Japanese carmaker Nissan has announced plans to boost its electric vehicle lineup with an additional 34 models, and is aiming for price parity with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2030.

This week, at a press conference in Atsugi, near Tokyo, Nissan revealed its medium to longer-term business roadmap. The plans, which cover the period from 2024 to 2030, include a dramatic expansion of vehicle electrification, a significant reduction in costs, and a number of technological innovations.

A new report warns of potentially major disruption to UK employment from the coming wave of AI. An estimated 11% of tasks are already exposed to current AI, a figure that could rise to 59% during a second wave. But there could also be opportunities for economic growth.

From the discovery and use of fire in the Stone Age, through to the handheld smartphones of today, technology has improved our living standards and is the foundation of modern society. Yet unmanaged technological change comes with risks and disruptions. The current wave of technology including generative AI – described by some as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” – promises transformative benefits, while at the same time bringing potential disruption through its impact on wage inequality, wealth inequality, and job displacement.

The Biden administration has today announced new vehicle emission standards for 2027–2032, as it pushes for wider adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles.

Tesla Model 3 at a charging station in Delaware, United States. Credit: K.A

Automobile emissions in the United States could be slashed by half within the next eight years, thanks to new standards finalised and published today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The ambitious set of rules – not only aimed at reducing air pollution, but also cutting fuel costs – are to be phased in between 2027 and 2032.

The first detection of water molecules on the surface of asteroids has been confirmed, following spectral analysis of two large main‑belt objects.

Credit: Courtesy of NASA/Carla Thomas/SwRI

Using data from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) – a joint project of NASA and Germany’s space agency – scientists have, for the first time, discovered water molecules on the surface of an asteroid. A team of researchers looked at four silicate-rich asteroids using an instrument known as Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), which isolated the mid-infrared spectral signatures indicating molecular water on two of them.

AI startup company Figure, which emerged from stealth last year, has unveiled the latest upgrades to its Figure 1 humanoid robot.

Founded in 2022 and publicly announced in March 2023, Figure is a California-based company with 80 employees that is building autonomous, general‑purpose humanoid robots. Its aim is to address labour shortages, fill jobs that are undesirable or unsafe for humans, and support a supply chain on a global scale.

The company is backed by a number of tech leaders including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, chipmaker NVIDIA, and Microsoft, and it recently announced a deal with ChatGPT‑maker OpenAI. Figure’s latest round of funding – which closed at $675 million – brought its total valuation to an impressive $2.6 billion.

Gemini 1.5 Pro includes a breakthrough in long-context understanding, handling up to 1 million tokens. It can also decipher the content of videos and describe what is happening in a scene.

In the world of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, so-called “tokens” are the fundamental units of text that these models process, akin to words, punctuation, or parts of words in human language.

The Internet is abuzz with talk about Sora, a new AI model that brings text-to-video generation to a whole new level.

The global market for cultured meat, currently valued at $2.3 billion, is predicted to experience major growth in the years ahead.

Aleph Farms, an Israeli food technology company founded in 2017, has been granted regulatory approval for ‘Aleph Cuts’, the world’s first cultivated beef steaks to go on commercial sale.

The first functional semiconductor made from graphene has been created at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This could enable smaller and faster electronic devices and may have applications for quantum computing.

Credit: Georgia Institute of Technology.

Semiconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity under specific conditions, are foundational components of electronic devices like the chips in your computer, laptop, and smartphone. For many decades, their architecture has been getting smaller and more compact – a trend known as Moore’s Law. This has enabled gigantic leaps in a vast range of technologies, from general computing speeds and video game graphics, to the resolution of medical scans and the sensitivity of astronomical observatories.

Cloud Imperium Games, the developer of sci-fi epic Star Citizen, has released a breathtaking video showcasing the game engine’s capabilities.

Having entered pre-production in 2010, and first been made public in 2012, Star Citizen’s development is one of the longest-running of any game. It has generated both controversy and scepticism, due to this prolonged creation time, frequent delays, and the constant expansion of its scope, which has led some to question the feasibility of the project.

Despite these issues, the work-in-progress game has amassed a huge fanbase and unprecedented crowdfunding success. At half a billion dollars, it ranks as the highest crowdfunded video game and one of the highest-funded crowdfunding projects of any kind.