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Tag: Technology

  • Supreme Court will take up Cisco’s bid to shut down lawsuit by Falun Gong

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    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up an appeal from tech giant Cisco seeking to shut down a lawsuit claiming that the company’s technology was used to persecute members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China.

    The justices, who will hear arguments in the spring, will review an appellate ruling that would allow the lawsuit against Cisco to go forward in U.S. courts.

    The court acted after the Trump administration weighed in on Cisco’s behalf to urge the justices to hear the case.

    An Associated Press investigation last year showed that American tech companies, to a large degree, designed and built China’s surveillance state, encouraged by Republican and Democratic administrations, even as activists warned such tools were being used to quash dissent, persecute religious groups and target minorities.

    In 2008, documents leaked to the press showed Cisco saw the “Golden Shield,” China’s internet censorship effort, as a sales opportunity. The company quoted a Chinese official calling the Falun Gong an “evil cult.” A Cisco presentation reviewed by AP from the same year said its products could identify over 90% of Falun Gong material on the web.

    Other presentations reviewed by AP show that Cisco represented Falun Gong material as a “threat” and built out a national information system to track Falun Gong believers. In 2011, Falun Gong members sued Cisco, alleging the company tailored technology for Beijing that it knew would be used to track, detain and torture believers.

    The issue before the Supreme Court is whether an American company can be held liable under two separate laws for aiding and abetting human rights violations. Cisco argues it isn’t liable under those laws, the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute (ATS) or the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), first enacted in 1991.

    In recent years, the Supreme Court and presidential administrations of both parties have been skeptical of lawsuits seeking to use U.S. courts as a venue to seek justice over the acts of foreign governments, especially those that took place abroad. To try to overcome that skepticism, Falun Gong members have argued that a substantial portion of Cisco’s activities involving China took place in the United States.

    A decision is expected by early summer.

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  • Meta signs 3 deals for nuclear energy to power AI data centers

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    Meta has cut a trio of deals to power its artificial intelligence data centers, securing enough energy to light up the equivalent of about 5 million homes.

    The parent company of Facebook on Friday announced agreements with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra for nuclear power for its Prometheus AI data center that is being built in New Albany, Ohio. Meta announced Prometheus, which will be a 1-gigawatt cluster spanning across multiple data center buildings, in July. It’s anticipated to come online this year.

    Financial terms of the deals with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra were not disclosed.

    The Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta said in a statement on Friday that the three deals will support up to 6.6 gigawatts of new and existing clean energy by 2035. A single gigawatt, according to a general industry standard for utilities, can power about 750,000 homes.

    “These projects add reliable and firm power to the grid, reinforce America’s nuclear supply chain, and support new and existing jobs to build and operate American power plants,” the company said.

    Meta said its agreement with TerraPower will provide funding that supports the development of two new Natrium units capable of generating up to 690 megawatts of firm power with delivery as early as 2032. The deal also provides Meta with rights for energy from up to six other Natrium units capable of producing 2.1 gigawatts and targeted for delivery by 2035.

    Meta will also buy more than 2.1 gigawatts of energy from two operating Vistra nuclear power plants in Ohio, in addition to the energy from expansions at the two Ohio plants and a third Vistra plant, Beaver Valley, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

    The deal with Oklo, which counts OpenAI’s Sam Altman as one of its largest investors, will help to develop a 1.2 gigawatt power campus in Pike County, Ohio, to support Meta’s data centers in the region.

    The nuclear power agreements come after Meta announced in June that it reached a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy to secure power from its nuclear plant in Clinton, Illinois.

    Constellation’s Clinton Clean Energy Center single nuclear reactor power plant is shown on July 25, 2025 in Clinton, Illinois. Meta signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation for the output from the plant.

    Scott Olson / Getty Images


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  • Meta signs three nuclear power deals to help support its AI data centers

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    Facebook parent Meta has reached nuclear power deals with three companies as it continues to look for electricity sources for its artificial intelligence data centers.

    Meta struck agreements with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra for nuclear power for its Prometheus AI data center that is being built in New Albany, Ohio. Meta announced Prometheus, which will be a 1-gigawatt cluster spanning across multiple data center buildings, in July. It’s anticipated to come online this year.

    Financial terms of the deals with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra were not disclosed.

    The Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta said in a statement on Friday that the three deals will support up to 6.6 gigawatts of new and existing clean energy by 2035.

    “These projects add reliable and firm power to the grid, reinforce America’s nuclear supply chain, and support new and existing jobs to build and operate American power plants,” the company said.

    Meta said its agreement with TerraPower will provide funding that supports the development of two new Natrium units capable of generating up to 690 megawatts of firm power with delivery as early as 2032. The deal also provides Meta with rights for energy from up to six other Natrium units capable of producing 2.1 gigawatts and targeted for delivery by 2035.

    Meta will also buy more than 2.1 gigawatts of energy from two operating Vistra nuclear power plants in Ohio, in addition to the energy from expansions at the two Ohio plants and a third Vistra plant in Pennsylvania.

    The deal with Oklo, which counts OpenAI’s Sam Altman as one of its largest investors, will help to develop a 1.2 gigawatt power campus in Pike County, Ohio to support Meta’s data centers in the region.

    The nuclear power agreements come after Meta announced in June that it reached a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy.

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  • Musk’s Grok chatbot restricts image generation after global backlash to deepfakes

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    LONDON — Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is preventing most users from generating or editing any images after a global backlash that erupted after it started spewing sexualized deepfakes of people.

    The chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has in the past few weeks been granting a wave of what researchers say are malicious user requests to modify images, including putting women in bikinis or in sexually explicit positions.

    Researchers have warned that in a few cases, some images appeared to depict children. Governments around the world have condemned the platform and opened investigations into the platform.

    On Friday, Grok was responding to image altering requests with the message: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.”

    While subscriber numbers for Grok aren’t publicly available, there was a noticeable decline in the number of explicit deepfakes that Grok is now generating compared with days earlier.

    The European Union has slammed Grok for “illegal” and “appalling” behavior, while officials in France, India, Malaysia and a Brazilian lawmaker have called for investigations.

    On Thursday, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer threatened unspecified action against X.

    “This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting. And it’s not to be tolerated,” Starmer said on Greatest Hits radio. “X has got to get a grip of this.”

    He said media regulator Ofcom “has our full support to take action” and that “all options” are on the table.

    “It’s disgusting. X need to get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”

    Ofcom and Britain’s privacy regulator both said this week they’ve contacted X and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI for information on measures they’ve taken to comply with British regulations.

    Grok is free to use for X users, who can ask it questions on the social media platform. They can either tag it in posts they’ve directly created or in replies to posts from other users.

    Grok launched in 2023. Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.

    The problem is amplified both because Musk pitches his chatbot as an edgier alternative to rivals with more safeguards, and because Grok’s images are publicly visible, and can therefore be easily spread.

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  • Meta lines up massive supply of nuclear power to energize AI data centers

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    OHIO — Meta has cut a trio of deals to power its artificial intelligence data centers, securing enough energy to light up the equivalent of about 5 million homes.

    The parent company of Facebook on Friday announced agreements with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra for nuclear power for its Prometheus AI data center that is being built in New Albany, Ohio. Meta announced Prometheus, which will be a 1-gigawatt cluster spanning across multiple data center buildings, in July. It’s anticipated to come online this year.

    What You Need To Know

    • Financial terms of the deals with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra were not disclosed

    • Vistra’s 20-year PPAs to provide more than 2,600 megawatts of zero-carbon energy from three nuclear plants to support Meta operations

    • The purchases under the Vistra agreements will begin in late 2026, with additional capacity added to the grid through 2034, which is when the full 2,609 MW of power will be online

    Financial terms of the deals with TerraPower, Oklo and Vistra were not disclosed.

