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Environment

Data-center energy, water use, carbon cost of training and the environmental ethics of AI — tracked daily.

Plover: Steering GUI Agents through Plan-Centric Interaction

Graphical user interface (GUI) automation remains challenging in real-world environments, where dynamic layouts, unexpected dialogs, and evolving interface states can cause autonomous agents to drift from user intent. Recent vision-based multimodal agents improve flexibility by operating directly over screenshots and natural language instructions, but planning and adaptation often remain internal, limiting users' ability to inspect, supervise, or correct system behavior. We present Plover, a pla
arXiv cs.AI 14d ago Research Jobs & economyAgents & autonomy

The Industrialization of Research ; On AI-Driven Science and Its Consequences

Artificial intelligence is transforming scientific research -- not merely as a more powerful instrument, but as an autonomous participant in the research cycle itself. This transition constitutes, in the most precise sense of the term, the industrialization of research: a shift from a craft model, in which knowledge, method, and judgment are embedded in the researcher, to a pipeline model, in which these steps are decomposed, automated, and supervised. The US Department of Energy's Genesis Missi
arXiv cs.AI 14d ago Research Environment

ACR Stealer: Two observed intrusion chains amid increased threat activity

From late April 2026 to mid-June 2026, Microsoft Defender Experts observed increased ACR Stealer activity across customer environments. These campaigns are successfully using ClickFix lures to steal ...
Microsoft Responsible AI 14d ago Field notes Environment

Scaling Behavior Foundation Model for Humanoid Robots

Humanoid control requires natural whole-body coordination, precise real-time responses to control signals, and robust generalization across diverse environmental contexts, making it a cornerstone for generalist embodied agents. Behavior Foundation Models (BFMs) have recently emerged as a promising solution to address these challenges by leveraging large-scale behavioral data to achieve superior expressiveness, versatility and generalization. However, despite growing interest in scaling BFMs to f
arXiv cs.AI 14d ago Research Agents & autonomyEnvironment

Energy IPOs surge as investors hunt for ways to play AI boom

Companies coming to market are raising money at fastest pace this century.
Ars Technica 14d ago News EnvironmentFinance, VC & PE

NIFA: Nonlinear IMC enhanced FPGA for efficient ML inference

Recent FPGAs have improved deep learning (DL) inference efficiency through dedicated tensor blocks and in-BRAM computation. ReRAM-based analog in-memory computing (IMC) pushes efficiency further, offering an order-of-magnitude improvement in compute density and energy efficiency over conventional digital logic by performing vector-matrix multiplication (VMM) directly within the ReRAM crossbar; prior work has integrated such IMC blocks into FPGAs for DL inference. However, conventional IMC design
arXiv cs.AI 14d ago Research Environment

Relocation of Education Department to Facilitate Redevelopment

Relocation of Education Department to Facilitate Redevelopment Katherine Knott Thu, 07/16/2026 - 11:30 AM ED will be leaving its headquarters regardless of where Energy is housed. We supported this resolution to pave the way for Washington to convert unused federal real estate into housing and greater tax revenue. Byline(s) Letters to the Editor
Inside Higher Ed Tech 14d ago News Children & educationEnvironment

What Are The Risks of Extreme Heat Combined With Bad Air Quality?

The double threat of air pollution and extreme heat is only going to get worse with climate change.
Time Tech 14d ago News Environment

Lightning in a Bottleneck: How Regulatory Gridlock Is Choking America’s Energy Boom

America’s power grid has plenty of new customers and no shortage of new ideas. What it lacks is a regulatory system capable of connecting the two. Artificial intelligence data centers, advanced manufacturing, and cryptocurrency operations are driving electricity demand sharply higher. Yet the rules for connecting new power sources and major users remain slow, fragmented, ... Lightning in a Bottleneck: How Regulatory Gridlock Is Choking America’s Energy Boom The post Lightning in a Bottleneck: Ho
Truth on the Market (digital regulation) 14d ago Field notes RegulationEnvironment

Networked for the fight: Army aviation’s next advantage

[Sponsored] As operating environments grow more complex, Link 16 provides instantaneous, mission-wide connectivity to ensure no aircraft flies alone.
Breaking Defense (AI) 14d ago News Environment

SMC-ES: Automated synthesis of formally verified control policies

The deployment of autonomous cyber-physical systems in safety-critical environments requires closed-loop control strategies (i.e., policies) that are not only performant but also provably safe and robust. While learning-based methodologies such as Reinforcement Learning offer flexible and scalable approaches to automatically synthesize such controllers, they typically lack the formal guarantees necessary for safe deployment. To bridge this gap, we propose a novel simulation-based methodology to
arXiv cs.AI 14d ago Research Military & securityEnvironment

FT readers respond: What is the real cost of AI?

