E360 Digest July 11, 2025 In a First, Solar Was Europe’s Biggest Source of Power Last Month Solar panels in Zaragoza, Spain. Fernando Tomás via Flickr For the first time, solar was the largest source of electricity in the EU last month, supplying a record 22 percent of the bloc’s power. At least 13…

It’s one thing when a chatbot flunks Tower of Hanoi, as Apple notoriously illustrated earlier this month, and another when poor reasoning contributes to the mess of propaganda that threatens to overwhelm the information ecosphere. But our recent research shows exactly that. GenAI powered chatbots’…

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence has people wondering: who’s most likely to embrace AI in their daily lives? Many assume it’s the tech-savvy – those who understand how AI works – who are most eager to adopt it. Surprisingly, our new research (published in the Journal of Marketing) finds…

“Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.” - Rudiger Dornbusch I’ve had a lot of discussions on my podcast where we haggle out timelines to AGI. Some guests think it’s 20 years away - others 2 years. Here’s where my thoughts…

Many years ago, I met a man in a pub in Bloomsbury who said he worked at the British Museum. He told me that every single item on display in the museum was a replica, and that all the original artefacts were locked away in storage for preservation. I was shocked and challenged him. It surely could…

As Britain’s population ages and dementia rates climb, scientists may have found an unexpected ally in the fight against cognitive decline. Cats and dogs may be exercising more than just your patience: they could be keeping parts of your brain ticking over too. In a potential breakthrough for…

The leaves of my Cordyline plant glow fuchsia in the late afternoon sun, the light dancing across the shiny leaves like they’re ablaze in the breeze. Somewhere in the distance, I hear a welder working on a new build, and I can smell my neighbor’s simmering dinner through his open window. I am doing…

Image Credits:Polar Night Energy Climate Finland warms up the world’s largest sand battery, and the economics look appealing Tim De Chant 2:54 PM PDT · June 16, 2025 It doesn’t look like much, but Finland recently flipped the switch on the world’s largest sand-based battery. Yes, sand. A sand…

Press Release Gartner Predicts Over 40% of Agentic AI Projects Will Be Canceled by End of 2027 SYDNEY, Australia, June 25, 2025 Analysts to Explore Agentic AI Trends During Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, September 8-10 on the Gold Coast Over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by the end of 2027,…

Ford chief predicts AI will replace ‘literally half of all white-collar workers’ July 2, 2025 at 9:00 pm ET Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said generative artificial intelligence “has enormous capabilities to make really significant changes in the…

Don’t count sheep Bad news for that old favourite, counting sheep. “It has been studied and it doesn’t work,” says Dr Eidn Mahmoudzadeh, a Manchester GP and co-founder of The Sleep Project, which offers support for sleeplessness at all ages. “It is too simple and mundane; people don’t carry on, they…

A study of 50 years of tax cuts found that “trickle-down” economics — a concept pushed by Republican lawmakers to justify slashing taxes on the wealthy — have only benefited the rich and worsened economic inequality while failing to decrease unemployment or grow the economy. Republicans have touted…

Disaster declarations have been issued for parts of central Texas after heavy rains produced “a catastrophic flooding event” and killed an as yet unconfirmed number of people. The National Weather Service issued multiple flash flood warnings followed by a flash flood emergency early on Friday…

Published June 30, 2025 | Comments (17) | The ChatGPT app logo displays on the screen of a smartphone Photo byJaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images An employee's public lament over poached colleagues and a company-wide shutdown reveal a difficult truth: the human cost of building AI is reaching a…

Earth Is on the Brink of Breaching a Seventh of Nine ‘Planetary Boundaries’ That Support Life A new “health check” for our planet sounds an alarm bell on rising ocean acidification, which is driven by carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere Alexa Robles-Gil - Daily Correspondent Get our newsletter!…

Dr Melissa Shepard has a problem with managing her time. She had always been a high achiever, making it through medical school to become a psychiatrist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. But no matter how hard she worked, she struggled with one of life’s simplest…

"Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month," Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, said in a press release published Wednesday morning. To be sure, the ADP report has a spotty track record on predicting the…

