ReportWire

Tag: Technology

  • Four new astronauts arrive at the ISS to replace NASA’s evacuated crew

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    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The International Space Station returned to full strength with Saturday’s arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns.

    SpaceX delivered the U.S., French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral.

    Last month’s medical evacuation was NASA’s first in 65 years of human spaceflight. One of four astronauts launched by SpaceX last summer suffered what officials described as a serious health issue, prompting their hasty return. That left only three crew members to keep the place running — one American and two Russians — prompting NASA to pause spacewalks and trim research.

    Moving in for eight to nine months are NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev. Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have lived up there before. During her first station visit in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk.

    Adenot, a military helicopter pilot, is only the second French woman to fly in space. Hathaway is a captain in the U.S. Navy.

    NASA has refused to divulge the identity of the astronaut who fell ill in orbit on Jan. 7 or explain what happened, citing medical privacy. The ailing astronaut and three others returned to Earth more than a month sooner than planned. They spent their first night back on Earth at the hospital before returning to Houston.

    The space agency said it did not alter its preflight medical checks for their replacements.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Crew-12 docks with the International Space Station on Valentine’s Day

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — After a 34-hour commute from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the four members of the Crew-12 docked with the International Space Station on Valentine’s Day.

    And they will spend the next eight months conducting various experiments.

    What You Need To Know

    • Crew-12 will be spending the next eight months conducting various experiments

    Early Friday morning, NASA astronauts Cmdr. Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to both NASA and SpaceX.

    Taking off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, they left the little round Earth at 5:15 a.m. ET.

    The quartet’s ride — SpaceX’s Dragon capsule called Freedom — docked with the International Space Station’s space-facing Harmony module at around 3:15 p.m. ET.

    The Dragon docked autonomously, but if needed to, Hathaway could have docked it manually.

    “The Crew-12 mission is the 20th human spaceflight mission that SpaceX has launched. Also, when the Dragon capsule docks with the International Space Station, it will be the 51st time a Dragon spacecraft has docked with ISS or has visited ISS, I should say,” explained Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX’s director of NASA Science and Dragon Programs, during the press conference after Friday’s launch.

    Freedom has participated in four other crewed missions:

    Crew-12 will be welcomed by NASA astronaut Christopher Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev.

    Williams pressurized a small section where Crew-12 docked with the space station and leak checks were being conducted. Once that area was ready, then procedures took place for the Dragon crewmembers to board the station.

    Before Crew-12 boarded the space station, Adenot requested a private medical conference call between the Dragon members and NASA. The U.S. space agency did not reveal the nature of the call.

    They were to be greeted by Crew-11, but the mission was cut short after one of the crew members suffered a medical episode. The medical issue and the name of the person have not been disclosed.

    The Crew-12 will join Expedition 74; an expedition is the current crew onboard the International Space Station.

    During their eight-month stay, the Crew-12 will be conducting a variety of health-related experiments, as well as a study to simulate moon landings.  

     

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    Anthony Leone

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  • Fei-Fei Li and Andrej Karpathy Back a New A.I. Use Case: Simulating Human Behavior

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    A.I. pioneer Fei-Fei Li is lending her support to Simile’s effort to simulate human behavior at scale. John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images

    Every three months, public companies brace for analyst questions during quarterly earnings calls. But what if firms could predict these queries in advance and rehearse their responses? That’s one of the capabilities touted by Simile, a new A.I. startup spun out of Stanford and backed by acclaimed researcher Fei-Fei Li and OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy.

    Simile emerged from stealth yesterday (Feb. 12) with $100 million in funding from a round led by Index Ventures. Alongside Li and Karpathy, the startup—which hasn’t disclosed its valuation—also counts investors including Quora co-founder Adam D’Angelo and Scott Belsky, a partner at A24 Films.

    Li and Karpathy both have close ties to Simile’s founding team, which includes Stanford researchers Joon Park, Percy Liang and Michael Bernstein. Li is the co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered A.I. Institute and advised Karpathy during his Ph.D. study at the university. She is widely known for foundational work such as ImageNet, a large-scale image database that helped drive major breakthroughs in computer vision. Karpathy and Bernstein also contributed to that project.

    Simile’s mission of using A.I. to reflect and model societal behavior taps into an underexplored research area, according to Karpathy, who previously worked at OpenAI and Tesla before launching his own education-focused A.I. startup. While large language models typically present a single, cohesive personality, Karpathy argues they are actually trained on data drawn from vast numbers of people. “Why not lean into that statistical power: Why simulate one ‘person’ when you could try to simulate a population?” he wrote in a post on X.

    That idea underpins Simile’s broader goal. The Palo Alto-based startup aims to simulate the real-world effects of major decisions, from public policy to product launches, across virtual populations that mirror human behavior. The team has already tested this concept on a smaller scale through projects like Smallville, a 2023 Stanford experiment in which 25 autonomous A.I. agents interacted in a virtual environment.

    Now, Simile is scaling the approach for business use. After spending the past seven months developing its model, the company is already working with clients on applications ranging from product development to litigation forecasting. CVS Health Corporation, for example, uses Simile to create simulated focus groups, while Gallup uses the platform to build digital polling panels. For earning calls, Simile can predict about 80 percent of the questions that analysts ultimately ask, said Park, the startup’s CEO, during a recent appearance on TBPN.

    At present, Simile’s models are based on data from hundreds of thousands of people who have signed up for its studies. Over time, the company hopes to expand that to simulations representing the world’s entire population of roughly 8 billion people.

    Simile joins a growing wave of A.I. companies focused on using simulation to model real-world scenarios. Much of the existing research in this space has centered on physical systems, such as robotics and autonomous vehicles, through “world model” platforms developed by firms like Google and Nvidia.

    One of the most prominent figures in world models is Li herself. In 2024, she took a leave of absence from Stanford to launch World Labs, a startup that builds 3D digital environments from image and text prompts. The company has raised $230 million to date and is valued at more than $1 billion.

    Fei-Fei Li and Andrej Karpathy Back a New A.I. Use Case: Simulating Human Behavior

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Amazon scraps partnership with surveillance company after Super Bowl ad backlash

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    Amazon’s smart doorbell maker Ring has terminated a partnership with police surveillance tech company Flock Safety.

    The announcement follows a backlash that erupted after 30-second Ring ad that aired during the Super Bowl featuring a lost dog that is found through a network of cameras, sparking fears of a dystopian surveillance society.

    But that feature, called Search Party, was not related to Flock. And Ring’s announcement doesn’t cite the ad as a reason for the “joint decision” for the cancellation.

    Ring and Flock said last year they were planning on working together to give Ring camera owners the option to share their video footage in response to law enforcement requests made through a Ring feature known as Community Requests.

    “Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” Ring’s statement said.

    “The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”

    Beyond the Flock partnership, Ring has faced other surveillance concerns.

    In the Super Bowl ad, a lost dog is found with Ring’s Search Party feature, which the company says can “reunite lost dogs with their families and track wildfires threatening your community.” The clip depicts the dog being tracked by cameras throughout a neighborhood using artificial intelligence.

    And viewers took to social media to criticize it for being sinister, leaving many wondering if it would be used to track humans and saying they would turn the feature off.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focus on civil liberties related to digital technology, said this week that Americans should feel unsettled over the potential loss of privacy.

    “Amazon Ring already integrates biometric identification, like face recognition, into its products via features like “Familiar Faces,” which depends on scanning the faces of those in sight of the camera and matching it against a list of pre-saved, pre-approved faces,” the Foundation wrote Tuesday. “It doesn’t take much to imagine Ring eventually combining these two features: face recognition and neighborhood searches.”

