Samsung and SK hynix bonuses for chip workers flagged as a national inflation risk — Bank of Korea projects full-year inflation significantly above its 2% target

The Bank of Korea has named performance bonuses at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as a risk to the country’s inflationary stability.
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Age of Empires II’s goats used as AI building blocks to build a neural network — goaty experiment mocks the idea of chatbot consciousness, Microsoft AI researcher’s project makes an absurdist point about AI consciousness

People seem all-too-ready to anthropomorphize LLMs and AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, reckons a Microsoft AI researcher.
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Acoustic mapping app uses thousands of networked old Android phones to hunt Shahed drones — crowd-sourced microphone network spots small, low-RCS military targets

This app would crowdsource drone detection and help map their location and direction long before they reach their targets.
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China unifies tech sector to build grid-free orbiting satellite AI data centers, challenging Elon Musk’s SpaceX — Beijing’s forced chip and satellite alliance announced a week before Musk’s AI1 reveal

Beijing says the Space Computing Industry Innovation Center will bring together rocket and satellite manufacturers, chip manufacturers, and AI labs to develop a space-based data center system.
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Rare ASML Special Edition Monopoly board unearthed in social media trade — enthusiast swaps 2007 employee gift for High-NA EUV Lego kit

We just witnessed a significant semiconductor industry related non-cash trade deal take place on Twitter/X.

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China unveils man-portable anti-drone laser that can burn through a drone 1,600 feet away in four seconds — backpack-sized 2-kilowatt weapon uses AI for targeting, weighs 55 pounds, and can be carried by a single soldier

Chinese defense supplier Harbin Xinguang Optic-Electronics Technology demo’d two man-portable anti-drone lasers at a Beijing arms expo this week.
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Amazon workers who testified against AI data centers say they were intimidated by the company, monitored at work — employees face possible termination for violating company policy, speaking as representatives

The three Amazon workers claim that they’ve been intimidated during the Zoom meetings and were being monitored while at work.
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Bernie Sanders files bill proposing 50% public ownership of US AI firms and giving out $1,000 dividends — VP Vance says Trump supports giving the American people a stake in AI companies, prefers ‘pre-distribution’ over giving away cash

U.S. politicians are thinking about how they can ensure that the American people can benefit from AI.

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ASML denies US government report that its EUV chipmaking tool was shipped to China — says ‘rumors’ are ‘inaccurate and damaging to our reputation’

U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick expresses concerns in a conversation with ASML executives that China has an EUV lithography system as ASML denies shipping such scanners to the PRC.
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Post-silicon era gets closer as industry giants crack the 2D transistor scaling bottleneck with breakthrough tech — imec, ASML, and TSMC fab complementary 2D-material transistors at 50nm pitch on a 300mm wafer

Imec, ASML, and TSMC have integrated both n-type and p-type transistors with atomically thin 2D channels on a single 300mm wafer.
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