Nvidia Default Risk Nears Record High as Board Weighs CEO’s Fate

The cost of protecting Nvidia Corp.’s debt against default rose Thursday as the chip company’s board met to decide the fate of Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang.

How can we create ‘supercooperative AI’?

New research suggests that truly transformational economic change will depend on agents learning to work as teams

Concrete made with industrial waste can cut emissions up to 80%, yet uptake lags

Concrete is the most widely used human-made material on Earth. Billions of tonnes are produced every year.

Microsoft admits SQL Servers might wobble after October update

Linked server connections can linger long past their welcome

Review: Apple's M6 iMac is pricey, but it's still a good choice for a clean desk

Apple's M6 keeps the iMac current without shaking things up much.

Nintendo is ending Google and Apple sign-ins early next year

You'll soon no longer be able to use Google and Apple log-ins to access Nintendo.

Ring confirms its camera drone won’t have manual controls after crashing on CBS News

When (or if) Ring's security camera drone flies into our homes in January, you won't get the option to pilot it yourself. The Ring Drone Cam relies entirely on an "AI Pilot" system to follow pre-programmed routes and navigate autonomously around obstacles, with no manual control option available - and an embarrassing demonstration with CBS [...]

Who could replace Jensen Huang as Nvidia's chief executive?

As uncertainty swirls over the boss of the AI chip giant, some names have emerged as potential successors.

Holiday Extras is rethinking what it can build with Codex

With Codex, Holiday Extras is turning customer expertise into better apps, higher booking conversion and new possibilities for growth.

Rethinking Memory For AI Inference

Processing data closer to memory could reduce power and boost performance, but software, thermal, and architectural challenges remain. The post Rethinking Memory For AI Inference appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

Who could replace Jensen Huang? A highly unscientific list of possible successors

Nvidia has no succession plan and a CEO in hot water, so we’ve drafted a shortlist.

Commerce Department Finalizing Long-Awaited AI Remote Access Rule

The Commerce Department is finalizing a long-awaited rule that will prevent Chinese AI firms from remotely accessing advanced AI chips through data centers in other countries, according to two people familiar with the process. The move could help the department push back on criticism that it has acted too slowly to create policies to limit China’s access to advanced AI technologies—rules that have been opposed by influential companies such as Nvidia. The rule, which could be announced as soon as this month, will expand existing semiconductor-related controls from the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security and extend them to seven additional countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, in an effort to prevent remote access and chip smuggling into China, the people said. Commerce is currently consulting with other government agencies on the rule before it can be finalized, they added.

Gemini Decisions API: Fast, calibrated multimodal decisions

Meet the Gemini Decisions API, powered by our state-of-the-art model Gemini Decision for fast, calibrated multimodal decisions.

What to know about this year’s UN climate talks

It’s that time of year again: Thousands of delegates, lobbyists, and journalists are gathered for the annual UN climate talks, taking place this time in Antalya, Turkey. COP31 officially kicked off on November 8, marking the beginning of negotiations on one of the biggest stages of the climate world. Turkey and Australia are cohosting this...

AlphaGenome 2: Deciphering how cells read DNA to better understand disease

Predicting how DNA sequences and their variations impact specific human cell types and disease.

How AI Helps Recyclers Turn Mixed Waste Into Reusable Material

Vision AI and robotics pick what’s worth recovering out of conveyor belts of used clothing, bottles and mixed recyclables, diverting thousands of tons of materials from landfills.