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  • Amazon Scraps Partnership With Surveillance Company After Super Bowl Ad Backlash

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    Amazon’s smart doorbell maker Ring has terminated a partnership with police surveillance tech company Flock Safety.

    The announcement follows a backlash that erupted after 30-second Ring ad that aired during the Super Bowl featuring a lost dog that is found through a network of cameras, sparking fears of a dystopian surveillance society.

    But that feature, called Search Party, was not related to Flock. And Ring’s announcement doesn’t cite the ad as a reason for the “joint decision” for the cancellation.

    Ring and Flock said last year they were planning on working together to give Ring camera owners the option to share their video footage in response to law enforcement requests made through a Ring feature known as Community Requests.

    “Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated,” Ring’s statement said.

    “The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”

    In Super Bowl ad, a lost dog is found with Ring’s Search Party feature, which the company says can “reunite lost dogs with their families and track wildfires threatening your community.” The clip depicts the dog being tracked by cameras throughout a neighborhood on using artificial intelligence.

    And viewers took to social media to criticize it for being sinister, leaving many wondering if it would be used to track humans and saying they would turn the feature off.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focus on civil liberties related to digital technology, said this week that Americans should feel unsettled over the potential loss of privacy.

    “Amazon Ring already integrates biometric identification, like face recognition, into its products via features like “Familiar Faces,” which depends on scanning the faces of those in sight of the camera and matching it against a list of pre-saved, pre-approved faces,” the Foundation wrote Tuesday. “It doesn’t take much to imagine Ring eventually combining these two features: face recognition and neighborhood searches.”

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

    Photos You Should See – Feb. 2026

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    Associated Press

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  • New astronauts launch to the International Space Station after medical evacuation

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    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday to replace the astronauts who returned to Earth early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

    SpaceX launched the replacements as soon as possible at NASA’s request, sending the U.S., French and Russian astronauts on an expected eight- to nine-month mission stretching until fall. The four should arrive at the orbiting lab Saturday, filling the vacancies left by their evacuated colleagues last month and bringing the space station back to full staff.

    “It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the astronauts reached orbit. “That was quite a ride,” replied the crew’s commander, Jessica Meir.

    NASA had to put spacewalks on hold and deferred other duties while awaiting the arrival of Americans Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev. They’ll join three other astronauts — one American and two Russians — who kept the space station running the past month.

    Satisfied with medical procedures already in place, NASA ordered no extra checkups for the crew ahead of liftoff and no new diagnostic equipment was packed. An ultrasound machine already up there for research went into overdrive Jan. 7 when used on the ailing crew member. NASA has not revealed the ill astronaut’s identity or health issue. All four returning astronauts went straight to the hospital after splashing down in the Pacific near San Diego.

    It was the first time in 65 years of human spaceflight that NASA cut short a mission for medical reasons.

    With missions becoming longer, NASA is constantly looking at upgrades to the space station’s medical gear, said deputy program manager Dina Contella. “But there are a lot of things that are just not practical and so that’s when you need to bring astronauts home from space,” she said earlier this week.

    In preparation for moon and Mars trips where health care will be even more challenging, the new arrivals will test a filter designed to turn drinking water into emergency IV fluid, try out an ultrasound system that relies on artificial intelligence and augmented reality instead of experts on the ground, and perform ultrasound scans on their jugular veins in a blood clot study.

    They also will demonstrate their moon-landing skills in a simulated test drawing extra attention because of the impending launch of four astronauts to the moon on Artemis II, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century.

    Adenot is only the second French woman to launch to space. She was 14 when Claudie Haignere flew to Russia’s space station Mir in 1996, inspiring her to become an astronaut. Haignere cheered her on from the Florida launch site, wishing her “Bon vol,” French for “Have a good flight,” and “Ad astra,” Latin for “To the stars.”

    Hathaway, like Adenot, is new to space, while Meir and Fedyaev are making their second station trip. On her first mission in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk. The other half of that spacewalk, Christina Koch, is among the four Artemis II astronauts waiting to fly around the moon as early as March. A ship-to-ship radio linkup is planned between the two crews.

    Meir wasn’t sure astronauts would return to the moon during her career. “Now we’re right here on the precipice of the Artemis II mission,” she said ahead of liftoff. “The fact that they will be in space at the same time as us … it’s so cool to be an astronaut now, it’s so exciting.”

    SpaceX launched the latest crew from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Elon Musk’s company is preparing its neighboring Kennedy Space Center launch pad for the supersized Starships, which NASA needs to land astronauts on the moon.

    NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman said following Friday’s liftoff that testing continues at the Artemis pad, where the Space Launch System moon rocket awaits liftoff. A practice fueling last week unleashed hydrogen fuel leaks. Two seals have since been replaced and a mini fueling conducted.

    Isaacman stressed that no launch date will be set until additional fueling tests — potentially a series of them — are completed. The earliest that Artemis II could launch is March 3, he noted.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • People — and robots — are getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year in China

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    BEIJING — It’s not just people — in China, the robots are also getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

    Friday was dress rehearsal day for four cute humanoid robots, each about 95 centimeters (3 feet) tall at a mall in western Beijing. Curious onlookers stopped to watch.

    Each robot got a colorful lion costume and within minutes the moves started: Bend the knees, up, to the left, to the right, shake the mask, and do it all again!

    Ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrated next week, and as part of different “fairs” and activities around Beijing, some venues have been busy setting up their stages and props.

    For a second year in a row, one of the fairs will be devoted to technology and — yes, again — robots will take center stage.

    People will see them dancing and also them stacking blocks on top of others to make a little tower, skewering hawthorn berries onto a stick — coated with a syrup, a popular sweet snack — or playing soccer.

    “This year, the number of our robots has increased a lot,” said Qiu Feng, a member of the organizing committee. “They will perform dance, martial arts, Peking Opera, poetry and soccer.”

    “Some events were also available last year but the finness of the actions and the high-tech vibe are stronger” this time, Qui added.

    China has been scaling up its efforts to develop better robots that can perform different activities, powered by artificial intelligence and with less human intervention.

    But though they can now do things that were difficult to imagine a few years ago, humans are still needed to help them — for example, to dress them or move them when they stop in the middle of a mini-soccer field.

    “Technology is developing faster and becoming more advanced every day,” Qui also said. “As long as we keep up with this trend, our … fair will continue to evolve and rise with the times.”

    The robots performing at the mall were developed by some Chinese startups, like Booster Robotics. The company will display around 20 humanoid robots, which will also dance and play soccer.

    “It is an AI environment, which means, once the whistle sounds, the remote control will all be put aside and all its decision-making and motion control are made by the robots themselves,” said Ren Zixin, director of marketing at Booster Robotics.

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  • Florida Polytechnic celebrates opening of new Esports arena

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    LAKELAND, Fla. — Florida Polytechnic University is taking competitive video gaming a step further.

    On Friday, the university celebrated the opening of its new Esports Arena.

    What You Need To Know

    • Florida Polytechnic University opened the new $300,000 Esports Arena, which features 20 fully loaded gaming stations

    • Participation in eSports is growing on campus, and university leaders say scholarships are planned in the future

    • Team captain Jannice Rivera says she hopes the expanded program encourages more women to join eSports as they gain recognition alongside traditional athletics

    In the world of eSports, student Jannice Rivera stands out.

    “I wish more women and more girls felt at home and in a community with eSports, but as eSports has been evolving, we’ve been welcomed a little more and more as time goes on,” Rivera said.

