August 14, 2026

05 Sci-Tech

Anthropic’s Philosopher Amanda Askell Says A.I. May Replace Her Job– observer.com

pgnewser June 9, 2026 0

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As A.I. systems become more agentic and take on more autonomy in daily life, they will increasingly interact with one another rather than with humans, according to Amanda Askell, Anthropic’s resident philosopher. “Human input is going to be rarer and rarer. That’s the thing that we need to prepare models for,” Askell said at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in San Francisco last week. Askell’s non-technical role reflects a growing trend among leading A.I. labs to incorporate humanities expertise. But she also sees a future in which A.I. may be able to do her job better than she can. “What [A.I. models] are good at is these deeply human skills,” she said. “Eventually, Claude is going to be a much better philosopher than I am, and probably be much better at every aspect of my job than I am.”

OpenAI and Anthropic Sign Letter to Prevent AI-Developed Biological Weapons– www.wired.com

pgnewser June 5, 2026 0

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The CEOs of several major artificial intelligence companies are urging members of Congress to adopt new laws that would make it harder for bad actors to develop biological weapons using their technology.

Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Microsoft AI’s Mustafa Suleyman are among the signatories on a public letter calling for laws requiring companies that sell synthetic DNA and RNA to screen customers and orders to prevent the misuse of genetic material.

Organized by the nonpartisan Institute for Progress and the right-leaning Foundation for American Innovation, the letter acknowledges that given the pace of AI development, “there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode.”

Demand Is Booming for New No Tech, Repairable Tractor– www.404media.co

pgnewser June 5, 2026 0

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The secondary market for decades old, low-tech John Deere tractors has been booming for years as farmers have sought reliable tractors that they can actually fix without having to deal with John Deere’s repair monopoly. A Canadian company has seen that demand and came up with a radical thought: What if they made a new, repairable, “no-tech” tractor to solve what has become a gigantic pain point for farmers?

Alberta’s Ursa Ag says that it has been inundated with demand after announcing its tractor, which costs roughly half as much as a Deere and has the benefit of not being a repair nightmare. We have for years covered the frustration that farmers have felt as they have been locked out of their Deere tractors with digital rights management systems that prevent them from fixing their machinery, tractors that won’t run because of minor sensor failures, and crops that literally die on the vine as they wait for an “authorized” repair person to fix tractors during critical harvesting periods.

Scientists discover a quantum effect that could eliminate batteries– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser June 4, 2026 1

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Scientists have uncovered a new way to control an unusual quantum phenomenon that could one day help power electronic devices without batteries.

An international research team led by Professor Dongchen Qi from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) School of Chemistry and Physics and Professor Xiao Renshaw Wang from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore investigated the physics behind the nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE), a quantum phenomenon with significant potential for future energy-harvesting technologies.

Unlike the classical Hall effect, the NLHE can convert alternating electrical signals directly into direct current. This means energy from wireless transmissions or other ambient sources could potentially be transformed into usable electricity without relying on conventional diodes or other bulky electronic components.

“The NLHE is a sophisticated quantum phenomenon in condensed matter physics where a voltage is generated perpendicular to an applied alternating current, even in the absence of a magnetic field,” Professor Qi said.

“This effect allows us to convert alternating signals straight into direct current, which is what’s needed to power electronic devices. In principle, it means sensors or chips that could operate without batteries, drawing energy from their environment.”

White House reclassifies federal epidemiologists and other scientists from civil servants to “at-will” hires– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser June 4, 2026 0

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The White House on Wednesday moved to strip civil service protections from about 8,000 federal workers, including many working at public health agencies.

The executive order effectively transforms these positions—which include “epidemiologist”, “health scientist” and “toxicologist” jobs—into “at-will” positions—meaning they can be readily fired without cause. The job category, initially called Schedule F and now called Schedule Policy/Career, strips these federal workers of protections meant to prevent political interference.

