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https://kotaku.com/polymarket-videos-fake-bets-winners-creators-2000709467

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June 23, 2026 at 09:22AM

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/china-shows-off-a-backpack-sized-anti-drone-laser-that-one-soldier-can-carry

Chinese defense supplier Harbin Xinguang Optic-Electronics Technology demo’d two man-portable anti-drone lasers at a Beijing arms expo this week, putting backpack-scale directed-energy hardware alongside the mounted platforms that have so far dominated the space. The Lijian II and Lijian III, shown at the Defence Information Equipment & Technology Exhibition 2026 that opened Tuesday, weigh 30kg (66 pounds) and 25kg (55 pounds), draw around 2 kW, and cost about 2 million yuan (US$295,000) each, according to the South China Morning Post. It also uses AI for targeting.

Each portable unit splits into a laser emitter, an air cooler, and a handheld control terminal, light enough for one or two soldiers to carry. The emitter accounts for about 15kg, and the cooling system for roughly 10kg. Both models have a pitch angle above 90 degrees and reach about 500 meters (1,640 feet). The Lijian III burns through a drone in 4 seconds and needs under 5 seconds to cool before firing again, the company said.

The same line includes a fixed-position model, the Lijian-10G, that draws around 10 kW and reaches 1,200 meters (3,900 feet), but requires a large liquid-cooled box rather than a backpack. Harbin Xinguang said the portable units are "easier to operate and can be quickly deployed and recovered," in comments from a product promoter as reported by SCMP.

Those weight savings, of course, come out of the overall power budget of the laser. At roughly 2 kW, the portable Lijian models sit below the 3 kW-class NI-L3K counter-drone lasers that China showed at DSA 21026 in Malaysia, and far below the heavier directed-energy systems built elsewhere. The U.S. Army is currently testing a vehicle-mounted 20kW LOCUST system on the Oshkosh JLTV platform, and Israel’s 100kW Iron Beam became the first high-power laser to enter service late last year. Obviously, those trade portability for the wattage needed to engage longer-range targets.

A 2 kW suits small, low, and slow targets at close range, with a much more favorable cost per shot. Burning down a quadcopter or FPV drone using a laser consumes energy rather than shoulder-fired munitions, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per round. Zhao said the core technology reached maturity in 2023, as the war in Ukraine reshaped thinking around drone warfare.

Rather troubling is the fact that the Lijian series uses AI to identify targets and engage drones that enter its range, cued by external sensors such as radar. Harbin Xinguang said the weapons have already been placed at some Chinese facilities, including military airfields, and that it’s seeking further orders through the exhibition.

All the specifications come from the manufacturer’s exhibition materials and a company representative and haven’t been independently tested.

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June 20, 2026 at 05:33AM

https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2026/06/23/the-rise-and-fall-of-humanitys-favorite-languages-animated-across-4500-years/

What language would you have been speaking 4,500 years ago? Ancient Egyptian? Sumerian? Old Chinese? And when exactly did English become the global heavyweight we know today?

This animated graph from Data Is Beautiful takes viewers on a journey from 2500 BC to 2026, tracking the world’s most spoken languages across more than four millennia of human history.

The project reconstructs the evolution of global languages by estimating the total number of speakers over time, combining both native speakers and fluent second-language speakers. That distinction is important because it helps explain why languages such as Aramaic, Latin, and English became so dominant. They were not always the languages people were born speaking, but they became the languages people needed to know for trade, government, religion, education, and international communication.

At the beginning of the timeline, Old and Middle Chinese dominate with an estimated two million speakers, followed closely by Ancient Egyptian and several languages that have long since vanished from everyday life. By 1 AD, the world looks dramatically different. Latin, Aramaic, Greek, Sanskrit, and Persian have surged as powerful empires spread their influence across vast regions. Watching the chart evolve feels like watching a condensed version of human history, with every rise and fall representing migrations, conquests, cultural exchanges, and demographic booms.

As the centuries pass, familiar modern languages begin climbing the ranks. Arabic expands alongside the great Islamic Caliphates. Mandarin grows with China’s population. Spanish and Portuguese spread across continents. English eventually emerges as the world’s dominant language, not because it has the most native speakers, but because hundreds of millions of people learn it as a second language. In the final 2026 snapshot, English sits comfortably at the top with more than 1.6 billion total speakers, ahead of Mandarin Chinese, Hindustani, Spanish, and Arabic.

The methodology behind the project is surprisingly thorough. Speaker populations for extinct languages such as Sumerian, Akkadian, and Latin were reconstructed using historical demographic sources, including the Maddison Project Database and Colin McEvedy’s Atlas of World Population History. The growth of languages such as Arabic, Mandarin, and Hindustani was estimated using historical population databases and sociolinguistic research. Modern language totals were mapped using sources including Ethnologue, the CIA World Factbook, regional census data, and UN population models.