    Meta said its agreement with TerraPower will provide funding that supports the development of two new Natrium units capable of generating up to 690 megawatts of firm power with delivery as early as 2032. The deal also provides Meta with rights for energy from up to six other Natrium units capable of producing 2.1 gigawatts and targeted for delivery by 2035.

    Vistra’s 20-year PPAs to provide more than 2,600 megawatts of zero-carbon energy from three nuclear plants to support Meta operations. 

    These agreements include 2,176 MW of operating generation and an additional 433 MW of combine power output increases. Vistra said the agreements will also grow the local tax base, foster economic development and protect existing jobs while creating new ones. 

    Vistra will now begin planning for subsequent license extensions at all three plants, extending operations of the carbon-free assets for another 20 years. 

    “This is a unique and exciting collaboration, and Vistra is proud to partner with Meta on these long-term power purchase agreements, which ensure the continued safe and reliable operation of Vistra’s Beaver Valley, Davis-Besse, and Perry nuclear power plants for decades to come while providing a competitive solution for our customer to support its sustainable operations,” said Jim Burke, president and CEO of Vistra. “Importantly, this commitment from Meta provides Vistra the certainty needed to invest in these plants and communities and bring new nuclear generation online for the grid – through uprates at our existing plants.”

    Vistra’s nuclear plants involved in the agreements include:

    • Perry: A single-unit power plant located on Lake Erie, about 40 miles north of Cleveland, has a capacity of 1,268 MW and provides more than 600 full-time jobs
    • David-Besse: A single-unit power plant in Oak Harbor, about 35 miles east of Toledo, has a capacity of 908 MW and provides more than 600 full-time jobs
    • Beaver Valley: A two-unit power plant in western Pennslyvania, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, has a capacity of 1,872 MW and provides more than 750 full-time jobs

    “At Meta, we are investing in nuclear energy because it provides clean, reliable power that is essential for advancing our AI ambitions and strengthening American leadership in energy innovation. By supporting nuclear power, we ensure that our operations – and the communities we serve – benefit from energy solutions that drive both technological progress and economic growth,” said Urvi Parekh, Head of Global Energy at Meta.

    Through the agreements Meta is purchasing: 

    • 2,176 MW of nuclear energy and capacity from the operating Perry and Davis-Besse plants
    • 433 MW of incremental nuclear energy and capacity from equipment upgrades to increase generation output (called uprates) at the Perry (Ohio), Davis-Besse (Ohio), and Beaver Valley (Pennsylvania) plants

    Electricity generated at the plants will continue to go to the grid for all electricity users.

    “As recently as 2020, before Vistra owned Perry, Davis-Besse, and Beaver Valley, these plants were on a path to retirement,” said Stacey Doré, Chief Strategy & Sustainability Officer of Vistra. “When we signed a deal to acquire these plants in 2023, Vistra saw their tremendous contribution – to the reliability of the grid, to the stability of the region, to their local communities, and to the people who work there. Fast-forward to today and we’re investing in expanding these same plants, and thanks to our dedicated employees and a committed partner like Meta, this fleet will continue to provide reliable, carbon-free energy to power the grid of the future.”

    The purchases under the agreements will begin in late 2026, with additional capacity added to the grid through 2034, which is when the full 2,609 MW of power will be online. 

    “Bringing new nuclear generation online is key to Ohio and our nation’s growth and security, and Vistra’s significant investment is a huge win for Ohio,” said U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. “Thanks to this announcement, essential plants will remain on the grid for the long-term, supporting jobs and local revenues.”

    Each plant has received initial license renewal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Through the agreements, Vistra can pursue subsequent license renewal for each of the reactors, extending each license an additional 20 years. Currently, Beaver Valley Unit 1 is licensed through 2036; Davis-Besse is licensed through 2037; Perry is licensed through 2046; and Beaver Valley Unit 2 is licensed through 2047.

    “This agreement reinforces Pennsylvania’s leadership in clean, reliable nuclear power and will support Pennsylvania’s workers, unlock new capacity to meet rising electricity demand, and help power economic growth and development across Beaver County and our Commonwealth,” said U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pennsylvania.

    The deal with Oklo, which counts OpenAI’s Sam Altman as one of its largest investors, will help to develop a 1.2 gigawatt power campus in Pike County, Ohio, to support Meta’s data centers in the region.

    The nuclear power agreements come after Meta announced in June that it reached a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy.

    “This partnership between Vistra and Meta taps into Pennsylvania’s strengths as a national energy leader and will create and protect good-paying jobs, grow our economy, and ultimately add more power to the grid,” said Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pennsylvania. “My administration is working to generate even more power in the Commonwealth to keep up with rising demand — with more power comes more national security, more independence, and more economic freedom. Projects like this — bringing new clean energy to our grid to power next generation technology — are exactly the types of projects we want to welcome to the Commonwealth.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Madison MacArthur, Associated Press

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  • Wonder opens 10th DC-area location as traditional food halls falter – WTOP News

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    Wonder, a tech-driven food hall concept, uses a single kitchen to serve over 20 concepts. With plans to vastly grow by 2027, it seeks to reshape the dining experience with technology and scale.

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    Wonder food hall opens in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard

    At a time when several food halls across the D.C. region closed last year —  The Block in Annandale, Virginia, The Heights in Chevy Chase and Solaire Social in Silver Spring, Maryland — one food hall chain keeps expanding in the D.C. region.

    Wonder is opening a new location in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood on Jan. 9, marking its 10th establishment in the Washington-Baltimore area. Other recent Wonder openings have included the 14th Street location in July 2025, as well as in West End and Navy Yard.

    Wonder’s approximately 3,400-square-foot location in Potomac Yard offers dishes by concepts tied to celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay, Marcus Samuelsson and Michael Symon. The wide-ranging menu ranges from barbecue to Mexican and Greek dishes, and beyond.

    While Wonder markets itself as “a new kind of food hall,” it doesn’t resemble a traditional one. Instead of several stalls being found under one roof, it has one service counter and several digital ordering tablets with one kitchen that serves over 20 concepts.

    Is the food hall trend fading or being reshaped?

    Kris Gobeil, market director for Wonder, told WTOP that Wonder doesn’t fit the definition of a ghost kitchen, because “a ghost kitchen is where you’re running something out of your kitchen that you don’t want anyone to know about.”

    “What we’re doing is something very different,” Gobeil said. “We are very much the opposite. We want everyone to know all about our amazing menus.”

    And more Wonder locations are on the way. This year, there are locations slated for Annapolis and Frederick in Maryland.

    Washington Business Journal reported that a location at the Parks at Walter Reed in D.C. is also planned, although Gobeil wouldn’t confirm. “At this stage, I’m not going to say just yet,” he said.

    Don’t expect growth expectations to temper down any time soon.

    In an interview with CNBC, Wonder founder and CEO Marc Lore said the plan is to grow from just over 90 locations today to 400 by 2027.

    With the goal of having both tech and food support one another, the rise of Wonder is punctuated by several acquisitions over the past few years: meal-kit company Blue Apron in 2023; Grubhub in 2024; independent media firm Tastemade in March 2025; and, most notably, robotics company Spyce in November 2025.

    Wonder’s latest acquisition of Spyce, from Sweetgreen, will result in testing out a bowl-making robot in New York City next year. The goal with Spyce is to eventually automate “almost everything,” including beverages, fryers and high-speed ovens, as reported by Restaurant Business.

