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The Download: EV subsidies risks, and introducing The Debrief

Sales of new electric vehicles in Germany have plummeted, dropping nearly 37% in July 2024 from the same month one year ago. One of the main reasons traces back to mid-December 2023,... Read more »

Some countries are ending support for EVs. Is it too soon?

The end of the subsidy program isn’t the only factor contributing to Germany’s EV slowdown, but the abrupt axing certainly had an effect: While many countries across Europe saw steady or growing... Read more »

The Download: training robots for unfamiliar environments, and all-new bird flu

What’s new: It’s tricky to get robots to do things in environments they’ve never seen before. Typically, researchers need to train them on new data for every new place they encounter, which... Read more »

AI models let robots carry out tasks in unfamiliar environments

These models were deployed on Stretch, a robot consisting of a wheeled unit, a tall pole, and a retractable arm holding an iPhone, to test how successfully they were able to execute... Read more »

Flu season is coming—and so is the risk of an all-new bird flu

I was reminded of that fact when my littlest woke me for an early-morning cuddle, sneezed into my face, and wiped her nose on my pajamas. I booked her flu vaccine the... Read more »

The Download: bird flu concerns, and tracking AI’s impact on elections

Bird flu has been spreading in dairy cows in the US—and the scale is likely to be far worse than it looks. In addition, 14 human cases have been reported in the... Read more »

How AI can help spot wildfires

Anything from stray fireworks to lightning strikes can start a wildfire. While it’s natural for many ecosystems to see some level of fire activity, the hotter, drier conditions brought on by climate... Read more »

Why virologists are getting increasingly nervous about bird flu

And while many ducks and geese seem to be able to survive being infected with the virus, other bird species are much more vulnerable. H5N1 is especially deadly for chickens, for example—their... Read more »

AI-generated content doesn’t seem to have swayed recent European elections 

Those fears seem to have been unwarranted, says Sam Stockwell, the researcher at the Alan Turing Institute who conducted the study. He focused on three elections over a four-month period from May... Read more »

The Download: Congress’s AI bills, and Snap’s new AR spectacles

More than 120 bills related to regulating artificial intelligence are currently floating around the US Congress. This flood of bills is indicative of the desperation Congress feels to keep up with the... Read more »