    The 21-year-old became the captain of Florida Polytechnic’s eSports varsity teams a little over a year ago. She is one of just three women who are part of the sports program. It’s a space she has been familiar with since learning how to play video games at a young age.

    “I was able to, thankfully, get my longtime best friends, that are still friends with me, I was able to get them into it, and we all just started playing together,” she said. “And even though the community wasn’t as welcoming to women back then, that was like 2008/2009. With having friends in it doing it with me, I already felt more comfortable.”

    Rivera said that pushed her to apply to Florida Poly to play on a larger scale.

    Over time, university leaders said they’ve seen more students become drawn to the digital sport. So far, Florida Poly President Devin Stephenson said the school has about 130 players across 14 teams.

    “And now that we have the arena in place, I can tell you, as many young people say today, ‘it’s going to blow up.’ And it will become extremely popular,” Stephenson said.

    The new eSports arena is equipped with 20 fully loaded gaming stations. The roughly $300,000 facility was partially paid for with presidential discretionary funds, which Stephenson said was worth every penny.

    “This is a very rigorous curriculum that we have here, so we need more and more student development opportunities for them outside of the labs, outside of the classrooms, and eSports gives them that sort of vetting to stretch themselves beyond the pressure of the classroom,” he said.

    Florida Poly leaders said the goal is to help players compete on the same level as traditional athletics. The school eventually plans to offer several scholarships to students, and Rivera said she’s looking forward to that.

    “The little girl in me feels really excited,” she said. “Now, as time goes on, we’re getting recognized as an actual athletic department. We’re an actual sport, and it can be very lucrative. We have the same sponsors that normal athletics do. We compete in the same way; it’s just in a different setting, and I feel like we can reach a lot of people.”

    She said she hopes that includes a lot more women, too.

    The Esports Arena is open for competition and recreational use. Students can visit and play for fun during select hours throughout the day.

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    Alexis Jones

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  • SpaceX’s Falcon 9 successfully launches and lands after Crew-12 liftoff

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — For the first time ever in Florida, SpaceX was able to land one of its Falcon 9 rockets just minutes after lifting off from an adjacent launch pad.

    It also means that NASA’s four Crew-12 members are on their long commute to the International Space Station.

    What You Need To Know

    • For the first time in Florida, a SpaceX rocket returned near the launch site
    • Learn more about the four astronauts as they will spend eight months on the ISS
    • They will be doing various experiments to learn more about the human body in space as well as moon-landing simulations


    During the early morning hours on Friday, NASA astronauts Cmdr. Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev climbed into the Falcon 9 to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to both NASA and SpaceX.

    The instantaneous launch took place at 5:15 a.m. ET.

    The Falcon 9 jumped off the launch pad and screamed into the early morning sky as space fans cheered and then were in awe as a jellyfish was seen.

    The jellyfish effect is when the Falcon 9 rocket’s (or any rocket’s) exhaust plume grows and creates a jellyfish-like “cloud” from the exhaust that has a glowing appearance if the launch is near dawn and dusk.

    After the launch, NASA officials held a press conference, where Spectrum News asked Admin. Jared Isaacman about his thoughts on seeing the first crewed launch as the U.S. space agency’s new administrator.

    The 45th Weather Squadron gave a 90% chance of favorable launch conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule and flight through precipitation.

    The forecast was higher than the original 85% the squadron gave for Friday’s launch. 

    If the launch was a scrub, the next attempt would have been Sunday, Feb. 15.

    Originally, the launch was set for Wednesday at 6:01 a.m. ET and then it was pushed to 5:38 a.m. ET, Thursday, until finally settled on Friday.

    The reason for this was due to the upper-level winds.

    The commute to the ISS and a historical landing

    This is the first crewed launch of 2026 and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule called Freedom was moving around 17,500 mph (28,164 kph) as it went into the black of space.

    Freedom has had an impressive resume, having been used for four crewed missions.

    For the first-stage Falcon 9 rocket booster B1101, this will be its second mission. Its first mission was last month and it was the first launch of 2026: Starlink 6-88 mission.

    And it will be a long commute to work for them. The astronauts are expected to arrive at the International Space Station at around 3:15 p.m. ET on Valentine’s Day.

    And this was a historical landing for the Sunshine State. Because the Crew-12 mission has four people onboard, the first-stage booster must land at the brand new Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is adjacent to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40, as seen in this embedded Facebook post.

    A sonic boom cracked across the early morning sky as the Falcon 9 rocket came down for a landing.

    Landing Zone 40 is at the top right of the photo.  

    SpaceX’s lease on Landing Zone 1 and 2, located at Space Launch Complex (SLC) 13 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) ended in July 2025, after the Space Launch Delta (SLD) 45 decided to allow new, incoming Commercial Launch Service Providers (CLPS), to perform launch operations out at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station under their new Launch Pad Allocation Strategy (LPAS).

    Back in May 2023, Space Launch Delta 45 issued a press release, stating that Space Launch Complex (SLC) 15 would go to ABL Space Systems, SLC 14 to Stoke Space, and SLC 13 to Phantom Space and Vaya Space.

    The relocation of landing zone 1 & 2 from SLC 13 to Landing Zone 40 at SLC 40 allows SpaceX the opportunity to process and refurbish the returned flight proven Falcon 9 booster quicker to keep pace with their launch manifest. The move also maximizes the launch capacity along the Eastern Range, but also minimizing the impacts that CLSPs create for other CLSPs or government programs across CCSFS, because instead of the Falcon booster landing 7 miles to the south, it now returns only 1,000 feet away from where it launched from.

    “Commercial Launch Service Providers with landing operations can submit a request to SLD 45 for consideration of landing capability at their complex, which will then go through an extensive evaluation process” said Erin White, Delta planning specialist, stated in a press release in 2023.  “Requests for landing operations will be evaluated for safety implications and their impacts to other programs on CCSFS.”

    So, going forward, crewed SpaceX launches in Florida will see the first-stage rocket returning on a landing pad near the launch site, which does not pose a higher safety risk. 

    However, Landing Zone 2 will still be available for Falcon Heavy launches. Since a Falcon Heavy has three boosters, one would go on a droneship (or be expended), the next one would land on Landing Zone 40 and the third would land on Landing Zone 2, since each landing zone can only handle one booster at a time.

    Understanding the Crew-12 mission

    The quartet is not going to the International Space Station empty-handed and checking out the views of Earth from space.

    They will be busy little beavers as they conduct medical experiments during their eight-month stay.

    “The experiments, led by NASA’s Human Research Program, include astronauts performing ultrasounds of their blood vessels to study altered circulation and completing simulated lunar landings to assess disorientation during gravitational transitions, among other tasks,” NASA stated.

    NASA Public Affairs specialist Steven Siceloff shared about some of the experiments that the Crew-12 will be doing. 

    Another experiment is called Venous Flow, which will look at how time on the floating laboratory may increase the chance of astronauts developing blood clots.

    “In weightlessness, blood and other bodily fluids can move toward the head, potentially altering circulation. Any resulting blood clots could pose serious health risks, including strokes,” the U.S. space agency explained.

    For the experiment, the astronauts will undergo preflight and postflight MRIs, ultrasound scans, blood draws and blood pressure readings so scientists can compare the findings.

    But it is not all medical experiments. During the Manual Piloting study, certain crew members will conduct simulated moon landings before, during and after this mission.

    “Designed to assess their piloting and decision-making skills, participants attempt to fly a virtual spacecraft toward the lunar South Pole region — the same area future Artemis crews plan to explore,” NASA explained.

