Mark Zuckerberg isn't waiting for AI talent. He's opening up the checkbook like he's an NFL GM trying to reach the Super Bowl.
Why it matters: Some top executives and researchers in AI are moving from companies like Apple and OpenAI to Meta as Facebook's parent company looks for any leg-up in the race to build the top AI products.
Wednesday marks the 80th anniversary of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan — an event that helped end World War II but also brought the world into the nuclear age and the Cold War.
Japan uses the anniversary to commemorate the lives of the Hibakusha, survivors of the bombing, and asks the world to heed the dangers of nuclear war.
The big picture: Here are some images from this crucial moment in world history.
The Titan submersible implosion that killed five people occurred in large part because operator OceanGate had failed to follow "established engineering protocols for safety, testing, and maintenance" of the vessel, a U.S. Coast Guard report finds.
The big picture: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush may have faced criminal charges if he hadn't been killed during the "preventable tragedy" that occurred during a June 2023 diving trip to the wreck of the Titanic, according to the damning report that was published Tuesday.
Chikungunya virus outbreaks have prompted the CDC to issue travel alerts warning U.S. travelers of an "elevated risk" of exposure to the mosquito-borne illness in China and several other countries.
The big picture: Some 240,000 chikungunya cases have been reported in parts of Central and South America, Africa, the Indian Ocean region and Asia this year, including 90 deaths. Officials in Guangdong province, South China, have confirmed at least 7,000 illnesses since June.
Homicides declined in major U.S. cities — by more than 50% in some communities — during the first six months of the year, according to new data from an organization of law enforcement executives.
Why it matters: The stats are the latest signs that violent crime in America is falling from the COVID crime wave, and that drop appears to be accelerating during President Trump's first months in office.
OpenAI on Tuesday debuted two freely downloadable models that it says can, for certain tasks, match the performance of some modes of ChatGPT.
Why it matters: OpenAI is aiming the new models at customers who want the cost savings and privacy benefits that come from running AI models directly on their own devices rather than relying on cloud-based services like ChatGPT or its rivals.
SmartNews, the Japanese news discovery app founded in 2012, is releasing a new artificial intelligence-powered app, executives tell Axios.
Why it matters: The new app — called NewsArc — is meant to offer heavily engaged news readers a more personalized experience without putting them in echo chambers.
The U.S. Army is consolidating 75 contracts into a single arrangement with Palantir Technologies worth as much as $10 billion — a move the service said will accelerate deliveries and eliminate middleman fees.
Why it matters: The 10-year deal is evidence of three things, closely related:
The ascendancy of Palantir in Washington and at the Pentagon, in particular. (At an AI summit last month, President Trump remarked, "We buy a lot of things from Palantir.")
The changing ways militaries are trying and buying products, especially software.
The maturing D.C.-Silicon Valley relationship, which was on the rocks not too long ago.
An Illinois Holocaust museum that uses AI technology to create "interactives" with Holocaust survivors is expanding its offering and including a project with a Tutsi survivor of the Rwandan genocide.
Why it matters: It's the first-ever non-Holocaust interactive interview for the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, Ill., and signals that Holocaust museums are using the technology to bring attention to more recent genocides.