Speech Processing Pioneer Bishnu Saroop Atal Dies at 93

Bishnu Saroop AtalAcoustics and signal processing pioneerLife Fellow, 93; died 19 AugustAtal was an acoustics and signal processing researcher at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., and later at AT&T’s Shannon Laboratory, in Florham Park, N.J. His pioneering work on voice-coding techniques became the foundation for efficient, high-quality voice transmission over cellular networks. He received the 2013 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal for “fundamental and pioneering contributions to speech coding.”He joined Bell Labs in 1961 as a communications researcher, and his early work there focused on speaker identification technology. During the 1960s he helped develop linear predictive coding, a powerful method for analyzing and compressing speech. LPC is now the most widely used method for encoding speech at a low bit rate.Atal developed increasingly sophisticated low-bit-rate speech-coding techniques. They included multipulse LPC, which improved the quality of compressed speech. Bishnu Saroop AtalNokia Bell LabsHe also worked with his colleague Manfred R. Schroeder to develop code-excited linear prediction, a method for producing high-quality speech at very low bit rates. CELP became a foundational technique in modern speech coding, letting digital communications systems carry voice using less bandwidth. The extra efficiency expanded cellular capacity, allowing wireless networks to handle more simultaneous calls.Later in his career, he led the acoustics and speech research departments at Bell.The company named him a Fellow in 1994. When AT&T Bell Laboratories split into separate research organizations in 1996, Atal continued his career at the AT&T Florham Park headquarters, and he was named a Fellow the following year.He retired in 2002 and became an affiliate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington, in Seattle. There he continued his research in speech processing, speech recognition, and high-dimensional computing.Atal was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1993. He received numerous awards including the 2018 International Speech Communication Association Medal for Scientific Achievement and a 2003 medal from the Franklin Institute.He received a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1952 from the University of Lucknow, in India, and a master’s degree in 1955 in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, in Bengaluru. While working full time at Bell he earned a Ph.D. in EE in 1968 from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now New York University’s Tandon engineering school), in New York City.Darryl Palmer Jr.Chair of the IEEE Central Illinois SectionSenior member, 55; died 30 AugustPalmer was a dedicated IEEE volunteer, serving as chair of the Central Illinois Section and as the government relations chair of Region 4. He was a member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society and its industrial activity committee. He also served as associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.In 1986, at age 16, Palmer completed a summer internship at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, in Cleveland. He helped develop FoilSim, an interactive educational software program that introduces aerodynamic engineering to preuniversity students.While studying computer science at Cleveland State University in 1996, he joined the university’s Allen-Bradley PLC lab as a research assistant. He designed hardware and software systems for the Glenn Research Center to collect and process thermal wave imaging data. He also designed software for General Motors’ North American robotic and welding division.In 1999 he completed a second internship at the research center and helped develop EngineSim, an educational software program that models jet engine design and testing.For his work, NASA recognized him with a Space Act Award.In 2000 he earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and became a software engineer at the Danfoss Drives manufacturing facility in Loves Park, Ill. He worked on embedded control systems for variable-frequency drives and high-power equipment. He also developed sensorless control technology for beam pumps used in the oil and gas industry.In 2014 Palmer and his wife, Alexandra “Sasha” Goodwin, founded Janus Choice, a health technology platform that matches hospital patients with post-acute care facilities. He served as its CEO until the company closed in 2020.From 2018 to 2023, he was a lead software engineer at Adept Coalescence, a startup in Rockford, Ill., focused on developing front-end software for control systems. He then worked in Peoria, Ill., as a control systems team lead at Caterpillar, a manufacturer of construction and mining equipment.Henry Leopold RichterTelecommunications engineerLife senior member, 99; died 12 AugustRichter was a spacecraft engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., before starting his own public safety communications consultancy.He earned a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. at Caltech in 1952 and 1956, respectively. In 1955 he joined JPL as an engineer and supervisor of its new circuit elements group. Later, he was assigned to NASA’s Explorer program as project manager for satellite design, serving as a liaison between the organization’s satellite instrumentation group and its operations and data groups. Since 1958 the program has launched more than 90 missions for physics, geophysics, and astrophysics research.As NASA prepared to launch Explorer 1 in January 1958, Richter worked with the San Gabriel Valley Radio Club in Los Angeles to set up stations across the United States to track the satellite.He eventually was named JPL section chief and was responsible for scientific instruments on the lunar Ranger, Surveyor, and Mariner programs. He also helped develop NASA’s Deep Space Network, an international tracking and communications system.Richter left NASA to become vice president and technical director of Xerox Electro-Optical Systems, in Pasadena, Calif.In the mid-1970s, he joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as a communications engineer, overseeing the department’s microwave and mobile radio networks.He later ran a telecommunications consulting practice for more than 20 years. His clients included federal, state, and local government agencies, school districts, universities, and organizations. His work covered strategic technology planning and the design and implementation of public safety radio, microwave, CCTV, and paging systems.He wrote several books including America’s Leap Into Space: My Time at JPL and the First Explorer Satellites (2015), a personal account of his experience working on the Explorer 1 and America’s space program.In 2019 the Radio Club of America presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award for “significant achievements and a major body of work that has advanced the art and science of wireless technology.”Raymond L. GiordanoFormer RCA engineerLife member, 91; died 19 JulyGiordano was an electrical engineer who designed integrated circuits and defense electronics at companies including Harris, Intersil, and RCA.After earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1956 from the Newark College of Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology), Giordano joined RCA in Moorestown, N.J., as an engineer. He helped develop a video formatter for the company’s missile and surface radar division, and he taught in-house engineering courses, eventually attaining the rank of senior technical staff member.Later he developed technologies for General Electric (which acquired RCA in 1986), Intersil, and Harris. He designed the circuitry for Kodak’s Cameo cameras and one of its laser printers.Giordano was awarded several patents for his designs including a smoke detector chip for Siemens, a speed control chip for Ford, an engine control system for Delco Remy, and a control component for Chrysler.He earned a master’s degree in EE in 1964 from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.Delano D. WilsonPresident of Power TechnologiesLife Fellow, 92; died 26 MayWilson was president and CEO of Power Technologies, a consulting firm in Schenectady, N.Y., that specialized in electric power systems.He was a director of R&D at General Electric in Schenectady until he joined Power Technologies in 1974 as a principal engineer. He developed utility systems and software for the company.Wilson authored six books and 65 technical papers, and he held two patents.Outside of his engineering work, he served on the boards of several hospitals, YMCAs, Rotary clubs, and chambers of commerce.After returning to his hometown of Great Falls, Mont., in 1995, he volunteered as a court-appointed advocate, a trained community volunteer appointed by a judge to represent the interests of children in foster care.Daniel I. Amey Jr.Electronic packaging engineerLife Fellow, 84; died 12 MarchAmey was an electronic packaging engineer, working at several companies including General Dynamics, Sperry Univac, and E.I. du Pont de Nemours (now DuPont). His research interests included connectors, chip packages, and high-frequency materials.He began his career in 1963 as an engineer in the General Dynamics electronics division, where he designed military electronic hardware including analog and digital support equipment for aerospace applications.In 1967 he joined Sperry Univac in Blue Bell, Pa. From 1972 to 1981 he was engineering manager of packaging techniques, responsible for interconnection hardware for small and medium computer systems. His work focused on large-scale integration packages, hybrid circuits, connectors, and printed wiring board processes.He left the company to serve as director of electronics technology at Thomas & Betts of Raritan, N.J. He led research and development of packaging and interconnection products there.In 1986 he became a director of Elco, an electrical component manufacturer in Huntingdon, Pa., where he was responsible for the design and development of connector and packaging hardware.In 1988 he joined E.I. du Pont de Nemours as director of its electronics and communications technology group in Research Triangle Park, N.C. He worked on packaging technology development, high-frequency materials characterization, and applications engineering. He retired from there as a research fellow.Amey wrote or cowrote more than 70 technical papers and held more than 14 patents. He developed courses on electronic packaging and printed wiring technology for education companies McGraw-Hill and Cobblestone (formerly the Center for Professional Advancement).He received the International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society’s 2004 Wagnon Technical Achievement Award and the Electronic Industries Association’s 1984 Distinguished Engineering Contribution Award.After receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in engineering science from Pennsylvania State University, he earned an MBA from Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pa.