    Other experiments will be conducted.

    Meet Crew-12

    Crew-12 will not have a traditional welcome

    Usually, a crewed mission will have a welcome party, where the previous mission (in this case, Crew-11), welcomes the new arrivals.

    Pleasantries and workload are exchanged during this transition. 

    However, Crew-11 was cut short after one of its members suffered a medical episode.

    The crewmember has not been named and his or her medical issue was not disclosed.

    The event happened days before a planned spacewalk for NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke.

    NASA officials decided to cut the mission short and return Cardman, Fincke and mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov to Earth.

    It was the first medical evacuation in the space station’s 25 years of full service. Originally, the mission was going to end in February.

    NASA officials stressed that the person was in stable condition and the four Crew-11 members appeared together in a press conference nearly a week after returning to Earth in a splashdown.

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  • As electricity costs rise, everyone wants data centers to pick up their tab. But how?

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. — As outrage spreads over energy-hungry data centers, politicians from President Donald Trump to local lawmakers have found rare bipartisan agreement over insisting that tech companies — and not regular people — must foot the bill for the exorbitant amount of electricity required for artificial intelligence.

    But that might be where the agreement ends.

    The price of powering data centers has become deeply intertwined with concerns over the cost of living, a dominant issue in the upcoming midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and governors’ offices.

    Some efforts to address the challenge may be coming too late, with energy costs on the rise. And even though tech giants are pledging to pay their “fair share,” there’s little consensus on what that means.

    “‘Fair share’ is a pretty squishy term, and so it’s something that the industry likes to say because ‘fair’ can mean different things to different people,” said Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard University.

    It’s a shift from last year, when states worked to woo massive data center projects and Trump directed his administration to do everything it could to get them electricity. Now there’s a backlash as towns fight data center projects and some utilities’ electricity bills have risen quickly.

    Anger over the issue has already had electoral consequences, with Democrats ousting two Republicans from Georgia’s utility regulatory commission in November.

    “Voters are already connecting the experience of these facilities with their electricity costs and they’re going to increasingly want to know how government is going to navigate that,” said Christopher Borick, a pollster and director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.

    Data centers are sprouting across the U.S., as tech giants scramble to meet worldwide demand for chatbots and other generative AI products that require large amounts of computing power to train and operate.

    The buildings look like giant warehouses, some dwarfing the footprints of factories and stadiums. Some need more power than a small city, more than any utility has ever supplied to a single user, setting off a race to build more power plants.

    The demand for electricity can have a ripple effect that raises prices for everyone else. For example, if utilities build more power plants or transmission lines to serve them, the cost can be spread across all ratepayers.

    Concerns have dovetailed with broader questions about the cost of living, as well as fears about the powerful influence of tech companies and the impact of artificial intelligence.

    Trump continues to embrace artificial intelligence as a top economic and national security priority, although he seemed to acknowledge the backlash last month by posting on social media that data centers “must ‘pay their own way.’”

    At other times, he has brushed concerns aside, declaring that tech giants are building their own power plants, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright contends that data centers don’t inflate electricity bills — disputing what consumer advocates and independent analysts say.

    Some states and utilities have started to identify ways to get data centers to pay for their costs.

    They’ve required tech companies to buy electricity in long-term contracts, pay for the power plants and transmission upgrades they need and make big down payments in case they go belly-up or decide later they don’t need as much electricity.

    But it might be more complicated than that. Those rules can’t fix the short-term problem of ravenous demand for electricity that is outpacing the speed of power plant construction, analysts say.

    “What do you do when Big Tech, because of the very profitable nature of these data centers, can simply outbid grandma for power in the short run?” Abe Silverman, a former utility regulatory lawyer and an energy researcher at Johns Hopkins University. “That is, I think, going to be the real challenge.”

    Some consumer advocates say tech companies’ fair share should also include the rising cost of electricity, grid equipment or natural gas that’s driven by their demand.

    In Oregon, which passed a law to protect smaller ratepayers from data centers’ power costs, a consumer advocacy group is jousting with the state’s largest utility, Portland General Electric, over its plan on how to do that.

    Meanwhile, consumer advocates in various states — including Indiana, Georgia and Missouri — are warning that utilities could foist the cost of data center-driven buildouts onto regular ratepayers there.

    Utilities have pledged to ensure electric rates are fair. But in some places it may be too late.

    For instance, in the mid-Atlantic grid territory from New Jersey to Illinois, consumer advocates and analysts have pegged billions of dollars in rate increases hitting the bills of regular Americans on data center demand.

    Legislation, meanwhile, is flooding into Congress and statehouses to regulate data centers.

    Democrats’ bills in Congress await Republican cosponsors, while lawmakers in a number of states are floating moratoriums on new data centers, drafting rules for regulators to shield regular ratepayers and targeting data center tax breaks and utility profits.

    Governors — including some who worked to recruit data centers to their states — are increasingly talking tough.

    Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat running for reelection this year, wants to impose a penny-a-gallon water fee on data centers and get rid of the sales tax exemption there that most states offer data centers. She called it a $38 million “corporate handout.”

    “It’s time we make the booming data center industry work for the people of our state, rather than the other way around,” she said in her state-of-the-state address.

    Energy costs are projected to keep rising in 2026.

    Republicans in Washington are pointing the finger at liberal state energy policies that favor renewable energy, suggesting they have driven up transmission costs and frayed supply by blocking fossil fuels.

    “Americans are not paying higher prices because of data centers. There’s a perception there, and I get the perception, but it’s not actually true,” said Wright, Trump’s energy secretary, at a news conference earlier this month.

    The struggle to assign blame was on display last week at a four-hour U.S. House subcommittee hearing with members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

    Republicans encouraged FERC members to speed up natural gas pipeline construction while Democrats defended renewable energy and urged FERC to limit utility profits and protect residential ratepayers from data center costs.

    FERC’s chair, Laura Swett, told Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, that she believes data center operators are willing to cover their costs and understand that it’s important to have community support.

    “That’s not been our experience,” Landsman responded, saying projects in his district are getting tax breaks, sidestepping community opposition and costing people money. “Ultimately, I think we have to get to a place where they pay everything.”

    ___

    Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

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  • NASA, SpaceX defy superstitions with successful launch on Friday the 13th

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    TEXAS — For those who are superstitious, Friday the 13th may seem like an unlucky day. But for Texas-based company SpaceX and NASA, it’s quite the opposite. The two organizations’ joint launch went on without a hitch. 

    “I understand it’s the first time NASA has ever launched on Friday the 13th, so, pretty amazing times. Really appreciate all the hard work between NASA and SpaceX and on the Crew-12,” said Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

    Friday morning, four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission successfully launched. Astronauts took off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station.

    “It was just wonderful to see everything in motion, felt very privileged to be here alongside an extraordinary team preparing for an excellent mission like Crew-12,” said Jared Isaacman, a NASA administrator. 

    The crews up in space will conduct a variety of science experiments aimed at advancing research and technology for missions to the moon and Mars.

    “We are going to get our highest potential science and research up there with the aim of cracking the code and igniting an orbital economy,” said Isaacman.

    Astronauts will aim to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low-Earth orbit.

    “What we may find, what we could learn, which could have meaningful benefit back here on Earth,” said Isaacman.

    Crew-12’s Freedom spacecraft will spend approximately 34 hours traveling to the International Space Station, according to NASA. It’s expected to dock on Valentine’s Day. 

    “Looking forward to docking. Hope our teams get some rest today,” said Stich.

