Technology

Tech News: IBM’s $11B Confluent Deal, Waymo Expands, and Quantum Teleportation Breakthrough Chicago Hosts 2025 Junior Theorists Workshop in Computer Science The 2025 Chicago Junior Theorists Workshop is being held on December 8th and 9th, hosted jointly by Northwestern University and the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC). The event is designed to showcase recent research from outstanding final-year Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers in theoretical computer science. The two-day workshop will feature a series of talks and discussions covering a wide range of topics within the field. This annual workshop provides a platform for junior researchers to present their work to the broader academic community and is supported by organizations including ACM SIGACT, IDEAL, NITMB, and the SkAI Institute. ...

Kodiak’s Autonomous Trucks Hit Milestone with 100+ Driverless Deliveries in Permian Basin Kodiak Robotics and Atlas Energy Solutions have achieved a major milestone in logistics automation, successfully completing over 100 driverless deliveries of frac sand in the Permian Basin. This operation, utilizing two autonomous Class 8 semi-trucks, represents the first commercial use of a customer-owned fleet of self-driving trucks without a safety driver. The trucks navigate a challenging 21-mile route on private, unpaved oilfield roads, handling conditions like dust storms and heavy equipment traffic. Atlas Energy Solutions has praised the reliable service and ordered 100 more trucks, planning to scale the program in 2025 and 2026 as part of a broader strategy to create a fully automated supply chain. ...

AI & Machine Learning Breakthroughs: Tracing Ancient Life and Powering Research This collection of articles highlights recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. A groundbreaking new machine learning method has successfully identified the oldest chemical traces of life on Earth. In other news, a German research team has gained access to a powerful supercomputer to advance generative AI research, while new insights reveal how machine learning is fundamentally transforming global currency exchange. ...

Jeff Bezos Launches ‘Project Prometheus’ AI Startup for Manufacturing Four years after stepping down as Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos is reportedly co-CEO of a new AI startup, Project Prometheus. The company will focus on developing artificial intelligence for engineering and manufacturing sectors and has allegedly secured a massive $6.2 billion in funding. Bezos will share the CEO role with tech executive Vik Bajaj. This new venture enters a highly competitive AI market, where substantial venture capital investments are being made in companies like OpenAI, raising questions about the long-term financial sustainability of the industry. ...

New AI Assistant ‘Denario’ Aims to Accelerate Scientific Discovery Researchers have introduced Denario, an AI-powered scientific assistant designed to accelerate the research process. This multi-agent system can assist with numerous tasks, including generating new research ideas, reviewing existing literature, creating research plans, writing and executing code, producing plots, and drafting scientific papers. Developed by a team from the University of Cambridge, the Flatiron Institute, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Denario is a modular tool for scientists at various stages of their work. While it has demonstrated the ability to generate entire research papers across disciplines like astrophysics and biology, its creators emphasize that it is a tool to augment, not replace, human scientists. They note the current version has limitations, with only about one in ten outputs providing significant insights and instances of data fabrication, making human oversight essential. The project’s code is publicly available, with a demo version accessible online. ...

Keenon Robotics Deploys Humanoid Service Robot in World-First Smart Hotel Scenario Keenon Robotics has deployed its humanoid service robot, the XMAN-R1, at the Shangri-La Traders Hotel at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. This deployment establishes what is being called the world’s first smart scenario model demonstrating collaborative operations between general-purpose and special-purpose robots. The XMAN-R1 will serve as a greeter, using natural language and anthropomorphic actions to interact with guests. Meanwhile, other specialized Keenon robots will handle tasks like in-room deliveries, luggage transport, cleaning, and food delivery. This initiative is part of Keenon’s broader strategy to integrate its embodied robot solutions into various industries, with over 100,000 units already deployed in more than 60 countries. ...

Top Tech Stories OpenAI & NVIDIA Forge $100B Partnership for AI Supercomputing Infrastructure OpenAI and Nvidia have announced a landmark partnership to build OpenAI’s next-generation AI infrastructure, deploying at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia systems. As part of the agreement, Nvidia will make a progressive investment of up to $100 billion as each gigawatt of infrastructure is completed. This strategic move highlights the trend of AI leaders securing massive computing capacity through diverse hardware and cloud partnerships. In a related deal, OpenAI has also entered a multiyear agreement with AMD to supply up to 6 gigawatts of its MI450 GPUs, which includes an option for OpenAI to acquire a stake of approximately 10% in AMD. ...

Breakthrough in Soft Robotics: Shapeshifting Robot Moves Using Electric Fields In a significant advancement for soft robotics, researchers from the University of Bristol and Queen Mary University of London have created a highly agile, shapeshifting soft robot. According to a study in Advanced Materials, the innovation lies in an electro-morphing gel (e-MG) that enables the robot to bend, stretch, and perform complex movements by manipulating electric fields. This new material allows the jelly-like humanoid gymnast to swing its body and limbs to move from one location to another. ...

Today’s Top Tech Stories: Waymo, NASA, Oracle, and Quantum Breakthroughs Here’s a summary of the most significant developments in AI, autonomous driving, cloud infrastructure, and quantum computing for October 15, 2025. Waymo Announces 2026 London Robotaxi Service Launch Waymo, the autonomous driving technology company under Alphabet, has officially announced its plan to launch a driverless robotaxi service in London. The full rollout is scheduled for 2026, making London the first European city to host Waymo’s autonomous ride-hailing service. Initial vehicle testing with safety drivers will commence in the upcoming weeks. The service, accessible via the Waymo app, will directly compete with established ride-hailing platforms. This expansion represents Waymo’s second international market after Tokyo. UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander voiced support, emphasizing the initiative’s potential to advance the UK’s autonomous vehicle sector and enhance transportation accessibility. ...

Ant Group Challenges OpenAI with Ling-1T, a Trillion-Parameter Open-Source AI Model Ant Group has announced the release of Ling-1T, a new trillion-parameter large language model, intensifying the global competition in artificial intelligence. This general-purpose model is engineered for complex reasoning and logic-based tasks, demonstrating strong performance in code generation, software development, and competition-level mathematics. According to Ant Group, Ling-1T has shown superior problem-solving skills compared to rivals from DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and OpenAI. The company reported that Ling-1T achieved high scores on benchmark platforms such as LiveCodeBench and the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). On the AIME benchmark, the model reached an accuracy of 70.42%, a result comparable to Google’s Gemini-2.5-Pro. Ling-1T is the second trillion-parameter model from Ant Group and is part of the company’s Ling AI model family. The release of Ling-1T as an open-source model is a strategic move to promote transparency and collaboration in AI development. ...