Robots equipped with rich sensor suites can localize reliably in partially-observable environments, but powering every sensor continuously is wasteful and often infeasible. Belief-space planners address this by propagating pose-belief covariance through analytic models and switching sensors heuristically--a brittle, runtime-expensive approach. Data-driven approaches--including diffusion models--learn multi-modal trajectories from demonstrations, but presuppose an accurate, always-on state estimate. We address the largely open problem: for a given task in a mapped environment, which \textit{minimal sensor subset} must be active at each location to maintain state uncertainty \textit{just low enough} to complete the task? Our key insight is that when a diffusion planner is explicitly conditioned on a pose-belief raster and a sensor mask, the spread of its denoising trajectories yields a calibrated, differentiable proxy for the expected localisation error. Building on this insight, we present Belief-Conditioned One-Step Diffusion (B-COD), the first planner that, in a 10 ms forward pass, returns a short-horizon trajectory, per-waypoint aleatoric variances, and a proxy for localisation error--eliminating external covariance rollouts. We show that this single proxy suffices for a soft-actor-critic to choose sensors online, optimising energy while bounding pose-covariance growth. We deploy B-COD in real-time marine trials on an unmanned surface vehicle and show that it reduces sensing energy consumption while matching the goal-reach performance of an always-on baseline.

Ukraine is looking at how to share battlefield data with allies, the country's deputy prime minister said, calling the vast trove of stored information one of Kyiv's "cards" to strengthen its position as it negotiates support from friendly countries. "The data we have is priceless for any country," Mykhailo Fedorov, who heads Ukraine's digitalization ministry, said in an interview, adding that Ukraine is currently "very careful" about sharing it. Vast datasets are crucial for training artificial intelligence models to recognize patterns and make predictions.

An invasion of small metallic orbs has been spotted hovering over the US in recent years, leaving the Pentagon scrambling to identify these mysterious UFOs. A new report from the crowdsourced platform Enigma, which allows people to report sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), reveals more than 8,000 sightings across the US between December 2022 and June 2025. Among these, 422 reports specifically describe metallic orbs, with the majority observed between 1am and 4am near military installations in New York, California, and Arizona. Eyewitnesses, including civilians, pilots, and military personnel, reported seeing the spheres hover silently before moving at extreme speeds, leaving no trace of their departure. Some of the sightings have been captured on video or radar, though many remain unexplained.

The artificial intelligence company Anthropic launched a National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council in efforts to deepen ties with Washington and allied governments as AI becomes increasingly central to defence. The San Francisco-based start-up announced the new panel on Wednesday. The council's launch underscores AI firms' growing efforts to shape policies and ensure their technology supports democratic interests amid global competition. Anthropic's new effort comes as rivals, such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind, step up engagement with governments and regulators on AI safety, though neither has announced a dedicated national security advisory council. Anthropic's council brings together former senators and senior officials from the US Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, as well as the Departments of Energy and Justice.

In his post on Wednesday, Zelensky said Russia had carried out almost 100 drone attacks overnight. Energy facilities were the main targets, but a school in the Kharkiv region and a high-rise building in Kherson were also hit, he said. "New steps are needed to put pressure on Russia to stop the strikes and truly guarantee security. We are working with partners for such pressure," Zelensky added. Three and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fighting on the ground shows no sign of abating.

Newly released bodycam video shows illegal immigrant truck driver Harjinder Singh being pulled over in a traffic stop with a New Mexico trooper in July. New bodycam footage has been released showing illegal immigrant truck driver Harjinder Singh struggling with limited English after he was pulled over by police for speeding in New Mexico last month - a detail that has since become a major talking point in the case. The footage shows Singh -- the suspect accused of jackknifing his 18-wheeler while making an illegal U-turn in Florida that killed three people -- being stopped by a New Mexico State Police officer on July 3 for allegedly driving 60 mph in a 45-mph zone. During the interaction, Singh appears apologetic as he receives a ticket from the trooper. He initially communicates without issue until after signing paperwork and preparing to leave, when the officer struggles to understand what the trucker is saying.

Artificial general intelligence, believers say, could far surpass human limitations: it could have expert knowledge in all fields, not just one or two; it could complete in minutes complex tasks that take human workers hours or even weeks; and it could be replicated, thus enabling the creation of virtual armies of AI "agents." That kind of computational intelligence could be compared to a "country of geniuses," the CEO of AI company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, wrote last year. These AI systems could begin to automate much of the 100 trillion-plus global economy, delivering huge returns for those lucky enough to control them. They could also be set to task curing disease, discovering new technologies, and hastening the global transition to a green economy, according to their most optimistic proponents. But the dawn of AGI will also have implications for hard geopolitical power. It would turbocharge surveillance, military R&D, and cyberoffense, officials believe.

I was struck by her pessimism, which she told me was shared by friends from California to Georgia to New Hampshire. In an already fragile world, one increasingly beset by climate change and the breakdown of the international order, AI looms in the background, threatening young people's ability to secure a prosperous future. Just a few days before our drive, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was telling the US Federal Reserve's board of governors that AI agents will leave entire job categories "just like totally, totally gone." Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told Axios he believes AI will wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next five years. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company will eliminate jobs in favor of AI agents in the coming years. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke told staff they had to prove that new roles couldn't be done by AI before making a hire.

Chip giant Nvidia is set to release its latest earnings report – and the results could move the entire US stock market. Over the past two years, the chipmaker has risen to become the world's most valuable company, with a market capitalisation of more than 4 trillion. When Nvidia announces its earnings on Wednesday, investors will get to see how the tech giant has been faring amid the tumult of President Donald Trump's trade salvoes and concerns about whether artificial intelligence has been overhyped. Nvidia specialises in making the graphics processing units (GPUs) that power AI, including the Blackwell B200, marketed as the world's most powerful chip. The California-based company's chips have become essential to the world's largest tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet, since AI exploded into the mainstream with the release of OpenAI's generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, in November 2022.

Half of adults in the UK are concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence on their job, according to a poll, as union leaders call for a "step change" in the country's approach to new technologies. Job losses or changes to terms and conditions were the biggest worries for the 51% of 2,600 adults surveyed for the Trades Union Congress who said they were concerned about the technology. AI is a particular concern for workers aged between 25 and 34, with nearly two-thirds (62%) of those surveyed reporting such worries. The TUC poll was released as a string of large employers – including BT, Amazon, and Microsoft – have said in recent months that advances in AI could lead them to cut jobs. Britain's job market is slowing amid a cooling economy, with the UK's official jobless rate at a four-year high of 4.7%, although most economists do not believe this is linked to an acceleration in investment in AI.