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    Barbara Fox

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  • UN approves 40-member scientific panel on the impact of artificial intelligence over US objections

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a 40-member global scientific panel on the impacts and risks of artificial intelligence, with the United States strongly objecting.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who established the panel, called the adoption “a foundational step toward global scientific understanding of AI.”

    “In a world where AI is racing ahead,” he said, “this panel will provide what’s been missing — rigorous, independent scientific insight that enables all member states, regardless of their technological capacity, to engage on an equal footing.”

    He has described it as the first fully independent global scientific body dedicated to bridging the knowledge gap in AI and assessing its real-world economic and social impacts.

    The vote in the 193-member assembly was 117-2, with the United States and Paraguay voting “no” and Tunisia and Ukraine abstaining. America’s allies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere voted in favor along with Russia, China and many developing countries.

    U.S. Mission counselor Lauren Lovelace called the panel “a significant overreach of the U.N.’s mandate and competence” and said “AI governance is not a matter for the U.N. to dictate.”

    As the world leader in AI, the United States is resolved to do all it can to accelerate AI innovation and build up its infrastructure, she said, and the Trump administration will support “like-minded nations working together to encourage the development of AI in line with our shared values.”

    “We will not cede authority over AI to international bodies that may be influenced by authoritarian regimes seeking to impose their vision of controlled surveillance societies,” Lovelace said, adding that the Trump administration is concerned about “the non-transparent way” the panel was chosen.

    Guterres said the 40 members were selected from more than 2,600 candidates after an independent review by the International Telecommunications Union, the U.N. Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies and UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. They will serve for three-year terms.

    Members are predominantly AI experts but also come from other disciplines and include Maria Ressa, a Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2021.

    There are two Americans on the panel: Vipin Kumar, a University of Minnesota professor focusing on AI, data mining and high-performance computing research, and Martha Palmer, a retired University of Colorado professor and linguistics expert whose research includes capturing the meaning of words for complex sentences in AI.

    There are two Chinese experts on the panel: Song Haitao, dean of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and Wang Jian, an expert in cloud-computing technology at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

    Ukraine said it abstained because it objected to Russia’s Andrei Neznamov, an expert in AI regulation, ethics, and governance, being on the panel.

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  • Trump administration reaches a trade deal to lower Taiwan’s tariff barriers

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    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration reached a trade deal with Taiwan on Thursday, with Taiwan agreeing to remove or reduce 99% of its tariff barriers, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said.

    The agreement comes as the U.S. remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly $127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau.

    Most of Taiwan’s exports to the U.S. will be taxed at a 15% rate, the USTR’s office said. The 15% rate is the same as that levied on other U.S. trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan and South Korea.

    Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the signing of the reciprocal agreement, which occurred under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan’s Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng and its government minister Jen-ni Yang also attended the signing.

    “President Trump’s leadership in the Asia-Pacific region continues to generate prosperous trade ties for the United States with important partners across Asia, while further advancing the economic and national security interests of the American people,” Greer said in a statement.

    The Taiwanese government said in a statement that the tariff rate set in the agreement allows its companies to compete on a level field with Japan, South Korea and the European Union. It also said the agreement “eliminated” the disadvantage from a lack of a free trade agreement between Taiwan and the U.S.

    The deal comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April and suggests a deepening economic relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan.

    Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with — including the U.S. — from having formal ties with Taipei.

    Under the deal, Taiwan will make investments of $250 billion in U.S. industries, such as computer chips, artificial intelligence applications and energy. The Taiwanese government says it will provide up to an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees to help smaller businesses invest in the U.S.

    The agreement would make it easier for the U.S. to sell autos, pharmaceutical drugs and food products in Taiwan. But the critical component might be that Taiwanese companies would invest in the production of computer chips in the U.S., possibly helping to ease the trade imbalance.

    The investments helped enable the U.S. to reduce its planned tariffs from as much as 32% initially to 15%.

    Taiwan’s government said it will submit the deal and investment plans to its legislature for approval.

    The U.S. side said the deal with Taiwan would help create several “world-class” industrial parks in America in order to help build up domestic manufacturing of advanced technologies such as chips. The Commerce Department in January described it as “a historic trade deal that will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector.”

    In return, the U.S. would give preferential treatment to Taiwan regarding the possible tariffs stemming from a Section 232 investigation of the importing of computer chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

    TSMC, the chip-making giant, is expected to be the key investor. It has committed to $165 billion in investments in the U.S., including not only fabrication plants but also a major research and development center that would help build a supply chain to power U.S. artificial intelligence ambitions. Major U.S. tech companies such as Nvidia and AMD rely on TSMC for manufacturing highly advanced chips.

    Taiwan also said the investments will be two-way, with U.S. companies also investing in key Taiwanese industries. Nvidia this week signed a land deal in Taipei to build a headquarters office there.

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  • Anthropic hits a $380B valuation as it heightens competition with OpenAI

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    Artificial intelligence company Anthropic says it is now valued at $380 billion, cementing its position alongside rival OpenAI and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in a trio of the world’s most valuable startups that investors will be watching closely this year to see if they will become publicly traded on Wall Street.

    “These are the three biggest names that could go public this year,” said Angelo Bochanis, an associate at Renaissance Capital, which researches the potential for initial public offerings.

    Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, said Thursday its valuation grew after it raised $30 billion in its latest round of funding, led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and the U.S.-based investment firm Coatue, along with dozens of other major investors.

    The funding also includes a portion of the $15 billion that Nvidia and Microsoft said they would invest in Anthropic in November, part of a deal that would eventually commit Anthropic to buying from Microsoft some $30 billion in computing capacity it needs to build and run AI systems like Claude. Anthropic has also been heavily backed by cloud providers Amazon and Google.

    Anthropic’s chief financial officer Krishna Rao says the company will use the surge of investments to continue building “enterprise-grade products” and AI models.

    Renaissance Capital counts Anthropic as third among the most valuable private firms. It’s behind ChatGPT maker OpenAI, valued at $500 billion. Both San Francisco-based AI companies trail rocket maker SpaceX, which recently merged with Musk’s AI startup xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok.

    Anthropic isn’t profitable but said Thursday it is on track for sales of $14 billion over the next year, a rapid rise from “its first dollar in revenue” that came less than three years ago. While OpenAI has dabbled in a number of revenue models, including digital advertising, Anthropic has tailored Claude products to be a workplace assistant on tasks such as software engineering.

    Anthropic was founded by ex-OpenAI employees in 2021. Its co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei has promised a clearer focus on the safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general intelligence that both San Francisco firms aimed to build. Anthropic also this week announced a new $20 million bipartisan organization to influence AI regulation in the United States.

    OpenAI first released ChatGPT in late 2022, revealing the huge commercial potential of AI large language models that could help write emails and computer code and answer questions. Anthropic followed that with its first version of Claude in 2023.

    Whichever company is first to do an initial public offering will have “an opportunity to raise even more money,” Bochanis said. “It’s an opportunity to be a big headline and get that sort of boost to your public image.”

    The risks are that they’ll have to invite public inspection of their business models as they continue to lose more money than they make.

    “Private markets have been throwing dozens of billions of dollars at these companies, even as valuations multiply again and again and again,” Bochanis said. “With public markets, there’s going to be a little more scrutiny. A single earnings report could tank a stock.”