    Lore’s background is inherently focused on tech, not restaurants, as he was the former president and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce and previously the CEO and co-founder of Quidsi, the parent company of a family of websites that included Diapers.com.

    But, his hopes are high for his multi-restaurant ordering platform to transcend.

    “This is not taking existing equipment and using robots to replace humans,” Lore told CNBC. “This is about creating new equipment to do new things that humans wouldn’t be able to even do.”

    In the end, Wonder’s appeal to diners is “(allowing) guests to truly order what they’re looking for, what they’re craving without having to compromise,” Gobeil said.

    The taste test

    But for any food business concept, the real test is: How is the food?

    Christina Tkacik, a food reporter for The Baltimore Banner, reviewed the Wonder location at Canton Crossing in Baltimore, Maryland, and didn’t hold back.

    Tkacik wrote she “hated” the food served, and that even the best dishes reminded her of “something I might eat on an airplane.”

    The Wonder food hall in Baltimore currently has a 3.5 rating on Yelp, while the Wonder in D.C.’s 14th Street and College Park, Maryland, sites each have a 2.7 rating on Yelp.

    In response to these criticisms, Gobeil said:

    “We’re obviously still learning. Feedback is still coming in. There’s not necessarily something we’re going to do differently. We’re just going to keep growing and learning from each steppingstone. Obviously, the feedback that we’ve gotten for those locations, we’re already trying to address and continue to bring out that amazing experience that we’re able to do at other locations as well.”

    Gobeil did not address any specific criticisms found on Yelp, and did not clarify exactly how those lower-rated locations are attempting to improve.

    Whether reviews are glowing or critical, Wonder’s expansion shows no signs of slowing. The question now is whether scale and technology can ultimately win over diners as quickly as investors.

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    Michelle Goldchain

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  • UCF doctor shares medical insight on International Space Station

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — After a Crew-11 astronaut suffered a medical episode on the International Space Station, a University of Central Florida space medicine expert gives insight into the medical capabilities of the crew and what is on the station.

    What You Need To Know

    • Dr. Emmanuel Urquieta describes what type of training an assigned crew medical officer goes through
    • He also shares what type of medical tools and equipment are onboard the International Space Station
    • He was the chief medical officer of the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health
    • RELATED coverage: Crew-11 mission cut short after astronaut has medical issue

    Dr. Emmanuel Urquieta, vice chairman of UCF’s Aerospace Medicine and associate professor of medicine, would not speculate as to what happened to the unnamed astronaut, but he shared what type of training the space station crew does and what equipment is onboard to help assist in the care of crew members.

    NASA has health standards for its astronauts as they need to meet a health requirement, plus training, before going to space. But each expedition — which means the current crew in the International Space Station — assigns a person to be a crew medical officer (CMO), explained Urquieta on Friday afternoon.

    “The CMO is not always a physician, but receives extensive preflight medical training in trauma care, medical emergencies, dental care, ultrasound imaging, and clinical decision-making in isolated settings. All crew members receive basic emergency medical training to support the CMO,” he stated to Spectrum News.

    Astronaut medical training is mission-specific and risk-based, with the CMO receiving advanced simulation-based training that focuses on stabilizing a patient, autonomous care and coordinating with medical teams back on Earth, stated Urquieta, who was the chief medical officer of the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health before joining UCF.

    In fact, he stated that NASA helped pioneer telemedicine, where a patient and a doctor can speak during a video call. The medical care that takes place on the space station relies heavily on telemedicine.

    Urquieta says some of the benefits of telemedicine include, “Crew members can transmit medical data, images (including ultrasound), and live communications to flight surgeons at Mission Control. Medical support is available 24/7, with dedicated flight surgeons assigned to each mission.”

    To assist the CMO, the International Space Station is equipped with various tools to provide medical care.

    “The ISS carries a Crew Health Care System (CHeCS) that includes diagnostic tools (ultrasound, physiologic monitoring), emergency and trauma equipment, airway and resuscitation supplies, and a formulary of medications covering pain, infection, cardiovascular, and other common conditions. These systems are designed to manage most expected medical events in orbit,” he described in an email.

    If a health issue comes up that is severe and beyond the scope of the CMO, NASA can activate medical contingency protocols, Urquieta said, who also spoke to Spectrum News in a separate article about the importance of space health and medicine in 2024.

    “These include real-time consultation with flight surgeons and medical specialists on the ground and, when indicated, early return to Earth using the docked spacecraft. From the ISS, evacuation can occur within hours,” he described.

    In fact, that is what is happening with the unnamed astronaut who had an undisclosed medical issue. On Thursday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that the Crew-11 mission had been cut short so the astronaut could come back down to Earth to receive full medical care.

    NASA is currently working to determine when the Crew-11 member can undock from the space station and return to Earth.

    Crew-11 is made up of NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke, along with mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

    All four members will be returning after spending about five months on the space station. They were launched on a Falcon 9 rocket in August 2025.

    Urquieta also shared that NASA uses a probabilistic risk-assessment tool called the Integrated Medical Model (IMM). The tool uses simulations to assess millions of hypothetical missions and calculate the incidence, severity, and timing of medical events.

    “For long-duration missions in low-Earth orbit, early IMM analyses predicted a high probability (>50%) of at least one medical event requiring evacuation over the lifetime of the ISS program, with expected occurrence on the order of 30,000–60,000 cumulative crew-days. In practice, after over 25 years of continuous ISS operations and well beyond 100,000 cumulative crew-days, no evacuation has occurred for an acute life-threatening medical emergency,” he stated.

    He continued, “This outcome has been substantially better than IMM predictions, underscoring the impact of rigorous astronaut selection, aggressive prevention strategies, continuous physiological monitoring, and real-time telemedical support by ground-based flight surgeons.”

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    Anthony Leone

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  • NASA cuts space station mission short

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    NEW YORK — In a rare move, NASA is cutting a mission aboard the International Space Station short after an astronaut had a medical issue.

    The space agency said Thursday the U.S.-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned.

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    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN – AP Science Writer

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  • From Climbing Vacuums to Cyber Pets: Some Highlights of CES 2026

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    LAS VEGAS (AP) — CES 2026 offered a glimpse of a future that feels straight out of a sci-fi movie: bendable screens, paper-thin TVs and cars and gadgets that can think for themselves as they get to know you and your family’s wants and needs.

    As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang put it, “The ChatGPT moment for physical AI is here.”

    And everywhere you looked, robots. They roamed the show floor, assisted workers and entertained crowds — from humanoid helpers and furry “cyber pets” to task-specific machines.

    Here’s a recap of some of the attention-grabbing gadgets at CES 2026, the annual technology trade show in Las Vegas:

    Lego leaned heavily into fan nostalgia this week to unveil its latest innovation, enlisting Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer David Filoni and a lineup of familiar Star Wars characters, including Chewbacca, R2-D2, C-3PO and X-wing pilots.

    On Monday, the company introduced Lego Smart Play, a new platform built around connected bricks, tags and specially designed minifigures in partnership with Star Wars. These smart bricks are equipped with sensors that detect light and distance, triggering coordinated lights and sounds when used together to bring builds to life.

    The platform allows fans to build interactive scenes, like space battles or lightsaber duels.

    Another point for nostalgia: Clicks Technology is reviving the physical phone keyboard with its magnetic QWERTY model that clips onto phones.

    Co-founder Jeff Gadway said the company’s Power Keyboard “is one keyboard for all your smart devices.”

