A library of snippets
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England fans were left frustrated on and off the pitch on Tuesday evening as supporters who flocked to pubs and fan zones were hit by a card payment outage.
According to the newspapers, this was because of “power grid” problems at WorldPay (someone unplugged a switch to do the vacuuming) .
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Meta says glasses are “the most exciting hardware category of the AI era,” and with that in mind, its smart glasses have its AI assistant built in.
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Switzerland – while not an EU-member – is working on a similar app and promised last year, in response to criticism, to work on a Google-free version.
Germany has meanwhile cited “digital sovereignty” as a key objective for its own app. That is why it must ultimately function without Google and Apple’s software, said a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Digital Affairs. Support for Google’s software may well be built in at a later date, but only if it offers “additional security benefits”, he explained.
“Alternative approaches have been studied and implemented”
A spokesperson for the French interior ministry said the “general principle” of France Identité, the French wallet, is to not rely on software from private companies for sensitive matters like verification of identity
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Anton Leicht suggests this is not onyl feasible but also desireable. The fundamental strategic importance of frontier AI means there are vital national interests at stake here, not mere commercial advantages. And note also the exponential nature of frontier development: since most workers in a frontier AI developer will soon be AI agents rather than humans workers, small advantages will soon magnify. Hence the attraction of an Airbus model, where the public carries the early strategic risk, but in return also shares the upside. When a Frontier Lab is up and running, it will generate advance in everything from pharmceuticals to mateiral science, not only in AI and fintech. I do not see how Europe can afford to cede the frontier.
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President Trump signed two long-awaited executive orders on Monday focused on quantum technology, a focus area for the administration that has often taken a back seat to AI. The first order, whose draft has been circulating for months, encourages different agencies to invest in research, including developing a government-hosted quantum computer and coordinating public-private partnerships. The second is focused on building safeguards against cryptographic attacks as quantum capabilities accelerate.
From: Trump Signs Sweeping Quantum Executive Orders — The Information.
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UTIX issues blockchain backed tickets that cannot be duplicated or manipulated. Event organisers can set rules for pricing, resale and transfer, creating an environment that protects revenue and ensures customers receive genuine tickets.
From: .https://www.utix.com/about
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Most workers at a frontier AI developer in 2027 will not be humans, but AI agents. Already now, these AI agents do much of the actual work in a lab: they write and run the code, communicate the findings, and fill out the forms. The human talent is mostly responsible for coming up with ideas, taking meetings, and switching the model back to Opus when Fable gets cut off. Getting access to these AI agents in the early stages of the project will be the most difficult part of recruiting. Already today, Anthropic has limited the use of its most advanced models for frontier LLM development; it doesn’t seem absurd to think that its competitors might follow suit.
From: The Moonshot – by Anton Leicht – Threading the Needle.
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Desperate fans in South East Asia, where BTS is performing 15 of 88 shows, have lost more than $100,000 as scammers cash in on explosive demand.
From: BTS Airang tour: Fans lose $100,000 to scammers cashing in on concert ticket wars – BBC News.
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Ad giant WPP’s latest forecasts for the global ad market, released last week, put ad revenue from AI-related search and chatbots at $101 billion in 2030—roughly what OpenAI hopes to achieve on its own. But WPP’s projection includes what it estimates Google will generate from ads in AI Overviews search response, suggesting OpenAI will find it hard to meet its forecast. WPP projects AI-related ad revenues will hit $5.1 billion this year, while it sees traditional search ad revenues growing 8.4% to $267 billion.
From: Cannes Ad Festival Puts OpenAI’s Projections in Spotlight — The Information.
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China’s sinodollars shape the global financial system just as petrodollars did in the 1970s.
One of the main influences on the price of gold, for example, has been China building up its bullion reserves in exchange for its dollars. The accumulated and unremitted dollar earnings of Chinese exporters slosh around international banks. For the US, buying the goods of the world and paying for them with dollar deposits, Treasury bills and SpaceX stock at a $2tn valuation is still a pretty good deal.
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