Sci-Tech

France evacuates 3,000 near Spanish border over fire

French authorities evacuated more than 3,000 people from holiday campsites near the Spanish border on Monday after a fire broke out, officials said. “The villages of Saint-Andre, Sorede and the town of Argeles are at risk,” fire authorities said. The fire had spread over about 500 hectares in the Pyrenees-Orientales region, local officials said. About 550 firefighters had been deployed, along with several aircraft, they added. Authorities warned the number of evacuations could increase. Bordering […]

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Virgin Galactic rockets its first tourist passengers into space

By Lucie AUBOURG Virgin Galactic launched its first tourist passengers into the weightlessness of space Thursday, the culmination of a nearly two-decade commercial pursuit, the company said. The three passengers — Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff, and her teenage daughter Anastatia Mayers — floated gravity-free through the Virgin spacecraft about 45 minutes after taking off. “They are officially astronauts. Welcome to space,” said Virgin Galactic announcer Sirisha Bandla as the spacecraft pushed above 80 kilometers (50 […]

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Russia launches first Moon mission in nearly 50 years

Russia launched its first probe to the Moon in almost 50 years on Friday, a mission designed to give fresh impetus to its space sector, which has been struggling for years and become isolated by the conflict in Ukraine. The launch of the Luna-25 probe is Moscow’s first lunar mission since 1976, when the USSR was a pioneer in the conquest of space. The rocket with the Luna-25 probe lifted off at 02:10 am Moscow […]

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Bright flashes over Australia likely Russian rocket: space agency

https://youtu.be/PGDFGieOuGI   SYDNEY, Aug 8, 2023 (AFP) – Flashes of light seen across the sky over south-eastern Australia on Monday night were likely to have been remnants of a Russian rocket, the country’s space agency said. The dazzling display was spotted over the southern states of Victoria and Tasmania, captivating stargazers who thought it might be a meteor. But the Australian Space Agency said it was more likely to have been a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket […]

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Musk says his cage fight with Zuckerberg will stream on X

Elon Musk said Sunday that a “cage match” he and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have seemingly agreed to as a fund-raiser will be carried live on X, formerly known as Twitter, which he owns. “Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X,” Musk posted. “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.” Zuckerberg soon hit back on Threads, the new app he launched last month in a direct challenge to what was then still […]

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AI could halve time reading breast cancer scans, study suggests

  By Daniel Lawler Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Artificial intelligence could help almost halve the workload of radiologists when it comes to searching routine scans for signs of breast cancer, a large Swedish study suggested on Wednesday. The interim results of the trial were hailed as promising, but the authors cautioned that more research was needed before AI can be used to screen for breast cancer on a wider scale. While increasingly convincing […]

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Meta earnings beat market expectations as ads revive

By Glenn CHAPMAN SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2023 (AFP) – Facebook parent Meta on Wednesday beat market expectations for quarterly earnings, powered by a reviving digital ad business. Meta reported a profit of $7.8 billion on $32 billion in revenue during the recently ended quarter, as the number of people using Facebook monthly rose to 3.03 billion. “We had a good quarter,” Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in an earnings call. “We continue to […]

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Microsoft, Google beat earnings expectations amid AI frenzy

SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2023 (AFP) – Tech titans Google and Microsoft announced better-than-expected earnings on Tuesday as the frenzy over artificial intelligence stokes investor excitement and breathes a new life into the sector. The release of ChatGPT last year landed as technology giants were embarking on major layoffs and cost-cutting plans, with share prices hammered after flying high during the coronavirus pandemic. For the second consecutive quarter, Microsoft has more than reversed the trend, […]

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Musk rebrands Twitter, replacing bird logo with X

By Glenn CHAPMAN with Alex PIGMAN in Washington SAN FRANCISCO, July 24, 2023 (AFP) – Elon Musk killed off the Twitter logo on Monday, replacing the world-recognized blue bird with a white X as the tycoon accelerates his efforts to transform the floundering social media giant. Musk and the company’s new chief executive Linda Yaccarino announced the rebranding Sunday, scrapping one of technology’s most iconic logos in the latest shock move since the tycoon took […]

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OpenAI CEO’s Worldcoin crypto project launches

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24, 2023 (AFP) – OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, along with two co-founders, launched Monday the Worldcoin crypto project, saying they aim to grant users a verified digital identity and access to a financial network. “The Worldcoin Foundation today announced that Worldcoin, a project co-founded by Sam Altman, Alex Blania and Max Novendstern, is now live,” read a statement on Worldcoin’s website. Worldcoin provides users with a private digital identity — a […]

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Musk, top exec say Twitter to be renamed X, get big makeover

SAN FRANCISCO, July 23, 2023 (AFP) – Twitter owner Elon Musk and the chief executive he brought aboard just a month ago say the social media network will ditch the bird logo, rebrand the platform with the name X and move quickly into payments, banking and commerce. “Powered by AI, X will connect us in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” Twitter chief executive Linda Yaccarino tweeted Sunday afternoon. Late Saturday night, Musk indicated he […]

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Tech titans promise watermarks to expose AI creations

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2023 (AFP) – The White House said Friday that OpenAI and others in the artificial intelligence race have committed to making their technology safer with features such as watermarks on fabricated images. “These commitments, which the companies have chosen to undertake immediately, underscore three principles that must be fundamental to the future of AI — safety, security, and trust — and mark a critical step toward developing responsible AI,” the White House […]

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