According to the order, “policy-influencing positions” must be transferred to the new status, thereby “ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected President.” The move reflects President Donald Trump’s long-standing complaint of a “deep state” of federal workers resistant to his policies, and he has for years called for the schedule change in order to fire civil servants he views as impediments to his policies.

The Download: AI-generated lawsuits and virtual power plants for data centers– www.technologyreview.com

pgnewser June 4, 2026 0

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The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The EU has proposed new legislation to end its Big Tech dependence
The laws aim to boost domestic ​cloud, AI and semiconductors. (CNBC)
+ US firms would be blocked from critical public tenders. (Reuters $)
+ It also wants to make sure non-EU actors cannot disrupt tech services with a “kill switch.” (The Guardian)
+ But the proposal needs to be negotiated with EU member states. (Politico $)

2 Intelligence agencies warn Chinese spies are recruiting on LinkedIn
The Five Eyes alliance said Beijing is using job platforms for espionage. (BBC)
+ The spies are allegedly recruiting government and military staff. (Politico $)
+ The Chinese embassy in the UK condemned the accusations. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meet the man hunting the spies in your smartphone. (MIT Technology Review)

China’s Brutal Domestic AI Competition– warontherocks.com

pgnewser June 4, 2026 0

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China’s plan to become a world leader in AI by 2030 is a fixture of practically every Congressional briefing and expert commentary on Beijing’s AI ambitions. The plan’s logic — introduced in 2017 — was simple and alarming: Beijing would direct capital, mobilize its firms, recruit talent, and execute with the strategic patience of a state-led innovation ecosystem. Nearly a decade later, that frame has only hardened. Beijing’s recently issued 15th Five-Year Plan directs Party organs to take “extraordinary measures” to strengthen technological self-reliance and launch a new “AI+” initiative to integrate AI across the nation’s strategic sectors. Beijing has the legal architecture to compel its firms to do its bidding, so Washington has largely concluded that Beijing’s AI sprint reflects deliberate industrial policy, and built America’s response around that assumption.

Humans conquered the planet 300 times faster than genetic evolution can explain– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser June 4, 2026 0

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Just under 300,000 years from the moment Homo sapiens appeared in Africa, the species had encircled Earth, mastering desolate deserts and frozen wastelands and all the temperate climes in between. Throughout this staggering expansion, we seem to have relied surprisingly little on genetic adaptation to fuel our globe-conquering—all eight billion of us together remain less genetically diverse than individual populations of chimpanzees. So how did we do it?

Many scientists point to cultural evolution, the process by which knowledge, customs and technology spread over time. But according to Alex Mesoudi, who studies cultural evolution at the University of Exeter in England, “it’s always been just a vague claim.”

Scientists just built a powerful AI computer worm that learns as it spreads– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser June 4, 2026 0

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A new study shows that computer malware powered by easily accessible artificial intelligence models is here—the research is a “wake-up call” to take cybersecurity risks from AI more seriously, one expert says.

In the study, researchers created an AI-powered computer “worm” designed to attack and spread between devices—revealing a threat that they say the world is woefully underprepared to fight.

“Our results demonstrate that self-sustaining AI-driven cyber-threats are no longer theoretical,” the researchers wrote. The paper, first reported by the New York Times, was posted on the preprint server arXiv.org and has yet to be peer-reviewed.

This Is How Trump Finally Signed the AI Executive Order– www.wired.com

pgnewser June 3, 2026 0

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President Donald Trump has signed a scaled-back version of an executive order governing AI that he had shelved less than two weeks ago, after senior aides persuaded him that the administration could not indefinitely delay establishing a framework for the technology, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

The revised order gives the federal government access to the most advanced artificial intelligence models 30 days before their public release, down from an earlier proposal that would have required companies to provide access 90 days in advance.

Beyond shortening the review period, the administration made few substantive changes to the original text. Trump approved the revised order Monday night following a high-level White House meeting. Aides drafted the final language Tuesday morning, the two officials tell WIRED.

