On a sunny morning in June, I walked to work with a quadruped robot beside me. I’ve never gotten more attention from strangers.
A bunch of people snapped pictures of my robot dog. Several people asked me questions. Was it mine? (Yes.) Did I build it? (No.) Was it being used for surveillance? (No.)
Biological dogs kept a safe distance from my mechanical companion. Some growled or barked at it.
© Nat Purser
The world’s nine nuclear-armed states expanded their arsenals in 2025, according to a new assessment from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Researchers Hans M. Kristensen and Matt Korda found that most countries deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapons during the year, even as the overall number of warheads in the world continued to decline. […]China’s nuclear weapon stockpile grew to an estimated 620 warheads as of January 2026, up from about 600 a year earlier, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s newly published World Nuclear Forces assessment. SIPRI researchers Hans M. Kristensen and Matt Korda say the increase is part of a broader expansion that shows no […]Trump dismisses AI extinction warnings and says beating China is the priority as researchers and lawmakers call for stronger safeguards on advanced systems.
The post Trump on AI Extinction: Beating China Is the Bigger Concern appeared first on TechRepublic.
Trump dismisses AI extinction warnings and says beating China is the priority as researchers and lawmakers call for stronger safeguards on advanced systems.
The post Trump on AI Extinction: Beating China Is the Bigger Concern appeared first on TechRepublic.
US agencies accuse six Chinese AI firms of distilling frontier models and recommend new defenses that could affect enterprise AI access and API use.
The post US Accuses Six Chinese AI Firms of Distilling Frontier ModelsUS Accuses Six Chinese AI Firms of Distilling Frontier Models appeared first on TechRepublic.
China’s GEAIR 2.0 humanoid robot pollinates tomato flowers in under 10 seconds, combining AI, robotics and gene editing for crop breeding and farm automation.
The post China’s GEAIR 2.0 Robot Pollinates Crops in Under 10 Seconds appeared first on TechRepublic.
US agencies accuse six Chinese AI firms of distilling frontier models and recommend new defenses that could affect enterprise AI access and API use.
The post US Accuses Six Chinese AI Firms of Distilling Frontier ModelsUS Accuses Six Chinese AI Firms of Distilling Frontier Models appeared first on TechRepublic.
China’s GEAIR 2.0 humanoid robot pollinates tomato flowers in under 10 seconds, combining AI, robotics and gene editing for crop breeding and farm automation.
The post China’s GEAIR 2.0 Robot Pollinates Crops in Under 10 Seconds appeared first on TechRepublic.
Chinese-made drones are flying out the bodies of flood victims and delivering food to survivors in the aftermath of devastating flash floods on the border of Nepal and China’s Tibetan region.
Nepal’s army has been using four DJI FlyCart 100 drones donated from China to make 10 to 16 aid deliveries each day, according to Reuters. This comes after a partial glacier collapse in the Himalayan mountains unleashed a sudden surge of water, mud, and debris that swept through border crossings, valley communities, and hydropower projects on August 26.
The DJI Flycart 100 Drones come with a 98-foot rope and winch system for picking up and dropping off heavy loads. The website of Chinese drone company DJI describes the drones as being able to carry between 187 and 220 pounds, depending on the battery configuration.
© PRABIN RANABHAT / AFP via Getty Images
Two Bangladesh Army soldiers were killed and an officer was seriously injured on September 9, 2026, when a tank exploded during a live-fire exercise at the Hathazari Field Firing Range in Chattogram. The Bangladesh Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate, known as ISPR, confirmed the accident. ISPR said the blast happened while the crew was firing […]XPENG’s IRON humanoid robot has walked off its automated assembly line as the company targets mass production and commercial deployments in 2027.
The post XPENG’s IRON Walks Off the Assembly Line: Is Mass Production Next? appeared first on TechRepublic.
XPENG’s IRON humanoid robot has walked off its automated assembly line as the company targets mass production and commercial deployments in 2027.
The post XPENG’s IRON Walks Off the Assembly Line: Is Mass Production Next? appeared first on TechRepublic.
The United States has now named six Chinese AI firms accused of waging industrial-scale attacks distilling US frontier AI model capabilities and perhaps sparing billions in Chinese development costs.
In a joint release Tuesday, the National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleged that DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI have been attacking US models since at least late 2024. The firms “likely” acted with “Chinese government awareness” when extracting capabilities from US models, including variants of Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok, agencies said.
“China-based AI companies that conduct industrial-scale distillation against US AI models see significantly shorter AI development timelines and reduced financial expenditures in training a frontier model,” agencies said.
© Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg
Distillation is an ‘attack’ against an AI model designed to capture outputs, understand reasoning processes, and subsequently train a different model.
The post US Agencies Warn China Is Systematically Extracting Frontier AI Capabilities appeared first on SecurityWeek.
China’s military is exploring humanoid robots for urban combat as the country’s commercial robotics industry dominates global shipments and manufacturing.
The post China Is Turning Its Humanoid Robot Boom Toward the Battlefield appeared first on TechRepublic.
A Belgian researcher is held in a probe into whether sensitive BelGaN semiconductor technology and trade secrets were unlawfully transferred to China.
The post Belgian Researcher Held in China-Linked Semiconductor Espionage Probe appeared first on TechRepublic.
China’s military is exploring humanoid robots for urban combat as the country’s commercial robotics industry dominates global shipments and manufacturing.
The post China Is Turning Its Humanoid Robot Boom Toward the Battlefield appeared first on TechRepublic.
Leading chipmakers Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced plans to adopt ASML’s latest chipmaking machines in the next several years—and they also joined Intel in agreeing to a crucial technology change that could boost chip production on the new machines by 40 percent.
This signifies the semiconductor industry’s broader embrace of high NA EUV photolithography technology that can cost up to $400 million per machine and is only provided by the Dutch technology company ASML, Bloomberg reports. The technology would allow chip designers to implement even smaller features in potentially more powerful and efficient next-generation chips produced for AI data centers and consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
ASML’s EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography machines enable chipmakers to use powerful laser light to imprint patterns in silicon wafers, layer by layer, and gradually form the computer circuitry that makes silicon chips work. Compared to older deep ultraviolet lithography, EUV technology harnesses a more powerful source of light with a shorter wavelength to create even smaller features on silicon wafers.
© Michel de Heer | ASML
A Belgian researcher is held in a probe into whether sensitive BelGaN semiconductor technology and trade secrets were unlawfully transferred to China.
The post Belgian Researcher Held in China-Linked Semiconductor Espionage Probe appeared first on TechRepublic.
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