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Tech News
NASA and IBM have jointly released the Lunar Foundation Model, an AI system trained on decades of lunar observation data, now freely available on Hugging Face. Built alongside what the two say is the first open-source dataset combining imagery from nine instruments across four moon missions, the model is designed to support NASA's Artemis program.
NASA and IBM launched the NASA-IBM Lunar Foundation Model, a free AI system on Hugging Face designed to help scientists study the Moon. Trained on lunar imagery and environmental data, the model can spot likely ice deposits and identify craters more accurately than existing tools like Microsoft's SwinV2-B. It was recently put to a real test when it correctly flagged the impact site of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that crashed into the Moon in August, even though the new crater overlapped an existing one.
According to a Diamond Online report, NEC quietly halted development of physical quantum computing machines at the end of March 2026, decades after pioneering superconducting qubit research in 1999. Several researchers from the program, including a key leader, have reportedly since joined Fujitsu, which continues investing heavily in the technology. NEC has not confirmed a full exit, stating it still evaluates practical applications and industrialization of quantum technologies with customers.
A finished Warner Bros. film, 'Coyote vs. Acme,' which the studio previously shelved instead of releasing, has drawn stronger results than Ridley Scott's newest movie once comparisons were made public. The report frames this as evidence that corporate decisions to write off completed films for tax purposes can bury projects with real commercial potential.
Domestic auto manufacturers are lobbying the US government to prohibit the import and sale of cars produced in China. The push reflects growing concern within the industry over competition from lower-cost Chinese vehicles, particularly electric models, entering Western markets.
IBM's Bob AI system has been used by Wolff Bros to help convert legacy RPG programs into a modern Java-based architecture. According to the company's IT director, Bob accurately interprets RPG code and assists in validating logic during rewrites across multiple programs, while adapting to the company's existing Java libraries and database connections.
A man living with a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has now survived nine months, marking the longest recorded duration for this type of cross-species organ transplant. The milestone suggests that gene-edited pig organs may be moving closer to viable alternatives for patients awaiting human donor kidneys.
Tesla has started deploying its Cybercab, a robotaxi built without a steering wheel or pedals, on public roads in Austin. The rollout marks an early real-world test of the company's fully autonomous ride-hailing vehicle design.
Four leading AI chatbot services experienced service disruptions within the same window, leaving users of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok unable to access the tools normally. The near-simultaneous nature of the outages was unusual since these platforms run on separate infrastructure operated by different companies.
Apple faces a class-action style lawsuit in the UK seeking roughly $2.7 billion in damages tied to its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. The suit alleges that Apple's privacy rules disadvantaged competitors while allowing Apple's own advertising and data practices favorable treatment, harming consumers and businesses financially.
The LTO Consortium, backed by HPE, IBM, and Quantum, reports that shipped capacity of LTO-compatible tape media rose 57% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026. The surge follows a 9% dip in 2025 and comes after 2024's record 176.5 exabytes shipped, with LTO-9 tapes driving much of the latest growth. Quantum's CEO attributes the rebound to enterprises needing durable, cost-effective long-term storage as AI-driven data volumes explode.
IBM has released Nighthawk r2, a 120-qubit quantum processor now live on the IBM Quantum Platform, featuring a new high-speed qubit reset architecture that runs over 100,000 circuits per second, roughly 25 times the throughput of IBM's current Heron processors. The chip pairs 120 qubits with 218 couplers and 120 reset elements, and has already run circuits with more than 7,500 gates accurately, hitting a milestone IBM had targeted for 2026.