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  • Elon Musk Loses Half of xAI’s Founding Team—Where They’ve Gone Next

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    Elon Musk’s xAI has lost half of its 12-person founding team. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

    Just days after Elon Musk merged his A.I. startup, xAI, with SpaceX in preparation for a widely anticipated trillion-dollar IPO later this year, two of xAI’s founding employees—Yuhuai (Tony) Wu and Jimmy Ba—announced their resignations. That means half of xAI’s founding team has now left the company barely three years after its launch. Musk framed the staff exodus as growing pains. “As a company grows, especially as quickly as xAI, the structure must evolve just like any living organism. This unfortunately required parting ways with some people. We wish them well in future endeavors,” he wrote on X yesterday (Feb. 11).

    Wu and Ba’s exits appeared amicable. But lower-level employees have been more candid about internal tensions at the Musk-run startup. Several members of xAI’s technical staff have also left in recent weeks, according to their posts on X and LinkedIn.

    “All A.I. labs are building the exact same thing, and it’s boring,” said Vahid Kazemi, who worked on xAI’s audio models, in a post on X. “I think there’s room for more creativity. So, I’m starting something new.”

    In an interview with NBC News, Kazemi also criticized the company’s working culture, saying he regularly worked 12-hour days, including holidays and weekends.

    Launched in March 2023 with a roster of industry veterans from companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Tesla, xAI will now operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX. The new iteration of SpaceX faces no shortage of challenges: Grok continues to face legal scrutiny, while Musk’s leadership style remains a point of contention.

    Here are the co-founders and notable leaders who have left xAI so far—and where they are now.

    Jimmy Ba

    Jimmy Ba, who led A.I. safety at xAI, announced his exit on Feb. 10. A professor at the University of Toronto who studied under A.I. pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, Ba’s research played a key role in shaping Grok’s development.

    “So proud of what the xAI team has done and will continue to stay close as a friend of the team,” Ba wrote on X. He hasn’t announced his next move, but added that “2026 is gonna be insane and likely the busiest (and most consequential) year for the future of our species.”

    Despite Ba’s departure, Dan Hendrycks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, remains a safety advisor for xAI.

    Yuhuai (Tony) Wu

    Tony Wu, a former research scientist at Google and postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, announced his departure from xAI on Feb. 9.

    Wu led xAI’s reasoning team. “It’s time for my next chapter…It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible,” he wrote on X.

    Wu has not disclosed his next role. Co-founders Guodong Zhang and Manuel Kroiss remain at xAI and are helping lead the company’s reorganization.

    Mike Liberatore

    While not a founding member, Mike Liberatore joined xAI as chief financial officer in April 2025, just one month after xAI acquired X in a deal that valued the combined company at $113 billion.

    Liberatore, formerly a finance executive at Airbnb and SquareTrade, left after only three months. He now works as a business finance officer at OpenAI, according to LinkedIn.

    Musk replaced Liberatore with ex-Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong. Armstrong advised Musk on his Twitter (now X) acquisition in 2022 and later served as a senior advisor at the Office of Personnel Management during Musk’s controversial tenure at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

    Greg Yang

    Greg Yang spent nearly six years as a researcher at Microsoft before joining xAI’s founding team. He left the company in January due to health complications from Lyme disease.

    “Likely I contracted Lyme a long time ago, but until I pushed myself hard building xAI and weakened my immune system, the symptoms weren’t noticeable,” Yang wrote on X. He continues to advise xAI in an informal capacity.

    Igor Babuschkin

    Igor Babuschkin, a former research engineer at OpenAI and Google DeepMind, was a co-founder and key engineering lead at xAI. Widely known as the primary developer behind Grok, Babuschkin left in July 2025 to start his own venture capital firm, Babuschkin Ventures, focused on A.I. research and startups.

    Christian Szegedy

    Christian Szegedy spent 12 years at Google before joining xAI as a founding research scientist. He left xAI in February 2025 to become chief scientist at superintelligence cloud company Morph Labs.

    More than a year later, he departed that role to found mathematical A.I. startup Math Inc. in September, according to his LinkedIn.

    “I left xAI in the last week of February and I am on good terms with the team. IMO, xAI has a bright future,” Szegedy wrote on X.

    Other senior engineers and scientists at xAI include Yasemin Yesiltepe, Zhuoyi (Zoey) Huang and Yao Fu.

    Kyle Kosic

    Kyle Kosic left OpenAI in early 2023 after two years to co-found xAI, where he served as engineering infrastructure lead. He departed about a year later, in April 2024, to return to OpenAI as a technical staff member.

    Kosic was the first co-founder to leave xAI and did not issue a public statement. It is unclear who now leads xAI’s engineering infrastructure, though another co-founder, Ross Nordeen, remains the company’s technical program manager after previously holding the same role at Tesla.

    Elon Musk Loses Half of xAI’s Founding Team—Where They’ve Gone Next

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    Rachel Curry

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  • One Tech Tip: All you need to know about the iPhone’s Lockdown Mode

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    A little known security feature on iPhones is in the spotlight after it stymied efforts by U.S. federal authorities to search devices seized from a reporter.

    Apple’s Lockdown Mode recently prevented FBI agents from getting into Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson ‘s iPhone.

    Agents seized the phone, as well as two MacBooks and other electronic devices, when they searched Natanson’s home last month as part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally handling classified information. But the FBI reported that its Computer Analysis Response Team “could not extract” data from the iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, according to a court filing.

    So what is Lockdown Mode? Here’s a rundown of how it works and how to use it:

    Apple says Lockdown Mode is an “optional, extreme” protection tool designed to guard against “extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyberattacks.” It’s not for everyone, but instead for “very few individuals” who could be targeted by digital threats because of who they are or what they do.

    “Most people will never be targeted by attacks of this nature,” Apple’s support page says.

    It’s available in Apple’s newer operating systems, including iOS 16 and macOS Ventura. It works by putting strict security limits on some apps and features, or even making some unavailable, to reduce the areas that advanced spyware can attack. It also restricts the kinds of browser technologies that websites can use and limits photo sharing.

    Apple has previously rejected U.S. government requests to build so-called backdoor access for its devices.

    In 2016, Apple refused a request by authorities to help bypass lockscreen security for an encrypted iPhone belonging to a shooter who carried out a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif. The company also declined to add an ability to input passcodes electronically, which would make it possible to carry out “brute force” attempts to guess the combination using computers.

    “It would be wrong to intentionally weaken our products with a government-ordered backdoor,” Apple said in explaining its decision.

    Make sure your iPhone, iPad or MacBook has been updated. You’ll have to turn the feature on separately for each of your Apple devices.

    On your iPhone, go to Settings, then to the Privacy and Security section, scroll down to the bottom and tap on Lockdown Mode. Enter your passcode — not a facial or fingerprint scan — to activate it. The device will restart and then you’ll again have to use your passcode to unlock it. On MacBooks, follow a similar procedure from the System Settings menu.

    Apple recommends that you switch it on for all of the company’s devices that you own.

    You might assume that requiring facial or fingerprint recognition to unlock your phone is good enough to protect it from snooping. But experts say passcodes are better than biometrics at protecting your devices from law enforcement, because they could compel you to unlock your device by holding your phone up to your face or forcing you to put your finger on the scanner.

    FBI agents told Natanson that they “could not compel her to provide her passcodes,” but the warrant they used to execute the search did give them the authority “to use Natanson’s biometrics, such as facial recognition or fingerprints, to open her devices.” According to a court filing, Natanson said she didn’t use biometrics to lock her devices but agents were ultimately able to unlock her MacBook with her finger.

    Apple says some apps and features will work differently when Lockdown Mode is on.

    Some websites might load slowly or not work properly, and some images and web fonts could be missing because they block “certain complex web technologies.”