One of the most entertaining aspects of the animation is seeing linguistic empires rise and fall.. Ancient Egyptian enjoys a spectacular multi-millennia run before disappearing entirely. Latin climbs to greatness, only to fragment into the Romance languages. Aramaic spends centuries as the language of commerce and administration before fading from the spotlight. Meanwhile, English shows up relatively late to the party and somehow ends up owning the venue.

More than anything, this animation is a reminder that languages are living things. They grow, spread, evolve, split apart, and sometimes disappear entirely. Behind every surge on the chart lies a story of migration, trade, conquest, innovation, and human connection.

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June 23, 2026 at 07:21AM

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/retro-pirate-gets-two-year-suspended-jail-sentence-for-being-stuck-in-the-past-burning-and-selling-remix-cds-of-famous-artists-four-year-investigation-into-copyright-infringement-on-40-year-old-medium-began-in-2018

A UK man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to the unauthorized mixing and selling of music CDs, and thus breaking copyright laws. It is 2026.

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June 18, 2026 at 07:44AM

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/18/1139227/geoengineering-engineering-challenges/

Solar geoengineering is often portrayed as a sort of emergency brake. Something along the lines of Pull in case of climate emergency to scatter light-reflecting particles to bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere and cool the planet.

But it might be less like a simple brake and more like a complicated, entirely unsolved puzzle.

Some researchers are starting to look into how nations or companies would go about trying to cool the planet—and there’s a lot to figure out. My colleague James Temple dug into these engineering challenges in his latest feature story. My biggest takeaway? This all might be a lot harder than I thought.

I’ll admit, I’ve always thought of geoengineering as a relatively low-tech solution. That’s partly because over the years we’ve seen some companies do their own low-cost guerrilla “experiments,” tossing balloons up into the atmosphere and claiming to have made some small dent in climate change.

But to actually actively cool the planet in a significant way, and to make sure we understand exactly what effect we’re having, there’s a lot that researchers still need to learn. 

First, there’s the problem of getting up into the atmosphere. Generally, the target for solar geoengineering efforts is the stratosphere, since the air there is drier and more stable, so particles deposited there would stay aloft and move around the planet, lowering temperatures over a wider area and for a longer time.

You can release the particles in balloons, but balloons may not go where you want them to. And at a large scale, you’d be leaving a lot of litter all over the planet. That leaves aircraft, but conventional planes aren’t suited to fly around in the stratosphere. (Commercial aircraft generally fly at around 12 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, while geoengineering would require reaching roughly 20 kilometers.) The air is thinner higher up, so aircraft with massive wings would probably fare better than more conventional designs.

One design, from a startup called Iris Aero, shows just how much rethinking of our current flight technologies might be needed—the plane is almost unsettling in its proportions. Its wings are so long, on a stubby little body. It reminds me of a water strider, those bugs that have super-long legs to scurry around on a pond’s surface.

And that’s just the beginning. There’s also the question of what, exactly, would be best to scatter up in the stratosphere. The idea behind geoengineering comes from volcanoes—after an eruption, sulfuric acid ends up floating around in the atmosphere, and it can temporarily cool the planet. But that chemical is sticky and would be heavy to carry, so scattering some sort of precursor to sulfuric acid would probably be better. Researchers, including some at the University of Chicago, one of the leading institutions in this field, are working to figure out the best formula. 

I’m struck by how complicated this turns out to be, and I’m also left with a big question: As research turns from modeling and simulations to the practical aspects of this incredibly controversial technology, what does it mean to be doing this work?

There are major concerns about what effects might come from large-scale attempts to cool the planet. The effects could be positive for some parts of the globe and negative for others. Established weather patterns, like the monsoon season in South Asia, could shift. There are major questions about what the governance for the use of geoengineering should look like, and who gets to decide whether to go ahead. 

Experts who champion research in geoengineering often draw a line between a desire to support learning more about the technology and a call to deploy it. Many would argue that we should understand it better, so we can make informed decisions.

But to me, there’s a clear difference between atmospheric modeling and detailed engineering work on an aircraft. If there’s public research that essentially amounts to a set of practical instructions, I can’t help but feel like it could enable any number of individual actors or nations to take geoengineering into their own hands. It also might normalize the idea of using the technology. 

Some experts shared concerns along these lines with James, arguing that the shift to practical engineering work requires more oversight. Some called research in this area dangerous.

One alternative perspective I found interesting came from Shuchi Talati, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering.

