This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Across the Web (Through February 15)

Artificial Intelligence

Sam Altman Lays Out Roadmap for OpenAI’s Long-Awaited GPT-5 ModelBenj Edwards | Ars Technica

“On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a roadmap for a way the corporate plans to release GPT-5, the long-awaited followup to 2023’s GPT-4 AI language model that made huge waves in each tech and policy circles around the globe. In a reply to a matter on X, Altman said GPT-5 can be coming in ‘months,’ suggesting a release later in 2025.”

Robotics

China’s EV Giants Are Betting Big on Humanoid RobotsCaiwei Chen | MIT Technology Review

“It’s becoming clear that China is now committed to becoming a world leader in robotics and automation, just because it did with EVs. Wang Xingxing, the CEO of Unitree Robots, said this well in a recent interview to local media: ‘Robotics is where EVs were a decade ago—a trillion-yuan battlefield waiting to be claimed.'”

Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic Strikes BackStephanie Palazzolo | The Information

“[Anthropic] has developed a hybrid AI model that features reasoning capabilities, which principally means the model uses more computational resources to calculate answers to hard questions. However the model may handle simpler tasks quickly, without the additional work, by acting like a standard large language model. The corporate plans to release it in the approaching weeks, in keeping with a one who’s used it.”

Biotechnology

AI Used to Design a Multi-Step Enzyme That Can Digest Some PlasticsJohn Timmer | Ars Technica

“Unfortunately, there’s not an enzyme for a lot of reactions we’d sorely prefer to catalyze—things like digesting plastics or incorporating carbon dioxide into more complex molecules. …With the appearance of AI-driven protein design, nevertheless, we are able to now potentially design things which might be unlike anything present in nature.”

Computing

This DARPA-Backed Startup Banked $100 Million for Its Energy-Slashing Analog ChipsAlex Pasternack | Fast Company

“EnCharge says that, for a wide selection of AI use cases, its specialized chips, or accelerators, require as much as 20 times less energy in comparison with today’s leading AI chips. …Quite than using only digital transistors to perform a number of the multiplication operations at the guts of AI inference—the continual computations that produce chatbot outputs—EnCharge’s chips exploit the non-binary wonders of the analog world.”

Tech

Will We Get a $1 Trillion Private Tech Firm?Cory Weinberg | The Information

“Will a non-public tech company reach a $1 trillion valuation in the approaching years? It’s not a ridiculous query. A few corporations seem to be potential candidates. OpenAI is closing in on $300 billion in its financing with SoftBank, and SpaceX recently shot to $350 billion.”

Robotics

Meta’s Next Big Bet Might Be AI Humanoid Robots for At-Home ChoresNadeem Sarwar | Digital Trends

“[Meta’s] interests have swayed wildly over the past few years. Phones, crypto, tablets, metaverse, smart glasses, and eventually, AI. The following avenue for Meta is outwardly humanoid robots. Based on Bloomberg, the corporate is pouring resources into the event of AI-powered humanoid robots. ‘Meta plans to work by itself humanoid robot hardware, with an initial give attention to household chores,’ says the report.”

FUTURE

Motor Neuron Diseases Took Their Voices. AI Is Bringing Them Back.Jessica Hamzelou | MIT Technology Review

“Rodriguez and his wife, Maria Fernandez, who live in Miami, thought they might never hear his voice again. Then they re-created it using AI. After feeding old recordings of Rodriguez’s voice right into a tool trained on voices from film, television, radio, and podcasts, the couple were in a position to generate a voice clone—a way for Jules to speak in his ‘old voice.'”

Computing

This Breakthrough Holographic Display Could Make AR Glasses a Reality in 2026Alan Truly | Digital Trends

“Swave CEO Mike Noonen told me the bill of materials (BOM) is just $50 per eye and the expected weight of AR glasses using HXR technology may very well be lower than 50 grams. The FoV and apparent resolution are tunable with a view as wide as 120 degrees and a retina-like resolution of as much as 60 pixels per degree (PPD). Battery life is estimated at greater than 10 hours, making these suitable for every day wear.”

Tech

Thomson Reuters Wins First Major AI Copyright Case within the USKate Knibbs | Wired

“This ruling is a blow to AI corporations, in keeping with Cornell University professor of digital and web law James Grimmelmann: ‘If this decision is followed elsewhere, it’s really bad for the generative AI corporations.’ Grimmelmann believes that Bibas’ judgement suggests that much of the case law that generative AI corporations are citing to argue fair use is ‘irrelevant.'”

The Dream of Offshore Rocket Launches Is Finally Blasting OffBecky Ferreira | MIT Technology Review

“’The very best option to construct a future where we have now dozens, lots of, or perhaps hundreds of spaceports is to construct them at sea,’ says Tom Marotta, CEO and founding father of the Spaceport Company, which is working to determine offshore launch hubs. ‘It’s very hard to seek out a thousand acres on the coast over and yet again to construct spaceports. It’s very easy to construct the identical ship over and yet again.'”