    It features a full QWERTY layout, with directional keys and a number row, in a callback to the Blackberry-era of smartphones for those who miss real buttons. The company said it also doubles as a wireless power bank.


    Return of LG’s Wallpaper TV line

    If you’re not familiar with CES, just know that new TV announcements are ubiquitous to the show — some big, some small, some even transparent. But LG brought something distinct to CES this year: an OLED TV that’s only 9mm thick.

    The South Korean tech company announced the OLED evo W6 model from its Wallpaper line just ahead of CES but reporters and industry representatives were able to see it for the first time at the show.

    As advertised, the screen displays video nearly edge-to-edge and is ridiculously thin (though it doesn’t roll up like its name implies). Like the previous models in its Wallpaper line, the TV’s inputs are housed in a box that sits nearby. LG representatives claim you can seamlessly stream 4K video and audio to the screen. No pricing was available but the new TV will be available in 77- and 83-inch sizes.


    The vacuum that can climb stairs

    Chinese robovac maker Roborock introduced a vacuum that literally sprouts chicken-like legs to navigate up and down stairs. There are vacuums out there capable of this feat (and there were even a few others at CES), but this one actually cleans the steps along the way.

    The newly introduced Saros Rover took its time in its ascent and descent during the demo on the showroom floor, but Roborock said it will be able to traverse almost any style of stairwell, including spiraled and curved. Unfortunately, no release date was given for the Rover, which the company says is still in development.


    Razer goes the smart glasses route with headphones

    Gaming tech company Razer brought a very interesting concept to CES, a set of over-ear headphones that can largely replicate the capabilities of currently available smart glasses (think Meta’s Ray Ban glasses).

    During the demo, Razer’s host asked the AI-powered headset — dubbed Project Motoko — to translate a Japanese restaurant menu into English and even asked it to search up information on The Associated Press.

    The headphones see using built-in cameras and take audio inputs from microphones. What AI model serves as the base of the headphones is up to the user, and it sounded like the usual suspects were supported — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude.

    While it’s being developed largely as a consumer product, Razer did mention that it could be sold to businesses to gather data to train AI models. Razer said consumer data retrieved from the headphones wouldn’t be sold for training purposes and that enterprise sales would be siloed from consumer sales.


    Extended-reality platform aims to help process grief

    Do you wish you could speak one more time with a loved one who died unexpectedly? Or sit down for a conversation with your younger self? One company is exploring how immersive technology might make something like that possible, at least in part.

    VHEX Lab showcased its SITh.XRaedo, an immersive extended-reality grief therapy platform that creates a virtual avatar from a single photo and, according the company, is guided in real time by a trained XR therapist. Wearing a virtual reality headset, users can speak with the avatar, which responds through speech, nods, smiles and other gestures.

    The company, which won a digital health innovation award at CES, said the platform is designed to help people process grief and find closure, offering an alternative way to mourn.


    Personal mobility on autopilot

    Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride — that’s exactly what some conference attendees did at Strutt’s booth. Curious volunteers sat blindfolded in the robotics company’s new self-driving personal mobility chair called the EV1, which senses its surroundings and navigates on its own. With the push of a button and a forward lever, the chair guided riders through a small course, looping them around without requiring any active control.

    Tony Hong, CEO and founder of the Singapore-based Strutt, told AP that the chair has a full suite of sensors that helps it avoid bumps, walls, people and other obstacles, adjusting in real time as it drives.


    A “cyber pet” that turned heads at CES

    Allergic to dogs or cats but still craving a furry sidekick? Chinese tech brand Ollobot pitched a futuristic alternative: a rolling, purple “cyber pet” named OlloNi. Part plush toy, part AI robot, OlloNi is designed to feel warm and expressive, unlike the stiff, humanoid home robots that often dominate robotics, the company said.

    OlloNi uses a screen mounted at its neck, making eye contact and cycling through thousands of animated expressions meant to mirror human emotion and interaction.

    Scratch behind its fuzzy “ears,” and OlloNi’s wide digital “eyes” pop open in apparent delight, which drew attention and laughs from passersby on the show floor.


    Uber dives back into the robotaxi game

    Uber used CES to pull back the curtain on its upcoming robotaxi, offering the public a first look at a self-driving vehicle developed with luxury EV maker Lucid Motors and autonomous technology company Nuro.

    Uber called it the most premium robotaxi yet, with cameras, sensors and radar for full 360-degree awareness, along with a sleek, low-profile roof “halo” fitted with LED screens that display a rider’s initials and ride status. Inside, passengers can tailor the temperature, seat heating and music, while on-screen visuals show what the vehicle sees and the route it plans to follow in real time.

    The companies said on-road testing, led by Nuro, began in the San Francisco area last month, as they work toward launching the service before the end of the year.

    Associated Press journalists Aya Diab, Jessica Hill and Ty ONeil contributed to this report from Las Vegas.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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  • Elon Musk’s xAI to build $20 billion data center in Mississippi

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    Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, plans to spend $20 billion on a data center in Southaven, Mississippi

    JACKSON, Miss. — Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI is set to spend $20 billion to build a data center in Southaven, Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Thursday, calling it the largest private investment in the state’s history.

    The data center, called MACROHARDRR, is being built in Mississippi’s DeSoto County near Memphis, Tennessee. It will be the company’s third data center in the greater Memphis area. xAI CFO Anthony Armstrong said the cluster of data centers will house “the world’s largest supercomputer” with 2 gigawatts of computing power.

    The announcement comes as xAI faces scrutiny over its data center projects in the Memphis area. The NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center have raised concerns over air pollution generated by xAI’s supercomputer facility located near predominantly Black communities in Memphis.

    A petition by the Safe and Sound Coalition, a Southaven group opposing xAI’s developments, calls for shutting down xAI’s operations in the area and has received more than 900 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

    xAI did not immediately respond when asked for comment about environmental concerns.

    A fact sheet released by the Mississippi governor’s office said environmental responsibility is a “core commitment” for xAI.

    During the announcement, Reeves personally thanked Musk. Reeves predicted the investment would bring hundreds of permanent jobs to the community, thousands of indirect subcontracting jobs, and tax revenue to support public services.

    Under the incentives for data centers passed in 2024, the state will waive all sales, corporate income and franchise taxes on the xAI development. Saving sales taxes on the computing power that xAI is purchasing would likely be worth a substantial amount of money, but the Mississippi Development Authority did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ questions about how much tax revenue Mississippi will give up.

    DeSoto County and the city of Southaven have also agreed to allow substantially reduced property taxes.

    xAI is expected to begin data center operations in Southaven next month.

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  • DeepSeek’s AI gains traction in developing nations, Microsoft report says

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    HONG KONG — DeepSeek, the Chinese tech startup that rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has been gaining ground in many developing nations in a trend that could narrow the gap of artificial intelligence adoption with advanced economies, a new report suggested.

    In the Thursday report, researchers from Microsoft said global adoption of generative AI tools reached 16.3% of the world’s population in the three months to December, up from 15.1% in the previous three months.

    Yet the divide of AI adoption in developed and developing countries is widening, the report noted, with AI adoption across advanced economies growing nearly twice as fast as developing nations.

    “We are seeing a divide and we are concerned that that divide will continue to widen,” said Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist for Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, which used anonymized “telemetry” to help track global device usage.

    Countries that invested early and consistently in digital infrastructure and AI led in terms of shares of users, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, France and Spain, according to the report. Some of Microsoft’s figures overlapped with the findings of a Pew Research Center survey published in October that mapped which countries are more excited than concerned about AI. In both reports, for instance, South Korea stood out in its embrace of AI.

