Self-Driving Cars

SoftBank’s $4B DigitalBridge Acquisition to Supercharge AI Infrastructure SoftBank Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire digital infrastructure asset manager DigitalBridge Group for approximately $4 billion. This strategic acquisition is designed to significantly strengthen SoftBank’s position in the AI sector. By gaining control over critical digital assets like data centers, cell towers, and fiber networks, SoftBank aims to build the necessary infrastructure for training and deploying advanced AI models on a global scale, advancing its goal of achieving Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, with DigitalBridge continuing to operate as a separately managed platform under its current CEO, Marc Ganzi. ...

New AI System Enhances At-Home Balance Training for Physical Therapy Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new machine learning model to support home-based balance training for physical therapy patients. The system utilizes data from four wearable sensors to predict how a physical therapist would assess a patient’s performance on balance exercises. This AI-driven feedback can help patients make faster progress and maintain their abilities after their formal therapy sessions have concluded. The model was developed by training convolutional neural networks with sensor data and evaluations from physical therapists, achieving nearly 90% accuracy in predicting patient balance ratings. The technology aims to make balance training more accessible, particularly for those in rural areas, and to assist physical therapists in making healthcare decisions. ...

Google Quantum AI Reports Breakthrough in Generative Quantum Advantage Researchers at Google Quantum AI have reported the first experimental evidence of “generative quantum advantage,” a breakthrough demonstrating that quantum computers can learn to generate results that are difficult for classical computers to simulate. Using a 68-qubit superconducting processor, the team trained the quantum computer to generate complex bitstring distributions, compress quantum circuits, and learn quantum states. This moves beyond previous demonstrations of quantum advantage, which focused on producing complex outputs that couldn’t be checked, to now include the ability to learn from data and reliably generate useful results. This development suggests that quantum devices could eventually contribute to generative AI tasks, similar to those powering large language models, with significant implications for both artificial intelligence and quantum computing. ...

Meta and Google Cloud Forge $10 Billion AI Partnership Meta Platforms has entered into a landmark six-year agreement with Google Cloud, valued at over $10 billion, to significantly enhance its artificial intelligence infrastructure. This strategic partnership will see Meta leverage Google Cloud’s comprehensive suite of services, including servers, storage, and networking, to power its ambitious AI expansion. The deal is a critical component of Meta’s plan to scale its data center capacity to approximately 1 gigawatt of compute power, utilizing over 1.3 million GPUs in 2025. This collaboration underscores the intense investment and competition within the AI sector, as tech giants commit substantial capital to advance their capabilities. For Google Cloud, this agreement represents a major victory in its ongoing competition with other leading cloud providers. ...