    In Messages, most types of attachments are blocked, and links and link previews won’t be available. Incoming FaceTime calls are blocked unless it’s from a number you’ve called in the past month.

    In Photos, location information is stripped from shared photos and shared albums are removed from the app. Focus mode won’t work normally.

    There are also tighter restrictions on connecting your phone or computer to unsecure Wi-Fi networks or to other computers and accessories.

    When I tried it out on my own iPhone, some apps warned me that certain functions might not work. I noticed that one of my news apps started using a different font and photos on some websites didn’t appear, replaced by a question mark.

    The biggest disruption happened when I went to the gym, which involved using a web-based check-in system to scan a QR code. But my phone camera wouldn’t work so I had to turn off Lockdown Mode in order to get in. To be sure, my iPhone’s standalone Code Scanner app still worked, so the problem seemed to center on using a website to activate the camera.

    Follow the same procedure outlined above that you used to turn on Lockdown Mode. You’ll need to enter your passcode and the phone will perform a restart.

    ___

    Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.

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  • Crew-12 will see first landing of Falcon 9 at Space Coast launch site

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — As NASA and SpaceX prepare for the Crew-12 mission, it will mark the first time a SpaceX rocket will land near its launch site in Florida.

    What You Need To Know

    • For the first time in Florida, a SpaceX rocket will return near the launch site
    • Learn more about the four astronauts as they will spend eight months on the ISS
    • They will be doing various experiments to learn more about the human body in space as well as moon-landing simulations

    During the early morning hours on Friday, NASA astronauts Cmdr. Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will climb into the Falcon 9 to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated both NASA and SpaceX.

    The instantaneous launch is set to take place at 5:15 a.m. ET.

    The 45th Weather Squadron is giving a 90% chance of favorable launch conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule and flight through precipitation.

    The forecast is an increase compared to the original 85% the squadron gave for Friday’s launch. 

    If the launch is a scrub, the next attempt will be Sunday, Feb. 15.

    Originally, the launch was set for Wednesday at 6:01 a.m. ET and then it was pushed to 5:38 a.m. ET, Thursday, until finally settling on Friday.

    The reason for this was due to the upper-level winds.

    The commute to the ISS and a historical landing

    This is the first crewed launch of 2026 and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule called Freedom is expected to be screaming at about 17,500 mph (28,164 kph) as it goes into the black of space.

    Freedom has had an impressive resume, having been used for four crewed missions.

    For the first-stage Falcon 9 rocket booster B1101, this will be its second mission. Its first mission was last month and it was the first launch of 2026: Starlink 6-88 mission.

    And it will be a long commute to work for them. The astronauts are expected to arrive at the International Space Station at around 3:15 p.m. ET on Valentine’s Day.

    And this is going to be a historical landing for the Sunshine State. Because the Crew-12 mission will have four people onboard, the first-stage booster must land at Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is adjacent to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40, as seen in this embedded Facebook post. Landing Zone 40 is at the top right of the photo. 

    This will be the first time a Falcon 9 rocket will land near its launch site in Florida. The first-stage boosters usually land on a droneship out in the Atlantic Ocean or at a landing zone on land but away from the launch site.

    However, SpaceX’s lease on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ended in July 2025.

    Back in May 2023, Space Launch Delta 45 issued a press release, stating, “SLC 13, currently Landing Zone 1 and 2, is also moving forward with Phantom Space and Vaya Space.”

    It means that the existing launch complex property agreements for landing operations were discontinued after the agreements expired.

    So, going forward, crewed SpaceX launches in Florida will see the first-stage rocket returning on a landing pad near the launch site.

    Understanding the Crew-12 mission

    The quartet is not going to the International Space Station empty-handed and checking out the views of Earth from space.

    They will be busy little beavers as they will be conducting medical experiments during their eight-month stay.

    “The experiments, led by NASA’s Human Research Program, include astronauts performing ultrasounds of their blood vessels to study altered circulation and completing simulated lunar landings to assess disorientation during gravitational transitions, among other tasks,” NASA stated.

    Another experiment is called Venous Flow, which will look at how time on the floating laboratory may increase the chance of astronauts developing blood clots.

    “In weightlessness, blood and other bodily fluids can move toward the head, potentially altering circulation. Any resulting blood clots could pose serious health risks, including strokes,” the U.S. space agency explained.

    For the experiment, the astronauts will undergo preflight and postflight MRIs, ultrasound scans, blood draws and blood pressure readings so scientists can compare the findings.

    But it is not all medical experiments. During the Manual Piloting study, certain crew members will be conducting simulated moon landings before, during and after this mission.

    “Designed to assess their piloting and decision-making skills, participants attempt to fly a virtual spacecraft toward the lunar South Pole region — the same area future Artemis crews plan to explore,” NASA explained.

    Other experiments will be conducted.

    Meet Crew-12

    Crew-12 will not have a traditional welcome

    Usually, a crewed mission will have a welcome party, where the previous mission (in this case, Crew-11), welcomes the new arrivals.

    Pleasantries and workload are exchanged during this transition.

    However, Crew-11 was cut short after one of its members suffered a medical episode.

    The crewmember has not been named and his or her medical issue was not disclosed.

    The event happened days before a planned spacewalk for NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke.

    NASA officials decided to cut the mission short and return Cardman, Fincke and mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov to Earth.

    It was the first medical evacuation in the space station’s 25 years of full service. Originally, the mission was going to end in February.

    NASA officials stressed that the person was in stable condition and the four Crew-11 members appeared together in a press conference nearly a week after returning to Earth in a splashdown.

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  • Taiwan’s AI-powered economy soars in the shadow of bubble fears and China threats

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    TAIPEI, Taiwan — In Taipei, real estate agent Jason Sung is betting that home prices around a high-tech industrial park in the northern part of Taiwan’s capital will soon take flight – because of computer chip maker Nvidia.

    The area is where Nvidia plans to build its new Taiwan headquarters as it rapidly expands on the island, set to surpass Apple to become the biggest customer of Taiwan semiconductor maker TSMC, the biggest contract manufacturer of the advanced chips needed for artificial intelligence.

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang describes Taiwan as the “center of the world’s computer ecosystem.” It’s riding high on the global AI frenzy. Its economy grew at an 8.6% annual pace last year, and it’s hoping to maintain that momentum after it recently sealed a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that cut U.S. tariffs on Taiwan to 15% from 20%.

    “We have been lucky,” said Wu Tsong-min, an emeritus economics professor at National Taiwan University and a former board member of Taiwan’s central bank.

    But Taiwan’s heavy reliance on computer chip makers and other technology companies carries the growing risk of the AI craze turning out to be a bubble.

    “What if the AI bubble is real, and what if its rapid growth pace slows, what’s next for Taiwan? That’s the question many have been asking,” Wu said.

    Escalating tensions with Beijing, which claims independently governed Taiwan as mainland China’s territory, are another abiding threat, despite the island’s vital role in global chip and AI supply chains.

    An island of about 23 million people, Taiwan depends heavily on exports. They jumped nearly 35% year-on-year in 2025, as shipments to the U.S. surged 78% due to ballooning AI demand.

    That’s thanks largely to TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., and electronics giant Foxconn, which makes AI servers for Nvidia and is a major supplier to Apple.

    Taiwan has undergone massive economic changes while shifting from mainly labor-intensive industries such as plastics and textiles to advanced manufacturing like semiconductor fabrication.

    The AI frenzy has made TSMC one of the world’s top 10 most valuable companies. Its profit jumped 46% last year to $1.7 trillion Taiwan dollars ($54 billion).

