BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese search engine giant Baidu’s CEO Robin Li said on Friday that the company will “very soon” officially launch Ernie 3.5, a generative AI large-language model that will power Baidu’s ChatGPT-like app Ernie Bot and upgrade its search engine. Li made the announcement at the Zhongguancun Forum, one of China’s most well-known…
By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A spaceplane from Virgin Galactic reached the edge of space on Thursday carrying a crew of six, making its first spaceflight test in nearly two years as the space tourism firm founded by Richard Branson prepares its long-awaited commercial service. The company’s VSS Unity spaceplane dropped from its twin-fuselage carrier…
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Chinese hacking teams have been blamed by Western intelligence agencies and cybersecurity groups for digital intrusion campaigns across the world, targeting everything from government and military organisations to corporations and media groups Cybersecurity firms believe many of those groups are backed by China’s government. U.S.-based Mandiant has said some Chinese hacking groups…
By Andrew Mills DOHA (Reuters) – A U.S. government default would trigger an initial pull-back from crypto currencies followed by a “push upward” the CEO of London-based crypto firm Blockchain.com said on Thursday. The U.S. government could fall behind on its bills next month – and even default on its debt – if Congress does…
By Hyonhee Shin and Soo-hyang Choi SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s domestically made space rocket delivered a commercial grade satellite into orbit for the first time on Thursday, the country’s science minister said, a breakthrough in its ambitions to compete in a space race with its Asian neighbours. The Nuri rocket lifted off from Naro Space…
By Josh Smith SEOUL (Reuters) – Construction at North Korea’s satellite launching station has hit a “new level of urgency,” most likely in preparation for a launch, a U.S.-based think tank said in a report citing commercial satellite imagery. North Korea says it has completed its first military spy satellite, and leader Kim Jong Un…
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – The first of three Russian hypersonic missile scientists to be arrested on suspicion of treason will go on trial next week, the court handling the case said on Wednesday. The criminal case against Anatoly Maslov, 76, will open in St Petersburg’s city court on June 1, the court said on…
By Hannah Confino and Ari Rabinovitch TEL AVIV (Reuters) – A deadly epidemic that is spreading through the Red Sea has killed off an entire species of sea urchin in the Gulf of Aqaba, imperilling the region’s uniquely resilient coral reefs, an Israeli research team has found. The whole population of black sea urchins, a…
By Filipp Lebedev, Lucy Papachristou and Mark Trevelyan LONDON (Reuters) – The director of a top Russian science institute, arrested on suspicion of treason along with two other hypersonic missile technology experts, stands accused of betraying secrets to China, two people familiar with the case told Reuters. Alexander Shiplyuk, head of Siberia’s Khristianovich Institute of…
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea cancelled the third flight of its homegrown space rocket on Wednesday because of technical problems hours before a launch that was meant to mark a significant step in its burgeoning space programme. South Korea is aspiring to be a key player in space technology, competing with its Asian neighbours. The technical…
