A once-retired California mine could supply the US renewable revolution
The US may have its own rare Earth element supply chain, and the very first in the Western Hemisphere at that. Could this end China’s dominance over the West’s renewable revolution? Just across the border from Nevada resides the only large-scale rare-Earth element mine in the entire Western Hemisphere. Named Mountain...
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Tencent launches WeChat Palm Payments in China
This week, Tencent started introducing palm recognition through its WeChat Pay service. The tech is to be installed in Beijing’s Airport Express Line, where it will take payments by scanning people’s palm prints and their unique formation of veins without physical contact. Like the idea of completing financial transactions with...
UAE allegedly uses fake accounts to defend its hosting of COP28
Across Twitter and Medium, at least 100 fake accounts are posting positive sentiments about the United Arab Emirates and its controversial position as host nation of COP28. Experts claim its part of a shoddily executed popularity drive from within. Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of state oil giant ADNOC, is an...
Is bacteria the key to making limitless energy from thin air?
Scientists have been studying a form of bacteria able to scavenge atmospheric hydrogen from thin air. They believe applying this principle to new technology could help humanity create limitless energy. As the world continues to negligently burn through fossil fuels, science is frantically searching for sustainable ways to power civilisation....
Nintendo latest company to end trading in Russia
Russian gamers will no longer be able to purchase digital games from the Nintendo store, as it ‘winds down’ operations. Nintendo has become the latest company to cease operations within Russia entirely, after suspending product shipments in March 2022. Russian consumers will no longer be able to purchase games digitally via...
Wimbledon to use AI commentary at upcoming championships
The All England Club has teamed up with tech group IBM to leverage the boom in large language models such as ChatGPT to cover matches that would ordinarily be watched in silence. Although Wimbledon has a reputation for favouring tradition over change, it’s set to follow a global trend...
Study suggests Mars may be ‘too dangerous’ for human colonisation
Following a recent study, scientists recommend that no human expedition to Mars should surpass four years on account of its exceedingly high radiation. Colonising the Red Planet has long been a source of obsession for billionaire tech tycoons like Richard Branson and Elon Musk, but the science suggests lengthy human expeditions may be off the table. Researchers at the University of California have been testing the feasibility of living on Mars,...
What Nvidia’s AI NPC demo could mean for game development
Nvidia demoed its capabilities for AI and unique character building during Computex 2023. The gaming giant showed how an innocuous NPC could provide generated, off-the-cuff responses to player’s unique prompts during an in-game interaction. Contemporary titles can have anywhere between a handful and hundreds of non-playable characters (NPCs). Primarily intended to carry the overarching narrative forward by delivering missions, these secondary characters carry the bulk-load for creating a sense of emotional...
Should we put restrictions on AI in music?
An anonymous artist called ‘ghostwriter’ created a song using AI-generated vocals from Drake and The Weeknd. It gained over 250,000 streams overnight before it was pulled from Spotify. Is this the start of an AI takeover in music? A song made using AI-generated vocals from The Weeknd and Drake was pulled from Spotify last week after amassing over 250,000 streams in a few days. Posted by an artist called ‘ghostwriter’, the...
How is Facebook hoping to bring back alienated Gen Zers?
Facebook has fallen out of favour with young consumers. Once seen as the defining social media platform, it is now associated with misinformation, privacy breaches, and older people. Is there any way back? If you’re an older Gen Zers or younger Millennial, you may remember a time when Facebook was the place to be. In the late noughties and early tens, Zuckerberg’s social media unicorn was the spearhead for a cultural...
