In a pine forest on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the only active nickel mine in the US is nearing the end of its life. At a time when carmakers want the metal for electric-vehicle batteries, nickel concentration at Eagle Mine is falling and could soon drop too low to warrant digging. Demand for nickel, copper, and rare earth elements is rapidly increasing amid the explosive growth of metal-intensive data centers, electric cars, and renewable energy projects. But producing these metals is becoming harder and more expensive because miners have already exploited the best resources. Here's how biotechnology could help . What we've been getting wrong about AI's truth crisis What would it take to convince you that the era of truth decay we were long warned about--where AI content dupes us, shapes our beliefs even when we catch the lie, and erodes societal trust in the process--is now here?

Texas A&M eliminates Women's and Gender Studies certificate program after reviewing 5,400 course syllabi, canceling six courses representing 0.11% of total offerings.

Signos is the first FDA-cleared, AI-enabled system that uses CGMs to nudge you towards healthier behaviors. According to the American Diabetes Association, around 7 million people in the United States are undiagnosed, with 1 in 3 Americans at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. If you do not go on medication, you can manage the condition--a chronic metabolic disease that's characterized by elevated blood sugar levels--by exercising and watching what you eat (very, very closely). In the past few years, the tools that diabetics use to help manage their condition have become more widely available. Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) like the Abbott Lingo and the Dexcom Stelo used to be available only by prescription.

Information Commissioner's Office to investigate whether Elon Musk's companies have complied with data protection law The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has opened formal investigations into X and xAI over whether Elon Musk's companies have complied with data protection law after the Grok AI tool was used to generate sexual deepfake images without consent. The ICO said the reports raised "serious concerns" under UK data protection laws, such as whether "appropriate safeguards were built into Grok's design and deployment". William Malcolm, the executive director of regulatory risk and innovation at the ICO, said: "The reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people's personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent, and whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this. "Losing control of personal data in this way can cause immediate and significant harm. This is particularly the case where children are involved." In a separate statement, the regulator Ofcom said it was not investigating xAI, which provides the standalone Grok app. Ofcom also said its investigation into X, the social network formerly known as Twitter on which users can interact with Grok, was still gathering evidence and warned that the inquiry could take months. The company has taken steps to address the issue and must be given a "full opportunity to make representations", Ofcom added. On why it was not investigating xAI, the statement said: "When we opened our investigation into X, we said we were assessing whether we should also investigate xAI, as the provider of the standalone Grok service.

CES 2026 showed that humanoid and embodied AI systems still have a long way to go before delivering real-world value, particularly in homes. At the same time, there is a growing sense that the path to deployment is becoming clearer. A consensus has emerged across platforms: multi-camera perception, often wrist-mounted, paired with VLA models, is sufficient for most tasks. Increasingly, tactile hands and VTLA software are added. There was a clear split between industrial and home-care humanoids.

The US Government Is Trying To Make Coal Cute. Trump complained that coal needed better PR. The original Coalie was just a lump of coal with eyes and nothing more. Get your news from a source that's not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Can a lump of coal ever be cute?

Using LLMs to talk with your friends is efficient. My friend recently attended a funeral, and midway through the eulogy, he became convinced that it had been written by AI. There was the telltale proliferation of abstract nouns, a surfeit of assertions that the deceased was "not just --he was " coupled with a lack of concrete anecdotes, and more appearances of the word than you would expect from a rec-league hockey teammate. It was both too good, in terms of being grammatically correct, and not good enough, in terms of being particular. My friend had no definitive proof that he was listening to AI, but his position--and I agree with him--is that when you know, you know. His sense was that he had just heard a computer save a man from thinking about his dead friend.

The showrunner thinks AI will be good for burgeoning filmmakers, but not for Hollywood blockbusters. Jonathan Nolan saw this coming. As a screenwriter, he's worked on several of his brother Christopher Nolan's films, from to the movies. Partnered with his wife Lisa Joy, he created HBO's and executive produced Amazon Prime's . But before that, he cut his TV teeth creating, a CBS procedural about a solitary tech billionaire who creates a piece of surveillance software aimed at stopping crime before it happens. It was fiction, but it's hard not to feel its prescience. With, now in its second season, Nolan also has his sights on the future. Based on the video game series of the same name, it's about a postapocalyptic America where everyone must survive in any way they can. So, what does Nolan see happening in the coming decades? For one, he doesn't think AI is going to replace human filmmakers. In fact, he thinks it could help aspiring directors get a foot in the door. He'd also like to see the demise of (most) social media--but understands that may never happen. For this week's episode of The Big Interview podcast, I asked Nolan about all of those things and more. Below you'll find his thoughts on writing Batman movies, classic cars, and what he'd actually bring to his own doomsday bunker. Thank you for having me. I'm delighted to have you here in person in New York. I'm from Canada so my barometer is a little off, but I tend to think of New York as wimpy cold. No, no, this is real. The older I get the weaker and more frail. So I can't tolerate [it]. I've been in LA for 25 years.

Russia has launched its most powerful blow against Ukraine's energy sector so far this year, according to the private energy company, DTEK. The combined missile and drone strikes which targeted power plants and infrastructure in Kyiv and multiple locations left the system operating with serious restrictions, it said. The strikes were launched as temperatures dropped to -20C (-4F) and left more than 1,000 tower blocks in the capital without heating once again and damaged a power plant in the eastern city of Kharkiv beyond repair. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was choosing terror and escalation rather than diplomacy to end this war and called for maximum pressure on Moscow from Ukraine's allies. The attack comes after a so-called energy truce agreed by Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin expired at the weekend.

The French investigation into alleged algorithm manipulation by X has expanded to examine the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes. The French investigation into alleged algorithm manipulation by X has expanded to examine the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes. French headquarters of Elon Musk's X raided by Paris cybercrime unit Tue 3 Feb 2026 09.25 ESTFirst published on Tue 3 Feb 2026 06.42 EST Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk's social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company's former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime. "A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office, the national police cyber unit and Europol," the Paris prosecutors' office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network. It said in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for "voluntary questioning" in their capacity as "de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events".