AI

The United States is in a global technology race it can still win, but only if it stops getting in its own way. That’s the message from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who frames the contest not as a matter of destiny, but of will. “I want America to win. I am here because of…

Thanks to the continued AI boom, data centers are popping up around the U.S., but some states are favored more than others. While Virginia has the most data centers, over 300, Arizona is now a magnet for new facilities, given its low operating costs and plentiful space.  There are, of course, additional logistical hurdles involved…

Elsevier, founded in 1880, is going all in on AI and data. In addition to publishing, Elsevier now offers several databases, learning resources and AI tools all aimed at supporting researchers. The latest release in this vein is a new AI-powered search engine for its chemistry database, Reaxys, which represents a fresh take on its…

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed AI-powered software that analyzes mammograms. The technology received a Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA, potentially speeding its path to the market. The software, called Prognosia Breast, has been licensed to Prognosia Inc., a WashU startup. The system, compatible with full-field digital mammography…

This week in R&D: the first quantum computer in space is now orbiting the Earth; a potential new treatment for Alzheimer’s, thanks to cancer drugs; a startup is breaking ground on their first fusion power plant, they say they are on track to deliver fusion energy by 2030; Google DeepMind announced their AI Earth mapping…

Researchers from Empa’s Functional Polymers laboratory have developed a new electrode based on graphene, which could help supercapacitors have higher energy densities.  Like batteries, supercapacitors store electrical energy. While supercapacitors absorb and release energy faster than a battery, they cannot hold as much electricity. The researchers set out to improve this fault by creating a…

At the University of Colorado Boulder campus, undergraduate students are using digital twin technology and robotics to advance the future of lunar studies. They published their study in the journal Advances in Space Research.  While “Armstrong”, the robot created by the undergrads, wouldn’t survive a trip to the moon’s surface, it can be used for…

Impel, an automotive AI company, announced a public showing of its LLM and the release of Archias, an expert model designed to advance AI safety standards on Tuesday.  Impel built its custom verticalized LLM in partnership with AWS. The LLM is designed for the automotive retail environment. The model will replace the existing third-party LLM…

First came Apple’s 2024 pact to let Siri tap ChatGPT for answers it can’t find on-device. Now OpenAI is spending $6.5 billion in stock to absorb Jony Ive’s skunkworks, io. Ive, known for his work at Apple, where he led design of products such as iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch, and even Apple’s circular…

The chief executive of Microsoft said up to 30% of the company’s software code is now being generated by artificial-intelligence tools, at Meta’s LlamaCon. Meta’s wager appears to be scale first, optimize later. The company plans to invest between $60-65 billion in 2025 to bolster its AI infrastructure. It recently hiked its 2025 capital-expenditure guidance…

With tech shake-ups, automotive layoffs, and healthcare funding cuts all recent themes, the R&D World Index dipped nearly 4% last week. Specifically, the R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending March 14, 2025, closed at 3,951.90 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -3.76% (or -154.52 basis points). Five RDWI…

The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending March 7, 2025, closed at 4,106.42 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index dipped –1.37% (or -56.96 basis points). Seventeen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.08% (Stellantis NV) to 12.51% (Volkswagen AG). Eight RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.25%…

Major investments, policy debates, and sustainability efforts are reshaping the semiconductor industry. TSMC’s $100 billion U.S. expansion carries geopolitical significance, while Broadcom’s strong earnings highlight AI’s growing role. Siemens is investing $285 million in U.S. manufacturing, adding to its long-term growth. Meanwhile, the CHIPS Act faces scrutiny, with Trump calling for its repeal. The Semiconductor…

In an iconic scene from The Matrix (1999), Neo sits wired to a training chair, eyes closed, as decades of martial arts expertise—jujitsu, kempo, taekwondo, even drunken boxing—flood his brain in seconds. At the end of it all, he stoically declares: “I know kung fu,” before he spars with his guide Morpheus. A quarter-century later,…

Mayo Clinic recently announced separate collaborations with Microsoft Research and Cerebras Systems related to generative artificial intelligence. The goal of the partnerships is to use generative AI to personalize patient care better, significantly accelerate diagnostic time and improve accuracy, Mayo Clinic said in its Jan. 14 news release. The Rochester, Minnesota–based health provider — consistently…

[Updated December 18, 2024 with new details on Databricks] In 2024, AI-focused startups continued to dominate the funding landscape with industry leaders like OpenAI ($6.6B), xAI ($6B), and Anthropic ($4B) leading the pack. Adding to this trend, MLflow and data lakehouse pioneer Databricks recently secured a $10 billion funding round that was primarily equity-based, at…

As many as 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030, according to an influential 2021 projection from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a growth rate of 0.1% from 2023 to 2030, yielding only 110,000 projected new jobs, resulting in a potential overall change from 12.9 million…

In a move signaling a more relaxed regulatory approach to the booming AI sector, UK regulators announced they would not investigate Google’s $2 billion investment in AI startup Anthropic. The move mirrors a similar decision regarding Amazon’s earlier $4 billion stake. This green light comes as Amazon doubles, bringing its total investment in Anthropic to…

Amazon recently doubled down on its Anthropic investment with an additional $4 billion, while NVIDIA reported another quarter of remarkable growth with sales hitting $35.1 billion. Meanwhile, a debate emerged at the Cerebral Valley AI Summit about whether AI development is hitting a scaling wall, with industry leaders like Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Scale AI’s Alexandr…

In many respects, 2024 was a year of building upon the foundations laid by previous technological and scientific advances. While AI continued to evolve at a rapid clip, progress was in many ways more incremental than last year when GPT-4 redefined expectations for genAI. But AI continues to make definable improvements across a range of…

The University of California (UC) has selected Labviva, an AI-powered procurement platform, to enhance its life science research and procurement operations across all ten campuses. Initially deployed at UC San Diego in 2022, the platform went live at UC Merced in September 2024. This collaboration aims to streamline procurement processes for faculty, researchers, and staff,…

Sandia National Laboratories and Brown University researchers have developed a new method to accelerate computer simulations, significantly speeding up research across various scientific fields. It was recently published in the journal npj Computational Materials and presents a universal approach to enhancing the performance of virtually any type of simulation —  from researching drugs to sending…

OpenAI, San Francisco, announced last week that it is launching a test version of their long-awaited search engine. SearchGPT will cite news sources such as News Corp. (publisher of the Wall Street Journal) and the Atlantic magazine (published by the Emerson Collective/publisher is Laurene Jobs — Steve Jobs’s widow). OpenAI has also struck partnerships with…