Chipmaker Kioxia's market value halves from peak on AI selloff Kioxia overtook auto giant Toyota in market cap value in mid-June, but its ranking has since dropped to the fourth-largest Japanese company, as traders grow more critical over artificial intelligence. Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings' market capitalization halved in just a month since becoming the nation's most valuable company, on growing concerns the artificial intelligence-driven rally in the sector has gone too far. Kioxia shares tumbled as much as 16% in Tokyo's morning trading on Friday, down 52% from last month's peak and losing at least ¥30 trillion ($185 billion) in value. In mid-June, Kioxia overtook auto giant Toyota in market cap value after the stock rallied more than 600% from the start of the year, driven by exuberance about demand for memory and data storage amid an AI boom. Its ranking has since dropped to the fourth-largest Japanese company. "The chip sector is vulnerable to the silicon cycle, and we've seen this pattern many times before," said Yugo Tsuboi, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities.

Google Search AI poses'unacceptable risk' to kids, report finds A new report from a California-based nonprofit says the artificial intelligence features built in to Alphabet's Google Search pose an unacceptable risk" to children. The artificial intelligence features built in to Alphabet's Google Search pose an "unacceptable risk" to children, according to a new report from the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media, a California-based nonprofit. The study found that on test accounts configured for minors, the ubiquitous search engine's AI features failed to detect suicide risks, said an eating disorder symptom was normal, and provided instructions for creating deepfakes, or sexually explicit fake content. The report added that unlike standalone chatbots, Google's AI tools are built directly into the default search experience on school and personal devices, currently offering administrators or parents no way to disable them. The report specifically evaluated AI Overviews, which generate automated answers above traditional search results, and AI Mode, a conversational feature that lets users chat back and forth with the search engine. Rather than matching searches to a list of external links, the new features use generative AI to answer complex questions directly on the search page -- a format critics say presents the automated summaries as if they are definitive answers.

China's AI ascendance gives Xi a stage and a security dilemma The rise of China's AI models is handing President Xi Jinping new bragging rights and a stronger claim to shaping the technology's global rules. The rise of China's AI models is handing President Xi Jinping new bragging rights and a stronger claim to shaping the technology's global rules, even as their growing power stirs security alarm in Washington and Beijing alike. Xi is expected to make his case in his debut at the World AI Conference in Shanghai starting Friday, an event that previously attracted Elon Musk and Jack Ma. He'll be addressing scores of tech and government leaders as Chinese models win over companies worldwide, with their share of U.S. firms' AI usage nearing record 60% on the popular marketplace OpenRouter. In what could be a preview of Xi's position, state media this week cast China's openness as the antidote to a world of walls. The Communist Party's flagship mouthpiece People's Daily warned against an "AI Iron Curtain," contrasting an "oil mindset" that hoards data and computing power with a "water" approach that treats AI as a public good for all, without naming any country.

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Netflix says it's already used AI in'roughly 300' titles this year Netflix says it's already used AI in'roughly 300' titles this year Don't expect that number to shrink any time soon. Netflix hasn't made any secret of its interest in artificial intelligence, and now we have a sense of how those tools are being used in its content. In 2026, GenAI workflows have been used in roughly 300 of our titles, with the largest concentration of work in post-production, according to the shareholder letter detailing its second-quarter financials. The company named three projects -- (India), (Brazil) and (US) -- that used generative AI to create highly complex sequences, but the tech is becoming more widespread at this point. We already knew that Netflix had applied generative AI in at least one original show as of last July, but between making acquisitions and launching new specialized studios, its ambitions clearly extended further.

Weekly quiz: What name did scientists give this $50m dinosaur? This week, Sir Keir Starmer took part in his last Prime Minister's Questions as he prepared to hand over the keys to 10 Downing Street, the US and Iran continued to trade both barbs and bombs, and film critics went wild for The Odyssey . But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world over the past seven days? What information do we collect from this quiz? Try last week's quiz, or have a go at something from the archives .

Hospital staff swapped two babies at birth who were then raised by unsuspecting families... until DNA test 36 years on exposed the scandal, lawsuit alleges Warning to millions as lung-penetrating toxins sweep across 14 US states... with Detroit's air ranked the worst on Earth The detail everyone missed in this photo of Kate and William... and what it reveals about state of their relationship. Scientists at Northwestern University have designed a drone that spins so fast it disappears before your eyes. Called the'Phantom Twist', the drone spins up to 25 times every second, which is too fast for the human eye to see. While it isn't completely invisible, the drone is about 10 times less visible than a conventional quadcopter. Its developers describe its appearance as a'ghostly smudge', claiming it blends'seamlessly into the background'.

Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said tech founders are building in the national interest since Donald Trump returned to the White House, discussing AI and defense tech on Ruthless Podcast.

Using archaeological evidence, historical records and cutting-edge 3D technology, experts have created the first scientifically accurate reconstruction of Nassau during the Golden Age of Piracy. The digital model strips away centuries of Hollywood myth to reveal what the notorious pirate stronghold actually looked like in the early 1700s. Far from a bustling colonial city lined with grand stone buildings, Nassau was little more than a ramshackle settlement of wooden huts, pirate camps and crumbling ruins. The reconstruction also revives some of history's most infamous buccaneers, including Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Calico Jack Rackham and Benjamin Hornigold, using AI based on historical engravings and contemporary descriptions. The recreations will feature in the finale of Wreckwatch TV's series about the real pirates of the Caribbean, Mystery of the Pirate King's Treasure.

What is Iran's Pickaxe Mountain? The United States military says it has launched another wave of strikes on Iran, while Tehran says it retaliated with missile and drone attacks against US military assets in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said it concluded an evening wave of strikes against Iran at 9pm ET on Wednesday (01:00 GMT on Thursday), targeting "Iranian command centres, air defence sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities" in an effort to reduce Iran's ability to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian air defences were activated over the capital, Tehran, as state media reported attacks across much of the country. Explosions were reported in Bandar Abbas and on nearby Qeshm island in the south, as well as in the southeastern coastal towns of Sirik, Chabahar and Konarak. Iranian media also reported attacks further inland in Rask, Khondab, Khorramabad and Semnan.