    The chipmaker is investing heavily both in Taiwan and in new factories in Arizona in the U.S. It produces more than 90% of the world’s most advanced chips.

    Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has doubled its value since 2023. The maker of Apple’s iPhone and iPads now produces AI servers and racks and has a partnership with OpenAI to supply AI data center equipment.

    Taiwan’s heavy reliance on its technology industry means its biggest risk is that growth will be “very highly contingent on the AI boom and tech race continuing,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank.

    Worries that the AI craze may prove to be a bubble prone to a bust similar to the dot.com crash in 2000 that swept through markets, alarming many in Taiwan.

    “I’m also very nervous about it,” C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chairman said when asked about a potential AI bubble during an earnings call in January. “Because we have to invest about $52-$56 billion (this year).”

    “If we did not do it carefully, that will be a big disaster to TSMC for sure,” he said. “I want to make sure that my customers’ demands are real.”

    In a recent report, analysts from Fitch Ratings argued that AI demand will remain strong at least in the near term. In the longer term, however, the risks “will depend on the evolution of AI, as well as trade and investment policies and the adaptability of Taiwanese firms,” they wrote.

    Taiwanese electronics company Asia Vital Components, a key supplier of liquid cooling systems for Nvidia, is investing heavily in research and development. Its chairman, Spencer Shen, said he saw no signs of a slowdown in AI-related demand so far. The company is already designing thermal solutions for 2028 AI servers, he said.

    “We do not believe this is a bubble,” Shen told The Associated Press in an interview. “AI is driven by companies with real products and massive cash flows, like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta.”

    “In fact, AI infrastructure is still in short supply,” Shen added. “I expect AI to trickle through to our everyday level and change the way that things will work fundamentally.”

    Some in Taiwan believe that its pivotal role in the technology sector, especially as a maker of computer chips whose main material is silicon, helps to protect the island from attack by communist-ruled Beijing, whose leaders have vowed to reunite the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.

    The two governments split in 1949 during a civil war. Beijing has been stepping up pressure, conducting military drills nearby. Exercises in late December included live rounds landing closer to the island than before, Taiwan officials said.

    Such geopolitical factors cloud the economic outlook, though many in Taiwan including its former President Tsai Ing-wen believe its importance to global chipmaking would deter China from attacking.

    The risk of an invasion is unclear. Both global tech companies and Chinese industries would suffer from massive disruptions of the chip supply chain, said Wu of National Taiwan University.

    Still, some companies have been identifying contingency scenarios in recent years on how to respond in case of military action by China, said Chen Shin-horng, vice president of the semi-official Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.

    “We need to understand the potential risk, potential damages to Taiwan,” said Chen.

    While many of its core research and development activities are in Taiwan, TSMC already has plants in China, Japan and the U.S., and it’s expanding its offshore production in the U.S., Germany and Japan.

    Roughly 65% of Foxconn’s manufacturing is in China, and the company has factories in other parts of the world such as India, Mexico and the U.S. AVC has been expanding its production capacity in Vietnam.

    While some have called for Taiwan to diversify its economy away from technology to reduce risks, others argue that doubling down on its world-leading technology is the way forward. “It is our greatest strength,” said Shen of AVC.

    The AI boom has done wonders for Taiwan’s stock exchange, where the benchmark Taiex has climbed nearly 250% over the past decade, making many investors rich. Economists have significantly upgraded forecasts for Taiwan’s economic growth for 2026 based on its robust AI-related exports.

    But as is true elsewhere, the wealth is not evenly spread. Many Taiwan residents feel they have been left behind.

    Taiwan’s wealth gap, according to official data, has roughly quadrupled over the past three decades.

    The pay of tech workers already earning high wages, especially chip engineers and managers, has skyrocketed. For other traditional industries, such as plastics and machine toolmakers, growth has lagged.

    Economists say that gap might widen as the AI frenzy continues.

    “It can be tough to make a living,” said Jean Lin, a 30-something manager of a takeaway outlet selling bento meals in a Taipei neighborhood where Foxconn’s office is located.

    “Many of the younger generation still can’t afford to buy an apartment,” Lin, who wishes to start her own business one day, added. “A lot of young people still feel they don’t have much money.”

    ___

    Associated Press video journalist Johnson Lai contributed.

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  • Americans are turning to AI for emotional therapy and mental health advice

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    Millions of Americans are turning to AI for emotional therapy. A report in JAMA found about 13% of young people use AI chatbots for mental health advice. Dr. Sue Varma, a board-certified psychiatrist, explains what to know about safety, privacy and ethical standard concerns.

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  • Dutch court orders investigation into semiconductor chipmaker Nexperia

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    THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered a formal investigation into Dutch-based semiconductor chipmaker Nexperia and upheld an earlier order suspending its Chinese CEO, citing doubts about the company’s policies and conduct.

    The written decision by the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal is the latest step in a saga swirling around Nexperia that sent shock waves through the world’s auto manufacturers, who use the company’s chips in their cars.

    The dispute made global headlines in October, when the Dutch government said it had effectively seized control of the company since late September based on national security concerns.

    Nexperia’s Chinese CEO Zhang Xuezheng, who’s also founder of Nexperia owner Wingtech, was suspended by the enterprise chamber in October following claims of mismanagement.

    At a court hearing last month, lawyers for Zhang and Wingtech painted him as a successful businessman trying to guide Nexperia through troubled geopolitical waters. They urged the court not to order an investigation and said Wingtech had been blindsided by the Dutch government move. Zhang was not in court for the hearing.

    However, Nexperia lawyer Jeroen van der Schriek told the three-judge panel that the behavior of Wingtech and Hong Kong-based holding company Yuching since October “makes it clear that they are willing to subordinate Nexperia’s interests to other interests.”

    An English statement issued by the court on Wednesday’s ruling said that chamber found that “a conflict of interest has been handled without due care” at Nexperia.

    It added that there are “indications that the director of Nexperia changed the strategy without internal consultation under the threat of upcoming sanctions.” It said that agreements with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs “were no longer adhered to, the powers of European managers were restricted and their dismissal was announced.”

    The court statement said that it could not definitively say how long the investigation would take, but added that such probes can take more than six months. The court will use the findings to assess “whether there has been mismanagement at Nexperia and whether definitive measures need to be taken.”

    Nexperia did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

    The dispute at Nexperia escalated when China temporarily blocked the export of Nexperia chips from its plant in China in October, sending global auto manufacturers scrambling to secure supplies and alternatives. Beijing’s export ban was later lifted, after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late October. And the Dutch government in November said it was relinquishing its control of Nexperia as a “show of goodwill.”

    But a standoff between Nexperia’s headquarters in the Netherlands and its Chinese unit continued to fuel chip supply chain concerns. Nexperia’s Chinese arm had said its Dutch headquarters interrupted shipments of wafers to its Chinese factory, which it said had impacted its core production operations and weighed on its ability in delivering finished products. Nexperia’s headquarters hit back, and said the Chinese unit had ignored instructions from the head office.

    “Nexperia’s situation now requires, first and foremost, a situation of calm that allows Nexperia to restore its internal relations, its production chain and deliveries to customers,” the court said Wednesday.

    Car manufacturers including Honda had to halt production of some cars as the Nexperia crisis unfolded, and Mercedes-Benz was among those scrambling to find alternatives.

    Nexperia was spun off from Philips Semiconductors two decades ago and then purchased in 2018 by Wingtech. In 2023, the British government blocked Nexperia’s bid to acquire Wales-based chipmaker Newport Wafer Fab, citing national security risks.

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