    Microsoft has a vested interest in AI adoption — its business and much of the tech industry and stock market is staking its future on AI tools becoming more widely used and profitable — but Lavista Ferres said his lab is looking more broadly at the topic.

    His researchers found that the rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek, which was founded in 2023, has fueled wider AI adoption across the developing world given its free and “open source” models – with key components available for anyone to access and modify.

    When DeepSeek released its advanced reasoning AI model called R1 in January 2025, which it said was more cost-effective than OpenAI’s similar model, it raised eyebrows in the global technology industry and many were surprised by how China is catching up with the U.S. in technological advancements. Leading science journal Nature published peer-reviewed research co-authored by DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng in September, describing it as a “landmark paper” from the Chinese startup.

    Lavista Ferres said DeepSeek is a “good model” for tasks like math or coding, but it operates differently from U.S.-based models on topics like politics.

    “We have observed that for certain type of questions, of course, they follow the same type of access to the internet that China has,” he said. “Which means that there will be questions that will be answered very differently, particularly political questions. In many ways that can have an influence on the world.”

    DeepSeek offers a free‑to‑use chatbot on web and mobile, and has also given developers global access to modify and build on its core engine. Its lack of subscription fees has “lowered the barrier for millions of users, especially in price‑sensitive regions,” Microsoft’s report said.

    DeepSeek didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

    “This combination of openness and affordability allowed DeepSeek to gain traction in markets underserved by Western AI platforms,” the report added. “DeepSeek’s rise shows that global AI adoption is shaped as much by access and availability as by model quality.”

    Developed countries including Australia, Germany and the U.S. have sought to limit the use of DeepSeek over alleged security risks. Microsoft last year banned its own employees from using DeepSeek. Adoption of DeepSeek remained low in North America and Europe, the report found, but it surged in its home country China, as well as Russia, Iran, Cuba, Belarus – places where U.S. services face restrictions or where foreign tech access is limited.

    In many places, DeepSeek’s prevalence correlated with it being a default chatbot on widely available phones made by Chinese tech companies like Huawei.

    DeepSeek’s market share in China was 89%, the report estimated. That’s followed by Belarus’s 56% and Cuba’s 49%, both of which also had low AI adoption more broadly. In Russia, its market share was around 43%.

    In Syria and Iran, DeepSeek’s market share reached around 23% and 25%, respectively, the report added. In many African countries including Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Niger, DeepSeek’s market share was between 11% to 14%.

    “Open‑source AI can function as a geopolitical instrument, extending Chinese influence in areas where Western platforms cannot easily operate,” the report said.

    ___

    O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

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  • DeepSeek’s AI Gains Traction in Developing Nations, Microsoft Report Says

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    HONG KONG (AP) — DeepSeek, the Chinese tech startup that rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has been gaining ground in many developing nations in a trend that could narrow the gap of artificial intelligence adoption with advanced economies, a new report suggested.

    In the Thursday report, researchers from Microsoft said global adoption of generative AI tools reached 16.3% of the world’s population in the three months to December, up from 15.1% in the previous three months.

    Yet the divide of AI adoption in developed and developing countries is widening, the report noted, with AI adoption across advanced economies growing nearly twice as fast as developing nations.

    “We are seeing a divide and we are concerned that that divide will continue to widen,” said Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist for Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, which used anonymized “telemetry” to help track global device usage.

    Countries that invested early and consistently in digital infrastructure and AI led in terms of shares of users, including the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, France and Spain, according to the report. Some of Microsoft’s figures overlapped with the findings of a Pew Research Center survey published in October that mapped which countries are more excited than concerned about AI. In both reports, for instance, South Korea stood out in its embrace of AI.

    Microsoft has a vested interest in AI adoption — its business and much of the tech industry and stock market is staking its future on AI tools becoming more widely used and profitable — but Lavista Ferres said his lab is looking more broadly at the topic.

    His researchers found that the rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek, which was founded in 2023, has fueled wider AI adoption across the developing world given its free and “open source” models – with key components available for anyone to access and modify.

    When DeepSeek released its advanced reasoning AI model called R1 in January 2025, which it said was more cost-effective than OpenAI’s similar model, it raised eyebrows in the global technology industry and many were surprised by how China is catching up with the U.S. in technological advancements. Leading science journal Nature published peer-reviewed research co-authored by DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng in September, describing it as a “landmark paper” from the Chinese startup.

    Lavista Ferres said DeepSeek is a “good model” for tasks like math or coding, but it operates differently from U.S.-based models on topics like politics.

    “We have observed that for certain type of questions, of course, they follow the same type of access to the internet that China has,” he said. “Which means that there will be questions that will be answered very differently, particularly political questions. In many ways that can have an influence on the world.”

    DeepSeek offers a free‑to‑use chatbot on web and mobile, and has also given developers global access to modify and build on its core engine. Its lack of subscription fees has “lowered the barrier for millions of users, especially in price‑sensitive regions,” Microsoft’s report said.

    DeepSeek didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

    “This combination of openness and affordability allowed DeepSeek to gain traction in markets underserved by Western AI platforms,” the report added. “DeepSeek’s rise shows that global AI adoption is shaped as much by access and availability as by model quality.”

    Developed countries including Australia, Germany and the U.S. have sought to limit the use of DeepSeek over alleged security risks. Microsoft last year banned its own employees from using DeepSeek. Adoption of DeepSeek remained low in North America and Europe, the report found, but it surged in its home country China, as well as Russia, Iran, Cuba, Belarus – places where U.S. services face restrictions or where foreign tech access is limited.

    In many places, DeepSeek’s prevalence correlated with it being a default chatbot on widely available phones made by Chinese tech companies like Huawei.

    DeepSeek’s market share in China was 89%, the report estimated. That’s followed by Belarus’s 56% and Cuba’s 49%, both of which also had low AI adoption more broadly. In Russia, its market share was around 43%.

    In Syria and Iran, DeepSeek’s market share reached around 23% and 25%, respectively, the report added. In many African countries including Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Niger, DeepSeek’s market share was between 11% to 14%.

    “Open‑source AI can function as a geopolitical instrument, extending Chinese influence in areas where Western platforms cannot easily operate,” the report said.

    O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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  • Gmail’s new AI features, turning it into a personal assistant

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    More artificial intelligence is being implanted into Gmail as Google tries to turn the world’s most popular email service into a personal assistant that can improve writing, summarize far-flung information buried in inboxes and deliver daily to-do lists.

    The new AI features announced Thursday could herald a pivotal moment for Gmail, a service that transformed email when it was introduced nearly 22 years ago. Since then, Gmail has amassed more than 3 billion users to become nearly as ubiquitous as Google’s search engine.

    Gmail’s new AI options will only be available in English within the United States for starters, but the company is promising to expand the technology to other countries and other languages as the year unfolds.

    The most broadly available tool will be a “Help Me Write” option designed to learn a user’s writing style so it can personalize emails and make real-time suggestions on how to burnish the message.

    Google is also offering subscribers who pay for its Pro and Ultra services access to technology that mirrors the AI Overviews that’s been built into its search engine since 2023. The expansion will enable subscribers pose conversational questions in Gmail’s search bar to get instant answers about information they are trying to retrieve from their inboxes.

    In what could turn into another revolutionary step, “AI Inbox” is also being rolled out to a subset of “trusted testers” in the U.S. When it’s turned on, the function will sift through inboxes and suggest to-do lists and topics that users might want to explore.

    “This is us delivering on Gmail proactively having your back,” said Blake Barnes, a Google vice president of product.

    All of the new technology is tied to the Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 3, which was unleashed into its search engine late last year. The upgrade, designed to turn Google search into a “thought partner” has been so well received that it prompted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose company makes the popular ChatGPT chatbot, to issue a “code red” following its release.