Medical Image Segmentation: Foundation Model Adaptation versus Task-Specific Training

Foundation models pretrained on large natural-image collections are increasingly adapted for medical image segmentation, in the expectation that they will replace models trained for each task. Most comparisons, however, use data from the training distribution and a single task-specific baseline whose configuration is rarely justified, and therefore provide limited evidence of performance at new clinical sites. It also remains unclear how much of a foundation model must be adapted, and what determines this. We adapted a foundation model, DINOv2, with strategies ranging from tuning only its bias terms to full fine-tuning, and compared it with U-Nets and ResU-Nets trained from scratch. Experiments covered colonoscopy, breast ultrasound and dermoscopy, with testing on held-out data from the training source and on independent datasets from other institutions. The adapted foundation model generalised better on every external dataset. Within the training distribution, the task-specific models remained competitive when training data were abundant, and delineated boundaries more precisely, while the foundation model more often missed small lesions. Only a small fraction of the foundation model required adaptation, and the capacity needed was determined by the imaging domain rather than by the adaptation method. A widely used polyp test set was also found to duplicate images from another benchmark. Foundation-model adaptation is therefore warranted where models must work across sites, with capacity selected on the target domain.

Save $300 on this 1440p gaming PC with a 9800X3D and RTX 5070 right now

Grab a CyberPowerPC machine with an RX 9070, 9800X3D, 32GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD for $2,199.

Nvidia Considers Jensen Huang's Future After Affair

Nvidia Corp. is searching for a replacement for larger-than-life Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, a daunting challenge at the world’s most valuable chipmaker. Neil Campling, Bloomberg News Senior Market Strategist joins to discuss. (Source: Bloomberg)

Can green cement decarbonise the data centre building boom?

Scrutiny has mostly focused on electricity consumption, but their construction also creates significant emissions

Improving the safety of timber buildings—by setting them on fire

Full-scale fire tests on specially designed timber ceilings could help University of Queensland researchers pave the way for safer buildings that are less likely to collapse during a fire.

European tech buyers add digital sovereignty to cyber shopping list

Sales from EU HQ'd vendor rocket in two years. The Trump affect? Yes but NIS2 and DORA are factors too

CEO Jensen Huang's job is suddenly on the line at Nvidia

The FBI is investigating as Nvidia’s board holds urgent talks over Huang’s future.

