E-commerce giant Amazon will invest up to $4 billion in artificial intelligence company Anthropic and take a minority ownership position in the company to fuel generative artificial intelligence (AI). Anthropic was founded about two years ago by former OpenAI research executives, and recently launched its new AI chatbot, Claude 2. The two companies on September 25 said that they are forming a strategic collaboration to advance generative AI, with the start-up selecting Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider. Anthropic said it will provide AWS customers with early access
In the next four to five years, iPhone maker Apple plans to scale up production in India by over five-fold to around $40 billion (about Rs. 3.32 lakh crore), according to a news report citing government sources. The company crossed the $7 billion production mark in the last financial year, the report added. The US company also plans to start manufacturing Airpods from next year, but has no immediate plans to make iPads or laptops in India. The focus is to scale up existing production levels. It does not have any plans to participate in IT hardware PLI as of now, the official added. On S
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to significantly impact labour markets by enhancing creativity and automating routine tasks for future jobs, said a white paper released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on September 18. Jobs most at risk of disruption are those that involve routine and repetitive language tasks, while jobs with a high degree of personal interaction or physical movement will be least affected, it added. The WEF has called on businesses and governments to take proactive steps to prepare for the effects of AI in the workforce, encouraging the creation of an
A trial of a preventive HIV vaccine candidate has begun enrollment in the United States and South Africa. The Phase 1 trial will evaluate a novel vaccine known as VIR-1388 for its safety and ability to induce an HIV-specific immune response in people. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has provided scientific and financial support throughout the lifecycle of this HIV vaccine concept and is contributing funding for this study. VIR-1388 is designed to instruct the immune system to produce T cells that can recognise
High-Energy electrons from planet Earth might be forming water on its satellite Moon, according to a study based on data collected by the successful Chandrayaan-3’s predecessor Chandrayaan-1 published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The team led by researchers from the University of Hawai'i (UH) at Manoa in the US discovered that these electrons in Earth’s plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes -- breaking down or dissolving of rocks and minerals -- on the Moon’s surface. Knowing the concentrations and distributions of water on the Moon is critical to understanding
Gas Recovery and Recycle Limited (GR2L), a small cleantech firm in south-east England, has secured a GBP 4 million order to supply its technology to a projected 2-gigawatt solar facility in Mundra, Gujarat. An micro small and medium enterprise (MSME) business in Surrey, GR2L claims to have developed, patented and exported cutting-edge technology to reduce the energy consumption, carbon footprint and cost of manufacturing solar panels. The MSME was backed by UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK government’s export credit agency, with a GBP 4,75,000 guarantee issued under its Bond Support Sche
A team of students from Swiss universities has set a new record for the fastest acceleration from 0 to 100 kmph in an electric vehicle (EV), with Mythen. The fully hand-built electric race car - named Mythen after a mountain in the Schwyzer Alps of Central Switzerland - achieved the feat in just 0.956 seconds, beating the previous record by over one-third. A team of students from the Academic Motorsports Club Zürich, Swiss universities ETH Zürich, and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, has made this record. Their EV has beaten the previous record, set by the German Greentea
The recently launched iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models will support India’s indigenous navigation system, NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), Apple has said in a statement. It is the first time the US tech giant has introduced NavIC support to any of its iPhone models. However, the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus variants do not support NavIC, according to the official tech specifications. Apple has not confirmed which specific features will be included in this integration. Developed by ISRO, NavIC - an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS) - bec
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on September 18 announced that its solar exploration mission, Aditya-L1 has commenced collecting scientific data. The sensors of the Supra Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS) instrument, a part of the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload, instrument have begun measuring supra-thermal and energetic ions and electrons at distances greater than 50,000 km from Earth, the Indian space agency wrote on X. The data collected helps scientists analyse the behaviour of particles surrounding Earth. The figure displays va
After several weather-related delays, Japan’s moon lander mission, called SLIM, finally took off on the morning of September 7. Its successful landing would make Japan only the fifth country in the world to touch down safely on the lunar surface, and the first to do it with unusual precision. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) got its nickname, Sniper, from its ability to land within 100 metres of a specific target on the surface. The distance is much less than the usual range of several kilometres. The H-IIA rocket carrying Slim lifted off from the southern island of Tane