    But thrusting more AI into Gmail poses potential risks for Google, especially if the technology malfunctions and presents misleading information or crafts emails that get users into trouble — even though people are able to proofread the messages or turn off the features at any time.

    Allowing Google’s AI to dig deeper into inboxes to learn more about their habits and interest also could raise privacy issues — a challenge that Gmail confronted from the get-go.

    To help subsidize the free service, Google included targeted ads in Gmail that were based on information contained within the electronic conversations. That twist initially triggered a privacy backlash among lawmakers and consumer groups, but the uproar eventually died down and never deterred Gmail’s rapid growth as an email provider. Rivals eventually adopted similar features.

    As it brings more AI into Gmail, Google promises none of the content that the technology analyzes will be used to train the models that help Gemini improve. The Mountain View, California, company says it also has built an “engineering privacy” barrier to corral all the information within inboxes to protect it from prying eyes.

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  • SpaceX pushes back Starlink launch to Friday

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    CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla. — SpaceX has pushed the second of the year from the Sunshine State to Friday.

    What You Need To Know

    • SpaceX will attempt to launch Starlink 6-96 on Friday afternoon
    • Starlink 6-96 mission will take off from Space Launch Complex 40

    The Falcon 9 rocket will send up Starlink 6-96 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated SpaceX.

    Originally, the launch was going to happen on Thursday, with the four-hour launch window opening at 1:29 p.m. ET, but the liftoff time was pushed back a number of times until it was scrubbed. 

    SpaceX did not give a reason why it cancelled Thursday’s launch, but the new attempt is set for Friday, with the four-hour launch window starting at 1:03 p.m. ET.

    The 45th Weather Squadron’s forecast for Friday’s mission is the same it gave for Thursday’s launch attempt: About a 95% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule.

    Find out more about the weather criteria for a Falcon 9 launch.

    Going up

    This is the 29th mission for the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster B1069. It has had several missions before this launch, with most of them being Starlink ones:

    After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket will land on the droneship Just Read the Instructions which will be in the Atlantic Ocean.

    About the mission

    The 29 satellites from the Starlink company, owned by SpaceX, will be heading to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands already there.

    Once deployed and in their orbit, they will provide internet service to many parts of Earth.

    Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been recording Starlink satellites.

    Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:

    • 9,422 are in orbit
    • 8,170 are in operational orbit

     

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    Anthony Leone

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  • We built evaluation for accountability–now it’s time to build it for growth

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    Key points:

    Teacher evaluations have been the subject of debate for decades. Breakthroughs have been attempted, but rarely sustained. Researchers have learned that context, transparency, and autonomy matter. What’s been missing is technology that enhances these at scale inside the evaluation process–not around it. 

    As an edtech executive in the AI era, I see exciting possibilities to bring new technology to bear on these factors in the longstanding dilemma of observing and rating teacher effectiveness.

    At the most fundamental level, the goals are simple, just as they are in other professions: provide accountability, celebrate areas of strong performance, and identify where improvement is needed. However, K-12 education is a uniquely visible and important industry. Between 2000 and 2015, quality control in K-12 education became more complex, with states, foundations, and federal policy all shaping the definition and measurement of a “proficient” teacher. 

    For instance, today’s observation cycle might include pre- and post-observation conferences plus scheduled and unscheduled classroom visits. Due to the potential for bias in personal observation, more weight has been given to student achievement, but after critics highlighted problems with measuring teacher performance via standardized test scores, additional metrics and artifacts were included as well.

    All of these changes have resulted in administrators spending more time on observation and evaluation, followed by copying notes between systems and drafting comments–rather than on timely, specific feedback that actually changes practice. “Even when I use Gemini or ChatGPT, I still spend 45 minutes rewriting to fit the district rubric,” one administrator noted.

    “When I think about the evaluation landscape, two challenges rise to the surface,” said Dr. Quintin Shepherd, superintendent at Pflugerville Independent School District in Texas. “The first is the overwhelming volume of information evaluators must gather, interpret, and synthesize. The second is the persistent perception among teachers that evaluation is something being done to them rather than something being done for them. Both challenges point in the same direction: the need for a resource that gives evaluators more capacity and teachers more clarity, immediacy, and ownership. This is where AI becomes essential.”

    What’s at stake

    School leaders are under tremendous pressure. Time and resources are tight. Achieving benchmarks is non-negotiable. There’s plenty of data available to identify patterns and understand what’s working–but analyzing it is not easy when the data is housed in multiple platforms that may not interface with one another. Generic AI tools haven’t solved this.  

    For teachers, professional development opportunities abound, and student data is readily available. But often they don’t receive adequate instructional mentoring to ideate and try out new strategies. 

    Districts that have experimented with AI to provide automated feedback of transcribed recordings of instruction have found limited impact on teaching practices. Teachers report skepticism that the evolving tech tools are able to accurately assess what is happening in their classrooms. Recent randomized controlled trials show that automated feedback can move specific practices when teachers engage with it. But that’s exactly the challenge: Engagement is optional. Evaluations are not. 

    Teachers whose observations and evaluations are compromised or whose growth is stymied by lost opportunities for mentoring may lose out financially. For example, in Texas, the 2025-26 school year is the data capture period for the Teacher Incentive Allotment. This means fair and objective reviews are more important than ever for educators’ future earning potential.

    For all of these reasons, the next wave of innovation has to live inside the required evaluation cycle, not off to the side as another “nice-to-have” tool.

    Streamlining the process

    My background at edtech companies has shown me how eager school leaders are to make data-informed decisions. But I know from countless conversations with administrators that they did not enter the education field to crunch numbers. They are motivated by seeing students thrive. 

    The breakthrough we need now is an AI-powered workspace that sits inside the evaluation system. Shepherd would like to see “AI that quietly assists with continuous evidence collection not through surveillance, but pattern recognition. It might analyze lesson materials for cognitive rigor, scan student work products to detect growth, or help teachers tag artifacts connected to standards.”

    We have the technology to create a collaborative workspace that can be mapped to the district’s framework and used by administrators, coaches, support teams, and educators to capture notes from observations, link them to goals, provide guidance, share lesson artifacts, engage in feedback discussions, and track growth across cycles. After participating in a pilot of one such collaborative workspace, an evaluator said that “for the first time, I wasn’t rewriting my notes to make them fit the rubric. The system kept the feedback clear and instructional instead of just compliance-based.”

    As a superintendent, Shepherd looks forward to AI support for helping make sense of complexity. “Evaluators juggle enormous qualitative loads: classroom culture, student engagement, instructional clarity, differentiation, formative assessment, and more. AI can act as a thinking partner, organizing trends, highlighting possible connections, identifying where to probe deeper, or offering research-based framing for feedback.”

    The evaluation process will always be scrutinized, but what must change is whether it continues to drain time and trust or becomes a catalyst for better teaching. Shepherd expects the pace of adoption to pick up speed as the benefits for educators become clear: “Teachers will have access to immediate feedback loops and tools that help them analyze student work, reconsider lesson structures, or reflect on pacing and questioning. This strengthens professional agency and shifts evaluation from a compliance ritual to a growth process.”

    Real leadership means moving beyond outdated processes and redesigning evaluation to center evidence, clarity, and authentic feedback. When evaluation stops being something to get through and becomes something that improves practice, we will finally see technology drive better teaching and learning.

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  • Crew-11 mission cut short after astronaut has medical issue

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, said during a press conference on Thursday evening that Crew-11’s mission on the International Space Station will be cut short after one of its astronauts suffered an unknown medical issue.

