Kepler's Forerunner K2 represents the fifth generation of its humanoid robot technology. Footage from the streets of China captured a scene straight from a science fiction novel – spherical drones alongside patrolling law enforcement. Chinese robotics company, Logon Technology, unveiled the RT-G autonomous spherical robot in a release, saying it was a "technological breakthrough" designed to assist and even replace humans in dangerous environments. The spherical robots are capable of operating both on land and water. The robots can reach speeds of up to 35km/h (approximately 22 mph) and withstand impact damage of up to 8,818 pounds (4 tons), the company said.

Sora, an artificial intelligence (AI) video generator program created by startup OpenAI in 2021, is making waves as it has now moved out of the research phase and has been officially released to the public under the new name of Sora Turbo. The launch has triggered an online frenzy among users, causing the company to temporarily halt new account creations after finding itself overwhelmed by an avalanche of traffic. Sora uses text prompts to create content, similar to other content creation programs such as ChatGPT. Unlike traditional AI programs which produce written responses, Sora creates high-quality videos based on a user's text input. Adding it to @everartai asap so you can bring your images to life pic.twitter.com/wMehxOc8cm

Taipei, Taiwan – China has launched an antitrust investigation into chip giant Nvidia in what appears to be Beijing's latest act of retaliation against Washington's sanctions on Chinese tech companies. Chinese state media said on Monday that the California-based chipmaker was being investigated by the State Administration for Market Regulation for potentially violating China's antimonopoly laws. Regulators will also review the company's 6.9bn acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli-American supplier specialising in computer networking products, state media reports said, without providing further details. Chinese regulators approved the deal in 2020 with several restrictive conditions, including a provision that Nvidia would not discriminate against Chinese suppliers. Nvidia, which designs advanced chips used to power artificial intelligence (AI), is one of the world's most valuable companies, with a market capitalisation of more than 3.4 trillion.

China has opened a probe into Nvidia over suspicions that the U.S. chipmaker broke anti-monopoly laws around a 2020 deal, taking aim at the artificial intelligence heavyweight as Washington ramps up sanctions. The State Administration for Market Regulation opened an investigation into the company's recent behavior as well as the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, the government said in a statement on Monday. Beijing gave approval for the deal four years ago, on condition that Nvidia not discriminate against Chinese companies. The move against Nvidia is Beijing's latest riposte to escalating U.S. technology curbs, coming just a week after the Chinese government banned exports of several materials with tech and military applications. Nvidia's market value has ballooned this year on demand for chips that can run AI programs, making it one of the most valuable publicly traded companies and China's largest corporate target in the tech trade war so far.

China said on Monday it has launched an investigation into Nvidia over suspected violations of the country's anti-monopoly law, in a move widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington's latest curbs on the Chinese chip sector. The statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announcing the investigation did not elaborate on how the US company, known for its artificial intelligence (AI) and gaming chips, might have violated China's anti-monopoly laws. It said that the US chipmaker is, in addition, suspected of violating commitments it made during its acquisition of the Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies under terms outlined in the regulator's 2020 conditional approval of that deal. Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's shares fell 2.2% in pre-market trading in New York after the Chinese regulator's announcement.

Researchers trained an artificial intelligence model to gauge people's ages from their brain scans The abundance of 13 proteins in your blood seems to be a strong indicator of how rapidly your brain is ageing. This suggests that blood tests could one day help people track and even boost their brain health. Most previous studies that have looked at protein markers of brain ageing in the blood have involved fewer than 1000 people, says Nicholas Seyfried at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who wasn't involved in the new research. To get a broader idea of the impact of these proteins, Wei-Shi Liu at Fudan University in China and his colleagues analysed MRI brain scan data from nearly 11,000 adults from the UK Biobank project, whose ages ranged from around 50 to 80 at the time of imaging. Using data from 70 per cent of the participants, Liu's team trained an artificial intelligence model to predict how old the participants were based on features of the brain images, such as the size of different brain regions and how distinct parts connected to each other.

Tencent is one of China's largest technology companies Chinese tech giant Tencent doesn't seem to be affected by US export bans of computer chips that are crucial to the development of artificial intelligence systems – but even if such bans were more stringent, they may not be able to slow the country's AI advancement. Ritwik Gupta and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have analysed publications released by researchers at Tencent about the firm's latest models, including its Hunyuan AI models. The team's findings suggest that, in recent months, Tencent has publicly described using…

A robotic rat on wheels has learned how to interact with real rats while mimicking the rodents' play and fight behaviours. "[The] robotic rats have similar appearances and movements to animals, and even the same odour," says Qing Shi at the Beijing Institute of Technology in China. "It has become an important tool for exploring individual or collective rats' behavioural responses."

China has banned the export of rare but critical earth minerals used in the manufacture of important semiconductors to the United States in the latest move in an ongoing tech war between the two superpowers. Beijing's announcement on Tuesday came just one day after the US ramped up restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China, which affects the country's ability to develop advanced weapons systems and artificial intelligence. So why is a "tech war" brewing between China and the US, and why does it matter? For months, the two countries have been involved in tit-for-tat export restrictions. The US hopes to cripple China's military and artificial intelligence (AI) advances as well as hamper its ambitions to become a global leader in clean energy and other technologies.

China ratcheted up trade tensions with the United States with an export ban on several materials with high-tech and military applications, in a tit-for-tat move after U.S. President Joe Biden's administration escalated technology curbs on Beijing. Gallium, germanium, antimony and superhard materials are no longer allowed to be shipped to America, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday. Beijing will also place tighter controls on sales of graphite, it added. The move came after the White House on Monday slapped fresh curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory chips made by U.S. and foreign companies to China. The Biden administration's goal is to slow China's development of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence systems that may help its military.