Europe's heat wave strains power grid, IBM advances chip tech

Europe is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave, putting a strain on the power grid as people rely on fans and air conditioning to stay cool. However, some power plants won't be online to help handle the increased demand, largely driven by cooling needs. The challenges are expected to worsen as climate change brings more frequent and intense heat waves.

Grid planning in the age of climate change requires a significant increase in supply, and quickly. However, seasonal patterns are shifting, making it harder to meet demand. Europe's grid traditionally peaks in winter due to electric heating, but a growing need for air conditioning will alter the balance.

IBM has built a new prototype chip with around 100 billion transistors on an area the size of a fingernail, twice the density of its previous state-of-the-art technology announced in 2021. The design could pave the way for faster and more energy-efficient computers for years to come. IBM's new chip resolves the issue of transistors being shrunk close to their limits by building up, rather than trying to shrink them further.

Anthropic says Alibaba 'illicitly' extracted Claude's capabilities, claiming the Chinese firm ran a 'brazen' campaign to access the model. NASA has detected possible chemical signatures of ancient life on Mars, with the Perseverance rover spotting complex carbon on rocks. The EU has joined a US pact to stop relying on Chinese AI, while OpenAI and Broadcom have unveiled their first jointly designed AI chip.

A new report shows ICE has built a vast hi-tech surveillance system, including facial recognition, drones, and data scraping. Electronics can now be printed onto living tissue, which could enable smart implants and ingestible diagnostics. The data center boom is sparking a third wave of inflation, with demand for memory chips pushing prices higher.

Companies are scrambling to curb spending on AI token 'chewing,' with Accenture data showing non-technical staff are draining budgets. Claude Design is creating a bland wave of website uniformity, with the AI tool homogenizing the internet's aesthetic. Elon Musk has lost his trillionaire status due to SpaceX stock coming back to Earth.

For years, scientists searching for the roots of conditions like schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer's have focused on single genes. However, the real source may lie in a more complex genetic puzzle inside the brain. Mike McConnell has spent decades exploring the idea that neurons do not all share identical DNA, and that these differences could help explain psychiatric disease.