Rather than further practical research making a slippery slope slipperier, it could have the opposite effect, she told James. “The actual practice of R&D will be a sticky slope, because there will be more real-world problems that come up that we haven’t even thought of yet,” she says. Engineering research could challenge the “idealized notions” of how easy the technology would actually be, she adds.

It’s hard to argue against better understanding potential tools to address climate change. But if we draw a map towards a potential future, it might become difficult to control who follows it. 

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. 

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June 18, 2026 at 05:24AM

https://www.autoblog.com/news/china-is-forcing-ev-makers-to-build-batteries-that-do-not-catch-fire

The Push for Bulletproof Battery Safety

Electric vehicles are dominating global roads and bringing battery safety into the intense spotlight. Automakers are constantly engineering new physical solutions to protect battery packs from catastrophic damage. Toyota recently developed a highly protective method to mount electric vehicle batteries to shield them during severe crashes. Nissan is exploring similar innovations by patenting active battery mounts designed to dynamically absorb physical shocks and road vibrations.

According to a report from CarNewsChina, China is now accelerating this safety push with sweeping national regulations. Starting July 1, 2026, the country will enforce strict new safety standards across its massive electric vehicle market. The rules mandate a physical one-touch power-off switch to immediately disconnect high-voltage systems during a crash. Regulators are also upgrading thermal safety rules to demand absolutely zero fires or explosions during battery failures. Automakers must also pass brutal new underbody impact tests and prove their batteries remain perfectly stable after 300 rapid charging cycles.

Industry Consolidation and Solid State Dreams

Solid-state batteries promise to eliminate thermal-runaway concerns through advanced, stable chemistry. Stellantis recently confirmed it will begin testing this next-generation technology in the new Dodge Charger Daytona. Despite this exciting progress, major automakers remain highly doubtful about when solid-state technology will actually reach affordable mass production. This delayed timeline makes aggressive government regulation of current battery designs absolutely necessary.

The new Chinese mandates are expected to heavily consolidate the domestic auto industry. Experts predict the strict rules will curb vicious competition from brands selling low-quality vehicles at cutthroat prices. Industry leaders like CATL and BYD have already confirmed that their current battery systems exceed the upcoming government requirements. While these new safety measures might slightly raise the upfront cost of building a car, they will stabilize the broader market. Standardized safety will improve used vehicle valuations and drastically reduce insurance premiums for owners.

The Lowdown: Engineering Consumer Confidence

Public perception regarding electric vehicle safety is completely distorted by sensationalized news coverage. Recent data and comprehensive studies clearly show that electric vehicles are far less likely to catch fire than traditional internal combustion cars. Gas-powered cars carry tanks of highly flammable liquid and rely on thousands of tiny explosions every minute. Despite this reality, the average buyer naturally fears unfamiliar technology and worries about rare chemical battery fires.

The upcoming regulations in China serve a massive psychological purpose beyond simple engineering improvements. These strict laws are carefully designed to create a sense of calm and reassure hesitant customers. Forcing automakers to build cars with zero fire guarantees proves that the technology is maturing rapidly. These rules reassure the public that electric vehicles are safe and reliable for daily family use. Ultimately, this regulatory pressure will force global manufacturers to further reinforce their technology and build fundamentally better cars.

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June 17, 2026 at 09:19AM

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/15/1138983/why-do-south-koreans-love-ai-so-much/

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

When I landed in Seoul after a grueling 12-hour flight from San Francisco, I walked through an unmanned immigration checkpoint, where a machine scanned my face and passport. On the subway home, people were glued to their phones (powered by flawless 5G even underground), as we raced past platforms lined with LED screens of ads celebrating K-pop idols’ birthdays. When I got off the station in Gangnam, a cartoon-eyed robot on wheels was waiting patiently at a crosswalk to deliver someone’s dinner. Internet cafés dotted the sidewalks, crammed with teenagers playing computer games, maybe hoping to become the next legendary pro gamer.

I stood at a bus stop with interactive touch screens showing real-time bus schedule updates. It will soon become an “AI bus stop,” the Gangnam district announced in June, with a kiosk that answers riders’ questions in multiple languages. The news didn’t surprise me. Having grown up in the city, I’ve watched Seoul transform from a scrappy boomtown into the gleaming tech capital it is today.

South Korea loves AI.

