Forget the glorious successes of past breakthroughs--the real justification for research investment is what we get for our money. MIT Technology Review You can read more from the series here. Given the draconian cuts to US federal funding for science, including the administration's proposal to reduce the 2026 budgets of the National Institutes of Health by 40% and the National Science Foundation by 57%, it's worth asking some hard-nosed money questions: How much we be spending on R&D? How much value do we get out of such investments, anyway? To answer that, it's important to look at both successful returns and investments that went nowhere. How Trump's policies are affecting early-career scientists--in their own words Every year, we recognize extraordinary young researchers on our Innovators Under 35 list. Recent honorees told us how they're faring under the new administration.

"It shouldn't take longer to approve an [energy] project than it takes to build it," said National Governors Association Vice Chair Kevin Stitt at Friday's conference in Washington. That, the Oklahoma Republican said, is the collective picture painted of all the problems with government bureaucracy at all levels that imperils the U.S.' ability to stay ahead of China in terms of cyberthreat-prevention and energy dominance. Permitting reform is one of the most important things to address with a new administration and new state government sessions beginning, the governors collectively expressed. There was bipartisan consensus at the NGA that America must move responsibly toward a future secure from malign foreign actors in both cybersecurity and energy development. "Permitting reform is one of those issues where both Republicans and Democrats recognize the problem, we largely agree on solutions," Stitt said, adding it is a national security issue that the U.S. must streamline permitting.

A three-mile stretch of Interstate 94 in Michigan will be converted into America's first smart highway. Axios reports that the Alphabet-backed startup Cavnue has started constructing the smart highway as part of a new pilot project that could spur other construction projects across the country. Two more highways are in the works for Austin, Texas and somewhere else in the Southwest, according to Cavnue's website. The new smart road is big, long car tracking system for Michigan's Department of Transportation (MDOT) and for drivers on the highway. The smart highway is designed to send data like traffic updates, weather conditions, driving conditions and stranded vehicles in the hopes of relieving traffic congestion, preventing accidents and providing efficient responses to roadway emergencies.

The Center for Investigative Reporting, the nation's oldest nonprofit newsroom that produces Mother Jones and Reveal sued OpenAI and Microsoft in federal court on Thursday for allegedly using its content to train AI models without consent or compensation. "OpenAI and Microsoft started vacuuming up our stories to make their product more powerful, but they never asked for permission or offered compensation, unlike other organizations that license our material," said Monika Bauerlein, CEO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, in a statement. The work of journalists, at CIR and everywhere, is valuable, and OpenAI and Microsoft know it." Bauerlein said that OpenAI and Microsoft treat the work of nonprofit and independent publishers "as free raw material for their products," and added that such moves by generative AI companies hurt the public's access to truthful information in a "disappearing news landscape." OpenAI and Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment by Engadget.

Americans in the nation's capital shared their biggest concerns about artificial intelligence, citing fears about election interference and job security. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans in the nation's capital told Fox News their biggest concerns about artificial intelligence, with some saying they were afraid the rapidly advancing tech could lead to voter manipulation during the 2024 election cycle or eliminate jobs. "When things like that have too much control … the power to swing is too far," Cori, of Washington, D.C., told Fox News. "I do think that its gotten wildly out of control." AI's rapidly growing tech has consistently raised concerns about its ability to manipulate elections and eliminate jobs.

The Zebra, named a Best Place to Work in Austin four years running, is revolutionizing how connected consumers research and shop for insurance. We intentionally strive to build diverse teams that feel inclusive for all. Our motto is "All Stripes Welcome," and we put that into practice by valuing both traditional and non-conventional backgrounds and perspectives. Our Zeebs are passionate about learning, growing, & working together to tackle exciting problems. The Senior Data Engineer will be responsible for helping us collect, connect, centralize, and curate our data.

Australia will need to double the pace of its renewable energy uptake to meet the 2030 emissions target set by the Albanese government, even without any increase in demand, according to Bruce Mountain, head of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre. Labor's main energy policy, Rewiring the Nation, includes the creation of a special corporation to funnel $20bn into new transmission links to accelerate the uptake of more clean energy. The plan is part of Labor's pledge to cut Australia's 2005-level greenhouse gas emissions 43% by 2030, projecting renewables reach an 82% share of renewables in the National Electricity Market by then. Excluding hydro power, renewable energy has increased its share of the market 3% annually in the past five years, Mountain says. "Deducting 10% from hydro, the target is 72%," he says of Labor's goal.

Technology is improving every aspect of a business today. As a result, many organizations from various sectors are improving their digital transformation efforts. One way they do so is by including innovative AI solutions. AI is simply artificial intelligence. Neither would it destroy it.

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Kakao Brain, the AI tech research and development subsidiary of South Korean messaging app operator Kakao Corp., has reportedly announced that it will be upgrading its Korean-language based AI model to go all-in to promote the development of the nation's AI sector. As per the announcement, Kakao Brain plans on enhancing the deep learning process of its Korean-language AI model, KoGPT, and making it 100 times more efficient with the help of the Google Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), Google Cloud's supercomputer. Google TPU, which is a large-scale computing system that can rapidly calculate and process data, is the nation's biggest supercomputing infrastructure with deep learning capabilities. The company adds that it is capable of carrying out as many as one quintillion calculations per second. The company plans on improving its AI model with the system so it can understand Korean better, with the possibility of recognizing sarcasm in a sentence or filtering out negative comments online.