Телеграм канал «Futurism: Science & Technology News»

Australia is generating so much solar power that it's now giving it out for free. Residents in three of the country's states — New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia, representing approximately 14 million people, or roughly half of the country’s population — will be receiving at least three hours of free solar power every day, even if they don’t have panels mounted to their roofs.⁠ ⁠ The federal government even suggested that Australians should use the period to use their most electricity-intensive appliances, from air conditioners to electric car chargers — a renewable energy boon that less sunny parts of the world can only dream of, @guardian reported.⁠ ⁠ The initiative was designed to ensure that excess power during peak times doesn’t go unused. With countries making strides in building out solar farms and more households installing solar panels, there’s plenty of energy to go around. However, storing all of this power for later use remains a major logistical challenge.⁠ ⁠ To even out energy usage during the day, when solar power generation hits its peak, the government is hoping to encourage residents to shift their maximum usage — which conventionally isn’t in the middle of the day — to when there’s a surplus.⁠

A Russian firm unveiled a humanoid robot dubbed Aldol during a flashy showcase in Moscow, only for it to fall on its face. Figuratively *and* literally. All to the iconic soundtrack of Rocky, no less. 📽: @drivegreen_livegreen #futurism #robot #Ai

3I/ATLAS has dramatically intensified its mass loss after emerging from behind the Sun. New images show a huge anti-tail and a “smoking” trail stretching millions of miles. According to Avi Loeb, the comet’s jets likely lasted 1–3 months — and its mass shedding jumped from hundreds of pounds per second in August to around 4.4 million pounds per second near perihelion. #Space #Astronomy #3IATLAS

New images from the Nordic Optical Telescope show that the debris “tail” of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has shifted to face the Sun — forming an “anti-tail,” a known optical illusion caused by our viewing angle and the Sun’s gravity. However, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, known for his theories on alien technology, suggests a different explanation. In his latest blog, he speculates the anti-tail might represent a spacecraft applying “braking thrust” to slow down near the Sun — an idea he credits to colleague Adam Hibberd of the Institute for Interstellar Studies.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQaG9GPk5Jv/

Some people are so shameless, you almost have to respect it. ⁠ ⁠ After getting caught using AI by leaving in hallucinated quotes and citations in his court filings, defense lawyer Michael Fourte then submitted a brief explaining his AI usage .... which was also written with a large language model.⁠ ⁠ As @404mediaco reports, the plaintiff’s legal team first caught the mistakes, which included inaccurate or completely made up citations and quotations, and filed a request to sanction Fourte. In his opposition to the sanctions motion, Fourte submitted a document that contained more than double the amount (!!) of made-up or erroneous citations.⁠ ⁠ After getting grilled on it, Fourte admitted he “did use AI.” He also, in practically the same breath, said he took “full responsibility” for the AI-generated nonsense — but also tried to pass off some of the blame on some additional staff he’d brought on the case. Classic.⁠ ⁠ Later, he said, “I never said I didn’t use AI. I said that I didn’t use unvetted AI.”⁠ ⁠

A Chinese rocket booster that was part of a Long March 2 launch tumbled back to Earth and exploded in a massive orange fireball as it impacted the ground. The fireball from the crash was visible from miles away, but authorities declared the launch a success, saying the test satellite comfortably reached low earth orbit. Read more about China’s space ambitions at the link in our bio. #Space #News