While a public backlash against AI is brewing across the US, South Koreans are optimistic. Only 16% say they are more concerned than excited about AI—the lowest of any of the 25 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center—while 50% of Americans were more worried than excited. A majority of Koreans use AI every day, either as a sort of personal assistant or to do tasks at work, according to surveys by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

One of the most wired countries in the world, South Korea loves to street-test every new technology on the block—AI webcomics, virtual K-pop idols, and humanoid monks. And the appetite for experimentation doesn’t stop with ordinary citizens. Government agencies are early adopters too, deploying AI textbooks in schools and AI eldercare robots in welfare centers. South Koreans share a deep conviction that embracing technology is integral to modernizing the country and cementing its place in the global order. Their fascination with AI is just the latest incarnation of that ethos—and it’s making them anxious to stay ahead.

Engineered enthusiasm

All this techno-optimism has largely been engineered by South Korea’s national agenda to make AI a motor of economic growth. “The South Korean government has designated an AI-powered Fourth Industrial Revolution as the country’s path forward and aggressively promoted and invested in it,” says Chihyung Jeon, a professor of science and technology policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. “South Koreans have consistently and relentlessly been told by the government about AI’s potential to create a better future.”

As South Korea rose from the ashes of the Korean War, technology lifted the nation from poverty into an economic powerhouse. In the 1970s, South Korea manufactured steel and ships, then semiconductors in the 1980s, broadband in the 1990s, and smartphones in the 2000s. Today, Samsung and SK Hynix supply most of the world’s high-bandwidth memory chips, which power the cutting-edge Nvidia hardware used to train AI models. South Korea’s economy now orbits these two semiconductor giants: The country’s main equity index, Kospi, surged to record highs in 2026, powered by the soaring share prices of both companies, each valued above $1 trillion.

Lee Jae-myung, president of South Korea, has pledged to vault the country into the ranks of the “top three AI powers” alongside the US and China. After taking office in 2025, he launched the Presidential Council on National AI Strategy to help buy massive amounts of computing power and a sovereign AI foundation model project that funds Korean companies to develop homegrown AI models. The government has also supported semiconductor titans, including Samsung and SK Hynix, through generous tax credits and low-interest financing. 

South Korea’s policy posture also prioritizes accelerating AI development over safety considerations. In 2024, South Korea’s legislature passed the AI Basic Act, one of the world’s first comprehensive AI laws, to promote AI development and establish light-touch regulatory guardrails. Seventy percent of South Koreans say advancing science and medicine through AI innovation is a bigger priority than protecting industries through regulation, according to the 2026 Stanford AI Index.

All of that effort might be paying off. The same index ranked South Korea as having the third largest number of notable AI models in the world, based on criteria such as state-of-the-art advancements or high citation rates. For many small countries like South Korea, AI is a chance to punch above their weight.

The blind spots

But that single-mindedness can crowd out critical reflection on AI’s broader societal impacts. “Because the national agenda on AI prioritizes economic development,” says Jeon, the professor of science and technology policy, “there isn’t much reflection on the social, political, ethical dimensions of the technology.” In 2025, the South Korean government faced a fierce backlash for rolling out AI textbooks riddled with factual inaccuracies and data privacy risks without testing them first in a pilot program to evaluate how they affect student learning.

And despite their optimism, South Koreans are still worried that AI could displace them from their jobs. After Hyundai announced in January that it will deploy Atlas humanoid robots across its car factories, the Hyundai Motor Group union protested vehemently. “Without labor-management agreement, not a single robot using new technology will be allowed to enter the workplace,” the union said. Sixty-four percent of South Koreans fear AI could displace human labor and exacerbate inequality, although 52% believe it could also increase productivity. 

On a recent Friday night in the Seoul Central Market, I went out with my cousins to a pocha, a late-night restaurant that serves fish cakes stacked in neat pyramids. As we clinked our cups of soju cut with beer—the scrappy staple cocktail of every Korean night out—one cousin asked me if I’d asked ChatGPT about my saju, a traditional Korean fortune-telling practice. A 29-year-old insurance agent in Seoul praying for a new job and a boyfriend, she said asking ChatGPT about work and dating was her favorite pastime. She pulled up her phone and punched my birth date into the chatbot. 

Addicted to their screens, trapped between unemployment and dead-end jobs, and priced out of marriage and homeownership, 46% of South Koreans in their 20s have used a chatbot to read their fortunes, according to a survey by Korea Gallup. 

My cousin said she also asks ChatGPT for tips on trading stocks, dreaming big about making bank on her investment accounts into which she’s been pouring her salary. ChatGPT, she believes, is her portal out of reality into a better future.

Despite how fond she is of the chatbot as her shaman and financial advisor, she fears losing her job to AI. She still uses ChatGPT feverishly at work, as all her coworkers do, afraid of falling behind. 

“I sometimes fear AI, but for now, it’s just so useful,” she said.

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June 15, 2026 at 02:09PM