Startup Skyward Wildfire says it may possibly forestall catastrophic fires by stopping the lightning strikes that ignite them. Thus far, it hasn’t publicly revealed the way it does so, however on-line paperwork recommend the corporate is counting on an strategy the US authorities started evaluating within the early Nineteen Sixties: seeding clouds with metallic chaff, or slim fiberglass strands coated with aluminum.
It simply raised thousands and thousands of {dollars} to speed up its product improvement and increase its operations. However researchers and environmental observers say uncertainties stay, together with how properly the seeding may match beneath various situations, how a lot materials would should be launched, how ceaselessly it must be executed, and what kinds of secondary environmental impacts may end result. Learn the total story.
—James Temple
OpenAI’s “compromise” with the Pentagon is what Anthropic feared
OpenAI has reached a deal that can permit the US army to make use of its applied sciences in categorized settings. CEO Sam Altman mentioned the negotiations, which the corporate started pursuing solely after the Pentagon’s public reprimand of Anthropic, have been “positively rushed.”
OpenAI has taken nice pains to say that it has not caved to permit the Pentagon to do no matter it desires with its know-how. The corporate printed a weblog put up explaining that its settlement protected towards use for autonomous weapons and mass home surveillance, and Altman mentioned the corporate didn’t merely settle for the identical phrases that Anthropic refused.
But it surely’s not but clear if OpenAI can construct within the security precautions it guarantees because the army rushes out a politicized AI technique throughout strikes on Iran, or if the deal can be seen as ok by staff who wished the corporate to take a more durable line. Strolling that tightrope can be difficult. Learn the total story.
—James O’Donnell
