Category: Technology

Before the mayor of San Jose, California, arrives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new business, his aides ask ChatGPT to help draft some talking points. “Elected officials do a tremendous amount of public speaking,” said Mayor Matt Mahan, whose recent itinerary has taken him from new restaurant and semiconductor startup openings to a festival […]

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — When the running gets hard in this desert dubbed “hell on Earth,” Danny Westergaard tells himself: “Slow and steady” or “smooth as butter.” For 18 years, Westergaard, 66, has braved the scorching summer heat of California’s Death Valley in an ultramarathon billed as the world’s toughest. Last week, 99 […]

JUNEAU, Alaska — Wednesday’s magnitude 7.3 earthquake off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain struck in a region that has experienced a handful of powerful quakes within the last five years — including one that shook communities almost exactly two years earlier. Officials said Thursday they had received no reports of injuries or major damage from the […]

A coalition of funders, including the Gates Foundation and Ballmer Group, will spend $1 billion over 15 years to help develop artificial intelligence tools for public defenders, parole officers, social workers and others who help Americans in precarious situations. The funders announced Thursday that they will create a new entity, NextLadder Ventures, to offer grants […]

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — Near signs that warn of radioactive risk at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a half-dozen workers from the nuclear power company X-energy are making what appear to be gray billiard balls. Inside, they’re packed with thousands of tiny black spheres that each contain a speck of uranium enriched beyond what today’s power […]

BEIJING — The head of Nvidia downplayed his role in getting the U.S. government to lift a ban on selling an advanced computer chip in China and said it will take time to ramp up production once orders for the AI-processor come in. CEO Jensen Huang, speaking Wednesday in the Chinese capital Beijing, was upbeat […]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. It’s an unprecedented snapshot of “time zero,” scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel. “We’ve captured a direct glimpse […]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Trump administration revoked federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project on Wednesday, intensifying uncertainty about how the state will make good on its long-delayed promise of building a bullet train to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The U.S. Transportation Department announced it was pulling back $4 billion in […]

LONDON — Smartphones, laptops, headphones and other electronic devices are essential for work and play in our daily lives. But all that time spent typing, scrolling or listening also means our devices gradually accumulate grime that needs to be cleaned off. You might not give much thought to cleaning your devices but there are reasons […]

Axiom-4 astronauts return to Earth after historic trip