NASA is gearing up to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope by the end of August, which aims to delve into dark matter and dark energy but also promises a new role in planetary defense by detecting killer asteroids. SpaceX reported soaring revenues, nearly doubling year-over-year to $7.8 billion, largely driven by AI compute deals with Anthropic and Google and Starlink’s growth to 12 million subscribers. OpenAI’s unreleased model Astra has made remarkable advances in solving classic mathematical problems posed by Paul Erdős, signaling a phase transition in AI-assisted math research. On the hardware front, Mistral launched Shieldstral, a powerful open-weights 3B multimodal moderation model that outperforms much larger models and is policy-adaptive. Time is now serving AI crawlers with a stripped-down markdown website version, embedding ads invisible to humans but optimized for language models. Additionally, Indian EV startup River raised $120 million to scale production of its single-model lineup amid rising demand.
AI and Machine Learning
- Why the Legendary Erdős Problems Are Falling to AI: OpenAI’s internal model Astra made ten breakthroughs in classical Erdős math problems, marking a shift in how AI is transforming mathematical research.
- Mistral's Shieldstral: 3B open-weights model for multimodal moderation: Mistral released Shieldstral, a compact (3B parameter) open-weights AI safety model that handles text and image moderation with policy-adaptive questioning, outperforming models 7x larger.
- Pi's Minimalism Is Its Advantage: Pi, a minimalist coding AI harness with fewer tools, demonstrated higher performance and lower cost compared to larger, complex counterparts in studies like Databricks’.
- Open-weight AI models are catching up to the frontier. The safety gap remains.: China’s GLM-5.2 open-weight model nears capabilities of industry leaders but lacks safety controls, raising concerns over proliferation of potent yet unsafe AI.
- Anthropic signs $10B deal with AI cloud startup Volta: Anthropic inked a massive $10 billion cloud compute contract with startup Volta, boosting its AI infrastructure on NVIDIA-powered data centers.
- MacPaw taps Liquid AI to offer on-device inference to devs building for its app store: MacPaw partners with Liquid AI to deliver locally hosted AI models supporting offline AI assistants and plans to open the platform to third-party developers.
- Wispr Flow launches a Granola-styled meeting notetaker: Wispr Flow officially launched an AI-powered meeting notetaker for Macs that transcribes system audio, summarizes meetings, and allows querying historical conversations.
- The AI Notetaker Has Been Invited to All the Meetings: AI meeting notetakers like Wispr Flow and Granola are becoming standard tools in Silicon Valley, enabling live transcription and searchable summaries.
Space and Connectivity
- NASA’s new dark-energy space telescope can also detect killer asteroids: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching end of August, will aid in dark energy research and uniquely detect and track near-Earth asteroids.
- SpaceX doubles revenue on Anthropic and Google compute deals, Starlink growth: SpaceX’s revenue nearly doubled to $7.8B thanks to AI compute rentals and a Starlink subscriber base of 12 million.
- Starlink Hits 12 Million Subscribers, V3 Satellites Headed to Operational Orbit: Starlink added 1.7 million subscribers in Q2 and plans to deploy gigabit-capable V3 satellites into operational orbit next year.
- SpaceX is coming for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon: SpaceX announced plans to build a terrestrial mobile network to compete directly with major wireless carriers using spectrum and innovative cellular base stations integrated with Starlink hardware.
- Starlink Mobile Won't Just Be Satellites, But a Ground Network Too: SpaceX will augment satellite service with ground-based cellular base stations mounted on Starlink hardware for efficient buildout.
Business and Finance
- Robinhood to list a fund that lets anyone back Y Combinator startups: Robinhood’s new publicly traded fund will allow retail investors to back YC startups indirectly with plans to raise up to $200 million.
- Indian EV startup River raises $120M Series C to scale production, launch more models: River raised $120 million to expand production of its Indie electric moped and increase sales in India.
- Saudi Aramco backs India’s Mitti Labs to make Asia’s rice farming more water-resilient: Mitti Labs secured $9.5M from Saudi Aramco to expand its AI-driven water and methane reduction platform for Asian rice farmers.
- Time Is Serving AI Bots a Different Website, with Ads Built In: Time serves AI web crawlers a stripped-down, markdown version of their articles with embedded ads to optimize indexing and ad revenue.
- Texas halts data center connections to power grid amid overwhelming demand: Texas placed a moratorium on new data center power grid connections to protect grid stability due to skyrocketing electricity requests, mostly from data centers.
- Lucid’s turnaround plan hinges on $1.4B in cash savings, robotaxis: Lucid announced an operational reset targeting $1.4 billion in savings and delayed its mid-sized EV launch to focus on product quality and new business lines like robotaxis.
