cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8650654

Everyone online keeps saying Chinese EVs are cheap knockoffs that could never compete with Tesla, Mercedes, BMW, or the rest of the world. So I flew 9,000 miles to China to see for myself.

From self-driving cars and massive EV factories to battery technology and infrastructure that honestly shocked me, this trip completely changed the way I look at the future of electric cars. I thought I knew what to expect… I was wrong.

We got a behind the scenes look at CATL and the battery tech powering the future of electric cars. EV batteries are changing fast, and CATL is a huge part of why.

::: spoiler Article:

Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the nineties shooter game "Doom" and say they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing.

It's the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain's networking system.

Each so-called "biological computer" contains around 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations.

Having mastered the simple computer game "Pong," where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball across a screen, the brain cells have moved on to bigger things.

Initially, the neurons were at the "level of a beginner who's never played a video game before," Alon Loeffler, Cortical Labs' senior application scientist, told AFP.

"Doom" involves a chaotic 3D game-world where the user is required to explore its surroundings and dispatch enemies—no easy task for a clump of cells.

"They were walking into walls a lot, shooting the walls, turning around, doing funny things like that," Loeffler said.

"And then eventually they started targeting the enemies more regularly and correctly."

It's not the cleanest execution, however. One demon takes several attempts to slaughter, with shots fired in multiple directions before the target is hit.

But the mind-bending research proves the neurons can adapt to stimuli in real time and complete goal-directed learning, Cortical Labs say.

'Scratching the surface'

The researchers converted the digital environment in "Doom" into patterns of electrical signals the neurons on the chip could understand.

When an enemy appears, specific electrodes stimulate the neurons on the special chip called a CL1, causing them to react.

Different patterns of neuron activity produce specific responses, such as firing the gun or moving left or right.

Researchers monitor the electrical activity of the neurons from a computer screen connected to the CL1, represented by thousands of tiny dots.

From this data, the team adjusts their input to influence and train the neuron's activity.

The CL1 isn't limited to computer games—the chip can be coded to perform a range of applications, from drug screening to AI-like machine learning.

"We are just scratching the surface of what these neural cultures can achieve when integrated in systems like our CL1," said chief scientific and operations officer Brett Kagan.

"Our neural cultures have been explored for a variety of tasks," he said—everything from "robotics, real-time learning tasks that are similar to AI, as well as health care, medicine, disease modeling, drug screening and even personalized medicine."

Not 'wacky science'

Kagan describes the CL1 chip as "a more sustainable and more powerful form of intelligence."

The human brain runs on an estimated 20 watts of power, a level of efficiency that silicon computing and artificial intelligence have not yet been able to replicate.

While it's "not aimed to replace what AI is doing" it's intended to "give us abilities that we've never had before," Kagan said.

The cells have a six-month lifespan and aren't yet capable of producing consistent, programmable results.

But analysts say the project's value could lie in its more sustainable power consumption compared to regular chips.

"We need better ways to manage that power envelope and get higher levels of efficiency," William Keating, CEO of semiconductor research company Ingenuity, said.

"This isn't wacky science or some bunch of scammers. This is real science and it's making real progress."

The costs to replace advanced missiles and platforms used thus far in the War on Iran is at least tens of billions of dollars, and will take years.

But the missile systems require rare earth magnets and other materials which can only be sourced through China, who has strict bans on their export to Western weapons makers.

The United States expended massive missile stockpiles in just a few weeks of the war, while committing far more resources to the defense of Israel than did the Israelis themselves.

Cuba is stepping up its renewable energy transition as it struggles amid an energy crisis. And China is providing critical support, notably donating thousands of solar kits to power healthcare centers, water pumping stations and other crucial services.

Gavin Newsome has begun touting a scheme of "Universal Basic Capitalism," claiming that it will help workers to navigate a post-work world with a "democratized economy." But is this plan really new, does it really benefit workers, and will it ever really come to fruition? This video explores the history of "Third Way" Reformism and Compromise through the lens of Critique of the Gotha Program by Karl Marx.

China has officially taken over the global shipbuilding industry, grabbing a staggering 70.9% of the market share. In this annual review, Sal Mercogliano breaks down the latest findings from the 2026 BRS Shipbuilding Report to reveal how South Korea, Japan, and the West are falling behind, and what this means for the future of global trade.

As a recent convert. What the fuck are these names ? LET ME OPEN UP SCRUNGLE and use it to JINX my DOLPHIN. I get that they are trying to be witty but sometimes less is more.

Microsoft reportedly leaked Dutch civil servants’ data to the US House of Representatives, local media reports.

The data leaked includes emails, minutes, and invitations.

The employees affected by the leak work for regulatory agencies that implement the EU digital regulations.

We investigated one of the world’s largest AI data centers, using thermal drone footage to reveal the hidden pollution powering the AI boom. As companies race to build the future of artificial intelligence, residents and experts warn that fossil fuels, secrecy, and weak regulation may be putting communities at risk.

https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/ai-spending-roi-enterprise-costs

Archive link https://web.archive.org/web/20260528114303/https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/ai-spending-roi-enterprise-costs

Why it matters: Companies that rushed to embrace AI are now confronting ballooning IT costs, uncertain productivity gains and growing employee skepticism.

Driving the news: Microsoft canceled most of its Claude Code licenses, in part over costs, according to The Verge, and Uber's COO said AI costs are getting "harder to justify."

An AI consultant tells Axios one of their clients recently spent half a billion dollars in a single month after failing to put usage limits on Claude licenses for employees.

Companies are citing AI's ability to automate jobs as a cause for layoffs, though Anuj Kapur, CEO of CloudBees, told Axios that workforce cuts may simply be "the only lever they can pull" to offset their AI bills.

Consumer sentiment around AI is also nosediving, and employees are rebelling against the use of the technology at work. 

What they're saying: The enterprise is undergoing a "healthy swing" away from AI overuse — or "tokenmaxxing," the push to burn as many AI tokens as possible — Ali Ansari, CEO of model training firm Micro1, told Axios.

Ansari hopes this correction will push companies toward more efficient AI use.
While the market views these tools as working equally well across the enterprise, Ansari says "the reality of AI right now is that it only works for coding."
That disconnect can drive up IT bills without leading to high return on investment in agents, he said. 

Friction point: Corporate AI adoption is running into four unique problems.

Use cases: "Most people default to automating tasks they dislike rather than tasks most valuable to the company," Sophia Velastegui, CEO of Velastegui Ventures and former chief AI officer at Microsoft told Axios. Instead, they should focus on using AI to drive revenue.

Costs: One CTO told Axios that employees were using AI models to check the weather. That gets expensive fast: Enterprise AI plans are not truly 'all you can eat,' and even simple chatbot queries can carry heavy token costs.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8633280

Comedians Christopher Titus and Rachel Bradley go scorched earth on the ongoing debate surrounding renewable energy. This clip dives into the absurd claims about wind power and the critical role of solar energy in our future, also highlighting the importance of batteries in modern electricity grids. It's a blistering commentary on the intersection of technology, politics, and climate change.