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WASHINGTON — A Texas state agency awarded $47.7 million in grants to five space companies to support projects like construction of facilities and development of spacecraft in the state.

The Texas Space Commission announced Feb. 10 that it awarded the grants to Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, SpaceX and Starlab Space. The grants are part of the commission’s Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund (SEARF) program.

“Today’s awards will support Texas companies as we grow commercial, military and civil aerospace activity across the state,” Gwen Griffin, chair of the board of the commission, said in a statement.

In the 1951 science fiction film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” powerful ray guns are shown vaporizing rifles and even tanks. In the Star Wars movies, a wide variety of directed energy weapons are depicted, from handheld lightsabers to massive, spaceship-mounted laser cannons.

What exactly is a directed energy weapon? Are these weapons still science fiction, lab experiments, or are they real? How can they be used and how disruptive can they be? What are the challenges and next steps? This article will examine answers to these questions.

According to DOD’s Joint Publication 3–13 Electronic Warfare, directed energy (DE) is described as an:

OpenAI on Thursday said the U.S. National Laboratories will be using its latest artificial intelligence models for scientific research and nuclear weapons security.

Under the agreement, up to 15,000 scientists working at the National Laboratories may be able to access OpenAI’s reasoning-focused o1 series. OpenAI will also work with Microsoft, its lead investor, to deploy one of its models on Venado, the supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to a release. Venado is powered by technology from Nvidia and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

Description:
Sam Altman admitted OpenAI might have been wrong about keeping its AI models private and acknowledged DeepSeek’s open-source approach is making waves in the industry. Meanwhile, DeepSeek claims to have built an AI model as powerful as OpenAI’s GPT-o1 for a fraction of the cost, raising concerns about potential data theft and U.S. chip restrictions. At the same time, Altman is pushing a $500 billion AI data center project called “Stargate” while facing a personal lawsuit, as Google quietly adjusts its AI strategy and Microsoft investigates DeepSeek’s rapid rise.

*Key Topics:*
- *Sam Altman’s shocking admission* about OpenAI’s past mistakes and DeepSeek’s rising influence.
- How *DeepSeek claims to rival OpenAI’s GPT-o1* at a fraction of the cost, raising legal concerns.
- The *AI arms race escalates* as OpenAI, DeepSeek, Microsoft, and Google battle for dominance.

*What You’ll Learn:*
- Why *OpenAI might change its stance on open-source AI* after DeepSeek’s disruptive impact.
- How *Microsoft is investigating DeepSeek* over alleged unauthorized use of OpenAI’s data.
- The *$500 billion “Stargate” project* and why experts doubt Altman’s ambitious AI infrastructure plans.

*Why It Matters:*
This video explores the *intensifying AI war, where **DeepSeek’s bold claims* challenge industry giants, forcing OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft to rethink their strategies while massive investments reshape the future of artificial intelligence.

*DISCLAIMER:*
This video analyzes the latest AI developments, including *OpenAI’s internal struggles, DeepSeek’s rapid rise, and the shifting landscape of AI innovation and competition*.

#AI #DeepSeek #OpenAI

Although Chinese AI, such as DeepSeek, might torpedo American megatech, the advent of vanishingly tiny costs might lead us further up that exponential curve to Superabundance.

S V3 model, DeepSeek-V2, triggered an AI model price war in China after it was released last May. ‘ + The fact that DeepSeek-V2 was open-source and unprecedentedly cheap, only 1 yuan.

⏩($0.14)⏪ per 1 million tokens👀 ‼️

S cloud unit announcing price cuts of up to 97% on a range of models. ‘.


BEIJING (Reuters)-Chinese tech company Alibaba on Wednesday released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model that it claimed surpassed the highly-acclaimed DeepSeek-V3. The unusual timing of the Qwen 2.5-Max’s release, on the first day of the Lunar New Year when most Chinese people are off work and with their families, points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on not just overseas rivals, but also its domestic competition. “Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms… almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B,” Alibaba’s cloud unit said in an announcement posted on its official WeChat account, referring to OpenAI and Meta’s most advanced open-source AI models.

Capcom is experimenting with generative AI to create the “hundreds of thousands” of ideas needed for in-game environments.

As video game development costs rise, publishers are increasingly looking to controversial AI tools to speed up work and cut costs. Call of Duty reportedly sold an “AI-generated cosmetic” for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in late 2023, and fans accused Activision of using generative AI again for a loading screen last year. EA said in September that AI was “the very core” of its business.

In a new interview with Google Cloud Japan, Kazuki Abe, a technical director at Capcom who has worked on huge titles like Monster Hunter: World and Exoprimal, explained how the company is experimenting with implementing AI in its game development processes.

New research from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing has uncovered a rather intriguing finding: natural melanin nanozymes (NMNs) derived from octopus ink may potentially slow ageing, protect against neurodegenerative diseases, and extend lifespan. Published in ACS Omega, the study reveals how these nanozymes work at the cellular level to mitigate oxidative stress, improve gut health, and enhance brain function, offering a new frontier in anti-ageing and neurological research.

What are Melanin Nanozymes?

Melanin, best known as the pigment responsible for skin and hair colour, has also been recognized for its potent antioxidant properties. Nanozymes created from natural melanin, like those extracted from octopus ink, mimic the activity of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD). These nanozymes neutralize free radicals, reduce oxidative stress, and improve cellular health—processes that are critical in mitigating ageing and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases.

To unite humanity.


Before we landed on the Moon, in the early days of the Cold War, Project Orion contemplated using Nuclear Bombs to power spaceships to new worlds and stars. More than half a century later, new technologies may see this concept reintroduced bigger, better, and safer. Could the most terrifying weapon of the 20th Century become the Great Hope of the 21st?

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Credits:
The New Dawn: The Orion Project Spaceship Revitalized.
Science \& Futurism with Isaac Arthur.
Episode 324, January 6, 2022
Written, Produced \& Narrated by Isaac Arthur.

Script Contributors: