info

Elle s’est tenue en décembre dernier à Genève sous l’égide de la Linux Foundation, la conférence annuelle Cephalocon a rassemblé la communauté internationale d’OpenStack dédiée à Ceph. L’édition a été marquée par l’annonce de l’arrivée de DigitalOcean en tant que […]

L’article Ce qu’il faut retenir de la conférence Cephalocon est apparu en premier sur Goodtech.

Les chercheurs ont parfois des idées un peu folles. Et dans la catégorie, celle présentée par Andy Haverly pourrait bien remporter la palme. Il veut faire exploser une bombe nucléaire ultrapuissante dans le fond de l’océan Austral. Objectif ? Sauver l’humanité – et accessoirement, la...

The device paves the way for a new era of ultrafast computing, say researchers.

Learn more about the 3D space printer that could help make space missions safer and open the doors for more in-space manufacturing.

Un article signé GOODTECH.info

On le sait peu, mais depuis plus de 10 ans, le groupe SNCF investit dans le logiciel libre, aussi bien pour des logiciels métiers, de la bureautique ou des progiciels d’infrastructure. L’entreprise annonce qu’elle participe à la création de l’association […]

L’article Plus de logiciel libre pour le train en Europe : la SNCF participe à l’Open Rail Association est apparu en premier sur Goodtech.

VivaTechnology 2024, le salon incontournable de l’innovation numérique à Paris, a une fois de plus rassemblé les plus grands acteurs de la tech. Nous étions présents dans les allées pour y chercher les meilleurs usages des technologies immersives et de…

Read more →

L’article Vivatechnology 2024, une visite coté XR (et un peu plus) est apparu en premier sur Réalité Augmentée - Augmented Reality.