- SpaceX has bought $329M worth of Tesla Megapacks so far this year: SpaceX spent $329 million on Tesla Megapack battery storage for AI data centers and grid peak smoothing, highlighting Musk’s intertwined ventures.
- Apple Limits Bug Bounty Submissions After a Barrage of AI Entries: Apple capped submissions to its bounty program to manage an influx of AI-assisted vulnerability reports.
Consumer Tech and Hardware
- The Pixel 11's "glow" feature is actually called HiLight—here's what it does: Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold introduces HiLight, a customizable multicolor notification LED embedded in the camera module.
- BenQ GV50 Review: Highly Portable, but With Quality Trade-Offs: The BenQ GV50 is a portable ceiling projector with good portability but compromises on picture and sound quality.
- Most PC Gamers Are Now Playing With More Than 8GB of VRAM: Over 51% of Steam users now game on rigs with 10GB or more VRAM, with growing adoption of 12GB and 16GB cards.
- AMD’s data center business is booming while gaming takes a backseat: AMD’s data center revenue doubled to $6.7 billion due to AI demand, while gaming revenue declined 31%.
- MacPaw taps Liquid AI to offer on-device inference to devs building for its app store: MacPaw partners with Liquid AI to enable efficient AI running on devices for privacy-focused assistants.
- Google Assistant will disappear from your phone next month: Google Assistant support on Android phones and tablets will end September 4, replaced fully by Gemini AI.
- Apple to Face $32.5 Billion Lawsuit Over Facial Recognition in Photos App: Apple faces a massive class-action lawsuit over alleged biometric data collection without consent in its Photos app.
- Telegram: Extortionist Duped Apple Into Delisting Our App: Telegram accused extortionists of manipulating Apple into briefly delisting its app via posting illicit content in public groups.
Streaming and Entertainment
- Disney+ looks to TikTok creators to bring fan content to its short-form video feed: Disney is partnering with TikTok to feature fan-made Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars videos on its Disney+ short video feed “Verts.”
- Disney gives TikTok creators official access to Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters: Disney Plus and TikTok creators will collaborate on fan content using official IP assets through a creator ambassador program.
- Disney says it’s ‘exploring’ adding a free tier to Disney Plus: Disney CEO confirmed the company is considering launching a free ad-supported tier of Disney+ to expand its reach.
- Ted Lasso returns at an important time for Apple TV: Ted Lasso returns for season 4 on Apple TV, seen as a key cultural pillar amid the platform’s recent streaming gains.
- Don’t screw this up, Marvel: Spider-Man: Brand New Day hit $1B at the worldwide box office, highlighting stark contrasts with the rest of the MCU’s recent struggles.
Privacy and Security
- Android app developers may be unwittingly sharing their users’ location data with advertisers: EFF exposed many Android apps inadvertently sharing users’ location data with advertisers due to default SDK settings.
- Equifax $2.2M Settlement: You Have Less Than a Month to Claim Up to $600. Here's How: Equifax faces a $2.2M settlement over duplicates in credit reports, with a claims deadline of September 1.
- Apple Limits Bug Bounty Submissions After a Barrage of AI Entries: Apple restricted the number of vulnerability reports researchers can submit amid a surge of AI-assisted bug findings.
- Trump admin "aware" of deaths in explosive diarrhea outbreak, delays reporting: Michigan reported two deaths linked to a Cyclospora outbreak but federal agencies delayed public updates.
Other
- Simple algorithm and color space to generate diverse skin tones: A new inclusive color picker and algorithm were published that make generating diverse skin tones easier for artists and developers.
- Helsinki Hacker News Meetup: An unofficial meetup for Hacker News posters in Helsinki, focused on building the community offline.
- Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?: Early clinical trial results suggest psilocybin may help treat anorexia nervosa, a psychiatric disorder with high mortality.
- Pushing the limits: Infinite Machine's Olto is barely a bicycle: Infinite Machine’s Olto is an electric scooter designed with disabled pedals to fit legally as a bicycle but perform like a scooter.
- Gene-Edited Puppies Will Melt Your Heart—but Won’t Trigger Your Allergies: Scientists used CRISPR to create beagles that lack the main allergy-causing protein, promising hypoallergenic dogs.
- No One Can Afford to Make ‘Myst’ Games Anymore: Funding difficulties force Cyan Worlds to shelve a new Myst game despite a well-received demo.
- Viral Mugshot Accounts Are Humiliating Women Years After Their Arrests: The long-term social harm of viral mugshot exposure for women is highlighted through a case study.
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