The European heatwave has moved east, threatening record temperatures in Germany, as a political row broke out in France over air conditioning. The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen seized a canvassing opportunity before the 2027 presidential election, announcing she would launch a “grand plan…

Sewage sludge and wastewater treatment plants are major sources of Pfas water pollution, new research finds, raising questions about whether the US is safely managing its waste. A first-of-its-kind study tested rivers bordering 32 sewage sludge sites, including wastewater treatment plants and fields…

Dairy production will be threatened by the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, a study has found. Drawing on records from more than 130,000 cows over a period of 12 years, the researchers report that extreme heat reduces dairy cows’ ability to produce milk by 10%. Just one hour of…

Relieved investors have fueled a record-breaking rally for the S&P 500 and are betting on further gains. They could be left disappointed, veteran market watchers say. The benchmark US stock index plunged nearly 19% to below 5,000 points between February 19 and April 8 as President Donald Trump's…

Today the concept of academic freedom may seem obvious to Americans. But the roots of academic freedom, which can be traced back to medieval European universities, were never certain. Back then, when scholars demanded autonomy from Church and state, they were often rebuked—or worse. What began as a…

Firefighters battled wildfires in the Scottish Highlands for a third day on Monday in a situation the first minister has called “extremely serious”. The Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA), which has helped tackle the blazes, warned the fires are “becoming a danger to human life” that are leaving…

Microsoft has revealed details of an artificial intelligence system that performs better than human doctors at complex health diagnoses, creating a “path to medical superintelligence”. The company’s AI unit, which is led by the British tech pioneer Mustafa Suleyman, has developed a system that…

A vicious heatwave has engulfed southern Europe, with punishing temperatures that have reached highs of 46C (114.8F) in Spain and placed almost the entirety of mainland France under alert. Extreme heat, made stronger by fossil fuel pollution, has for several days scorched Portugal, Spain, France,…

Parkinson's disease is traditionally associated with neurological damage in the brain, brought on by a drastic drop in dopamine production, but a new study suggests it could get started in an unexpected part of the body: the kidneys. Led by a team from Wuhan University in China, the study is…

Photo by Mohamed Jamil Latrach on Unsplash There is a tendency, especially in discussions shaped by technological determinism, to blame complex problems on a single, recent cause. Take, as a current and particularly pronounced example, generative AI, which is often portrayed as a principal culprit…

AI is breaking entry-level jobs that Gen Z workers need to launch careers 6/5/2025 As millions of students prepare to graduate this spring, their chances of landing that crucial first job—the one that kickstarts a career—appear increasingly uncertain. Beyond a cooling economy burdened by…

Companies that develop generative AI always make it a point to say that they include links to websites in the answers that their chatbots generate for users. But Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince has revealed to Axios that search traffic referrals keep plummeting. Publishers are facing an existential…

Bacteria can be used to turn plastic waste into painkillers, researchers have found, opening up the possibility of a more sustainable process for producing the drugs. Chemists have discovered E coli can be used to create paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, from a material produced in the…

JD Vance has suggested Iran’s estimated 400kg (882lb) stockpile of enriched uranium, which is just short of weapons-grade, remains intact despite the recent US bombing campaign against Iran. On Monday, the vice-president told Fox News that the location of the uranium “is not the question before us”,…

A review on the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines slated to be presented on Thursday to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) outside vaccine committee cites a study that does not exist, the scientist listed as the study’s author said. The report, called Thimerosal…

The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice. The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital…

Google’s carbon emissions have soared by 51% since 2019 as artificial intelligence hampers the tech company’s efforts to go green. While the corporation has invested in renewable energy and carbon removal technology, it has failed to curb its scope 3 emissions, which are those further down the…

Over the years, I’ve noticed a frustrating pattern. Good ideas don’t rise on merit; they rise based on who says them. At one startup I worked for, a security engineer put together a thoughtful, strategic deck outlining a product concept with enormous potential. He had the technical insight, the…

Jun 19, 2025 - Business Christine Wang Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince speaks with Sara Fischer onstage at an Axios event in Cannes. Photo: Anthony Bourgeois on behalf of Axios Publishers face an existential threat in the AI era and need to take action to make sure they are fairly compensated for…