    What You Need To Know

    • NASA has not released the name of the astronaut
    • The U.S. space agency has not stated what the medical issue is
    • Crew-11 mission will be cut short; Crew-12 launch could be sooner than expected

    Isaacman, Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, and NASA’s Chief Health and Medical Officer Dr. James Polk stressed that this is not an emergency de-orbit and while they would not name the astronaut and say what the medical issue was that happened on Wednesday, they did say he or she is in stable condition.

    “Our crews are extensively trained, as the administrator mentioned, to manage unexpected medical situations and other off nominal events, including onboard training, which we conduct regularly for these situations. Yesterday was a textbook example of that training in action,” said Kshatriya.

    Polk said that while the International Space Station has medical hardware and the astronauts are trained, he said getting the astronaut back to Earth is the best option to fully assess the medical condition.

    The astronaut is stable and in the 25 years of operations, there have been no medical emergencies on the International Space Station, said the three men.

    Polk added that in this new event, officials are erring on the side of caution and are not considering a medical emergency since the astronaut is not immediately coming back down to Earth.

    Polk said what happened was not the result of getting ready for a planned spacewalk on Thursday.

    Crew-11 is made up of NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke, along with mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

    Fincke and Cardman were set to conduct a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on Thursday at 8 a.m. ET, to install a modification kit and cables for a future rollout of a solar array.

    NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the Crew-11 mission will be cut short after one of its members suffered a medical issue. (NASA)

    Isaacman said that NASA teams are working to get Crew-11 home earlier so the astronaut can be evaluated and treated.

    NASA is also considering moving up the Crew-12 launch earlier, which was supposed to go up sometime in February, Isaacman said, who added that an earlier Crew-12 timeline will not impact the launch of the Artemis II moon mission set for early next month.

    Spectrum News asked Isaacman if NASA would consider having a medical doctor on board the International Space Station and future space missions.

    “All of our astronauts go through extensive medical training. There is, as I described before, a lot of capabilities on the International Space Station that our astronauts interact with routinely, whether it’s part of their science and research obligations or just training simulations for these type of contingencies. I don’t think if we if one of our astronauts on board was a medical doctor, it would have changed anything, as it relates to our decision process on this,” he answered.

    “I think that speaks to their level of training. Also, our our teams on the ground, we have flight surgeons and not to mention numerous other surgeons and doctors that are available to weigh in on these type of situations.”

    The four Crew-11 members left from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in August 2025.

    They were expected to be onboard the International Space Station for between six to eight months.

    Once they left, Chris Williams will be the only American astronaut left onboard the space station, along with two Roscosmos cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev.

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    Anthony Leone

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  • Steve Jobs’ childhood belongings, early Apple products up for auction to mark company’s 50th anniversary

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    A collection of Steve Jobs’ earliest Apple products and personal memorabilia are up for auction to mark the tech company’s 50th anniversary. 

    RR Auction, the Boston-based auction house managing the sales, is now accepting bids on 191 items that include vintage Apple computers, original documents from the company’s nascent days and a sizable group of Jobs’ childhood belongings, including a set of bowties and Bob Dylan 8-track tapes. Sales opened Tuesday.

    One of the auction’s focal points is the inaugural check issued by Apple Computer, Inc., the company’s original name, on March 16, 1976, according to RR Auction. Signed by Jobs and his Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, the $500 Wells Fargo Bank note was written out to Howard Cantin, who designed the Apple-1 computer’s printed circuit board. As the auction house notes, the check predates the company’s official founding by 16 days.

    “As the first financial instrument ever drawn on the Apple Computer Company’s original account, it is the foundational document that financed the creation of Apple’s very first product and brought forth the personal computing revolution,” reads a description of the item on the RR Auction website.

    The check gleaned the Apple anniversary auction’s second-highest bid, $32,000, within 24 hours of its opening. But the auction house said it expects the final price will reach $500,000 or higher. The earliest prototype motherboard for the Apple-1 computer had pulled the highest bid, at $55,000, although the auction house estimated it would ultimately sell for at least half a million dollars.

    The earliest known Apple-1 prototype motherboard.

    RR Auction


    Those relics are accompanied by a range of Apple’s earliest products, including a functional Lisa-1 computer, the retro desktop model that preceded the company’s Macintosh era, and a first-generation iPhone, which was jailbroken by the teen hacker Geohot.

    Jobs’ childhood collection was given to RR Auction by his’ stepbrother, John Chovanec, according to the auction house. In addition to his bowties and 8-tracks, the group of artifacts also features the wooden desk from Jobs’ bedroom at the Los Altos, California, property now known as the site of the “Apple garage,” where he and Wozniak assembled the brand’s first computers in 1976.

    With it are a number of other miscellaneous items that Jobs once owned, like a heat sink and ribbon cable for his personal Apple-1, a series of car repair manuals annotated by hand, and a brief message to his father written on an old Apple business card. There are also Apple marketing posters dating back to the 70s and 80s.

    The auction is accepting bids through Jan. 29.

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  • At CES, auto and tech companies transform cars into proactive companions

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    LAS VEGAS — In a vision of the near future shared at CES, a girl slides into the back seat of her parents’ car and the cabin instantly comes alive. The vehicle recognizes her, knows it’s her birthday and cues up her favorite song without a word spoken.

    “Think of the car as having a soul and being an extension of your family,” Sri Subramanian, Nvidia’s global head of generative AI for automotive, said Tuesday.

    Subramanian’s example, shared with a CES audience on the show’s opening day in Las Vegas, illustrates the growing sophistication of AI-powered in-cabin systems and the expanding scope of personal data that smart vehicles may collect, retain and use to shape the driving experience.

    Across the show floor, the car emerged less as a machine and more as a companion as automakers and tech companies showcased vehicles that can adapt to drivers and passengers in real time — from tracking heart rates and emotions to alerting if a baby or young child is accidentally left in the car.

    Bosch debuted its new AI vehicle extension that aims to turn the cabin into a “proactive companion.” Nvidia, the poster child of the AI boom, announced Alpamayo, its new vehicle AI initiative designed to help autonomous cars think through complex driving decisions. CEO Jensen Huang called it a “ChatGPT moment for physical AI.”

    But experts say the push toward a more personalized driving experience is intensifying questions about how much driver data is being collected.

    “The magic of AI should not just mean all privacy and security protections are off,” said Justin Brookman, director of marketplace policy at Consumer Reports.

    Unlike smartphones or online platforms, cars have only recently become major repositories of personal data, Brookman said. As a result, the industry is still trying to establish the “rules of the road” for what automakers and tech companies are allowed to do with driver data.

    That uncertainty is compounded by the uniquely personal nature of cars, Brookman said. Many people see their vehicles as an extension of themselves — or even their homes — which he said can make the presence of cameras, microphones and other monitoring tools feel especially invasive.

    “Sometimes privacy issues are difficult for folks to internalize,” he said. “People generally feel they wish they had more privacy but also don’t necessarily know what they can do to address it.”

    At the same time, Brookman said, many of these technologies offer real safety benefits for drivers and can be good for the consumer.

    On the CES show floor, some of those conveniences were on display at automotive supplier Gentex’s booth, where attendees sat in a mock six-seater van in front of large screens demonstrating how closely the company’s AI-equipped sensors and cameras could monitor a driver and passengers.

    “Are they sleepy? Are they drowsy? Are they not seated properly? Are they eating, talking on phones? Are they angry? You name it, we can figure out how to detect that in the cabin,” said Brian Brackenbury, director of product line management at Gentex.