Commenters discuss the environmental impact of AI data centres and the need for greater transparency — join the debate
Financial Times Technology (headlines) 14d ago News TransparencyEnvironment

O'Leary, Fox News sued over data center opposition portrayal

Businessman Kevin O'Leary and Fox News are being sued by a group opposed to data center construction in Utah, alleging it aired false statements about their funding. The suit, brought against the network and television pundit by Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth and Josh Kanter, alleges that O'Leary used the...
The Hill Technology 14d ago News Environment

🔬 The Lab of the Future Should Feel Like a Data Center — Andy Beam & Rafa Gómez-Bombarelli, Lila Sciences

Lila is betting that science, not the internet, is the last untapped source of training data. We went to find out what that actually looks like in a room full of robots.
Latent Space 14d ago Field notes Agents & autonomyEnvironment

US tried permanent daylight saving time once before. It didn't last

The U.S. previously tried to incorporate permanent daylight saving time for a trial period from between 1974 and 1975. The experiment occurred under former President Nixon, who signed the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act into law in an effort to conserve fuel following the Arab oil embargo in 1973. However, the measure was...
The Hill Technology 14d ago News RegulationEnvironment

Schneider Electric says Africa’s electricity grid is the next AI battleground

Schneider Electric, an energy management and industrial automation company, believes Africa is preparing for it with the wrong question.
TechCabal (Africa) 14d ago News Jobs & economyEnvironment

When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

Courts have long let utilities seize private property to build transmission lines. Does that hold if the power flows to a single data center?
The Conversation 14d ago News Environment

Digital Surveillance Reshapes Fishery Enforcement in Indonesia

In the eastern Indian Ocean, south of Java in the vast sea stretching toward Australia, a fishing vessel slightly alters its course while operating near the boundary of its authorized fishing ground. Nothing appears unusual on deck. Nets remain in the water. Engines maintain a steady speed. To the crew, it is an ordinary day at sea. Yet hundreds of kilometers above, satellites continuously record the vessel’s position. At Indonesia’s Marine and Fisheries Resources Surveillance Station in Cilacap
IEEE Spectrum 14d ago News PrivacyEnvironment

Department of Energy: Efforts to Streamline Project Management at National Laboratories and Nuclear Sites

What GAO Found A Secretary of Energy memorandum directed revisions to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) construction order (known as 413.3B) to (1) allow increased delegation of approval authority for projects estimated to cost up to $300 million; and (2) limit independent reviews for projects estimated to cost between $300 million and $1 billion. As of January 2026, DOE and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were managing 80 capital asset projects at laboratories and sites where
US GAO Reports 14d ago Policy Environment

Infinix Officially Launches the HOT 70 Pro in Nigeria with Active Matrix Cube, IP68 Water Resistance and 5G

Following the excitement generated by its "Be Seen. Be Hot."...
Techpoint Africa 14d ago News Environment

Circus Commences Operations with Ukrainian Ground Forces

Circus SE (WKN: A2YN35 / ISIN: DE000A2YN355 / XETRA: CA1), today announces the commencement of live operations of its robotic-based troop supply technology with the 3rd Army Corps of the Ukrainian Ground Forces in the Kyiv area – marking the first ever use of autonomous meal supply systems within an active conflict environment.
ITWeb (ZA) 14d ago News Agents & autonomyEnvironment

A Human Right to be Fossil Fuel Free?

Australia is a country highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with the weathered, arid continent frequently buffeted by fires, floods, heatwaves and storms. It is also one of the largest exporters globally of fossil fuels, coal and gas. Situated close to Pacific Islands existentially threatened by climate-fuelled rising seas, Australia is a constitutional democracy with an active civil society, an abiding commitment to the rule of international law and this year holds the role of “P
Verfassungsblog (EU law incl AI) 15d ago Field notes RegulationEnvironment

India Is Moving Fast to Build A.I. Data Centers. A Coastal City May Pay the Price.

With India lagging in the technology, officials are embracing giant data centers. But critics say the megaprojects will use up energy and water, without providing long-term jobs.
The New York Times 15d ago News Jobs & economyEnvironment

Energy IPOs surge as investors hunt for ways to play AI boom

Companies coming to market raise money at fastest pace this century, although many stocks perform poorly later
Financial Times Technology (headlines) 15d ago News EnvironmentFinance, VC & PE

The Environmental Cost of Digital Sovereignty: Water, Energy, and Emissions Impacts of Sovereign AI Infrastructure in the Global South

arXiv:2607.13443v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Sovereign AI has become a strategic priority across the Global South, with over \$200 billion in state-led commitments announced between 2024 and 2026. Yet the physical infrastructure that compute sovereignty demands, above all data centers, imposes water, energy, and carbon costs that fall hardest on countries least equipped to absorb them. This paper presents a comparative environmental stress analysis across four cases: the United Arab Emirates,
arXiv cs.CY 15d ago Research Environment

