Special mud helps XGS Energy get more power out of geothermal wells

Young geothermal energy wells can be like budding prodigies, each brimming with potential to outshine their peers. But like people, most decline with age. In California, for example, the amount of electricity generated by geothermal power plants declined by 15% between 2001 and 2018, partly because existing wells degraded. “The history of geothermal has been […]
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Amazon, Meta back Scale AI in $1 billion funding deal that values firm at $14 billion

Scale AI has raised $1 billion in a Series F funding round that values the enterprise tech company at $13.8 billion — almost double its last reported valuation.

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Nvidia is talk of the town at AI events leading into this week’s earnings

As tech companies revealed their latest plans for artificial intelligence in the past week, Nvidia’s name has been everywhere.

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Porsche invests in battery startup South 8 to boost cold-weather EV performance

All cars suffer when the mercury drops, but electric vehicles suffer more than most as heaters draw more power and batteries charge more slowly as the liquid electrolyte inside thickens. Drivers in Chicago found this out the hard way last January after many Teslas failed to charge during a deep freeze. One startup, South 8 […]
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Godfathers of AI warn we may ‘lose control’ of AI systems without intervention

Two ‘godfathers’ of AI add their voices to a group of experts warning there’s potential to lose control of AI systems if action isn’t taken soon.
In July 2023, Dr Geoffrey Hinton made headlines by departing his job at Google to warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence. Now, a group that also includes Yoshua Bengio, another one of the three academics who have won the ACM Turing award, and a group of 25 senior experts, is warning AI systems could spiral out of control if AI safety isn’t taken more seriously in a newly-published paper.
“Without sufficient caution, we may irreversibly lose control of autonomous AI systems, rendering human intervention ineffective,” warns the paper. “Large-scale cybercrime, social manipulation, and other harms could escalate rapidly. This unchecked AI advancement could culminate in a large-scale loss of life and the biosphere, and the marginalization or extinction of humanity.
“We are not on track to handle these risks well. Humanity is pouring vast resources into making AI systems more powerful but far less into their safety and mitigating their harms.”
The group has stated that only an estimated 1-3% of AI publications are on safety, with greater focus being put on AI advancement, rather than safety regulation.
Why do we need AI safety?
As well as encouraging more research into AI safety, the group directly challenges global governments to “enforce standards that prevent recklessness and misuse”. The paper points to existing areas, such as pharmaceuticals, financial systems, and nuclear energy, where government oversight is already used to the advantage of corporations. It suggests that similar dangers could be exposed within the AI sector.
While China, the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom are applauded for taking the first steps in AI governance, the group writes that these early measures “fall critically short in view of the rapid progress in AI capabilities”.
“We need governance measures that prepare us for sudden AI breakthroughs while being politically feasible despite disagreement and uncertainty about AI timelines,” it continues. “The key is policies that automatically trigger when AI hits certain capability milestones.”
Although the group writes that it’s not too late to implement mitigation and failsafe policies, the urgency in the paper is clear. The group of AI experts urges governments around the world to act now, with fear that AI could overtake human intervention soon.
Featured image: Ideogram
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Life By You Early Access delayed indefinitely and there’s no sign we will see it soon

We are just two weeks from when life-sim fans were eagerly anticipating jumping into Life By You – Paradox Interactive’s Sims challenger.
While we didn’t really know what to expect in the Early Access which was set to go live on June 4th, we will now never find out how much, or probably how little we were going to get as the game has been yanked back and no new date for anything given.
A statement from Paradox’s Mattias Lilja reads:
“After much consideration, we regret to announce that we have decided to retract Life by You’s Early Access release date, previously set for June 4th. This was not an easy decision, especially since we understand the anticipation and excitement that many players have for the game. However, we believe that additional development time is needed.
While we would have preferred to commit to a new release window, we believe it is more prudent to hold off while we plan ahead, rather than committing to a new date that we cannot be certain to meet.
We will provide more information as soon as possible, until then we want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and patience.
Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive”
This does feel fairly major and you wonder what was said in the meeting leading up to the Early Access launch. What has changed now from when EA was announced just a short period of time ago?
The fact that there is not even the slightest inkling of a time when we will get to see things suggests major changes are afoot. Having said that Paradox has not had the easiest of times of late and having seen how a game such as Cities: Skylines 2 has fared and struggling to recover from will be in the back of people’s minds.
Life By You would certainly have picked up decent sales so there will be a financial hit here too, but balancing the longer-term hit of a game that goes down badly is obviously where we are at, and credit to Paradox for taking a tough call.
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Drake’s betting curse continues, loses $565,000 in Fury vs Usyk fight

It wasn’t just Tyson Fury who suffered a big loss on Saturday night, with rapper Drake also feeling the blow of losing $565,000 as he bet on the Gypsy King to beat Oleksandr Usyk.
The result went to a split decision from the judges, with the Ukrainian coming out on top and becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion in 24 years.
The end of the night saw Usyk claim Fury’s WBC title to his WBA, IBF, and WBO belts in front of boxing fans in Saudi Arabia and millions of people watching at home.
Before the fight kicked off, Drake took to his Instagram story to share a screenshot of his betting slip. The singer staked $565,000 on Tyson Fury being the winner. If Drake’s estimations were correct, he would have won a massive $1,000,050.00.
It’s not the first time Drake has lost huge amounts of money in his gambling escapades. Back in February 2023, he bet against Tyson Fury’s younger brother as he put $400,000 on Jake Paul beating him by knockout. Tommy Fury actually won by decision.
He lost $2 million Canadian dollars in November 2022 when Israel Adesanya faced a knockout loss by Alex Pereira.
Then, when everyone thought Drake’s luck had turned at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, he still lost the bet. He had a $1 million bet on Argentina to win and while they did, the bet didn’t stand as the match was decided by penalties.

Drake’s partnership with gambling company Stake
The losses haven’t stopped him from placing lofty bets on major sporting events though, especially with his Stake partnership in full flow.
Whenever Drake shares his gambles with fans, the bets are often laden with Stake advertising as the two have an ongoing partnership.
In March 2022, the duo officially announced that “Drake and Stake have come together,” with the singer writing on Instagram that “it was inevitable…”
Featured image: WikiCommons/ CC.20
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Crypto Astrologers See Price Moves in the Stars

They predict the ups and downs of Bitcoin based on planetary movements, and their super-secretive clientele listens.

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Data-labeling startup Scale AI raises $1B as valuation doubles to $13.8B

Scale AI has raised a $1 billion Series F round from a slew of big-name institutional and corporate investors including Amazon and Meta.
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Meta, Match, Coinbase and others team up to fight online fraud and crypto scams

The new coalition, Tech Against Scams, will work together to find ways to fight back against the tools used by scammers and to better educate the public against financial scams.
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