Safety is the watchword, but there could be ulterior benefits for the industry. For years now, the major frontier AI labs have all been acting as if they’re in an all-out, winner-take-all race with control of world-changing machine superintelligence (or at least market-changing artificial general intelligence) at the finish…
The trick isn’t using perovskites—the trick is making them last. In one episode of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Birdman, the eponymous hero struggles to fight the evil Dr. Shark aboard a submarine without solar energy to recharge his powers. So Birdman would surely appreciate the new perovskite solar cells developed…
Isotopic analysis revealed the most likely source to be Brimham Rocks, not the nearby Plumpton Rocks. Stonehenge is the most famous example of megalithic architecture across Britain and Ireland, but there are plenty of others, including Calanais, Newgrange, and Avebury, as well as the Devil’s Arrows. The latter is…
Valve’s new $1,059 VR hardware tries to revive an abandoned VR “revolution.” In the 2010s, Valve was at the forefront of a virtual reality revolution that looked to some like it would upend the gaming industry. The Valve of six to ten years ago seemed committed to being a…
Chinese-made panels on rooftops across the world are changing the facts of life for big utilities. In the badlands of Chakwal, in north-central Pakistan, Bestway Cement is transforming plots of dry earth and olive and peach groves into a forest of solar panels. Its efforts will add 6.34 megawatts…
The Swedish automaker gives its small SUV a sympathetic makeover. Volvo provided flights from Washington, DC, to London, England, and accommodation so Ars could see its refreshed vehicles. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. Most cars get a midlife facelift about four years after first hitting the streets.…
Formula 1’s latest venue might be fun to drive, but the race was processional and dull. It’s been quite a couple of weeks for Formula 1. First, its annual visit to one of the oldest tracks on the calendar, the Italian temple of speed that is Monza, just outside…
The manufacturer has a service that lets owners repair their own equipment. There is something wrong with the tractor. The water-in-fuel sensor, a small device embedded in the John Deere machine that monitors the integrity of its diesel engine, is disconnected. And I’ve got to fix it. I’m not…
Unitree might be the world’s most important robotics company. On a sunny morning in June, I walked to work with a quadruped robot beside me. I’ve never gotten more attention from strangers. A bunch of people snapped pictures of my robot dog. Several people asked me questions. Was it…
“Dedicated launch is pretty essential for us for most of our missions.” If you ask most satellite companies aside from SpaceX, they will tell you the world doesn’t have enough capacity for launching payloads into orbit. This is despite the blistering launch cadence we’ve seen around the world in recent…
