Hi there, this is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
✈️ NASA's quiet supersonic jet completes its first flight
🔄 Amazon CEO says layoffs were for 'agility' not AI
🏭 Samsung and Nvidia to build an AI Megafactory
🚀 SpaceX, Blue Origin propose faster lunar timelines
🤖 Tim Cook says more AIs are coming to Apple Intelligence
⚖️ Palantir sues former engineers over stolen secrets
🎁 + 18 other news you might like
🔮 + 6 handpicked research papers and tools
✈️ NASA's quiet supersonic jet completes its first flight LINK
NASA's X-59 experimental jet, built by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, completed its inaugural flight over California's Mojave Desert, which confirmed the vehicle's airworthiness and basic safety systems.
The plane is designed to soften the loud sonic boom of supersonic travel into a much quieter "sonic thump," potentially allowing future commercial jets to fly faster over land.
Its unique shape features a long, slender nose that breaks up shock waves and a top-mounted engine to keep its underside smooth, directing sound away from the ground.
🔄 Amazon CEO says layoffs were for 'agility' not AI LINK
CEO Andy Jassy said the recent corporate layoffs were not financially driven or caused by AI, calling it a cultural decision to help the massive company stay nimble.
Amazon's rapid growth created extra layers of management that slowed decision-making, so the cuts aim to restore ownership for the employees who are doing the actual work.
The workforce reduction is described as a cultural reset intended to make the business operate like a startup again during what Jassy calls a technology transformation.
🏭 Samsung and Nvidia to build an AI Megafactory LINK
Samsung plans to build an "AI Megafactory" with a cluster of 50,000 Nvidia GPUs, a facility intended to improve its chip manufacturing for mobile devices and various robots.
Nvidia will help adapt the Korean company's chipmaking lithography platform for its GPUs, a collaboration that its representatives claim will result in 20 times better performance for Samsung.
The project also involves using Nvidia's Omniverse simulation software and tweaking Samsung's fourth-generation HBM memory, while the GPUs will additionally run AI models for the company's devices.
🚀 SpaceX, Blue Origin propose faster lunar timelines LINK
A growing concern that China might land astronauts on the Moon first has prompted NASA to ask private companies for ways to accelerate its existing timeline for the Artemis program.SpaceX confirmed it submitted a plan to the agency for a "simplified mission architecture" to get crew on the lunar surface faster, though the company has not yet provided specific details.Blue Origin is exploring a "more incremental approach" using its smaller Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, which could potentially get people to the Moon without requiring complex orbital refueling.
🤖 Tim Cook says more AIs are coming to Apple Intelligence LINK
CEO Tim Cook says Apple has a clear intention to embed more third-party AI tools into its operating systems, expanding beyond the already announced integration of ChatGPT into Siri.
A Google Gemini integration is said to be in the works for the company’s software, and there are also rumors circulating about a potential future partnership with the AI firm Anthropic.
Beyond external models, Cook also confirmed that an AI-upgraded Siri is currently on track for release sometime next year, stating that the company is making good progress on the update.
⚖️ Palantir sues former engineers over stolen secrets LINK
Palantir filed a federal lawsuit against two former senior engineers, alleging they used stolen trade secrets to build Percepta, a "copycat" AI integration company backed by General Catalyst.
The complaint states one engineer, Joanna Cohen, sent herself confidential Palantir documents via Slack, including a healthcare revenue cycle diagram and a draft statement of work, after resigning.
Percepta's business model is said to mirror the data analytics giant's, and the startup's team is composed of nearly half former Palantir employees, according to the legal filing.
Other news you might like
- Amazon earnings: Cloud dominance in focus after massive outage as rivals gain groundLINK
- Apple just provided its first glimpse at how iPhone 17 sales are goingLINK
- Big Tech Is Spending More Than Ever on AI and It’s Still Not EnoughLINK
- Canva launches its own design model, adds new AI features to the platformLINK
- OpenAI unveils 'Aardvark,' a GPT-5-powered agent for autonomous cybersecurity researchLINK
- Tim Cook says Apple is open to M&A on the AI frontLINK
- OpenAI now sells extra Sora credits for $4, plans to reduce free gens in the futureLINK
- Perplexity’s new AI tool aims to simplify patent researchLINK
- Perplexity strikes multi-year licensing deal with Getty ImagesLINK
- Nvidia is reportedly investing up to $1 billion in PoolsideLINK
- Google study finds Android avoids 58% more spam and scam texts compared to iOSLINK
- Coinbase CEO’s bizarre final words on Q3 call just paid off a lucky fewLINK
- Survey: Two-thirds of AI-native startups let AI write most of their codeLINK
- Tesla Robotaxis are crashing more than Waymo, even with human safety monitorsLINK
- According to Anthropic, language models can perceive some of their own internal statesLINK
- xAI Researcher, Early Googler In Talks To Raise $1 Billion At $5 Billion Valuation For New Frontier LabLINK
- Tired of waiting 7.5 years, Sam Altman tries – and fails – to cancel his Tesla Roadster and get his $50,000 backLINK
- Neuralink’s first human patient reflects on 21 months with brain implant “Eve”LINK
Latest research and tools
Minecraft HDL: an educational tool that generates redstone circuits in Minecraft from digital design files, helping to teach the basics of hardware design.LINK
Kimi Linear: an AI model architecture that processes large amounts of information more efficiently, improving performance and speed while using less memory.LINK
Reasoning Models Reason Well, Until They Don't: large language models can appear to reason but often just learn superficial shortcuts, causing them to fail when a problem is changed even slightly.LINK
Quibbler: an AI critic that observes your coding agent and automatically corrects it to ensure it follows your project's specific rules, patterns, and coding style.LINK
No Code: a command-line tool for converting text or code into an invisible format and then transforming it back into something readable.LINK
Rapid Brightening of 3I/Atlas Ahead of Perihelion: this paper reports that Comet Atlas experienced a sudden increase in brightness before it reached its closest point to the sun.LINK
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