US curbs on foreign-made robots intensify its wider rivalry with China over AI, chips and industry. Humanoid robots are no longer a laboratory experiment; they are a growing market. Morgan Stanley estimates it could hit $5 trillion by 2050, with more than a billion humanoids in use worldwide. However, much of the global robot supply chain runs through China. It produces robot components at a scale and a price its competitors struggle to match.

UAE fund weighs $6.3 billion AI data center investment in Japan Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment is considering an investment that would see the construction of one of the largest data centers in Japan. The United Arab Emirates is considering investing as much as ¥1 trillion ($6.3 billion) to build an artificial intelligence data center in Japan, according to a person familiar with the matter. Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment would lead the funding of a 500-megawatt project in Akita Prefecture, which may include other foreign and domestic investors, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information isn't public. Once completed, it could become the largest data center in Japan. The talks with the Persian Gulf state underscore growing global interest in securing critical AI assets in countries viewed as relatively insulated from geopolitical tensions. A spokesperson for Mubadala declined to comment.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Now that Google has consolidated Google Gmail, Drive, and Photos into a single shared store of data, the biggest threat to going over your storage quota isn't an email, but that funny video you took two summers ago. If I had written this newsletter a week earlier I'd be $20 richer and have a lot more self-respect, too. If you're like me, you've been focusing on exactly the wrong aspect of managing your Google data quota: Gmail. If you're running a free Gmail account, chances are you've run across the dreaded error message, warning that your data quota is about to reach its limit.

Zulfi Alam thinks his team doesn't need to "prove" they engineered a new state of matter in their bid to reinvent computing. The man leading Microsoft's multibillion-dollar scheme to build a quantum computer says he isn't interested in appeasing scientists. When Zulfi Alam's team claimed last year to have effectively split an electron into so-called Majorana quasiparticles in its bid to reinvent computing, some scientists simply didn't believe the software giant. They cited inconclusive data in Microsoft's research papers and the lack of peer-review analysis for many of the results. But Alam, Microsoft's corporate vice president of quantum, tells WIRED with a chuckle, "I don't really care."

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Chevron and Williams are big winners in the race to power artificial intelligence as they build out gas-fired power plants and pipelines. It's been a banner year for oil and gas companies. Some of the world's biggest oil giants have announced billions of dollars in quarterly profits over the past two weeks, boosted largely by the soaring price of oil thanks to the conflict in the Middle East. But the artificial intelligence boom is also giving fossil fuel companies a new industry to sell their gas, pipelines, and power plants to: data centers . Two American oil and gas companies, Williams and Chevron, are presenting that demand to investors as a huge win.

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'I've had to Botox my CV': Are AI recruitment tools affecting women's careers? The fear of becoming surplus to requirements because of advancements in AI is one shared by millions of workers, but are AI recruitment tools posing a specific threat to women trying to return to employment? After a career spanning decades, with senior corporate roles in fashion, and a period of freelancing, 52-year-old Stacey Duguid decided to find one last job. What followed was 16 months of sending gazillions of CVs, with little more than a handful of automated replies, despite never previously struggling to find work. Feeling lonely and shameful and wondering if it was a me problem, she posted on social media asking whether other women her age were having the same experience.

Communities across the country are trying to keep data centers out. A victory in Maryland shows a blueprint--but no guarantees. Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. You're already subscribed to the aa_Nitish_Pahwa newsletter. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

I put handheld, wearable, and misting fans through a sweltering summer to see which ones kept me coolest. When I was first hired as a commerce editor at WIRED in summer 2024, one of the first media requests I fielded was from a nationally renowned talk show. The ask was for an editor to speak on the popularity of portable and neck fans. High-temperature records were breaking all over the US, and abroad, neck fans were suddenly the "it" accessory at the Paris Olympics, hugging the nape of athletes like Simone Biles. "I can't do this," I told my manager at the time.