New York is forcing T-Mobile to stop putting data caps on low-income home internet plans

The company was throttling speeds for plans offered under the Affordable Broadband Act.

Nvidia is reportedly preparing to fire Jensen Huang

Nvidia's board is preparing to dismiss CEO Jensen Huang following a report from The New York Times about a second alleged extramarital affair, just days after he admitted to a separate affair with a woman alleged to be a Chinese spy, The Wall Street Journal reports. The second alleged affair was with an executive who [...]

What we know as pressure builds on embattled Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

The billionaire tech executive's future is in question after reports of a second extramarital affair.

Supporting research on AI and children’s safety

OpenAI commits $2 million to research on AI and children’s safety. The work supports shared tools to measure risks and opportunities for young people.

Beyond Bandwidth: AI Inference Is Reshaping The Memory Wall

Longer contexts, higher concurrency, multimodal models, and AI agents will continue changing where memory pressure appears. The post Beyond Bandwidth: AI Inference Is Reshaping The Memory Wall appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

The unfolding Jensen Huang scandal: a timeline

The affair could have ramifications for national security as the U.S. and China race to develop the most advanced AI infrastructure.

United Airlines Blocks AI Agents Like Muse and Instinct From Booking Flights

United Airlines said Wednesday it will ban AI agents and assistants from booking its flights, following similar bans by banks and retailers that cited privacy concerns. The ban covers bookings made directly on United’s app and website as well as through travel agencies and aggregators. The ...

Experience the art and legacy of Dr. Esther Mahlangu

A new online archive of Esther Mahlangu’s life and art is now on Google Arts & Culture.

The Download: preserving minds and weighing open AI risks

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Six wild ideas for perpetuating your mind As we age, we forget most of what we’ve experienced, yet there’s still undeniable continuity: At 30, or 50, or 70, you will still...

Gemini 4 Carbon is now available

NVIDIA Expands Open Source Commitment With OpenShell Donation and New AI Infrastructure

Kubernetes, the open source system that manages how applications run across thousands of AI factories, has become the foundation for AI, and the demands on it are only growing. To help meet them, NVIDIA is deepening its commitment to open source at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon, the flagship conference for the Kubernetes and cloud-native communities. NVIDIA [...]

Catch Electronics Shock and Drop Failures Before Hardware Is Built

Learn how guided virtual shock and drop analysis helps engineering teams identify reliability risks before physical testing, reduce qualification iterations, optimize packaging designs, and accelerate electronics product development.What you will learn about: Why shock failures found during physical qualification are costly, and how coupled electrical, mechanical, thermal, and packaging effects make them hard to predict.How physical drop testing and traditional simulation each leave gaps in timing, expertise, setup effort, and diagnostic detail.How guided, template-based virtual workflows model tilt drops, ball impacts, and packaged drops using IEC 60068-2-27 and IEC 60068-2-31 profiles.How running the full drop orientation matrix as one validation plan supports packaging optimization, and how correlation with physical tests builds confidence before hardware is committed.Download this free whitepaper now!

Toward Foundation Detection Models via Example-Based Grounding in EM-DETR

DeepLearning (DL)-based Computer-Aided Diagnostic (CAD) systems have shown great promise in supporting clinicians, but their performance heavily depends on the availability of large, well-annotated datasets. In medical lesion detection, the scarcity of comprehensive, stan dardized annotations and the heterogeneity of existing datasets limit the development of robust foundation models. In this work, we introduce a novel approach to building a multi-domain foundation model for le sion detection by integrating diverse medical image datasets annotated for both anatomical structures and abnormalities. We first propose a student-teacher training strategy to effectively combine datasets with heterogeneous label spaces, mitigating catastrophic forgetting, and im proving feature learning. In addition, building on our previously pro posed example-based EM-DETR framework, we adapt it to jointly learn from multiple domain-specific datasets, enabling fine-grained, example driven detection across modalities. Our model achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) results, with image-level AUC scores exceeding previous SOTA by 1% point on four key findings in CXRs. We achieve a leading mAP50 in CXRs and mammography, surpassing EM-DETR trained on a single dataset by 2-3% points. This approach paves the way for scalable foundation models in medical imaging that leverage heterogeneous data while maintaining robust and generalizable performance.

Google reworks TPU silicon into specialized systems for agents and security

Google’s TPU 8i Max and TPU 8tx reuse TPU 8i and TPU 8t silicon to target long-context agents and confidential inference.

Nvidia Drama Triggers Difficult Search for Huang’s Successor

Nvidia Corp. is searching for a replacement for larger-than-life Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, a daunting challenge at the world’s most valuable chipmaker. Neil Campling, Bloomberg News Senior Market Strategist joins to discuss. (Source: Bloomberg)