SCIENCE HEADLINES

AI is plowing through the workplace. This new group wants to help people adapt and have jobs

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new bipartisan nonprofit wants to help Americans who find they’re out of work because of AI. It’s called RAISE US and it’s starting with more than $500 million for education and training programs at the state level. An analysis by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that more than half of U.S. jobs will be reshaped by AI over the next few years. Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb are the co-founders. They’re planning to start with programs in Arkansas, Maryland, Utah and Connecticut. Raimondo says the states will test ideas that Congress can later embrace as policies.

Americans are inundated with suspected scams. New polling shows why few victims report them

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new AP-NORC poll shows that most Americans are inundated with scam attempts on a daily basis — and about 3 in 10 have personally lost money or personal information to scams. A separate survey conducted by Gallup and the Stop Scams Alliance in January and February found that last year alone, about 1 in 10 U.S. adults said they or someone else from their household was deceived by a scammer into losing money or providing access to a financial account, with nearly half saying they lost more than $500. In both surveys, few victims said they reported the scam to the federal government or local law enforcement.

AI is an energy and water hog, here’s what you can do to counter that

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the world tries to curb human-caused climate change and not run dry of water, every online query is increasing our environmental footprint and exacerbating the problem. Artificial intelligence is an energy and water hog. It can seem as though there’s little a person can do, but there are a few things. You can get around it. Experts say be concise when you query AI. It has its uses, but we don’t need it for cookie recipes, directions or office hours, but sustainability experts say the tech industry is force-feeding us to use it that way and they are opaque about real energy and water use.

Agility Robotics heads to Wall Street in a $2.5B bet on staffing warehouses with humanoids

Agility Robotics, a maker of humanlike robots, is planning to go public on Wall Street. The Oregon-based company announced a planned merger with an investment firm, valuing it at $2.5 billion. The move would make Agility the first publicly traded company specifically focused on humanoid robots. Its product line, Digit, is designed to move heavy bins and totes in warehouses. Unlike other humanoids, Digit’s leg design is more birdlike than human. Agility’s CEO says the robots handle repetitive and injury-prone tasks. The company has backing from Amazon, Nvidia and others, with early customers including Toyota and Mercado Libre. A fifth generation of Digit is expected later this year.

Top developers are pivoting from chatbots to physical AI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — AI “world models” are the next frontier for computer scientists who see too many limitations in the AI language models behind popular chatbots. The field is attracting top scientists like “Godmother of AI” Fei-Fei Li and Yann LeCun. They believe AI should learn the statistical structure of space and time, not just text. There’s still plenty of money to be made from AI chatbots — investors are counting on it as they commit trillions of dollars to leading developers like Anthropic and OpenAI. But a growing number of AI entrepreneurs are dedicating themselves to models that teach AI systems how to react in a physical environment.

Chinese supercomputer displaces US machines as world’s fastest for first time since 2017

A supercomputer in China now outranks its U.S. counterparts as the world’s most powerful, marking the first time since 2017 that a Chinese computer has topped a list sometimes viewed as a measure of a nation’s technological prowess. The previously unlisted LineShine computer in Shenzhen, China, displaced the top-ranked U.S. computer, El Capitan in California, in the latest version of the Top500 ranking announced Tuesday. The group of scientists who run the TOP500 project declared that the LineShine computer at China’s National Supercomputing Center achieved 2.198 exaflops, meaning it can perform more than 2 quintillion calculations per second.

AI chatbots hit the dating scene, becoming the lovelorn’s modern-day Cyrano

Artificial intelligence adopters have been using the tech in varied ways to find romance. Some patronize AI matchmaking services. Others use AI tools to help build their dating profiles. But the most common way is enlisting chatbots to draft messages to potential matches and interpret messages they receive. Dating apps and AI companies are leaning into it. ChatGPT and Gemini have posted content on TikTok showcasing their chatbots’ customized, personality-laden relationship advice. “Claude is the new Cyrano,” said dating coach Carey Gaynes, referencing the 19th century French play “Cyrano de Bergerac” in which the titular character is the brains behind another man’s romantic words.

Alibaba sues the US Defense Department in a bid to remove ‘Chinese military company’ designation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alibaba has sued the U.S. Department of Defense, demanding removal from a list naming it a Chinese military company. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California, argues the designation lacks factual or legal basis. This label, announced June 8, marks Alibaba as a national security threat, causing reputational damage. The Pentagon claims Alibaba is indirectly affiliated with China’s defense sector. Alibaba denies this, stating it’s governed by an independent board and holds no military ties. The case follows similar lawsuits from other Chinese companies.

Supreme Court kills suit claiming Cisco’s technology helped China persecute Falun Gong members

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has granted tech giant Cisco’s bid to shut down a lawsuit claiming that the company’s technology was used to persecute members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China. The justices ruled Tuesday that American courts are the wrong forum for the suits, rejecting arguments made by the plaintiffs that the suits should go forward under the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act, first enacted in 1991. The decision was the latest to rule against plaintiffs seeking to use U.S. courts as a venue to seek justice over the acts of foreign governments, especially those that took place abroad.

AI stock slump raises the question if investors are just taking profits or getting very nervous

Tech companies are spending big on AI, but investors might be getting nervous. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft plan to spend up to $720 billion this year on AI data centers. This week, investors appear to be questioning if AI can deliver the profits needed to justify such spending. On Monday, Amazon and Alphabet shares fell about 5%. On Tuesday, chipmakers like Nvidia and Micron led the market lower. Companies are increasingly relying on markets to raise cash to expand their AI business and the tech sector’s heavy spending raises questions about the sustainability of the AI boom.

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