    Brackenbury said it’s ultimately up to the car manufacturers to decide how the vehicle reacts to the data that’s collected, which he said is stored in the car and deleted after the video frames, for example, have been processed. “

    “One of the mantras we have at Gentex is we’re not going to do it just because we can, just because the technology allows it,” Brackebury said, adding that “data privacy is really important.”

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  • The coolest technology from Day 2 of CES 2026

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    LAS VEGAS — Crowds flooded the freshly opened showroom floors on Day 2 of the CES and were met by thousands of robots, AI companions, assistants, health longevity tech, wearables and more.

    Siemens President and CEO Roland Busch kicked off the day with a keynote detailing how its customers are harnessing artificial intelligence to transform their businesses. He was joined onstage by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to announce an expanded partnership, saying they are launching a new AI-driven industrial revolution to reinvent all aspects of manufacturing, production and supply chain management.

    Lenovo ended the day with a guest star-rich visual banquet dedicated to spotlighting how its AI platforms can help people personally (wearables), with their businesses (enterprise platforms) and the world around them. To strike home his points, its CEO Yang Yuanqing was joined by tech superstars like Nvidia’s Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

    The CES is a huge opportunity annually for companies large and small to parade products they plan to put on shelves this year. Here are the highlights from Day 2:

    Gaming tech company Razer is well known for bringing buzz-worthy hardware to CES, like haptic, or tactile, seat cushions and tri-screen laptops.

    This year, it’s reaching beyond its standard gaming base and demonstrating two AI-powered prototypes — an over-ear gaming headset that doubles as a general-purpose assistant, and an AI desk companion that can provide gaming advice and also organize a user’s life.

    The holographic companion, based on a Razor on-screen AI assistant launched last year (Project Ava), has transitioned off-screen into a small glass tube that sits near your computer. The animated sprite has built-in speakers and a camera so it can see the world around it.

    Both devices are AI agnostic, so you can use your preferred model. For the demo, the headset — Project Motoko — ran on OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Project Ava worked off xAI’s Grok. Although still in development, Razer said it expects both to be released commercially later this year.

    Imagine your plane lands and, when you look out the window you see autonomous robots guiding it to the gate and then unloading the luggage. Oshkosh Corporation is pitching that future for airports big and small.

    At CES, it debuted a fleet of autonomous airport robots designed to help airlines pull off what it calls “the perfect turn” — a tightly timed process that happens after a plane lands, including fueling, cleaning, handling cargo and getting passengers off and back on.

    For travelers, CEO John Pfeifer says the goal is fewer delays without compromising safety. The technology is also designed to keep those tarmac tasks moving even during severe weather, like winter storms or extreme heat, when conditions are daunting for human crews, Pfeifer said. Testing with major airlines is already underway, and the robots would likely debut at large hub airports like Atlanta or Dallas, with a goal of rolling them out over the next few years.

    Chinese robovac maker Roborock has introduced a vacuum that literally sprouts chicken-like legs to navigate stairs and clean steps along the way.

    The newly introduced Saros Rover was a tad slow in its ascent and descent (but it was cleaning each step) during the demo, but Roborock says it will be able to traverse almost any style of stairwell, including spiraled. No release date was given for the Rover, which the company says is still in development.

    While it may look like a typical scale you’d buy for your bathroom, Withings’ new Body Scan 2 measures much more than weight. Taking off their shoes and socks, people lined up to try out the “smart scale” that in 90 seconds measures 60 different biomarkers, including their heart age, vascular age and their metabolism using the pads of their feet and hands.

    The $600 scale, which will be available for purchase in the spring, also provides a nerve health score and measures changes in someone’s electrodermal activity, or the skin’s electrical properties due to sweat gland activity. The smart scale and a corresponding app, which costs $10 a month or $100 a year, provide personalized advice and a health trajectory for its users. The French company’s goals are to help people monitor their health and reverse bad habits to promote longevity.

    Commonwealth Fusion Systems, NVIDIA and Siemens announced Tuesday that they are working together to use AI to hasten making nuclear fusion a new source of carbon-free energy.

    In Massachusetts, Commonwealth Fusion Systems is building a prototype fusion power plant called SPARC, which is about 70% complete. Through the new partnership, it will create a “digital twin,” or online simulation, of the physical machine.

    CFS CEO Bob Mumgaard said it will ask questions of the simulation to speed up progress on the physical machine and rapidly analyze data, compressing years of manual experimentation into weeks of understanding.

    SPARC is a prototype for the company’s first planned power plant, called ARC, that is meant to connect to the grid in the early 2030s. The device will use very strong magnets to create conditions for fusion to happen. Mumgaard also said CFS’s first high-temperature superconducting magnet has been installed in SPARC.

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  • At CES, Auto and Tech Companies Transform Cars Into Proactive Companions

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    LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a vision of the near future shared at CES, a girl slides into the back seat of her parents’ car and the cabin instantly comes alive. The vehicle recognizes her, knows it’s her birthday and cues up her favorite song without a word spoken.

    “Think of the car as having a soul and being an extension of your family,” Sri Subramanian, Nvidia’s global head of generative AI for automotive, said Tuesday.

    Subramanian’s example, shared with a CES audience on the show’s opening day in Las Vegas, illustrates the growing sophistication of AI-powered in-cabin systems and the expanding scope of personal data that smart vehicles may collect, retain and use to shape the driving experience.

    Across the show floor, the car emerged less as a machine and more as a companion as automakers and tech companies showcased vehicles that can adapt to drivers and passengers in real time — from tracking heart rates and emotions to alerting if a baby or young child is accidentally left in the car.

    Bosch debuted its new AI vehicle extension that aims to turn the cabin into a “proactive companion.” Nvidia, the poster child of the AI boom, announced Alpamayo, its new vehicle AI initiative designed to help autonomous cars think through complex driving decisions. CEO Jensen Huang called it a “ChatGPT moment for physical AI.”

    But experts say the push toward a more personalized driving experience is intensifying questions about how much driver data is being collected.

    “The magic of AI should not just mean all privacy and security protections are off,” said Justin Brookman, director of marketplace policy at Consumer Reports.

    Unlike smartphones or online platforms, cars have only recently become major repositories of personal data, Brookman said. As a result, the industry is still trying to establish the “rules of the road” for what automakers and tech companies are allowed to do with driver data.

    That uncertainty is compounded by the uniquely personal nature of cars, Brookman said. Many people see their vehicles as an extension of themselves — or even their homes — which he said can make the presence of cameras, microphones and other monitoring tools feel especially invasive.

    “Sometimes privacy issues are difficult for folks to internalize,” he said. “People generally feel they wish they had more privacy but also don’t necessarily know what they can do to address it.”

    At the same time, Brookman said, many of these technologies offer real safety benefits for drivers and can be good for the consumer.

    On the CES show floor, some of those conveniences were on display at automotive supplier Gentex’s booth, where attendees sat in a mock six-seater van in front of large screens demonstrating how closely the company’s AI-equipped sensors and cameras could monitor a driver and passengers.

    “Are they sleepy? Are they drowsy? Are they not seated properly? Are they eating, talking on phones? Are they angry? You name it, we can figure out how to detect that in the cabin,” said Brian Brackenbury, director of product line management at Gentex.

    Brackenbury said it’s ultimately up to the car manufacturers to decide how the vehicle reacts to the data that’s collected, which he said is stored in the car and deleted after the video frames, for example, have been processed. “

    “One of the mantras we have at Gentex is we’re not going to do it just because we can, just because the technology allows it,” Brackebury said, adding that “data privacy is really important.”

    Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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