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Makers of humanoid robots should guarantee that their products “do not threaten human security” and “effectively safeguard human dignity”, according to a new set of guidelines published in Shanghai during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) on Saturday.

They should also take measures that include setting up risk warning procedures and emergency response systems, as well as give users training on the ethical and lawful use of these machines, according to the guidelines.

A new class of materials known as “glassy gels” could find use in areas ranging from batteries to adhesives, thanks to their unique set of physical properties.

Meixiang Wang, a post-doctoral fellow from Michael Dickey’s group at North Carolina State University, discovered these new materials while trying out different mixtures for making gels that she hoped would be useful ionic conductors.

Standard gels, such as those used to make contact lenses, are polymers with an added liquid solvent. The liquid weakens the interactions between the chains of molecules forming the polymer, allowing the gel to extend easily but leaving it soft and weak mechanically. In contrast, glassy polymers, like those suitable for airplane windows, contain no liquid and have strong interactions between their constituent polymer chains. This renders them stiff and strong but, in some cases, brittle.

Kuaishou introduces a web version of its impressive AI video generator, Kling AI, based on an “improved model” with new features.


Chinese tech company Kuaishou has unveiled KLING, a new video generation model. Based on the demos, it could rival OpenAI’s Sora.

Kuaishou says KLING can make videos up to two minutes long at 1080p resolution and 30 frames per second. It can also model complex motion sequences that are physically accurate.

One video shows a two-minute train ride made with the prompt “Train ride with different landscapes seen through the window.” OpenAI announced its video model Sora in mid-February, with relatively consistent videos up to one minute long.

Tesla is preparing to start construction on its upcoming high-volume Semi factory in Nevada, as suggested by huge steel deliveries recently arriving to the site.

In a post on Sunday, X user HinrichsZane shared drone footage from the site of the upcoming Semi factory, which is being built as part of an expansion to Tesla’s existing Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. In the footage, you can see a massive amount of steel that was recently delivered to the site, suggesting that the company is nearing the start of construction on the long-awaited Semi factory.

You can see Hinrich’s full video below.

A new gene editing technique derived from bacterial “jumping genes” can add, remove, recombine and invert DNA sequences, potentially overcoming some of the limitations of CRISPR.

The approach is made possible by a molecule called bridge RNA, the discovery of which came about through a joint effort led by scientists at the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, California, in collaboration with the University of Tokyo. They described their work in a pair of papers published June 26 in Nature.

Why it matters: Moore’s Law might not be dead after all. A new technique using nanomaterials can further miniaturize transistors, allowing fab plants to pack more of them on each chip. This research opens up new possibilities for creating advanced semiconductor devices with features smaller than current lithography techniques allow.

A South Korean research team led by Director Jo Moon-Ho of the Center for Van der Waals Quantum Solids within South Korea’s Institute for Basic Science has made a significant advancement in semiconductor and nanomaterial technology that could lead to the development of much smaller, more efficient, and more powerful electronic devices. The new technique can grow “one-dimentional” metallic nanaomaterials with widths as narrow as 0.4 nanometers for use as gate electrodes on 2D substrates. The technique promises to overcome the limitations of traditional lithography.

Integrated devices based on two-dimensional semiconductors exhibit excellent electrical properties even when thinned to atomic-scale thickness, making them promising candidates for creating ultra-thin, high-performance electronic devices. A separate study indicates that these 2D logic circuits are promising candidates for the post-Moore’s Law era.