NerdNews

Cory Doctorow discusses his new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, and how the AI industry is creating a bubble that will eventually burst, causing economic catastrophe. He argues that the industry's focus on growth and disruption is misguided and that AI can be useful when used as a tool to assist humans, rather than replace them.

Google's Gemini 3.5 Live Translate provides instant voice-to-voice translation in over 70 languages, preserving the speaker's tone, pacing, and pitch. It's rolling out across Google's ecosystem, including Google Meet and the Google Translate app, with a public preview available in the Gemini Live API and AI Studio.

China's LineShine supercomputer has taken the top spot in the latest ranking, exceeding 2 exaflops and beating the US's El Capitan system. It uses a custom 304-core processor and proprietary interconnect, achieving 52.07 Gigaflops per watt. This marks the first time a supercomputer has exceeded two exaflops of sustained double-precision performance using CPUs only.

Google's Andi Gutmans talks about the transition from human-scale to agent-scale data management, using AI agents to organize data and manage metadata. He discusses technical hurdles, quality verification, and the tension between open source and proprietary AI models.

Microsoft announced enhancements to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) at Build 2026, focusing on AI training, inference, and large-scale cloud-native applications. Updates include AKS on Bare Metal, Azure Kubernetes Fleet Manager, Anyscale on Azure, and AI model deployment improvements. These changes aim to make Kubernetes a first-class platform for AI, simplifying cluster operations and model deployment.

Oracle's 21,000 layoffs are tied to its large capital expenditure on data center infrastructure to support AI workloads, with plans to raise $45-50 billion in 2026, half of which will come from debt. The company's growing debt and reliance on OpenAI have raised concerns among investors.

Anthropic's Claude Tag is an AI service that integrates with Slack, providing insights and assigning tasks. It has persistent context and memory, allowing it to learn about a company's work and automatically gather facts from other channels. Claude Tag can break down tasks into stages, work through them, and respond in a Slack thread. It also features an ambient mode that proactively updates teams and flags important information.

Superhuman has acquired GPTZero, an AI authenticity service that detects hallucination and plagiarism. The move aims to improve Superhuman's AI assistant, despite seeming counterintuitive given Superhuman's AI writing assistant business.

A study by SNS Telecom and IT finds that private 5G networks are increasingly replacing LTE across many verticals, with a market potential far exceeding that of previous technology generations. The report projects that annual investments in private 5G networks for vertical industries will grow at a CAGR of approximately 34% between 2026 and 2029. Physical AI, automation, and workforce connectivity are driving the growth of private 5G networks, with many industrial organizations already seeing practical and tangible benefits from their deployments.

Telefónica Deutschland and Blue Planet have unveiled a proof of concept demonstrating how AI agents can support the design and fulfillment of 5G network slicing services, reducing complex service design tasks from weeks to minutes.

Nvidia's Rubin generation reference design uses 100% liquid cooling, running servers hotter to cut water use to near zero, reducing power usage and environmental impact.

Nokia, t3 Broadband, and Aureon have deployed an ultra-high-capacity AI-optimised infrastructure optical transport network connecting a datacentre in North Dakota to the Chicago metro area, providing up to 400Tbps of transport capacity.

AWS Blocks is an open-source TypeScript framework designed for AI agents to build backends. It provides a local-first development model, type safety, and composability. Blocks is available in public preview across all commercial AWS regions.

OpenAI has expanded its cyber-defense program Daybreak, releasing the full version of GPT-5.5-Cyber, a cyber-focused model, alongside updates to its Codex Security tool and a new open-source patching initiative. The goal is to help defenders patch flaws more efficiently, with the model scoring 85.6% on a test of reproducing known vulnerabilities.

The Five Eyes cybersecurity agencies have issued a warning about the rapid development of frontier AI, which will transform offensive and defensive capabilities. They urge businesses to prioritize cyber resilience and provide five practical steps to reduce operational, financial, and reputational exposure.

Nvidia has introduced a new data center design that claims to reduce water usage by 100%. The design uses a closed-loop cooling system, which recycles a liquid coolant made of water and propylene glycol. This system can operate at temperatures up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, reducing the need for water and fans. The new design could help reduce the environmental impact of data centers, which are often criticized for their high energy and water usage.

A Tesla crashed into a home in Texas, killing a 76-year-old woman. The driver claimed the vehicle was on Autopilot, but Tesla's AI software VP says the driver manually overrode the system by pressing the accelerator to 100%. The NHTSA is investigating the crash.

Meta has launched a new line of smart glasses, called Meta Glasses, starting at $299. The glasses are made in partnership with EssilorLuxottica and come with a camera, personal speakers, and a dedicated button to trigger the Meta AI assistant. They have over 8 hours of battery life and support features like pedestrian navigation and live translation.

The Meta Oversight Board recommends that Meta strengthen its protection for ordinary people targeted by sexualized deepfakes, including adding AI-generated impersonations to its Adult Sexual Exploitation policy and allowing users to designate 'connected accounts' to report violations on their behalf.

The Google Fitbit Air is a $99 fitness tracker with a built-in AI health coach. The device tracks sleep, heart rate, and other health metrics, and provides personalized recommendations for improvement. While the AI coach can be useful, it requires a lot of handholding and data input to get accurate results.