Data Center Operators Are Trying to Fix Their Water Use Problems– www.wired.com

pgnewser June 3, 2026 0

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On Monday, SpaceX amended its initial public offering to state that water conditions—including water scarcity, regulations around water, and drought—could constrain data center development.

It isn’t the only tech company trying to assess how water scarcity might impact its business. Water use is emerging as one of the most contentious data center issues. A recent Gallup poll found that seven out of 10 Americans are opposed to data center development, with water scarcity ranking as the top resource concern. Facing increasingly fierce resistance, some tech companies are scrambling to assure the public that they’re facing the issue head-on.

Australia’s Slowing Economy Propped Up by Data Center Boom– financialpost.com

pgnewser June 3, 2026 0

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G­­­ross domestic product advanced 0.3% in the first three months of the year, just one-third of the pace recorded in the final quarter of 2025 and missing estimates, government data showed Wednesday. Private investment climbed by almost 4%, led by higher outlays on data centers, with a 16% jump in spending on machinery and equipment the largest gain in almost 30 years.

Scientists charged with bringing deactivated mpox virus into the US, lying to authorities– nypost.com

pgnewser June 3, 2026 0

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Two scientists at a U.S. government lab were charged with smuggling vials of deactivated mpox virus into the country from Africa and lying about it during interviews with investigators at a Michigan airport, authorities said Tuesday.

A criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court in Detroit against Vincent Munster, who is chief of the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, and Claude Kwe, who works with him.

Munster and Kwe were stopped at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in January after a flight from Paris and nine days in the Republic of Congo. An outbreak of the mpox disease has been linked to more than 2,000 deaths in Congo, a vast region in central Africa, though a two-year outbreak was declared over in April.

A criminal complaint was unsealed in federal court in Detroit against Vincent Munster, who is chief of the virus ecology section at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Cognizant CEO is swimming against the tide on AI: he’s hiring over 20,000 graduates this year and says AI tokenmaxxing is a ‘vanity metric’– fortune.com

pgnewser June 2, 2026 0

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For months, the loudest voices in artificial intelligence—including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei—warned that entry-level white-collar jobs were headed for extinction. In recent weeks, both have walked back those statements.

And according to Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S., who oversees a workforce of more than 350,000 employees, the outcry wasn’t just a prediction gone wrong—it was fearmongering.

“There was a little bit of fearmongering from reading about the fact that there’s going to be a collapse of jobs,” Kumar said at Fortune’s COO Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona on Monday. “I think there will be more jobs.”

Scientists discover inherited traits that break Mendel’s Laws of genetics– www.sciencedaily.com

pgnewser June 2, 2026 0

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For more than a century, biology has been guided by the principles of inheritance first described by Gregor Mendel through his famous pea plant experiments. While those rules explain how many genetic traits are passed from parents to offspring, scientists have also known that DNA sequences are not the whole story.

In addition to genes themselves, parents can pass along epigenetic changes. These are chemical modifications that affect how genes function without altering the underlying DNA code.

Now, a new federally funded study in mice suggests that some of these inherited epigenetic marks do not follow Mendel’s classic laws. Researchers found that about 7% of the epigenetic inheritance patterns they examined behaved in unexpected ways. The study also uncovered rare forms of inheritance previously seen in plants and flies but not in mammals.

The Decline of Student Journalism and the Rise of AI– chinadigitaltimes.net

pgnewser June 2, 2026 0

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In April, a former contributor to the Beijing Normal University student media outlet 京师学人 (Jīngshī Xuérén, “Capital Scholar”) noted that its WeChat public account had been deregistered. Although updates had halted in 2023, the account and its content—more than 600 existing articles—had remained online, and “The Snowman” (雪人 Xuěrén, a pun on 学人 Xuérén) was warmly remembered as an eccentric campus institution and a training ground for emerging journalism students. News of its final demise prompted reflection and criticism online.