AI-Native Insurance for Agentic AI: Pricing, Underwriting, and End-to-End Automation

arXiv:2607.13230v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Agentic AI introduces new insurance challenges because autonomous AI systems can make decisions, invoke tools, modify external environments, and interact with third-party services. This paper develops an AI-native mathematical framework for underwriting, pricing, and contract design for agentic AI deployments. A deployment is represented by a risk state that captures autonomy level, operational authority, permission exposure, governance maturity,
arXiv cs.CY 15d ago Research RegulationJobs & economy

Regulating PFAS Under the Clean Water Act

US Congressional Research Service (EveryCRSReport) 15d ago Policy RegulationEnvironment

Xiaomi introduces Xiaomi-Robotics-U0 for embodied AI and robot generation

Xiaomi on Wednesday unveiled Xiaomi-Robotics-U0, a 38-billion-parameter multimodal autoregressive foundation model for embodied AI. The company said the model unifies four core capabilities within a single framework: embodied scene generation, embodied transfer, robot interaction video generation, and general-purpose image generation and editing. According to Xiaomi, the model can generate robot-ready environments from text prompts, adapt […]
TechNode (CN) 15d ago News Agents & autonomyEnvironment

Mastercard picks UK as test environment for agentic AI sandbox

Mastercard is opening an agentic AI sandbox in the UK, to help banks and retaillers explore, test and validate use cases before introducing them into production
Finextra AI 15d ago News Agents & autonomyEnvironment

Fox News, Kevin O’Leary sued over China claims against data center critics

Two Utah nonprofits allege they were defamed after the “Shark Tank” investor portrayed them as Chinese Communist Party proxies on the network.
Politico Technology (US) 15d ago News EnvironmentFinance, VC & PE

From crime labs to space rocks, NIST helps identify mystery chemicals

An expanded federal library of chemical fingerprints helps scientists identify unknown substances found in forensic evidence, drugs, environmental samples and even material collected beyond Earth.
NextGov/FCW 15d ago News Environment

Data center electricity demand is expected to drive up costs after recent power auction

Data centers are expected to add billions in electricity costs across 13 states in the years ahead after a recent power auction. Grid operator PJM this week announced the results of an auction to buy power for the 13 states that it serves for June 2028 through May 2029. Monitoring Analytics, an independent market monitor...
The Hill Technology 15d ago News Environment

Trump blasts New York AI data center moratorium, says state should change policy 'immediately'

New York became the first state in the U.S. to impose a ban of its kind when the governor signed the executive order Tuesday.
CNBC Technology 15d ago News RegulationEnvironment

The rate at which Earth is absorbing energy is alarming climate scientists

Reflections on a warming planet
The Economist Science and Technology (headlines) 15d ago News Environment

The rate at which Earth is absorbing energy is alarming scientists

Reflections on a warming planet
The Economist Science and Technology (headlines) 15d ago News Environment

Alinta Energy spins up AI system for executive insights

Confidence score determines how to utilise outputs.
iTnews (AU) 15d ago News Environment

SEED: Self-Evolving On-Policy Distillation for Agentic Reinforcement Learning

Large language models are increasingly trained as interactive agents for long-horizon tasks involving multi-turn interaction, tool use, and environment feedback. Outcome-based reinforcement learning (RL) provides a practical optimization paradigm, but its sparse trajectory-level rewards offer limited guidance on intermediate decisions, leaving a supervision gap between episode-level outcomes and token-level policy learning. We propose SEED (SElf-Evolving On-Policy Distillation), a self-evolving
HuggingFace Daily Papers 15d ago Research RegulationAgents & autonomy

Video = World + Event Stream

We present Wan-Streamer v0.3, which reframes our native-streaming interaction model under a single organizing view: a video is a world plus an event stream. The world is the persistent context in which a video unfolds, including the environment, scene, subjects, ambient acoustic conditions, voice characteristics, and other relatively stable conditions. The event stream is everything that changes over time within that world, including scene or environmental changes, subject behavior, speech, and
HuggingFace Daily Papers 15d ago Research Environment

Xiaomi-Robotics-1: Scaling Vision-Language-Action Models with over 100K Hours of Real-World Trajectories

We present Xiaomi-Robotics-1, a foundational vision-language-action (VLA) model capable of (1) following diverse language instructions to perform a wide range of mobile manipulation tasks in unseen environments out-of-the-box, and (2) efficiently adapting to novel downstream tasks with minimal fine-tuning data. We propose a two-stage training recipe consisting of pre-training and post-training. During pre-training, we imbue the model with broad and generalizable action-generation capabilities by
HuggingFace Daily Papers 15d ago Research Agents & autonomyEnvironment

Multi-Turn On-Policy Distillation with Prefix Replay

We study on-policy distillation (OPD) for agentic tasks, where an LLM agent interacts with an environment over multiple turns and a student imitates a teacher over these multi-turn interaction histories. Fully online OPD is costly because each update requires fresh student rollouts through the environment and teacher queries at visited histories. We propose Replayed-Prefix On-Policy Distillation (ReOPD), an off-environment alternative that reuses pre-collected teacher trajectories as replayed pr
HuggingFace Daily Papers 15d ago Research RegulationChildren & education
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