Technology

The Pentagon has awarded contracts worth up to $200 million each to several top U.S. artificial intelligence firms, including Elon Musk’s xAI, despite recent backlash over offensive content generated by its Grok chatbot. Announced Monday by the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO), the contracts also include AI companies Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. The agreements aim to support ...

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has directed all mobile phone operators to provide 1GB of free Internet to users on 18 July, in observance of ‘Free Internet Day.’ The BTRC took the decision at a meeting,chaired by the commission’s vice chairman, on Tuesday (July 8). As per the directive, the BTRC approved this initiative following instructions from the Ministry ...

Facebook users are being urged to exercise caution before enabling a new feature that allows Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to access and scan photos stored on their phones – including those never shared on social media platforms. The development follows growing concerns over Meta’s use of user data, especially after reports confirmed that the company has been training its artificial ...

China successfully launched a new satellite, Chinasat-9C, into space on Friday night from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center located in Sichuan Province in the southwest of the country. The satellite was lifted off at 8:37 p.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a Long March-3B carrier rocket and successfully reached its designated orbit. This mission marks the 582nd flight of the Long March ...

A SpaceX rocket undergoing routine testing at the company’s Starbase facility in southern Texas exploded late Wednesday night, sending a large fireball into the sky. The incident occurred around 11 p.m. as the Starship vehicle was stationed on a test stand in preparation for its tenth flight trial. SpaceX confirmed that the rocket experienced a “major anomaly” during the test. ...

A groundbreaking clinical trial in Shanghai has enabled a Chinese man, who lost all four limbs in an electrical accident 13 years ago, to play chess and racing games using only his thoughts. This became possible after researchers implanted a brain-computer interface (BCI) directly into his brain – marking China’s first human trial of such invasive technology. The trial is ...

Scale AI, a startup known for its “humanity-first” approach to artificial intelligence, announced late Thursday a major new investment from Meta that pushes its valuation beyond $29 billion. As part of the deal, Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang will join Meta to contribute to the company’s growing AI initiatives, according to a statement from the startup. The details ...

Apple faces mounting pressure to show it hasn’t lost its innovation edge as it prepares to kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday in Silicon Valley. The tech giant is expected to unveil updates to its devices and operating systems, but all eyes are on whether it can recover from recent delays and missteps in the fast-moving ...

The row between Donald Trump and Elon Musk over a major spending bill has exacerbated uncertainty over the future of Nasa’s budget, which is facing deep cuts. The space agency has published its budget request to Congress, which would see funding for science projects cut by nearly a half. Forty science missions, which are in development or in space already, ...

A Japanese startup will attempt a tricky lunar touchdown on Friday with an unmanned lander named Resilience, two years after its first try which crashed onto the Moon’s surface, reports AFP. If successful, it will be only the third private mission to the Earth’s rocky natural satellite ever completed, and the first by a company based outside the United States. ...